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San Juan County LTAC approves bylaws revisions, tables master-plan changes for redraft
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Summary
The San Juan County Lodging Tax Advisory Committee approved amended bylaws March 4 and spent the meeting revising a draft master plan — narrowing proposed conservation language, removing expanded EV/transport bullets for now, and directing staff to refine funding percentages, scoring metrics and applicant timelines ahead of an April 7 follow-up.
The San Juan County Lodging Tax Advisory Committee approved updated bylaws on March 4 and directed staff to rewrite parts of a draft lodging-tax master plan after members raised questions about environmental language, capital eligibility and funding allocations.
Chair Carrie McVay, a county councilmember, opened the meeting by calling the draft bylaws and master plan "a draft process" and asking for detailed feedback so the documents would be clear, legally compliant and transparent. The committee voted to adopt the bylaws as amended by voice vote; the chair said she will vote only to break a tie.
The bylaws changes the committee adopted include editorial fixes, adding county staff as possible subcommittee participants and revising the public-participation clause from "seek the involvement of" to "welcome the involvement of". Members also clarified conflict-of-interest practice: recipients may present and answer questions but must recuse from voting on awards. The committee asked the county attorney’s office to review the final drafts for legal compliance.
Most of the meeting examined the draft master plan’s strategic goals and investment priorities. Members objected to wording that appeared to allow broad conservation or restoration grants outside a clear tourism nexus. "We can't fund conservation projects that don't have a tourism nexus," said Amy Frost, director of the Lopez Island Historical Museum; Angela Broderick, the county Climate Sustainability Coordinator, replied she crosswalked the goals to the county comp plan and recommended rewording so conservation appears as part of tourism-related projects such as stewardship education and low-impact visitor programs.
Committee members also debated interpretive-signage eligibility and capital projects such as EV chargers. Nancy Stilger of the Orcas Island Historical Museums asked whether signage on non-county property could be eligible for capital funds; members agreed to research San Juan County code and to clarify the language. Several members urged removing an expanded sustainable-transportation bullet — including EV infrastructure — from the master plan for now, saying those projects often require county ownership or broader funding and are outside LTAC’s typical scope.
Funding allocation and the role of the Destination Marketing/Management Organization (DMMO) drew sustained discussion. Chair McVay said historical allocations suggested "up to" roughly three-quarters of lodging-tax revenue went to core entities and to the DMMO; some members asked that the committee revisit and clarify the percentages after the first grant cycle under the new rules. Angela Broderick said she would draft clearer definitions and language about what qualifies as a core entity and how multi-year (reduced-burden) core grants would be handled.
The committee also revised scoring and application processes. Members endorsed a minimum screening threshold for applications of around 50 points to limit presentations to competitive candidates, asked staff to create an application-review spreadsheet, and discussed an optional applicant workshop in June. After debate about Labor Day timing, members discussed early-September due dates and converged on aiming for an early-September deadline (members discussed Sept. 11 as a candidate date and asked staff to circulate final dates).
Rubric adjustments included adding explicit "heads-in-beds" language to alignment/impact scoring and converting environmental sustainability to a small bonus (the committee suggested about 5 bonus points) rather than a large weighted category. The committee removed a draft cap limiting ongoing multi-year events to 10% of project budgets and agreed to trim a set of disallowed-use provisions copied from another county, specifically removing proposed prohibitions that would have barred payroll and some operational costs; members requested the PA's office review remaining restrictions.
Next steps: Angela Broderick and deputy clerk Kelsey Venegas will incorporate the committee’s edits and circulate revised versions of the master plan, bylaws and the applicant materials. The committee set a follow-up meeting for April 7, 10 a.m.–noon, to review redrafts and finalize the application materials. The meeting adjourned at noon.
