CVB SWITCH TO CHAMBER SUGGESTED; ADVISORY PANEL WANTS STUDY DONE

The Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau's advisory commission wants to appoint a committee to study "further involvement" of the Chamber of Commerce in CVB operations.

The mayor and the chamber's executive director said they aren't really sure what the decision means. It followed a lot of discussion.

Commission member Walt Wildman made the original suggestion, with a motion that the CVB write a letter inviting the chamber to "discuss, analyze and evaluate the potential of assuming the management" of the CVB.

"Again?" replied commissioner David Ross.

The Chamber of Commerce held the management contract for the CVB for several years until 1993, when the city took over direct management of the CVB.

An affiliation between the chamber and the CVB is "a natural marriage," Wildman said, suggesting that some type of shared management might be feasible.

"I'm not recommending they do anything except discuss, analyze and evaluate," he said.

Wildman, who attended his final CVB meeting Wednesday, called the decision "a productive, progressive move to bring a very viable organization" into the CVB.

Wildman's term on the CVB board expires this month. He said he was informed Monday that he could no longer serve on the advisory commission because he receives payment from a fund administered by the city for support of the proposed I-66 project.

The money in the fund comes from private donations, and contains no revenue from the city itself.

In making his suggestion now, Wildman said, "I can make a stink and leave the room."

Commissioner Dennis "Doc" Cain said he thought Wildman's motion went too far.

"We need to be discussing this, and I'm not sure we should even be discussing it at this point," Cain said.

When the chamber's contract for the CVB was not renewed, CVB board members, including then-chairman Bob Hoppmann, said they wanted to remove the "middle man" in the CVB's relationship with the city. Hoppmann said in 1993 that the CVB wanted to be closer to the city funding source. The city sets the agency's budget.

Ross said the current setup offers the CVB several advantages.

"I'm not sure that we want to dump that wholesale out," he said.

Mary Miller, director of the CVB, said the agency already "works very well" with the chamber.

And Cain pointed out that city voters -- who will decide a proposed expansion of the city's hotel-motel-restaurant tax in April -- might be a little confused by the suggestion.

The CVB is proposing the tax expansion and other projects have been worked out, Cain said. "But out of the other side of our mouth, we're saying we don't want to be part of the city; we want to be part of the chamber."

When the split was made in 1993, Cain said, "Trust me, this was not a pleasant time."

Wildman amended his original motion to call for the chamber studying "a greater involvement" in the CVB.

Ross and Cain both suggested taking a less formal approach.

Ross suggested informal discussions. "We have committees for taxation. We have committees for everything else," he said.

It was Cain who made the motion to set up a committee to "explore the further involvement" of the chamber in the CVB.

Wildman withdrew his proposal, and Cain's motion passed, with Beverly Estes and Ross voting no.

Wildman, Cain, commission chairman Gary Bunting, Shirley Talley and Randy Kluge voted for establishing the committee.

Mayor Al Spradling III and John Mehner, the chamber's executive director, said they need more information about the decision.

Spradling said the CVB was removed from the chamber's auspices because the city and chamber "had a basic disagreement of the direction and the intention of and the way it was run. We felt we could run it better."

"I don't know what they want," Spradling said, adding he doesn't think the chamber could do a better job of running the CVB than the city is doing.

"This is way over my head," said Mehner, adding any decision will be made by the chamber's executive committee and board of directors. "And I have to have a better grasp of what they're asking for," he said.