HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/20/1999 Adjourned Meeting 445
CITY OF YAKIMA, WASHINGTON
APRIL 20, 1999
ADJOURNED MEETING
The City Council met in session on this date at 7:30 a.m. at the
Yakima Convention Center, 10 North Eighth Street, Yakima, Washington.
Mayor John Puccinelli, presiding, Council Members Clarence Barnett,
Henry Beauchamp, Lynn Buchanan, Mary Place, and Bernard Sims present
on roll call. Council Member John Klingele was absent and excused.
Staff members present were City Manager Zais, Assistant City Manager
Rice, Bill Cook, Director of Community and Economic Development,
Marketa George Oliver, Administrative Assistant to the City Manager,
and Deputy City Clerk Skovald. Also present were Kathy Coffey,
Executive Director of the Yakima Valley Visitors & Convention Bureau
and Convention Center. General Manager; Chris Wellner, First Vice
President, Visitors and Convention Bureau Executive Committee; Mike
Broadhead, Skip Semon, Mike Larson, and Gary Myhre, Visitors and
Convention Bureau Executive Committee members. Dick Ostrander,
Chairman of the Yakima Convention Center Advisory Commission and Dave
Eckel, member of the Yakima Convention Center Advisory Commission.
CONVENTION CENTER OPERATIONS AND LONG RANGE PLANNING
Mayor Puccinelli opened the meeting and introductions were made.
Chris Wellner, First Vice President of the Executive Committee,
thanked the Council for coming and invited their comments or questions
during the presentation.
Dick Ostrander, Chairman of the Yakima Convention Center Advisory
Commission, pointed out that the Convention Center belongs to the City
of Yakima and noted the responsibilities associated with the Advisory
Committee. He directed attention to the very successful, recent
expansion of the Convention Center. The addition includes 9,000
square feet of additional meeting space, within the 21,940 square foot
total expansion. Revenue from meeting room rentals increased by
38 percent in 1998, while expenditures only increased 28 percent.
There was an increase in attendees of over 28 percent; event days
increased by 31 percent over the year; and future event days booked
are up by over 21 percent.
Kathy Coffey, Executive Director of the Yakima Valley Visitors &
Convention Bureau and General Manager of the Convention Center,
directed attention to page 4 of the Business Plan and described the
organizational chart for the Yakima Valley Visitors & Convention
Bureau and the Convention Center. Within these two different
organizations, there are two separate budgets, two separate sets'of
staff, two separate marketing plans, and two separate approaches to
what is done. The Bureau's primary responsibility is to bring
tourists and convention delegates to Yakima. This stimulates economic
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development in the Yakima Valley region. The role of the Yakima
Convention Center is to maintain, operate, and promote the Yakima
Center. The City of Yakima owns the Yakima Center, a multi - purpose
exhibition, meeting, banquet and convention facility. The City
contracts with the Yakima Valley Visitors and Convention Bureau to
manage the Yakima Center. Ms. Coffey briefly described the new
procedural manuals and personnel policy manuals for all positions
within the Visitors and Convention Bureau and the Convention Center.
Also recently developed is an Emergency Procedural Plan of Action.
Ms. Coffey passed copies around for the Council to review along with a
brochure outlining 13 Loop Tours of the Yakima Valley Region.
Council Member Place requested clarification about the Great Western
Hotel project noted on page 50 of the Business Plan. Ms. Coffey
reported that this project was in the planning stages last fall during
the budget process and was included in the report; however, since then
that project has been canceled.
Connie Upton, Director of Convention Services, briefly described her
job to coordinate, oversee, and follow -up with all clients for each
event. After determining whether everything was satisfactory during
the event and suggestions or comments have been gathered, she then
schedules a future booking from the client. She also provided some
additional examples of services and indicated how the needs of the
customers are met.
Sheldon Butler, Operations Manager, outlined some of the
responsibilities and duties of the Operations Department. Taking care
of technical needs, changing room configurations on a minute -to- minute
basis, maintaining the facility, including lighting, carpeting, sound,
video, the exterior of the building, as well as maintaining the five -
acre grounds surrounding the facility are some of the duties performed
by this department. He also provided examples of satisfied clients to
illustrate how great the services are, which is the key to repeat
bookings. Dick Eckel, Member of the Yakima Convention Center Advisory
Commission, commended Ms. Coffey and her staff for the excellent job
they did during construction to accomplish the record - breaking number
of event days during 1998. Ms. Coffey responded to questions from the
Council concerning the expanded capacity of the Convention Center to
handle large groups and small groups simultaneously. Skip Semon noted
that tourism (and related activities) is the number two industry in
this community. That industry is growing and building because of
promotion from the Visitors and Convention Bureau as a center for
information. Mr: Semon also praised Ms. Coffey and her staff for
their high level of expertise and cooperation at the Convention
Center.
