Community Promotion & Tourism

Village Hall Village of Lombard 255 East Wilson Ave. Lombard, IL 60148 villageoflombard.org Minutes Community Promotion & Tourism Trustee Mike Fugiel, Chairperson, Trustee Bill Johnston, Alternate Chairperson, Jill Payne, Marguerite Micken, Joe Orsolini, Lori Solyom, Nancy Schukat and Phil Dahm Ex-Officio Members: Yvonne Invergo - Lombard Chamber of Commerce; Beth Marchetti - DuPage Convention & Visitors' Bureau; Yorktown Merchants' Association - Todd Hiepler; Mary Eckhoff - Embassy Suites; Brian Flood - Extended Stay Deluxe; Randy Kline - Stay Inn; Nilesh Pandey - Hyatt Place; Karen Borris - Marriott Fairfield Inn; Homestead Village; Frank Balisteri - Comfort Suites; Cynthia Ivey - Marriott Residence Inn; Josh Dieker - Towne Place Suites; Mike Feigenbaum - The Westin Hotel Tuesday, February 23, 2016 7:00 PM Village Manager's Conference Room 1.0 Call to Order and Pledge of Allegiance The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Chairperson Mike Fugiel. Joe Orsolini led the committee in the Pledge of Allegiance. 2.0 Roll Call Present 6 - Mike Fugiel, Bill Johnston, Marguerite Micken, Jill Payne, Joe Orsolini, and Nancy Schukat Absent 2 - Lori Solyom, and Phil Dahm Also Present: Nicole Aranas, Committee Liaison, Tim Sexton, Finance Director, Trustee Bill Johnston, Yvonne Invergo of the Lombard Chamber of Commerce. Also present Bob DiFino, Glenbard Boosters, and Jennifer Hennegan, Lombard Historical Society. 3.0 Public Participation None. Village of Lombard Page 1 Community Promotion & Tourism Minutes February 23, 2016 4.0 Approval of Minutes The minutes were corrected to reflect the Lilac Princess program sponsor as the Lombard Junior Women’s Club, not league. A motion was made by Nancy Schukat, seconded by Jill Payne, to approve as corrected. The motion was approved by a unanimous vote. 5.0 Old Business 150376 DuPage Convention and Visitors Bureau Pilot Grant Program Revising the recommendation on approval of Village Funds, from Hotel/Motel funds, for local participation in the DuPage CVB pilot grant program. Nicole presented a requested amendment to the DuPage Convention and Visitors Pilot Incentive Program to permit grants to be issued to applications that do not meet the strict criteria of the DCVB program. The DCVB recently received a request for funding that was not technically eligible under their program guidelines because the program requires new groups to the facility and the proposed applicant was seeking grant funding for a repeat event to prevent the group from relocating. In addition to eligibility regarding repeat business, there are minimum room criteria and restrictions on certain types of events that may preclude the Village from awarding grant funding to events and programs that would otherwise fit the spirit and intent of the program. The Committee made a recommendation to amend the proposed recommendation to the Village Board of Trustees to allow for the Village of Lombard to authorize grant funding to the DCVB for programs and events that do not meet the strict eligibility criteria of the current DCVB program. A motion was made by Jill Payne, seconded by Marguerite Micken, to amend the prior committee recommendation to permit the award of Lombard grant funding to the DCVB to include consideration of grant requests that do not meet all eligibility criteria under the DCVB grant program. The motion passed by unanimous vote. 6.0 New Business 160007 Local Tourism Grant Application 2016 - Lombard Ale Fest Grant request from the Glenbard East High School Boosters in the amount of $10,000, from Hotel/Motel funds, for costs associated with the 3rd Annual Ale Fest, to be held June 11, 2016, at West Parkside at Lilacia Park. Bob Difino, event chair for Glenbard East Boosters presented the grant application for the Lombard Ale Fest. The event is similar to last year with proceeds benefiting the turf field at Glenbard East. Bob Village of Lombard Page 2 Community Promotion & Tourism Minutes February 23, 2016 Biddle, Dan Bellinger and Tim Glennon will be Events Chairs for Glenbard East Boosters next year. Trustee Fugiel is on Glenbard East Boosters Committee and will be abstaining from the voting. Lombard Ale Fest worked with a hotel partner last year and had four hotel stays documented in relation to the event. The Boosters are hopeful to grow stays with them over the year. It is anticipated that the event will grow by 300-400 people this year to be over 2,000 people in