e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all the salary benefits consultant study Workshop to good afternoon everybody Joe Patton Director of Human Resources so as everyone knows um or hopefully everyone knows we did a salary study we um did a quote for a salary study we had some back we chose uh Garing group uh um a subsidiary of risk management uh or risk strategies I'm sorry don't want to get the name wrong and uh we started this back in August of last year uh going through trying to set up uh different strategies to come up with a pay plan uh to be more competitive within uh their current labor market so we asked gearing group to look at our current pay chart to look at our benefits and to review all of our job descriptions and compare them with the local market to see where we are and to come up with recommendations for pay uh job descriptions uh and also to look at classifications whether the classifications were correct in as far as exempt employees or non-exempt employees so we we've done all that uh to present tonight I'm going to introduce you to um John Muller who is with Garing group and uh he's going to present the findings and the recommendations uh I know I sent you uh Commissioners I sent you all the uh proposed pay plan along with the current pay plan yesterday in your email so I just gave you a handout of the um proposed pay plan tonight so without further Ado I am going to let uh John take over and present uh good afternoon everybody thank you uh for having us here we're happy to be part of this um I just want to go ahead and walk you through you know these slides we put together a little bit of presentation if there's any questions you all might have uh feel free to answer them I have also with me my colleague Kristen uh she was a big part of this as well um just a little background so our firm we specialize in working with public sector here in Florida both from a benefits and a compensation standpoint so for this study we did look at the wages of 16 other entities in the surrounding area we developed that list in conjunction uh with HR and with this interim City administrator and when we looked at benefits we did look at those groups but we we also looked at our book throughout the State of Florida as a whole to get a pretty holistic approach so we've got some recommendations here um start right so quick overview I want to talk a little bit about our methodology and our approach to the project we'll look at our recommendations uh we have an idea as to what the financial impact to the city is going to be review of the total cost to implement it and discuss what we think you all should do next so at the outset of any project when we're working like this the very first thing we do is have a discovery meeting here on site um to better understand what are the city's goals what are some of the challenges that you all might be facing we have a really good idea just from the different groups that we work with in the area but still we want to hear it from you and then better understand what the scope the Milestones deliverables are as Joe said uh Beyond just looking at compensation we really wanted to look at the city's job descriptions and classifications to get to make sure that we had the jobs exactly right as the work is being performed here at the city so we could accurately compare against the other entities so really the the very first thing that we did was we put out a survey to the employees of the city and asked for their feedback regarding their roles and responsibilities as they are today and looking at that against the city's current job descriptions we spent quite a bit of time going through all that reviewing all that um seeing if there were any questions that we had and really coming up with new draft jobs that accurately represent what each of the individuals are doing today uh we also reviewed the current pay program of the city pay grades the ranges that are in existence the classifications um current payment Uh current employee data looked at all the city's benefits that they currently offer the handbook to include leave and things like that to make sure that you were comparable with some of the other areas um we developed what we call our Benchmark worksheets for each position so we're a little bit different than a lot of the other salary studies that are out there we didn't we don't send a survey around to these groups what we do is we go out and collect the data from each of these cities we review each to their jobs their pay plans and we match them as closely as we can to the city's current jobs and then we develop a workbook for each job and what we're doing in that workbook is we're taking let's say it's an administrative assistant here at the city we're looking at the pay of the administrative assistance at those 16 other entities and we're looking at the lowend the mid and the high we're documenting all of that and coming up with a percentage so we're looking at the 50th percentile and the 75th percentile of all of those pay ranges for that job so we reviewed all this information uh let's see I'm probably missing like five other steps here just going over them too quickly um so after we we really got into the program we did come back here on site in January and we met with I think several of you as well as the department heads here in the city to make sure that we had a good understanding of the job as they are today so that we could really make sure the benchmarks were accurate there was a lot of good information based on those conversations we did tweak some of the job descriptions again based on that and update our benchmarks accordingly so as we conducted the study and benchmarked each of the 186 I believe it was jobs we analyzed all that data within our team Eric Garen group um and really started to look at okay now that we have all this information what is this going to do how's this going to affect the pay ranges that the city currently has the jobs that you all have where do they fit in the pay ranges now and where do they need to move based on the market data we found so we did develop new pay bands and pay ranges uh what you'll find when we're looking at these the payb bands changed jobs might have moved from one Pay Band to the other but I want to be very clear no one job's pay range minimum or maximum decreased that's not what we recommend so for example somebody could have been in a pay grade nine before and you may see they're in a pay grade five now but the low the minimum the midpoint and the maximum for the salary did not go down we're just appropriately grouping the positions with other like positions in terms of the data we found so once we put all these positions into the new pay bands we did meet with the HR Director and interim City administrator to discuss our methodology um share what we had found thus far make sure nothing was really strange that uh that didn't make sense uh there were some things that we had to look at more from an internal Equity standpoint for example um you might have a manager whose pay benchmarks were considerably lower than another managers but typically you want to try to keep the managers pretty close together you don't want to have one manager making considerably more than another but we do factor in what the scope of their role is uh we looked at a couple of things that really come up when we're doing this so um City administrator mayor and um City attorney are jobs that we typically don't find in other pay we don't typically find pay ranges for those jobs within other entities because typically those jobs are set by the city council or they might be negotiated there's a lot of different factors that go into them our experience is usually we will be able to find what the exact salary somebody in that position is making today but there's not a range that's necessarily associated with it and then oftentimes too some of the smaller municipalities the city attorneys completely contracted out so you may not find any good data there at all so in reviewing all this um now there's one other thing that came up here yeah we wanted to make sure that we had everything in the right classification um so after we we've developed the pay ranges what we then do is we have this really um daunting workbook that we like to work through it's called compression so what that is going to do we plug in the new pay ranges we plug in each employee that the city has today their job title that they're in now their current pay and how many years or the amount of time that they've been in that job here at the city so what that does is it is going to tell us who needs to be lifted based on they went into a new pay range now are they below that current minimum do they need to come up and the other piece to that is let's say somebody's been in that job for 10 years they may need to be moved within the new pay range based on the amount of time they've been in the job that's what's called compression so we do that we run those calculations that's how we come up with you know these recommendations that we're making to the city um also I kind of forgot about this with some of the things that we observed and found you know we updated some of the classifications in the job titles we found jobs that were very consistent across the city they just might be in different departments so in order to get really good data for those jobs we merged some of those positions so we're not saying they do the exact same job but they are in the same job classification and there may be other duties they perform differently depending on the department they're in but in terms of what they truly do and their pay that should be similar we found that a lot in the maintenance positions we found that with the administrative positions um so we did update classifications we updated titles to become a little bit more current that'll help you when you're recruiting with attracting Talent as well and then just one of the observations I wanted to point out here you know it supervisor we are proposing that that be classified to an IT manager because in benchmarking that job and looking at the role and the responsibilities it was really more comparable to that of an IT manager in other entities and the pay substantiated that as well all right so once we ran compression we found that there were so there were let me take one step back there were roughly 389 employees included in this study so it's not included are the individuals um you know part of fire because I know you all are going through negotiations right now so those bargain positions where the positions that will be bargained as well as some of your part-time and seasonal employees so we had roughly 389 employees that we ran through this uh 146 of them were below the new minimum salary set so you had 146 employees that are going to get bumped up in Pay just to at least bring them up to the new minimum of their appropriate salary range for example here if you look at the new pay plan which I can actually I think scroll to that here might be a little tough to see yeah your 1G which is are right now your lowest paid full-time positions I believe they were around 31,000 annualized before you can see we're proposing that that new minimum salary is 3744 so you can you can assume by that that several employees are going to get a lift in salary just having to be brought up to the new minimum pay so that cost roughly to bring I shouldn't say roughly that cost to bring those 146 employees up to the new minimum to the city on an annualized basis is $725,000 a pay range a person the the general rule of thumb should be at 100% of the midpoint after they've been in that job