##VIDEO ID:D85JwdrPkOs## w [Music] a [Music] m [Music] [Music] oh [Music] is uh called to order without a quorum in place and all voting items that will uh will be heard later in the event that we get a quum if not we will reval We re-evaluate what we're going to do on this meeting so um let's just turn it over to uh our director Peter reporting in progress thank you sir um I just actually uh in my report I wanted to point out um July tdt came in that's on page nine in your packet um we landed uh about 1.3% short of last year last year was was an all-time high I'm sorry we landed 3.7% short oh good so we do have a quorum uh let the record reflect that we do have a quorum now Julie's just walked into the room jul so uh I'm sorry yep so um anyway we just you know 3.7% just a little under 4% short of last year last July was an all-time high so you know uh don't feel too bad about that we're still tracking uh just under 3% for the year uh looking at August actually August is looks pretty decent um compared to Prior years so we may gain a little bit of that back in August but we're not going to get you know I don't believe at this point that we'll get to our 25.5 million from last year I think we'll end up 25.2 25.3 somewhere in there so we'll be a little a little short but again another still good year the year before we were at 23 so you know we're still we're still in good shape and I would call it you know two good years in a row for all intents and purposes um budget wise we are uh in good shape we're tracking well on the marketing budget and all our other budgets um for for you know as we go into to winding down our uh year here uh October 1st starts the new fiscal um so we'll uh we'll have a final report on the budget um probably in November um and then uh and then go from there um um I wanted to mention a couple of things that did happen um recently at the last regular commission meeting which was last week um the board approved a uh a marketing support program so if you remember those of you that might have been here I think I think Wayne you were here I think everybody was here last year except for you Mr steel but the um the marketing Support Program actually came before the TDC last year and the TDC had approved it then it went to the board and the board never acted on it because they ended up approving all the grants through the regular program last year this year the board adopted the new program so just real quickly reminder that that program basically the way it works is based on the attendance outof county attendance uh or room night uh um acquisition of events they would qualify for a level of marketing support and we would you know basically do some marketing for them it could be anything from digital ads to TV to radio what what have you we're working through those plans now um the way that that's going to flow is it's going to come directly here we're not going to go to a subcommittee because cultural would have gone a cultural Sports would have gone to sports but now that's all combined so um it'll just come directly here there won't it'll be a very easy application process because it's really going to be based on how many people they're generating or how many room Knights they're generating and so if they hit the minimums um in in the pl in the guidelines it has all the levels uh described um so uh it'll be based on that and uh once it goes to TDC it'll should come to TDC and I'm we're thinking November um it the we're going to open up the grant this week but this is obviously with the storm and everything probably not a good week so probably next week we'll start seeing applications and we'll give them 30 days and then it'll come uh once we do our analysis um we'll bring it to the TDC on the 13th which is the next uh TDC meeting and then it'll go to the board on December 3rd which would be the next uh board full commission meeting after that um and then off to the races from there and just begin working with uh with all of these events so should be interesting it's you know it's a little bit of a new process for us uh we're going to work through the Kinks Laura and her team are going to be handling the marketing piece so that's going to put a little bit more of a burden on them but I think it'll be I think it'll be well done the the idea is to come up with packages so the levels uh that that are um awarded are 15 20 and 25,000 so we'll have kind of a baked in marketing plan for each of those and then we can make some adjustments if if there are some specific things that that we need to work on um the only event that would qualify for the 50,000 which you would need 50,000 out of County attendees for that uh right now is uh that we're aware of is thunder on Coco Beach the boat races so um their program is a little different in that they pay through P1 they pay for tele televis coverage of that event and so we'd probably just contract with the um whoever their Outlet is for the that's doing the television coverage and we would pay for that uh that would cover the 50,000 that they would get all of it spor Sports cultural cultural are all all together to the marketing piece so that's all the our marketing which means our Mark What's the total amount uh so we got uh we took 240,000 from Sports which is out of the marketing budget and 600,000 from the cultural fund uh so 840 together and there's not there's enough word that every qualified will will it be divided based on the percentage of qualified folks or if everyone qualified makes it we did a yeah we did a little bit of a preliminary look at that and it looked like we'd we'd be under the 840 yeah we'd probably be we'd probably be okay so full Awards unless something changes at the at the board level so I have a question yes does that mean that the committee stay in place or is there no need for that well that that'll be an interesting discussion um my plan was to you know there are no committee more