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<br />Item No. 7C <br />Meeting Date: April 13, 2009 <br />Type of Business: Council Business <br />WS: Work Session; PH: Public Hearing; <br />CA: Consent Agenda; EDA: EDA Business <br />Administrator Review: _____ <br /> City of Mounds View Staff Report <br />To: Honorable Mayor and City Council <br />From: Heidi Steinmetz, Economic Development Specialist <br />Item Title/Subject: Resolution 7430, Approving Intent to Exercise the Opt <br />Out Clause of the Contract with Visit Minneapolis <br />North effective December 31, 2009 <br /> <br />Background <br />Mounds View is one of eleven cities that Visit Minneapolis North (VMN) <br />represents as a Convention and Visitor’s Bureau (CVB). VMN was chartered in <br />October 1986 as a non-profit 501(c)(6) Corporation under State and Federal tax <br />laws. Below is a timeline of when each member city joined the Bureau: <br /> <br />1986 - Brooklyn Center, Brooklyn Park & Fridley <br />1988 - Maple Grove <br />1996 - Blaine <br />1998 - Coon Rapids <br />1999 - Anoka <br />2000 - Shoreview <br />2001 - Mounds View <br />2003 - Ham Lake <br />2004 - Arden Hills <br /> <br />As a Bureau member, Mounds View agreed to impose a lodging tax of 3% to the <br />Mounds View hotels per City Ordinance 682 “Establishing a Local Lodging Tax <br />and Adding Chapter 204 to the Mounds View City Code”. The funds generated <br />by this tax support the CVB, which then promotes the cities and hotels and <br />generates customers for the hotels. Some cities (such as Minneapolis, St. Paul, <br />Bloomington, Brooklyn Center, St. Cloud, Rochester and Duluth) have legislative <br />approval to impose a higher tax. State Law requires that 95% of the funds raised <br />be used by the city to fund a local convention or tourism bureau for the purpose <br />of marketing and promoting the city as a tourist or convention center. <br /> <br />Discussion <br />As detailed in the attached memo dated March 12, 2009, from VMN’s Executive <br />Director to VMN’s Board of Directors, there has been some discord within VMN <br />about how the CVB is spending their funds. The National Sports Center, a <br />coalition of hotels located east of the Mississippi River, two Chambers (including