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HomeMy WebLinkAboutclosed_caption10:03:34 Alright, well, let's move a lot on the agenda and just 1 h to do it. 10:03:40 So I will call this meeting of the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee to order and 1st on our agenda. 10:03:47 Is a public comment period. So anyone from the public that's with us, I don't think we have anyone in the room. 10:03:53 Or let me know if we do, but if you're online, you can hit the raise hand button or start 9 if you're on the phone to make public comment on any topic. 10:04:00 And we would love to hear from you. 10:04:05 And we will take public comment on particular actions if we take any actions as a group today, but I'll make one last call for public comment on any general topic. 10:04:15 Okay, seeing no hands I will close public comment and move on to approval of the minutes from May 10.th 10:04:22 Did folks have a chance to review those? 10:04:25 Any corrections or I'd welcome a motion to approve if you're still inclined. 10:04:31 Make a motion to prove. 10:04:32 Okay. I'll second. 10:04:35 All right, it's been moved and seconded. Any further comment? Nope, all in favor indicate by saying aye. 10:04:42 Hi. 10:04:42 Alright. 10:04:44 Alright, and then we second it, Amy. 10:04:42 Hi. Alright, that is. Diana, seconded. 10:04:48 And I'm sorry, thank you. 10:04:50 Hmm. All right, next up is our first, st RFP contract report, from, from, Melissa Andres and the, the forks and visitor information center. 10:05:05 Okay. 10:05:04 So, thanks for, stepping up. First, st let's see. This is a kind of new, body of work for us, but it's, you know, it's about. 10:05:10 Understanding more of the qualitative impact as well as the quantitative impact. And I don't know if people notice, but the quarterly reports, ADL got into laser features and sent out the link this morning so people can actually review those quarterly reports which is you know really part of our work plan that we haven't been assiduous about doing it. 10:05:28 So Yeah, without further ado, let's see, what do you have to share with us today? 10:05:33 1st I'm just wanna say I love that you're not a minimalist. So thank you for that. 10:05:37 Yeah. 10:05:39 I love your background. Well, 1st I just wanna thank the committee for awarding us the $50,000 and I wanna extend my apologies for not being on the meeting in September. 10:05:50 It was kind of a timing issue and. I think we were only given about a week's notice that this meeting was going to take place. 10:06:01 And so I didn't even know about it to be totally honest because that was during my Twilight Festival. 10:06:02 Oh yeah. 10:06:02 And kind of out of the office that week. So like I said, I apologize. I would love to attend in person, which is what I try to do. 10:06:10 So if we could get maybe 30 days notice on a meeting, that would be wonderful to move forward, because I hated that I wasn't there. 10:06:18 So, our funding, has been, sent to Claylock, the Claylock Ranger station. 10:06:27 Words. Staffing that's been working great. Birdie is back for another year which we're really excited about. 10:06:33 She's a person that has been staff there for many years and people come back. Over and over and get to see a familiar face, which is I think a really a pleasant thing for people. 10:06:45 We've spent some of the funding on. Advertising so far, but we still have quite a bit of our funding to spend. 10:06:58 Yeah. 10:06:55 A good portion of that is gonna go to the visitor center staffing and we had our 3rd busiest year in history last year which is a really big deal because we're talking almost peak twilight numbers. 10:07:07 From 2010 to 2,009. So in this year we're on track to probably beat last year. 10:07:13 So this the funding is super important for us. This will be the 1st month that we are actually fully staffed with Hello. 10:07:23 You're around staff members and our seasonal staff. So we're very excited to be able to offer a lot of staffing, for customers and visitors to. 10:07:31 Enjoy so you know, everything's going great on our end. The 2 payments a year works fine for us because. 10:07:43 You know, we do have a little bit of, cushion on our end. 10:07:47 So that, works great. And, you know, I'm, very satisfied. I hope that the committee satisfied with the work that we're doing as well. 10:08:04 Thank you, Lizzie. Sorry, I'm muted. New, new mistake. Welcome, Tara. 10:08:09 Any, questions or comments for Lizzy? 10:08:16 Okay. 10:08:15 I have a couple. I guess I'm wondering what's the How would you characterize the Changing nature, visitor information centers, the needs, how are you adapting? 10:08:25 I know that you've added those concierge services for, a minute or for lodging and also how What kind of ads are you placing and how do you measure their effectiveness? 10:08:37 Well, I think that to answer the second question first, st you know, the The big ad that we placed in print was the Washington State Vistor Guide Co-OP Ad. 10:08:46 Thank you. 10:08:52 Yeah. 10:08:50 You know, we just measure our success by, you know, how busy town is, how, how many visitors we have and so You know, I don't think we could be a lot more successful at this point and still be sustainable. 10:09:05 So, you know, we're hoping that in the long run that the advertising we're doing now keeps people coming for years to come. 10:09:13 So, you know, we measure, like I said, with our visitors statistics and our feedback from our businesses. 10:09:19 So, you know, there is a challenge over here on the West End because of, The whole rainforest is so popular, you know, that we're letting people know that, you know, they can absolutely still visit West Jefferson County, but we give them other options and things to do, either while they're waiting to get into the hoe or some other options so they can go the whole 10:09:42 rainforest at a different time. Because there are like Amy I'm sure it's very very familiar with there could be 250 cars in line to get in during the peak times during the day. 10:09:53 Just waiting for the parking spot? Is that they just? 10:09:53 So, you know, the Just yeah, waiting to get into the parking lot. Yeah. And But, so I think the visitor center staff is crucial, at this point to give people other options to keep people happy. 