This time we'll call to order the August 3, 2026 meeting of the City of Clearwater Downtown Development Board. This time we'll move to item 2.1 on the agenda. Approve the minutes for the July 13, 2026 Downtown Development Board meeting. Is there such a motion? Motion to approve the point 2.1. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. This time we'll move to item 3.1 on the agenda, event recap from Symphony by the Sea. Good afternoon, Vicki Shire, CRI Division Manager. Hopefully everybody's drying off on this rainy day. This item is to provide the Downtown Development Board with a recap of Symphony by the Sea, hosted by the Florida Orchestra on June 6th at the Baycare Sound. The anticipated attendance was 2,500. Based on Placer AI data, the attendance was 1,200. The previous concert held on November 10th, 2024, had an attendance of 1,700 based on Placer AI data. At this time, I'd like to invite the staff from the Florida Orchestra to come forward and provide their event recap. Good afternoon. My name is Lori Osborne. I'm the Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at the Florida Orchestra. And today my colleague, Anita Samaru. Yeah. Good afternoon. I'm Anita Samaru, the Vice President of Finance and Administration at the Florida Orchestra. We are going to offer you a recap of our wonderful Symphony by the Sea. Hopefully I can click this and we'll see how it goes. All right. Okay, got it. Our event overview. So the Symphony by the Sea was a free public concert held Saturday, June 6th at the Baycare Sound starting at 730. Our performances included Salute to America, the America 250 with patriotic tunes, a movie theme featuring some of John Williams' favorites of Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Jaws, and then as well as some Broadway tunes. And as Vicki noted, there wasn't quite the attendance we had hoped. We actually tabulated approximately 1,565, but we had anticipated between 2,500 and 3,000. But we'll get to – we'll keep talking about that in a moment. This year we introduced a community partners. We invited some community partners to come and set up information booths and opened up earlier before the actual concert so that our guests could come in for free and then take a look at what else our beautiful Clearwater area can offer. So some of our community partners included Hope Village of America, the Community Dental Clinic, and Lyft Academy. We also asked the Salvation Army to come and set up some donation booths as folks entered. They could donate either canned goods or personal care items, and I can say that we successfully managed to collect approximately 150 pounds of donated goods for the Salvation Army. Some of our participant feedback included just the gratefulness of our community partners being able to come and share more information about their organizations to the community. And I will say – I'm not going to read each one of them, but the third one from Lyft Academy said, thank you for coming, and we look forward to future partnerships. Because we were able to establish these relationships and invite them, we've now decided to continue other opportunities for us to collaborate. So later this season, some of the Academy students are going to come to TFO so that we can offer more information about who we are, what we do. So I really do see this as a bridge-building opportunity for our community. Some of our press and social media mentions include not only our brochure that was already pre-established being set on our website and sending email reminders to our patrons and donors. We also sent out press releases. We partnered with Amplify Clearwater and were included on their website as well as a Leadership Tampa Bay website in their e-newsletter. And then for social media, we produced more than 19 total social media posts. That included Instagram, all of the social media, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn. We managed to get more than 70,000 total views and impressions through our social media as then over nearly 2,500 total engagements and 46,000 cumulative reach with our social media pursuing. Some of our event challenges. Well, and this goes back to one of the reasons I think we didn't quite achieve the number that we had hoped was because we had to change the event date. It was originally scheduled for May 7th, but we needed to move it due to the Country Thunder concert. And that announcement happened approximately three weeks before our scheduled date. Because of that, we had to then reissue new media updates, change of venue announcements, et cetera. So one of the reasons I think that we didn't quite achieve the goal that we had hoped was because of that last-minute change. But we were glad to be able to change to another date, and we were grateful for the city to be able to get that June 6th date. The other reason I think we weren't quite at the number we had hoped was because it fell outside of our typical time of our season. Our season ends in May, and we push to June. And as you also know, that's summertime, so all of the kids are gone from school, and we weren't able to get quite those groups. Those groups. This year, I'm happy to say, Symphony Fantasy is scheduled for May 7th of this year. So we are excited about having it there during the season, during when school time occurs, so that we can get some additional folks. I'll also say, because it was pushed outside of the season and the school year, one of our community partners was the Clearwater Middle School. They were going to come and perform before our musicians performed. And once school ended, we just couldn't get that. So we're excited to bring back community partners, be able to reestablish that, and have them come at our upcoming Symphony by the Sea. So lessons learned. We want to continue spreading the awareness of the organization, Symphony by the Sea. It is our most recent park concert. We have other established in other cities, so this is our newest. We want to continue to invest in it. We know that it will be successful. It will be an opportunity for our community to come every year, and we are excited about that. Again, as I mentioned, we're going to have it in season while school is going on this year, May 7th. So I hope you all put that on your calendars. We're going to seek additional sponsorships. I think that is an opportunity that we see as a need, and we think that we'll be able to achieve that. And then, again, continue to include those community partners. I know that it was successful just from our initial offering, and I think that we can continue to grow that. And I really appreciate the Downtown Development Board. Thank you for your trust and your enthusiasm with us, and we look forward to continue partnering with you. Thank you. Any questions? Thank you, Mayor. Not a question, just a comment. I appreciate the flexibility on the date change. That's obviously a challenge three weeks out and a heavy lift by your team to make that happen, but we appreciate it. Hopefully your event was a success, and I know Country Thunder was as well, so hopefully that worked out. But I appreciate that and look forward to you being able to have it in that calendar range where the schools can participate. And we've noticed that in special events that once the coaches and teachers don't have their hands around the group, the kids' participation is weighing greatly. So I wish you the best of luck with that. Thank you. Thank you so much. Just like to echo that, it made it really, really tough on you to push it back and appreciate you sliding your day. Because of, you know, just what we've been trying to build this up as a music education event. And I had a chance to talk to Salvation Army this past week, and we attended, several of us attended a program at Ruth Record Hall on Saturday night with theater. And arts education, music education is a very important part of our community and definitely an important part of this event and what you're trying to do. So I think it's great that we're moving it back to an earlier date in the spring, late spring, in May, to where school's still in session. And we can just try to make it not just a wonderful night of the Florida Orchestra performing in the best outdoor music venue in Tampa Bay, but also involving our music education community, as you intended to do. And timing wasn't great to allow that to happen this year, but next year it will be. And I think there's a lot of enthusiasm right now throughout the community to support this event through music education organizations and look forward to having more success and an increased attendance next year. Yes, agreed. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. Thank you. That will move to item 3.2 on the agenda. Approve the funding for the Chalk the Bay Art and Music Festival scheduled for January 15th to 17th, 2027 for a total not to exceed the amount of $30,000. Good afternoon. Ann Lopez, CRA Assistant Director. This item before you is a request from the City's Cultural Affairs Division for a Downtown Development Board high-impact grant in an amount not to exceed $30,000 to support the inaugural Chalk the Bay Art and Music Festival scheduled for January 15th through 17th, 2027. This event will transform Coachman Park to feature approximately 40 to 80 professional chalk artists with large-scale 2D and 3D chalk art, live music, student engagement, and interactive art experiences with art and craft vendors. Staff recommends approval of a high-impact grant in an amount not to exceed $30,000, and I would like to introduce Amber Bryce, the City's Cultural Affairs Division Manager, to provide more details on this event. Good afternoon, Trustees. Amber Bryce, Arts and Cultural Affairs Manager for the City of Clearwater. I'm excited to talk to you today about the Chalk the Bay Art and Music Festival that we are planning for January 15th through 17th in Coachman Park. This will be a free, family-friendly event. It will turn Coachman Park into an outdoor gallery featuring artists live chalking, artists from all over the U.S. and possibly internationally. As Anne said, food trucks, arts and crafts vendors, live music. I have here the expected attendance around 6,000. I think I'm just being extremely conservative. I looked at the Placer AI data for the Blumen Chalk Festival they had at Safety Harbor. They got 10,000 people over two days, so we're having a three-day event, so I'm sure we can exceed that. I just wanted to be conservative. Our goal in my dream world would be 100 artists. I think realistically probably 70 to 80 with our budget. When I created this, we had 53 applications. As of this morning, we actually have 84 applications from artists from all over the U.S. and Mexico. So staff has retained artist and consultant, Laura Thomas, who is actually here. She's a professional chalk artist and muralist. She'll be handling all artist communication, check-in, things like that, on-site logistics. Here, this is the wrong presentation. So you can see our artist stipends are at the bottom here. We are offering stipends for artists traveling more than two hours away for a hotel. Here is our application. It's on myclearwater.com slash chalk or chalk the bay. We also have a student application and sponsor application on there as well. Here is our schedule of events. So on Friday, there will be a movie in the park, Scenes on the Grain. This will also double as either a T-shirt or packet pickup. We're not sure what kind of race we're going to have yet. Saturday will be the full festival day. So artists will be live chalking all day Friday and Saturday. That evening, we'll be doing an artist awards dinner, which I'll talk about later. That's going to be funded by the Clearwood Arts Alliance. Sunday morning, we're going to do a color run. Not sure if it'll be a 5K or just a fun run yet. And then Sunday will be the last festival day. So if you want to see the artwork being created, you show up Friday and Saturday. If you want to take pictures of it already finished, that's Sunday. So the artists will still be on site interacting with the community, but they won't be live talking on Sunday. So ways we plan to activate Cleveland Street. So we're going to have an student artist slash emerging artist area along Cleveland Street, maybe about 20 different artists. So these artists won't be paid, but they'll be given materials as well as lunch and then dinner. They'll also be eligible for awards. But this will bring art up Cleveland Street. And then for our artist dinner, which we want to thank our sponsors, Clearwood Arts Alliance, for funding this, we're going to do a block party. So I spoke with a couple of the owners of the businesses, and instead of doing a set menu, they think a voucher would be the best. So we're going to give artists vouchers. That way, we're not hosting it at just one restaurant, favoring one restaurant over another. They'll be able to patronize any of the restaurants they want along Cleveland Street. So everybody gets a little piece of the pie. So we'll also have live music. We'll do our awards outside on the street. And then the awards will be displayed the next day. Another community engagement piece, we'll have a kid's zone, petting zoo, chalking area for you guys to see. And then here's our budget. As you can see, our largest light item is obviously artist stipends and hotels. The artist dinner is included in here. Obviously, that's now being funded by the Arts Alliance. The fun run is being funded by Parks because they're keeping the registration fees for the fun run. The rest of this would total around $75,000. So that's based on 80 artists, six mural walls, 13 3D pieces, and the rest being 2D with about half of the artists needing hotels. Obviously, that can be adjusted. But $50,000 would be considered kind of the minimum funding. It would be necessary to produce a quality three-day event that we're looking for. At that funding level, we would be able to host approximately 40 artists, which is still a respectable event. But obviously, 80 is our goal. We're hoping to get sponsorships, but obviously, nothing is guaranteed. Here's some ways we plan to market. I think something very unique about this event is that each artist, a lot of these artists have thousands of followers, tens of thousands of followers themselves, with a loyal fan base that will follow them to whatever festival they go to. So that's a market that maybe we won't be hitting with our own marketing. And then here are some sponsorships we're offering. For a nominal amount, a business can sponsor a 2D spot, a 3D spot. And then with the help of Laura, she's been a really good consultant on this, because this is how other festivals have done it. So you get your business displayed at the bottom. Anytime somebody takes a picture with that piece, you're getting marketing for your business. This is what a mural wall would look like. And then we have a pick your artist add-on for $150 if there's a specific artist you want to fund. And then I just wanted to give you guys an update on the world's largest rubber duck. So Mama Duck, I have scheduled her to come back January 2028. We did have a staff wrap-up meeting. I mean, we all just felt like we wanted a little bit of a break. This was a lot for staff. And we really wanted to focus on some other events. With all of the renovation and everything, construction happening, we think that early 2028 will just be a really great time to bring her back. So I have scheduled her to meet. Nobody within a 200-mile radius can have the duck. But I just wanted to let you know that she's coming back, hopefully. And then I have Jewel with Parks and Rec. I have Laura here, the consultant, and myself, if you have any questions. Okay. Any discussion or questions from the board? Council Member Teixeira. Yeah. This is very exciting for me. First of all, it's got a proven success record, right? So that's always something we don't have to worry about. It already has a winning formula. The second is having that many artists with their followers. Again, another exciting opportunity to have more exposure. But last but not least, this is an organic event, meaning that it's going to be photographed over and over again and tagged. And that you can't buy, right? If you have 1,000 people taking pictures of those chalk arts with them in front, that is something that is priceless. And having that many pieces, it just has a good thing. I'm tired today. What I'm saying is it's going to be great. I'm very excited. Thank you so much for being so innovative. You're always coming up with great ideas, very progressive. And I appreciate you and all your creative ideas. The only question I had is, you know, they've had success with the Chalka Art Festival out on the beach. Seems like it's come and gone. Amplified Clearwater has run it from time to time. Are they still doing one, too? Is this going to be in competition with you, or have they abandoned? Yeah, they've kind of – they asked me to take over when I first got in this role if I wanted to. I wasn't ready. But from what I understand, there was only maybe eight to ten pieces on the – so this is a much larger event. And Laura actually did some of those pieces on the beach. Yeah. And the difference, I guess, that that was just mainly the Chalka Art presentations, but this is more of a broader festival than celebrating other things. Yes. Okay. Okay. Does anyone here from the public desire to speak to this agenda? Yep. Kevin's got a question? Excuse me. Thank you. I think this is a great event. And it's exactly what Coachman Park needs, great space. And I'm really excited for this, honestly, but personally. And about the dinner vouchers, I would recommend to meet with – and I can actually put everyone together as well, all the businesses. And I'm sure we can do something better than just the voucher as well, just to promote the businesses and also downtown Clearwater. So we can definitely work on that. Thank you. Exciting. Obviously, everything that's been said, totally agree with. So the challenge I think we're seeing that we haven't talked about yet is that financial component, right, and staff's limit on what they can recommend is $30,000. And this board obviously has a little more leeway in that. Your estimated budget was just over $80,000. What is the plan if you fall short in that gap? Do you just scale it differently? Yes. So whatever the funding that we're given today, we'll start letting artists know based on that funding amount. And then hopefully as sponsorships come in, we'll be able to accept more. So some artists will be put on a wait list. We'll tell them, you know, please keep these dates open for us, and then hopefully we'll be able to add more as they come along. Or maybe like the mural walls, we have six that are scheduled. Maybe we don't do any. Maybe we only do one, something like that. So that's a big difference between the recommended number and the budget that you