COMMENTARY

MILT THOMAS

The Tourist Development Council (TDC) is a quasi-government board of volunteers who advise the County Commission on tourism related matters. It was established after voters in 1987 approved a tourist development tax and plan. The tax, also known as “the bed tax” would be charged to anyone renting accommodations when visiting Indian River County. The tax collected would then be used to fund marketing efforts aimed at bringing more tourists to the county. This is a statewide program.

In 1988, the County Commission designated the Vero Beach-Indian River County Chamber of Commerce as the official county tourist bureau. Since then, each year the Commission assigns a certain amount of tourist tax revenues to the Chamber for the purpose of marketing tourism. The amount is based on a marketing plan submitted by the Chamber of Commerce and approved by the TDC and Commission. The Chamber is not given any tax money in advance, only after each duty in its plan is carried out and paid for. Then the paid bills are submitted to the Commission and approved if they comply with the previously approved marketing plan. This system has worked successfully and year after year has produced the desired results.

That background is helpful when reading the following:
At the last TDC meeting, after proposed budgets for next fiscal year were discussed, an odd thing happened. Charlie Wilson, who started his own Vero Beach chamber of commerce earlier this year, stood up to announce that the TDC would not have to worry about him asking for funding from them since his chamber’s charter prohibits asking for tax money to fund its efforts.

Okay, good to know, I guess. But why did they need to know it?

In the magician’s trade, it is common to divert the audience’s attention to a hand where they expect something magical to occur, when actually the sleight of hand is carried out by the other hand. So what’s in Charlie’s other hand, so to speak?

Well, let’s look at some history. Wilson came to Vero Beach 15 or so years ago and from the start, he criticized the Chamber’s handling of tourist development. He had previous experience in that area down in St. Lucie County, where his advertising agency handled tourism funding. In 1992 he came under scrutiny regarding his handling of tourism tax money after a county audit suggested he had overcharged or received money for services not rendered (TCPalm.com, “Audit of ad firm released, Wilson & Associates, April 9, 1993). Wilson claimed the charges against him were politically motivated because of his involvement as chairman of the St. Lucie County Taxpayer’s Association.

Fourteen years later, at the March 14, 2007 Indian River County TDC meeting, Commissioner Gary Wheeler presided over his first meeting as chairman and newly appointed TDC member, Jack Berrigan, who was Wheeler’s 2004 election campaign chairman, made a motion to put out RFPs for competitive bids to handle the county’s tourist development advertising. In that same meeting, TDC member Susan Adams said she had been approached by Charlie Wilson, who told her he had been offered a job to oversee the RFP process. (This is in the meeting minutes from that date available on the County website). Wilson stood to deny the allegation and was not interested in that job. The RFP request was denied by the TDC. By the way, newly appointed Jack Berrigan quietly resigned from the TDC a few months later.

It should also be noted that two weeks earlier, Wilson had submitted a draft report to Gary Wheeler suggesting how tourism advertising could be better handled by an agency other than the Chamber of Commerce. Wilson appealed to the County Commission to take tourism advertising in-house but it was rejected.

Wilson continued to criticize the Chamber and its handling of tourism for the entire run of his Indian River Report blog from 2007-2009. In April 2009, Commissioner Wesley Davis submitted Wilson’s name for appointment to the TDC, but he was not selected.

Wilson’s next attempt at blogging, the Wheeler and Wilson blog continued his written assault on the Chamber and suggested “…maybe we can just start a new Chamber of Commerce…”

In May 2013, the Florida State Chamber of Commerce received a request from Wilson asking how to go about opening a new chamber of commerce in Vero Beach. Of course, in January of 2014, he announced that he had formed a new Vero Beach chamber of commerce that, he said, would not compete with the existing Chamber because he would never ask for county funding. He started his chamber by sending out a welcome letter and invoices to Vero Beach businesses. A number of businesses paid the invoice, some admitted, because they thought it came from the established Indian River County Chamber of Commerce.

So, here we are at this week’s TDC meeting where Wilson stood to point out that he would never ask them for money. My only question is where was he pointing with his other hand?