Thank you all for calling that to order so early and easy. I want to give a shout out to a few other elected officials that are in the room. First, Mayor Megan Sladick, who's joining us this morning, and Commissioner Sarah Reese from the City of Altamont. Welcome and thank you for being here. We're going to start out like we start out every other meeting with an invocation. And if you would lead us off in the pledge, we have Melanie Chen from the Central Florida Free Thought Community. Good morning. As we begin this meeting, let us pause for a moment to recognize the shared work before us. This month, Seminole County marks Black History Month, an opportunity to reflect on the many individuals whose efforts, skills, and perseverance helped shape the communities we live in today. Their contributions are part of our local history, present in our institutions, our neighborhoods, and the everyday work of building a place people are proud to call home. Writer James Baldwin reminded us, we are responsible for the world in which we find ourselves. Let us take that idea seriously as a reminder that communities are shaped by the choices people make over time. Let us remember that care in small decisions, a willingness to learn, and steady attention to the work at hand all matter. As this meeting moves forward, let us approach our roles as participants in a shared civic process. May we listen thoughtfully, may we weigh ideas carefully, and may we consider both immediate needs and long-term impact at its best. Public service is an act of stewardship, grounded in responsibility and trust. Let the work done here reflect care for this county and for the people who live and work here. Thank you. If you would lead us in the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you so much, ladies, for being here. We're going to move to the awards and presentations proclamation section of the program. I did not say this earlier, but if you would silence any devices you have, that would be appreciated. We'll do the two proclamations, and then we will come down for pictures all at once. We don't move as fast as we once did, so you don't want us coming up and down over and over again, so how about that? We are going to start with a proclamation proclaiming Master Sergeant Charles Hedge, Jr. of the United States Air Force, our Veteran of the Month, and this will be read by Commissioner Constantine. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you, Madam Chair. And as a beginning of this, I just want to say it's such an honor to be able to do this to a man who is part of a family legacy, and you'll understand what I mean when I read this. So I will move the proclamation of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners recognizing United States Air Force Master Sergeant Charles Hedge, Jr., for his outstanding service to the United States and Seminole County. Whereas the brave men and women of our Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Space Force demonstrate a resolute spirit and unmatched selflessness, reminding us there are few things more American than giving ourselves to make a difference in the lives of others. And whereas throughout our country's history, generations of service members have answered the call to leave their families, their jobs, and put their futures and even their lives on the line to valiantly defend our nation. And whereas for many service members, the sacrifice has ended in permanent injury or death, yet their spirit remains in the continued preservation of our freedoms and the promise of liberty. And whereas there are more than 30,000 living veterans in Seminole County who served our nation in times of peace and war, throughout their service, they kept America strong. And whereas Sergeant Charles Hedge, Jr. comes from a long and honorable lineage of military service spanning multiple generations in conflicts, including the Revolutionary War at the Battle of Yorktown, World War I, and the Battle of Chosen Reservoir. And whereas Sergeant Charles Hedge, Jr. enlisted in the United States Air Force on June 6, 1973, in Chicopee, Massachusetts, and served honorably for 20 years. He also served in Saudi Arabia during the Iran-Iraq conflict with additional assignments in Germany, Iceland, and Alaska. He distinguished himself as a skilled radar maintenance technician and a radar evaluator responsible for managing maintenance operations and evaluating air defense radar systems vital to national security, earning numerous military decorations. And whereas, following his military retirement, Sergeant Charles Hedge, Jr. continued a lifetime of service through civilian employment and community leadership, he remains deeply committed to veteran advocacy with 38 years of membership in the American Legion and active service with Post 243 as the second vice commander. He is also the coordinator of numerous veterans programs, including suicide prevention and monthly visitations to veterans in retirement and memory care facilities throughout Seminole County. Whereas, Sergeant Charles Hedge, Jr. has brought great credit and distinction upon himself, the United States of America, the United States Air Force, and Seminole County, now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Board of County Commissioners of Seminole County, express our gratitude, admiration, and respect for Sergeant Charles Hedge, Jr. for his outstanding service to the United States Air Force. Be it further proclaimed that this proclamation is presented to Sergeant Charles Hedge, Jr. with our sincere congratulations and recognition as Seminole County's Veteran of the Month, adopted today, April 10, 2026. Second. February 10. We have a motion and a second. April? Sorry. April, he's jumping ahead. For the record. We have a motion and a second. Commissioners, all those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none. Passes unanimously. Sergeant Hedge, would you like to take the podium and have a wave? Thank you all. It's a very good morning, Commissioners. I'm deeply honored to receive this prestigious recognition, which I accept with great humility and my deepest gratitude. I stand before you as an individual, but I got here with a lot of support. I'd like to thank my wife, Paula, of 51 years, for her loving support. She kept me up when I was down. I would like to thank the United States Air Force for its wondrous and exotic assignments throughout my career, some of which I really didn't know existed at the time. I would like to thank my fellow veterans, my fellow regionaires, my comrades in arms for their unwavering support in obtaining all our goals. It takes a team to overcome obstacles, team, simple word, simple acronym, a powerful statement. Together, everyone achieves more. I thank you all, and I thank you once again for this great honor. Let's all have a great day. Thank you. Sergeant Hedge, we appreciate you. Next, we have a proclamation proclaiming February 2026 as Black History Month in Seminole County, and this will be read by Commissioner Zimbauer. Commissioner Zimbauer. Thank you, Madam Chair. It's my privilege to read this proclamation of the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners proclaiming February 2026 Black History Month in Seminole County. Whereas Black History Month, observed annually in February, is a time set aside to honor the rich heritage, indelible contributions, and enduring legacy of African Americans whose courage, creativity, and perseverance have helped shape the morale, cultural, and civic foundation of the United States. And whereas the observance of Black History Month finds its roots in 1926, when scholar and historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson established Negro History Week to ensure that the achievements and experience of African Americans would be recognized, studied, and preserved as an essential part of our shared national story. Whereas Seminole County, Florida, is deeply enriched by a proud and resilient African American history, one marked by faith, scholarship, enterprise, and community building, that continues to influence and strengthen the county to this day. And whereas following the Civil War and during an area of profound challenge and transformation, African American pioneers established thriving communities within Seminole County, including the historic neighborhoods of Georgetown and Goldsboro, which stood as beacons of self-determination, mutual support, and hope. Whereas the Georgetown community, founded in the 1870s, emerged as a self-sustaining settlement with its own schools, churches, and businesses, nurturing generations of families and fostering a spirit of unity and progress that endures as a cornerstone of Sanford's history. Whereas the town of Goldsboro, incorporated in 1891, and recognized as one of the oldest African American founded communities in the nation, reflects the determination and vision of its residents who built institutions of commerce, worship, civic life, and in the face of segregation and inequality. And whereas African American educators and leaders, such as Joseph N. Crooms and wealthy Crooms championed the transformative power of education by establishing Hopper Academy and later Crooms Academy, providing generations of students with opportunity, dignity, and the tools to pursue excellence and leaving a lasting legacy of academic achievement in Seminole County. Whereas the enduring presence of historic churches, schools, cultural institutions, and families throughout Seminole County stands as a living testament to the faith, resilience, and contribution of African Americans whose stories continue to inspire progress, understanding, and unity across our community. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that we, the Board of County Commissioners of Seminole County, Florida, do hereby proclaim February 2026 as Black History Month in Seminole County, adopted this 10th day of February 2026. Second. We have a motion and a second, Commissioners. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Hearing none. Passes unanimously. Thank you so much. We have Ms. Luana Miller from Radiantly Black Magazine to accept the award. If you'd like to say a few words, Ms. Miller, we'd be glad to have you. Good morning. On behalf of everyone associated with Radiantly Black Magazine, and especially the Emerald Awards, a salute to black excellence in Seminole County, we accept this honor. We happen to believe that Seminole County is comprised of people with immense talent and skills and education, and we look forward to being able to celebrate those who happen to be in the black community. Thank you. We happen to believe that as well. All right, Commissioners, if you'll meet me on the floor for photos, that would be fabulous. All good. Next up is a presentation by Guy Cunha, Development and Tourism Director, and Amy Kirkland from Seminole State College. Welcome. Good morning, everyone. Guy Cunha, Director, Economic Development and Tourism, here to present the Seminole State College Commits presentation. The agenda will discuss the purpose and background, then I will ask Associate Vice President Amy Kirkland of Resource and Economic Development to present the Seminole State College Commits PowerPoint, and then we'll have questions. So our purpose is to review the Seminole State College Commits program that was created to aid small businesses and workforce development initiatives that experienced a negative economic impact from the COVID-19 pandemic. Our background. And here we did have a couple of amendments on this agreement, so I've consolidated the information here. The original agreement was signed on June 14, 2022, and that was for $350,000, terms and scope there, term ending on December 31, 2024, then amended on July 26, 2022. There was an additional $1 million added to the agreement. You'll see the budget at the bottom there has $1 million, that is an administrative error, should show $1.35 million. It was an additional $1 million. Then December 12, 2023, scope of service was amended, and the term was extended to September 30, 2025. And then August 7, 2025, the term was amended to December 31, 2025. So altogether, the project spanned from June 14, 2022 to December 31, 2025, with a budget of $1,350,000, all from the American Rescue Plan Act funding. Now, I'd like to call Associate Vice President Amy Kirkland of Economic Development and Resource, sorry, Amy, I said that reverse, of Resource and Economic Development for Seminole State College. Good morning, Commissioners. Thank you for the opportunity to share the final program report for Seminole State Commits. The initiative was made possible through your investment, and today I'll briefly walk through what the program was, who we served, what we delivered, and the impact that it had across Seminole County. So just to clarify, the first grant that we had was $350,000. That was for our small business support, so that was strictly for small businesses. The $1 million was for the Seminole State Commits program, which is what I'm going to be highlighting today. Seminole State Commits is a community-based education and workforce training initiative designed to remove barriers to adult learning and job readiness. Basically, we took education out on the road, out to the communities, to address the two primary barriers, which were cost and access. All programs were provided at no cost to participants and were delivered directly in community locations. We were meeting residents where they already were, rather than asking them to come to campus. The focus for all of these offerings was practical, short-term education that leads to confidence, skills, and pathways to employment, or continued education. The program was modeled after Broward College's nationally recognized Broward Up initiative and was adapted specifically for Seminole County. This was an American Rescue Plan or ARPA-funded initiative designed to respond to COVID-era recovery gaps, particularly for adults who were disconnected from education and workforce participation during and after the pandemic. Seminole State Commits deployed workforce-focused education in a flexible, community-based way at a time when traditional systems