committee me uh meetings this year all the Committees have finished meeting and and there uh we canceled the cultural committee that was going to happen in October because there was no need to have it and same with sports so at least for this year there are no more committee meetings uh my thought is in January when the new um TD meets uh to have that discussion with with them and let them kind of opine on what they would like to do um the other the other thing that happened recently and Mr chair steel I certainly defer to you to to have the full conversation but um some funding was awarded last night out of um various different funds from the TDC uh tdt um and uh that changes a few things so for instance 710,000 what which was what was remaining in the capital fund was reallocated to lifeguard program um and 300,000 out of cultural and 56,000 out of Marketing so um what was the total amount of there Peter it was 1 56 million out of tdt to pay for that program that's for one year of like it was one year yeah was one year was just for next fiscal year so addition to funding by the cities and the the county general fund and that's because we're providing greater lifeguard coverage or it's just covering the same amount with different funds now let me let let me answer that question in a second before we go any further Laura or one of the two of you lovely ladies over there would you do a a roll call count for just for the purpose of making sure that the record reflects that we do have a quorum I think it's extremely important um chair commissioner steal here Vice chair Hermon here Julie here Wayne SW here Keith Winston here okay you want me to go no no that's all right at this particular point that does mean that we have a quorum um yeah I'd be more than happy to go through this unfortunately uh everything does not work the way you would like it to work come on in please hi hi I'm sorry that's all right that's rough out there so last night we had a uh a real interesting discussion the county had put out a recommendation to the cities they tried to negotiate that the cities would pay up to 50% of the Lifeguard fees that were uh going to be allocated that was somewhere that number was just absolutely huge I I tried to tell the the the commission that the cities would never take that for example let me give you one example one example was is the seasonal lifeguards for coco beach was $86,000 a year and what the count he wanted Coco Beach to pay was $800,000 a year so I mean it didn't take Albert Einstein for me to figure out that cities will never be able to afford that kind of thing yet they consistently went after all of the Cities uh Indian Harbor Beach Indi Indie Atlantic no not Indian Harbor Beach Indie Atlantic and Melbourne Beach to try to to get them to do astronomical amounts of money they said no and um a couple of the Commissioners told the the county manager they wanted to dig in and and they basically said well if they don't pay we're not going to give them all we're going to do is provide lifeguards for the unincorporated areas it is in my opinion and one of the reasons why I brought it up last night absolutely ludicrous to not have lifeguard protection on Beach when we have the biggest thing in the world for tourism to come here is is our beaches so we had a lot of people pulled from the ocean last year we had some deaths 14 uh there's some conversation in regards to uh some shark attacks and some shark bites so you know we have the most beautiful beach in the world to come to yet we have danger in those beaches so it was my opinion to go back to the county because last night if we didn't do something with the the Lifeguard situation we would have been naked all the way around to a lot of the a lot of the cities and and we could potentially have what or shark bites or anything of that nature and if we had negative uh publicity we would end up with a situation that was um I think would take and and reduce the amount of tourists that would come there's already articles in different papers and I and I know that the internet stuff is a lot of times clickbait and and uh commissioner Hermanson here on the TDC reminded me of that but if you if you pull up on the Internet the fifth most dangerous beach in the United States it's going to say Coco Beach and then there's a tremendous amount of other information that's on there so some of it could be true some of it's not true but there's articles out there that are all over the country that said these here are some of the beaches that you need to avoid 10 of those beaches was right in Florida so I think the most important thing is is is that we don't want to enter into a season coming up right now in October starting October 1st if we didn't have full and complete coverage of of lifeguards so last year as you well know we took 900 some, out of I think it was cultural at did it sir yeah I think it was cultural and we had a fully funded thing and the beaches were fine and the light in the amount of of people that drowned and things of that nature was diminished and we had a better better year so this goes to a situation where you are at the end of the Rope on the County budget and as a result of that uh probably protocol would say that we should bring this stuff back to the TDC have the TDC make a recommendation on what needs to be done but quite candid we did not have the time and unfortunately uh that's happened a couple of times on this on this commission and it happened again last night so I apologize to you folks for not bringing it to you but uh our hands were tied in my opinion I spoke to the county attorney in regards to it absolutely got clearance from the county attorney on whether or not we needed the recommendation from the TDC and he said no we did not need a recommendation from the TDC I talked to the county attorney again in the public venue and once again we talked about whether or not there's any legality to