With the 2024 Foo Foo Fest six weeks away, I learned County Clerk Pam Childers refused to cut checks for the Foo Foo grants approved by the Tourist Development Council and the Escambia County Commission. Culture organizations were brought to the brink of having to cancel their events. Podcast: Listen here.
TDC chair David Bear explained the dilemma on my radio show:
“One of the issues we have right now that we’re challenged with is the cashflow. It’s funded through tourist development tax. The TDC and the county have allocated appropriated the money through appropriation agreement.”
“And so far, they’ve made the commitments through the grant application and granting process with contracts with each one of those grant recipients. They’ve got an advertising agency doing the creative and placement of the advertising, and they can’t get the money from the county to pay those bills, to get the grant recipients the funds they need to secure their programs. And many of them are starting to get worried that they may not get it in time to secure what they committed and have to cancel their programs…I’ve talked with Stefan Hall at the county office management budget office, and they are trying to get us the funds. They’re working with the clerk’s office, but there seems to just be a roadblock.”
Bear blamed the roadblock on another Childers vendetta. “She’s trying to stop just anything related to the tourism because we asked for an audit. The audit came back and questioned her 3% administrative fee. We asked for a cost analysis to show exactly what she’s using it for. She still won’t give that to us.”
- The next day, Childers released some checks, but we’re hearing that some of the final invoices are still outstanding. Vendors–many of whom are local businesses—are waiting to get paid.
And here is the rub: The nonprofits and vendors are now afraid to speak out because they believe Childers will retaliate against them.
