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HomeMy Public PortalAbout06-12-2023 Minutes Tourism Board Regular Meeting 101 E. Orange St., PO Box 429, Hillsborough, NC 27278 919-732-1270 | www.hillsboroughnc.gov | @HillsboroughGov www.visithillsboroughnc.com | @HillsboroughNC TOURISM BOARD MINUTES | 1 of 6 Minutes TOURISM BOARD Regular meeting- Budget Public hearing 5:30 p.m. June 12, 2023 Board Meeting Room of Town Hall Annex, 105 E. Corbin St. Present: Chair Matt Hughes, Rainbow Cabbage, Barry Hupp, Megan Kimball, Victoria Pace, Smita Patel, Eryk Pruitt and Scott Czechlewski Absent: Barney Caton Staff: Planning and Economic Development Manager Shannan Campbell 1. Call to order Chair and Commissioner Matt Hughes called the meeting to order at 5:31 p.m. Planning and Economic Development Manager Shannan Campbell confirmed the presence of a quorum. 2. Agenda changes and approval Campbell proposed adding an end-of-year budget adjustment as Item 4b. She explained that the town collects 6% on revenues from the prepared food and beverage tax for collection services. If revenues were higher than projected, the 6% would need to be higher to make sure the budget balances at the end of the year. Moving $15,000 from the fund balance into the general fund would ensure enough money was allocated for this 6%. An additional $50 adjustment was needed to cover audit fees. Motion: Member Barry Hupp moved to add the item to the agenda. Member Victoria Pace seconded. Vote: 8-0. 3. Minutes review and approval Minutes from regular meeting on May 15, 2023. Motion: Member Scott Czechlewski moved to approve the minutes. Pace seconded. Vote: 8-0. 4. Decision items A. Town of Hillsborough contract for staff support for fiscal years 2023-2025 Campbell explained that the board has a contract with the town to provide staff support, which includes making sure the board complies with state open meeting laws, generates agendas, takes minutes, and oversees the grant program and budget/financials. When the position was created in FY15, it involved more duties than currently, such as creating a strategic tourism plan and re-designing the funding structure of the board. The board also has streamlined the grant application and review process since the position was created. Staff recommended money for this position be allocated at 15 hours per week at $33.33 per hour, totaling almost $26,000 a year, which is an amount significantly lower than in past fiscal years. Hughes noted this was a reduction of $12,420 from the past fiscal year. TOURISM BOARD MINUTES | 2 of 6 Hupp asked if the allocation would be sufficient. Campbell said it was a three-year contract, which could be amended if the board decided to undertake a major project that required more hours from staff. Hughes noted the board had previously asked the town manager to adjust the budget to take into account the additional town planning duties Campbell had taken on. A board member if the amendment would start July 1, 2022, Campbell explained that the change was retroactive because staff needed time to evaluate the workload. The change would take effect at the start of fiscal year 2023, which was July 1, 2022. Kimball asked if Campbell tracked her hours working for the board to determine if 15 hours a week would be sufficient. Campbell said the workload varied greatly from week to week, but she had done some tracking earlier in the fiscal year to arrive at the estimate of 15 hours per week. Motion: Pace moved to approve the FY23-25 contract for Town of Hillsborough staff support. Member Smita Patel seconded. Vote: 8-0. B. End-of-year budget adjustment Hughes noted budget adjustments like this were routine and asked Budget Director Emily Bradford if she wished to comment. Bradford explained that the 6% was set by the legislation for the tax and that the town would only collect the increase only if revenues came in higher, in which case it would be offset by increased revenues. Kimball asked if the adjustment meant the board could expect a large increase in revenue. Bradford said it was hard to predict revenues, but the adjustment would cover what the board might have to pay in case revenues were much higher. She said the amendment would ensure the budget amount was higher than what the board was anticipated to spend. Hughes noted the original allocation was $24,000; the adjustment would add $15,000, for a total of $39,000. Motion: Member Megan Kimball moved to approve the budget changes. Czechlewski seconded. Vote: 8-0. 5. Budget Public Hearing Motion: Pace moved to open the public hearing. Kimball seconded. Vote: 8-0. Draft FY24 Budget Hughes noted that no one had signed up to speak. He suggested Campbell go through the draft budget as discussed at the last meeting. Campbell reviewed the budget items approved at the last meeting. She noted that total expenditures were higher than revenues by $56,399, which would be covered by the fund balance. Hughes asked if there were line items to discuss. Cabbage expressed reservations about dipping into the fund balance, which was intended to be a contingency fund for emergencies. Cabbage noted the increases in staff salaries and benefits for contract partners and TOURISM BOARD MINUTES | 3 of 6 said the board had determined to spend money on promoting tourism rather than paying more for what it had always been doing. Cabbage also questioned whether the board should keep funding