were not reaching everyone. In our original proposal, I know you saw quite a few amendments, the target was the HUD zones in the county, but we quickly realized that there were many more individuals outside of those areas who could benefit from the training, like the ALIS population, asset-limited, income-constrained, employed individuals. We expanded our focus and served unemployed, underemployed, and underserved individuals, or adults, throughout Seminole County. In short, these were residents who were motivated to learn and to improve their situation by needing accessible entry points. This also included English language learners, adults who were seeking GED, and individuals facing barriers, such as transportation, work schedules, child care, or prior negative experiences with formal education. We delivered both adult education and workforce training aligned with local employer needs. We did this by serving over 100 businesses at the very start of this program. On the adult education side, this included GED preparation, GED skills labs, and English learners for speakers of other languages. On the workforce side, we offered business communication, business writing, culinary training, job readiness workshops, and digital skills such as social media and WordPress for website development. We also provided online options through the college's Ed2Go platform for individuals who were seeking training in areas that we hadn't yet created, or that it was just a one-off, someone who needed something very specific. A few examples, project management, accounting fundamentals, computer skills for the workplace, intro to cybersecurity, and many more. Again, all the training was offered. All the training offered was designed to be short-term, practical, and immediately applicable. Here's some program data. This just shows by quarter the courses delivered, students registered, and students attended. So we had an 83% attendance and a 73% completion with all these courses. And when you're offering to this population and at no cost, if it rains, sometimes people don't show up. So I was very happy with the success rate that we did have. As you can see, across the life of the program, Seminole State Commits served almost 1,200 students. Participation was strongest in ESOL and workforce training, reflecting both community demand and employer needs. Rather than focusing just on the enrollment, we tracked outcomes that demonstrate movement, certifications earned, transitions into further education, and job readiness milestones. We're still collecting some of that data since this just sunsetted in December. We could not have done this without our strong community partnerships. You can see we have quite a few up there. We worked with local nonprofits, service organizations, cities, and community locations that residents already trust. These partners helped us with outreach, space, participant support, ensuring that our programs were accessible and well-attended. Behind every data point is a resident with a story. These are adults balancing work, families, financial pressures, while taking steps to improve their futures. Many participants told us this was the first educational experience where they actually felt supported and capable. Here are a few of the outcomes that we have so far to highlight the program's impact. We had 50 students earn Serve Safe Food Handler certifications, supporting immediate workforce entry. 25 of our students transitioned into the college's ESOL classes, continuing their educational pathway, so at a higher level, not just introductory levels. 14 students, and this is huge, earned their GED, a major milestone that opens the doors to employment. So many jobs, you have to at least have that high school diploma or GED, and also some momentum towards additional education. You can't read these, but these are some great testimonials that we have, and I'll share just one. They reflect what we heard consistently from these residents. They were grateful for the access, flexibility, and instruction that respected their backgrounds and circumstances. And the one over there on the left is Franklin. He's a culinary student and a veteran. He had prepared meals on a Navy destroyer for 350 sailors for four years, but had never received his food handling certificate. Well, that has changed, and Franklin now has his food handling certificate. For many, Seminole State Commits served as a bridge back into education and workforce participation. The ARPA funding allowed us to develop curriculum and build the necessary infrastructure for community education. It's a lot different than what we offer at the college. That's been in place for decades, and all those processes and systems are in place. It's a lot different to take it out into the community, and we realized very quickly that we had to put those processes and build that infrastructure. We found out what worked and what didn't work. While the funding has concluded, the need has not gone away. The success of Seminole State Commits demonstrated that community-based, no-cost workforce is both effective and in demand. Building on this success, Seminole State College has secured new funding partners through various grant proposals. We still have a couple out there, but we're waiting to hear. But these include Bank of America, Duke Energy, Heart of Florida United Way, and the Westgate Foundation. These partnerships will allow us to sustain and expand key elements of the program beyond the ARPA funding. You helped us to build this program, and now we can continue the great work. In 2026, we're introducing some new courses, and again, this is the very beginning of the year, so there will be more. One of those is Culinary 2, which will include the Serve Safe Manager certification. If you've worked in food service, you know that you have to have a manager on site in order to open up the business. So that will make students even more marketable in the food service industry. We'll be offering courses in digital literacy, event planning, and a few others that we're working on in aerospace and aviation, all aligned with workforce demand. Last fall, we piloted a line worker program, which will be added to the Seminole State Commits program as well. We'll also continue to provide our Intro to Culinary, ESOL, and GED preparation courses. In closing, Seminole State Commits demonstrates what is possible when the county and the college work together to remove barriers and invest in residence. Thank you for your support and stewardship of these funds, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you very much. Great presentation. Commissioners, any questions? I just have a comment to make. I want to thank Guy's group. If we go back in time, we'll remember how much Tricia was involved in tracking this ARPA money and giving those presentations on basically every meeting, getting an update, and Tim's group for helping track this ARPA money that we had to fear that we made sure it was being spent appropriate in the county attorney's office, all working together for a great outcome for the community, and so thank you very much. We sincerely appreciate it. Guy? Sir, if I may, I know you don't want to miss the administrative services, resource management, Lori Bailey-Brown, George Woodring were essential. Exactly. I mean, there was a lot of people involved, so thank you. If I missed your name, I apologize. A lot of departments, I don't want to relive 2020-21, but it was a lot of folks coming together at a time of uncertainty, and I think that Seminole County persevered and we came out of this very good compared to what we see across this country. So that goes with my fellow commissioners as well, so thank you. Yes, Commissioner. So I wore my Seminole State blue. Me too. Yes, I see. So as a trustee at Seminole State, I want to say thank you to the college community because this partnership truly is phenomenal, and we partner in so many different ways in so many different areas, but this was such a unique time for our community and our country, and the communities, to your point, Commissioner Zembauer, that came out of that cycle resiliently did it well because they did partner, and they worked with one another instead of against one another. And so shout out to everyone at Seminole State, a lot of thinking outside of the box and how are we going to do things moving forward and how do you deliver education in a completely new world. And so we've learned a lot at the county, and we've learned a lot at the college, and we've learned that working together is always better. Thank you. And let's pray we never have another pandemic for the next hundred years. No, no. I will wrap this up by saying a few things. Number one, business communications and writing. I notice that that's not a continuing course, but I would highly encourage it. Without an effective application, which requires writing and often requires writing with no ability for somebody else to check it because it's online, doing it on a phone, people are missing opportunities right there. And I would tell you that, and I say this openly in my own workforce, just because you graduated college doesn't mean you can write. That's a sad statement of affairs, but today that's the reality. And so we need to get back to that basic skill. I would commend you for the execution, and then I'm going to commend you for perpetuation of the program with other funding sources. That is a magical thing, and that's what makes Seminole State fabulous, is that you learn using money that we gave you, but that was seed money for figuring out how to take it to the next level. So that's fantastic. Thank you for the good work you've done. Thank you. All right, commissioners. Oh, I'm getting waved at. Yes, we're at the consent agenda portion of the program, and I was just going to ask you, do you have public comments? And she's one step ahead of me, and apparently we do, and I also have public comments for the previous presentation, if you would like. Okay. Well, we're going to take public comment with regard to everything right now, so I'll go to County Attorney Kate Latour for the reading of the public participation. Thank you, Chairman. Florida law provides that members of the public shall be given a reasonable opportunity to be heard on propositions before the Board of County Commissioners, except when the Board is acting on emergency or ministerial matters or conducting a meeting exempt from the requirements of the Sunshine Law. Individuals shall be permitted three minutes each for public comment or six minutes when the individual is an official representative of a formal association or group. The Chairman may modify the maximum time for public comment at her sole discretion, when appropriate. Public comments on quasi-judicial or other public hearing items will occur during the Board's consideration of those items this afternoon. Public comments on pending procurement matters or on non-agenda items shall not be permitted at this time. Members of the public desiring to make public comment must fill out a speaker form and present the form to staff, and forms are available in the lobby. Madam Chair. Thank you so much. So, County Manager, do you have any changes to the consent agenda? Thank you, Madam Chairman. Commissioners, no changes to the consent agenda. Commissioners, is there anything you wish to pull? I have nothing. Hearing none, we'll move to public comment. We have one speaker, Madam. Gray Wilson on item 10. Mr. Wilson? Name and address for the record, please, sir. Yes, good morning. Gray Wilson, 5044 Shoreline Circle in Lake Forest. Yeah, I just had a, on item 10, just noticed that. I just wanted to see if this was the, related to the River Cross. Is that all completed now? And is this funds that we're talking here, the funds from the, because the county fought this, and I appreciate the county taking a stance on this. I think that was a long, long battle, and Nero challenged a lot in the paper, and I know he couldn't say anything, and I respect that. And I think that was, I've spoken here before about process, and when you take a stand on process at that level, that really speaks well for what this board stands for. And I've always appreciated the fact that folks can come up and speak on various items, but is this settlement here, the dollars, because of the court costs and attorney's fees being reimbursed, or what exactly is this? Mr. Wilson, I'm going to take a stand on process, since you admire taking a stand on process. Public comment is an opportunity for you to make comment. It's not a dialogue between you and the board or the county attorney. I think the county attorney would be happy to speak with you and walk you through the details of the item separately, but not during public comment. Oh, I didn't know. I didn't know if it was an item that could be pulled off and then discussed. It was not pulled off and were not discussed. I requested it be pulled off, but I guess that didn't occur. The request that you brought up earlier was that a letter be read during the public... That was a different issue. Okay. I made two public comment forms, and I asked for that one to be pulled off for discussion purposes. I'm sorry they didn't make that clear. Oh, no. I was not aware of that. Is that right here? Yeah. He can ask whatever he wants to ask. It's up to the board whether to pull an item off the consent agenda. Yeah, I didn't know if that was... I made a request here. I turned it in before the meeting, and I'm sorry. Are you through with your public comment, Mr. Wilson? What's that? Are you through with your public comment? We'll consider your request. To pull it off for discussion. Okay. Thank you. Commissioners, what is your pleasure? I'm fully briefed and up to speed on it. I think if this individual needs additional information, I think they should interact with the county attorney, county manager, to get all their questions answered. I've been thoroughly briefed on it. I've done my own due diligence. Hopefully, each and every one of us have been. I'm satisfied and happy with where it's at and understanding why we got there and how we got there. Agreed. Commissioner Constantine? I concur. I just wanted to let all of the audience know that, yes, this is the completion of it. We are, you know, we are satisfying everything, and we have gotten everything that we intended to get from the settlement. So, I don't believe that, you know, I believe that. That's all I want to say. Yes, I understand. All right. We're not going back and forth, Mr. Wilson. Yes. All right. Commissioners, then I'll look for a motion for the consent agenda. Is there any other speakers? Let me just make sure that. No, ma'am. All right, we'll close it. Motion to approve Constitutional Officers, I have them four and five, and six through 13. Is there a motion and a second? Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Passes unanimously. Thank you. For the record, public comments closed. Regular agenda, and I'm glad he stayed near the front. We have a tourism update from Economic Development and Tourism Director, Guy Cunha. Mr. Cunha. For the record, Guy Cunha, Director, Economic Development and Tourism. I switched up the clicker for the mouse because we're going to be looking at a couple different tables moving forward, so I wanted to highlight the areas of where we're going to be discussing during each slide. So the agenda will discuss purpose, not solely from tourism, but sports side. We'll review what occurred this year in hotel demand of a calendar 2025. We'll take a deep dive into our sports tourism market, our largest tourism market, and look at the forecast for the United States and for our sub-market here. So the purpose here, the review of our 2025 visitor demand data, and then we will review the fiscal 2025 key performance indicators for sports tourism, followed by our forecast for the 2026 visitor demand trends. So our review. One point before we dive into this slide is there is an overlap we want to make sure everyone is aware of. Fiscal year 2025, we know, begins October 1, 2024, and lasts through September 30, 2025. Smith Travel Research works on a calendar year. So when Smith Travel Research shows 25 data, they're going January 1st to December 31st. So one of the key trends to observe, and I'm here, is the average revenue per available room. That is the performance indicator most closely aligned with our tourist development tax. In October of 2024 to February of 2025, which we know that's fiscal year 25, we had an increase of about 10%. That is a record high increase for those five months. Then we hit the dreaded plateau that we were discussing. So from March 2025 to September 2025, that was the plateau and decline in revenue per available room of 2%. So when we look here at our table for 2025, we see occupancy for the entire calendar year was 70%. That's flat, 0.2. And then when we look at our average daily rate, you'll see that referred to as ADR. There was a 2.4% decline in 2025, which is $103.97. And then our revenue per available room that takes in both the occupancy and average daily rate was $72.74. That is a 2.7% decline. So when we look and compare to U.S. hotel demand data, one of the key points, occupancy, we usually trend ahead of occupancy for the better part of the last five years. The U.S. did see a decline of 1.2%. Average daily rate stayed flat, 0.9. We look at the percentage of average daily rate as opposed to the whole average daily rate because we do not have luxury properties in Seminole County, and that deeply impacts the average daily rate. And of our 60 or so properties, only four are classified as upper upscale. That's the two large boxes, large properties in Lake Mary and the two in Altamont. Of those, we have over 50 that are not upper upscale. So RevPAR there, we usually look at the percent increase decrease. We see the U.S. stayed steady at 0.3%. A word that you're going to hear a lot is bifurcation. Not all hotel rooms are created equal. We were on the positive side of bifurcation when COVID, when the pandemic occurred, and we were open, and we also had our mid-scale and economy properties were the most resilient and the tip of the spear to rebound. Now we're seeing the exact opposite. Under current economic conditions, the properties that are holding steady are the luxury and upper upscale when the vast majority of Seminole County properties are classified as mid-scale or economy. So we see we're taking on the brunt of the impact currently. Now, all days are not created equal. We know that when it comes to weekend and weekday demand in Seminole County, there is a vast difference. Occupancy for the calendar of 2025, we had a 77.8% occupancy percentage for weekend demand. That actually showed a 1.2% increase. Weekday was 66.9% with a slight 0.9% decrease. Average daily rate, $100.60 on the weekday, $111.22 on the weekend. So the idea that we wholesale the weekends and it's just more affordable to come during the weekends, that is not the case here. Revenue per available room on the weekend is $86.50 as opposed to $67.26. And you saw all in weekday had a drop of 3.8% and weekend had that 0.3 slight decline in line with our national average. And if you move all the way to the far right here, you can actually see that weekend had a revenue flat to somewhat increase of 0.7% when weekday actually had a drop in revenue of 3.2%. So what does this mean? What is our revenue source? Tourist development tax. When we look at fiscal year now, 2024 versus 2025, we saw a 7% increase. That's that $500,000 from $6.7 to $7.2. Our projected FY25 to $26 of revenue from tourist development tax collection is a drop from $7.2 million to $7 million. That is a 3% drop. One of the items that I want to make sure we all understood is the actual expenditures for the tourism department and some other departments like parks and recreation, but mainly the tourism department, the total expenditures associated with TDT was $5.9 million. Of those $5.9 million, $920,000 went to the first installment of the turf replacement project on the nine fields. And then we also have a large ticket item in the $300,000 in the loan that we have for the lights that ends in fiscal year 27. So without any further increases, we can expect these items to come off the books by fiscal year 28. Then for the record, we do – oh, sorry, let me go back. Let's go back one. Thank you. We are collecting tourism improvement district assessments. We are still in line for that 3.2. Here you'll see 3.1, but that 3.2 was calculated with the two new properties that are coming in line in 2026, one being the Comfort Inn out at the airport and another being the Fairfield Inn in Lake Mary. Both owners already have properties in Seminole County and already are accustomed to the tourism improvement district model. And, of course, the indoor consultants that we'll hear from later on today was an expenditure from the tourism improvement district fund. And now I'd like to introduce our division manager over tourism, Danny Trossett, to discuss our sports tourism market. All right. Thank you, Guy. Good morning, board. Just wanted to provide a quick snapshot of sports tourism here in Seminole County. As it relates – so kind of across the chart here, these are really our key performance indicators that we really benchmark each and every year. So we really look at the total number of events, the total number of teams, total visitors, total room nights, and total economic impact. And I'll take a deeper dive into that in just a second. But as you can see, in 24-25 at the Boomba Sports Complex, we had 46 events, over 2,500 teams, over 99,000 visitors, over 14,000 room nights, and over $30 million in economic impact. All other venues – that really consists of all other venues besides the Boomba Sports Complex. So that's Solon Lake Park, Seminole County Softball Complex, Seminole Soccer Complex. And so you can see 46 events, over 1,800 teams, 82,000 visitors, over 15,000 room nights, and $25 million in economic impact. In terms of what our 25-26 projections are, they're right there in the chart below. We're expecting about a 3% increase from 24-25 across the board. And I'm just going to do a – provide a little bit more information on the economic impact, how we derive the economic impact. This economic impact number comes from Destination Marketing Associations International. They really provide the gold standard for CVBs, sports commissions, and DMOs. Over 90% of CVBs use this economic impact calculator. We started using it in 2022. And what's unique about this calculator is that it takes specific local information to Seminole County, and that really goes into the multiplier that establishes the calculator. And what we historically were doing is we were using a state multiplier, but the reality is it's not apples-to-apples. A visitor spend in Seminole County is different than a visitor spend in Miami. So this calculator provides – takes local tourism data, looks at our local tax rates, comes up with a customized calculation specific for Seminole County. It's also updated every single year annually with updated information. So just going across the room nights, the room nights that we report, those are actual room nights generated by the event. We know that we cannot track every single hotel room. So the actual number we certainly know is probably higher than that number. But we do report verified rooms after each event, and that's reported to us, and then we verify those numbers with our hotel partners. The total visitors, that really kind of consists of everybody that comes to our events. That's taking into consideration the total teams, the total spectators, total referees, you know, really kind of looking at the total, total mix of all the visitors that come in. And then obviously the total number of teams. We certainly track how many teams come in for each and every event. So just kind of looking at, you know, again, the sports complex actuals for fiscal year 24, 25, you know, how it compares to fiscal year 60, all the way through. We had strong years of growth coming out of the pandemic. We had a lot of pent-up travel demand, and the fact that we were able to safely open the sports complex was incredible. And so what happened, obviously, right out of COVID, we had a lot of groups that really were reaching out to us because they couldn't hold their events in other locations. So in 21, 22, and 22, 23, we picked up a significant amount of business, and those were some of our best years that we had. In fiscal year 23, 24, 24, 25, we saw a slight decrease in our team counts, and unfortunately we had a few events that canceled due to bad weather, and we saw less use on Hub C and D. Approximately 50% of the time that we have events on Hub C and D, they're impacted by some sort of weather, whether it's a rain delay, and then if we get a significant amount of rain, then those fields are washed out. However, moving forward with the county's recent investment in turfing Hub C and D, we are mitigating the risk of rain outs, and we will see an increase in usage of Hub C and D. We also now have the flexibility to host other types of sports, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and many more. We are already in discussions with multiple event organizers. A good example, we host a national field hockey event in January over MLK. It brings about 100 teams to the Boomba Sports Complex. They play on A and B. With the turfing of C and D, we're able to add 50 additional teams to that event. So we're going from 100 teams to 150 teams. It's hard to believe, you know, again, just looking at the Boomba Sports Complex, that we're celebrating 10 years this May. May of 2016 is when we opened. It's been an incredible, obviously, run. You can see in the chart below from fiscal year 16 to 25. We've hosted over 496 events, over 28,000 teams, over 1.1 million visitors, over 182,000 room nights, and over $282 million in economic impact. We far exceeded the Performa. It's been a tremendous asset for our local community. Obviously, there's a benefit for the teams that get to stay here and play here in Seminole County when we hold tournaments. It also provides a tremendous benefit to our local residents who get to train here on these state-of-the-art fields. And also, I want to give a quick shout-out to our Parks and Recreation team and the staff at the Boomba Sports Complex. They really do go above and beyond. They take a lot of pride in maintaining this facility. And it's really, truly one of the reasons why we were recognized by Newsweek magazine as the best youth baseball sports complex in the country. So when we look at all other venues, you know, this, again, is everything besides the Boomba Sports Complex. So, you know, this really consists of Soldiers Creek Park, Seminole County Softball Complex, Seminole Soccer Complex, Red Bug, several different parks. Very similar story to the Boomba Sports Complex. We had strong numbers post-pandemic. Then we saw a slight dip in travel and decrease for fiscal year 23-24 and 24-25. But we are seeing a strong comeback here. So the majority of these events, like I said, are softball events. But this also includes our signature events like soccer, like ECNL, MLS Next, which take place at Sullivan Lake Park and the Seminole Soccer Complex. So who are the sports complex, who are the sports facility visitors? We use Zartico, a third-party data research company, and they utilize geolocation data. They look at devices and credit card transactions. And what's interesting is that 33 percent, 33 percent of our visitors, one in three, visit our sports facilities when they come here to Seminole County. What's also interesting is that 56 percent of those visitors are in-state. And Zartico defines a visitor as someone who has come from over 50 miles from their common evening location. They've stayed for more than two hours in the destination, and they visited at least one point of impact. So just to take a little bit of a deeper dive, this next slide, what is the visitor and resident mix at the sports complex? So based upon the data provided, and this is a sample size of over 40,000 people last year, it shows that the ratio of visitors to residents who visit our sports complex, it's the majority of our residents. As you can see, 75 percent of the people that visit our sports complex