PORT ANGELES — A performance of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center’s Webster’s Woods is among 16 new and old events recommended for 2015 lodging tax funding by the city Lodging Tax Advisory Committee.
City Council members will consider approving the requests this week when they meet in regular session at 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
Mayor Dan Di Guilio said Friday the council usually approves the committee’s recommendations at the meeting at which those recommendations are presented.
The advisory committee met Wednesday to consider 16 requests totaling $96,760 and had $70,000 to recommend for distribution.
Recommendations
Among them is $2,000 — the amount requested — for “William in Webster’s Woods,” a new event, in the arts center’s meadow Aug. 21-23 and Aug. 28-30.
Others awards:
■ $15,000 (requested $15,000): 14th Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival, Oct. 9-11.
■ $14,000 (requested $17,000): 22nd annual Juan de Fuca Festival of the Arts, May 22-25.
■ $13,000 (requested $15,000): North Olympic Discovery Marathon, June 6-7.
■ $7,000 (requested $10,000): Extreme Sports Park Run Amuck, July 11; American Sprint Boat Pro Racing Series, July 25 and Aug. 22.
■ $3,000 (requested $5,000): Bloktoberfest Beer, Wine and Music Festival, a new event sponsored by the Port Angeles Downtown Association, Sept. 25-27.
■ $3,000 (requested $4,000): Port Angeles Kayak & Film Festival, April 18-19.
■ $3,000 (requested $3,100): The Big Hurt multi-sports race, last held in 2004, held this year sometime in late September.
■ $2,500 (requested $2,500): Ride the Hurricane recreational bike ride on Hurricane Ridge Road, Aug. 2.
■ $1,500 (requested $1,500): 21st annual Forest Storytelling Festival, mid-October.
■ $1,500 (requested $2,000): Run for Joe Marathon, sponsored by the Captain Joseph House Foundation, June 20.
■ $1,000 (requested $2,000): Port Angeles Garden Club, to host the 82nd State Federation of Garden Clubs’ annual convention, June 2-5.
■ $1,000 (requested $1,260): NW Cup downhill mountain bike racing series, with two of the seven races held in Port Angeles, April 24-26 and May 17-19.
■ $1,000 (requested $5,000): Olympic Culinary Loop, Oct. 9-11 or Nov. 7-8.
■ $1,000 (requested $2,400): Summer Solstice Art Fest 2015, June 20.
■ $500 (requested $3,000): Oldtimers N.W. Rod Run car exhibition, July 10-12.
West said a $6,000 request from the Port Angeles Fine Arts Center for the Plein Air Festival and Competition — “Paint the Peninsula” — was not considered for lodging taxes due to a prior 2015 lodging tax award of $10,000 for the event.
Criteria for funding
Criteria for lodging tax funding, set by state law, includes overall attendance, number of attendees traveling more than 50 miles to the event, the time of year of the event and number of people who stay overnight to attend it.
The lodging taxes spent on marketing the event must be spent outside the city limits, Nathan West, community and economic development director, said Friday. Lodging taxes also can be spent only on event-related expenses.
Lodging tax proceeds are generated by the 4 percent lodging tax on establishments that offer overnight accommodations.
Outside peak season
“It would be extremely beneficial to stress we need to see new events outside the peak season between October and April, that we really need to see additional events to come in to really make changes,” West said at the end of Wednesday’s meeting.
“We really need to change the picture and try to get additional benefit.”
Committee member Betsy Wharton, a former deputy mayor, also suggested that the committee expand its criteria beyond hotel stays to include sales tax revenues generated by events.
Committee members Ryan Malane, Hannah Hooper, Holly Dempsey, Fowler Stratton, David Shargel and City Councilwoman Cherie Kidd, the committee chair, also attended the meeting.
Kidd asked committee member and event promoter Scott Nagel, executive director of the Dungeness Crab & Seafood Festival, which was a lodging tax applicant, to recuse himself from the deliberations to avoid an appearance of a conflict of interest.
Nagel had raised the issue with West.
“Any vote I make could be construed as self-serving and a conflict of interest since this is a competitive process and I have applied for a grant,” Nagel said in a Feb. 19 email to West.
“The thought would be that any grant I vote against, or any recommendation on a funding amount, could improve my chances of being approved and receiving more funds.”
Nagel’s absence “takes away any controversy, which we would rather not have,” Kidd said at the meeting.
Nagel did not protest.
“Have fun,” he said as he left council chambers.
________
Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
