CRANBERRY TWP — A proposal by hotels in Butler County to shrink the Butler County Tourism and Convention Bureau's board and change its make up failed Wednesday night.

That proposal would have allowed hotel members to have the majority of board members.

At the bureau's quarterly membership and board meeting, members voted 51-23 against the proposal which would have reduced the number of board members from 13 to nine.

The proposal would have allotted five of the nine board spots to hotel representatives. The other four representatives could come from any of the members.

To pass, the bylaw change needed a two-thirds majority, or 37 votes.

Currently, four of the 12 board members are from hotels or bed and breakfasts.

The request, which came in a letter sent by nine of the bureau member hotels to the Butler County Commissioners, was an attempt to return representation to the "primary financial stakeholders," according to the letter, which was read by board president Dan Cox.

Because the bureau is funded through a 3 percent bed tax charged to anyone who stays in a hotel room in the county, the letter argued hotels, which collect the tax, should have a greater say in the use of the money.

Board vice-chairwoman Jo Annette Cynkar said the proposal is the result of disagreements between the board and members of the hotel community.

She said the hotels have made "unreasonable" and "unrealistic" requests, including the use of bureau funds to provide free transportation for hotel guests in the county.

"We feel the bed tax dollars are better spent in other places," she said in speaking against the idea.

Other requests included placing hotels on the cover of the annual Visitors' Guide, as well as placing hotel logos prominently on billboards promoting the county.

Kristen Fisher, director of sales for the Cranberry Township AmeriSuites hotel, said hotels need better representation on the board.

She said the requests, including the transportation for guests, are not unreasonable, but rather amenities to draw more visitors.

Without the visitors, she said the bed tax dollars would disappear and eliminate funding for the bureau.

"I don't think we are being unreasonable," she said.

Royce Lorentz, a Slippery Rock University business professor who helped write the bureau's original by-laws, spoke against the proposal saying any changes should expand and diversify the board, not reduce it and create a majority.

"I think this would be a poor change," he said.

He and other bureau members disagreed with the letter's reference to hotels as "financial stakeholders."

The hotels, he and others said, are not destinations that attract visitors to the county such as Moraine State Park.

Board member Wayne Conley said when the tourism board was formed, hotels avoided the venture because they were angry over the new tax on guests.

"We were mad as hell about it," said the owner of Conley Resorts.

Over time, though, he said the board reached out to include the hotels. Now, the hotels want to give something back to the customers who are paying the extra 3 percent tax each time they stay, he said.

But Cynkar said hotels can still do those things because each area of tourism has its own line item in the bureau's budget.

Harmony borough council president Jeff Smith, who also spoke against the proposal, said bureau members need to send a clear message to the hotels, which he said collect the tax, not pay it.

He said the hotels' attempts are no different than an oil company trying to influence which roads are paved from the gasoline tax motorists pay each time they fill their gas tanks.

The money, he said, should be used to promote the small towns and attractions in the county, not the large hotel corporations.

Of the 74 ballots cast on the proposal, 61 were absentee votes, placed via the tourism bureau's Web site.