To be or not to be? THAT was the question posed to town council on the future of joint tourism promotional efforts

Front Royal Mayor Lori Cockrell and the town council she chairs may have gotten more than they bargained for after the mayor introduced the “Public Comments” on non-agenda topics section of the regular council meeting on Monday, May 22nd. It was a one-two punch to put up or, if not shut up, to at least inform those involved of the Town’s real intentions moving forward on joint, or not joint, tourism efforts. Those verbal “punches” were delivered by Discover Front Royal (DFR) Chairman Clare Schmitt and Downtown Front Royal (the other DFR’s) board member Ellen Aders.

They came after council had conducted the agenda’s two rather routine public hearings, first approving an ordinance to amend Town Code Chapter 175-137 on Fees, Charges and Expenses to Add the Application Fee of $400 for Processing a Local Board of Building Code Appeals (LBBCA) application; and second, an ordinance to amend a Town Code Chapter (98-2) regarding Business, Professional and Occupational Licensing to add the definitions of “Mobile Food Unit” and “New Business” and related to include additional information to Chapter 98-3 regarding License Requirement to add “Mobile Food Unit” to Chapter 98-61 on Licensing Peddlers and Itinerant Merchants “to incorporate additional legislation enacted by the Code of Virginia § 58.1-3715.1 regarding mobile food units.”

It was perhaps a surprise that no speakers addressed implementation of a $400 fee necessary to challenge any Town Property Maintenance Official’s rulings on derelict or deteriorating properties after council moved toward implementation of the process under discussion for — is it a decade yet? — with the January 2023 establishment of a Local Building Code Board of Appeals. With no speakers at that building code of appeals fee implementation public hearing council may have thought it was going to be a smooth sail through public concerns for the evening. But it wasn’t to be.

After calling for public comments on non-agenda items, Mayor Cockrell may have been thinking, ‘Uh oh, what have I done,’ as first, Clare Schmitt, chairman of Discover Front Royal, below, and Downtown Front Royal member Ellen Aders called out council for mixed messaging on joint tourism efforts involving the town and county governments, and the jointly created Destination Management Organization ‘Discover Front Royal.’

Discover Front Royal Board Chairman Schmitt opened by noting the topic of “tourism agreements with both the County and DFR” (Discover Front Royal) was on council’s closed meeting agenda at the open meeting’s end. The closed session motion cited legal advice by counsel towards “1) proposed agreements for promotion of economic interests and tourism with Discover Front Royal, Inc. and Warren County” as one of three closed session topics, another being the dueling civil litigations launched by the Town several years ago against the County and the still legally named Front Royal-Warren County Economic Development Authority.

Schmitt, recently appointed to succeed Kerry Barnhart at the helm of the independent 501-c6 Destination Management Organization (DMO) Discover Front Royal, jointly created by the Town and County to oversee joint tourism efforts, urged council to come out of that closed session discussion with a clear message to all involved on its intent on the future of tourism promotion in the community.

“I’ve heard many of you publicly say, either from this dais or during the liaison meeting or other venues, that you support a joint tourism effort with the County for our region and that you want to move forward with DFR and with the County.

“And so I guess what I’m asking for you all to do is put your money and your vote where your mouth is and move this forward,” Schmitt added pointedly of the conflicting messages she perceives coming from the Town side of the joint tourism equation. Of that mixed message, Schmitt observed that she had heard that some on council, perhaps a majority, did not want to move forward with the joint tourism effort.

“That’s okay … and you won’t hurt my feelings, and you won’t hurt any of my board members’ feelings if you decide to just do your own thing. But what we would ask, if that is, in fact, what the majority wishes, is to stop wasting time and just move forward and say that — say, ‘We don’t actually want to work with the County, and we don’t want a joint tourism effort, and we don’t want to work with you guys.’ Or maybe even ‘We do want to work with the County, but only the County and we don’t want to work with you, DFR.'”

Schmitt reiterated that such a move wouldn’t be taken personally by her board, noting, “This is volunteer work, and frankly, the last few weeks and months have been pretty thankless, especially since we don’t seem able to get anything done since this doesn’t seem to be a priority,” Schmitt told the town’s elected leadership. She continued to make it clear her and her board’s preference was the joint path forward she again reminded some council members they have publicly supported.

“If you do choose to have separate, individual tourism efforts for the Town and County, I would just ask you to make that decision and explain to the citizens the ‘why’ of your decision and not just continue kicking the can down the road. There is a little bit of an expiration (date) on this — we’re starting a new fiscal year (July 1) … and I think it’s time to make a decision. So, I would just ask you come out of tonight’s meeting and do that,” Schmitt circled back to her opening request for clarity from the town’s elected officials on their intent moving forward on tourism promotion.

