be very efficient. Thank welcome everyone and Philip was this meeting properly announced meeting meeting was advertised in Pensacola News Journal on February the 12th in the board's weekly meeting schedule. Thank you Misty. Uh Misty, will you also call the role?
Matish Patel, James Reeves, Ashley Hoffberger here, Charles Bear here, Jason Nicholson here, Brad Mullenex, Jennifer Breer, Mary Hawking here, David here. Thank you. All right. Thank you. We uh we have a quorum and uh I didn't see anyone sign up for public forum. Is there anyone in the public who would like to speak? Not much public today. All right. Um,
you have before you, you've had an opportunity to review the minutes for our December 16th um, standard meeting and our February 3rd special TDC meeting. Uh, I would accept a motion to the approval. Thank you. Motion is moved and approved. Uh, could we get a state of the funds, please? Afternoon, council members. My name is Jeremy Paglegan. I'm a senior budget analyst with the Escami County Budget Office, and I'm uh here to provide a brief update on the status of the TDD funds through January 2026. As always,
I believe the clerk's office has already provided you with detailed expenditure reports. As of the end of January, FY26 collections, including interest, total $5,427,52. This compares to 5,542,775 through January 2025, a decrease of approximately $115,723 yearover-year. Excluding interest, FY26 collections stand at 5,87,265
compared with 5,1223,839 at this time last year. This reflects a decrease of $36,574 or 72%. in interest earnings total $338,681 to date compared with $480,680 in FY25 which is a reduction of $141,999 or 42% relative to the current year level.
To put this in context, total collections to date represent 25.84% 84% of the annual TDT revenue budget of $21 million. On the expenditure side, total spending through January is approximately $10.6 million with an additional $20 million encumbered. Finally, the current TDT cash balance is $27.3 million as of January 2026. Thanks. Thank you, Jeremy. Anyone have any questions for Jeremy or finance? Great. Thank you. So, I'd like to move to
uh get an update from Visit Pensacola. Darren, you're here. Welcome back. Thank you. Both my wife and I were saying how much we were looking forward to coming home. It's a great great trip, great travel, but uh yeah, we were definitely looking forward to coming home. So, I'm sorry that I wasn't here uh during the uh special TDC council meeting, but I want to start out by saying thank you uh for the uh council support back on February 3rd to approve
$250,000 of funding to allow us to amplify to leverage this number one beach in the United States recognition by the readers of Kai Nest. Um that was subsequently approved by the board of county commissioners a couple days later at the February 5th meeting. So, I've just received uh the uh the plan and the artwork and everything from uh Pensacola Showcase and we're going to look at that tomorrow at our uh weekly meeting and uh we should be able to start moving
uh forward by the end of the week with some of the digital ad components. Um, with the $250,000 amount, we worked with Showcase Pensacola to trim down the marketing campaign so that uh there will be a print ad in Kai Nast and that'll be in May. We'll be doing digital advertising with specific audience targeting um that can start this week as well as Facebook and Instagram ads also again uh specifically targeting audiences that
um uh meet the uh household income of Kai NAS readers. Uh I know this was a question that I had actually received uh cond household incomes around $127,000. The average uh household income of our current visitor profile is 86,400. So that's about a difference of 41,000 or 40 47% increase. Um so we will be uh targeting those audiences with this campaign.