for 10 years so that's kind of the rule of thumb that we're using when we run compression So based on those numbers you have another 573931 in cost to bring people up to where they should be within the range they're already in these pay um something I should probably should have brought this up to so I mentioned that we were looking at the 75th percentile when we benchmarked your positions at the 75th percentile compared to others in the area there wasn't a lot of movement some of that's because the data is a little old already so we age the data by adding um by multiplying it by the inflation rate and trying to get you as close to the 80th percentile as possible so your new pay ranges really are putting you almost at top of Market in the area so top one two or three employer uh pay for that job in the area so if we look at if we add compression we add bringing everybody up to the new minimum and we factor in what the increase in benefits and when we say benefits we're talking about your payroll taxes unemployment insurance that the city already play pays on behalf of each employee also your pension contributions uh for lease in the general employees we factored that in your new annualized impact right now is just shy of 1.6 million to get to implement this completely right now and your total out of that 387 employees that we looked at 223 of them are going to see an increase in Pay right away uh before I talk a little bit more about the next steps a part of this was we did review the city's benefits um since that is a large component of what our firm does as well looking at surrounding uh cities and counties EUR all's uh health insurance plan is really top of the market in terms of what you're already at offering your city employees between the health center really what's a very low deductible in comparison to other cities having um no paycheck cost for individual coverage and really factoring it in you know this is a PO plan and we're usually looking at the base plan for other entities with a similar cost is usually an HMO so we're not recommending any substantial changes to your insurance the way it is right now like I said it's already kind of best-in class um couple things that did Stand Out are the short-term and long-term disability that are offered by the city they're paid for by the employees you could look at putting um in and paying that as the city as the employer but in looking at our book of business across the State of Florida only about a third of our clients um pay for short-term disability on behalf of their employees so you are still being incredibly competitive in that market so next steps uh we have talked about the compression workbook uh with HR and with the interim City administrator we uh we will present that to them for implementation will work with the city to implement this because if approved the idea would be to implement it for I believe the pay on March 31st so that 1.6 million number obviously that's going to be different for the rest of this fiscal year since we're already a good ways into the pay year so it won't be that entire hit this year um and we will continue uh with finalizing and finishing up the job descriptions for the city as well also recommendations as far as moving forward you're going to want to make sure that this doesn't get out of whack for lack of a better term moving forward you don't want to have to do a full pay study every year every two years our recommendation is we can do a couple of different things we can work with the city on being able to refresh this data on an ongoing basis but really the goal is to set you up with something that you all can manage so we do provide the compression workbook we do provide the pay plan as you see in your packet we will work with you as to let's say you create new positions how you want to go about aligning and putting those positions in the pay plan but the most important thing is your pay ranges annually you really want to look at them and adjust them the easiest way to adjust them is looking back at the prior 12 months CPI the Consumer Price Index so for example right now the latest number I think is January of 2023 to January of 2024 I believe that number was somewhere I think it was like 3.9% or something like that that's typically what you're going to look at look at your pay ranges adjust them by that each year so that way as people move within the ranges they're not getting capped out at the top as well and you're staying competitive and when you do look at doing another study again down the road you don't have a big jump or a big increase a big change to make I think that Kristen did I miss anything okay that's that's what we have saying to do it annually you want to look at your pay ranges annually so you're not going to run compression all the time okay so you do have a the city has an annual Merit increase cycle continue doing that adjusting your your employees pay based on that but by adjusting the pay ranges on a regular basis you shouldn't have to worry about the pray the pay getting compressed and needing to have these big adjustments okay Joe do you know how many people were or John you might know how many people were were topped out there were nobody nobody was topped out no I meant before oh I'm not sure the number at this point okay I didn't when you say figure out what does that mean the top of the range and they can't get another raise because they're at the top of the range oh okay she had a number I'm not sure the number mayor but was 30 40 I don't think it was that many yeah no I think maybe it might have been lower than 10 if I'm guessing right but don't hold me to that number okay I could get it for you though I just just wonder yeah okay but again nobody has topped out right now and you had nobody that was above the one of the new maximums so that's a good thing because when you do run into that situation obviously you're not going to not pay the person but that part that piece that they are above the pay rate range you're going to typically give them that in an annual lump sum sort of like a bonus instead of part of their salary and that can affect their pension and things like that so you really want to stay away from that any other questions commissioner um no I'm I'm none at this point commission Smith um you stated that uh employees that are at the employees that are at the U 10 years of service should be in the mid-range correct that's just sort of the general rule of thumb when you're looking at compression all right so when you took an employee and you moved them based on the new pay scale correct and if they were at the minimum but had 10 years did they automatically move to the middle no they did not but they are getting that compr they're getting that compression pace so it's a really uh it's really complex formula to to explain but they are if they had to move up they are getting both the increase to the new minimum and they are still getting that compression pay on top so you might have some people that are experiencing I can go line by line there were some folks that were getting 1520 even $30,000 in new pay added to their salary does that answer your question that's that's a big difference 15,000 to 30,000 from base salary on top of their base salary corre but that's very common when you have somebody that's worked in the same job for a long time and I'm not sure as to what their increase history is like also in comparison to where they are in the market so if you think about it this way the easiest way that I can explain it is if you have somebody that's been with you for 10 years right they've been they've been getting pay increases right but if you hire somebody today in this current market for that same job you just brought them in often times that person is going to be brought in at a very comparable salary to where that current employee is if not sometimes higher and that's just a function of the market and being competitive and I explain this to people all the time they'll say to me well you know I've been here with the city for almost a year I'm not getting any compression pay well that's because when you were hired you were basically being paid or should have been paid at Market it's very common I I I've been in HR for over 20 years and I've had this discussion with people that I brought into my own organization where you know it's kind of off-putting you're doing almost the same job but the person that's just brought in today forget what their background their experience is they might be being paid the exact same amount or even more as you because that's what the Market's willing to pay and so there's no way to effectively adjust or to compensate uh because I've seen it where they you raise the entry levels yeah pay but for the individuals who already been in the field they're not being compensated that's what the compression's for that's why we're running compression for the purpose of this study that is affecting that so for example if we have two individuals they're in the same job today one's been here let's say seven years one's been here six months and let's say both of them have to move to the new minimum that's going to happen but the individual that's already been here seven years is is going to get some pay on top of that they are not going to start off at the same pay as the person that's been with the city six months okay for the purpose of this study now what you do going forward when you hire people you know I'll I'll work with Joe and the HR team on that on some best practices on where to set salary in terms of new hires as well we've worked with Joe um already on some of the folks you brought in while we're doing the salary survey to make sure you didn't hire anybody that was going to ruin the result of the salary survey all right commissioner Nesta I appreciate you doing all this work in in in the presentation as well it's definitely detailed and yeah complicated as well so I I definitely appreciate and taking the time to explain to us uh on in reference to because in the documents that are provided there is a fire department kind of schedule that's presented or at least shown so which one are we talking about here that one right there so that's your current one okay yep and so did we do any type of research or data collection from the fire department so the ones that are included in this study are the ones that are not part of the bargain unit so those are those positions I believe it's Chief Deputy Chief yeah division Chief they are part of the study okay but we have we are not working right now on the positions since I know you all are going through the union negotiations that would be outside of the scope of this study okay and then on the police side we did do that entire department though yes we did and so this pay plan right here for for police I believe you all update it at the beginning of this uh fiscal year for 24 so there is some movement but it's not as much because you all were already very competitive in terms of your your police pay um the numbers that are reflected in here though are based on 2080 hours so to implement this I know you all are moving to 2084 for police in the compression workbook we have the new hourly rate what we'll work with HR on is they'll need to multiply that hourly rate by 2184 to get the new annualized rate for all these police positions that are being affected going forward okay so that way your your Police Department is seeing a lift and then a lift in conjunction with going from 2080 to 2184 okay and and just for you know point of clarification a lot of I shouldn't say a lot of the majority of the other police department deps we looked at the