use TDC funds and he has assured me and I think Alex will back to this up they put out a a memorandum to all the Commissioners that in his opinion we can use TDC funds so that's where we are and that's what happened last night now if anybody would like to ask any questions in regards to it I'd be more than happy to try to answer it I figured that would be you Tom so should I put on my bulletproof vest so obviously nobody's in disagreement that we need lifeguards on the beaches to protect both locals and visitors right you can take that off the table okay it needs to be funded it's a high priority last 10 years back last time we had a rash of drownings there was a lot of write up in the press these things come in Cycles unfortunately but they do happen the dangerous um the ocean can be dangerous and that's what the sharks live I'd point out uh and we and we and we funded it appropriately from the appropriate budget which is life safety budget uh and we have funded it appropriately for 10 years uh in my in my I was going to say humble opinion but in my opinion uh it's a matter of priorities there's I don't know what the fire Life Safety budget is uh as part of the county but I'm sure it's in excess of 100 million if you value if the commission values Life Safety on the beaches as well as everywhere else it's a question of priorities we have funded it out of life safety for these years and to now not fund it fully out of life safety and open Pandora's Box to pay for it out of TDC marketing funds is a terrible precedent that's my opinion in addition I don't think it's legal uh I have read the county attorney's uh opinion and you know he's a very smart guy I have all the respect in the world for for him but I think he I think he concocted an answer to uh that the majority of the County Commission want and I don't think it'll hold muster and my opinion is based on the fact that we have 67 counties in the state I don't know how many are along the coast but I know that there's only one that funds life safety personnel and that's in Walton County based on the car bout that Matt Gates and his father dong Gates got added to the statute which is at the end of the statute here and there's no other County that I'm aware of that uses tdt funds to pay salaries for life safety personnel so his opinion aside uh I think it could be an illegal use of funds and there is a mechanism whereby you can seek counsel from the attorney general at the State of Florida to ask uh whether or not a specific use of funds is legal this has come up in the last 30 years and there's a number of AG opinions from years ago that say that you cannot pay for life safety personnel with tdt so at the very least uh if the County Commission is going to go this way uh I would like to make a motion that the tourist Development Council uh asked the Attorney General um drafted by uh the county attorney's office whether or not this specific use under the criteria or the scenario that the County Attorney came up with is a legal use of tdt funds so that you're assured that you're not breaking the law as a County Commission and that is my motion I'll second motion okay uh there's a motion on the floor to seek an attorney general's opinion to ask the County Attorney to do that obviously this would have to be approved by the County Commission prior to the time that they did that but there is here in the statute uh I'm familiar here if if the board this board believes there's an illegal use of funds they can seek uh they can seek an opinion from the Department of Revenue um but historically based on my research uh these things go to the attorney general uh so you know there's two Avenues you can ask the uh Department of Revenue but they would probably kick it over to the attorney general okay um let me comment on a couple of those things and I I understand where you're coming from with that and I want to just share that there's several things that that uh our very brilliant County attorney came up with and one of them was uh anytime there's a capital Improvement and which is in the in the statute also it's funded by TDC funds that you could also fund employees for the capital fund for the capital Improvement so that's just one basis for his opinion I'm not going to try to play lawyer today and get into whether or not this was uh a situation where it was legal or not our County attorney says it is and uh we have eight very brilliant other attorneys over there that say it is so this board has every right in the world to to ask that and if you want to ask that I think open up Pandora's Box on the other side but that's fine so is there any other comments on this I had a question is the county right now taxing at the maximum taxable allowed rate or is the budget not taxed at the maximum allowable no we have money in the account and let me answer one other question for you because I think this this one's really important why didn't the county come up and pay all of the money for okay so that was one of the questions that you've asked and it came out of the funds and I can tell you candidly that I'm not happy about it not happy about it at all I'm not happy about and I please don't think I'm being disrespectful to commissioner toaya because I'm not but for some reason or another commissioner toai insisted that we move forward and ask for the county attorney to go to these cities and ask for recommend ations on they gave recommendations on what kind of percentage they would like to pay if you look at the cities the cities pay County taxes the county was going to in fact pay for unincorporated lifeguards without any question my point to the commission last night was is well if they're going to pay for lifeguards in an non-incorporated area what makes that not possible for the cities to think it's a very legitimate question but there's uh a couple of Commissioners on on the on the commission that and I respect and like them very much