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Cayce council approves hospitality and accommodations grants after recusals and public questioning
Summary
Council approved multiple hospitality and accommodations tax awards totaling several thousand dollars, separating items tied to potential conflicts so recused members could sit out votes. A public commenter criticized perceived inconsistent fiduciary standards and flagged a council member’s board role on a grant applicant.
Council members on Tuesday voted to approve a slate of accommodations- and hospitality-tax grants after separating and voting individually on items that posed potential conflicts of interest.
Resident Joe Long urged caution during public comment, saying the 23 projects on the agenda sought roughly $3,320,000 in tourism-related funding and that many applications lacked private partners or attendance data. “Tonight, you are both being asked to approve over 3320000 dollars from those same taxpayer tourism dollars across 23 projects,” Long said, adding that some projects submitted no visitor data or ROI studies and singling out a project where a council member serves on the applicant’s board.
Council repeatedly moved to separate three line items so members could recuse themselves where necessary. The council first split the River Alliance item from the accommodations-tax recommendations; the member who serves on the River Alliance board stepped aside for that vote. After a separate vote on the River Alliance request, council approved a $25,000 accommodations-tax award to support River Alliance’s Tartan Day South.
The council also considered hospitality-tax requests. The CWC Cares Foundation’s Riverwalk Rabbit Run received a $4,000 award on the council’s vote. The Cayce Women’s Club’s Hot Flash 5K was approved for $6,700 after the club’s representative, Pammy Eades, described the race as entirely within Cayce and noted the event’s 266 registrants and local impact: “The race is completely within the city of Cayce and proceeds would directly benefit our projects within the city of Cayce and the Lexington 2 district,” Eades said.
Council members praised applicants’ programming and outreach. Several members asked staff to provide committee minutes and deeper grant data in future cycles to make awards easier to evaluate and to show why some smaller events received reduced amounts while larger events did not.
Votes on separated items were recorded by roll call; in each separated vote the reels of council members not recused voted in the affirmative. No motion recorded for any award failed.
The council moved on after approving the grants and resumed the rest of the agenda.
