Mexico Beach Community Development Council audit: Clean report, no compliance issues
BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – This week, another entity of the Bay County TDC reviewed its fiscal year 2025 audit.
Auditors gave a clean report to the Mexico Beach Community Development Council. They did not find any instances of non-compliance.
“Every month, we go through our budget just like you should with any other business. And once a year, we have our audit, and every year we come back clean. No findings, no issues. We work hand in hand with the Clerk of Courts’ office, and we continue to do that. And the relationship just gets stronger and stronger,” said Bay County District 2 Commissioner and Mexico Beach CDC Chairman Robert Carroll.
While the audit findings were no surprise to Mexico Beach tourism officials, they come at a time when financial accountability among tourism organizations is under increased scrutiny county-wide following the arrest of two Visit Panama City Beach employees.
The fraud and grand theft charges against Visit PCB Vice President of Administration, Aaron Lee, and Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Stephen Bailey, led the TDC to increase financial oversight over all three of its branches.
This includes the Mexico Beach CDC, Destination Panama City, and Visit PCB.
While the Clerk of Courts’ office had limited oversight of the TDC before, Bill Kinsaul and his staff are now taking over all finances for all three agencies.
The Mexico Beach CDC officially approved the transfer of finances on Monday.
“All of our invoices went to the clerk anyway, had to be approved, and then they would move the dollar. So now they’re going to be handling all the check writing. So, it just makes it probably a lot less work for us. So, we embrace it wholeheartedly,” Carroll said.
And as officials work to restore public trust, they’re also continuing their mission.
“From Hurricane Michael, we’ve been pretty devastated over there, but it has come back stronger than ever. And so, we market to make sure people around the world are aware that our pristine and beautiful Mexico Beach, we just renourished all the beaches. We’ve got restaurants coming back. It’s just a gem,” Carroll said.
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