City Council Removes All Funding from Chamber of Commerce – Updated
January 21st, 2011 by iPhoneMonticelloLive on Vimeo.
The Monticello City Council Thursday night voted to removed all city funding of the Monticello/Drew County Chamber of Commerce following new Monticello Mayor Allen Maxwell’s recommendation.
Maxwell stated that the city is approaching $1 million that has been paid to the chamber in the 10-12 years since the sales tax began. Chamber director Glenda Nichols, followed by Kathy Pace (former chamber president), explained the importance of city funding of the chamber and the importance of the chamber’s services to the city. The budget approved at the December budget meetings provided $50,000 for the chamber’s services.
The chamber currently has just under 200 members and has remained around that same level for several years in spite of the business climate over recent years.
Ms. Nichols was asked about festival funding and financial results. She was also asked if the chamber had asked Drew County for funding from them. She responded that the county didn’t have a sales tax to provide for economic development. Mayor Maxwell also presented information that he’d collected about surrounding cities and their funding policies with their local chamber offices.
After the 20 minute discussion, the majority of the council accepted the position of Mayor Maxwell that the city had not received acceptable performance from the money paid to the chamber in recent years.
Mayor Maxwell made the motion to “not fund the contracts, and ammend the budget to remove the money for the chamber of commerce from this year’s budget.” The motion received a second and passed with alderpersons Josh McKeiver, Raymond Hubbard, Beverly Hudson, Carolyn Brown, Tim Chase and Claudia Hartness voting to remove the funding; council members Sherrie Gillespie and Al Peer opposed the change.
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Why are City Counsel meetings “not” announced in print several days or weeks ahead of time and why is the agenda not printed so people can see if there is an issue of interest to them?
Note; City Council meetings are held the 3rd Thursday of each month at 6 pm.
Drew County Quorum Court meets the 3rd Monday of each month at 7 pm at the courthouse.
all that can be said about this is WOW…what else lies ahead for this town. the NIghtmare has begun! I thought with Mr. Mckeiver begining there would be a little voice of reason, guess he is already falling into the YES crowd with the mayor and the others! Will someone ever get a vision of what this town can be, and will someone ever get on the council that will fight for what is needed in this town and not be a “Yes sir” person. Thanks Mrs. Gillespie and Mr. Peer for being the most responsible people on items in the past year! Mr. Mckiever, already giving in, would not have expected that! Mrs. Glenda nichols has done a great job over the years, and lets just pray she is able to find a job somewhere now.
I would personally question the funding of the MEDC before that of the chamber. That spec building on 35 East with the weeds growing around it is a sad view.
I thought Mr. Maxwell had it in for the Chamber and only wants to support the MEDC, but I didn’t realize he would completly cut out all funding for the Chamber. The membership is not what anyone would like to see at the Chamber, but you can go back to Economic Development in our area to blame for that. No industry, no new businesses, poor wages, just small mom and pop stores. which can’t afford membership. Our community projects also ask for donations from area businesses but we have so few that the ones we do have are ask to death for donations to community projects as the festival. I guess the Mayor and City Council wants our residents to go to other counties for their festivals and such.
The mayor said the chamber has gotten allmost a million $$ since 1998…actually it’s 700,000. No one asks how much the MEDC has gotten and what have they done for this community except clean up some lots which the city should have been doing anyway. The MEDC gets almost $250,000 each year. What have THEY done for the community. Since 1998, that total for the MEDC @ $250,000 a year equals $2, 750,000. WHAT have they done for this community? The chamber hosts the Christmas parade, the festival, the Santa Train, insurance for small business, and other things that benefit the whole community. The business community here cannot afford a rate increase for dues. Too bad.
Oh, yes, the MEDC does write some grants…the city could hire a grant writer for a lot less than $250,000 a year.
I commend the City Council on this decision.
How could you suspend funding of a Chamber of Commerce for your city? The Chamber of Commerce helps to promote tourism, industry and residency to our city. What are you thinking????? Obviously, YOU ARE NOT!!!
What has MEDC done for Monticello? And, you approve their funding?
In times of economic crises, I would think that a Chamber of Commerce would be of utmost importance to our city’s welfare and survival. Mr. Mayor, you need to think long and hard about this… Seriously…
The MEDC should see their funding cut before the Chamber. $250,000 a year??? Where can I find a copy of the current budget plan? The spec building is a joke. If the city needs someone to go around and pick out junk lots to tear down I’ll do it for free.
Does this mean there will be no more parades, santa train, etc?
