Facing the backlash

The Grayson Tourism Commission addressed a number of public concerns at their regularly scheduled April meeting last week. A number of those concerns voiced by various members of the Grayson community centered around vendors at the Grayson Sports Park; specifically, how it appeared as though some vendors had been ousted from the sports park and how others appeared to have been given preferential treatment.

Tourism Commission President Daniel White addressed those concerns at the beginning of the meeting, and allowed time for public comments about the issue.

“I’d like to address the Facebook post and do my best to explain it,” White said to those in attendance. “For the past several years tournament hosts have been permitted to bring in vendors to sell small craft items and 3D printed items. And they would also provide onsite screen printing of tournament specific t-shirts. That was the nature of those businesses.”

“In recent months sports park personnel became uncomfortable with some of the vendors,” he continued.

This, he said, was due to the interaction of the vendors in question with children and other individuals at the sports park. He said park personnel had communicated to him over the past several months that they felt this was creating an inappropriate and unsafe environment.

White said that the director of the park, Bert Bayes, on his own initiative identified two of the four vendors he felt were appropriate and through a verbal agreement he negotiated a deal with those two organizations. The deal was that instead of paying the tournament host a percentage of sales, a percentage of those sales instead would go to the sports park.

“That was a verbal agreement between Bert and those two individuals. Grayson Tourism Commission was not aware of that prior to the Facebook post on Thursday. Bert does not have the authority to enter into an agreement without (tourism) approval,” White explained. “He understands that now. Currently there is no agreement in place with any organization at the sports park.”

White said he was confident upon reviewing the two organizations in question that they would not be in direct conflict or competition with any local Grayson business selling the same types of items.

“With all of that said, we have a responsibility to address this as a commission,” White said. “There have been some conversations about this already and there will be more conversations in the future. I think it was regrettable what was posted, because it did not in any way convey what I just explained. Noone can change that post, but the people in this room can tell you what the intent really was.”

In the public comment portion of the meeting Grayson City Council member Dustin Burchett asked the commission for clarification concerning the issue of an inappropriate and unsafe environment. Burchett also said that he felt the entire issue could possibly have been prevented if the issue or concerns had at any time been brought before the council.

“It probably would have been a little easier on everyone if we had known that there were people there you felt uncomfortable with,” Burchett said.

Sports Park Director Bert Bayes answered Burchett’s questions by responding that he felt the inappropriateness was more general rudeness and bad interactions with the public than any more serious safety issues. Burchett said that he felt the Facebook post concerning the vendors would not have “exploded” as it did, and could have been resolved quicker or prevented entirely if a representative from the sports park regularly attended Grayson City Council meetings to keep the city updated on upcoming projects and concerns.

Grayson City Council member Jennifer McGlone was present at the Tourism meeting and agreed with Burchett’s statements and added to them.

“We have invited a representative to every meeting,” McGlone said. “Every single month we ask someone to be there. At least we did for a long time, but no one showed up. My personal problem with that is until last Thursday’s Facebook post a good percentage of them (social media commentors) were blaming the city council.”

McGlone said that she attempted on three different social media groups to tell concerned citizens as clearly as possible that the council had been unaware of the issue.

“This crystalizes my entire problem with this. And why it is important that when there is a million plus dollars going through an entity, that we know something because we (the council) are the ones collecting the money.”

Grayson Chamber of Commerce President Jill York also addressed the commission during the public comments section and said that she was pleased by the comments and the explanation White presented at the beginning of the meeting. York said she thought the issue came down to communication and it could be resolved and prevented in the future with better communication.

“When I first read the Facebook post I did not feel so grand about it,” York said. “And there are a couple of things that might help us in the future. If there were telephone numbers that folks could use to reach out to get answers it would make things a little easier. I believe the sports park website could use some updating,” York added.

“For us as a Chamber, it was hurtful to see what seemed to be a celebration of local dollars going out of not just town, but state,” York said of the recent issue.

York said she had a conversation with Sports Park Director Bert Bayes about how in the future the local businesses could be kept abreast of what might be going on.

“And it very well may be that they (local businesses) might have the wherewithal or ability to do or produce the items that are being sought,” York said. “But since we are all about local, and these local dollars that come from tourism, and a lot of them are coming from these local businesses, if we could just keep this circle of helpfulness going, we need to find ways to do that.”

Tourism Commission President White agreed that there was a communication breakdown that was exacerbated by the initial Facebook post.

“We absolutely, as a tourism commission, support local businesses,” White said. “And for anyone to suggest otherwise, it just isn’t true. We want every restaurant in Grayson to be successful; we want every business on Main Street to be successful. And that’s our goal.”

“But obviously we didn’t get it right,” White said, and stressed the need for better communication in the future.

Kentucky State Senator Robin Webb was also present at the tourism meeting, and offered her insights. Webb’s involvement with tourism goes back for many years, and the senator has also been a keynote speaker at the state level for tourism.

“My concerns go back way before the Facebook post,” Webb told the commission. “I deal with tourism commissions from all over the state. There is a lot of money that goes through now. When we did these laws and established the restaurant tax there wasn’t a lot of money. Now there are fourth and fifth class cities with a lot of money. Notwithstanding your status as a special governing unit, there are still ordinances and still accountability.”

Webb went on to tell the commission that there has to be more information provided to both the elected city officials and the public in general. There is also a need, she said, for that information to be made available to legislators who are responsible for making policy decisions.

“On the state level we are going to start having meetings on this. Stakeholder groups, county entities and city entities because the landscape has changed with the money. And there is not enough guidance for you as a commission,” Webb told the commission and those present at the meeting. “And there are just some concerns. When you are handling tax dollars, there is a lot that goes with it and it’s easy to get in trouble.”

Webb said these concerns implied to her that there should be some oversight on a state level in addition to the local level.

In other business, the tourism commission discussed a potential partnership agreement with Paramount Arts Center, Incorporated. The agreement being discussed concerns a proposed convention style center being established in Grayson, which PAC Incorporated desires tourism to fund. Information from the group presented at the meeting projected nearly a quarter of a million dollars in losses during the first year, but projected sustained growth and profitability in the second and third years. Further discussion is planned on the project, but no decisions have been made at this time.

The Tourism Commission also voted to pass their budget for the upcoming year, which will be presented to the Grayson City Council for approval.

Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com