Clarification

“That quote from the Royal Examiner wasn’t my quote, Mr. Mayor”, said Town Manager Matt Tederick.

There were several references to a passage from Roger Bianchini’s story titled “Tourism, the Visitors Center, staff futures and outsourcing – what does the present and future hold?” during the February 10 meeting of the Front Royal Town Council.

First, Public Speaker Paul Gabbert read a passage from the fourth paragraph of the story attributing it as a quote to support the contention that a decision had been made to outsource the Town’s Tourism Department function to the Chamber of Commerce as part of Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick’s FY 2021 Budget and downsizing proposal.

That passage is: “Tederick noted that he proposes no staff salaries for Tourism in his budget proposal for the coming fiscal year. It is a department he has recommended be outsourced to the private sector, apparently at least initially the local Chamber of Commerce.”

Some, apparently including Tederick, took Gabbert’s reference to be presented by the Royal Examiner as a quote from the interim town manager, leading him to later observe that he had been misquoted in the Royal Examiner story published the previous day.

However, as explained above the quoted sentence is not a quote attributed to Tederick, but rather is the writer’s observation that it seemed the Chamber of Commerce was on the interim town manager’s radar as a possible outsourcing option.

We contacted Tederick Tuesday, February 11, to verify the above quoted passage was what he was referencing in his misquote comment. He agreed it was and said he would appreciate Royal Examiner’s clarification that he had never been quoted saying tourism would be outsourced to the chamber.

This is that clarification.

Tourism, the Visitors Center, staff futures and outsourcing – what does the present and future hold?