Photo: Springs Resort Marketing Director Jesse Hensle (center, in black shirt) explains a proposal from the Pagosa Lodgers Association LLC at the November 5 Archuleta Board of County Commissioners work session.
The three-way relationship between the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board, the Pagosa Springs Town Council, and the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners has been stressful on occasion.
The Town of Pagosa Springs has been collecting around $1 million in Lodgers Tax annually, and handing it over the the Tourism Board with the expectation that it will be used effectively to encourage tourist visits to Pagosa Springs, which is home to most of the motel rooms in the community. One member of the Town Council serves on the Tourism Board, presumably to represent the interests of the Town government. Currently, that Town representative is Council member Gary Williams.
On rare occasions, the Town Council has used a portion of the Town Lodgers Tax to fund Town projects that may not have seemed particularly aimed at tourists. But we recognize that tourism is supported, to some degree, by the community’s entire economy and workforce.
The staff of the Tourism department are Town employees, and they answer to the Town Manager. But the policies and budget are recommended by the Tourism Board.
The Tourism Board, on the other hand, has to try and please both the Town Council and the Archuleta BOCC.
The Archuleta BOCC, meanwhile, has been collecting $500,000 in Lodgers Tax annually, from motels, B&Bs, cabins, RV parks, and vacation rentals located outside the Town limits in the unincorporated county. Like the Town Council, the BOCC has been handing the money over to the Tourism Board, and one member of the BOCC sits on the Tourism Board, presumably to represent the interests of the County government. Currently, that County representative is Commissioner John Ranson.
Except for the Town Council and BOCC representatives, the Tourism Board members are jointly appointed by the Town and County. The Board has representatives from the restaurant industry, the real estate industry, the tourist attractions industry, the vacation rental industry, the retail industry, and of course, from the lodging industry.
The lodging industry representative is supposed to be a member of a “Lodgers Association”. Pagosa had a “lodgers association” here a decade ago, but for about the past ten years, there’s been no actual ‘association’ representing the lodgers… until about 6 months ago, when the following 13 lodgers joined together as the Pagosa Lodgers Association LLC.
Two ‘resorts’… six motels… two ‘cabin’ complexes… two RV parks… one bed & breakfast… and one ‘glamping’ operation:
Alpine Inn of Pagosa Springs
Elk Trace Bed & Breakfast
Fireside Cabins
Healing Waters Resort & Spa
High Creek Lodge & Cabins
Hillside Inn
Mountain Landing Suites & RV Park
Pagosa River Domes
RiverWalk Inn
Springs Resort
The Drift Cabins
The Nightingale Motel
Wolf Creek Run RV Resort
For several months, the Lodgers Association had refused to reveal their members, when asked by the Tourism Board, but finally disclosed the membership, this past September, in a document submitted to the Tourism Board.
A similar group of lodgers have been complaining for the past three years about Tourism Board marketing decisions and policies, with the result that the Town and County rewrote their Intergovernmental Agreement (IGA) to try and address some of those complaints.
At the November 5 BOCC work session, Springs Resort Marketing Director Jesse Hensle led the conversation on behalf the five Association members in attendance. The Association had been urged by Commissioner John Ranson to submit ideas for how the Association would use a potential allocation of County funding to increase tourist visits. As noted previously in this editorial series, Mr. Hensle claimed that, due to the October 11-14 flooding event, people had been canceling reservations at the Springs Resort.
“We’re calculating our cancellations right now. I can say, from our Resort, we’ve lost about 50% of our business in December. And that’s all the way in December. This flood happened in October, but because of the videos [posted to news media and social media], people think our entire resort has been ravaged and the town is gone…”
Hyperbole?
Do “people” really think the entire Springs Resort has been ravaged and the town is gone? I seriously doubt it. Which then leads me to also wonder about the accuracy of Mr. Hensle’s claim, that the Springs Resort has lost “50% of our business in December.”
The BOCC seemed uninterested in challenging those particular claims.
But Commissioner Veronica Medina, looking over the document presented to the BOCC by the Association, expressed a tone of skepticism.
Commissioner Medina:
“What is the financial ask? What is it you’re looking for? How much are we talking about?”
Mr. Hensle:
“We haven’t put together a number. We were approached with, ‘If you did get funding, what would you do with it’?
“I’ve learned in life when people ask you a question like that, and you don’t have an answer, eventually they will stop asking you. So we want to start providing some answers to it. This is part of a bigger discussion. When we know what the piece of the pie could be, that will lead to different tactics and strategies. So I don’t have the right answer for that right now.”
Apparently, there is a “pie” that Mr. Hensle and the Association would like a “piece” of. Would that “pie” be the entire Archuleta County budget?
To judge from the rest of the conversation on November 5, I believe the “pie” under discussion is the $500,000 in Lodgers Tax revenues that the County now hands over to the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board, in accordance with the Town-County IGA.
From what little I know about IGAs, it would seem that any plan by Mr. Ranson and the BOCC to redirect Lodgers Tax funding away from the Tourism Board and into the pockets of the Lodgers Association would require Town Council approval and a new IGA.
I wonder if Commissioner Ranson realizes that?