Oh Just wondering. I imagine Glenda will try her best to raise the money to continue those projects. She truly cares about this community. But you can only ask for donations so much to sponsor every event. That is why the fireworks at the lake ended. The city council or at least one of them didn’t think it was necessary. I guess they just want it to be all politics and no enjoyment for our community except baseball. There are more things for the community than BASEBALL! There are lots of people who fish at Lake Monticello and there aren’t even any bathrooms out there. I have seen lots of people from other towns and counties out there. I guess they don’t care about that. Just BASEBALL…
Well I guess the new mayor has shown his colors. He will not cut MEDC funding or eliminate it because his friend is going to be in charge of it. It is sad that a city of the size of Monticello has said good riddance to the Chamber of Commerce. In addition, the mayor did not address what other cities do, he just said he had researced them. Good luck Monticello.
Agenda?? Ok, now that we have a schedule, what about printing the agenda so people can see what’s up. I live in this community and am not especially interested in politics, however, if there were issues that affect me, I would express my opinion. Can we get the agenda for city AND county meetings printed ahead of time in the future???
This is the craziest thing I have EVER heard,but I guess we all made our bed,the only thing left to do is lie in it…
I think the mayor and the council messed up by cutting the Chambers funding.The mayor just took away things that the younger pple look forward to every year.If you ask me he should have given them more funding so maybe we could get some jobs to come here,if he he would look around he would see the younger pple in this town have to leave just to get a good job.
SAD MOVE!! Does the County have anything budgeted for the Chamber??? Will the Chamber no longer exist?
Forgot to say — I don’t know what the mayor means by acceptable performance. Personally, I think Glenda Nichols has worked very hard. Couldn’t you have offered some suggestions for improvement before cutting it out completely? I’m having a difficult time imagining Monticello without a Chamber of Commerce. For what improvements are you planning to use the money? I hope we hear some answers from the mayor.
I have been reading all the post made here on Monticello Live. And I really don’t think we are looking at the whole picture! Why are we blaming the new mayor, when he has only been in office for two weeks? Why don’t we take a look at the past mayors and the Chamber of Commerce, what has been done for our city. Where did all the money go that was given to the chamber? The past few years the parades and fairs aren’t even worth wasting time and money, and that is money that most households don’t have to waste! We have lost industries (Burlington, Akin, Spring Lift, and Coca-Cola Bottling, just to name a few) in the past 10+ years, where are the jobs that was to be brought in by the Chamber of Commerce??? What about the spec building that has set vacant for the past 10+ years, wasn’t that to attract businesses? Where are all the new businesses that are to help put the people who are out of work and need a job? Monticello is a college community and they have approximately 350+ graduates every year and when these students graduate where can they find a job? Not in Monticello! They all have to go out of town to find a good paying job! What does that say about our town? What do we have besides the lake and baseball to bring in tourists? I see nothing to entice businesses or tourists to come to Drew County! What has the last two mayors done for our community…oh, the baseball field had improvements…a lot was sold to the library for parking and now we have voted to build a new one, and all of this was just in the past eight years! I think we need to take a step back and let the Mayor Maxwell do his thing and if that means cutting costs by doing away with the Chamber of Commerce, so be it! GOOD LUCK MAYOR MAXWELL, we are behind you all the way!
It’s all for the MEDC, the council made the mistake years ago letting the big guys in town start the MEDC, it has done nothing for the people of monticello, just the mighty few. losing the chamber will be the end of us.
I say that it so disrespectful to discontinue the funding altogether. If there are questions, why not address the problems and allow the Chamber the opportunity to do a corrective plan of action. If the problem is not resolve, then discontinue the funding.
Sometimes, its not what you do, but its the way its done. This is one of those times.
I don’t know about donations, but people pay alot of money to live in towns with opportunities and good jobs They pay higher taxes, and they expect to see a return for that money, and they do see the return. They get to have things in their town. You get what you pay for.
If you don’t want to pay higher taxes, then choose between bathrooms at the park or fireworks. Not much of an incentive
The town needs real jobs and the citizens need to higher their expectations, imo.
This is totally ridiculous! Ms. Glenda has been doing a wonderful job for Monticello for many years. The Chamber’s funding was substatially cut a few years back, causing the elimination of many family fun activities that many, many children of not only the community of Monticello, but those surrounding, yearn to have back. Furthermore, I firmly believe that more information about how the surrounding towns/cities supposedly make a profit on their activities should have been reported at today’s meeting and the Chamber should have been given the opportunity to utilize some of those same ideas.
It seems the mayor is getting all the blame for this. Obviously, it seems that it was his idea to remove the funding but their are elected members that make up the council which actually vote. They didn’t seem to have any trouble voting ‘no’ when the previous mayor wanted to build the new fire station and they thought it was a bad idea. So, why is all the blame being placed on the mayor? The council members are the ones that accepted the motion and voted ‘yes’. I don’t believe the funding should have been removed either. They chose to do the easiest thing, simply remove the funding instead of asking for plan to get the chamber’s results up to the mayor’s and council’s ‘standards. Maybe the money can be used to finally complete the ‘splash pad’!