10:10:09 We have gotten a little bit of feedback that people are super sad about claylock and loss of those bluff cabins and so forth. 10:10:17 So. I mean, I think that there are some challenging times right now, but we're trying to do the best we can to keep everybody happy and, fulfilled while they're here. 10:10:27 So. 10:10:27 That's great. And do you, I know, I mean, we've talked about the shoulder seasons before and, you know, a lot of the strategies to try to extend those shoulder seasons. 10:10:38 And I guess I'm curious, do you think that You can or is it the weather that's going to manage that? 10:10:44 I mean, it sounds like the driver is the Olympic National Park, especially the whole entrance that is really driving. 10:10:48 Hmm. 10:10:51 Visitors, but what do you see as the other drivers? Kinda post COVID. 10:10:57 You know, we're really lucky out here on the West End because people want that rain and that Does that storm watching and that. 10:11:04 Beautiful weather in the shoulder season. So our shoulder seasons are doing pretty well. We're staying really busy. 10:11:13 Probably our least busy months or December in January. But you know, we're still getting a lot of business in November, tens of business in February, March. 10:11:23 So I think that the the shoulder seasons going really well. 10:11:27 And that's change or is that how it normally is? Do you think that's? 10:11:31 Okay. 10:11:30 It's post COVID. Yeah. So, you know, but before, you know, a few years ago, you could see a noticeable difference between. 10:11:39 Peak time and non peak time, you could see a lot less traffic on the roads or less people the grocery store, but it's just not the case anymore. 10:11:48 And do you ever man the visitor information center yourself? 10:11:52 I do go down there when they let me out of my office up here. 10:11:56 Okay, I know. I'm just curious. Kind of qualitatively, what are what are the type of tourists that that use the visitor information centers? 10:12:11 Okay. 10:12:09 You mentioned giving them alternatives to the whole rainforest. Is that is it people that get turned away at home or what kind of people are you seeing? 10:12:17 No, I mean, I think that because, the uniqueness of, the visitors center is one of the destinations and work so a lot of people do stop here whether it's to use our Wi-Fi or bathrooms or whatever. 10:12:29 And you know, we do have a really nice clean bathroom. So when people come in to use the bathroom, then we take that opportunity, you know, to give them some great information and you know, the warm and fussy feelings of being in forks. 10:12:40 But it's everybody. It's big groups. It's couples, families, people who just want to sit and maybe use our Wi-Fi or charge their computer, people who want to use our microwave. 10:12:53 I mean, it runs the gamut of everybody you can imagine. We have a lot of people that come in that don't speak English that we try to help as best we can and I'm just very international, so. 10:13:04 Okay. Okay. Yep. 10:13:05 I have a few questions too, but how many people do you think? Go to the visitor center each year. 10:13:13 Yeah. 10:13:18 Okay. 10:13:13 Well, last year, last year we had about 65,000 that stopped here. So I would say that besides the the big Olympic National Park Visitor Center and Portangelos were the busiest visitor center on the peninsula. 10:13:28 So. 10:13:28 Okay, and, and then how's where do you get all your funding from? I know we give you some and you get some from other places I assume. 10:13:36 Right. 10:13:36 Right. So our big funding partners for the Visitor Center are the City of Forks. We are in a building owned by the city of Fork so we don't pay any rent we pay. 10:13:46 Excise lodging tax and so forth that we don't pay any rent. That's a big contributor. 10:13:51 But we get there lodging tax in the city. We get lodging tax from Jefferson County and then we make up the difference of what we need. 10:14:00 For our staffing purposes. By selling shirts and postcards and so forth. 10:14:08 Okay. 10:14:07 You don't get any KLM, HALTACK dollars. 10:14:10 Well, we get, for like specific events and so forth, but not to run the visitor center. 10:14:17 Right. 10:14:18 So they give us money for our Twilight Festival. But not really. Visitors center costs to for staffing and so forth. 10:14:27 Okay. 10:14:31 Okay, any follow ups, Kevin? 10:14:32 And what's your overall budget? 10:14:35 Our overall budget with our Twilight Festival and all of that is about 800,000. 10:14:48 Right. 10:14:49 Without the, or about the festival, I'd say it's about 500,000. Bye. 10:14:57 Good. 10:14:56 You ever tried to get money from Kalam County besides for the festival? 10:15:03 We've got money for Cloud County before for like roofing the visitor center. And doing getting barricades for our parades and specialized things like that but I haven't tried getting money for just operating the visitor center. 10:15:20 If it got to the point where we thought we would need some gap funding, that's something I might go to the county for. 10:15:26 So if, for example, if Jefferson County said, you know, we don't find value in what you're doing for. 10:15:32 West Jefferson County and I was in a budget shortfall. I would definitely go to Calm County, but. 10:15:37 Thing that we could kind of make up those funds, selling shirts and so forth. I haven't found the need to do that yet. 10:15:44 So. 10:15:44 Okay. And, and then Forks is part of the cloud comedy budget. To see you for for LTAC. 10:15:49 Okay. Say that again. 10:15:51 Is forks part of the overall Kalam County LTAC budget or it has its own? 10:15:57 Cities just like Port Townsend gets their own. 10:15:55 No. They have their own. Yeah. Yes. 10:15:59 Okay, it's just like 4 times, okay. Okay. Okay. 10:16:03 And we, we get, about for to operate the visitor center and for marketing from the city of Forks, we get about a hundred 35,000. 