Hotel-Motel Tax Board Minutes 2019 January 25

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ST. JOSEPH COUNTY BOARD OF MANAGERS FOR HOTEL-MOTEL TAX WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2019 8:30 A.M. CENTURY CENTER SUITE 1 Members Present Members Absent Others John Anthony Carmen Piasecki Rob DeCleene & Staff – VSB/CVB Greg Downes Victor Ravago Leanna Belew & Staff – Century Center Joseph Kurth Thomas Walz Jeff Jarnecke, VPA Mark McDonnell Ron Zeltwanger Jenny McNeil Dan Parker Gary West The meeting was called to order by President Anthony at 8:30 a.m. Anthony noted the contributions of Priscilla Phillips for her many years of service as secretary to the board. McDonnell commented that Priscilla served since the beginning of Century Center (over 40 years.) Anthony welcomed Mary Ellen Smith. Smith introduced herself as Operations Manager at the Morris. ROLL CALL Roll call was taken with the following members absent: Carmen Piasecki, Victor Ravago, Thomas Walz, Ron Zeltwanger. Anthony welcomed new board member Dan Parker. Parker introduced himself as the new Controller for the City of South Bend for two months. Before coming to the City, he was with Beacon Health System and his undergraduate degree is from Notre Dame. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Anthony entertained a motion to approve the minutes of November 2, 2018. McDonnell moved to accept with one correction that member present “John” Kurth should be corrected to “Joseph” Kurth; seconded by Downes, the motion carried. TREASURER’S REPORT Since Treasurer Ron Zeltwanger was absent, Anthony reported on the period ending December 31, 2018. The beginning balance from January 1, 2018, was $5,453,192. Receipts for the year were $5,679,728 with disbursements of $5,037,769 resulting in a remaining 12-31-18 balance of $6,124,258. Anthony commented that this amount is the highest balance that he recalls. The projected 2018 ending balance with what is yet to be disbursed and accounted for is $5.195 million. $1.5 million is allocated for future opportunity. The approved budget for 2019 is $5,859,000, which is $200,000 more than collected this past year. The reserve is being spent down a little even without the more ambitious projects. The receipts this year were up 8.4% over the previous year. In the last seven years the increase has averaged 6.9% per year. This is on pace to just about double in a couple of years where we were less than 10 years ago. Anthony thanked everyone who is making this happen. Anthony commented that this has been a very nice trajectory since the Great Recession and that expenses have been conservative, especially since the Hall of Fame allocation has passed. PRESIDENT’S REPORT Agency Reports Visit South Bend/Mishawaka: Rob DeCleene announced that Mary Bishop is an official member of the Visit South Bend staff after 30 years at the Chamber. She is now listed on both the Chamber and VSBM websites.