I agree on getting the agenda published a week or so ahead of the meeting. The council knows that is going to be discussed at the meeting. They don’t just show up and ‘guess’ what to talk about. The council and mayor are Monticello’s elected leaders conducting Monticello’s city business, we have a the right to be informed of the meeting agenda.
Tim sounds like the mayor’s son in law. This was personal, nothing to do with cutting out monies for other projects. If it were about cost cutting it would have been across the board. MEDC could have given up the same amount of monies and operate as previously. This man was a state rep for six years. Tim, list any one thing he ever did for the city of Monticello while the state rep.
Note From MLive: It was a different “Tim”. Joe B.
What has the MEDC done for the city??? Where are the new companies that this organization was going to bring in?? I think the funding was taken from the WRONG place!!
Tim you need to realize most of what you stated is not the Chamber of Commerces place. MEDC is responsible for alot of what you mentioned. they get sales tax money every year too. That SPEC building is their idea, not the Chambers. They ARE Monticello Economic Development. As for the new Mayor, yes we all hoped they’re would be a change and new jobs and industry would be brought in. That is not the Chamber of Commerces sole job to do. Is that not what MEDC and various business owners from the community went to DC every year to talk to the big politicians (Which they could of done here in Arkansas ) and saved all that money they spent going for what? To have a big time on the taxpayers ticket? Where are the results of that? Glenda went once or twice to represent the chamber but after that she stated that the Chamber could not afford to go. People should do research to see exactly what each orginazation is responsible for before stating what the Chamber has not done.
Note: Each business or entity paid their own way to Washington, D.C. Those trips were sponsored by “20 for the Future”, whiich is privately funded.
To the best of my knowledge, the MEDC only paid for the trip for it’s director and assistant; not for everyone that went there, as many comments imply.
Joe B.
Am I the only here that see’s that the Mayor brought up the motion but it was the CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS who voted in favor of the motion? The vote was 6-2…..so let’s say we take out Council Member Chase’s vote (which really shouldn’t matter) the vote would still have passed with a 5-2 vote.
I do think that before the funding was totally cut Ms. Nichols should have been told to develop an operating plan that showed for 2011 exactly how the funding would be spent (and I am a simple mind but the suggestion is not rocket science). After laying out the plan, at the first moment the plan is deviated from at that time the funding should be removed.
Now the thing that REALLY amazes me is that this past election both Mr. Maxwell and Mr. Chase were on the ballot…..both were elected. Did it not occur to ANYONE that there was a high possibility that both would be elected? Where was the concern at that particular time that a father-in-law and son-in-law could end up serving at the same time?
It’s sad to see the citizens of this city/county wants to move forward but yet it is the same citizens that aren’t happy with any efforts in doing so. It’s about time we all GROW UP!!!
I agree with Billiefan. MEDC has done nothing for the city. I think it needs to be looked into just like your own household expenditures. We need to know where the money is being spent and who it is helping, because we don’t have the jobs needed in this town.
It is time that Drew County tighten our belts on everything, and look out for all our brothers and sisters of Drew County, not just the rich!
We moved away from Monticello about 7 years ago and guess what people! There are cities and towns across the country who provide amenities for their citizens, keep the streets and roads in good condition with the right of ways kept clean, mowed and looking good. They don’t have eyesores for people passing through to see and decide the town is going down hill fast. When we visit the area after being away a while, it is always a shock to see what Monticello looks like with fresh eye. Rundown, going nowhere fast, with the MEDC fat cats having nothing to show for all of their funding except a spec building in a vacant industrial park. A while back the MEDC informed the city council and the citizens abreast of their ongoing progress and to this date I have not heard anything from the MEDC or the city council concerning how they spend their funds. It’s obvious that they have been unsuccessful in making the city an attractive place conducive to new industry. There is very little for the young people to do and once they have their education, they have little choice but to go elsewhere to be able to make a living.
How about an audit of the MEDC financial records and show the citizens what they have done with that $250K a year.
Without a chamber of commerce, the City of Monticello has just voted to continue the downhill slide of what could be a great place to live. It’s a crying shame. My sympathies go out to all of the citizens of Monticello.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Note: Each month, the MEDC and Chamber of Commerce present a report to the City Council. Many of there are available on MLive video, and included in City Council reports.
Search MonticelloLive for “MEDC report city council” or “chamber report city council” to view some of these. Some of their reports were not “breaking news”, but they were always presented to the city council.
Didn’t the council unanimcously vote to ask for bids for the services that the Chamber of Commerce offers in October, knowing that they were paid that same amount for last year’s services.
Also, didn’t the council unanimsouly approve the “proposed budget” in December, fully funding the Chamber’s $50,000?
Now 6 of them have changed their mind, just like they did about the FIRE STATION.