most of them are either on 2184 some I think were're even over 2200 in terms of what they're paying right now gotcha okay and then in reference to we have a lot of uh different employees that provide multiple roles y so like our economic development director is now going to be doing CRA oversight was that taken into account when you started doing pay structure or putting them into their so when we when we develop the new job descriptions anything we were made aware of at that that time we took it into account as best as we could right so I use this example you know a systems administrator is doing systems Administration work here at the city they may be crawling under desks and doing some things that are more help desk we can't really compare it against that because that's a different job classification and the salaries aren't going to be like for like so what we will do is is make some recommendations on things you might want to do in terms of incentive pay for people to take on responsibility U we will also make recommendations on Career lading so if for example you have somebody in a role and they take get a new designation or they take on a new responsibility you can essentially move them and promote them into a new position with a higher pay without creating a vacancy you don't have to have a new open position for them to go in so so you have to be creative with incentivizing people that take on those addition those additional responsibilities that can't easily be captured sure yeah no and that and that's exactly my question thank you is so would they move up or in that specific scenario would we move them to a different category band kind of create a new position yeah we'll we'll work on that and make some recommendations in terms of what that pay could look like okay that's that's kind of like the next step what you would do next so we're we're trying to implement this the 31st is that that's correct for those specific kind of more hybrid positions I guess that's my concern is how are you adjusting those or is that going to be that'll have to be the next phase timed out okay what does that look I guess What's the timing for the next phases or what's that look like we'd have to sit down and figure out what that is gotcha okay yeah understood so right now should we approve this during the council coming up later tonight this will all be implemented as is correct starting March 31st starting March 31st yep so affecting you know what is that 220 out of 387 employees so you know more than what 2/3 and it's it's really this is to level set bring these pay ranges up on par if not to top a market and get the folks that are in those pay ranges paid competitively and then from there because that's kind of like the main yeah skeleton of this and then we can kind of massage as needed for individual okay love that and again this is you know based on our experience and what we're seeing this is our recommendation at the end of the day you will still need to look at what you need to do if you have hard to fill positions or these different roles what can you do to incentivize you know make sure you're attracting good people and more importantly retaining them I can tell you all day long what you need to get need to get somebody in the door but you really need to focus on keeping your people because I can give you all kinds of statistics on how much more expensive it is to replace somebody versus keeping the good people you already have sure and then so our contract with you is it extends Beyond this thing so our contract is to complete this portion of the study the job descriptions and the benchmarking okay we can certainly talk about you know what might be needed down the road and if there's any additional work that we need to do on behalf of the city gotcha okay and then the one other thing and and sorry for all the questions that you had mentioned short or long-term disability yep I guess walk me through or or is there is there a lot of benefit for us to provide that I know you said yeah so it's it's something that I see more of within our client base coming up and I think in public sector maybe not as much but it is pretty typical now to see employers providing employer paid short-term and long-term disability it's usually not a gigantic cost it doesn't necessarily move the needle but then when I went back and looked at our groups like I said only about a third of the public sector groups we work with are offering it paid for shortterm and the number was like a less than 5% for long-term disability being employer paid as I say I I looked really I even had one of our colleagues who's more of a benefits expert expert than I am we really couldn't find a lot of fault in what you're offering in terms of insurance benefits to your employees right now okay it's very strong top of Market okay thank you appreciate it let me ask one other question you mentioned that you did not take a look at our our part-time employees yep so at what point would we address them I I'll I'll speak with Joe I think we will be able to address those that probably doesn't take a lot of work in ter terms of looking at where others are being paid that's more we need to figure out what the jobs are what they're what they're doing and where do we need to think where should we set that minimum pay for those part-time and seasonal employees to make it attractive because I know you all are competing with even private when it comes to a lot of those positions in the area commissioner on on the part-time employees the majority of the part-time employees there's probably less than a handful that are regular part-time employees the majority of those are seasonal employees that work in the recreation department and and they'll start out and and generally we've always started them out what our base is and the base would be 18 now based on your adoption of the study so they would move to the $18 an hour which I know that's kind of like almost the uh The Benchmark we were trying to get to because if you look at Universal Orlando I know they're not direct competition but let's be realistic if somebody's doing a customer service role here they could go do a customer service role there and their starting pay is in the $18 an hour range so now you are are competitive with the people that could take you know some of your more entry level and customer I should say City facing roles got a couple of questions did all the Commissioners get the the uh job description survey I I don't know if they did Chuck do you know if they got no I the the job description I just so they would have just to to I mean it's a really detailed yeah oh the I don't think they got yeah no can can you just send that Joe just send it to the Commissioners just just so they've got it will answer some of I think commissioner nesta's questions the survey descri yes emplo yes the results that we collected yeah no not the results okay the survey itself surve yeah yeah yeah just so they you you it's it's really yeah yeah it might overwhelm you a little bit it's pretty thorough it's yeah I I am I was yeah I'm used to that here always drinking from a fire hose and and a sec other question I have is can you list out the municipalities that that you were sure benchmarking us against you have it Kristen good thing we have technology with us do okay oh that's right you so it was the city of Orlando Orange County government we did look at all the sheriff's offices so Orange County Sheriff Oola and seminal sheriff for PD uh City of Winter Park City of okoi City of Winter Garden City of matland oila County government city of CMI where we could they were a little fickle on giving us their data uh seminal County government city of Longwood Lady Lake uh city of Ido and city of leeburg so really all your surrounding neighbors yeah so if I may like C Simi they've been aggressive with their salaries if I'm not mistaken on on some of their positions especially on the police do we take out kind of outliers do you so yeah that's a great question when we look at starting to create the payb bands we do so the fir the first thing that my team did we sat down we went over each one of these Benchmark workbooks again and we looked at if something doesn't look right so you know based on experience if I know for example a senior accountant is usually somewhere in the ballpark of 75 at the minimum to 95 or 100 at the high end if I start seeing senior accountants that are in the 120 range that makes you know my antennas go up and we go back we look at the job we start trying to figure out if it's really something we should compare you know sometimes when it's a county versus a city we know the Count's got much larger resources usually we don't usually throw that out completely unless we really think we should but again at the end of the day if KMI is being aggressive the city of Apopka should be aggressive too and when you take the 75th percentile that's not necessarily the average plus what it's looking at as 16 other numbers it's saying the 75th percenti it may be an exact number it may be a calculation of that number I would say overall when we looked the two common ones uh the two entities that their pay was higher already than a popas were typically Orlando and Orange County government with they much larger entities exactly yeah but based on this you are now in direct competition or in some cases even a little bit stronger than some of those entities based on these recommendations cool any other questions well I'd like sure like to thank you know your team Joe and Chuck and and blanch for you know really working hard to get get us a really good salary survey you know we been a long time and so it's nice to you know to know where we are and so that we can compete with other municipalities for for good quality workers and and keep the ones that we've got so so thank you thank your team well I appreciate and I want to thank you all on the council Mr Mayor and the folks Joe Chuck and everybody that was involved because you know we we got a lot of input from staff level directors taken time out of day when we came here on site we appreciate everybody's time and cooperation in this as well great well thank you thank you all right with that we'll close the public hearing we'll see you back --------- e e e e e e all right we're going to call this meeting to order we' got Michelle willing come on up we're doing a workshop on the Main Street program so Michelle take it away do you want to lead us in the pledge of allegion oh we got we'll do that're good we're good it was in here I'm just trying to follow protocol good morning everybody mayor and Commissioners thank you for joining us this morning as we discuss the topic of the Main Street program um we'll learn today about the Florida Main Street program and address the uh potential for formalizing the apaka Main Street program so with that I have the pleasure this morning of introducing Katherine Beck she is the state coordinator for the Florida Main Street program um following the conclusion of her presentation I will be giving my uh remarks I have a couple slides here and I've have provided you with some additional documentation about what we'll be discussing um I'm certain Katherine will be open to questions during her presentation or after but I think we'll we'll talk about a lot of your questions um in the slides following so with that I'm going to turn it over to Katherine thank perfect good morning good morning thank you so much and thank you for the audience participation it's uh this is a very important part of Main Street is to have Community involvement so I appreciate so much seeing members of the community come