No quorum, Tourism Council discusses audit, city of Lincoln, Logan County Board, and rent

[July 15, 2016]  LINCOLN - On Monday evening the Logan County Tourism Bureau Council held it’s July meeting with a very low attendance. Of the seven members of the council, Renee Martin, Gail Sasse, and Steve Parrot were present. Tourism Director Maggie McMurtrey said that she had been notified that Sal Pollice, Ron Keller, Shawn Taylor and Paresh Patel would be unable to attend. However, there were action items from last month’s meeting that she wanted to report on that would not require voting. Other items on the agenda that do require voting will be carried over to the August meeting.

McMurtrey reported that she now has in hand the official final audit documents for 2013 and 2014. The audit had been completed in two steps. The first was a 12-month audit from July 1, 2013 to June 30, 2014. The second stage was an audit of the period from July 1, 2014 through December 31, 2014.

McMurtrey said the next step in getting the audits up to date would be to do one audit on the calendar year 2015. She said looking at schedules for the bureau staff as well as the auditor staff of Kerber, Eck, and Braeckel, the first available time for the audit to start would be early August, perhaps in the first week.

It was noted that the bureau needs to deliver a hard copy of the audits to the Lincoln City Council. The city had canceled the Committee of the Whole meeting for July 12th, so the audit will be delivered on July 18th.

McMurtrey said she would like to have as many of the Tourism Council members as possible present for that meeting. She said she wanted the Tourism Council to be available to the aldermen for questions if needed. Renee Martin and Gail Sasse both said they could attend. Steve Parrott will be there as an alderman.

Asked about the status of the city’s request for an additional third party audit, McMurtrey said it was her understanding that the city council was willing to wait until the completion of the 2015 audit by Kerber, Eck, and Braeckel,

McMurtrey also reported that it is time for a state review of the bureau. She said this review happens every three years, and will probably start sometime in August as well.

City tourism funding agreement

McMurtrey was asked about the funding agreement with the city of Lincoln. She told the council that the bureau has a funding agreement through the end of July with the city of Lincoln.

McMurtrey said that one question on the financial reports last month had been about the dollars received from the state and the city. She had gone back to LCA Office Manager Tina Simpson, for a detail of those receipts.

The dollar amount showing up for the state in one month was approximately $28,000. She said that was correct because the state had paid obligations for the past year in two checks issued close together. She said those were checks that provided reimbursement for months that had passed with no payments at all from the state.

The report last month also showed that the city had paid nothing. That too was correct. She noted that on the report for June it would also show that the city had not paid anything, but they have. She said the city paid the May support just this week, so those city dollars would show up in the July financial reports.

McMurtrey said it was normal for there to be a delay in the payment from the city. The state first has to collect the tax from the motels in the month after the liability occurs, then the funds are distributed back out returning through the city and passed through to the bureau. She also noted that there had been a document that required her signature as well as that of Mayor Marty Neitzel that had to be signed before the city clerk could issue a check.

The current funding agreement with the city runs out on July 31st. McMurtrey said that she was looking at returning to the city council in August, first to deliver the quarterly report, then on another occasion, she would appear to discuss a new funding agreement.

The Lincoln City Council had instructed its administrator, Clay Johnson, and attorney, Blinn Bates, to investigate whether or not the city of Lincoln could take over the Logan County Tourism Bureau making it a city entity instead of a division of the Logan County Alliance. Johnson and Bates are to report back to the council on that matter the first of August.

The future funding of the Logan County Tourism Bureau will hinge on the answers the two come up with and the actions the city council takes as a result.

Tourism Bureau requests resolution from the Logan County Board

McMurtrey and Sasse will go before the Logan County Board Insurance and Legislative Committee this evening (Wednesday, July 13th) with a request for a resolution from the county stating that the Logan County Tourism Bureau is the only 501c3 tourism bureau in the county.

McMurtrey said this would be the second time the bureau has made this request to the county.

Sasse explained that the first resolution had been prepared by county staff, and had included in various locations what appeared to be references to the Logan County Alliance. Sasse said because of this the committee had been hesitant to approve the request. Sasse said she had reached out to many of the county board members who had expressed their concern that the document included the Logan County Alliance. She added that one board member had emailed her a copy of the resolution pointing this out.

McMurtrey said that had now been resolved and the resolution would go back before the committee. She said this is a document that she needs for her state grant and that the county board approves a similar resolution every year.

Parrott asked why this became an issue this year then. McMurtrey said when she emailed the county, her automatic signature on emails says “Logan County Tourism Bureau, A Division of the Logan County Alliance.” She said she believed the county staff member who typed the resolution had incorporated that into the document, and that was why the committee had rejected the request.

McMurtrey explains credit balance in space rent

Because there was no quorum Monday evening, the Tourism Council could not vote on any action items. They did, however, review the financial report for June. During that review time, McMurtrey pointed out a credit balance in the space rent expense and explained what had happened.

McMurtrey pointed out that there is a credit balance of $1,750.49. She said that it had been discovered the Tourism Bureau was paying half the space cost for the office on Fifth Street when they should have been paying only one-third. To make a cleaner adjustment on the books, the Alliance had issued a refund check instead of foregoing rent until the credit balance was wiped out.

Parrott asked how that error had occurred. McMurtrey said she didn’t know. The error had been discovered by herself and Simpson, just recently. She explained that during the time when she and Simpson were the only employees of the Alliance, they had reviewed some of the matters pertaining to the Tourism Bureau specifically.

She said there was a written document stating the Bureau should pay one-third, so the amount charged monthly had been adjusted and the refund issued back to the bureau.

Town Updates

At the end of the meeting each month, council members talk about things they know are going on in their community.

Parrott mentioned that this week would be another Third Friday’s event in downtown Lincoln.

Other things mentioned throughout the evening included Renee Martin talking about an event in August celebrating work done at the Mount Pulaski Courthouse.

And, McMurtrey talked about some of the events that will take place during this year’s Art in the Park, July 22 through the 24th.

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The next meeting of the Logan County Tourism Bureau will be held August 13th at 4:45 p.m. in the conference room at the Best Western on Fifth Street.

[Nila Smith]