Door County Tourism Zone Commission : Meeting Minutes

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April 17, 2008 Door County Tourism Zone Commission Meeting

DOOR COUNTY TAX ZONE COMMISSION MINUTES OF THE
APRIL 17, 2008 MEETING
Jacksonport Town Hall

ACTION ITEMS
Nelson moved and Neddersen seconded to approve the March 24, 2008 draft of the amended annual budget for the Commission. Motion carried unanimously.

Nelson moved and Tice seconded to approve the short term invoice for insurance coverage for the Commission expiring January 21, 2009. Motion carried unanimously.

Tice moved and Stayton seconded to approve the reports and payables as presented by Dianne Lensert. Motion carried unanimously.

Kufrin moved and Tice seconded to enter into closed session per State Statutes. Motion carried by roll-call vote.

Nedderson moved and Stayton seconded to enter back into open session. Motion carried by roll-call vote.

Coulson moved and Goss seconded that the Commission proceed with hiring an investigator to gather evidence on non-complying properties. Motion carried unanimously.

Kufrin moved and Neddersen seconded to enter into closed session per State Statutes. Motion carried by roll-call vote.

Nelson moved and Coulson seconded to enter back into open session. Motion carried by roll-call vote.

Neddersen moved and Tice seconded to adjourn. Motion carried.

Commissioners present:
Andy Coulson, Nancy Goss, Bob Kufrin, LittleBit LeClair, Craig Neddersen, Bryan Nelson, Dick Skare, Carol Stayton, Chuck Tice, Bill Weddig and Nora Zacek.

Also present:
Atty. Bill Vande Castle, Dianne Lensert, Jack Moneypenny and Paige Funkhauser.

Chairperson, Kufrin, called the meeting called to order at 9:03 a.m. He announced that Patti Bissen-Taylor has resigned from the Commission effective immediately.

DCVB Reports
Moneypenny was given the floor for his monthly reports. He first addressed the marketing report. He said that, to date, the $250,000.00 invested with Geiger and Associates has paid back $340,000.00 in equivalent value which is an increase of 62%. This is a fantastic return in such a short time. He also pointed out that website visits are up significantly. He anticipates a huge spike in web visits with the Midwest Living campaign coming out later this month. Those inquiries will be driven to a �dot travel� address and will thereby be trackable. He handed out hard copies of the Midwest Living insert. Jack asked Funkhauser to report to the Commission on last night�s happenings at the annual meeting of the Sturgeon Bay Visitor Bureau. Funkhauser related that a majority of those present, including the mayor and some aldermen, voted to support the position that the city should join the Tourism Zone. The mayor responded that he would bring the issue before the City Council again in the near future. She said that a SBVB board member stated that their board is also in favor � as long as it doesn�t compromise their program of festivals. Jack also reported on his work with Bill Chaudoir and the Door County Economic Development Council to try to move Sturgeon Bay toward joining the zone. At a DCEDC meeting the mayor made the motion that the organization support Sturgeon Bay joining the Zone and the motion carried. The mayor and Moneypenny had a discussion on timing and the mayor would like to try to drive a commitment by this October so that Sturgeon Bay would be part of the 3 year strategic marketing plan.

Moneypenny and Bruce Hill appeared at this weeks Town of Gardner Board meeting and there seemed to be a majority that supported Gardner joining the Tourism Zone. In response to questions from Kufrin, Moneypenny said that first blush analysis of the eBrains effort (on their $20 million economic impact promise) will be given to him next week.

Moneypenny handed out his August �07 � March �08 Marketing vs. Actual vs. Budget report. He also handed out his marketing dollar recap which is a cash flow analysis. He mentioned that DCVB will use the approx. $65,000.00 savings in the budget for employee positions that went unfilled for a marketing campaign on Fox 11. This will be 30 second spots which the DCVB will sell for $100.00 each. 5 seconds of each sot will be dedicated to the sponsoring business with the other 25 seconds on Door County in general. He stressed again that, back in December, we all agreed that the DCVB runs a bottom line budget not a line item budget meaning that monies can be reallocated as long as the bottom line does not change. They are also using inserts in the Chicago Tribune Food Section to targeted zip codes in the Chicago area. This will appear in the Wednesday edition every other week for 12 weeks. They will also do a Wisconsin Public Radio campaign later this spring and do some insert marketing with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Madison Capital Times and Minneapolis Star Tribune. Jack explained his budgeting in detail and stressed that they are living within their budget and any extra collections will be pushed into the �09 budget. He reported that DCVB has been running a calendar fiscal year as of this past January 1st. The budget reporting will take this year to catch up. They are also 98% into the process of converting from accrual based accounting to cash based accounting. Since August 1st DCVB has lost 8 members and gained 22 members for a net gain of 14.

