Gonzales council tables tourism director discussion

It will take a bit longer before the city of Gonzales officially begins its search for a new tourism director — possibly until after a new mayor is elected next month.

The Gonzales City Council voted 3-2 at their regular session Thursday, April 14, to table action until a workshop can be held between the council and the Gonzales Chamber of Commerce & Agriculture to “create a more inclusive definition of the tourism developer job.”

This action came despite the urging of all four members of the Gonzales Convention & Visitors Board to “move as quickly as you can on finding the right person — not the first person that applies, but the right person to do the job” so the city can try to capitalize on a growing market for heritage tourism.

Council members Ronda Miller, Sherri Tumlinson Koepp and Joseph “Poochy” Kridler voted in favor of waiting for a workshop, while Mayor Connie L. Kacir and Council member Bobby O’Neal wanted to follow the wishes of the four CVB appointees and begin the search.

Background

In January, council members discussed the possibility of eliminating the tourism director position, which had been vacant, and floated the idea of restructuring the position or having it become part of the Chamber or some other local entity.

Gonzales CVB vice president Andrea Seger asked the council to allow her group time to meet and give the council a formal recommendation about what to do with the position. The council then voted unanimously to “table this item until the next meeting after the Tourism Committee is able to provide a recommendation to City Council.”

The CVB created a steering committee to discuss the position and held several meetings to determine what the position needed to be. The Chamber board also met to discuss whether they had the capacity to take on the tourism position under their umbrella.

At their March meeting, the council heard from City Manager Tim Patek that the Chamber wanted to “wait on the position, if it is going to come to the Chamber, until after the May election for mayor.”

“They would like to wait until the May election and then entertain whether they would like for the tourism person to come to the Chamber,” Patek said.

The CVB then met on March 28 and came up with a recommendation to the council for the job description for a new tourism director.

CVB speaks up

CVB board members Dr. Dawn O’Donnell, Holly Danz, Barbara Crozier and Seger appeared before the council Thursday to voice the need for a tourism director to take the reins as soon as possible.

O’Donnell said tourism in Gonzales had a $27.3 million impact on the local economy in 2021, directly supported 190 jobs locally and generated some $504,000 in local taxes and $1.48 million in state taxes.

Three years ago, Gonzales was one of four cities chosen to have its tourism efforts evaluated and recommendations that came back included creating “a focus on heritage tourism, which is a big deal for us; outdoor recreation; wayfinding signage, which is sorely missing; and interagency communication.”

“We have done some work on some of these goals, but we're finding now that we're starting to fall behind because we do not have a tourism director,” O’Donnell said. “Tourism is a business, and it needs a competent, efficient and compatible tourism director to fill that position.

“The CVB board is a supportive group of volunteers who are interested in promoting and supporting tourism in Gonzales. However, each person on that board has limited time and limited resources to perform all the duties required of a tourism director.”

Crozier, who has been managing the Tour Gonzales Facebook page and placement of advertising for Gonzales tourism on a volunteer basis, said the city has been hurt from not having a full-time “point person” in place who could help tell Gonzales’ “unique story” when it comes to heritage tourism.

“It's not my point to tell you how to do this, who to hire, where to house them, what to make this look like,” Crozier said. “My job is to tell you how many opportunities we are missing daily, because I can't cover all the bases.”

Council divided

After some discussion between Kacir and CVB members about whether the tourism director should be held accountable for bookings at the JB Wells Expo Center, which is partially funded through hotel occupancy tax funds, Miller made her motion to table further discussion until after a workshop could be held because the council had been asked to put it off and the deadline is “just a few short weeks from now.”

“We don't want to be rushed into a decision,” Miller said. “We want to make the best decision. We want to think about it, we want to talk about it, we want to digest it, we want to get more information and we want to carefully consider what's in the best interest of Gonzales as a community.

“You know, this position has kind of been a bone of contention in the community since it started. There's never been an issue since we brought this up in January about having somebody man that position. No one has suggested we not have that position. We're just trying to figure out the best way to move forward and the best job description for that position.”

Crozier asked Miller if the CVB would be allowed to participate in the workshop, to which Miller said no because “we tried that before and it didn’t work.”

“You guys gave us this description now so you’ve done your part, but we need to add the Chamber’s input, we need to add the council’s input,” Miller said. “We’re all very grateful for that, but it needs to be all-inclusive and we need those other opinions and people to be involved as well so that we do represent the whole community and get the best job description out there.”

Crozier said she is worried the decision about what to do for tourism will come down to “personalities” and “I've lived here long enough to know that when you make decisions based on personality, you get nowhere fast.”

“If we ended up in a runoff situation in that mayoral race, it will get kicked down another month and another month,” Crozier said. “I don't mind doing the work, but I do believe that you need to be going ahead and beginning the interview processes and hunting for that person because, Councilman Miller, you are right. You do not need to make a hasty decision on this. You need the right person in this job to do the job that Gonzales deserves. All we're doing is encouraging you to move as quickly as you can get into that process of vetting that personnel.”

Koepp said while she feels like she needs more information in order to be able to move quickly.

“I don't know whether or not we need a director of tourism. Do we need a manager? Do we need a coordinator?” Koepp said. “I agree we need a point person, definitely, but we need more time to get it right. We’ve done this before and it hasn’t been right in a long time for this director of tourism.”

Kacir said she believed the city could “get something posted and start advertising the position” despite not knowing which entity would house the individual, but Miller stated “we don't have a full definition of what we're advertising. And I think that's bad policy and procedure. I think that would be the wrong way to go.”

After Miller, Koepp and Kridler voted to table the matter, O’Neal said he wanted to move forward.

“I think we’ve beaten this thing to death,” O’Neal said. “If we wait until after the mayoral election, like Mrs. Crozier said, if we have a runoff, we’ll be even further into it.”

Kacir said she would vote against the motion “because I am supporting our CVB board.”

“They spent a lot of time on this and we had 1, 2, 3, 4 people show up tonight and they all spoke,” Kacir said. “I think they have a very cohesive plan and I would have liked to have accommodated them tonight.”