City Advertising and Promotion Director Mike Maloney said at the August 28 meeting that without a Finance Director, the CAPC was in a bind. They have been unable to give Madden Media their financial numbers and need to create that report for October, a problem directly related to the transition from QuickBooks 2021 to the 2024 version.
Maloney said that commissioners should be able to access the financial statements by the end of the week. He added that the commission currently has just a little over $2,000,000 in the bank and roughly $60,000 that needs to be deposited once access to the accounts is reestablished.
Research had been done on hiring an outside agency to handle CAPC finances, but the cost would have been too much, and there were also possible conflicts of interest. Commissioners discussed hiring a finance director, and Maloney said that when they did that, a similar situation would not arise.
Ty Reed, an accountant and business analyst, was interviewed by commissioners, spoke with them briefly, and was voted into the position of part time finance director at a pay of $35 an hour.
Onward
Group Sales Manager Jana Taylor, who said one of her main focuses is to build Eureka Springs back up as a premiere wedding destination, attended two wedding conventions recently with a booth touting Eureka Springs. She said she gathered more 300 contacts, and had also been on the Faith Travel Show where she connected with more 50 travel companies. She coordinated with seven tour companies and arranged for three tours to visit in 2024, the others in 2025. She had scheduled a familiarization tour with several businesses to show local attractions and lodgings in late October.
Maloney said that according to Madden Media metrics, the city had a huge jump of 23,000,000 branded impressions and 452,000 clicks across all search platforms for July. The top five cities with people researching Eureka Springs or planning trips were Dallas, Tulsa, Chicago, Kansas City, and Oklahoma City.
He said that the publication Glamp did a story on Turpentine Creek, and a reporter from Better Homes and Gardens is possibly doing an article on the city.
After Maloney praised Nancy Paddock for coordinating the Ozark Folk Festival, celebrating its 77th year, he brought up the need for discussion about the CAPC’s commitment to the Chamber of Commerce for its Visitor Guide. Commissioner Robert Schmid said he was frustrated that the Visitor’s Guide is normally ready to go out at the beginning of the year, but last year it wasn’t ready until April. Maloney assured Schmid that the Chamber was making sure it would done on time this year. Maloney remarked that everything to happen in the future was contingent on what would happen in November when people would vote on whether to keep the CAPC.
Commissioner Bradley Tate-Greene asked Maloney to explain what Madden Media is paid to do and how they are different from the CAPC’s former agency Paradise Advertising and Marketing. Maloney stressed that a big difference between Madden and, Paradise was that the latter was difficult to keep in touch with and had a tendency to provide information in a convoluted way, whereas Madden had access to “interesting” data and provided it in a more “accessible” manner.
“We’re not the past, we don’t want to be defined by the people who went before, we’re working hard for the city,” Tate-Greene said. Chair Steve Holifield said the challenge was to show citizens what the CAPC does, and the Ozark Folk Festival was a good example of that.
Maloney said he learned that there had been a meeting with VRBO in May 2022 where then director had the opportunity to sign a contract and start receiving tax funds from the Vacation Rentals By Owner group. He said he was working to get a new contract drafted for the next meeting.
Commissioner Kolin Paulk shared a document defining the responsibilities of the Media/Marketing liaison position that he had been asked to fill. Holifield said it would be put in as an emendation of policies and procedures and it was read into the record.
Funding approvals
Wendy Hartmann requested $5000 for Diversity Weekend advertising and was granted the full amount. Springtime in the Ozarks, the largest AA event in Arkansas will be celebrating its 48th year, and treasurer Willy Daniels asked for $3000 for website advertising, also approved.
The Eureka Fiber Festival request for $675 for advertising was OK’d, and the Boyums of Switchback Bar asked for assistance advertising Bike Fest, an alternative for Bikes, Blues, and BBQ, that will take place September 16 – 22. CAPC policy requires funding requests two months before the event, so they were provided a partial $1,500 and instructions to get their application in on time next year or it wouldn’t even be considered.
Talk turned to the November ballot issue of whether or not to continue the CAPC and the three percent tax on food, liquor and lodging. Chair Steve Holifield asked Maloney for a strategy and Maloney said they could speak out as private citizens, but state law prevents A&P tax money used on ballot issues.
He also said that they have a legal opportunity to defend themselves. Schmid made a passionate statement saying the city could lose 25 percent of businesses and a quarter of the population without tourism, and the city could become a ghost town. He reiterated studies that have been done of other communities that have suffered after losing their A&P commissions and how it impacted public services and infrastructure.
Maloney pointed out that business owners have the right to sue the petitioners, and that Pat Matsukis had the minimum signatures required to put the issue on the ballot. He urged anyone who signed and regretted it to call (833) 995-8683 and ask to have their name removed if they felt they had signed under a misrepresentation of what would be done, adding that if even one person withdrew their signature the Election Integrity Commission would annul the petition.