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are Friday. That was Good afternoon. Uh, welcome to the Escambia County uh, Tourist Development Council meeting.
Today's August 19th and it is approximately 3 PMish. Uh, Philip, if you would please uh, first, was this meeting properly advertised? Mr. Chairman, this meeting was properly advertised in the uh, PNG on August the 14th. Great. Uh, would you please call the role? Sure. Will. Matish Patel. James Reeves here. Ashley Hoffberger here. Shirley Cronley here. David Bear
here. Brad Mullenex here. Charles Bayer here. Jennifer Breer here. And Jason Nicholson here. Thank you. So we do have quorum. Uh and so this meeting is officially called to order. Uh welcome everyone and thank you for being here today. Uh first item on the agenda is public forum. Uh we have one person who signed up, Tom Pace. Uh if anybody else here would like to sign up to speak, uh generally about tourism, uh please see
Phillip and fill out a piece of paper in just a minute and we'll call on you. But otherwise, uh welcome Tom. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh everyone, appreciate it. I'm not here to ask for anything, but just to give you an update from the last time. We certainly appreciate the the council's uh favorable vote last time for the eight events we're going to do next year. Um want to let you know within those dynamics uh we want to try to up PYC's game. Want to try to increase our safety, the dynamics on the water. There was recently a tragedy in Miami. Uh three very young girls were
killed in a sailing accident. Uh this is foremost on our mind. We will use, you know, some of the elements we're going to put forth in the event that we're doing in March, which is the Wasp World Championship, to ensure that those elements cannot take place here. We've already contracted with professional boats in Miami to bring us 15 rigid inflatable boats. And these type of boats are essential for safety on these foiling boats. The unlike uh any boat that any of us might have, these small foiling boats don't have a cleat. You can't tow them. They have hydroofoils underwater. So the only way you can help bring them in is if part of that boat actually rests upon the
rubber hull of these rubber boats. So no event in this part of the country has had that many boats provided for that purpose. And so want to let you know we're pretty excited actually. Um we've gotten a lot of good feedback. I just recently was in Newport, Rhode Island. Uh this was for the unveiling of the Club Swan 28 which is a race boat. This is in partnership with American Magic, City of Pensacola, and the Yach Club. We're going to be hosting five of the eight events that will be in North America next year. And every person I ran into couldn't say enough about Pensacola. Uh past Commodores up at New York Yacht Club, other people through the sport, uh excited about what's
going on here. They've heard of the GL52s, the mayor's projects, they've heard of the Swan 28s, uh and they're excited. This event we're doing in March should bring 150 sailors from all over the world. Um I just went to their event in England to see how they did the event this year. Youngest competitor was 12, oldest was 72. uh we already have a group of people from England who've lined up to try to come in and they frankly wanted us to put on two events. So we'll put on a pre-world championship and a world championship that was not reflected in our ask but what it means is we'll have more people on ground. So again with that idea with Terry
Hutchinson's lead we want to try to outperform. So within that we'll have more people here than we had projected and we're working towards that. So that's just that update. Any questions at all on that? Anyone have any questions or comments? Thank you. Awesome. guys. Thank you. Thanks, Tom. All right. Uh, anyone else from the general public would like to speak today? Seeing none, we will move along. Thank you. Uh, all right. Next item on the agenda is review and approval of the
uh June 17th board workshop meeting minutes and the June 17th meeting minutes that followed. Uh are there any changes or amendments to the minutes? Any uh Mr. Chair, I move to accept the uh minutes from the workshop and the council meeting. Great. So we have a motion and and a second. Is there any uh debate or objection hearing? None. Please show those both adopted. Thank you. Uh
next item, status of funds available. Uh Jeremy with the budget office. Welcome. Good afternoon, council members. My name is Jeremy Paglegan. I a senior budget analyst with the Escambia County Budget Office. I'm here to present the status of the TDD funds through July 2025. As always, I believe the clerk's office has already provided you with a detailed breakdown of the expenditures. As of the end of July 2025,
FY25 collections, including interest, total $17,325,945. This compares to 17,392,569 in collections through July 2024, reflecting a decrease of approximately $66,624 year-over-year. excluding interest FY25 collections are $16,353,535
compared with 16,195,621 through July 2024 representing an increase of $157,914 or 0.98%. Interest earnings are $972,410 through July 2025 compared with 1,196,948 in 2024 indicating a decrease of $224,538 or 18.8%. To give you a clearer picture,
the total collections for FY25 through July represent 84.52% of the annual TDT revenue budget, which is set at $20.5 million. On the expense side, total expenditures through July 2025 amount to approximately $14.6 million and $7.79 million encumbered. Finally, the current TDT cash balance stands at 32.7 32.07 million through July 2025. Thanks.
Great. Thank you. Any comments, questions, Mr. Councilman? Just a quick question. So, we've got four requests on here. Um, as far as funding available, do we have funds available to fund all four of these requests? And what source would that be? Good afternoon, council members. Stephan Hall, finance director, Scami County Board of County Commissioners. Um, so I did provide a handout to each council member with status of reserves. So those are the available pots uh to to fund these requests from. Um so these would typically be
uh basically special events. Um if the council wishes to use some of those dollars. Okay. So the reserve special events would be the area. Correct. uh specifically if you had someone that only needed marketing then they could use some of the marketing reserve. Okay. But typically these are more to support the events. Some of it is marketing but it's also event support. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm sorry you
said one of our numbers were down 18%. What number was that? Okay. Thank you. The Fed keeps cut cutting that rate really cutting into our interest. Any other comments or questions? Hearing none. Thank you. Uh all right, we'll move on. Uh and we'll move on to the next uh section which is the requests. Um, I have been asked if I would please
uh move Pensacola Sports to the beginning of our presentations. Uh, the folks from SBC have to leave um probably before they would get to present if we were later in the meeting. So, if that's okay with everybody, like to go ahead and hear from those folks. Ray And additionally, real quick, uh, before Ray speaks, the agenda shows that their request is for $28,000. After I submitted the agenda to the county, um, Ry amended the request to $200,000.
That's correct. You you guys should all have the u revised agenda. actually um adjusted the entire ask by about $42,000 completion. So, Mr. Bear, we got you $8,000 back right away. Um again, Ray Palmer, uh 4323 White Leaf Court of Pensacola Sports, uh thank y'all for allowing us to to present ahead of them. Uh we do have the uh the leadership of the Sunb Belt Conference is here in town. uh they've been over at the bay center um uh reviewing some of the uh activity that's
going over there. So, they've been over there with Michael Caps uh looking at it, looking forward to the uh first year of our beginning of our our beginning new five-year contract. So, quickly, I'll kind of lay out how we got here. If you if you remember last meeting, um I reviewed with y'all that we had been uh provided as a a presentation and an opportunity for Escambia County uh to purchase the uh media rights um if you will for the title sponsorship
for uh the basketball championship, which that would run the five five-year um timeline as the basketball that we currently have the contract. and then a new uh uh component which is the um presenting sponsorship of the football championships. So what's in your package to kind of sum up and I know you've all had a chance to read it but what we did and you I was tasked I said y'all interested in learning more so we've gone out and learned more. So, what we've learned
is we hired a third uh party organization out of Cincinnati that has a a media value um program and they do this for all kind of events around the country and ask them to analyze what this looked like to us and they have provided that report to us that is in your package. Um it's very encouraging. Um and so you all have seen those numbers. So, I won't go over those numbers, but then we also asked um showcase um who is our local media agency to review the
um and this is the handout you just got because it was not in the original package that I had. It is an evaluation of what is the value of the hard dollar if we were to go or they were to go in a normal media buy situation and buy the assets of the advertising assets that the Sunb Belt Conference has u has offered us the 1532 spots in their broadcast and the 13 plus 13.5 million eyes
that would see those those advertisements and and etc and stuff like that. So the com and the uh combining those two values is what we're looking at is the ask of is this what does um the tourist development council recommend to the board to um engage in this five-year contract with the Sunb Belt Conference in a nutshell. There's nothing in it for Pensacola Sports. We're not we we will manage if if we are given the task to manage this contract. Um we will manage it
under the contract um that we currently have with our current staff. Um so uh there's nothing in it for showcase, there's nothing in it for visit. However you choose to direct um the board of county commissioners or they choose how to best contract this out or how it will be. But our ask is only for the dollars to purchase these media packages and these rights to these two uh to these two uh events. Uh and all that goes with it because there's a lot of land yap. They are from
New Orleans. There's a lot of land yap that goes with this that's going to add add value to the $4 million for the football game, the hundred for the basketball game, and the um and the other additional items. With that being said, I'm going to turn it over the commissioner of Sunbell Conference, Mr. Keith Gill, is here to just say a few words and then the deputy commissioner, Miss Kathy Keane, Dr. Kathy Keane, and I will will attempt to answer any specific questions you have to this presentation. Dr. Where'd he go? Oh, Keith Gil. Well, hello. Well, thanks so much. Um,
really appreciate the opportunity to visit with you. one, I I do on behalf of the Sunb Belt Conference and our chancellors, our presidents, our athletic directors, I just want to thank you um really for all your support. This has been a great partnership um with Escambia County, with Pensacola, um with the region. So, I've been the this is my seven I'm starting my seventh academic year um as the commissioner of the Sunb Belt. So, very excited about about that. And five of those well, and really I've completed six years. five of those years we've had our basketball championship in Pensacola and we've just um kind of re-up for another five years
so it'll be a total of 10 which is the longest we've been anywhere. Um this is home um this is family and um this is a really important um partnership to us and um and so it's really great to be in front of you today. I think with regards to um some of the things that Ry referenced that really is just an additional kind of enhancement of our partnership. I think at the end of the day, we certainly have been growing together in terms of visibility and um and and trying to build I guess a um a package of branding and sponsorship that's really good for everyone. I think one of
the interesting things about this is you know the 1500 events and and having kind of those two spots um in that spot is something we haven't done um for anybody and I don't think we would do that for anyone. um that really is something that we would kind of withhold only for special folks kind of doing that regular season inventory. I think also when you look at our football and kind of that reach on linear certainly some of the reach um of our basketball on linear it really is a great opportunity for us to kind of um expand the partnership. So I really do come here just
saying thanks so much. Um we really appreciate everything that um Pensacola has invested in the Sunb Belt. We really have um grown a lot in the five years um in that regard. look forward to another great five years and we certainly think um this partnership that Ray talked about or this enhancement to our partnership would would also be something that would be helpful to everyone. So, thank you. Great. Thank you very much. Any questions or comments, council?
