"Legal action isn't going to solve anything," said Kosciusko County Council President Harold Jones Friday of the reports of possible litigation from the Kosciusko County Convention and Visitors Bureau against the council.

The CVB is accusing the council of ignoring and violating laws and withholding money they say is owed to the CVB. They claim those actions could mean the end of the CVB.

Monday, members of the CVB agreed to take legal action against the county council.

Friday, CVB member Joseph Banks said the county council is obligated by law to act on the CVB budget at the council's November meeting, under county ordinance. Instead, he said, the county council tabled the budget without a set date to approve it, "which puts us up against the annual timetable. The suit would require the county council to act on it by the second Tuesday of December. The suit is a complaint of (the county) not acting."

The suit was not filed as of Friday, Banks said. The meeting Monday was the last meeting of 2003 for the CVB, and the motion made was for the suit to go forward under the direction of the CVB's counsel, attorney Jay Rigdon.

"We didn't see where we had any last recourse," said Banks. He said the county council told the CVB to do it the council's way or the council would just table the CVB budget until they did. "There was no olive branch held out," Banks said, and the council still hasn't approved the 2004 CVB budget.

The CVB's operating budget begins Jan. 1. If the county council doesn't approve the CVB budget before then, Banks said, the CVB is "in peril of being shut down."

County councilman Larry Teghtmeyer said Friday he was not aware of any pending litigation by the CVB and that he'd have to wait and see what the basis of the suit is. "I don't know why they'd be suing the county council - a private entity that contracts with the CVB for funds. It's rather surprising to me."

Teghtmeyer said the CVB presented a full budget to the council about six weeks ago and some action will be taken on it eventually. A new CVB board takes office after the first of the year and that board will have to be reorganized and then move forward.

"We're going to have to address that (budget) fairly quickly," Teghtmeyer said, but with new members coming aboard the commission, he said, an exact timetable is unknown. All seven county council members will be involved in approving the CVB budget.

Teghtmeyer did say that all members of the council expressed an interest in some of the CVB's monies being set aside for capital projects that will be a benefit to the county residents and businesses as well as tourists - "a little more community-minded projects," he called them, other than just the promotion of overnight stays.

Jones said the council has asked the CVB to maybe use a small amount of the funds for capital projects, but the CVB has shown an unwillingness to bend their rules. The council, he said, just wants to get the CVB to cooperate.

The CVB is funded through tax dollars collected through the innkeepers' tax to help promote the county. In 2001, the tax generated $328,509.58 for the CVB and $356,144.17 in 2002.

Some years, Jones said, the CVB gets a pretty healthy increase in the number of tax dollars they receive. He said the council just wants the CVB to live within a budget, and any extra dollars that come to them would be used for capital projects. The county has to live within its budget, so the CVB can, too, he said.

Banks said Indiana laws say the CVB was created specifically for the promotion of the county. It does not allow for capital projects.

"It's not an issue of desire," said Banks.

Teghtmeyer said state law does not prohibit the use of those monies for capital projects. He said when the issue originally came up, the matter was studied further and the county council discovered no special legislation was needed to use the money for capital projects. "I don't understand why we missed that opportunity" to use those dollars for capital projects. "What we can't do is to go into debt," said Teghtmeyer, and the county council has no plans of allowing that to happen.

During meetings between the CVB and county council members, Jones said, there haven't been any hostilities. In fact, the two have good relations, but their meetings haven't gone anywhere. Once the discussions are over, Jones said, it seems like the CVB hears the council's concerns but then disregards them.

"I'm sure they feel the same about us," he said. That has caused the two sides to reach their present stalemate. The two sides need to just continue talking to get past square one. A committee has been working on the issue all year.

"We've kind of run up against a brick wall with that. They seem to have a reluctance" about doing anything we ask, Jones said. He said the council certainly isn't starving the CVB and there is no reason the CVB has to come to an end over the matter - the money for them to operate is there.

"I don't think there's a problem there," Jones said. He said the council would not do anything that would make the doors of the CVB close.

He said, "We have an idea of where we'd like them to go, but they seem not to want to go there."

Banks said hotel occupancy in Kosciusko County was down this year and because the CVB's hands were tied this year, "we were unable to market the county."

Tourist dollars in Kosciusko County for 2002 were close to $56 million, Banks said. The approximate $300,000 annual CVB budget the CVB receives from the innkeepers' tax helps enhance those tourist dollars, Banks said. The more tourist dollars spent here, the more tax dollars the county receives.

Despite several attempts, CVB director Linda Arnold and CVB attorney Jay Rigdon could not be reached Friday for comment. [[In-content Ad]]