The majority of the three-member Geary County Commission wants a critical analysis done of the master agreement that formed the consolidated Junction City Area Chamber of Commerce.
A letter was distributed to city officials at the joint city – county commission meeting on Monday by Commissioner Larry Hicks which stated that the County will budget for the EDC, CVB and Military Affairs Council, but based on what they have seen their position is not to further delegate the Chamber of Commerce as the administrator for disbursement of those public funds. The letter was written by the county counselor on behalf of the county commission.
There is a 2-1 stance on the commission on this issue, with Florence Whitebread also in support and Ben Bennett opposed.
Whitebread told JC Post, “Well right now we need to get notification that we feel that we need to make some changes. We’re not sure of all the changes, but we needed to get a letter out by July 1, and to start the implementation and the talk about this so that if we come to conclusions on this we can make those by the end of the year and change it.”
The letter said the Commission would prefer these public agencies and the Chamber remain under one roof, with direction from their respective committees as done prior to the consolidated master agreement. It is suggested to redirect the funds away from the Chamber of Commerce and their administration back to the agencies themselves for functionality and operation.
Bennett told JC Post he did not vote for the presentation made at the joint meeting on Monday. ” I am opposed to it, and I’m opposed to the purpose of it, and opposed to why it’s being brought forward in this manner. We did the consolidation in order to bring those four entities together and for them to work together ( EDC, CVB, Military Affairs Council, and Chamber of Commerce).
Bennett noted they worked hard to ensure to cover all the bases they could. “We knew that there would be changes to it, and we did put into it the issue that it needed to be revisited from time, annually actually, and we’ve not done that.”
The letter is also being sent to Mayor Mick McCallister before the July 1 deadline.
The letter states, “The near five year results of consolidation have yielded too much indecision and inconsistency that has not generated the type of job creation, revenue, and sales tax enhancement worthy of the County’s nearly two million dollars of public funds expended. Under the CMA the Chamber of Commerce has been considerably strengthened versus their status prior to the agreement, but their rejuvenation has been at the expense of the EDC, which continues to labor and languish in a state of infertility, often getting caught up in the chamber’s bureaucratic process.”
“Both the EDC and the CVB must get back to results oriented practices, each committee should be responsible for the hiring of individual directors and setting policy. The directorso f each agency are responsible for day to day operations, each will share in the lease and equipment costs on amounts agreed upon. Details on payroll can be worked out by each entity. We support and believe in a strong Chamber of Commerce as demonstrated by our consistent funding of nearly five years but do we continue funding public dollars ad infinitum? We are hopeful that a meaningful dialogue can begin in creating a more thoughtful approach in the modification of the CMA that will lead us to the creation of business development in both the city and county.”