Guest column: City needs a return on public spending on Chamber, ORCVB

By Leslie Agron and Pat Fain

This coming Monday evening, the Oak Ridge City Council and the city manager will hold a work session that has the potential to become the seminal discussion on the future growth and success of Oak Ridge. This discussion will probably begin with the question of the city contracts with the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce ($250,000) and the Oak Ridge Convention and Visitors Bureau ($400,000) and, unfortunately, it may just end there. If this happens it could be another significant opportunity fumbled.

There are very legitimate reasons to question the continued expenditure of public dollars for the type and quality of results delivered by these two entities. The need for growth of revenue is real. Several years ago, without even a minimal public discussion of what kind of city we want to be in the future, the city and the Chamber entered into a series of open-ended contracts. That produced amorphous and inadequate results. The Chamber can well blame a lack of direction and vision on the city. The city can point to lots of sound and fury and fast food restaurants as being an inadequate answer to long-term financial woes and economic growth needs.

The fault was in the lack of specific expectations or a unified vision of the end goal. Without this, the people and the City had no reliability on what the deliverable was to be and no method of measuring any product received. The people can reasonably ask what they were getting for the $2 million or so that have gone into these contracts in the past eight or more years. Accountability for return on the investment of the city was not apparent. If we spent $250,000 a year, we should expect a traceable return in the form of tax revenue. Without this, the people are justified in their belief that the money was wasted.

As for the CVB, again we had a contract without specific deliverables and not reflective of a unified city vision. This allowed a small special-interest group to take control of the message of the city with no accountability or notice to the people. So what did we get for $400,000 a year? We got the magazine ads featuring, in dull green and sepia, the glories of bombing people into oblivion and a video on the city website extolling the virtues of the city while advertising parks an hour’s drive away. We got no reports on return on investment. The budget shows that for every $400,000 we spent we got back $400,000 in hotel taxes, but no reports of how many of those people had come here for business purposes that had nothing to do with our marketing. We also gained very small amounts of sales taxes. People coming here in response to marketing could only be counted by subtracting out business travel. Any way it is examined, the city seems to have gotten a negative return on this investment.

If we have a unified vision for the city and we base our expense of very limited dollars on this vision, we can hold our contractors accountable for a deliverable that can be measured directly as to its economic value. If we spend $400,000 a year on marketing, then we should expect at least twice that amount in return to the tax base. Anything less is a bad investment.

If we are to get value for our marketing dollar, then we must stop chasing unproductive audiences. We have spent more than eight years chasing the “historic atom bomb story” and are still not producing sufficient revenue to warrant the existence of a marketing effort. It is time to change the Oak Ridge story and to get public input toward a real vision of where our future lies. It is time to market those things that have the potential to bring in tourist (as opposed to business) revenue. Perhaps eight or 10 years of providing nothing to the revenue base is reason enough to put the contract out for bid?

We believe that people looking for fun and recreation for families might be interested in some unique recreational activities available here. The possibilities for further developing people-powered water sports and activities is worth a serious look. Tourist dollars are considered to present a tax rich formula for cities. They contribute to three kinds of taxes and require minimal public services for the revenue produced. The second highest source of revenue for Tennessee is tourism and we are not leveraging that potential. I-75 is the most heavily travelled interstate in the country and there are millions of tourists (yes, millions!) driving right by us bound for Pigeon Forge, Grand Ole Opry or the Florida beaches. Talk about missed opportunity!

Leslie Agron and Pat Fain are Oak Ridge residents.

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Jeff H

Return on Investment? This is from the people who bankrupted ORRE at taxpayer and a lot of private donors’ expense. The Alexander Inn would have been restored by now if ORRE had proper management. Throwing stones in a glass house people!
- Kate Groover
  
  Jeff H – Return on investment from ORRE? Bankrupted ORRE? Taxpayer and Lot of private donors? Throwing stones in a glass house?
  
  First we don’t know who you are, you refuse to post your last name. Secondly, you know nothing about ORRE and/or the Alexander. First of all The Alexander was a project for the organization , not the mission of ORRE. The Alexander might have been revitalized if the people of Oak Ridge had cared enough to make donations for that specific purpose. But they didn’t. Did YOU make a donation?
  
