Dallas City Hall has no way of knowing whether the entity tasked with promoting and marketing the city is spending tens of millions of tax dollars wisely — or even properly.

That's according to an audit of VisitDallas, made public Friday by the Office of the City Auditor, that says the agency has received almost $150 million in recent years and spent it without any significant oversight from the city.

A lot of that money has been paid to — and spent by — CEO Phillip Jones, whose annual salary of almost $700,000 is based on metrics that can't be proved and whose travel expenses sometimes exceed the agency's own guidelines, the audit says.

Like so many audits from City Hall in recent years, this one says the departments tasked with monitoring the convention and visitors bureau lack "sufficient mechanisms" to oversee it.

Visitors fund VisitDallas, whose motto is "Big Things Happen Here" and which is behind the "B_G" campaign. That money is supposed to go toward marketing Dallas "as a major meeting site and visitor's destination location and to promote the use" of such facilities as the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.

It also goes toward subsidizing events at the convention center, including last year's National Rifle Association annual meeting. VisitDallas covered its rent, worth around $387,000.

About 80 percent of the bureau's annual revenue comes from the hotel occupancy tax, which is currently set at 7 percent of a room's cost — on top of the 6 percent charged and collected by the state. Another big portion of VisitDallas' budget comes from the Tourism Public Improvement District, a 2 percent assessment on Dallas hotels with more than 100 rooms.

The entity formerly known as the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau received almost $146 million from the two sources in fiscal years 2013-17, according to the audit.

The 73-page document breaks down myriad problems with the bureau, from how much it spends on employee travel to the poor job it does tracking how tourism in Dallas compares with visits to other cities.

Officials with VisitDallas did not immediately make themselves available for interviews.

In short, the audit says that VisitDallas, which has a contract with the city through Sept. 30, 2020, does what it wants without anyone at City Hall looking over its shoulder and that the bureau has taken advantage of that lack of oversight.

That includes CEO Jones. The audit says his expense reports sometimes don't comply with VisitDallas' own policies.

Former U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Phillip Jones, CEO of VisitDallas, appeared at a 2014 news conference detailing the Republican National Committee's decision to hold the party's 2016 convention in Cleveland instead of Dallas. (File Photo / Louis DeLuca)

For instance, it says, Jones booked hotel rooms that were above the cost limit set by VisitDallas. It says he spent $7,000 on gifts whose recipients and purposes were not documented. It says he likes to hire private car services rather than use cheaper options, such as Uber or Lyft, and that he expenses personal purchases, including a $543 Tumi backpack.

And it says that "when the CEO is not meeting with clients, his meal expenses appear high and he routinely submits hotel refreshment center expenses for reimbursement."

North Dallas City Council member Lee Kleinman said Friday night that oversight of VisitDallas "is our responsibility, and in this case, it is sorely missing."

According to the audit, Dallas has no way of knowing whether events held at the convention center are successful, because VisitDallas has no policies or procedures for preparing its monthly metrics reports and annual action plans.

As a result, says the audit, "VisitDallas' performance reports are not reliable."

And it makes it clear that Convention and Event Services and the Office of Economic Development do not have "specific procedures in place to monitor VisitDallas" or "consistently ensure performance goals and proposed budget approvals buy the City of Dallas are documented."

The convention department doesn't "obtain timely and detailed information from VisitDallas," the audit says.

Worse, says the report, VisitDallas is claiming as "citywide" events that aren't any such thing under the city's contract with the bureau.

To be defined as citywide, an event must sell at least 2,500 room nights on "peak" event nights. The audit says only 23 of the 53 events that VisitDallas claimed as citywide qualified.

"As a result," says the audit, "there are risks that potential contractual compliance issues may not be identified, and the City cannot ensure that the contracted services provided by VisitDallas are accomplished as intended."

Late Friday, in response to an interview request, VisitDallas chief marketing officer Frank Librio instead sent a statement signed by president and CEO Jones; VisitDallas board chair Mark Woelffer, the general manager at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel; and Joyce Williams, chair-elect of the board, which includes City Council members Adam Medrano and Jennifer Staubach Gates.

The statement does not address specific issues raised by the audit. Instead, it offers a litany of tourism and room-rental statistics. It also says VisitDallas has been cooperating with City Hall for a year on the audit, providing the records requested by the interim city auditor Carol Smith, and "will continue to work with the city to ensure they have the information needed to support their investment and our organization's success in increasing leisure tourism and booking events, sporting events, meetings and conventions in Dallas."

The audit doesn't accuse anyone at VisitDallas or City Hall of criminal wrongdoing. But it notes that VisitDallas' records are often incomplete.

Says the bureau's statement: "VisitDallas invests the private and public funds it receives for marketing and sales efforts to support the goals approved by our Board of Directors."

This sign was part of a VisitDallas effort to lure the Republican National Convention to Dallas. (2016 File Photo / Nathan Hunsinger.)

One of those board members, Gates, said Friday night that she had had no idea of the breadth or depth of the auditor's issues. Gates, who also chairs the council's Government Performance & Financial Management Committee, said she would bring in VisitDallas leaders for an explanation.

"They definitely need to come in and address the council as a whole how they're going to reconcile these findings and operate in the best interest of the city," said Gates. "These are serious concerns that need to be addressed."

It appears that city staffers in the Office of Economic Development and Convention and Event Services don't always believe that's the case.

In its response to the audit, attached as an appendix, management tasked with overseeing VisitDallas says that, yes, "oversight and monitoring of the contract with VisitDallas can and should be imroved." But they also say, "We are unable to agree with all the recommendations in this audit report," as some would "require changes in how VisitDallas operates internally."

One recommendation with which city staff disagrees would demand the director of the Office of Economic Development review the bureau's expenses funded with money from the Tourism Public Improvement District. Management -- it's not clear whom -- says it is "not able to implement this recommendation."

The city also wants to make sure VisitDallas is properly measuring "key metrics," among them economic impact and bookings. The audit recommends bringing in an independent consultant to double-check the documents or having someone from convention and event services do so.

The response from city staff says it can't do that "because the recommendation requires additional funding that is not currently budgeted."

Officials in CES and Economic Development maintain that because VisitDallas is a nonprofit that contracts with the city, it does "not have the authority of accountability needed to implement these recommendations."

Kleinman called staff's attempt to wave off some of the auditor's recommendations "concerning."

"In my opinion," he said, "a more appropriate response would have been to offer an alternative approach to the desired outcome."

That approach might be right in front of the council.

On Monday, Gates' committee will be briefed on turning over the downtown convention center to Spectra — the company now in charge of Fair Park.

The briefing says the convention center, which has not had an official manager since Ron King departed for Cleveland in 2017, ends each fiscal year with an expense overrun of around $8 million. It makes that up, in part, using the hotel occupancy tax. It would be up to Comcast-owned Spectra to close that gap, should the council approve the initial five-year contract.

Documents prepared for Monday's meeting also say Spectra would have to collaborate with VisitDallas to "maximiz[e] facility revenue and economic impact."

VisitDallas is supposed to be partnering with Klyde Warren Park on its planned $76 million expansion. The bureau is responsible for a 10,000-square-foot "experience center" meant to sell the city to visitors and locals alike. It's not clear how much VisitDallas is kicking in for the project. But the city is on the hook for $10 million in 2017 bond funds.

Staff writer Tasha Tsiaperas contributed to this report.