Door County Tourism Zone Commission : Meeting Minutes

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October 18, 2007 Door County Tourism Zone Commission Meeting

MINUTES OF THE OCTOBER 18, 2007
TOURISM ZONE COMMISSION MEETING
Sister Bay, Wisconsin

ACTION ITEMS
-Most moved and Sarkis seconded to approve the agenda as posted. Motion carried.

-Nelson moved and Tice seconded to approve payables as submitted. Motion carried.

-Most moved and Coulson seconded to approve Kerber-Rose�s reports on August tax collections. Motion carried.

-Sarkis moved and Nelson seconded that the Commission hire Bill Vande Castle as its legal counsel. Motion carried.

-Hill moved and Sarkis seconded that the Commission approve the job description for the Administrative Assistant at November�s meeting and place the ad thereafter. Motion failed.

-Tice moved and Nedderson seconded that the Commission define the job description for the Administrative Assistant by next week and hold a meeting prior to November 15th for the purpose of approving it with the ad being placed thereafter. Motion failed.

-Coulson moved and Nelson seconded that the Commission place the ads for the Administrative Assistant A.S.A.P. requesting the submittal of resumes by November 8th and posting on the November 15th agenda the approval of the job description and the reviewing of applications. Hill moved and Most seconded to amend this motion that there is an additional agenda item on Nov. 15th to review the qualifications of any applicants. Motion to amend carried unanimously. Coulson�s original motion carried unanimously.
-Stayton moved and Hill seconded that the ad for Administrative Assistant be posted offering �wage commensurate with experience�. Motion carried with Tice voting �nay�.

-Tice moved and Most seconded to go into Closed Session for 10 minutes to hear Lensert present enforcement issues. Motion carried unanimously by roll-call vote.

-Hill moved and Tice seconded to adjourn Closed Session and move back to Open Session. Motion carried unanimously by roll-call vote.

-Hill moved and Stayton seconded to request our attorney to draw up proposed by-laws. Motion carried unanimously.

-Hill moved and Weddig seconded to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried.
Those Present: Bob Kufrin, Jim Sarkis, Charlie Most, Carol Stayton, Barb Lautenbach, Ned Nedderson, Chuck Tice, Bill Weddig, Bruce Hill, Andy Coulson and Bryan Nelson.

Also present: Diane Lensert, Jack Monneypenny, John Lowry, and Jerry Zaug.
Chairperson, Kufrin, called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. and introduced Carol Stayton as Washington Island�s acting representative to the TZC (who may very well become the permanent representative). Kufrin then called on John Lowry for a special introduction.

Lowry introduced the new CEO and Executive Director of the Door County Visitor Bureau, Jack Monneypenny. Moneypenny commented briefly on his commitment to making the DCVB the professional marketing organization it needs to be to drive the economic engines of Door County.

Most moved and Sarkis seconded to approve the agenda as posted. Motion carried.

Kufrin stated that we have no minutes of the September 20th meeting at this time.

Correspondence
Kufrin noted that the DCVB sent out notice of its annual meeting on Oct 24th at the English Inn at 4:30 p.m. Most stated that he has been approached by the Door County Fair management to solicit tax monies from the TZC. He warns us that many of us will be approached by organizations for funding and that we need to be very careful in how we respond to such requests as we can fund only the DCVB.

Approval of Bills and Discussion of Receipts
Nelson moved and Tice seconded to approve payables as submitted. Motion carried.

Lensert explained the monthly reports. She reminded us of the color coding on the permit report: yellow indicates a property is not reporting statistics and orange means a property is having problems meeting its tax payment obligations. There have been approx. $36,000 in collections for year to date that have not yet been reported because they came in after reporting cut-off dates. Diane will adjust all of these at year�s end so they are reflected in the annual reporting. Kufrin projected out to year�s end for budgeting purposes. Based on Sister Bay�s and Gibraltar�s collections to date their municipalities� 30% share will each be about $100,000.00 and next year�s will be $125,000.00. In fact, Sister Bay, Gibraltar and Ephraim may soon exceed $300,000.00 each in total collections and will therefore be entitled to two representatives each on the TZC. Most moved and Coulson seconded to accept these reports on the collection of taxes for August. Motion carried.

Kufrin asked permission to next skip to item #6 on the agenda regarding Accounting Software. Lensert reported that she has been searching but has not yet found the software that will fulfill all the reporting requirements and the need for web-based filing. She has been in touch with Greg Swain of Bay Lakes Information Systems about both the search for existing and the possibility of developing new software. Swain threw out a ballpark figure of $15k - $20k for the development of such software. Sarkis questioned Monneypenny about his knowledge of software for this type of software. He answered that his former organization in Milwaukee used Star reports from Smith Travel Research. Hill commented that Microsoft Access and Excel should be able to do all this for us. Lensert responded that our database is currently in Access and collections data is in Excel. Kerber Rose has already hired an Access consultant to attempt to customize this for us and this person has had to go back to consult additional resources. Hill questioned the wisdom of developing proprietary software because of the tendency of such things to have problems and grow more and more complex, resulting in huge cost over-runs. He suggested that Oracle owns a product that it purchased from a former employer of his that should meet our needs. Stayton asked if we�ve contacted other room tax locations such as Nevada and New York that may be using software that we could access. Most questioned whether Associated Bank can help with this. Kufrin mentioned that Associated may be able to provide some web-based services and their representatives will be talking to us in December. Zaug mentioned that the American Hotel Lodging Association may offer these products.