So, and it might be a little early to ask this, but what would we be advertising? Are we saying, "Hey, bring your sports leagues here. We've got awesome facilities. Are we saying, "Hey, come vacation with us on Pensacola Beach." I I one we as you saw in the package, it says your logo here. We We don't We will have to decide do we want to put the visit Pensacola. Pensacola Sports does not market itself out of the market. Our mission is to to step work in step with Visit Pensacola. So,
whatever Showcase came up with, you know, we would t we have a contract with to showcase as well. We would come up with something that y'all all we all love and approve. Um, and so that message would be come to Pensacola because this is their footprint is very much our footprint of traditional tourism anyway. So this would be just an expansion an enhancement of of those uh communities if you will of those 14 universities um in and their alumni um and we would expand on that.
One of the uh kind of issues is and I don't want to call it an issue opportunities is they are currently building a new basketball court and they would paint our name if whatever name we decided we would live with for five years as opposed to a decal that would be more permanent and looking. So that's an opportunity that if we make the decision in the right time, give them the right message. If we say Pensacola the way to beach, if we that's what we want to live with for the next five years.
Pensacola sports doesn't care. This is only an opportunity for Escambia County to pick what it is we'd like to to have on on that. And some can change, but some things like the basketball court probably wouldn't change. That makes sense. And then under the total estimated value, um on the high end, we're at 190. I'm guessing that's annually and then you're asking for 200. Is there a negotiation room? Well, that 190 is only if we went out and bought the advertising. What you have to do is you have to add the earned media of 4 million for the football that is over
and above that. That is earned media outside and also on top of the 180 to 190. That's a hard dollar by estimate, but it does not include the again the land yap of things like being on their website every single day 365 promoting Pensacola. I'm just going to use that because I'm going to act like that's what we're going to use. Pensacola every single day year round to all of their schools and promoting that these are where the championships are and the sponsorships are.
uh as well as they've offered us an opportunity to have a Pensacola player of the week. Um that they would be a conference-wide player of the week. That would add to all of that 90. That 90 is kind of a hard dollar if we were just to go by those ads and that's all we got. So none of the blue sky. All the rest is over and above. Okay. Wonderful. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much. Please. The one point I wanted to add relative to painting the logo on the four versus the decals is as you
think about it, the one thing about the decal is that could change year-over-year depending on year one you might want to advertise one thing, year two you might want to advertise another. So I just say that as the the decal brings some flexibility and those work really well. Obviously we paint it on the court but that's permanent. And you know, as you think about how you're going to market or what you're going to do, being able to change it yeartoear might bring some flexibility that might be helpful, Mr. Chairman. Yes, sir. Council, so I guess my concern about this is just that, you know, we're already going to have Sunb Belt Conference here for 5 years. We have a
contract. I guess you're going to be here, right? Um whether or not the county becomes the sponsor or not. Did you want to say something, sir? Oh, no. I didn't have a question works. I didn't No, no, no, no. I have a question. um is that most of the projects we fund we have like a a tourism goal for it. Heads and beds or you know people coming spending money here. The other ones we have here are different than this. So my concern is that we're doing something that we don't typically do. I don't know of a I don't maybe this is a a model that other counties are doing, other cities
are doing where they're becoming the sponsor, but I see this more as a private thing. Typically, you know, you'd have like the tire company that did it before. Are we now stepping into an arena where a private entity would typically do this? It seems like we are. Um, and I'm just having a hard time wrapping them around myself my head around what the true benefit is. It's a $200,000 ass this year, but it's total of over a million over the five years. So, we have to look at that as well. And what is it? I understand there's there's there's media. There's we're going to have a decal. it's going to be on the website, but is that really going to give us the return,
a return that is going to be trackable um that we can go back to the people and say, "Yes, we did this and this is what it did for our community." I just don't know that. So, did you want to comment on that, sir? Uh be glad to. Um if you look at uh Fort Meyers um they are very much they own their basketball and um Myrtle Beach owns a basketball and a football championship bowl game. That is is their visit blank blank visit Myrtle Beach bowl game. Uh so it is very common especially in the
sports tourism industry nowadays uh to uh to get that name recognition out there. You're right. The measurable. This is one of the beauties quite frankly of my world, little niche world, is you guys know when they're in your restaurant because they're in their uniforms and they're, you know, you you see the kids in the uniforms. This is much more traditional marketing that, you know, it is harder to measure when you put an ad in Southern Living to know how many people returned from that. But it is part of a large broad mar marketing strategy. So it you're right it is
harder to do but it is very al also very commonly done. So in Fort Meyers do they have an agreement like this where they're sponsoring the Yes. Okay. They do. Yes. They have a basketball event that is the for visit Fort Meyers something and um and Myrtle Beach as well. And there are others that don't pop right ahead, but there are it is fairly common in our world for a city and especially a tourism agency to uh to be the uh visit to the title sponsor um for these types of events. Yes,
sir. Okay. And I guess my other concern is I know we're talking about decals, we're talking about ads, we're talking about all these different media things. And who at the county is going to manage that? Are they gonna, you know, you mentioned that you all would do it if they hired you, but or had you do they'd probably have to hire you to do that. I mean, I would think that there'd have to be some No, you would do it for free. We would do it. Well, we would do it within our contract because we already have a contract with Showcase and we and they already do our our marketing for out of marketing, okay, with the uh working with the messaging that visit Pensacola is working. So
if they're doing Pensacola the way to beach when we send out stuff for Sunb Belt Conference or the SEC women's soccer and we try to recruit these we use the Pensacola way to beach logo. they were to change, we change. And so we would do it and just we would manage uh showcases mission to say, "Okay, we need to focus this." But the onus on providing the reports is on those guys because they're getting the uh the dollars to run the media. We would approve the messaging that they do
and then they would provide us a list. Otherwise, the clerk of the court's not going to pay, right? And so and she has seen this contract and she's ready to help us write it so that we are getting what they need and they're fully aware that we can't cross fiscal years and that there's a certain amount of reporting that's going to be required of them to say you told us you were going to give us six ads. We need to see those six ads and and all of that data that will end up being on the Sunb Belt conference to provide that data. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you,
Mr. Chairman. Thank you. Any Shirley? Yes. Um Ray, um I have a question. Um where will the football championship be? It is held at um it is a non-neutral site. It's on campus somewhere. We don't know where that will be. It moves. Oh, okay. But on we will be presenting that football. um whatever we say visit Pensacola, but there we're presenting that out of market. So that's
priceless getting our name there. And and I think you saw on the layouts that they provided the logos where they would be where they would be 20, you know, the entire time of the football game as the guys running down the sidelines, you would see the Pensacola uh the way to Beach or whatever message we determined to put there and in a variety of different places, signage obviously on the logo itself of the tournament. So, every time they come into a TV ad or go out to a TV ad, however all that works, whatever the terminology is, you would see the
Sunb Belt Conference Championship football game presented by Nice, David. Yeah. Great. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? No. All right. Well, uh, so we have a request for $200,000. It's a five-year commitment, and you need the five-year commitment as presented in the the request. That's what we would like. And it it raises 2% every year. So, it is a little
bit of a a it's in your package. Yeah. So, it's a just as as Councilman Bayer said, it's a it's a little over a million dollars total for over that five years. And Pensacola Sports obviously can't sign that just like we could. This county will have to they can assign the responsibility but we can't sign that contract. Okay. All right. So gentlemen, can this one come from marketing? I don't know why you keep going over there, Stephan. You need to live up front.
I like living in my neck of the woods. So, um to uh so council councilman. So, this is actually an interesting um uh perspective. So, Rey actually came before council uh fall of 2024 and asked if some of the unspent dollars from his 2024 allocation from the TDC and that was approved by the board, could he set that into a special reserve? So, if you look on what I provided to each of you, you'll see $250,000 there for the
uh Pensacola Sports Reserve. So, that is where this would come from. Now, if Ry agrees, uh whatever he doesn't spend each year would go toward the cost of this. Um so, this year he's got 250. So, if he's only spending two, he'll have 50,000. and whatever he contributes next year um once his 2025 PO is closed. That is how I would propose to fund this based on that particular mechanism that council previously agreed to. Okay. Thank you. What happens if he doesn't
have that much? Then where would the the balance come from? So, at that point, I think we would uh either need to come back to council or council council could uh give me the discretion to take these funds maybe at fund balance time or or or some other uh direction. Do you need a motion for this? I make a motion to approve the funding. Um do we need to say which category that comes from Pensacola Sports with giving you the authority to change it if necessary or something like that? Um,
I would say uh maybe for a motion uh proposed to fund this with the annual Pensacola Sports uh reserve that are residual funds from the closing of the prior fiscal year's purchase order for Pensacola Sports Association. In the event that is not enough, uh then funds would be uh to to to make it whole based on that that five-year marketing or funding plan. um that those funds would come from fund balance first, then the rest of it would be applied to
uh the uh unified budget carry forward. Okay. Um I know that was a little bit Is that your motion? That's my motion. I'll second it. I'll second it as a motion. Thanks for your motion. As long as I have to repeat it. Yeah. So, we do have a motion and a second. Uh is there debate or discussion? Uh so question about I I have one question uh about if the funds um have to come from the unified budget carry forward. Are we talking about just the percent of uh Pensacola Sports? It
would be the difference between whatever was left on the prior year's purchase order that were unspent dollars. um whatever that delta is to to match those five funding periods would be the difference. Whatever Ray doesn't spend compared to that that would be taken off first and then everything else happens after that. Right. But so if the other agencies in the unified budget don't spend it won't be applied to this. Okay. I just want to make sure that we're clear. All right. Any other comments? Hearing none. Uh call for the vote. Will you please call the role?
Matish Patel, yes. James Reeves, yes. Ashley Hoffber, yes. Shirley Cronley, yes. David Bear, yes. Brad Mullenex, yes. Charles Bear, here. Yes. Sorry. Jennifer, Jennifer Breer, yes. And Jason Nicholson, yes. 90. Great. Uh, motion carries. Thank you very much. Appreciate the uh SPC folks for being here. Commissioner, thank you. All right. Uh good work. Uh next item
on the agenda is Pensacon. Adessie Andy here. Oh, there you are. The bright lights on the stage. Welcome Hello, my name is Andy Treham with Pensacon. Uh, for those of you who have not heard me speak before, I am not good at this. That's why I run a comic book convention so I don't have to be in front of people. Um, but and on top of that, my laptop got the blue screen of death and is in the
shop right now. So, I feel like I'm also coming missing an appendage. Um, I unfortunately could not be at the last meeting. For those of you who are unaware, Pensacono is run by two and a half people. The half person being a part-time person. We all work two to three other jobs and unfortunately I could not get the time off. Um there were some questions and I did go back and answer them. I believe that information is in front of you as well as the visit survey finally came in and um there was some questions about whether or not we put more heads in beds and I
believe the visit survey says that we did in 2025. I and again I had all this on my laptop. I believe one of the questions was our um members our our fan base has gone down in the last couple years. Um, one of the reasons I am now a partner in Pensacon is because during his 10th anniversary, uh, he overspent COVID. He did not rebound after COVID. Um, prices did not go down. The Grand did
not reopen um, due to the hurricane. Expenses went up. We moved almost all the hotels out to the beach. uh NSFree has been a great partner and has made it so that Pensacon can continue. I realized there were other questions and I believe one of them and this is again off the top of my head so I do apologize. I can feel my voice shaking. Um was why I signed the contract a day late. Uh I had called and to go over my grant for 2024 or 2025, sorry. and um found out that I did not have
to be a nonprofit. Looking at the paperwork, I thought I had to be a nonprofit. And so I had not originally been planning on asking for money as we are not a nonprofit. When I found out I could, I immediately filled the paperwork out and got it in. Uh a comment was made by this board, a member of this board, that we needed to work harder. I work three jobs. I'm also a single parent. I was personally offended by being told I needed to work harder. We are pulling Pensacon together
and keeping it going. There are two and a half of us that work to bring in over $3 million to downtown Pensacola. We have continued to grow. We overspent. We know that. And we are recovering. But the recovery did not come overnight. And I don't want to lose Pensacon to Pensacola. and it's why I was willing to invest my own money in it. So, I stand here to ask you guys to reconsider the 180,000 that would hopefully it goes down. I did watch the last year's it does go
down from the year before which is part of the paperwork and I am hoping that after this year to not have to be able to not have to come and ask for more money next year. I think that's it. Thank you. [Laughter] I needed that. Thank you. That was perfect timing. He's barking at you. No. Thank you, Andy. Any comments or questions? Councilman Bear, I'll start. Mr. Chairman, so I
I made a lot of comments about Pensacon and I may have made the comment about working harder. Um, I did read your response to staff and you said this was harder than filling out your mortgage application. That is correct. I also filled out a car loan. I have paid since paid off, but that was also easier. Well, you know, I've done a mortgage. I've done this application because I have a nonprofit that I run and there's a lot to it, but there's a lot of numbers you left off. I mean, there are metrics you left off. Um, I don't It would have been nice to have your 2024 tax return,
too. I imagine that's probably done. Maybe not. I don't know. It's not done yet. It's not done. Okay. um you know according to your application you all had a big loss in 2024 was like 250,000 then that's when you came to TDC asked us to fill in the gap and um it looks like for the current year that you're about $189,000 positive is that have you realized that yet or because we we are not if you look at the uh updated budget part of the problem is when I have to get this information in I'm still getting numbers in because of the way because PensON goes in February
um we actually I believe cleared somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 this year. Okay. So, so far you're 50. Is that what you think you're going to end up as? 50. That is what it's looking at. I um I'm 90 I never want to say 100% when it comes to numbers, right? Um but I'm 90% positive that that's about what we cleared. Um we are now using ticket sales for 2026, which I'm not a big fan of, to keep going. Okay. Um, and I just have to say, I mean, we're under immense pressure in government,
elected government officials, especially. I mean, we've got appointed up here, too. The city's being visited by Doge right now. Um, these are public dollars. So, you and there's others. There's another one that we're talking about today. I think these are technicalities, but these are public dollars. We have to make sure they're spent appropriately. Um, you know, last thing I want is is someone to come in and say, "Well, you all didn't make sure this is being spent appropriately." I'd rather have the county commission take the fall for that than us.
You know, they can do it. If they want to fund it, they can. Um, that's their choice. We are just a recommending group, but they're public dollars. Um, you know, on pages seven and eight of your application, you bother to put any numbers in for the metrics. I mean, you put the what the metric was, but but you put no numbers, which I apologize again. I don't have my laptop in front of me. Is that the new one we submitted? I'm not I'm not Yeah, I've got the re Well, it's it's what I was given is the revised one, but it still doesn't have numbers on page seven and eight for the
um number two. Please list the goal performance measures. There's no number there. There's no numbers in the next one. You have what the items are, but not the not the numbers. I then I didn't have the numbers. I'm not willing to make numbers up. And I think if if some Well, I mean, you have to have a baseline of what you did. I mean it was for the prior fiscal year so I don't know how you would not have those numbers but anyway um in your application you also indicated you would work hard work work on finding more sponsors which we have been doing and has lowered what we have need to ask for I don't see that in your budget I don't see sponsors or
an increase in sponsors in your income so where would I find that we or we have added water as a sponsor which we did in sorry 2025 because we're talking about 2026 Now, um we had thought we had a couple of local sponsors and what we were told when I approached them is we'll do well the weekend of Pensacon whether we sponsor or not and they backed out. Okay. Um unfortunately, I've heard that a few times recently. It's very disheartening. I don't think people sometimes
understand how much it takes to put on Pensacon. Um, I was talking to somebody recently and they were like, "What do you mean you fly the guest in? They don't just come in for free. They don't just come in for free." So, sponsors, the couple that we had hoped were going to come in. We're like, "Oh, no. We're going to be busy that weekend. We don't need to sponsor." Okay. Um, and on page 10, you asked about discrepancies in financial statements. Um, and you talked about I didn't see
the financial statements. There were no financial statements in there. there were tax returns, but um I think there's some discrepancy over whether I mean we always have to submit financial statements for our 501c3 when we do this application. I didn't see financial statements, but you said that uh some about cash payments that you're working on that and so I'm as wondering how much do you do with cash payments? So when you bring a celebrity in they have what's called a guarantee. Okay. One of the reasons I cannot submit financials is because we also have to sign non-disclosures
for those celebrities. Okay. So, let's say Mr. Bear is my celebrity and he says, "I will come to Pensacon for two first class tickets for myself and my guest pium and a $50,000 guarantee which I want in cash." That $50,000 guarantee can be made by autographs and photographs. So, Mr. Bear signs at $50 a pop, however many autographs, but then we find that he's 20,000 short. Pensacon pays
that 20,000. Most celebrities have written in and I am trying to get that changed in many of the contracts because I am myself and the accountant are not fans of paying that kind of cash out. We have to give them the cash. They want it in cash and not in check. What was the source from that? would be like we pull it out of our bank account or um ticket sales, merchandise sales. Okay. Because it's not something you could really take out of this money, I don't think. No, there's no way to take it out of this money. Okay. No. Okay. Thank you. Is that answer your I mean
I'm not sure I answered your No, it does. Okay. Councilman, thank you. Um, thanks for coming. Um, I have a question. So, as you've ebbed and flowed, do y'all's salaries eb and flow? um or do they stay consistent? Because I there was a I was a little bit confused on looking at the tax returns. I we at the beginning of I want to and I and I apologize. It's killing me not having my laptop. At the beginning of 20 I want to say this right. 2025 was February 2020. So the beginning
of 2024 there was actually four of us on staff. One of them uh got published as an author and decided it was time for him to leave and we did not replace him because the budget would not allow it and maintain the other salaries at the same rate. Correct. Um if you look I believe we had to list out the salaries and I apologize Mr. Bear might be able to tell you I think you're looking at it what page it was on. You'll find that um two of us are working for page nine. It's the same
amount every year. Yeah, it Yeah, I mean we lost somebody and that was we didn't replace them. So, and um minimum wage went up and one the part-timer works for minimum wage. So, that might have been without again I apologize with that in front of me. I was really looking at the top salary wondering the more on top whether that was ebbing and flowing with profit. It it is not. Thank you. So, for the um celebrities that are coming in that you're paying with cash,
are you 1099ing those people or are you how how are you accounting for that? We account our accountant accounts for it. Um I don't have the answer to that question. Okay. Thank you. I apologize. I It's a way all the conventions do it which is why they want cash. Tish, do you know if you ticket-wise, did you sell more or less tickets from 2024 and 25? We believe that we sold more and I again I without the numbers in front of me,
I'm 90% positive we sold more. What's going on is because we've moved all the panels and I don't know if you guys have any questions. If I say something that makes absolutely no sense to you, please stop me. We moved all the panels. We used to be spread out at um PLT and the Rex and we moved them all to uh the Methodist church's facility. When we did that, we what we found is not everybody is going through the Bay Center and our ticket our counts are at the Bay Center.
So everybody who walks through that we count are at the Bay Center. What we found this year um is there are some people who didn't go to the Bay Center. they just stayed in the complex because there was food over there and gaming and some other things. So, um the ticket sales were up a little bit, but overall it looks like the counts were down because we've made it so they don't have to travel. And that was a bad side effect that we're trying to
remedy because we want them to come to the Bay Center. And then on tickets, is it I don't think it was in the application. How's your pricing on tickets? Is it like a one day or two day or you have options or how we we do options. So, we do a we do a three-day pass, we do a two-day pass, and we do a one-day pass and then children under 11 are free. And this year we're actually doing I don't know how many of you followed but uh the real Rudy from Rudy is coming and we're actually going to do a athletic pass. Try to get some of the students in. So that would be a separate that
would be an additional pass they'd have to pay for. Okay. Thank you. No, I mean not additionally to a ticket. It would be its own ticket. Okay. I'm not I don't think I answered your question, Mr. Patel. Yeah, I'm just trying to understand it. There wasn't a whole lot of information as far as ticket sales and what how much tickets are and then 2024 25 it didn't show. We did not up the price for the tickets. We upped the price between 2023 and 2024. Um what we're finding is as I and it's one of the reasons why I've pushed outside marketing. The city of Pensacola itself,
our population can only spend so much on tickets. So, and that's one reason I'm here is we upped our heads and beds. I mean, that from the visit um survey, we up the heads and beds. And one of the reasons that I wanted to do that, and I believe we talked about this last year, is because we need to bring money into Pensacola. And looking at the visit um survey, I believe we did. So, just following up on his question, you don't have a count from the number of tickets that you sold.
Do you depend on the counters going in and out of the No, I do. And again, that's not having I keep looking for my laptop to go the numbers were and I so I I apologize. Like I I would be lost without my computer as well. I guess I it could not have happened on a worse day. Well, it could have it could have happened the day of Pensacon. So, because I feel bad. I feel like there's a lot of questions Mr. Bear has that I probably could have answered better if I was looking at it. So, Mr. to Charles. I will say and before you got involved with Pensacon, um your counterparts used to come
to visit Pensacola's grant committee which I'm on and we used to use Pensacon as the golden child to compare you guys to. So if anybody said what should application look like, we'd say it should look like Pensacons. Um and then the turnout that Pensacon had, we say the turnout should be like Pensacons. Unfortunately, this past year was probably for my own hotels was the worst turnout we've seen for Pensacon. Um, I'm not I don't know why. I know the numbers say they they are and from your application they had the email address down and I wrote all that down because my next stop
is them and I'm going to ask them how they get their data to show who comes to these and how do they show that a specific number of percentage is from out of town because I really think the numbers are off that uh I will say um one of the things that we're finding is because we've moved the celebrities out to the beach uh and only because the downtown hotels wouldn't work with Um, I believe it was you that commented on Oyster Bay not being sold out last year, which I find odd because um, when I looked because I had to come here and ask for money. I chose not
to use them because their rooms were um, between 800 and a,000 a night uh, where our average rate at the beach is 160 a night. But I did check this year and their Saturday and Sunday Pensacon are already sold out. So, I don't know what happened last year. I don't know. Maybe people canceled. I don't have an answer, but I do know that the most of our people who are giving us um rates to send out and emails are downtown hotels and the beach hotels. Um and those are the ones people seem to
be leaning towards in the hopes of getting to stay in the same hotel with the celebrities. I'm sorry, I don't mean to talk. It's in around. Um so I think that whereas before when they were we were keeping the people at the grand um nobody really cared where they stayed the uh two of the hotels this year offered a discounted rate to our exhibitors too which is something they have not done before and that might have been why you didn't see a bump and others did um because I
know this year uh last year we had six hotels submit uh discounted rates and they've already all reached out to Julio to um do it again. So, I don't know if maybe that's affecting it, but I know from calling around trying to get extra hotel rooms. We had um somebody who was not happy with where they were staying, I had a very hard time. I was on the phone calling to find a hotel room for all three nights. So, any other comments, questions? Let's make one more. So, back to the
salary question. Y I mean, for the last three years, it shows in your expenses table $184,79, no change. Um, your current salaries, what you show in your application is $181,778 with hiring a fourth position with the remaining what? $2,931. I I don't, you know, when I say work harder, I just mean make sure we have the information we need to make a decision. Uh, you know, I'm not saying you're not working hard. I'm not saying PensCon's not a good thing. And I think it
has been a great thing in our community. It seems like it's waned past couple years. Maybe CO did a huge number to it. They over spent. Um, and now we're asked to kind of bail you out is kind of what it's looked like. And I'm very confident that what I see here gives me enough confidence to want to fund you this year. So that's that's my concern. That's fair. So thank you. Councilwoman, that was my concern about the and why I asked about the salaries because it seems to me if
you're taking a hit and you're restructuring and things have been troubled that since you are saying you're a for-profit, right? Then those that are running it take the hit also. And and I'm I I understand people there are part- timerrs and there's people for a lot less pay, but there's a fairly I mean there's there's a fairly substantial salary in there, especially for this area. So, it seems like if you're coming and asking for money to revitalize something that
I mean these are tough times really and truly we're all everyone sees these as tough times and so everyone would kind of tighten their belt a bit and that actually was what disappointed me is that I didn't see any of that. Um, a lot of these have a lot of these nonprofits who do the work and put on stuff. I'm just going to be honest. No one's taking a salary. They're doing it for, you know, for a cause. And, you know, some are, but they tend to be fairly tempered. And so, that was
a little bit troublesome to me that I didn't see a tightening with the um with the needs, just to be sure. And that that is my concern a little bit there. So, I don't know if we should um maybe we should tighten the belt, you know, and if we do want to grant part of this, maybe lessen the amount. Um I'm not sure, but it's just a consideration that I wish you guys would talk about a little bit. Thank you. Any other comments, questions?
Uh, I I would like to say thank you, um, Andy, uh, the work you and Mike, um, and Julio were doing to bring this event to Pensacola. I know you've just gotten involved with it, um, or at least in the ownership piece of it more recently. Uh, and I appreciate your commitment to trying to help bring it back to its sort of heyday, if you will. And I don't mean that it's not, but obviously there's been struggles over the last couple years, whether that's co uh or or what. Uh
and obviously Scambia County has seen the benefit of this event. Um, we've definitely I mean, as I was not on the visit Pensacola committee, um, but I heard that sentiment a lot that PensCon, uh, is doing it right and, um, they're making the impact. And so to continue that commitment, uh, sometimes it needs help. The things eb and flow, things change. Um maybe you had a great
uh you know famous person that was coming but uh like well known but maybe not well-liked and that can affect things. It does or they do something right before they get here affects things. You'd be amazed what affects things, right? So there's things that are outside of your control uh that can affect events. Um I want to make a joke about the 50,000 to come see me. I don't think that'll ever happen, but um I do want to say I do I can't make a joke about it. I get I get really really
nervous, but I do appreciate all of you guys and the job you guys are helping us do. Um I also want to thank the Bay Center. Um we couldn't do it without them. It's, you know, it's a partnership that they are amazing people to work with. Um and I wish Mr. Patel would see more heads in his beds. Well, and speaking of the Bay Center, I know um you know, Love Mike, he complains every year after it about the capacity at the Bay Center and what are we going to do? Uh and it's not the Bay
Center's fault, obviously. I think they do the best they can with within the the four corners, right? I I do I do 150 of these a year all over the country. Um they do an amazing job. They go far far surpass anybody else, right? So, we need more capacity to bring more people to put more heads and beds to spend more money in our community. And obviously, this council has been talking uh and the county and the city are in talks uh about expanding the the Bay Center and doing some improvements. So, hopefully in time whenever that happens,
uh these will be opportunities to help benefit you guys uh in your business, too. So, sure. I'd like to get it all to the Bay Center so that we don't have to keep moving people right from place to place. Um so with that there is a request um and we'll entertain a motion. Do we believe that they brought 8,750 people in 2025? I have Yeah, we can hear my friend. They can't hear. Do we believe
that they brought 8,000 and some odd people in 2025? I I believe it. If you've ever been downtown during uh Pensacon, good luck trying to get through traffic and just the people walking. I believe so. Yes. The next request is for 250,000 and they bought 3,300. You know, I just wonder if we kind of keep the ratio to the amount in any way. That's all. I make a motion that we fund as
requested for Pensacon this year at the 180,000. Right. Thank you. We have a motion. Is there a second? I second. We have a second. Is there any more debate or discussion? Jason, Mr. Mr. Chairman, just one topic um or one thing. Uh on your your forecasted financials, you're showing uh proform of profit, if I'm reading this correct, of $19,000. Is that accurate? I'm sorry. On your on your financial um forecast in your application. For 2026, you're showing a proforma or forecasted
profit of $19,000. Does that sound right based on your memory? Approximately. But that's everything. Oh, thank you so much. What you Yes, that is Yes, that is correct. Um, well, just as a matter of discussion, I would not support or endorse um an allocation that would uh provide a profit margin of $19,000. And my recommendation would be to reduce the allocation uh to $161,000 uh to make it a break even event and give the
event an opportunity for future years. I'd like to offer that as a substitute motion. You accept the the amendment to the motion? I do. And who made the second? Mr. Mr. Reeves, do you accept that for your second? substitute motion. Okay. So, we have a substitute motion. Um, I'm not a parliamentarian, so if we vote in favor,
then do we So, we have a substitute motion. We vote whether we want to accept the substitute motion and then we vote on the substitute motion. Okay. All right. So is we have the substitute motion. Is there any other discussion? Call for the vote. If you would call the role, please substitute mot. On the substitute motion. Matish Patel. Yes. James Reeves. No. Ashley Hoffberger, yes. Shirley Cronley,
yes. David Bearer, no. Brad Mullenex, no. Charles Bayer, no. Jennifer Breer, yes. Jason Nicholson, yes. Was the final vote? I think it pass. Five to four. Five to four. Five to four in favor. Yes, sir. Five to four. Motion carries. Yes, sir. So, that is funding uh Pensacon at $161,000,
right? Thank you, Andy. And I apologize. I'm not a parliamentarian. Thank you, Mr. Reeves. Chairman, does that does that come out of the special reserve special event reserve? Is that what where that will come? Yeah, I believe so. Yes. That's a nod back there. That's a nod from Stephan. A thumbs up from Stephan. All right. Next item. What's that? That motion was much shorter than my motion.
