Lodging Tax Board adopts bylaw changes expanding staffing authority

The Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Joint Powers Board (the county’s lodging-tax marketing board) voted March 12 to approve a third-amended set of bylaws, including language that explicitly authorizes the board to employ staff and to contract for services needed to carry out its duties. The bylaws cite authority in the board’s Joint Powers Agreement, which was amended March 4.

The amendments also spell out executive-director authority and reporting lines: the board retains the power to hire, fire and discipline the executive director, while the executive director is charged with proposing — and, after board approval, implementing — an annual marketing/management plan and budget. Under the bylaws, the executive director can hire, fire and discipline staff positions authorized through the budgeting process; staff report directly to the executive director and take direction solely from the executive director.

Other provisions include at‑will employment language for the executive director and other employees, and salary-setting tied to a board-adopted salary matrix (the board sets the executive director’s pay within the matrix; the executive director sets other staff pay within it). The bylaws also state the executive director is accountable to the full board, not individual members or committees.

The bylaws were an action item on the board’s March 12 regular-meeting agenda. See: Lodging Tax Board Meeting Agenda and Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Joint Powers Board Bylaws Attachment.