TZC 2008 Annual Budget Deficit
The error that resulted in a deficit budget came to Dianne�s attention when she entered the Commission-approved budget into QuickBooks. The actual corrected budget has a $16,258.00 deficit. But we have a prior year balance of $37,000.00 that can be carried forward. In reality, because of expenses not accrued (such as not paying an administrative assistant to date) the actual deficit will be about $10,000.00 which will reduce the carryover to about $27,000.00. Nelson moved and Neddersen seconded to approve the March 24, 2008 amended budget. Neddersen pointed out that there are a number of non-recurring expenses related to software development and setting up an office in this year�s budget. There was also a discussion on the fact that the income figures are based on last year�s actual without Wash. Island and with a smaller number of permit holders and is, therefore, conservative. Motion carried unanimously.
Insurance: Nelson moved and Tice seconded to approve the short term invoice expiring Jan. 21, 2009. Discussion ensued regarding the wisdom of having all coverage expire together and the wisdom of shopping for bids at the end of this year. Motion carried unanimously.

Annual Meeting Planning
Coulson reported that his committee has contracted with the Landmark for use of their meeting room beginning at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 27th. The commencement time of the meeting will be 6:00 p.m. Because this is not really a social event we will contract for minimum catering in the form of coffee, water, and a snack such as cookies. Coulson and Weddig asked how all the stakeholders will be notified. LeClair suggested that we mail a postcard to each permit holder and municipality. Moneypenny offered that his staff will volunteer the labor to produce, address and mail the postcard. Vande Castle suggested that the postcard refer people to the website for reports. This would meet the intergovernmental agreement requirement that we get the report to permit holders before the annual meeting. Newspaper ads announcing the meeting will also be placed.

Reports and Payables
Lensert mentioned that the ACH (online reporting and remitting of tax monies) is up and running. Tice moved and Stayton seconded to approve the reports and payables as presented. Motion carried unanimously.

Meeting Schedules
Tice presented the meeting schedule for the balance of this year: 5/15 - Liberty Grove, 6/19 - Town of Egg Harbor, 7/17 - Ephraim, 8/2 - Baileys Harbor, 9/18 - Wash. Island, 10/16 - Village of Egg Harbor, 11/20 - Sister Bay, 12/18 - Gibraltar.

Intergovernmental Agreement
Tice completed revisions to the Intergovernmental Agreement that reconcile it to the new Bylaws. Weddig questioned the requirement for quarterly reporting in both documents. He thinks we need to operate only with monthly reports. Tice answered that, in article 18 item a) the first sentence was inadvertently crossed out which requires monthly reporting. Item b) requires a quarterly report. Kufrin suggested that, on page 10, we delete the 2 sentences beginning on line 9. Tice recommended that we could delete all of item b. Tice will clean up the rest of the document so that it remains consistent with this change. A long discussion took place regarding page 3 beginning at line 25 which addresses the distribution of collections. The new language requires 12 payments to the DCVB each year. A number of Commissioners felt that the old language gave the TZC good flexibility in how it disburses monies. Vande Castle suggested that we use wording such as �the distribution shall be made in such manner as the Commission shall determine.� This would give us the ultimate flexibility. Vande Castle went on to say that the state statute requires that all funds be distributed within the year and such wording should be included. The wording regarding how to deal with any excess funds was discussed also. Kufrin suggested that, on page 4, line 21, we change the date of check writing to the 25th because we usually have our meeting after the 15th. Kufrin pointed out that, on page 8, line 11, the Commission does not want the Administrative Asst. to sign checks. Tice will take the advice and make the changes to both documents and present them again to the Commission.

Kufrin recited the State Statutes regarding closed session. He made the motion to enter into closed session for purposes of discussing enforcement action. Tice seconded. Motion carried by unanimous roll-call vote. Nelson moved and Coulson seconded to return to open session. Motion carried unanimously by roll-call vote. Coulson moved and Goss seconded that the Commission proceed with hiring an investigator to gather evidence on non-complying properties. Motion carried unanimously.

Closed Session
Kufrin cited state statute again to enter into closed session. Neddersen seconded. Motion carried by unanimous roll-call vote. Nelson moved and Coulson seconded to re-enter open session. Motion carried by unanimous roll-call vote.

Neddersen moved and Tice seconded to adjourn. Motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 12:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Bryan E. Nelson, Secretary

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