Tourist Development Council meeting on 11/19/2025 - Nov 19, 2025

doing on this beautiful Wednesday morning. You know, why don't we start with the Pledge of Allegiance? Commissioner Eggers, would you lead us to the Pledge of Allegiance? Why don't we go around the room and do some introductions? Hopefully we have some other folks that will filter in as we go down the line. Chuck, why don't we start down here with you? Good morning, Chairman. My name is Chuck Prather from the Virtua downtown St. Petersburg. Captain Dylan Hubbard from Hubbard's Marina and Madeira Beach. Councilman Copley-Gerdes, District 1 and this year's Chair for St. Pete City Council. Amanda Coffey, County Attorney. Ryan Scott, Pinellas County Commission. Ryan Lowak, Visit St. Pete, Clearwater. Russ Kimball, Sheridan, Sankey, Clearwater Beach. Dave Eggers, Pinellas County Commission. Doreen Moore, Travel Resort Services, TRS, Vacation Rentals throughout our beautiful Pinellas County. Clyde Smith, Bill Maher Beach Resort, Treasure Island. All right, well, thank you for that, everybody. All right, first order of business we have this morning is approval of the minutes of our meeting on October 15th. So moved. Second. A motion from Doreen, a second from Dillon. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, passed unanimously. Thank you. Okay, next we have public comment. Do we have any members of the public that wish to speak? Okay. Hearing none, we will move on to presentations, our arts tourism program. Awesome. Thank you, Mr. Chair, and good morning, everyone. This presentation, there we go. Before I get started, I want to recognize some of the folks, really the team that's in the audience here today, who were instrumental in putting this together in the last month and a half. We've had a number of meetings where we have come up with how we can combine our resources as well as our expertise to really put together a great work product that we're proposing today, bringing to you. So I want to thank and recognize the team back there. I see Beth Daniels from the Clearwater Arts Alliance. I see Helen French from the St. Pete Arts Alliance. And I believe behind the post is Margaret Murray from Creative Pinellas, as well as Todd Wellman from Creative Pinellas. So as a group over the last month, we've worked together to come up with this. We're going to tag team this presentation. I will start it and Todd will bring it in for a landing. And the team is here to answer any questions that you may have for them that I cannot answer. So excited to be here today to talk about this arts tourism funding program. And we know two things. We know that we have an amazing arts and culture community here in Pinellas County. This plays a central role in a lot of our marketing and advertising initiatives. And we also know that we have a need period, need periods here in St. Pete Clearwater. And so working together, we figured out how can we come up with a program that really highlights our creative community while driving visitation and bringing awareness to the destination. So that was the goal. And the proposed program, you'll see, is to provide competitive selected awards to individuals, public and private organizations, and arts agencies to essentially create a month-long month-of-the-arts event. And each of these experiences are going to really give us the ability to highlight different parts of the destination through different creative works during the month that we as a team at Visit St. Pete Clearwater can then advertise and hopefully turn this into a must-visit arts destination for this event. When we look at the program administration, this will be funded through Visit St. Pete Clearwater. However, the three arts alliances, they're the experts on the arts. And so they would do the program administration. And you can see here, this will entail planning outreach, the development of the application, the tracking, and we have a breakdown here. Creative Pinellas would take the lead with 75% of that, St. Pete Arts Alliance at 15%, and Clearwater Arts Alliance at 10%. When we look at the funding breakdown, of the $500,000 that is allocated for this program, $100,000 will go to program administration broken down accordingly, as you see there on the slide. And then the $400,000 will go to individual awards and events production. So you can see these will be competitively selected experiences of all types. And there are essentially two categories. There's one for the larger experiences that folks will be eligible for up to $25,000 awards. And then those smaller experiences eligible for up to $10,000 in awards. And the way we will execute this is through a funding agreement. I'm still working on what exactly that will look like, but that will likely be directly between Visit St. Pete Clearwater and Creative Pinellas. With that, we'll get more into the program. I welcome Todd Wellman from Creative Pinellas to continue. Thank you, Brian. Morning, Chairman. Thanks for having us. Morning, Todd. Our award features this year that we're proposing in... Thank you so much. Our first, starting with eligibility, we want to make sure that anyone who applies, it's very clear that we want them to increase Pinellas as a premier arts destination. So we want a clear tourism tie-in here, visitation. And that also, the proposal has to be an arts experience. So there's lots of great ideas, but in this particular, it would have to be for the arts. It has to be produced in county, so people are coming here. So even if someone is a county agency, they couldn't produce it, say, in Tampa. We're very open to lots of different kinds of organizations and individuals being eligible. We think people can bring a lot to the table, regardless if they're for-profit, non-profit, individual, a partnership, perhaps, across those. We'd love to see some artists and hospitality partnerships throughout this. And they would be working together alone to produce their proposed experience. They also have to be set up and agree to collect some good metrics for us. So we include things like the interactivity, the attendance, zip code, and sales. Additionally, we talked quite a bit about this, and Brian checked with his team. We feel pretty strongly that they can't receive elite funding for the same experience, so that it would be different categories. And also, integratable into VSPC's outreach methods. And Brian and his team talked about some great ideas that how that could work once we have this month event planned. We also foresee a selection committee to make sure that there's a wide range of people in the community being involved with determining what is good for the community for bringing in tourism for the arts. We envision a seven-member committee. We definitely want someone from Visit St. Pete Clearwater on that committee, someone from hospitality on that committee, and then some art experts across various genres. So they would make up this group recommending to us and therefore Visit St. Pete Clearwater and therefore the TDC what to approve for this group of grants. And the committee would evaluate all the applications, making sure that they meet the eligibility criteria that I went through previously, that they would support the vision of the program, including driving visitation. I can't stress that enough, that it can't just be, oh, I want to do an art program, and I want to do it for my friends. That's not what this is about. And also that they're qualified to deliver the experience. We talked quite a bit about what qualified could look like, and many times in arts granting that looks like providing a portfolio, providing reference letters, providing proof that you may have done something similar in the past and that it went pretty well. And then we also have program evaluation that we're very keen on. In addition to the willingness to collect those metrics that we talked about before, additional metrics will be established to determine program performance. And they may include things like occupancy rates year over year, and this was the intervention that could have changed those rates. In addition to attendees, social media and webpage engagement, economic impact, and event check-in. And we'd continue to work with VSPC to make sure we define those clearly. Thank you, Todd. And I do want to provide an opportunity, if anybody else from the team, if we missed anything, if there's anything else that you'd like to highlight, I'd welcome you to come up. If not, that's totally all right as well. But we think this is a great start to this program. And after year one, we would evaluate this and determine, do we need to adjust? Do we need to continue moving forward with this? Can we grow this? What that looks like? But again, this would be essentially a month-long, month of the arts. We will brand it with some name, and then we'll go ahead and market that to potential visitors. And we envision this not only being specifically the folks who receive these awards, but we hope that the effect is other arts institutions, museums, the creative community can get behind this and plug into this month of the arts. It's something we can really celebrate and something that we can really brand and push out to the world. So that's where we're at. I'm hoping to get any feedback, comments that you have today, and then we'll move this forward. Okay. Before we go into questions, I would like to get a motion to allow Mayor Rector to participate virtually. Okay. Motion by Commissioner Renger, second by Phil. All in favor? Any opposed? Okay. Welcome, Bruce. Thank you. Okay. Any questions for Todd or Brian? Chuck? First off, I'd like to applaud Brian and his team. Tourism and the arts go together. They just do. We've talked about this for years, and it's important. At the same time, the BCC needed to take a deep dive into Creative Pinellas, and it was a very painful but necessary endeavor that they took, and here we are now. I think Creative Pinellas did a great job listening to the concerns of the BCC working with Brian, and now we have what I'm very excited about is still tourism and arts melded together in a whole month of celebration, and you've got a $500,000 budget to make that happen. My question really is about now that we've spent $500,000 on this and we've got what should be a great month, how are we going to bring Steve and the marketing team into, because the $400,000 is for production costs and putting the things together, $100,000 is to get the folks so they can get a paycheck on Friday to let them put this together, completely understand that budget, but I would strongly encourage, if we're going to spend this, to allow Steve to have some latitude and his team to market these events. Obviously, some of the smaller ones you might not be able to quite spend money on, but the bigger ones, but that's my concern and I want to have you comment on that. Yeah, thank you. I would say that we know that when we talk to visitors here in the destination, we know that one of the things that's driving them to come here and one of the things that they do while they're here, it's the events, it's the celebrations, it's the festivals, it's the concerts, it's the different events throughout the destination and we know that drives visitation, so we look for every opportunity