Privatized Tourism Effort
Wins Key Committee OK
Administration Committee Acts Wednesday
COOPERSTOWN – The county Board of Representatives’ Intergovernmental Affairs Committee this morning unanimously approved a three-year contract with Destination Marketing of Otsego County (DMOC), opening the way to end a months-long debate.
The contract is for three years, while DMOC was seeking an extension to five years. However, county Rep. Len Carson, R-Oneonta, an IGA member, said he would be open to extending it to four years at some point, as it would give the privatized tourism effort more leverage in negotiating advertising contracts.
The IGA chair, Craig Gelbsman, R-Oneonta, was not immediately available for comment.
The measure now goes to the Administration Committee, chaired by county Rep. Ed Frazier, R-Unadilla, which meets at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday. If approved, the measure would go before the whole county board at its August meeting on the 3rd.
Carson said he believes that, following a detailed presentations of goals and accomplishments by DMOC chair Jim Miles and board member Ken Meifert at the county board’s July meeting, there’s a new consensus on moving forward.
DMOC, a non-profit created with the county board’s blessing in 2014 with the mission privatizing tourism promotion, using bed-tax money to put “heads in beds” and increasing subsequent bed-tax revenues, is in the third year of a three-year contract.
Action has been delayed four months after county board Chair Kathy Clark, R-Otego, said she wanted to see more attention paid to tourism attractions outside the Oneonta-to-Cooperstown corridor. Event listings and a wider range of photos added to the web site were among steps taken to meet those concerns.
