Squabbles and misunderstandings over Oak Harbor’s lodging tax allocations finally resolved themselves this week.
As a final step, the Oak Harbor City Council will now need to approve the latest recommendations from Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, which so far have included more than $250,000 in funding to 13 organizations.
On Monday, the committee decided to recommend $10,000 to the Oak Harbor Music Festival for bands and re-recommended $17,500 to the Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce for a downtown marketing program, according to chairman Councilman Jim Campbell.
Problems that arose over the chamber’s application were mainly paperwork issues that were quickly resolved, Campbell said.
The committee originally voted against providing the $10,000 to the Music Festival for hiring bands because of the misunderstanding.
Campbell said the chamber hadn’t submitted paperwork specifically for the downtown marketing program, but the proposal was actually created during a lodging tax committee meeting.
Chamber Director Christine Cribb said she hopes to use the money to create a commercial for TV or Youtube and also market in print media to lure people visiting the marina to downtown.
“The partnership between the chamber and downtown merchants is critical to the community,” she said.
All told, the Oak Harbor chamber was the big winner in lodging tax disbursements. The council previously accepted the committee’s recommendation of $100,000 for chamber operations and another $50,000 for marketing.
The council chose not to follow city staff’s recommendation to send an application from the Whidbey Island Marathon back to the committee for reconsideration, even though several hotel managers urged them to do so. Several council members said they should honor the committee’s recommendation.
Councilman Rick Almberg pointed out that the city has budgeted nearly $128,000 in general funds next year to run the marathon next year.
Councilman Bob Severns explained that he attended the last lodging tax committee meeting and felt the members made their feelings clear.
“I did listen to their concerns about, if we’re going to do this for one, how can we not do it for others,” he said in regard to marathon funding request.
Severns and three other council members voted to send the music festival’s request and the chamber marketing program back to the committee for reconsideration. As Councilwoman Tara Hizon pointed out, it wasn’t because they disagreed with the recommendation, but to clarify information and paperwork.
Music Festival organizers had asked for $10,000 for marketing and $10,000 to pay for bands; the committee originally only recommended the funding for marketing because they didn’t know whether the money could be used for bands, which Finance Director Doug Merriman said is an allowable use.
Almberg and Councilwoman Beth Munns voted against the reconsiderations. Almberg said the council shouldn’t be “cherry picking” their favorites.
It’s been an unusually busy and controversial couple of months for the committee members, who have new authority because of a change in state law. The City Council can no longer change the amount of the grants the committee recommends, but can only approve, disapprove or send each recommendation back to the committee for reconsideration.
Controversy arose after the committee chose not to recommend any funding for marketing the city-owned marathon; committee members said the application from the new race director was incomplete.
Mayor Scott Dudley asked Campbell to recall the committee to reconsider the marathon funding — saying they misunderstood the information — but the majority of members resisted. They said it wasn’t fair to give one applicant another shot.
The marathon had gone through a controversy of its own earlier this year when Dudley replaced the director, a move that upset some council members.
The new recommendations for the music festival and the chamber has to return to the council for final approval.