Attorney Search
Kufrin solicited recommendations from member municipalities. Egg Harbor referred us to Atty. Bill Vande Castle. Hill explained that he worked with Vande Castle for the 3 years he was in Egg Harbor Government. He found him to be competent and calm and professional. Sarkis has been in touch with him and is enthusiastic about his work on the Green Bay/Brown County Stadium Commission where he has been the legal counsel since its inception. His only potential conflict of interest is his representation of Egg Harbor. Sarkis moved and Nelson seconded that the Commission hire him as legal counsel. Motion carried unanimously. Sarkis suggested that the first thing we ask Vande Castle to do is create by-laws. Kufrin will ask him to be present at our next meeting.

The next meeting on November 15th will be held on Washington Island. Stayton cautioned that ferry travel is often delayed at that time of year. It was decided therefore that the meeting will start at 10:00 a.m. rather than the usual 09:00.

Lensert, Lautenbach, Sarkis, & Kufrin met regarding the development of a job description for an Administrative Assistant. They are ready to place an ad in the Advocate, Reminder and Pulse requesting applications. Most requested that the full Commission view and pass on the job description before the ad is placed. Kufrin handed out copies of the job description that the sub-committee developed. Hill and Nelson questioned the need for the full Commission to approve a job description before a Help Wanted ad is placed. Hill moved and Sarkis seconded that we approve the job description at November�s meeting and place the ad thereafter. Motion failed. Tice moved and Nedderson seconded that we define the job description by next week and hold a meeting prior to November 15th for the purpose of approving it. The ad can then be placed in the papers. Discussion: Coulson would like to place an ad in the paper soon and we can accept applications in the time between placement and the next meeting and move forward with the hiring process at that time. Sarkis explained the process of the sub-committee which resulted in the current job description and the wording of the ad that is not yet placed. Stayton observed that we have hired an attorney that we haven�t met but we are bogged down with this search for an administrative assistant. Motion failed. Coulson moved and Nelson seconded to place an ad A.S.A.P. requesting the submittal of resumes by Nov. 8th and posting an agenda item on the November15th meeting agenda for the approval of the job description and the reviewing of applications. Hill moved and Most seconded to amend the motion that there is an additional agenda item on Nov. 15th for reviewing the qualifications of any applicants. The motion for the amendment carried unanimously. The original motion by Coulson also carried unanimously. Discussion ensued regarding compensation for the Administrative Assistant. Lensert explained the sub-committee�s thinking. Stayton moved and Hill seconded that the ad be posted offering �wage commensurate with experience�. Motion carried with Tice voting �nay�. Stayton asked that the ad be placed in the Washington Island Observer in addition to the Advocate and Reminder. Most suggested that we might consider whether or not to make the Administrative Assistant a contract worker rather than an employee.

DCVB Report
Jerry reported that the Door County Visitor Bureau needs an approved revised budget and that agenda item was tabled by the Commission at last month�s meeting. Kufrin explained that the reason he did not bring it forward to this month�s agenda is that he wanted Jack Moneypenny to make it his own budget rather than his predecessor�s. Jerry asked when we were going to come up with a better way of transferring funds to DCVB because they have been �hamstrung� by the current procedure of reimbursement only for specific bills presented. Kufrin again stated that he wants to make it �Moneypenny�s game� and Monneypenny has been on the job for only a few days. Moneypenny respectfully requested that the issue of a revised budget be on next month�s agenda in an �upwards position� to ensure that it be acted upon. Kufrin agreed and asked that any budget documents be in the Commission�s hands well prior to the November meeting. Jon Jarosh could not be present because he is involved in the current Geiger Press Tour. Sarkis asked if this Geiger Tour is the first one that TZC monies have paid for. Zaug answered in the affirmative. Kufrin asked about the EBrains statistics on Jarosh�s report to the Commission. He is concerned that, now that EBrains work has commenced, our website visits have gone down. Hill responded that, in order to compare apples to apples, we must compare it to September of last year. Zaug responded that the visits are indeed up significantly over September of last year. Coulson questioned why the average daily traffic statistics are down and, more specifically, why the traffic counters are located where they are. Zaug and Kufrin mentioned that traffic count is only one indicator of overall business and it is indeed an imperfect one. Traffic statistics should be considered as supporting data only.

Kufrin suggested that the Commission go into closed session to consider enforcement actions. He explained that there are a number of appeals to consider but we do not have our attorney present. There was consensus that we need the attorney present to discuss these. Coulson asked if there is any value in going into closed session just for the purpose of being introduced to some of the problems we are facing so that we can ponder and digest them prior to the next meeting when our attorney is present. Tice moved and Most seconded to go into Closed Session for 10 minutes. Motion carried unanimously by roll-call vote.

Closed Session
The following minutes of that session are general in character: Lensert brought up specific cases. 82 properties have not yet responded. They have received multiple letters but have not yet been contacted by phone. A number of properties are on appeal. Most of these are arguing that they had deposits prior to May 1st and these implied a contract that excluded room tax. Late fees are another issue. Hill suggested that Lensert should come up with the general questions that apply to the 5 or 6 likely scenarios and we can develop responses for them. Hill moved and Tice seconded to adjourn Closed Session into Open Session. Motion carried unanimously by roll-call vote.

Hill moved and Stayton seconded that we request our attorney to draw up proposed by-laws. Motion carried unanimously.

Hill moved and Weddig seconded to adjourn the meeting. Motion carried.

Respectfully submitted,
Bryan Nelson, Secretary/Treasurer

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