The Ole Seagull’s Jun. 11 column, entitled “Will the City of
The column was prompted by a letter that Link recently mailed to a lot of Branson businesses demanding that they furnish their customer lists to the city within 30 days and stating that the “City Code” required them to do so. Specifically the column responded to, among other things, the fact that the City Code contains no such requirement and the Attila the Hun like tactic the letter tried to use to coerce compliance with a non existent legal requirement.
In the response Link says, “I would venture a guess that you are getting your information from the handful of individuals that tend to be against virtually everything the City does.” His guess is as wrong as was the statement in his letter implying that the City Code required businesses to submit their customer lists as the letter demanded.
Even a cursory reading of the column indicates that it is based on documentary evidence. That evidence includes Links original letter, Dody’s response to an email inquiry the Ole Seagull sent him regarding the letter, and a review of the City Code sections that Dody referred to in his response. The documents speak for themselves and the only “individuals” furnishing information used in the column were Link and Dody. Does that equate to a “handful of individuals that tend to be against virtually everything the City does?”
Link goes on to say, “It surprises me that you would be in favor of allowing businesses to get by without paying taxes when those very taxes go to the improvement of Branson through infrastructure, marketing and subsidized utility services for the whole community.” Well Link wasn’t the only one surprised because the column contained as much mention of “allowing businesses to get by without paying taxes” as the City Code does authorizing the City of Branson to use a mass mailing to require Branson businesses to send their customer lists to the city so that it can go through them on a “fishing expedition” to determine the tourism tax compliance of the businesses in the lists.
Now things start to get almost laughable. The tax Link talks about has been in effect for over ten years and the City of
Link said, “I must state that I am very surprised that a person I have heard is a lawyer would have such a shallow and lack of understanding when it comes to reading ordinances.” For what it’s worth, that “shallow and lack of understanding” is based on 25 years of experience in interpreting, and teaching Federal Regulations involved with the safe transportation of Dangerous Goods, both domestically and internationally, giving compliance advice to companies, and defending companies that had been charged with violations of those regulations.
In this case however, legal experience has nothing to do with the situation. It is simply a matter of reading. The City Code either contains a provision requiring the submission of the information as demanded in the letter or it does not.
Links own words say it does not! In the email response he says, “Obviously the Tourism Tax Code does not have a provision that states that Paul D. Link is authorized to send out letters to all theaters and hotels to obtain lists of people engaged in the process of selling admission to said entities.”
In an Ole Seagull’s opinion, the city’s typical smoke and mirror show aside, the letter sent to Branson’s businesses demanding that they submit their customer lists to the city within 30 days because the City Code required it, when it was “obvious” that City Code did not, was deceptive. Even worse however, is not simply the shallowness of the professionalism and integrity involved with the attempt but the fact that Branson’s elected leadership, its Mayor and Board of Aldermen, tolerate the very businesses that have made Branson what it is being treated in this manner.