10:16:12 Alright. 10:16:15 All right, any other questions for Lizzy? 10:16:25 Okay. 10:16:20 Great. Okay. Well, thank you so much. It's always hard to be the 1st one because we don't even really know where we're asking for, but really appreciate it and have a much better sense and we'll definitely try to be better about. 10:16:30 Giving notice for meetings. You have a long ways to go and I appreciate that you want to be there in person. 10:16:33 Yeah, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. I've always loved coming to Port Townsend and coming over to Jefferson County and and enjoying the road construction. 10:16:44 So. 10:16:44 Yeah, for sure. You might wanna not wanna do it this summer, so. 10:16:47 Oh really? 10:16:49 Okay, great. Well, you're welcome to stick around. Let's see, but we'll move on to the next item on our agenda. 10:16:55 We've got just 45 min left. So thank you so much. 10:16:55 Okay. Okay, thank you. 10:17:00 Alright, well I am going to share my screen here to take us through a little presentation. I hope folks got on Monday. 10:17:09 I think we sent out the The 1st docs and. Of course, as a special meeting, we can't really go beyond. 10:17:16 I was gonna use. Kalam County as the next comparison. I think that was one of the things that Terry had suggested and we all agreed on was kind of looking at how some other counties do it. 10:17:26 So I'm looking for good. Analogs. So this is really just kind of to review the documents that you had. 10:17:34 Let me double check that I'm not. Deviating from our special meeting agenda. So yeah. 10:17:40 Lodging Tax Rcws. And we'll kinda go through this the presentation on all of these discussion potential action items, our code, the RCWs, and so feel free to interrupt it any time. 10:17:54 Slipping between screens, don't you? Okay. So the. My screens. 10:18:04 We shared these RCWs with your well the 1st 2 67 and I can't see you right now so I can see my presentation so please just unmute and speak up if you have a question or comment. 10:18:16 So, 67 28 1 80 is kind of the overarching. Authorization and conditions and then 15 and 16 I think we only sent you 16 but both of them are referred to by the municipal. 10:18:31 Many MRC. And then finally the 67 28 1 81 talks about the tax rate that we can get so Just for kinda to reiterate, I'm gonna do a lot of reiterating and, please let me know. 10:18:48 Yeah, you want to go deeper, but the 2% is kind of automatic and it's scraped out of the Washington States part of the sales, the lodging tax, and then the 2% on top. 10:18:59 Yeah, if you had changed it earlier, you could go higher, but pretty much we're locked into that 4% now. 10:19:04 So, 1 80, you know, this is, this is copied really straight from the MRC breakdown, which is mostly. 10:19:13 Straight out of. At the RCWs that we're talking about. So. 10:19:19 We are just talking about unincorporated Jefferson County. Taxes paid at the time of transaction and all perspective logging tax recipients must apply to city county for funding. 10:19:33 So that's, you know, why our budgeting did not work as we wanted to. And these are the the valid agencies that can apply are convention visitor centers, destination marketing organizations, nonprofits. 10:19:48 And municipalities, cities, counties, towns. And Port Townsend and any I think forks just barely hits this 5,000, population, Kevin to actually, scrape away their own lodging tax, Kevin to actually, scrape away their own lodging tax, but when they do, they get to use it as they see fit under the same So things that 10:20:09 we can use it for all these pictures by the way are. Created in, Canva with AI just to give proper, credit. 10:20:20 It can be used for tourism marketing. I think Callum County really focuses on special event marketing, like one time things like that, festivals. 10:20:29 Operations of tourism related facilities or by I mean owned by municipality or by a public facilities district you know which we've talked about. 10:20:38 And an operation of tourism related facilities under operated by nonprofit corporations. But not capital expenditure. 10:20:48 So a Y.M.C.A, if they own a Y.M.C.A, you couldn't build a new Y.M.C.A. for them. 10:20:52 But you could build it for a city or a county and the Y.M.C.A. could still be operator. 10:20:59 You can use it also for affordable housing. You can use it to, bond against for, affordable housing. 10:21:09 Within a half mile of a transit center. So. I guess I'm gonna pause there and look at everyone for a second and any. 10:21:19 Any thoughts or comments? People wanted to throw in different interpretations you had, other things that you saw and your own readings of the RCW that I glossed over or that you'd like to focus on. 10:21:31 Just wanna make sure that we kind of we're trying to baseline our I understand. Yes, Diana. 10:21:36 Yeah, the only thing I had was, when talking about workforce housing, I, Amy was there at the time and everyone else was not. 10:21:55 Okay. 10:21:48 But on May 26th of 2022 we actually spent quite a bit of time talking about housing. How LTAC phones could be used for that. 10:22:00 And based on the fact that the dollars that we have are so tiny. When you're talking about a workforce housing. 10:22:13 Without having you know, all of the other players. Lined up in the room. At that time the committee the committee census was not to use the LTAC funds for housing, but to help assist with organizations that are actively. 10:22:28 Funding housing so that we know there was already a plan in place. We know that there was a that true we can get to market. 10:22:37 And we can actually do something. You know, another way that that might be is. The legislation in Olympia has passed Tiny homes can go on existing lots, but my understanding is that Jefferson County is not gonna look at that until like 2029 or something. 10:22:57 Maybe they're. 10:22:56 It's already allowed in Jefferson County. 10:22:59 Well, why not? 10:23:00 It is allowed. We have affirmative rights to one ADU, on any residential property in Jefferson County. 