Transient Lodging Tax Committee Minutes
February 20, 2020
Baker County Commission Chambers
Meeting called to order @ 9:04 am
Members Present: Loran Joseph, Chelsea Judy, Karen Owen, Lea Gettle, Tori Thatcher and Buell Gonzales
Guest Present: Mike Raney, Jerry Shaw, Tyler Brown, Shelly Cutler, Diane Wroe, Jeff Nelson, Fred Warner, Stacy Delong, Timothy Bishop, Shelly Christensen and Bill Harvey
Approve Minutes:
Meeting minutes from January 30, 2020 were reviewed. Loran moved that the minutes be approved and Karen seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Approve Agenda:
Loran moved that the agenda be approved. Chelsea seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Grant Requests:
Huntington Lions Catfish Derby – Mike Raney
The Huntington Lions Catfish Derby is requesting $1,000 to fund the prize money for biggest fish and daily prizes. This event will be held May 23rd – 25th. This year marks the 35th year for this event. The proceeds from the derby will provide glasses and hearing aids through the Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation. Mike indicated the derby will be the same as in the past but with the VFW closing there will be no steak feed in conjunction with the derby. Loran moved to award the $1,000 grant request, Buell seconded the motion. Motion carried.
Marketing Update: Timothy
Timothy shared that one nomination for the Oregon Festivals & Events award will be recognized with an Ovation Award at the Conference in Bend on February 27th -29th. The recipient will be able to attend with no scholarship assistance.
Four Baker County partners received funding from the EOVA Regional Tourism grants program; Go Wild American Adventures, Churchill School, National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center (TLT provided matching funds) and the Baker Heritage Museum. EOVA will be offering grant writing training.
Rick and Kathy Dancer from PNW Backstories visited the area in January. The social media post reported a 10-day total tracking in excess of 773,000 impressions for the footage. The most popular were from the Cornucopia and Halfway area. In addition, exploresue.com who was in town February 3rd has already posted an article and travel writer Hadley Meares who was in town last November is writing serval stories for Atlas Obscura.
The Marketing Committee is still moving forward with the application for a Travel Oregon medium sized grant to develop a wayfinding, interpretation and recreation access signage plan for the Elkhorn Scenic Byway. The medium size grant application is expected to open in April and have a 30-60 day application period.
Go West Summit has been impacted by the Corona Virus as historically a large number of attending tour operators are from China. Most of those tour operators are trying to send US based counterparts to fill appointments.
The work continues in supporting Union and Wallowa Counties with the application for a Travel Oregon Rural Tourism Studio for Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. This is proving to be a more complex application process than anticipated and all three partners are actively working on the application this week and next.
Upcoming: the Outdoor Show in Boise, EOVA guides are out and Timothy is getting ready for summer.
Loran asked about events that we are losing this summer. Timothy indicated the only big event lost is Tributefest. There has been a date change on the film festival so it coincides with the end of fair. The last week in June will be the Idaho/British car tour which will coincide with the cycle classic and the Hells Canyon Jr. Rodeo. The last weekend in September will be the Last Hoorah Ranch Rodeo and the Carl Wendt Memorial Bronc Ride. Last weekend in August will be the Durkee Steak Feed.
Visitor Services Update: Shelly
Shelly shared graphs which show daily and weekly total reach for the month of January 2020 along with statistics for visitors to the Center, calls, materials distributed, Facebook and website. There was a 10% increase comparing January 2019 to January 2020 in pretty much every category.
Board of Commissioners Contract Awards: Bill Harvey
At their February 19th meeting the Board of Commissioners (BOC) voted to postpone the Visitors’ Services contract award based on a possible conflict of interest with BCDC and allowing the Commission to hold public hearings on the matter in October. It was recommended that the existing contract with BCU be extended to December 31, 2020 in order to give legal counsel enough time to review the possible conflict of interest. Lea clarified one reason the Commissioners recommended extending the contract was that the RFP’s were not approved by the Commission before release, which was not true. The Board of Commissioners reviewed and approved the RFPs at their November 6, 2019 session. Bill explained the potential conflict of interest with BCDC and the vagueness of the Visitors Services RFP. Lea asked if the Commission will be holding the public hearings. Bill indicated yes, the BOC will be holding the public hearings and suggested if there are concerns with that process to bring them before the BOC. Loran asked if a new RFP will be put out again, Bill replied no. (see further discussion/clarification below)
Lea asked if the current MOU will be extended along with the Visitors Services contract. Bill indicated yes, whatever is currently in place will be extended. Lea gave a quick overview of the current MOU to be recorded in the minutes:
Memorandum of Understanding:
7. A visitor’s log or guest book will be available at the visitor center. Statistics, including all of the information Shelly presented today, shall be presented to the TLTC semi-annually. Lea wants to make sure that is being done.
