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Tag: Mike Switzer

  • Switzer resigns chamber post

    BLYTHEWOOD – In what it called a leadership transition, the board of directors of the Greater Blythewood Chamber of Commerce announced Friday that executive director Mike Switzer has resigned his post with the Chamber.

    Switzer has served as the Chamber’s executive director since 2014. During his tenure he has expanded the Chamber’s membership and programming, Chamber board chair Matt Cunningham said in an email to Chamber members.

    “I am proud to have led the Chamber during this period of tremendous growth,” Switzer was quoted in the email. “I am grateful for the many businesses who have joined the Chamber and for all who have given of their time and talents to help the Chamber and our community grow and prosper.”

    While the Chamber has grown from 20 or so members to 187 under Switzer’s leadership in the last five years, much of that growth has come from businesses outside the town. Switzer has come under increasing public criticism from Mayor J. Michael Ross and some of the town’s businesses for focusing on bringing in large out of town businesses instead of focusing on bringing prosperity to what Ross calls the town’s mom and pop businesses.

    The Chamber’s financials have been a target of investigation by The Voice newspaper for almost two years.

    Last month, almost a year after the Chamber was unable to produce a credible set of books to Town Hall for the previous budget year, the Chamber’s board chairman-elect Phil Frye told Council last month that the Chamber still does not have a working budget or even a draft budget to present to Council.

    In May, 2018, after an investigation by The Voice of the Chamber’s financials, Council called for the Chamber, which is funded primarily by the Town, to turn over its complete financial records by June 12, 2018. Copies of those documents were subsequently provided to The Voice by town government officials.

    After being asked by The Voice to review the documents, CPA and former Town Councilman Bob Massa concluded the submitted financials were “confusing, lacking in detail and sometimes impossible to follow and understand.”

    Massa said records submitted by the Chamber indicated that $18,500 provided to the Chamber by the Town Council to fund a Visitor Center was more likely used to help pay the Chamber’s operating expenses, and that the Visitor Center served as little more than a pass-through for those funds to the Chamber.

    On June 25, 2018, council voted unanimously to stop funding the Visitor Center after Dec. 31, 2018.

    Financial records submitted to the town government at FY 2017-18 year end were also lacking in details for thousands of dollars the Chamber received from the town, t-shirt sales, sponsorships and other sources for events including the Big Grab and the Eclipse.

    Still, in February, 2019, Town Council voted to award another $14,000 of Hospitality Tax revenue to the Chamber for a fundraiser for itself.

    In an application requesting the funding, Sarah Ballard, an event manager hired for the event – a Bavarian Oktoberfest – noted that it was being held to raise funds for the Greater Blythewood Chamber of Commerce, and that it will also provide an opportunity for residents of Blythewood and the surrounding areas to build community and learn about Bavarian culture.

    The request said the total project cost would be $37,394 and would be partially funded by the proceeds from food, merchandise and beer sales ($14,500), cow paddy bingo ($18,450) and sponsorships ($10,000) plus $1,520 in in-kind services.

    According to the request, the Chamber expects a total net profit of $21,125.12.

    The Town has also funded the Chamber with a grant each year to cover operating expenses. Last year, the grant was for $19,500. According to the agenda of the April, 2019 Council meeting, the Chamber is expected to ask Council for $20,500 for the upcoming budget – $17,000 for an economic development work subsidy (previously called a grant by town officials) and $3,500 for an ‘elite partner’ annual membership for the Town government at the Premier Level.

    Since last summer, Ross has partially, though not officially, recused himself from discussions/voting on Chamber funding since he and a business partner are the Chamber’s landlords for the space the Chamber rents in McNulty Plaza in downtown Blythewood.

    In the announcement on Friday of Switzer’s resignation, Cunningham said Switzer is leaving his post with the Chamber in order to dedicate more time to one of his business ventures.

    The board has appointed Phil Frye to serve as interim manager, effective immediately. Frye is managing director of Pee Dee Enterprises, Ltd. and is the former chair-elect of the Chamber board. He received the Chamber’s community service volunteer of the year award at its gala in December.

  • Town Hall takes reins of Big Grab

    Switzer: Town Agrees To Partner With Chamber

    BLYTHEWOOD – Blythewood Mayor J. Michael Ross announced via email on Wednesday, July 25 that the 2018 Big Grab is on for Sept. 7 and 8, and that the Town would be organizing and funding the event this year since two vendors, the Greater Blythewood Chamber of Commerce and merchant Teresa McKenrick, had backed off their requests to manage the Blythewood section of the event after the council said it would only fund them for the actual costs of the event.

