The monthly meeting last week of the Eureka Springs City Advertising and Promotion Commission turned into a public show of support for commissioner David Avanzino.

Avanzino, also a member of city council, has recently been criticized by some residents and business owners for a message he posted on his private Facebook account in the moments after the shooting of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated during a rally in Utah on Sept. 10.

“Ring wing nut job Charlie Kirk has been shot in the neck,” read the post that Avanzino said he took down after he learned that Kirk had passed away from the injury.

Seven residents spoke at the Sept. 22 city council meeting to voice their opinion about Avanzino’s post with at least one calling for the co-owner of Wanderoo Lodge and Gravel Bar to step down from his seats on the city council and CAPC.

Avanzino offered an apology at the end of the Sept. 22 meeting and said he, his family and his business had received many threats in recent weeks.

Just two days later, at the CAPC’s Sept. 24 meeting, eight residents and three fellow commissioners voiced their support for Avanzino, with many encouraging him not to step down from either city role or as board president of The Purple Flower Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Resource and Support Center.

Shiloh Grace, executive director of Purple Flower, attended the CAPC meeting and voiced support for Avanzino and his role with the organization. Grace said the organization has received many emails from individuals criticizing Avanzino’s actions.

“I want to honor the service of David Avanzino, who not only tirelessly represents our community and works for the future wellness and safety of all of us through his work at the city council on this committee, but he also serves our committee through the business that he and his husband run, which is an important employer, an important place of community gathering and safety for some of the most vulnerable in our community,” Grace said. “And I want to thank him for his service for the last six months as our board president for the Purple Flower Resource and Support Center for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. I know how dedicated he is to that mission. … “I respect the work that he’s done with us, and I want to go on record to say to all the haters who have been filling my inbox, that if he does step away, that is his personal decision, and it has nothing to do with their pressure. I hope that they all come to understand what a waste of time this mob mentality of character assassination has been, and we’ll let David get back to the important work that he continues to do, despite all of this hate coming at him. …” Resident Ariell Braem said she agreed Avanzino’s Facebook post was “insensitive,” but said the divide it has caused among community members isn’t what Eureka Springs stands for.

“To those who called for an apology from David, I appreciate your desire for accountability,” Braem said. “In my opinion, was the post insensitive? Yes. I’m grateful he took it down, especially once he learned Charlie had passed. I agree that public officials are held to a higher standard, and with that said, I sincerely hope you hold yourself to the same standard. I have no reason to believe that David is unwilling to own his remark, apologize publicly, seek amends through open dialogue, and commit to moving forward better because of this incident. How do I know this? Because he has demonstrated it with the sincerity from the beginning, and that says a lot.

“Let’s also remember that we aren’t all remembering the same Charlie Kirk. To some, he was a source of hope and pride. To others, he is vile and inhumane. To you, he might fill you with renewed hope for the future. But to others like myself, I cannot ignore the racism, bigotry, and hatred he sowed regularly and without remorse or recourse. Ignorance of this fact by his supporters is painful beyond words and deeply concerning.”

Regardless, the threats Avanzino and his family have received are unwarranted, Braem said.

“If the committee is truthful, you’ll admit that David’s post was not posted from his business page as suggested,” she said. “And you’ll also admit that David and Ethan [Avanzino] have a right and a duty to safeguard their bar from bad or unsafe behavior. It is also our duty to safeguard this town from the false martyrdom, misinformation and inflammatory rhetoric that blackens our social media echo chambers. This includes threats against David’s family members.

“I’m also appalled and horrified to see community leaders and business owners publicly and privately harassing David and his family inciting death threats. Acting with such disregard should appall all of us. I want to make it crystal-clear that it is absolutely not welcome here. To call for his resignation while out of the other side of your mouth, condoning either directly or indirectly this kind of self-righteous bullying behavior is again not welcome here.”

Some who spoke at the CAPC meeting criticized those who voiced their opinions about Avanzino at the Sept. 22 city council meeting but left the meeting shortly afterward without staying to hear his response or the remainder of the meeting.

“On Monday evening, a small group of local residents and business owners who prophetically claimed to care deeply about our little town attended what many said was their very first city council meeting,” Rebecca Fishel said. “It wasn’t to get an update on the major sewer plant changes that are happening, because they were walking out the door at that point in the meeting. It wasn’t to hear about the multiple water leaks that are happening across the town, because they were halfway across the parking lot by then. And it wasn’t to hear about a refreshed city vision plan for our city, because they were merrily on their way home at that point.