we can to promote those to potential visitors. This, creating a whole, essentially, new month of arts experiences is something that we're excited to tell that story to potential visitors and what exactly that looks like, I cannot tell you today, but we have some time as we finalize these details that Steve, his team, will come up with creative and innovative ways to tell that story and we're excited about it. Thank you and I just wanted to applaud Margaret and her team for putting together a collaboration effort between St. Petersburg and Clearwater and teaming together to make this vision come true, so thank you very much, I appreciate that. Dylan? Has there been any discussion so far, brainstorming, as to what some of these events might look like? Like, it says 25 grand to a bigger event and the metrics of like driving occupancy rate and economic impact, has there been any discussions of like what that might look like? Because, I mean, I picture things like one of the murals, right? Those, someone doing a mural and inviting everybody to watch it be done, those kind of things, is that what the idea is or has there been discussions or is it too early? I will tell you, one of the things that excites me is nothing, those experiences, none of those big experiences are off the table and so we want to create this theme, create this month and then see what the creative community, the different experiences that they can come up with that really enhance this destination and I am not creative enough to imagine what those experiences will be but we do have some folks here that might want to comment on anything, any of their experiences that they envision or not. Not to be too on the nose but I have a lot of friends who love playing guitar and I've always imagined a floating guitar off, you know, on the water. I mean, that's the kind of creativity we want to see as well as murals as well as a really great show produced at the beach rather than in a theater. There's lots of really, when we've had these brainstorming sessions, we got a lot of energy about thinking like, what's the regular idea and what would we like to encourage artists and non-profits and hospitality to get together to brainstorm together? So our plan would be if this moves forward also to have some public information sessions to do some of that brainstorming. Awesome. Thank you. Did anybody else have any other comments? Chuck. I'm sorry. One more. Thank you, Chuck. And just to bring on that home, I just want to applaud because it's not just the visual arts like we're used to seeing, whether it's a mural or an art festival because there's performing arts and there's culinary. There's so many arts in this community that people shine at. I applaud you that you're looking at maybe some not necessarily non-conventional what we think of as art events. Thank you. Again, just for clarity, this is November. We're using this as our baseline month, I'm assuming, for metrics and all of that. So next November is our target and we'll be hearing about these plans as they develop during the year to kind of get a sense of where we're going. Right. Correct. All right. Anything else? Doreen? You had asked for some comments from the audience. Yeah, they're welcome to if they would like to come up. I haven't accepted that yet, but they're welcome to at any moment. A couple of comments. You all know my background with Creative Penelope all these years and I also applaud VSP's efforts and the team, everything that everyone has been working together to make this into a whole new game. and I guess I'm sharing my concern that it's very events oriented, obviously, a month long, great idea, shoulder month, all those kinds of things, but I think when we had the whole mission of Creative Penelope as the local arts agency for Penelope County, it wasn't a one and done. It was a year long. It was an ongoing. It was 2015 to 2025, so we had a 10-year record. So I just want to incorporate that into the big picture that there's more to a local arts agency and sharing that with the tourism focus, which obviously, that's what we've done. That's our source of funding, but there's a bigger picture. So I'm just asking that we all and the commission keep that in mind as we move forward, make this event focused, month long, you know, a success and grow that, but then look at the overall big picture. So I just ask to keep that in mind. Thank you. Yeah, and following up on that thought and my previous comment, when we were picking November, so again, as a baseline of activity, this is a quieter month, typically, so, and it's like three quarters of a month, two thirds of a month, families, Thanksgiving, all of that stuff kind of get wrapped in. So I just, you know, again, wanting to make sure that the challenge is realistic and that November and maybe it bleeds into half of October, I just want this to be a resounding success and, you know, there's certain things that might be working against this just because of the month. So just be thinking of that as we move through the year as to how that toggles a little bit, moves a little bit to make it a more successful or potentially more successful targeted activity. So that's my only comment. Thank you. Any other thoughts, questions, comments? Oh, come on up. Thank you. Beth Daniels with the Clearwater Arts Alliance. It's hard to, on such short notice that we've been working with, to have very much fleshed out, so I think that's, you know, you have to keep that in mind. Things came upon the artist community very quickly and without really preparation to jump into this. That said, there's an opportunity to do something with the piece that the TDC is willing to part with. Set the larger county part aside for a minute. But one of the thoughts that I have, just to share with you since people are throwing out ideas, and I'm kind of pegging off what Commissioner Eggers said. I think if November is the only thing, you're chopping off part of it because families and Thanksgiving kind of stands on its own. But we already have in October things like the orchestra's concert in the park, which is huge and been ongoing for years. We have the Clearwater Arts, we have the Clearwater Jazz Holiday Festival. We also have this weekend, which is before we're into Thanksgiving, a wonderful jazz fest out on Clearwater Beach. So music is a big, big thing that's already happening, well established in our community. What we maybe haven't done as good a job as we could is attracting people who would come here, stay here, and then have transportation, have ability to know where these events are. So I know it sounds corny, but this came up in my head probably at about midnight last night. It ought to be Ogvember, and you ought to be about October 15 to about, you know, November 20 or something, and it's a month of music and art, and that way you're not tying yourself only to November, you're playing off of some of the things you already have that are highly successful, and then you're asking creative people to find ways to get our own citizens and our visitors connected to come to those things, to know how, when they're happening, how to easily get to them, and how to maybe come up with themes that could be different every year, where then you tie the visuals into those music events and things that are already happening. There's just a lot that's already there that I think could be successfully blended, and maybe giving it a different flavor each year with a different theme. It's just something, you know, that would, I think, satisfy your concern for the need to tie it into heads and beds, but also allow some of the money to help build things that already have a very good track record. So that's my comment. Thank you. I think that space between like midnight and 4 a.m., it seems to be about when the best ideas come through your head. I don't know why that is, but it seems to work that way. I think that's a great, that's a great idea. It really is. Okay. I can remember. Okay. Any other thoughts, questions? Yeah, thank you. Just to add on to what she says of existing events, I was going to comment later on board member comments, but this weekend does start the sand innovations, which mixes all of the arts. There's vendors with artwork there. There's the music, and then obviously the sand sculptures, which this year's theme is art. So it's, they're taking the art of sand sculpture and featuring different artists. They partnered with the Dali with that. So that's going on this weekend and Encore next weekend. And the arts sculptures will be up throughout until the new year. Yeah. Mr. Chairman. Hey, Bruce. Yep. Yep. Apologize for audio. I'm working out of a closet on Capitol Hill right now, so. You look like you're in a closet. I wouldn't have picked Capitol Hill, though. Yeah. The best place I could find you. So I just wanted to thank Beth for sharing that. But, you know, really, and this plan, I think, is great for Visit Safety Clearwater and appreciate the efforts that went into working with the arts community to come up with it. But I just want to remind folks that if we want to, if we want a vibrant arts and culture community throughout, not just Clearwater, but throughout Tampa Bay, it really does take a village. It takes all kinds of pieces coming together. And it's not just, it's not just Visit Safety Clearwater. It's not just the county. It's not the city of Clearwater and our cities. It's the private sector. It's everyone working together. And some of these gaps that maybe are being left are not filled in by Visit Safety Clearwater here with this program. I certainly hope that the community will come together, private sector included, to fill that gap and to maybe do some of these things that traditionally the county has funded. But, you know, we've got a lot of private enterprises in Tampa Bay that would be very interested in fostering and growing and enriching our arts culture in Pinellas County. So I recognize that, that hopefully no one sees this program that Visit Safety Clearwater is being the only solution because it really is going to take all parts of our community come together to make our community grow and the arts community as much as possible. Thank you, Bruce. All right, I want to thank Margaret and the entire arts community for coming together and working with Brian and his team on this. I think this is going to be a great, great program and I just appreciate all the effort and the hard work. Thank you so much. All right, so now we will move on to Capitol Project. And as Kylie makes her way up for the presentation, just a reminder for those of you that were at the joint BCC-TDC meeting, these all came from that discussion and so this will, some of these will not be new to the others, they will be, but this is, we're bringing it in for a landing, looking for any last minute comments and feedback before we go to the BCC. Thank you, Ryan. Good morning, everyone. I am Kylie Diaz, Vice President of Community Engagement with Visit St. Pete Clearwater. First, I wanted to take the, thank the entire Visit St. Pete Clearwater team, Managing Assistant County Attorney Amanda Coffey and Crossroads Consulting for helping us go through these guidelines and make some proposed improvements. So for those watching, 2026 Capital