PHENIX CITY, Ala. — City council continues to claim that “tourism events” like the Kayak World Cup are profitable opportunities for “economic development,” yet the city just requested a measly $6,500 grant four months past its due date to help cover the event’s expenses.
During the regularly-scheduled meeting held on October 4, 2022, the Phenix City Council spent a full five minutes asking staged questions in an attempt to justify their application for the small $6,500 state grant. The money is intended to help fund the Kayak World Cup, which is already underway between the cities of Phenix City, Ala. and Columbus, Ga.
The council’s antics during the meeting appeared to be a scripted charade in a poorly-veiled attempt to justify their monetary need to the public. The charade appears to be part of a series of last-ditch efforts by the city in an attempt to mislead the public and save face for election time, despite the real financial harm their insolvent “tourism” actions continue to cause.
As previously covered by the Muckraker in an exclusive story, an employee of Uptown Columbus, Inc. accidentally leaked that the kayak event was expected to be a monetary loss. Now, the Phenix City Council is begging the state of Alabama to help cover their own costs for the same event.
The move also comes after city manager Wallace Hunter assured residents that the city was financially stable at the last council meeting, accidentally labeling the city’s own financial data as so-called “false information” in a poor attempt to silence our reporting on the city’s decade-long financial decline.
The city has lost an adjusted $23 million from 2013 to 2020; a 26% adjusted loss of every dollar it had.
The council’s decision to spend so much time explaining their last-minute grant application to the public appears to demonstrate a perceived need to justify their actions, as they are likely aware the public already knows how unprofitable the two cities’ “tourism” initiatives have been for more than a decade.
The irreconcilable irony of the city having to apply for a measly $6,500 grant to help fund the kayak event — which they have been bragging about for years — was plainly visible on Mayor Eddie Lowe’s face throughout the council’s staged performance.
It also raises questions as to why the city is just now applying for the grant. According to the Alabama Tourism Event Grant Guidelines, the city’s grant application should have been submitted by no later than June 2022.
The hasty on-the-spot grant application suggests city council may have found themselves in a financial pinch and are now scrambling to cover as much of the event’s financial loss as possible. The grant actually consists of two parts: a $2,600 grant from the State House, and another $3,900 grant from the State Senate. Combined, the grant totals $6,500.
During the economic and planning department’s section of the council meeting on October 4, 2022, Mayor Lowe introduced the city’s intent to apply for the grant. The money is being requested from the Alabama Tourism Department to support “Freestyle Kayak World Cup Competition and Festivities,” as read by Mayor Lowe. Lowe stammered through reading the agenda item, mispronouncing the word “kayak.”
The resolution was then read in full by the city clerk, stating that the requested state money will be used to fund fencing, lighting, and food.
The dedicated funding request for such basic infrastructural requirements for pre-planned “tourism” events that the city had bragged about for years raises obvious questions as to why the city’s “profitable” events are not capable of funding these staples themselves. It also raises questions as to why the city felt the need to spend so much time explaining to the public why it now needs to request additional state funding for the already-occurring event.
After the resolution was read by the city clerk, Mayor Lowe asked for a motion to approve the resolution. Councilman Arthur L. Day, Jr. (District 3) then provided that motion, which was quickly seconded by Councilwoman Vickey Carter Johnson (District 2).
Johnson then provided nearly unintelligible commentary, verbatim, as follows:
“Just a brief comment, um, if I may, Mayor. Um, we’ve got, um, the latter part of this, um, week — uh, is festivities, um, that’s coming, um, it’s gonna make a significant impact, uh, here in our community. If we could get someone just to, uh, elaborate, uh, the reason why we are applying for this um, grant, and also to leverage off of, uh, that, to help us, um, get — you know, to fund this events that’s comin’ up whi-whi-with the, uh, competition that’s goin’ on.”