I will say that uh we chose things that are have the highest trackability of them so we can report back. I understand we report back and if the program is seen deemed as successful uh then the council might approve or recommend spending the additional $250,000. Uh we will do our very best to be able to demonstrate that. Um we are seeing as far as booking patterns that booking window is still on average about 60 days. So even if we start this week we may not see some
of that activity. Uh, of course some people book very quickly, but the average booking window is 60 days. Back in December, I made a presentation on our fiscal year 2025, and our board of directors just approved our annual report, so I'll send that out to all the council members as well as our international marketing plan. Um, and again, I was gone this last weekend, but I heard Marty Growl went great and we had great weather. So, always excited when that works out. Uh we have Pensacon this weekend. Uh this uh Friday, Saturday, Sunday. I'm uh mentioned this at our hospitality round
table today. I'm particularly excited to see that the Highlander is going to be in town, the original Highlander, Christopher Lambert, along with a bunch of interesting pop culture uh individuals. So, another another great lineup. Um we've been working on for some time now with Pensacola Sports uh the uh Sunb Belt Conference Basketball Championships. That's March 3rd through the 9th. So, this has always been a good stretch for us as far as great events happening in the Pensacola area. Uh 14 schools, 28 teams will be competing in the tournament. Other item of note,
uh they're targeting April for the reefing of the SS United States. We're trying to lock down a week, might be the second week of April, but hate to share a date and have it change. So, right now that was May, but they moved it up to the month of April. And with that, are there any questions? Thank you, Darren. Anyone have any questions for Darren? No. Okay. All right. Thank you. Wait, I do I do have a couple of questions. So, um, how is our occupancy pace? I noticed that TDT
collections are essentially flat. They are. We're down about 1% year to date. Okay. We are seeing uh revenue-wise, we're seeing numbers up in uh Pensacola Beach and Purto K. I believe Purto K right now is leading all the geographic areas as far as year-over-year collections. Uh it's inland where we're seeing uh still a double digit increase in one geographic area. Um part of that
I think is the fact that we've got uh a lot of uh new supply that's um more of the same. So, we have a lot of select service properties that are going in and depending on where that new inventory is coming in, it's pulling business away. If you could stay at the six-year-old, let's say, uh, Fairfield in, or if you can you stay at the brand new Fairfield in, you know, you might try that new Fairfield in. And, and so when we have new properties, we always see
a bit of a shift of business, at least trial. Um, and so I think we're that's definitely one of the the issues that we're going to experience in our market. Yeah. Outstanding. And I'm going to put you on the spot. If you don't have it, I just appreciate uh just letting us know the trailing 12-month market ADR. Uh, and the reason why I asked that is an important data point whenever we get requests and I think we all do. How do we, you know, tap into TDT funds? You know, the quick math I always do with in my head is multiply the number of potential room nights by the market's trailing
12-month ADR, and that gives us a room revenue and accommodations, and then 5% of that is about the TDT return, very back of the envelope. But this is a a good number for us to start with. Yeah, I I'd be happy to pull that. Okay. In just a few minutes, I'll be able to pull that number from you from the most recent Smith Travel Research report. Um, and yeah, I'll be able to provide that for you. And you uh just to confirm, you said you're vectoring in on the second week or uh Okaloosa and Escambia County are vector in on the second week for the sinking of the SS US. Yeah. So our our agreement is signed. The the funding has been uh again allocated allocated released uh to visit
Pensacola in the back on the 5th. Uh and so uh we don't pay that out or we won't actually uh invest that money until the ship is actually reefed. But uh looking at April and earlier versus later. Great. Outstanding. Thank you, Darren. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Darren, one more. Hey, one more. Just a comment, not a question. Um I saw that Okaloosa Island is looking at charging for parking for the public and uh it occurs to me that Destin is also doing that. And so I'm hopeful that in the future
if they all do that that we can market ourselves as the one that gives you free parking. I mean, it's just it's crazy to me. Destin's charging a lot for I think it's like 20 bucks for four hours or something of parking at their beaches. Um so I just I and maybe the county's talking about our county is talking about charging. I I hope we don't. But I think it's a data point that I think is interesting is you don't have to pay to park at our beach. I mean it it is uh one of our competitive advantages. I mean we're the easiest beach to get to off the interstate. We have the
most accessible number of beach locations that currently all have free parking. Um so yeah, I mean we we tout that quite a bit and I'll just say this having recently traveled when we go someplace when we can park downtown uh or where we're trying to spend some time and there's free parking. Man, that's that's a nowadays it's seen as a luxury and a perk. So um I don't disagree. Okay. Great. Thank you, Darren. Mr. Chairman, I I thought of a question to ask if you don't mind. David,
sorry. Thanks, Darren. Um, so you talked about the the collections being down flat to down 1%. Do we know if that's a function of uh room rates that are down uh or if that is overall tourism um that is down like are the number of rooms down or uh and visitors down or is it just a matter of revenue because rates have come down and TDT collection is a percent of rate. So um when we finished uh the calendar year according to STR our overall four calendar
year 25 revenue collections were up over the previous year. We work on a fiscal year so there's a a three-month difference. Um, we are seeing a uh uh we've had our up months and and some down months. And I don't want to necessarily put things to weather, but weather can be a big part of a nuance when we're talking uh you know percentage of of less than 1%. Um that can be uh as big of a factor as anything else. But um occupancies actually have been um again it's it's
different from by geographic area. So but overall that why don't I just pull that real quick for everybody and I'll I'll be able to answer that question. It might be useful when you're looking at the ADR on the summary page. There's also uh room night demand that factor in that you know this the number of hotels. I'll take a look at what the supply increase has been versus the demand. Yeah, I'll pull that real quick and I'll I'll come back up. It'd be great. Thank you. So, a follow up to David's question. If you're pulling the average daily rate for now, if you can you can look in history and see what it was this time last year as well. We can. That way
we can compare it and we'll know. Yeah. Yeah. And occupancy rates. Occupancy in the ADR. Yes. Great. But not just occupancy. Room night demand also. Right. Yeah. On the the pace report. Right. I'm not leaving the podium until that's all I want. I don't want to watch this video of me going back. I think we're good. I'm gonna go get I'm gonna go get the information. Sounds good. Um, while Darren's looking that up, uh, why don't we take the opportunity for,
uh, Rey, if you have any updates to offer for Pensacola Sports, it' be a great time to do it. Well, I was going to be really fast, but since y'all gave him some work, I'm not going to be as fast as I was going to be. Um, just a couple of things. Darren touched on basketball. Obviously, March 3rd and 9th, that's a huge deal for us. We're excited uh to have Sunb Belt Conference back um um coming back. Um Sunb Belt Conference, I mean um the quarterly report you're handing out.