Projects Funding Program is a way for us to take these TDC dollars and invest them back into the community for eligible projects. So some of the revisions that we recommend, and again, this was off of a lot of learning in the last two years from the 2024 guidelines. So if you guys have any questions, you're welcome to stop me at any time as we go through these. The BCC will establish a total pool of capital funding dollars available for the cycle. The reason for this is because it gives us an easier way to back into some of these projects knowing what our budget is. We removed categories for projects that were not subject to the program. So this was spring training, beach nourishment, baseball, sports stadiums, and convention centers. We added beach park facilities. This is a new addition and we're excited to add this. We'll talk a little bit more about that in just a second. We require matching funds to be secured prior to the execution of the funding agreement. And this is just to make sure that these projects are ready to go. One of the requirements is to be shovel ready. And so we just want to make sure that these projects are go once the funding is approved. So we established requests for reimbursements during construction must be made at the time of application. So these guidelines actually state that the money will be given on reimbursement after the project. So if you're someone who wants a reimbursement kind of along the way, along the process, you would need to request that at the beginning and not at the end. We established a minimum annual attendance of $25,000 and room night $10,000 requirement for eligibility. This does not apply to beach park facilities. So before we had different levels of room nights and annual attendance to be approved for different levels of funding, this is just a way for you to get into the program. It simplifies the process. It removes those tiered requirements. And it also means that meeting that minimum requirement doesn't guarantee you funding. So you might get into the program on those minimum requirements, but it doesn't mean that you're actually going to be awarded a grant. We removed the ability for projects not meeting the guidelines or over $10 million to request BCC approval to participate in the program. And this was just a way to streamline the process. Some of those things were holding up the process as they were being sent over. And so we just want to make sure that we get this process done a little bit quickly, a little bit more quickly and a little bit more streamlined. We removed the defined point system but kept the same evaluation criteria. As some of you may remember, we had a lot of back and forth about the scoring on the last process. So we just took that out. And if you have any questions about that, please let me know. Beach park facilities. Publicly owned beach park facilities that are directly associated with or demonstrated to be tourist attractions may now apply. Review and recommendations are based on quantitative and qualitative tourism impacts including historical and future visitation based metrics, tourism support importance, visitor experience and quality indicators and alignment with strategic tourism goals. Again, if you have questions, please let me know. And the one-to-one funding match is required. However, it's not required by public facilities owned by Pinellas County. And these beach park facilities will compete against each other separately from the other capital projects. So we're going to leave these beach park facilities with their own bucket. And yes, go ahead, Doreen. Question. So on the funding match, obviously not applying to Pinellas County, but if a specific city, municipality makes that request, they do have to have the one-to-one thing. Yes. Anybody else? Dylan? So for the beach park facilities, so I understand the BCC sets up like this is our bucket. What percentage of that bucket are we flushing that out? You like that? That will go for the beach park facilities. Like, is it 10%, 5%? Are we just going to evaluate it based on funding? I can take that one, Kylie. That is not defined in here yet. That is, we left that open-ended. We envision it being obviously a smaller portion than those larger existing capital project requests, but that is a discussion that I will have with the Board of County Commissioners to see what their desire is yet. So we did not want to put a 10%, 20%, whatever have you. We will have that discussion with them and that very well may change every two years when we go request that budget for that funding cycle. That is kind of what I figured because sometimes we will have more or less beach park facility applications so it is kind of a moving target potentially. So you have taken out the numbers, the grading. So you are going to say this one is good, this one is great, this one is not so good? So we still have the categories for if you look into the guidelines, we still have categories for actual evaluation on those projects, but what we were finding is that that scoring based system was actually a little bit more subjective than you would think if you think about like this is 10 to 20 points. Well what does that mean? What's in those 10 to 20 points? And we found that it was really complicating in the process. We were kind of splitting hairs over how those points were assigned instead of really looking at the project based on its scope and merit of the actual categories. So it just cleared up the confusion, it streamlined the process, and now we can actually judge projects on criteria-based evaluation rather than splitting hairs over things and it helps take the scope and merit of these categories into consideration. Kylie, may I add on to that? Mr. Henderson, we envision this being, you know, this kind of ties into that every cycle budget. So if we know how much we have to work with for that cycle, we can then look at those applications and based on the impacts that they will produce, that's how we can then divide up proportionately how those projects are funded. so maybe a project has, maybe all projects have similar or equal 10-year impact estimates, well then we would envision dividing that bucket up evenly. Maybe it is disproportionate on how those projects project out incremental economic impacts and then we could divvy that up accordingly. But that's how we would look at these and these projects are truly going to compete and the better ones will get a higher percentage of funding and the less competitive ones will get a less or no funding. They're going to have 10 and in the end you're going to say, okay, they all check the boxes in some way or another. They answer that request or answer that criteria and then you're going to say, well, which was the best? And that gets the most. The last time we had an issue about, well, whatever the highest score was was awarded the most. And then everybody got a percentage based on their score after that. So it's going to be much more subjective in how you split that up based on what you're feeling the impact is. I'm just trying to wrap my head around it. Well, it's going to allow us just time to do it. It's like there's got to be a ranking somehow, I would think. I mean, we're going to see every one of these are required to provide that economic impact analysis. And then we're really going to lean into that. And it's going to be very black and white on which ones are better than the others from our perspective on a return on investment basis. And that's how we will judge these. Yeah, so the scoring, I had the same thoughts as you feel like it makes it a little bit more difficult from our end because the scoring was very black and white on our end. But I hear what you guys are saying. So it's going to be more of an emphasis on the economic impact. Essentially, those numbers provided in that packet we saw last time, that's going to drive the discussion, essentially. Yes, and I mean, that was the case in this last cycle as well. But we were looking at the points, whereas this time we're just looking at that economic evaluation. Yes, and if you'll recall, I just use an example, we have one of the factors is geographical distribution. Well, we were faced with, what does that mean? And we had five points there. Well, how do we divvy up five points for these categories based on geographical distribution? We all know what it means. It means that an emphasis needs to be placed on the fact that these projects are distributed throughout the entire destination and not in just one or two areas. And we were faced with, we got all these applications and they were located in two locations with the exception of one. They were heavily central in downtown St. Pete and Clearwater Beach. Well, how do you score these based on geographical distribution when all the projects are in the same two places? What we did was Eddie Seymour was not in either of those two locations, so we gave it five points and we gave the rest zero. Well, is it fair to those other projects that they got zero? So this is going to remove situations like that. Yes, and understanding in the application when people are really taking you through their projects and explaining it, we can align it with our own goals and our own tourism goals. And so, you know, some of these projects might align more closely to what we're trying to do as an organization as well. So it allows us to take those things into consideration. Great. Question. Can we talk a little more about the Beach Park facilities and how our job, that committee that's going to be doing it, will be using the same review as every other one that we look at with not points but judging the whole different areas and still it's a county but they're more distributed than any other thing we have. How do you look at that? Can you explain that a little bit more? How are you going to recommend the different ones and then will the Board of County Commission make that judgment? Do you want to take that or do you want me to take it? I can kick it off and then you can let me know if I missed anything. One of the things, we don't have it listed on this side, just on this slide for simplicity, but those four categories you see on the review and recommendations for qualitative and quantitative impacts, you do have it in your backup. We worked with Crossroads Consulting to determine what are different measurements that we can use for these beach park facilities. We knew that we weren't going to hold them to the same standard as these museums, ballparks, and aquariums to go out, hire an economist, perform an economic impact analysis. So we looked around the state to see other metrics, other programs, how they were being done. We talked to staff to figure out what sort of data is available, may be available. For instance, at a beach park, they may have a park mobile system in place, and every car is required to enter their license plate. We can then see how many of those license plates come, how many visitors they get annually, how many are from outside of Pinellas County, and that can be used as a metric. I think you're going to see some other things as far as visitor experience. Perhaps this is in a part of the county where there are, it's highly surrounded by hotels and accommodations and tourism attractions. That's going to score well, or maybe it's going to create a new experience that's going to draw visitors to that portion of the beach. It's going to enable a facility along the beach to hold an event like a sanding ovations. It's going to enhance a beach access like the one out there at Treasure Island for an event like sanding ovations. Those are the kinds of things, and it's essentially, it's on them. We gave them a menu of metrics to put forward in their request, and those that provide better data and better applications will be viewed favorably from our staff. We'll recommend those to you all, get the scrutiny from this board, and ultimately take it to the Board of County Commissioners for final approval. Yes, and on those four bullet points that you see listed there, as Brian mentioned in your packets, we do have three pages that kind of dive into those four bullet points and list examples and things that we're looking for. So, specifically, if you have any questions on any of those, what's listed within those bullets in your packets, we're happy to answer those questions. It will be posted online for those watching online as well. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kylie, great job. That was a lot of work. Because the Beach Park facilities, that's new to us. Is there a season for that, or does a town just present it any given month and then you all react, or do we see a slate of these Beach Park facilities in a certain month once a year to discuss? So, they would apply just like the other projects when we put this out, hopefully in the spring. So, we're hoping that we can put this in front of the BCC with a vote next month. And then on, and during the spring is when we'll post these online, we'll give people three to four months, and we'll go through the same process that we did with the other capital projects. So, we're just now finishing the 2024 process, so it does take a little while to get through these projects. Hopefully, we'll move a little faster this time. So, thank you. I, first of all, want to apologize for not being at the joint meeting. We had City Council that day, so I'm a little bit more behind. But, I think, Amanda, this question is for you. Is there, like, a definition of what a beach park facility is or isn't? Great question. No, the statute does not define beach park facility. We do have some commentary in AGOs that discuss things that it might be, like toilet facilities. It could be a parking area. It could be a picnic area. So, it's not defined in the statute. What we have done is the way we've drafted it. In order to put this into our guidelines, of course, we do have to amend the tourist development plan, which is in the county code. And the definition that's in the packet as well that we have landed on after discussions with this board and the BCC is publicly owned and operated beach park facilities that are directly associated with or demonstrated to be tourist attractions. So, that's very similar to the definition that we're using for public facilities generally. It's a fairly broad definition which allows us to use the opportunity to evaluate projects as they come in and determine does this appear to meet the statutory requirements, does it appear to meet our plan requirements, and then where does this fall when evaluating it against all of the other capital projects and other potential beach park projects. Okay. Thank you. I certainly don't mean to be the thorn, but my concern about it being so broad is, and I talked to Brian about this in our one-on-one, and I'm certainly willing to move it forward, but I think when we look at these as these applications come in, I plan on scrutinizing them very heavily because we're just in a time right now, certainly after two hurricanes, but I think also just from some history in some of the municipalities that have a lot of our beaches where this is a very easy out to get, visit St. Pete Clearwater to pay for things that municipalities, frankly, have done a poor job budgeting and can't pay for, and so I'm also hesitant because I feel like there's going to come some legislation in the state about consolidation, too, and so what that looks like for municipalities, whether it's a counties or cities combining, and so I have some hesitation. I'm willing to move it forward because I think this board does a, this board and all of the staff does a great job of scrutinizing these applications, but I get very nervous when it's this broad from a standpoint. I was very comfortable with the conversation we originally had where it's like Fort DeSoto and some of those things where it's very specific, but I just, I always get nervous, especially when it's, when it's so broad to publicly owned beaches, you know, and being able to try to go and fix some things that, frankly, they probably should have fixed on their own 10 years ago, and now they have the opportunity to get it paid for by somebody else, and so I, I'm glad we're looking at things like, like, I was very happy with what you brought up, Chair. I just, I just want to make sure we're not opening Pandora's box, so I just wanted to be transparent with everybody. Thank you, Chair. Understood. Good comments. Bill? I had the same concern, and Brian did tell me we're kind of basing it on a couple of attorney generals or an opinion. Yeah. Is that... Amanda? Sure. There is an old attorney general opinion that says, that outlines things that cannot be covered under a prior version of the statute that would potentially be beach park facilities, so it is a very nebulous way that we can look at things that are potentially beach park facilities, but I do think that we can very easily apply the plain language of the words and also look at the way that they, the statute has defined facilities and other contexts. So I think that it is broad in that it gives us discretion, but I don't think it's so broad that it means we'll be asked to cover things like things that we were talking about previously, like beach cleanup, for example. I don't think that that would fall under beach park facilities under any definition. So I think obviously, ultimately it would be up to the BCC if they want to narrow that for the plan. We could also, for any particular year, this board could recommend narrowing, you know, which projects we accept. I think that the idea with the guidelines and the plan language is to allow projects to come in and then we can evaluate them. Yeah, it goes. I just, I have to share the same concern that, you know, what about a tractor rake or whatever? Is that, is that part of the facility? Is something the facility needs? And perhaps one guideline or one little definition there should be that it is a facility, bricks and mortar, not a service or equipment to provide a service. You could narrow it down a little bit like that just to make sure that nobody gets the wrong interpretation and possibly use some of those suggestions by the nebulous terms that the Attorney General had just to try to shape it a little bit more than it is right now. I think facilities in my mind has got to be bricks and mortar or pavement or, you know, something to that effect that's going to be substantial and long-term, not something that's recurring service. I want to move it forward as well, but I have the same concern that it doesn't get out of hand, you know, it can go the wrong direction. Yeah. What you're touching on is kind of what, where my comment was going, because clearly our visitors have effects on our infrastructure and everybody, everybody understands that. And so that's over here and the state allows us to do so much with our dollars. And so to, to your point about infrastructure pieces like facilities, bricks and mortar equipment that are related to bringing our beach, the beach area up to standards or keeping it up to standards. And I think to the, to the, to the extent that we can do some of this and we as a group here and the BOCC want to limit a percentage of dollars to that kind of activity. I mean, I think at some point that'll be a discussion when I, because when I, you talked about flushing a minute ago. So I think of bathrooms on beaches that, I mean, all of this stuff about support, importance, visitor experience. I mean, it's only a negative one when you can't find a bathroom that works or whatever. So these are like, I mean, it's a different kind of process that we're going to go through to make sure that we're, we're providing some funding, some limited scope funding for this. And so the more you can kind of define what those things might be, it's not the software I'm, I'm, I'm sensing it's more the hardware, the bricks and mortar and that kind of thing. But that's what I'm picturing on a tourist related backdrop, like a beach or, you know, like a park kind of thing. And so again, the, the comment I've heard a couple of times is better. What's better, you know? Well, I don't know. I mean, ones that get more traffic is better than ones that get left traffic. Again, that's going to kind of define narrowly scoped Clearwater Beach, St. Pete primarily, because that's where it's, there's more of whatever we're not, not evaluating numerically. And we were just kind of saying it's better, but so I think it's going to be a little bit of, let's move this forward and feel our way through it this first year and, and see what kinds of projects. And if it really kind of furthers the cause, because I certainly understand your comment. I mean, this can be about trying to help areas of quote bad management. But on the other hand, seriously, they do get a lot of wear and tear from our visitors. It's I mean, so there is some nexus for that kind of consideration, but it's, it's, it's complicated, I think. And Amanda will make sure we stay on the right side of what we're supposed to be doing. But anyway, just some comments. Thank you. All, all great comments. And, and I certainly understand the concerns that have been brought up. And when I brought this forward, you know, my thought on this was, is the Sand Key parks and the Fort DeSoto's and things like that. And what really got me thinking more in this direction was, you know, during that whole raise discussion, you know, I heard, I can't tell you how many times is, you know, I would say, well, these dollars do not, do not help you. And they said, well, then figure out a way they can. So, you know, to me, this was a way that our parks are, we have such a great park system, and locals use that as well. So how can we find a way to benefit tourism and, and support our local, our local community? And I think this is a good way of doing that. And when you think about all of the beach facilities, that could be a beach access, but they're so small, they're probably not going to score very well either. So a lot of those things I think would probably fall out through the process. But, you know, as Commissioner Eggers said, we're going to, you know, kind of sort of feel our way through this and sort of, you know, tweak the program as we, as we, as we go down the line. But another just point I wanted to bring up when we're looking at funding guidelines, whether it be for capital or elite events, and we have another agenda item with the MLK parade coming up. I think we should have, and maybe not, this, this maybe