Door County Tourism Zone Commission : Meeting Minutes

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DOOR COUNTY TOURISM ZONE
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Minutes of December 15, 2011 – 9:10 a.m.
Kerber Rose & Associates, 10568 Country Walk Lane, Sister Bay 54234

ACTION ITEMS:
Nelson moved and Starr seconded to accept the agenda. All ayes.

Nelson moved and Starr seconded to approve the November 2 Executive Committee minutes as amended. All ayes.

Larson moved and Weddig seconded to approve the November 17 minutes as amended. All ayes.

Nelson moved and Larson seconded to approve the Kerber Rose accounts and payables. All ayes.

Kufrin moved and Larson seconded to go into Closed Session pursuant to Wisconsin State Statutes, Section 19.85(1)(a)(f) or (g) to consider enforcement action against certain businesses regarding the room tax permitting, late payments and reporting and Wisconsin State Statutes, Section 19.85(1)(e) regarding negotiating various agreements with the DCVB and member municipalities. All ayes by roll call.

Kufrin moved and Nelson seconded to return to Open Session. All ayes by roll call.

Larson moved and Holtz seconded to send a letter to the DCVB Executive Committee about their audit. All ayes by roll call.

Larson moved and Skare seconded to adjourn. All ayes.

Committee Members Present by Roll Call: Robert Kufrin, Dave Holtz, Jeff Larson, Bryan Nelson, Dick Skare (10:07 a.m.), Bob Starr, Bill Weddig

Also in Attendance: Dianne Lensert/Kerber Rose; Kathy Kirkland/Administrative Assistant

Call to Order
Chair Bob Kufrin called the meeting to order at 9:10 a.m.

Approval of the Agenda
Nelson moved and Starr seconded to accept the agenda. All ayes.

Approval of the Minutes of November 2 Executive Committee
Kufrin said he wanted the Executive Committee to review the November 2 minutes, especially regarding discussion on the Visitor Bureau’s audit. Starr felt the minutes accurately represented the discussions. Larson noted a typo on, p 2 li 20-21. Should be “Weddig asked if it was determined to be an expenditure or income.” Nelson moved to approve as amended; Starr seconded. All ayes.

Approval of the Minutes of November 17 Commission Meeting
Nelson asked for changes: p 2 li 24: remove extra “cells” after “error in.” Also p 4 li 17 should be “country” instead of “county.” And p 5 li 31 should be “outside contractor.” Larson moved to approve as amended; Weddig seconded. All ayes.

Report from Kathy Kirkland on Current Activities, Projects, and Issues Associated with Permitting New Members
Kirkland said October had 31 “no report” letters to permit holders, including six hotel/motels with 10+ units apiece. Agents are getting more lax in telling The Zone about dropped or sold properties. The new online “save your bank information” auto-fill feature should be available soon for permit holders who want that function. The two court cases are in the process of being resolved and should be done by February.

The outstanding room tax is now $28,638 but that includes the two court cases. Now that we’re at year-end, Lensert said that anything uncollected is on the records for the year it’s late; if it’s 2011 and we go into 2012, it’ll stay in prior year’s “lates.”

Report by the Door County Visitor Bureau on Marketing Efforts and Quarterly Report
The monthly numbers for the Visitor Bureau are good. Nelson said ad impressions look good but are unpredictable. Weddig noted that Facebook is most impressive number compared to last year. Kufrin said that Sister Bay Marina is going to have a Facebook link with links to their own businesses. Starr said you have to think about it in terms of branding; you can’t always measure by direct results. Larson said Facebook content should be different from your own site. Kirkland asked if the owner is counted in the visits when s/he goes online for upgrades; Kufrin said there’s a way to exclude your own IP address from the count. Kufrin said for social media, new content has to be added regularly. Nelson stated that businesses are building business with Facebook by using loyalty/likes/share for extra bonuses if you’re a Friend. Weddig noted that website visits should surpass last year’s. Nelson said Facebook activity figures into how Google ranks a website; optimization changes how you rank organically for search terms. Nelson said there’s a local woman who does blogging for people; that’s her at-home job and it has been successful for local businesses.

