CHOCVB Board Meeting Minutes 012021

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DocuSign Envelope ID:B2959B23-1DFC-4D77-BF91-33A27D171752 people to drink alcohol. They don't like to acknowledge that alcohol exists. Governor Cooper was a little more open minded about this so we were able to get that done through the administrative route and Governor Cooper worked with us to get cocktails to go. There was a bit of negotiation in which we accepted curfews of 9 o'clock for serving alcohol. That was not something we wanted to have to do but it beats closing down. While other states are shutting indoor dining, particularly during this big second wave, we've not had to do that in North Carolina and I'm not expecting that we will. • We've also been working with hotels to allow you to have at least some meetings in some capacity. NCRLA's Blueprint for Recovery: NCRAL is now preparing for the upcoming legislative session. In my 30-years experience dealing with the Legislature I've learned that you have to go to them and develop a business case to get their attention. • We are gearing up to go to the General Assembly to make a big ask on behalf of our industry. We are asking for$300 million in the form of a stimulus just for restaurants and hotels who can demonstrate loss. This would be proportionately based on the amount of loss that a particular business has incurred. This would plug only about 10%of our industry's loss. It's not going to completely save the day but it would be some mitigation. • We're also asking the General Assembly for an extension of ABC permit fees,which are due April 15tn. We asking for a year forgiveness. If you have a permit that is due for renewal on April 15tn we're asking that that be extended for renewal until April 151n, 2022. We've developed a solid case and think there is a pot of money from previous permit sales that can fund that without significant detriment to the state budget. • We're working on some kind of forgiveness or recalculations of and flexibility on property taxes. The hotels have received huge property tax bills, which amount to about 10%of a hotel's gross revenue. With much less revenue during the pandemic,that's a much larger percentage of gross revenue than pre-pandemic. Many businesses just don't have the equity and cash reserves to pay those kinds of bills right now. Some municipalities are already offering flexibility like Chapel Hill and Orange County. • We're working on supporting tourism promotion at the state level because that's going to be really important as we rebound. Ensuring the funds used to promote Orange County and other TDAs across the state are preserved. Other states and communities are investing in welcoming visitors back and that's going to be vitally important. That may be from existing resources or from new, Federal dollars that may be provided or state appropriations, we want to ensure we have adequate funding to support tourism and get visitors back into communities across North Carolina. Questions: Mayor Lavelle asked if there has been any discussion about caps on delivery fees of food delivery companies like DoorDash, Grubhub, and Uber Eats? Lynn Minges responded that there has been some discussion and it is on NCRLA's radar but that the current political climate in North Carolina is not conducive to getting that done right now. Lynn Minges did mention that some of the food delivery companies are working with NCRLA and offering no delivery fee to NCRLA members. Anthony Carey pointed out that many people aren't aware that when you leave a gratuity through the meal delivery app like DoorDash, it doesn't go to the restaurant, it goes to the delivery driver. Anthony Carey suggested we do some education in the community to make the general public aware of this. 3 Page CHOCVB BOD Meeting January 20 , 2021