I read in a WZEP News email that the County Commissioners were hearing requests to put the Tourist Development Council under the supervision of the Chamber of Commerce due to the abrupt retirement of the former TDC director...and I heard that the Economic Development office is already under the Chamber.
Does anyone else find this strange? I thought both the TDC and the EDC were "county" entities that worked on behalf of the County, utilized County funds, employed (in the case of the TDC) personnel who are considered County employees, and the Executive Director reported to the BCC.
And that the Chamber of Commerce is a business association...
so, if the above is correct, then how can the Board of County Commissioners consider putting the TDC under the direction of the Chamber of Commerce?
Can anyone enlighten me? WCTA, maybe?
At the BCC meeting last evening a motion was made by Commissioner C Jones to enter into a contract with the Chamber to manage the TDC operations.
We were there and read a resolution from our Executive Committee
that opposed any move to place the operations in any type of public/private organization.
The original motion and 4-1 vote was rescinded and after taking public input on the issue with about 10-12 people from the Chamber speaking in support and 5 members of the TDC board that expressed a need for autonomy. Some TDC Board members spoke in favor of the Chamber involvement.
The final motion made by Commissioner C Jones was for the legal department to come back with a proposed agreement for the Chamber to manage the operations on a "interim" basis and to begin the process of advertising for a new TDC director on a Regional and National basis. They requested that the agreement be completed in time for presentation at the April 27th BCC meeting in DeFuniak Springs.
THE WCTA also made 4 other recommendations.
1. To conduct a forensic audit of all credit card activity back to 4/2007. ( The BCC is now in the process of retaining Carr, Riggs and Ingram to do exactly that. This was decided after a review of credit card bills by the Office of Management and Budget found sufficient questionable charges to warrant an outside audit.
2. Suspend all use of TDC credit cards until a thorough review of the internal control policies was conducted and adequate "oversight procedures" were developed.
3. That a review of all contracts in place be conducted specifically inter-locking ownerships, boards and ownership within contracted services.
4. That a review of the current Board composition be made considering the lack of governance and fiscal due-diligence.
The County created a public/private partnership for Economic Development in Walton County. It has a separate Board and is under the umbrella of the Walton Area Chamber.
Hope this helps.
