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development council meeting um for May 28th. Um reporting in progress. Okay, very good. Let's do the pledge of allegiance and then we'll do roll call to the flag of the United States of America to the republic for its
one indivisibley and justice for all. Okay, let's call the role for attendance. Go ahead, Angela. Um, Julie Braa, she was on the line. She was she did and she Sorry, that's what I was just reading. She was going to she may try to
dial in, so I'll I'll kind of work out. All right, with that. Uh, Mayor Connor here, Vice Chair Hermanson here, Larry Johns here, Alex Litros,
Mayor Medina John Moran here. Wayne Soy here. And Chair Felman here. We have a quorum, right? Yes, we have six present. And then if Julie is she'll
be seven. Her vote back. We might need to vote. Yeah, we got one more. We'll show that. Mor Medina's here. Okay. All right. Uh on the approval of the minutes, I think uh we need a correction. So Mr.
Hermanson, do agenda review first. Oh, approval of the minutes. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Uh Peter, you want to do agenda review or you just
Yeah, just as any any board member has a conflict of interest, you can disclose it at this time. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Uh, County Attorney's Office pointed out that I voted present on
the motion for the $2.5 million of capital facilities for the park in Palm Bay. I need to vote on that matter. I'm going to change my vote to nay on process. While I think it's a valid pro uh
project, uh it didn't come to us with any background or economic impact studies which is required by Florida statutes. Uh hopefully some studies will be done showing that it's a valid use of TDT funds and I can support it in the
future, but I need to register my vote as nay on that motion. All right, we'll let the record reflect that. Uh, is there a motion for um the minutes from
April 23rd? So, just to clarify, he he's he's talking about the uh the what we're calling the Melbourne Fairgrounds. The Melbourne Fairground because he mentioned Palm Bay. So, I just wanted to make sure. Sorry. Melbourne Fairgrounds for the record.
Thank you. All right. Very good. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the minutes from April 23rd with the amendments? Move. Second. Okay. We have a motion by Mayor Medina. We have a second by Mr. Hermanson. Call the role.
Julie Braa. She's not on so we'll just skip. Yeah. Okay. Sorry. Um, Mayor Connis. Yes. Vice Chair Hermanson. Yes. Larry, yes.
Mayor Medina, hi. John Maria, yes. Wayne Sword, yes. And Cher, yes. We'll show that proof. Thank you. Uh, Peter, thank you, sir. Uh, just a few things under the director's report.
um March, you know, TDT I I would say came in um just shy of 50,000 from uh from last year. I honestly feel like given the shift of Easter from March to
April this year that that's actually a really good result for for March. So it was uh I think it was like the third best month in TDT history. Uh and all of those months uh that are in the top uh three or four are Marches because March
is always the sort of the best month. But um to to just be off by you know less than 50,000 uh from the prior year I think is a good result and looking ahead um to you know looking at April I don't have April TDT yet but uh but in
our uh internal projections um it looks like we're going to be up over last year. So, usually what I do is I add March and April together to kind of come up with that spring number and uh if we come anywhere close to last March, April, um which I think we will uh I
think that's a really good result uh given kind of some of the headwinds we've have been talking about the last couple of meetings and some of the the concerns that maybe we've had. Um budgetarily, nothing really to report unless there are any questions. Their budgets on pages 14 and 15. We're we're
tracking right along with um you know with planned expenditures. Uh we're about um almost at 50% of our marketing spend, but the biggest spend occurs in uh in the summertime. And I'm going to
talk about our summer campaign shortly, but that's uh that's uh just begun to uh kick off at the beginning of this month. Um promoting promoting summer. So, so I expect we'll be pretty pretty well on track as we get through the rest of the
year. Um, other than that, nothing no other real uh anomalies or things to report in any other funds. We're we're tracking right along with all of the other other funds along with expectations. So, with that, sir, that's
that's really all I have unless there are questions and then I can I can jump into the marketing report after that. Questions for Peter? No questions for Peter. Quick question. When does the tax collector normally
release uh the data? I mean, we're May 28th. So, when do you expect to get April? Uh, usually comes right between it varies uh monthto month, but I usually between the 6th and the 8th of the following month. So, I'll have I should have something maybe by the end
of next week. So, yeah. And I can send it out uh I can send it out in advance if I get something earlier. So other questions for Peter? No. Okay, we will go on to um the
marketing committee report. So um and Tom, you're certainly welcome to to jump in on this. We had uh our second of uh of the marketing committee meeting. um about a week and a half ago. Um this
this meeting was really the purpose was twofold. One was to kind of go over a couple of uh sets of data that we we collected um in in the last year on uh different research projects that we've been doing.
