Not getting the chance to review and then recommend for or against a one-time unbudgeted $200,000 allocation of tourist tax money to the Osceola Center for the Arts didn’t sit well with several members of the Tourist Development Council.

“As a board, I thought we were here to give recommendations,” Cheryl Grieb, the city of Kissimmee’s representative on the council, said.

The Osceola Resort Area Council, a subgroup of the Kissimmee/Osceola County Chamber of Commerce, also wasn’t happy about the allocation process.

Steve Trover, of All Star Vacation Homes and chairman of the business group, presented a letter asking that his group be notified 30 days in advance of any proposals on the County Commission agenda involving unbudgeted items using tourist development tax revenue.

Trover said the Tourist Development Council should be given the opportunity to review all proposed spending.

Jim Murphy, chairman of the Tourist Development Council, said a better procedure would be for the county to make sure that items such as the art center allocation go before his group first, which is where representatives of the lodging industry through the Osceola Resort Area Council could comment.

County Commissioner John Quiñones, a member of the Tourist Development Council, said he would make sure that there would be discussion of the 30-day notice at Monday’s commission meeting.

“I think notice should be required and participation and input is essential when we deliberate,” Quiñones said, referring to the County Commission.

Fred Cumbie, council member and local attorney, said asking the county for notice on unbudgeted spending is “demeaning,” since making recommendations on spending is the purpose of the group. He said the council has asked for this kind of notice for years without success.

“We shouldn’t have to beg to let us hear the requests first,” he said. Commenting about the recent allocation, George Nickerson, assistant county attorney, clarified several points about the arts center. He said the county since 2006 has owned the buildings that comprise the center and the parcel of property it sits on while the center owns an adjacent parcel next to U.S. Highway 192. He also said the center leases the buildings and property from the county and that spending tourist tax money for operating expenses for a county-owned facility such as this was a legitimate use of the lodging tax.

In a related item, Tom Lang, executive director of the Kissimmee Convention and Visitors Bureau, said proposals were to be opened Wednesday to provide to the county eight portable basketball backboards and four portable flooring systems that could be used for basketball and other indoor sports.

The equipment, estimated to cost $245,000, would be used initially in the exhibition building at Osceola Heritage Park for a Youth Basketball of America tournament in June.

Tourist development tax reserves would be used to fund the purchase. This request also was not budgeted and did not go before the Tourist Development Council previously.

The County Commission is set to consider this item Monday.