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2011-01-11 HOT Committee Minutes 1 2 MINUTES 3 4 Hotel Occupancy Tax Committee Meeting 5 January 11, 2011 6 7 After determining that a quorum was present, the Hotel Occupancy Tax Committee (HOT) 8 convened into an Open Meeting on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 2:34 p.m. in the City Hall 9 Conference Room, City of Denton City Hall, 215 E. McKinney Street, Denton, Texas. 10 11 PRESENT: Council Members Pete Kamp, Chris Watts and Dalton Gregory 12 13 EX-OFFICIO MEMBERS: 14 Jon Fortune, Assistant City Manager 15 Jerry Drake, Deputy City Attorney 16 Antonio Puente, Jr., Assistant Director of Finance 17 Randee Klingele, Treasury Services Specialist 18 19 AGENDA ITEM 1: CONSIDER APPROVAL OF HOTEL OCCUPANCY TAX 20 COMMITTEE MINUTES FROM AUGUST 3, 2010. 21 22 Minutes were approved as written by Councilmember Dalton Gregory and seconded by 23 Councilmember Chris Watt. Motion passed unanimously. 24 25 AGENDA ITEM 2: RECEIVE A REPORT, HOLD A DISCUSSION AND PROVIDE 26 RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING HOTEL REVENUE AND EXPENDITURES FOR 27 THE CI 28 29 Emerson Vorel, Cityirector of Parks and Recreation, provided an overview of the Public Art 30 31 poems and artwork produced 32 (HOT) budget will be spent to commission a poet, who will write twenty-five poems depicting 33 the city of Denton and its history. Twenty-five artists will then be commissioned and assigned 34 one of the poems to illustrate in their art form of choice. The poems will be mounted and 35 displayed, with all twenty-five art illustrations, at an exhibition at the Center for the Visual Arts. 36 37 At a later time, Program Year 2012, the Public Art Committee will be requesting their portion of 38 HOT funds to be expended in creating and publishing a book of the aforementioned poems and 39 art. The committee anticipates making this book available for sale to the public. 40 41 Margaret Chalfant, Greater Denton Arts Council Executive Director and Public Art Committee 42 member presented the inspiration to their book proposal 43 44 years ago, but use of HOT funds to create the book is unknown. The full project is estimated to 45 take approximately three years. Ms. Chalfant read a poem written by Karla Morton, the 2010 46 Texas Poet Laureate. 47 48 The HOT committee expressed their support of the project, which should have both a tourism 49 and economic impact on the city. The committee would like to know that 50 would include a good portion of 3-D art that would be installed for easy public viewing. The 51 anticipation that the exhibition and final 52 product (book) would be great marketing tools for the city. 53 54 Jerry Drake, Deputy City Attorney, communicated that the use of HOT funds are allowable in 55 the commissioning of the artist and poet, installation and mounting needs along with promotion 56 of the exhibition at the Center for the Visual Arts. However, to spend HOT funds to print, bind 57 and create the book itself, the HOT committee would need to recommend to the City Council an 58 ordinance finding that this project constitutes a marketing tool for the city. Mr. Drake advised 59 there are very few cases regarding expending HOT funds due to the difficulty in proving abuse 60 of discretion. 61 62 Councilmember Watts spoke supporting the full project with ample avenues to support the use of 63 HOT funds. Mr. Watts motioned to recommend the project as proposed by the Public Art 64 Committee with HOT funds supporting the commissioning of the poet, artists along with all 65 items necessary to exhibit and produce the book. Mr. Gregory seconded the motion. Motion 66 passed unanimously. 67 68 AGENDA ITEM 3: NEW BUSINESS 69 70 None. 71 72 Meeting adjourned 3:10 P.M.