    “Phil Frye, as chair of the chamber’s Big Grab committee, called me around noon today [July 25] and informed me of the [chamber] board’s decision to decline the town’s offer of $5,000 to organize this year’s Big Grab. Our staff, under the direction of Events Coordinator, Steve Hasterok, looks forward to this challenge and being ready Sept 7 for the 2018 Big Grab!” Ross stated in his email.

    About 9 o’clock the next morning, however, Mike Switzer, Executive Director of the Chamber sent out an email he said was a ‘Big Grab Joint Press Release from the Town and Chamber,’ stating that he and the town (not council) had reached an agreement to jointly support the Blythewood section of the Big Grab. The email stated that the Chamber would continue to manage the Blythewood Big Grab web page and Facebook page, and continue to coordinate vendor sites as it did last year. For information about security, trash and portable restrooms, however, questions were directed to Steve Hasterok, Director of the town’s conference center and events, at 803-754-0501.

    The Voice had not received the ‘joint press release’ from the Town Hall at press time.

    The question of who would manage the 2018 Big Grab became an issue at the July 23 town council meeting. That ended without a decision being made as to who would be heading up this year’s Big Grab.  Two applicants asked for $10,000 in A-Tax funding, but both presented much larger budgets. Merchant Theresa McKenrick’s budget came to $15,000 and Greater Blythewood Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mike Switzer’s budget came in at $14,500. Both wanted to use the park for vendor setup, sell sponsorships to raise extra money and pay salaries for staffing – McKenrick, up to $4,000 and Switzer, $5,000.

    Merchants had been vocal that they did not want vendors in the park, which they said hurt the sales in the town’s brick and mortar businesses; they did not want to have to pay sponsorship fees of $75 each and they objected to A-Tax funds going to pay thousands of dollars for salaries for the organizer’s staffs.

    After council listened to both parties and other merchants, Ross offered $5,000 to cover actual expenses, with no allocation from A-Tax funds for staff salaries. McKenrick turned the offer down at the meeting, saying she would not run it without paid staff. After taking the option to the chamber board for a vote, Frye notified Town Hall on July 25 that the chamber, too, was turning down the offer.

    “The Town of Blythewood is always sensitive to the needs of local merchants, businesses and individuals,” Ross stated in his email. “We recognize the desire to return The Big Grab to the way it was before, to have it ‘get back to its roots,’ to be a family friendly event that highlights small businesses and individuals selling items in a true ‘yard sale’ environment,” Ross wrote.

    Ross stated that Doko Park would not be open to vendors during The Big Grab event this year. Instead, vendors will be encouraged to find spaces around the town and in empty lots where they can set up shop as they did during the first years of The Big Grab. Some of the merchants, including Blythewood Consignment, Bits and Pieces and Sweet Pea’s Ice Cream Parler, have offered vendors the opportunity to set up on their lots at no charge by calling ahead to reserve the spot. Others may charge nominal fees.

    Ross assured merchants and vendors that town hall would pay the costs of whatever is needed to make the event safe, enjoyable and successful such as arranging for sheriff’s deputies for traffic control, trash receptacles and portable restroom facilities along Main Street and other areas where they are needed.

    “We want to highlight the wonderful community that we have here,” Ross wrote. He referred questions to Hasterok at 803-754-0501 or at hasteroks@townofblythewoodsc.gov.

  • Council considering $56K for Chamber, Visitor’s Center

    BLYTHEWOOD- Asking for more accommodation tax and general fund money has become a common theme for the Greater Blythewood Chamber of Commerce, and Council continues to up the numbers every year.

    In 2017, Chamber Executive Director Mike Switzer sought additional funds of nearly $71,000 before scaling that number back amid town council protest.

    Of the $71,000, $33,000 was earmarked for the Blythewood Visitor’s Center which operates under the Chamber. Switzer ultimately received $18,500 which was to be dedicated to pay for an employee for the Center. And just last month, the chamber requested and received an additional $7,643 for the visitor’s center, citing projected deficits due to increases in hours worked, but no specifics.

    Now, Switzer is asking Council to increase the economic development grant the chamber receives from the Town from $15,000 to $20,000 in next year’s town budget. He also wants the Town to increase the annual accommodation tax funding for the visitor’s center from $18,500 to $25,000 and an increase in funding for the Big Grab from $8,750 to $12,500.