would not apply for government entities so much, but some sort of a financial fitness test for, for applicants. And, and give you an example for the, uh, Collard Green Festival Inc. that's applying for the MLK funding is $65,000. Just doing some due diligence on my own, I went to look for their, their 990, you know, for their non-profit tax return. Couldn't find it. Well, come to find out, they don't file that because their revenue is below $50,000, but their grant application is for $65,000. So I think these, we should have some sort of a financial fitness test in here just to make sure that the, that the entity that's applying has the financial acumen and the systems and processes in place to make sure that they can manage that, that money properly. So whether it's capital guidelines, whether it's elite funding or whatever we get on the road, I think we should have some kind of a component in there for that. Those are my comments. Do any, any other? Dylan. Just for clarity, the beach park facilities, are we specifically tied to beaches? Because I've heard the word parks come up a few times now. So is that, are we talking like a Walsingham Park type deal or that's no. So it's beach park. It's okay. That's what I thought. Just wanted to confirm. Does anyone else have any comments on this item? So we're going to request today that the TDC does make their recommendation for these proposed provisions to be in place for the capital projects funding program. So I'd like to make a motion to move forward as presented. So we have a motion from, from Clyde to move, to move forward. I would just like to include, if we could, that we, we look at a, and some sort of a financial fitness test for all of our funding programs going forward. And I don't know if we have to do that today in this motion or we can come back on that later, but I do think that's important that we do that. And in the, the one-to-one match, they do have to provide, you know, finance, financial backing with the things that are listed there in the guidelines to make sure that they meet that one-to-one match. So we do request that process. Probably going to be more on the, on the, on the, on the event funding side more than the capital. So, okay. Okay. So we have a motion from Clyde. I just wanted to, to your comment about, um, helping our visitors that come, but also having the opportunity to, you know, give back to some of our residents. I think that was, that's an important point to, to bring up because it, it does have, it kind of cuts both ways that we've heard so many folks say that, you know, we do so much for our visitors, uh, and, you know, whatever the situation, they just can't seem to participate or enjoy it as much. And so what can we do for for, uh, just little pieces? And again, I'm, I'm, I'm just bringing up one because we talked about beach park facilities. There's a beach park up in, in near Tarpon Springs. It, um, absolutely beautiful, small little beach, uh, has the, has the, the park picnic facilities and all of that. And you, you mentioned the other day, you know, we, there's a way to find out like how many visitors we get or what percentage of visitors use that park, but the numbers are not going to be like Fort DeSoto beach, but they're critically important to the sponge docks experience, to the trail experience and all of that. So it'll be interesting to see again, how we find our way through this. And at the same time, each of those government entities, including us, even though it doesn't say that here, have responsibilities to make sure we're doing what we're supposed to be doing too. So it's kind of a partnership effort. And I like the one-to-one match, even in, I, you know, I think even for our own, especially, um, I'm thinking about this one park up in near Tarpon Springs. So, um, it's, it's degraded and it needs fixing. And there may be a tourism story piece to it that justifies being considered or not. So we'll have to wait and see. So we have to do that self-evaluation through this whole thing. Again, feeling our way through this, being constructive and productive with it so that it really meets what we're trying to do. And I, I know that's kind of undefined sometimes, what we're trying to do, which is make it a better experience for visitors primarily. Amanda? And I don't want to interrupt the discussion, but before we move forward with the motion, um, if Mr. Smith could clarify that the motion is to move forward the amendment to the code and the guidelines to the BCC. I just think that would be helpful for them. Okay. All right. Uh, so Clyde, as your motion include the code and the guidelines. Yes, it does. Okay. Great. All right. So we have a motion from Clyde. Second. We have a second from from Chuck. Doreen, did you have a comment? Okay. Brian, on your physical, on your, the fitness part, the, I think that's important to further define what that means. I mean, and I, I mean, when you see something, it feels good. It looks good, but I don't know what that means in terms of being specific. So to exploring that, that item, I know that's not necessarily part of the motion, but I think if you're, if you want to look at that, maybe we need to dig a little deeper into that, what that, what that may be, what that evaluation criteria looks like. Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think that's probably going to be more applicable on the, on the elite event side, probably more than, than the capital side, because the capital side is particularly for this is going to be government entities, pretty much. Okay. Just quickly, again, happy to move this forward. But after we see this round of applications upcoming, I would like us to explore going to waterfront parks rather than beachfront parks. And so, um, I think based on some of the comments, I think that's a worthwhile conversation. Um, especially if we're talking about parks that are tourist driven, we we've got a massive waterfront park. There's just no beach to it. And so, um, I, I do think it's a worthwhile conversation, not trying to throw that wrench right now, but I think it's a, uh, that the issue with that is that the statute actually allows for beach park facilities to be financed, not park facilities. Um, so there may be some parks that would fall under public facilities generally, which, uh, as you know, has some additional statutory requirements, uh, to be able to, to fund, but parks generally aren't allowed, uh, funding under the TDT. So, uh, beach park facilities are, so we, I don't think we could expand, expand it to just waterfront facilities, but some of those. And if they're connected to a beach, I think that we'd have to evaluate it. We'd have to look at it. So that's, that's really what I'm talking about. Yeah. I'm talking about like the pier, like the, those types of things that are connected to a beach. And so that, I just think those conversations, uh, in the future, I think, as we see what comes in from applications would be a worthwhile conversation. Thank you. All right. Um, so we have a, Phil. Very minor, but at the same time, it needs to be changed, I believe. Um, in the first paragraph, when it's describing things, that it talks about beach nourishment, a minimum of one half and parentheses 0.5%, 0.5% is one 20th. It needs to say one half. And then it just to say 50% of one of the percents 0.5% is one 20th. It's, it's very, you kind of minor, but can you let us know where you're referencing the first page, uh, third, second, third line from the bottom of the second paragraph in the guidelines. Okay. It says funding for, um, annual beach for nurse, beach nourishment funding at a minimum of one half. And then parentheses is 0.5%. Yeah, you're right. It needs to say one half parentheses, 50% of 1%. I've just, I think that that's a typo. If you look at the rest of the paragraph, there's three, six tenths point, 3.6%. There's, we might just need to go through that. Cause I think that there's some, um, cut and paste issues. It's a typo. So just fix the typo. That's all I'm saying. One says one thing and the other thing says another thing. So good catch. Sorry. I like numbers. Apparently. All right. All right. All right. We're not mathematicians. Clearly. All right. We have a, a motion and a second. All in favor. Okay. Thank you, Bruce. Passed unanimously. Thank you, everybody. Great discussion. All right. So now we are moving on to our tourist development plan amendment. Good news is you already approved that. So I thought skip. All right. So now we're moving on the MLK parade and Craig will come up to, um, do this presentation. Good morning. Happy early Thanksgiving, everyone. Uh, Craig Campbell, director of community engagement for visit St. Pete Clearwater. Thank you, Chair Scott. Thank you, Brian, for having me. Uh, happy to provide just a brief update on the MLK parade and as it relates to the elite event funding program. Uh, so as you recall, uh, earlier this summer, uh, the MLK parade was, uh, recommended for and approved for $65,000 in funding from the elite event funding program. The organizer for that, um, event application was Advantage Village Academy. So, um, um, at the same time as that review process was taking place, uh, the city of St. Pete had an RFP out, uh, to award the rights, uh, to produce the event and a new organizer was awarded at the end of August. So, uh, with that change in organizer from Advantage Village Academy to the Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival, uh, that necessitated a new elite event application. So that new organizer submitted their application on November 3rd, uh, requesting the same amount of funding, $65,000. And just kind of a quick note there you see at the bottom bullet, um, it's a joint event application. So not only does it include the MLK parade, it also spans to the Tampa Bay Collard Green Festival, which is February 14th. So they've kind of combined the two events into one package. And it's, uh, they're kind of titling it the 45 days of excellence. Uh, so the elite event, uh, committee, the internal committee, we convened and, um, kind of honed in on some key metrics as we were reviewing the application and wanted to come forward with a recommendation. But we looked at, uh, the attendance estimates for both events, 15,000 attendees, uh, 1200 room nights generated and over a million in economic impact, uh, again, combined for those two events. We also looked deep into their marketing plans. Uh, we were really encouraged by, uh, their spending in Atlanta, Jacksonville, Orlando, and South Florida. We like to see that. And also the sponsorship plan was, was, was robust. Um, so sharing with you, our staff recommendation, which is $65,000. It's the same level again, as the previous organizer. So wanted to open it up for discussion, um, and see your recommendation in your packet. You have the full application as well as their marketing plan and sponsorship proposal. So excited to hear your thoughts. Questions? No questions? Um, well, I have, I have a comment. Um, you know, what I was talking about earlier with, um, looking at the 990. So I did, um, bring this up to Brian this morning and he reached out and did speak with, um, if it was the city or if it was the, uh, folks at the Collard Green Festival, but maybe you can speak to that real quick. I, I did reach out to Samantha, who's my point of contact with, um, the event organizer. And she did confirm that, um, as you said earlier, prior to this year, um, they only, um, did the one event. They have done the Collard Green Festival, um, and the, um, the level of funds that they were managing was below the threshold required. Um, they have been filing a 990 postcard. Uh, they've recently brought on now that they're expanding and that, not now that they're managing the MLK parade, they've brought on a new CPA, uh, and they're in the process of amending, uh, 990s and a new one will be filed. And those will be sent to us shortly. Thank you. All right. Well, what is the will of the board then? Okay. Motion by Copley. Second. That was a second by Clyde, I think. All right. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all in favor? Any opposed? Thank you, Bruce. Okay. Pass unanimously. Thank you. Okay. Now we'll move on to destination metrics. Good morning and happy to be here. Um, happy to report some good kind of news to end our fiscal year. Um, so just jumping right into it, uh, September development, uh, tax was 14, over 14 and a half percent above, uh, 2024. So that's great numbers. Um, we had about 4.8 million in collections. Uh, that's shy of 2023, 2022, but obviously, um, we're very, very thankful that there's not been a storm. You know, in September, there wasn't a storm in October. Things, things feel good, at least from the perspective of us, you know, being able to get back on our feet with, with, uh, softer, quieter hurricane season. So I think that's definitely worth celebrating and pointing out there. Um, I pulled the, uh, local option for not just 2024, uh, compared to 2025, but also 2023, uh, compared to that. So you can kind of see how we've improved in the different areas from 2024 while also kind of, you know, noting that the high watermark of 2023 is what we really hope to aim for as we move forward into the, into the future. And, you know, because of, uh, the data that, you know, we were looking at in the past year, we'll probably have to do more of the 2023 comparison to, uh, you know, the, the upcoming months, um, just with the kind of hurricane displacement, having a lot of the different figures from last year, um, really presenting an abnormal year. But in terms of this table, you can kind of see where we are in performance. Um, I do want to highlight our vacation rental performance. Um, obviously, uh, in 2024, I think a lot of our collections came in as, as normal, but, you know, we were just about 3% shy of 2023. And, you know, we, that's an area of our market where we've been working to have it come back online. And, and I think that we're, we're optimistic about the future kind of moving forward. Um, so to really just recap our, uh, fiscal year 2025, we were, um, again, surpassed, uh, $90 million in TDT collections. That's the fourth consecutive year that we've had over 90 million, uh, and collections, um, since, you know, the, the COVID era pandemic. So I think that that's, that's really something that is worth noting, something that we're excited to see. You know, we were down, um, 4.4%, but considering we just went through two massive hurricanes this past year, it's, it's, it's shows a resiliency of our area that I think is, is really worth noting. And, you know, all the events that we've had over the past, you know, number of years, we continue to, uh, generate strong tourism for the area. Um, this is just a fiscal year kind of performance snapshot. And I know we've been presenting this for, for months now, but to just kind of recap, we did have, um, you know, a positive year in terms of hotel revenue, um, in part due to some of that hurricane displacement, but, you know, we, we still continue to have people come and visit our destination, even after the, the hurricanes came. Um, and then obviously from a vacation rental summary, you know, we, we had some work to do. So this is, you know, kind of reflective of the year that was, and, and we hope that, you know, the year to come is, is going to show us, uh, a positive improvement over this last year. Um, and to that looking ahead, kind of at the forecast, um, this is the next six months, uh, starting with actually this month. And you can kind of see that, you know, when we do compare ourselves to 2024 from the hotel perspective, um, it, it looks, uh, not great, but again, you know, take into consideration that last year, we had a lot of, uh, hurricane displacement that filled up a number of the hotel rooms. So this is again, kind of the reason why we're going to have to look at not just 2024, but 2023 in the coming months, uh, as we do, uh, present this data to you guys. And then from a vacation rental standpoint, um, really honing in on the, the guest check-ins and guest nights, and to see those numbers be kind of way up from the previous year. I think that that speaks to the progress that's starting to be made from that vacation rental market. Um, and I know that this graph is, is a little bit confusing, but it's, it's, this shows the relative, uh, of how we are this year compared to how, uh, we were the previous year. So for instance, on the top graph, the yellow bar is, um, basically an index of, of 2024. And if you look at November, you know, we're, we're pacing a little bit below, uh, where we were. So November, December, January are, are all kind of pacing, uh, below where we were. But then in February, March, April, we're, we're starting to kind of turn a corner and, and that's, you know, the, those first three months really kind of account for that hotel displacement. Um, but then when you look at the bottom, you can see that our vacation rental pace is, is each month it's, it's above where it was the previous year. So that's, again, that kind of positive sign that I was talking about. And it's also positive to see that, you know, even though we expect to be down a little bit relative to, to last year in terms of that hotel, we're really improving once we start to get towards season. And that, that's a good sign for us as well. Um, it's a very brief destination metrics. I, I think that we'll have more information for you guys, uh, next month as, as we kind of finish our fiscal year wrap up. Um, but this is the information that we had and I'd be happy to take any questions. Questions. Phil, we'll go to Clyde. Um, back on your fiscal year hospitality performance snapshot, a couple of days back from the end. Um, I asked Brian about this because, uh, it seemed kind of lopsided that it was 1.1 billion in revenue for the hotel submarine, only a hundred million for, but he told me that that was just a category sample and really just to look at the percentage. So if anybody look at that and saying, think of what I'm thinking, it's normally about almost 60, 40, and this is only 10% of that, but that's because it's a, yeah, correct. The sample size that we have for the vacation rental market is smaller. These numbers reflect the sample. So, um, that, that is a very good point. We, it does not reflect the total vacation rental revenue that, uh, occurred throughout, uh, the fiscal year. It's, it's just of the, of the sample of units that we had, which is around 2,800, uh, units that report directly, um, to key data, which we received that information of, um, that, that is what that number reflects. What are the percentages? Not the, yeah, look at the, the percentages are more important than, than the, than these numbers for sure. Um, not a question, just a comment. I want to thank Eddie and his team. Um, I was trying to put some data together to help another hotelier with a project they're working on. And, uh, within very short time, I got all the information I needed. I really appreciated that. And so did they just a question, Eddie, the, um, so looking at the pacing and going forward, should we have 23 there? Um, in the sense that, you know, looking at vacation rental, okay, so we're above the index, but the index is 24. And we know that that for all the various reasons. So for future going, I did talk to Brian and, uh, this is a new way of looking at the report and trying to understand that a little bit in terms of the index. So, yeah. And I, I, I agree. We should be looking at 2023. I think, um, with regard to the vacation rental market, you know, we are still down a number of units and it's, as you kind of know, I, you know, the, that, um, is, is sort of different than the hotel market where we expect, you know, the hotel businesses and those structures to, you know, kind of get back up on their feet in the same instance, obviously, um, vacation rentals are often owned by individuals who can choose to, you know, sell the property and walk away from the business. So we'll really see, you know, what the overall supply kind of looks like. Um, but it is important to, yeah, kind of know, um, we're still down in supply compared to, you know, a 2023. So there, there will be a little bit of, um, a new normal, I think for us kind of moving forward. I just add Eddie does a tremendous job at going through the data. He goes quickly through the data. And so I just want to take this opportunity to really say, there are very few destinations in the state of Florida that can say they collected, uh, over $90 million in tourist development tax collections. There are even fewer that can say they've done it four years in a row. This destination can, and that's a testament to those around this table, um, the municipalities, the county, the attractions, the hoteliers, um, on the resilience of this destination. And, um, to be, you know, where we are today, um, it exceeded certainly my expectations. And I think it's something to be proud of. And, you know, we need to celebrate that. So I don't want that to get lost in, in Eddie's numbers. Um, thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Eddie. All right. Now we move to our marketing update. Steve, coming up. Good morning, everybody. Great to be back with you. Steve Graham's chief marketing officer at visit St. Pete Clearwater. Um, so I wanted to do a quick update. Um, last month, Jason and Vanessa from our new ad agency and vision that we're here and they told you about all the great things they're doing. And frankly, I wanted to make sure you understood we weren't waiting for them to work on the 2026 plan. We're still doing stuff now. So the loss going on. And as Eddie just pointed out in the stats, there's some really good momentum. We want to continue to build on that. So we're running in parallel paths at the moment. Envision it is going to continue to develop a 2026 strategic approach, new media plans, and we'll be sharing those with you shortly and an updated creative direction that we will have in the spring of next year. But Q4 calendar year is really important for us as a consideration window as people, particularly up north, are starting to feel the snow flurries in the air and they're starting to wonder about coming down to the beach. We need to be out there and we need to be showcasing our beaches. So I wanted to just take you through a few of the things that we've got going on. Many of these are going to be familiar. We are continuing with the campaign that we've had for a while. So