13 positions eliminated at Reno tourism agency

RENO - The Reno-Sparks Convention & Visitors Authority board is eliminating seven executives and six other employees, restructuring operations and using the $1 million-plus in salaries and benefits for sales and marketing efforts.

Lynn Thompson, RSCVA acting president and chief executive officer, broke the news to employees in one-on-one meetings Wednesday.

''The toughest part of all of this is the human side of dealing with this kind of change,'' Thompson told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

His eyes welled with tears as he called it the most difficult day of his life.

Thompson was appointed acting president-CEO on March 30 after Phil Keene relinquished the duties following revelation that he used RSCVA credit cards for personal expenses and took up to six months to reimburse the public body. The board of directors fired Keene for those actions on May 10.

The employee cuts are an effort to make the agency more focused on its mission of generating overnight visits for the tourism-dependent economy facing myriad competitive threats, Thompson said.

The savings is intended to beef up marketing and advertising funds, severely depleted in recent years as RSCVA has struggled under the weight of building debt.

''It's our job to regain the trust of our own board and to regain the trust of our stakeholders in this community,'' Thompson said. ''We've got to work real hard to do that (and) this is the first major step in doing that.''

Thompson said further organizational ''tweaking'' may occur, ''but the significant changes are over.''

The highest-ranking employee eliminated was Jim Lewis, senior vice president of sales and marketing, who was paid $95,000 a year. Keene hired him 10 months ago from Florida.

Employees were encouraged to apply for one or more existing vacancies, including four new positions created: director of sales, marketing manager, advertising specialist and public relations specialist.

Carol Infranca, director of communications and a nine-year RSCVA employee, lost her $67,905-a-year job and saw her department eliminated.

The Rose-Glenn Group of Reno, RSCVA's advertising and public relations agency, will handle the department's duties.