Sec. 10-397. Regional tourism districts. Established. Boards of directors. Accounting and reporting requirements. Solicitation and receipt of funds.

(a) There are established three regional tourism districts, each of which shall promote and market districts as regional leisure and business traveler destinations to stimulate economic growth. The districts shall be as follows:

(1) The eastern regional district, which shall consist of Ashford, Bozrah, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Chaplin, Colchester, Columbia, Coventry, East Lyme, Eastford, Franklin, Griswold, Groton, Hampton, Killingly, Lebanon, Ledyard, Lisbon, Lyme, Mansfield, Montville, New London, North Stonington, Norwich, Old Lyme, Plainfield, Pomfret, Preston, Putnam, Salem, Scotland, Sprague, Sterling, Stonington, Thompson, Union, Voluntown, Waterford, Willington, Windham and Woodstock;

(2) The central regional district, which shall consist of Andover, Avon, Berlin, Bethany, Bloomfield, Bolton, Branford, Canton, Cheshire, Chester, Clinton, Cromwell, Deep River, Durham, East Granby, East Haddam, East Hampton, East Hartford, East Haven, East Windsor, Ellington, Enfield, Essex, Farmington, Glastonbury, Granby, Guilford, Haddam, Hamden, Hartford, Hebron, Killingworth, Madison, Manchester, Marlborough, Meriden, Middlefield, Middletown, Milford, New Britain, New Haven, Newington, North Branford, North Haven, Old Saybrook, Orange, Plainville, Portland, Rocky Hill, Simsbury, Somers, South Windsor, Southington, Stafford, Suffield, Tolland, Vernon, Wallingford, West Hartford, West Haven, Westbrook, Wethersfield, Windsor, Windsor Locks and Woodbridge; and

(3) The western regional district, which shall consist of Ansonia, Barkhamsted, Beacon Falls, Bethel, Bethlehem, Bridgeport, Bridgewater, Bristol, Brookfield, Burlington, Canaan, Colebrook, Cornwall, Danbury, Darien, Derby, Easton, Fairfield, Goshen, Greenwich, Hartland, Harwinton, Kent, Litchfield, Middlebury, Monroe, Morris, Naugatuck, New Fairfield, New Hartford, New Milford, New Canaan, Newtown, Norfolk, North Canaan, Norwalk, Oxford, Plymouth, Prospect, Redding, Ridgefield, Roxbury, Salisbury, Seymour, Sharon, Shelton, Sherman, Southbury, Stamford, Stratford, Thomaston, Torrington, Trumbull, Warren, Washington, Waterbury, Watertown, Weston, Westport, Wilton, Winchester, Wolcott and Woodbury.

(b) Each regional tourism district shall be overseen by a board of directors consisting of one representative from each municipality within the district, appointed by the legislative body of the municipality and, where the legislative body is a town meeting, by the board of selectmen. Any such member of a board of directors shall serve for a term of three years. In addition, the board of directors may appoint up to twenty-one persons representing tourism interests within the district to serve on the board. No board member shall be deemed a state employee for serving on said board. All appointments to the board of directors shall be reported to the Commissioner of Economic and Community Development.

(c) The provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, as defined in section 1-200, shall apply to each regional tourism district.

(d) Each tourism district shall adopt a charter and bylaws governing its operation.

(e) Each regional tourism district shall (1) comply with uniform standards for accounting and reporting expenditures that are established by the Department of Economic and Community Development in accordance with section 10-392 and are based on industry accounting standards developed by the International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus or other national organizations related to tourism, and (2) on or before January first of each year, submit to the department, the Office of Policy and Management and the Office of Fiscal Analysis an independent audit in accordance with the provisions of sections 4-230 to 4-236, inclusive.

(f) Each regional tourism district shall solicit and may accept private funds for the promotion of tourism within its towns and cities and shall coordinate its activities with any private nonprofit tourist association within the district and within this state, that promotes tourism industry businesses in this state, in order to foster cooperation in the promotion of such businesses. Any funds received by a regional tourism district may be deposited in the account established in section 10-395 or in an account established by such tourism district to receive such funds.

(g) The central regional district office shall be located within the department.

(h) The commissioner shall, within available appropriations, distribute tourism funding evenly among the three tourism districts.

(June 30 Sp. Sess. P.A. 03-6, S. 215; P.A. 04-20, S. 5; 04-205, S. 5; May Sp. Sess. P.A. 04-2, S. 30; Sept. Sp. Sess. P.A. 09-7, S. 12; P.A. 10-32, S. 30; P.A. 11-48, S. 102.)

History: June 30 Sp. Sess. P.A. 03-6 effective August 20, 2003; P.A. 04-20 made technical changes, effective April 16, 2004; P.A. 04-205, effective June 3, 2004, and May Sp. Sess. P.A. 04-2, effective May 12, 2004, both replaced Connecticut Commission on Arts, Tourism, Culture, History and Film with Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism; Sept. Sp. Sess. P.A. 09-7 amended Subsec. (a) to reduce number of tourism districts from 5 to 3 by combining south central region towns into central regional district and combining northwestern and southwestern region towns into new western regional district, amended Subsec. (d) to replace former provisions with provisions re central and western regional tourism districts charter, bylaws and initial meeting, and added Subsec. (g) re central regional district office, effective January 1, 2010; P.A. 10-32 made technical changes in Subsec. (a), effective May 10, 2010; P.A. 11-48 amended Subsec. (b) by requiring that all appointments be reported to Commissioner of Economic and Community Development rather than executive director of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, amended Subsec. (d) by replacing requirement re assisting central and western districts to establish committee to draft charter and bylaws with requirement that each district adopt charter and bylaws governing its operation, amended Subsec. (e) by replacing references to commission with references to department, amended Subsec. (g) by requiring central regional district office be located within department rather than within Hartford offices of commission and added Subsec. (h) re even distribution of tourism funding, effective July 1, 2011.