staff salaries when contract partners should be fundraising to pay their own staff’s salaries. When asked what the deficit might be, Campbell said the fund balance had been hovering around $300,000, but the board hadn’t established a target. Bradford said the preliminary draft indicated a fund balance of $397,000 at the end of FY22. Hughes noted that was $100,000 higher than the previous fiscal year. Pace asked if revenues would need to be around $480,000 for the board to meet its budget. Campbell said she was anticipating revenues to be $425,000, which was a conservative estimate, but the board shouldn’t assume revenues would be higher and then spend more than it brought in. Campbell explained that some of the newer board members joined the board in the middle of the budgeting process, after contract partners had given presentations for proposals in March and April for the upcoming year. Pace noted that the request from the Burwell School was less about providing benefits than about making a part-time job full time to attract more applicants and talent, which could potentially transform the organization. Sharon Ringwalt, chair of the Historic Hillsborough Commission that oversees the Burwell School Historic Site, explained that only the site coordinator would get benefits, including two weeks of personal leave and a medical stipend, which she said were common for such positions. She said the school had three different site managers in less than two years because the job required more than the 20 hours currently allocated for the position. When asked how many visitors the school receives per year, Ringwalt estimated more than 1,000, adding the school brought tourists to Hillsborough from across the country and from abroad. She shared the number of hours volunteers spent helping with school programs and maintaining the property and noted the school also cosponsored lunch-and-learn programs with the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough. Kimball added that the school participated in virtual and offsite programing that promote the town’s image as a historic town. Pruitt asked if more funding could increase the number of visitors to the site. Ringwalt said yes: last year the Tourism Board had funded the site coordinator position, and the school has seen an increase in group tours and in single visitors. The coordinator had added more choices in the gift shop, and revenues had more than doubled. Kimball asked what the consequences would be if the board did not fully fund the requested increase. Ringwalt said the school might have a deficit budget. She explained that, unlike the museum, the school did not have an endowment because a former executive director embezzled a large amount of funds, including the endowment. As a result, the school has had to rely on donations and contracts with the Tourism Board and the county. Czelchlewski asked what would happen if the school did not get 30% of the increase it requested. Ringwalt said the school would be out of a site coordinator because the current coordinator would not stay in the position at 20 hours per week. Noting that the board meeting room would soon be needed for another meeting, Hughes proposed that the board revisit the funding amounts in August. He noted that the board had agreed in the past to gradually TOURISM BOARD MINUTES | 4 of 6 reduce the reliance of contract partners on the Tourism Board while providing enough funds to help them become self-sustaining. He said the Tourism Board has encouraged contract partners to do what they can to fundraise so that tourism funds can go more towards events and programming and less to staff and overhead for running sites. Pruitt said he mistakenly seconded a motion to partially fund the requested increase from Burwell School at the last meeting and suggested the board reconsider funding the entire request. Hughes said fully funding all the requested increases from contract partners would be fiscally irresponsible. Cabbage asked if the Burwell School Historic Site would be self-sufficient in a year if the board fully funded its requested increase. Ringwalt said she didn’t think the school could raise $90,000 in a year, but that the site manager would have more bandwidth for grant writing and more programs to bring in visitors, bringing the school closer to being self-sustaining. Motion: Member Eryk Pruitt moved to fully fund the budget line item for Burwell School at $85,000. Kimball seconded. Hughes recused himself because he serves on the commission. Vote: 4-3. Ayes: Hupp, Kimball, Patel and Pruitt. Nays: Cabbage, Czechlewski and Pace. Pruitt asked if the Orange County Historical Museum needed the full increase it had requested. Hughes said the museum’s board had settled on a budget that considered the appropriation funded in draft by the Tourism Board. Hughes confirmed that the Tourism Board agreed to fully fund the smaller requested increases from the Visitors Center and the Hillsborough Arts Council. There was discussion of funding the holiday parade and tree lighting held by the Chamber of Commerce. Pruitt said the chamber should work on raising its membership to fund the holiday lighting and parade. Czechlewski said that membership had declined from 290 to 170, substantially reducing the chamber’s budget due to COVID. He said the tree lighting and holiday parade were really town/tourism events at this point and not chamber