in and have an opportunity to listen and learn so uh this is a highlevel discussion about what Main Street is and certainly afterwards more than happy to delve into questions with you um so the first question we always get is what is Main Street and there are many misconceptions about what Main Street is Main Street at its core is economic development what Main Street does is use your existing assets your historic assets as part of that toolkit and helping you maintain and establish your individual identity as a Main Street community so what do we do as the main street program we provide technical assistance we are housed within the Florida Department of State within the division of historical resources we provide technical assistance to our communities uh we do many trainings throughout the year we bring in consultants in the field we keep up with growing Trends we're associated with national Main Street we open those resources up to our communities so we are your information flow one of the favorite things that I ever heard about Main Street came from Ed McMahon and this is the different Ed McMahon and he made the point he said people stay longer and spend more money in places that attract our affection but no place in America will stay special by accident Main Street is very design oriented it is guided it is structured it is a model so why is your downtown important and over the years there's been a lot of studies that have been done and you all know the progression we started with our downtowns they were they were our livelihoods they were our businesses they were they were a place where information was obtained it was a place where people came to relax to to meet one another to socialize the malls came and we lost our downtowns and unfortunately what moved into a lot of our downtowns were not necessarily items that weren't needed but it was a lot of Social Services it was a lot of Consultants it was a lot things that did not bring people into your downtown to spend time to understand your downtown to get to know the history of your downtown and and a lot of our downtowns were lost and when you lose your downtown you lose the spirit of your community so your downtown infrastructure has been a major investment for this community since since you settled since you organized since you began putting money into infrastructure you've made a huge investment in that downtown area don't walk away from it you know your downtown has an impact on your property values because your property values emanate from your core and if your core is not maintained if your core does not produce does not respond does not return to the community concentric circles occur and those impact your property values it's the heart of your community as I said downtown was a place for socialization it's where people came together it's where important community events occurred it's why your city hall is here this is the heart of your D of your community and and you should maintain that as best you can and it's an important public space it's a space for people to come it's a space for them to see art it's a space for them to see culture it's a p place for their children to play so all those things pour into why is your downtown important and why should you protect it why should you strive to have that downtown be strong so downtown is your economic engine we firmly believe that downtown is made up of small businesses small businesses are what support this country Florida particularly is home to a lot of small businesses we don't have big industry here with the exception of Disney we don't have big industry here right I mean it is our our small businesses that keep our communities vibrant so with the Independent familyowned Business again one of our one of our big stakeholders in the main street they conservatively provide over $88 million a year in sales tax revenue throughout the State of Florida this is a 2017 number property taxes your property taxes grow as you increase your commercial impact so what is the cost of a downtown empty space again this is from a 2017 study by Donovan ripk uh Donovan ripk has placed economics he is considered the national leader in Main Street economic analysis so when you look at what happens with an empty storefront per this is per storefront you've lost sales you've lost employee payroll you've lost rent you've lost business profits business property taxes Bank deposits loans sales tax to to your government utilities and advertising the average on that is over $400,000 per vacant space now let's look at the big box versus your small town yeah everybody wants Walmart everybody wants Costco and those are great great Assets in your community but look at what they do to your Revenue base it's a lot of space that's taken up and when you look at what the taxes per acre are on a Walmart versus your downtown commercial District it's a huge difference now that little store isn't going to pay you $83,000 but that cumulative total of five or six stores in that space are going to pay you that $83,000 so it's a big impact and the infrastructure cost is huge too because these smaller buildings don't need the same amount of infrastructure that Walmart and Cusco need so this is the 101 this is the high view what is Main Street we're historic preservation we're Economic Development we are commercial development we are inclusive we are a public private partnership we are Grassroots and Community Driven and we hope that our Concepts transfer to your entire community and those concepts are Community Pride they're Community strength they reinvestment in your community it's a long-term vision for your community it's a reason to say where do I want my children to be in 30 or 40 years do I want them to come back so use a four-point approach this approach was created in 1980 by the national Main Street Center um we think that it is a valid approach we have seen tremendous success with this approach over the 45 years Florida's program is 40 years old this upcoming year uh National program is 45 years old there have been over 1,600 uh Main Street communities throughout the nation there are 47 ordinating programs uh 42 of those are State programs five of those are city or county programs so our four points are promotion it's talking about your area letting the the world know who you are what you are design very important to keep your design standards in place in a Main Street District this is what maintains your identity it's what keeps up your values it provides that structural framework for what that District looks like economic Vitality that's reinvestment in that Corridor that's businesses coming in that's new Property Owners coming in um it's people coming in and spending time and money in your district and organization that's that is the basis of the program the local program go back to this so one of the things we talk with communities about is a transformation strategy and this does not mean you have to change who you are what this means is you have to decide who you want to be based on who you are and if you're in an area and you want to bring businesses back to your downtown because you have a high vacancy rate so what does that strategy look like what is needed to be put in place to bring businesses back to that downtown maybe you're an area where you have a lot of retail but no restaurant so you want to become more of a familyfriendly restaurant environment it's it's the things that you need maybe it's public Arts maybe you need to bring public art into that District so the transformation strategies are short-term three to fiveyear strategies that you implement to say this is the direction we need to start taking this is the framework we need to start laying and those transformation strategies will change over time they may they may become larger they may condense they may start bifurcating but it's always that vision and that planning Main Street is long term it is not an overnight fix for a community um we we encourage our programs to to get the loow hanging fruit first to show the communities that you're there that you're doing things do the things that are quick and easy to see you know but but have that long-term planning in place with a Main Street program you'll start noticing changes after about three years at five years it's all of a sudden like wow this is really working and at 10 years you won't remember what it looked like but it is incremental so the return on investment again 2017 study at that time the return on investment was $38 for every $1 invested of of public dollars now this is an interesting number um this during the 2008 recession and you can see how our Main Street programs performed in terms of business growth as opposed to businesses in Florida I will tell you our numbers were very similar during Co we did not lose businesses we gained businesses we gained jobs so our total reinvestment numbers this is as of December 31 2023 total reinvestment for Florida main streets and this is public private dollars 6.9 billion and it runs about 50% so private investment was a little bit more uh they were actually about 52% public investment was 48% net gain in jobs 34,000 net gain in businesses almost 11,000 and the number of volunteer hours and this is what to me is so impressive 1.6 million hours of volunteer time have been put into our communities and that shows the strength of the programs that shows how much these communities want this program how invested your public is in these programs and it's what makes a program work so what are our principles we are comprehensive in our planning we are incremental we are community-driven in Grassroots we believe strongly in public private partnership we want to use your existing assets again those existing assets particularly in Florida are very important because that's going to help you maintain your identity you know I tell people things I can stand in front of a building in Rosemary Beach and celebration in South Beach and I can ask you where I am and you can't tell me where I am you need to maintain your individual identity that's what's going to set you apart from any other community and particularly here you have a lot of development pressure in this area everybody has a sub everybody has you know Chick-fil-A everybody has all those things what do you have that's you what makes you different quality of your programming area and of the businesses you attract into that area you know change you you need to understand that the Dynamics are changing particularly in Florida and the way to to maintain and adjust to that change is to plan for it and then you have to be implementation oriented we tell our boards these are not thought provoking boards these are working boards um the biggest tragedy I've seen in a program is for them to say Mr wouldn't you like to be on our board it's it's an hour a month but it's not it's 15 to 20 hours a month we demand a lot out of our board members because if we don't do the work why would the community come and participate and volunteer and do the work it's a heavy lift Main Street is not all fun in games and that's what people think because they see us out there they see us doing the promotion oh we're having First Fridays we're doing wine walks that's the very top layer that's not the work of Main Street the work of Main Street is reinvigorating that Corridor and maintaining that Corridor so that your structure and your integrity are consistent so how do you succeed a program decides we'll need a full-time executive director and when we say full-time that means probably 50 to 60 hours a week um you need to follow the 4o approach you have to have that commitment to succeed