want. I hope we can find a way to support the event like you want it and have a successful three-day weekend with much more than the $6,000 anticipated. I appreciate the underestimating. So often we hear the numbers inflated. That's nice to hear it on the other side, but I think you'll do better than that on six. And like the councilwoman said, she hit the nail on the head. This is one of those events that the traction it gets is far greater because of every post and every tag and every picture. The outreach is amazing. I hope you can find some sponsors to shorten some of that gap. If the board finds a way to help budget this, is there a way that that amount could decrease as you build sponsorships? Yes. So, you know, whatever the board gives us, if we got a $20,000 sponsor, obviously we wouldn't need to use all of the DPD funding. It would, you know, decrease from that. We'd use sponsorship funds first. Yes. Gotcha. I appreciate you. Thank you. Okay. Now, is there anybody here from the public that desires to speak this agenda? Seeing none. Is there a motion? Motion to approve item 3.2. Second. Okay. Any further discussion? If not, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. No. What amount are we, are we approving the staff recommended amount or the requested budget? The staff recommended amount. What's the sweet spot? What's the compromise? So, tell me. $50,000 would be kind of the minimum that, where we kind of estimate 40, probably 40 artists. So, it's still a respectable event. Less marketing. We'd have to pull back on some other things. Maybe, you know, not a band, but like a solo artist, something like that. So, $50,000 would be the sweet spot, I guess. The thing is, I'm looking at our unallocated funds as of August, right? So, our fiscal year is almost over, and we're at over $560,000. And I think that the risk is very low for this event. And if I would have to choose an event that I would give more than recommend it, I think this would be it. Because there is a big difference between 40 artists and 80. It will make us much more of a coveted event, more of a national footprint, I think, with 80. And so, I would like to make a motion to grant them $50,000 for this event. Okay. We've got, it's been proven, so we approved the main amount. Now, let me ask, I mean, we can always, if the sponsorship's not going well, if you're not able to get sponsors, I mean, we can amend it and raise the money at a later time. Or we could do it the other way. If they get the sponsorships, then they subtract from what we have. But at least they have that cushion, and they know to move forward, right? You said that you're going to get the sponsorships first, and then whatever's left over, then you use the DDB funds. So, that way, at least they know what they're working with, instead of going back and forth. But there was a motion, I'm sorry. Motion in the second, and what was your amount that you wanted? The recommended amount. But I think what you recommended just now, it makes sense. You rescind your motion. I'm sorry. You're a second, David. David. You're adjusting your motion? Yes. Okay. Can we just agree that we're going to withdraw the motion and move the second, and then we're just going to withdraw it? Any objection to that? Motion to approve $50,000 on item 3.2. Second. Okay. So, we've withdrawn the original motion, which was to approve the 3.2 as recommended. Okay. Everyone has agreed to that. There's been no objection to it. So, now we will take this motion, which is his motion now, which is to approve the requested amount, I believe, Kevin. $50,000. The requested amount. Up to $50,000. Okay. So, that's the motion that's been seconded. Okay. Is there any discussion on this motion? Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Commitivous. Okay. Thank you, all very much. Thank you. Next, we'll move to item, I think we're going to move to item 3.4 on the agenda and come back to 3.3. So, at this time, if there's no objection, we'll go to 3.4 and that is approve a community event funding request by the Tampa Bay Ukulele Society to produce the T-Bus Ukulele Festival in the district on April 4, 2027 in the amount not to exceed $12,500. Good afternoon, Vicki Shire, CRA Division Manager. This is a request from the Tampa Bay Ukulele Society for a community funding request for an amount not to exceed $12,500 for the Tampa Bay Ukulele Festival in the district scheduled for April 4, 2027. The event is a free music festival that will take place on the 400 block of Cleveland Street and Peace and Memorial. The estimate of attendance is $1,000. The total event budget is $26,500 with the following. The applicant's contribution is $10,000. Third-party contributions is $3,500. And the applicant is requesting $12,500 in DDB funding. Last year's event had an estimate of attendance of 629 visitors according to the Placer AI data. The application meets the community event funding requirements and staff recommends approval of the request of the amount not to be $12,000. At this time, I'd like to invite Robert Wilde forward to provide a presentation and answer any questions. Thank you. First of all, it's an honor to be here. I'd like to introduce Rob Wilde's my name, and I'm the event director for this event. I have with me Emily Staley. Emily is a longtime member of the Tampa Bay Ukulele Society, and she'll be carrying the ball on a great deal of this as we move forward. So I'd like to thank Vicki and also Michelle Leash from the Parks and Rec for helping us pull all this together in a pretty seamless and orderly fashion. As you can see from this is our sixth year coming, we think that it's part of the fabric, certainly of the ukulele world. And like I said, we get requests from all over the world to participate. They'll send emails and say we want to play the Clearwater event. Some of them don't even know where Clearwater is, but they hear through the grapevine that it's something they should participate in. Jim Beloff happens to be one of the most respected players in the world. And he's put out the word. He's been here twice, and he just considers it a world-class event and one of the tops, not only in the U.S., but in the world. I only share this slide because everyone that I explain how this works always says, you mean it's like Shark Tank. We say that in the most positive fashion. And I always say, actually, it is. And when you look at it, I think Kevin could certainly pass for Mark Cuban. I think Luna is certainly the equal of Lori and Barbara. And then the question is, who is Mr. Wonderful? So it's down to three or four of you to take that accolade. Back to our original last year, our request was 15 because we had higher expenses. And we were in Coachman Park, which, while it was a gorgeous setting, what it did, and there's a couple of reasons why we're not going to be down there this year. The main one was a lot of the restaurants mentioned afterwards that it pulled people off of the street and pulled them down to the park. So we're going back to what we've done for four of the years, and that would be mainly on the 400 block. We're going to have a stage across in the parking spot, across from Tequilas and Clear Sky. We're going to have another station between District Bistro and Clear Sky. And we're pleased to say we're going to have eight hours of continuous music. We're going to have a concert between 3 to 5 p.m. in the Roebling Hall now that it's been renovated. And also during that time, we're still going to have a duo in the location by Clear Sky and District Bistro so that we have complete eight hours of musical entertainment. We're also going to put, if you can notice, the asterisk. We're going to be using the Scientology Reception Center on the day before, in the afternoon, for our advanced workshops so that people who come for that next day will be able to roam the street, use the restaurants, and also go to the concert from 3 to 5. We're going to put a duo at Seoul Sicilian. We don't want them to feel like the off-end restaurant. And also, they've been really supportive of us for the past five years. So we'll have a duo down there on Saturday evening so we can draw some traffic there. We've got great talent, some local and some from all over the country. Tom Hood and the Tropical Suns, they played last year. They're from Tampa Bay, extremely popular. They've been playing for years. Of note is the fact that they do a fantastic tribute to Vietnam veterans over music from 63 to 70. It's right after National Vietnam Veterans Day, which is March 29th. So they'll be opening a concert with that tribute again. We have a group, Ollie's Crew. They're from Missouri. Last year, we had a group from the Missouri and also Nebraska. They went back, and, of course, they recommended that the groups out there take a look at this. There happen to be two people that are originally from this area, but they'll be coming in here. Ann Kuhl is another very, very famous ukulele player and clinician. She spends her time between Boston and Hawaii. Fortunately, her husband, who's a surgeon, is on an assignment in Boston, so we'll be able to bring her down for the workshops and also to perform. And then Mandy Harvey, who's a former finalist in America's Got Talent. She was here two years ago. She lives in Riverview, so she'll be coming for the concert. So we're really pleased that we can put this kind of a stellar lineup. The concert will be free and open to the public. So we're hoping that we can