Yesterday, I made two suggestions to the Executive Committee of the Pensacola Bay Area Chamber of Commerce. I spoke as a member of the general board, on which I serve along with Kevin Doyle of the Pensacola News Journal.
The public and the board were presented with two sets of facts that agree on some points and differ on others. The emails released to the media show Ed Schroeder, Chamber VP for Tourism, being part of a group that wanted to move tourism out from under the Chamber. The meetings appear to be clandestine and that Schroeder’s boss, Jim Hizer, was blindsided by the effort.
Denis McKinnon, TDC chair, Ellis Bullock and the hotel owners said that the governance of Convention & Visitors Bureau and tourism marketing was not high on their list of problems with the Escambia Board of County Commissioners. They and others have told how Hizer was aware of the discussions and Schroeder have been instructed by Hizer to be a resource for the hotel group.
I told the Executive Committee that any issues with Schroeder should have been handled internally by Hizer and them. Clearly there is a conflict between the two, even before this surfaced. Hizer needs to have his team in place and Schroeder is his employee. This could have been done without the melodrama, which I believed hurt the images of all involved.
I also recommended that the Executive Committee ask the State Attorney’s Office to review the emails of the TAC, TDC and Chamber for any possible Sunshine Law violations, intentional or not, to help restore public trust in how tourism is handled.
The Executive Committee voted to put the employment of Schroeder in Hizer’s hands, which is the only solution—other than terminating Hizer. I think they ignored my State Attorney suggestion.
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Meanwhile on the periphery, others are taking this as an opportunity to push other agendas. Perdido Key and Gulf Coast African-American Chamber have issues about how much money they get from the TDC. Others have long standing beefs with Bullock, McKinnon and others.
As I have stated from the beginning, all the discussion – except the employment of Schroeder – should be discussed openly. The issues that the hoteliers have need to be resolved. Three years is too long.
Funding issues are ultimately the decision of the County Commission. They need to weigh in and resolve that, too.