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

Contacted about rumors of additional terminations in the wake of the February 3 budget work session and closed session personnel discussion, Interim Front Royal Town Manager Matt Tederick was emphatic that no new terminations had occurred.

“That is another false rumor. No other reorganization is planned – NONE, it is done,” the interim town manager said with emphasis. He also dispelled notions of plans to close the Town Visitor’s Center out of which the Tourism Department of Director Tim Smith operates.

“There is no plan to shut down the Visitors Center – that is another rumor,” Tederick said.

Confusion on the status of the Visitor’s Center and its largely part-time staff may emanate from Tederick’s FY 2021 budget proposal made public at the Front Royal Town Council Work Session of February 3. 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.

The Front Royal-Warren County Visitors Center is still open for business. Royal Examiner Photos by Roger Bianchini

In a Friday, February 7 phone conversation, Tederick said that Tourism Director Smith had told him he would deal with informing four part-time Visitor’s Center employees of the plan to write them out of the coming FY 2021 Town Budget.

However, beyond the current fiscal year budget that carries the Town Tourism Department and the Visitor’s Center staff through June 30, decisions will be made by the entity or entities contracted to take over those functions from town staff, Tederick said. That includes any decision on employee retention, full or part time, including the current Tourism Director.

In addition to the $234,000 cut eliminating all salaries and benefits in the Tourism Department, Tederick’s budget plan recommends an increase of $201,000 – from $24,000 in the current budget to $225,000 – in “Professional Services” to cover his outsourcing plan. His bottom line despite a $157,000 increase in operational expenses that includes $46,000 to Blighted Building ordinance enforcement and a $4,000 increase to “Downtown Events” believed to be Gazebo film nights, is an approximate $77,000 reduction in tourism-related expenses.

In response to a question from County Supervisor Delores Oates on February 4, Tederick told County officials he did not believe the town government was “agile enough” to properly handle tourism promotion and marketing of the Town of Front Royal. As previously observed, it appears to be a minority opinion the interim town manager shares with perhaps six people on the town council, and few, if any, within the tourism-related local business community.

Mayor Gene Tewalt appears to be the odd man out among town elected officials in expressing any opposition to staff cutbacks and departmental outsourcing plans.

In fact, Mayor Gene Tewalt was aggressively double teamed by Councilmen Jacob Meza and Chris Holloway when he expressed opposition to the outsourcing of tourism at the February 3 work session. Tewalt observed the Town had, had a bad experience with an initial attempt to outsource tourism, also apparently to the chamber of commerce several decades ago. Meza accused the mayor of showboating for the large crowd and Holloway said the mayor was lying when he said he had only heard of Tederick and council’s preferred outsourcing and departmental cuts the previous week.

Asked about the referenced “bad experience” with previous outsourcing of tourism during a break in the February 3 work session, the mayor pointed this reporter toward former Council Clerk Rhonda North, who was part of a crowd of about 50 citizens present to listen, and largely express opposition to the outsourcing/staff termination plan emanating from council and its appointed interim town manager.

North told this reporter that it had been discovered during that first outsourcing experience during her council clerk tenure prior to Jennifer Berry’s 14 years following North’s retirement, that the chamber had over-billed the Town for previously accomplished tasks through several additional budget cycles, apparently moving those payments to cover chamber operational expenses unrelated to Town tourism. Current Chamber officials could not be reached prior to publication for comment on that previous tourism outsourcing experience.

Former Town Council Clerk Rhonda North chats with Councilman Jacob Meza during break in Feb. 3 council work session.

North explained her presence with nearly 50 other interested citizens and business owners at the February 3 council work session as an expression of concern with what she called a “backwards” process in which decisions on budget-related departmental downsizings and staff, including department head, terminations preceded, not only approval of that budget proposal, but even its presentation to the town council.

A Sunday afternoon, February 9, visit to the Front Royal Visitors Center found two of the impacted part-time employees on the job. Gail Criger and Nelle Adkins greeted this nosey reporter with a smile and the enthusiasm about their community that is a front page on Front Royal and Warren County for many visitors, including repeat visitors from near (Northern Virginia) and far (Europe and Canada), they pointed out.

Criger and Adkins were enthusiastic about some upcoming promotional initiatives – more on that later – but unsure if they would have to be passing the torch on those initiatives to others in the near future.

Visitor Center staffers Gail Criger and Nelle Adkins even had a smile for the media Sunday afternoon.

At issue for some initially expressing opposition to the FY 2021 budget plan is so radical a realignment of the town government being recommended by an interim appointee removing what many downtown and tourism-related business owners see as positive and proactively functioning departments and personnel.

One thus-far unanswered question asked at the January 30 citizen meeting with the interim town manager at the Front Royal Brewery was whether the changes thus far enacted or on the table, reflect a careful appraisal of existing Town departmental functions or is an expression of a philosophical belief that less government is the best government and that any plan that reduces the need for municipal revenues paid for by taxes is a good plan.

The radical reorganization and downsizing of town government by a temporary appointee even seems to fly in the face of a past Tederick statement on his view of his role as interim town manager as “setting the table” for his permanent successor to be allowed the choice to implement or not, significant changes in the town government function. Though with the withdrawal of council’s choice to conduct the executive search for a new town manager, it appears council is back to square one on finding the departed Joe Waltz and his interim replacement’s successor.

There were many questions on process and motivation for staff and departmental cutbacks for the interim town manager at the Jan. 30 public meeting at the Front Royal Brewery …

Of course, as Tederick has observed in announcing his budget plan and staff cuts, he works at the will of the town council. So, perhaps it is to council that question on the impetus for the staffing and departmental downsizing should be directed, rather than to the interim town manager.

Thus far, other than the mayor’s expression of opposition to outsourcing town functions, there has only been an aggressive defense of the plan emanating from the town manager’s office, or silence from the town’s elected body officials about that plan.

… but perhaps those questions would be more pertinent for the town council that appears to have rubber stamped the FY 2021 Budget plan.

Town closed session personnel discussion motions may violate FOIA law on ‘subject’ disclosure