The Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission is considering holding just one regular meeting each month, with workshops only as needed.
And when those workshops do happen, commissioners hope they draw attendance and input from residents and business owners so beneficial dialogue can take place.
That was the main topic of discussion during the CAPC workshop held Wednesday, July 12, at The Auditorium. Workshops have been scheduled for each month, but a vote on the change will be on the agenda for the next regular meeting scheduled for Wednesday, July 26.
“I’ve bounced around about this quite a bit, but I really think we should go to one meeting a month and then just have workshops as needed,” said Steve Holifield, a CAPC commissioner and member of the city council. “And workshops should be major topic things like changing advertising agencies or outreach for the community, things that we really need to hash out and talk about.”
“I’m retired, I have time. I can come here and sit all day, but I know you all have businesses to run and I think one of the reasons we’re having trouble filling these other two vacancies is time commitment. I know another part of that is the history of this commission. Last year scares a lot of people because they don’t want controversy. I don’t want to get involved in a big ongoing, whatever that was, and that’s definitely improved. I think we’re going in the right direction as a commission and … I think we may be able to track more people if there’s one meeting and a less time commitment.” Scott Bardin, CAPC director, said he liked the idea of having just one set meeting a month.
“I would like to try it anyway,” Bardin said.
Chris Clifton, CAPC chair, said there will likely be the need for a workshop in the next couple of months as the commission looks at soliciting bids for a potential new advertising agency when the current contract with Paradise Marketing ends.
That workshop would hopefully include inviting input from business representatives, he said.
“Pulling together some of the … heavier weight professionals in lodging, restaurant, activities and retail and having a workshop because we are going to have to rebid,” Clifton said. “And it’s good to listen.”
Bardin agreed that input would be welcomed.
“I want to hear what our business owners, retail included, all business owners, I want to hear their opinions because that one small opinion that is heard that we never thought about could be a driving force in our campaign,” Bardin said. “There’s no bad opinions to be said at a meeting. We want to make sure that when we select the correct advertising agency that we have the marriage of the right agency, along with our goals and our businesses here in town. That’s really important to me.”
Clifton said hopefully that kind of workshop could be scheduled for sometime in August.
Damon Henke with the Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce, who frequently attends CAPC meetings and workshops, told commissioners that he wants to help connect businesses, the chamber and the CAPC on ways they all can help each other.
“I think because of the history [of the CAPC] that you’re referring to, there’s some apprehension [from business owners] … maybe we could bring some stakeholders in and what I’m trying to do is connect the dots. This whole thought process started with Scott Smith at Turpentine Creek talking about an expensive study they did to show the economic impact on Eureka Springs. He was quoting off some of the numbers and I was like ‘have you brought this to the CAPC and relayed what you paid for to learn to them?’ And he just said he hadn’t done it. A lot of people haven’t engaged in the past because of the turmoil that has been there and I’d just like to get past that.”
Henke said he’s feels as if a lot of business owners believe the CAPC doesn’t want their input.
“They feel like ‘we’re coming in saying, this is what we want you to do and this is how you should be doing it and you’re doing it wrong,’ which was the contention from the last commission. I think everybody is super sensitive to be like ‘we don’t want to tell them what to do and we don’t want to be perceived because boom, there goes that wall back up.’ ” Things are being run differently now by CAPC staff and commissioners, Henke said.
“You guys are a good commission,” he said. “You’re working good together. You’re taking all of that input and considering how that lays over the city and how the future budget is going to be laid out based on what exists right now.
“And that’s the pieces of the equation that I’ve seen in the past, is you have large players with marketing budgets that are effective at bringing in their crowd to town. Everybody knows the Passion Play crowd is slightly different than the Turpentine Creek crowd, slightly different than the Crescent/Basin crowd, slightly different than the motel sector. And then you have your different restaurants. There are going to be a lot of McDonald’s type people come into town and then there a lot of Rogue’s Manor, Local Flavor, Grotto’s type person. So, really getting a comprehensive mindset around that takes these individual operators coming in front of you and saying ‘hey, this is where we’re headed this year,’ and it allows you to make a decision based on who the right partner is from an advertising agency. … That’s what I’d like a workshop to do.”
Similar discussions have taken place in the past, Henke told commissioners.
“In 2016, 2017, right in there, there was actually multiple roundtables put on by the chamber that had restaurants come in, retail come in, lodging come in,” Henke said. “It wasn’t necessarily driven toward the CAPC, it was really just the community learning from each other type of a situation. It can be a chamber or a CAPC event, but I do think because of new operators that we have in town it is time to bring people back around the table.”
In the end, Bardin said he wants money spent by the CAPC to benefit all businesses.
“I want to make sure the dollars we spend on advertising, that we can complement other businesses,” Bardin said. “We may not match up but we’re going to match up where before we weren’t. It’s like a puzzle in front of you. You start putting the pieces together and the picture comes out and it’s about Eureka.
“I’m excited because it’s going to be good. There’s nothing bad going to come out of this at all.”
AUDIT FINDINGS
Bardin went over with commissioners the findings for 2021 from the most recent Legislative Audit report.
One finding was a write-up regarding the lack of soliciting bids for the expenditure of an advertising agency, although the CAPC was in the midst of a contract at the time, Bardin said.
“In my response, as though the State of Arkansas Code defines specific professional service as being exempt from the bid procurement process, the position of the CAPC is (that) advertising specialties were exempt and considered a professional service,” Bardin read as part of his response letter. “It should be noted that the CAPC has utilized the services of a primary advertising agency for several years, with annual expenditures exceeding the bid limit threshold. To my knowledge, Arkansas Legislative Audit has only brought this to the attention of the CAPC as an audit reportable finding for the year 2021. We concur with the recommendations of Arkansas Legislative Audit, but respectfully request that the audit finding for the year 2021 concerning professional services be reported as a supplemental finding.”
Bardin said the report finding was “toned down” based on his response.
“I’m not upset about it,” he said. “I didn’t even start here until I think October 2021. This is something I inherited, but we addressed it.”
The other item in the findings was the purchase of the elevator for The Auditorium exceeding the $35,000 bid limit, Bardin explained.
“It should be noted that the cost of shipping of $1,500 and permit inspection of $500 were variable costs associated with the purchase and related to post-COVID effects on the national economy.
Bardin explained that the total price that was flagged was $35,955.
“They wrote it as a finding because we exceeded the threshold by $955. And that reason it was exceeded was because of the $1,500 in freight and $500 we had to pay [for permit and inspection].
“I’m not sure why they wasted the time to write that up, but basically shipping and payment of a permit drove it over.”
Commissioner David Avanzino asked if more than one bid was solicited for the elevator.
“My recollection on this … this situation was worked out with the prior tourism director and I wasn’t directly involved in this,” Bardin said. “In doing my research to find out, answer that question, there was only one vendor in this particular COVID period of time. You couldn’t even get toilet paper delivered, much less an elevator.”
BIKES, BLUES & BBQ SPONSORSHIP
Bardin told commissioners that Eureka Springs is “partnering with Bikes, Blues & BBQ as a co-sponsor.”
“It’s not costing us any money,” he said. “We’re building good will between the organizations over in the Northwest Arkansas corridor. We’ll be working with that group … combining Eureka and Northwest Arkansas with Bikes, Blues & BBQ.
“There will be a lot of people in town September 20th through the 23rd and we’ll have entertainment here in The Auditorium each night. We should see quite a few people in town, off their motorbikes, walking around, spending money. That’s the goal. And staying in town.”