you know you're going to get a lot of push back in a Main Street you're going to try things and they don't work and that's okay particularly when you're starting off as a Main Street you know you're going to have a party and nobody's going to come okay that wasn't a good idea we won't do that one again you know and you build on those successes and you and you learn from from the ones that are not so successful right you have to have a unified Vision in your downtown and this is where that partnership with the city with the CRA with your community is so important because if you have a program that has their own idea and it's not supported by the stakeholders then you don't have a program and you're not going to have a success you have to have a strong commitment to your board Partnerships again are essential you have to understand that your success is incremental again it you are not going to see immediate big scale success in this downtown is never finished it is constantly evolving and it should be because the needs of our communities constantly evolve and without risk there's no reward we think that the largest rewards you can have would be 10 years from now looking back and seeing that area be engaged being activated people smiling people coming back that's your success story look at the land I and I always hold the land up because when the land came into this program they had a 95% vacancy rate in their downtown and it was not a good place to be and it took time it took time for them now they will be 40 years old next year they were one of our first program areas but they were consistent that relationship with the city and the CRA was strong their board is strong they have 33 board members now that's a large board but they have 33 engaged board members and I cannot tell you how many volunteers they have they have hundreds of volunteer bases and and everyone is committed to what they do does that mean things are roses all the time no you got 33 people on a board you and have different concepts but that's okay because you need to hear that because you don't want your board to get tunnel vision you know again we talk about your community evolves you need to be cognizant of changes within the community and what the needs are that are represented by those changes within your community so it takes time it takes preservation you know it takes commitment from the city because Main Street will come to you as a city and say some of these ordinances aren't helping us maintain this District we need to look at some changes you always hope you can do those in Partnership and you can do this through discussions and that you don't have a you know angry group of business owners in here say we need this you know and that's the role of Main Street is to help facilitate a lot of those issues that your local businesses run up against every day that as policy makers you may be totally unaware of because you have a policy that you think makes a lot of sense but you're not implementing you're not practicing so for these business owners and the Dynamics are changing in business particularly with young entrepreneurs and what they want need is very different they don't need that 1,000 Square F feet you might have six small businesses in a th000 square feet your code may not allow that so that there are a lot of things that are changing and and and it's a very liquid Dynamic right now in the business community so um th those are some of the areas where as partners and stakeholders this relationship will be key for you so your dues and doubts do have a public private partnership work to change attitudes towards your downtown because a lot of people well no place to go it's not safe it's not secure those are the things you got to address and those are the challenges that have to be overcome don't overemphasize parking that's everybody's first thing we don't have enough parking people will walk if they have a reason to walk they'll walk and that's part of that streetscaping and that engagement when people see things when they have something that keeps their eye moving they don't realize they're walking two and three blocks if they're walking past buildings that are boarded up and closed and there's no activity it's a long two or three blocks don't study downtown to death listen to your community listen to your businesses you know at the heart I I mean and we use Consultants all the time don't misunderstand me but when you bring somebody in from outside who's looking at a model they're going to give you a model you you need to understand what your community wants first and that's where the visioning come in it's getting that base understanding of what the community thinks will work what the dynamic is then you can go take that Base information and then go to the consultant and say what works here but always listen to your community don't expect 100% cooperation from Business Leaders from your public from your boards you're never going to have 100% cooperation it's like when I look at a political candidate I go well if I get seven out of 10 I'm good right so that's probably about the number you're looking for you know if you can get 70% cooperation you're in good shape and don't look for home runs again it's not a home run game it's that incremental let's get to first base let's get to second well maybe we can skip from second to home but don't look for that home run questions and answers all rightz that was a really good presentation thank you with the I'm kind of touching up on a couple of things here um you're right about we we need to kind of start small and right now we kind of have some we we're building up our City downtown center right now you did talk about you know empty retail spaces we don't have that right now um but it's something that we're trying to look at to see how can we kind of connect all our spaces right now we're kind of working on that um but I will say this about um our what we have started and I have been supporting we just started I think this is the second time we've done the market on 5ifth and what I was impressed with was all the vendors that came and you're right they don't all want a storefront but they want a place where they can be consistently coming to to do their business and a lot of those vendors um had really great products and when I asked them you know how did you get started where are you working from the majority were working from home right and so I want to be able to provide a kind of a permanent space for them to come and just you know every Friday or Saturday or you know that they know that they can come to this space right and create some business for themselves and and certainly you know where our our residents can come and say oh you know that vendor was there she's there every Saturday that's how they start the farmers market you know and I'm seeing that that's how most of the main streets are starting is a consistency with their vendors right so I am looking forward to doing that the other thing that you were talking about is certainly design you know how do we Define ourselves here in in the city of apak and I kind of got an idea of who we are as far as that's concerned um and and I hope that you know as we we move forward that we continue to kind of build on that architect that we are known for because you're right that's that's what defines us um and the economic vitality and you're right in order to get our downtown going we have to have something an engine going that people feel that when they come here this they can kind of stay and and and be around um you know and I'm I'm thinking I'm trying to think all little businesses that we do have going around um the parking lot that we upgraded has been a really a blessing and I think because that was really the the the foundation for our downtown um because without it when it was when it was very dark and it was unkempt and blighted no one was coming now they just coming I don't know where they're coming from but they feel safe cu the parking lot is upgraded it's got lighting it's got lines it's got structure and people feel safe and we've been using that um with the you know whenever we have anything going on downtown we use that parking lot as a gathering so that seems to be the one that we've been Gathering and then the other thing you touched upon that we have been doing and I've been excited and been supporting it has been the murals the art art and culture is so important in every community because it really brightens up the area and we've been doing that now the one thing that we're kind of lacking in the downtown um is is I'm I would love to see a library come in because I think a library would bring not just people to come socialized but the younger people to come into a library because the technology now in the libraries is no longer Just Books right it's all of that so that's another big investment and of course I've been in one of our neighboring cities and they just voted I mean the community literally voted for it because they felt that that is an engine that will continue to build their community so it we have a lot to do and like you said it's not overnight it's a slow process but definitely we would have to kind of set a strategic plan right so that you know the reality of all cities is we have um local government that changes every four four years and so what you want to be able to do is if you know as those local uh government boards change that they're embracing and continuing to build on that so that's something that uh we definitely want to work on and we just hired an economic developer uh director so I'm looking forward to that but thank you so much you gave us so much to think about and how to set this up and we definitely want to support our Main Street uh you know to build it up so uh thank you well thank you for your comments Mr Smith thank you great presentation and uh something that I would strongly support when I met with them some months ago and they introduced themselves uh I like the idea that they had Vision they were thinking outside of the box and uh so something that I think will bring some value to to our downtown area one thing that probably stuck out to me most during your presentation was what makes us different and uh so I like that and I want to make sure that we we we stick that somewhere we keep that in mind and in sight so we make sure that there is something that makes us different so that we stand out and can attract those people to come to downtown and I think our board has been very uh Cooperative when it comes to policy changes and making codes changes that will make uh it easier for development and I strongly support small business uh as you said that's where our bread and butter is and so we want to make make sure that we provide those opportunities here in the city of apka that we keep our residents here rather than allowing them to go elsewhere and so great presentation thank you thank you Mr Nesta absolutely Miss Beck thank you for your presentation are we able to get a copy of that sent to us your presentation itself that yes okay perfect thank you I appreciate that I just always like having that in our files to go back to in recap so I do want to uh thank you for your time I got a couple different questions and and one comment the one that caught me the most is wine walks I would like a lot more of that that sounds nice that sounds like a really good Plus for the community would you like to volunteer for that yeah I I will head that uh that up no problem but uh I had a couple different questions so in reference to uh who we want to be or kind of our identity personally I don't feel we have a very specific there's not