I'll already get that, but um uh I want to make sure you're getting it. So um this past quarterly report that ended December 31, we just love the numbers where you know we're seeing this um the 5825 $58.25 return um on every for every dollar of Pensacola Sports budget that we're spending. Um that's a that's a really strong number. I think every one of us would love to have somebody give us 58 bucks for every dollar we gave them. So, um anyway, you get those. I just want to make sure
that that you had you were you had seen it. Um I know you get a lot of reports. A couple other just um highlights. Um, we did have the double bridge run and it's not included in this because it's we don't really consider it a sports event, but it is I mean a sports tourism event, but it is very much a sports a tourism event. Um, we had it um February 7th on Pensacola Beach starting downtown. We had 4500 we had a complete sellout of 3,000 people at the 15K and 1,500 people in the 5K run
and walk. We had we knew we had entries from 46 of the 48 states. We also had a board when they came into the Hilton to the expo and they could put a pin in everywhere. I can only find two states that actually weren't represented. Um and plus uh uh Great Britain and Guam and some others. And so the double bridge run um is in a great place. Um, we just signed on with a uh long-term I say longterm
for us four-year partnership with Circle K to be our new uh title sponsorship which gives that fantastic event the stability. It is lacked. Um, we had Publix for years and Publix uh changed its philosophy and got out of the run business across their their marketing. Uh, so we've been trying to replace them and we did with a great exciting partner. Um Darren, you got it? Got it. Okay, hold on. Now, one more last thing. Then going on right now, started today at the University of West
Florida, if you happen to have interest, is a national swim and collegiate national swim and dive competition that I don't think has ever been held at this level, at least not as well that I'm aware of. Uh and you can go on the UWF site and it'll give you the schedule. I've never seen a live dive competition. So, I'm looking forward to it the next I think it starts Thursday. But encourage you to go out and support WF and their you know that this is good tourism business for us and hopefully it'll help with some of those um properties out in those uh areas Darren that maybe
are not getting the the um occupancy that we want to see. That's really all I have. I just wanted to say again, thank you'all for all thank you all for what you do for Pensacola Sports and we look to forward to continuing to provide quality and we hope to see you at Sunb Belt Conference. Any questions? I have a question, Ray. Can Double Bridge run have more than 4,500 or is that the max we can support? Absolutely not the the max. We cap it for management purposes. If we know how many
runners we have, then we know the right number of t-shirts to order. We know the right number of medals because we order these things from, you know, not downtown Pensacola. So, they're coming from overseas and it allows us to manage the entire race. We know what dealing. So, it's been our policy every year is to go up a few. So, I won't I don't get to make the choice next year for Pensacola Sports because I won't be there. But I suspect it'll be 5,000. I think we could easily,
especially with the new bridge. The new bridge is a gamecher. I think 7500 to even 10,000 is not an unreasonable number at all. Um I I really think we can get there. Um and that's I think that's the goal. Great. Thank you, David. And for uh anyone interested in the double bridge run, although I didn't I couldn't put the logistics together this year to run it, it of all the races I've run in my life, that is the best race course, particularly with a good sunrise, a good brisk morning, and
uh a bunch of great athletes out there having fun. And you end on Pensacola Beach. It just doesn't get any better. Well done to to sell it out. Thank you, Darren. Okay. All right. So this is Smith Travel Research that tracks all of the hotel lodging performance. And so if we just want to take a look at hotel performance reported by them for fiscal year 25, our average ADR for the year was $63. 63 $63 even. Okay. Last year $62.90. 62.90. So it's down a bit. So up.2%.
