Item:
Title
Approval of New Interlocal Agreements for Durham Sports Commission
Body
Date of BOCC Meeting: February 10, 2020
Request for Board Action:
Agenda Text
The Board is requested to review these two, paired interlocal agreements, ask any questions they wish, and then approve the agreements and authorize the County Manager to execute them.
The Durham Sports Commission (DSC) is now in its fourth year of operation and has developed a strong presence in Durham, driving significant levels of sports-related tourism and also creating additional local sports opportunities.
The first interlocal agreement between the City, County, DCVB (now Discover Durham), and the Chamber of Commerce was a three-year agreement through the end of FY18-19. A one-year extension was executed for the current year to give us time to develop and approve a new interlocal agreement.
Over the course of a number of meetings between the relevant parties, it became clear that there was a desire to de-couple the arrangements. The first interlocal, which covers the creation (appointing members to the DSC board) and operation of the DSC, includes the City, County, Discover Durham, and the Chamber of Commerce. The second interlocal, which covers the funding of the DSC, does not include the Chamber of Commerce, which has never been a funding partner of the DSC.
The funding formula for the DSC has been changed substantially in the proposed funding interlocal. Over the first three years of the DSC's life, its funding reflected a portion of the growth in occupancy tax revenues above the FY14-15 baseline. If continued, this formula would have resulted in much higher funding for the DSC that the City and County administrations believed their elected boards intended. As a result, a new formula has been put in place which, while not rolling back the current level of funding, slows that growth considerably by indexing the rate of growth in DSC funding from the City and County to the pr...
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