City Aldermen cut funds to Chamber

The Clarendon Chamber of Commerce lost its major funding and its executive director last week, but chamber officials say they are still prepared to help host this summer’s July Fourth activities.

During their regular meeting last Tuesday, the Clarendon Board of Aldermen voted unanimously to terminate the city’s tourism services contract with the chamber. That contract provided the chamber with quarterly payments of $5,000 each – a total of
$20,000 a year – from the city’s Motel Bed Tax Fund to promote tourism.

City officials said they had expressed concerns to Chamber Executive Director Judy Burlin about how the organization accounts for the money it receives from the city, and in February the Board of Aldermen gave the chamber 90 days’ notice to change the way did business or risk losing funding. The city also asked for financial records for the last four years.

Burlin took a leave of absence about that same time and then submitted a letter of resignation to the chamber dated May 9, 2011, and sighting her mother’s health and other circumstances as her reasons for leaving.

Chamber President Charlie Smith and chamber board members Britton Hall and Carol Braddock attended Tuesday’s city meeting, where aldermen were presented with four plastic tubs containing receipts and bank statements for the last four years.

Smith said city funds were deposited into a separate account but then moved into the chamber’s general account, which city officials said was improper.

Looking through the receipts, City Secretary Machiel Covey told Braddock, “This is a phenomenal amount of work, but it doesn’t show me clearly where the money went.”
Mayor Larry Hicks also expressed his displeasure with the chamber.

“We’ve had happen just what we asked not to happen,” Hicks said of the boxes of financial records. “We asked that it not be brought to us at the last minute like this. I would like to ask that we discontinue funds until such time that we can sort through this or have it brought to us in a manner it can be understood.”

But Hicks also voiced his support for the chamber and said he thinks the city can come to a new agreement with the organization.

“The City of Clarendon wants to promote tourism, and I believe that the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce is the best vehicle for providing those services,” Hicks said in a statement to the press. “Our hope is that the Clarendon Chamber of Commerce will assess their situation and will return to us with a new proposal to provide promotion of tourism activities.”

Smith later told the Enterprise that the chamber has money available to get it through July Fourth.

“Do not worry,” he said. “We will have the parade and the Old Settlers Reunion and everything.”

Smith also said the chamber will be reassessing how it conducts its business and that it was not ready to take applications to replace Burlin.

In other city business last week, Aldermen approved $3,500 from the Motel Bed Tax Fund to support the Clarendon Outdoor Entertainment Association’s efforts to promote the annual Saints’ Roost Celebration; approved using grant funds to purchase a used trash truck from the City of Canyon for the recycling department; and approved an agreement with City Secretary Machiel Covey agreeing to pay for certification classes and setting salary increases with each new level of certification.