The Manitowoc Area Visitor and Convention Bureau picked up a big win in court, as Judge Mark Rohrer ruled in their favor in the suit against the City of Manitowoc.
We reached out to John Brunner, the co-chair of the MAVCB, and he said the ruling was complicated and broke it down into two parts.
“One, that the city was not legally able to collect room tax dollars and keep them for themselves to create their own tourism entity,” he told Seehafer News shortly after the hearing adjourned.
As for the second part, that could, without hyperbole, change the landscape of tourism promotion in the city.
“The other ruling that Judge Rohrer determined was that, under state statute, the City of Manitowoc must contract with the MAVCB,” Brunner explained.
This ruling comes just over a year after the two entities, along with the city of Two Rivers, ended their partnership.
Since then, both Cities have created their own independent tourism departments.
As for how this affects Two Rivers, Brunner explained that they are more than willing to work with them, and noted that they were not involved in the lawsuit Thursday.
“It’s just a matter of, let’s work as a team,” Brunner said. “Let’s get this whole group together, the City of Manitowoc, the City of Two Rivers, and the MAVCB, and let’s start promoting tourism again.”
We reached out to Mayor Justin Nickels for comment.
He explained that he will be meeting with the city attorneys next Monday to discuss what is next.
He also noted “the order the judge issued isn’t final and there are no actions required of the city at this time. There is another meeting between both parties scheduled in 60 days to talk again.”
As for what this means for the city’s Tourism department, Nickels told Seehafer News, “The city has no intention of eliminating our Tourism Department no matter what ends up finally happening. I just want that to be clear for the record since we spent all year launching our Visit Manitowoc brand and just rolled out our new website. I don’t want people to think we are giving up on tourism because of this ruling.”