“Instead, they came here to defend a man who they claim was a martyr for free speech, while at the same time, they were trying to silence the speech of one of our elected leaders,” Fishel said. “The irony of this is lost on no one. Meanwhile, David Avanzino is at every CAPC meeting, he’s at every city council meeting. David is doing the hard work and the important work that these folks find too boring to even stick around for.”

Rodd Gray, a member of the city parks and recreation commission, said he’s worked for the Avanzinos at Wanderoo Lodge, and described them as valuable members of the community.

“David should not be resigning from anything,” Gray said. “I further feel that he should be continuing on and doing more for the community, because he does, and I think that the people that got so angry at the city council meeting didn’t really stay long enough to hear the rest of it, because David said exactly what he should have said. … “Eureka is a beautiful city. It is full of incredible people. We all love each other in many, many ways, but we do have divisiveness that I do not understand. …” Resident Laurel Owen agreed.

“I heard about what happened on Facebook. the most toxic of places, by the way.” Owen said. “First of all, I have been here for over 20 years … and one of the things I have always appreciated here is that we seem to have one rule: Don’t rain on anybody’s parade. And I think that Facebook, being the toxic place it is, when somebody says something quickly and doesn’t think, that’s what everybody’s doing on Facebook, which doesn’t excuse it, but the fact that he withdrew it is a cut above.

“I think that it’s mean-spirited and petty to ask somebody to resign because of what they did on a toxic waste dump like Facebook. You really need to see people in person and look in their eyes to gauge a human being, and I sure hope that the people who were mean and kind of petty and not very nice at the city council meeting, the people, whoever they are, who inspired people to do death threats against these men, I hope someday they can look in the face of these two, this one in particular. I don’t know him very well, but maybe one day those people can look at him and see a person who might have made a little mistake and then walked it back, which, like I said, is a cut above. … May we not rain on each other’s parades.”

Residents John Rankine and Teri Wolfenbarger submitted letters that were read by CAPC chair Steve Holifield, both supporting Avanzino and encouraging him not to resign his positions.

“During Monday’s city council meeting, several in our community exercised their right to public comment, using their time to rebuke David and call for his resignation over a recent social media post,” Holifield read from Wolfenbarger’s letter. “It was their right to express their own, regardless of whether anyone else agreed or not. Hopefully they also tuned in to the meeting broadcast later that evening to hear his response to them during the allowed time for commissioners’ comments.

“Yes, he made a post on his personal page that was insensitive when the initial news was broadcast. As a veteran, David fought for our First Amendment right to free speech. It was his right to express his opinion as a private citizen, even if that opinion may have been offensive to some. He also removed that post with explanation upon hearing the full extent of the tragedy of that day. Again, he exercised his First Amendment right, not in the role as a business owner, not in his role as a CAPC commissioner, not in his role as alderman, but as a private citizen on his private page. Whatever your opinion of the words he chose, he had the right to express them whether anyone else agreed or not. The remark in question, however, absolutely pales in comparison to the overwhelming number of threats and negativity he and his family and his business received in response.

“Not only was this post shared out, but another post was fabricated specifically to inflame the situation, and he was doxed. … Someone within our community felt they had the right to dox David and his business to instigate the attack on him and his family that resulted in death threats. Let that sink in. Someone in our community felt that instigating death threats was an appropriate response to an insensitive word in a post. We, our community, should be ashamed that one of our own and their families was put in harm’s way over one insensitive remark. David and his family have suffered enough. His years of public service and devotion to our community far outweigh this one insensitive moment.”

COMMISSIONERS’ SUPPORT

Avanzino also received support from other CAPC commissioners, with Heather Wilson, Shira Fouste and Robert Schmid each commenting on the situation.

“… Tonight, I’d like to first thank the veteran at this table who deployed multiple times, took an oath to uphold the Constitution, which last I checked includes the First Amendment, came into this town, cleaned up a business that really needed it, created jobs, steps up to selflessly donate time, donates financially to multiple causes and events, and raises his voice for others, expecting nothing in return,” Wilson said. “A person who actually shows up. So thank you, commissioner Avanzino. … This week, the vitriol that I have witnessed from business owners, some who have stood before this commission to ask for event funding, some of whom failed to remit taxes at times, has been mind-boggling, disappointing, and flies in the face of what this community stands for. When we lose the ability to engage in civil discourse, and believe me, I’ve been on the receiving end of anonymous threats and trash talk, we fail our town, our tourists, ourselves, and each other.

“ … Here’s what I’d ask everyone to focus on. There are about 240 collectors who employ around 2,600 people in this town. Cumulative collections have been down every month except for January. We are gonna blink our eyes and it’s gonna be winter. In this town, every business owner’s best interest is to start thinking about how to support one another as we enter into a season to ensure that next year, going into very unknown tourism territory, we will still have 240 collectors and 2,600 people with jobs, regardless of where they sit on the political fence.”

