What's Going On: The $25K video and its 25,000 questions

About a month ago, Red Oak city officials were approached about participating in a promotion that will result in a five-minute video airing once nationally on a FOX business channel and about three dozen times regionally featuring the community.

The video will be hosted by Terry Bradshaw and will cost the City almost $25,000 to produce.

With just a little more than that information, Red Oak’s City Council had to decide at their meeting two weeks ago whether or not they should commit the $25,000, half of which would come from uncollected hotel/motel tax funds with the other half coming from the Chamber and Industry Association.

There was no time for discussion beyond the one meeting. They had to make their decision then and there, or risk losing this precious opportunity.

All but Tom Pratt voted for it, and he said at the time, he wondered if it was a scam. Even after learning it wasn’t after the meeting, he still said he wouldn’t have voted for it because of the lack of time to consider it and the fact they were spending tax dollars that hadn’t been collected. 

Hard sells typically send up red flags and did with Pratt. But there are other variables involved with this promotion that raise other concerns.

What will happen if the tourism committee doesn’t think it is such a good idea? The Council essentially just approved submitting an application for $12,500 of the hotel/motel tax funding to pay for half of the video.

Will the Council’s application be looked upon more favorably than one from the Association, or the Performing Arts Center or any other group that may request funding? Will it undergo comparable scrutiny, and since this is the first application before the committee, what reviews will take place?

More interestingly though, will be what happens if the committee rejects the proposal? Councilmember Fred Pilecki said the Council has final say on all funding, implying maybe the Council would just disregard the committee’s recommendation to not fund the Council’s project and fund it anyway. That would lead to another question of why have the committee in the first place if their recommendations are going to be ignored.

But that probably won’t happen. Councilmember Jeanice Lester chairs the committee and surely will lobby effectively for the application to be approved. It should also be noted Lester doesn’t think Pilecki and the rest of the Council would ever disregard the tourism committee’s recommendation.

I don’t know. Would they?

Regardless, Lester doesn’t chair the Association’s board, which is somewhat on the hook for the other $12,500. What if they don’t support the proposal?

If I’m on the Associationboard, knowing this is already a done deal, I would have a hard time approving paying $12,500 for it, without any prior consultation. Why pay it, especially knowing the video will be produced regardless? If the board doesn’t approve it, then the City is simply on the hook for the remaining $12,500.

And those funds would come from the hallowed reserves. I have seen representatives from countless City departments come before councils over the years with unbudgeted expenses that were denied because no one wanted to tap the precious reserves.

Perhaps Terry Bradshaw is the secret password allowing entry into those sacred caverns where the city has stashed millions of dollars for emergencies, rainy days and apparently, five-minute videos.

There is a lot of things the city could do with $25,000 in terms of tourism, promotion and recreation.

We listed some of those events on the front page last week. Imagine a Junction Days that featured a free live concert from legendary songwriter Don McLean or country music band Asleep at the Wheel. Imagine the crowds that would attract and the money that would be spent at our gas stations, restaurants and hotels, the very places supposed to benefit from the hotel/motel tax.

Instead, we have a five-minute video, with Terry Bradshaw, which leads to the next question: how do you determine your return on that investment?

We could easily measure how many people came to town to see a free concert with Blue Oyster Cult, how many hotel rooms were rented and things of the sort.

But with a video, all we can tell is how many people saw it. We don’t have any idea how many even will remember Red Oak, Iowa, from the video, much less if they do anything with that information.

So in five years, we will look back at this video and never really know for sure if it was a good investment or not. There is just no way to measure its success, unless some entrepreneur happens to see it and decides to relocate a 500-job industry to town because of seeing Red Oak on television.

Anything short of that, and all we will have is a lot of questions and a five-minute video.

Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Red Oak Express and Glenwood Opinion-Tribune. He can be contacted at publisher@redoakexpress.com.