draw a lot of people who maybe haven't seen this type of entertainment before. And that is one of the goals of the festival is to introduce people to the beauty of the, as the council does, the beauty of the ukulele and how these people in the hands of great artists can do wonders with it. The budget is $26,000. As we said, the majority of it is obviously paid by us. We put $10,000 in. We get some sponsorships that equaled about $3,500. As far as the expenses, we have the normal sound, lighting, staging for both the concert inside and the outside activities, talent. And we market very heavily. We use the major media, the Dove, Tampa Bay Times, dayboard displays. And we use all the standard social media and the other forms of advertising. All of these groups, as the previous applicant mentioned, they all have their own websites. And there's a well-gride network of ukulele aficionados who are big Facebook proponents. And we use that medium quite heavily. But we do do a lot of the major mainstream promotion and advertising as well. So the total budget is $26,000. We put in $10,000. We get $3,500 from our sponsors. Last year, we asked the $15,000. And this year, we're looking for $12,500 from the TDD to take us to a point where we can do, again, a first-class event. And continue to spread the word of downtown Colorado and its development and also the ukulele and the ukulele artists. Last year, I think this kind of encapsulates what I think we bring to the table. Mayor Wrechter happened to be there and talked to a lot of the people, realized that they do come from, and we had several people from the Midwest, North Carolina, and the adjacent counties as well as from Pinellas. And one thing that we're happy about and we can introduce the downtown to a lot of people, even local people, and this has become usually they're one or two times into the downtown to come to this event. We're hoping that that will increase and obviously enhance the business that the restaurants get and the loyalty that they can build. One thing I'll mention about the numbers, our first two or three, the estimate's not from us, but from others was that over the course of the day, it probably cycles through a couple thousand. But we're being conservative, the hall seats about 200, and throughout the day, we think we can do a thousand, probably many more. The restaurants do say that they get quite a few turns during the day, and they're very enthusiastic about it. Again, thanks for the past participation. We literally couldn't do it without the cooperation, obviously, of the city and the funding from the DDB, and also from the merchants. The merchants provide a lot of services that without which we wouldn't be able to pull it off. So again, thanking you in advance, and good to see all of you. Thank you. Is there anywhere here from the public that desires to speak to this agenda item? You see, now is there any board discussion? That's Merrill, Britton. Yeah, this is one of those events that, you know, the Downtown Development Board gives a lot of requests for money. I always considered somebody that has done this before and has had a good response from it. I mean, what is this, how many years now? This is the sixth year coming. I mean, and every year, they've really attracted a lot of people. It's a fun event, and so I would vote to back this again. I think you do a great job. Thank you. Thank you. We want to get you to play one of these years. Yeah. Kevin? Yeah. I'm very happy to see that it's going to be on the street, on Cleveland Street. Yes. Comparing to the past two, which I have seen, I think, when it was on the Cleveland Street, I've seen more attraction, more, you know, lively activities versus being in Cochum Park. I do have a question to ask. So last year, in total, how many visitors did you have attendees-wise? How many visitors? Yeah. How many? What was it? Well, we don't know how many on the street. We had about 300 in the tent on Cochum Park. But obviously, you know, Keith, yourself, and the people at Tequilas, they all say they had great turns. So we don't know exactly how many, but the street was pretty active. But it was Keith who actually mentioned, he said, I was raving about how beautiful it was down in the park, and he just said the only problem was it pulls the people from the street. So that's what brought that to mind. And we're estimating, we think we'd do 1,000 easily. But from the first couple of years, feedback not from us, but from people in the Cinderella street, we cycled through a couple of thousand. Yeah, I didn't go to the park, so that's why I wasn't really sure. So the expectation is 1,000 people, and your marketing budget is 9,000. So that's... Yes. Okay. We do billboard. We do major radio. We do Tampa Bay times, and those are all fairly, fairly expensive mediums. But we try to pull. If we want to pull from outside the catchment area and from across the bridge, unfortunately, that's what it takes. Thanks, Mark. Yeah, thank you. I'll definitely agree with Council Member Albritton on this one. I think it's a unique event that, you know, puts Clearwater on a map for a unique niche market. You know, according to the Placer AI data, we had about 629 visitors at your event last year with the $12,500, roughly $20 a person. I think it's money well spent, and I look forward to supporting you this year, too, going on to Cleveland Street. Thank you. Anything else? Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Mayor. I think it's a good event. It is unique. We do have a lot of diverse events downtown. It brings different people from all different walks of life. I'm not going to be Mr. Wonderful. I won't play that role for you. But I guess my question would be, did you spend the same $9,000 in marketing and promotions last year? Yes, probably a tad more because we had some of the sponsors spend their own money as well. It was probably a total of about $17,000 or $18,000. Okay. And then with Placer AI data saying that 629 visitors throughout the day, is there anything you may do different on a marketing promotions in year six to increase that number? Well, like I said, we've heard feedback from previous years that, you know, it's hard to count how many are coming in and out of the street. But we probably will do more social media. We did a lot this year, but we can upgrade that. But, you know, like I said, the mediums we use are expensive, and the cost per thousand is a lot. So we'll probably stay with that, but try to do some other things, some more networking perhaps, and some more social media. Well, your numbers will definitely be better this year, being as though you moved. You're putting yourself in the middle of Cleveland Street. Oh, absolutely. I think it will definitely be what it's been the last four or five years. Like I said, those are numbers people told us. We wouldn't really have anyone that actually counted it. Well, the geofence of the Placer AI is geographically going to put every single person that went to grab dinner or a drink or a pizza or a taco is going to get counted into your numbers next year, whether they just stumbled upon it or not. They go by the number of turns. And Keith, they've said they do four or five turns in a day, especially on a Sunday. I love that it's free and open to the public, and I appreciate that aspect of your business model. I wish you had nothing but the best success in year six. Well, thank you. A couple of observations. You get great media attention. Excuse me? You get great media attention for the event. I mean, the publicity, you know, even though it didn't draw a lot of people last year, a lot of people heard about it, and they kept hearing downtown Clearwater or Coachman Park and the advertising coming up to it. There's a value to that, that it's promoting downtown Clearwater just by the media attention that you get for the event. And the second thing is you did experiment last year and divided it up a little bit. It was a smaller event down there under the tent, not like in previous years and like you're proposing for this year, where it was all in one place there on Cleveland Street. And I felt like that probably impacted your attendance as well, that there wasn't commingling of different activities the way it had been in prior years, and I think that probably affected it too. But the year before, when you had it all up there together, I mean, it was a similar experience. I met people from all over, and I think to Council Member Albritton's comments earlier, which you're right, it's for the amount of money we put into it really draws a unique crowd, a new crowd to downtown Clearwater, and I think it's money well spent. Well, as you probably noticed too, a good part of the demographic is older. I'm as old as me, but it's older. And they were hesitant to walk all the way down to the end of Coachman, which is beautiful as it was, and it was a magnificent scene with the boat going by. But a lot of them did want to walk all the way down and all the way back up. So I think it's better where it is. Okay. Nothing else? Then is there a motion? Move to approve Agenda Item 3.4. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you very much. We'll now go back to Agenda Item 3.3. Approve a high-impact grant funding request from Florida Best Promotions, Inc. to produce the Salsa and Lakota at the District Halloween Costume Block Party on October 31, 2026, in an amount not to exceed $30,000. Ms. Shire, C.R.A. Division Manager. This item is a request from the Florida Best Promotions, Inc. for a high-impact funding request, an amount not to exceed $30,000 for the Salsa and the Pachaca at the District Halloween Costume Block Party scheduled for October 31, 2026. The event is free and open and will take place on the 5th block of Cleveland Street. The estimated attendance is Salsa and the District had an attendance of $2,300. The total event budget is $69,000 with the following $19,000 in estimated sponsorship, $8,253.50 in city high-impact event co-sponsorship, in-kind services, a pending $10,000 visit St. Pete Clearwater grant, and the applicant's $55,600 in DDB funding. The application meets a high-impact funding requirement. While the applicant has requested $55,600, the DDB high-impact funding policy limits awards to $30,000. Therefore, staff recommends approve funding the amount not to exceed $30,000. At this time, I'd like to invite Richard Del Rio to answer any questions you may have. Hello. Thank you for allowing me to be here again. We're excited about this year's event, October 31st, Halloween. We expect it to be a very energetic, colorful event that brings all walks of life to the area from all over the Bay Area and Florida in general. We've been doing the event now since 23, with success each year. This year, we've actually started doing monthly events, which has also been very successful. This year, we're excited. The band that we're hiring is a tribute band. I can't hire Gran Combo because that's too much, but it's a tribute band to Gran Combo, which if you don't know who they are, it's equivalent to the Rolling Stones. They've been around for 50-someone years. So I think a lot of people are going to be very excited to listen to the only band in the United States that is approved by Gran Combo as a tribute band. We have also begun a stronger focus on bringing outsiders in. I think we've done a pretty good job at that. We're focusing more. In fact, this year is our first attempt at some international marketing. We're actually in the middle of filming a documentary about Sasa Mbichata District and its impact on the area and just dancers in general of all different levels, professional dancers, myself. With that, I'd love to answer any questions you may have. That's my research. Two things. So I was there at the last one, and there was this fabulous elderly lady dancing by herself. And I put her on my reel, and I got over 1,300 hits. And the caption was, Hips Don't Lie. And she was really doing a great job. So just a little thing there. Second, I'm very excited about the fact that you used October 31st. Downtown has always struggled in Halloween because of all the other competing events everywhere else. So actually changing the formula, I think, will funnel people back to downtown. So thank you so much for thinking about that because I know that's been something that we have been unable to achieve for many years. Well, interesting thing about that, last year we did Dia de los Muertos, and it was an amazing event. I don't think it was my most successful event from an attendance standpoint, although we did well there. It was just an amazing vibe. Everybody's happy, it's high energy, and everyone dressed up. It was really, really an interesting sight. It's one of the things I love about doing events is just watching the joy and the happiness. Things like that, five hours, they just don't have a problem in the world. And I've said this to you guys before, I'll say it again. Maya Angelou said, people don't remember what you do for them or what you say to them. They only remember how you make them feel. And I think when people come to one of the south at the district events down here in downtown Clearwater, they walk away feeling something unique and special. Robert? So you're asking for more, but the approved is $30,000. How are you making up the shortfall? Well, I'll have to make some cuts. I'll have to work harder at raising more money. More sponsors? More sponsors. That's the only revenue source for the event is sponsors. And interesting enough, this year I've kind of made Florida Best Promotions my main focus. Their focus is in the past and still had success. So I think we'll be fine. $30,000. Okay, that's good. Remember to lead you. I think all of your events from what I've been observing has been great. And the attendance and music, the vibe, everything was really good. I think you guys are doing a great job. One example I will give to you is that not last Saturday, but the Saturday before there was a Latin festival. And I was walking down to one of our neighboring businesses just to eat dinner. And what I saw was it made me very sad. And the reason of that was because right in front of these businesses, a brick and mortar, there was a beer tent. I believe they were serving food as well. So previous events, you would have those businesses actually, you would have your attendants. They would come to their businesses, purchase drinks, purchase food. That time wasn't the case. And at the same time, people are using their chairs and tables because they don't know. Attendees, they don't know. They see a table, they're tired from dancing, right, and they sit down. How are you going to prevent that? What's your strategy in that? So we've always had one food vendor. We always have one food vendor. And we've had that same food vendor every time we've done the event. And I've spoke with the restaurants in the area, and they don't seem to mind. They seem to be happy about those nights and want it to continue. And they seem to be doing well financially on those nights. We did this past July, yeah, this past event, we did wet zone the 500 block because it was very difficult to police the cafe permits and trouble about that. So we had to make some changes. And the easiest way to do that was to wet zone that block and also another revenue source. But even with that, everyone seems to be very, very happy with the turnout, financially, how they did those nights. And, you know, probably would continue to do that, specifically because of our need to find ways to raise money for the event. Now, if those businesses to be able to support the event financially, then we could take that out, obviously. But those categories, significant revenues, the event success that it's having. And, you know, it is a Latin event. There are no Latin restaurants down there. Latin food at a Latin event is part of the experience. But until now, we have not had any problems with the businesses down there complaining about that. And everyone seems to be doing well, including the food vendor. I have reached out, actually, to two businesses that were there. And one business said that it did affect previous, compared to previous events, having especially the alcohol vendor there. It affected them. But they weren't complaining much about it. And the other business said a similar thing. So at the end of the day, if we're providing the funds, it's great exposure. I don't know how many of them are coming back in regular days to downtown Clearwater or go to Coastal Park. We don't have the record of that. But on the other hand, we need to be respectful, in my opinion, to the brick-and-mortar businesses there, especially on the FIP block, because that's something that they are trying so hard to actually promote themselves as well. I agree. And it is very important to me that those businesses do well. You know, it's a little surprising to me to hear that they chose you that, because that's not what I was told when I asked them. But in their handle there, I will follow up with them again and make sure that everyone's happy. If those businesses are not happy, then I'm not doing or making to come to fruition the vision and the mission of the city of Clearwater. And I'm trying every day, every month, and every October to align myself with that in a stronger way. So, yes, I will reach out to them again and make sure everyone is okay and happy with what we're doing. And maybe it's just the position of where these things are at that we can look at. But I'll be happy to chat with them and make sure they're happy. As far as I know, the businesses on that block, until now, have been super happy. I have not heard any complaints from them, at least when I talk to them. Specifically Nash Keys, where we host an after-party there successfully. What's Gulf Coast Pizza also seems to be very happy. It was, when we started the monthly events, today we're presenting on the October event. It's different than the budget. They are super happy. But when we first started, yes, it was a little bumpy there. And we had to make some adjustments and work together. And I spoke with all of them, and we've kind of been working together to make it successful. I check in with them as the events are going on. And usually they're, like, very excited and happy with what's going on, that they bring more staff in and all those things, because it's so busy for them. So, you know, if they're telling you that, then that tells me that I have more work to do there. Just for the last event. That was the first time we had beer. And that's my concern. And that's where I saw the difference between the previous events than the very last one. That's the first one on the monthly series that we've had beer. But for the one that I'm presenting today, it has always had that since I started in 2023. Okay. Thank you for answering. Okay. Anybody else? Vice Mayor? I mean, so for me, it comes down to all of these