2012, 02-02 minutes round 2 CITY OF SPOKANE VALLEY, WA
Lodging Tax Advisory Committee
Minutes of Meeting held February 2, 2012
Round 2 for 2012 Award Year
The meeting was called to order at 8:45 am and in attendance was:
• Committee Members Jeff Fiman, Peggy Doering, Doug Kelley, Lee Cameron and
Committee Chair - Brenda Grassel.
• City Staff comprised of Sarah Farr and Mark Calhoun.
• Applicant presenters including Denise Pauling (Unlimited Marketing for Valleyfest)
and Bill Burke (for Valleyfest), Jayne Singleton and Herman Meier (Spokane Valley
Heritage Museum), Cheryl Kilday and Jeanna Hofmeister(Spokane Regional CVB),
Emily Osborne and Mandy Degrosellier(Liberty Lake Rotary Club), Jim Harken
(Spokane Valley Arts Council), Rich Hartzell and Erin Gurtel (Spokane County Fair
and Expo Center)
Brenda Grassel opened the meeting with Committee member introductions and Mark
Calhoun then addressed the Committee and applicants on a number of issues
including:
• An explanation that although the meeting was open to the public there would be no
opportunity for public comment at this time. He went on to explain that public
comment would be welcome at the City Council meeting on February 28 and March
27 when this topic was brought before the City Council.
• He noted the Regional Golf Consortium would not be making a presentation and
could not be considered for funding because they had not yet received notification
from the IRS that their application for a tax exempt status had been approved.
• He provided an overview of the agenda and gave a brief explanation related to the
financial information included in the Committee packet. He noted that based upon
the 2012 Budget for the Hotel/Motel Tax Fund there remained approximately
$169,200 for the Committee to award in Round 2 which would leave an estimated
2012 year end fund balance of $229,856. He explained that based upon Committee
comments from the Round 1 process, if the fund balance were drawn down by an
additional $125,000 to provide total Round 2 awards of $294,200, the 2012 year end
fund balance would decrease to an estimated $104,856 which should be adequate
to cover:
o Cash flow resulting from the one-month delay between when the tax is collected
by a hotel and when it is remitted to the City.
o The uncertainty of what actual revenues might be.
o The need for additional money should an unexpected opportunity arise during the
year.
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Applicant presentations were then made:
• 9:00 Valleyfest Peggy Doering, Denise Pauling, Bill Burke
• 9:30 Spokane Valley Heritage Museum Jayne Singleton and Herman Meier
• 9:45 Liberty Lake Rotary Club Emily Osborne and Mandy Degrosellier
• 10:00 Spokane Convention and Visitors Bureau -Visit Spokane Cheryl Kilday and
Jeanna Hofmeister
• 10:55 Spokane Valley Arts Council Dr. James (Jim) Harken
• 11:15 Spokane County Fair and Expo Center Rich Hartzell and Erin Gurtel
• One applicant - the Spokane Valley Soccer Club who was scheduled to make a
10:50 presentation, did not show.
Following the presentations the committee discussed the merits of providing funding to
the organizations. Each committee member then expressed their rationale for making
the following allocation recommendations:
Recommended Awards Final
Amount Brenda Doug Peggy Lee Jeff Award
Applicant Requested Grassel Kelley Doering Cameron Fiman Average Amount
Valleyfest 50,000 15,000 0 36,000 0 0 10,200 0
Spokane Valley Heritage Museum 6,000 1,100 1,100 1,100 1,100 1,100 1,100 0
Liberty Lake Rotary Club 5,000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Spokane Reg.C&V Bureau(Visit Spokane 275,000 268,800 275,000 200,000 275,000 275,000 256,760 0
Spokane Valley Arts Council 50,000 0 0 27,100 0 0 5,420 0
Spokane Valley Soccer Club 25,000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Spokane County Fair&Expo Center 30,000 21,200 30,000 30,000 30,000 30,000 28,240 0
440,000 306,100 306,100 294,200 306,100 306,100 303,720 0
Contingent upon requiring that a meeting be held In Spokane Valley between partners applying for lodging tax 294,200
in order to discuss joint marketing opportunities.
After further discussion Ms. Grassel moved that the Committee accept the
recommendations and this was approved through a vote consisting of 5 members, all in
favor.
Ms. Grassel then began a discussion regarding developing an award calendar for the
2013 award process and whether there should be one or two rounds. Mark Calhoun
explained that the award process begins with developing a lodging tax revenue
projection for 2013 and that he is reluctant to do so without 6-months of 2012 revenue
history, which isn't available until the latter part of July 2012. He went on to explain that
by waiting for this information it essentially forces the City into just a single round. The
calendar the City has historically used is essentially:
• Prepare application materials through August.
• Run notices of the award process through the latter part of August to early
September.
• Receive applications by the middle of September.
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• Prepare application materials for Committee review through the latter part of
September and mail them to Committee members by September 30,
• Applicant presentations to the Committee in mid-October.
• No less than 45-days later, the City Council makes a final determination, which is the
latter part of November.
Ms. Grassel commented that we don't really need two rounds but that we should
consider setting the calendar back by two weeks to allow Valleyfest and Spokane
County Fair and Expo time to apply with a complete application including the statistical
information the Committee requires to make a decision. The Committee considered
revising the calendar but ultimately decided to keep the timeline for the 2013 award
process the same as the fall of 2012.
Meeting adjourned at 12:55 p.m.
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