Door County Tourism Zone Commission : Meeting Minutes

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December 18, 2008 Door County Tourism Zone Commission Meeting

DOOR COUNTY TAX ZONE COMMISSION
MINUTES OF THE DECEMBER 18, 2008 MEETING
Gibraltar Fire Station

ACTION ITEMS:
Tice moved and McClelland seconded to approve the agenda. Motion carried.
Tice moved and Boston seconded to approve the minutes of the November 18th meeting with the suggested corrections. Motion carried.
Nelson moved and Stayton seconded to accept the proposal for insurance from the Wisconsin League of Municipalities Mutual Insurance Company. Motion carried.
Tice moved and Larson seconded to approve the financial reports and payables. Motion carried.
Stayton moved and Tice seconded to adjourn. Motion carried.

Members present Mary Boston, Richard Briggs, Andy Coulson, Diane Jacobsen, Bob Kufrin, Jeff Larson, Little Bit LeClair, Amy McClelland, Craig Neddersen, Bryan Nelson, Sarah Hastings Sawyer, Dick Skare, Carol Stayton (arrived 9:20), Chuck Tice, Bill Weddig and Nora Zacek.
Also present: Bill Casey, Sally Everhardus, Jon Jarosh, Kristin Kubisiak (arrived 9:20), Diane Lensert and Jack Moneypenny. Casey and Everhardus left the meeting at 9:50.

Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by roll call at 9:05 at the Gibraltar Fire Station by Chairperson Kufrin.

Approval of Agenda
Tice moved and McClelland seconded to approve the agenda. Motion carried unanimously.

Approval of Minutes of November 20
Sawyer pointed out that she was indeed present (as opposed to what was portrayed in the minutes). Weddig pointed out minor correction on pg. 4 line 4 � omit word �that�. He also suggested that we omit the �n� in his name on line 1 on pg. 5. Also on line 1 of page 5 we should replace �we�ve� with �we�re.� Tice moved and Boston seconded to approve. Motion carried unanimously.

Administrative Assistant Report
Kufrin asked for comments or questions on Kathy Kirkland�s administrative assistant report. The Town of Union has appointed Debra Jeanquart as its representative. Moneypenny offered intelligence on Sturgeon Bay�s selection process for its representative. They are still involved in that process. Neddersen asked the procedural question of why we�re ready to seat 2 representatives. Is it because it�s a foregone conclusion that it will be collecting at least $300,000? Tice pointed out that it was collecting over that amount at the 4% tax level. Neddersen just wanted it on the record that we are seating 2 reps from the City of Sturgeon Bay because of that reason. Weddig asked about the ramifications of the TZC identifying more properties to be taxed in Sturgeon Bay than the city had identified (City had 31 and Kirkland has already identified at least 14 more than that). Kufrin mentioned that the State Health Inspector, Steve Bell, has contacted the TZC to work out a sharing of databases. Kufrin assured the Commission and its clients that we will honor our commitment to confidentiality in sharing any information.

Tice brought up the item in Kathy�s report about 5 properties that have been chronically delinquent. Kufrin mentioned that he didn�t put any action item on the agenda for this because of both Kirkland�s and Vande Castle�s absence.

DCVB REPORT & CMF UPDATE
The floor was given to Moneypenny for his report. He talked about the Community Marketing Fund. He said that Dave Elliot, the new DCVB Chairman, has put together a task force consisting of several community association personnel. This task force has reported that it would like to put money into a pot for funding a Community Marketing Fund coordinator position that would be hired by the DCVB. Moneypenny is trying to �morph� this idea into having it fund a contract person who would be a liaison between the DCVB and all the Community Associations to coordinate the spending of CMF funds.

He also announced that there will be a number of meetings over the next several weeks for stakeholder and focus groups regarding the Certified Tourism Ambassador program. Moneypenny�s goal is that, by the start of the season, they will have graduated at least 4 classes, each with 20�25 Ambassadors. The other series of meetings will be for branding. He has hired Mary Nosbisch, a Door County resident and professional branding consultant to guide this branding effort. Moneypenny just returned from a tourism conference in Chicago. The consensus of the �experts� is that business travel is non-existent for the time being. And they�re projecting that the meeting/convention business will drop by 40%. But for us in the pure tourism business, it should drop only a little bit. Leisure travelers will be spending but they will be scrutinizing every choice for value. Moneypenny is looking for ways to market us as a value destination and may be coming up with suggestions for �value-added� promotions. This is not �discounting� but rather a way to emphasize our value. The bottom line is that we are in a fortunate position during this economic downturn in that we are strictly a leisure travel destination. This scenario should also result in Door County improving its market share compared to other Wisconsin and Midwest destinations.

