|
|
Speaking at the Oct. 6 board of aldermen meeting, Reed said members of the tourism commission need a clearer understanding of how the tourism funds worked.
Adams said he agreed that a workshop would be a good thing, and he would invite members of the civic groups that work with tourism to attend.
Reed said he would welcome anyone to take part in the meeting.
"People out there who are asking us for money don't have an understanding of it," he said. "We want to know how to explain it to them."
Reed said the commission needs to understand the legality of all expenditures.
"That's why I want to speak to the attorney," Reed said. "If the attorney says something can legally be paid for, I don't see why the aldermen would reject it."
Reed's request came after aldermen failed to approve the tourism commission's request for the city to be a sponsor of the 2009 Spookfest.
At the Oct. 6 board meeting, Tim Baker, tourism commission chair, said the request had come from the Chamber, which set the sponsorship cost at $3,000 and the commission approved it.
The mayor recommended that aldermen reject the request for sponsorship.
Baker said he was highly disappointed by the action.
"After the electronic message board is paid for, there will be a ton of money," Baker told aldermen "This board is going to have to change its thinking on how these funds can be spent."
Adams told The Missourian in a telephone interview that he planned to hold a workshop. He said he thought a study type meeting would be the right approach to bringing some clarity to the process of spending the tourism tax funds, but said it should be broader than the city attorney and the tourism commission.
"All the organizations that work to attract tourists should be aware that these funds are available," Adams said. "And they should have a clear understanding of which costs they can expect to be reimbursed out of the tourism funds."
The city began collecting the taxes in October 2007. One of the first expenditures was for an electronic message board to be placed on city property next to Interstate 44.
At first it was thought that the billboard could cost as much as $200,000 and would be paid for over a period of several years. However, the billboard cost less than $100,000 and will be paid for in one year.
"Once the billboard is paid for we have to decide what to spend the money on," Reed said.
Adams established a committee to come up with the criteria for spending the funds. He appointed City Attorney Dan Vogel, City Administrator Harold Selby and Alderman Jerry Eversmeyer to write the rules.
Reed said he believes it's the tourism commission's responsibility to write criteria for spending the money.
"They're talking about an application process for these organizations," Reed said. "In my opinion, our board (the tourism commission) is the application process."
He said the current practice of requiring prior approval for an expenditure, requiring the organization to get a contract with the vendor or provider, then getting approval again to get the city to pay the bill is redundant.
"You're wasting people's time," Reed said.
He wants to see a simple procedure that the tourism commission could use to evaluate requests from the civic groups.
"We need to all be on the same page," Reed said.
Pacific voters approved the tourism tax, or bed tax, in 2007. The city began to collect the tax in October 2007.
