Mendocino County Lodging Association
Board of Directors Meeting
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
Hampton Inn, Ukiah, CA

MINUTES

Present were: Cally Dym, Pauline Zamboni, Roger Martin, Jan Rodriguez, Stuart Marcus, Jo Bradley, John Dixon
Phone: Sue Callahan, Robert Pinoli, Mike Bradbrook, Chris Knoerdel, Jitu Ishwar, Raakesh Patel, Pam Amante
Visit Mendocino County Inc. Staff: Erin Placido, Scott Schneider
Guest: Susie Plocher, Jim Lotter, Norm Fluher, Renata Dorn, Tahir Zecky, Darcy Plocher, Melanie (Civitas)

9 Needed for quorum: 14 present

Call to Order & Introductions

Privilege of the Floor
Jim Lotter spoke on the issue from the last meeting regarding the lack of participation from the membership. Feels that this board has made a number of poor decisions. In Room Guides should have been done 5 years ago. His guides were not delivered in a timely manner and feels service to the membership to be very poor. He travels everywhere and never sees any evidence of Mendocino County being promoted anywhere. He provided some of his ideas.

Jan responded to Jim’s comments expressing that he is more than willing to sit on the Marketing Committee and or run for the board.

President’s Comments
Cally is trying to follow the city council meetings. Each person will get three minutes to discuss their thoughts

Approval of March 7th Meeting Minutes
Jan moves to approve the minutes. Pauline seconds. Motion passed unanimously

VMC President’s Report

Treasurer’s Report
a. Update on Current Financial Status
Robert reported that the financials for this month are tabled.

Old Business
a. Recommendation of BID Ordinance Committee
Pauline withdrew the motion from last month’s meeting. An overview on the status of the committee was provided. The answers to the questions from the last meeting were addressed. Melanie from the lawyer’s office was on the call to answer additional questions
1- Change from the existing 1% BID tax to a 2% BID law
Pauline moves to change from the exiting 1% BID tax to 2% BID law. Jan seconds.
Motion passed with 7 ayes and 4 nayes. 1 abstention. Motion passed.

2- Pauline moves to change from the existing 1989 BID law to the 1994 BID law. Motion passed unanimously.

3- Pauline moves to explore the structure of the VMC Board of Directors by increasing the existing 10 members to 11 members by adding one additional member from MCLA representing lodging; resulting in a Board with representation to be comprised of 5 non-lodging members, and 6 lodging members. The 6th lodging member must be appointed from MCLA and cannot be a member of MCPA. Jo seconds.
If passed MCPA and VMC must also vote to move forward.

Motion passed unanimously.
Pauline to continue chairing the BID Ordinance committee that will continue the process

b. Nomination Committee Update/Election Rules
Jan provided an overview on the nominations that have come in and the election process
There will not be a ballot going out to Inland as there is an uncontested election
Ukiah is also an uncontested area
South Coast At Large is still waiting for the okay on one nominee. May be uncontested
Gualala is uncontested
Mendocino has 1 seat open and two people are running. There will be a vote
6 people are nominated for Mendocino
One individual has been nominated for two locations. IF that person wins both seats he will inform the board which seat he would like to sit on at which point the second place nominee would take the other seat.
It was decided that should Andrew Hindman win, Sue would still be able to keep her seat

Board discussed that the term “establishment” in the current bylaws. It was determined that the following language should be included in the ballot:
Each lodging establishment owner may only submit one ballot for each voting area they are allowed to vote in. Establishment owner is defined as the property owner for each individual inn, hotel, or individual vacation rental

c. New Board Member Packet Committee Update
John has gathered information from MCPA and other documentation. Further information to come at the next meeting

New Business
a. Recording of Meetings
Board discussed the recording of meetings and the decision to continue to do so. It must be announced before the meeting starts that it is in fact being recorded. Board agreed that it is useful. Staff to note on agenda’s that the meetings are being recorded
b. Jack Rabbit Systems
Tabled until more board members are present
c. BID Evaluation & Communication
This item was added per the request of Jim Lotter at the last meeting. Jim was no longer present at this time but the Board discussed the travel research platform Smith Travel Research that was also discussed.

Next Meeting - Scheduled for May 2nd at Victorian Gardens, Manchester at 1:00pm

Adjournment - Jo motioned to adjourn at 5:04 pm