Occupancy Tax Board

Approved June 28, 2016 MINUTES OF THE OCCUPANCY TAX BOARD MEETING Tuesday, May 24, 2016 Regular Meeting 2:30 P.M. CALL TO ORDER AND WELCOME – The regular meeting of the Occupancy Tax Board was called to order at 2:31 p.m. by Chairperson Jim Fielding. ROLL CALL Members Present: Chair- Jim Fielding, Stephanie Gerdts, Kerry Moore, Josh Ragsdale Members Absent: Jill Cleveland Four of the five members of the board were present representing a quorum. Staff Present: Janice Self, Lodgers’ Tax Liaison; Monica Garcia, Finance Director Others Present: Bill Flynt (Dragonfly Festival) APPROVAL OF AGENDA – Mr. Ragsdale motioned to approve the agenda. Ms. Moore seconded the motion. A voice vote was unanimous and the motion passed; Ms. Cleveland was absent. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – Ms. Moore motioned to approve the minutes from the April 26, 2016 Occupancy Tax Board meeting. Mr. Ragsdale seconded the motion. A voice vote was unanimous and the motion passed; Ms. Cleveland was absent. PUBLIC COMMENTS None REGULAR ITEMS (Action Items): 3. Lodgers Tax Request – 15th Annual Bitter Lake Wildlife Refuge Dragonfly Festival (Sept 10- 11, 2016) Mr. Bill Flynt was there to present the request for $1,000.00 (one thousand dollars). Mr. Flynt informed the board that last year the Dragonfly Festival counted 1300 people as they entered the event. The event is mainly about dragonflies, but there are several other types of tours during the festival. Wildlife tours are given by Biologist Tour guides. Tours are two (2) hours long. The Dragonfly tours always fill up. Presentations are given all day on Saturday in the auditorium. Boy Scouts sell hot dogs and cokes at lunch as a fundraiser for the troop. A billboard advertising the event will go up one (1) month ahead of the event. There is an area contest for school age children to submit art work for the featured dragonfly art on the advertising. Upon being questioned, Mr. Flynt said while about 1300 people attended the dragonfly festival last year only 60 filled out the survey. Several suggestions were made to see if survey information could be gathered in a better way. Mr. Ragsdale made the motion to recommend to the Finance Committee that Lodgers’ Tax funding in the amount of up to $1,000.00 (one thousand dollars) on a reimbursement basis be provided for this event. Ms.  Gerdts seconded the motion. Mr. Fielding restated the motion and a voice vote was unanimous and the motion passed; Ms. Cleveland was absent. All attendees were informed that the date for the Finance Committee meeting has been set for Thursday, June 2, 2016 at 8:00 a.m. Other Business / Non-Action Items / Information Items / Reports (Non-Action Items): 4. Reimbursement Report and Event Reports update: Ms. Self explained the update report for new members on the Lodgers’ Tax funded events status since the April 26, 2016 meeting. 5. Information concerning June OTB meeting: Ms. Self explained that at the end of the June meeting, the Occupancy Tax Board would be allocating funding for the FY 2017 events. The allocated amount is a guide to the event funding and the amount recommend can be changed at the time of the request review. Ms. Self also explained the total amount of budget for the Visitor Promotion events (regular events) for FY 2017 will be $70,000 and an actual budget amount for Large/Contract Events will be $190,000. Previously the Large/Contract Events were taken out of Lodgers’ Tax reserves. In FY 2017 there will be a budgeted amount. 6. Event History Report: Ms. Self introduced a new Event History report with the Dragonfly Festival request. Mrs. Self asked if the report was helpful and asked if it was a report the members would like to have in the future for each event. Members requested that the report be included in the future. ADJOURN Mr. Fielding asked if there was any other business, being none Mr. Fielding requested a motion for adjournment. Ms. Moore made the motion to adjourn and Ms. Gerdts seconded the motion. A voice vote was unanimous and the motion passed; Ms. Cleveland was absent. Mr. Fielding stated that the next scheduled meeting of the Occupancy Tax Board is June 28, 2016. The meeting was adjourned at 3:04 p.m. Minutes submitted for approval by Janice Self. A copy of the written update presented and a copy of the update log may be requested through the City Clerk’s office.