SAFFORD — It took two tries, but the Safford City Council approved a new contract with the Graham County Chamber of Commerce to provide tourism and economic development services for the city, albeit at a lower amount than originally planned.
The Council voted 5-2 Monday to approve a five-year contract with the Chamber, allocating $160,000 a year to the Chamber. The funds come from the transient occupancy tax collected by the city’s hotels from visitors to the community.
Voting in favor were Mayor Jason Kouts, Councilmen Mike Andazola, Luke Arbizo, Steve McGaughey and Vice Mayor Richard Ortega, who made the motion.
“I’m, frankly, kind of tired of the City of Safford doing everything,” Ortega said. “But I would kind of hope it would make the other places think about, ‘Hey, come on, maybe we can stiff our ante up a little.’ ”
Opposed, were Councilman Arnold Lopez and Brand Hemphill, whose motion to fund the chamber at $180,000 a year failed on a 3-4 vote.
“And while I would hope and trust the (Chamber) leadership will continue to solicit the other municipalities, that’s still not a reason or factor for me to decide what is right for our body,” Hemphill said.
After the meeting, Vance Bryce, executive director for the Chamber, said he was “disappointed” by the vote — considering he was told by the council at a previous meeting he was asking for too little money with a $180,000 request — but pledged it would not negatively impact the Chamber’s working relationship with the city.
“You know, we’re proud of the work we do for the City of Safford, and our relationship with the City of Safford,” Bryce said. “I was disappointed in how last night ended up. We’d been given some pretty strong assurances that we were good to go.”
City Manager John Cassella said he originally proposed increasing the bed tax allocation from about $130,000 this year to $144,000 a year starting in fiscal year 2023-24, but previous council work sessions with Chamber leadership resulted in the $180,000 proposal.
The $160,000 annual disbursement of bed tax money by the city will give the Chamber an annual budget of $381,550. Of that total, $92,550 comes from event revenue, $102,000 from member dues, $12,000 from the Town of Thatcher, $10,000 from Graham County and $5,000 from the Town of Pima.
