Hawthorne responds to Grover

September 28, 2011
RE: Public Response to Grover Robinson’s reported interview

Dear PNJ and IN,

I am sending this letter to you because of the reporting from Grover Robinson and his recent “revelations” regarding the “tourism state-of-affairs.” It seems as if Grover takes offense at the issues being raised of transparency and inclusion which is the entire subject of my and Allison Davenport’s communications.

He tries to make a point that he feels, “challenging the process (and players in the process) is a personal attack against him.” It can only be perceived as an attack if he is insecure or less than forthcoming as to his actions and feels a need to defend himself. In fact, the only “personal attack” was made by him when he directly called me a “parasite,” and if being a vocal advocate for transparency and multi- cultural inclusion is being a “parasite” I am guilty.

The reality of the my point was and still remains that, 1) the process didn’t include all tourism stakeholders; 2) the entire process gave the appearance of wrongdoing; 3) there is a lack of a comprehensive tourism strategy, and; 4) any strategy should include a multi-cultural tourism plan that provides marketing a diversity of tourism attractions, events, businesses and entertainment.

However, his entire interview supports exactly what I spoke about.

He now wants: 1) tourism stakeholders coming together; 2) admits the process was flawed (but was not wrongdoing; 3) we don’t have a comprehensive tourism strategy; 4) we need all stakeholders to come together to develop a comprehensive plan in order to gain support.
However, I think Allison and I have done a great “public service” because now these issues are being openly discussed and now there is a discussion about inclusion of more “stakeholders.”

Another issue that is now quite clear is that until our emails were made public none of Grover’s discussions and/or “plans” were public nor included ALL stakeholders input. However, his interview clearly states that he has been involved in and diligently planning “tourism initiatives” for quite some time and that he has been trying to “orchestrate” the direction of BP funds bound for Escambia county tourism initiatives.
However, as far as Grover’s commitment to “multi-cultural” tourism initiatives still remain to be demonstrated. He remarks that Allison and I were part of organizations that want to receive or have received tourism funding.

The fact is that in 2010 the Gulf Coast African American Chamber of Commerce (“GCAACC”) made an application to develop an African-American Heritage Tourism Guide to be funded with the TDC’s marketing dollars to attract more African-American visitors to Pensacola and Grover voted against such application.

Additionally, the GCAACC requested “Outside Agency Funding” from the County in the FY 2011 budget of $40,000 (same as the previous year) and Grover voted against such funding, stating, “there wasn’t a need for an African American Chamber of Commerce, and that we should partner with the Bay Area Chamber.”

The day of the final budget vote, Grover met with Oliver Darden and me where we reminded him of his statement at a previous budget meeting where he stated, “if we would develop a strategic partnership with the Bay Area Chamber he would reconsider reinstating the funding requested.” We reported to him that we had established this “strategic partnership” with the Bay Area Chamber and requested that he kept his “word.” However, two hours later, Grover then voted to deny this funding. Although, in the same meeting he voted to fund the Animal Shelter $32,500 and St. Michael’s Cemetery $25,000, at which I stated, “the BCC had made animals and dead people a higher priority than taxpaying minority businesses.”

Clearly, Grover’s personal “damage control” interviews and public statements clearly show that he recognizes that the issues of “transparency” raised by me were valid and also that we don’t have a comprehensive tourism “plan.” I only hope that he is as forthcoming and assertive about FULL inclusion of ALL tourism stakeholders in these “new” plans and “new” tourism organization.

I am fully willing to and fully expect to sit down with Grover and talk about building “bridges for tourism stakeholder inclusion” based upon the common objectives of ALL instead of creating racial and cultural division … united we stand, divided we fall (or more appropriately we FAIL)!

Sincerely,
George Hawthorne
George Hawthorne, Chairman
Gulf Coast African-American Chamber of Commerce