Visit Tallahassee could take over administration of a grant process currently controlled by the Council on Culture & Arts, or COCA.
20% of Leon County’s tourism development tax goes to cultural grants currently controlled by COCA. But Leon commissioners are considering giving that job to the county’s division on tourism, which is known as Visit Tallahassee.
The agenda item for Tuesday’s commission meeting said that would allow more integration of local cultural events into larger tourism marketing. It gave commissioners the option to give control over, or to extend the time COCA has to administer those grants by one year.
The issue was met significant public pushback, bringing over 50 public speakers on the issue. One of the opponents was Mickee Faust Club co-founder Terry Galloway.
“COCA encourages the people who actually live in this county, not simply to observe culture, but to create it. Visit Tallahassee is primarily dedicated to creating spectators. COCA is primarily dedicated to creating community,” she said.
Robbie Brunger with the Capital Chords men sang his opposition.
“COCA staff is all in a stew. Commissioners are unsure what to do. But we, for our part, represent local art. We recommend vote option two,” he vocalized.
After public comment, commissioners voted 5-1 to discuss the issue again during a future workshop. Commissioner Christian Caban said he needs more time to consider the options.
“I do believe that this warrants a workshop for us to continue this conversation further, because right now, I don't know that I could support option one or two if there was a motion on the floor for that without having more information,” he said.
Commissioner David O’Keefe is the only commissioner who voted no on the workshop. He said his mind is made up to keep the funding with COCA.
“We need continuous, regular local arts events, because when I go on vacation someplace for a big-ticket concert, I'm not there for one night, and I need cool stuff to go look at the day before and the day after. And I tell you what, it's not Slim Chickens or the new Wawa, okay, it's got to be local cultural art stuff. This compliments that. There is no need to change it,” he said.
The workshop is set for June.