Today was the first Lodger’s Tax Advisory Board (LTAB) meeting of 2017. We had a full board in attendance and with the departure of the former county manager, we were pretty much left hanging. Prior to the actual meeting, I suspected that this would happen. As chairman of the board, I led the meeting and we jointly worked out a plan for the future direction of the LTAB.

We will spend the next several meetings working out a new RFP procedure for the county to follow on the awarding of monetary grants to entities looking for funding. Advertising, the content of the ad, the expectations of our board from all applicants, and other incidentals that may be required to limit the county from liabilities. All of this was taken care of by the former manager. soon after he quit, he stopped by here and gave me a heads up.

After our meeting I walked downstairs to meet the new manager, Vidal Martinez. Nice guy and he sounded very supportive of the boards efforts. I reminded him that I will guide the board according to the NM Lodger’s Tax Law and he was in full agreement. I introduced him to 2 other board members and we all left.

We all are in agreement that we need to simplify the process and move the RFP and awards processes to October to better serve the entities that are seeking awards.

Heck of a morning.