events. You know, and you're specifically, you always typically seem to have a good turnout. But we're trying to support those brick-and-mortar businesses, right? And, I mean, as you say, you've had a different experience, and, you know, you take that in stride, for sure. But maybe we look to get with those brick-and-mortar businesses that are around your event and then say, hey, maybe I don't do the beer cart, but you can work with my event. We do a drink special type of a package or something like that. I mean, I don't want to try and think outside of the box in that type of a way. In fact, this past July, I tried to work with Nash Keys for them to have the bar outside. We already, you know, talked with them, and they got the cafe permit, which ended up being a problem. So then we wet-zoned it, and they were not ready to be out there. You know, in fact, I went to them, and I wanted them to do it. They just couldn't do it, so I got it done, you know. But I went to them and offered it to them, you know. But I will continue to work with them and make it better. One of my favorite things about doing events is the post-event evaluation and solving problems. It's one of the things I love about doing this and making those changes. And sometimes those changes work. Sometimes they don't, you know. And hopefully people are being clear with me on what is working for them or not, because I'm going based on what they tell me, and I want to be a part of what helps the downtown area to become what should be and can be. I don't know. I don't have to tell you guys this. I've said this to you guys a million times. I love Clearwater. I have fallen in love with Clearwater. I love it here. And the open arms that you guys have shown me has been extraordinary to me in different municipalities. I've never experienced this type of welcome, appreciation for what I do. I work hard at it. No, not right now. I'll see if anybody else is. So I don't see online where there was a budget presented for this? Yes. Yeah, I don't see the materials in love. We're looking at you posted online. It's online. That's not really a budget, though. That's, what is it? It's just funding our budget. That's just the city's part of it. I didn't see a budget in the area. And I ask that because I understand what you're saying. And don't get me wrong, you get lots of people there. Everybody agrees that. And it's high energy. You get a good turnout. And it's a great celebration in the Latin community. All your events have been great. But to the points that have been made earlier, this money is intended to help the businesses in downtown Clearwater, particularly those on Cleveland Street, this kind of event that's right at their doorstep. And so, for me, the budget is really important because the Latin food, which is times I've been, that vendor is very popular. You know, I would be interested in what they're paying for the opportunity to participate in the thing and how much that is offsetting the expenses here. It's certainly not fair to bring in a food vendor and have them crush it, you know, make a lot of money while folks at the expense understand the importance of having that element there. But, you know, budget-wise, they shouldn't be coming in and cleaning up financially instead of those folks frequenting the businesses that we're intending to help here. So, for me, the budget is really important. Where is the sponsorship money? What's coming in to offset the expenses? And other than I see what it would cost the city here, I think it's fair for us to know. I'm assuming you're not making a lot of money yourself doing this. I'm assuming that all these things are going to cost. But with the previous proposals we've seen here today, that's all been laid out for us. I don't see that here. Yeah, I totally agree with that. I am taken by surprise today that the word is that they didn't do well, you know, because I've been speaking with all of them. And that's not what I'm hearing from them. So I need to reach out to them again and figure that out. I don't mind telling you what Educa Yedquia Huevaná was the name of the restaurant event. For the big event, he usually pays $5,000 for the event. So Lee has one kiosk, and it's on the west end of the corner of Garden in Cleveland, which is not across from any restaurants or anything like that. On the monthly events, it's a little different because I'm only on the 500 block. A little correction on the October event, which I'm presenting on today. It's 500 block and it's 600 block, including Station Square Park. And on that end, there really is not many restaurants over there. We certainly don't put any food vendors adjacent to any restaurants during that event. And we've always sold alcohol at the events, at this event, going back to 2023. Like I said, never had the feedback. I'm caught by surprise by that. And I would just, you know, urge them, and I would reach out to them again, just be honest with me. You know, I want to, I can't help you if you're telling me it's going great, you know. And that's not the story, you know. So I need to work on those relationships and make sure that they feel comfortable telling me what's really going on for them on these events. Specifically with Nash Keys on the 500 block, I think they're the only place that has full liquor on that block. And we also do an after-party there, which traditionally is very successful. So from my conversations with them, they seem to be very happy. And with Gulf Coast as well, they're extremely happy. Mickey, you have something to share? I do apologize. There was a budget attached to the application on East the Edited, so it just did not get attached to the agenda. We do apologize. I also can make sure that we reach out to the final clause. We haven't got any... Sorry, I'm a little under the weather. I apologize. So I just said when he did submit his application, he did have a budget. I apologize. It was not attached to the agenda. We have not heard any negative feedback from the merch on the 500 block, but staff is welcome to follow up with them to see and get feedback from them if you'd like. Pleasure of the board, but personally, I'd like to see a budget attached so we can review it and we can see where, you know, where the money is intended to go for support the event. Particularly, you know, this is the first time for this unique event we get that. But it's similar to other events that have been had there, so surely by now. And because they've been successful, you would think that, you know, there would be a lot of folks who want to partner and be part of the event. So it's a little surprise that there's not more of an idea on who would potentially sponsor and partner based upon the past success. You know, we all know Unabex had a great taco fest in Coachman Park. Telemundo was a big part of getting people there. So, you know, what media partners you maybe already have secured for this based upon past performance? I don't know. I do have some media partners. I am partnering with Beasley Radio, 92.5 La Maxima, which the city of Clearwater has a longstanding relationship with. And they're doing, they're back with Larencia Ipana in September, which is the day after my monthly event. But, yeah, I have a great relationship with them. I do think that I can do a much better job on the public relations side of this. And now with me focusing on this, I plan to spend more time on that. And I do believe the documentary that I'm filming, which should be ready by the end of this year to be released, you know, which is going to be highlighting Clearwater. Clearwater. My goal as a company, one of my goals as a company is to brand the city of Clearwater as a destination for dancers all over the world. And there's a very strong community of dancers, and they're not just Latino. It's China, Italy, Switzerland, any place that you can imagine, they have a Latin dance community, you know. It's very popular all over the world. That's what we're interested in. Okay, so let's move forward. You have the budget, Vicki? Yes, ma'am. Would you be comfortable looking at it now, or you're looking for a continuance? What are we looking for to proceed? You know, we typically, and I apologize that it didn't evidently get uploaded, but, I mean, that's something that typically the board wants to look at, see what the expenses are. I am going to ask questions related to that and your past experience of why this cost is, whatever. The dancers and some things, I've seen those at past events you've had, and they're really, I think there's, well, I know, there was some adjustment over the funding that some of your events have gotten from Visit St. Pete Clearwater. It was adjusted downward based upon their placer AI data that they had gotten. So I don't know if that affects, you know, some of your requests for funding for this event. Absolutely, yeah. But when it's a repeated event, and we've said this before as a board, when events come back and they have been successful like yours, I think the expectation is that we contribute less and less as you go along. And I realize this is a Halloween event, a new event, but that's, I would like the chance to have, take a look at the budget and evaluate and have you come back and answer questions about it. Sure. And maybe you've learned some things today that might change the budget. Yes. You know, if we do cut alcohol and food, then that's going to cut into what, a big portion of what we use to help pay for the