10:23:09 We've been loath to go farther because growth management the growth management court. That I'm forgetting on now hearing the examiner has like rebuffed Sandaline County, which tried to make too permissive about A to use and they got kind of limited to they could only add so many ADUs per year in San Juan County. 10:23:29 So. We have a pretty liberal interpretation right now. And so maybe there's some other nuance that's not allowed. 10:23:36 Yeah, no, that's good. That's good. 10:23:38 And then lie in and I mean there's additional rules like tiny house on wheels. You might be talking about that, which is, you know, Port Townsend has created code for tiny homes on wheels right now in Jefferson County. 10:23:50 I think most of those if they are L and I inspected so like an RV or something then you you kind of have a as long as you have a appropriate septic or you know you know, infrastructure that's sufficient for it. 10:24:05 You know, I don't think, you know, for temporary housing, you don't have to permit it at all. 10:24:08 It's my understanding, you know, as long as it's been L and I inspected. 10:24:11 And as long as it's long term rental, do you, is it allowed in the NPR? 10:24:17 In Port Ludlow. Long term rentals are, yeah. Maybe there's The NPR might be Port Letalo NPR might be different about that. 10:24:29 That's the one. Yeah, that's a good caveat. So you might be coming from that that perspective. 10:24:33 And I think HOAS can also. Prevent A to use. So there could be like even more local rules in import LEDL or even potentially other areas. 10:24:43 Yeah, and I don't need to discuss that here. You know. I just wanted to point out that we have discussed this in the past and kind of, you know, where the committee came from since. 10:24:54 There's history there. 10:24:55 Yeah. And I guess so like to use your 1st example, the habitat for Humanities Mason Street project creating a hundred 50 units of workforce housing that's you know they're well along their way they've got most of their financing I'm not sure if they're let's let's just assume as a hypothetical that they're within a half mile of a Transit stop, transit. 10:25:18 Parking ride I think is what they mean basically. Then what habitats project qualify under your the committee's previous interpretation to apply for these funds. 10:25:32 Yeah, I guess if it wasn't in the city of Port Townsend. 10:25:36 Yeah, it's not it's in Port Hadlock. 10:25:40 Yeah, it could. I mean, we'd wanna look at it and understand it a lot better. 10:25:51 There's not a lot. 10:25:45 Because I'd be afraid to take the minimum. Tourism dollars that we have. Yeah, so the aid and the chicken, right? 10:25:54 It's like, if you don't bring the tourism, do you really need the business? 10:25:58 You know, the people. And you know, so how do you weigh that? And is their government funding out there grants or whatever because they can probably file for grants. 10:26:07 Where most of the people that were supplementing can't. 10:26:11 Yeah, no, certainly. And they've got lots of grand funding and failed to get some, but they are eligible for lots of different pots of money. 10:26:18 That's true. 10:26:20 Kevin, I saw you had unmuted. Did you have a thought to share? 10:26:26 Well, I was just kind of wondering. Did with affordable housing always part of the intent of spending LTAC funds or did they get added in? 10:26:35 At some point. 10:26:40 Yeah. 10:26:35 Believe that was a more recent law that added that as an option so I don't think it was an available option when our code was written or when we kind of set our definitions. 10:26:47 And as we get into Stan One County a little bit. I really like their, I forget what they call master plan or long range plan that allows the LTAC to, Be more flexible and and to kind of reassess those priorities on an ongoing basis. 10:27:04 But yeah. So. 10:27:04 And it's part of the rationale just because we need workers. Support the tourism industry or is it just totally 10:27:16 Right. 10:27:13 Yeah, I mean, and that's a huge problem in Jefferson County. You know, that's why we have Restaurants open 4 days a week, right? 10:27:20 To a large degree. I mean 10:27:22 A massive problem for everyone like I. I'm 30% sure on staffing but have nowhere to house them so it is what it is right. 10:27:30 But, I went up, probably seeing any requests for funding in that area though, anyway, are we? 10:27:37 Like even though we say we have it in our allowance, nobody's been asking for money for that either. 10:27:41 Well, it hasn't been in our priorities. I mean, it hasn't been in in the Jefferson County code. 10:27:49 Gotcha. 10:27:47 That's 1 of the reasons that we're We've been asked to. Kind of build it up from the ground floor is to say is that something that we should prioritize? 10:27:55 I mean. 10:27:54 Gotcha. So it's just making it clear to other people who can't apply. Because like Diana said, like it costs millions of dollars to build anything, right? 10:28:01 And we would be like, here, have 50,000, you know, but if there's a lot of people coming together, then it makes sense to fund it. 10:28:08 Yeah, sometimes. 10:28:08 But. And I think I think it's important for sure and it does support tourism because We need more, you know, we need to open more businesses and we need staff to do that, but. 10:28:18 Yeah, that's interesting. Okay. 10:28:17 Yep. And I think there's projects that are, you know, like a tiny house project or something that is not being considered right now. 10:28:26 I know that our local investment opportunities network is supporting tiny houses for long-term rentals, but you know, creating a program to create more Short term, Reynolds too, or long terminals for, you know, for housing. 10:28:39 I think there's more nimble projects that maybe don't have a place to go, you know, someone saying, oh, I want to build a tiny house for a long term rental for my staff. 10:28:48 There's no way to go for that money. So. I don't know, there might be gaps that this money could help. 10:28:56 You know, it's, is that, you know. It's it's it's all about the the balance that we're trying to evaluate. 