Amid slim revenue growth and potential funding challenges, including for things such as public education, Harford County officials have voted to pay two agencies for tourism services by funding both the county’s newly created tourism office and Visit Harford, a nonprofit tourism agency.

The Harford County Council voted Tuesday night to override County Executive Bob Cassilly’s veto of legislation funding Visit Harford, which has historically handled tourism for the county.

Visit Harford had received $645,000 annually from the county government, paid via a portion of the county’s Hotel Occupancy Tax. After nearly a year of back-and-forth between county officials and Visit Harford regarding how that $645,000 was being used, Cassilly twice vetoed legislation aiming to codify Visit Harford’s compensation.

The idea behind the veto, according to Cassilly, was to save money and match the way neighboring jurisdictions handle tourism. He said most have tourism services as a function of the county government, not done by a nonprofit.

“This approach allows us to minimize overhead costs and concentrate more funding on marketing,” Cassilly previously said. “We have already moved forward with direct outreach to assist local tourism-related businesses, and we are using the services of a professional tourism marketing firm with a record of success promoting tourism for the State of Maryland and Baltimore County.”

Cassilly vetoed a bill in January that was identical to legislation he also vetoed that aimed to allocate $645,000 annually to Visit Harford. The veto of the January legislation was overridden by the council in a 5-2 vote and the bill became law in April.

The January legislation stated that the funding go to “Visit Harford, the Destination Marketing Organization.” The current bill omitted the title of Destination Marketing Organization as Cassilly argued the county executive is the only person with the authority to grant that designation.

During a public hearing for the new bill in October, the county Director of Economic Development Karen Holt said her department began hiring staff to fill the county’s newly created tourism office, along with contracting an out-of-county marketing firm, Mariner Marketing, to handle promotions and strategies.

When asked if the county would continue to fund Mariner Marketing, the salaries of its new tourism staff and Visit Harford, Cassilly said the county is still looking into it.

During Tuesday’s meeting, council members Aaron Penman, Jacob Bennett, Jessica Boyle-Tsottles, Vice President Tony Giangiordano and Council President Patrick Vincenti voted in favor of overriding Cassilly’s veto. Council member James Reilly was absent.

“My hope now is that the county executive will respect the legislative process and now codified law and allow Visit Harford to be the primary tourism organization, saving taxpayer dollars,” Penman said in an interview.

Giangiordano and Bennett both said prior to the vote that they shared similar concerns with Cassilly regarding Visit Harford’s use of the funding but after meeting with Visit Harford, they felt comfortable continuing the partnership.

“I looked, in detail, at their financial reports and once they were sent to me, I asked for more details to see where and how the money was being spent,” Giangiordano said. “Satisfactorily, they were answered.”

Since January, Cassilly has ceased payments to Visit Harford and deemed the county’s Department of Economic Development as the county’s Destination Marketing Organization. The designation enables the county access to state-funded tourism grants formerly collected by Visit Harford.

In an email from the county’s Deputy Director of Economic Development, Raj Goel, to Visit Harford, Goel told Visit Harford the only way it would receive funding from the county is if the nonprofit handed over its logo and website to the county.

“With respect to the one issue which has proven a sticking point (i.e., ownership and control of Visit Harford’s website and logo), the options we discussed for resolving the matter were as follows: (a) Visit Harford would assign its website and logo to the County and the County would disburse the $215,000, or (b) Visit Harford would retain its website and logo and waive disbursement of the $215,000,” Goel wrote.

Visit Harford declined the offer to become an arm of the county government and, in return, launched a lawsuit against the county in June alleging breach of contract and tortious interference. In the suit, Visit Harford alleged that Cassilly redirected a $50,000 state tourism grant from Visit Harford to the county government. The litigation is ongoing.

Visit Harford did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the veto override.

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