The Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission officially has one new member.
Another will have to wait at least two more weeks for confirmation.
In its regular meeting on Oct. 10, the Eureka Springs City Council approved the CAPC’s nomination of Chris Clifton as the commission’s at-large position.
Clifton, who lives outside of city limits and owns Bear Mountain Log Cabins — which is also outside of Eureka Springs — was approved 4-1 with the only dissenting vote coming from council memberAutumn Slane. Clifton replaces longtime CAPC member Carol Wright.
Kyle Christopher, who is an owner of Eureka Live, was the other CAPC nomination to replace the seat vacated by James DeVito, but his vote was unanimously tabled with no further discussion.
The city council’s next opportunity to approve Christopher’s nomination will be at its Oct. 24 regular meeting. The next CAPC regular meeting is Oct. 26.
Clifton’s application to the CAPC included a letter of recommendation from Kalene Griffith, president, and CEO of Visit Bentonville. Clifton served on the Bentonville A&P commission from 2006-2008, according to Griffith’s letter.
“Clifton’s resume is exceptional,” council member Melissa Greene. “I think we’d be lucky to have this gentleman.”
Slane was the lone vote against Clifton and Christopher’s nominations during the Sept. 28 CAPC meeting. The nominees were two of eight applications included in an email from tourism director Madison Dawson to CAPC commissioners prior to the Sept. 28 vote.
The application of David Avanzino, co-owner of Wanderoo Lodge and frequent attendee of CAPC and city council meetings who has pitched his candidacy for the CAPC for many months, wasn’t included in the email from Dawson to commissioners.
“I’m just a little concerned about vetting our applicants,” Slane told council members at the Oct. 10 meeting. “One of the applicants wasn’t even on the list.
“It’s a $2 million budget and we are just kind of stacking the deck from what the appearance is.”
STILL NO NICK
City council member Nick Roberts, who is also one of the council seats on the CAPC, was not at the Oct. 10 meeting, his third consecutive council meeting absence.
Roberts also didn’t attend the CAPC’s September workshop or regular meeting, prompting Slane to suggest that council member Bill Ott replace him on the CAPC.
“I would like to make a motion to nominate Bill Ott for the replacement of Nick because his absence has been trying on the committee,” Slane told council members, “because we’re down one and then we have expired seats that are happening … it’s just been a mess.
“I don’t know where Mr. Roberts is, but it’s become clear he’s not here.”
Eureka Springs Mayor Butch Berry responded that Roberts would have to submit a resignation before someone could be nominated.
CAPC CONCERNS
A number of residents spoke during the public comments portion of the meeting with concerns about the CAPC.
Avanzino used his entire three-minute allotment voicing his opinion about the recent decision by the CAPC to use the domain VisitEurekaSprings. com as its main marketing website.
The domain, which isn’t active yet, was similar — at least at the time of the Sept. 28 CAPC meeting when the decision was announced — to that of the Facebook page of the lodging business of CAPC chair Jeff Carter, Avanzino said.
“At the last CAPC meeting, it was announced that the city was changing its website to VisitEurekaSprings.com,” Avanzino said. “Later that night it was revealed that Jeff Carter, the chair of the CAPC, had a Facebook page for hisAirbnb rental, also called Visit Eureka Springs. At no point was his rental property discussed at the CAPC meeting.
“No effort to be transparent, no effort to address a potential or perceived conflict of interest. Nothing. After being held accountable with documented evidence of the page, the Airbnb name was quickly changed to ‘Stay Eureka Springs’and any mention of ‘Visit Eureka Springs’ was denied wholeheartedly by the Carters.
“However, documented evidence via Facebook page transparency shows that the same name of the vacation rental owned by the Carters was changed from ‘Visit Eureka Springs’ to ‘Stay Eureka Springs’on September 29, the same night of the last CAPC meeting.” A Facebook search of “Stay Eureka Springs” does show the rental property owned by Jeff Carter. In addition, the website StayEureka.com directs to a website for Sherwood Court cottages, owned by CAPC vicechair Patrick Burnett.
“What is the public supposed to think?” Avanzino asked the council “We cannot continue to have a CAPC that acts in such an unprofessional manner. To quote a Eureka Springs citizen, ‘I wish that just every so often in this town, city leaders would make an effort to avoid even the appearance of impropriety simply in the name of professionalism.’
“If you are the chair of the CAPC, and you know that your Facebook page carries the same name as the new official CAPC domain before you make the announcement about the new domain, it is probably wise to either address that at the same time as the announcement, or better yet, mention that to the commission as a potential conflict of interest before the commission changes the official domain name. Probably the least transparent thing to do is to say nothing and then quickly change the name of your own page on the day after you make the announcement and then accuse those who expose it of passing on incorrect information.
“It appears that they are using city dollars to line their personal pocketbooks by using their power to align the city’s branding with their own personal business branding. Had this not been publicly addressed, visitors and internet searches of ‘Visit Eureka Springs’would have directed them to Jeff’s personal vacation rental.”
Resident and business owner Meghan Morris told council members that she thinks the CAPC should be eliminated.
“I ask the City Council to take action to dissolve the CAPC, save the tax-paying tourist
See CAPC, page 8 money and allow our local chamber to do the job of which they already are, and more accurately than the CAPC,” Morris said. “Or at least allow the taxpaying stakeholders to have town hall discussions and vote on who sits in the seats and how the funds are used.”
‘WE HAVE A CONUNDRUM’
In new business, the council was set to vote on an ordinance to establish a parking district along parts of Spring Street — a topic that has been discussed and worked on by the Eureka Springs Planning Commission with members of city council and city staff for months.
However, a proposed ordinance presented at the Oct. 10 council meeting had been altered from what was submitted by the planning commission.
“We have a conundrum,” said chair Ann Tandy-Sallee. “I sent you all on Friday a copy of the draft ordinance the planning commission had approved. I do not believe that’s the ordinance that is in your packet.
“That ordinance has been changed and is not sanctioned by the planning commission. I’m not exactly sure what we need to do about this.”
When asked who submitted the proposed ordinance to the council members, Berry suggested that city attorney Forrest Jacobi had authored it, saying “there were some things he feels needed to be in here.”
“I’m really not sure what’s going on here,” city council member Terry McClung said to Tandy-Sallee. “Is it something that’s acceptable or do you need to go through it and see if it fits your plan or not.”
Tandy-Sallee responded: “My concern is that we all met in workshops to go over this, there’s things in this new ordinance that were not discussed in the workshops. I find this very disrespectful, not only to the planning commission, but also to Kylee [Hevrdejs].”
“I didn’t expect you all to pass this ordinance the first time,” Tandy-Sallee said. “That would be history. But what I didn’t expect is someone to present an ordinance making it look like it was for planning.And it is not from planning. I am happy to have another workshop, but I am very disturbed about this.”
The council decided to defer the topic and let the planning commission review the changes Jacobi made to the proposed ordinance.
In other business, the council approved a resolution allocating $12,500 to be spent on holiday lights and decoration. It also approved the annual resolution for a proportionate share agreement for the judgeship salary.
