Tourist Council Workshop To Focus On Future

SEBRING - The Highlands County Tourist Development Council will consider three options in deciding how to replace former Tourism Director Jim Brantley during a workshop on Nov. 1.

The workshop will begin at 8:15 a.m. in Room 3 at the Highlands County Agri-Civic Center, located at the corner of U.S. 27 and George Boulevard, in Sebring.

Brantley left the position in September, but is continuing to work as a consultant for the county.

The council will make a recommendation to the Highlands County Commission. The commission will make the final decision on how the council will be run.

Before he departed, Brantley and Highlands County Administrator Carl Cool talked about the situation and came up with a suggestion. However, it was not presented as a recommendation from either Brantley or Cool.

At the council's meeting in September, Cool floated the idea of having Louise England, the executive director of the Highlands County Economic Development Commission, expand her role and become responsible for the tourism program.

Cool looked at the option from a cost perspective.

"Jim's point is you only have like $330,000 a year (in the budget)," Cool said after that meeting. "You can quickly - real quickly - get to one-third of your money being spent on salaries and overhead. You can go above that if you are not careful.

"I just think that instead of having two executive directors that we can get the job done with one," Cool said.

The second option is to continue operating the tourism program the way it has been for the past two years and either hire a replacement for Brantley as a county employee or as a contractor.

The third option is a request from the Greater Sebring Chamber of Commerce. The chamber sent a letter to the council to consider "outsourcing the management and operation of the TDC through a RFP (request for proposal)."

The letter adds that the RFP "could expose new and creative marketing partnerships enabling more exposure for our community."

"I feel that the TDC needs to discuss all the options," Brantley said.