Dick Ostrander noted a recent report on a dip in sales tax revenue.
There is a substantial amount of sales tax from tourism, but there is
a lot of competition, and there are a lot of expansions going on
around the state. Future expansion of the Convention Center will be
necessary to promote and to accommodate market competition.
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Ms. Coffey reported that the Yakima Convention Center is very
underfunded as far as promotion compared to other areas. Other places
are significantly increasing their advertising budget to capture the
market. More information and a report on this subject will be coming
in June.
Barb Glover, Director of Tours Development, provided a brief synopsis
of the strategies used to market the Yakima Valley. She directed
attention to the following three main markets the department is
involved with: The Leisure Market, which includes individual
travelers; the Motor Coach Market, which includes bus tours; and Media
Relations for the Bureau, which creates media interest to write
articles about the Yakima Valley. The primary market for Leisure
I Travel is the Puget Sound Region. A new website is being developed to
entice potential travelers to come visit Yakima. In the area of Media
Relations there is a kit available listing activities in the Yakima
Valley. This information goes out to travel writers; editors of TV
• shows; newspapers and magazines to provide an idea of things to do in
this area. Travel shows also provide the opportunity to talk about
activities in Yakima. Ms. Glover has traveled to Seattle, Vancouver,
California, and New York to attend conferences where she talks to •
writers and editors. She noted that familiarization stays are
provided for editorial coverage and have proven successful.
Ms. Glover summarized the regional editorial coverage about the Yakima
Valley in Sunset and Northwest Travelers magazines and prospective
future write -ups in other publications, including Redbook and Working
Women magazines. She provided copies of the magazines and newspaper
articles for Council to review. Ms. Glover also directed attention to
day tours where visitors can drive to their destination, and there is
a new publication on activities, restaurants, and places to stay.
Council Member Beauchamp asked Ms. Glover to summarize how she stays
on top of expanding promotion activities for the Center. Ms. Glover
noted that the State Department of Tourism has a quarterly newsletter
that has been very helpful, and she has been building a relationship
with them.
Dick Zais noted the significant advancement of the Convention Center
over the last several years and asked how Yakima compares to
convention centers in other parts .of the Washington. The City has
helped the Visitors & Convention Bureau and Convention Center by
adding to the marketing and promotion budget resulting in a good value
returned, essentially self - generating the return on that investment.
Where is the Yakima operation competitively placed within the market
in terms of what other convention centers are doing in other parts of
the state in terms of marketing and promotion investment. Kathy
Coffey explained that a report would be completed in June and
presented to the Board. This report will include a comparison of
Yakima's Convention Center to convention centers throughout the state.
There are numerous convention centers being built or expanded in
Washington, including Wenatchee, Spokane, Tacoma, Seattle, and
Bellevue. Convention centers don't show a profit. Profit is shown in
the form of sales tax generated in the city. Ms. Coffey noted that
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Yakima is very underfunded as far as the promotional areas, and she
urged the Council to endorse more funding for advertising in the
future. She also pointed out that Yakima is the only area in the
state that is actually charged with running a convention bureau and
running, operating, maintaining a convention center. She noted how
the dollar is maximized for this community ten fold; in comparison to
other cities, Yakima has the largest percentage of membership,
revenue, and budget in the state.
Anne Moneymaker, Director of Convention Sales with the Bureau,
explained that the sales department is responsible for marketing to
the masses to get the major events and conventions into the city.
There are five offices in the Convention Sales Department with three
salespersons, two sales members, and herself as Director. There is
one convention servicing coordinator along with one convention sales
support staff. Leads are generated from various hotels, the Sundome,
and the Convention Center. Utilizing an existing database, a lot of
time is spent telemarketing trying to lure conventions into Yakima, as
well as cultivating relationships with local residents within the
community. Ms. Moneymaker provided examples of recent successes, for
example the AA Basketball Championship at the Sundome, and a Future
Business Leaders of Washington conference, which is going to be the
new record for the largest convention ever held in Yakima; that will
take place in April 2002. She also outlined the bid proposal and
follow -up process used after leads are generated. She provided a
sample packet for review, and gave an example of what takes place when
a convention is booked.
