New Director Next Step In Putnam Tourism In-Fighting

Putnam County, which continues to lurch from problem to problem in its attempts to encourage tourism and control the revenue and expenses for it, is about to appoint a director of tourism.

Putnam County Executive MaryEllen Odell said Sunday a panel has been interviewing candidates and will send recommendations to her. She will forward her preferred choice to the legislature for approval.

In a press release she thanked the Putnam County Visitors Bureau for its efforts and said the transition from a non-profit funded by county and state grants to an in-house county department would be swift and seamless.

The tourism program receives about a quarter-million dollars annually in state and county money and chooses projects and events to support.

But seamless the transition cannot be. First, county officials have to create another new website and figure out how to access the Visitors Bureau's social media accounts.

The story starts in 2012, when Odell appointed Libby Pataki as Putnam's tourism director. She resigned in 2016 as the state attorney general started looking into the Putnam County Visitors’ Bureau and the Putnam Tourism Corp., both of which were paying her, neither of which had a required board of directors.

A new nonprofit Visitor's Bureau was formed to clean up the operation, including a barely functioning website, and a new director, Bruce Conklin, was hired in 2017. The website was redone, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts created and used, a new travel guide was published.

But within a year issues of oversight and control reared their heads again.

After some clearly contentious meetings and negotiations, the county began advertising this spring for a new tourism director. That came as a total surprise to the Visitors Bureau's board and its director (whose office is down the hall from the county executive).

In response, the Visitors Board shut itself down.

On behalf of the board members, chairman Kevin Callahan issued a long statement, also starting with the board's founding after the tourism scandal rocked the county. He said its “guidelines were established for the future operation of the bureau in accordance with New York State regulations. The board was committed to following the letter of the law as it pertains to Tourism matching funds, guidelines and multiple meetings.”

The statement also said, "When the Visitors Bureau contract was received in early 2019, there were objections to several items and resolution could not be reached with the county. The county continued to fund the bureau and it operated despite the lack of a signed contract.”

Seeing the ad for a new director in the local papers was the first notice they had that county officials were trying to oust Conklin and dissolve the board, he said.

So the Visitor's Bureau then deleted its website, cleaned out the office and decamped.

Writing in The Journal News, columnist David McKay Wilson said the first time county officials knew of that counter-move was when County Attorney Jennifer Bumgarner walked in and found the keys on the desk.

Editor Douglas Cunningham of the Putnam County News and Recorder found the move more than slightly passive-aggressive.

"So the Visitors Bureau board, having been entrusted with several hundred thousand dollars to promote Putnam, and then spending that money, didn’t think it was important to preserve those efforts or somehow see that they continue. Didn’t allow for an orderly transition; didn’t even tell county officials they planned to shut down," he said.

Wilson said the new director will work for the county at a salary of about $85,000 a year, plus benefits. The county will serve as Putnam's tourism promotion agency.

In her press release, Odell said Putnam’s natural beauty sells itself, but the new tourism director will work with stakeholders throughout the county and be better able to entice visitors to come to “Where the Country Begins.”

"From farm-to-table dining on one end of the county to inspiring art shows on the other, exciting things are happening in Putnam," Odell said.

Specifically, she mentioned:

At Tilly Foster Farm in Southeast, hundreds of rock ‘n’ roll fans came out for the “Satisfaction, The International Rolling Stones Tribute Show,” Saturday night. It was an evening of fun, food and dancing under the stars that attracted visitors from throughout the region. The Rolling Stones’ tribute was just one of a new series of summer events at the county-owned farm, which also features Tilly’s Table restaurant, an educational institute and community garden.

In Cold Spring, the Magazzino Italian Art Foundation, a museum of Italian Postwar and Contemporary art that opened two years ago in a renovated warehouse, features a new exhibit of Arte Povera, minimalist art from the 1960s. The show, which opened Friday, runs through December. The Sardinian donkeys that live outside are part of the permanent collection.