After a 14-year-long agreement with the city of North Bend to pay a room tax similar to other hoteliers in the city, the Coquille Indian Tribe is withholding a three-month payment.

North Bend City Administrator Jan Willis confirmed that the tribe did not pay the tax for January through March. The payment should have come in on April 15. She wouldn't comment further.

Tribal Attorney Brett Kenney said the tribe wants to renegotiate its contract and is withholding the nearly $44,000 payment. In the meantime it is collecting and setting aside the funds.

"Our conversations with the city are not something that I want to be in the public eye," he said. "The tribe always has and always will pay its fair share for municipal services."

He said the agreement with the city hasn't been renegotiated since it was first signed 14 years ago - about six years after the tribe's restoration.

"Since that time, the tribe has reliably, consistently made payments under the agreement," Kenney said.

He noted that the tribe, like other Indian tribes, isn't obligated to pay property taxes on activities on its reservation. The Mill is considered reservation land, he added.

The agreement with the city stated the tribe would pay two "payments in lieu of taxes," or PILOTs for short. One, a property PILOT, pays for basic municipal services including police and fire protection. The second, an occupancy PILOT, is a replacement for the transient room tax paid by hotels and motels.

But with improvements at The Mill, and the passage of time, the tribe has decided to review the contract.

"We have withheld the money - meaning we have collected and set aside the occupancy PILOT - while this review process is going on," Kenney said. "We would want to pay the same amount that other taxpayers pay for the services they consume."

Additionally, Kenney said he takes issue with the contract's lack of a sunset or review clause.

"I think that it's an agreement that was entered shortly after tribal restoration, at a time when the tribe was still in the throes of recovering from the disastrous federal policy of termination," he said.

In North Bend, the 7 percent hotel/motel tax helps fund the Coos Bay-North Bend Visitor and Convention Bureau, along with some city expenses.

Last month, Katherine Hoppe, director of the Coos Bay-North Bend Visitor and Convention Bureau, learned her organization would get less than usual for its third quarter.

"Normally it's in the $12,000 range, this time it was in the $2,800 range," Hoppe said.

The bureau, which advertises the Bay Area, receives two-sevenths of North Bend and Coos Bay's transient room tax funds.

She received a brief letter from Kenney on June 11, saying the tribe is committed to continue funding the bureau.

"The Tribe recognizes that the Bureau has helped to advance our local hotel and service industries," Kenney wrote.

According to a spreadsheet provided by Hoppe, bureau funds from the North Bend tax were up 30 percent and 25.2 percent for the first and second fiscal quarters as compared to last year. The increase is due to The Mill's recent addition of a 92-room hotel tower.

For January through March, with The Mill's contribution missing, the bureau's share of the North Bend tax dropped 78.3 percent compared with last year.

"Until we have more information I don't think it's time to be concerned, yet," Hoppe said.

Bureau board Chairman Mark Mattecheck said the unexpected loss in the middle of the bureau's budget cycle will mean less advertising to bring tourists into the area.

Kenney said the tribe tried to continue supporting the bureau while withholding the rest of its payment.

"Because it values the VCB and its role in the local economy, the tribe tendered the two-sevenths payment to the city to forward on to the VCB," Kenney said. "They said they didn't want to accept only two-sevenths of the total payment."

He would not say whether he considered the move to be a breach of contract.

"We feel positive and confident this is something we're going to be able to work out with the city."