Visitors bureau wants $750,000 to promote Victoria
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LEGAL FEES ON AGENDA
The city council also will consider a request from former City Attorney David Smith to be reimbursed for $58,500 in legal fees.
That's in addition to the $50,000 he has already been reimbursed.
Smith, Mayor Will ...
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LEGAL FEES ON AGENDA
The city council also will consider a request from former City Attorney David Smith to be reimbursed for $58,500 in legal fees.
That's in addition to the $50,000 he has already been reimbursed.
Smith, Mayor Will Armstrong, Police Chief Bruce Ure and police Lt. Ralph Buentello were indicted for allegedly interfering with an investigation and for perjury.
The indictments against Armstrong and Ure were dropped. A district judge later stopped the case against the others, but the district attorney has appealed that decision.
A request for $750,000 to promote Victoria will be considered by the city council Tuesday, but at least one person has concerns about the proposal.
The Convention and Visitors Bureau is seeking the money from the city's hotel-motel tax. It would be used to carry out an aggressive marketing plan designed to bring tourists to Victoria.
Mayor Will Armstrong said he's seen the plan and supports it.
"My thought is we have been missing the boat for a long time," he said. "We need to let people know we're here."
The best thing about the tax money is that it is mostly paid by people from out of Victoria, he said. That means the city would be spending other people's money to promote an undeveloped industry, he said.
Lewis Neitsch, a member of the parks commission, said the motel tax produces a little more than $1 million a year. Besides daily operations at the community center, some of that money has also been used for such things as remodeling the dome and a major upgrade of the bathrooms.
Neitsch said funding the full amount requested by the Convention and Visitors Bureau would leave about $300,000 for operations, small improvements and employees.
"That leaves zero in the bank for other things," Neitsch said, a former council member. "That scares me."
Armstrong said while he is just one of seven votes on the council, he doesn't support funding the full request.
"I'm probably going to compromise a little bit," he said. "But I'm going to be very disappointed if this is funded under the $700,000 level."
Neitsch questioned why the bureau couldn't be funded at a lesser level. Once it shows results and increases income from the bed tax, the city could increase funding to the bureau, he said.
"If we're not careful, the community center won't even have enough funding in the operating budget," he said. "It will have to come out of the city's general fund to keep its doors open."
The city has invested in the community center at various levels before, Armstrong said. A successful marketing plan will mean more motel tax and some of that could be invested in the community center, he said.
"I'm very excited about the program as I've seen it laid out," Armstrong said. "This has been a long time coming."
Comments
thanks. I hope most of the main streets get a fresh paint coat. was it coincidence?!?
high grass violations all over the place. plenty of ppl not working. get them a C.O.V. lawnmower and start pushing. PAYDAY EVERYDAY.
November 3, 2009 at 11:10 p.m.Who are they kidding? The only "tourists" that come to Victoria are residents of Port Lavaca, Cuero, and other surrounding towns that come to shop at the mall or go to the movies because their own town doesn't have much to offer. Other than that, no one would have any reason to come here.
Our mall is seriously lacking in good stores, unless you're strictly looking to buy clothes. They even did away with the food court and we have a few scattered restaurants in it, none of them original. Compared to other malls, ours is very mundane.
And I can't see how you'd advertise Riverside Park. The duck pond would have to be photoshopped to make it look decent because it looks like crap in real life. Everything is worn out and gross--the picnic tables are either carved on or have graffiti, and the scenery isn't even that wonderful. And the restrooms...let's just not even mention those unless you're thinking of shooting a horror movie there. Even the playground is ghetto.
But if the tourists want to get fat, they can be made to feel welcome alright, what with our gazillion fast food joints and restaurants. You'd think all Victorians do is eat. Driving down Navarro is sad...a million places to eat, and nothing to do.
Why do you think the young people in this town leave with diploma in hand and never look back?
So I'd love to see what exactly they'd advertise.
