At a sometimes contentious Crookston Convention and Visitors Bureau board meeting Wednesday, attended by City Administrator Aaron Parrish, who explained and defended the city's proposal to use CVB money to fund a Recreation and Sports Tourism Coordinator, the only thing everyone around the table could agree on was that they want what's best for Crookston, and that means getting more people to visit here.
Beyond that, even though the CVB board didn't officially vote on the proposal, it appears that few, if any of the board members like the idea of using lodging tax proceeds to fund the salary of the new position and, in the process, leave the CVB a shadow of its current self.
"A CVB in name only," is how Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Lori Wagner put it, since statute requires cities collecting a lodging tax to have a CVB in place. "You're going to put all the money toward a salary,” she added. “That's really sad. I think the community needs to know that."
The proposal, which city officials and city council members will discuss further at a Ways & Means Committee meeting at city hall on Tuesday at 7 p.m., seeks to create the new position to capitalize on one of Crookston's biggest assets: its recreation and sports facilities, an asset enhanced significantly by the opening of the Crookston Sports Center.
To finance the position, the city would discontinue its contract with the Chamber, which launched the CVB as part of the lodging tax initiative. Since its inception, the city, by law, has been the taxing authority. As a result, the city would take the lodging tax proceeds, about $49,000 in 2009, and put the money toward the salary of the new position.
The idea, Parrish explained, is to take recreation and sports marketing in Crookston "to the next level." That means utilizing the CSC to its potential in the winter as well as in the warmer months, scheduling more softball tournaments and youth tournaments in all kinds of activities like hockey and baseball, he said. It could mean hosting a figure skating competition. If many of these things are happening already, he added, then "the next level" would be expanding an eight-term tournament to a 12 or 16-team tournament. That growth cannot happen, Parrish said, at the current city and/or Parks and Recreation staff level.
Wagner disagreed.
"That all falls under Parks and Rec job descriptions. ...It's the city's job to book tournaments and run tournaments," she said. She also said the timing could be much better. "You should have talked about this a year ago, but now the (CSC) doors are open and you don't have a marketing person in place," Wagner said. "So you're doing this now, right after we've approved our budgets."
The red flags raised Wednesday by Wagner, CVB board members and Sandy Kegler, who would lose her job if the council OKs the proposal because CVB proceeds fund her part-time job as the Chamber's travel and tourism coordinator, were numerous. For one thing, Wagner said many things Chamber and CVB staff currently coordinate, most notably the annual summer festival, Ox Cart Days, would be in jeopardy. The same goes for the Visitors Guide and visitcrookston.com Web site. Saying the overall budget hit to the Chamber, if the proposal is approved, would total around $15,500, Wagner said Juanita Lopez, the Chamber's full-time event coordinator, might be reduced to part-time.
Then there's the principle of the whole thing. While an attorney Wagner consulted said the city is within the parameters of the lodging tax/CVB statute to use tax proceeds to finance a position with a narrower focus than marketing an entire community to tourists, Wagner vehemently objects to any claim that the City of Crookston "owns" or "controls" the CVB. She said the Chamber only needed the city as part of the CVB/lodging tax initiative because the Chamber cannot legally tax businesses.
"The city does not own the CVB," Wagner said. "You're a vessel for us to collect a tax."
"I would respectfully disagree," Parrish responded.
Kristi Thorfinnson, a CVB board member who was involved in the process that initially launched it, said it might be a "battle of semantics," but, reading from the initial agreement, said she didn't think the CVB was ever supposed to be a "part of the city."
Kegler said the city gave the Chamber the power to form the CVB and, therefore, doesn't have the power to change the CVB. Parrish, referring to a 90-day termination notice in the contract, said the city does have the power.
"It's like a hostile takeover," Wagner interjected.
Listening to the back and forth around the table in the Shanty's meeting room, it seemed clear that in the circles that Wagner and Kegler circulate on a daily basis, the belief is that the CVB is providing the community a big bang for its buck, and that local businesses appreciate their efforts. But in other circles, Parrish's, for instance, it's a different story.
"I'll be honest with you, I get comments or I get asked all the time, 'What does the CVB do? What's the value of it?'" he said. "We can't do everything, so let's focus our dollars as best we can and market sports and recreation and, in the process, market the whole community and get people to stay overnight here."
Parrish reminded the CVB board that one of their over-arching goals since day one has been to put "heads on beds," in other words, promote, market and coordinate activities that fill the hotels. Wagner agreed with that, but said Crookston is more than sports, and there aren't enough hotel rooms in town to house everyone. Parrish acknowledged that not everyone would be able to stay in town.
"But to get them here, I would say that our assets and strengths are in a certain area, and we need to capitalize on those strengths," he said.
CVB Board Chair Dale Knotek and others advocated for the process to slow down so stakeholders from the CVB, Chamber, city, Parks & Rec, Park Board and anyone else have a chance to get together to figure out how they could collaborate to enhance the city's recreation and sports tourism efforts. Parrish said the proposal wasn't as time-sensitive as some other things that come before the council, but that was mostly in reference to him acknowledging that the Ways & Means Committee on Tuesday doesn't necessary have to vote on it.
CVB board member Wayne GIlman, the school district superintendent, thought a vote of the board at some point would be a good thing, even if the result has no official standing. He also said the city rushing the proposal forward without getting input from those affected would lead to "sour grapes" and would be a "misstep."
Parrish left the meeting with another proposal in hand, given to him by Wagner. It would put $8,000 in the first year toward the type of position the city is proposing to hire, and $4,000 in each of the two following years. If hotel occupancy increases and, as a result, lodging tax proceeds increase, Wagner said the CVB would put half of the additional revenue toward the position as well.
"I do think we need an event planner, but we should be partners on this," she said after the meeting. "The city wants to put all of its eggs on one basket, and I don't think that benefits all of our businesses or the community as a whole."
