Sponsorships, grants helped Washington Co. Real Estate Expo to nearly break even
Event was aided by $15,375 from Tourism Promotion Agency
Submitted photo
The Real Estate Expo organized by the Washington County commissioners two months ago nearly broke even with the help of last-minute sponsorship dollars that have flowed in over the past few weeks, including a $15,000 grant from the county’s tourism agency.
The March 12 expo brought in $128,398 in revenue and cost a little more than $130,000 to produce when all expenditures were calculated, according to an open records request by the Observer-Reporter and a review of the specialized bank account opened specifically for the event.
Commission Chairman Nick Sherman touted the success of the event in selling Washington County to outside developers and said it was a worthwhile investment that will happen again next year. He added the event helped to spur several business development opportunities that would be announced at later dates.
“The purpose of this was to do great economic development in Washington County and to do something new to create a buzz and sell Washington County to Southwestern Pennsylvania so people want to move here, build the tax base and bring companies here,” Sherman said Wednesday. “Our staff worked tirelessly on this.”
The Observer-Reporter filed an open records request last month asking for all revenue and expenditures, and was given a list of vendors, sponsors and invoices on Monday. The revenue figures showed a flurry of sponsorship payments have been deposited over the past six weeks, including $15,523 from Chapman Properties to pay for audio and visual equipment at the event, along with another $15,375 grant from the county’s Tourism Promotion Agency given to the commissioners earlier this year.
The invoices from the open records request tallied to $125,492, although county Treasurer Tom Flickinger said Wednesday he found several other miscellaneous payments in the bank account that were attributed to the expo, raising the total cost to $130,217. With no other revenue or payments left, the expo ran a deficit of $1,819, which Flickinger considered a “break-even” point for the event. The bank account currently has $34,962 in it, which Flickinger attributed mostly to “seed money” from the county’s blight mitigation fund that can still be returned to its original account, along with miscellaneous expenses that were paid using other fund accounts.
Both Sherman and Flickinger were critical of a March 31 audit performed by acting controller Heather Sheatler showing the expo lost $51,586 despite not all revenue having been accounted for at that time.
“The audit was premature to review a county event and draw a conclusion over whether it was successful or not,” Flickinger said. “Now that the event is over, you can see it basically was breakeven. Now we have an accurate view of the expo.”
Sherman went even further, saying Sheatler used the audit as a political ploy as she runs in the upcoming Republican primary on May 20 for election to become the full-time controller.
“It was an absolute shame that Heather Sheatler tried to vilify this for her own political purposes,” Sherman said. “I’m just shocked she would go this far and be this mischievous for her own political purposes.”
In response, Sheatler questioned why so many sponsorship payments were sent weeks after the March 12 expo was over rather than having companies that set up booths be required to pay beforehand.
“Why are you soliciting donations that happened for an event (almost) two months ago? I don’t think we should still be getting donations two months later,” Sheatler said. “I think that proves my point that this was a flub and they’re still trying to collect donations.”
Sheatler said she would perform a final audit once all the bank statements are available.
“I think for Washington County taxpayers, we need full transparency,” Sheatler said.
According to the invoices, the largest expense was $35,164 for HGTV television personality Hilary Farr to serve as the keynote speaker for the event. The expo paid $30,000 for her speaking appearance, along with $1,845 for her first-class flight from Toronto and $1,566 for her two-night stay at the Fairmont hotel in Pittsburgh, which included $262 for room service meals that involved a $120 breakfast the morning of the expo, according to the lodging receipts.
The expo, held at Washington & Jefferson College, had 71 sponsors and vendors pay to be included in the upstairs gallery where booths were set up for people to mingle and meet other businesses. Besides Chapman’s donation of $15,523 – which matched the amount Media Quest charged for audio and visual work – the largest other donor was Burns Scalo, which paid $10,000 to be the top sponsor. More than 50 other businesses and organizations paid the $500 fee to have a booth at the expo.
The tourism agency, which the commissioners recently threatened to cut off its funding from hotel tax revenue, gave the county the $17,375 grant to use for whatever purpose this year. It’s not clear if the commissioners ever voted at a public meeting to allocate that grant money for the expo.
Meanwhile, no invoice has been sent from W&J for use of the gymnasium and recreation facility, which Sherman said was an in-kind donation from the school and used as a marketing opportunity to showcase the campus.
Editor’s Note: This story incorrectly identified Chapman Corp. as making a donation to the Washington County Real Estate Expo. Another company by a similar name, Chapman Properties, contributed $15,523 to pay for the event’s audio and visual equipment invoice.