LITTLE ROCK — Little Rock is losing its Convention and Visitors Bureau chief executive to Jacksonville, Fla.
Dan O’Byrne turned in his resignation Tuesday at the end of the monthly meeting of the Little Rock Advertising and Promotion Commission. His last day with the Little Rock bureau is Nov. 5, and he expects to start as Visit Jacksonville’s president and chief executive officer the next Monday.
O’Byrne joined the Little Rock bureau in 2002 as the chief marketing officer, helping the city prepare for the opening of the Clinton Presidential Center. In 2005, he replaced long-time Chief Executive Officer Barry Travis.
“It’s been a thrill of a professional lifetime to have had a small part in the transformation of Little Rock into, to borrow a phrase from Mayor [Mark] Stodola, ‘The Next Great American City in the South,’” O’Byrne wrote in his resignation letter.
Tax collections have grown 47 percent since O’Byrne was first hired, from $7 million in2002 to $10.3 million in 2009. In July, sales-tax collections topped $1 million for the first time after a $127,104 one-time payment from Kroger stores for back taxes.
The bureau collects a 2 percent tax on prepared foods and hotel rooms to help promote the city and operate the convention bureau and area parking decks.
O’Byrne said he believes he’s leaving the bureau in a great “jumping off point for the next eight years.”
O’Byrne took over bureau operations at a time when the tourism agency was under intense scrutiny over its bidding practices and spending habits.
On Tuesday, Commission Chairman Philip Tappan said O’Byrne helped usher in “a culture of accountability.”
Since a 2006 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette investigation into the bureau’s habits and a mayor’s review committee afterward, the agency adopted new spending and bidding policies and rewrote its tax-collection regulations. The agency had lacked policies addressing travel and employee spending.
“Thanks for bringing the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau into this century,” Commissioner Capi Peck told O’Byrne when commissioners reconvened after a 30-minute executive session during which his resignation was tendered.
His announcement came as a surprise to many staff members, although some had suspected he was considering a move. O’Byrne is flying to Jacksonville today to meet with his new staff.
O’Byrne said his new salary, although not set yet, would be more than the $152,500 he has earned in Little Rock.
Although Jacksonville is a bigger city and is home to an NFL team, O’Byrne will be overseeing a smaller staff than he does in Little Rock. Visit Jacksonville focuses on marketing the region and does not manage facilities like the Little Rock Convention and Visitors Bureau does.
Tappan said commissioners expect to name an interim CEO to guide the bureau while the agency undertakes a national search for a new executive director.
Arkansas, Pages 11 on 09/22/2010