Cabinet minister taking staff concerns about BTA ‘seriously’

Sam Strangeways

Updated: Sep 06, 2024 08:11 AM

BTA senior executives – top row, left to right: Tracy Berkeley, Erin Smith, and Duncan Beveridge. Bottom row, left to right: Jamari Douglas, Jakai Franks, and Tashae Thompson

Cabinet minister Owen Darrell said yesterday he took seriously concerns about alleged high staff attrition and other personnel issues at the Bermuda Tourism Authority.

Mr Darrell, the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, was responding to questions from The Royal Gazette about the number of staff who have left the quango in recent months and claims of an unhappy workplace.

A source told the newspaper that the issues were discussed at a board meeting of the BTA last week, which the minister, who is also the Senate leader, attended.

Mr Darrell said: “I am aware of the recent Bermuda Tourism Authority meeting and I am aware of the matters shared.

“I take the concerns very seriously and I have asked the BTA board to also address the issues as a matter of priority.”

He added: “I think it’s also important to remind our community that the minister does not have operational oversight of the BTA, as it is governed by the board.

“As such, any further requests for comment should be directed to the chair of the BTA for comment.”

The authority said in a statement: “The BTA acknowledges recent staff departures. However, as a matter of HR policy and to protect the privacy of both current and former employees, we do not discuss specific personnel matters or the reasons for the cessation of employment.”

It added: “The BTA does measure employee engagement. However, we do not publicly disclose specific scores.”

The BTA is led by chief executive officer Tracy Berkeley, who has a salary of $325,000 a year, according to information filed with a government agency in America.

Ms Berkeley, who was appointed as chief executive of the quango in March last year after a stint as acting CEO, shared the information on a form issued by the US Department of Justice under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The legislation requires agents of foreign principals who are engaged in political activities or other activities specified in the Act to make periodic public disclosures, including about any payments they receive.

Five other senior executives at the BTA have also shared their six-figure salaries since last year with the Fara unit, which is part of the justice department’s national security division.

The combined annual salaries of the leadership team totalled almost $1.4 million. In addition, the executives are likely to have received incentive bonuses, but these were not listed.

Chief operating officer Erin Smith had a salary of $255,000, according to her form, while three executives each earned $195,000: Duncan Beveridge, vice-president of finance; Tashae Thompson, VP of experiences; and Jamari Douglas, VP of marketing.

Jakai Franks, VP of operations, reported his salary as $190,000.

Salary information for BTA executives was previously published on the orders of Information Commissioner Gitanjali Gutierrez in 2018, after the quango rejected a 2015 public access to information request from ZBM News.

The BTA, which gets a $16.5 million annual grant, claimed disclosure would be an unjustified intrusion into the personal information of employees.

However, Ms Gutierrez decided staff salary bands in increments of no more than $10,000, as well as the names of those receiving discretionary bonuses, should be released.

The organisation’s first CEO, Bill Hanbury, earned between $290,000 and $300,000 in 2016, bolstered by a 25 to 30 per cent bonus scheme.

The top earner was Victoria Isley, former New York-based chief sales and marketing officer, with a salary between $310,000 to $320,000, as well as eligibility for a bonus of between 25 and 30 per cent.

The publicly-funded authority, which markets the island to visitors worldwide, did not include salary information for its executive team in its last audited financial statements, for 2022.

The report included only an overall cost for staff of almost $6.8 million.

The BTA has faced a number of leadership changes since its inception. Since Mr Hanbury’s tenure ended in December 2016, four others have held the top job.

Kevin Dallas’s appointment as CEO began in January 2017, followed by Glenn Jones as interim CEO between March 2020 and March 2021.

Charles Jeffers II briefly served as chief executive between April 2021 and June 2022, and Ms Berkeley became interim CEO when he left the post.

Several senior marketing and communications professionals, including Ms Isley, Douglas Trueblood, his deputy Amanda Dempsey, and Amy Moynihan, have left the organisation in recent years.

Devin Lewis, who was VP of Sales and Business Development, left the BTA in February after less than 18 months and has not been replaced.

The source said there were two resignations last week.

The BTA said in its statement it was “actively recruiting for two vacant positions within the authority. Other positions have been filled with team members coming on board this quarter.“

It added: “The position of VP of sales, vacated earlier this year, is on hold and under review. We have no intention to recruit for this role in 2024.”

The authority recently advertised for a Bermuda-based business development manager.

The quango said in its statement that it aimed to “protect the privacy of our employees by reporting salaries within the $10K bands, rather than specifying exact figures for named individuals”.

Bermuda Tourism Authority has plan to ‘proactively’ release board meeting minutes

The Bermuda Tourism Authority has a “plan in place to proactively” release the minutes of its board meetings to “enhance transparency and public engagement”.

The quango announced the decision in a statement yesterday

It comes after it released minutes from its 2022 and 2023 monthly board meetings, after claiming it could not understand how a request for them was in the public interest.

The quango initially refused to disclose the minutes in May but chairman Wayne Caines overturned that decision in July, writing that the authority had “considered matters in the round” and changed its mind.

Twenty sets of minutes, for meetings held between January 2022 and January this year, were shared with The Royal Gazette under public access to information last month.

The BTA redacted some material, claiming it did not have to be disclosed because it contained information which was either personal, commercial, received in confidence, consisted of the authority’s deliberations, or concerned its internal operations.

Mr Caines wrote: “ … the BTA expects the costs of this exercise to be significant.

“There will need to be significant redactions of exempt information.”

The Gazette has asked Information Commissioner Gitanjali Gutierrez to review the decision.

The BTA did not share details of the cost or the reason for the change of heart.

Its statement said: “The BTA has released the requested board minutes. Additionally, there is a plan in place to proactively release minutes to enhance transparency and public engagement.”

Last month, the Bermuda Gaming Commission, another quango, was censured by Ms Gutierrez for redacting large parts of board meeting minutes before releasing them to the public.

She wrote that since almost all of the removed material was already in the public domain, there had been an “extraordinary and unnecessary use of resources of the commission, and this office, as well as a delay in public access to the commission’s meeting minutes”.