Tourism Council funding remains on hold
The Presque Isle County Tourism Council has not received any funding from the county board dating back to late 2006 ? and it does not appear members of the finance committee are anywhere closer to recommending an allocation. While committee chair Stephen Lang would like to see an action plan from the Tourism Council before making a decision, Allan Bruder, who serves as the county board chairman, vowed to not vote for any future funding, so long as Kammie Dennis remains executive director.
?With the stuff she has pulled in the past, and the stuff she has pulled recently, I have no confidence in her at all,? Bruder said during Monday?s committee meeting. ?I will not work with her again.?
The committee grilled Presque Isle County Tourism Council vice chairman Kris Sorgenfrei about the management of the organization and the handling of money by staff. She presented a 2007 projected budget, but the committee wanted to discuss other matters. ?You can sit down at the table and argue with me any time you want, but when money starts going left and right, and north and south, and people are all confused about where it went, it bothers me. It really bothers me,? said Bruder. The Rogers City Police Dept. has been investigating the financial situation with the Tourism Council since early February. Earlier this month, three members recently resigned from the TC board after a 5-2 vote to terminate Dennis and events coordinator Mark Schuler was reversed later in the same meeting. Chairman Tom Sobeck, as well as board members John Roby and Blake Gingrich, stepped down in the wake of the decision.
DURING THE committee meeting Monday, Lang asked Sorgenfrei if the Tourism Council?s debt is due to the poor performance of functions. Sorgenfrei said last year?s truck rally lost between $200 to $500, but the Sportsmen Show made $2,000, even though people were kept away Saturday because of a snowstorm. She added, ?events are not a long term solution.? Lang asked Sorgenfrei if she was aware of the credit card debt. ?I operate for a board and I am telling you I could not open up a credit card without board authorization, or a resolution from a board, because the bank requires it,? said Lang.
BRUDER SAID he would like to see a copy of the resolution. Further troubling to Lang was that he had talked with the treasurer of the Tourism Council and a financial report had not been provided in a long time. ?Did you not know what was going on?? Lang asked Sorgenfrei, sitting a few feet away at the county board meeting room table. ?I had my thoughts,? said Sorgenfrei. ?I guess I did not ask the right questions.? Bruder said an insurance agent had contacted him directly about money owed by the Tourism Council. He added that money is owed to a TV station for advertising last summer, to Onaway Area Community Schools for rent, and to credit card companies. Lang said the current situation stems from ?poor management.? ?It got there from trying to do business as usual, with fewer and fewer amount of dollars,? Sorgenfrei countered. ?That?s how it got there.?
Making matters worse, Sorgenfrei said, is that copycat events were established in other northern Michigan communities. Posen had a spring show for a couple of years, before Alpena started one of their own, forcing the Tourism Council to discontinue the event. The truck rally, which had a one-year run in 2006, will not continue in 2007. Sorgenfrei said the former Tourism Council chair, Tom Sobeck, should have kept the rest of the board abreast of the situation and shoulder some of the responsibility because he had a better handle of the financial situation. Lang blamed the board of directors.
?WHAT DOES the board do about it?? asked Lang. ?What can I tell my people is going to change?? ?So, what you are telling me is we should fire Kammie?? Sorgenfrei answered. ?I am not telling you anything,? said Lang. ?I want you to give me a plan on how you are going to take care of the mismanagement of your operation, so I can give you some money.? Bruder believes Dennis has not been truthful about statements involving the turning in of Ocqueoc Outdoor Center rental fees to the treasurer?s office. He said money and donations were handed into the treasurer?s office in 2004, but not thereafter. ?We did not change anything at all,? said Bruder. ?In 2005, she did not turn any money in. And from what I gathered from you (Sorgenfrei), she told you that we did not want her to turn it in? and that she could spend it anyway she wanted to.? Bruder believed something was not right in December 2005 and asked Sorgenfrei to check into it at that time.
?I TOLD YOU some things were going on,? said Bruder. ?I did not tell exactly what. The answer I got out of you is that you felt that Kammie was so trustful that you didn?t want to do anything about it, and were not going to do anything about it. In 2005 she took checks and put them in her own account to cover her own payroll and she had no business doing that.? Bruder said the figure transferred was $3,250, but according to the 2005 audit, it could be more.
?I would have a hard time voting for money unless there is a very specific plan,? said Lang. When Sorgenfrei told the committee that Dennis is not a financial person, Lang said it was no excuse. ?You give her $30,000 a year, she better know something about finances.? ?I will not vote to give her any money, again, after what she pulled,? said Bruder.
?When you do something dishonest with me, buster, you have crossed my wires and you crossed it for the last time. I think she has done some dishonest things. I don?t know how you are going to get any credibility back. You have everybody mad at you. I think personally, and this is my own personal opinion, it is totally ruined and I don?t know how we are going to get it back.?
REGARDING THE r
At the end of the nearly hour long discussion, Bruder told Sorgenfrei that he does not believe the county is going to do anything regarding allocations to the Tourism Council. ?We really need to straighten some things out,? added Bruder. The Tourism Council had hoped to have the issue come before the entire county board for Friday?s regular meeting, but it has been left off the agenda. ?It would be a very unwelcome meeting,? said Bruder, if Tourism Council officials show up.