1. Welcome and Introduction
2. American Hotel & Lodging Association new web page, .travel. Eric told the members a little about the new AHLA web page, there will be 18 sectors, and you will need to use your own domain name. He will let us know as he gets more info.
3. BID Meeting:
- SLTLA board members who are on the board presented an overview of where we are currently (Pradip Patel, Eric Eymann, Missy Springer). Julie Threewit, Chairman of the BID board, also filled the members in on where we are. Judge Kingsbury has indicated the City may collect the funds, but not disperse them at this time.
- There was a great deal of discussion about the BID in general, what the opponents of the BID are wanting, and how the City feels about the ruling. There was discussion about Lodging splitting off from the BID, and doing their own BID that would fund LTVA and C of C (which was the original intent of the BID by those who got together to create it).
- Dennis Crabb was asked how long it would take to get a final response from the court, he indicated he felt this would be followed up on rather quickly. Felt there should be a Yes or No by early fall. He felt that if the court found that there were errors in the BID the city could correct what the court found to be wrong rather quickly.
- Discussion continued regarding several members of the board being concerned at the direction the BID board is taking, worrying that the City turned the BID into a political process.
- Pat pointed out that with only 8 properties reporting in, they have spend over $2,900,000 on marketing; employ over 950 people; and have spent over $14,500,000 in renovations in the last 5 years.
- Pat Ronan then presented a motion: That the board should prepare a statement for our representatives on the board to:
- Advise the BID board should stick to the original mission with is funding.
- To take a stand that the voting needs to be changed to reflect the funding levels, there should be a weighted vote to reflect the funding levels. If that isn’t considered, SLTLA will push to pull out.
- Pat then said he would explore what other avenues the board could find to start a lodging BID.
4. Presentations:
- New Members: High Sierra Helicopter. Introduced his business. Cost is 20 min, $89; 45 min, $179; hour long $259. Total of 4 seats in the helicopter (one of which the pilot needs). If members would like more info they should contact Doug Botton.
- NLTRA: Just closed the fiscal year, overall Calls are down 22%; Room Nights down 26%; Gross Revenue down 32%. As well 50% of reservations are made 4 or less days out, and many just want 1 night. Labor Day calls have started to come in.
- South Lake C of C: Duane reported on the Boat Ban, said that with the hard work of Chamber members, and our representatives, it looks as if TRPA will have to present concrete science to back their claims of boat pollution, and how banning boats one day a week will help. He will keep everyone informed.
- LTVA: Patrick reported on the web page, there will be a meeting on August 25th, to show the three possibilities for the new web page. Everyone is invited to attend.
- Blue Go: Ken reported that even though the newspaper had said they would receive a large amount of funding, they failed to report that it was required that there be matching funds of $800K. He doesn’t feel that will be a problem, but won’t receive the new busses until next year. Nifty Fifty Trolley will only be around 3 more weeks, until Labor Day, but ridership is up.
Meeting was adjourned.
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