MARIETTA - The Cobb Convention and Visitors Bureau's board voted 9-1 Tuesday to negotiate a plan with the Cobb-Marietta Coliseum & Exhibit Hall Authority that would possibly merge those two bodies. That plan is expected before the board for a vote in a month.

Voting against was board member Jeff Drobney, executive director of the Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History.

The Visitors Bureau promotes tourism in Cobb. The Exhibit Hall Authority funds 85 percent of the Bureau's $1.1 million budget through county hotel/motel tax collections, which are distributed by the Exhibit Hall Authority.

Visitors Bureau board Chairman Michael Knowles, president and CEO of Northwest Bank & Trust, said the merger is a matter of long-term stability.

Knowles, who was appointed to the Visitors Bureau by the Authority, said six weeks ago he approached Authority Chairman Earl Smith about the idea for the merger.

"I think that, given this situation, we can do better through additional resources and branding campaigns and marketing dollars - touch more of the county than we can now given our limited funding. So this decision or this strategy will allow us to really benefit the entire county more than what we have to do now in terms of how we reallocate our marketing dollars," Knowles said.

Visitors Bureau CEO Joyce Calandra, of Marietta, however, opposes the merger because she worries that the Authority will not represent the entire county the way the Bureau does. She also said the merger would mean the end of her job, the jobs of several other Visitors Bureau staffers, and the end of the Bureau's board.

"My concern is that all of the interests of our membership are fairly represented. If we go under the Exhibit Hall Authority, which is currently a seven-member board that has no representation from our industry, how is the industry going to be fairly represented? Where's the understanding of the industry of the hotels in particular?" she said, noting that the first she heard of the merger was when Knowles told her Monday.

While there is talk that the Bureau would keep an advisory council after merging with the Authority, advisory council's don't have voting power, she said.

"They would gain the full budget which would be approximately $1 million ...They have been very vocal about wanting to build or start building a new convention hotel in the area and times are hard for everybody," she said.

Calandra said there is a perception among Bureau members that the Authority only cares about what happens in the Cobb Galleria area because that's where its buildings are.

"I knew we had budget problems but I just didn't think they would go to this extent to get our little million dollars. And really it's not enough to promote ourselves, and Mike Knowles, in all fairness to him, has said that. We are not able to operate like our competitors," she said.

Gwinnett County has twice the budget the Cobb Bureau has, while DeKalb County's budget last year was $4 million. Even the city of Alpharetta has more than her organization does, Calandra said.

Knowles said he is aware of the Authority's reputation for focusing on the Galleria area.

"The perception yeah, I would say the perception has been out there," he said.

Knowles said if there is a merger, he will insist the Authority represents all of Cobb.

"The Authority really needs to represent the entire county, and they need to show it publicly," Knowles said.

Commissioner Tim Lee, who also serves on the Bureau board, appointed by the county commission, voted in favor of beginning negotiations with the Authority.

"I think it warrants looking at because of the economic changes, because of the economic times that we're in," Lee said.

Like Knowles, Lee said it's important that if a merger agreement is reached, all of Cobb must be represented, not just the Galleria area.

"Whether it stays in its existing board structure or it gets restructured it needs to always focus on the best interest of this county as a whole - north side, west side, Six Flags area - all those areas need to be addressed," Lee said.

Bureau board member and Treasurer James Rhoden, Jr., president of Futren Corporation, made the motion to begin negotiations for the merger. Board members Debbie Butler, a vice president with Chattahoochee Technical College, and Frank Quallen, general manager of Atlanta Marriott Northwest, said they didn't feel comfortable voting without having all the facts. Board member Jeff Drobney asked why the rush. He said the board hadn't heard anything from the Authority and what its plans were for a merger.

"I want to make sure we're not authorizing the dissolution of this board," Drobney said.

Bureau Chairman Knowles said his board's four-member executive committee will negotiate with members of the Exhibit Hall Authority over the next few weeks and hopefully bring back a merger plan for the full Visitors Bureau board to vote on in a month.