Mike Larson, representing the DoubleTree Inn, and Tim Peterson,
representing Cavanaughs, noted that from a business standpoint, the
hotel /motel industry is becoming more and more dependent upon direct
sales, whether it is through a convention center or through a hotel
facility. They commended Kathy Coffey for her efforts to help the
industry.
Mayor Puccinelli referred to the large amount of correspondence with
businesses that have held a convention in the community. He asked if
there is any recruiting to entice their businesses to open a branch in
Yakima. He suggested a marketing campaign with YCDA. Ms. Coffey
noted that their primary communication is to bring conventions and
tourist delegates to the Yakima Center; however, she feels that is an
excellent idea to make those groups' names available to Dave McFadden
for business recruitment.
City Manager Zais asked the representatives from the hotel /motel
industry if there are an adequate number of rooms for new delegates
and convention attendees in Yakima and,what are the plans for the
future. Kathy Coffey explained the two categories in groups sales,
those being sports events and conventions. They are different market
shares. For the sports market, it is entirely different because it is
a drive market. Participants will drive in from all over the state.
There are adequate rooms at this time for those groups; however, the
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convention market category is short first -class rooms within easy
walking distance of the facility, and that shortage is creating an
economic loss. There was continued discussion about the Catch 22
situation where there needs to be another expansion of the Convention
Center to attract more conventions and to facilitate those guests,
additional hotel rooms are needed, but that can't be justified because
• the transient market is soft right now. The convention center segment
is growing, but the transient segment is flat. Occupancies need to go
up.
Mayor Puccinelli suggested a marketing campaign using Yakima's fine
weather and central location to entice travelers to make Yakima their
destination. Proper signs are needed to attract traffic and to direct
them where to go for visitor information to keep them overnight or on
an extended stay. Kathy Coffey pointed out the state legislation
needs to be•changed_ making the rules less structured. Discussion also
continued about the soft market currently in Eastern Washington; more
promotion in the sports market is needed.
Kathy Coffey provided copies of information about legislation (SSB
452) which has recently passed in the State Legislature. She
summarized changes in the legislation affecting the local hotel /motel
industry, including putting it to a public vote position instead of a
non -vote position, a match would now be required, and the project
would have to cost $10 million or more, along other changes.
Skip Semon noted that the Executive Committee couldn't recommend going
to the second phase of expansion of the Convention Center because of
the soft market and lack of first -class hotel rooms to accommodate the
convention groups. The Executive Committee voted in favor of the
Public Facilities District concept, even though they are in support of
expanding the Convention Center contingent upon Cavanaugh's property
being expanded. If that does not happen then they do not want to
expand the Convention Center. Discussion continued about the possible
opportunities with the Public Facilities District concept that could
be the vehicle to fund a sports complex.
Kathy Coffey explained she didn't want to give the impression that the
Executive Committee does not support or does not think an expanded
Convention Center is not needed. What the Executive Committee of the
Bureau is saying is that they are asking to take a look at and work
with Cavanaughs, and or another hotel company, to build or expand a
first -class hotel. If that does not happen the Executive Committee
would switch support to the sports complex. She then briefly
described what is planned for the second phase of expansion for the
Convention Center, which is designed for large groups to utilize. The
Yakima Center Advisory Commission, on the other hand, is very
supportive of the expansion of the Yakima Center and Ms. Coffey urged
the Council to consider endorsing both projects. Council Member Place
asked about additional parking needs if the Convention Center is
further expanded. Assistant City manager Rice briefly summarized the
parking provisions under consideration involving lots by the
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Convention Center and negotiations underway with Cavanaughs. More
parking spaces will be necessary if the Yakima Center is expanded in
the future.
There was also discussion about the trickle down effect from expanding
the state association market including regional, national, and
international markets. Yakima is in a prime position to take
advantage of that expanded market.
City Manager Zais shared his experience utilizing the Tourist Center,
which has state -of -the -art equipment and is first -class in terms of
helping the visitor, on a recent trip to New Zealand The meeting
then adjourned at 9:03 a.m.
READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY: �
COUNCIL MEM:E" DATE
COUNNf MEMBER DATE
ATTEST:
CITY CLERK OHN PUCCINELLI, MAYOR
Minutes prepared by Deputy City Clerk Skovald. A videotape of this meeting is available in the
City Clerk's Office
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