event. You know, the event costs much more than what I'm asking for, including my 20% that I'm putting in as well. The event costs more than that. And we've had some setbacks, too. I mean, hurricane season, you know, that was a big hit for us at Florida Best Promotions. January was another day where we had to reschedule and cost us money, you know, ended up losing money that day as well. So we are working to become less dependent on the city and the DDB. I'd love nothing more than to be able to do this without any funding. You know, I don't know if we'll ever get completely to zero funding, but, yes, I would love that. And, you know, I would love to do that and be a part of what brings downtown Clearwater back. And I think we've got a great start on that. We've got some ways to go. But I think it's just a great thing for that mission, for that vision of downtown Clearwater. And I hope that we can continue to do it. And I will look into these concerns and make sure that we do things in a manner that are supporting them, which I was under the impression that I was. So I will reach out to all of them and see what we could do to work together. Like I said, the reason why Nash Keys didn't have that second bar out there, because they still had their cafe bar, you know, outside of their establishment. So they still had a bar outside. But they weren't able to put another bar over there because something with their – they have a non-for-profit that wasn't ready or whatever. And we did this in a very, very short period of time, you know. I met with officer – or sergeant, excuse me, Sergeant Lulak and with Chris Coach. And they told me we needed to make some changes because we had some issues with people coming outside of that cafe and outside alcohol and things like that coming in. And so that's why in a very short period of time, I had to put that together. And they just weren't ready in time for that, you know. And that was for the monthly – I'd just like to note – Yeah. That was for the monthly events. We're discussing the Saturday event, the big event that's over 2,000 people. Last year, I believe, you guys gave him 15,000, I believe, in funding last year when he didn't even – wasn't here. And you guys gave it to him, just like you guys are trying to remind you of that. The budget I have on my phone, I can give it to you or go print out real quick and let Jesus go through the director's report. And then you guys can look at it afterwards and make a decision if you'd like. I can see if I can get it printed real quick. Or we can take him back to the September GDP budget meeting, I believe we have time there. I know I said that fast. I do apologize. I'd prefer to not look at it here on the dais, you know. Okay. And the September budget meeting. And I think, you know, I think even he might change it now that he's heard some things tonight. You said we gave 15,000 last year? I believe so. That's what we gave him last year. This is doubling what we contributed to last year. Yes, sir. Okay. So, and later on, I'd just like to see the budget and have a chance to look at it. Okay, yeah. Thank you. And the goal is also to grow by more than doubling, you know. We're looking at the AI patient numbers. They're showing 2,000 people, which I think is still a conservative number. But we want to grow this, you know. Eventually, we're going to outgrow just the downtown, and we're going to have to do downtown and Cochrane Park. Thank you, Richard. We'll bring him back up in September. Thank you. As a budget medium, I do apologize. And we'll make sure we have a lead. Thank you very much, Richard. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Okay. That will move to agenda item 3.5. Approved to June 2026 financial statement. Good afternoon, Chair. Members of the Board. Brian Ulbricht, CRA Coordinator. The June 2026 financial statement is present for filing. During the month of June, expenditures total $45,846. To date, expenditures and transfers are approximately $940,890. The total balance across the budget is $1,131,806. $25,000 was relocated from future downtown initiatives line to the marketing line to provide sufficient funding for approved grant requests throughout the remainder of this fiscal year. This reallocation does not increase the overall budget. It simply reallocates existing appropriations between budget line items to the current program needs. Any remaining balances have been reallocated to the unallocated special events grant line to support future downtown programming. The staff recommends approval of the June 2026 financial statement for filing. I'm happy to take any questions. Does anyone hear from the public that they desire to speak to this agenda item? Hearing seeing none, is there any board discussion? If not, is there a motion? Move to approve agenda item 3.5. Second. Opposed and favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Agenda item 3.6, approve the proposed budget for fiscal year 2026-2027 for the Clearwater Downtown Development Report. Good afternoon, Ann Lopez, CRA Assistant Director. This item is the proposed fiscal year 2026-2027 budget for the Clearwater Downtown Development Board. The proposed budget totals $1,513,438. Property tax revenue is projected at $523,809, which is an increase over the amended fiscal year 25-26 budget. This budget also includes $567,915 from unassigned fund balance to support proposed expenditures. Any remaining unassigned fund balance will be brought forward through a budget amendment after the current fiscal year closes. Per the interlocal agreement with the CRA management and administrative fee reflects a 5% increase over the current fiscal year. The proposed budget includes the staff and office expenditures, $6,500, fixed payments, $15,675, marketing, $602,369. This includes $148,000 that's already been approved, $150,000 for the micro-grant program, and $50,000 to roll out the new DDB brand and logo. Business assistance of $195 and future downtown initiatives of $192,797. Overall, this proposed budget supports the board's priorities by investing in business assistance, marketing, special events, and future downtown initiatives. And if this is approved today, this budget will be presented at the DDB's millage and budget hearings, which are scheduled for September 15th and 21st. Does anyone here from the public today desire to speak to this gen item? Hearing and seeing none, is there any board discussion? If not, is there a motion? Motion to approve a gen item 3.6. Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Unanimous. Thank you. Gen item 4.1, DDB Director's Report for August of 2026. Good afternoon. Hey, Suzy Nino, CRA and DDB Director. This is your Director's Report for August 2026. As you see on the cover there, we're using our new logo, so we're proud of that. And in the future, this presentation, the complete template will be redone to match it a little bit better. So as you see there on the cover, we're starting to roll out our logo. With RBOA, they're starting to develop workshops so they can have that framework so we can start using this new brand and start putting it into advertisements or just using it anytime that we sponsor events. We have a call from mobile vendors that we're starting to bring to an end as far as collecting proposals of individuals that are interested. And our staff has already put together an evaluation team so we can start looking at those vendors. And then hopefully we can start implementing this program in the 400-500 block. Upcoming events, we do have Market Marie. This is for the public out there. August 8th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. So they support over 130 small businesses every second Saturday of the month. And this is presented by the Market Culture. Now, this one is fairly exciting for individuals out there and the public that are interested. You can go on the website for meganytemarket.com. This is for the Mega Asian Food and Music Festival on the Water. This is going to take place at Coachman Park, August 21st, 23rd. And a lot of wonderful vendors are going to be participating with Asian food and other activities. So we encourage the public to attend. Then here for the 400 block, Kevin and other merchants are putting together the Hello Cleveland Street. This is for the month of August. We have a few events there with DDB funding up to $5,000 for those events. It's called Hello Cleveland Street. Then as far as thoughts on the bachata, you've heard the presentation there on the 500 block of Cleveland Street. Saturday is pretty much Saturdays. That concludes the DDB presentation. Thank you. Any questions for the director? None. Thank you, Mr. Camino. We'll move to item five on the agenda, and that is board members to be heard. Any board members about it? Board member Chip Leach. So I know it's been a longer meeting than anticipated, but in my opinion, when we fund events like what we just discussed, I don't know how the board feels about this, but there could be also a chance of allocating a partial budget to support businesses that are happening within the same block if there is a competition for that business, whether they're serving the same type of food, alcoholic drinks, or anything that can compete with the business. It's just an idea. By support, do you mean an appropriation, or are you meaning us helping you with security? So allocating whatever they're getting from the DDB. So there could be some allocation equally distributed to the businesses