Ellen Aders continued the call for decisive messaging one way or the other from the town council on the future of joint tourism promotion in this community.

Downtown Front Royal’s Aders was up next to carry forward Schmitt’s theme, if from a different DFR perspective to the same end of not keeping joint tourism efforts in a political limbo. “And I want to echo everything that Clare just said,” Aders began. “I’ve been at work sessions, I’ve been at council meetings, I’ve talked to some of you on an individual basis. And it seems at every turn you guys are supportive of it — you want to work with DFR, you want to work with the County and get those tourism dollars here to be spent in Front Royal.

“But somewhere along the way, there’s a breakdown, or seems to be a breakdown in communication because we’re three months out from disengagement, and we don’t seem to be any closer to re-engaging,” Aders pointed out of the dissolution of the Town’s Memorandum of Understanding with the County on joint tourism that led to the creation of Discover Front Royal as the point entity for both municipalities on that effort. As we understand, one of Discover Front Royal’s roles as the 501-c6 Destination Management Organization (DMO) in that effort is to apply for state tourism-directed grants the municipalities themselves are ineligible for.

“We get positive feedback from you all and a path forward, and then that gets passed off to staff, and then things just kind of stall. So, I’m not really sure what happens. Either we’ve misunderstood what your intentions are or the communication to your staff is different than what we think (we’ve heard) … But either way, all of us involved seem to be chasing our tails around this a little bit,” Aders said of the lack of forward movement on joint tourism promotion.

Aders pointed to the acquisition of a grant, she did not specify by which DFR, part of which she said had been spent on the still unilaterally run Town Visitors Center, another portion earmarked for phase two of Visitors Center remodeling, and another portion committed to marketing and advertising that Aders said must be spent by the end of the year. — “I wasn’t sure you were aware of that,” she said of the deadline on grant spending.

Aders concluded, again echoing Schmitt: “So, tonight I just would ask you to make a decision, communicate it clearly to our community, the County, to our board, so that we can either move forward with success or terminate the DMO (Destination Management Organization Discover Front Royal) and just move on and quit talking about it,” Aders concluded. Then like Schmitt, she thanked council for the time to make her case for definitive messaging on the future of joint tourism efforts in this community.

Other Business
After a third speaker, former Councilman Scott Lloyd, more playfully addressed the cooped-up chicken limit of six inside town limits, hoping for an expansion to nine or even 12, at least in more open areas of the town limits, council moved through the rest of its agenda.

OK, what else is on the open meeting agenda, council may have been pondering prior to heading into closed session. Following public comments, the open meeting lasted another half-hour, adjourning to closed session just after 8 p.m. Staff indicated the Closed/Executive Session adjourned after 10 p.m., with no action or announcements made.

First up were staff and member reports, then unanimous approval of a five-item Consent Agenda without discussion. Those Consent Agenda items involved three previously discussed departmental purchases, approval of the writing off of bad debts deemed uncollectable in current Fiscal Year-2023, and a current FY-2023 Budget Amendment.

That budget amendment was explained in the agenda packet: “Council is requested to approve a FY23 Budget Amendment in the amount of $480,000 to account for revenues that exceeded FY23 budgeted amounts and to approve a FY23 Budget Transfer in the amount of $248,000 from the General Fund to Street Fund. This proposed FY23 Budget Amendment and Transfer will allocate additional funds for the Town to move forward with a transportation Plan, allocate funds to be used for Criser Road Sidewalk Project and allocate additional funds for Paving Projects.”

With no new business on the agenda, council then convened to the much-discussed Closed/Executive Session at about 8:03 p.m. The third topic of discussion was the filling of vacancies on FREDA, the Town’s unilateral and currently on-hold Front Royal Economic Development Authority, created in the wake of the launching of the hostile civil litigations against the County and FR-WC EDA several years ago. According to town staff, there were no announcements out of the closed session, which, as noted above, was said to have adjourned after 10 p.m.

The full meeting is viewable on the Town Council video link below, with Public Comments beginning at the 22:30 video mark. And in a teaser for a related story, the meeting opened with some recognitions, including of this year’s three Town Scholarship award winners: Benjamin Windt (R-MA), Tyler Burhams (WCHS), and Landon Pond (WCHS).

From left, Benjamin Windt (R-MA), Tyler Burhams (WCHS), and Landon Pond (WCHS) are congratulated by council on their selection for the Town’s three Class of 2023 scholarships.

Click here to see all those acknowledgments at and near the outset of the Town Council video.