Tourism nonprofit Visit Harford has filed a lawsuit against Harford County government alleging breach of contract related to a withheld payment of $215,000 for tourism services.

The suit was filed in Harford County Circuit Court Wednesday.

In June 2023, Visit Harford and the county entered into a contract obligating Visit Harford to provide tourism-related services for annual compensation of $645,000.

Payments were to be made via three installments of $215,000. The first two installments were issued to Visit Harford without incident or question, but the third payment, due in January, was never made.

Visit Harford submitted the request for the third installment twice in January and once in February, but the lawsuit states that Visit Harford did not receive a response from the county regarding payment or reasons why the payment wasn’t delivered.

The lawsuit states that in April, Harford County Executive Bob Cassilly informed Visit Harford that he was terminating the contract because he was concerned with how Visit Harford was using the funding.

Cassilly told The Aegis that he decided to not renew the contract with Visit Harford because the county wanted to work with a “highly professional marketing team rather than a nonprofit.”

Cassilly followed up with a proposed settlement agreement for Visit Harford. The settlement conversation stated that the $215,000 Visit Harford was owed would be paid, contingent upon the county taking full ownership of Visit Harford:

“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,” states a June 25 email sent from Raj Goel, deputy director of economic development for the county, to Visit Harford’s executive director.

Visit Harford declined the offer.

Visit Harford tracks tourism spending annually at more than $450 million. Tourism spending is taxable revenue that the county uses to fund things such as emergency medical services, roads and other county infrastructure. Visit Harford stated that it relies on the $215,000 installments to advertise, promote, sponsor and carry out tourism events throughout the year.

The third installment was due in January, when Visit Harford said it conducts its most crucial advertisement purchasing campaigns for summer. Since Visit Harford did not receive the installment from the county, Visit Harford calculated that the county has lost millions of dollars in  tourism spending this year.

“It is so hard to understand why County Executive Cassilly is so determined to break something that is working so well for everyone,” said Jay Ellenby, chair of the Visit Harford board of directors. “His actions are hurting local businesses and damaging Harford County’s economy and it is setting our community back for years to come.”

Following the termination of the contract, the lawsuit states that Cassilly allegedly contacted the Maryland Tourism Development Board and asked them to cease grant funding to Visit Harford and advised them to redirect a $50,000 state tourism grant from Visit Harford to the county government.

The lawsuit states that Cassilly made the request to the state board because Visit Harford was no longer eligible to receive the grant funding since it was no longer under a contract agreement with the county.

Furthermore, Cassilly allegedly told the state board to no longer communicate with Visit Harford and to go through the county, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also alleges that Cassilly offered employment opportunities to members of Visit Harford’s board of directors, resulting in their resignations.

“The professional team at Visit Harford has been indispensable to the success of our local businesses and vital to Harford County’s economic prosperity,” said Tim Engle, treasurer of Visit Harford’s board. “The actions taken by the county executive are now threatening to undo what we worked for years to build, at the cost of jobs, tax revenue and our business reputation.”

Cassilly stated that he is disappointed to receive notice of the lawsuit.

“The county executive decides who the county’s destination marketing organization is for tourism,” Cassilly said in a statement to The Aegis. “Moving forward, Harford County is retaining direct oversight of all taxpayer funding for tourism and services will be provided by the county government and the professional marketing organization.”