are residents, compared to 25 percent who are visitors. The Boomba Sports Complex is the closest to a 50-50 split, with 53 percent residents and 47 percent visitors. But again, just this idea that our facilities have more visitors than residents is inaccurate, and I really think it's important just to understand what the data is showing us here. Also, all of our sports facilities provide a significant benefit to our local residents. As I mentioned, teams get to obviously stay here when we have tournaments. It's a cost savings on money, cost savings on travel. We've unfortunately been limited with outdoor venues and are always at risk due to weather. To further diversify our offerings and mitigate risk, the indoor sports complex is going to take Seminole County to the next level. As you will see, the forecast is flat, and we have to find a creative way to break the plateau, and the indoor sports complex is going to allow us to bring in new visitors, new events. The indoor sports complex will be a tremendous benefit, not only to our visitors, but to our residents as well. And I'm going to turn it over to Guy to walk through the forecast. Thank you. And the last couple slides here on our forecast, we're looking at the U.S. hotel forecast down here on the occupancy side. We don't see much change from the actual of 62.3 in the U.S. to a 2027 calendar forecast of 62.2. Average daily rate, slight increase, 0.9, and then in 2026 calendar, 1%, 2027, 1.3, and then our RevPAR year-over-year increase or decline. These are the percentages most closely aligned with Tourist Development Act's increase and decline. So we see 0.3 in the U.S. expected was the actual for 2025, 0.6 on 2026, and a 1.4 slight increase. One of the key notes to take with you here, we are part of the Orlando North sub-market for Smith Travel Research. It's about 10,000 rooms, 5,000 of which are our rooms, just to keep in mind that take this forecast with a little grain of salt there. But occupancy for calendar 2026, it's as flat as I've ever seen. ADR, average daily rate, the same, and revenue per available room, the same, $72 to 73. Here are some of the factors impacting the entire sub-market. These factors, I know there was a question on what's tariff uncertainty. That's more for hotel supply. That's for the building of properties. And then here's the top five messages, the last slide here on forecast, the top five messages coming from Smith Travel Research, the takeaways specific to the Orlando North sub-market. One of the key messages to keep in mind is bifurcation, as we discussed, is expected to continue for upper-tiered hotels recorded. The lease declines are properties in Seminole County. The vast majority are expected to continue to see volatility in demand. This concludes our presentation. I open the floor. Thank you very much. Commissioners, questions? Yes, Commissioner Lockhart. So, Danny, I heard you give the definition of visitor. Is the definition of resident someone we know lives in Seminole County? We know for sure they live in Seminole County. No. Let me clarify. So the definitions are from Zartico. So Zartico does geofence within the county. So there are two different visitor types. There is the local drive market visitor, and then there is the visitor outside that 50-mile radius. So that 33% that was addressed are all visitors outside of Seminole County. Right. And so the balance of the 100%, when you take out the 33, of those, do we know how many of those are Seminole County residents, or do we just know that they are within 50 miles? So we'll get follow-up data there. The balance of that 33% can be visitors to any other points-of-impact POIs. So the 33% are just visitors that have stayed within one of our sports facilities specific. So it's a visitor market that have touched the sports facility. So the slide that's the bar graph of the sports tourism slide, you've got visitors and residents. You've defined visitor. I'm asking you to define resident. Yes. We'll get the exact definition, but I do believe from Zartico they do have a geofence around the county. That's how they have our points-of-impacts. If that is the case, that is remarkable. I'll be anxious to hear the answer. Yes. So some background on this slide specific. At the bottom left, you will also see the fiscal year date. So this is a date that we did see a seven-month slowdown in visitor demand. So one of the key points I want to make sure we understand is this slide and this one is specific to fiscal year 25 that we did see a slowdown in visitor. Yep. Great clarification. Thank you. Commissioners? Commissioner DeLaurie? Thank you, Madam Chair. Can we talk about occupancy has been increasing, but the ADR is going down. Can you work us through that a little bit? Yes. That's per your chart right there. Yes. Yes. So Smith Travel Research, occupancy has been resilient on the positive side of plateau. A common trend that you do see as occupancy softens, average daily rate is usually about six months behind. That's correct. So if we're continuing to see a softening of occupancy, we can expect average daily rate to continue to decline as hotel years will try. But in your chart, you're showing the occupancy increasing and the ADR is decreasing. So just to confirm, are we looking at forecast or are we looking at the first? Since we don't have page numbers, I'm looking at the one that says review of STR hotel trends. Perfect. 149. And I'm seeing that occupancy level from 2023 to 2025 went from 67.9 to 70. That is correct. And I see it's negative, but it's still decreasing. So we expect to stay around that 69 to possibly as high as 71, 72 occupancy. That would be a great year for us if our calendar is at 72. The record highs in Seminole County were just shy of 75, just to give you some perspective there. But as occupancy plateaus, hoteliers are really focused on REVPARN revenue. So they will start, if they haven't already done so, trending to lower ADR to try to capture more of that wholesale, whole value market. So how does the housing companies come into play about their percentage as well? So are you short-term rentals? No. Oh. Housing companies. So when you're actually putting on an event, everyone goes to a housing company, correct? Yes. Not everyone, but the majority of the large-scale events. Yes. So how is that affecting our ADA and what their revenues are? So I'm going to ask Danny to come if he has direct info on the housing companies, but they do also ask for rebates, comp rooms, recession, all that, all other concessions. Dan, do you want to? If you don't have the information, if you just get it to us, that would be great. I mean, that is correct. The majority of our events do use a third-party housing company. Those housing companies typically charge a commission, rebate, or some sort of combination of both. You know, in terms of how that affects the rate, typically, you know, those commissions and rebates are paid by our hotels to the third-party organizations. So we'll probably have to get back to you to answer specifically how that might impact the rate or affect the rate. Again, that's really pricing strategy is up to the hotels. The reason why I'm asking is because I know we talked about this years ago when we were doing Boomba from the beginning. We talked about some type of either registration or rebate from the surrounding counties where the hotels were closer to Seminole County because they were going to be feeding off of it. And, you know, at some point, we should be talking about that as well. Absolutely. We know, right, that we're going to have that issue, especially when the new indoor sports complex does open. We're going to have multiple events taking place at the same time. And to answer your question, that is something that staff is looking at. We're looking at a program that would allow us to capture those rooms that are going outside of our county, which obviously we're not collecting a bed tax from. That's the reason I'm asking. And that is something that we're looking at right now. So since you do sports tourism, a lot of the contracts are multi-year contracts. Yes. So how much time do you really need before you actually go and get people to actually change their contracts? Because contracts only come up every so many years. We typically look at a two-year booking window for a lot of these events. But some events are more like three to five years. You know, the Boomba Sports Complex, we're booked 12 months in advance. We're always booked a year, year out. But a lot of those events now are repeat events, right? But when you're talking about a new facility coming into the market, we do need that longer lead time, at least 18 to 24 months, I would say, at a minimum. Okay. So then my next question is for Guy, if you don't mind. Sure. So Guy, I know years ago we did a visitor study and a master plan that's about six years old or five, six years old. When do you think we'll be going out to revise that? So for fiscal year 27, that is something that we are looking at. We do want to have a definition on what the indoor may look like, especially from a strategic plan if we're looking at five years out. So the best response I have is soon. Okay. Yeah. That's a good answer. The reason I'm asked is that really helped us during the downturn because we were able to get that data to understand what was going to happen before it happened. Yeah. So thank you, Madam Chairman. Mr. Zimbauer. Thank you, Madam Chair. Are we capturing STRs? So STR reports multiple times to us throughout the year. So we have a monthly trends report that the hotels submit to. Then we also have a forecast that they provide to us. And we have the yearly forecast that we also have. So it would seem to me as I look through these numbers, one of the huge gaps is the weekly occupancy. And, of course, a lot of these travel teams, sports teams that come in have children who are in school. So it's rare that they're going to be out in the middle of the week or all week long, with exceptions to championship times and those kind of things. What is the plan to – as we have more hotels coming online, what is the plan to fill the gap during the week? So outside of the summer season, as you discussed, the school being out at that point, our largest performance indicator that we know has room for growth would be that midweek market, as we've seen here. Right. So when we look at that weekday market, we have to capture the weekday market traveler. In the summer, that may be youth sports, but during the school year, that may not. That is likely going to be a larger meetings or catering-style, expo-style event. That is our largest room for growth that we have identified. I won't go into it because I know we're going to talk about the indoor sports complex. My hope is that's going to help drive weekly room rates as well, more occupancy. So thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. You're welcome. Commissioner Constantine, nothing? I'm not forcing you to speak. No, I understand. No, I'm very pleased in the sense of the completeness of the report. We've had, you know, updates both here and at TDC, and, you know, I understand, you know, we're matching the trends nationally. Commissioners, we have, I think, three speakers that want to speak now. Gee, you have a team lined up behind you. I don't know that it's possible to feel intimidated up here. Why don't you guys come on up, give your name for the record. Good morning. My name is Kristen Oswald. And who are you with? I'm with the Town Place Suites Marriott and Altamont Springs. Please let us know what you'd like to share today. Okay. Good morning, Commissioners. Again, my name is Kristen Oswald. I'm the General Manager of the Town Place Suites by Marriott and Altamont Springs and also the Vice Chair for the TID Board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today regarding the indoor complex. I'd first like to thank the Board for the work already completed on the project. The approval of the indoor complex represents a significant investment into our community, and we appreciate the leadership and collaboration that brought us to this point. With the indoor complex approval, the next critical step is finalizing a comprehensive business development strategy. The TID Advisory Board has asked that we begin drafting the business development strategy. The request was appropriate and timely as the types of groups being considered typically require multi-year contracts, long lead times, and early planning commitments. Without clarity on business strategy, it becomes difficult to fully evaluate opportunities, negotiate terms, and or long-term success. I respectfully encourage the Board to prioritize, at the appropriate time, the business development strategy that can be implemented in alignment within keeping the project moving forward with purpose and momentum. Thank you again for your time, leadership, and continued support. Thank you, and for the record, we are still on the tourism update, but it has bled into the indoor sports complex, and it all works together, so we'll just keep going. We are nothing if not accommodating. Thank you for that. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Jacqueline Lorigan. I am the General Manager of the Hilton and Altamont Springs, and I am the Chair of the TID Board. The next steps are critical in finalizing the development strategy and ensure long-term success for our county. I do have, on behalf of Jason Siegel, the President and CEO of Greater Orlando Sports Commission, a letter addressing to Chair Herr and the members of the Board. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Greater Orlando Sports Commission, Go Sports, I write to express our strong support for Seminole County efforts to advance the construction of the indoor sports complex. Go Sports has been proud partners with Seminole County for over 30 years, working closely with your tourism, hospitality, venue, and hotel stakeholders to successfully host numerous youth, amateur, and collegiate championships. The proposed indoor sports complex represents an important opportunity for Seminole County to further enhance its competitiveness and preferred destination for tournaments, events, and all-year-round sports tourism. Such a facility will drive increased visitation, important tax recovery, and generate significant demand for our hotels, restaurants, and small businesses in the needs of periods. Equally important is the need to maintain momentum and proceed with construction in a timely manner. Advancing the project will enhance the Greater Orlando Sports Commission efforts to position Seminole County to capture future demand and secure sports event bookings well in advance of the facility's opening. To date, our efforts to recruit indoor sports-related events and like activities to Seminole County have been limited due to the lack of space. Moreover, destinations around the United States have been and continue to invest in the construction of multi-purpose indoor sports complexes. This causes more competition for the right to host regional, national, and international sports events. We truly appreciate the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners' commitment to thoughtfully plan and responsible investment. We encourage continued progress on this transformation. And we are confident moving forward with the indoor sports complex will strengthen Seminole County's economy, enhance quality of life for its residents, and reinforce the region's reputation as the premier destination for the hosting events. The Greater Orlando Sports Commission looks forward to continue to collaborate with Seminole County. Thank you very much. Thank you, Chair. Yes. Since you mentioned you're from the Hilton, I have a personal request on behalf of all Guinness drinkers during the Scottish Highland Games. Would you please consider doubling your order prior to the weekend next year? Absolutely. Thank you very much. Yes, thank you. How is that possible? I didn't fully realize that personal privilege meant a beer order. Correct. It does. But I do appreciate the need, and I support it, for the record. Thank you. Yes, sir. Good morning, Commissioners. My name is Duncan Wall. I'm the Regional Director of Sales for LBA Hospitality, representing the Hampton Inn and Suites in Altamont Springs. I also serve along the board, TID board, with Kristen, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you all today. As we've been talking about today, Seminole County's hotel market remains stable and well-balanced. No real supply pressure is very minimal, with no openings of hotels in 2025, and only two projects under construction as of January 23rd, 2026, adding an additional 238 keys. This limited supply pipeline helps preserve market equilibrium and supports long-term performance. In 2025, the market saw modest softening as performance normalized. Occupancy averaged 70.1%, ADR declined to $105, and REVPAR settled at $74, with total revenue reaching $151 million. Despite these slight declines, demand remains steady, positioned in the county for stabilization and gradual growth as conditions improve. Looking ahead, Seminole County's REVPAR is projected to see modest growth in 2026. Occupancy is expected to rise slightly to 68.6%, while ADR holds at $106, driving REVPAR slightly from $72 to $73. Positive calendar comparisons support this performance, though factors like softer business activity and lower consumer sentiment may temper those gains. As Kristen highlighted earlier, timely action by the county is essential to strategically align with targeted group segments. As we mentioned earlier, from Danny, these groups typically operate on multi-year agreements, and they rely on long booking horizons and require early planning. So proactive engagement is key to securing long-term commitments, fostering strong partnerships, and driving positive economic growth, as well as the increased gains and overall market share impact for Seminole County. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Sir? Come on up. Good morning. My name is Rick Donnie. I'm the general manager of the Embassy Suites, Orlando, North Altamont Springs, and a Seminole County resident as well. I'm here representing Robert Grusa of the Central Florida Hotel Lodging Association to read a letter that was addressed to chair her and members of the board. On behalf of the Central Florida Hotel Lodging Association and our board of directors, we'd like to express our strong support for Seminole County's efforts to advance the construction of the indoor sports complex. For decades, CFHLA has been a proud partner with Seminole County and the hospitality industry, applauds the county's collaborative leadership and vision in pursuing a public-private partnership that will deliver long-term economic and community benefits. To date, our efforts to recruit indoor sports-related events and like activities to Seminole County have been limited to a lack of space. This is a key reason that this proposed indoor sports complex represents a significant opportunity for Seminole County to enhance its competitiveness as a destination for tournaments, events, and year-round sports tourism. Such facility would drive increased visitation, extend length of stay, and generate meaningful demand for local hotels, restaurants, and small businesses, particularly during slower travel periods. Equally important is the need to maintain momentum and proceed with the construction of this facility in a timely manner. Advancing the project will allow the business development and recruitment efforts to begin as soon as possible, positioning Seminole County to capture future demand and secure bookings well in advance of the facility's opening. The certainty around project timelines is critical for attracting event organizers, investors, and the complementary development that can further amplify the project's economic impact. Moreover, destinations around the United States have been to continue to invest in the construction of multi-purpose indoor sports complexes, thus causing more competition for the right to host regional, national, and international sporting events. Therefore, we truly appreciate the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners and their commitment to the thoughtful planning and responsible investment of this transformative project. We're confident that the continued progress of this indoor sports complex will strengthen Seminole County's economy, enhance the quality of life for all residents, and reinforce the region's reputation as a premier destination for hosting sports events. Thank you again for your continued consideration. Thank you, sir. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Hi, Skye Buckner, Director of Sales for the Orlando Marriott Lake Mary. I didn't apparently write a speech because it has to come from the heart. And this is the next big demand generator for the county. I've been in Seminole County since 1999 and in the hotel business. The last time we saw an opportunity like this was with Boomba. And with your help and your support, you see the numbers, right? You see where we went. We're starting to plateau. So this is the next demand generator. This is more than just first quarter. We all get business in first quarter because everybody wants to come to Florida. This is about filling the county for the rest of the year. So thank you. You're welcome. Thanks, Skye. I'm going to ask for personal privilege and say bring Corkage back to the lobby bar. Bring Corkage back to the lobby bar. Mr. Acuna. I was talking about alcohol. They'd like that, huh? All good? All good. Ms. Drager, does that conclude our speakers for this topic? Yes, ma'am. There we go. Commissioners, I'm going to call that a wrap on the tourism update and maybe move to the next work session if that is okay. All good? We're sort of there anyway? Yeah. Mr. Durr, Parks and Recreation Director. Good morning, Commissioners. Rick for the record, Rick Durr, Parks and Recreation Director for Seminole County. I'm going to introduce to you in just a moment our consultant team who's assisting us with the next steps, but I'll give you a little bit of background and introduction prior to that. Obviously, with the recognition of the trends that we've seen that we all just went over in detail, the county recognized the need to be able to move some options forward to be able to both increase our capacity as well as develop additional options for our youth sports tourism market. To do so, that effort really began back in 2023-2024 with bringing in the Hunting Group to assist us with a new pro forma and what that particular facility might look like and what the projections might be for both economic impact as well as tourism dollars and increase in heads and beds. That being said, that particular study then moved into how do we fund that. And back in 2025, in May of 2025, the board was able to approve a item that the, where our hoteliers locally had voted to assess themselves to help fund such an effort known as the TID or the Tourism Improvement District. Subsequently to that, the county then moved forward through a competitive bid process to identify a company to help us both identify exactly what the size of the facility would be as well as what the budget of said facility would be for construction. Moving that forward, we went through that bid process and we were lucky to have the Pizzuti companies with us here today to discuss their first initial work into this project. They began really in earnest in December, worked through the holidays on a number of items, and then began to meet with folks really in the month of January to begin to collect information, which we call, affectionately known as their listening tour, making sure they met with individually each of you, as well as many, many other folks without, both within the county, as well as business partners that we have inside the county to assist with this, with this project. At this particular time, I'm going to introduce our consulting team who will be walking you through what they've heard at this initial step of the indoor sports complex. With us today, we've got James Russell, Tom Harmer, and Ashley Sen, who, like I said, have been pretty much working around the clock on this particular project and are here to give you an update on this first portion of the project, as well as a preview as to what our next steps would be. They'll be continuing working in earnest over the next month to not just continue to collect information, but to be able to bring you back some options back in the month of March, specifically to facility sizes, as well as potential costs of funding strategies. And with that, I will move it directly to our team, James Russell. Thank you, Rick. Welcome. Thank you, Rick. Good morning. I think it's still morning, so good morning, commissioners. I wanted to first say I always start with a thank you for the opportunity to work with you and on behalf of the businesses and residents that you represent. It's a great opportunity. We're excited to be here to work as hard as we can for you. So what I wanted to do, and I have to add one more thing, usually when we're presenting and we see a line of people asking questions, we get a little nervous. This is a change of pace, knowing that this is an important project and having that kind of support. What I thought I would do is just walk through initially the deliverables that we are working on, both for the public and to remind you of the things that we'll be doing. A lot of this we discussed, but it's important to understand it's part of the next steps. So initially, and a lot of the work that we've been doing is really focusing on helping you align the program and the objectives of the project to get you to something that you can build, give you a recommendation on advancing and aligning those important priorities with your available budget. So that's the number one task that we'll be focusing on. Included in that is going to be the development of what we call an owner's project requirement documents, the OPR, and a lot of that, and you know in some of the individual conversations that we had with each of you and the teams that we met with, there are key elements that, while they are influenced by the physical side of the building, there are also some intricacies that we want to make sure get passed along to the design architect and those to make sure that those unique aspects of this facility are incorporated in a narrative form. We'll also be recommending an architectural program that will become part of that OPR that really identifies specific spaces and sizes that we believe are important for you to maintain that competitive advantage to attract those tournaments and uses of the facility. So we'll get very specific in that document, identifying spaces. Again, we're not designing the building, that will come later, but it is important to keep those driving points identified and key. Importantly, we'll also be presenting you with a recommended budget that is designed to make sure that we're meeting the aspects of what you need to have covered, but also protects you with the appropriate levels of contingencies, both in design contingency, construction contingency, and owner's contingency to make sure that you're not left with questions down the road. So that's part of that budgeting process for you as well. We also will be delivering a preliminary procurement document so you can hit the ground running with the design architect. The idea is as soon as we can get you our blessing, that that can move forward to get your design architect and team on board to make sure we're advancing the project as quickly as you can. Included in the OPR will also be some illustrative diagrams, some site planning, and some conceptual renderings to help understand that. And I think in some of the discussions we've had with everybody, we identify a good, better, best in terms of really understanding the facility, how it's going to look, and how it's going to perform, which is the key element of this project. And giving some examples in that document will allow the design architect to advance the project a little quicker and not have to revisit a lot of these items to make sure we're moving quickly. And then finally, we'll be presenting you with durations, project schedule duration, to talk about