One was on space um tourism and and people coming for um for specifically for rocket launches. and uh I've got some had some interesting data to share with the committee. And then uh also we did a day tripper study last year and I
wanted to share that and both of those pieces are going to be put into the marketing plan. So I just kind of wanted to cover it with the marketing committee in advance of that. But then the second portion of the of the meeting was really to get any kind of feedback and just bounce around ideas and questions uh
related to the marketing plan itself. Uh we'll be putting that together over the summer. we'll be bringing it back to the committee July 22nd. Uh and then once the committee um gives our you know their feedback, it'll come to the to the
uh the TDC in at the July meeting. Um then following that, it'll go to the board in August is the plan right now. So try to stay on that track. We'll see see how things go, but assuming there aren't any major shifts or things that we need to need to add, we'll we'll be
able to do that. Um and then one of the other things we covered in the marketing uh committee meeting was a little bit of discussion about summer and I wanted to share that with you. So if you on in your packet on page 17 there's a there's a just a real brief deck that we covered
with the committee on what we're doing for summer. Um we um we kicked off uh the flight for summer just uh right at the beginning. Sorry, we're getting feedback now.
Maybe try unmuting myself. Okay, sorry Julie, wherever you are. Um, anyway, we kicked off the the flight dates right right towards the end of uh April, beginning of May, which is our normal time frame. Uh, the campaign
will run through mid August. um normal targeting, you know, we're targeting millennials, Gen X, um couples without kids, obviously that's a big portion of uh of visitors. Um and household incomes of 100 to
250k heavy uh look, you know, we always target by interest. So we're able to target digitally people who are rais sort of raising their hand and see we can see that they're interested in Florida and travel and beaches and space and launches things like that. Um total
budget this year's 3.64 million. Um so it's a good size budget. Um also going to page uh 18 uh targeting the east coast of Florida all the way from Jacksonville to Miami. Obviously, we
exclude Bvard in that. And then uh from Orlando to Tampa, although Orlando, we've kind of tamped down Orlando a little bit. And the main main reason is we trying to push more for that overnight business during the summer. So, we're not, you know, not as
interested in the day tripper per se. And we we will get our share of that. uh no doubt, but um trying to to fish a little far farther a field for um for that overnight visit. Um in the southeast, we target Georgia, the
Carolinas, Tennessee, and our northeast markets are uh DC, Philly, New York, and Chicago. And then, you know, from a messaging perspective, we had talked a little bit about this at the last meeting. you know, we wanted to try to bring in a little bit more of an affordability message. Um, we didn't
want to necessarily go exclusively with that. So, we still have our typical messaging of, you know, come for the beaches, come for the rocket launches. All of those kinds of messages are still part of it. But if you look on page uh 19, you'll see we've added in some
headlines that are more uh, you know, affordability uh uh oriented. you know, affordable affluence, see more for less, escape crowds and embrace savings, uh, affordable getaways await, and, uh, and then just some samples. There's they're
in all different sizes. So, we just put some samples of the digital ads, but this is heavy in the digital, and of course with that targeting that we are able to do there. We'll also be able to measure um those people that click on the ads and then if they actually
purchase um a hotel stay or something related to the ad then we'll track that with our Adara um pixels. So we'll have a good report uh for you guys after after we get the campaign run. And then you know uh PR is really
ramping up and social media um in in lots of other uh channels uh there. So with social and PR this is just on page 20 you can see just some of the some of the different kinds of supporting copy that we'll have. Again just goes a
little layer deeper in terms of talking about um affordable um you know the affordability of the destination. Um, by the way, we when we look at ourselves compared to our pure set, uh, other beaches in Florida, you know, we're we run about
$160 ADR, um, most of the other beaches like Lauderdale and Palm Beach, Jacksonville, they're all well over 200. And like Sarasota and, um, uh, some of those higherend destinations, Miami, they're all over 300. So, we play very
well in that in that messaging. and we don't want to necessarily talk about, you know, uh, being a a bargain destination or a cheap destination. We don't want to use that kind of wording. So, that affordability message, I think, gives us that that right kind of middle ground
where we want to be. So, other than that, that was that was it. Um, we we're working very heavily with our PR agency to get the story out that we're we're one of the top beaches um in Florida. um from a from an
affordability perspective and we're hoping that they'll do some stories and we believe they will of you know here's the top five places top 10 places to go for an affordable uh summer vacation and uh get that story carried out uh
nationally. So that's that's the goal with the PR side is to try to get some of those uh those top five, top 10, top 20 stories placed in there and have us be part of that that uh that list. Qu questions for
Peter. I don't have any questions um for Peter. Um I'll ask uh hotel years here. What's the difference between uh weekn night ADR in the summer versus weekend? Averages
maybe it's anywhere between 50 and $100. So, what what's uh what do you think occupancy is like over on the beach on the weekends versus the week? Well, I can tell you what it was. I don't know what it's going to be. Okay.