    Blythewood Town Council, initially at least, wasn’t willing at all to entertain $25,000 for the visitor’s center, preferring instead to leave funding at the current $18,500.

    “I kind of get tired, and there’s not many people who come in and do this, when you keep coming and asking,” Mayor J. Michael Ross said during the May 10 budget work session. “When you don’t get to a certain number, you want more. That doesn’t seem fiscally responsible to me,” Ross continued. “You have to look from within.”

    As the meeting proceeded, however, council member’s tone changed. They soon tentatively agreed to increase the annual visitor’s center funding to $20,500, with the potential for an additional windfall of $10,500 ($3,000 discovered in unspent accommodations tax revenues plus $7,441 that was returned unexpectedly by The University of South Carolina from a recent equestrian competition for which the town provided funding.)

    If the proposed funding is approved, the chamber will end up receiving a total of $57,500, an increase of $15,250 over current funding.

    The appropriations making up the $10,500 funding came from what’s called the “30 percent” fund. State law requires that 30 percent of accommodation tax revenues be spent specifically on an agency to promote tourism. It can’t be spent on salaries or operational expenses, the Town’s assistant town administrator, Chris Keefer, cautioned council members during the work session.

    “This is where the TERC dings us every year,” she said. “That money is supposed to go to some organization that has some existing tourism marketing program.”

    TERC, or Tourism Expenditure Review Committee, operates under the S.C. Department of Revenue. Its job is to review a-tax expenditures to ensure they comply with state law.

    For the visitor’s center to receive both the $20,500 funding and the $10,500 accommodation tax windfall, Ross said the chamber would have to submit a marketing plan by June 15, showing how funds will be spent. If the funds do not go to an agency that promotes tourism by June 30, Ross said, the town must return them to the state.

  • Chamber financials reflect inconsistencies

    BLYTHEWOOD – Whenever the Greater Blythewood Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mike Switzer requests additional funding for the chamber, council members generally have been willing to cough up more money.

    As Blythewood council members plan to discuss increasing the total annual funding to the Chamber by more than $15,000 to $57,500, during a budget workshop Thursday, May 24, a review of public records, as well as a former chamber employee, signal several inconsistencies in chamber financials, raising questions about how accommodation tax funds and a town hall grant are actually being spent.

    At Town Council’s April 23 meeting, for example, the Greater Blythewood Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Mike Switzer, said the chamber needed additional funding to cover non-specific, additional costs incurred in running the visitor’s center.

    “A lot of this deficit is startup costs of putting the extra hours into getting it (the center) up and running,” Switzer said. “The situation we have is the doors are open from 9-5. Before we signed the lease, we were already in there a year and our hours were 10-2. That’s what we could afford.”

    According to its most recent federal tax return, the chamber claimed a deficit of $4,885 just months after reporting a $5,755 surplus.

    Switzer called the numbers and their relation to visitor’s center finances “apples and oranges.”

    Payroll doesn’t add up

    In May 2017, Switzer requested $33,000 to run the visitor’s center, telling council members that $18,000 of that money would be spent on a part-time employee at a cost of $15 per hour for 20 hours plus FICA.

    Council voted to approve the $18,500 specifically for that employee.

    When contacted by The Voice, that employee, who is no longer employed at the visitor center, said she was only paid $10 per hour, not $15, for an annual payout of only $10,400.

    A visitor’s center report provided to council last January raises more questions.  The report, which is broken down into two columns (2017 July 1 – Dec. 31) and (2018 Jan. 1 – June 30), shows a total revenue for fiscal year 2017-18 of $18,500 and expenses of more than $26,000 causing a deficit of $4,885 for July 1 – Dec. 31, 2017 and an anticipated deficit of $2,758 for Jan. 1 – June 30, 2018 for a total of $7,643. A $300 addition error in each column of expenses would, if corrected, bring the deficits even higher. Council voted 4-1 on April 23 to give the Chamber the additional $7,643 to cover the two deficits.

    That’s where the report becomes difficult to follow. The visitor’s center payroll expenses are listed at $8,332 in each of the half-year columns. But the former visitor’s center employee said she only received $5,200, not $8,332 for the six month period ending Dec. 31, 2017. And the report anticipated another $8,332 the first half of 2018, leaving $3,132 in employee payroll unaccounted for in each half of the year for a total of $6,264.

