Item XII.2 February 19, 2026
For Council consideration, this is a draft of an application
For Council consideration, this is a draft of an application
-
Welcome to the Lago Vista City Council Message Board. Only members of the Lago Vista City Council, Boards, Commissions, and Committees and authorized staff are allowed to post on this message board. Lago Vista City Council, Board, Commission, and Committee members may not vote or take any action that is required to be taken at a meeting by posting a communication on this message board. In no event shall a communication or posting on this message board be construed to be an action taken by Lago Vista City Council, Boards, Commissions, or Committees.
HOT FUND APPLICATION and POLICY DRAFT for consideration
- Thread starter Norma Owen
- Start date
This policy is on the agenda for 4/2. We will have the Mayor Pro Tem's document above and adding Brad's policy document that he sent to council previously. As well as documents from other council members. Brad's policy doc needs work shopped on here prior to that meeting. The tax rate needs updated and a few other items we discussed a couple of months ago.
Thank you for uploading Brad's policy document Mayor. To add to our dialogue, I wanted to share an example of a Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) Fund application from another Texas city as a reference point for how these programs are typically structured and evaluated.
What stands out in this example is how clearly each request is tied to:
What stands out in this example is how clearly each request is tied to:
- The statutory eligibility categories
- Specific tourism-related activities (such as advertising and promotion)
- Measurable outcomes like attendance and hotel room nights
- Detailed budgets broken down by activity rather than general operations
- Pre- and post-event accountability, including receipts and reporting
Council,
Attached are two blank sample HOT fund agreements I received after speaking with the Texas Hotel and Lodging Association. Attached are also the Chamber agreements for Aransas Pass and New Braunfels, which TML provided to me. In an effort to not incur unnecessary legal fees for the City, I have not provided these to the City Attorney without getting Council input first.
On 4/2, we will be discussing an overall HOT Fund Policy, but also a draft contract, including one for the Chamber. If Council, thinks these are good drafts to work from and would like Brad to take a look prior to the meeting, so we can speed up the process, please let me know. We owe it to all of our partners who work to bring tourism to Lago Vista to get this right, but also to get this established soon. There are others in town, but the Chamber has been particularly patient seeking guidance from the City on this process and I would like to do what we can to get this moving. My goal is we can use the discussion board to workshop the policy, contract draft (doesn't need to be a specific contract for any specific entity if we do not think it is appropriate on the discussion board), an application document and a reimbursement format in an attempt to finalize all of these by 4/16.
Thank you,
Attached are two blank sample HOT fund agreements I received after speaking with the Texas Hotel and Lodging Association. Attached are also the Chamber agreements for Aransas Pass and New Braunfels, which TML provided to me. In an effort to not incur unnecessary legal fees for the City, I have not provided these to the City Attorney without getting Council input first.
On 4/2, we will be discussing an overall HOT Fund Policy, but also a draft contract, including one for the Chamber. If Council, thinks these are good drafts to work from and would like Brad to take a look prior to the meeting, so we can speed up the process, please let me know. We owe it to all of our partners who work to bring tourism to Lago Vista to get this right, but also to get this established soon. There are others in town, but the Chamber has been particularly patient seeking guidance from the City on this process and I would like to do what we can to get this moving. My goal is we can use the discussion board to workshop the policy, contract draft (doesn't need to be a specific contract for any specific entity if we do not think it is appropriate on the discussion board), an application document and a reimbursement format in an attempt to finalize all of these by 4/16.
Thank you,
