Chair Steve Holifield voiced disappointment that no business owners or citizens showed up for the City Advertising and Promotion Commission 2025 budget workshop last Wednesday. Tourism Director Mike Maloney stressed that the budget was created with the intention of showing the positive impact the CAPC has on the community.
Maloney presented a short video featuring Group Sales Manager Janalee Olhausen-Kaylor, Katelyn Jerrell of Marketing and Communications, Danyelle Harris, and Finance Director Ty Reed speaking with Maloney about the importance of the CAPC. Once the video ended, Maloney said the CAPC most likely won’t meet the proposed budget projection for 2024 because of a lackluster first quarter, however, he and Reed were working to get the 2025 budget ready to start the new year off on the right foot.
Reed said that total income the CAPC has $2,277,500. The bare outline for the budget put $243,700 in media placement, $887,000 in advertising production, $175,000 into special events, $92,500 in group sales, $317,900 into Auditorium operations, and $510,150 into administration. Reed said this would create a balanced budget and he was excited at the opportunity to do things differently this year, saying that this was the first draft.
Commissioner Robert Schmid pointed out that the money at the CAPC’s disposal is large, saying he understood a need for a reserve, but asked why more wasn’t being spent and that they should use their capital.
Reed said that was an option, and commissioners could decide to put more money into things such as bringing in more tourists, investing in the city, or in operating expenses. Schmid was concerned the city could find a way to take the CAPC’s money or that other commissioners might want to put it into a parking structure, which he believed should be the city’s responsibility.
Schmid argued for focusing on advertising and perhaps reinstating the events coordinator position and using funds to pay for that. Commissioner Heather Wilson-Vinson asked how many seats the Auditorium had, and when Maloney replied 986, she asked how many parking spaces were available at the Aud and Maloney said 40.
Vinson said that a parking structure needs to at least be discussed. Maloney said that if the CAPC wanted to invest in “brick and mortar” they should perhaps consider other things like an educational facility or a small convention center, but he thought parking was not as much of an issue because there are public transportation options.
When spending the money, Maloney stressed, the focus has to be related to aspects of tourism. Holifield interjected that they shouldn’t consider a parking garage until they’ve had someone do a study of tourism numbers that can show how the city would benefit. He asked Maloney if steps had been taken to get a study done.
Maloney said he reached out to the University of Arkansas and two other Arkansas organizations, but they had not responded. He said there was a need to know what the election on Nov. 5 as to whether there would be a CAPC first before proceeding, but Holifield wanted him to do what he could to get the study started, not just for a possible parking garage, but so the city could have better insight into how tourism is at this time, since the experiences and perceptions of people seeing this year as bad for tourists are not aligning with the figures being reported to the city through revenue.
Commissioner Shira Fouste agreed that citizens are concerned that business is not going well this year and said this might suggest that keeping a healthy reserve was wise. Schmid responded that a reserve was good but pointed out they had enough to cover two years’ worth of budgets, and that it would be better for the city to spend money on something like an events coordinator. Fouste urged restraint.
Holifield asked Reed about the typical amount that organizations hold in reserve and Reed said he couldn’t give a number off the top of his head, but the CAPC had enough for both a reserve and money that could be spent.
Discussion over whether a healthy reserve or use of the funds was a better way to go ensued, with Maloney saying the CAPC had not discussed a “wish list” of items, people, or projects to invest the money in, and that maybe it would give them all a better idea of what to do with the money if they had an understanding of the ways the CAPC wanted to use it. He shared some of the issues with the Aud, particularly the HVAC system that cost around $100,000 in electric bills for the past year, and equipment in the building that could be upgraded.
Holifield asked Reed and Maloney if they could create lines for the Parks Department, Historical Museum, and Museum of Eureka Springs Art. Holifield said the CAPC already put money into these, but whenever they needed to promote an event or do work on things like the parks, various directors had to come in and make funding requests.
Holifield suggested Parks Director Sam Dudley, Historical Museum Director Jeff Danos, and a board member from MESA, give estimates of what they would need from the CAPC once they had done their budgets, then the CAPC could dedicate that money for the year, and they wouldn’t have to do funding requests.
Holifield said this would clearly show citizens that the CAPC is putting the money into these organizations for the benefit of tourism and the city.
Commissioners asked about how the money going to Madden Media is being used and if an easy to read-and-explain report could be made. Maloney said representatives from Madden would be coming to a meeting and were already working on that.
Fouste and Wilson-Vinson asked about putting more money into local film and video productions for advertisement, perhaps even doubling that amount in the budget, Schmid went back to hiring an events coordinator doubling one of the budgets.
He got into another argument with Wilson-Vinson when she also asked about the possibility of giving CAPC employees a bonus for all the hard work they had done this past year. Holifield had to break up these escalations several times and redirect to how to create a fair budget that allowed for a reserve and spending.
Holifield and others were not objecting to the possibility of an events coordinator, but Holifield said it would be the subject of next month’s workshop on Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. They also scheduled November’s regular meeting for the 21 at 6 p.m.
Holifield asked when they would have to vote on the budget and Maloney answered not until February