Fouste agreed, saying community members should stick together regardless of personal opinions.

“… I would stand up for every community member, business owner, regardless of how you stand politically,” she said. “I would want to protect you and keep you feeling safe in our community because that’s one of the lovely things here. We all have a right to free speech and to come out and to exercise that by sharing our feelings and thoughts. Commissioners also are people who have free speech and this is a volunteer group here, the CAPC, and we are not perfect. I think that if you want free speech and you want to be able to protect your own ability to have it, you also have to understand and be forgiving and give grace when folks make a misstep or even say something that you just don’t agree with.

“Let’s protect each other. We should not be going out and celebrating and emboldening folks being at risk of being harmed and stuff. That’s scary.”

Schmid said that while there are consequences to opinions shared publicly, asking Avanzino to step down is not something he agrees with.

“I understand that freedom of speech doesn’t mean you can say what you want. I’ve learned that it can have consequences, what you say…,” Schmid said. “Something awful happened, sure, and it is obvious that not everybody agrees with everybody, the way it happened, what happened and how it was accepted.

“… My problem is more like that we have council members who actually committed a crime, shooting a dog on city property is actually an offense and it should be punished, and nothing happened. But then a person who has a private opinion posted on his private Facebook account should be buried and is demanded to resign is something I cannot accept in any way. Yes, we are probably held to a higher standard as a commissioner or as a city council member or as mayor, but on the other side, is it really OK that we’re not allowed to say what we think, how we feel?

“Could the wording have been better? Sure. Everybody can have his opinion, but that doesn’t mean anything. We need to come together. We should embrace unity and not fight against each other. We need each other and we have 2,000 people plus in this town and probably 2,000 different opinions on things. … We have one thing and that’s Eureka Springs, and our city is important for everybody and it doesn’t matter business owner or private person, we all should stand together and fight for the same thing and not let us be bullied by anybody.

… So David, I’ll say it officially from my side, do not get bullied. You stand for your thing. What happened happened. You can apologize. You did actually on Facebook. I saw it and for me, this is something we should just move on and focus on the real thing, and that’s Eureka Springs and for our tourism and nothing else should matter.”

AVANZINO: ‘I’M NOT PERFECT’

Avanzino thanked residents and other commissioners who voiced their support, pausing briefly to compose himself.

“I’ve said it before, and I’m going to say it again: I’m not perfect,” he said. “I’ve never claimed to be. I’m going to say things that will anger you. I’m going to say things that will endear you. I will say things you probably just don’t care about, and that’s fine.

“We all are graced with the right to say things that we want to say. You guys showed up tonight in a way that I did not expect, and I appreciate that from the bottom of my heard. So, thank you.”

CAPC BUSINESS

Less than two weeks after Holifield made a comment at city council that for the first time in recent memory all city commissions were at full capacity, he announced at the Sept. 24 meeting that commissioner Kolin Paulk had resigned his position on the CAPC.

“He told me today over the phone,” Holifield told commissioners. “We’ll get an official letter later. This is just because he’s too busy getting ready to open another business, and he has a baby.

“We appreciate Kolin’s time he volunteered to the commission. He’s been a great commissioner.”

Holifield said CAPC applicants who were not chosen when Coltan Scrivner was recently selected will be contacted to see if they are still interested. Anyone else wanting to apply is also encouraged to do so, the chair said.

In his monthly report, finance director Ty Reed said the bank balance at the end of August was $1.6 million.

“August collections was $216,000 with a budget of $208,000, year-to-date, $1.2 million with a budget of $1.3,” Reed said.

Expenses in August were $179,000 with a budget of $196,000 for a net income of just under $44,000, Reed said.

“Year-to-date expenses are $417,000 with a budget of $433,000,” he said. “That leaves us, year-to-date, negative $375,000 with a budget of negative $309,000.”

The CAPC earned about $47,000 less this year through August than in 2024, Reed told commissioners.

“It shows it’s a little bit down from last year, but it’s not tremendous,” he said.

In funding requests, the CAPC approved giving $4,400 to the Eureka Springs Fiber Festival. The festival, held each March, brings in people from across the country who “love fiber, knitters, crocheters, weavers…,” commissioners were told.

Springtime in the Ozarks, an Alcoholics Anonymous event held annually in Eureka Springs since 1977, was approved to receive $3,000, and the annual Veterans Day Parade, put on by American Legion Post 9 and to be held Saturday, Nov. 8, was given $1,500.