With a light agenda that included no items needing any action, the Eureka Springs City Council spent its much of its regular meeting Monday sharing opinions about various topics.
The city’s advertising and promotion commission has been a hot topic of late, specifically since it hasn’t had a regular meeting with a quorum since June, days before the terms of commissioners James DeVito and Carol Wright were set to expire June 30.
There was a meeting in July, but after commissioners Nick Roberts and Autumn Slane learned that chair Jeff Carter, vice chair Patrick Burnett and Wright were not in attendance and DeVito would be running the meeting, they opted to leave before the meeting started.
That meant no quorum for the unofficial meeting, which included DeVito announcing that it would be his final meeting after selling his longtime restaurant. The August meeting also was also canceled with an explanation that some commissioners were on vacation.
The CAPC did hold a workshop Sept. 14, but Wright and Roberts were not in attendance.
David Avanzino, co-owner of the Wanderoo Lodge and a frequent attendee at CAPC meetings, spoke during public comments at Monday’s city council meeting, voicing concerns about the process for filling CAPC spots after Mayor Butch Berry encouraged anyone who was interested in filling the expired two spots to submit an application.
“It’s interesting that the CAPC is on the agenda, or the vacancies are on the agenda,” Avanzino told the council. “You probably all know, I’ve had an application in to the CAPC for almost a year with no review, no discussion, no vote.
“So, there are people that are trying to fill in these vacancies on the CAPC, but they’re not even being considered or discussed by the CAPC to our knowledge.”
Avanzino went on to voice more displeasure with the CAPC, specifically how it is utilizing the St. Petersburg, Fla., based Paradise Marketing firm.
“I am really getting tired of writing thousands of dollars every month for our CAPC taxes and not seeing anything done with those tax dollars,” he said. “I’ve seen no events promoted by the city. I’ve seen no events promoted by the CAPC. When they are promoted by CAPC, they’re actually photographs from a phone that someone is sending to, I’m assuming [tourism director] Madison [Dawson], to post online.
“There are things that aren’t even in Eureka Springs that are being posted on the CAPC website for people to visit. I don’t see why we’re paying all this money for Paradise when a majority of stakeholders and citizens don’t see the results of that money being poured into the CAPC.”
Avanzino is running unopposed in the Nov. 8 general election for the council seat currently held by Roberts.
Council member Terry McClung voiced concern over the CAPC during council comments.
“I think that they need to do something about the vacancies, also,” McClung said. “I’m just real unhappy that they haven’t made those appointments.”
The CAPC was scheduled to hold a regular meeting Sept. 28, but as of 10 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 27, the agenda had not been updated on the city’s website. The most recent agenda on the website is for the July meeting.
City council member Harry Meyer, during his council comments, responded to Avanzino’s comments regarding Paradise.
“Well, if a business is writing big checks to the CAPC, you see, it’s obvious that the advertising is working,” Meyer said.
PUBLIC INPUT ENCOURAGED
The council also discussed I&I fees for irrigation meters and procedures for notifications of requests to the Historic District Commission and Planning Commission.
Other citizens specifically talked about various projects around the city and how they are or aren’t notified efficiently.
The bottom line, a majority of the council members agreed, is continuing to encourage the public to attend all commission meetings and let their voice be heard.
“Your voice is important, and we do take it seriously,” Berry said. “And I think the commissioners take them seriously, too. But we have to get involved. If we’re not involved, then we really can’t do much about it.”
McClung agreed. “I think it’s important that the tax collectors of the CAPC need to — they have that vested interest in there because it’s their business that’s the livelihood of this town here — that they need to be attending those meetings and making their voices heard and presenting questions and looking for answers or making suggestions, whatever they need to be involved in that,” McClung said. “They used to be. They used to be very active and come to meetings and we always, you know, kept the tax base informed of what was going on. And I’m sure they probably still do that. I don’t know because I haven’t been involved with it for a couple of years.
“But it’s important for the tax collectors to be involved with that taxing authority. [The CAPC] is a separate entity. It’s not a city-run commission as such. It’s under the protection of the city, but it is independent, and they control those funds. So, get involved, go to the meetings. That’s the best way to do anything, is to voice your concerns at that meeting and that way it can get in the press.”
‘EXTREME VICIOUSNESS’
Without going into many specifics, city council member Melissa Greene used her council comments to express frustration over recent social media posts which she feels attacked some “younger people,” presumably city employees.
“The next thing I want to talk about is, I talked about it before, is this extreme viciousness that is exhibited in town and it’s exhibited so much on some of these social media things and some of the viciousness towards our younger people here,” Greene said. “And these young people are educated, they’re smart, they’re strong, and they’ve just been beaten to death.
“And when I hear stuff like, oh well, they owned a house in Rogers, so they’re not invested here. Yeah, they are. They’re driving over an hour, one way, to work to get here, and they’re bringing new and different ideas.”
“Or we have a new young woman out there that is going to be our city clerk. I don’t want to see her be raked over the coals because she’s young.
“We have our tourism director who, on these blogs, people have made fun of how she dresses, how she speaks … the cruelty that I’ve seen. And then these very people are saying, ‘but we need young people.’ What do we need them for? For sport? So, I’m going to ask, please, people, be respectful. You know, these young people are our future. And yes, they make mistakes, just like I still make mistakes, but they are our future, and they deserve to have nurturing and respect.”
JEEPS GALORE
In his comments to close the meeting, Berry talked about the recent Jeep parade downtown that saw record numbers while also causing some traffic headaches.
“The Jeep parade … was a record setter,” Berry said. “Last year we had 400 Jeeps total, and I think this year we probably had over 1,000, which caused the good news, bad news.
“It filled a lot of motels, hotels, a lot of restaurants but the bad news was it also — we had no idea what was going to come out of this parade — and I have met with the organizers of the parade, along with the chief of police and fire chief, to come with some recommendations on how to handle the traffic for next year.”