and I appreciate their opinions but that have basically thought well we need to get the cities involved and they need to pay their fair share I did not think that I would be able to pull off last night being able to get the commission to go along with this uh and I basically put it on the agenda as chairman specifically because I don't want to be the guy that doesn't have lifeguards here and I thought I I candidly thought we'd lose it three to2 the other direction but hopefully we came up with good enough arguments to come in with inviting uh with with the with the commission coming up with 3-2 vote to me and I can tell you this point blank that was the most important thing on the on on the agenda for as long as I've been on the commission which has only been a year and a half now because if we go into this next season without them there and we have problems it's going to hit them it's it'll be national news fifth most dangerous beach in the United States not guarded by lifeguards you as a hotel owner I think we'll have a a downturn in in tourism coming here um it's a problem so if you want to do this and the commit and the council wants to do this is you know Alex is in your opinion is that a is is that an appropriate situation for them to be able to do to request yes well the statute lays out what the process is they have to notify the governing board which is the board of County Commissioners and then the Department of Revenue seems to be the other Avenue so the recommendation could be to the board of County Commissioners which would need to happen anyway based on the statute so there could be and the County Commission would have to vote on it correct okay right back to where I was talking about Tom just before that so we can do that but it's going to have to go back before the County Commission for approval so I understand your position and understand what you'd like to do is there any other discussion in regards to uh to Mr hermanson's motion I add that you know if it's legal it's legal uh I think it's important enough because it is opening Pandora's Box it's one year of funding where we've now stripped a number of funds which are not lifeguard funds they're cultural they're capital Capital they're marketing none of them say life safety we have a general fund that covers life safety and police and Roads you mean and and the fact that they're are you talking about the general fund in the county the general fund of the county right which is in large part hundreds of millions of dollars received by property owners who are primarily in tourism business tourism pays the money is in the general fund it's a question of allocation now we have tapped into funds that are not intended for payrolls for Life Safety as opposed to allocating for Life Safety and at the very least I I think it's worthy of an attorney general's opinion and I think you're entitled to to your opinion I think we can you know go forward with this I do want you to know that uh the biggest reason why I did this last night was is because I was told by the county manager and by a variety of other people I can't talk to the other Commissioners but their position was hey if the cities aren't going to come up with this astronomical amount of money we're just going to let it go okay last night was last night understand well I as the chairman of that County Commission made the decision not to let that happen happened to have a fair discussion in regards to it and since we had opened up money last year for the $900,000 which was uh opening up TDC funds for lifeguards I felt like it was a proper thing to do because I wasn't going to take the risk I didn't feel like I needed as chairman to at least put it back on the on the on the on the Das to come up with how we're going to get this done I I agree with you I don't disagree with you lifeguards have to be on the beaches it's it's of critical importance the funds should have come from the life safety budget I'm not going to disagree with you on that that's I guess that's my question for the future there are other ways to put it in the budget in the future for Life Safety there are other taxable ways from general fund that if the pressure is put on and this is proven to be illegal in future years that money could be budgeted Life Safety there's ways to do that in the budget well there's a lot of different ways to come up with money for lifeguards y it's one of the ways to come up with money for lifeguards is is to have the County beaches pay for parking very good point I agree with you again wholeheartedly well I you know I knew I knew today when I came here that uh and what happened last night uh and afterwards I talked to a lot of Commissioners he said are you going to what are you going to do with TDC I I'm going to tell the TDC exactly what happened and why I'm not going to pull back any punches with the TDC in regards to this the biggest concern I had was is whether or not I needed to bring it back through the process and get a recommendation prior to the time that we we put that through or whether we needed to move as fast as we could to get this thing done because October 1st was the deadline for getting the budget stuff done that was the final budget hearing last night is there any other discussion in regards to this motion that uh we have Julie yeah Andrea yes go ahead okay so part of the Pandora's Box if we're going to do this for Life Safety would that not include the bravard County Fire Department as well if we're going to you said opening um Pandora's box with its life safety hypothetically if this is found to be legal you could use tdt to pay for firemen salaries hypothetically okay and then my second comment is on other boards where I've served where we sought input from the AG the AG does not ever have to answer us at all if she if at this point she if that office chooses not to respond to us that's a possibility as well well there's anything of possibility in situations like this the AG may get busy the AG may not answer it uh there there's a variety of different things that can happen basically what I think is going to happen is is that it'll go back to be approved by the commission and won't be approved now I think you put it on record how you feel and I think Mr hermanson's points are very well taken and if this commission and this TDC decides to move forward with that I think that's absolutely in their right so you know I'm not going to try I'm not going to discourage you from doing this I'm just telling you this is what is going to end up happening it will go back to the County Commission County Commission either has to prove or deny it is that correct Alex just one more time from the County's perspective yes sir so just to reiterate what the statute says expenditures which the council believes to be unauthorized which is what's being alleged uh need to be uh brought to the governing board which is the County Commission and the do Department of Revenue the governing board and the department shall review the findings of the council which is the TDC and take appropriate administrative or judicial action to ensure compliance okay that that that is that is one process but I have a a Dropbox folder here with probably two dozen AG opinions on uses of bed tax where a TDC has appealed to the AG for an opinion on a use of bed tax and they've gotten a response they're all online so what is the process for that is it the county that's submitting the request or is it the tourism Development Council if you go on the a you know as you know but for the board's benefit if you go on the AG's website you can essentially type in ag opinions on lifeguards and it'll give you the entire history and and who is submitting them usually it's usually it's the County Attorney as far as the ones that I've seen right and so my to if my motion wasn't clear is and and again it probably has to go to the council is the motion is to request an attorney general's opinion with respect to the use of the bed tax to pay for lifeguard salaries I'm not saying that it's you know implying that it's illegal is is beside the point it is is it an appropriate use based on the attorney gen attorney general's uh reading of the bed tax and and they do this as a matter of course for not just the county or TDC but for for many boards I've got a I got I got a list I got a long list of AG opinions on you know Beach Improvement boardwalks and you know goes way back to the 70s tourist development anyway so who who's requesting is not always clear it's various boards that are requesting AG opinions in various counties I'm not aware of the tourism Development Council of these respective counties being the one submitting the request I believe it's on behalf of their County through the County Attorney um so so these these that I'm seeing here the county the Attorney General is addressing the opinion to the county attorney those are the ones that I've seen as well yeah yeah so basically the app the request has to come from the county I think we can ask I don't know you tell me I I believe yeah usually we take direction from the board of County or this board can ask our County attorney representative to ask are we not are you not here you know at the serving the TDC as our County Commission representative or uh County Attorney's Office representative I I think Alex is answering those questions yeah so I was like so so just a you know Short change and not go via the do can this board request of you to request the AG's opinion for the board no I believe what needs to happen is you need to notify the board of County Commissioners and then we take appropriate action after that fine you know regardless of what we have to do I think that it's your feelings and your opinion that you think that this may potentially be illegal and you have every right to that opinion and uh there's a motion on the floor that's being discussed by everybody and uh Wayne do you have any comments that you'd like to make sir no I have a question yes sir while we go through this process we go through this proc process will the lifeguards be funded in the interim I don't know the answer to that question but I would think that yes they would be uh this isn't an injunction or anything it's just a request of an opinion of the Attorney General they they're sort of a matter of course they you know they happen all the time okay this has come up before on a variety of different counties just like what he's talking about there's different circumstances for different things I'm not going to try to explain Morris Richardson's uh memorandum to the County Commission in regards to why he feels it's legal I'm not going to do that because I am not an attorney I'm only going to tell you that if Morris in my opinion and I've worked with a lot of attorneys if Morris Richardson says that he feels that this is legal then me Jason steel feels the same way that doesn't mean that there's not a gray area here what would in fact solve all of this for everybody is a piece of legislation saying that TDC funds are allowed to be used for lifeguards I cannot in my magic in my wildest imagination logically why they would never be allowed to be used there's no reason in the world TDC funds should not be allowed to be used it is it's there's a legal saying if it's not permitted in the law then it's not permitted well that's if it's not stat if it's not stated in the statute as a permitted use it is not permitted well and I appreciate that I don't I don't remember that you didn't get a law degree anytime oh man I practice a lot of law every day but I don't have a law degree there you go all right if I could just I'm sorry go ahead please please you're the council member please no but I'm not oh okay I just wanted one point of clarification so the board of County Commissioners also adopted a resolution making findings that lifeguard could