Cecil County Tourism Chief Seeks Separate Agency, and Pay Raise
Sandy Maruchi Turner, Cecil County’s tourism co-ordinator, asked the County Commissioners Tuesday to break off tourism promotion programs from the county’s Economic Development department and create a separate agency, with a pay raise for the new “department head.”
Turner told Cecil Times after the commissioners’ worksession that she was more familiar with the figure for her take-home pay but believed her gross annual salary is currently $67,000. She said she had no idea what the appropriate pay increase should be for her position if the Commissioners were to agree with the proposal to split tourism into a separate county department.
Turner presented a “tourism strategic plan” to the commissioners, approved by the Cecil County Tourism Committee, a volunteer group that advises on tourism promotion. Included in that plan was the proposal to sever tourism programs, and the co-ordinator’s position, from the Economic Development department.
The tourism office is currently located in free office space provided by the Perryville Outlets, while the Economic Development office is located in the county office building in Elkton. In the past, Turner advocated a separate tourism office in the so-called “pink house” on the edges of the Cecil College campus in North East, far from tourist attractions. But that effort eventually failed after a previous commissioners’ board deemed the costs of renovating the aging structure to be too high and the location too remote from prime tourism areas.
“Tourism often ends up as an after-thought” in the county’s economic development efforts, Turner told the commissioners Tuesday. She said it was “the right time” to separate tourism from the economic development department since the county is poised to interview candidates for a new Director of Economic Development. Vernon Thompson, the county’s longtime economic development director and a former deputy secretary of the state’s Department of Business and Economic Development, was ousted by a three-member majority of the current county commissioners in late August.
“Tourism is an economic development engine,” Turner said. But “when you have two engines on the same train, only one can lead,” she added.
She advocated severing the tourism programs from economic development functions and installing the tourism chief as a department head. And, “with additional duties,” she said, “I would make a larger salary.”
However, she also told the commissioners that there would be no extra costs for additional staff or special initiatives for tourism programs if a separate department were to be created.
Commissioner Diana Broomell (R-4), who has often promoted tourism as the answer to the county’s economic development issues and financial problems, agreed with Turner and said, “Now is the time” to sever tourism from the economic development departmental umbrella.
Commissioner Robert Hodge (R-5) said he wanted to evaluate the cost-benefit ratio of the steps Turner advocated. If it can be shown that the county will get an appropriate return on such an investment, “I’ll consider it,” he said.
But the political reality is that Broomell, who increasingly controls a three-member voting majority, endorsed Turner’s proposals. It remains to be seen what that will cost taxpayers.
How about outsourcing this to a PR and Marketing firm for the same $67,000 and doing away with this position’s other costs– worker’s compensation and benefits? A $67,000 employee to the county actually costs upwards of $80,000 when all of their costs are actually factored in.
Tourism is not going to solve Cecil County’s economic problems. Actual hardcore economic development, in partnership with improving schools and finally the county’s dismal image, will go a long way towards reviving the economy of Cecil County.
Cecil County has the highest percentage of hard liquor consumption in the state, second highest rate of beer consumption, and has seen a higher percentage of prescription drug overdoses than counties eight and nine times its size. Finally, the county has more methadone clinics than places you can buy a book, but this person wants to create a new Tourism Office with her as the head. Right, good focus on the issues confronting the County!
Let’s look at some real figures. The cost of maintaining a separate Tourism office is and has been an expenditure that costs the Cecil taxpayers extra money. The alleged $1 a year lease is a sham. There are additional expense of office support, power, phones, window cleaning, and much more that would not be necessary if the Tourism office were located in the Cecil County Administration building. Mileage is claimed by anyone that has to drive to the outlet mall. Sandy Turner even claims mileage when she has to work on Sunday. The cost of this “conveniently located office” is at least $40,000 annually.
The separation of the office from the rest of the county offices has been pushed by Sandy Turner for many years. At one point the office was incorporated into the Economic Development office. This was when there was no room for Economic Development in the courthouse. When the new county administration building was constructed, the mistake of separation came to fruition.
Economic Development moved in, while Sandy Turner got her own staff and moved to the outlet mall. The premise was that the county building was located at an extreme end of the county. The reality is that the outlet mall is, too!
Let us not grow government in foolish ways!
How does Sandy expect to show off the glorious amenities [sic] of Cecil County from a failed and deteriorating outlet mall? Instead of asking for a raise, she should plead for her job and take a salary equal to her dismal performance.
Unfortunately, Sandy and Diana will probably get what they want. The Old Girls Club at work.
This presentation was not about salary, though if it were Ms. Maruchi-Turner would have had a good argument regardless. She works extremely hard during extremely long hours with no additional compensation, simply because she deeply cares about this county, its people, and the well-being of its revenue-drawing tourism industry.
The move to the Perryville Outlet Center was a huge victory for tourism, which had never seen a single visitor when its offices were previously tucked away in Cecil Community College. Now visitors stop in daily at the lovely new Visitor’s Center, which is seasonally decorated with borrowed items from local shops and artists. Its visitors are directed to all manner of Cecil County restaurants, shops, sites, hotels, and entertainment. Last year alone, tourists spent $149 million in Cecil County, and it is through the efforts of the tourism coordinator, the two ladies who work with her, and the many volunteers who also truly care about this county, that this was made possible.
Ms. Maruchi-Turner is one of the most respected tourism coordinators in the state of Maryland, and currently chairs the Maryland Tourism Council, a high honor and an unpaid position. She has frequently held similar leadership positions in organizing state-wide tourism events, such as the Maryland Tourism Summit, and in other committees throughout her years at this position. It is clear that if tourism does succeed in breaking away from economic development, reorganizing but not growing our local government, it would certainly be in excellent and well-qualified hands.
