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Coupeville officials seek tighter oversight of Island County Tourism; proposal would make county the administrator
Summary
Coupeville Mayor Jackie and other local elected officials reported they are working to revise the 20-year-old interlocal agreement governing Island County Tourism, including creating an administrator position funded by tourism dollars and reducing board size to improve governance.
Coupeville — Coupeville Mayor Jackie told council on April 22 that town, county and neighboring-municipality officials are pursuing revisions to the Island County Tourism interlocal agreement, seeking clearer administrative oversight and fairer allocation of tourism funds among jurisdictions.
Officials said the current tourism committee has relied heavily on contractors and marketing staff but lacks an executive-level administrator to perform core government functions: preparing minutes, ensuring compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act, responding to public-records requests, managing accounts payable and handling audit paperwork. Jackie said the group discussed making that administrator a county employee and paying that position from tourism funds. "She...volunteered to have 1 of the issues...be a county employee paid for with the tourism funds," Jackie said, summarizing the group discussion on structure and accountability.
The officials also discussed revising the formula for how the four jurisdictions contribute their second 2% lodging-tax allocation, and reducing the size of the tourism board to improve quorum reliability and governance. Jackie described the current committee as 18 members with many vacancies, which creates quorum problems and an organization that mixes advisory and administrative duties. The proposed approach would create a smaller executive committee of elected representatives for policy oversight and a separate advisory group that would include chambers and other stakeholders.
The council was told the county would remain the largest funder because of its continuing full 2% contribution. The proposed administrator would manage notices, minutes, communications and financial controls for a tourism budget the mayor described as sizable — "8 or $900,000" in her remarks — and would be responsible for ensuring charges were appropriate for a government entity.
Council members said they support revising the interlocal agreement but noted the committee has signed consultant contracts that will remain in force for the current year. Mayor Jackie said the jurisdictional partners aim to complete an updated interlocal agreement in time for budget planning in the next fiscal cycle. The council did not take formal action; staff will bring any proposed interlocal-agreement language back for future consideration.
Ending
Council asked staff to return with drafted interlocal language and a timeline for budgetary implementation once the partners finalize the governance approach.
