For the third consecutive year, the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau’s executive director will receive a raise and performance-based bonus, the Advertising and Promotion Commission decided Tuesday.
Commissioners agreed to grant Executive Director Gretchen Hall a 1.5 percent raise - which is in line with the raise given to the city manager and city attorney earlier this year - and a $46,800 bonus. The raise bumps Hall’s salary up from $130,200 to $132,153.
The bonus was contingent upon the bureau reaching several goals set by the commission the year before. The commission started the bonus program in May 2011 when it appointed Hall to her current position. Its intent is to serve as an initiative to reach certain benchmarks, such as the number of hotel rooms booked.
Goals set for 2013 that resulted in Hall’s bonus this year included booking at least 115,000 room nights, meeting facility performance measures, achieving a revenue surplus of at least $50,000 and completing the design for the Robinson Center Music Hall renovation. Each time those goals were exceeded by a certain amount, Hall would receive an additional 2 percent bonus.
Out of a total 40 percent bonus, Hall received 36 percent.
The commission has yet to set the 2014 goals for Hall to receive a bonus next year.
In 2013, the commission approved a $44,640 bonus and 5 percent raise for Hall. In 2012, she received a 5 percent raise and a $14,000 bonus.
Before becoming interim executive director in October 2010, Hall worked in sales and marketing at the bureau. After seven months in the interim position, the commission voted to make her head of the bureau.
Also at Tuesday’s Advertising and Promotion Commission meeting, commissioners appointed Hall as the bureau’s representative on a new River Lights Advisory Board being formed to establish policies and procedures that will govern the light shows on three downtown bridges.
Seven entities will appoint a member to the board, which will meet for the first time at 1:30 p.m. April 25 in Robinson Hall. So far, aside from Hall, only two other appointees have been made. The Mayor’s Tourism Commission appointed Shelia Bronfman, and Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines appointed Barbara Richard, who is the director of Pulaski County Road and Bridge.
Others still to appoint a member are: the mayor of Little Rock, the mayor of North Little Rock, the Pulaski County Public Facilities Board and the chief executive officer of the Clinton Foundation.
The River Lights Advisory Board will be responsible for deciding how to handle special requests from civic organizations, private parties, festivals and others on the use of the bridge light shows.
Hall also wants the board to discuss an annual calendar of national holidays and determine dates and times for regular light shows in accordance with that calendar, she wrote in a letter to the entities that are to appoint representatives to the board.
Once the board sets guidelines, the bureau will administer, manage and schedule lighting requests and be responsible for the creation and design of the light shows, she wrote.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 04/16/2014