4/14/1992 - Laserfiche WebLink

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recalled that the feeling at the workshop was that as much of the money as possible should be put into advertising that will attract people from outside the county. That would exclude direct administrative salaries but would include workers for a specific project. Director Baird explained the difficulty in specifying the items to be excluded and gave the example of paying for a big name band because that will attract people from outside the county, but renting the stage and paying for the electricity and other gray areas must be considered on an individual basis. The problem is that "promotional cost" is a very broad term. Chairman Eggert emphasized that whatever it is that we traditionally have excluded should be disclosed so they will not send an application which included that item. Commissioner Wheeler felt we could not list all the exclusions because there are a lot of things in the tourist law that are vague and can be interpreted to various degrees. Commissioner Bird suggested that even with a certain amount of volunteerism, there might be a situation where an event might be exactly what we need to attract tourists but in order,to promote, coordinate and make that event happen, it would be necessary to have a paid professional to handle it., Chairman Eggert pointed out that the Tourist Bureau is designed to do that. Director Baird said the council feels if an organization requests funds to cover 20 percent of their administrative costs, that indicates they are relying on tourist funds, and we discourage that. If the administrative salary were for a particular event, it could be considered a direct cost of that event but we have to look at each one of the events individually and evaluate them. That is why at the workshop the Tourist Development Council did not want to develop any other criteria which may limit creativity. Commissioner Wheeler enumerated three large events which occurred in the preceding weeks which were done by volunteers, and he felt as long as we have active civic organizations in this community who sponsor large, well -coordinated events without paid staff, that is what we should fund. Commissioner Scurlock felt from the beginning that the criteria for use of the tourist tax funds should be very limited. He realized other communities have more liberal views, but he felt we should continue with our restrictions unless there is a lack of agencies applying for funding, at which time we can readdress the issue. 21 APR 141992