ADR $142.50 last year $141.7. So up one point. Okay. So the first number you gave us that was occupancy 63% occupancy. Yep. Versus 62.9. That's correct. Okay. And do you happen to have room night volume on the same? Yeah. So, our uh our supply uh let me make sure I'm looking at the right one again. So, yeah, our supply in 2025 was 3, excuse me, 3,253,523
compared to last year 3,145,735 a difference of 3.4%. So slightly 3.4%. 4% more supply but how much demand and our demand um was up 3.6%. Do you have the numbers? I have the numbers. Uh demand in 2025 was 2 million50,249. Okay. Compared to the previous year 1,978,246.
Great. Thank you. Thank you Darren. You're welcome. Anyone have any questions? Great. Outstanding. All right. Uh, moving on to the next item in the agenda. Uh, Commissioner Hoffberger, would you please give us an update on the special committee? So, it was a very interesting meeting. The first one went on for about two hours and I felt like it was really productive. And then we had the second meeting and we did have a member of the committee ask a few very specific questions
for the county attorney. I do have her response. Um, and then there was a request for him to revoke all the voting he had done prior to that. So there was a concern by this board member that the committee should not be making recommendations to the TDC board. And we did try to explain that it was only recommendations that anything that the TDC board decided to move forward with, we would have to vote on and we would have to adopt. Um, but at that point he was just not comfortable moving forward. So my question is, do we want to start the workshop over? Do we?
And I do have the information from the county attorney. We can have committees. We cannot delegate our specific duties to a committee, but we can use a committee to filter things from the community to come up with different ideas. If we're looking at revamping something, we can use a committee to gather the ideas and bring us back what we should do. And then we would have to execute on any of that. So, we can't delegate executing abilities to that committee. Um, and then the county attorney also wanted to make sure that, and I know that we all know this, but I
feel like I have to throw it out there because she put it in an email, anything that we do shouldn't be to benefit us or anyone that we're related to or anything that we might receive a benefit from. Sure. Right. No conflict of interest, in other words. Correct. So, my question is, is that something we want to revamp? Is it something we want to do? And how sort how does the board feel about? So can you just maybe outline for us what was the question at hand that Sure. that was asked in the committee that that paused the production and research of the committee.
Oh, I had it pulled up. Pretty much it was does the TDC have the ability to create a committee and is that lawful? And if it is a lawful action, would someone sitting on the committee that receives funding not be eligible for funding in the future? Understood. And I explained that part of the reason that we had some of the folks sitting on that committee was because we didn't want it to be like we were dictating too much and putting in things that seemed like a good idea to us, but in practicality when it comes to actually giving the money out, it's too much
of a hardship to those receiving money. Um, but they were still not comfortable moving forward. Would you mind just restating what the objective of the subcommittee was? Sure. So, we wanted to come up with recommendations to the board on how to streamline the process for grant funding and to make recommendations if we were to have specific criteria. So, one of the things that we were evaluating prior to the meeting being shut down is a specific grading matrix. Um, you know, does it have an economic impact? Does it drive tourism? If so, how much? um is it something that's currently
offered in the community and you get points for all of these things and then so there's a grading scale that goes along with it. So that was one of the things that we were looking at there. And do you think that there is still uh an opportunity for this special committee to produce that work? We were I felt like we were making a lot of progress. Darren that was on the committee, Maria Goldberg, she's great to work with. I know some of you have worked with her through ACE. She's awesome. Um, so I feel like we were making progress and we were coming up with ideas
and the person who raised the concern, we actually ultimately took different paths to get there, but all agreed on the things that were being proposed prior to that. Understood. Mr. Reeves. Did you have two full meetings? We had one full meeting and then at the second meeting um immediately prior to it starting the um the the person who was uncomfortable being on the committee said, you know, this is going to be my last meeting and uh I'm going to meet with the county attorney and
I I do have concerns on the legalities and I'm I'm not I'm going to vote no on everything for this meeting and I'm going to ask that my prior v votes be rescended. And so at that point we shut down the meeting as far as moving forward with ideas to present to this board. Um and then had a in-depth conversation on what those specific questions were for the county attorney. And then the recommendation was that this individual meet with the county attorney one-on-one um and that I would bring that information back to this board and see what we wanted to do. So