  ORRE worked very hard to raise money for the organization and for the revitalization of the Alexander.. The corporate sector was not interested. The general public were only interested in “talking about” restoring it. They enjoyed going in to stores to “reminisce about days at the Alexander” They were also only interested in having a party every 3 months and paying $10 to go to the party. but they didn’t volunteer to help with the party, Corporations didn’t help sponsor the expense of the party.
  
  In 2 years less than $25K was raised from the “general public for the Alexander Inn including ticket sales to the “Boys Night Out” That money paid for the closing costs, general liability insurance, workers comp on volunteers,, Over $10K of it went to the “Boys Night Out” Party where people had such a great time but coughed up no money. That is right, this party cost $10,000. But that party was what all the “talkers” wanted. This party was arranged by one person with a lot of cleanup done by Howard Harvey, Jessee Williams and Theresa Scott and Heidi O’Donnell. Less than 5 people volunteered for the event.
  
  Howard Harvey worked up there tirelessly, virtually alone, trying to clean the place up. The City made no investment in the Alexander other than giving us a source for electricity which we paid for. There was not grant money for “Bricks and Morter” ORHPA fought the idea of “live work space for artsts” which did have grant money for “Bricks and Morter”. and refused to cooperate in the grant process
  
  ORHPA had been trying for 10 years to “save the Alexander”. They got NOWHERE.
  
  If ORRE had not interceded when it did the Alexander would be a total pile of rubble today as the city most probably would have demolished it. So before you go trying to put the blame on an organization you know nothing about get your facts straight. Because of ORRE the building still stands and with help from Knox Heritage there is now a buyer who will be restoring the building. Did YOU do anything to save it?
  
  The City put $25,000 into ORRE initially over a 16 month period. ORRE is a 501[c][3] as required by the city. This money was used for operations. We did have rent to pay, utilities, marketing costs, liability insurance for events, board insurance, etc. In addition to Event Liability Insurance. Events cost money to put on but noone thinks of this other than the “proper manager.” These expenses came out of operations..Very little of the money from the City was used to pay the Executive Director who worked for more than 50% less than the contractual agreement. In addition she worked the last 18 months for free because she believes in community….and she is NOT a native Oak Ridger.. The organization is NOT bankrupt. They are strapped for money but they are not bankrupt.
  
  They next time you make an accusation check out the facts first. Our books are open to any donor who gave money. We’re on Guidestar…we hide NOTHING>
  
  They have been open to everyone at City Hall and councilpersons have to invited to review them at the leisure. Our organization has experienced a complete audit by a certified CPA with nothing found “out of order”.
  
  We meet all requirements for Federal Grants, audit, D&B rating, etc
  
  The ED’s Phone # is in plain sight on the website http://www.revitalizeoakridge.org – so if you have a questions call her. If you don’t want to speak with her she will give you the number of the President.
  
  Quit listening to the hateful gossip and learn your facts.before you write your next post. We have nothing to hide. NOTHING. We can account for EVERY DOLLAR we have spent in a clear and concise way. Just ask..
  - http://www.facebook.com/kay.williamson.39 Kay Williamson
    
    TELL EM’ KATE!!!
Bill Lawrence

With regard to comments in this concerning the Oak Ridge CVB, the writers of this column are to be congratulated for their insightful view into the CVB, their budget, their marketing activities and more than anything else, their view on the potential return on investment for funding received to operate the CVB.

In light of the fact that City Council will be meeting on February 11th to vote on adding another CVB Board member for a 2-year term, this column and the questions they raise are even more important to the future of the CVB. It’s time for the City Council and the current CVB Board to take a hard look at what’s being spent and what is really being accomplished.

In my view the CVB doesn’t need another Board member; they need a new plan. They need a plan that outlines goals and objectives for the group as a whole, with metrics built in to measure individual CVB staff in their performance against these goals and plan. This is hardly a new concept and known to any and all who run private sector businesses.

I’ve been a resident of Oak Ridge for nearly 7 years and I’ve seen most of the marketing material the writers of the guest column refer to. There’s no doubt or dispute about the key role the city and residents played during World War II however as a marketing theme designed to attract tourism, this is not a sustainable vision today.

In the meantime my hope is that City Council does step forward and look at ways to increase tourism through whatever form or structure that returns the highest economic benefit to our City.