by Olivia P. Tucker
Times Reporter
The Indiana State Board of Accounts is requiring the Scott County Visitors Commission to be a department of the Scott County Government.
At a joint meeting on January 26, the Scott County Board of Commissioners and Scott County Council met to discuss the changes that the State Board of Accounts has been pushing to be made.
“As two boards, the Board of Commissioners and the Council determined that this is the year we are going to fix it,” said Commissioner President Mike Jones when talking about making the Visitors Commission under the Scott County Department. Jones also said as of the first day of this year, the Visitors Commission is a county department.
County Attorney Zach Stewart said, “ The State Board of Accounts that audits all governmental entities has specifically required the audit of the visitors commission as part of that by statue, came down and said ‘it is a county department’.”
Stewart said there were only two options: for Scott County to mandate that a 3rd party to maintain operation of what the visitors commission does or to hire employees from the county. He also said that the Visitors Commission has always been a county department but not treated as such.
The budget needs to be decided by the Council and approved, the funds need to go through the auditor’s office said Stewart.
The Visitors Commission receives revenue from a 5% innkeepers tax which comes from visitors staying in the hotels and short-term rentals such as AirBnB. In 2022 the SCVC revenue from the innkeepers tax was $275,428.84.
The main responsibilities of the Visitors’ Commission is advertising and marketing promoting the county for tourism. One example is the “Visit Scott County” billboard on Interstate 65. The SCVC can also fund grants to events and festivals around Scott County. Some of the events that they contribute to include the Old Settlers Festival at Lexington, Leota Country Frolic and Christmas decorations at the Scott County Courthouse.
In October when the Scott County Council looked at budgets, the Visitors Commission requested a budget of $346,783 but the Council ultimately cut the budget to $300,508. The budget plans weren’t released to the Visitors Commission until December.
The biggest cut the council made was the salaries of Mike Chesser, the executive director and Adrian Smallwood, the administrative assistant. Chesser’s salary was cut by 49.7% and Smallwood’s salary was cut by 30%.
Chesser said they had no indication of the budget cuts from the time the proposed budget was presented to when the official budget was approved.
At their joint meeting the Council and Commissioners were unable to discuss the salary due to it not being on the agenda but required job descriptions, said Stewart.
County Council President Lyndi Hughbanks during the meeting confirmed that the council didn’t have the job descriptions and that no actions could be taken on the salaries of Chesser and Smallwood.