“Half a million dollars down,” were the words repeated by Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission Chair Carol Wright after hearing discussion of the potential annual revenue loss of restaurant and lodging tax earnings due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The loss of revenue due to the global health emergency was the reason for calling five special meetings Monday night so commissioners could consider a possible furlough or reduction of hours of five staff members and contract laborers; specifically, the Technical Director, Group Sales Director, Events Coordinator, Finance Director, and Interim Executive Director/Publicist.
Commissioner Jeff Carter provided Wright with the estimation of a 34 percent loss, or $540,000 reduction from the original $1.6 million budget, when hit with the impact of the pandemic.
“Our job is to oversee taxpayer dollars,” Carter, who stated the salary budget originally set at $310,000 for 2020 should be reduced accordingly due to the loss of tax revenue, said. Commissioner James DeVito concurred and stated the commission has to take advantage of options for employees that are available to them through outside government assistance programs. Carter stated that the 34 percent estimate was conservative. especially if there is a second pandemic after the summer. “It may turn to crap in the fall and we may go broke,” commissioner Terry McClung said.
“Everybody’s freaked out,” commissioner Susan Harman said about employees potentially losing their jobs.
The commission discussed salary budget cuts and the process of how to execute cuts such as isolating essential personnel, furloughing, and amending contract labor. Commissioner Bobbie Foster said that contracts can be amended if both parties are in agreement.
She recommended amending labor contracts through a cooperative arrangement asking, “Could we not talk to them and look at some amending at this time?” This led to Carter providing commissioners with the notification of a recent contractual agreement which came to his attention.
Carter said a labor contract was made by Interim-Director Gina Rambo who in March executed a three-year contract with the Technical Director without approval from the commission. Carter said he did not understand why this contract was not brought to the table before being signed. He said that the contract was originally for the term of one year but was increased to three years.
The five special meetings to discuss five separate staff positions were somehow condensed into one meeting where no decisions were made about any employment positions. Instead, Wright was presented with a depressing financial projection for 2020, a contractual labor agreement made outside of the commission’s approval, and Harman insisting, “It is not the position of the commission to hire or fire a staff member — it is the Interim-Director’s responsibility.”
Harman said that the commission’s job is to look at the budget and hire or fire the Finance Director and Executive Director. She added that making staff decisions was destroying the fabric of the staff.
McClung interrupted the discussion by recommending deferral of all five agenda items until commissioners had more precise budget information. “I think it would behoove us to have a budget workshop so we can look at this.”
No decisions were made regarding the budget or staffing of the five employees/contracts, and a workshop was scheduled for Wednesday, May 6 at 4 p.m. McClung requested the presence of the staff directors at the meeting.