19/5/2020

At the May 6 City Council meeting, Councilman Kerry Schwartz corrected a citizen who spoke during the Citizens to be Heard section of the meeting. As the meeting continued, we learned that the citizen was correct, and it was Councilman Schwartz who made the $1m error.

Noted sculptor, Andy Hancock, made a public comment about the city council deducting $1 million in marketing from the Atkins Group. "That is a mistake if we take away all their marketing money. What are we going to do, take out our phones and (go to) Facebook and say, 'Hey, we're open guys!' I think the first thing we need to do is pull money out of the reserve to protect and increase the marketing at this time, and to provide the sanitation that our visitors are going to demand and want to see," commented Hancock.

Councilman Kerry Schwartz responded to Hancock's plea saying, "It was stated that we're cutting the CVB's budget for the Atkins Group by a million dollars. That's not what it says in the agenda. We're not cutting it a million dollars." (25:48)

The City Council reduced the 2020 budget by $2.8 million to compensate for the loss of tax revenue due to the COVID-19 shutdown. Later in the same session under section 5.2 of the Approve Consent Agenda recommended by Ed Caum, a motioned passed within seconds, making what would add up to be a $1 million cut, which Councilman Schwartz did not oppose.

Page 13 on the May 6 agenda states, "The intent of this Amendment is to amend the Original Agreement by Reducing Total Marketing Spend for May through September: Total Marketing Spend ($350,000) This Amendment reduces the overall budget of the contract by $1,000,000. This Agreement is effective as of May 1, 2020." Check out page 14 of the PDF agenda here.