Florence Tourism Mole Dishes on the Board/Director

 

Rob Carnegie took over the helm at Florence Tourism in late 2015. Since that time, the Canadian has been a lightning rod for controversy. Now another insider has spoken out on Carnegie's job performance. We're presenting this as sent to us, the few typos uncorrected: 


Hired at a salary of $110,000 in September 2015

Moving expenses of almost $10,000

2017 bonus of 7% $7,700

January 2018 8% bonus $8,800

Board quote – Bonus based on his success in identifying and procuring new funding sources.

His contract is up for renewal in August and the only way for him to save money is to not rehire for any of the open positions and contract things out until the next budget year.

August 2018 renewed three-year contract and approved to raise salary to $118,5000

There was no bonus in 2019.

There is no vehicle policy. He may report the personal use of the vehicle on his taxes. There is nothing required by the board. However, the vehicle has a municipal tag and he has unlimited access to the use of the vehicle. Personal use, use when off, out of town for personal business.

Reserves to carry over each year

There was no effort or direction over the last five years to have a specific amount of reserves to carry over each year. From 2019 – 2021 reserves would range from $23,000 to $45,000 going into the new year.

Lodging Tax Revenues

Rob inherited the special event/bass tournament contracts in the 2016 budget. That was one of the largest budgets for special events to date. That is the last year there was a decent increase.

The 2017, 2018 and 2019 budgets had decreases in bass tournaments. Funds were spent on other local events and marketing campaigns.

Other big-ticket items include a Visit Florence AL App for $10,000 per year, Website for $80,000, Digital ad campaign $70,000.

Lodging tax revenue from Airbnb began being received by FLT and the Lauderdale County Commission four years ago.

New Boutique hotels – The GunRunner and Stricklin have also contributed to the collection of lodging tax.

Had it not been for Airbnb, The GunRunner and Stricklin, lodging revenues would have been considerably lower and would have shown a decrease.

A board member was quoted at the time they renewed Rob’s contract in august of 2018 that the reason lodging revenues were stagnant was due to the fact we have not had any new hotels built in the last several years.

FLT does lose a lot of room nights to Colbert County during tournaments. However, no real effort has been made to work with tournament organizations to correct that issue. Other DMO’s that have that problem do have ways to correct this.

Bass Tournaments

After four years of spending less money on bass tournaments, the budget was increased in 2020. COVID hit and many cancelled.

It has been since 2017 since any significant tournament was sponsored by FLT and held at Joe Wheeler State park.

The excuse is that tournament organization picks the location.

Previously, the Director and Sports Manager would spend lots of time cultivating relationships with organizations and work on location negotiations so that Joe Wheeler did have their fair share of tournaments.

2019 Line of Credit

After projecting monthly expenses/income for the entire year, it was determined there were months that have a shortfall. This was due to revenues being much less than originally budgeted.

The Board opened a line credit of $100,000 and quickly obtained the entire amount. The entire amount was paid off at the end of December.

The draws from the Line of Credit began again in January of 2020 and the entire amount was withdrawn with a few months. No payments were made to pay down the line in 2020.

The City or County can request the budget and see what the plan is to pay off the line of credit in 2021.

Building Refinance - $78,000 Annual Savings

The Board refinanced the building in September of 2019. The payments essentially went from $15,000 to $8,477 per month. A savings of $78,000 per year.

Staff Retention

Since 2016 a total of 9 employees have left. Most resigned because there was no effort to offer growth within the organization.

FLT went from 5 full-time to two in one month.

Current full-time staff include the President/CEO and the Director of Operations and Finance. There are two part-time Visitor Experience Specialist that work up front. They are not trained to use the mailing equipment for brochure fulfillment, website edits, adding events to the website or compiling the newsletter.

They have a contract with independent contractors to create social media posts and work sporting events.

COVID

The hospitality industry was devastated by COVID.

There were no reserves and many events cancelled.

Many items were taken out of the budget.

Events and hotel stays did pick back up in the summer.

Colbert County managed to have an increase.

FLT did receive a PPP loan for 75,000 in February 2021

Bottom Line Notes:

Before Rob, FLT always maintained a minimum reserve of $150,000 to $300,000 to carry over to the next year.

As reserves were decreased, the lodging tax revenue also decreased.

The marketing efforts were obviously not working, and nothing was done to change course.

His contract is up for renewal in August and the only way to save money is to not rehire for any of the open positions and contract things out until the next budget year.

There have not been any new revenue sources identified or procured.

Grants totaling over $30,000 were obtained by another staff member proficient in that process.

Rob has repeatedly gone to the City and Lauderdale County Commission to request much needed funding just to help FLT recover from COVID. And been repeatedly denied.

Had there been significant reserves and with the savings of the building refinance, there would have been no need of the line of credit.

There should have been enough money to get through 2020.