events. He said if the chamber didn’t receive the funds, it would not be able to hold the parade. The board discussed alternative sponsors and civic groups to hold the event. Hughes noted that several other civic organizations had declined to sponsor it, so the only alternative would be for the board to organize the events, which would require hiring a part-time person. Kimball suggested that since the board agreed the parade was good for the town and had funded it in the past, it should fund the event for 2023 and revisit who sponsors the parade in the future. Asked by Pruitt if the board can require the chamber to acknowledge the board’s sponsorship of the event, Hughes and Campbell said that could be a provision of the contract and is already included in all other contracts. Motion: Pruitt moved to zero out the $10,000 to the Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce for the holiday parade and tree lighting. Pace seconded. Czechlewski recused himself. Vote: 1-6. Ayes: Pruitt. Nays: Cabbage, Hughes, Hupp, Kimball, Pace and Patel. Hughes summarized the discussion, noting that the only change to the budget draft thus far was funding the Burwell School request in full. He asked If there was a motion to close the public hearing. Cabbage said the board had not completed reviewing all items in the budget and requested the hearing stay open. TOURISM BOARD MINUTES | 5 of 6 Since the board needed to vacate the room for a meeting of the Hillsborough Board of Commissioners, the board publicly recessed to reconvene in the adjacent conference room. After the board relocated, Hughes summarized the previous discussion and suggested the board go through each line item again. Cabbage asked if the board had ever considered combining operations of the visitors center and the arts council. Campbell said no, but there had been talk of combining the operations of the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough, the Burwell School Historic Site, and Orange County Museum. She said the arts council served a much different function than these other history/preservation focused organizations. Hughes noted that the museum and school were provided support by alliance employees for one year, but the arrangement was ended as the needs of both organizations changed. Campbell explained that all the board’s contract partners act as mini visitors centers, providing information, maps, brochures, and directing visitors as part of their contract. Cabbage asked about the requested $11,790 staffing increase for the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough. Kimball explained that every year the alliance requests a cost-of-living increase for staff. Usually the increase is 3%, but this year it was 5% to keep up with inflation. Cabbage asked about the total $229,000 budget for the alliance. Kimball explained the alliance serves almost as an independent contractor, providing tourism and marketing services for the tourism program: managing social media, staffing the visitors center, distributing brochures, placing ads, doing marketing and planning tours. The budget also includes costs for operating the visitors center. Asked if having a building open was as important as providing information, Kimball said the center received many visitors who enjoy touring the historic house and grounds. Pace said she’d volunteered there and confirmed that visitors enjoy talking to someone in person. Hughes admitted it was disorienting for new board members to come in at the end of the budgeting process but said they would get a better idea of contract partners’ operations as the board heard from partners every quarter during their quarterly reports update. Kimball recommended the chamber talk to Amanda Boyd of the Hillsborough Arts Council about helping to reimagine future holiday parades, so the work would be spread out among more than one organization. Members briefly discussed funding for a commemorative plaque and bicentennial rededication ceremony requested by the Historic Eagle Lodge. Kimball noted the funding was not really providing seed money. Cabbage said the plaques created tourist infrastructure. Hughes noted the $3,500 request includes costs associated with the event as well as the plaques. Pace summarized the board’s reservations about the grant request from the opera company. Other members summarized their reservations about funding the gala event for the Snow Approach Foundation. Kimball noted that the latter application included plans to build a gathering place for the organization in town, which might sustain tourism. She said she supported the board’s recommendations made in its last meeting on grants. There was brief discussion of the kayak rental and Revolutionary War signs. Motion: Pace moved to close the discussion and the public hearing. Hupp seconded. TOURISM BOARD MINUTES | 6 of 6 Vote: 8-0. Motion: Pace moved to approve the budget as amended in an earlier motion. Patel seconded. Kimball, Czechlewski and Hughes recused themselves. Vote: 5-0. 6. Monthly reports and comments A. Staff report and Orange County Visitors Bureau updates There were none. B. Board comments and updates There were none. 7. Adjournment Motion: Kimball moved to adjourn at 7:28 p.m. Hupp seconded. Vote: 8-0. Respectfully submitted, Shannan Campbell Planning and Economic Development Manager Staff support to the Hillsborough Tourism Board Approved: August 7, 2023