Joint Tourism Committee meeting takes some unexpected turns

As committee member and County Planning Director Taryn Logan listens, Va. Tourism Corporation Development Specialist Stephanie Lillard briefs the Joint Tourism Committee on what is and isn’t available through the State organization. Photos by Roger Bianchini. Video by Mark Williams, Royal Examiner.

Following a briefing on tools available for local tourism marketing through the Virginia Tourism Corporation (VTC) by Development Specialist Stephanie Lillard, there was some pointed discussion of exactly what role the Front Royal-Warren County Joint Tourism Committee has going forward in the aftermath of the Town’s sudden and unexpected moves related to its Tourism Department, and what authority the committee has to enact recommendations.

Of a request to present a path forward at the Front Royal Town Council meeting of Monday, March 16, Richard Runyon expressed skepticism.

“Why do we have to present Monday? We have a lot more to do – I’m not presenting on Monday,” the Shenandoah Valley Gold Club manager said.

“Okay, we’re not presenting Monday,” Vibe Properties and Front Royal Brewery co-owner Kerry Barnhart responded to Runyon’s declaration.

Shortly after that exchange Front Royal Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick, who had been observing the 3 p.m. committee meeting along with 23 others, including three County Supervisors,
Walter Mabe, Delores Oates, and Cheryl Cullers left, about an hour and 10 minutes into what would be a two-plus hour meeting breaking up shortly after 5 p.m.

Interim Town Manager Matt Tederick exits meeting early and misses the most pointed discussion of where the community is regarding its tourism marketing (uncertainty, if not chaos), why (him and council) and a path forward (hire Felicia Hart back).

So, unfortunately, the apparent architect of the sudden terminations of key Town staff related to tourism and community development, particularly Community Development Director Felicia Hart and Town Planning Director Jeremy Camp, was not present to hear some suggestions on a path forward, as well as criticism of the terminations and tourism budget freezing he and a town council majority enacted without any previous public discussion.

“One person tore this place apart,” Paul Gabbert began when citizen input was sought by the committee. Why can’t everybody get together, the (town) council, everybody sitting at this table, every business owner in this town … sit down with Mr. Tederick and say ‘Put the damn thing back together the way it was’ because it ran, it worked … Felicia Hart was a professional at her job, she knew what she was doing.”

“I don’t think any of us saw us being in this position in terms of tourism,” Barnhart told her committee of the current flux on the Town side, particularly as to Hart’s absence and the freezing of the Town’s Tourism budget as the next tourist season approaches with the warmer weather and spring on the horizon. Committee members, including Barnhart, have observed how Hart particularly was pivotal in the committee’s work prior to her January 29 termination, along with four other Town employees.

Kerry Barnhart, center, led much of the discussion on options to fill the void in community tourism marketing.

As the meeting agenda moved to the above-referenced public input, another citizen present pointed toward a short-term solution that would restore some of the previous order to the direction forward for the remaining three-and-a-half months of the fiscal year ending June 30.

“Have this group oversee an individual till July 1st, which is the (currently) budgeted year that the Town has already approved the money for – I know a person who is willing to come in and fill that position as an executive director working for this group till July 1 for the same price she was paid by the Town up until she was terminated on January 29th, and that is Felicia Hart,” local attorney and Virginia Beer Museum proprietor David Downes said.

Downes told the committee he had spoken to Hart, gotten her “blessing” to broach the idea, had office space for her, and perhaps most surprisingly, added he had spoken to Tederick about it, whom he said had not expressed outright opposition to the notion.

Downes later explained to this reporter that in classic Hunter S. Thompson fashion, he had encountered Tederick in the Warren County Government Center Men’s Room prior to the meeting’s convening, much as Thompson had secured a long-sought interview with Richard Nixon on the 1968 presidential campaign trail as recounted in Thompson’s book “Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail”.

David Downes chats with VTC Development Specialist following Wednesday afternoon’s meeting, as Paul Gabbert duplicates Lillard’s hand movements in background discussion.

Downes noted that it would take the approval of the Town and County to facilitate the plan, adding, “I have all the confidence in the world that this group could oversee her … it gives us some breathing room to figure out what we’re going to do. This is a serious issue that affects all of this community.”

“I love Felicia … she did a great job – that would be great if she could come back and help here. There is a void here, a void created by a manager,” Barnhart replied, adding however, “I don’t believe it is in our purview to bring an individual back, noting the complexity of the Memorandum of Agreement of whatever would have to happen.”

It was also noted that while the interim town manager had expressed confidence in the Joint Tourism Advisory Committee’s ability to suggest and oversee a path forward for Tourism promotion following his attendance at its February 27 meeting, the Board does not have control of either the Town or County’s purse strings.

There was a great deal of public interest despite the 3 p.m. starting time of the Joint Town-County Tourism Committee meeting, forcing a move to a larger WCGC room.

Prior to all this excitement as the meeting drew to a close, Virginia Tourism Corporation Development Specialist Lillard told the committee it was not the VTC’s role to recommend what path forward any community should take regarding its Tourism marketing but could offer information on what other communities do.

“Only three operate outside a government structure,” Lillard did note.

And she added that when a community establishes its path as to either governmental, chamber of commerce-driven or outsourced to the private sector control of its tourism marketing, the VTC was there to help through information dissemination and grant awards.

See the Joint Tourism Advisory Committee meeting discussion, Lillard’s presentation, Councilwoman Letasha Thompson’s request for additional information on how the March 16 request for a committee presentation to the town council came about – “Mr. Tederick asked” – and the public-committee exchanges as the meeting wore on in this exclusive Royal Examiner video: