CVB pitches to retain Miami Beach. (Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau)

Merrett Stierheim, president and CEO of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau, took steps to avert a potential crisis for his agency this week with an exhaustive demonstration that boiled down to one point: Miami Beach is getting its money's worth from the bureau.

At a four-and-a-half-hour meeting of the newly formed Miami Beach Evaluation Committee June 22, Stierheim and his staff offered a comprehensive presentation of facts and figures documenting the bureau's advertising and promotional efforts -- and particularly the results of those efforts for the City of Miami Beach.

"They get a big piece of change from us, and it was time to go in there and see how it is spent," said Miami Beach Commissioner David Pearlson, who chairs the committee charged with evaluating the bureau's performance on behalf of Miami Beach.

"It's just a prudent thing to do when you fund this much money to any entity," said Beach …