Did lightning strike, or was it anmesia?
Everyone looks back on the good old days, but this time there are people still around that remember the good old days, when Monticello was a thriving town. I suggest that the Chamber go back and do what it used to do to make our town pleasant, think of volunteers. Try having the festival in the fall and have it connected with the college, our only attraction, our only thriving industry, and now that the “Weevil” is known pretty well state wide and further, we could have something connected to the college, and the students, teachers,and people would volunteer and it would be successful. I remember when the big parade for the college was downtown and everybody participated. I remember us having things around the square for everyone and the stores stay opened on Saturday night and there were activities for all ages. After the stores closed, everyone went to the movies. I am sure the movies would work with us and give a
special movie and special prices on their eats. We could even have a break and have an auction on things people have donated by their business or individually. At least we would all be working together and being together.
I also remember fondly the gold fish in the pool in the square and the stones were not unattractive. If there was a necessity to dig them up, you could have let the Chamber have them and offer them for sale. I am sure there are people out there that would have bought them and gave the money to the Chamber. They have bricks from the college and Drew Central or the good ones could have been saved for the library as stepping stones. They were real pieces of history that you could touch and the young people did not have to just read about it. Put your thinking caps on and get new activities and volunteers. Of course I am just an older timer that has been around activities and the square for years. It is very hard to run in to anyone around the square, young or old. However, I know the people in Monticello can make a difference.
I listened to the video to this story and found it was interesting that one of the focal points was a unproductive festival. This festival is boring and I don’t know why. I’ve been to it……maybe it’s because people’s wages here are so low, they can’t afford to go spend money there.
I’m a small business owner and not a member of the Chamber….I simply haven’t seen where I can benefit from paying the fee. But that’s not their fault. And even though I’ve not joined the Chamber, it is something I have considered…..whenever I get the next $200 I can do without. Now, I may not have that option.
And even though I am not a member, there have been a few times when Ms. Nichols came to me and invited me to join and another time when she went out of her way to assist a customer of mine. It is nice to have a liaison between and out of town customer and a business. That’s what a Chamber of Commerce does and that’s what they do.
If the mayor had not blindsided the public with this issue, then maybe we could have spoken up for the Chamber.
Well, looks like Monticello is on the downhill slide too nowhere. Thanks too the New Mayor and his council members. Thanks to Mrs. Gillespie and Mr. Peer for voting the way you did.
It is bad when you cut out the funding to this. What about the MEDC? Have they done anything for this town? I think not!! What is that Spec building doin besides havin weeds growin up beside it.
A new Mayor in there i thought it all would change, boy I am WRONG. What about the other funded things that the city funds like boy/girls club? Have yall looked into it?
Well, just like the NEW FIRE STATION, yall voted YES, and then yall overturned yalls vote so, no station is being built.
Now look what yall done cutted the fundin of the chamber. Yes, I am a local Small business owner of Monticello. Looks like the Mayor and Chase is Family. Is that legal too be on council?
Well, looks like to have any fun for festivals, just go to Star City, since they have good ones, and Warren. Mayor I feel sorry for you..
Have you ever thought that the reason new businees stays away from Monticello is the total inability of the Council to ever make a decision without worrying which special interests group is affected? Ten years and no new fire station, which is badly needed, because some old biddies think it will look bad in their neighborhood. How is that new federal housing unit going to look. The mayor can sell the property, but only with sealed bids and no control over what goes there. Remember, there are no zoning laws in Monticello. You can’t stop the housing unit. Businesses come where there is progress, not indecision.
The World is run by those who show up! Have you attended a City Council meeting? Have you called and talked with your City Council Member or Quorum Court member? Did you vote? Do you know the facts or do you just get mad and want the government (local) in this case to fix the problems. Don’t wait on the government to fix the problem because it will only be made worse. If people are this upset about the defunding of the COC then come up with a plan and present it to the people. Democracy works.
Mayor Maxwell continually referenced other towns, but this is not an issue with other towns. Who cares what Warren, Star City, McGehee and Dermott do with their Chambers? WE ARE NOT THEM. And it shows in our economy. Also, this is a squabble over a town festival. REALLY? This should be about Monticello’s economy, not it’s once-a-year entertainment. And, just like Mr. Maxwell said, Monticello has the strongest economy in southeast Arkansas. How, then, can he claim that our Chamber is not doing its job?
Also, I would like to thank Mrs. Lyons for bringing up the percentage issue. It is MUCH easier to have a higher percentage in a lower population. For instance, if you have a population of 2000, and 100 people belong to the Chamber, then you have 5% of your total population in participation. However, if you have a population of 10,000 and have 300 people that belong to the Chamber, if gives you 3% participation. In reality, the larger city has 3 times the number of people in their Chamber (leading to a larger economy).