County Board Vote Fails

To OK Tourism Contract

By JIM KEVLIN • for www.AllOTSEGO.com

COOPERSTOWN – Destination Marketing of Otsego County (DMOC) found itself in the middle of the political crossfire at today’s county Board of Representatives meeting.

DMOC is led by a board of volunteer directors from the hospitality industry who contracted with the county to invest part of the county’s bed-tax revenues to put “heads in beds” – i.e., tourists in hotels and motels.

The first three-year contract between DMOC and the county board is expiring, the efforts to renew the contract have failed, and did so again today at the county board’s June meeting.  The bipartisan split is another example that county Board Chair Kathy Clark, R-Otego, may be losing control of her majority.

A new five-year contract had been approved by the board’s Intergovernmental Affairs Committee and, unanimously, by the Administration Committee.

Nonetheless, Clark asked for a motion to table the contract for yet another month.   That motion, however, failed to pass.

So a second motion to approve the contract was voted on and, with Clark and her allies voting nay, the vote was nonetheless 6-5 in favor of approval.    However, three reps were absent, and the weighted vote the six votes represented didn’t constitute a majority, so the measure failed.

Voting to ratify the new contract were Republicans Len Carson of Oneonta, David Bliss of Cooperstown/Middlefield, and Keith McCarty of East Springfield, and Democrats Andrew Marietta of Cooperstown/Otsego, Kay Stuligross, Oneonta, and Andrew Stammel, Town of Oneonta.

Voting against it were Republicans Clark, Ed Frazier, Unadilla – even though he had voted in favor of the contract with the Administration Committee he chairs – Meg Kennedy, Hartwick,  and Dan Wilber, Burlington, and one Democrat, Gary Koutnik, Oneonta.

Absent were  Republicans Jim Powers, Craig Gelbsman and Peter Oberacker.

At issue seems to be Clark interest in the DMOC spending more of its resources on the “shoulder season.” DMOC members agree the shoulders needs stiffening, but say that’s a much more expensive proposition than attracting heads to beds in the summer, and they lack the resources to make that happen.