what we believe you'll need to allow for design and what you can anticipate both for construction and move-in activities. And that becomes very important, too, because as you've heard from many of the speakers, what's key is that you have a product that you will be selling, and so understanding those time frames so you can begin the process sooner rather than later to try to attract those tournaments will be key. So we want to give you those durations so you can kind of align and overlap those as appropriate. Kind of touch a little bit of the listening tour that we've been on. As Rick had mentioned, we've met with all of you individually to get your input to help us align objectives and desires. I've met numerously with members of your county staff to make sure, again, we understand all aspects of what everybody views the project and the critical nature of the project. We've done presentation and had questions with the TDC and TID boards, local school board and Seminole State College to get their feedback, impact, desires, opportunities for uses of the facility. Met with the Central Florida Hotel and the Lodging Association to get there, a lot of what you've heard already. We had it reinforced to us many times, working with the hoteliers, and also with the Greater Orlando Sports Commission members, really to capture what the intent of this project is to help us align those opportunities. Ashley's going to come up and give you a little summary of some of the key elements that we've heard, and then Tom will come up and talk about some of the elements that we're continuing to study that impact the project. Good morning, Commissioners. So, much of this initial feedback that I'm going to review with you should be familiar to you. Thank you for all of your time spent with you. Don't count on that. Spent with all of you and your staff and other stakeholders throughout the county. So, we understand, we've heard loud and clear that the primary purpose of this facility is going to be for sports tourism and to support heads and beds. Tournaments, we understand, are generally held Thursday through Sunday. We are also looking, we've heard loud and clear that we need to prioritize family-oriented spaces for siblings and parents of the youth athletes. We heard this morning, most recently, that timing is critical in advancing this project, and we certainly agree and are taking our best efforts to get you there. Local community availability is something that we've also heard in addition to the importance of drawing visitors from outside the county. Multipurpose and flexible spaces for a variety of events and uses, and Tom will discuss that in a little bit more detail here shortly. And then, we've also heard from you that the performance of the internal spaces is a higher priority than maybe the exterior facade. A little bit more feedback. We understand that the basketball and volleyball court dimensions will really drive the size of the facility. Hardwood flooring for courts is a priority. We're also going to explore rollout teraflex flooring options for volleyball. That's something that we heard that we need to study further. We're going to be looking for synergy between Boomba and the new indoor facility for both programming and operational efficiencies where they may exist. We've also heard not to underbuild. So, we're going to make sure that the program that we move forward for you is going to meet all of your needs. So, we're not going to compete with the existing hotel space. And we're also going to factor in the ability to phase the project and plan for future expansion, especially with the exterior site amenities. So, I will let Tom talk you through the key amenities noted. Thank you, Madam Chair and Commissioners and Mr. Gray. So, this is the early phase of the project. It's the listening tour. It's been really interesting for us to hear so many different individuals share feedback. And you hear there's quite a bit of consensus on some of the key components of the project. And I'm going to walk through a little bit of the amenities because you heard Ashley talk about, you know, it's the performance of the indoor facility that we heard was most important, how it supports those sports tourism related tournaments. And on top of that, then we'll talk about, as you look at each of these amenities, how do you leverage them to also benefit from a local use standpoint. But we understand, what we heard is that priority. A lot of these sports tourism events operate similarly, but there's some that have better reputations than other. And what we heard was, you know, we want to be kind of a best practice. And so, when we think about the amenities, no surprises, I think, for many of these, but that lobby area is really important. Because when you go to events, and my granddaughter is a club volleyball player, and so I've been around to a number of events, and that lobby area is a lot of times where they do the ticketing and the team gathering when you first arrive, and in between the matches and all of those things. So, understanding the need and size of that lobby area. We heard a lot about restrooms. You know, you obviously need ample-sized restrooms for the size of the facility. And also, we heard very clearly from others in the industry that the refs, the umps, the officials, they really need their own restrooms, probably showers, and locker rooms. The meeting rooms should be flexible. Again, leveraging the building to provide as much of a purpose as possible. It's kind of like when Ashley talked about the dimensions of the basketball courts and the volleyball courts are kind of fixed. I mean, there's a standard in the business that it has to be a certain measurement dimension. A lot of the other tournaments or activities or events, competitions that you're going to support aren't as defined, and they can fit within that flexible space. So, as we look in programming the space architecturally, you know, we understand it needs to be flexible, and you'll see some drivers like the volleyball and basketball that may impact dimensions. Adequate storage, as you think about other events, we've talked and we'll talk about a little bit here, events that may include things like graduation. There is an opportunity to have temporary seating. And so then where do you store that? Do you store it on site, and how big of a space do you need? If we have a different type of flooring to meet a different type of tournament use or competition use, where is that storage? Sometimes event organizers bring that in themselves. Sometimes they prefer if the event can hold that. So, as we just think about the facility, we'll make sure storage is addressed appropriately up front. A lot of feedback about food. I mean, a full range of food from, you know, full kitchens to rooftop bars and restaurants and to everything else. But one of the bottom line comments I remember is we don't necessarily want roll-up metal doors in a concession window as our standard. We want something that may be a higher quality food option. So, as we explore that, we'll look at that. And then realize when you're there and you're the parent or the brothers or the sisters and or grandparents and you receive an email or a phone call, you have to deal with a business issue, you want some quiet space in the facility. You also want some kind of downtime space too. So that's a lounge, arcade area for the kids and things like that. And this can kind of be a big list, but as you fit it all together, you know, we anticipate it will come together the right way. The first aid treatment area is important, obviously, because it's an athletic-based event a lot of times that may need some care. The fact that this is a family-oriented event. And some of the events, you know, draw a lot of the brothers and sisters and grandparents and parents. Some may draw less, but you want to have that ability to keep them on site and things for them to do. We heard about the need for high-speed Internet, obviously for the attendees that are on there, but also for the event itself. I know when my granddaughter was, I didn't make it to New Orleans and Texas when she was competing, but we were able to pull that up live stream and watch that, and that was considered a big asset. You know, what's the sound and lighting infrastructure in there, and how much do you need, and what can it support? Also, the natural light, interesting feedback there from a performance standpoint. Too much natural light can impact the court play or the activity there, and so being able to minimize that or screen that is really important. We heard, and this is listed as art component, it can be more than that. And this may be more of a use than maybe a program-specific space, but the idea that there's an opportunity to expose the attendees to Seminole County in a very positive way, whether that's through art or it might be even through some local retail opportunities or other things so that when they're there, there's another opportunity for them to learn more about Seminole County when they're there. And then performance space, is there a component that has a performance space? And so a lot of this is now being pushed into the machine to kind of figure out what we would come back to you and recommend, and we'll have more discussions with that and more public discussion with that. But we know graduations was something that's been mentioned early and ongoing, and we had good conversations with the school board. We know that if we have these open spaces like the basketball and volleyball courts, they're going to accommodate a lot of temporary seating, and if there's a way that that can serve two purposes, good. And we'll refine what the estimates are on how much space turns into how much seating, and so that's kind of ongoing. And then we'll have follow-up discussions with the regulatory entities here in Seminole County to talk about when you have those type of uses, is there anything else that's triggered in the facility? Maybe it's more restrooms, maybe it's ingress, egress, maybe it's lighting, maybe it's other things that you might not have to have for the sports portion, but you might need to have it if you're bringing in 5,000 or 6,000 people for an event. So we're working through all that, and so this is kind of listed as ongoing review. We discussed with your emergency manager some interest because we heard in a number of the conversations the idea of some type of shelter that the facility could serve as. And so in talking to Alan, he was pretty clear that he wasn't looking for a hardened facility, like an EOC or a hardened shelter pre-storm. He was more focused on a post-storm shelter that could get the kids back into the schools and reopen sooner, and that there may be, after an event, some number of individuals in the community that are going to be delayed getting back into their homes. And so maybe this could help offset some of the impact on the local churches, et cetera, and provide a facility that could do that. When we talked to him, obviously there's some restroom needs associated with that. Some could be contracted. Some could be in the facility. There was laundry potential needs that could be contracted or not. And so we're still kind of discussing that with your emergency management staff to see how that might fit in as a potential flexible use. The ARC component, again, that whole local component is there as well, and the performance discussion. We did hear, and on the right side of the slide you see what we listed as kind of lower priority items because these were on some of the programming that we saw previously was presented to the commission, discussed by the commission, and as we asked stakeholders about that, these items were less of a priority. They did not come out on the top of the list. The idea of an indoor turf field is kind of listed as one of the potential programs, but the sense was that may not be needed as much as the other uses that would draw to the facility. And then athletic locker rooms for the participants. Also, we've heard from those in the business to say, really, that's not something that's often provided, that you need some locker rooms for the officials. You need restrooms that are plenty. You need areas maybe where the athletes can change, but you don't necessarily need formal locker rooms dedicated just for the participants. And then same with, like, the mezzanine level track. If you're going to have a certain track up there, there's certain dimensions to the track, et cetera, it may or may not complicate the construction. It may or may not fit into the design, and it wasn't as high of a priority as some of the other items. So as we kind of look at that and where would you draw the line, those are some things that we've heard so far. We also received a lot of feedback about the site itself. And obviously, you're going to need to finish the site in some fashion that makes sense and looks good. We've heard about, you know, a Florida feel. So to the landscaping, the type of landscaping, maybe is there, you know, what the entry feature looks like. Is there a water feature? And how do you kind of landscape around that that make it look and feel Florida? And so that's something that you're going to want to incorporate into the site for sure as we go through and you go through the design phase. Parking has been a common discussion, and I think there's still some more analysis that we want to help with to look at, you know, how much parking demand is needed, how much parking is required, how much will accommodate the expected demand, and how to do that. And we've heard a lot of feedback as ultimately there's a sense that we're going to need and you're going to need a parking garage on the site. We want to kind of flush that out to see is that necessary up front for events, is that potentially a future phase or not, or is that something that needs to be up front. So that's kind of something we're still working on. We obviously heard EV parking needs to be factored in. That's, I think, pretty normal now as you think of new facilities and new parking lots. And really, you know, with Uber and Lyft and parent drop-offs and everything else, the