The Convention and Visitor’s Bureau will be pulled out of the consolidated Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce at the end of the year.
That decision was made clear during a Chamber board of directors meeting on Wednesday.
Board member Rich Jankovich noted it was apparent with county action that the county wants to terminate the master agreement, and through other discussions it has been solidified that at the end of the year the CVB will no longer be under the chamber umbrella. He added that the Chamber needs to renegotiate with the county and city on the remaining pieces of consolidation. Right now the consolidated agency also includes the Economic Development Commission, Military Affairs Council and the Membership Enhancement Division.
The Chamber Executive Council has been authorized to negotiate with both the city and county on a new master agreement for the entities not impacted by the county removal from the master agreement.
The Chairman of the Chamber Board, Stan Hambright, responded to a question from JCPost about why the CVB is pulling out. “It started out as a financial issues and then we’ve tried to provide information where the Chamber stands on that. Right now that’s what we’ve been working on.”
JCPost.com talked with Junction City Commissioner and Chamber board member, Mick McCallister, about the apparent departure of the CVB from the consolidated organization. He called it a “very big disappointment. What we’ve done over the course of the last several years to try and bring everything together, there’s been some conflicts, there’s been some personality conflicts, we can’t seem to get over that.” McCallister discussed his biggest disappointment. “Every time we head in a direction that we think we need to, both community, county and city, we shoot ourselves in the foot and I look at it that way right now.” We’ve looked at the financials, we’ve looked at everything, it’s still a good idea, consolidation is still good for the community.”
McCallister stated the Chamber has to move in a different direction and take the high road. “I’m disappointed publicly, and I’ve told a lot of people this is not the right thing for this community. Hopefully we can come together and through these negotiations we can come out with a compromise and move forward for both community, city and county.” He indicated the three remaining agencies would remain housed together and the CVB would be split out, “whether it’s in this location or another location there’s still a separation and that’s disappointing.”
The new interim director of the Chamber Mickey Fornaro-Dean feels the departure of the CVB from the Chamber is unfortunate, and indicated that there has been a good partnership. “I still think that the Board and myself need to look at what that means to us and how we go forward as an organization with three divisions as opposed to four. They’re a part of our community and we have to figure out the best way to work with them whether they’re under our umbrella or not.” Fornaro-Dean feels there will probably be some funding impact with the CVB departure from the Chamber, but added she needs to have some time with the Executive Board to fill out that impact.
The CVB is funded by transient guest tax revenues which have been lagging in recent months and that has been a public concern for County officials since they oversee those revenues. The transient guest tax is paid by users of motels and hotels in Geary County.