KEY WEST, Fla. – A Monroe County audit has revealed “serious ethical concerns” over spending at the tax-funded tourism agency that promotes the Florida Keys to visitors around the world, including payment requests that may have broken the law.
In one instance, auditors reported that Monroe County Tourist Development Council’s public relations arm submitted reimbursement requests that might represent “double-billing” — because they were paid to a company that doesn’t exist.
The “severity” of the issues at the agency, known as the TDC, led the county’s comptroller to stop the county’s finance department from processing further payments to certain vendors until the county commission “reviews and addresses any potential breach of trust.”
Kevin Madok, the county’s comptroller and circuit court clerk, said in the audit that the agency, based at 1201 White St. in Key West, took in nearly $59 million in tourist development taxes over the most recent fiscal year.
Those fees are paid by visitors to the island chain staying at hotels or in short-term rentals. The TDC is responsible for things like television ads marketing the Keys to potential vacationers.
The 32-page audit found “repeated noncompliance” with county purchasing policies, as well as a lack of internal controls and oversight over spending. It also raised concerns of “self-dealing” by certain employees of Visit Florida Keys, a non-profit entity that operates the TDC’s executive office.
Visit Florida Keys’ marketing director, Stacey Mitchell, serves as the office’s senior executive.
One issue raised in the audit was Mitchell’s “long-term personal relationship” with a vendor, photographer Robert L. O’Neal, who has received about $200,000 since 2005 for various services, including the production of calendars the agency gives away to travel meeting planners.
The audit states that the calendars, the focus of which “appears to be the promotion of Mr. O’Neal’s business website,” are paid for by the TDC, but a portion of them are returned to O’Neal, who then sells them at a personal profit, violating TDC policy.
Officials found that O’Neal’s services appeared to be awarded without any sort of competitive bidding process taking place.
“When questioned, the marketing director denied that the relationship was romantic and claimed it was more of a landlord-tenant relationship,” the audit report states. “Notwithstanding the denial, it appears that the Visit Florida Keys marketing director misused her official position to allow Mr. O’Neal to profit from the photo calendar especially since no other vendors were given an opportunity to bid on producing the calendar as required by Monroe County purchasing policy.”
Local 10 News contacted O’Neal seeking comment Wednesday and had not received a response as of this article’s publication. A TDC office staffer said Mitchell was unavailable Wednesday and took a message on behalf of Local 10 News.
Another serious finding involved NewmanPR, the TDC’s public relations agency of record, which “may have submitted inappropriate reimbursement requests” involving a non-existent company, Graphics 71, “that may be a violation of law,” the report states.
Andy Newman, who runs NewmanPR, controls Graphics 71. The audit states that NewmanPR was reimbursed a total of nearly $30,000 for invoices in the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years for Graphics 71, potentially for services that the NewmanPR has already been paid to perform under its existing annual agency fee.
That raised “serious” concerns over “potential double-billing,” leading Madok’s office to instruct the county’s finance department to stop payments to NewmanPR until county commissioners address the issue.
When contacted for comment on the audit report, Newman told Local 10 News “I always believe in full transparency” but said he was unable to comment further, because the audit is still ongoing.
Other issues raised in the report include mishandling of receipts and having vendors provide services without any sort of written agreement or contract.
Avoiding contracts “allows Visit Florida Keys to bypass the County’s established procurement process for vendor selection which, in turn, gives the appearance that Visit Florida Keys is not selecting its vendors impartially,” the audit states.
A spokesperson for Monroe County said the TDC’s future will be discussed at next Wednesday’s commission meeting.
Read the full audit report: