e e [Music] for TDC meeting uh I have uh I'd like to take just a moment please and turn the floor over to our vice chairman Tom Hermanson uh before we get started Tom uh I'm sure many of you have heard um but unfortunately this past Saturday uh we lost a great friend and a longtime member of the tourism industry uh Samir Patel unfortunately passed away while traveling abroad and uh came as shocking news to all of us only turned 40 years old just January and uh Beyond being a great friend he was instrumental in moving the ball forward within tourism both in his leadership at ohoa and Tallahassee Lobby days serving here on this committee and subcommittees for many years and uh it's a big loss and I want to acknowledge uh that at this meeting and uh ask everybody for a moment of [Music] silence thank you we'll miss some thank you Vice chairman um could we have a roll call a roll call please Candace if you don't mind I'm here here Julie here Alex here mayor Medina presant Wayne here Keith here Andrea here okay um do we have any board members that have any conflicts to particularly disclose today before we get started okay we do not so we're going to go right into um oh there you go uh do I have a motion to approve the minutes I didn't see that on the agenda I'm sorry uh from the March 27th March 27th meeting please so moved second thank you so much all in favor signify by saying I I all oppos nay motion carries I apologize Peter it's all right um that's right there in front of me hello all right we're you know uh we've got a great opportunity today to to uh listen to our dear friends from the city of Coco and they have been working for many years to to uh bring this day to fruition and and here we are so so uh exciting times and I think uh at this particular point in time so that they can propose they can show you what it is that we're trying to do in Bard County uh I could turn the floor over to Stockton Whitten the county man city manager or or who's going to handle this Stockton all right mayor Blake how are you come on up buddy Mr chairman greetings my fellow barians and DC members we're excited to be here today I would like to say to you all roads lead through Coco airplanes Automobiles and now trains I would like to share with you some of the various individuals that will be participating in conjunction with myself from the city of Coco Mrs Samantha Singer she's the director of communic ation and economic development our illustrious industrious city manager stalton witon from the space coast transportation and planning organization Mrs Gillette our executive director also Mrs Carter our assistant director also we would like to acknowledge Steve Noto he's associated with rvi also he's a contract Planner on behalf of the great city of coko we say thank you for opening up your circle to include our seat thank you very much Mr chairman and next will be Mrs singer can we bring on with a round of applause please school teacher come thank you very much mayor thank you so much thank you for having us here today um so I'm going to talk a little bit about the station um and happy to answer any questions that you all may have so the Coco station is a transformative project for the Space Coast it is centrally located ated along or the Orlando Miami route with easy access to everything the Space Coast offers including Port Canaveral major international airports major highways and more um Coco also serves as a gateway to the many attractions in our area and we're also going to talk today about how it will be there's a prime opportunity for development and growth surrounding the station including the increase in tax base not only for the city of Coco but for the county through property taxes and tourism taxes so this is a uh public private partnership uh the station will be situated on a portion of over 90 acres of land that is owned by either brightline or the city of Coco with the parking area remain remaining publicly owned by the city of Coco you can kind of see um on your on the map here uh yellow are bright line properties and the green is the property that is owned owned by the city of Coco with easy access to Port canaval Kennedy Space Center Visitor complex Bard Zoo Melbourne International Airport we are centrally located with easy access to all of these major destinations there are also many destinations along the route from Orlando to Miami you have Cruise terminals casinos Sports Arenas theme parks national parks and more getting the Coco Station built will keep Bard's Prime destinations such as The Bard Zoo soon to be aquarium Coco Beach Port Canaveral Kennedy Space Center connected and competitive along this bright line route the station design and layout um is anticipated to be similar to the boa Ron station and you can see that um in the images on the screen so um it will be about 7500 to 9,000 square ft um including surface parking and there will be um additional infrastructure that will be needed um just west of the station um with double tracking to the West so with over 90 Acres available for development the city of Coco envisions a station that is part of an urban mixed use destination that will not just be a stop but a place where people will want to go um it's going to be a Transportation Hub and we'll talk a little bit more about that later uh we'll see a surge in both residential and Commercial development including restaurants hotels there will be a growing market demand that will create a Vibrant Community with proximity to jobs and access to public services spaces and activity Rail stations have been shown to create jobs increased property values and strengthen economies you'll see in your packets um according to the Southeast Corridor commission high performance rail in the Southeast will have over 9 million rail trips per year by 2055 will have over $35 billion in increased production and spending a $3.3 billion increase in property values around Rail stations and will create 95,000 jobs during construction and 45,000 new jobs around the rail stations we talked