MEMO TO: Members of the City Council
FROM: Mayor Angela Birney
SUBJECT:
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Approval of the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee Recommendation for the 2020 Tourism Fund Matching Grants, in the Amount of $150,500, and the Community Events and Arts Programs Allocations, in the Amount of $205,824
I. RECOMMENDED ACTION
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Approve the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee recommendation for the 2020 Tourism Fund matching grants, totaling $150,500 and the Community Events and Arts Programs allocations, totaling $205,824.
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II. DEPARTMENT CONTACTS
Carol Helland, Interim Director 425-556-2107
Sarah Pyle, Manager, Community Development and Implementation 425-556-2426
Megan Worzella, Program Administrator 425-556-2360
Planning and Community Development
III. DESCRIPTION/BACKGROUND
The City of Redmond collects a lodging tax of 1percent on each overnight stay at Redmond hotels and allocates these revenues to the Lodging Tax Fund. The purpose of the Lodging Tax Fund ("tourism fund") is to increase tourism in Redmond by attracting visitors-especially overnight visitors who stay in Redmond hotels-by funding the marketing or operation of special events, festivals and tournaments. The tourism matching grant program is intended to provide opportunities for potential partners to bring events and festivals to the Redmond community.
The City received 16 grant applications from non-profit and for-profit organizations, in response to the annual matching grant applications request announcement. Applications are reviewed against the program fund criteria including: tourism promotion, benefit to the community, innovation, community support, evidence of partnerships, scale of the project, other funding sources, and new or ongoing funding.
The Lodging Tax Advisory Committee (LTAC) is recommending funding 15 of the 16 applications evaluated as they strongly met the grant criteria and were evaluated as a good fit for Redmond. There was one application ...
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