attendance. The proceeds from the event are being used to pay off bonds for the turf fields in partnership with the school and Park District. The Boosters would like to try to take grants through this program only through 2019. Jill Payne inquired if the grant request was for the same amount as last year. Bob Difino replied that the amount of the request this year has not changed since last year. The event is very weather dependent. If the forecast is good, the event can possibly draw more than 2,000 people to the downtown. The downtown businesses are also beneficiaries of the event and in 2014, donations were made by businesses downtown because one of the establishments had their best night in years. Cruise Nights has also been crowded and gets visitors coming from the event. Unfortunately last year, the Blackhawks were in the final and there were torrential rains. The event needs barricades valued at $290 but the port-o-lets have been donated so far. Street cleaning and police security are estimated at $1,500-1,700. The cost for these services can be paid from an invoice if requested or can be taken out of the grant. Sacred Heart is paid for allowing us to park 80+ cars in their parking lot. Jill Payne made a motion to approve the grant application in an amount not to exceed $10,000, seconded by Marguerite Micken. The motion was approved by unanimous vote. 160008 Local Tourism Grant Application 2016 - Lombard's Civil War Reenactment Grant request from the Lombard Historical Society in the amount of $8,550, from Hotel/Motel funds, for entertainment, supplies and advertising for the event. The event will be held July 22-24, 2016, at Four Seasons Park. Jennifer Hennegan, president of LHS presented the application of the Lombard Historical Society for annual Civil War Reenactment. This event will mark the 6th year of this annual event. Last year, the event drew 4,400 attendees and this year is expected to exceed 5,000. The Society is asking 75% reimbursement of their total costs. Last year the event generated 14 known hotel stays by reaching out to reenactment groups in advance to give them information on Lombard Hotels. There may have been other hotel stays that the Society is not aware of. For Village of Lombard Page 3 Community Promotion & Tourism Minutes February 23, 2016 2016, the Society is increasing advertising. There is an area in Wisconsin that previously had a reenactment that is now cancelled and they are trying to capture some of those individuals who would have interest. They will also do local advertising. No Village services for this event are being requested this year. If the Society did not receive the full $7,500 in grant funds, they would attempt to increase sponsorships which they are trying to do this year. The event is not a large money making event for the Society. It primarily serves to further the mission of the LHS. Other Civil War Reenactments are generally not big profit makers. Marguerite asked if the Society would be able to raise funds by reaching out to enthusiasts and others in Civil War reenactment community. Joe Orsolini asked about local food trucks and the ability to get more local restaurants involved. Trustee Fugiel indicated that he recalls seeing some attendees out on the town and supporting local businesses during the event in prior years. Jill Payne stated that she hoped that the Society would find additional local sponsorship because the grant request is currently at 75% of the total costs. A motion was made to approve by Nancy Schukat, seconded by Jill Payne, to approve the $8,550 grant request. The motion passed by unanimous vote. 160009 Local Tourism Grant Application 2016 - Spooktacular Grant request from the Lombard Town Centre in the amount of $2,150, from Hotel/Motel funds, for costs associated with the Spooktacular Event. The event will be held on October 16, 2016, at St. Charles and Park in Lombard. Due to the change in the meeting time, Sarah Richardt was not able to attend the meeting as it is in conflict with the Park District Board meeting. Bob DiFino was available to answer any questions on behalf of Sarah Richardt. The event this year is scheduled for October 16th. Grant funding in previous years had exceeded $5,000 and now Lombard Town Centre is only asking for grant funding to cover the cost of Village services. While the event is not specifically an event that brings a lot of hotel stays, it does bring 4,000 people downtown with a maximum capacity of 