Tourism Council loses three board members after decision to terminate staff is reversed

There just seems to be no breaks from controversy for members of the Presque Isle County Tourism Council with nearly half of the board resigning following a March 5 regular meeting. Three members, including chairman Tom Sobeck, decided to step down from their voluntary positions. Also resigning were board members Blake Gingrich and John Roby. The decisions followed a change-of-heart vote of the seven-member board to retain the services of the Tourism Council?s two member staff, which includes executive director Kammie Dennis and events coordinator Mark Schuler, both paid positions with the organization.

MEMBERS OF the Tourism Council board convened for the special meeting at the Presque Isle District Library in Rogers City, specifically to discuss the possible termination of the staff. According to one outgoing member, comments from the Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners, as well as the community, brought the board to a boiling point. During the regular meeting, which took place at the Tourism Council office later that night, after the special meeting, a motion was made by Gingrich, and seconded by Roby, to terminate the relationship with Dennis and Schuler. The vote passed by a vote of 5-2. The board listened to input from the embattled staff, before changing their vote. Before the meeting closed, the chairman called for a reaffirming of the vote, so that everyone?s conscience was clear. This time it came back, 3-4, giving Dennis and Schuler a reprieve.

In the wake of the second vote, the board found itself with two less members, who walked out as a result. Within the next day, another board member dropped from the ranks, as Sobeck emailed his resignation. ?As the events of the past few months continued to unfold, I had endorsed an effort to move the Tourism Council in a direction that would provide me with confidence in its ability to fulfill its stated mission,? said Sobeck in a statement to The Advance. ?The failure of that effort prompted me to resign from the board.? Sobeck said, ?I believe it to be a disservice to the remaining board members to continue to serve while not having confidence in the direction that the majority has chosen.? Roby said, ?We did not think the direction of the Tourism Council was in the best interest of the people of Presque Isle County.?

Roby added the situation with the finances of the Tourism Council played a ?huge part? in his decision to remove the staff. The Rogers City Police Dept. is in the early stages of an investigation, which began in early February, to look into the possible misuse of Tourism Council finances, a department spokesman said.

THE TOURISM Council has been operating without funding from the county for several months. The Presque Isle County Board of Commissioners denied a request for a final appropriation in 2006, and has not granted any money in 2007. ?The Tourism Council needed a change of direction,? stated Gin

grich. ?I supported the proposed change and I believed the change was best for the Tourism Council, and the county; however, a majority of the board did not support this change; therefore, I felt the most ethical decision was to resign.?

The Tourism Council has been attempting to regain management control of the Ocqueoc Outdoor Center, but the county board has not made any decision regarding the direction of the camp. They also have been selling advertising for an upcoming tourism brochure. The group maintains a web site at www.presqueislemi.com listing contact information and calendar of events in the county.

A meeting is scheduled March 26 between Tourism Council representatives and the county finance committee, which consists of chairman Allan Bruder and vice chair Stephen Lang. The next regular meeting of the county board is March 30. Dennis declined to comment on the situation when contacted by Presque Isle Newspapers Tuesday.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.