first off, up in the North East and Midwest, and these are just a few samples. We're back in Philadelphia in a big way. That's been a great market for us this year. We're back on this fantastic billboard on Market Street, which highlights our campaign there. And then new this year, we were able to get into Times Square at a very, very competitive rate. So we've had some great presence in New York City in Times Square. And this is in addition to a lot of the other outdoor and subway and transit ads that we typically run in those areas. We're continuing with our national print campaigns, magazines like Travel Weekly. We're also continuing with our behavioral targeted digital advertising, again, using a lot of the campaigns that you guys have seen before with the beaches and more messaging. Canada was an interesting challenge for us. We all know sort of some of the issues that have been going on with Canada. We were looking for a creative and, and frankly, sort of way to get into the Canadian market and sort of say, it's okay to come to Florida. And so we decided to take this approach of sort of giving people permission. Maybe you don't need to tell people where you're going, in sort of a nudge, nudge, wink, wink kind of way. So tell them you went to Scotland. Tell them you went to Greece. Maybe tell them you went to Bora Bora. Because when you look at our destination, it could easily pass for some of those places. So we had some fun with these, these ads in, in Canada. And we ran them digitally. The click through rate was great. So hopefully this will convince some of our Canadian friends to come down, even if they don't tell their friends and family where they went. And then also on the Canadian front, we obviously had a fantastic run with our hometown Blue Jays. Not quite. I think they were this far away from winning the World Series. I think it was two, three inches. But we did respond quickly and wanted to support both the city of Dunedin and the Blue Jays and let people in Canada know that we were rooting for the team down here. So we were promoting the watch parties that Dunedin had up at the stadium. But we also took over a whole lot of billboards, bus shelters, bars and restaurants in the city of Toronto and got tremendous social feedback from Canadians who are like, hey, thanks, thanks for supporting our team. Hopefully we'll see this pay dividends when the Blue Jays come back down here in February. We hope to see more of the, the Canadian fans come down. Drive market continues to be important. So we've got lots of ads running that are targeted specifically. So one there on I-75, we've got ads running in Orlando, encouraging people that, hey, you, you have got America's best beaches right around your corner, around the corner, come visit us, you've still got time. And here's just an example across Florida of how we've been rotating in some of these billboards. Now, we're getting to the end of the year, we were looking for a way to continue to push people to take one more vacation before you get to the end of the calendar year. So we came up with this concept of PTO. Everybody has paid time off. As we did some research, we found out from the Society of Human Resource Management that almost half of US employees leave some amount of PTO on the table when they, at the end of the year. So how can we encourage people? Almost taking a PSA approach. Hey, don't let your PTO go to waste. You've still got time for one more vacation at America's favorite beaches. And then we decided to take that one step further. We have through our ripe booking engine platform, the ability to reward people with gift cards that they can spend in the destination if they book through us. So in essence, we're paying you to spend your PTO. So that was the campaign that we've been running. We've seen a great uptick in some hotel bookings through our engine, and also some great pickup from the press, as we've sort of highlighted this notion of, we'll pay you to use your PTO to come down to St. Pete Clearwater. Completely different tangent now. Visit Florida worked with Wheel of Fortune, and they offered four destinations, the chance to participate and each have an episode as part of their Florida days week of Wheel of Fortune. And so we worked with them. And let me show you a couple of clips. If anybody didn't see the Wheel of Fortune episode, I know it's on a little early for most of us to catch. Thank you, Jim. Hello. Hello. That's very nice. It is. I'm ready, you. I am ready. Be a little bit. Hi. Best part of the day is right now seeing you guys. Thanks for being here. We're living more Florida days, and tonight we are featuring St. Pete Clearwater, home of America's favorite beaches. So let's get to our first toss up. For this, grab your devices. The category is on my playlist. So we were woven in throughout the episode. And then when this contestant actually won, she got to hear more. Well, I'm guessing you're going to do something here and solve it. Wearing shades and catching waves. Way to go, Kelly. At what point did you know? When I got the V. When you got the V, it clicked, and it's still fun when it clicks, and you're riding that train, getting all that money. You're also going to St. Pete Clearwater. Take a look at this trip. Jim, get ready for fun in the sun, Kelly. Experience what makes St. Pete Clearwater America's favorite beaches. Relax on the private beach at JW Marriott Clearwater Beach. Sail across the Emerald Waters. Explore sea-loving friends at Clearwater Marine Aquarium. Immerse yourself in the incredible artwork of world-renowned artist Salvador Dali at the Dolly Museum in downtown St. Pete. And savor Michelin-recognized cuisine at 4-2. $10,380. And someone at home could also win an action-packed vacation to St. Pete Clearwater in the Live More Florida Days giveaway. Enter the bonus puzzle at wheeloffortune.com for your chance to escape to one of America's favorite beaches, St. Pete Clearwater. You're up to $23,230. You are our big leader right now. We've got the triple toss-up, and we come back here on Wheel. So, pretty fantastic exposure. The sweepstakes that was mentioned at the end there generated more than 90,000 entries. Those are people that we can now target and re-message to. We're also working with Adara. They have technology that allows us to deliver ads to people that watched Wheel of Fortune on TV. So, for the month after that episode has aired, we've been able to send digital ads to those folks, reminding them about St. Pete Clearwater. So, all in all, a really well-worked execution. Delighted that Visit Florida brought this to us. Hey, Steve. Yes, sir. That is really pretty cool. But what did that cost us? I'll have to go back and check. A few hundred thousand dollars. I don't remember exactly how many. I'll get back to you on that one. Thanks. Yes. And lots of the prizes were donated. So, JW and that was donated. But there was obviously a fee for participating. Katie, do you remember? Where's Katie? A hundred thousand. There we go. Okay. A bargain. So, it cost us a hundred thousand and that was everything? A hundred thousand plus the contributions from the partners. Talking of great partnerships, as you all are aware, we are now entering our second year working with the Lightning. We are the official beaches of the Tampa Bay Lightning and of the Rays and of the Bucks. Primarily, the sponsorship is about reaching out-of-town fans who are watching their team play the Lightning. So, we have these DED boards which dynamically change the boards at Benchmark Arena to our messaging if you're watching from Chicago or Boston or New York. But in addition to that, we also want to reach our hometown fans here, particularly those in the greater Tampa Bay area. There's lots of fans that come to Lightning games from much further outside of this area. And so, the Lightning came to us with, they wanted to do a new in-game activation built around dating and it sounded fun. So, we said, yeah, sure, this sounds like a great way to showcase that when you come, you spend time here, there's fun things to do. So, let me show you how this works. This is the in-game activation. So, imagine a break in the play and this happens. All right, Ball Station, grab your rally towels and roses. It's time for another edition of Lightning Speed Dating. Thanks to our friends that visit St. Pete Clearwater. So, here's how this is going to work. We are going to split screen up on the board. Two Lightning fans who have never met each other on the opposite sides of the building. We're going to hit them with some rapid fire questions. If we get a match, we'll give them a second date. Thanks to visit St. Pete Clearwater. So, let's split the screen. Take a look at our contestants tonight. We have Erica and we have AJ. All right, guys, here is our very first question. Are the Lightning your favorite team? Yes or no? That's a match. How about pineapple on pizza? Yes or no? Oh, that is not a match. And finally, would you date a Capitals fan? No and no. Two out of three. So, then I guess the question is, would you guys like to go on a second date to Salt Rock Grill and maybe some Champions Club passes to the Anaconda Pelican Golf Club? Yes or no? That's a match. Visit St. Pete Clearwater. We're going to hook them up. We'll check back in later and see how they're doing as they're going to hook them up. Nice job. It's a match. Thank you. Visit St. Pete Clearwater. So, having a lot of fun with that. It's giving us a chance to, again, work with different partners around the destination, different restaurants, different activities, encourage people to get out to the beaches and do some fun stuff. So, we've got several of those going through the season. And then we're including in their package the opportunities to, like, tag us back on social. Maybe we'll find out if some of those dates have gone really well in the future. We'll find out. Last thing, just to talk to you about, we've also launched a podcast series, and I don't think we've talked about that in this room. You're all very familiar with the Gulf to Bay magazine. One of the sections of the Gulf to Bay magazine this year was called Must Do's and Hidden Gems. It was a series of mini itineraries that we put in the magazine. When we were looking to go beyond magazines, podcasts these days are obviously incredibly popular and a great way to reach an audience. We decided to work with the same people behind the magazine, Tampa Bay Times, and turn that concept of Must Do's and Hidden Gems into a series of podcasts. So, we now have five episodes that each feature different parts of the destination. And we'll play. They're all about 20 to 35 minutes long. I will not play those whole thing for you, but just here's the intro. Welcome to Must Do's and Hidden Gems, presented by Visit St. Pete Clearwater and the Tampa Bay Times, where you'll learn from the locals how to make the most out of your visit to St. Pete Clearwater, or as we like to call it, paradise. I'm your host, Cary O'Reilly, with the Tampa Bay Times. This episode is all about exploration and discovery. We'll start at the Florida Botanical Gardens, where you can explore acres of lush gardens and discover a peaceful oasis to reset and reconnect. From there, we'll head just down the road to