10:29:02 So this slide I just, I'm going to minimize you again. So please just speak up if you have something to add. 10:29:09 This is supposed to be conversational. So this is the breakdown of our Jefferson County code, 3.2 5. 10:29:16 And I kind of split it up into stuff that is essentially just. Referential to the RCW. 10:29:23 So the applicability and the definitions, we might want to add some more definitions, but it's basically just repurposing RCW definitions. 10:29:31 The definition of a lodging tax advisory is one something that You know, right now our code really does talk about it's superseding and replacing the tourism. 10:29:40 Coordinating Council. It also talks about a number of members. There's a a minimum number, we hit that LTAC. 10:29:49 Requirement from the RCW with 5 members. San Juan County as we'll look at has 7 members and I think they're using the Go back, the 1817 as their rationale for that and we could add more members to LTAC as well, but they're using like the large municipality, believe, which really talked about, more, members. 10:30:16 We'll get to them in a little bit. So that's something that we can consider. And then 40 the distribution strategy. 10:30:23 This is the big one where we you know, there's some prescriptions and allowances as we went over in the RCW and then we've added our own distribution strategy ensconced in the code and that's something else to consider. 10:30:35 Do we want to ensconce that distribution strategy in the code or in a, you know, a more nimble, updatable strategic plan is what, you know, the option that we're looking at today. 10:30:46 And then the 50 is selection reporting requirements and like all our reporting by heads and beds numbers and everything that's straight from RCW and I didn't see a lot of I need to change any of that. 10:31:01 Operating reserve is something that we do. A little differently. We'll come back to this and when comparing to San One County, but our 25% reserve It's pretty inconsistent with county policies for other funds, but as we'll get into most other funds. 10:31:19 Yeah, we'll get in this when we compare. You know, there's a reason as as I sort through this, I think that we have that high reserve. 10:31:26 So I'm not necessarily recommending that we. Slash it down to the 18 to 20%, which is our normal reserve. 10:31:33 And then, to 70 capital reserve, you know, that's, I didn't see anything there we could. 10:31:43 Again, we have so little money that you know, if there was a big capital project that we wanted to consider. 10:31:50 That'd be reasonable, but it seems like we're just dealing with too little money to deal with too much on that. 10:31:55 80 is just the, you know, I don't think there's any changes there and then the tax rate again can't change the tax rate. 10:32:03 We could go lower, but we can't go higher because of the time stamps in the RCW. 10:32:07 So here is comparing. Us with San Juan County a little bit and I sent everyone the San Juan County or ADL sent everyone in the San Juan County. 10:32:22 Ltac code, 3 1 6. And it's, you know, a lot of it, they kind of organized it a little bit different, but it's mostly referential directly to RCW and San Juan County as well. 10:32:35 They have 7 members they have one producer of lodging tax and one receiver of lodging tax dollars. 10:32:43 From each. Each, commissioner they call him counselor districts. And then they have, one counselor, you know, or, would, which would be the commissioner role. 10:32:53 They are responsible both for the RFP and for a long range plan which they update annually or at least I think open and look at annually. 10:33:02 I think the one that we have is predominantly from 2020 when there was a pretty substantive redo but it's hard to tell. 10:33:08 And then they're very clear that they awards they weren't actual funds from the previous year's tax. 10:33:14 So this is where I think the reserve our higher reserve comes in because we're often, I think we were doing that and we've kind of been shifting and that was my confusion as we came in many of our other sales tax revenue we. 10:33:28 We distribute funds that we haven't received yet based on projections of the year sales tax. 10:33:33 Lodging taxes are a little bit more. A little, more liquid maybe than sales tax even and sales, sales tax are going, you know, shooting through the roof, lodging taxes, of course, are Very constrained by the lack of lodging. 10:33:49 Opportunities that we have. So they really are kind of in Jefferson County, I would argue. 10:33:54 Not gonna go up that much because most of our hotels and Airbnb's are are pretty maxed out and I mean I guess I was wondering Diana is the resort at Port Ludlow is it pretty full all summer long? 10:34:11 I know we heard from Aaron last at the TCC meeting that they're booked out till September. 10:34:14 I usually are weekends are booked and pretty far in advance, but during the week you can always find a room. 10:34:21 Just depends if we have some group business or other things going on. So yeah, we have a, I'd say in the summer. 10:34:30 More the busier months were prior, 75, 80. In the winter, true winter, we're probably like it. 10:34:40 Oh, 10:34:38 2530 and then. She's in actually the month of May this year. We did see an increase in, occupancy we were at 68% which is really high for May. 10:34:53 That's great. 10:35:03 Yes. 10:34:53 So, based on that it wasn't the best weather month because if I look at our golf rounds play that much in our members play no matter what. 10:35:06 Yeah, interesting. 10:35:08 Yeah. 10:35:10 Interesting, that's great. Yeah, interesting. 10:35:16 So other, yeah, I think. Well, we'll spend a little more time. I wanna, I can't remember if I put another slide. 10:35:25 Oh, that's next steps. I'm gonna share, actually I'm gonna stop sharing for a moment. 