The Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission has decided to use a third-party employment agency to vet candidates for its executive director position.
At its monthly meeting Thursday, Nov. 16, the CAPC voted 4-0 to use Staffmark to help recruit applicants for the position, which came open with the resignation of Scott Bardin. Mike Maloney, who has held the director position in the past, is currently the CAPC’s interim director and is a candidate for the permanent role.
“Nothing has been posted yet,” chair Chris Clifton told commissioners. “We … talked to our A&P attorney on this one and they advised it would be A, clean, we need to post whatever process we come up with and B, wise to perhaps have a third party like Staffmark for recruiter, postings, gathering resumes, sorting for high level qualifications…” Clifton explained that if a candidate is chosen from a pool of applicants recruited by Staffmark, the company would be owed a fee of 12 percent of the candidate’s annual salary. As an example, if a recruited candidate was chosen at a salary of $90,000, which is what Maloney is currently making, the CAPC would owe Staffmark $10,800.
“We already have one candidate that wants the job,” Clifton said, referring to Maloney. “We also have a couple of other previous candidates as well, and they want the job.”
Waiting a couple of months, until after the holidays, is an option, the chair told commissioners.
“Let the resumes come in, get through the holidays, then whatever procedure we come up with, move forward,” Clifton said.
Commissioner Steve Holifield said he didn’t feel it was necessary to spend the extra money on a third-party company but ended up voting in favor of using Staffmark.
“It doesn’t cost us unless they recruit a candidate and we hire their candidate,” Clifton said.
The commission’s attorney, Bill Watkins of Rogers, agreed that using a third-party company could benefit the CAPC, the chair told commissioners.
“The CAPC is a standalone organization, and when you’ve got the city’s mechanisms involved, it’s just not as clean,” Clifton said. “So you want to try to not have a conflict, try not to have influence in the process. With a third party you could be more assured of that because we don’t currently have in-house HR.”
New commissioners Kolin Paulk and Bradley Tate-Green, along with Holifield and commissioner Chris Jones voted in favor of using Staffmark. Commissioner David Avanzino abstained from voting after it was announced earlier in the meeting he was renting a property to Maloney and his wife, Beverly.
“In Beverly and I’s world, to come over to Eureka, we were extremely excited to come over here, look for a property, find a home to rent,” Maloney told commissioners. “We did so and we have done so with Mr. Avanzino’s property. We’re thrilled to be there and I’ve realized as interim director, maybe that can be viewed in a different light.”
Clifton said he appreciated everyone being upfront about the situation.
“I know David is real big on transparency,” Clifton said. “We’ve had discussions here about that. So, Mike came to me and said ‘hey, we’re looking at this place, what do you think?’ I shared my concerns. Obviously we all do business in town and the important thing is that we’re transparent. So then we contact our A&P attorney and he suggested, yes, there’s a conflict of interest now due to a financial relationship between [Avanzino and Maloney] and he is applying for the job and [Avanzino] has a vote for that. So, [the attorney’s] advice was to disclose it and for [Avanzino] to abstain from voting [on the director’s position.]” Avanzino replied: “Absolutely, I’ll recuse myself.”
“Perfect,” Clifton responded.
BEST SEPTEMBER EVER With the meeting being a week earlier than usual, October financials for the CAPC were not complete. Bardin, now serving as the CAPC’s interim finance director, however, took time to share complete numbers from what he called “the best September we’ve ever had.”
“I went back … and added all of the September tax collections that were received after the closeout,” Bardin told commissioners.
Complete numbers for September included $97,050 collected for food and beverage and $98,584 for lodging, he said.
“Those are true numbers for September collections and led to a total of $195,634,” Bardin said. “In looking back at all of the Septembers, this was the best September we’ve ever had by $20,546, which equates to right at $1 million from gross retail sales for food and lodging in Eureka. … September was a really good month for us.”
Holifield said he assumed Bikes, Blues and BBQ and Bike Fest played a big factor in those numbers.
“That’s what we had a difference that we’ve never done before,” Bardin responded. “The city got behind it. We pushed that also, inviting guests here and promoting it as an event citywide.
