Hancock County convention bureau chief is dismissed

5/20/2004

FINDLAY - The director of the Hancock County Convention & Visitors Bureau has been fired due to unspecified "internal employee issues," according to Douglas Peters, president of the Findlay-Hancock County Chamber of Commerce.

Denae Griggs, who was hired in March, 2003, was fired by Mr. Peters on Tuesday. He said he had attempted to work through some of the problems with her but was not successful.

"All of us have to pull on the same end of the rope and when someone elects to pull on the opposite end, we have to make changes," he said.

Ms. Griggs was hired after the formerly part-time convention and visitors bureau was reorganized into a full-time operation and began receiving 100 percent of the county's hotel bed tax to use for tourism and marketing efforts.

Prior to 2002, only two-fifths of the bed tax went to the visitors bureau, while the rest was divided among the Hancock County Fair Board, the Hancock Recreation Center, and the Hancock County Engineer's Office. Ohio law requires all of the hotel-motel tax to go to the visitors bureau.