The Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission unanimously approved the hiring of a new finance director with hopes to clean up a chaotic situation left by the sudden resignation of its previous director.

At its regular meeting Wednesday, Aug. 28, the commission voted 5-0 to hire Ty Reed to fill the position left vacant when Scott Bardin resigned via text message with no notice in June. After Bardin’s departure, CAPC staff realized they had no way to access many of the financial accounts making transactions difficult.

“I realized that tourism is vital to the city, I think the CAPC is going in the right direction, and I would like to be a part of it,” Reed told commissioners.

CAPC executive director Mike Maloney told commissioners that he and city finance director Michael Akins recently met with Reed.

“We went through his application and his qualifications, and Mr. Akins, who I really trust with the city financials, said he definitely recommends Mr. Reed as a good candidate for this and for the CAPC,” Maloney said.

During their monthly meeting in July, commissioners went into executive session to discuss Reed and the position. It was decided to get bids from local accounting companies to see if using an outside service would be more cost-efficient.

However, while interested, local accounting firms also represent many businesses who collect the tourism tax and there would be a conflict of interest with the CAPC, commissioners were told.

The agreement with Reed calls for him to be paid $35 an hour for what will be mostly a part-time position. He will be under contract, which will need to be renewed and potentially adjusted each year.

“To avoid what’s happened in the recent past with our last director, who just walked out on us, I’d like for Mr. Akins to have access to password and anything else he needs in case this does happen again, or some tragedy happens and the person just can’t make it to work the next day so we’re not back in this situation in the future,” commissioner Steve Holifield said. “We always should have a backup for any position.”