All right. What uh what has it been so far? So, July for many years now has been the second best month after March. A lot more instate travel than historically or just a a large pickup in that. And so, you know, July is good,
the the whole summer's good. Uh, August used to be good until the legislature pulled school starting dates back by over a couple of weeks. There was a lot of instate travel in August. So, but you beachside in Cocoa Beach in
July, you should run north of 90%. And a great March, you should be running, you know, in the mid mid 90s. Anything else on on that, Serge? Did you want to say anything else on No, I think Peter covered it. Uh excited about the
campaign and uh it bearing fruit. I think the staff's doing a great job. Very sophisticated marketing uh throughout digital uh radio placement ads. Uh they got a lot of great tools in place and the ability to actually track
results uh through the Sedara program. So um that's it's all positive. Cruises are good. Rocket launches are good. Cruises are good. We did get feedback from uh I'm I'm draw blanking.
He sits on the marketing committee and represents Howard Howard Schwarz. He noted he runs uh public relations at KSC and he lamented the fact that there are so many launches that it's somewhat losing its luster. Too much of a good
thing. Um people are still obviously coming uh to view them, but with this number of launches, it it it ends up being um tougher and tougher to market it as a special event. Yeah. It it used to be in the old days a shuttle launch
guaranteed sell you about, right? Yep. Yeah. So the government cont or the contracts for the payloads has always been the the best business than the viewers. uh with so much payload going up, the people that built the satellite, if it's not Starlink, they will consume a lot of
rooms in in anticipation of the launch. Um so that that definitely impacts rooms and from Titusville all the way down through Cocoa Beach. Anyone else on that? If not, we'll go on to public comment. Um Sandra
Sullivan Good afternoon, Sandra Sullivan. There's there's a back here. Okay. Thank you. What's that? Uh I wanted to talk about uh the proposal that was made in the last meeting uh
pertaining to the Sarno land and I have some heartburn over that vote. would ask that you guys think about reconsidering that and there may be legislative reasons for you guys to reconsider how the budget goes anyway but um so first
of all the appraisal that was done was done as an as an interior lot and not including the 15 additional acres that attaches to that property to make it off of Sarno. So what was conveyed here was
that there would be access. One of the biggest challenges was putting in an intersection for that uh major road access offices the value of the property because it's instead of 53 acres it's 68
acres. Um, additionally, so that so the appraisal was done was undervalued because it says it's an interior lot with not not major road access. So with that major road access, um, the comparables were um would put it at 8
to10 million. Um, it was also the appraisal was requested from the public works department and not from the utility department. And so it's my understanding as utility land you have to do a public interest determination and that land has been used as a
dewatering site for muck. Um and so in the save the lagoon program um previous the the estimate for the O'Galli project was $ 8.7 million. So that project now in 2025 sorrel is projected at $54
million because we don't have that site to use. Instead pumping muck 8.1 miles to Palm Bay, there's an additional project at $154 million. So the cost to the taxpayers is hundreds of millions of dollars beyond just these two projects.
Um and there are other irregularities pertaining to that property. Um and I would suggest that uh a full disclosure of the um the appraisal and the details should have been uh afforded to this board and you were not given adequate
information to make a more informed decision. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. We'll go into uh board report. Julie, was she able to No, she's not
able to. Okay. Uh, Mayor Connors, no report. Thank you. All right. Uh, Vice Chair Hermanson, no report. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Jarns, no report. Thanks. Mr. Litus, no report. Thank you. Mayor
Medina, no report, sir. Uh, welcome to the TDC. Uh, John Ban. Uh, sir, anything you want to say? Uh, not today. Not today. All right. Uh, and it was D3 that appointed you. Oops. Sorry about that. Right. Uh,
Commissioner Atinson. Yes. Yes. Okay. Uh, her new appointee. So, we we welcome you, sir, and appreciate you being here. Uh, Mr. Sword, nothing to report. Thank you. Okay. Uh, Peter, just an note. Uh, we do not have a meeting in June. Our
next TDC will be uh July 23rd at 2 p.m. in this room. Thank you. That's pretty much what I was going to say. So, uh, anyone else? Anything? Staff. All right, everybody. Thank you very much.
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 Bvard County, Florida, Space Coast Government Television, or the program sponsor and are solely those of the presenter. The board of county
commissioners of Bvard 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.
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