one cohesive we we've got a lot of history here but there's not one identity is that something that Main Street creates for us or helps drive or is that something it do create that for you what it will do is hold isings with your community and from your community input that's where that that identity will start to emerge okay um because you will see consistency you you know a very simple exercise is to ask this room 10 words everybody write down 10 words what is this community ring to you right and then you feed it in you do the analysis on it and and you come up with what that Community skeleton is and and it's very interesting to see and and and there will be a lot of consistency among this entire Community as to what they think this community is good and bad good and bad I mean things will pop that you go oh didn't even know about that sure but but it's it's rumbling right and and so that's that's part of that visioning process that main streets are so beneficial for you know because because they're not the city all right and and they're not some consultant coming in and and saying oh what is this this is community to community this is them talking to the people this is putting out the surveys this is saying tell us who we are what do you see what's good what's bad what do you want us to be nice okay I like that and then that kind of leads me to does Main Street a popka or will Main Street poka act as somewhat of an Advisory Board to our commission our counsel to let us know our strength weaknesses where we can help promote does it act in that capacity or is that you well they generally don't act as an Advisory Board they generally act as more of a partner okay and a stakeholder um it is part of their role to advise you what's going on and like I said to come and say the these ordinances are restrictive we're having problems with this or we need to look at this but hopefully what you would have is someone frankly at every council meeting who is sitting there that can interchange and minimally every quarter getting an update from them to say the these are the things that are happening these are the successes these are issues we're looking at so that you have that open dialogue and relationship it depends on how you set them up some some programs set up more within the CRA environment and work through that as opposed to directly to the city so it depends on where you think that partnership and that stakeholder relationship live okay thank you the what Chamber of Commerce how does that partner with Main Street or how does that look how does that fit into this puzzle so Chambers and Main Street should actually be very strong Partners now their mission is a little bit different we all want the same end results right but Chambers mission is advocacy it is policy development and it is job recruitment all right Main Street role is to help maintain the Integrity of that Corridor so that when the chamber is bringing people in they can bring them to this downtown and go we've got this vibrant downtown going so they should work hand inand there should be no crossover of roles it should be very clear as to what it is now what you will find will happen once you have an established Main Street businesses will start contacting that executive director to say what's going on down there is there room down there so hopefully that relationships in part that the director then calling the Chamber of the director and saying we're going to have lunch with this person but you know you don't want to get in each other's paths I'm very clear on that good okay yeah and just just curious on that one because it seems like there was there could be a potential for crossover or things like that so want to make sure that excuse me we're using our resources that make the most sense as as much as possible one of our packets that we were just handed which lots of good information that I went through it goes through local municipalities that were recently accredited um thank you and and so what it does is it says recent or accreditations population city contribution in the source what I'm seeing is that some of this I mean some are up to $150,000 which is pretty impressive but they're coming from the CRA either through a grant or just the CRA in general can we fund Main Street through the CRA what does that you can fund certain things through the CRA and I'm going to tell you to talk to your City attorney about that 2019 was an opinion that came down that said cras cannot pay for promotion and marketing materials so I think what most of the cras are doing now is is they are doing the scope of services that the C that the Main Street can do but they are not paying for promotion and marketing materials the the main street has to raise that funding separ from a a different way now others are just taking directly now from from General funding okay you know so is that what you would what would you recommend on that uh you're going to have to look at your numbers and see if you've got a CRA and you've got an investment plan for that CRA and there are opportunities for your Main Street to help enact that plan that's a that's a good funding source now I mean and so maybe you do that and you look at TDC dollars maybe you've got tourist development dollars right that you could do some of the marketing and promotion contribution from sure you know so you're going to have you're going have to look at those budgets again I'm going to tell you talk to your City attorney and and see where they are comfortable coming in on what the CRA can actively support and cannot support okay I appreciate that and then do what's a I mean I see $50,000 and I see that on a um General budget as well $50,000 should is that like the minimum or what is expected from the city what's that look like no that's that's that's kind of like the normal [Music] number but there's no expectation I mean we have cities that that cities do different things some of it's in kind they may give office space they may give you know waivers on you know when when you have these promotional events you know okay we're going to provide the security and we're going to provide what whatever permitting and everything else as an in kind so there are different ways to facilitate what that partnership looks like at the end of the day there is obviously some cash that's necessary to run a program right but there are other ways to also support that program so so you just have to look at it and you have to place decide what that value is on your services now what I will say to you is the first few years of a Main Street developing is is when their financial need is greatest and you truly do not want a program that's in a position of having to fund raise to keep the lights on because that's all they're going to do is fund raise and that is not helping you it's not helping the program it's not helping the community so that's why if you can really Implement that scope of services and and have a steady amount of income coming in that can pay that executive director that can pay overhead gives them a little bit of project development money so they can do some of the things they need to do to get it to go that you know it you don't want to hamstring them because again if they have to raise the money to survive they will sure but that's all they're gonna do because it takes a lot no so and and so what I hear and that's my last comment that I'll make is that we need to get behind them let them do their thing up front support as much as possible and then it'll kind of create itself from there right right I appreciate everything this is really exciting and I'm looking forward to our Main Street program really taking off oh thank you thank you thank you well Katherine thank you for coming down from Tallahassee appreciate you you you know carving out some time for the SE of Popco we really appreciate um your efforts and great presentation and what uh Michelle's going to come up and kind of go through some uh some statistics and all that so but one of the things I'd love to do uh Michelle and and uh Katherine has put put their her presentation up on our website so we can we can do the her pres your presentation as well as Michelle's and so a lot of great information so so thank you again for coming down and being a part of this well thank you I appreciate the invitation and I would encourage you to to consider coming to the MMS 24 in Tallahassee this year July 10th through the 13th we do an annual conference in conjunction with the Florida trust for historic preservation it's three days it's very intense and if you truly are looking at implementing a Main Street program at as policy leaders it would probably do you uh justice to come and and listen to other people there understand how those programs are working and understand truly what our core relationship is with these programs would you that that's July 10th through the 13th in Tallahassee and what is it called Palms 24 it's PS 24 stands for preservation on Main Street and it's July 10th through the 13th is that on the website uh we have a website that is a placeholder right now we're currently building the program it should go live the 15th of April okay and then for registration is all that registration everything will be involved right there okay it'll have a program of what each day is about yes ma'am okay awesome well thank you I don't know if you have if you want to stay and let Michelle if you've got time we'd love to have you stay for Michelle's presentation absolutely bring some additional questions for the from our thank you all so very much thank you so much I app appreciate it yeah all right thank you Catherine and commissioner Nesta for stealing my thunder if you would have just gave me five more minutes I'm sorry I didn't know if we were going to go all through it or not so you know how I skimmed stuff really quick so no worries caught my attention sorry but no thank you Catherine for your presentation it it is apparent that this is a program that could serve our community and we do see the need for it one thing I would like to point out up front is that no form of development happens overnight whether it's Economic Development if it's community development business development nothing happens overnight and so just making sure we're all you know understanding of that is is very important so what I my approach to um today's topic was to really take a look at how we would formalize the main street of Popa program this is going to kind of touch on the business side of things we know it's necessary we know that the community wants it clearly there is support here as well for the program but what would we how would we formalize this moving forward so some of the questions you've already asked about the overlapping activities or how do we Define the different activities amongst the different organizations and this was one of my struggles when I first came in the door we have a lot of different branding um for the chamber for Main Street for the CRA for economic development there's there's there's no consistency in branding and how we're marketing ourselves as a community so when Caitlyn reached out and requested a meeting with all of those um organizations we were more than happy to sit down and have a conversation what you're seeing in front of you here is a condensed version of a table that I provided during this meeting which should be a clear understanding and delineation of the responsibilities across those different entities so what you're not seeing is the economic development department side and you're not seeing the chamber side you're just seeing a comparison here at the CRA and the main street