10:35:29 This is kind of really the conversation time. We've got 20 more minutes, a little bit more to talk about with next steps and then I was hoping to kind of go through the San Juan. 10:35:38 Long range plan and just kind of I don't know. Think think about the San Juan's plan. 10:35:45 Did people have a chance to review it at all? 10:35:48 Nope. Okay. 10:35:50 I haven't. I'm sorry to say I was out this week. 10:35:53 That's okay. No problem. Let's unless people have something they want to throw in now which would be great we will I will share let me find it 1st Yeah. 10:36:08 So as I said, they are the San Juan County LTAC is responsible. For 10:36:20 Both the RFP as our LTAC does and keeping this updated. In collaboration I think with their BOCC my understanding is that I don't I don't really know. 10:36:34 I imagine it goes to the BOCC too, but I don't really know. So. 10:36:39 Take a moment to read through there. 10:36:44 Goals you see at They do encourage cooperation with their incorporated city, Friday harbors, LTAC. 10:36:56 Some things are just required like following laws. 10:37:03 San One County has a similar issues. That Jefferson County does with, you know, potential over tourism. 10:37:11 Like listen, he was talking about even to a higher degree since they're so constrained in their. 10:37:15 Transportation depending on the the Washington state ferries to get people both to the islands and between the islands at a commercial state. 10:37:25 So I think they're actually doing a local Discover pass or something where people have to. Pay money soon to come onto the island as as a tourist so There really grappling with sustainable tourism. 10:37:42 As I think we are. Move forward here. 10:37:46 I wonder with this, as we look at possibly expanding ours, we already have an ask. That is much larger than what we can. 10:37:57 Allocate. And I'm wondering and Sandmon County if. They have more money than they are allocating. 10:38:09 To me it seems like if we're opening the door like right now we get a million something request I'd say we get a 2 million dollar total requests, but our outgoing funds are only 800,000. 10:38:22 It's gonna really make it difficult for the LTAP committee. To try to figure out where those funds should go. 10:38:30 I know last year was definitely, you know, a lot of discussions on that. And so I'm wondering. 10:38:38 As we look at this it would be good to know what are they funding what's their request for funding and those kinds of things and maybe you could bring that back next time. 10:38:47 Happy to. 10:38:52 Oh yeah, I'll bring up back San Juan Awards. And requests for last couple of years. 10:38:59 And I assume it's public on there too. I just have to look through it. 10:39:02 Yeah, cause it says above it they try to fund. The same ones and we're not dramatically, it's just support of these institutions. 10:39:12 With at least a year's warning. So it tells me that they're pretty much funding. Consistently. 10:39:20 Over the years. So it'll be interesting to see your data. 10:39:24 Yeah, for sure. And I would also say that I think 10:39:29 Our distribution rules. Open up for lots of different folks to apply. I think sometimes more more of a filter at the strategic level can also, is another way to constrain the applicants and make it more so we don't have to, you know, turn away a 3, rd a 3rd of the funding requests if we are strategic. 10:39:56 In the RFP basically and in the. The philosophy and the mission. So I guess. I This is what I'm trying to say is. 10:40:09 This is an effort to try to address that. That oversubscription that we've had the last couple of years. 10:40:18 But of course. No, no, go ahead. 10:40:18 I was gonna say, oh, sorry. I was just going to say that this funding philosophy piece really feels like it addresses what we were trying to address with. 10:40:29 The funding decisions that we made, you know, whatever 3 meetings ago. I like, I like it. 10:40:34 Yeah. 10:40:36 I like the way it's worded and it feels very clear and intentional. 10:40:43 Thank you. 10:40:53 And they talk a lot about the shoulder season and this as well and you know longer stays and 10:41:06 Give it people chance to read so I'm gonna try to embrace the the silence but please speak up 10:41:27 I like that endeavor to use or reserve 10% of the available grant funds to fund newer innovative proposals. 10:41:33 No more than 2 projects. So creating limits. And a floor for those. For new projects. 10:41:41 I thought that was a good thing. 10:41:41 I mean, we talked a while back about, you know, is it value in putting percentages to things as opposed to numbers to things, right? 10:41:48 And that's what I kind of said on the last page too was you know, if we fund the same places over and over to a percentage and maybe do a multi-year thing for them and then maybe it leaves X amount of percentages for new activities that are still within the scope of what we're looking for. 10:42:05 It makes sense the percentage thing to me. 10:42:07 Yeah, and that's how, you know, Port Townsend has the smaller project award as well. 10:42:14 I think a lot of them do do that try to. Great opportunity for, new, new voices in with the Lodging taxes, but still support the institution. 10:42:23 Right, because otherwise we just give all the money to all the same people every year and no one would mess with it. 10:42:27 It's not. 10:42:26 Yeah. 10:42:30 And you see here their area of emphasis in their historical. This the same. That we've had though I'm not sure if we've. 10:42:37 Necessarily memorialized it in in policy. So this is kind of the 10:42:46 I ask a question about that language, Greg. Something like a document like this, a master plan. 10:42:56 Considered policy. 10:43:00 You mentioned that you think it goes through the BOC. 10:43:03 I, well, I'll find that out too, whether the long range plan. What I can say is let me share a different. 10:43:14 Let me find the right one. Sorry, I'm gonna minimize you guys again for a second. 10:43:21 So this is the their code, right? And. 10:43:26 Under duties. They talk about the 2 things. So they shall develop a long range plan for the expenditure of monies. 10:43:35 Dated. Oh, and recommended to the county council. So yes. It is it is policy that is in their code the 10:43:49 Sorry. 10:43:52 Did you guys see that? I think my share stopped. 