February 19, 2003

Galveston Arts and Historic Preservation Advisory Board 

The City of Galveston Arts and Historic Preservation Advisory Board, the organization charged with distributing a portion of the hotel occupancy tax to groups that hold events to attract overnight visitors to Galveston, reviewed a proposed ordinance that would remove the "death penalty" for organizations that miss deadlines for financial reports.

After an appeal from Galveston Historical Foundation at last week's meeting, Galveston City Council asked the board to review the policy and recommend changes that would provide less severe penalties for groups that are late with reports. 

GHF, a longtime recipient of the HOTax funds, had missed the deadline to submit its annual report, and would lose about $370,000 over the next two years.

Joe Jaworski, the ex-officio representative of the city council on the board, said the intention is not to "open the floodgates" to groups that fail to submit applications within the time guidelines.  "We were concerned more about the people who had made their application, have routinely made deadlines, had counted on the money, started spending the money, and then due to a human error were denied further money, or cut off."

However, Dennis Miller, a former chair of the advisory board, said the committee should not downplay the importance of annual reports. 

"The annual report, to me, is as important as the other reports," Miller said. 

Buzz Elton, current chair of the board, said removal of the "death penalty" should apply to other groups, as well as GHF.

"I'm just sorry that the organizations over the last two or three years didn't have the same clout to be able to make the same appeal," Elton said, recommending that the committee review the past two years, "and we make the recommendation to pay everybody everything that they've lost." 

"It's a tough job you all have, said GHF Executive Director Marsh Davis, apologizing for causing the committee and City Attorney Susie Green extra work.  "We do appreciate the work that you do, and there was never any doubt of integrity and good will of this committee."

No action was taken at Wednesday's meeting, but the group reviewed an ordinance prepared by Green that would provide penalties ranging from 10 percent to 100 percent, depending on the lateness of the reports.

Under the proposed formula, GHF would be subject to a ten percent allocation penalty,, costing about $20,000. 

The group will discuss the ordinance again next week and will make a recommendation to the city council.

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