Village of Lombard Legistar System

Village President William J. Mueller, Chairperson,

Trustee Jack O'Brien Alternate Chairperson

Jill Payne, Edward Murphy, Steve Wilk, Sr., & Marguerite Micken

Ex-Officio Members: Yvonne Invergo-Lombard Chamber of Commerce,

Skip Strittmatter-DuPage Convention & Visitors' Bureau, Jim Romano-Yorktown

Merchants' Association, Mary Eckhoff-Embassy Suites, Amy Kowallis-Extended Stay

Deluxe,Michael Connellan-Hampton Inn, Jerry Evans-Hyatt Place, Lori Young-Fairfield

Inn

Nicole Norwood-Homestead Studio Suites, Frank Balisteri/Rashid Batti-Comfort

Suites, Cynthia Ivey-Marriott Residence Inn

Eileen Libb-Towne Place Suites, Brent Menzel-The Westin Hotel

Community Promotion and Tourism

Call to Order and Roll Call

The meeting was called to order at 3:05 p.m. by Chairman, Village President Bill

Mueller.

Chair President William J. Mueller, Edward Murphy, Marguerite Micken, Monica

Brown and Jill Payne

Alternate Chairperson, Trustee Jack O'Brien and Steve Wilk, Sr.

Also present: Village Manager Dave Hulseberg; Community Development Director Bill

Heniff; Finance Director Tim Sexton; Rhonda Heabel, Assistant Director of Finance;

Paul Friedrichs, Executive Director of the Lombard Park District; Gail Clark, Chairperson

of the Lilac Festival Parade Committee; Mary Mae Meyer, Lombard Garden Club; Skip

Strittmatter, Executive Director of the DuPage Convention & Visitors Bureau; and staff

liaison Joelyn Kott, Communications & Marketing Coordinator.

Public Participation

The minutes of the December 18, 2008 meeting were approved with a motion by Ed

Murphy and a second by Jill Payne. Motion carried unanimously.

Hotel/Motel Tax Fund Budget For 2009-2010

Discussion of 2009-10 Hotel/Motel budget.

Village Manager Dave Hulseberg began the budget discussion by going over the two

budget requests submitted to the committee. First the Lombard Park District requested

an abatement of the sewer fund in return for free water park passes for the hotels.

Since the Village policy is to not waive sewer fees, staff came up with the

recommendation to provide free water park passes to the hotels in exchange for the

sewer fund fees in the hotel/motel tax fund. Ed Murphy made a motion to agree to this,

which was seconded by Monica Brown. The motion passed unanimously to support the

described use of the hotel/motel funds in the upcoming budget.

Circulator Project

Village Manager Hulseberg reviewed the memo regarding the circulator project funding

request as well. He indicated that the circulator is being funded by several groups but

that $150,000 is still needed from local funds. The cost on the Village's part is nominal

when looking at how many people this program will be serving. The circulator will help

seniors, employers and residents in a valuable way in transporting them around the

community.

The trade off will be the 5% hotel advertising payback funding that has been provided to

the hotels over the past several years. This program will be stopped once the circulator

funding is needed. At this time, it is not known if the money will be needed this year or

the next as the program is still being formulated.

Ed Murphy questioned as to whether or not the hotels agree with this change in the

funding. Manager Hulseberg replied that all of the hotel representatives have received

the packet from the meeting stating the intention to change the funding. Many other

questions were raised regarding the program, many of which could not be answered as

they have not been decided yet, i.e., hours and days of operation and cost.

A motion was made by Ed Murphy, seconded by Jill Payne, to support the request of the

circulator program funding from the hotel/motel fund in the amount of $150,000. Motion

carried unanimously.

Manager Hulseberg proceeded to review the hotel/motel budget that was provided to the

committee (see attached.) One change was noted: $36,500 was moved from the

capital improvement fund to the hotel/motel fund. This was not reflected in the budgets

that the committee received with the packet.

Monica Brown congratulated Dave Hulseberg and staff on the great job of keeping the

budget fiscally responsible with this budget in these hard, economic times.

Manager Hulseberg also indicated that the hotel/motel fund has a 25% reserve that it is

required to keep. The fund has allocated more than 25% in the past and staff is

considering changing the percentage to reflect more accurately what has been allocated

in the past and to continue that in the future. He also indicated that the Village will be

receiving one percent of the PEG fee from

AT&T for its U-Verse product, that is now being offered in the Village.

The Lombard Garden Club requested a grant in the amount of $6,000 to support the

annual free lilac bush giveaway program. Mary Mae Meyer was on hand from the

Lombard Garden Club to answer any questions the committee might have. She

explained that the grant is very important to the club as this is the club's largest

fundraiser, the Lilac Bush sale. Meyer also spoke of the International Lilac Association

convention that she is lobbying for Lombard to host in the near future.

President Mueller echoed that the amount of community spirit that is present the day of

the lilac bush sale is tremendous and that residents appreciate this program.

Marguerite Micken motioned to approve the grant in the amount of $6,000 for the free

lilac bush program. The motion was seconded by Jill Payne. The motion carried

unanimously. The item will be placed on the February 5, 2009 Board of Trustees

meeting.

The chairperson of the 2009 Lilac Parade Committee, Gail Clark, presented the grant

application on behalf of the parade committee for a grant of $35,000. She indicated that

the increase of $5,000 is to increase publicity and banners for the parade in hopes to get

more people to attend the parade, both residents and non-residents. Also, the increase

would be used for additional honorariums for new ethnic groups that would be added to

this year's parade.

President Mueller asked if the committee was seeking sponsors again this year and

Clark responded that they are conducting their annual mailing again but are not counting

on any funds from that effort. Ed Murphy indicated that the focus on the budget given

the economic conditions is to “fund for needs, not fund for wants.” Murphy indicated that

the increase did not seem needed but was wanted by the committee and that he

understands the situation of the committee but everyone, including the Village, is in the

same situation financially.

Marguerite Micken said that she did not agree that this was not needed. She indicated

that she would agree to the increase because it might help the committee make up for

the lack of business sponsors due to the bad economy.

A motion was made by Marguerite Micken to approve the grant request for $35,000.

There was no second to the motion. A new motion was made by Ed Murphy to approve

the Lilac Parade grant in the amount of $30,000. It was seconded by Monica Brown and

the motion carried unanimously. The item will be placed on the February 5, 2009 Village

Board meeting agenda.

President Mueller and Manager Hulseberg indicated that Clark could contact Joelyn Kott

to arrange for banners through the Village's Public Works Department.

Skip Strittmatter shared some information with the committee about the hotel industry.

She submitted a report to President Mueller and Manager Hulseberg about trends and

numbers in the market during the bad economic times. She also announced that the

PGA for 2011 will be held in DuPage and they are actively working on hotel rooms to

help drive the tourism industry in a positive manner.

The next meeting is scheduled for April 16, 2009.