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Tourism committee recommends updated best-practices guide to assembly
Summary
The tourism committee reviewed the Tourism Best Management Practices (TBMP) document and voted to forward the updated, voluntary guidance to the assembly for formal review and potential approval.
Skagway’s tourism committee voted to present the current Tourism Best Management Practices document to the assembly for formal review, after a discussion about limited substantive edits and how the guide should remain concise and voluntary.
Jamie Bricker, Skagway’s tourism director, told the committee the TBMP "was actually set by resolution through the assembly," and that while updates have been posted online, the document had not been returned to the assembly table. Bricker said the department received suggestions from the advisory board and from residents, including proposed additions addressing vehicle washing, fire safety, noise pollution and environmental protections in the Naku Conservation Area. She said many of those topics are already referenced in the TBMP and in municipal code, and that the TBMP is intended to be a digestible, voluntary resource rather than a substitute for law: "this program is meant to be digestible because it doesn't take the place of law," she said.
Committee members discussed whether to expand the TBMP to include additional content from the Solid Waste Advisory Board (two one-page resources) or to keep the TBMP concise so operators will read and adopt it. One committee member recommended forwarding the current version of the TBMP to the assembly so that Bricker could use it to prepare for the upcoming season; another urged outreach to advisory board members, including Anne Marie Hasskamp, before sending it forward.
The committee approved a motion to present the current TBMP to the assembly by voice vote. The transcript records the motion, a second and unanimous "Aye" responses. The motion instructions call for the tourism department to transmit the updated document and any advisory-board comments to the assembly for review.
The TBMP remains voluntary; code provides backstop enforcement options when necessary, Bricker said. The committee advised a light-touch approach, favoring readability to increase operator participation rather than expanding the document with lengthy code excerpts.
