Chair Jeremy Goico reported that Board Member Darlene Magner, Treasurer John Morris and Vice Chair Pat Foster's terms on the Board would each expire in June and discussed the expiration dates of the rest of the Board Members' terms and reminded the Board that some of the newer Board Members' terms were short due to the fact that they had taken over the position of a Board Member who had resigned mid-term. Chair Goico said that President's Day weekend and California Ski Week were each successful and said that he had received positive customer feedback regarding Black Tie, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area (MMSA) and the Town overall. He welcomed new Board Member Darlene Magner.
Mr. Foster welcomed new Board Member Darlene Magner and said that he had an onboarding meeting with her to discuss the Board's current focus areas including community, business and Town Council outreach and said that he was happy to have her on board. Mr. Foster reported that he was on the Town of Mammoth Lakes' (TOML) interview panel for the Outdoor Recreation Manager position and was excited about the position. He said that he was also on the Mammoth Yosemite Airport (MMH) Aviation Consultant interview panel last week. Mr. Foster reported that he, Board Member Bill Sauser, and TOML Administrative Services/Finance Director Rob Patterson attended the Forest Service Over Snow Vehicle (OSV) Subpart C planning meeting on Saturday. He said that he had spoken with several other Fixed Base Operation (FBO) Managers regarding various fees and said that the Aspen Airport (ASE) charged a $25 Habitat Fee per plane which was split amongst staff to subsidize their housing costs. He said he would do more research on that fee and would bring it back to the Board and the April meeting.
Mr. Morris said that he had recently vacationed in Colorado and reported that we had much better snow in Mammoth and complimented the Mountain on their grooming. He reported that lodging in Town had been busy throughout February even though we had little new snow. He spoke about frustrations regarding the shortage of housing and reported that the Lodging Steering Committee had been working on proposals to bring to the Town Council regarding short term housing solutions and mentioned that there was expected to be an $11M Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) overage this year. Mr. Morris said that the Committee was working with the business community to have them engage with the Town Council to try and solve the housing solution now, not wait until The Parcel was built.
Board Member Deb Radcliff joined the meeting at 1:13 p.m.
Mr. Sauser reported that he had attended the Subpart C meeting and said that he felt it was important for the recreation needs in Mammoth and said that MLT should participate in it in some way. He said that the new Office of Outdoor Recreation would be important for TOML moving forward and said that he hoped the Outdoor Recreation Manager position would be filled soon.
Board Member Eric Clark welcomed Ms. Magner. He said that he would be skiing in Palisades this weekend and would report back on their snow conditions at the next meeting.
Ms. Magner said that she was honored to be on the Board and looked forward to serving. She said that momentum and demand had been steady, and occupancy had been pacing similar to pre-pandemic numbers.
Ms. Radcliff reported that she had received a comment from a colleague who while in Telluride said that people who lived in Denver were tired of driving to Vail, Aspen and Beaver Creek and were looking for new places to ski and were excited about the new flights from Denver to Bishop and the chance to ski in Mammoth.
Board Member John Mendel reported that he had attended the Fire Commission this week and discovered that many of our local firefighters were living in cars. Mr. Mendel said that they were looking for places at Station 1 and Station 2 to designate as safe places to park their vehicles and have use of the facilities. He said that people were aware that essential workers such as grocery and hospitality workers were struggling with housing shortages, but they may not be aware that this was also an issue for our emergency service people who are critical to the Town and wanted to make sure that the Town Council was aware of the problem.
There was discussion among members of the Board.