Discussion on the Current Comparable Occupancy Numbers for 2011
Kufrin used the Door County website figures to compile a chart of sales tax comparisons for Door County versus state by county; he computed it back to 2005, before the recession, a reasonable period of time to represent what sales tax has done. He wanted to compare counties to find an equivalent county as a good guide; he used Adams, Colombia, Door, Oneida and Vilas but the chart became illegible. His goal was to see how sales tax is a good measure of the economy. State numbers have less-dramatic swings; it levels out over all the counties. The last page is 2005–2011, with November/December 2011 the same. Bottom line, Door County’s tax income change was 0.8% and the state was 2.3%, so that’s a threefold difference. Using a percentage change makes it more relative; we’re 3% of the overall state, but in terms of trends, percentage change is a good indicator compared to absolute numbers. Weddig said it doesn’t reflect what lodging does from a room tax viewpoint; March is usually close to nothing. March 2005 was $139,000, March 2011 was $161,000. Starr said that car sales could figure into it; not enormous amounts but as a percentage. Kufrin said there is data mining to break down the categories of tax, but it’s hard to get; it might be available to the state but not public reports, it’s just by county and by month. Is it a reflection of lodging? Kufrin included lodging in the sales tax figures; he was trying to measure how strong the local economy and everybody else other than lodging. We’re collecting more room tax than sales tax for the county. For 2011, the sales tax was $2.8 mil; we collected more than that in room tax ($3.2). Because the county tax is a half-percent, the state should reflect a half-percent difference. Is there a county most similar to Door County? There are 72 counties, so probably Vilas, which has Rhinelander, is the most like Door. Kufrin said in 2005, Vilas collected $1.988 mil in local sales tax; in 2010, it was $1.770 mil, so their economy plummeted. Door County was $2.968 mil in 2005 and $2.867 mil in 2010, so Door dropped by less.

Nelson looked at other markets in 2009 around the state, and the best after Door County dropped 13% in tourism markets. Dane/Milwaukee were at -20%. Starr said we’re doing fairly well in terms of economic loss. Weddig felt it was fortunate we started room tax when we did; the ability to promote the county offset the decline. Kufrin will add Vilas to the charts and resend them along with spreadsheets. CPA Mike Konecny is forming a room tax seminar for other areas; he asked Kufrin to talk to the group about how it works here.

Consideration of Approving Reports and Payables plus Receipts to Date
Lensert notes there are still a number of lates, including some hotel/motel. Some additional tax came in this morning so it’s a decline of 3.7% instead of 4.5% for October. Without the adjustment, we’re at +1.1% for the year. Lates of $89,000 are YTD total and lates prior to July were rolled into the first six months and adjusted on July 31; it’s unadjusted beyond that for any lates and any lates are figured into whatever month they pertain to. At the end of the year, they’ll be rerun into the months’ columns they belong in; they are by municipality. Kufrin said it’s too early to predict 1.1% up for 2011; Lensert felt it would improve. Weddig was puzzled at YTD variances in last column. Such a huge discrepancy between municipalities; did something happen in Baileys Harbor? Ridges Resort has been suffering and Maxwelton’s lodging shut down. Starr asked if they’re failing to do local marketing. Lensert said Nasewaupee and Ephraim are definitely affected by outstanding/unpaid taxes. Kufrin said units available are continuing a downtrend; Starr felt it was a natural balancing act. Kirkland felt that at some point, we would have to hit a plateau; people can’t expect it to keep rising. Kufrin said the ADR is able to go up and lodgers can do less discounting. Occupancy rates are remaining consistent, so lodging owners can make more money but on fewer people. Starr said if occupancy is stable, you can’t \conclude loss of rooms will continue until we start seeing occupancy number go up. There will be a point it’ll stabilize but we’re not near that. Weddig said without snow and with propane costs, there’s no reason to be open the first three weeks in December. Starr felt there’s a delayed reaction from the last two or three years; some people hold on, thinking it’s going to turn around. Now, we’re coming into an acceptance phase. In housing, they’re starting to see realtors dropping out. Nelson said that, anecdotally, lodging is up Nov/Dec from last year.

Lensert said that YTD Jan-Oct, the $22,000 income is right to budget. A couple of checks are overpayments by lodging, and they generally write checks to clear those out rather than hold them over to balance the books more easily. Nelson moved to approve the accounts and payables; Larson seconded. All ayes.

Consider motion to convene into Closed Session pursuant to Wisconsin State Statutes, Section 19.85(1)(a)(f) or (g) to consider enforcement action against certain businesses regarding the room tax permitting, late payments and reporting and Wisconsin State Statutes, Section 19.85(1)(e) regarding negotiating various agreements with the DCVB and member municipalities
Kufrin moved to go into Closed Session; Larson seconded. All ayes by roll call (less Skare, who arrived during Closed Session).

CLOSED SESSION
Skare joined the meeting at 10:07 a.m.

Consider a Motion to Reconvene into Open Session
Kufrin moved and Nelson seconded to return to Open Session. All ayes by roll call.

Consider a Motion to Take Action, If Required
Larson moved and Holtz seconded to send out a letter to the DCVB Executive Committee on their audit as amended. All ayes by roll call.

Discussion of 2012 Meeting Venues
January 19th’s full Commission meeting will be at Sevastopol Town Hall. The rest of the year’s meeting venues will be decided at that time.

Adjournment
Larson moved and Skare seconded to adjourn. All ayes. The meeting adjourned at 11:20 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathy Kirkland
Administrative Assistant

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