Another final detail of the agreement, which was discussed on May 20, was which group would be the financial agent for the tourism department. Griffin told other council members that he “felt that some board members (regulators) wanted the city to play the role”.
Under the 2012 agreement, the Floyd Chamber of Commerce is the fiscal representative responsible for managing the tourism department’s finances, including signing paychecks and formally applying for grants.
Cox said during the restructuring, the agreement was refined to make employment and tax responsibilities related to the tourism department more similar to local government practices. The chamber will continue to have a member in the TDC but will no longer be the fiscal agent as of July 1st.
Patton firmly declined to allow the city to become a finance agent “in the best interests of the city,” adding that the role of Cox may become too thin given her other responsibilities.
Turner suggested taking city and county tax responsibility “every few years,” but Cox said this would complicate things as employee records would also have to be transferred with each trade.
Griffin pointed out that Cox, who would be most affected by the decision, seemed pleased with the idea.
Cox said she was confident she could take on the role of financial agent and Griffin reminded her to bring any problems to the council if they feel overwhelmed so they can “work on a solution.”
:strip_exif(true):strip_icc(true):no_upscale(true):quality(65):fill(FFF)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gmg/ZGHKPDYCHVGOFFEJWEMXFNRLWA.jpg "Might marks first month since pandemic Orange County didn’t must dip into tourism tax reserves"){kind=small}
