Pensacola Councilman Larry Johnson wants a special meeting called of the Escambia County Tourism Development Commission (TDC) to discuss the private meetings the TDC chair Denis McKinnon, Ed Schroeder, Chamber VP for tourism, and Ellis Bullock, whose advertising agency handles TDC marketing, have had with hotel owners about moving tourism management away from the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce and the Perdido Key Chamber of Commerce.
Johnson told me in a telephone call that he has gotten some resistance from McKinnon, but he wants the meeting to get the discussion out into the public. “The TDC members shouldn’t be blind-sided by their chairman,” said Johnson.
The Chamber executive committee has held this week one meeting with McKinnon and representatives from the hotels. The group will address the entire Chamber board next Monday. There are those on the Chamber board who believe divorcing tourism from the chamber might be good. It would definitely let the Chamber focus on economic development and free up cash flow since the Chamber has to pay the tourism expenses and get reimbursed by the county 45-60 days later.
So McKinnon and the hotels may just get what they’re asking for…but someone needs to tell the hotels that the bed tax isn’t their money. Yes, they collect it, like every gas station collects gas excise fees and other businesses collect sales taxes, but the money isn’t theirs. The bed tax is the public’s money and the public should still have a say in how it’s spent.
Meanwhile, Schroeder’s job with the Chamber and Bullock’s marketing contract are in jeopardy. Schroeder didn’t keep his boss, Chamber CEO Jim Hizer, or the Chamber board informed of the meetings. The emails show Bullock played a big role in organizing the meeting.
However, there are two mitigating factors. Both were acting on the instruction of McKinnon and Escambia County is finishing a record summer in tourism. Expect more discussion on these issues.
The hotels will fight hard for Schroeder and Bullock.
On the edge of this issue is the Escambia County Commission. Commissioner Grover Robinson has discussed with me several times the idea of establishing an independent tourism authority that reports directly to the county commission. He wanted it to be done after the summer and after the county got an idea of how the BP dollars would be allocated by the state and federal governments. He has met with hotel owners on the issue, as have other commissioners.
The daily newspaper wants to make an issue out of Robinson having his real estate business with Coldwell Banker United, which is headed by Denis McKinnon. Robinson also serves on the TDC.
“Denis is my broker, not my boss,” said Robinson, who moved Grover Robinson & Associates over to CBU earlier this year. “I compete with all the other agents for business. The most I got out of Coldwell Banker was two boxes of business cards.”
A quick look at Grover Robinson’s net worth and one could see he could have easily bought the Pensacola division had he wanted to do so. Robinson’s discussion with me over the TDC change began long before his move to CBU.
All politics aside, the TDC and its management need to be discussed publicly. The idea has merit and shouldn’t be overshadowed by how McKinnon and others went about building their case for it.