because what I've learned um over the course of years of working with c and Main Streets as they do work hand inand and and there is overlap in some of the the activities and the mission and all of that so it is very important that they're strong Partners but you would also see if I had provided this full table that there will be overlap with the chamber and with the The Economic Development Department the CRA Main Street but that's not meant to be perceived as uh we're stepping on each other's toes but more that we can serve as an extension to each other's teams how can we work well together how can we partner together to support the community so I don't want to walk through every single item here but you know really the support of entrepreneurialship and Small Business Development it's going to happen at all levels it's going to go hand inand bringing in those businesses and helping them to be successful in our community um one item I want to look at is providing networking opportunities or for businesses and fostering collaboration that's going to happen both at your Main Street and at your chamber and with a community of our size these organizations the are are going to tap into to the same businesses for resources looking for support from the same businesses so it there has to be a partnership there you you don't want to go Rogue and do your own thing you want to make sure that you are clearly defining how these two organizations or entities are working well together to get that support um offering resources and support services that's going to happen at all levels and you might not see the uh check mark here for the Main Street program but it will occur and I do see a need to revise this table because as you may know the economic development team here the CRA team here they're you know a strong team of one and that's what the Main Street program will be as well so it is essential that we are all promoting each other that we are working together promoting each other understanding all of our missions and our needs and how we can do this cohesively and not individually it's not a competition uh developing and implementing Redevelopment plans and strategies that's going to be the CR in the main street so you definitely want to make sure that those two entities are working hand inand together um organizing well I already mentioned events but promoting and marketing the downtown area as a destination for residents visitors and businesses again a community of this size there's going to be overlap you're going to see that with the chamber Foundation you're going to see that with the Main Street you know unless we set boundaries and say that one organization cannot promote an event in those boundaries and only this the other one can I don't think that's going to be that's not the cohesive approach we're looking for so you know again this is going to be an opportunity for each of these entities to work well together should we choose to formalize the program and and and just to go back to that you know I wrote up there very clearly not only is this a delineation of responsibilities but this is to enhance collaboration avoid duplication and to maximize the effective effectiveness of each organization's initiatives that is that's key during our conversation I made a recommendation that we start meeting monthly by monthly some something of that nature but to bring the organizations together so that we're all on the same page it won't do anything but benefit the community so in the packet that I provided there is a document and I do understand it is a bit dated but I pulled it off of the internet and it is called the Florida Main Street a Guide to Becoming a Main Street program and what I did was I pulled some of the key factors for implementing a successful Main Street program because ultimately what I'm presenting today is an effort to formalize a successful program it should that be the direction we want to go um so some of the key factors for implementing a successful program we want to take a look at the district and I believe there has been conversation about the district and how it can align with the CRA and potentially expand beyond the CRA boundaries um Community understanding and of the program and commitment to the program well I think that's the purpose of this Workshop today um is to make sure that everybody is aware of the purpose of the program and how can benefit the community organizational Readiness and financial strength that's where I'm going to spend my most time are we ready is the program ready um how can we support it if it's not so again just to to highlight each one of those the district um and and Katherine walked through most of this so I don't feel the need to go through each bullet point we understand um we're focusing on our down town downtown district we understand there is going to be overlaps with the CRA um and we understand that we have already had discussions about the district and how we can expand upon it for the Main Street program Community understanding of the commitment to the main street now this is very important some items that Katherine mentioned this there is a time commitment here we're not talking an hour a month for board members we're talking 20 hours a month for board members and I'm going to go back to the fact that some of these organizations that were tapping into or companies we tapping into are serving on other boards they're serving on the chamber board they're volunteering ing for other organizations so it is a time commitment and you want to make sure that that commitment is solidified with those individuals and they understand there is a time commitment so Community understanding is very important I would say that the the proposed executive director has uh her hands full with explaining the benefits of this program and also forming that commitment with those individuals who are already serving on other boards and have volunteer hours and we all we need to have work life balance at the same time so like I said I want to spend a lot of time here on the organizational Readiness and so what I've provided which should have actually been an additional slide here was a document called next steps okay so this is going to address what we know what the proposed next steps would be and what our options are if we were to formalize this program so of course in order to be a successful program there has to be an adequate budget in place there has to be the support there and Katherine touched on that um we don't want to put the organization or the entity um in a position where all they're doing is trying to raise money fundraising because then you're not going to see the effectiveness of the program so how do we avoid that um activate a board and committees um make sure we have local government and business support we have to have a paid professional and at minimum um dedicated public and private funding so you you'll see that here but what I want to focus on and what the audience is not going to see is this this document that I've drafted here called next steps so what do we know about the current proposed Main Street program we know that Main Street apaka is a registered entity within the Florida Department of State Division of Corporations they have applied for a 501c3 status they anticipate receiving their letter from the IRS in May um members have been identified to participate on the executive and Advisory Board the plan presented at the November 15 2023 meeting has been revised um it is now more in line with the four-point approach it enhances more Community Development and does not have as much emphasis on events although events will be essential to the success of the program and to the district um the anticipated director has been attending various trainings and preparation for the accreditation process accreditation does require full-time staff member now I stand corrected on my next bullet point because we heard from Katherine that a $50,000 contribution is not requ ired but some form of contribution and commitment from the community would be required uh the application period opens in June and closes in September so we are on a time crunch should this be a program that we want to move forward with um we are going to need to formalize this and the whether it be a resolution or a budget line item for the next fiscal year there has to be some sort of formal relationship with the Main Street program um so looking at the proposed next steps my recommendation again it's just a recommendation but I think before we ask the city to make a financial contribution we need to make sure that this is going to be a solid entity that we will not make an investment one time and then the program won't last because we don't have the commitment from the community the time commitment the financial commitment we we would love to see the community Thrive with the Main Street program however if we are as a city investing and supporting the salary we also need to make sure that they are raising additional funds for the activities or the menu of services that they want to provide so um this is just step one so my recommendation um to move forward with this process would be a new presentation to the city council and I have listed here at minimum what I would like to see in this presentation so that the council can make an informed decision um the revised work plan reflect in the four-point approach I think that's very important because I understand the first presentation I wasn't here to see it um I have the opportunity to watch it on YouTube um but I I think that we want to take a look at how this is going to align with Community Development efforts and not be an event planning entity um how the program will align with the CRA and the city's Mission that's going to be extremely important because we are focusing excuse me focusing in the same area as the CRA a clearly written mission and vision statement how much um how much thought has gone into the development of this program is there a clearly defined mission and vision statement for this program a roster of board and committee members I think you may have one of these documents up there that has identified those who have already committed to participating a template or a sample of a commitment letter or agreement with board members outlining their financial and time commitments this is going to be essential again do these board members understand that there is going to be a time commitment can they fit this in or will they decide at that point that you know great idea I'm not going to be able to participate at this time because I have other obligations a proposed budget with funding sources identified I think that is key I think that you will see there is going to be a request to the city but what additional funding is available what has been identified have there been any commitments from any other entities so that we can show there is community buying yes you can have the volunteer hours but it do does the community have skin in the game outside of just the city supporting it a list of any in kind contributions and a staff position description I would say once we've received that presentation if the council decided to move forward with funding this we have options and and you address some of this and the the purpose for the table that I have provided there that shows the accredited cities um unfortunately I did not uh find all of the information for every accredited City but what you will see there is examples for seven of them and yes there are higher dollar amounts for those with larger populations and more activities occurring in their communities but there are options