Kufrin asked about the hard dates by which a Community Association must designate a representative in order to participate in the CMF. He is worried that if a given association misses a date that their funds will flow back to the DCVB. Moneypenny assured Kufrin that a letter will go out within the next 2 weeks to each municipality confirming the name of its official association and informing it about its responsibilities in order to participate. Casey asked Moneypenny if his letter will define the legal benchmarks that qualify a Community Marketing Entity. Moneypenny assured him it will cite line and verse regarding the legal requirements. Tice mentioned that Sevastopol has already entered into an agreement with the City of Sturgeon Bay to give Sturgeon Bay its CMF funding in return for marketing help. Kufrin mentioned that Vande Castle is working on a model agreement for this sort of arrangement. Neddersen commented that, if the CMF is going to hire someone to coordinate this effort, why are we going to take a chunk of the money for administrative effort and build a program that is only going to go away in 3 years. Moneypenny answered that because these associations are largely volunteer driven they are looking for some real expertise to make sure they can take full advantage of this program for as long as it lasts. Moneypenny also believes that, by going with a contract person, less will be allocated to administrative expense than if the position were an employee.

DCVB MARKETING REPORT
Each Commissioner received a hard copy of Jon Jarosh�s December report in his/her packet. Jon mentioned the just completed Press Familiarization Tour that took place last week. The next tour is scheduled for the end of February, and 3 additional tours are scheduled for 2009. He pointed out that the views of Explore the Door dropped off in November because they re-packaged the way the segments are grouped together, so the web statistical data will take a while to stabilize again. Jack interjected that the winter activity guides are now printed (in 4 color for the first time) and everyone here today will go home with the final version of the DCVB Strategic Marketing Conversation. Kufrin asked Moneypenny about Jack�s warning a few months ago about how progress reporting will be changing. Moneypenny responded that this report is in addition to the existing reports, and it will take shape over a few months beginning in February.

Liability Insurance Renewal
The Commissions current insurance is underwritten by the League of Wisconsin Municipalities Mutual Insurance Company. This is now due for renewal, and we have a proposal for such at a rate that is only $3.00 more than last year�s premium ($2,472.00 vs. $2,469.00). Nelson moved and Stayton seconded to accept this proposal for the coming year. A discussion ensued regarding shopping for competitive proposals. But that is what was done during the summer of 2007, and nothing else came close to the current proposal. This is because we are a unique governmental entity and only a specialized organization like the League of Wisconsin Municipalities Mutual Insurance Company will understand what we are and do. The consensus is that we should shop for competing proposals every 2 or 3 years. Motion carried unanimously.

September Collections
Lensert reported on collections: September unadjusted remains down by 8.2% and October unadjusted is down 6.3%. Total tax collections for the year are up approximately $38,000.00 over the same period last year. A discussion on statistics ensued with Jack commenting on the Davidson-Peterson survey/reporting that DCVB has paid for and is currently underway. This survey will also look at retail and ultimately will deliver very good statistics. Neddersen pointed out that Visitor Center visits and web visits have been down for the last few reporting months, and now our collections have been down for September and October � there is a trend. In answer to a question from Stayton, Moneypenny answered that the DCVB constantly compares its stats to other comparable destinations in Wisconsin. For instance, the Dells is not comparable this time of year because families are flocking to its water parks while we have nothing to offer in that area.

Reports and Payables
Kufrin noted that Nelson reviews and signs off on financials each month, and he reviews and signs off on Kirkland�s hours. Disbursement to DCVB was discussed. Nelson moved and Stayton seconded that we cut a check to DCVB for all but $75,000.00 of the amounts due the DCVB with the TZC Finance Committee reviewing and fine-tuning that reserve amount at future Finance Committee meetings. Motion carried unanimously. Tice moved and Larson seconded to approve the financial reports and payables. Motion carried unanimously.

Next Meeting
Next month�s meeting will be held on January 15th at the Jacksonport Town Hall.

Adjournment
Stayton moved and Tice seconded to adjourn. Motion carried unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 10:20.

Respectfully submitted,
Bryan Nelson

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