The vacant seat on the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission will be empty for a bit longer.
The CAPC voted 4-1 at its regular meeting on Wednesday, June 25, to nominate Damon Henke to fill the vacant seat on the commission.
Before the selection could go in front of city council for a final approval, however, Henke withdrew his application, citing a “conflict of interest.”
In an email sent to commissioners Tuesday, July 1, Henke said he had a conversation with CAPC director Mike Maloney, and it was determined that his seat as chair of the Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce board of directors was a conflict with an appointment to the CAPC.
“Good evening, I spoke with Mike Maloney and several key Eureka Springs stakeholders today regarding my potential appointment to the CAPC,” Henke wrote in the email to members of the CAPC obtained by the Times-Echo. “During those conversations, we confirmed a conflict of interest. As Chair of the Chamber of Commerce, I will be involved in several direct interactions with the CAPC Director and Commission. For example, the CAPC is preparing to vote on a postage contract for the Visitor Guide. Also, the Chamber is developing a Visitor Services Contract that involves relocating the official Welcome Center.
“The more we discussed the evolving relationship between the CAPC and the Chamber, the clearer the conflict became. As a result, I have decided to withdraw my application. The CAPC is now accepting additional applications and will submit a new candidate to the City Council. Thank you for your support.”
CAPC chair Steve Holifield, who cast the fourth affirmative vote to select Henke from three applicants at the June 25 meeting, confirmed that Henke had rescinded his application, but said the commission will now fill the seat from the two remaining candidates: former CAPC member Bradley Tate-Greene and Ryan Knapp.
“Yes, he has withdrawn his application to be on the CAPC due to conflict of interest as Chair of the Chamber,” Holifield wrote in an email to the Times-Echo when asked to confirm Henke pulling out of consideration for the seat. “We will vote on one of our two remaining candidates at our regular meeting July 23rd.”
Henke was selected over Tate-Greene and Knapp by a 4-1 vote with affirmative votes from commissioners Robert Schmid, Heather Wilson, Shira Fouste and Holifield.
Kolin Paulk cast the lone dissenting vote. Commissioner David Avanzino was absent from the meeting.
“We have three really good applicants this time, which is nice because we’ve gone months without any applicants, and then we have three real good ones,” Holifield said at the June 25 meeting before the vote to select Henke.
Schmid quickly made a motion to pick Henke for the spot before moments of hesitation by commissioners leading up to the vote.
“Robert has nominated Damon Henke. Do I have a second?” Holifield asked.
After a pause of just over five seconds, Wilson made a second on the motion before Holifield asked for a roll call vote.
After Schmid cast a “yes” in favor of the nomination, Fouste paused, seemingly debating which way to vote.
“It’s OK to show no if you don’t…,” Holifield said to Fouste during her deliberations. “Everybody has their reasons for whatever.”
A few seconds later Fouste said “aye,” as did Wilson before Paulk said “nay” while leaning forward with a smile and glancing to the audience, which included the three candidates.
“Love you, Damon,” Paulk said, with a quick wave and a smile.
That made the vote 3-1, leading to Holifield casting the final vote.
“I am going to say,” Holifield said before a brief pause. “That’s a tough one. We have such good applicants. I’m going to say yes.
“So, Mr. Henke has the nomination and it will … go to the mayor who can pass it forward to the city council, or may not, it’s up to him. If he passes it on the city council then has to vote yes on that … ” With Henke pulling out of the race, the council now will have to wait until the CAPC selects another candidate before having the opportunity to take any action on filling the seat, which has been vacant since Tate-Greene resigned months ago to pursue new professional opportunities out of the area.
Knapp, the other remaining candidate, owns various businesses in the city. He said at a May 28 CAPC meeting that his expertise makes him a good fit for the commission.