Uh, next item is uh Pensacola Martyra. Danny Hannah, come on up. All right, thank you all. This volunteer job is very complicated uh for Pensacola Migra. So, we were um we basically missed the deadline with all of our stuff for the last time and so we're back asking for this 250,000 for the third year for our 501c4. We've presented most everything.
I'm happy to answer any questions. The grant has really allowed Marty Gro to grow. Uh this past year we were able to document over a 100red million impressions. Um this coming year we have a short season. Several things affect that uh of interest. Um we were we've had a couple meetings with the city. There's a contemplated closing of Palifox Street that we're going to have to deal with for our season. So, we really need to educate the public. This grant would go
a long way for that. Something very interesting happened last year in the heat of the battle. Uh, NPR St. Louis ran an article in St. Louis that called St. Louis Marty Gro the second biggest in the country. And that caused Pensacola NPR to get with us and come out and do a segment on our uh Mardigra weekend. And now we are being contacted by folks all over the country who
want to talk about it and and promote that which one is the biggest and is St. Louis lion which of course we want to make sure they are. So we want the opportunity to do that. We um we have I think we've turned in everything. We got our down St. Germaine study just for the weekend. Uh you all have that I think uh give or take 11,000 hotel rooms. 66% of the people that were here from out of town say they came for Mardigra. That's interesting because obviously we
had a little bit of a conflict with another event last year that uh TDC actually helped fund. So we're very proud of all that. We want to grow uh we want to grow martyro continue to grow. It has actually allowed us to increase sponsorships. We are not fully harvested that yet, but 100 million impressions gets a lot of people's attention and we've talked with folks. But the complication for us is the tax year, the grant year and martyra season all have these crazy overlap deals. So,
our grant gets us an advance. We ship that advance to the Mambbo artist almost entirely. Uh, and that event doesn't happen until the next calendar year, making all of this very, very complicated for us. So, I think we've given you everything. I'll answer any questions. Um, we we are down St. Germaine said on that on Martyra weekend, we had over 150,000 uh unique attendees. It's a It's a ton of folks. We think it's great for our community. We think it's a
great attraction and we hope we bring everybody to every hotel, every merchant, the beach. We we hopefully we cover the waterfront as they say. So, I'll answer any questions or take any bullets. Do you know how many out of town crews you guys had this past year or out of town? What the crews that come in? Crews. So, multiple events. Multiple events have different amounts of
people that come. We uh I don't Tish I don't have a real number frankly like a guest. We had a couple of bus loads of people that came for the mambbo from one from Mobile, one from Buxy might have even been two from Buxy. Um so but I can't really we don't count them you know obviously. So and then this study does not include balls Martyra balls which have
really really grown over the years. We now uh can identify somewhere between 22 and 25 balls that happen. Next year is a very short season, six weeks. Uh the grand parade is on Valentine's Day, February the 14th. Uh Fat Tuesday is the 17th. So we we also want to keep downtown alive during that season. And then we're going to deal with potentially the paving situation if it all comes together. I think we're waiting for the bids is what city's telling me. So that decision is not
going to really be made until sometime around no November, early December. So it's going to move fairly fast. Uh so we and we want to support downtown businesses, Pensacola folks, and bring people in from out of town, have a great time, and hopefully they'll come back hopefully to the Sunb Belt basketball tournament. So I'm happy to answer any questions, other comments, questions, Tish. Oh, Tam. Well, first off, I did not like that glare he keeps giving us about Palifox Street.
Just saying. Um, just the city, that's all. Y'all have something to do with the city. That's number one. Number two, where will the parade be? Not decided. It'll be downtown, an alternate route. We're we're discussing that. And of course, it's a complicated recipe with uh closing streets uh with Department of Transportation giving you a permit to close the state roads at at appropriate times.
We also had a very uh last year I meant to say it, but the last year, you know, obviously the fiscal year grant fiscal year starts October 1st. The New Year's Day or New Year's Eve tragedy in New Orleans caused a tremendous amount of extra security for Pensacola. Um that cost was frankly this year absorbed by the city. Thank you all very much. Uh but we we know that we're going to have to the route is going to have to be handled properly this coming year. And what that means,
we'll have to just figure it out together with PPD uh and the state department of transportation. So, with the shortened season and Valentine's Day in play, I mean, how much are you expecting a reduction in last year, for example, or the year before? Well, we're always overly optimistic. So, we're hoping not much. We hope we we're hoping to continue to grow, candidly. Um, we have more interest from people. We've never had the kind of questions we're being asked. Uh
I I mean I could tell 25 stories. Uh somebody stops me in Publix with a 504 purple, green, and gold hat on and says, "Aren't you that guy?" And I want to tell you we love it and whatever whatever more people are coming. I mean I get we get those kinds of things all the time. I hope we are able to the grant would allow us to try to at least be as good as ever and maybe hopefully continue to grow. There is a be which year? This is year of the grant. This will be the third. And
so we have we because she did lower her grant uh prior to just a because of the reduction of is it 5% each year is what we have said for the five years that's that application is being changed because that was I get that but this is other programs within the county that wasn't tourism. Okay. because they reduced theirs, she said, by the 5%, didn't she? Are you talking about Andy with PensCon? You talking Well, last year they asked for significantly more, right? Um,
5%. So, this is year three. This would be year three of a grant. This is actually our 25th year of doing Marty Gro. We're going to add I kind of know that part of it. We're going to add a little something hopefully this year to help this community celebrate that. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thanks, Danny. Um I I want to thank you for having a thorough application and I think you're one of the only ones that I saw that actually filled out the annual narrative form. I love reading that because it gives me some background and
you you know and there you mentioned the other event, the foiling week that took place during the same time. It is interesting. Over 60% of the people were here because of your event and not for foiling. The community's event. Say again. Not my event, the community's event. Well, I understand. I understand. But everybody knows you're Mr. Marty Gro. So, um, you know, and as I look at this and we look at other requests we get that have much much fewer people, much much lower economic impact. I think your economic impact is like 11 million estimated. Um,
you know, that that's huge. I mean, there are so many people come here from Marty Gro. I can't imagine not uh funding this. Um I do have concerns about this. Call the question. Uh hold on. I have concerns about security. I've talked to the mayor about this and I know that with what happened in New Orleans, we're more concerned. I know like even with Gallery Night, we're doing the Ballards now. Hopefully part of the upgrade to Palifox will be new ballards. It's going to be very um it's going to be a real challenge. Whatever we do with Palifox is going to be a challenge. repaving will
be the least challenging just if we repave. But if some of the things that we've seen on council that could happen, replacing sidewalks and the like, which I'm not sure if we can accomplish that with funds available, that could really have some some impacts. Um, so I'm hopeful that, you know, we get the right solution there, but you know, I I think 250 is low personally for what you do. Um, and I'm glad, you know, you're comfortable with that, but I think in the future, you know, with security, there may be an ask from the city to share in some of those costs. Um, so I I don't
know where that's going to go. Um, but I wouldn't be surprised based on the popularity and the growth of of Marty Gro if the number goes higher. And I would be I would be supportive of that. But I, you know, that's all I have to say about that. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, council member Bayer, the the economic study that Down St. Germaine did was actually the weekend and so the that weekend was huge. The narrative we talked about uh offered some estimates for the entire season. We are in
discussions subject to a positive vote today. We are in discussions with down St. Germaine to try to help us figure out the season long impact in a better way. Uh to count balls and trips and all those sort of things. So we we hope to keep growing and the next generation is here and you know we hope to continue to to for this to last forever somehow or another. I can't last forever.