4,500. Joe Orsolini inquired as to whether the grant would be in the form of a cash award or a waiver of service cost. Nicole answered that the grant will be for a waiver of the cost of any Village services with the exception of any services generated by private security or the FOP. Marguerite Micken inquired as to whether there can be more of an attempt to use local vendors vs. businesses from outside Lombard. Bob stated he would ask Sarah. Yvonne stated her experience with the Arts & Craft Fair where many of the local restaurants are not Village of Lombard Page 4 Community Promotion & Tourism Minutes February 23, 2016 interested or cannot handle having mobile sales in addition to maintaining their storefront. Marguerite stated that she wanted to be sure that downtown businesses did benefit from the event. Yvonne stated that the restaurants were all full during the event. Joe Orsolini motioned, seconded by Jill Payne, to approve the $2,150 grant request. The motion passed by unanimous vote. 7.0 Other Business 160085 Long Range Planning (LRP) Long Range Budget Planning Discussion Tim Sexton, Finance Director, presented information from the Finance Committee on the long range structural budget deficit. Looking at the 2016 operating budget, there was a deficit that was addressed for that year, but recognizing that the problem was a structural one, the Finance Committee took the time this year to begin addressing the structural problem for 2017. Tim Sexton reviewed the financial forecast and stated that the objective was to align our revenues with our expenditures. High and rising costs for pensions and workers compensation are state mandates that are largely out of our control but we need to make sure we realign our other expenditures. Last year the Governor recommended a 50% cut in LGDF which caused the Village to preemptively hold off on some positions. Mike Fugiel stated that even though we have $35 million at play within our budget, most of our costs are fixed and non-discretionary. Tim explained that the Village has broken out the budget into discretionary and non-discretionary expenditures. We have non-discretionary service level expectations such as pensions, union contracts and fixed contracts. Discretionary items are those such as training and travel and other areas where the expenditures are not necessary. Non-discretionary expenditures account for approximately 94% of the budget with only 6% discretionary or changeable. The Village got started on the 2017 budget early, in November 2015 to start working on a strategy to address the structural budget deficit. The preference of the Finance Committee was to employ a combination of revenue generation and expenditure cuts. Next month, the Committee will make a final recommendation to the Village Board on addressing the structural budget deficit through a long range plan. The Village Board will vote on the long range plan in June with the budget to be presented in August. Village of Lombard Page 5 Community Promotion & Tourism Minutes February 23, 2016 The Finance and Administration Committee will be recommending a 50/50 split of revenue and expenditures and left the specific decisions to the Village Manager and staff. They are also recommending an increase of the Places for Eating tax by 1% for 2017. There will be a communications push externally to the community. Marguerite Micken asked about when the tax was implemented and how often it has been increased. Tim stated that the tax was implemented in 2003 and this has been the only attempt to increase the tax since then. The Committee also compared the proposed rate to other mall areas. Even with an increase of 1%, the Places for Eating tax would still be lower than most other mall towns. Mike Fugiel requested that we continue to update the committees as we move forward. With the PFE we did a study to show that 55% of non-home rule sales tax is paid by non-residents. With our large daytime populations and hotel stays, a large amount of our places for eating taxes are paid by non-local residents. Jill Payne asked how Yorktown is doing. Tim stated that the Village does not see business by business information but Yorktown tells us they are doing well. Compared to some other shopping mall areas, we are doing particularly well. 8.0 Information Only None. 9.0 Adjournment A motion to adjourn was made by Marguerite Micken, seconded by Jill Payne, at 8:14 p.m. The motion was approved by unanimous vote. Village of Lombard Page 6