“I think my work ethic and my track record as a person here in town speaks for itself in a lot of ways,” Knapp told commissioners at the monthly May meeting. “I manage five businesses downtown, four gift shops, and nightly lodging, and I’ve been in the tourist industry for 20-plus years, since I was a little kid, and I talk to hundreds of people, if not thousands of people, a month. I hear about the good and the bad about Eureka and I get a personal relationship with customers and locals and people all over town. I think I have expertise that could help the board here carry on the nature of what Eureka needs to be.”
FINANCES, DELINQUENCIES
The CAPC has $1,662,000 in the bank, finance director Ty Reed told commissioners.
“The [profit-and-loss] showsforMay,ourtaxincome was $148,000 with a budget of $187,000,” Reed said. “Year-to-date is $641,000 with a budget of $679,000.
“… Total expenses for May were $233,000 with a budget of $192,000 and year-to-date total expenses of $1,060,000 with a budget of $1,140,000, but the equity infusion brings it to zero.”
The commission then spent many minutes discussing an ever-growing list of businesses that are delinquent on submitting their tourism tax, and the steps the CAPC is taking to collect the funds.
“This is quite a lengthy list,” Wilson said. “I’m surprised to see some of the businesses on this list.”
Maloney said the list may seem “a little high,” but assured commissioners that the CAPC staff is actively reaching out to the delinquent businesses and will take the steps necessary, including getting the courts involved and, if the business serves alcohol, involving the Arkansas Alcohol Beverage Control to have permits suspended.
“One of the things we can’t do, and this has been challenged just recently, we cannot disclose who is paying taxes and who is not paying taxes,” Maloney said. “But, what we will disclose at this point is that if we have someone that is not following the guidelines of which we’ve set forth in either our demand letters or just basically: ‘Would you please go ahead and get yourself current,’ we will go ahead take them to task and then we will go ahead and issue a summons in the court. And, then go ahead and proceed with the summons to bring that client or whoever it is up to speed with us. So, that’s basically our purview.”
When asked if some of the businesses possibly have new owners who aren’t familiar with CAPC taxes, Reed interjected: “The people on this list know they’re supposed to file.”
Paulk agreed he was surprised to see some of the businesses on the list.
“We can’t necessarily disclose who, but a lot of the names on this list are very well known which is frustrating because they know better,” Paulk said. “Frankly, as somebody in town who pays his taxes and sees that check go out every month, for some of these names to be on this list, it’s just ridiculous, so I definitely suggest that we step up enforcement.”
Maloney said some of the businesses on the list had a demand by June 30 and if the CAPC hadn’t heard anything by July 1, a call was being made to ABC to “shut them down.”
TOURISM REPORT
Maloney touched on an array of topics during his monthly report to commissioners, including that the CAPC recently worked out an agreement with booking.com to have tax collections submitted for reservations and payments made online through the website.
Maloney also reported that the city got good exposure on Little Rockbased KATV during a recent visit by the “Good MorningArkansas” show that highlighted many Eureka Springs residents and businesses.
Another similar feature also aired on a Springfield television station, Maloney said.
“We’re pleased that these TV stations have taken a look at us,” Maloney said. “… Capturing these two markets alone is worth about three million people. So that’s a very, very good marketing tool for us to utilize, and I hope that we’re able to go ahead and do it again next year.”
Other topics discussed by Maloney included that talks are already underway on how to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of The Auditorium.
“The 100-year anniversary of The Auditorium will occur in 2028 and 2029,” he said. “We are already starting to put our tentacles in this thing, if you will. This is a big deal. Very seldom do we get to celebrate a century-old building that has this type of historical value.
“We recognize the significance of this as being really one of the testaments to why people come to Eureka Springs, and have for for 100 years. We’ll be working on that and we will appreciate the help of the community in putting this project together as well because it does touch literally every person within Eureka Springs and the environment.”
OTHER ITEMS
The CAPC approved a one-year contract for AirDNA, an online company that provides data and analytics for the short-term rental industry.
The CAPC will pay $930 a month to use the service, something that could also help the city track short-term rentals that are operating without a business license or other required permits, commissioners discussed.