Commissioner. Wonderful. And I just want to echo it is a small dollar amount for what you bring to the community. So, thank you for that. But maybe one of the things that we all should think about is there corresponding expected nights that go along with the dollar ask. So, what is the maximum amount we're willing to give per night stay? Um, just so when we go through all of this next time, maybe we have better parameters. So, thank you. We're super excited to continue. Yeah. I have no idea how to but I'm happy to try to figure it out. No, no, no. Not for you. For us. I think
when it comes to that, we need to look at just to make sure that we are giving the right amount to the right events. What is our minimum standard on that? Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make a motion that we approve the $250,000 request and take the funds from the special events reserve if we're allowed to. Are we not allowed to? Hold on. There there is a motion and there is a second. Sorry, this microphone doesn't work. Do we have another source? I'm not telling them not to give you any money. So, um, uh, council members, so I did want to propose this. So, in,
um, the Migar application, 140,000 is for marketing. So, what I would propose is let's take 140,000 out of the marketing reserve and then the 110,000 out of the special event. Okay. Uh, I'll revise my motion that we approve the request, take 140,000 out of the marketing reserve and 110,000 out of the uh, special events reserve. Right. And the second stands. Yeah. As it was I couldn't remember who did it. Thank you. So, we have a motion and a second. Uh, is there
any further debate or discussion comments? Does that the 140 coming out of marketing, does that restrict them to specifically use that 140 only for marketing? Yes. And you guys be okay with that? That was in their budget. That's what Steph It's in our budget. I I believe that works. We'll figure it out somehow. All right. Um Yeah. I Well, I have some questions. Um I wasn't ready for the motion, but it came. No, that's okay. This is a perfect opportunity. We only use one kind of beer. Um, so in your in the uh down St. Germaine report, it talks about the audience was
151. It actually said like 196,000. We estimated that for the season. Uh, for the season. So, how do you come up with that number? I mean, there's not 196,000 people at the parade. So, uh, we actually talk with multiple folks. So we have a little committee that we split up folks both bars, restaurants, police, hotels, that sort of thing. And we try to call folks and and get
estimates and we then as sit around and discuss that and come up with what we think are the estimates. So generally the police department provides the majority of that information. So that you said these numbers come from just that weekend, not the whole season. The down St. Germaine study this year did. Correct. So that's the 196,000. They said 150 are unique visitors. 150 is the weekend. 151 is that weekend. 190 was our estimate for the rest of the season. Okay. So
151,000 unique visitors or visitors. And it said 40% were from out of town. a third uh 60 66% 40% of attendees were from out of county visitors. So 60,900 out ofount attendees, 90,100 locals. Um so I I'm just trying to understand where these numbers because it says 151,000 unique attendees. Um, and I'm just trying to figure out what were all of the events and things that they because
that's a large number of people. That's half of Scambia County in total. So, I am assuming you have our full package in front of you and there's a page in there that gives the big events and it talks about the estimated attendance range for each one of those and the number of participants in each one. Okay, it's in there. It's about page five or six or something. Well, I'm on my phone. I don't have my in front of me, so I can't see them right now. Um, okay.
Who does this count? Who provides this number to of participants and uh attendees? Yes. Do you guys provide that number to down your main? We gather it from multiple sources and then we do send it to them. Okay. I think every event producer does I think that's the standard for that. I think I know it is for us is coming up with the audience size. Yes. Through generally
I know a lot of events do ticket sales etc. And that's an easy way to do it. I'm sorry. That's okay. That's all right. Hannah. No, she was reminding me what were did you ask something? Well, no, I was just saying a lot of events have that are ticketed have ticket sales so that it's easy to count. When you have an out outdoor uh parade up and down, you know, downtown streets, it's hard to get to a count. So, I'm just curious how that count happened. Well, and and other other special events that are public events. So, down St. Germaine has people on the
ground surveying folks at that entire weekend and they we we also did that was reminded we talked with them about their attendance estimates from the people on the ground that were here as well. So it's just multiple sources. I I'm not positive it's completely super scientific, but I would be willing to bet we underestimated some a lot of cases, frankly. Okay. All right. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none,
we'll call for the vote. Thank you, Philip. Will you call the role? Say here. Charles Bear is here. Still here. Matish Patel, yes. James Reeves, yes. Ashley Hoffber, yes. Shirley Cronley, yes. David Bear, yes. Brad Molenex. Yes. Charles Bayer. Yes. Jennifer Breer, Jason Nicholson, yes. That was a yes. Yeah. I just did it so he wouldn't be the only one. Okay.
Motion carries. Nine to zero. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dana. Danny. Thank you, Hannah. All right. Uh, next item on the agenda, GF Coast Jazzfest. William Cadillac Banks. I see you back there hiding. Come on down. Is that Commissioner May back there? I see you back hiding. What's up? He's hiding. He's
hiding. My name is William Banks, promoter of um the G Coast Summerfest Jazz Edition. Um, really to be honest about it, I have been doing a whole lot of research lately. Um, let and I ain't going to take up much of y'all time because I know y'all ready to go. Um, for all the ones that not going to vote for it, I'm good with that as well. But I have been doing a whole lot of um research and my research has consist of what is required
to request TDC dollars by statute and by ordinance and I have discovered some interesting stuff but I don't want to go through that because I want um council Charles to ask me his get his questions out and everybody to get their questions then I will present mine. Any question council? I do have the ordinance for Ski County. You have I got all the ordinance articles
and everything regarding to his development. Okay. So, okay, that's fine. Get get your question. Yeah, I'll start. Let's ride. Um, so I saw the the response from you, the two responses from you. I'm glad that was included in our packet so I could see what your issues were. Um, and I also saw the response, I think, from the the group that did your um the evaluation of your event, you know, and one of my issues was that in your application, you said you had 3,200 total attending the event.
You stated that 2,800 were total were non-Escambia County residents, which last time I I mean, it's been a long time since I've had math, but I just subtracted 2,800 from 3200, and that's where I got the 400 that were from Escambia County. I know that the group that did your evaluation said that wasn't correct, but based on the numbers I saw on the application, there was only 400 Escambia County residents that attended. Well, you know, um they the one that does those surveys, right? Um I
don't do the surveys. Um and he also sent a letter saying if there was any issues with those surveys that he'd be personally willing to um Who does the application? Do you do the application or they Well, I put in the numbers kind of based on what I see. Sometime they are projections. Sometime they can get, you know, scattered. Okay. You know, because the way this the way this thing has worked when you start looking at these numbers, what's most important to me about this event? Are them bringing people into Pensacola, right? Are they staying in these hotels? Are they eating in these
restaurants? Are they shopping at Walmart and leaving their dollars here? That's important to us as well. Yeah. That's the only thing I'm not concerned about my taxes or financial statement. What I'm concerned about in trying to impress this board upon and I've been doing this for eight years and I so I have convinced the county that I am bringing these people in here that we we have to be concerned about that. I want I want you to be concerned about it but I want you to know I mean every time I turn around I got new people on this board. Okay. I want you to be concerned but I also want you to take the time and come down and see for yourself. So it's easy. It's easy
to sit here and judge an event that you never attended. Commissioner May back there. I think he's back there. I get commissioners come to this event. They see all these people coming in from all over the country. That's what tourism is all about. Right. Okay. So you want to scrutinize my numbers like you said and you laugh about it. I was offended by it. I was offended by which so I'm to I'm to a point now whether you guys want to fund it. It's okay with me cuz I feel
that I didn't did put my blood, sweat, and tears in trying to get people to come to Escami County. You see what I'm saying? I mean, it's hard work. If you never did this job, you have no idea. I I run a nonprofit, so I know what it's like to run a nonprofit. This is not a nonprofit. This is a jazz festival dealing with a whole lot of different personnel. I used to I used to I used to use Keith Pensacola. Beautiful. Yeah. Let me ask you a question then. So, you charge $150 for a three-day
ticket. I don't see that anywhere reflected in your um your budget. I thought it was in there. Where is I thought it was in that package. I don't have it in front of me, but I thought I saw it. I saw investment income. I don't know what that is. But I'm saying I'm saying $150 per person for three days. Okay. Yeah. Where is that reflected in your income? I thought I had put it in there. I might have overlooked it, man. Yeah, I didn't I didn't see it in your income. I see investment and then I see the money that we give you. I don't see the Well, the money that you give me, right? The money that I that you recommend that you don't give me that you Yeah, we don't give
it to you. The county does. Okay, let's get that understood. Um, if I didn't put that in there as to the $150. No, it's $150 this year. We haven't done the festival yet. Festival to September. No, I understand that. But for past years, I can't see what you got generated in ticket revenue. Well, it should have been in it. It doesn't show. It should have been on the income income tax show. And you said you only had what? One page of income tax, which was not true. Should have
been 15. Definitely did not include. See, me and you, we go back and forth cuz I I think you think you're the smartest bu person in the building. So, we gonna go back and forth, me and you. Hey, Cadillac, let's do that, please. because he always got something negative to say that's not good. So that's why I'm to a point he every committee he on he got negative stuff to say about people. I'm not going to stand up here or try to make my ego bad. Cadillac I'm asking you let's just answer some questions. I'm good. No disrespect. I'm good. But god l this even is hard. I would
work my butt off for my county. I'm a community partner. What does that mean? What that does mean to you? What does tourism actually mean? Are we actually following the statute like we supposed to? You get these people in here, you you throw them under the bus. You I mean, come on. Nine hard years took to build this festival. Now, if you don't want to give me no money, fine. Cadillac, we're not at that point in this meeting. If you'll just please be patient. Yeah, man. and let people
ask. I listen at that last meeting on YouTube and the way y'all laughing about it like it's a joke. This is serious business. I'm into promoting tourism. I don't make no money off of this. I rather just go to the board of county commission. Let they see what they say. Cuz if you don't believe in what I'm doing, don't recommend it. That's what I'm saying. Don't look at the color of my skin or none of that. If you Cadillac Cadillac, don't I'm gonna ask you one
more time. Okay, Dave. Okay. All right. I'm good. This council has some questions and I'd like you to be respectful and answering their questions. And I'm sorry that your feelings have gotten hurt. They My feelings ain't hurt, Dave. But go on, Cadillac. But they can't see the big picture. That's what my problem is. Please. Okay. Ask Ask a question, man. I I'm sorry. Go on. Yeah. Any council woman? I just want to say this first, but the questions are because we are tasked to