earlier about the the multimodal Transportation Hub the station will serve uh guests and and provide an opportunity to visit the space Co Coast um it will host uh it be a hub for Tours Cruise ships uh Hotel Transit and ride share opportunities so information we took um from the space coast office of Tourism shows that we have great data on our current visitors which support reports the significance of a rail station and what that could mean for tourism in our area a number of our visitors are residents of Florida take cruises and like to visit our beaches so delving a little bit deeper you can see that a lot of our visitors are from our surrounding counties uh Orange County Oola County seal Valia St ly all of which will make it easier for them to come into our area research also shows the top reasons that people visit our area such as beaches rocket launches cruises nature leisure activities all accessible from Coco's Gateway Intermodal Station the top visited attractions in our area are Port canaval Coco Beach Kennedy Space Center Visitor complex and Bard Zoo all easily accessible from the centrally located station in in the city of Coco so this is a a HDR did an analysis um on data and came up with our catchment opportunity and so what that means our catchment area is the area uh likely to utilize the train service and that is within a 45 minute drive of each of the stations so data shows there is a potential for 29 million trips annual trips made for social recreational and work purposes to and from the Coco catchment area there is opportunity to convert these into existing trips to overnight stays in a conservative model it is estimated that the station could generate an additional 78,000 room nights each year up to 160,000 in an aggressive model bright line is offering a premium service and is capturing higher earning Riders who are more inclined to to spend money at more expensive hotels and restaurants building the Coco station positions Bard County to capture those markets 1.6 million people rode the bright Line train last year their 2024 goal is 4 million Riders a Coco station offers a convenient stop for any of these millions of Travelers going between South Florida and Orlando and eventually to Tampa the Florida Department of of Transportation recently completed a passenger rail study in 2023 several potential rail alignments were looked at for feasibility this one which includes the Coco station emerged as the preferred option there is opportunity for nearly $3 billion of economic impact if 16 trains a run a day which bright line is currently doing bright line expects to employ at least 20 full-time employees at the Coco station which would be direct hires from Bright line and cover all job functions necessary to operate the station so $6 billion uh has already been invested in the brightline system Network by brightline which enables the addition of this Coco station the city of Coco has earmarked $5 million towards the project the Space Coast Transportation Planning organization is utilizing their future Federal funding all ations of $15.5 million and then the city will collaborate with the TPO and brightline to secure additional Federal funding towards this transformative Transportation project so today's ask is for approval of $5 million in available chourus development tax funding to support the city of Coco's efforts to make the multimodal station a reality and I included just some testimonials from from you have one from the mayor of of City of Fort Lauder just showing um that again they're gravitating to their downtown because of the station um and it's making Fort Lauderdale a better place for our residents and visitors alike so these are just some of the the testimonials that have where bright Line stations currently are um and what impact it is making in those communities and I'm happy to answer any questions like I said like the mayor said we have a team here that will be happy to answer questions that you may have and thank you very much for the opportunity thank you anybody have any questions for Samantha or do we want to wait till the rest of the presentation's done and ask them all at once okay Samantha thank you very much thank you very much all right who's up there mayor Mr city manager sir that handsome fell right there yeah Mr Sir Mr chairman the rest of us are just here for uh questions that was the presentation and so okay we'll we'll try to tackle any questions that you all may have does anybody have any questions for Stockton yes go ahead Andrea please suton Andrea has got a question for you sir so what is the 5 million going to be used for are you building infrastructure are you buying land yeah so so the the 5 million is um it would be the match for federal grants which would be for design and construction of the station so so 5 million ion uh from the city and the 5 million potential 5 million from tourist development tax could be utilized as a as a 20% match for any federal dollars again that's for design and construction and we alluded to a a little bit that that the uh parking would be uh publicly owned and so we've had discussions with bright line and I think there's an agreement that bright line will transfer approximately 5.3 acres to the city of Coco for their parking needs um that's about 500 surface spots and so we would ultimately um do that as a land lease back to Bright line for the um the parking requirements of the project thank you Mr chair Mr Mayor I have a motion I'd like to move this item uh I also would like to say uh as part of the motion that uh staff and the county attorney's office look at the best way to find those finances from um for this uh project I also sit on the Space Coast TPO and they they also passed measure uh to support this I think this is what put in beds in our community is all about and creating that type of Hub so there's my motion uh Mr Mayor if you would please just wait before we do the emotion till we get the rest of the things on the table I would very much appreciate it I think there's a couple of things that we need to get out because this is going to have to ultimately go before The Bard County Commission yes sir um my motion still stands only because those questions the presentation I was expecting Juliet or Miss Gillette to actually uh be part of the presentation but Mr Stockton said that uh that was the presentation so that my motion still stands as it is right now okay well thank you very much let's uh anybody else have any questions prior to the time that we accept a motion Mr Hermanson uh can I be frank honest with you Stockton I think you're going to be Tom yes always so uh I don't know if you want to answer why would just getting this now okay this information uh you know I'll just State for the record we've got a process you know as the county wants us to as you know uh we hear things we we uh we judge them on the merits we have policies in place we grade things this is a capital funding request uh of which there are many uh potential applicants during the year that process open happens in May public uh publicly available and uh you know I'll be on the record of saying that I take issue with the fact that although we've been hearing about this in the Press we're handed this information and then asked to vote on a $5 million grant for a public private Enterprise uh with no opportunity to read it and and uh and really develop questions having said that uh you know supporting bright line is something that I've always done been on the record from the early days uh we need to generally support private entities providing a public good and public transportation is a public good uh uh so generally supportive of it uh but uh this is a a $5 million request with you know a nice presentation with no opportunity to do due diligence uh with respect to that I wouldn't be able to develop the questions here on the spot that I otherwise would uh one of them uh that has occurred to me is I look at your funding uh stack here and I don't see bright Lin's contribution uh it is a large privately held Enterprise with uh with many resources and uh within the funding stack why are they not contributing themselves yeah and let me let me let me first apologize for uh being late and presenting you with the information we're actually working with a number of Partners and so it's very fluid um it's really a a simple ask uh the the Station cost is projected at between 60 and 75 and so uh the ask really is for those dollars to assist in either design or design and our construction uh bright line is already purchase the land um the what we had on the slide there that's approximately $13 million in land purchases and again as their fluid discussions they haven't actually come to a final decision with regards to are there additional dollars that they're going to put into the pot I imagine that somehow we're going to have to get from the the the the 15 the the 20 million that we're at now potentially the 25 to the 75 and that's not all going to be made up by the federal dollars there and so I imagine bright line will have to uh come to the table with regards to their funding requirements again um apologies for the for getting it to you late um again this thing moves every day tomorrow we're having meetings with bright line and the port to talk about the project and so every day we're talking about this things are are are moving and changing and so um again we would have liked to have gotten it to you as early as possible but again just a very simple request there it's a60 to $75 million project um we're not asking for you you mentioned earlier that we were asking for Capital dollars we're asking for tourist development tax and as uh as mayor Medina said the the details of where it comes from can be figured out uh by staff there and so not not not asking to interfere with any of the marketing allocations um I know that's very important to you um and again we think we have uh the the the public facility aspect of it uh uh address by Simply Having a transfer of five acres uh from Bright line to the city of Coco yeah uh thank you for that and as you know having uh run the county so well for for many years those tax dollars are allocated into their specific buckets and uh we know that there's some reserves in excess of 5 million currently in the capital facilities 141 142 I forget the funds that would uh that would ex this would effectively clean that account out for better for worse uh and that would require reallocation by the county and a rewrite of the ordinance uh to take it out of out of any other funds which I'm low to propose or support uh on this committee um I'm not going to belabor it I think I think the uh the train is going to be transformative is the word you want to use in this Committee in front of the commission to get to get funding for private Enterprise um it's a great project I think it'll have a meaningful and tremendous economic impact not just on Coco but in Bard County as a whole over the long term um it's obviously at the will of the board uh of County Commissioners uh the funds are generally there barring although nobody else has been able to apply since we're skipping our process um so generally for it and I'll leave it at that thank you thank you uh who else did you have a qu I think Julie had her hand up first and then youi thank you Peter this question is for you I'm just curious is the projects that we've already approved um will this funding taken out of that fund as Tom specified impact those projects uh any project that's previously been approved in Prior years those funds are already allocated for those projects and can't be touched so no there no these this would have to come from uncommitted Capital funds so that's probably where where it would come from in that bucket but it's the same bucket of money but uh any previous you know aquarium uh US law enforcement um Veterans Memorial all of those projects those funds are already sort of bucketed and allocated for for those previous uh um grants and frankly there are contracts in place uh that would that hold that those funds in place for them okay so I just get a little nervous when I hear just take tdt money and and and make it work so I just want to know we have a clear direction of where that money is coming from and which fund is coming from and making sure we have the funds there like simple there there's currently about six and a half million in the capital fund that Tom was alluding to it's a it's a fund that sits within you know the 10 funds that we manage um and those are unencumbered at this point um there's a right now there's a request on the table from the veterans if you remember the Veterans Memorial Amphitheater came and asked for funds that doesn't include that that's being held uh to see where that goes with if it does come to the board um and so right now there's about 6.5 million unencumbered so that we would have the 5 million from that bucket yes and that would be in the motion or the recommendation that it would be coming from that fund well we really haven't accepted a motion yet so no I'm just I just want to make sure that that's okay we have to clarify that then when we get to that point I think I have some language to do that but I do believe that Julia great questions we need to have some more questions from the other people do you had something else to add you're welcome thank you sir thank you so much Keith so I'm GNA flip it around from Tom I'm going to start by saying what I'm what I like um and then ask you the tough question so um you know on a very personal level we just spoke a minute ago um you know on a personal level I'm thrilled that this station's potentially coming um I I just I flew in this morning from New York I'd love to take the train from terminal CA here it' be a lot easier uh we have friends and having tour I I hate the traffic as you get close to Miami I could I could see getting in that station going there and just making my quality of life better the numbers I didn't see here pulled out specifically and maybe they're there and I think they're critical for this group because we are the TDC is the tourism numbers so I maybe it's in here and we didn't pull it out but I think it's important it goes back to what Tom says what's specific tourism numbers and I think that's something the County Commission would ask so how many tourists would come in on this system from Miami from South uh for what things I suspect you have those but I think that's the critical number because we're looking at not just if I'm taking the train down to Aventura that's great but that's helping their tourism and I'm going to do that um I'm looking at these other numbers so I don't know if you have those numbers available I think those are critical numbers to make the decision which is the actual tourism heads coming into Bard County for tourism yeah if you don't have them I recommend you might want to get them yeah thank you thank you for that question I actually think we do have them and staff will correct me if I'm wrong there but you we had a slide on there that begin to talk a little bit about them and let me just tell you what you have in front of you there you have the Intermodal feasibility uh study data and I think some of the numbers are in there most of the what you referenced is in there and again back to Mr hermanson's point there we I know we just gave this to you but you'll find tourism numbers in there talked a little bit about the catchment catchment numbers there and that relates to um um um bed nights and so so you do have some projection of Tourism numbers and what we gave you here so what we gave you was the PowerPoint presentation we gave you the study and and we we said HDR without saying who HDR is HDR is a uh planning consultant on a contract with the t uh with the uh TPO and they've been doing work worked for the last 8 n months uh with regards to the station and so again a lot of that information is in here apologize for uh not uh um um um detailing that out but it's in your packet and then the other the other um document that we gave you is just sort of a a fuller read out on the PowerPoint presentation there and so um be happy to answer those questions with regards to uh economic impact tourism impact uh in between now and and hopefully uh presenting the item to the uh to the County Commission okay other questions uh can I turn this over to you for a minute Tom please the chair if you don't mind thank you so much unfortunately we have a Sunshine Law and effect so we can't talk to each other damn it that's very upsetting to me because uh all of these things that you're talking about we could have gotten to pretty easily the city of Coco has been working on this for years I have personally been involved in a lot of the meetings myself the mayor the city manager the whole city of Coco is now ready to move forward and make provard County prime time I mean this is the most exciting thing that's happened to Bard County ever in my opinion 50 years I've lived here and I've never seen an opportunity like that my dear friend Mr Hermanson said that he wondered why it wasn't going through the proper process and I I think that's a good question but here's the answer we don't have time first of all bright line doesn't offer a station to everybody this is the biggest honor a city could ever have or a county could ever have and if we waste if we waste that away I will tell you later on you're going to be kicking yourself right down the road are you kidding me that station and Coco SpaceX launches aquariums zoos Coco Village I it could go on and on and on and on and on for the reasons why we want to do this and we want to do it right now now that doesn't if we W if we and let me tell you the biggest reason why we're doing it today because they have to put in a grant by May 28th to the federal government now do we want to waste any more time in regards to this I I don't think so I I think that I've seen come out of the TDC a lot more money going to things that are nowhere near being the importance of this project today amen so I mean I can tell you that we're going to get to the bottom of all these things and we might we may not be able to raise the money and if we sit here today and ignore this request from the city of Coco who's worked their butts off for years to get it shame on us shame on us so mayor I appreciate your your your comments and your your motion was great but if if you would please just let me give a motion that would be able to do some of the same things that you want to do and protect this TDC I would appreciate it hi sir I withdraw my motion and I want to receive your motion thank you uh this is a sensitive day we had Samir pass away we have high emotions running and we're at the Crux of the best thing that happened in Bard County now I have worked long and hard with our County attorney and Alex and people like that uh that advise that this project is eligible to receive the TDC funds either through the capital facilities grant for tourist related public facilities or through the marketing grant for services that of Attraction of tourists is a primary purpose ultimately the money will come from the same place uncommitted dollars in a capital facilities fund there are advantages to either option and there's no need for us to look into one or the other at this particular stage we don't know whether it's going to come out of capital funds or whether it's going to come out of Market so in order to keep both options open for the board I move that we take the following actions that we as a commission at the TDC expense and an independent professional analysis that demonstrates the impact of the infrastructural project of the tourist related business in the county that's exactly what Tom was asking for that's exactly what most of you are asking for thus we recommend that the bard of County Commission approve a $5 million Capital fa facilities grant for the infrastructure project if the study demonstrates a positive impact on tourism and all the statutory requirements that are satisfied to protect us and to protect our Capital facilities Fund in the alternative that we recommend that the board of County Commission approve a $5 million marketing Grant in support of the project which shall be funded by transferring unencumbered revenue from the capital facilities fund into the marketing fund now why are we doing that I'll second it okay that motion is second thank you very much let me just share with you why we're doing that I don't think there's anybody in this room that doesn't want that train station and I don't think that there's anybody in this room that's that's not curious about all these things are going to happen and I'm a spiritual person and I'm just going to ask you to trust God in this one because I'm going to tell you something right now we walk out of this room today and we don't help these people get this station here and that station goes away which is possible some other City may come up and say hey we got 5060 million right now take it and run we got a we got a big problem and we will be kicking ourselves to the day that we die because I'll tell you what when that station when the train start going to Tampa and we start missing out on the opportunity to be prime time then we're making a major mistake so I love each and every one of you and respect each and every one of you and I think that your comments are good but today is the day that we need to make a decision to have to trust what we're doing trust our attorneys with the drafting of this and understand that what we've done is a lot better on this than a a lot of other projects that we did for TDC that we gave them 5 million we gave them 10 million we gave them 8 million and they're not going to be close to bringing the heads to beds that this project will be so I begging you from the bottom of my heart to in fact take your position today and allow us to move forward with a grant let us get the study done and move forward so thank you I'm sorry I took so long but I'm obviously very passionate about this and we've all worked too hard so commission mron can I ask a question before we move forward I don't think anybody like you said doesn't agree that we approve or want this station like I think everybody here since the beginning we all heard about bright Lane I just am I'm just curious about the funding and you were about to answer the question if you could just go back to why do we have to move it from Capital to marketing I'm just curious about that is it operation tell I can tell you exactly why okay I may not have the votes at the County Commission if we from from the capital situation if I bring this to the County Commission and there it goes to the capital fund and we take the $5 million out of the capital fund then I need a super majority vote four votes out of five I don't know if you've seen that count commission we've got a very very conservative County Commission and I might be able to give the most passionate plea in the world but I don't know that I'll get to four votes the Capital management position but what I can do which has been worried by Morris and Alex you looked at this too haven't you yes sir is is that if we need to we can take it from capital and put it to marketing and I don't need four votes I need three thank you very much commissioner I appreciate that it's called the Driftwood Runabout I think we we should call it a method we should call name it the Driftwood method branded simple accounting transf it's it was named a few years ago okay thanks you want to continue on with the chair Tom no sir okay oh uh I'm sorry uh no okay I'm chairing you're chairing because you're making the motion all right yes sir go ahead he made the motion he made the motion and I second it and I have I will say and we have a motion in a second I will say I have real consternation about the possibility that there's a three vote three to2 vote to take funds out of marketing and and that the second portion of your motion does not come to pass that you don't then a rewrite of the ordinance based on my understanding takes also a super majority uh last time we went around and did that I think was 2010 after we paid off the V Stadium bonds so if you don't have four votes the commission doesn't vote 40 to remove it from Capital to marketing then you're taking it out of Marketing which is which is a real should be a real problem for everybody involved in tourism how how would you uh how would you address that in the motion it's been addressed in the motion this has been approved by Morris Richardson and our staff completely with the understanding of the exact question that you're asking right now and I can tell you this I'm going to do everything I can to move it out of the capital fund that motion will come first at the County Commission with your help going to each and every County Commissioners we will get the four votes that we need so so so to clarify the motion because one came after the other um short of your comment now yeah but the the first one was withdrawn Mr chair talking about the sequence of his motions let me clarify it takes a four to five vote of the County Commission to change the allocation of how each dollar of tdt is allocated and so the motion here is to approve it out of Marketing funds and then approve a change of the allocation of the tdt from Capital to marketing and the reason he's presenting it as a marketing fund Grant is because he does not believe that there's four votes to do it well if there aren't four votes to allocate it out of capital and you pass it with three to two votes to allocate it out of Marketing you need four votes to execute on the second part of the motion which is reallocating from Capital to marketing Mr Vice chair yes just just so in speaking with the county attorney it's his belief that those funds could be transferred from the capital facilities without a change to the ordinance required okay so that so that last part that you mentioned what would be re the real so just to be clear this is important the real because taking marketing funds you know I will yeah so you're saying that it would take a 3 to2 vote to reallocate without changing the ordinance and you could remove reserves from capital and put it into marketing with a three to V that's Morris Richardson's uh yeah perspective on it Morris walked in the door while you were doing this so Morris would you come on up please I think I would feel a lot better about everybody hearing it coming from your mouth ready on this yeah I just go ahead you're correct Mr Hermanson that that you would have to have a super majority if you needed to amend the marketing plan within the ordinance but the marketing plan already provides that that Capital facilities portion in the first two pennies is an up to 35% allocation whereas marketing is an at least 25% allocation so you can reduce Capital facilities below that 35% allocation without uh amending the marketing plan or changing the ordinance you're using the word marketing plan uh I'm talking or the budget plan I'm sorry the budget plan the ordinance the ordinance 62 right chapter 102 section uh section 10219 the budget plan that's baked up baked in there it describes how those pennies are allocated and it it gives at least 25% to marketing but the capital facilities is an up to amount so it doesn't have to be fully funded you can move things from that particular bucket into the marketing bucket it can't work vice versa yes sir can you clarify and it's now requires a super majority to spend Capital no down what's the super majority trigger that requires four or five here but they do it that way so for this particular project um it doesn't fall into the traditional Capital facilities program which would be things like Zoological Parks as you're aware aquariums amphitheaters coliseums uh rather it falls into something that the legislature expanded the capital facilities program to include I believe in 2019 or 20 which is public facilities so things like uh Transportation or sewer projects those public facilities within Capital facilities have different requirements than the traditional Capital facilities one of those is a super majority vote also the the uh study that uh uh that chair steel requested that this TDC commission uh that's a requirement of that public facilities portion of the capital facilities bucket that one's called the Randy Amendment yes anybody else have any questions for Morris so funny is there any more discussion on the motion second so as I seconded the motion I just wanted to publicly state that there have been countless meetings going on uh so I do support this motion and not only that but the Space Coast TPO as well uh yeah I apologize for not mentioning them today because without them we would be in big with that location yes sir and then getting that Federal opportunity so those discussions are going on and and I think it's it's the time of it uh may be constricting us but this is the right thing to do for the and the right time for this community I'm really honored and blessed that we have a potential of having to stop here and yes I do wish it was in the greatest city of the on the face of the Earth Palm Bay but it is is going to be in the greatest county in the state of Florida soton did you have any other comments no just thank you for for I think you actually cleaned up two questions that I didn't do a very good job answering and one was uh the flow of funds between the buckets that really answers your question and then the other uh with regards to why we're here today in the urgency uh again as we plan to use um the the the tourist development tax as a match for federal uh Grant funds we're actually trying to get into the cycle that again as the chairman said starts uh in May and so we don't want to delay that a year we want to be in on on this year's cycle that application is due I think we're going to turn it in the day before Laura goes on vacation and so that'll be like May 26th and so that's the urgency of getting here but thank you Mr chair all right any more questions all in favor of the motion signify by saying I I I'll oppose nay motion carries thank you very very much thank you appreciate it very very much all right let's move on uh the agenda if we can please director's report yes sir um in your packet there's a number of reports uh lots of good information I'm just going to highlight one in particular which was on page 23 it's the tdt collections uh the last collections we have are for February um they came in at uh 2.76 million which was 625,000 over um budget and 825,000 uh or 3.1% over prior year that was uh pretty amazing because it uh February of last year was like the third best month we ever had in history so this past February is now the now the new third best um March uh we will have in about a week and a half um based on all the um Str Str data that we have uh we believe it's going to come very close uh to to last March last March was the number one month in history at 3.17 million I'm not sure we'll get there we're uh really hoping but um but it's going to come really close so I think it's going to be a significant month again um other than that I'm certainly open for questions but uh but that's that's all my report for now Mr chair thank you very much committee reports marketing committee we had a meeting we had a meeting earlier this month which was really an update and setting us up for the year I had to end early so Wayne anything you want to add any taken to the end of the meeting since I had to SC out out way wasn't there you were there I'm sorry was it was Howard I'm sorry so Peter sorry that uh no worries uh actually in um it was as uh as Keith said it was a it was an update meeting just to get the the marketing committee kind of up to speed and in your packet starting on page 27 is a presentation that Laura and I did uh to the committee and um just a couple of things I wanted to point out we just uh finished a uh pretty comprehensive um visitor study and uh economic impact study and on page 28 uh you see the new visitor spending and economic impact numbers in the first two bullets of that page four four and a half billion a little over 4 and a half billion in economic impact and nearly $3 billion do in visitor spending and then if you go deeper into the packet beginning on page 31 is all the visitor tracking data that we collected we interviewed 2500 visitors and we're get got some really really interesting information I'm not going to go through the whole thing but I just wanted to highlight a couple of pretty interesting uh pieces of data first of all 63% said they saw some kind of promotion from from us from Space Coast before they came here mostly uh in terms of website um knowledge was from our website but also from our social media and VAR other media that we place in the market and then the other the other thing that was really interesting was where people are coming from and how they get here 54% fly versus 46% driving and you know we had always thought that we were more of a drive-in Market but that certainly has uh this data certainly shows that uh a majority of those people are flying here um and if you look at the where they're coming from um 37% are from within the State of Florida but 177% from the south uh 12% from the Northeast 17% from the Midwest and even 12% from the from the west of the US uh and then 5% International so a lot of really interesting um knowledge we gained from this from this report um and then we looked uh further on we looked at the ACT actual average uh length of stay the average spending the average size of the of groups it was a length of State of um 4 and A2 nights and the average party size is 3.1 and the average spend um per party was almost double what it had been when we last time we did the study four or five years ago it was $ 2762 compared to I think it was about 1,500 the last time we did the study so a lot higher spending we're attracting you know certainly affluent people who are staying longer and spending more which has been our goal all along from a marketing perspective and then finally we looked at um cruise and international and business and the cruise people um 91% said they took an overnight uh uh took 28% said they took an overnight cruise of those people that took an overnight cruise 91% stayed overnight here in the Space Coast um 27% of them staying both pre and post Cruise so we're really doing that's the job that I really felt was super important was to make sure that we're if we're getting people to the port we're getting them to stay here in the county both either before or after or both and that's seems to be happening and then from an international perspective you know our top markets are Canada UK and Germany we've known that we are spending money in those markets both on marketing and sales activities um and uh and then also business Travelers represented 5% and then finally once we get people here they certainly uh uh really like it here and they want to come back 93% saying that they were likely or very likely to return so um a lot of good information here I recommend taking a look at it also in this presentation was a uh basically we laid out um most if not all of the creative a lot of a lot of the digital creative is in here um that we're running this year so some of this information will now build the basis for our marketing plan for next year so uh next meeting is in May of the marketing committee and we'll really start to delve into what questions should we really be answering in the marketing plan as we begin to develop that over the summer so I don't know Keith if you had any other no I think I I think some of the highlights obviously I think what we're seeing is the marketing campaign as thas pointed out the marketing dollars have been well spent and impactful okay uh going on to reports cultural committee report um nothing to report other than our next meeting of the cultural committee is July 18th at the out of the TD tdt office thank you Andrea appreciate it very much councilwoman the next report is the capital facilities report Capital facilities committee met a lot of new members uh got a chance to talk about process over