“The calculator doesn’t lie. The numbers don’t lie. And these are the numbers. The end result is it turned out to benefit the city moreso than if we hadn’t done anything. And like I was telling [Maloney], what we did is we actually went out into our region and pulled $1 million into our community that we would not have seen if we hadn’t done something. That’s the facts.”
Holifield said it’s important that the community realizes how much money an event like BB&B brings into the community.
“I think of events like Bikes, Blues and BBQ that are unpopular in town with a lot of people,” Holifield said. “To have these numbers and be able to say that this is the amount of money that came into town, this is a good reason to have it. And like Scott said, you can’t argue with these numbers. … Every year it seems like we go through this hoopla of fighting about Bikes, Blues and BBQ and when it’s over everybody just moves on and nobody does a summary about what happened, how much money we made. I think if we had that follow-up, I think it would be much easier to sell for the next year.”
In other budget discussion, Bardin gave an update to commissioners on marketing support requests.
“We’ve funded 17 different marketing request so far this year and that equates to $90,000,” Bardin said. “I just wanted you to have that information as you march forward to 2024, because that could have a bearing on how we budget for that marketing event line item.”
The lone marketing support request at the Nov. 16 meeting came from the city’s parks and recreation department, which requested $5,000 to help fund the printing of 12,500 trail maps. The request was approved unanimously.
DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Addressing the commission for the first time since he was voted in as the new interim director, Maloney first thanked Bardin for his support in the transition.
“I want to thank Scott for really helping me over the past few days and getting me up to speed on where we are and then how we can go in and project as we go into 2024,” Maloney said. “It’s been a blessing to have him on the ground with me this week.”
Maloney also talked about the reception he’s had since returning to Eureka Springs and about new ideas he has already been brainstorming about.
“I’ve had the opportunity to run into 50 to 75 people, maybe more than that,” Maloney said. “People that know me, people that don’t know me … No one has been more humble than me in reference to people that have come up to me and indicated that ‘we’re glad you’re back and we’re very happy about the positive direction that we see the CAPC taking.’ ” One new idea Maloney said he wants to start soon is “58 minutes.”
“The 58 minute thing is something that I’ve kicked around for a long time … create what is called the 58 minute breakfast,” he said. “Every other week we’re going to have a group of four to five people meet with me and some of the staff down at Mud Street and we’re going to go in at 8 a.m., and for about 58 minutes talk about what is relevant in Eureka. We want a mix of people that come to that, obviously stakeholders, our business partners, and so forth. We’ll try to keep the rotation … so that we’ve got different voices each time.
“I’m looking forward to that, that opportunity.”
Maloney also told commissioners his desire to “reigniting a very good relationship with the state of Arkansas.”
“Particularly Arkansas Parks, Tourism and Heritage,” he said.
Having a strong relationship with state tourism officials, along with the Northwest Arkansas Tourism Association is vital, Maloney said.
“As you probably well know, Northwest Arkansas has now become probably the most visited region within the state of Arkansas,” he said. “And that’s basically because we all do good stuff.”
Maloney also told commissioners he feels group travel is another area that needs to be revived.
“Group sales is something that I think probably fell off a little bit,” he said. “I don’t know exactly where it’s gone, but it’s a very important component for Eureka Springs. Group sales in the past has been one of the reasons that we’ve had the different types of events, conventions and so forth that have come into our community and being able to, again, I call it reignite that relationship with the state of Arkansas is very important.”
TRANSITION TIME
As the final weeks count down until the CAPC changes advertising and marketing agencies from Paradise Advertising to Madden Media, the transition is going smoothly, commissioners heard.
“We want to make sure we put you guys in a really good position with the transition … so there’s no hiccups at the end of the year,” Paradise’s Michael Kosowicz told commissioners via Zoom.
Maloney praised Paradise.
“Obviously, extraordinary work is going into what has occurred with Paradise,” Maloney said. “We’re very appreciative of those efforts and we do appreciate the fluid nature of what is going on right now with the transition. I know that our staff … really have enjoyed this privilege of working with you guys.”
The new relationship with Madden Media has started well, Maloney told commissioners.
“Our relationship with Madden is really good,” he said. “I’m very happy with it.”
