ALPHARETTA, Ga.,None — A Channel 2 Action News investigation found that a north Fulton County convention bureau is spending hundreds of thousands of tax dollars on expensive concert tickets, but keeps no records of who gets the tickets.
Channel Two Action News investigative reporter Richard Belcher said the destruction of some ticket records may have violated state law.
When Belcher first started to dig into ticket purchases made by the Alpharetta Convention and Visitors Bureau, the ACVB told Channel 2 who had received the tickets. Many of the freebies were going to public officials, often joined by their spouses.
The convention bureau is still using tax money to buy tickets, which they give away, but where they go is now secret.
Fans filled the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Alpharetta on Thursday for a Roger Daltry concert. The tickets, some footed by taxpayers, cost between $40 and $126.
The ACVB spends tens of thousands of tax dollars a year on tickets to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. From 2008 through 2013, the ACVB told Belcher the total spent on tickets will be $382,680. The ACVB said the money is spent to promote business in Alpharetta.
All of the purchases are made with public money, part of a 1 percent hotel-motel tax that the city of Alpharetta shares with the convention bureau.
Finding out who gets the concert freebies wasn't easy for Belcher. The ACVB stopped keeping records last year and destroyed the records it had, and that may have violated Georgia law.
"At a minimum, I would think this is a misdemeanor," said Cynthia Counts, of Counts Law Group.
Counts told Belcher the destruction of public records is regulated and must adhere to a strict retention schedule.
"Significant money was spent on these tickets and the key here is it's still our document. It is as if she came into my office and destroyed my documents. You can't do that. They are public documents. Once they are created, she is not entitled to destroy them," said Counts.
Channel 2 obtained and kept records from the 2008 - 2009 concert seasons. According to the records, $33,456 worth of freebies went to Alpharetta's mayor and City Council members and members of the convention bureau board.
Another $17,000 worth of tickets went to other Alpharetta officials, a total of $51,168 worth of tickets went to local officials.
City Councilwoman Cheryl Oakes alone received 76 tickets worth an estimated $12,464, and Councilman D.C. Akin received 36 tickets worth an estimated $4,592.
Convention Bureau President Janet Rodgers told Belcher, "We treat tickets the same way we treat hats, gift baskets, umbrellas, shirts and jackets, etc. We do not keep track of who we give these to."
But destroying public records is another matter.
An attorney for the Georgia Press Association told Belcher, "The actions by the ACVB appear to violate the state law that prohibits the destruction of records paid for with public funds."
WSBTV
