A&P approves ad funds for MAD ice rink
Discussions ongoing on reserve/ surplus funds
The Murphy Arts District is one step closer to building a winter wonderland in downtown El Dorado this holiday season after the El Dorado Advertising and Promotion Commission agreed to fund the advertising costs to market an ice rink that would be located in the MAD amphitheater throughout the winter holiday season.
At a specially called meeting last Tuesday, commissioners were eager to provide at least some funding for the ice rink, with commissioner Sanjay Patel immediately moving to transfer funds to make $11,000 available for MAD.
MAD has requested $35,000 from the A&P Commission for advertising and the operation of a full-sized ice skating rink they hope to introduce for the holiday season. Of the $35,000, $15,000 would be for advertising while the remaining $20,000 would go towards operations costs; MAD would fund the bulk of the attraction with an almost $200,000 investment.
With only 15 percent of the commission’s advertising budget spent three-quarters of the way through the year, Patel moved to move $3,000 from the advertising line in the A&P budget to the non-designated line, which already contained $8,000. That motion was unanimously
approved.
“And so now that we have $11,000 in non-designated, I move that we allocate that to the Murphy Arts District ice rink,” Patel said.
Before a vote could be held on that motion, though, another commissioner cut in with a different idea.
“I was about to make a motion that we take the entire $35,000 from our reserve, or surplus – whatever that very large account was called – to fund the request from the Murphy Arts District for the ice rink,” commissioner Barbie Luther said.
The mention of the reserve/surplus fund sparked a debate amongst commissioners, who were still not able to agree on whether the money should be considered a reserve or surplus fund by the end of the meeting.
Patel said he opposes the idea of tapping into the reserve/surplus for the ice rink, as it is a pop-up attraction that will only be available to residents and visitors for approximately six weeks.
“To use $35,000 for a sixweek trial doesn’t make business sense to me,” Patel said. “Just because it’s (the money) there, does that mean we’re going to waste it?”
Luther pointed out that appropriating $35,000 would drop the reserve/ surplus fund to just below $1 million. Commissioner Alan Meadows proposed that the commission set a minimum level the reserve/surplus fund must stay at in order to free up any additional monies above that level.
“This is kind of a twoedged sword. You want to support good ideas, but at the same time, we know what’s going to happen when we support one –which, I’m not saying we shouldn’t – but other groups come in and we just dwindle, dwindle, dwindle and we don’t know that we’ve necessarily saved what we want to have,” Meadows said. “Personally, it’s kind of hard to offer any judgment if we don’t know exactly where we’re trying to cap this.”
Patel said a request as large as MAD’s $35,000 ask should only be funded if it is a long-term or permanent project. He noted that in the past, the A&P Commission has approved large funding requests for the Boys and Girls Club and the El Dorado-Union County Recreation Complex.
Commissioner Judy Ward seconded Patel’s motion to give the $11,000 in the A&P’s non-designated budget line to MAD. Commissioners Meadows, Ward, Patel and Jesse Prado voted yes, approving the $11,000 appropriation.
Luther then moved to take $24,000, the balance between MAD’s ask and what had already been appropriated for them, from the reserve/surplus fund to fill out the remainder of MAD’s request. Commissioner Paul Choate seconded her motion, and he and Luther were the sole yes votes, so the motion was not approved.
“I’d like to move forward that we at least fund the $15,000 that’s requested for the advertising,” Meadows said. “My thought is if we’re going to tap into the reserve, we might as well fund the full amount. I’m in favor of the project – I just, without doing additional research and thinking about the reserve – I’m just hesitant to open that door without the commission pondering it further.”
Patel said collections, which come from a 3 percent hotel and restaurant tax, are about on par with last year and noted that collections typically fall in the last quarter. Meadows moved to fund MAD’s full advertising budget for the ice rink, asking for $4,000 from the reserve/surplus fund to join the $11,000 already appropriated.
Luther, Meadows, Patel and Choate voted yes, securing $15,000 for MAD to pay to market their proposed ice rink. Bob Tarren, chief marketing officer, and Pam Griffin, chief operations officer and president of MAD, said they are grateful for the funding.
“We are appreciative of the money that we received and we’re hopeful that the A&P Commission will continue the conversation to set some guidelines around the usage of the surplus-slash-reserve fund that they have available,” Griffin said.
“We will address the $20,000 in operational requests that was not funded by seeking additional sponsorships,” Tarren said, adding that MAD will approach companies both local and regional for support.
Tarren said there is no hard deadline for reserving the rink at this time, as they are still seeking sponsorship. The A&P Commission will meet again in November to discuss their budget.