Positive reports opened the budgeting season at the City Advertising and Promotion Commission’s Nov. 16 meeting.
Mike Maloney gave his first Director’s Report covering items he wishes to implement, including re-establishing a relationship with group travel agencies. Maloney told commissioners that the state of Arkansas not only markets itself abroad, it also partners with other states to attend group travel expos.
Maloney explained that having these groups coming to town would augment other event weekends, using Porsche weekend on the same weekend as Folk Festival this year as an example. He said he also intends to re-ignite the relationship with the Arkansas Department of Parks, Tourism, and Heritage and that the CAPC would see many of the staff of that department at the next Governor’s Conference in February.
He also mentioned exploring more cultural and generational marketing, saying that he and staff would be speaking with Kent Butler of the Great Passion Play for strategies on cultural marketing, referencing that the Passion Play has strong visitation from a Korean demographic from Chicago and a broader Asian demographic from Dallas.
In terms of informing locals of what is happening at the CAPC, Maloney said he and staff would begin hosting “58-minute Breakfast” at Mud St. Café regularly, cycling in stakeholders and business partners.
Maloney said that the office had acquired videography equipment for staff, and also disclosed that he is now renting living space from CAPC commissioner David Avanzino. Chair Chris Clifton briefly spoke that the commission has spoken with the A&P’s attorney and that Avanzino will need to recuse himself from votes regarding the director position and Maloney. Avanzino immediately agreed saying, “Of course.”
Other Items
- Commissioners recessed during the meeting to swear in new commissioners Colin Paulk and Bradley Tate-Green.
- Commissioners voted unanimously on a funding request of $5,000 for printing f Parks Department trail maps.
- Commissioners took time to discuss the hiring process for a permanent director, choosing to put out requests for résumés until after the New Year. They also chose to hire an agency to help find candidates, with the CAPC needing to pay the agency if they hire a candidate from that search. Maloney could be hired as executive director, but the CAPC must be in compliance with statewide rules for cities in this hiring process.
- Unanimously, the commission removed previous commissioners Mark Hicks and Jeff Carter from check signing power and added the two new commissioners.
- Finance Director Scott Bardin could not give a detailed overview of October collections due to there still being more than a week for collections to come in. He did, however, say that a final total of $198,634 in collections had come in for September as collections had come in after the closing of the month. Bardin mentioned that Bikes, Blues, and BBQ weekend had been a major difference to previous years.
- Also in finances, Bardin pointed out to commissioners that they had approved 17 marketing support requests in 2023 equating to $90,000. Commissioners discussed unadopted by-laws about limiting the amount of years they give support to an event, with Clifton saying that he used to support limiting the years but that the public and city had changed his mind.
- Before the Dec 21 meeting the CAPC will have a budget workshop starting at 4 p.m., and the 2024 budget will be an item at the meeting that evening.
Editors Note: The original printed article said the CAPC had received “an additional” $198,634 in September. The story has been edited here to show the final collections totaled $198,634 in collections.