Visit Orlando’s top executive defended the tourism marketing giant’s work and financial practices from what she described as “some inaccurate inferences” in a critical comptroller’s memo last week to Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings and county commissioners.

“There has been no misuse of any funds,” Visit Orlando President & CEO Casandra Matej said in a rebuttal memo to Comptroller Phil Diamond. “Every dollar, whether public or private, goes to our mission to inspire, promote, and grow global travel to Orange County for economic and community benefit, which by all measures has been extremely successful resulting in robust TDT collections.”

Diamond said Monday that his auditing team never accused Visit Orlando of misusing funds, but instead questioned some practices. The memo — which Diamond called an interim report for an audit requested by the board earlier this year — said that Visit Orlando had failed to provide complete details of how it spends millions in public money, had engaged in lobbying activities without county permission, and has wrongly treated interest on tourist-tax money as if it were privately donated.

Diamond also noted that some of the issues flagged in last week’s memo had surfaced previously in a 2019 audit of the tourism agency. He said Visit Orlando’s leadership at the time had promised to fix the problems, but they have not been corrected. Matej was hired in 2021.

“We stand by our work,” Diamond said. “Facts are facts.”

Matej’s memo offered some context and, in some cases, disagreed with the comptroller’s findings.

“There’s never been an audit where there’s absolute, complete agreement, but then both parties have an opportunity for discussion,” she said. “I want to have a good relationship with the comptroller’s office. We want to be able to utilize them as a  resource.”

The comptroller and members of his auditing team met Friday with Matej; Terry Prather, a former SeaWorld Orlando executive who serves as chairman of Visit Orlando’s board of directors; and the agency’s counsel, William T. Dymond to discuss the disagreements.

“We are committed to being good partners throughout this process,” Matej said.

Visit Orlando bends rules in spending millions in public money: audit

Diamond was asked by county commissioners during a budget debate in January to audit Visit Orlando, which receives 30 cents of every dollar generated by Orange County’s 6% surcharge on the cost of a hotel room, Airbnb rental or other short-term lodging option. A boom in tourist-tax revenues funneled $105.4 million to Visit Orlando in 2023 and $101.7 million in 2022.

Visit Orlando uses most of that money to promote Central Florida attractions to audiences in the U.S. and abroad.

Some of the issues flagged by auditors were resolved in May as part of contract negotiations between Visit Orlando and Orange County. Among them was Visit Orlando’s practice of treating interest it earns on tourist-tax money, the overwhelming bulk of its budget, as if those earnings were private funds subject to fewer rules in how they can be spent. In the contract amendment, Visit Orlando agreed to treat interest earned from TDT accounts as public money going forward.

Other issues remain unresolved, including the dispute over the agency’s lobbying activities.

In her memo, Matej said, “Visit Orlando has not participated in any lobbying that opposes stated legislative priorities of the [county commission]. Visit Orlando attended a Florida Legislative committee meeting as a collaborative effort with Orange County government providing testimony focused on sharing the value of tourism to Orange County and in partnership with Visit Florida.”

Diamond found a flaw in Visit Orlando’s argument.

“They’re saying the lobbying positions they’ve taken were consistent with the positions the county would have wanted to take,” he said. “While that may be true, their contract with the county says they have to have approval in advance from the Board of County Commissioners to take a lobbying stand, and they didn’t.”

shudak@orlandosentinel.com