10:44:03 Yeah. 10:44:01 You can? Oh, okay. 10:44:00 I can still see your screen. It's on, it's on lodging text advisory committee duties. 10:44:07 Okay, great. So I guess, yeah, what I was saying is it is, it is policy. 10:44:16 So their code says make this talk and run it by the council. And then I think the council. The way I would read that is the council ratifies it and can modify it, right? 10:44:28 So RCW prevents the council or commission in this case commissioners. From like throwing out and doing something different. 10:44:38 I mean they talk about LTAC recommendations and that You know, if the BOCC doesn't like them, they can send them back to LTAC, but there's a lot of caveats about their ability to just wholesalely disregard them, disregard them wholesale and do their own thing. 10:44:50 So this organization is does have Quite a bit of authority and I guess, yeah, so. That answer the question. 10:45:00 He does. Yeah, thank you. 10:45:04 Hello. 10:45:04 I was off. I'm sorry. I was also looking at the form for. For the. 10:45:14 Click attack County. It's part of their funding application, but, they had some guidelines in there too. 10:45:25 So I wonder if there's any other. Examples that are out there that anybody found. 10:45:29 Well, I was gonna bring back a couple other analogs, but I forgot to get them into the special meeting agenda so I can't really present on them, but I've got a slide all set up on Clowon County. 10:45:39 So we'll look at Clown County at the next meeting. If you think click, that is a good example, you know, or any other ones that people find. 10:45:46 Other people are welcome to prepare a couple of slides on it too and or share the the doc so we can look at the code. 10:45:52 We don't want to read, you know. 39 lodging tax codes, but you know a couple of them. 10:45:57 I think other kind of I'm looking for counties that are in a similar kind of Similar size and, you know, sort of focus on outdoor recreation, you know, analogs as much as possible. 10:46:09 So that's why I chose San Juan and click at that. Like, where's click at that? 10:46:16 So. 10:46:14 Is that down south? Southwest. On the book. 10:46:20 I think it's up by I think it's. Southeast. East. 10:46:25 Oh, gotcha over there by, yeah. Yeah, it'd be interesting to look at some of those. 10:46:31 Do you think it was? Worth reference, Diana. 10:46:36 Okay. 10:46:34 It's got a little more time on it. I just. I looked at their, and then their application. 10:46:41 And I saw some cool things on that. But let me look behind that and see if I can see what they're. 10:46:48 If they have like the code for the 10:46:54 Yeah. And I think maybe as we go through this, your question was good about what were the awards versus requests for the last couple of years. 10:47:01 So maybe if anyone is doing some research and wants to bring in example, finding those that data point as well as any existing code. 10:47:08 And policy that's tied to it. 10:47:11 And just how consistent people's LTG funds are, right, from different counties. Right. 10:47:20 I was just gonna say I. Love the idea of a document like that, for us. It just feels so clarifying and so. 10:47:31 Useful and also as something that gets revisited every year. This kind of like living breathing thing. 10:47:37 I just think it's Great, great idea. 10:47:41 Yeah. Is everyone similarly impressed with it? I was too. I mean, that's why. 10:47:45 Yeah, it was pretty simple and pretty clear. I thought like it made it a lot easier than reading all those big laws. 10:47:54 Maybe we should plagiarize it. 10:47:50 It was all on a couple of pages and it made sense. Pretty much hope. Yeah. 10:47:53 Yeah, and then you give that to applicants. Sorry, sorry. Oh, hey, yeah, that is the way that it's done in government for sure. 10:48:00 Okay. 10:48:02 It's, yeah, we start with that and then we, tweak it and add appropriate Jefferson County because we have some, you know, specific geographic. 10:48:11 Issues that are different than anywhere else, right? I mean, nowhere else deals with something like, you know, our biggest hotel being in a place with. 10:48:21 Half a percent of our population. I mean, just it's really it's really strange. So, you know, like the forks visitor information center is one of those things that to me that's a clear you know just kind of reflecting on list he's presentation. 10:48:35 We really don't have much of a foothold over there and that investment is always seemed like a great investment to a really kind of robust program there. 10:48:42 So I'm, you know. It's none of these decisions are. Are easy. Yes, you know, but that one is that that program and every time I go there, it's filled with people. 10:48:54 And it's attractive, you know, it's kind of, it beckons visitors in in a way that I think is, Visitor information centers don't always do. 10:49:07 Okay. Let's see. Let me refer back to the agenda. So. 10:49:15 I mean, that's pretty much it. We can take a little time to look through our code just to compare it based on our conversation here and look at those same. 10:49:23 Places. So since we have a few minutes and I don't think we're considering any action. 10:49:31 On this. Yet seems premature. Let me get the code actually up. 10:49:43 Share my screen again. 10:49:48 So again, this is our code. Minimize you says speak up and I kind of talked about through the areas that I think we can consider like some of them have more definitions in there and again these definitions are straight from the RCW. 10:50:03 The Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, you know. As we if we were building the LTAC today. 10:50:11 I would Definitely argue for proportional representation from our 3 commissioner districts, which is also at San One County does. 10:50:22 And I like that a lot. So if you have one producer and one receiver from each district. I mean we're doing pretty good right now but actually Almost all of our producers are from Well, district 2, we have Diana and Amy, which are district 3. 10:50:37 Producers. We have Kevin who is a district 3 receiver. Tara is a district one receiver. 