CAPC approves budget with old commissioners

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Despite two “No” votes by City Advertising and Promotion commissioners Jeff Carter and James DeVito, the $1.575 million budget was narrowly approved on Nov. 18. DeVito and Carter would have liked to have waited until 2021 to settle the budget, saying new member(s) should be part of the decision.

Commissioner Susan Harman, who lost her seat on city council, was one commissioner pressing for the vote. Harman said that in 2021, “I won’t be sitting here,” but she wanted to make decisions on behalf of next year’s budget.

Harman went so far as to suggest during this, her last meeting on the CAPC, that DeVito had a personal grudge against her. DeVito denied it saying, “It’s not personal.”

Commissioner Greg Moon also wanted to approve the budget saying, “The budget needs to be passed before Christmas.” Finance Director Rick Bright said that it could wait until 2021, but said the decision was ultimately up to the commission. Terry McClung said that it is his hope to be a part of the commission next year and also voted for the approval of the 2021 budget.

Then the fire got some wind

The budget was not the only point of contention as the special events for 2021 fell into a strained discussion. Chair Carol Wright started the conversation by saying she believes Mayor Butch Berry will continue his lockdown of special event permits throughout the first quarter of 2021 due to the uptick in nationwide Covid cases.

DeVito said he believes the first quarter is going to be dark as the pandemic worsens.

Wright also said that during the first quarter she does not anticipate hiring a director to fill the position currently held by Interim-Director Gina Rambo. Rambo stated that the staff job descriptions have not been updated, but that Tracy Johnson had agreed to become a full-time employee as the Special Events Coordinator, changing her status from contractor to tourism staff.

Rambo also said that she has received letters of thanks for the overhead music events provided by the CAPC during the last few months. DeVito, who adamantly disapproved of spending CAPC money for the events during the pandemic, asked Rambo if those letters of thanks were unsolicited.

Rambo said neither she nor Johnson had solicited them but believed that former CAPC Director Lacey Ekberg may have. Since the overhead music project was implemented as a work-around plan in regard to the mayor’s No Special Events policy, and because they were not pre-approved by the commission, the 2021 special events have become a hot topic for DeVito and others.

The verbal fire between Johnson and DeVito occurred throughout the meeting when more than once Johnson interrupted DeVito. Finally, Carter said he wants the special events to be more specifically itemized line-by-line on the budget, and that no money should be spent before the commission sees it.

Commissioners unanimously approved developing a line-by-line budget before spending any of the $193,000 budget for special events.

Projected budget figures down

The total month of October tax collections were $150,822 down by 7.8 percent from the projected amended budget, or $12,778. Primarily contributing to this shortfall were restaurant collections, down 18 percent or $15,256. Monthly lodging collections of $81,578 helped soften the losses which were up by 3.1 percent or $2,478. Compared to collections in 2019, totals are down $268,159 or 22.2 percent.

Not following instructions causes rebid

In other business, Bright opened sealed bids for banking services but ultimately did not read aloud the proposals offered by CS Bank and Equity Bank. Bright said he would not reveal the bids so that he could have a rebid next month. He said one of the banks did not provide information consistent with the CAPC bidding instructions, making it difficult to compare prices.

Commissioners discussed the offering failure and unanimously voted to give Bright the power to take the best bid when he performs a rebid in December. This decision led to the agreement to cancel December meetings for the holidays.