Full Text
The Yerington Room Tax Board meeting was held in the Council Chambers on Friday June 7, 2019 with the following present; Chairman Tom Grady Board members Ted Rudolph, Dona Tracy, Harvey Pinkerton Interim City Clerk Sheema Shaw Deputy Clerk Stacey Larsen Absent: Board Member Terceira Schunke, City Manager Robert Switzer Guests: Nancy Pursel of Through a Child’s Eyes Foundation, Amy Miller of the Yerington Chamber of Commerce, Willie Skroch of Hoops for Heroes, Debbie Gilmore and Andy Joyner of the Mason Valley Beekeepers, Travis Crowder of the Boys & Girls Club of Mason Valley and Christina Hurt of the Yerington Theatre for the Arts Agenda Board member Tracy made a motion to approve agenda as presented seconded by Board member Rudolph and passed unanimously. Minutes Board member Pinkerton made a motion to approve the minutes of the December 7, 2018 meeting as presented seconded by Board member Rudolph and passed unanimously. Roll Call of all Grant Applicants Mason Valley Beekeepers - Present Through a Child’s Eyes - Present Yerington Chamber of Commerce - Present Hoops for Heroes - Present Lyon County Fair & Rodeo – Not Present Boys & Girls Club - Present Yerington Theatre for the Arts – Present Snyder’s Livestock – Not Present ---PAGE BREAK--- Revised Room Tax Application for Funds Chairman Grady asked if anyone had anything that they wanted to add, take away or discuss. Interim City Clerk Shaw stated that most of the changes happened on the second page, where the Board had requested that the amounts spent on the entire event are shown. Chairman Grady stated that the big reason for doing that is when the Board is looking at it, in some cases, it looked like we were funding the whole event and they would like a rough idea of what is being spent on the events. Chairman Rudolph stated that in future applications to please pay attention to the guidelines in the first paragraph, “The City of Yerington Room Tax Grant shall be used to advertise the resources of the City and surrounding area related to tourism…” He stated that is very important to him. He sees the explanation of the event but not necessarily how your event will advertise the City of Yerington. Chairman Rudolph asked that the applicants explain on their next application how their event will benefit the City. Board member Rudolph made a motion to approve the Revised Room Tax Application for Funds as presented seconded by Board member Tracy and passed unanimously. Boys & Girls Club has Requested Clarification of Maintenance as Listed on the Room Tax Application FOR DISCUSSION ONLY Travis Crowder of the Boys and Girls club stated that now days most of their advertising is done on the social media side. There is a bigger bang for your buck and the reach is tremendously more. Mr. Crowder stated that over the years, especially from the early days, there was a distinct difference between creating a website and the pages as opposed to the verbiage of maintenance. He stated most of what they do now is along the lines of a retainer. They have an event marketing group that they work with where it is an ongoing deal to keep the pages vibrant, keep the information flowing, keep the pages and everything so it’s new. He stated he does not feel this is maintenance as this is ongoing to get the word out, as opposed to creating websites and creating things from scratch. He stated that a little bit more clarification, from the County’s perspective, it was something they discussed a few years back with room tax, himself and others were in that same category of using their dollars almost entirely for maintaining all forms of their social media. Board Member Rudolph asked if the maintenance of the site promotes the City on a daily basis, do you have something on your site that points to the weather of the City of Yerington and are you promoting it all year long? Mr. Crowder stated that yes, they do, it is updated often and they are constantly promoting our hotels, the casinos, everything they have to offer them when they come out here. He stated they also have links to several of them on their Facebook pages and on their website, which is ongoing. He stated they do also have little weather points on their Facebook page. He stated that from the direction of this Board a few months back, they try to take an approach in advertising their events with video to try to get a better picture of the Valley as a whole. That ---PAGE BREAK--- approach is what they’re doing with the website as well as what all of their pages show, to try to get a feel for the real dirt, real country type atmosphere. Board Member Grady stated that from his standpoint this has been discussed with this Board before and the Board has not chosen to accept the maintenance. He stated that his biggest concern is that we have $33,000 in requests today, we have $24,000 in money. If we add something like maintenance, which seems to be pretty healthy, he doesn’t think we would have the money to start taking on maintenance which is more than just the retainer, it’s pretty broad. He stated that his personal opinion at this time is he doesn’t feel we can afford it. Mr. Crowder asked if there was a way to specify how that needs to read because when it comes to that, in his opinion, when they are updating their pages and shooting email blasts and shooting out things to their patrons, there are thousands of people seeing that in a form of advertising. He asked if there was a way to have that verbiage look differently on their end that would fit the category of room tax, since it is listed as retainer on their bill. Board Member Grady stated that if they want to do some more research, he has no problem with that, as this is a discussion item only today. Board Member Tracy stated that maintenance is a broad range and when you think of maintenance, in her opinion, you’re looking at fixing something. She stated that we should take a look at that and be able to clarify that a little bit better. She stated that a lot of these entities use social media and when you’re doing retainers or you’re doing posts, that to her is not maintaining that website, it’s putting up posts, getting the word out. Board Member Rudolph stated we are trying to limit the broadening to just advertising. He stated he would like to leave it to a narrower description for advertising only. Board Member Grady asked if Board Member Rudolph could head up a meeting with Mr. Crowder and Interim City Clerk Shaw and report back for the next meeting. We can discuss it and maybe there is more to get away from just maintenance and tell them really how he intends to use this money and then let the Board take action from there. Interim City Clerk Shaw stated she will ask the new City Manager, Robert Switzer, to be in attendance for this meeting. ---PAGE BREAK--- Funding for Grant Applications No one was present from Snyder’s Livestock/Bulls for the 21st Century or from the Lyon County Fair Board and their grant applications will not be considered. Mason Valley Beekeepers by applicant Debbie Gilmore was awarded $3,000 by motion of Board Member Rudolph and seconded by Board Member Pinkerton and passed unanimously. Through a Child’s Eyes Foundation by applicant Nancy Pursel was awarded $2,400 by motion of Board Member Rudolph, seconded by Board Member Pinkerton, and passed unanimously. Yerington Chamber of Commerce / Poker Run by applicant Amy Miller was awarded $1,000 by motion of Board Member Rudolph, seconded by Board Member Pinkerton, and passed unanimously. Yerington Chamber of Commerce / Christmas Parade by applicant Amy Miller was awarded $1,000 by motion of Board Member Rudolph, seconded by Board Member Pinkerton, and passed unanimously. Hoops for Heroes by applicant Willie Skroch was awarded $650 by motion of Board Member Rudolph, seconded by Board Member Pinkerton, and passed unanimously. Boys & Girls Club of Mason Valley by applicant Travis Crowder was awarded $10,000 by motion of Board Member Rudolph, seconded by Board Member Pinkerton, and passed unanimously. Yerington Theatre for the Arts by applicant Christina Hurt was awarded $5,000 by motion of Board Member Rudolph, seconded by Board Member Pinkerton, and passed unanimously. Public Participation/Comments Debbie Gilmore of the Mason Valley Beekeepers stated they had a difficult time last February finding rooms for their speakers. They may consider looking elsewhere to have their event since room availability is not here. Chairman Rudolph stated that a lot of these rooms are being booked at 30 days at a time and asked if we still receive room tax after the 30 days. Interim Clerk Shaw stated not after the 30 days. Room tax is collected for the first 28 days. ---PAGE BREAK--- Chairman Grady stated that he and his wife are leaving Yerington and this will be his last meeting. With there being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. Chairman Interim City Clerk