    When asked by The Voice, Switzer was unable to provide a breakdown of the $8,332 listed for payroll. There is also no explanation of how a fourth of the Chamber’s rent, insurance utilities, accounting and other expenses including office supplies and other items that were previously charged to the Chamber are now charged to the $18,500 that was earmarked for the visitor’s center employee.

    In another instance, the chamber received $8,750 in accommodation tax funding for The 2017 Big Grab. Switzer charged $4,318 to staff expenses, breaking it down among three employees: the visitor’s center employee, $426; Switzer, $1,558 and Kitty Kelly (Switzer’s assistant), $2,234. But when contacted by The Voice, the visitor’s center employee said she was never paid the $426.

    Budget incongruities aren’t limited to visitor’s center funding. Mismatching revenue figures provided by the Chamber are apparent in funding to promote the 2017 solar eclipse.

    Eclipse the Park budget records list T-shirt revenues at “$5,000 (approximate),” although financial data obtained by The Voice pegs that figure at $9,991.

    Sponsorship revenues showed a similar gap, with $750 listed in budget records and actual revenues of $4,500, documents show.

    On May 4, The Voice issued a Freedom of Information Act request for annual budgets and profit and loss statements for the visitor’s center and chamber for the past five years.

    “There will be costs associated and I will get those to you as soon as time allows,” Switzer said via email on May 8. “We have, as always, a lot of work going on right now.  I will bring all of this to our next board meeting on the 15th and get back to you after that.”

    The Voice had not received the requested documents at press time.

  • Switzer requests $7,643 for Visitors

    BLYTHEWOOD – After receiving $18,500 earlier this year to operate the town’s Visitor Center, the Greater Blythewood Chamber of Commerce says it needs nearly $7,700 more.

    In April, the chamber asked the Town of Blythewood for $7,643 in additional funding to cover expenses associated with the Visitor Center which opened a year ago.

    Blythewood Town Council approved the appropriation at the April 23 meeting, designated state accommodations tax revenue as the funding source.

    The funding request comes on the heels of the chamber claiming a deficit of $4,885 months after reporting a $5,755 surplus, according to federal tax records obtained by The Voice.

    Mike Switzer, executive director of the Blythewood chamber, told council members last week that the deficit is due to additional costs incurred in running the visitors center.

    Switzer, however, characterized the $5,755 surplus and $4,885 deficit as “apples and oranges” in a subsequent email exchange with The Voice.

    “The numbers from last night were strictly visitor center numbers, not total chamber numbers,” Switzer said.

    On April 23, Switzer told council members the $4,885 deficit has accumulated over the past six months. He anticipates an additional shortfall of $2,758 in the next six months, accounting for the $7,643 request.

    “A lot of this deficit is startup costs of putting the extra hours into getting it (the center) up and running,” Switzer said. “The situation we have is the doors are open from 9-5. Before we signed the lease, we were already in there a year and our hours were 10-2. That’s what we could afford.

    “When we were asked to take over the Visitor Center, we were asked to operate it 9-5,” Switzer continued. “We’re just three part-time people rotating it. We’re trying to keep it open.”

    Council members approved the full funding request by a 4-1 vote. Mayor J. Michael Ross dissented.

    Ross said he supported funding the chamber, but only enough to cover the existing deficit of $4,885.

    “I support you, I just don’t support the total number here,” he said. “I’ve always been on the conservative side.”

    Other council members were generally supportive of granting the chamber’s full request, though some expressed a desire for the chamber to be more self-sustaining.

    “You can’t get bailed out every year,” said Councilman Eddie Baughman. “That money, I’d like you to stay within that working frame.”

    From surplus to deficit

    No visitors center expenses are listed on the chamber’s 2016 federal tax return obtained by The Voice. The reporting period is from July 30, 2016 to July 1, 2017, prior to the chamber taking over the center.

    But tax records also show a surplus of $5,755 in 2016, with total annual revenues of $75,477 and expenses of $70,381. Net assets carried over from 2015 accounted for the remaining $689, tax records state.

    Although Switzer characterized chamber and visitors center finances as separate, council documents do not make that distinction.

    A memo included in the April 23 agenda packet states the Town of Blythewood already provides $18,500 to the chamber “for the purpose of operating a Visitor Center.”

    The $18,500 in funding also comes from a-tax revenues collected within the city limits. South Carolina charges a 2 percent accommodation tax on hotel rooms and vacation rentals.