ingress-egress is really important of how you manage the flow in and out of the site. And then you're going to have larger vehicles coming in with groups, whether it's vans, buses, et cetera, and where do they park. So those are kind of site considerations. And then we heard a lot of other ways to activate the site, maybe with other improvements. So if you look at the bullets on the right, sand volleyball, play structures for the kids so that when they're outside it can do different things. Is there eventually a performance amphitheater or event space outside that you could have other events there to activate the space, whether it's for the facility or for people who are attending boom-bom and come over for a portion of an event or other things, a mini soccer. Perhaps you could list other things there, projection, movie night against a portion of one of the design walls. So those are just things that we want to get on the list. And as we think about the priority of the indoor facility being for performance of tournament events and a local use component, then what else might work there. And some of that may be longer term or not. So all that is kind of where we're going with next steps. So with that, I'm going to turn it back over to Jim, and he'll talk a little bit more about where we go from here. Thank you. Thanks, Tom. So a lot of things, a lot of ideas, and a limited budget. That's public projects at its peak. So just to kind of review with you what we're working on now and advancing in the activity that you'll see from us over the next several weeks, we are now conceptualizing that space program. We have a lot of charts and dots and buttons trying to, say, understand how all of these potential uses get factored into a building. And the good news, and when we say there's consensus, not necessarily what all the uses, but in the amount of space that you need that can accommodate a lot of uses. And that's key because you're not duplicating spaces, which is costing you money. So part of that is now conceptualizing that space program, understanding the size, the dimension, the stacking, the location, the adjacencies to be able to get maximum use out of the facility. So we're starting to do that now, and we'll be presenting that to you. We're working on the cost estimate. We never lose track of the fact that you have a limited budget, and we want to make sure that we're advising you and recommending on what you need to do to get this project out of the ground, moving and performing, and then options on how you look at things in the future around this facility. Remember, it's a multi-year, multi-use facility, and so that has to be factored into it. We will be doing some follow-ups with you where needed to understand and weighing some of the opportunities through you. Additional county staff discussions will be having. Tom mentioned some, too, as well as understanding the impact of assembly when you're looking at some of the accommodation of seating. It does impact a lot of things. Fire suppression and health life safety is a key element, so we want to be able to make sure that we're advising you on that. And then we'll be looking forward to the retreat with you on March 10th, where we really can start presenting you what our findings are to advance the project. So with that, that's our presentation today. We're happy to answer any questions that you may have, and thanks again for the opportunity. Thank you. Rick, did you just come up for questions, or do you have something that you want to wrap up? No, I think James just said a nice wrap-up on this, but to, again, reinforce the idea that right now we've gone through this collection phase, and they're deep into analysis right now. They're putting together some options so that, again, come March the 10th, what we'll be looking at at that time are specific ideas and specific proposals to begin to really focus this down so that we really can hit the ground running with a RFP that everyone's proud of that we know that fits within our budget and a strategy on how we're going to deliver that project. So with that, we're happy to take any questions. Yes, Commissioner Constantine. Thank you. Not a question, just an excitement. I'm really excited about this whole proposal. I mean, we're looking at a lot of great opportunities here, and, you know, in talking with Pizzuti, and I know all of you have done that also, it just seems that they're getting it of what we're trying to do and what we'd like to do, and I know we all have our own little ideas, but, you know, I think we're seeing it come together, and it's very exciting. The one thing, and anything I would, you know, talk about right now would be, you know, premature, but one thing I did want to talk about when we call funding, and I mentioned to them, and I just wanted to bring it out here and see if it is possible because I don't know. I really don't know if it is. But one of the things that when I was in the legislature, as you recall, we were running out of money for UCF Stadium, and we had to come up with a unique way to explore opportunities to find more money for that stadium. And one of the things that I did in a bill is I put in that you could bond concessions and parking. And so, you know, we're talking about limited budget here. We've got some opportunities, and I just want us to explore if that is, and I will tell you, we used it to finish the stadium, and then I will also say that other universities have now used it to expand their stadium, including FSU, Florida, and everything. And so if that's possible, maybe it's possible for this. I don't know if it is legally or if it's provided by statute, but I would certainly like us to look into that because it may not be a lot because we don't really know what our, you know, concessions, but I will tell you that's why all the, talking about the Guinness run, all the universities now have beer in their stadiums. There's a reason for that, and it's not just they wanted to accommodate beer. It makes a lot of money in the concession stands. And it's $10 for a high noon. I assume that. It's crazy. But they will, but it also helps in the bonding capacity to get, to put more amenities into the stadiums. So I'd just like us to look at that as a possibility. Commissioner Zimbauer. The paramount question I have, which to me, from a business, standpoint, when I look at what we're trying to accomplish with this TID, is the amenities that are going to drive occupancy rates midweek as well as off-season that should come as a byproduct of whatever we do here. And that's what's most important to me. As we heard earlier, we have two new hotels coming online. We've got a pretty high occupancy rate on the weekend. We've got very little room for expansion. So if we don't look at multifaceted uses to fill that week, we can actually do the opposite, which is still have the weeks, midweeks, vacant and overload the hotels but then shove them off to our sister counties or have our hoteliers scrambling to do expansions or find other properties and so forth. That's what I'm really focused on is the business aspect of that midweek occupancy and how that helps hoteliers but also brings events that are likely to be more driven to our local population, whether that be jazz festivals or whatever it is that people want to enjoy that we typically have to go to Orange County or St. Augustine Amphitheater, by example. My wife and I enjoy going there for events because it's a small venue, good music, and it's easy to get in and out of. And I'm not so sure we shouldn't be looking at something very closely resembling not that but that type of use to help fill midweek for what it's worth. Thank you. Fill bed nights midweek. Correct. Mr. DeLaurie. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Commissioner Zimbao, for bringing that up because I know we talked about it briefly when we had tourism up here, but part of my conversation with my one-on-one was ADR, room capacity, room occupancy, and when we do have a work session, I will be focusing on that, and I expect to understand your position on helping us move all these numbers up north. And I really think that is the cornerstone to the conversation because if we don't have the money, you can't build it. So how do we get the ADR up? How do we add a compression up? How do we do all that stuff to get more heads on beds to get the finances to do this? So I'm looking forward to see your evaluation on how that happens. Thank you. I think both Commissioner DeLaurie and Commissioner Zimbauer explained exactly why a couple of years ago I asked that we stop referring to it as the indoor sports complex because this can't just be a sports facility. So thank you for the work. Thank you for spending all of the time that you have going out and collecting information from all of our stakeholders and I'm looking forward to additional information and follow-up. I think we started off on a really great foot. So thank you. And I'm okay if Commissioner Lockhart wants to adopt the event center. Listen, I love sports. I love sports. But it has to be more than sports. And I think what Commissioner Lockhart is talking about is that it's just how do we bring more people into this community? It doesn't matter what it looks like or what it's called. To stay in a hotel. To stay in a hotel. How do you bring the heads on beds? Totally supportive. My wrap comments are a few things. When we get to the work session, please don't presume that we understand the language that you're speaking. I have no earthly idea what a teraflex floor is. I'm not sure I ever really wanted to either. But we'll need detail around things like that that are meaningful. I did not notice anything up there, but I do know it was said. You heard not to underbuild. I think you also heard not to overbuild. That the budget is the budget. So I'm seeing nods, yes. And I am delighted to hear that we're coming back and flushing out the idea of the parking garage and the staging of that. Because we can't have that get in the way of the progress of this from a financial perspective. So I think it's all good stuff. I appreciate the depth of the listening tour. Good feedback from the community around those meetings. So that's very much appreciated. And I look forward to March. So do we. All right. I think with that, we can move on to... I just want to make sure, Dominique, you got no more public comment forms. No, ma'am. Okay. Fabulous. So a little less exciting, but Tricia Johnson is going to make this as exciting as possible. We're going to talk about business tax receipts. Yes. Save the nail-biter for the last. For the record, Tricia Johnson, Deputy County Manager. Before I begin, I wanted to share Mike Rhodes is joining me. If you want to move down to the microphone, Mike, so you're available. If any technical questions come up, and I know our tax collector will join us if he can, if you have any questions for him as well. So today we're here to talk about business tax receipts. Our agenda, purpose of business tax receipts, background and administration of them here in Seminole County, benefits and drawbacks of eliminating BTRs, some options and next steps. So, and excuse me, my notes got a little shuffled around here. So the purpose of today is to establish a shared understanding of how business tax receipts work in our county. We'll review the advantages and disadvantages of BTRs, as they are called, and outline options for your consideration. So what is a business tax receipt? As Mike spoke to you in November, these are annual local taxes imposed for the privilege of doing business in a jurisdiction. BTRs are authorized under Florida Statutes Chapter 205, which grants cities and counties the authority to levy a business tax and revenue. BTRs are considered a local government revenue source. They are not a regulatory license. As you may recall, in 2007, our legislature changed them from occupational licenses to business tax receipt. That was done by design. So the individuals applying for BTRs understand that these are not professional credentials or a professional regulation. That licensing is done through state agencies. So who applies for a BTR? How do they work here in Seminole County? Any business, profession, or occupation engaged in commerce in our jurisdiction, including both brick and mortar and home-based businesses, should obtain a BTR. In Seminole County, an incorporated Seminole County, our tax collector administers the program. Our seven cities all administer business tax receipts as well. They run their program separately. So if a business owner's business is within a city, they are required to apply for a BTR both in Seminole County, unincorporated, and within that city. Applications can be submitted in person and online. And in Seminole County, a business that is not subject to government regulation is $25 a year, $45 a year for those that are subject to regulation. The cities run their own programs, so their fees vary based on that jurisdiction. Per statute, the receipts expire annually on September 30th, and they are required to reapply every year. So the benefits of the BTRs, of course, the reoccurring revenue that is generated, about $310,000 in this last fiscal year. We've collected close to $30,000 now from October to mid-January. These are a tool that are beneficial, I'm going to say, primarily for economic development. It tells us when we have a new business coming into the county and when a business leaves our county. But they can also be beneficial for public safety, fire safety management, emergency management's knowledge of businesses, for outreach pre- and post-hurricanes, as an example, and then for our zoning and land development coordination. These are our business tax receipts by fiscal year. You saw this in November. This has not changed our, again, collections for last year, about $310,000. The benefits of removing BTRs. Pretty obvious. It supports a business-friendly approach by eliminating that point-of-entry cost. It makes us more open for business. It simplifies the regulatory environment, reduces the workload for our tax collector and his team, who primarily, as I mentioned, administers the program, and