Emporia City Commissioners are currently considering how marketing for city activities, events and the like will be handled moving forward, or rather, who will be responsible for handling it.
Historically, Visit Emporia, formerly known as the Emporia Convention and Visitors Bureau, has handled all marketing for community events, with its contract being held by the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce. Following the recent resignation of Visit Emporia Director Lelan Dains, Emporia City Manager Trey Cocking says the city began an “exploratory” discussion on the future of the Visit Emporia contract.
Requests for Proposals were soon sent out to that end. Three entities, Emporia Main Street, the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce and the City of Emporia all submitted proposals, which were recently reviewed by the Transient Guest Tax Advisory Committee, which scored all but the city’s proposal using a rubric that contained various metrics. Despite Main Street receiving a higher score, the TGT Committee ultimately submitted a recommendation for the Visit Emporia contract to remain with the Chamber.
During discussions on the matter as part of the Emporia City Commission’s recent study session Wednesday afternoon, Commissioner Susan Brinkman sought clarification as to why the city’s proposal had not been scored. TGT Committee member Matt Fowler stated the city proposal was eliminated based on a few “keys.”
Brinkman did not find the answer satisfactory, noting she doesn’t feel the commission received a true answer.
Commissioner Tyler Curtis also had an issue with the rubric, noting it did not account for budgets. During an interview with KVOE News, Curtis stated he felt the committee was making a recommendation without all the pieces necessary to do so.
Both the Main Street and Chamber proposals would see those entities singularly oversee operations through Visit Emporia, while the city’s proposal would see a more collaborative approach through all three entities. With that in mind, commissioners raised the question of whether collaboration was a possibility, as there has been a long history of resistance towards such work between Main Street and the Chamber.
KVOE News posed the same question to Chamber President and CEO Jeanine McKenna, who said the Chamber has always “been open to collaboration.”
Main Street Director Casey Woods says they are “open to whatever is effective.”
No decisions have been made on the matter, with commissioners planning to take time to submit additional questions and gain further information into each of the proposals. Further discussions are expected during the commission’s next regular meeting in May.
In separate study matters Wednesday, commissioners:
*Reviewed the application process for Community Development Block Grant funds.
*Discussed special event policies for the city’s recently created Common Consumption Area.
*Awarded over $53,000 to Champions Landing to develop three new disc golf courses and a traditional golf course. The agreement requires the courses to be available to “all Emporians” and ESU and FTHC students for use.
*Appointed commissioners to various boards.
*Reviewed a picture exchange communication (PEC) board project proposal from the Human Rights Commission.
During the commission’s regular action session, commissioners approved the following items:
*Appointed Vice-Mayor Becky Smith and Commissioner Jamie Sauder to the Flint Hills Technical College Board of Trustees.
*Awarded the 2025 Street Rehab project to APAC-Kansas, Shears Division for better than $1.1 million.
*Adopted an ordinance amending the parcel type of property at 1002 Trusler Road from Lyon County Agriculture to Emporia Country Home.
*Approved the purchase of a new rear-load truck from Key Equipment for better than $381,000 for Solid Waste Collections.
