Board renews one-year MOU for film permits as officials highlight local benefits from Gold Mountain production

The Board of Supervisors voted to approve an amended memorandum of understanding renewing the county's film-permit arrangement with the El Dorado County Chamber of Commerce for another year and directed staff to explore ways to align the program with industry standards and alternative funding models.

Director of Planning and Building (presenting staff) highlighted a recent major production, Gold Mountain, noting the film had "about a $30,000,000 budget" and that the production spent significant sums locally, including nearly "$500,000 at Burko Lumber" for set materials. Staff said the production hired local trades and created hundreds of room nights and other local spending, but much activity took place on private or city-owned property (for example, South Lake Tahoe), limiting county fee collection under current arrangements.

The presentation credited the county's film commissioner, Kathleen Dodge, with building industry and business relationships and recommended approving the revised MOU and continuing to refine fees and data collection. Supervisors raised questions about data in attachment D (how "estimated dollars per day" is calculated), how many of the roughly 200 reported rooms were in-county versus outside jurisdictions, and succession planning for the largely single-person film commissioner position.

Board members said modest annual funding (board discussion referenced a $150,000 figure for program support) is small relative to the economic returns from large productions and urged staff to pursue better data capture, hotel capacity strategies, and potential program homes such as a tourism business improvement district or partnership with economic development. The motion to approve the revised MOU passed 4-0 with Supervisor Verkamp absent.