be an eligible expense for tdt also so it's not just the county attorney and there's a great degree of uh difference that's given under 125.0 104 to the board to make those types of findings so it's not just one memo the board of County Commissioners made that determination also not only last night but also with adoption of the resolution yeah I asked for that and I ask for the opinion that resolution was attached to what was sent out to all the County Commissioners believe me it was on my mind it weighed on my mind prior to the time that I did it I wanted to recheck I did recheck I asked for the resolution I asked for everything that I needed to ask for to make sure that what I was doing in my opinion was going to be legal so I've done that now I'm back as chairman of the TDC I have to respect these members here and I have to in fact say to everybody if you'd if you wish to move forward with this and let's move forward with it I do would like my comment yes ma'am okay um I just wanted to explain a little bit why I'm supportive of Tom's uh motion is that I've been involved with the TDC for several years now and as a hotelier on the and living here for so many years in the past four to five years I would say a raid on the TDC funds the tdt funds is is kind of the only description I can give and not trying to be dramatic but we've changed so much of what this money is in the original intent was designed and what has made our hospitality industry so successful and and one of the largest employers on our County I just don't I think the idea that the low um lowp paying jobs of the hospitality industry that that that's not anymore if you know what my average wages I was paying my associates it's not low wages anymore it's very very comparable wages to many of the other Industries on the Space Coast so I just am concerned that we're going to lose our Focus as to what these funds were designed to do and have done so well and so successfully over the last 20 years including our beaches which we talk about you know when we give grants where people get exemptions from tdt money that's less money in those funds if we give it to the lifeguards it's less money in the funds if we take marketing money it's less there's not more money so my just my concern by by supporting this is I believe in lifeguards I believe in safety of our beaches there's no doubt about that just like I don't want trash on the beaches we all agree on this but I just am concerned with the methodology and kind of the leadership Direction that's coming from it that we I felt like we've been on attack like there's this big pile of money and we all know what it's designed for and what it's how we've accumulated this is because of the success of the hospitality industry on the Space Coast so that's just my concern I appreciate your leadership commissioner in this I know it's not an easy decision I just look long forward and I think that's where Keith was going for too is core function seems to it's a core Life Safety function that serves citizens as well as tourists and there was no reason to change it other than these other not that you were the you're responding to a problem with an Innovative solution I think we all get that that you're trying to solve a problem that I think we're saying probably could have been funded through traditional General funds since I don't think the maximal taxes is done and it's very it's not significant at the county level it's not that those amount of dollars are not Material at the county level it was more of a political thing of trying to get other people to pick up the costs and you're solving it so I think we get that I think we're all saying it should be it should be a general fund because of the percentage of local saving and life safety and when people drown it costs us in other ways with tourists besides all of it so I think we're all trying to say this is a core Life Safety function we feel like the county can pick up and it's not you you're just trying to be an Innovative solution I think we all get that and to what end though where I mean every time we sit around this table there this process is circumvented I mean committees are are non-existent at this point I'm just kind of concerned as to the direction as to what the TDC is going to look like if we continue down this path for the next 3 to five years it's going to be County Commission money I mean that's Julia I I understand what you're saying because there is no rhyme nor reason to all of these things that are going on this is not a common problem for any TDC committee it probably goes on in everyone in the county so you are the T this this commission is is like a zoning board a zoning board makes a recommendation to the County Commission and the County Commission makes the decision a lot of times when those commiss the commission makes the decision that the zoning board people don't like they're upset with it and they have the same kind of feeling feelings that you have today so I think we need to get it on the table uh We've we've heard from our County assistant County attorney and and Mr hermanson's got a motion on the Flor and I'm going to uh call a question on on the motion and if uh unless somebody else has any other discussion all right there's a motion on the floor to request the county to ask for an attorney general's opinion that basically is asking whether or not the use of uh TDC funds is legal for uh life lifeguards and I seconded it already okay there's been a motion on and a second now is there no more discussion there's no more discussion all in favor say signify by saying I I all oppose nay I'm voting no uh so okay the motion carries we'll move forward um thank you Tom for getting that out I knew it was coming and I thought that if you didn't do it I was going to have to make that conversation myself but I wasn't going to go as far as you did but that's okay all right um Mr chair could we go back up to