Raising her left arm in a gesture for a prepared speaker to then be called up, Johnson ended her remarks. Economic Development Director Shaun Culligan then approached the microphone and provided several minutes of insight akin to a board room’s group-think, failing to provide any legitimate insight capable of explaining why the city needed to request the state funding. His commentary appeared to elude the topic altogether, bolstering the city’s erroneous perception of how “successful” their tourism efforts have been:
“For the public to know,” Culligan said, “we’ve advertised this to some degree prior to this (kayak event) so that we get participation from the public, but — we actually applied for, um, this, these, uh, for this event back in 2019. So we were awarded the 2022 ICF World Cup and the 2023 ICF World Championship. Since I was a part of that, we recognize that there’s a lot of people who know what freestyle kayaking is but there’s also a larger portion of people that don’t really know (Johnson, interjecting: “You’re right”) so we wanted to make sure that we were as inclusive as possible and capitalized, uh, the best way possible so that (when) we’re putting on the actual kayaking event, then in conjunction with that we have a week-long, um, uh, combination of activities that happen. Most of them will be towards, be towards next weekend, so, next Saturday’s gonna be the major event — there’s music, and activities, and car shows and lots of stuff goin’ on in and around the competition. This grant in particular focuses specifically on one event, one social that we’re hosting on Wednesday night.”
Culligan then began describing how the city’s economic development department funded and filmed a documentary on how people camp during winter kayak events, though the Muckraker does not quite see how Culligan’s commentary had any relevance to the city’s need for $6k of state money to fund fencing, lighting and food instead of having the “successful” ambitions fund themselves:
“So we’re actually, uh, you guys are aware that we started a documentary last year (Mayor Lowe, interjecting with approval: “Mmm hmm”) um, of somethin’ we call ‘The Wintering Grounds,’ which is this nomadic camp ground where a lot of these kayakers come and live durin’ the wintertime so they can actually kayak in the river through the winter months.”
It should be noted that the “campground” is a small vacant parking lot the size of a suburban backyard that sits behind the old Whitewater Express building in Phenix City. The lot hosts a small handful of RVs and trailers; a far cry from the “profitable” image Culligan sought to project by misleading the public.
Culligan continued:
“And so, we started a documentary and then ‘done a short, about a twenty-two minute short, but we’re actually gonna host all the campers that are stayin’ in our campground, and those are the folks from Ireland and Poland and Great Britain, and all across the United States, Japan, um, is a part of that as well, so it’s a really diverse really cool group of folks that are staying in the campground, that we’re gonna host and show the actual screening of the documentary. So these funds are specifically going towards that component of the overall event. So the overall event budget (for the Kayak World Cup) is much much greater, um, but this specific event (the documentary screening in the parking lot) will be what this grant will be used for. So we’re excited to be able to, um, give it, um, a platform, uh, and we’re thankful to Representative Blackshear (Republican, Ala. District 80) for presenting it to us (Mayor Lowe, interjecting again with approval: “Mmm hmm”) as an opportunity. So we’re also thankful to all the other departments (unintelligible) who will also be presenting as well.”
It should be noted that Alabama State Representative Chris Blackshear is largely responsible for Ala. House Bill 416, which sets the salary and compensation for Phenix City’s mayor and city council.
None of Culligan’s elaborate smoke-and-mirror commentary provided any substance as to why the city now needs to plead for funding for fencing, lighting, and food months after the grant application’s state-dictated due date. No answers were provided on why the city did not responsibly submit the grant on-time and is now instead scrambling to obtain the funding.
Culligan’s remarks danced around the topic by focusing on his department’s unrelated documentary film event, failing to provide answers to the public on why these “successful” tourism events aren’t capable of funding themselves with their own “profits.”.
The quick answer: because they aren’t capable of funding themselves, and continue to become a black hole of a money pit as the sister cities continue their pipe-dream of “economic development through tourism.” Ten years into the endeavor, Phenix City alone has lost $23 million in adjusted net position, as poverty and crime continue to skyrocket throughout the city.
After Culligan concluded his dodging remarks, Councilman Day then asked a leading question to Culligan, specifically requesting he tell the public how the event “places Phenix City on the world stage” in a brazenly scripted and prepared manner akin to vaudeville slapstick showmanship.
Culligan responded with what appeared to be a prepared boiler-plate answer, explaining that the city expects some of the event’s handful of attendees to come back throughout the year, spending money while they visit.
The city’s ten-year financial history proves that has not been the case, as the city’s fiscal deficit of its cognitively-dissonant tourism pipe dream continues to erode its citizens’ tax dollars into the millions per year.
The city also recently increased its sales tax to help cover its losses on the backs of its residents, raising the total tax rate to an astounding 9.75%. Phenix City is now tied for the fifth-highest sales tax jurisdiction in the nation.
Watch the full five-minute clip of the city council’s exchange below, which begins at the 8:45-mark of the video:
Residents of both Phenix City, Ala. and Columbus, Ga. can voice their opinions of their cities’ financially-insolvent “tourism” initiatives by contacting their respective council members through their city’s websites:
Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.
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