8. A representative of BCU, Inc. will attend TLTC meetings to remain informed regarding events and promotions related to Baker County Tourism. We had several months when we did not have a representative available for questions.
Professional Services Agreement, Item 2
d) Report to the TLTC Committee semiannually on the following:
1. Number of clients served
2. Number update on tourism related topics
3. Issues of concern
4. Hours of operation
Lea asked to make note that there is nothing in this PSA relating to event support. Lea made a request of Visitors Services for a personnel budget and how the hours are being allocated between the Chamber, Event Support and Visitors Services. This request is authorized by: Section V of the PSA which reads; County and its duly authorized representatives shall have access to the books, documents, papers and records of BCU, which are directly pertinent to the specific Agreement for the purpose of making audit, examination, excerpts and transcripts. Lea wanted to make sure the Committee pays special attention to this document as this was the exact document that the RFP was written off of. The vagueness of the RFP was addressed. Bill indicated that the RFP only listed six items and the confirmation of no conflict of interest was not addressed in the proposal submitted by BCDC/Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort. If the BOC had made a decision on the recommendation one bidder would have been thrown out because they did not provide that confirmation. Bill pointed out Section C of the RFP that states …shall defend, save and hold harmless County, its officers, agents and employees… We cannot do that if you are the one who owns it. Bill wanted to make sure that was clear and recorded as well. Loran asked if a new RFP is not solicited for new proposals do we have one that is acceptable. Bill indicated that once the RFP is rewritten it will be need to go back out. Loran asked if we would go through the RFP process again and Bill indicated that anytime you change a RFP it has to go back out for proposals. Lea indicated that was a different answer than they thought.
Bill indicated the Tourism and Marketing Services contract will be reviewed by legal counsel and will be signed in March.
Financial Reports:
Shelly indicated that fourth quarter reports/revenue are complete. Timothy asked about the one house that is required to pay/report lodging taxes monthly. Those payments are due the 15th of the month following the reporting month and past due after the end of the month. Therefore, the January taxes are not reported as of this date. Fred asked Timothy about the expenditure to Pink Bike. Timothy explained that this was a matching funds to the mountain biking magazine and their coverage of five mountain biking destinations in Oregon including the Elkhorn Mountains.
Citizen’s Participation: None
Strategic Planning Update:
Lea asked for an update on Baker County branding. Tori indicated that things are moving slowly as they don’t have a Marketing Committee to share ideas. Timothy stated the Marketing Committee is currently in transition. The goal is to get some very generic concepts from a company like Fiber where we can get it done really cheap so they can get an idea of where they are going before they hire a brand new company that can do all of the branding parts. As Chelsea and Tori will be unavailable for a while Lea will be taking the lead in their absence. Bill questioned Timothy about the Marketing Committee which is a committee appointed by the BOC. The Marketing Committee last meet in October of 2019. Timothy is working to get that Committee established once again. Timothy indicated the Travel Oregon mid-sized grant for wayfinding will incrementally move the strategic plan forward. There are some things that need to be updated on the website before we get into travel season. Chelsea asked what is the expenditure timeline for the TO medium grant. The grant has a two-year expenditure timeline, which gave assurance that the wayfinding will not be complete before the branding. Chelsea recommended we get input for outlying communities for branding,
EDC Update:
Karen indicated that at the last EDC meeting the Committee agreed to write a letter of support to recommend to the County to award Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort the Visitors Services contract. The RFP for a temporary EDC contractor was posted and due back by 2/28 for review at the next meeting. Fred questioned the possible conflict of interest on the proposal received for the EDC RFP. Bill indicated the EDC member in question would resign from the Committee if awarded the contactor position. Fred asked for clarification of the conflict of interest with the BCDC Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort’s proposal.
Bylaws Update:
None
Staff Comments:
None
Committee Comments:
Buell informed the Committee of the district tournaments and upcoming events. He will get the dates out to the Committee as soon as possible.
Karen indicated that she has elected not to renew her term as an EDC member and this will be her last TLTC meeting as an EDC representative. Lea thanked Karen for her time serving on the Committee.
Loran asked Timothy if he would reach out to Bryan Vegter on the Baker City Cycling Classic. Timothy said there have been some challenges with sponsorship. He will reach out and have more information to report at the next meeting.
Next Meeting:
March 19, 2020 @ 9:00 am
Meeting adjourned at 9:56
Respectfully Submitted:
Shelly Christensen