10:50:44 So we have no District 2 representation on our lodging tax. Advisory committee and because district one, I mean the historical society arguably is county wide even though it has. 10:51:00 You know, it's main location, but it is a little bit in district too, right? The record center and archives. 10:51:06 Yep. 10:51:06 Since poor 1,000 has no its own LTAC, you know, maybe that's not the right thing to have equal representation for district one as well as 2 and 3 but I think it's worth considering and or what would be do do we if we are going to confer this group additional duties and I, you know, if we make that recommendation to annually update that. 10:51:31 A long range plan, some in some way analogous to San Juan County's example that we looked at. 10:51:37 I guess the composition of the committee is something I just hope people spend some time thinking about as we go through this as well. 10:51:44 Really what I'm saying. And then use right now and distribution these are the The money bets. 10:51:58 Yeah, and I, you know. 10:52:01 Not to say these are wrong, but, they just haven't been thought about for a long time. 10:52:11 So those are the pieces to look at and then I think. This is all straight from RCW. 10:52:18 That operating reserve too that's interesting and I'm curious to see another LTax if most of them distribute the monies they collected the year before which we kind of were doing and got out of the practice and now we kind of have to it. 10:52:34 So that's why we're, you know, as I said, would create my confusion about the funding initially because other things like the housing fund board and everything distributes funds. 10:52:43 Based on projections from the upcoming year, not collected monies from the previous year. 10:52:51 One other thing to consider. 10:52:58 Okay. Well, that is all I had and I think, oh wait, I did have another slide. 10:53:04 Go back to my presentation. Just to talk about. Okay. 10:53:22 One. 10:53:28 So. 10:53:32 Sorry. 10:53:37 Next steps. So I believe we're meeting on the 12.th We elected on short meetings. 10:53:44 You know, pretty high frequency. So I appreciate everyone, making the time. So planning and on the 12th to review Plowland County and if someone else prepares or sends me information about a different county that they think would be a good analog and then I'm meeting next week with Marsha and 10:54:04 Debbie from Olympic, Olympic Peninsula Master Tourism Plan, so we'll get a presentation either on the 12th of the 26.th 10:54:12 I think, I'm reached out to Steve Shiveley from TCC. I think they're going to present on the 26 TCC. 10:54:19 I didn't know Diane, if you wanted to meet, I was trying to set something up with Steve and I neglected to include you in that, but we're planning to meet next Wednesday morning. 10:54:27 Do you wanna? Help prepare the TCC. I was really just gonna kind of talk about Lizzie's presentation and. 10:54:34 And what would be helpful for TCC to bring. 10:54:46 You know what time on Wednesday? 10:54:45 I don't know. 9 a. M. 10:54:53 I shall I'm happy to invite you send the zoom link in if you can join for a few minutes that would be great I just anticipate 30 min. 10:55:01 Okay. 10:55:02 Okay, sorry I didn't include you in the in the beginning. It started as kind of trying to get Steve and Marsha and Wander up all the same time and they couldn't do it on the same day. 10:55:11 So I was like, Hey, Steve, let's just talk about TCC. So. And then we have a meeting on the 9.th 10:55:16 And on the 18th and at that time, you know, hopefully we have some recommendations and, I mean, I think this was a just looking at one, example was pretty exciting for me and it seems like other people appreciated this approach as well. 10:55:30 This is great. 10:55:33 Okay, well that I think is all I got. Oh, you can see the beginning of my clown County slide, but I'll stop share there and, leave that as a tantalizing preview. 10:55:44 Anything else for the good of the order might be able to get people out with. 5 min back in your day. 10:55:51 How often do can you make time? 10:55:54 Greg, I wanted to talk about the July 26 meeting. I don't have a location for 10 am. 10:55:58 Sure. Hmm. 10:56:02 The time 10:56:05 Able to. Yeah, go ahead. 10:56:05 Well. Can I offer since we're primarily Zoom, but we do legally have to have a physical space is one of the people here organizations, you know. 10:56:17 I, I can come out and kind of clerk at the resort at Port Ludlow or Jefferson Historical Society or in historical society, so I'm happy to come start the meeting somewhere else if that works, ADL, and you can just attend via Zoom. 10:56:35 Oh, thank you. Okay. 10:56:38 So. 10:56:43 Volunteers. 10:56:46 Certainly about a house that. 10:56:47 I think, yeah, and I could help too. You could do it down in Coursing if you want. 10:56:52 Okay, well if there's interest for this we can, you know, have to post a special meeting, 24 h before. 10:57:00 So I'm happy to kind of rotate around and anyone that does wanna travel to the locations, but I will. 10:57:07 You know, I'd even actually come out to Claylock because it's an excuse I'd have to stay overnight, of course. 10:57:12 And. 10:57:12 I don't know if you have any apart, you don't have any rooms left. Yeah. 10:57:14 Never. Good luck. Okay. 10:57:17 Yeah, bring my new RV out though. Is there a spot? There's a room at the RV park next door. 10:57:24 That makes fall all the time. It's crazy. 10:57:28 Crazy. Okay. Well, let's, do that. Adl, is that okay to, schedule the physical location next time at the resorted Port Ludlow? 10:57:38 Thank you. 10:57:39 We have that information kind of all on. If you look at a TCC agenda, they happen right there anyways, so you would just be copying pretty much the, location details and everything from a TCC agenda. 10:57:52 Thank you. 10:57:55 Okay, so we'll plan on that for the 16.th Anything else for the good of the order? 10:58:00 26. 10:58:02 I'm sorry, the 26.th Yeah. Sorry. That's why I'm not in charge of countless. 10:58:10 Thanks all. 10:58:10 Okay, we are adjourned. Have a lovely weekend. 10:58:12 Alright, yep, you guys. Thanks. 10:58:15 Everybody. 10:58:13 Hi, bro.