And, in response to the other comments…
1) Certainly tourism alone will not solve all of the county’s economic problems, but it is a well-supported fact that tourism revenue is a major source of income for Cecil County. Ms. Maruchi-Turner is already the head of the tourism office within economic development; she is proposing that this office would function better as its own entity, so this is not a grab for power.
2) The benefits of the Visitors’ Center far outweigh the minimal costs to keep it running. There is not even a paid cleaning employee, the ladies at the center clean it themselves. This is not a selfish group of individuals, and Sandy is certainly the least power-hungry, self-interested person anyone who knows her knows…
Please calm down people. Tourism is a wonderful thing and we should all be thanking our lucky stars that we have someone as dedicated and passionate as Sandy Maruchi-Turner serving our county in this position.
Are you really not going to post my comment? How disappointing. You can’t really claim to represent the opinions of Cecil’s people if you only represent the ones you agree with. Please post my last comment so people can at least get a balanced view of this issue. Thanks.
Calmdownpeople,
Due to a diagnosis of pneumonia late last week, Cecil Times’ editor is under the weather, literally, and checking on comments as our condition allows. No attempt to censor your views was intended.– Cecil Times
Dear CDP,
It is easy, as Ms. Maruchi-Turner and Ms. Broomell often do, to throw out ‘fact(s)’ but never give a source. Where do you, and they, get the $149 million figure?
As to the “lovely new Visitor’s Center,” anyone with good vision and smell will tell you that the Perryville Outlet Center is not a great place to welcome anyone to our County, except maybe the tour buses that use it as a bathroom stop.
I could not agree with Observation more. The facility is a toilet at best. The county (like it or not) has adequate room in the Administration building. It is clean and has supportive staff intact in the economic development department. It is absurd to not fold them together more, much less make a separate department.
Would it not be ‘reasonable’ for Sandy, in your business scenario, to open up her own franchise or competitive business?
You are assuming the new Director of Economic Development will be less experienced than she. She is telling the board of directors and owners of the “business” that they are incompetent and could not possibly hire someone qualified to fill the position.
Sandy likes her own business in China and wants to break away completely so she can make her own rules and head in her own direction, separate of the business strategic plan. She has an alliance with a known anti-business [person].
How can you ‘reasonably’ try to put the issue in the context of business, in Cecil County’s current anti-business climate? Your condescending attitude sounds very Smipkin.
Observation, please carefully re-read my post. I think we are coming from the same place.
“GetRealinCecil on December 5, 2011 at 2:32 pm
Observation, please carefully re-read my post. I think we are coming from the same place.”
Sorry GetRealinCecil,
The reply was to ‘Reasonable’s’ November 28 post condescendingly comparing Cecil County government as business.
It seems that the trail of comments have become as askew as the bogus number for County Tourism.
Wow. I’m so surprised at how many people are misunderstanding!
The government is a business. And like a business, there are different levels of “managers.” Right now Sandy Maruchi Turner is kind of like the manager of a store. She basically operates on her own, but before she makes any big decisions she has to take her issues to the store owner. With tourism often as an after-thought, I imagine she gets told “no” a lot. With the replacement of the director of Economic Development Vernon Thompson, I’m sure she hopes to split off before having to answer to someone with less experience then herself…
When inquired about the pay raise, she assumed and hoped (like anyone being promoted to a position with more responsibilities,) for a pay raise. But when inquired further on this issue, it became obvious she had put little thought into that pay raise. According to the article “She said she had no idea what the appropriate pay increase should be for her position if the Commissioners were to agree with the proposal to split tourism into a separate county department.” When a government employee creates a proposal, isn’t it refreshing to find one that is least rehearsed on the topic of their own salary?
Some of the responses here are irrational.
Incredulous wants to outsource to a big marketing firm that does not care about promoting local small business or preserving Cecil Counties rich history –unlike Turner who has worked very hard on doing so. I sure hope that is just some misplaced sarcasm. And about the drug/alcohol consumption – she’s the tourism director, not the mayor, it’s in no way her responsibility to worry about those issues…
Getrealincecil – obviously it costs money… it’s a business operation. Turner believes she will be moving resources and using them more effectively, not require more. May that change? Of course. Business expenses are always being adjusted…
Observation – we all know Perryville outlet center is a wasteland. Turner can’t control the drunk and high kids that flood the place after dark and piss on everything. That’s a job for the local police department and mayor, not the tourism director.
Reasonable – not…. This is a bad business decision, if you can’t see that – please do some research. The numbers that tourism actually brings in are skewed at minimum. People spend money at hotels and other places that even include county residents and they are erroneously incorporated into the “benefits of the torism office”. If would you make a business decision based on that, you are most likely a failed business person. -get real
When using the words “I imagine” in trying to enforce a point, a certain amount of credibilty is taken by the wind.
Reasonable,
It seems that you want to ignore anything which puts Sandy’s credibility to question.
If she is so astute and such an expert on her responsibilities, it seems reasonable that as a person with a large budget (taxpayers’ hard earned dollars) responsibility would have a good handle on cost/profit/loss, etc. and therefore know what her value to the County is and should be.
I would still like an answer as to how Sandy and CDP calculate the $149 million from tourism. Sounds like a big number barfed out there by Broomell and Sandy to sound like they are doing a good job.
As to rehearsed, listen to the tapes and it is obvious collusive rehearsing that went into Sandy’s presentation and Diana’s “compassionate and supportive” comments.
Why do you assume that a marketing firm would not care about small business? It would be their job to understand and promote the values of Cecil County, all of Cecil County.
Be reasonable and answer questions directly.