to answer your question, no, we had one full meeting and then the second one got shut down. But do you have enough field or information? You had layman on that committee. Do you have enough information that that you feel that you got to go back to square one or I don't think we need to go back to square one. There were four or five topics that were initially laid out on the first agenda. we knocked out either two or three of them at the first meeting and then the last two were on the meeting agenda for the meeting that was cancelled. Um,
so I feel like we could proceed and then come back with recommendations to the board or at least very specific things to discuss if that is something the board is still interested in. Well, I'm looking to my uh board members to see if there's still continued interest in seating the special committee for the work. Mr. Chairman, David, uh I I say yes. Uh I think it's of interest to this council, but to the the commission as a whole, but also to the community,
uh that we have more of a structured process. Uh and so I think that was the original intent of the of the committee. And so I think it is valuable to continue through that committee uh working obviously it's I don't think if they had a scheduled second meeting uh that ended up being cancelled sort of th during the meeting because of process questions um then there's obviously still work to do for the committee uh and so I'd like to see it continued. Yeah. Thank you. I agree. And so
um Ray Ray was also great to work with. Thank you. I appreciate you serving on that committee. Ray, while you're coming up, um, so is it Mr. Banks intention to continue participating in the committee or is he precluded now because he stands to benefit from recommendations that the committee might endorse to this council? So, it was my understanding as long as it doesn't I I mean, how do I say this? As long as it is not a benefit unique to him, sure. Or that's something
that is carved out specific to him, I think we would be okay, especially with what we're doing, it could be more restrictive than what we've done in the past. Um because we also have, you know, Pensacola Sports and Visit Pensacola, which we also give money to. And part of the goal was to line up more with the way that they award grants because y'all do it very specific. There's a matrix, there's all of these rules, and it's very consistent. So, we just wanted to be a little bit more consistent. Um, so to answer your question, no, it did not seem like he would be precluded. Actually, the county attorney specifically said
serving on this committee in and of itself would not preclude you from receiving money. Outstanding. Well, that should give him lots of comfort then, Ray. Please. So, yeah. Um, so my thought as I have tried to go over what his objections were and his comments were is the reality is we could walk outside and grab five people off the street of Pensacola to make up this committee to make up guidance to recommend to your board which you can either do with what you want
or not do with you want. and nothing precludes that person from ultimately coming back to you and asking for funds. So I don't think there's any way to get there. So I thought the process that the chair at the time was trying to do is let's get the people who deal with this the most to help guide y'all with suggestions around that we see not just locally but around the state or wherever to give you some suggestions on ways you might want to do. So I I just was like, well, anybody
could not really nobody can be on the committee because quite frankly, I could go sit on the committee and make rules and then come back two week two weeks later or two years later and go, I got a perfect. So I just and my interpretation of the body of the sub special committee was uh comprised of individuals who are familiar with the TDT process who have been vested in this for a number of years and can speak articulately to it in order to structure some u process that might be more amunable to the distribution of uh our our TDT collections. I could go for rules that
Ray Palmer retired, comes back and does something very specific to the new rules that I suggested you guys make. I mean, that's no ideas, man. All right. So, Mr. Chairman, do we have a motion to extend the Just one other comment, Mr. Chairman, if I may. Uh, I'm I'm not an attorney. I'm certainly not the county attorney. Uh but I would think so the the committee is merely making a recommendation to this board for process uh and policy and then this board still ultimately has to make that recommendation to the county commission who has the authority to make that decision not
only on that process but also the funding uh recommendations or funding uh appropriations. We only make recommendations. That committee is is so far removed from the actual authority that I I just don't see how there could ever be a conflict. That that too is how I saw it. It was a little bit um unexpected what occurred in the last special committee. I'm glad that question was vetted and it's behind us now and the county attorney is supportive of the special committee uh and its
mission. So, I um do want to say I do believe that he has a meeting with the county attorney. Um and then he had also mentioned drafting a letter to the attorney general asking for it. It it was a few things to do with TDC, but we were trying to keep it very focused on the subcommittee itself. Um so I don't know if he's going to be comfortable serving in that or if we how do what and I don't know what protocol is as far as reaching out to somebody on a subcommittee in Sunshine. I'm I'm not on that subcommittee. I'd be happy to reach out to him. Okay. Thank you,
David. I appreciate that. Thank you. So, I'd be happy to entertain a motion to I would love to make a motion to extend the length of the committee to bring back recommendations. And do I have a second? Second. Uh, any further discussion? Uh, Misty, would you please call the role? James Reeves, yes. Ashley Hoffberger, yes. Charles Bear, Jason Nicholson, yes.
