PORT ANGELES — Clallam County has renewed a contract with the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau to promote year-round tourism in unincorporated areas.
Commissioners Mark Ozias and Randy Johnson voted Tuesday — with Commissioner Bill Peach excused — to approve a one-year, $470,000 professional services agreement with the Port Angeles-based nonprofit. A contract for $459,000 was in effect in 2016.
Johnson requested metrics that the bureau uses to determine “what works and what doesn’t work” as it markets Clallam County as a visitor destination.
“Having been involved in ads before, television ads included, sometimes you put them out and it resonates with a lot of people, and sometimes you put them out and they’re absolutely duds and no one remembers anything about it and it was a disaster,” Johnson said in the meeting.
“Not all things work in marketing. We don’t know what does or not [work]. But you don’t know if you don’t measure it and don’t follow up with what does work. That’s where I’m coming from.”
Ozias suggested that the board invite Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau Executive Director Marsha Massey to a future work session to explain what the organization does and how it measures its success.
“That is something that Marsha and I spent some time talking about last year, and I know that she would be prepared to come and talk to us about it,” Ozias said.
County Administrator Jim Jones noted that the agreement with the visitor bureau requires quarterly meetings with commissioners or a board designee to review goals, objectives and spending.
“This would be an appropriate thing to ask for, a quarterly meeting with the board, as part of the contract and to discuss all of those metrics,” Jones said.
Commissioners directed Jones to schedule the meeting.
Funding for the agreement comes from a 4 percent “heads in beds” lodging tax.
Clallam County typically provides the Olympic Peninsula Visitor Bureau with 90 percent of the previous year’s lodging tax revenue, Jones said in a Tuesday interview.
Last year was a record year for lodging tax revenue, he added.
The county’s Lodging Tax Advisory Committee makes recommendations on the use of the lodging tax fund.
In other board action, commissioners passed a resolution establishing a process and framework for updating a 1992 countywide planning policy in coordination with the cities of Port Angeles, Sequim and Forks.
Counties and cities were required to adopt similar planning polices under the 1990 state Growth Management Act, which led to the formation of urban growth areas around each city.
A Growth Management Steering Committee composed of city and county representatives will develop the framework for the planning update over the next six months.
Johnson and Community Development Director Mary Ellen Winborn volunteered to represent Clallam County on the intergovernmental steering committee.
“This is very important work, and I’m anxious to hear about it as it unfolds over the year,” Ozias said.
Commissioners also called a Feb. 21 public hearing on extending interim zoning controls that restrict structure sizes in 13 rural residential zones to 10,000 square feet.
The interim zoning, which was set to sunset March 6, was extended for six months to bide time for the board to adopt permanent zoning.
The Feb. 21 hearing will begin at 10:30 a.m. in Room 160 at the Clallam County Courthouse, 223 E. Fourth St., Port Angeles.
County meetings are streamed live and archived on the county website, www.clallam.net.
Click on “Board of Commissioners” and “Meeting Agendas &Minutes.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@ peninsuladailynews.com.
