That's one way to secure the votes

There I was in an otherwise routine government meeting when I heard a county commissioner say something that really caught my attention.

So much so that I reviewed the video to make sure I had heard it correctly. Then I viewed it again.

Yup, I had it right:

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“You realize this is going to be brought back before the BOCC, and they’re going to overrule this board, and probably half of you are going to quit pissed off.”

That would be County Commission Chairman Holly Davis, chairing the Tourist Development Council.

Davis had a message for fellow TDC members who were thinking of voting against giving Crystal River money for new bathrooms at Hunter Springs Park.

The message: Their vote was meaningless unless it went her way.

Let’s break it down.

First off, I’m not the TDC guru, OK? I haven’t written much about Citrus County tourism though I get the basic concept.

We collect a tourist tax on overnight stays. The tax pays for marketing and other programs specifically designed to bring tourists here for overnight stays. That’s the general idea.

The TDC’s makeup is set by state statute. Interesting that it includes a county commissioner, making it unique among advisory boards closest to the County Commission. There is no county commissioner on the planning commission, for example.

Growth is necessitating a lot of reactionary efforts, and there’s a strong push, particularly in Crystal River, to loosen up some TDC funds to remediate the negative effects of tourism.

Hence, the city wanted TDC to pay for new restrooms at Hunter Springs Park, which is overrun with tourists.

Now. I’m not going to get into whether the TDC should pay for new bathrooms or not. Seems a stretch, but I certainly understand the thinking.

The city brought this $350,000 request to the TDC in December with Davis’ support. Unfortunately, Davis had a time conflict and left before the matter came up. When it did, Crystal River Councilman Ken Frink, a TDC member, couldn’t convince the others, and the city’s request was shot down 5-2.

Frink reacted rather poorly to the vote, firing off emails to the Chronicle, me and the county accusing the TDC of abandoning the city. He asked the county to take on the matter itself.

And it would have been fine if left that way. That was my first thought. This is really a policy issue the County Commission should discuss anyway.

But that didn’t happen. Instead, it returned to the TDC agenda last Wednesday. This time Davis was there, and she made it clear she wanted to leave with a deal for Crystal River.

The discussion was similar to the December meeting. Some board members were concerned about precedent — and they should be, considering the County Commission hasn’t decided to go this route or not.

When Davis started counting votes, it was going down again 4-3 at best, or 5-2 at worst.

That’s when she laid down the gauntlet:

“You realize this is going to be brought back before the BOCC, and they’re going to overrule this board, and probably half of you are going to quit pissed off.”

Wow. It worked well. A few minutes later, a motion for the city to pay 25% of the $350,000, with the county and TDC splitting the rest, passed 6-1.

A few points:

— What a thing for the chairman to say in a public setting. A bad look on numerous counts, the least of which suggests her colleagues are already on board with the idea.

I asked one commissioner: Hey, is this a deal? The answer: Not that I know of.

That said, it probably is something commissioners would get behind.

— Rather insulting message to the TDC members. Thanks for your insight. Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

— Calls into question the whole role of the TDC as an advisory board. If the TDC chairman, who also chairs the County Commission, can telegraph an outcome like that…kinda takes the wind out of a TDC member’s sails. What’s the point of an advisory board if the chairman is guaranteeing its advice will be disregarded?

It’d be one thing if the County Commission as a whole told the TDC to figure it out. We see that all the time. No one in an official capacity gave the TDC any direction other than what it’s done for decades.

If county commissioners want the tourist tax to start paying for new bathrooms in Crystal River, they need to make that call.

This isn’t the way to do it.

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