Uh, Mary Hawking, yes. David Bear, yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you for your work, Madam Commissioner. Okay. Um, David, you had an item you wanted to put on the agenda uh to have a discussion about the timing of our TDT reimbursements. Please take it away. Thank you, Mr. there. Um, and so there has been discussion previously at this at this board at this council uh regarding the timing
of reimbursements. Um there have been concerns over reimbursements getting dragged out uh to the point where uh as a a point of order that uh not point of order whatever uh Visit Pensacola has to have an operating uh line of credit in order to cash flow uh the work that they do on behalf of Scambia County uh because the timing of getting the reimbursements uh is being dragged out
uh and they are being dragged out to where Visit Pensacola makes an expenditure. There's several different issues that are of concern. Uh one is that there are expenditures being made. A report is being produced to document those expenditures. It's being submitted to the county which has been reviewed and then turned over to the clerk's office. the clerk's office reviews it, rejects it, uh, without real detail of what's being rejected, without real two-way communication, uh, with Visit
Pensacola so that they can get the details of what it is that's being rejected that they could either correct or, uh, explain or fulfill, whatever. And so it's causing them to have to get an operating line of credit to cash flow the county's uh tourism development. I I think that's really unacceptable. Uh I don't know that this is my personal opinion of it being unacceptable makes any difference to anyone. Uh I think there are some other issues um that well that have just
continued to go on. There's there's one a letter anou came or a I don't know if it's not anouou a letter that came from the clerk's office talking about the timing of expend of reimbursements uh cannot be made until uh the actual if it was a expenditure for advertising uh that could not be re those expenses could not be reimbursed until after the advertisement is placed and run.
uh and uh because of an accounting principle of uh when you recognize uh it's a gap principle where you recognize your expenditures on your financial statement and therefore you can't the clerk's office will not reimburse that until it's recognized and and those are two completely separate issues that the clerk's office is conflating which is causing more delays in reimbursement uh when they go out when agencies go out and place advertising. Uh many of you know
you're in business, you do advertising. Uh when you place if you can buy in bulk uh and in advance, you can get a discount and you can spend the same number of dollars and get a much larger impact. So many people do that, many agencies do that, Visit Pensacola does that. uh and the clerk's office will not reimburse it until it's actually the ad has run. Uh that could be six months from there. That could be three months, six months, whenever it was that
was purchased in advance. That has nothing to do with accounting principles. That has to do with the actual expenditure of tourism development marketing dollars being spent in a wise uh judicious way. And so uh these are problems that have been going on. These are just a couple of examples of problems that have been going on that we've been discussing at this council for a couple of years now. Uh, and I remember when Commissioner Hoffberger, when you got on the council,
uh, you had talked about making it your priority to try to get the schedule of when things would be reimbursed. And I know that there have been several meetings with the clerk's office and that you've talked about meeting with her, but we've never been presented any kind of schedule. uh and I think our work is stunted by uh these procedures or lack of documented procedures and I think it's incumbent on the county to uh to ask the clerk to provide this information provide us
what like what needs to be done in order to get the reimbursements uh made if there is something that's rejected what is What's the timeline? Uh when will that communication go to visit Pensacola? When they how long should they have to uh amend their request? How long once you've received the request will that uh response go to it's either rejected again and for this reason or it's accepted and then how long will it take for the reimbursement to be made. These are just again
examples of things that I think need to be done so that we can continue the work that we're doing, the work that these folks are doing uh and continue to grow our tourism because I think we're going to start to see a decline in tourism based on this information. It's surely not acceptable for an agency that's acting on behalf of the county to have to get an operating line of credit just to fund those operations. That's who's paying for the interest that's being uh acred on that loan. Uh is the clerk's office going to pay for that? Shouldn't because I know the appropriation
agreement says it can't pay for that. Um so now it's taxing an organization because of these reimbursement um delays. Uh it is literally taxing them. They are paying interest on a loan to do marketing on behalf of the county. I I just think that's is ridiculous. In your discussions with the clerk, you you met with Madam Clerk. I have not. You have? Okay. Um I understand Visit Pensacola met with the clerk's office recently. Um would you be prepared to speak to what you heard
from the clerk's office? And and just for the audience's benefit, I'm I'm sure everybody already knows this, but visit Pensacola, the unified budget operates under a reimbursement model. So, spend the money first, submit payments, cancel checks, invoices, reason for the expenditure, and then get reimbursed. I would imagine it's a lot like a construction draw process, except, you know, we're spending the money in advance. Um, are we finding that the clerk is paying some in the the reimbursement package, but then isolating others to have more discussion about?
