Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Lodging Tax Grants topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Lakewood advisory committee recommends 2025 lodging-tax grant slate to City Council after day of presentations
Summary
The Lakewood Lodging Tax Advisory Committee voted to recommend the full slate of 2025 lodging-tax funding applications to the City Council after hearing presentations from cultural organizations, event producers and the city’s marketing staff. Committee members asked for follow-up on some capital and signage requests; dollar totals in the transcript were recorded unclearly and are noted below.
The Lakewood Lodging Tax Advisory Committee on a voice vote recommended that the City Council approve the committee’s full slate of 2025 lodging-tax grant applications, following a day of presentations from local cultural groups, event organizers and city marketing staff.
The committee heard updates and funding requests from about a dozen applicants. Assistant Finance Director Dana summarized the LTAC fund balance and noted reserved funds for convention-facility obligations; City Attorney Heidi Wter opened the meeting with a reminder about the Open Public Meetings Act and public-records obligations.
Presenters included community nonprofits and event operators. Justin Henderson of Lake W Gardens requested $200,000 to sustain and expand a year-round program of music, ticketed winter ‘Winter Glow’ lighting events and other festivals. The countywide destination marketing organization requested $150,000 for regional/marketing activities aimed at generating room nights. City Communications Manager Bren Grimley summarized 2023–24 ad and web performance (about 1.2 million ad impressions and nearly 59,000 event-page visits) and reviewed a 2025 marketing ask listed in the packet (the application sheet in the staff packet lists $880,000 for marketing/promotion activities).
Smaller and mid-sized asks included the Grave Concerns Association’s $15,000 request to complete remaining cemetery markers and to hold a military-marker installation event, an Asia Pacific Cultural Center festival request to keep a long-running community cultural program in Lakewood, and a Lakewood Chamber proposal for a Memorial Day concert ($7,500). The Lakewood Playhouse presented operational funding needs and asked for increased support to stabilize staffing, marketing and functional upgrades to the theater.
At the conclusion of the meeting Member Burke moved and Member Smith seconded the recommendation to forward the full slate to the City Council; the motion passed on a voice vote. The meeting record contains spoken figures for the total recommendation, but the audio/transcript renders some digits unclearly. The committee’s motion text in the record lists non-capital and capital components (spoken as “1,146 for non-capital and 10,850 for capital” and later as a combined figure); because the recording and transcript numeration are ambiguous, the committee’s recommended dollar totals will be verified in the City Council packet and the LTAC staff award list that accompanies the Council submittal.
What’s next: The committee’s recommendation will be transmitted to the City Council for final approval and appropriation. Staff indicated that agency applicants and some capital requests may be adjusted pending Parks Department equipment availability (for example, the Sister City Association’s sound-system line item may be removed if Parks’ staging/sound proves sufficient).