and I would agree that we need to speak with the city attorney to determine if CRA funding can support this but what I have found and provided in the documentation for you are three examples of how cities are utilizing CRA dollars to support this program with those dollars there are defined activities the CRA dollars will not support salaries overhead expenses or events so it would be a clear agreement between the Main Street program and the CRA identifying specific activities for performance this could also be paid through General funds you'll see in that list that I've provided there are cities who pay this as a partnership support uh it's in line with your contribution to the Chamber of Commerce to a boys and girls club or any other community organization a so it can be paid out of General funds and there wouldn't be restriction restrictions on how it could be utilized it could also be done in the form of in-kind contributions office space office equipment whatever the case may be or a combination if we wanted to do this out of the general funds and then also have some in kind contributions so at minimum this should the city with my recommendation should have at least two Liaisons to this or for this organization whether it be board members or the aison and I would recommend a City Commissioner as well as either your executive um I'm sorry your economic development director or C director one or the other whichever one you choose um but at minimum that's going to make sure you have that alignment that's going to be the liaison who comes back to the city to the commission meetings and speaks to what's going on with the Main Street program um as that's going to show the relationship and the commitment from the city so I will also tell you that seen other structures where cities do not have Main Street programs they have a downtown district and it's a diff it's it's a different um division of the city itself I've seen where CRA director serve as the main street director I've seen where there is a CRA and a main street that work hand in hand and I've seen where a CRA is serving some of this purpose as well so there are different business models for how we can accomplish what was presented today um my presentation is not to to encourage or discourage the support of this but to basically provide the necessary information for the council to make an informed decision so I'm open for questions all right um M vquez I'm glad that you gave with this kind of template because it allows us to kind of understand our roles in it um I do like that you said you know to have a commissioner uh involved and be kind of the you know go to and go to the meetings and be invested in that um and the economic developer director you know just I you so absolutely and just from your presentation I think that you have very strong um you know leadership in that so it that would be greatly appreciated um basically I I'm you know I'm going to review this um and I do remember when we did um have Main Street first come to us I have the one from December 6 and I remember that was the first time that it was actually March maybe March of 2023 this has been that's a little early that has come from me yeah but um it it has kind of evolved from that and and I appreciate that you know it has changed the voard members and all that it has more of an inclusive is your mic on huh is your mic on oh okay I see it there it is that's cuz I was coughing and I didn't want to cough into the mic um well I don't want to repeat everything I said but um basically I I I I like your recommendations that you are making and I don't know how soon we start I just want to verify because at that time we did allocate $50,000 is that still something that we've allocated for the main street when we first uh were introduced to it no no no it was discussed but I don't think we ever officially no we didn't officially I think we kind of earmarked or discussed or said once we get a little more information we'll we'll be able to move forward I wanted some clarity on that because I do remember that $50,000 and then I don't remember if we said yes no or if we voted it in but that was the first time that they were um introducing us to the Main Street the idea of the main street okay so that's something that we can discuss I guess a later time um so basically I just want to say thank you for this template and hope we can start working on this as soon as possible Mr Smith uh I guess my my first question was do we already have an office established we have an office space yes that we're renting yes um it's not really conducive to meeting so to speak but we have office address here all right and have you already started soliciting donations from other individuals in supporter Main Street yes we have we did get our solicitation certificate from can you can you come up to this yeah thank you yeah no problem I have a loud voice but I know the cameras can't pick me up um so yes we have started soliciting for um contributions whether it's in a sponsorship form or or donation public you know some public entities and some private individuals and we have received uh since January $2,585 and it's growing every single day it seems so we're really excited about that but we did receive our contribution certificate from the Department of Agriculture so as soon as we got that we started building out sponsorship packets and just some of the easy things that we could do all right um and then I noticed it says the application process opens in June um March is almost gone yes so if this is something that we're going to do I think we need to get started yesterday um so uh I think you answered all the questions and I like the format you presented and I like the recommendations that you suggested as well so uh let's do it commission Nesta I appreciate obviously your information and all that sorry jumped the gun a little bit tend to do that so sorry in advance for that a couple quick questions in in reference to the application process or accreditation you're saying it's competitive in the sense of the requirements for accreditation or is it only a select few per year get accredited so that was something I found online and I don't want to pretend to be the expert so I'm going to turn to Catherine and ask her she would like to address that question sure thank you um and commissioner that's that's a good question in terms of understanding what the relevance of that accreditation means the first three years of program comes into the Main Street environment they actually work as an apprentice Community because it really takes that first three years of foundational structure for them to develop what they need at the end of that three years they should be in a position to be determined to be accredited that means they're meeting certain standards and these are standards that are set there are two accreditations one is a Florida Main Street accreditation which is very uh impact based the other one is National Main Street which is more uh philosophically based so there are two accreditation levels that they can achieve at the end of that three-year period now programs will go through highs lows and plateaus and you may have a program that is achieving you know three or four years they're doing well that something happens covid you know something happens and and they kind of lose that I mean and we saw that during Co we saw great boards fall apart and and so those programs actually went back into an affiliate position because there are some things they needed to work on so that accreditation to that Community is not just something we hand out it is something that is earned and has to be maintained every year and there are standards that are attached to that accreditation okay thank you and then if I can follow up a question on that you're saying it's an apprentice community so do we have I guess we go to Main Street chattahoo will they be mentoring to us or is it like a Florida Main Street that's mentoring us or what do that look like so the mentorship is built within the organization the technical assistance a primary mentorship comes from us however we are broken into regions and so in a region you have other programs here you can reach out to and then you have of course the Statewide Network you can reach out to on issues you also have the national network we are connected nationally by the point so that when programs run into issues that maybe someone hasn't seen in this region you can throw it out nationally and generally you're going to get a response from somewhere that somebody has seen this issue okay all right thank you I really appreciate that I may have a question for you additionally there uh Mrs Beck that so for Grant availability anything like that is that something we can get UPF front what what are what does that look like for us or what type of funds are available for us talk to you about grants and I'm not the grant supervisor so what happens with our programs when they come in from Florida Main Street they get it at this point it's a $10,000 technical assistance budget for that first three years now I'm actually in the process of trying to kick that up a little bit because the last two years that $110,000 isn't going as far as it was right that usually is used for things more like branding website creation visioning uh you know maybe some very rudimentary streetscaping those type of things it depends on what the program needs now once you come in as a Main Street you have uh what we call small matching grants through the department those are up to $50,000 a Main Street gets a waiver on a match so they don't have to come up with a match amount on small matching and so there are a lot of different applications that can be applied for under that small matching Grant they can be in the forms of historic survey and our designations they can be for planning they can be you know education materials there are a lot of opportunities within that small Grant Arena to pull resources in what I try to get my communities to do and some do it better than others is kind of stair step that ask so that every year you're building on the ask you know and and so you got your program laid out you know what direction you want to go and and we're building building building so that you're taking advantage of the ability to access this funding every year absolutely okay thank you I appreciate that sure in reference to we spoke about office space you have one now you said it wasn't exactly what you need I guess what what what does that look like and what would you want I guess well ideally we would love to have the very basics of a conference room so that when we're meeting as committees or boards or when we're meeting with you folks if you guys want to come to our office or other stakeholders we want to have a place in downtown that we can meet and potentially walk some of the areas so something very very local to our I'm going to say historic parts of downtown uh we don't want to venture too far away from you know Park and Central and all of that so at the very Basics that um internet access would be nice if you want to talk about a wish list um uh but other than that just four walls and a roof okay thank you I think that's all my questions thank you so much for uh your time on all of this information here this is very useful uh it's my understanding you guys we will be posting this information online absolutely okay perect I am very thankful for that thank you thank you well thank you Michelle appreciate all your research and Katherine again thank you for coming down and being a part of this this Workshop so we appreciate it with that we'll close the meeting off for