Are you getting communication? I think we'd like to know where it falls off the rails. So, let me start off by saying that yes, just recently we had um a meeting with Pam and her staff at the com chores office. Um Commissioner Hoffberger was there uh as well. We had our treasurer there, our finance director, marketing sales team. I mean, we brought in more of our staff to hear uh some of the explanations
to the questions that we've had. So, I thought that was a productive meeting. Um this reimbursement uh based system can be challenging. There are months when we'll have large expenditures by Pensacola Showcase. Uh that will be hundreds of thousands. I think our biggest month was a million dollar spend. So when you have that um it it does impact cash flow if some of our other submissions have been only partially paid. Um we're working very
hard to meet all the documentation standards um that the uh clerk's office need. Um I think this was a good meeting to uh where we were able to explain uh things that may be simple to us that at times we feel don't need any explanation but to the clerk's office and accounting department um they're not familiar with it and so it does need more explanation. So,
we're writing narratives now to uh help remove the questions that have previously uh caused a denial. And and and you're right, when we have a denial, it's going through the system. So, we have to first find out that there's a denial, there usually isn't a reason with that denial when it comes through. So then we have to ask for the explanation of the denial so we know what addition you know what happened that uh something didn't get uh scanned correctly through
the you know the machine so they didn't get all of the documentation. Sometimes it's a link to the ads that don't work or they can't open up. Um and sometimes it's just needing more information than um than what's in uh the contract or the the backup support. Um, so, uh, are you getting it's getting better in in the reimbursement process? You've submitted a package. It's gone through, uh, the county. The county's passed it over to the clerk with their endorsement. Are you
getting communication from the clerk's office as they're working through that to say, "Hey, this is a list of invoices where we need more information um, before they can be paid." Yes, we do get some questions. Um, and I've noticed uh in the last three weeks since since our meeting that uh there's questions that were coming from the contour's office about a few things um that uh if we you know provided that documentation then um that item wouldn't be denied. So they
were giving us a chance on a few of these items to to give them additional information uh so they could process it. And so educate me is is the reimbursement submitted in a package? Yes. And our package could be I mean if you print it off every sheet of paper it it's a huge stack. Sure. Yeah. I'm pretty familiar with them. And then that package will have a summary number on it. Yes. For the the sum total of the package. When there's a question about an item in the reimbursement package, is the rest of the package being paid and this item being extracted? Yes. And not paid. And
so there's another stack of invoices and requests for reimbursement that needs more information from Visit Pensacola. That's right. So then we'll do is there a communication conduit that's effective enough for Visit Pensacola to hear that almost in real time as it's being reviewed? No. How long does it take to get that information or do you have to go find it? So um checks are cut on Wednesdays. So, you know, we'll see on Wednesday what's uh been paid and and processed into our
bank account. Um and then we have to if it's not the exact number of what the submission was, we have to go ask then um what was denied and then we'll get uh like a spreadsheet list of the items and what they need. Did y'all discuss that at all and the meeting that you had with the clerk's office about that communication being more fluid? Um, we did I don't know that uh uh we got down to like a timeline or Yeah, it would be great if there was uh you know a website page or a portal
we go into and you know as they're putting this together because they have their spreadsheet if we could see that in real time. I mean that would that would be great. That doesn't exist right now. But at least when uh a payment is made for the package that's submitted for reimbursement, if one amount is paid that's different from what you're requesting, there should be some information as to why it was short paid. There isn't uh that payment. There isn't. And to get that information, you've got to call. We make Yeah. W then makes a request. Okay. And do you have the name of
the person that that you call at the clerk's office? like a a solid contact to say, "Okay, we do." Excellent. Well, it looks like you're making headway. We are. Okay. In the last When was that meeting? Three weeks ago. January 29th. Okay. So, yeah, both. And just for for my knowledge, are is anybody else in unified budget having this this struggle? PSA as well? And I don't know about Ace. Maria isn't here. Okay, great. Got it. Darren, I've got a question. When you submit you submit
your package for the month of January, do you do you get payment by like the end of February? No. Uh so um and Wandy's here. I'll make sure I get this right. So, um we um let's see when we do our submission um we we really got two because we've got a big one generally for Showcase Pensacola and then we have uh we can do a submission for all our other stuff outside of
Showcase Pensacola. So when we submit that uh it first goes to the office of management and budget and then they go through it and then after office of management budget it then goes to the contour's office for review and payment. So you know we're t and you know if someone's on vacation or sick or I mean I can throw that timing off a little bit. Uh checks are cut on Wednesdays. Um, you're talking uh what we're trying to get to is like uh from one like let's say Showcase sends
us the invoice with all their their if we can get back to them within 45 days that I mean that's our goal right now to get that processed uh through you know OM and the contours office so we can turn and write a check back to Showcase Pensacola or and other vendors um at you know by that time or or or earlier in the advertising world for radio and television stations across the country. If payment doesn't come in within 60 days, the salesperson who handled that account will lose
their commission on it, at which point they're going to stop working hard for Visit Pensacola and could get to the point where they ask you for cash in advance for every buy that you place. So that's that's a concern to me. If it's taken so long, you're pissing people off across the country. We're aware and by I mean our goal is to get people paid in a timely manner. I all want that. I just have a comment, Mr. Chairman. So, as council member Bayer down there said earlier,
we just recommend things to the county. I really think this discussion needs to be had at the county commission. got a commissioner here. Um, we we can't make the clerk do anything. It's unfortunate. It's happening, but this is not our fight. This is the county commission needs to work this out with the clerk. So, I don't know why we're talking about this in the TDC. I just don't think it has nothing to do with you, Darren. Um, I just don't know why this is something we're talking about because we can't affect this other than may make a recommendation that the clerk pay things on time. You know, that I don't I just don't feel like it's our battle.
