By Rick Harvey
Lovely County Citizen
The Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission passed a $2.3 million budget for 2023 during a special called meeting Wednesday, Jan. 11.
The CAPC then used another special meeting to approve an annual contract with St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Paradise Advertising and Marketing, which is budgeted for $563,000.
Commission chair Jeff Carter and commissioners Chris Clifton, Mark Hicks and Chris Jones all voted in favor of both measures. Commissioner Autumn Slane, who maintained her seat as a city council representative on the CAPC when no other council member was selected earlier in the week, voted against both motions.
City council member Steve Holifield, the newest member of the commission, was absent.
The 2022 budget included $1.3 million for Paradise, but tourism director Madison Dawson presented a new plan to the CAPC during a workshop before the two special meetings explaining that she reallocated some of what Paradise has been paid in the past to expenditures that will, at least at first, start out in-house.
“The last few weeks I’ve kind of taken in the sentiment from the commission … and I kind of came up with a compromise to where we need to be for 2023,” Dawson told the commission. “I’ve identified a few things in the Paradise budget that I think we can internalize for 2023, given that staff is in place.
“We started off with a $1.053 million budget with Paradise that was proposed originally, and we are moving down to about $568,000.”
Dawson explained that $355,500 of what was originally in the Paradise budget for paid media advertising will be moved into the general CAPC budget, “outside of the Paradise contract.”
“We’re looking at this as a way for Paradise to request the ad funding,” Dawson said. “It’s still there for them to use and utilize. We’re just going to ask them to request that as they place advertisements. That way we have a little more oversight.”
Dawson said another $65,000 originally budgeted for Paradise for creative and productive services also will be “internalized.”
“That will hopefully go to a regional company that can create some content for us,” she said. “We’ll put that bid out, but Paradise will continue to build the ads.”
Another $25,000 of the original budget for Paradise for “data and intelligence services” will also stay in-house as will half of what was originally going to the agency for social media management and social media content development retainers.
Despite the fact that Paradise might not be getting what it was paid in 2022, that doesn’t mean that money won’t be spent, Dawson said.
“Regardless of whether you look at it in the Paradise budget or not, the immediate placement is the same,” she said. “I’m still asking that we place $355,000 in paid advertising media in 2023. I’m just asking that we keep that out of the contract. That way it might be a little more transparent for the commission.”
Eventually, hiring more CAPC staff would allow more things to happen in-house, Dawson said.
“I think there are a lot of things in here that Paradise does for us that I don’t foresee the CAPC being able to do in the next year or so,” she said, adding she thinks it would take a staff of “eight to 10 employees,” to handle everything, including managing The Auditorium.
“It takes time to get those people in place and there are dynamic issues that come with having more staff,” Dawson said. “Where are we going to put them? And that’s just one of several questions.”
Slane said she felt the new budget for Paradise was a bit misleading.
“I’m just going to say what’s in my head,” Slane told her fellow commissioners. “This honestly feels like we’re just rearranging numbers to get to a point where we like the number. … I’m saying it’s still a lump sum of $1.1 million. We’re not saving money; we’re just moving it around.”
Clifton, who has said numerous times he feels the budget for Paradise is too much, echoed those feelings again Wednesday.
“I still think we’re spending too much, but you know, I think it’s too late …,” he said.
Later, in the special meeting to vote on the Paradise contract, Clifton said he was voting on something he hasn’t had an opportunity to study.
“Let me say it out loud: I’m voting on something, and I haven’t read the contract,” he said. “I’ll say that out loud.”
The motion that was approved includes a clause that the contract must be approved by city attorney Forrest Jacobi and CAPC-retained attorney Bill Watkins.
OTHER BUDGET ITEMS
The 2023 budget approved by the commission is $504,000 more than the 2022 budget of $1.796 million budget.
Slane again brought up earmarking money from the 2023 budget to help in the repair or replacement of the bandshell at Basin Spring Park and giving 10 percent of the overall budget to Parks and Recreation for facilities she said are “crumbling.”
“I think even 10 percent, which would only be $230,000 going to parks would just be something that would benefit our community,” she said.
Clifton said instead of giving the money to parks he thinks the CAPC should just do the things it feels are needed in the parks that would be in line with what the commission is legally allowed to pay for.“I think that’s got to be changed in the bylaws for what you’re describing,” Clifton said.
Carter agreed, adding that he didn’t think any money should be earmarked for the bandshell until a plan is made on what needs to be done to repair or replace it.
“I still think I want to see a plan,” Carter said. “I don’t think anyone’s saying that we don’t want to help parks, but before I say there’s money going to parks, I think we need a plan. We need to make sure the attorney looks at that plan and looks at the scope of work being done and makes sure it fits within … our purview of what we’re supposed to be doing.”
Slane said the commission should at least devote the “overage” money the CAPC got from tax collections in 2022 to parks.
“I’m referring to the budget being that much,” she said. “If we’re going to spend that much money, then we need to make sure our parks look good. We are crumbling and it’s embarrassing. It’s so embarrassing that I don’t even want to send my guests down there. It makes sense to earmark some money, especially with the overage that we’ve had this last year.
“We’ve sat up here and none of us can decide what to do with [the overages] when we have some clear things that are grossly under-maintenance.”
Items on the approved 2023 budget labeled as “new” include $69,000 for salary and benefits for a manager of The Aud, $10,000 for travel reimbursement for The Aud manager, $10,000 for “Director: Conference and Travel,” $10,000 for “promotional material” and $7,500 for fireworks.
The budget also includes $13,500 for holiday events.