By China Cassidy On Wednesday, June 17, the Holbrook Chamber of Commerce was set to have their monthly meeting open to the public, but due to lack of board members in attendance they did not have a quorum to proceed with an official meeting. The board did discuss the possibility of upcoming events and announced that they were informed that they will still be getting the $40,000 allocated to them yearly by the city from the lodgers tax after being told there was a possibility it would not be available this year. Every year the city allots monies to the Holbrook Chamber of Commerce, the Navajo County Fair and the Navajo County Historical Society. Each entity typically receives $40,000 from the lodger’s tax, which is collected from hotels who add the tax to sales of the rooms but according to Chamber Director Cindy Tafoya, due to COVID-19, there were uncertainties about whether that would happen this year. Tafoya explained, “On account of the corona virus and the hotels not having traffic, it was hard to project out how much revenue for the lodger’s tax would come in. So, there was a possibility that when those projections were made, there may have been some cuts. Not because they (city administration) were trying to take money away, but only because the money may not have been there to divide.” City Manager Ted Soltis later explained that when he did the projection for the revenue they expected to receive from the lodger’s tax, it did not appear that they would have enough to disperse the full amounts to each entity. “This year we were $54,000 in the hole. They wouldn’t have got the full amount because we collected, I projected, $104,000.” Soltis said he would generally budget $160,000 for the three entities. “With $40,000 to each, plus utilities (for the old historic courthouse), we weren’t going to have it.” According to Soltis, the city ended up with an additional $74,000 in revenue than what was projected, which is why he was able to disperse the full amounts. “So, if we didn’t have that additional $74,000, we would be $54,000 in the hole,” Soltis noted. Soltis confirmed that the Navajo County Historical Society, the Holbrook Chamber of Commerce and the Navajo County Fair Board will each be receiving the full $40,000. The board will be discussing the possibility of reducing their board of directors to help with meetings in the future because it is required to have a percentage of board members present to have a quorum, which has proven difficult. “We had discussed it at a strategic planning meeting that in order for us to be able to conduct business, we may want to consider reducing the number of directors on the board.” Currently, there are 11 board members and they would have to come up with a plan for reducing the number and add it to the agenda for approval.