number one C and just approve the council minutes please please yes uh from August 28th uh do I hear a motion to approve the minutes of the August 28th 2024 meeting so move is there a second second okay all in favor signify by saying I all oppose nay motion carries um thank you sir and I was I was done with my report so we can move on if you'd like to committee yeah let me ask a question when is the next meeting uh the next meeting is scheduled for um October 23rd um you had a requested that we move that meeting to 1:00 versus 2:00 so we will certainly get that notice out okay that's great all right uh marketing committee report so uh we don't have a marketing committee any more marketing committee meetings but I report is what you're saying uh just a quick update um So based on the action of uh removing 556 ,000 out of the budget um we're looking at the budget looking for how to do that it'll be Equitable I think we can probably take that out it's about 4% of the budget so we'll be able to take that out of uh a couple of different places and um move forward from there other than that we are moving forward with task orders and contracts with media um Outlets uh for the fall most of our uh if you remember in the marketing presentation most of the fall campaign will be a fall winter campaign it'll start after the elections we want to kind of avoid all the noise that happens on particularly in TV uh leading up to that so U most of it will happen after November 6th um and uh we're also working with the Coco Beach um Hotel uh folks on their portion of the budget as well and so uh all all things are moving forward for for our fall winter campaign sir okay uh so there's really no committee reports to be had uh no sir the cultural and the sports committees were going to meet to opine on uh uh grants and since that uh process has sort of changed now um we we will not need that to happen uh so as I had mentioned earlier we'll we'll be bringing in November the um marketing Support Program recommendations and then it'll go to the board from there okay um I've had a very short but uh I'm very grateful and and feel blessed that I've been able to be on this uh commission be the chairman of the commission um I recognize some of the issues that are out there it would it would be a lot better if this was an objective instead of a subjective situation but it's it's not been that way my last meeting here will be the 23rd so I did want you to know that uh I've enjoyed each and every one of your conversations and and enjoyed what we've done together and uh I'll on the 23rd we'll maybe have some answers in regards to where this motion goes or when it's going to get on the County Commission agenda or whatever and I'm sure you're going to talk to Alex Alex you're going to talk to moris afternoon and let him know what's happened here yes sir okay and uh with that is there a motion to adjourn um are we going to go through the I had some other topics like we usually go through a little chitchat yeah the board reports you go around the Comm all right well the the board I was just told by the director that there are no more the board Comm me so that's why I'm not trying to cut you off I'm just no it's okay okay yeah go ahead Julie um I just wanted to say which is not my committee but I wanted to thank the commission um for their leadership and supporting the Arts and restoring that I think there's going to be a lot of citizens that are and people that I've heard and including myself that are grateful that we've we've put money back towards that which is very very important to um the bar bar culture Alliance and and all the Arts organizations that benefit from it so I think in all the decisions that have in flow as we go through this I think that is just an amazing um thing that we were you were able to accomplish so thank you very much thank you Julie anybody else Tom you have something iards trust me this has been a a difficult one I've had a hard time with it myself go ahead ke no I want to say two things first of all I do appreciate your leadership in explaining the process and your thought process and I I do appreciate Jason your leadership there and and solving a problem that you you shouldn't have to solve this way um I just want to just a couple of updates Zoo updates because I always find it's hopefully useful for the folks you work with um kids are free through the end of the month at the zoo so this is the last weekend it's been really busy people are really taking advantage of it so up to three free kids with with a paid adult so if if you have folks um that want to bring kids it's a great time to do it uh Boo at the Zoo takes place the weekend in um October um and then we have jazu which will sell out in November and November 9th our lion exhibit opening which is heavily funded with the TDC funding so I just want to thank the TDC um I think it's pretty spectacular it's getting great early reviews so I want to thank the TDC for that ongoing funding you'll get to see the benefits of that directly um and this next Generation lion exhibit they actually have air conditioning so you know there you go just want to thank the teachers thanks Wayne you got anything one Shameless PL the um a top the courtyard in Titusville is a place called The spacebar and we were selected to be part of a TV show called world's greatest so world's greatest Rooftop Bar we're supposed to be taping today some reason got canell so yeah very exciting um and so we'll uh do that taping soon and then I guess it takes a few months to edit yeah right yeah it might it may clear for this afternoon Alex you got anything you want to say no report thank you okay all right there's a motion on the floor to adjourn it's been seconded uh all in favor signify by saying I I all oppose nay motion carries thank you thank you 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 and 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]