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<br />Item No: 6 <br />Meeting Date: April 4, 2016 <br />Type of Business: Work Session <br /> <br />City of Mounds View Staff Report <br />To: Honorable Mayor and City Council <br />From: James Ericson, City Administrator <br />Item Title/Subject: Discuss the Twin Cities Gateway 2016 Member City <br />Marketing Grant Agreement <br /> <br />Background: <br /> <br />Since 2009, the City of Mounds View has been a member of Twin Cities Gateway, a nine- <br />city Convention & Visitors Bureau. One of the Twin Cities Gateway’s programs is the <br />“Member City Marketing Grant.” Beginning in 2011, the program was structured so that <br />each member city receives an annual grant based on the percentage of lodging taxes <br />collected from the prior year. Each year, the Mounds View City Council has chosen to <br />provide grant funds towards Festival in the Park. Below is the breakdown of annual grant <br />fund allocations previously received from Twin Cities Gateway: <br /> <br />Year 2010 - $2,000 <br />Year 2011 - $3,673 <br />Year 2012 - $6,600 <br />Year 2013 - $6,429 <br />Year 2014 - $6,504 <br />Year 2015 - $6,504 <br /> <br />Discussion: <br /> <br />The TC Gateway Board of Directors has changed the grant amounts and policies for 2016 <br />in that no longer will member cities be able to apply for supplemental grants outside of the <br />annual marketing grant process. By eliminating the supplemental grants, the annual <br />amount increased from last year’s $6,504 to $8,672 for 2016. Given the increased <br />allotment, staff felt it would be beneficial to discuss how the dollars should be distributed, <br />consistent with the Gateway’s requirements that it be spent on marketing community <br />activities outside of the member city. <br /> <br />I have been discussing a project with Nate Danielson from the YMCA in which they would <br />create a new website for booking events at the Community Center. The new site would be <br />linked from our website yet would provide much greater freedom and flexibilities not <br />presently possible through our existing provider. I have consulted with Steve Markuson, <br />the director (and sole employee) of TC Gateway, who indicated the creation of a dedicated <br />web presence for the Community Center would be an eligible expenditure consistent with <br />the program’s guidelines.