Visit Casper addresses transparency, legal concerns

CASPER — Visit Casper Board of Directors addressed concerns at its October meeting that it lacked transparency and was not handling taxpayer money properly.

Mills Mayor Leah Juarez spoke during public comment at the meeting on Tuesday to bring up her concerns.

Juarez sent a letter to the Natrona County Travel and Tourism Council Visit Casper CEO Annette Pitts on Oct. 15 outlining her concerns with “how the Council is being currently operated and its seeming lack of openness in those operations.”

The Natrona County Travel and Tourism Council is Visit Casper’s Board of Directors. Visit Casper uses funds from lodging taxes to attract sporting events, conventions and outdoors tourism to Natrona County.

Juarez also provided the Star-Tribune with copies of emails she obtained from Visit Casper between executive committee members scheduling meetings and approving payroll.

The primary concerns Juarez listed were that the council’s business was being handled by the four executive committee members in meetings that are not public and do not record minutes, a lack of transparency with its itemized expenses and payroll, and taxpayer funds being moved into nonprofits headed by the four executive committee members.

The Natrona County Travel and Tourism Board was created by a joint powers agreement between Natrona County and its municipalities and is made up of nine members. Four of its members meet routinely as the executive committee.

Chairman Cole Montgomery said the bylaws call for the council to appoint a chair, vice chair, treasurer and secretary, which comprise the executive committee.

Tim Stubson, the attorney representing the Natrona County Travel and Tourism council, said the meetings between the four executive committee members are not open to the public because it does not comprise a majority of the council and therefore is not a quorum.

Stubson added that even if a fifth member of the board were to join these meetings, they would not be open to the public.

However, Wyoming’s Public Meetings Act defines a meeting as “an assembly of at least a quorum,” and states that “all meetings of the governing body of an agency are public meetings.”

The Star-Tribune tried to attend the executive committee meeting and was told by Montgomery and Vice Chair Renee Penton-Jones the meetings are not public. The executive committee meetings take place immediately before meetings of the full council, Montgomery said.

In these meetings, the executive committee coordinates the council’s work and creates and reviews agendas for council meetings, but it can not and does not make decisions because that would require five council members to be present, Stubson wrote in a letter on Oct. 21 responding to Juarez’s concerns.

Council meetings are “open to the public at all times,” according to its bylaws.

Council member Ashley Aars joined the council in April and represents Edgerton. Aars said she has not been dissuaded from sitting in on the executive committee meetings but has never tried to attend.

Mike Cevasco, who has been on the council since 2019 and represents Midwest, said he has also never tried to sit in on an executive committee meeting.

“I don’t see anything problematic,” Cevasco said. “Frankly, it sounds like someone’s got a lot of time on their hands.”

“Public comment was interesting,” said Pat Sweeney, Casper’s representative on the board, referring to Tuesday’s meeting. Sweeney, who is also a Casper City Councilmember, made the comment during the Casper City Council’s work session later on Tuesday.

Morgan Covert represents Mills and joined the council in July. Covert said nothing has been communicated to her about whether she is allowed to sit in on the executive committee meetings, but the doors are always closed when she arrives before the meeting of the full council begins.

“I don’t see any evidence of financials being presented to the board, at least for a very long time,”CEO Annette Pitts said in a February email addressed to the executive committee. Pitts was hired as CEO in January.

“I’m not 100% sure why we went away from posting the budget vs. actuals in the board packet. I would be on board to have that financial reporting in the packet,” Treasurer Tiffany Gamble responded.

Gamble said at Tuesday’s meeting that the board will be presented with an itemized list of expenditures and will have five days to review before meetings from now on.

“The board can always be doing better,” Montgomery said. “We’ll continue to strive to do our best.”

Pitts said during the meeting that she has been rereading state statutes, revisiting Visit Casper’s financial policies, and the Joint Powers Agreement.

“I want us to be buttoned up,” she said.

This story was published on Oct. 30, 2025.