November 1, 2009 at 6:50 p.m.The Mayor sounds like a little kid during Christmas advertising season..."I want that & that & that & that" without thinking about the costs or what the long term effects could be. What exactly does he think he is marketing? The only thing I can think of is the "if you build it they will come" ball fields & the Generals, but they are done for the season.
Fatboy, any tourists who come to Victoria will not be the pedestrian type. They will not care about public transportation or covered bus stops. Victoria doesn't have a decent airport so everyone will be coming by car, hence no need for public trasportation. San Antonio does have a major airport but I seriously doubt many tourists use Via to get around...maybe the trans or shuttles, but not the actual bus lines.
November 1, 2009 at 4:33 p.m.What are we promoting?
October 31, 2009 at 2:28 p.m.hello-hello?
Market this town by:
1. clean city buses, (contact budwieser)
2. building nice covered bus stops,
3. updated street lamp posts/signals,
4. reflective, fresh street markings (arrows, white lines, etc).
Its long over due those covered bus stops. Call this step 1. The image just here will do the work of hundreds for the cost of little free money.
October 31, 2009 at 11:02 a.m.If you want to attract visitors to victoria, spend the 750K expanding the Victoria Educational Gardens and then promote it to area school districts/home schoolers, etc.
Of course, I'm opposed to stealing from one to give to another, but if you're going to do it anyway shouldn't it be worth your while?
October 31, 2009 at 11 a.m.Isn't advertising the job of local businesses?
October 31, 2009 at 10:56 a.m.Funding this proposal at the requested level would not be a sound decision and council should move dilegently and not get caught up in the hype.
Mr. Neitsch makes a very important point. We (collectively the City of Victoria) cannot expend all of the funds available promoting the city and leave insufficient funds available to maintain and improve the venues that are being promoted. I found the excitement and commitment of the new director refreshing but also found the presentation to be unfocused and all over the map. Funds need to be invested with the bureau on a tiered basis with definable and measurable results as part of the plan.
One specific point made was promoting sports tournaments. Based on the issues raised at the last meeting by a very involved sports enthusiast, we are not prepared today to host tournaments at the new sports complex. Based on discussions at earlier meetings regarding Riverside Ball Park, we don't even know who is going to manage the scheduling of these fields. We need to have the basics resolved as to who and how these venues (sports specifically) are going to be managed BEFORE we promote them to outside people. It would be far worse to promote them, have an event scheduled and then we screw it up then it is to wait until everything is resolved as to management, scheduling, etc.
I would propose reducing the budget to somewhere in the $500K range, focus the promotion is areas where we actually have venues/facilities that can handle tourism effectively TODAY and see what results can be obtained. Jumping from a $200K to $750K budget in one step is not prudent nor is it justified in today’s environment. Yes, we need to grow tourism in Victoria but growth happens in increments not all at one time.
October 31, 2009 at 10:54 a.m."the best thing about the tax money is it is mostly paid by people from out of Victoria". Oh really? You don't think that business seeking Victoria as a venue are paying for it? You don't think a business expenses are affected by this? What a BS mindset.
I can list of number of places I won't stay due to excessive hotel tax starting with Corpus, Galveston, New Braunfels, San Marcos, San Antonio, on and on.
October 31, 2009 at 10:42 a.m.Bring visitors here? did I missed something? Can someone please point me towards anything worth visiting in Victoria? I like the city, dont get me wrong, but why would someone come here to visit? Maybe we do need to spend the money to tell people what is available here, maybe we should start telling Victorians what we got here.
October 31, 2009 at 12:59 a.m.It took 6 weeks for our City Council to determine the crosswalk on Stockbauer was unsafe. I'm not sure I have complete confidence that they can accurately determine what is a worthwhile effort in promoting this city
I would like to hear about the proposal though.
Didn't we just get a "Brand"??? I thought this brand was going to bring a small fortune in revenue to the city.
October 30, 2009 at 11:38 p.m.