FORT MADISON - Fort Madison city officials have committed close to $165,000 to help fund a city tourism bureau over the next two years.
At Tuesday's regular meeting of the Fort Madison City Council, the topic got heavy debate as Councilman Tom Schulz said he opposed the idea because the council had no authority over the group, yet was funding it.
Councilwoman Donna Amandus said the task force that has been recreating what a Fort Madison tourism effort could look like, specifically didn't want to hand the council control.
Amandus and Schulz are also running for the same Lee County Supervisor seat in the November general election.
City Manager David Varley said the funds will come from city's share of hotel/motel tax, which also subsidizes Old Fort operations.
"Hotel/Motel money is pretty variable. We go from dropping 25% to being up 70% and this and that, but if we come close to what the city has averaged bringing in over the past five years, we should be able to support this and continue to support our operations at the Fort," Varley said.
"It may be close a couple years because of the variability of that revenue stream, but I think we can do it."
The proposal includes hiring a full-time director with a $45,000 base salary plus benefits that would include insurance, bringing the package to $56,000 plus a $1,500 cell phone stipend.
Expenses are expected to be $93,000 the first year and $104,500 the second year. The city council committed $75,000 to the effort for the first year ending June 30, 2023 and $90,000 for the second year ending June 30, 2024.
Fort Madison Mayor Matt Mohrfeld said the city collects about $283,000 a year from the tax revenue.
An additional $5,000 would come from fundraisers, while the task force projected $10,000 the first year in marketing grants, $1,000 in co-op marketing revenue, and $2,500 from cruise ship services for an estimated total of $93,500.
Councilwoman Rebecca Bowker said she is supportive of the effort, but said she wanted to make sure the tourism bureau is a public body and there is transparency in the effort.
Amandus said the current task force will be assembling the Tourism board.
"The task force has been working on this for months," she said.
Bowker, who was part of the task force, said at the end of the day it's public funds and going forward there has to be transparency in all the steps.
Schulz said he concurred with the transparency part, but said he still opposed the idea.
"I don't like anything about this," he said.
"I got no problem with allocating the funds, but allocating it to a body with very little accountability to the people who are elected to spend the money and control the tax dollars - handing that off to a third party, I don't know.
"We've got a library that runs pretty good with accountability to (the council), we've got an airport that runs pretty good with accountability to this group. But for some reason here we have to write this check and send it to you guys and say, 'let us know if it works out'."
Amandus said the program is similar to what she says is working in Keokuk.
"It works very well down in Keokuk not to have this tied to the city," she said.
Mohrfeld compared the tourism board to the Lee County Economic Development Group board that is private/public funded. He said the task force is suggesting the tourism board be an open board corporation with quarterly reports back to the council.
Schulz said the comparison isn't realistic because the city is funding the majority of the operations without any accountability.
Mohrfeld said this gives the group latitude to seek funding out of the private sector in the way of fees for services, a capital campaign, or memberships.
The move to fund the tourism board for the next two years with $165,000 from the city's hotel/motel tax passed 6-1 with Schulz voting against the measure.
In other action, the council:
• approved 7-0 a first reading to vacate property located between Avenue B and 117-16th Street.
•approved 7-0 to give a 2-year exclusive option to purchase the James Block Building, formerly the Humphrey building, at 732 Avenue G, to Barker Financial out of Iowa City.
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