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Headline Surfer photo / Palmer Wilson, a member of the Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority is vehemently opposed to his board giving upwards of $40,000 in bed tax monies for the Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce to serve as a satellite office for tourists.NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Newly-elected County Chair Jason Davis said he's surprised the Southeast Volusia Advertising Authority is actually entertaining the idea of paying the local chamber $40,000 to serve as a satellite location when its facility has received more than half a million bucks in taxpayer-supported renovations.
"I really don't see the need for the chamber to be charging the ad authority rent if the taxpayers paid all that money for them to have the facility for almost nothing," Davis said. "It sounds like a waste of money."
The Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce pays the city $1 a year to lease the historic building on Canal Street, which has undergone $574,200 in taxpayer supported CRA and ECHO grants.
At least one member of the ad authority is holding firm against the request. “I cannot understand why the SVAA has to pay the chamber to market their own members businesses (lodging, restaurants, etc.)," ad authority board member Palmer Wilson said. "I also am concerned that this contract pays for space in a building (SEV Chamber Building) that is taxpayer owned and leased to the Chamber for a $1.00 a year including an additional range of benefits. Add to that the fact it was recently remodeled using taxpayer money (ECHO and city), makes this even more troubling.”
While Davis and the council can't directly tell the ad authority members how to vote, they do have the authority to choose who serves on the board.
Samantha Bishop, executive director of the chamber, declined comment when asked about the situation by Headline Surfer.
The ad authority gets several million dollars annually in bed tax monies for tourism-related funding where overnight hotel accommodations are made.
Without the SVAA money and another $10,000 provided by Edgewater City government annually, the chamber would be perilously close to being in the red, if not there altogether. Bishop told the Edgewater City Council late last year that two years ago, the chamber was $60,000 in debt.
County officials are keenly aware from Headline Surfer's reporting over the last several years of the incestuous relationship between the chamber, a private organization, with New Smyrna Beach's city government and CRA, and the ad authority.
That the chamber is financially weak is not the responsibility of the taxpayers, Davis stressed.
The CRA and the SVAA have been plagued by scandal in the last four years with multiple members of the CRA resigning suddenly with no explanation given. The ad authority was taken over by the county two years ago after its director, Nicole Carni was fired.
Carni was a former office holder in the chamber as was Jay Pendergast, who has received financial benefit as the architect of the CRA.
Carni was also involved with the Flagler Merchants Association headed by Adele Alletti and Elaine Stathakis, who runs the Om Bar, allegedly without a salary. The IRS has a $1 million lien against her on file in circuit court. Several present and past members of the SVAA have served on the chamber and have received thousands of dollars from the CRA and with their appointments, have the ability to seek money for their friends.
Robert Lott, the 2008 president of the chamber, and his wife, Michele, former owners of the weekly Observer newspaper filed and received bankruptcy protection from creditors owed more than half a million dollars, including two elderly widows. Even Bert Fish Hospital, struggling to keep itself afloat is tied into the chamber membership.
Among the creditors stiffed of $46,000 by the Lotts were the owners of the Hampton Inn. Mayor Adam Barringer himself was embroiled in a CRA scandal, piggybacking on a grant by a CRA member he appointed.
Headline Surfer has amassed more than 20,000 pages of public records and dozens audio recordings, in addition to its own videos of public meetings, showing an intricate network of chamber members and public officials with ties to taxpayer money under quastionable circumstances.
The 24/7 Internet newspaper is putting together a massive investigative report it believes could lead to criminal indictments.
The SVAA meets 3 p.m. today at the NSB Visitor's Center on S.R. 44
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