The board of directors of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has recommended an 8 percent pay raise and a 50 percent bonus for President and CEO Rossi Ralenkotter.
The compensation, if approved, would be the largest raise ever granted by the LCCVA, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Ralenkotter’s salary would increase by more than $23,000, and his total take-home pay exclusive of the bonus would be $319,663?more than the base salary of Governor Brian Sandoval.
Last year at this time, the committee and the full board was almost as generous, approving an 8 percent salary increase and a 40 percent bonus for Ralenkotter.
It doesn’t put Ralenkotter at the top pay grade for his profession, however. The committee was told that Ralenkotter’s proposed salary would be below the average pay received by the top seven convention and visitor authority executives in the country. Mark Olson, senior vice president of human resources for the authority, said the average pay is $534,650 for the seven chief executives of convention authorities in Atlanta, Chicago, San Diego, Dallas, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orlando, Florida.
The four-person committee unanimously recommended the increase, which will be considered by the full board at its July 8 meeting.
Ralenkotter seems to be earning his keep. Under his direction, the LCCVA has helped increase visitation to Southern Nevada to record levels, nearing the 40 million mark in 2013. The authority helped secure a 10-year contract to keep the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, and also has been behind the ongoing transformation of the Las Vegas Convention Center into the Las Vegas Global Business District.
“That’s what good coaches do,” committee member Charles Bowling, president and chief operating officer of Mandalay Bay, told Ralenkotter, “and you’re a good coach.”