be responsible with the money and make sure that we've got heads and beds. And I just want to say that I don't believe I mean, we laugh up here, but we laugh at side things. We're not laughing at anybody applying. We're not laughing at saying no. We're not I just want to make sure that's clear. I appreciate my council members, my fellow council member next to me for always digging deep and asking the questions that we are tasked to ask about budgetary numbers. And so when we are
looking at and this is for you guys when we're looking at Pensacon and we're talking about the number of people that come to Tensicon and then we're looking at the jazz festival Pensacon over multiple days uh the jazz festival you know for the three-day as well but we're talking about a significantly different number. I think that um Mr. Reeves pointed out that with Marty GR we were talking about yet a completely different um amount. So, when we're talking about just very honestly, when you're talking about bringing in millions and millions and millions of dollars to
the area and you're asking for 250,000 and then when we're talking about bringing in four or five,000 people into the area potentially for the same amount of money, that becomes a very tight question that we have to understand what we're doing. It's not about feelings. It's not about not recognizing that you have inspiration in this particular arena. I just want to make sure that that is all very well known that this is about us needing to do what when we were assigned to
this board and I I agree with you. I'm only here for a couple years but in those two years I have to be as clean and clear and specific and hold people to you know the same feet to the fire. So um I think that this is a big ask for the amount of people compared to the asks we have for other things. I just want to be real clear on that one. And so that is what I am trying to clear up. And then when you look at the application there are questions not answered. So So what about the
economic impact? Do you look at that? The economic impact from the event. Do you really look at that? The economic impact $1.9 million. You give me $250. The economic impact $1.9 million. Have you seen that? Does that make sense? So that return on that county's investment is 20 times the amount of what you gave me. Um, so I'm just gonna say this, not to this fund very specifically. that very well
does not necessarily come into the TDC's fund for heads and beds, which is what funds this money. So, does it excuse me, it doesn't come into the TDC funds? I'm not saying that there is not money that comes here. I'm saying that that full impact does not tax people. So, it's maybe I've misread this article here. Anyway, that's all I need to say right now. Just trying to clear things up a little bit if someone else has anything to say. Jason, Mr. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Banks, uh u thank you
for coming here today. Uh I think you mentioned and I think I recall you you said that you've been in the event has been going on for eight years now. Yes. And it's moving into its ninth year. So next year would be its ninth year. This year is the ninth year. This year is the ninth year. We haven't had this year yet. So 2025 it the event happens in September as I recall. That's correct. Okay. Um do you recall how much the county has allocated over the history of the event? I can't calculate it right now, but I will get those numbers for you. No, no, no need. I mean,
I don't know. I guess they keep funding it because we keep having a good economic impact. I mean, it's kind of like getting money from the bank. You go to the bank, you give me a couple hundred,000 and your return on your investment is 20 times the amount of that $100,000. Yeah. You keep on voting for it to keep the tourism coming. That's because that's what this is all about. Tourism. This is not about I'm not going to argue with you and I'm not those people. But what I will say is uh 250,000 returning 1.9 million isn't a 21 return. It's a 7 to1 return still, you know,
a return. Um do you forecast in the future of the Jazzfest that it will be sustainable? What it'll be able to stand on its own without community funding? Well, the way I look at it right now, I think I'mma probably try to do one more year, which would be the 10th year anniversary, and then I'mma probably try to be done with it unless somebody I'mma probably try to see, can I convince the county like they do in Jacksonville, their jazz festival, it's free and thousands of people come from it. Yeah. You know, and I might be free gets people's attention for sure. I might be
willing to be on board with that to teach somebody for a couple of years, you know, but I mean, if I'm bringing people here and they spending their money, that's that's maybe I'm looking at it different than maybe you looking at it. You know what I'm saying? No, I don't think so. You have to leave the city and they leave their money here instead of taking it down to the jazz festival in Panama City. Would you rather have them here or take money out of Scami County and go down to the jazz festival in Panama City? Yeah. So, you see where I'm trying to go with this? Well, um, you
and I have actually had this conversation before. I used to chair the grant committee for Visit Pensacola. And, and we talked about then is there a way and and I'm I'm I'm a a business operator, for-profit business operator. I'm not here to coach anybody on how to run their business, but is there a way in which you can infuse a revenue stream that would offer uh at least a break even without seeking community u uh funding. Maybe next year might be a possibility that it can be done. How might you do that? I don't know. It's something that I really have to sit back and
think about and try to plan it out. Everything is about a plan, you I just can't sit here and tell you something then eventually I don't do what I tell you I'm going to do. One thing about me you'll learn about me. Whatever I tell you, you can take it to the bank. You can cash it. So I'm not going to sit up there before this das and say something that I can do and I might not be able to do it. My concern is this. After reading the statute, I'm a man who like to follow the law. I like to know what is required and what is not required. And after actually reading the statute,
actually reading the ordinance, all the stuff that you some of you guys talk about, I know you got to have some kind of plan in order to get this money out. I get that part, but it's not nowhere in here. And my my question, why would the legislators leave that out? Not only did they leave all this stuff out about financial statements, tax returns, even it's not in the orders that I got. So that kind of make me wonder. I'm not saying what y'all doing is wrong. I'm not
the problem I have is that we are on tourism. If we trying to get people to come here, if you got organizations that's actually bringing people into the city, I think that's a good thing because at the end of the day, that's what the statute is all about. It ain't about whether Cadillac made no money or well I lost money. Are you bringing in tourism? And that's that's it in a nutshell. Do that kind of make sense what I'm saying of uh it certainly resonates with me. I I
think the the job of this council certainly this council member is to find the best value in the allocation of those funds. So for $250,000, where would that best be allocated? I think that's what these questions. Do you have any other body in this county that's creating a jazz festival that's pulling people in here from all over the country? That's a million- dollar question. But the answer to that question is no. Nobody was doing it before I started doing it,
you know. So, your city is growing fast. Can't even hardly drive up down the highways. Is so crowded. But we have to have entertainment for people. People moving here. I mean, if you don't want it, I get it. I I love what I do for the county. You know that title, community partner. You don't know that. That's like putting a crown on my head. I love that title. I'm a community partner. I work for Scar County. Yeah, I like that. So, I work hard to do it. You
look at the number $250,000 for what I do for the county. That's up to y'all. And and no, no disrespect to you brothers. I just, you know, ain't no bad feeling. You know what I'm saying, Charles? But when you do what I do and you and sometime I wish that y'all would come see it. Come see it for yourself. Black folks, white folks, Asians come in here from everywhere. I thought
that's what we wanted. Any other comments? Mr. Re, I have a question. Yes, sir. Mr. Three. Uh, how many how many tickets do we estimate was left out of his presentation in dollars? Well, I tell you what I did forget, Mr. Bear. Which Mr. Bear?
We have two. Can I answer that question? The one with hair. Can I answer that question, Mr. Reed? Can I answer that question for you? Sure. What I forgot to tell this committee and I thank Mike Caps is still here. For the last couple of years, I gave away a boatload of tickets to all first responders. That's my way of giving back. I don't care if you was a fighter, fight, firefighter, EMT, nurse, doctor, police officer, a boatload of tickets that I gave away.
Well, so I don't count those that understand the more people you have, the more tickets you sell, the more. So, I'm just trying to get a number on what the ticket income would be approximately, even if you gave a lot of them away. But you can't count the ones you give away as a income. I mean, it it does hold a $25 value according to the IRS. That's what that ticket that comp
ticket holds. That's you know, I think what he's asking what he's asking Dave, how many tickets did you sell and at what price? My tickets are $150. Last year I think there was $140. This year they're $150. And how many? And that's three tickets for one day. I don't know. We did about 3,000 tickets or more. I have to look at I have to look at the um settlement from the from the Bay Center. I know you can't calculate them numbers in his head. On page five,
what did I say? You said you have $125,000. Yes. But let me show you something. This came from High Point Corporation. Okay. And I wanted to know cuz I didn't know how much money do I spend on hotels for artists. Now keep in mind this money is not coming out of the TTC funds period.
So when they wrote me back they said that I had spent on artist over the years $17,000 in hotel costs. I spent not no TDC funds. If there's any questions about what I do with the TDC money, all you got to do is go to the clerk's office because you have to have receipts on every penny you spend. I didn't go buy no Cadillac with y'all money or no Mercedes,
okay? Or no yachts, okay? I don't own that. $17,000 out of my pocket just for hotels. You could have bought a Lincoln for that. I mean, I'm learning the game like everybody else. At least I'd say I do do my taxes and they ain't being audited. You know, I could honestly say, "Hey, I can't get that information." Mattel said I only had three pages that you only got three pages of tax return. Well, according to the county
budget's office, it should have been 15 pages of tax return. I mean, what happened? I mean, I went and talked to Alice. She say she sent it in to y'all. That was the last meeting you had when you was talking about only one page of tax return. That was untrue. That that was not true. The other issue that I had with you said that application wasn't signed. That was also not true. That's not required on these applications. There's nothing on these applications show where you need a signature. Okay, Dave, I'm through. I'm through. I'm through. Any other questions? I mean,
I'm done. I already know what it's going to be. I'm done. Listen, Cadillac, I want to thank you for the work you've done with this festival. I know that you You're the only person who told me that. Well, I think I'm not the only one that feels that way. You tells me that. Luma may tell me that. Some of the other county commissioners tell me. I'm trying to say nice things, but you keep interrupting me. Yeah, cuz y'all keep me going on this road. You know, once you know, once I get started, I mean, it's just like motormouth. Come on, man. Just tell me what you going to tell me with 150. You know, I'm waiting on Mr. Reed over there, right? Listen,
Cadillac. Okay. Hey, I got one vote all all night long. All right. We have a request in front of us for $250,000. Uh, at this time I'll entertain a motion. Is there such a motion? No. I move that we appropriate 150,000. All right. I second. There's a motion. We have a motion for
150,000. A second. Uh, and those funds would come from the special events. All right. And that those funds would come from the special events budget. Uh, is there any further debate or discussion? Hearing none, we'll call for the vote. Matish Patel, no. James Reeves, yes. Ashley Hoffber,
no. Shirley Cronley, yes. David Bear, yes. Brad Mullenex, no. Charles Bear, no. Jennifer Breer, no. Jason Nicholson, no. Three to six. What is it? 3 to six. Motion fails. Motion fails. Motion fail. Yes, sir. Thank you. Thank you. It didn't. It failed. The motion failed. Six to three.