many years policies developed on how we allocate funds via Sports cultural and capital make sure it's fair and transparent uh so the policies in there it had some minor revisions and uh the policies in place and we need an action item to approve the changes to the capital funding policy I please motion to approve the motion comes out of committee we'll take your oops sorry chairman no Sor right go ahead motion's out of committee so with a second we'll uh pass the revised policy second mayor don't you want to second that Julie got the second J okay Julie I'm missing something here I wasn't being transparent enough process iess I mean you you know like anything else though there there are policies there are procedures and and you always have to think uh outside of the box when things come uh and maybe it's because I'm a United States Marine and you always have to improvise adapt and overcome uh but uh policies are good and they are worthwhile to follow and then there are times that you're going to have to improvise and and do something for the good of the order and good good of the our community slowly I have lost total control of this meeting all right now Mr Hermanson didn't you say we needed a motion to approve that motion came out of committee we have a second and you all in favor signify by saying I I all oppose nay okay getting me right back to business here uh Beach Improvement committee well um I don't have an update right now and based on our our recommendation to County Commission to approve $500,000 for the Indian River Lagoon grants was not passed um I think will probably be postponing our meeting here for May 30th um I do think there's still a lot of good work and we're really excited that I'll say I'm excited that we're still doing the derck boat program that got approved um but the rest of the money going into reserves is always a good thing and we need more money to make sure we're ready for any storms and so I think we'll go back to the committee uh and see what steps we will get ready for potentially next year but thank you very much Julie uh Sports Committee Wayne nothing to report uh next meeting is uh July 10th uh any other business to TDC members uh Andre you got anything no sir Alex sir Julie I do actually I just wanted to share with the committee um especially in the South part of the county we've seen a a decrease in demand um this season was different than past Seasons than we've seen still very very good but just very uh different uh demand generators and just overall so now we're seeing a softening in that demand so I just wanted to make sure we keep a focus a little bit as we go into uncharted waters with um inflation at an all-time high we know our Leisure Travelers are running uh low on money you know making decisions uh differently about their travel and so I just asked that as we move forward this year to keep in mind how much now more than ever we need that marketing money um to represent the entire County I know that that we have all very different demand generators but um we're definitely seeing um a place we haven't been to In in quite a few years so it's just a reminder I just ask and appreciate Peter um for the great marketing efforts and that we keep that focus on that because the entire County needs it so especially the greatest city in the world and Melbourne thank you Julie thank you John you're up there on the deputy director side so you don't need to but Alex I did want to recognize you again today you've been one of our attorneys that helps very very much and I certainly was not avoiding you but when that Morris walked in the room I thought well why not give it to the guy that wrote it so I apologize if I was disrespectful in any way you got the right inform I think we did Wayne got anything for us mayor so I don't have anything to report but I wanted to come alongside Tom and zamir pel was a staple in our community and and the entire Community is mourning his loss in particular uh a lot of the Indian uh community and so it was appropriate for us to give him that that time the that moment of silence but even more over let's let's surround the family with love and and prayer for peace and comfort young man uh taken uh much too soon I can only imagine 40 years I was just starting to to live and so it is a devastating loss and and Tom I I share uh and I grieve with you as well as well as the rest of the community uh so let let us uh and I love what you said earlier um let us glorify God in everything we do and not take life for granted we're here today and and gone tomorrow we just still know tomorrow's never guaranteed thank you thank you mayor Keith got anything no nothing to add okay Peter anything more just a note about next meeting um we had originally we were going to try to adjust the time uh to to try to accommodate uh some schedules but I think uh we decided we're going to go back to um the 2 p.m time it's going to be here at the government center on May 22nd but it'll be downstairs one floor uh on in the Space Coast room uh so that's that's all I had other than keep that yet but your sta okay do I hear a motion to adjourn uh it's public comment oh public comments I don't think there's anybody actually from the public they're all part of our our whole group got anything out there do I hear a motion to adjourn so move is there a second second all in favor signify by saying I all oppose nay motion carries Tom the opinions expressed by any member of the public during any period of public comment do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the board of County commissioners of Bard County Florida Space Coast government television or the program sponsor and are solely those of the presenter the board of County commissioners of bravard County Florida Space Coast government television and the program sponsor hereby expressly disclaim any in all responsibility or liability for any defamatory or slanderous statements expressed by any member of the public during any such period [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]