The Ocean Shores City Council appears likely to continue moving toward outside management assistance in running the Convention Center, despite a committee’s suggestion that it award no funds for the proposed plan.
The council last week earmarked $20,000 from its adopted 2017 budget to be used for the first phase of an agreement with Pinnacle Venue Services of San Antonio, Texas, “to provide services to help the Convention Center bring in more business.” The second phase would be to hire a sales and marketing director for the start of a two-year program as proposed in earlier discussions with the city.
Pinnacle at first gave the city a management proposal of about $1 million for the Convention Center, but the company came back with a revised proposal, and the City Council and Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) considered it along with another assessment proposal with fewer management details from Columbia Hospitality of Seattle. The Pinnacle proposal, however, did not make the list of recommended uses for hotel/motel tax proceeds from the LTAC, which purposefully left it off the list to receive funds in recommendations for the 2017 city budget.
The Council then voted 6-1 to fund the Pinnacle first phase despite the committee’s objections, some voiced openly in previous meetings.
“I think it’s absolutely necessary we get a review of the Convention Center,” said Councilman Gordon Broadbent.
In the wake of the budget debate over Pinnacle, representatives of the company will be back in Ocean Shores next week to meet with officials and civic leaders on the issue. Also, another meeting of the LTAC group has been set for 8 a.m. Friday to discuss the City Council’s budget decisions, and most certainly the funding of the Pinnacle plan.
Mayor Crystal Dingler explained the dilemma at the Nov. 28 City Council meeting, noting that the LTAC decision was largely because there were few funds available this year outside of money to be used for Convention Center operations and debt.
“They were very frustrated. There was not as much money as they felt would be good to have to distribute. They felt their hands were pretty tied,” Dingler said of the LTAC decision not to fund the Pinnacle proposal.
In late August, the LTAC actually approved the Pinnacle plan over the Columbia Hospitality one.
Pinnacle’s plan includes an assessment of the Convention Center as a venue, developing a “sustainable business model” followed by ongoing sales and marketing oversight “on an ongoing basis.”
The venue assessment would cost $20,000, and the oversight portion along with a sale and marketing program would cost $2,500 per month. Future expenses include the direct costs of hiring and employing a director of sales and marketing (recommended at $50,000 a year salary, plus benefits, with 4 percent sales commission).
The proposal also recommends a $35,000 annual promotions budget to support the director’s position, which would be filled through a recruiting and hiring process managed by Pinnacle.
The company has been in business two years, with at least one of the officials having experience in the Northwest and in markets similar in size to Ocean Shores.
The budget move by the City Council would pay for the initial phase of the the Pinnacle plan despite what the LTAC eventually decides to do.
“This is the pivotal year,” said Councilman John Lynn, also an LTAC member. “We’ve got people coming in to look at how can we make (the Convention Center) better, how we can generate more dollars, how can we generate different clientele.”
With a balanced budget that includes paying off the debt on the Convention Center, building up reserves, “next year, we’ll be able to see the results of good planning,” Lynn said in explaining the dilemma.
Finance Director Angela Folkers said she was “excited to hear that the council was on board with the Pinnacle review, because I think that is the key for the Convention Center going forward.”
“If we keep doing the same thing over and over, we’re never going to have different results,” she said.