All right. Uh well, that gets to the end of our requests. Is there any other business before the board? If not, uh we'll move to closing remarks. We'll start. Uh Tish, any closing remarks? Um, I just want to say, I know some of the folks are still in the room. Um, please don't feel like this council is ever laughing at you or making jokes or don't take it serious or don't realize how hard you are to put events together. And yes, some events may not
be successful and some events may be successful forever and then things happen and it's not. So, it's our job to kind of remind you, hey, can you get things back on track and put heads in beds? Um, and I know some things weren't filled out or left, you know, not done. And if they're not, we're going to have questions. Nobody should get offended by that. Um, and I and I I take it personal when my council members get attacked. Um, and I and I for one love the questions and that we
have a council that has actually taken the time to read through these applications and doing what we're supposed to do. And these are tax dollars that we are spending or or or recommending to the board of county commissioners. So, I just want to say thank you for the rest of the council and and everybody that's here still. Um please don't feel that we're not trying to have events. The goal is to to give events, but to make sure our events stay stay successful. Thank you, Mr. Reeves.
I just want to thank you for the kind of support you've given me the whole time I've been on this council. Nothing but support. Our fellow council members. Commissioner. Yes. Thank you for everybody who came and to ask and who puts wonderful events on not only for our community but to bring people in and to drive tourism. We really do appreciate it. Um, we are working really hard to make sure that this process is a little more automated and organized next year. Um, so I hope to have updates on that shortly. Thank you, Miss Connley. Yes,
I want to concur with what the other members have said. Um, one thing that we try to do is look at your event as an investment because if we invest in you, then it's going to repay bed tax dollars to us. So, if you'll consider that as we're trying to go along. It's not that we don't want any event because we want them all. We just can't afford to get them all. But thank you all for being here. Appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Mack. Yes. Just want to echo that as well as we're looking for
a return on investment. Sometimes it's hard for me to process uh when the data is is confusing or the high hopes and I thinks and things of that nature and you know that it does make it challenging but we do want to obviously keep the best events here and um we'll try to do that. Councilman Bear, thank you Mr. Chairman. I want to thank the staff first um because they're kind of on our front lines here and you know I work with city staff, I work now with county staff and you know I read some of the responses that were given asking for questions and you know um Allison Pardon
who works for you all uh she's my front line when I'm doing things with my nonprofit and so she's someone ask questions to she's the one tells me when I'm missing a document. Um and I I can attest the fact that doing those documents it's a lot of paperwork. I mean, it is so much paperwork and documenting what you get reimbursed for uh is quite a bit as well. And I've had things bounce back. It's like you didn't have receipt for this, didn't have receipt for that. And I'm like, well, I sent you that last month, too. Like, but they're all separate. So, I understand, you know, and then has to go to the clerk's office. So, there's there's multiple checks. And the thing that gives
me um I guess some comfort there is that we do have good checks and balances in our county. Um, I had the the unfortunate, I guess, opportunity to sit with in a group of city council members and staff over in um, Orlando this past weekend and we had the Doge, the leader of Doge, who had come from Indiana. And the the the thing he said that I thought was most interesting was he asked he me he talked about Oyola County and he said, "Do you all pronounce it Oola or Oyola?" And they were like,
"Oy?" They're like, "Well, I'm from Indiana. we pronounce things the way they're spelled and that's when everyone turned against him at that point because you know I mean like you don't come in and say that to somebody in in their state but um the things that he talked about one of the things I thought was really telling was they're looking at governments that fund nonprofits uh for different purposes and how they do that what kind of accountability is on them and you know I I'm convinced that what's really happening is we're trying to cut property tax. We're trying
to cut TDC flexibility TDC. Somebody is. We're not. Um we're trying to make sure I think this board and I appreciate my fellow council members. Um we're trying to make sure that you know the information that we have is correct um to the best of our ability. Um I put a lot of time into reviewing these agendas. Um I don't take them take them lightly. So, if you're one of the people that I ask questions to, um, you know, I apologize, but it's it's my job. You know, that's what I do. And,
you know, I just I can't gloss over some things and I want to make sure we make the right choices. Ultimately, we just recommend to the county commission. They can do what they want. Um, we've got a county commissioner up here and she's got a dual role job here because she has to sit through it here and then hear it on the county commission side as well. And that's it's it's always a challenge. So we don't have that in the city because we don't get to decide on TDC funds. So we can kind of push it off to them and say go do it. But I do appreciate everyone who uh submits tries to go through this process because as someone is goes through this process well know our
organization gets funded through solid waste. So we don't have a lot of competition there. Um you will have more competition because you're going through tourism development dollars. But I know it's a lot of work and I don't ever want to think someone have someone think that I don't think they work hard in what they do. Um, you know, I think there are people up here that work very hard and we're doing things that are in addition to our regular job and we're just trying to make sure that that we do right by the people. Um, and you know, you all, some of you make our lives very easy. Um, and some that we don't have the answers to. We just need answers to the questions so
that we can make sure that we can move forward on those. So, I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Breer. So, thank you. And I want to thank um everybody. I agree. His staff, the people that come, the people that things um Mr. Patel, I will forever be sad that Springfest went away. Okay. One of my favorite festivals. So I agree with you that things come and we want them to stay um relevant and funded and all that kind of stuff. But to that I think that it's important to understand that one of our jobs up here is even if it is not in fully in the state ordinances or
statutes is that we have we're trying to devise a way to be equitable. So whatever it is we say is is equal for people that apply so that everybody knows what to do and that we're not uh so it doesn't look like a good old boy system where we make someone uh you know follow a very intense application process and then we turn and say well someone else does not need to. And so the only way we can do that is by our uh you know I'm one of those crazy mothers that when I'd make
the lunch boxes in the morning I'd count grapes because I was so scared they would compare me and say I liked one kid more than the other. So um and I know that sounds goofy but is absolutely true. So, in this respect, I think that's the same thing we're doing in here is trying to make sure that whatever standards we've made, we're going to hold them uh similar for everyone who has applied. So, um but I do appreciate everything Pensacola has to offer and I am one of those people that attends every one of the festivals. So, um but I'm sorry that this was so uncomfortable and
I appreciate what you do, Mr. bear, council member bearer, board member bear, whatever, uh, whatever we want to call, but I think it's extremely powerful to have people do their research and make sure that we are we are looking at all those things. So, thank you all, every one of you. I appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Nicholson. Um, I'd like to start by thanking Mr. Bear for the depth of your uh, research and the memory that you bring to this council. I read every word of every packet sent to me and I'm often reminded of things that I may have
forgotten or missed by you and and I just want you to know that I appreciate that. I I know that um we're in good company and and good custodians of the tourism development tax dollars um and the board is better with you on it. I also want to echo uh Mrs. Connley's uh statement that we're tasked with allocating the expenditure of tourism development tax funds uh toward the best investment. We want to get the best return on the money and that's often difficult to speculate
on what we have today and and then look to the future hoping that something uh even better is coming along. And I wouldn't be doing my job as a hotel year if I didn't remind us all that tourism development tax is created through accommodations revenue. So when when guests rent hotel rooms, um they pay 5% tourism development tax. So um when I'm looking at an investment, certainly we want to uh key in on the economic impact, but we also want to look at the return on that tourism development
tax dollar. It's hard to get a onetoone return on tourism tax allocations, but there should be some expectation of some return of tourism tax dollars, which is why we often ask that question, how many room nights are involved? So, uh, thank you all for your work. Hotel rooms, excuse me, accommodations, I stand corrected. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Reeves. Uh, it comes out of accommodations, nightly accommodation, transient accommodation rentals under six months. Thank you much. Thank you. Uh I I want to thank everybody on the council and staff
and everyone here uh for their participation and and preparation today. Um you know when we well to address a couple of things. One uh the the statute says what we can and should spend this money on. Uh it doesn't talk about how we do that, what that process is. the county has an ordinance, but this this council created policy and procedures uh that have been adopted. And so part of that is that it has to come through us before it can go to the county commission,
any request, right? That wasn't that didn't happen in the past. Uh we have these restricted funds so that we have the opportunity to fund things that may not come through our annual budget because we had no restricted funds. We had no plan. Uh and so this is part of this this process that we've put together over the last however many years. Uh and that's a lot of hard work by these council members and staff to do that. So thank you uh and and the grant recipients for participating in that. Uh I I
think um to me what it means to invest in tourism uh is uh continuing to invest in things that are working but also looking for opportunities to diversify what we do. Uh because as everybody will remember, when oil hit our beach, our tourism dried up and we were spending an exorbitant amount of our a a a high percent of our tourist development tax on marketing to the beach tourists. And so it's incumbent on us to look at these different opportunities. And maybe we don't
put maybe this one opportunity uh doesn't put as many heads in beds as another opportunity for that dollar amount. Uh but it's a different angle. It's a different opportunity to diversify and change the type of tourists we get. Uh because the number of heads in beds doesn't necessarily equal the dollars spent in the community. uh because you know beach tourists sit on the beach and they may grab a sandwich uh while they're there. But maybe someone who's uh at a Jazzfest uh could have been
shopping in the shops and buying jewelry. Uh maybe someone who's here for a sailing event bought a car. I mean, we don't know, you know, and took that back with them. The different experiences uh with different types of audiences. And I think what we try to do and I think we should do uh is to continue to look for different audiences so that we're no longer dependent. We don't we no longer have all of our eggs in one basket. We have a bunch of baskets. Uh but we can't be all things for all people either. We like we one one of the other maybe maybe commissioner said uh we don't
have enough money to fund everything we want to fund. So we have to look for oh that was Shirley because we have to what is the highest return right? So we have to take all of these things into consideration and so that's why we have these conversations these debates at our uh meetings and I appreciate everybody's input and everybody's comments. Um it makes this uh worthwhile and we get a good investment good impact. So, thank you. Uh, and I'm getting you out two hours, Mr.
Reeves. Two hours. You were three minutes late. We're leaving three minutes late. You were late to the meeting, so we're leaving on your clock. So, uh, no other comments. Meeting adjourned.