by J. Brooks Terry
Staff Writer
Well attended parties and a guest appearance by actor Bill Murray are apparently not enough to secure a Tourist Development Commission grant.
According to City Council member and former TDC chair Lad Daniels, Jacksonville Film Festival organizers have been asked to return the majority of a $50,000 grant used to help market the event.
Daniels said, the festival failed to supply the “heads in beds” promised.
The TDC awards money based on the number of projected hotel bookings in the area. Festival organizers promised 300 reservations. They delivered less than 100.
“We do feel that the festival was a tremendous success and a very well attended event,” said Daniels, “but they did not meet their projected goal and we need to do the accounting for that.”
According to Daniels, it is standard TDC practice for grants to be recouped when a project’s goal outshines its performance.
“No, it’s not unusual,” he said, “but we are prepared to help make up for that shortfall because we do support the event.”
Daniels said he will file legislation this week, identifying an “alternate funding source.”
He said approximately $17,000 will be debited from the City Council and Mayor John Peyton’s reserve accounts.
“In the future we may also look to how we calculate heads in beds so that we can avoid this kind of thing in the future,” he said. “The Film Festival is good for the city and we need more events like it that may or may not stimulate a lot of tourism in their early stages.”
Festival director Lisa Rowe said that although the Council and Peyton have been “very supportive” while looking for replacement funds, with its current grant awarding formula the TDC may not be “a good fit” for the festival right now.
“We have a great product, but we’re still a new venture and this is something you learn more about as you go,” said Rowe. “We were able to generate a large amount of national media coverage and the TDC applauded us for that. Unfortunately, things like that do not apply when counting heads in beds.
“Obviously, we’ll continue to refine the way we document things like hotel bookings. Beyond that, in 2005 we plan to work closely with our regional partners and expand our regional draw.”