(Atlantic) The Atlantic City Council held a public hearing on the Dissolution of the Community Promotion Commission Wednesday evening.
The Council heard from Chamber Director Bailey Smith who had stated that one of her concerns is what will happen with the tourism website that is in the works if the CPC dissolves. The Council also heard from Alexsis Fleener who said the Commission has evolved over time as far as the goals and priorities, and part of sticking with their mission is not only funding individual requests, but also to promote Atlantic as a whole.
Fleener said all members of the CPC, except for one, were at their latest meeting and the reason why meetings have been cancelled have not been due to lack of quorum or lack of participation. Fleener said she agrees there should be some changes and the CPC did discuss meeting quarterly and then meet in the interim as needed.
City Administrator John Lund said the CPC has to change.
Lund said this is something that needs to start happening or they are going to start getting written up for it. He said it’s not just a CPC thing, he said they will have to do this for other entities like Meals on Wheels, the Y, the Ann Wickman Center, etc., so any entity the CPC would want to fund would have to then go through the City Council.
It was noted that CPC was zeroed out in next year’s budget.
Councilman Pat McCurdy said he feels the Chamber and CADCO are underfunded and if he had a choice he would do away with the CPC and fund them at a higher level.
Background: the Personnel and Finance Committee reviewed the issues on January 27 and recommended the commission’s dissolution. The committee cited issues with attendance and engagement with the Community Promotion Commission. Another issue is a lot of red tape for a body that distributes funds for important, annual community events planned and executed by the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce. The dissolution means the Chamber of Commerce would receive $45,000 under the new L.O.S.T. progress budget, and Produce in the Park will receive $8,500. The remaining funds will be under the City Council’s discretion to allocate annually, depending on need and resource availability.
The Council also held a public hearing on the Dissolution of the Cable Television Commission and there were no public comments.
