The money, provided each year to promote tourism, has come under scrutiny since the city commissioned a $15,000 review by the accounting firm Baker Tilly of the chamber's 2024 and 2025 financial records. According to Jason Hunt, chair of the Verona Tourism Commission, 249 of the 278 transactions examined lacked documentation showing that invoices had been reviewed and approved. The review also flagged unsupported allocations, duplicate payments and other discrepancies.

City officials stressed that the review did not conclude public money was misused, but they said the absence of basic records left them unable to verify how the funds were spent.

"For us looking at it and not having good details on how the money's being spent, we can't feel confident that the money's being spent properly," Mayor Luke Diaz said.

District 4 Alder Beth Tucker Long said the chamber has also missed required financial reporting deadlines. "There are very specific reporting requirements and we have not received those reports yet," she said. "The reports are due 30 days after the end of each quarter and we have not even received Q1 yet."

The chamber disputes the characterization of the dispute. In a statement, the Verona Area Chamber of Commerce said it is preparing a formal response and that key context has been absent from the public conversation. "We believe some important context has been missing from the public discussion, and certain information deserves clarification," the statement read. "We have documentation to support our position."

The vote has also stirred anxiety about Verona Hometown Days, the community festival the chamber has organized for more than a decade. Chamber Executive Director Le Jordan told the council that the event would have ended years ago without the organization's involvement. "If the chamber had not agreed to take over Hometown Days 13 years ago, that event would've ended then and there," Jordan said during Monday's meeting.

City leaders sought to separate the festival's future from the financial dispute. "Nobody wants Hometown Days to go away," Council President Mara Helmke said. "I think both things can happen. We can have accountability and Hometown Days."

Tucker Long said the city intends to keep funding community events even if a different organization ends up distributing the tourism dollars. "The only thing that's different is who would be distributing the money to the events, not the events that are getting money," she said.

The council is scheduled to revisit the issue on January 11. If the financial concerns remain unresolved, the city could move to terminate its agreement with the chamber entirely. Diaz said his thinking has shifted as the dispute has dragged on. "At the beginning of this, I thought it was more of a bookkeeping thing than anything else," he said. "As the issue continues to not be addressed and to not be fixed, it's starting to make me wonder if there's other issues happening over there."

The chamber said it is working on a more detailed response and hopes to preserve a constructive relationship with the city.