ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 14, 1996 TAG: 9607150080
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
Funding cuts at Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau and the recent resignation of its executive director have prompted Mayor David Bowers to ask the city administration to investigate the bureau's "future direction."
Bowers made the request in a letter to Roanoke City Council that will be taken up during the council's regular meeting Monday.
The letter follows the resignation of bureau Executive Director Martha Mackey and cuts in funding from two bureau members, including the city of Salem. Mackey resigned June 21 but has agreed to stay with the bureau until a successor is found.
In a letter to the council, the mayor praised the job Mackey did during her 91/2 years with the agency. During that time, convention room nights more than doubled, and the bureau saw a 407 percent increase in tour group sales, Bowers wrote.
"Why let someone who has been so successful leave?'' Bowers said Friday. "This is a nice lady, and she's done a good job. Why let her go? I just don't understand it."
Citing "rumors and innuendos regarding Martha's unfortunate resignation, and the future direction of the bureau," Bowers asked council to request that City Manager Bob Herbert "investigate the situation" and report back to the council within 60 days.
Herbert is a member of the bureau's board of directors.
City taxpayers will give the bureau $500,000, or 72 percent of its $694,483 budget this budget year. A large part of the city money is earmarked specifically for promoting the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center.
"I'm only asking that our interest be properly supervised," Bowers said. "Given the fact that the city has made a substantial contribution to tourism here in this region, we have to make sure that effort is supervised, that's all."
He said his remarks shouldn't necessarily be construed as a threat to cut funding.
Late last year and continuing into this year, Mackey was the target of criticism from at least two of the board's 25 members as well as some local hoteliers.
In a memo to other board members last November, Salem representative Carey Harveycutter and Herman Turk of the Roanoke Airport Marriott wrote that they had lost "all faith and trust" in Mackey. The memo said Salem was not getting its money's worth out of the bureau and suggested that the bureau was giving preferential treatment to certain lodging businesses.
At Harveycutter's recommendation, Salem later decreased its contribution to the bureau from $25,000 to $5,000. The Marriott cut its contribution from $10,500 to $2,500.
Mackey could not be reached for comment.
LENGTH: Medium: 57 linesby CNB