that attendees, let's say it's a voucher. There could be 100 vouchers, could be distributed to attendees, and the attendees could go use that voucher at the brick-and-mortar businesses. So brick-and-mortar businesses are also benefiting out of those events if there is obviously a competition. Could you give me like a monetary example of what you're thinking? So are you saying if the event has $5,000 worth of vendors in their budget for food trucks, are you saying you'd like to see an equal amount of $5,000 line item for downtown merchant vendors, like a ticket? Is that what you're saying? Similar, yes. So it doesn't have to be equal. So I'll give you an example. Let's say we discuss about the Latin event, and they have food vendors and beverage vendors. And if that means there is a competition, there is a competition with the brick-and-mortar businesses. It doesn't have to be matching the same amount, but allocating a specific amount equally towards the brick-and-mortar businesses, whether it's $500 to $1,000. I haven't thought about the value of what it could be allocated, but it's just an idea so that businesses are also benefiting out of it. If there is a competition, which I feel like they also need to have business, not sit empty where the events area is actually busy. I understand what you're saying, because I've always, even when I was on DDB, we'd have people come in. Oh, we're going to have, well, a perfect example is like a market downtown. We never wanted to have, you know, don't set your tent up selling food in front of a restaurant because the whole idea of having, you know, a market or an event downtown is to help not only bring people downtown and have a good time, but also help the brick-and-mortar businesses down there. So maybe it's up to the DDB to when they get a, I mean, when I did events, I always had to, you know, hand in a map of what it was going to be and where the, if I had, like, a barbecue, something, you know, I'd have to show where that was, and it had to not conflict or be, like, in front of a restaurant. I mean, I've always thought that we don't want to hamper restaurants down there. I don't know. I mean, that's an interesting concept. I'd like to think more about it, maybe a voucher kind of thing. Because the whole idea with DDB funding is to help the merchants downtown. It's not just, I mean, that's basically the DDB, that's what it's for, is help the downtown merchants. So maybe that is something. I'd like to have more conversation about that. And maybe Jesus could come back and give us, you know, have staff, give us an example of what that would look like and I'd like to pursue, or something alternate like that that would work. I think the Latin thing, as he was saying, there's no restaurants that serve Latin food, okay? So it's not like you're selling pizzas right in front of, you know, the pizza place or something like that. But I think when they hand in a map and show them where they're going to have the event, it's real important that they put the food or, you know, vendors away from the businesses down there. Because we don't really want to compete with them. We want to help them. And I would say, you know, something we can discuss, create ideas from trying to help you benefit. But my whole point earlier was we should not be using DDB money to subsidize competition for our businesses. And that's part of why I want to apologize that the budget didn't make it in here. But I just want to make sure we're not doing that. Because that's, for me, that's not an appropriate use of DDB money to subsidize competition for you. And I think that's the first step. But there are other ideas on how we can get anyone who is getting a grant from the DDB for a downtown event, ways we can be more creative in working with those event promoters and operators to encourage folks to come into your businesses. I think that that's a good idea. And hopefully we can do that as well. Because, and I think we already do that, you know, already doing that to some extent. But maybe there are some creative ideas we can do that better or differently. And I appreciate you raising that. So I'm sure staff would love to talk to you about what ideas you have. And maybe we can percolate those up to where we can talk about them here as a board. Vice Mayor? Yeah, I completely agree with DDB funds should be going to ensure that our businesses are the ones that are profiting as well as hosting a good event. I don't know, but I'm willing to see how a voucher program would work. It seems like it would be a lot harder, you know, which patrons get a voucher and which ones don't. That will be an interesting thing to tackle. But I'm sure there's a way to think outside of the box to make something like that work. Or, quite frankly, maybe we just start hosting events and part of the rules are there is no food or beverage. And you will have your patrons come and enjoy the rest of your event. And if they're hungry or thirsty, they go to our businesses here. That's the whole point of it. But I'm definitely interested to see what outside of the box thinking. That can go for all of us. I mean, whatever we can come up with, including staff as well. I just don't know how that voucher thing would work. Because you have X number of people that you're anticipating coming. How do you allocate half of those? All four to see how it would work out on paper. It just seems like more monotony that could be more chaos instead of trying to bring some solutions to our downtown businesses. But I definitely think that we need to think outside of the box with this and really make sure that the point of this is to have events that are driving people to our businesses that are here. That's from Tishida. I would love to brainstorm. Seriously, we can get together and come up with some ideas. But I think we should begin with perhaps the application process. Instead of a suggested thing, make it a requirement where they document what initiatives have they done, what kind of steps that they do to include the brick and mortar. So making it a requirement that there has to be something there. But I would love to brainstorm some solutions. Maybe the voucher is complicated. But perhaps we can sponsor giving you tools to actually participate in the events itself. So, you know, I think it's a great conversation we should have. But you've given me a challenge. Let me think about it. But I think you're in the right direction. You're going in the right direction. Yeah. The voucher thing is just an idea that literally just popped up when we were having the meeting. But we have seen events that had happened in downtown Clearwater where they would pre-purchase things from businesses, too, when the events are happening. So they would allocate, okay, we're going to purchase from each business, let's say, $500. What can you give us? And they would provide it, and then the event would happen. That really helps every business, especially if there is a competition. And that way businesses also don't have to deal with, you know, frustration, especially fifth block. The energy needs to, I mean, it brings a great energy. I love the event, and I'm not talking specifically about this one. But I think there could be an option where we can support the businesses. You know, a couple of ideas would be that if an event is coming that the business could participate in that. I've seen that happen before where they have a little tent out in front of the restaurant, and maybe they serve a certain type of food, you know, from the restaurant that would go hand-in-hand with the event, like, you know, Latin maybe. Maybe you serve some kind of dish that was more accommodating for that that you could sell, and that people, you know, they would come by, and that would help bring people into the restaurant. But people coming out for an event that want to walk around and get a little kind of taste of Cleveland kind of thing, that would, I think, work really well. One of my events I had, I gave everybody a ticket. And on the back of the ticket it had a map of Cleveland, the 500 block or whatever, and then the name of all the stores. And one of the things, they had to go into the store and get a preview of the store, and they would punch the ticket there, and then they would come, and then at the end they could put it into a big thing, and they'd turn it, and they'd give prizes away. So they got people to at least go into the stores and really know what's there. But that's something we could brainstorm. You know, staff, you could bring us some ideas, and I'd love to talk about that. That's Mernon Menino. Yeah, I think it's a great idea to recognize it. I think it's probably the best use of our time going forward with this is not brainstorming now, trying to figure this out. Let's put this as a future agenda item. It gives us time to actually put some thought into it, talk to brick-and-mortar restaurants and event managers that put on these events and promoters, and let's put it as an item and have a deeper discussion about it versus now if the board's okay with that. Any other further discussion? Okay. If not, anybody else have anything else to share? And we'll move to item six on the agenda, and that is to adjourn the August 3, 2026 meeting of the City of Clearwater Downtown Development Board. And we will recess for about five minutes while we switch some name cards up front and prepare for our community redevelopment agency meeting. Thank you. Thank you.