The city of Carthage and the Missouri State Highway Patrol are investigating the possible misappropriation of funds in the Carthage Convention and Visitors Bureau after problems were discovered by the city earlier in August.
Carthage Assistant City Administrator and Police Chief Greg Dagnan said the city has at least temporarily cancelled both the contracts it had with the Carthage CVB, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol took over the investigation into the group from the Carthage Police Department at the request of the city on Tuesday.
“I can confirm that there is an investigation,” Dagnan said. “Other than that, I can’t say anything about it. It is very active and very ongoing right now.”
Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Sam Carpenter confirmed on Wednesday that the patrol had taken over the investigation, but it was far too early in the investigation to comment.
Carthage CVB Board President Anthea Harbin said the city had notified the group that it had detected a problem earlier this month, but she couldn’t talk about the details of the investigation either.
Harbin confirmed that CVB Director Callie Myers and CVB Coordinator Alex Hodkin were both placed on administrative leave soon after the city alerted the group to the problems.
“We’ve been cooperating with the city and the police department, handing over anything and everything that they ask for,” Harbin said. “We’re trying to do our own research into finding out what’s going on. We’re just trying to get it resolved.”
The contracts
Dagnan said the Carthage City Council had voted to terminate the two contracts it had with the CVB.
The council voted on Aug. 10, right after Dagnan announced that the Carthage Police Department was investigating the CVB, to terminate a $60,000 communications contract which designated the CVB as the city’s social media and public relations coordinator.
This contract was relatively new.
It was initially approved on a trial basis in March to last through the end of the city’s fiscal year on June 30, 2021 and paid the CVB a maximum of $13,400.
The Council voted to renew that contract in June for the 2021-22 fiscal year at a cost of $60,000.
This contract designated Myers as the city’s social media director paid the CVB for help in redesigning the city’s website and social media pages.
“At this point everything we contracted for them to do we are reabsorbing into city staff,” Dagnan said. “No final decision has been made as to what we will do, but we are definitely reabsorbing all of that into our staff.”
The second contract was an annual agreement designating the CVB as the recipient of $100,000 in city lodging tax revenue. The council voted in closed session on Aug. 24 to cancel that contract.
Revenue from the lodging tax on the city’s hotels and motels is designated by state law to promote tourism and Dagnan said the city plans to continue using it for that purpose.
“The contract provision really doesn’t allow a temporary suspension, there either is a contract or there isn’t one, so it was terminated,” Dagnan said. “However, I think the actual termination letter did offer a provision, depending on how the investigation turns out, that we can reinstate the contract. Then the city also engaged with KPM Auditing, that’s our auditing firm that we work with yearly, we engaged with them for some extra work to include a forensic audit of the CVB.
“The way it’s set up, the lodging tax money must go towards tourism. Hopefully this will be a short-term event, we can make some decisions and make sure that money continues to go toward tourism. If this becomes a long-term event then we’re going to have to make some arrangements.”
Dagnan said the city was open to reconsidering both contracts with the CVB, but those were decisions that would be made after the the facts in the case are made clear.
Harbin said her group is working toward determining what happened so it can get both contracts with the city restored.
“The lodging tax is the most important one because it’s specifically supposed to be used to support tourism in Carthage and that’s the whole mission statement of the CVB,” Harbin said. “From everything I’ve heard it’s just a temporary measure to protect everybody and as soon as we get this resolved we can revisit the contracts.
“We’re going to keep moving forward and try to get through this investigation and hopefully come out the other side and be able to work with the city again and continue promoting Carthage and helping everyone get through their events.”
Office still open
Carthage Convention and Visitors Bureau President Anthea Harbin said the CVB Office at 116 W. Third St. is still open from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. on weekdays and staffed by two employees, and the group was continuing with planning for the next two Food Truck Friday events on Sept. 10 and Oct. 8 as well as other events. The CVB also still operates the website visitcarthage.com.
