Town Council sends mixed message on Joint Tourism – We’re out of it without discussion with anyone else, but we hope to continue to work together – Huh?

As noted in the related story on the February 27th Front Royal Town Council meeting, one of the two items of contention at that meeting was a 4-2 council majority’s decision, apparently without prior discussion with other involved parties, to terminate the Town-County Joint Tourism Agreement. That agreement, which promoted creation of a 501-C6 Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) “Discover Front Royal” able to access state tourism promotional grants that municipalities cannot directly access, was less than one-year old, dating to April 6, 2022.

And while only two – County Supervisor Delores Oates and Discover Front Royal ex-officio, Vice Chairman Scott Turnmeyer – of 16 Public Comments speakers at Monday’s meeting directly addressed this agenda action item, they were speakers representing, not only themselves, but others directly involved in this community’s approximately three-year effort to cooperatively expand this community’s tourism promotional effectiveness and revenue stream. Both urged council to reconsider its proposed action and not terminate the existing Joint Tourism Agreement.

County Supervisor and long-time municipal cooperation and Joint Tourism advocate Delores Oates faces off with council in opposition to their Joint Tourism Agreement termination proposal. Below, Oates seems to be pleading her case quite emotionally – tho unsuccessfully it turned out. Royal Examiner Photos Roger Bianchini

The tourist-based revenue stream is one of the community’s primary outside sources of revenue with the county’s array of natural attractions. Those attractions include federal parks (Shenandoah National and George Washington) and state (Andy Guest River) park featuring mountain hiking and camping, summer-to-fall seasonal leaf changing season and related downtown festivals, and Shenandoah River canoeing and kayaking.

But citing an approaching March 1st deadline that would continue the agreement into another fiscal year with an ongoing Town budget commitment of $200,000 annually, and the successful creation of the DMO, by a 4-2 vote, Amber Morris and Bruce Rappaport dissenting, the Front Royal Town Council voted to terminate the existing agreement less than two days before that March 1 deadline that would have locked the Town into another fiscal year of the existing Joint Tourism Agreement.

Amber Morris made the motion to terminate the tourism agreement – in order to propel the council discussion forward she explained, then voted against it as part of a 4-2 minority along with Councilman Rappaport.

Morris actually made the motion to terminate the agreement after about 15 seconds of silence following Mayor Cockrell’s call for a motion. However, during discussion prior to the vote Morris said, “So, I didn’t even want to make the motion that we are discussing currently. However, it is 9:30 p.m. and it seemed that we might be here all night if I hadn’t made a motion to have the discussion,” Morris began in explaining her position. She continued to say she “Didn’t think the interests of council were necessarily to terminate the Joint Tourism Agreement.” However, she continued to cite the above variables of deadlines, financial commitments, and unanswered questions. She then deferred to the mayor’s prepared statement on the matter, which she said mirrored her thoughts.

“This action item determines if the Town wishes to continue all of the conditions stated in that MOA (Memorandum Of Agreement) of April 6, 2022,” Mayor Cockrell read in beginning her prepared statement. She continued to cite an ongoing financial responsibility created by that 2022 agreement, expressing a belief that the new council should have the option of deciding what “financial obligations or conditions” the town government would be responsible for in the coming fiscal year running from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

“Two of the major conditions that are part of that MOA center around funding expenditures and the Visitors Center,” Cockrell said, adding, “And if this council decides there are areas of concern in the April 2022 MOA, they can decide to negotiate a new MOA with the County that address this council inputs and concerns.”

Mayor Cockrell, Vice-Mayor Wayne Sealock, among others on council have expressed distress at the weekday closing of the Visitors Center. But County and Joint Tourism officials later pointed out to Royal Examiner that Discover Front Royal did not oversee Visitor Center operations at this point. Rather, it is the Town’s independently contracted consultant JLL hired in the wake of council’s decision during the tenure of Interim Mayor and Town Manager Matt Tederick to remove in-house town governmental oversight of Visitors Center operations in favor of a private-sector consultant from out of the area.

Council navigated its way through a relatively brief agenda, tho not briefly, going 2-1/2 hours before adjourning to a Closed/Executive Session. Below, has the ‘ghost of bad decisions past’ – as in the transfer of Town Visitors Center operations from in-house to an outside private contractor – raised its head recently?

The decision to close the Visitors Center weekdays appears to have been a budgetary decision, one apparently made without notice to the town government or anyone else other than employees being terminated. So, what they wonder does a flawed Town-JLL contractual relationship have to do with the joint efforts of the Town and County in the establishment of the Discover Front Royal DMO and the Joint Tourism efforts continued funding?

That things have turned sour between the Town and JLL appears to be reflected in a March 1 Town press release announcing the Town’s re-assumption of control over Visitor Center operations. That release states in part: “The Town has resumed operational control over the most visible piece of Tourism in our community, the Visitor Center. Located at 414 E. Main Street, the historic former train station is an iconic part of the historic district in Front Royal.” – Well, we might agree the Visitors Center is “the most visible piece of Tourism in our community” if you limit “our community” to inside the town limits, excluding the mountains, rivers, national and state parks lying in the county beyond the town limits – Hey, I thought this was supposed to continue to be a Joint Tourism effort.

Well it sure is pretty, but it’s not a national or state park yet. And remind us why a private contractor was in a position to unilaterally close the community’s Visitor Center during weekdays. Below, a March 1 Town Press Release, from which both these pictures were taken, announced Elizabeth ‘Lizi’ Lewis’s promotion to the Town’s Community Development and Tourism Manager “who will oversee the Visitor Center operations” among other duties. One more reminder, where does jointly created Destination Management Organization ‘Discover Front Royal’ fit into all this?

The release continues to note the promotion of Elizabeth Lewis to the Town’s Community Development and Tourism Manager “who will oversee the Visitor Center operations along with the continued execution of town events, community partnerships, and public arts coordination.”

Councilman Rogers, center speaking, regrets and has apologized for his vote in favor of termination of the Joint Tourism Agreement. Wish he had a time machine – would be interesting to see a 3-3 tie thrown to new Mayor Lori Cockrell for a tiebreaker.

One councilman who voted with the majority now regrets that vote. Questioned later, Councilman Skip Rogers, seated last November after being appointed to fill a council vacancy (Joe McFadden), said he “apologizes” for his vote. And while accepting responsibility for that vote, Rogers says he now believes council was urged toward a too quick decision based on the March 1 deadline without adequate information on all the variables involved in the decision to terminate the Joint Tourism Agreement of April 2022. Rogers said it was just recently presented by involved staff as a pending March 1 deadline committing $200,000 of Town tax revenue to an obsolete agreement format approached. Rogers wonders that if, in fact, the initial agreement’s format is obsolete, why its terms simply couldn’t have been amended to fit the current situation by mutual agreement between the involved players, the Town, County, and maybe even Discover Front Royal.

Click here to watch the Town Council Meeting of February 27, 2023.