Money Go Round

During a recent City Council meeting, local businessman Mark Henry was elected to the Springdale Advertising & Promotion Commission (A&P) replacing Belinda Cole who resigned the position.

A.C.A. 26-75-605 and Ordinance No. 3293 provides that appointments for these positions will be made by the remaining members of the A&P Commission, subject to approval of the City Council.

Perry Webb submitted a letter to Mayor Doug Sprouse in the capacity of Director of the A&P Commission stating they had unanimously voted to recommend Henry, owner of Catering Unlimited.

The problem isn't with Henry, although he seems to have benefited nicely from the CoC's love of fine dining, but rather the continuing conflicts of interest in Springdale.

The Director of the Advertising and Promotion Commission is in fact the same person as the President and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce (CoC). Why in the world would we need both since the A&P gives taxpayer money to the CoC on an annual basis and the CoC decides who gets what's left of A&P money? Confused yet? If you want to request funding from the A&P, you have to contact the CoC.

This is a similar conflict of interest as our Mayor sitting on the chamber's board of directors while he is directly involved in giving them taxpayer's money.

We have a handful of people with handfuls of taxpayer money, but it all seems to get shuffled to the same pot?