Yeah. I haven't asked for any inter intervention from the TDC because we are holding the meetings with the clerk's office and every time we do that we're moving the progress forward. Do you currently receive a supplemental advance the beginning of the year? The fiscal uh supplemental uh the process for that uh generally the OM office of management budget has to work through like year end. And so in order to even um identify if there will be supplemental
um that is something that probably comes around mid to late December is when um the finance director has enough of the books closed to be able to see if there would be supplemental or not. Okay. So this year there was it's uh you know less than last year um but there was some thank you. You know my my interest in this and thank you for putting it on the agenda David is is whenever you
know we have a situation like this I always like to look in the mirror with my organization first and say what could we do better in order to to make this work effectively. And so that's that's my interest from the TDC level is what what can we do better in the submissions to the clerk's office such that you know it they reimburse faster. I I was just reading the last paragraph in the contract between visit Pensacola and the county is says invoice and documents received in oh gosh y'all uh and dispersements by Wednesday at 5:00 pm will be paid the following week as long as there
are no discrepancies. Clearly there are checks are mailed directly to the vendor remittance address indicated on the invoice. Checks are not released directly to vendors. And that's that's the last paragraph in the contract. Your contract with this with the county. Doesn't sound like that's happening. Yeah. Yeah. And that's what I'm saying. It doesn't sound like that's that's happening. So are I guess to to close the loop from my point of view. Do you feel as though you are in a better position with the clerk, with the comproller to get reimbursed more effectively or have
communication should there be a short pay? Yes, I believe it's better. And um you know like you said I mean there's things on our end that we're looking at internally just a process you know I don't care how much documentation we need to provide and um we'll do whatever is necessary um and you know we need to we're hoping to get initial paperwork lined up so process
for us is just a lot easier for uh my team to be able to continually provide that in a way uh that really spells out everything for for the controllers's office. Yeah, understood. I do appreciate that Madame Clerk is a fiscal hawk and we appreciate her watching the the funds for the county. Absolutely. Any further discussion? Thank you for bringing this up. Anyone else? All right. Thank you, Darren. Okay. Sure. Appreciate it. Um with that, we'll move on to other business. Does anyone have anything else that you'd like to add to
the agenda for the evening? All right. And I'd like to start with closing remarks. Mr. Reeves, thank you. I sure appreciate it. Yep, it was a great Marty GR weekend. So, everybody that played a part in that, thank you. Um, thank you to this board. I think it was a really good meeting and I'm looking forward to moving forward with the committee meeting as well. Charles Mary, I also thank everybody who
was involved in Miguar and this committee for helping make that all happen. It was great. So, thank you all, Mr. Bear. Uh, thank you, chairman. Uh, I, uh, yeah, happy Marty Gro to everybody. Today is Fat Tuesday, so happy Marty Gro. Um, but thank you to everybody in the audience for all the work you're doing, uh, on behalf of Scampi County and tourism and, uh, just happy to be part of it. Thank you. Uh, thank you all. Happy Marty Gro and, uh,
thank you again for all the work that you do for the county. Uh like I mentioned at the special committee or the special meeting, uh it's a great time to live in Pensacola as Mrs. Hawking said and uh I'm anxious to get started with Marty Gro. Happy Fat Tuesday and we are adjourned.