The Tomball City Council soon will have a little help in determining how the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax funds are distributed.

At its Oct. 4 meeting, the council unanimously voted to create a Hotel Occupancy Tax Advisory Board, which, once it is fully staffed, will make recommendations to the city council for which applicants for grant money to approve or deny.

While the city was preparing for the current year’s budget, the city’s staff was directed by the council to look into the different options the city had for creating the new board. Following the staff’s research, the City Manager’s office and Assistant to the City Manager Shawn Cox presented to council at the Oct. 4 meeting a plan to create the board.

The council opted to create a seven-person board, made up of three residents who live within the city limits, three managers or owners of local businesses and one representative from a Tomball hotel or motel.

Much of the discussion among council members concerned how many city residents to include on the panel versus how many representatives from local businesses.

Council member Derek Townsend was initially in favor of including four business people, since the primary focus of the Hotel Occupancy Tax is to promote tourism and increase business within the city.

“This is a chance to give our business owners and operators a chance to speak to us,” he said.

Council member Mark Stoll, however, supported a plan that included four city residents since he believed it was “their tax money” the board would be discussing.

“The residents could make good business decisions, just because it is their tax money being spent,” he said.

Stoll explained that although the Hotel Occupancy Tax dollars are raised through visitors to the city staying in local hotels and motels, he believed the money belonged to city residents.

Council member David Quinn also supported a plan that included four city residents.

Preston Dodson favored more business representatives, saying the board “should be populated with people who have a vested interest in bringing people to the community.”

The two factions compromised, agreeing on three representatives each from the business and residential community.

The council opted to make the board advisory in nature only, similar to the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission, which reviews applications and votes to recommend applications for approval or denial to the council.

Each position on the new seven-member board will carry three-year terms, with each position up in staggered terms. In order to create the staggered terms, the board’s first seat holders will serve for either one, two or three years.

The board will meet quarterly to hear grant applications and requests.

City Manager George Shackelford explained that the city gets about six or seven applications for grant money per year. Last year, the city allocated more than $143,000 in Hotel Occupancy Tax money to applicants.

The Hotel Occupancy Tax adds 7 percent tax to the cost of a stay in a Tomball hotel. The tax was created in 2003.

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