By Rick Harvey
RHarvey@CarrollCoNews.com
Scott Bardin, finance director for the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission, was unanimously selected to become the CAPC’s interim director during a regular meeting Wednesday, Feb. 8, at The Auditorium.
The manner in which the commission approved Bardin’s appointment, however, violated the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act and is not legal.
CAPC commissioners voted to go into executive session in order to discuss the hiring of Bardin as interim director to fill the void left by the recent departure of tourism director Madison Dawson.
After commissioners returned to their seats after just less than 20 minutes in private, Jeff Carter, who was still CAPC chair at that point in the meeting, announced “we’re still in our executive session.”
Commissioner Steve Holifield then made a motion to “hire Scott Bardin as interim director for $80,000 a year” and stipulated that the role would “encompass his existing half-time position with a review every 90 days.”
After a second, commissioners voted 5-0 in favor of the selection and Carter asked Bardin if he accepted. “With great pride,” Bardin said. “I love this town very much, and I pledge that you will see a positive difference in a very short period of time. And thank you for your support and we’re ready to move forward.”
Carter then asked for a motion to end the executive session and return to an open meeting.
“All right, so now we’re out of executive session,” Carter said after the vote to return to the open meeting.
According to the FOIA, the vote to approve Bardin’s selection should have been done as part of the open meeting, not executive session. The typical practice is for an announcement ending an executive session to take place as soon as the meeting resumes in front of the public.
“No resolution, ordinance, rule, contract, regulation, or motion considered or arrived at in executive session will be legal unless, following the executive session, the public body reconvenes in public session and presents and votes on the resolution, ordinance, rule, contract, regulation, or motion,” the FOIA says.
The vote to approve Bardin was done in public, but the technicality comes in not first voting to end the executive session.
Soon after, Holifield and commissioner Chris Clifton were selected to lead a hiring committee for the selection of a new director. Bardin and members of the community also likely will be part of the group that will create or revise a job description and help vet candidates.
Since the hiring committee will include two CAPC members, all meetings will have to be open to the public.
Of five residents who spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting, four referred to the open director’s position and drama and conflict between CAPC staff, commissioners and residents.Harry Meyer, a longtime city council member and former CAPC commissioner, said things were on the right track with the commission but now says the director position will be hard to fill. He referenced an incident that happened on Dawson’s final day in the position where he said she was cursed at by business owner.
“We did a lot of changes and we thought we were moving forward,” Meyer said. “Then lots of resistance, a lawsuit, whatever. We did hire some folks. But because of the rancor in this town, because people do not act professionally.
“I mean, a few days before Madison left, she met Carol Wright outside during a snowstorm. She’s getting ready to leave because of the snow. Jeff Gregory comes up and calls her a piece of sh**. Now, how are you going to get anybody else to take that kind of job?”
Gregory, owner of the Cathouse and frequent visitor to CAPC meetings, voiced concerns regarding marketing plans during public comments, but did not bring up Meyer’s account of an alleged interaction with Dawson or Wright.
In a telephone conversation the following morning, Gregory denied making a profane comment to Dawson and said he has filed charges against Meyer in connection with a separate incident.
During a workshop before the regular meeting, Clifton agreed that the filling the director’s position will be a challenge.
“The hard truth is the position is not very attractive right now,” Clifton said. “There’s too much negative in-fighting in the business community in town. I’ve been putting feelers out to people that might be marketing professionals to see interest levels. There’s not. It’s going to be very difficult to find someone for a couple of reasons. One, the negative atmosphere and two, money. … The talent pool is out there., but hey, you’re asking a lot to get them to come risk their careers and then the pay is not there to move people anyway, so. I say we need to start with acknowledging we have a problem.”

NEW OFFICERS
For the first time in a couple of years, the CAPC has a new chair.
Toward the end of the Feb. 8 meeting, commissioners unanimously selected Clifton as the new chair and Holifield, a city council member, as vice chair. Chris Jones, the newest commissioner, was selected as CAPC secretary.
Autumn Slane, also a city council member, was voted on to review and oversee the signings of all CAPC contracts, and commissioners Mark Hicks and Carter will be the two authorized to sign CAPC checks.
Carter said he will check with Eureka Springs Mayor Butch Berry to make sure there is no conflict with a city council member being the CAPC vice chair.
“I specifically asked Butch this week about the chair position and no one on city council has ever, ever operated as the chair,” Carter said. “Is there any conflict for you guys being the vice chair?
“I think I’m OK voting on it … I’ll be glad to go to Butch and ask.”

HUGE DECEMBER
Commissioners approved the financials as presented by Bardin, which included big tax collections from December 2022.
Food and beverage collections saw the biggest jump, earning $100,157 in collections compared to $60,000 budgeted, a 67 percent increase over projections.
“That is rather high,” Bardin said. “I don’t know how to explain that at the moment, but I’m working on a three-year breakdown of sales so that hopefully in the next meeting I’ll have more information to kind of show trends and sales tax collections, because if collections are up, then sales are up.
“So, my curiosity was piqued with that number.”
Lodging collection was at $73,989 for December, 23 percent higher than projected.
In all, the CAPC collected $174,146 in the last month of 2022, $54,146 more than budgeted.
Cumulatively for 2022, CAPC collections were $2,081,605. That amount was $325,605, or 19 percent, more than the $1,756,000 projected.

PARADISE-RELATED APPROVALS
A marketing plan submitted by Paradise, the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based marketing and advertising agency, was approved.
The plan has an initial focus of attracting visitors for Spring Break.
Slane made a motion, that in the absence of a permanent director all invoices for work done by Paradise be vetted by commissioners.
“Until we get a director, until we can get these things a little more approved in a professional way,” Slane said of her agenda item and motion. “I think until we get a director that we need to be approving these invoices and we need to be looking at them just to make sure that what we are paying for is what we are getting.”
Slane’s motion was approved 5-0.