Local area Chambers of Commerce are again in the news. This time managing to make the front page of the Sunday edition of the NWA Democrat Gazette.Robert Smith's article credits Springdale resident Anita Davis for raising awareness last year when she accused the chamber leaders of misspending the city's tax dollars on lavish trips, dining and more.
The Democrat Gazette decided to question nearly forty other cities to compare how they spend money on economic development.
Perry Webb, president of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce admits he pats himself on the back for everything in the community because he really doesn't know what business, if any, the chamber actually brought to town.
Webb also defended the practice of awarding exotic trips in exchange for fundraising. Webb changed the chamber's accounting system in 2010 to avoid having their future spending habits become public knowledge under the Freedom of Information Act.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is quoted as saying it is unlawful under Arkansas Constitution Article 12, Section 5, for funds of a “county, city, town or other municipal corporation” to be given to a private, nonprofit entity. It bars public money from being donated to a chamber of commerce, McDaniel said.
If the Attorney General believes it is unlawful to give taxpayer money to the chamber then why do we continue to do so?
UPDATE: Apparently Webb called in all the favors he saved up at the newspaper for running those full page ads about the Chamber's trips to China. We have been ordered to remove the newspaper article that put them in the unfavorable light they deserved. It's okay. Most of the town has already read it and those who didn't, feel free to email me and I'll let you look at the copy we paid for. Or better yet, maybe we'll just start passing out copies in parking lots.
The Democrat Gazette decided to question nearly forty other cities to compare how they spend money on economic development.
Perry Webb, president of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce admits he pats himself on the back for everything in the community because he really doesn't know what business, if any, the chamber actually brought to town.
Webb also defended the practice of awarding exotic trips in exchange for fundraising. Webb changed the chamber's accounting system in 2010 to avoid having their future spending habits become public knowledge under the Freedom of Information Act.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel is quoted as saying it is unlawful under Arkansas Constitution Article 12, Section 5, for funds of a “county, city, town or other municipal corporation” to be given to a private, nonprofit entity. It bars public money from being donated to a chamber of commerce, McDaniel said.
If the Attorney General believes it is unlawful to give taxpayer money to the chamber then why do we continue to do so?
UPDATE: Apparently Webb called in all the favors he saved up at the newspaper for running those full page ads about the Chamber's trips to China. We have been ordered to remove the newspaper article that put them in the unfavorable light they deserved. It's okay. Most of the town has already read it and those who didn't, feel free to email me and I'll let you look at the copy we paid for. Or better yet, maybe we'll just start passing out copies in parking lots.
Looks like the CoC is just one lawsuit away from losing their city contributions. If they want to keep tax dollars going to the largest political lobbying group in the nation then perhaps what Kathy Jaycox suggested is right on: Make a contract with the city to provide economic development services and give the city an accounting of the expenditures and efforts.
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Perry go ahead and pat your self on the back. You've done that for years! Taking credit for what other people have done. The rest of us know what you have done for this community......... NADA.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the quarterly report?If I'm not mistaken it's April and time for the boys to invade DC again. Whoo hoo our tax dollars at work! Mayor will you be toting Perry Chamber cloak again this year? When will it end? Where is our leadership? Oh, I forgot!
ReplyDeleteCheers to Robert Smith! Its nice to see investigating reporting is still alive. We can only hope we see them behind bars in our lifetime.Can you imagine what Springdale could be if we actually had vision without greed! One day my friends, one day!
ReplyDeleteThis is really unbelievable. An outrage. I say everyone email Pandora and post this article on your various internet pages...they can't stop us all.
ReplyDeleteMr Webb,
ReplyDeleteA little too late! Phones have been ringing since Sunday once again. This is not going away.
The only thing you are qualified to do is to cut bait and the sooner Springdale cuts off the cancer the better for all of us!
Jealousy really sucks, doesn't it??????
ReplyDeleteThis just makes the Chamber look like a**holes. They report a small town blog with a whopping TWO followers for distributing a media article?
ReplyDeleteAs usual all of you are throwing out accusations of criminal actions on the part of the Chamber. And as before, we are all still waiting for the prosector to file charges. Hmmmm....I guess it's all just big talk with empty meanings again. But we are talking about Anita Davis here, so what more should we expect. And by the way, none of you are going to hand out papers, because that would mean that you would have to show your faces and if you were going to do that, then the owner of this blog would be identified on here. She may be stupid, but I suppose she's not a complete idiot!
ReplyDeleteWho the heck is Justin McDaniel?
ReplyDeleteGuess that is normal for Pandora - A little of the truth to make something appear true. But as always - making mistakes left and right!!!
Having read the newspaper article myself I see a typo not a mistake as we have had investing our money in a worthless Springdale Chamber of Commerce. The article quoted Attorney General McDaniel saying the contribution by the City to the Chamber with taxpayers money is illegal. The acticle was titled "City Promotions Shaky Investment". If you read it you might have a clue who our attorney general is and that you are indeed worthless. We would be better off buying 100,000,00 in lottery tickets. At least we would stand a 1 in 50,000,000,000 chance of getting a return on our money. Investing with you is the same as cutting a welfare check 12 times a year each and every year.
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