some of our famous beaches to discover family fun, great places to eat, and end our show on a rooftop bar in search of the elusive green flash. In 1513, Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon is credited with discovering Florida. According to legend, he was searching for the... That gives you an idea. Kerry is somebody we've worked with on the magazine for a long time, very talented musician, and now podcast host. And so these are available on Spotify, Apple, anywhere you get your podcasts. So if you haven't had a chance to listen to them yet, I encourage you to do that. We're now starting to think about, okay, for 2026, how do we expand on this? What do the... Where do the podcasts go next? So that's the end of my show and tell. Does anybody have any questions? Mr. Anderson, sir? I know this might be counterproductive because we're competing with other destinations in Florida, but has there ever been any thought about approaching the state and partnering a little bit? You know, every time I see our logo, it's just say P Clearwater and Florida FL. Would, at the state level, would they participate possibly in a small way, which would help stretch your budget if we put Florida in bigger letters so that you can see in those billboards in Times Square that, okay, it's Florida. That's great. Where is it? And by the time, let me know that it's gone. Yeah. We added FL for the express purpose of making sure that people understood we were in Florida. We do spell out Florida when we're using the logo internationally because not everybody internationally knows what FL stands for. We've never considered asking the state or visit Florida if adding that the state name would make any difference to them. Certainly happy to ask. We work with them on a lot of co-op programs already. I'm not sure that just adding that would make a difference, but it's always worth asking. Well, it's just driving to the area. Yeah. It would be a less expensive way for them to get more exposure as well in their mission. Interesting idea. So to see Florida, for sure. Like I said, maybe counterproductive because half what we do, I think, is competing against other destinations in Florida, but it just came to my mind. Okay. Other questions for Steve? One other question regarding the new marketing company. Can you give me an idea of what we spend with them? I mean, we have your whole marketing plan and budget, but of that, what is their takeaway? What is their... So the overall budget is about $25 million that we're spending and about $4 million of that is the agency fees and management. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Steve. Appreciate it. Thank you, guys. All right. Mr. Lawak, your officer. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. And now, thank you, Steve, because now I can't get the soothing sounds of sacks out of my head. And speaking of matches, we have a new film commissioner at Visit St. Pete Clearwater. He's joining us today in the room. I'd like to welcome our new film commissioner, Dave Caputo, to the stand. And Dave joins us after a 30-year career in TV and film production, including a long career at QVC, where he was the vice president of broadcast strategy and technology. And we couldn't be more thrilled to have Dave with the team. So, Dave. Thank you very much, Brian, Mr. Chairman, council members. I'm thrilled to be here. As Brian said, my name is Dave Caputo, film commissioner of Visit St. Pete Clearwater. I can't actually tell you how happy I am to be here and representing Visit St. Pete Clearwater to the film and broadcast production industry. I moved here with my family in 2018 and absolutely fell in love with the entire destination. I've moved five times since 2018, actually, all over the county. I've lived downtown St. Petersburg in a few places. I've lived out of the Barrier Islands and Reddings and Beach. I currently reside in Gulfport. So, we were absolutely in love with the entire county and the entire destination. As Brian said, most of my career has been in broadcast production and technology, most recently as a senior executive for the QVC Group, which is a Fortune 300 multinational corporation. So, I'm really looking forward to bringing that experience, but also those insights and ideas that I have to really help push the film market in the greater St. Pete Clearwater area. I think there's lots of opportunity. I think the destination represents very, very well. But, you know, it's a challenging and competitive environment, but we're really looking forward to getting it done and really moving forward. Welcome, Dave. Thank you. Thank you. In addition to Dave, you know, we have a very robust internship program at Visit St. Pete Clearwater. And also joining us in the room today are this semester's interns. One needs no introduction. You saw her here a few months ago, Elise Eason from St. Leo University, and she will actually be graduating in May. So, we've appreciated our time with Elise. But new to the building is Adriana Vargas, and she is actually a graduate of University of Central Florida. And she came to us after she did an internship with Visit Orlando her senior year. So, we're glad to have her on board. And Adriana, if you'd like to take a moment to introduce yourself to the group, we'd love to have you. Hello, everyone. First of all, I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to be able to be here, introduce myself, and be a part of these conversations. Like Brian said, my name is Adriana. I have the pleasure of serving as a intern for Visit St. Pete Clearwater for the remainder of 2025 through April of 2026. A little bit about myself. I was born and raised across the Bay in Tampa, where I graduated from the Academy of the Holy Names. I then went on to study public relations and advertising at the University of Central Florida, where I spent my senior year as a public relations intern with Visit Orlando. It's really special to be able to come back home to the Bay and get to promote a destination that's very meaningful and personal to me, but that's also in my own backyard. So, I thank you all for this opportunity. I also want to take a moment just to give a shout out to our PR and communications team. They were recently awarded the Award of Excellence from the Tampa Bay Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America for their work and outreach on the Still Shining campaign. So, shout out to Jason and Eddie for their work on that, and it's always nice when we're recognized, especially by our peers. Just a note, since we were talking about capital projects, today and the guidelines, as you know, I failed to mention last time, but the Board of County Commissioners, a couple meetings ago, finalized the funding agreement for the Tourist Development Capital Project dollars for the Palladium Theater renovation, and also last night approved, or yesterday approved, the funding agreements for both projects for the City of Clearwater, both the Marina and the Eddie C. Moore facility. So, we're excited about those. We have a couple more that we will be bringing to them shortly. I wanted to also acknowledge one of our Board members, Captain Dylan Hubbard, for the Hubbard's Marina family's continued expansion. You may have read that they recently expanded on John's Pass Boardwalk with the acquisition of the, as I've become, called it the red dolphin boat, as well as the pirate ship. So, congratulations to Captain Hubbard and his team, and there's just more great things to do, and if you're too busy to do any of those things, then you're just too busy. I also want to take the time. Recently, we sent out an invite through our industry email, but we have our annual partner summit, and this year we're going to do something different. We're taking the show on the road, but not really. We're just, we're staying here in St. Pete Clearwater, but instead of having one location for one event, we thought it would be a good opportunity this year to take it out into the community. So, we've actually got four different partner summits in January 13th through 16th, if my math's right, and we're going to be, we're going to have one down in St. Pete, one in the southern county beaches, one in Clearwater, and then one for the northern community. So, be on the lookout if you have not received that invite yet. We're going to be blowing up your inbox. We've gotten some really good response already, so be sure to RSVP before the rooms are full. And last but not least, I just want to take a moment to recognize someone important, very important to the destination who recently passed. Someone who is a fixture in the St. Pete Clearwater tourism and hospitality family, especially in Clearwater Beach. He was a friend of mine, a friend many of ours, and someone who was amongst the first folks who reached out to me when I came on board two years ago to provide guidance and advice. And I'd often call him up for guidance and advice. But Mr. Paul Andrews, who spent 27 years as the general manager of Shepard's Beach Resort. So, I just wanted to, you know, take a moment to think about Mr. Andrews and keep him and your family in your prayers. And I believe Amplify did provide, some of you may have gotten in your email, some information on his services coming up on December 10th. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. That's all I've got, Mr. Chair. Thank you, Brian. All right. Do we have any final board member comments, discussions on anything? Mr. Campbell. I have an FYI. Tonight, over in the Columbia restaurant, the Guns Marts are hosting the Vision for Hospitality and Sports Management in USF's on-campus stadium. They're starting the program. There's a board of governors or trustees, rather, a priority to start this school. What's great about it, it comes under the Mooma College of Business, and then it's hosted by the foundation tonight. But this is the start of a big priority for USF. And so, I know some of us are going over tonight to hear what the story is. It's the first I know anything about other than that this is when it's starting. I think it's great to have this school step up to hospitality. There's a lot of other combination, but I also like the idea of hospitality and sports both together. USF has, I mean, Florida State has a hotel and PGA combination. It's made it much stronger by having the combination. So, I'm looking forward to seeing what it is, and hope some of you get involved, and I'll keep it posted. Thanks. Thanks, Russ. Bill? Just a little plug for Starlight Cruises. 2026 will be our 40th year in operation, operating passenger vessel service in Pinellas County, both in Clearwater and south in St. Pete, across the county. Started in 1986 in Indian Rocks Beach, right in the middle, and we've grown from there. We've got some very big plans for our 40th year. It seems like the possibilities are infinite. So, waterfall. We look forward to the party. All right. Well, if there's nothing else, then I would like to wish everybody a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving. Our next meeting is Wednesday, December 17th at 9 a.m., so we look forward to seeing you all then. With that, we are adjourned. Have a good day, Pete. Thank you. How are you doing, Frederick? How are you doing? I appreciate it.