TDCs band together to combat spill

Area tourism officials could tackle the problem of addressing the oil spill by themselves, but they are learning they are stronger together.

Walton and Okaloosa counties’ tourist development councils are the first participants in the newly formed Regional Economic Recovery Coalition. The TDCs have reached out to their counterparts from Escambia, Santa Rosa, Bay, Washington, Gulf and Franklin counties to join them.

• President Obama tours Pensacola Beach. »
• Is this oil? You decide. »

“Anytime we can work together in the region, we have a louder, stronger, more impactful voice on behalf of the region,” said Dawn Moliterno, executive director of the Walton County TDC. “We’re clearly all in the same situation, dealing with the same impacts. For us to have a collective voice and focus is going to be beneficial to everybody.

“We’re already talking amongst ourselves quite a bit,” she added. “We see this as just the natural next step in this process.”

The Washington, D.C.-based government affairs consulting firm Marlowe & Company contracts with both the Okaloosa and Walton TDCs and suggested the regional partnership.

Moliterno said Marlowe & Company is drafting letters to send to Congress, requesting that TDC professionals be given an opportunity to testify at future oil spill hearings and that some hearings be held in areas being affected by the spill.

Another goal of the coalition is to have the federal government create a Deepwater Horizon oil spill re-lief package, similar to one that was created to help New Orleans recover from Hurricane Katrina.

“I think it’s extremely important that Northwest Florida has a single voice as we go forward to deal with the mid-term and long-term problems that are coming from the oil spill,” said Howard Marlowe, president of Marlowe & Company. “If we don’t take this action now, it’s likely we’ll be a stepchild of whatever assistance Congress comes up with.”

Marlowe said the partnerships are not all about money. One of his goals for the coalition is to push for better cooperation between government agencies involved in managing the spill. He cited the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency as two groups that should be communicating better with one another.

“There’s no coordination going on,” Marlowe said. “We’re going to be pushing for coordination and policy decisions that will hopefully help in making this better for now and into the future.”