(PENSACOLA) --- Visit Pensacola's failure to provide exact figures and stats to the Escambia County Tourism Development Council did not fare well.
Chairman Jason Nicholson made it clear to CEO Darien Schaefer that they were not comfortable with his actions. While this reporter watched the meeting and reported exactly what officials said, so did the OpGov.News platform, ceasing to amaze me with accuracy.
Take, for example, this point of view.
(Photo: Chairman Jason Nicholson rejects $250K request from Visit Pensacola until further documentation is provided)
"The council notably deferred a decision on an additional $250,000 marketing allocation for Visit Pensacola due to a failure to provide council members and the public with crucial performance metrics, raising concerns about rushed decisions and a lack of public transparency," the platform points out here.
It's all true.
Schaefer cited emails, metrics, and proposed promises of prosperity, but the CEO could not produce actual documents to back his request for additional marketing campaign funds to place Pensacola on the tourism map.
(Photo: Visit Pensacola CEO Darren Schaefer is ill-prepared for TDC presentation)
"I would much prefer for the public to have the information that we're talking about today," Nicholson said.
Pensacola Councilman Charles Bare backed him up.
"Mr. Chairman, I would agree with that," Bare said. "I mean, you know, you may have emailed them, I don't know, it may have just disappeared."
Bare made it clear, "the public is not aware of this, and I'm not prepared to vote on this, not even having the information in hand, and the public doesn't have it either."
The matter was deferred until April 28.
(Photo: Pensacola Councilman Charles Bare does not want to approve Visit Pensacola funds until sees paperwork to prove the need)
"We can cover this important topic with due notice to the public and then make a decision, Nicholson said. "I think it's important to give the public something to look at as well."
Visit Pensacola was not the only one questioned.
The Escambia County Clerk and Comptroller's office was criticized for "unclear communication and unexplained rejections of reimbursement requests from tourism agencies, forcing entities like Visit Pensacola to incur interest on lines of credit," according to the OpGov.News platform.
This reporter saw the same, beginning with David Bear, who said so much without saying it.
While he did not preface his statement with the recent debacle regarding Escambia County Clerk-Comptroller Pam Childs and Commissioners Luman May and Mike Kohler, it's the first thing that comes to mind.
(Photo: David Bear criticizes Escambia County Clerk-Comptroller Pam Childers and Commissioner Ashlee Hoffberger for lack of communication on reimbursements)
"We're having a problem with the communication still between the clerk's office and the agencies and trying to get their reimbursement," Bear said. "I want to bring this up because I think we are all in favor of better communication and transparency."
That was when Bear called out Commissioner Ashlee Hoffberger.
"I want to make a request to the clerk's office to continue to improve the communication, be more open with the dialogue," Bear said. "I know, Commissioner Hoffberger, when you got on this council last year, you talked about putting together working with her to put together a process and stuff, and that really hasn't been presented yet."
Bear did not hold back, requesting Hoffberger "work with her to try to put together something that is reasonable and fair for those organizations who are out there spending their money."
Citing Visit Pensacola, Bear said the group is incurring taxes on lines of credit "because there are things that are being questioned that are in contracts that are already agreed to by the county."
Furthermore, when "reimbursement comes back, that check amount never matches the actual requested amount for reimbursement with little to no explanation of what's been cut."
Hoffberger's answer.
"I've learned it's not so much that it's the paperwork that's being turned in," Hoffberger said, adding she met with Childers and Visit Pensacola a month ago. "There is a checklist that is provided to all of the entities that submit, and unfortunately, sometimes the documentation is missing from the checklist."
Bear did not back down.
(Photo: Commissioner Ashlee Hoffberger defending the clerk-comptroller's office for keeping reimbursements from Visit Pensacola)
"I'm still getting reports that they're not being communicated with clearly on what is being rejected," Bear said, adding what he wants to see done. "I think that's a reasonable thing to do, and if you're going to try to help this process along, I just ask that you get something done quickly."
As for the TDC budget, Nicholson deferred to the senior budget analyst to report the state of funds through March, which stood at $7,507,711.
Collections total $6,996,029, and interest earnings are $511,682. Collectively, these figures represent 35.75% of the $2,121 million annual revenue budget. As of March, total expenditure is approximately $12.5 million, with an additional $19.9 million currently encumbered.
As for the actual cash balance, the total is $27.4 million.
The OpGov.News meeting end summary is as accurate as ever.
"Finally, discussions pointed to significant looming financial challenges for the county, including the expiration of the local option sales tax, underscoring the critical need for robust economic planning and tourism's role in local funding," the platform reports.
I could not have written it any better, hence the quotes.
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