Lack of autonomy
nixed HVCB pick

Robert Moore says he rejected
the agency's top job because the board
micro-manages operations

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Robert Moore, the tourism executive who last month rejected an offer to run the Hawaii Convention & Visitors Bureau, says he didn't take the job because the agency's board of directors wouldn't give him the freedom to hire and fire staffers.

Moore, in an exclusive interview with the Star-Bulletin, said his many years in the local tourism market gave him plenty of experience with the HVCB.

"On occasions I witnessed circumstances where I believe the board micro-managed bureau affairs and staff appointments. This resulted in 'sacred cow' employees who did not perform, yet were untouchable," said Moore, an ex-Hilton executive who is now executive vice president of sales and marketing for the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau.

It was widely reported early last month that compensation issues led Moore to reject a job offer to be the HVCB's new president and chief executive.

However, Moore, 52, said yesterday that he was ready to accept the $225,000-a-year offer but that micromanagement by the board plus a disagreement over retirement and severance packages were the sticking points.

"The key issue was not money and a fat compensation package. The key issue was being given the authority to get the job done," Moore told the Star-Bulletin.

Furthermore, he said, the board was still talking to him about the post as late as last week even though he rejected the offer on July 7.

Roy Tokujo, HVCB board chairman and also chairman of the board's selection panel, said yesterday the level of hiring, firing and salary-setting authority that Moore wanted was unacceptable.

"It's against our bylaws and I don't know of any other organization that would give you that power," he said.

Tokujo added that he doesn't agree with Moore's contention that the HVCB has been "micro-managed" by the board and public officials. "That may have happened way in the past. I don't know. We're all working in the best interests of Hawaii and tourism in Hawaii," Tokujo said.

But he did confirm Moore's statement that there was contact between the parties after Moore's initial rejection of the job.

Tokujo formally informed Moore on Thursday that he was no longer being considered. Tokujo said that Moore wouldn't back down from his demands.

There had been no movement by the HVCB either, according to Moore.

Tokujo said the final removal of Moore as a candidate was because Moore was sticking to a demand the HVCB couldn't meet. "We would never give anyone, no matter who he is, the power to do what he wants without going through the board," Tokujo said.

Moore said last week's notification that he was no longer on the list freed him to talk publicly about the process.

In the 1970s, Moore held a top sales post with Hilton Hotels in Hawaii. He left to become president of a big local group-tour company, Hawaiian Adventure Tours, and then went back to Hilton. He has been with the Los Angeles bureau since late last year.

Moore said he has been close to Hawaii tourism for 24 years.

He has watched a visitors bureau that, he believes, was not only was micromanaged but also lacked clarity in planning and in carrying out its role. This, he said, frustrated the private sector and brought doubts to legislators.

Paul Casey, who left the HVCB president in March to head Hawaiian Airlines Inc., said that in his 20 months at the bureau's helm he never felt "micro-managed" by the board.

"What I tried to do was build trust between myself and the board. I got to hire and fire who I wanted and set salaries," said Casey, who is now a member of the HVCB board.

"My frustration was more in the system of funding and the answer to that is dedicated funding," he said. Casey has often said that the HVCB's need to go to the Legislature for money is a burden and creates uncertainty that makes it hard to get things done.

Moore acknowledged that the HVCB's dependence on the Legislature's budget process for more than 90 percent of its money makes it very different from the Los Angeles Convention & Visitors Bureau, which gets 80 percent of its money as funding dedicated directly from a hotel room tax.

Still, he said, the HVCB management was often stymied and that has to change. "They have really put the bureau in handcuffs," Moore said. "It's like, 'we don't trust you.'"

He said he insisted on sole authority for getting and keeping key employees, "obviously with the understanding that I would run all these things by the executive committee and the chairman."

Moore also said he accepted the $225,000 salary offer even though it was less than what he requested, but he also wanted, in essence, a three-year contract with an 18-month severance deal if the bureau let him go before the end of the contract.

An HVCB source said the board was willing to talk about severance but unwilling to accept Moore's retirement demands.

Moore would not say what that demand was. But, Moore said, pay wasn't as important as the degree of control he demanded, he said.

The HVCB has to enter a "new paradigm" and move away from its traditional role of promoting vacation travel mostly from the West Coast and Japan, he said.

The upcoming opening of the Hawaii Convention Center alone requires that. "In fact, the president of the HVCB may be the toughest bureau job in the country," Moore said, citing the number of new convention centers that are competing with Hawaii's.

Tokujo said he wishes Moore well. "Basically, we tried to work some kind of a deal. We were not able to do it." The selection committee and the board are still working hard to find a president, Tokujo said. The process will remain confidential, he added.

The HVCB has declined to confirm or deny reports of the names of other candidates who may or may not have been in the running.

Candidates that have been widely reported included Tony Vericella, regional head of Budget Rent A Car; John Votsis, Hawaii regional marketing director; Kent Keith, a former director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism; and Tom Ocasek, a former executive of Pomare Ltd.

Tokujo, also president of Cove Marketing Inc., said today he has stepped down as interim president to put all his time into finding a permanent chief executive. He had been running the HVCB's daily activities since July 8.

Don Takaki, former chairman of the Convention Center Authority and chairman of Island Movers, has moved into the volunteer interim president position.