removes that dual BTR that a business located within a city would be required to pay. Drawbacks of removing BTRs. Of course, loss of recurring revenue and loss of that structured mechanism to identify business locations for economic development in our county. There is no other mechanism for that locally. The Department of Business and Professional Regulation does require that businesses that have a license, that regulated businesses, apply at DPBR, but some businesses are not captured through that process. Businesses, again, that do not require any kind of state regulation licensure. It's helpful to our public safety team to know when a new business is here in our county. Some counties have created a, some call it a certificate of use or another process to identify this data. In fact, Felicia created one in 2024 by ordinance. We could discuss doing that. The challenge is we have Senate Bill 180 to contend with, and that a new process could, and I say could, it really depends on what that process looks like, be impeded because it's considered more burdensome and we couldn't create it. So that would be something we'll have to talk about. And then, of course, if cities are still requiring them and the county is not, that could create some confusion. Some additional considerations that are important, Commissioner Zembauer mentioned at our last meeting, there are three bills moving through the legislature right now that would eliminate BTRs. The one with the most traction is House Bill 103. Right now, it's on the House floor for a second reading, but that has been just put on hold because it's now going through revenue conference, which means it could be added into a separate bill or tax package. The other two bills on the Senate side are not moving as quickly. They're still in their first and second committees, but as my dad likes to say, lots of football left to be played there. So we've got at least half a session to go. We'll see what happens. All seven of our cities collect business tax receipts, so it's important to note that if we were to eliminate our BTRs, some cities may feel pressured to do so as well, and you'll see a couple of them really do collect quite a bit of revenue. These are the cities that have provided us with their revenue collection information. So options for your consideration, full elimination of the county BTR program, partial elimination, which could look like exempting home-based businesses, exempting those businesses that already pay a BTR in a city, or looking at an employee or a revenue threshold. We could consider reforms without elimination, working more closely with our tax collector's office to improve the application process on our end. We really have not worked closely with the tax collector over the years on BTRs. We would talk about improving our data sharing with county departments because what the tax collector is able to receive through his software, we really aren't getting that information, aggressively going to get it and utilize it on our end. And we could talk about dedicating a portion of the BTR revenue specifically to visible business services in the county. Actually, one of the bills moving through the legislature does require that of jurisdictions in the future. And with that, I'm here to discuss next steps. Here's your direction. All right. Well, thank you. Commissioners, I'll look to you for feedback. Darren, were you taking a breath? I'm good. I'm waiting. You're good. He's waiting. Waiting with bated breath, literally. Commissioners, what's your pleasure? Commissioner Zimbauer? Well, I'll make a motion that we will do away with BTRs in Seminole County. Second. I'll open it up for discussion. Commissioners? Mr. Constantine? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think that would be a premature move. I believe very much so that we are right now in a stage that we don't know what the legislature is going to do. This is, as Ms. Johnson's indicated, is a revenue that is unencumbered. We can use it for many things. Businesses do cause additional services. I believe we have not really abided by our own ordinance, by not being aggressive enough in collecting this, shown by the reduction in this. I mean, just from a feeling, after we went through the process of having to look at where we can get additional revenues and increasing the taxes to the citizens, I feel uncomfortable now giving a tax reduction, which is what it is, before we know what's happening in the legislature, to businesses. I think we all, you know, what did I say? I mean, I've shared sacrifice. I'm not asking for an increase. I'm not asking for anything else other than, number one, let's wait to see what the legislature does, and then we can decide whether we want to continue this in a much more aggressive manner in that we come up with a program that works, and that I do like the idea of, I will give you some things on these options. Number one, I would not want to charge city businesses. I think this should just be county. Number two, I think that we should, so I should, we should exempt city businesses, because they're already paying that with the various counties. I think we should obviously have more of a coordination effort with the tax collector and improve data sharing, and I think it would be interesting to allow the staff to come up with something, which would also include some sort of business services or economic development, if you will, in the department, and give them additional monies or services. So I understand Commissioner Zimbauer and Commissioner Lockhart's desire to eliminate this. It's not working. I agree. It's not, but I don't think it's because, I think it's because we have not really come up with the right formula and the right process to make this happen. So I would not, I think it's premature, and I would not be supportive of the amendment, or the motion, excuse me. Commissioner Dwyer. Thank you, Madam Chair. The question that I would have for our staff is, when you talked about some of the benefits where zoning and land development, coordination, fire safety and management, economic development and outreach, what is the data that we obtain and where do we get it from and how would we get it from if this program ran away? That would be a gap. We don't get a lot of the data now. Tax Collector has a new software program that, from working with his team, indicates the data will be stronger. But if we were to eliminate BTRs, there would be a gap there. We would need to talk about other options, other programs. As I mentioned, other cities and counties have come up with a different process that would not be considered tied to the BTR to capture business data. Yeah, because my concern is moving forward. If we did remove this is, where do we get that data from? And I know we talked about getting from the state. I went on the state website and, you know, looking at that data, I didn't see that we had that much harbor pilots in Seminole County, that much farms in Seminole County, or even mining in Seminole County. And it only had 20-some-odd businesses that a lot of them aren't here. So I was just curious, where do we get that data from? So DPBR, I assume, is what you're referring to. And we do get data from that site, but as I mentioned, it's only for those businesses that require licensure. So a florist wouldn't necessarily be on DPBR. A smaller business that doesn't require a licensure regulation would not be listed there. But we'd still be able to, and I know Guy is probably in the back somewhere. There he is. If you want to talk about how economic development utilizes that data, I'm sure he'd be happy to chat about that. I like the idea of not charging the cities because, you know, now you're getting double hit, so to speak. But more importantly, what I'm concerned about is the lost data. Sure. Thank you. Commissioner Zimbauer. Yes. And I hear my fellow commissioners and some of the reasons they may not want to get rid of it. But what we need to think about is the reality of we're collecting $310,000. We have a tax collector that has man hours in running the program. We have a county that has man hours, women hours, people hours, employee hours into the program. I'm hard-pressed to convince me that we're collecting $310,000 without spending probably pretty close to that, and I have not seen that number. As far as your data, Division of Corporations in Tallahassee can give you all your data that you would ever want. You can gather it there. Our planning and zoning departments should be aware of every zoning change, every plan that we should be doing, with the exception of the home-based businesses, which are legislatures in Tallahassee who are waiting to see what they're going to do with BTRs over the last three years and promise to do it every year, continue to kick the can down the road, but yet we'll sit here and yell about home rule and how they're waiting to assault us, but yet you don't want to make a move before them. And I got it. We're doing nothing with this BTR. It's a tax on business that my businesses have to pay. Everybody else's business, and any honest business, pays. You're not even enforcing what we have on the books. We don't have the manpower to go door-to-door and figure it out. You don't have even the right to go to a home-based business and demand that they prove they are or are not a business. And in Tallahassee, they want to carry it one step further and expand the parking capabilities for home-based businesses. So although I hear the concerns about gathering data, our planning and zoning department should be able to know exactly what areas of this county are commercial, industrial, et cetera, et cetera. Yes, they're hamstrung by the home-based provision. We have to leave that up to code enforcement as far as we possibly can without crossing that threshold and realize this is a tax on commercial businesses for really no benefit. I mean, my commercial properties pay way more taxes than what a residential property owner does. If that isn't for additional services and impacts on the community, I don't know what is. And I hear what Commissioner Constantine is saying. This is a revenue source. I'm not a believer in government being just a revenue source because we've got a revenue source and we ought to be able to use it. Cutting this tax, I think, saves the county overall money. At the tax collector's office, at the county level, at code enforcement level, and so many other places, we're talking $310,000. It doesn't make sense to continue down this path. That's all I have. Commissioner Lockhart. So we're currently collecting $310,000. Of that, do we know how much of that is from businesses in cities? That is the county's portion. That is only the county's portion. Yes, that is the county's portion. So if we were to say, as I think we were saying, one of the suggestions was if someone pays it in the city, we won't collect it. So what would that change for us financially? So currently, the cities, I should say, so seven cities all do BTRs. Four currently collect on our behalf. So Commissioner Zembauer has a business in the city of Altamont. He goes to pay his BTR in person. They will also take care of the county BTR. They take a $2.50 fee, administrative fee, and then the remaining money to $22.50, I think, to the county, back to the tax collector. And so I can't tell you how much we would, like, the impacts of those losses. We could try to work with the cities on that. I don't know how clear that data is. But we could work on the details of if the cities, if I'm a business in Altamont, for example, and I no longer have to pay a county BTR, what impacts would there be to the county revenue? I'm just saying, if we're thinking we want to be magnanimous and say, oh, well, you're in a city, we won't collect it from you because we don't want you to have to pay double, which I think would be the minimum that I would entertain if we're not eliminating them entirely. What is that impact? I wholeheartedly agree that $310,000 in collections is probably another phrase that's just not being worth the squeeze for the amount of manpower and what have you that's involved. Are we sending out reminders that taxes are due the following year? No. And is that our responsibility or is that the tax collector's responsibility? No, no, that it's necessarily determined whose responsibility it is. I think the tax collector has the information from folks applying, but it may be something that we would work closely with the tax collector in doing to get the list and then send the renewals out on our own. And so I would like to have an estimated cost for what that renewal mailing would be each year for all of the current license, not licensees, taxpayer people, local business tax receipt holders. Could I ask the tax collector a question since he's here? Mr. Kroll, do you have an estimated dollar amount that it costs your organization to collect and maintain these collections? We currently don't. That's been our big issue. I know its discussion today is about whether or not to eliminate or keep the BTR tax. My issue today is really what we want is to go either way that it goes. We have three cities right now that are still collecting the tax on the behalf of the tax collector's office, and we're statutorily required. So it has to go through us that we collect that payment, even though they collect it first, because these interlocal agreements were written back pre-internet to where you wouldn't have someone that was going from Altamont would have to make a special trip to go all the way to Sanford to make a payment. They would say, well, let's just do it all in Altamont, and Altamont will send the money to the tax collector office. Well, they're using completely different systems than us. They code everything differently, so we have currently, I believe, 800 transactions that we're trying to go through right now. We have two people working on it, two people on the staff. Okay, so stop right there. So that's the information that I need to help make the decision about whether we need to move forward with this, because if you have manpower and you know how much those people make per hour and you know how much time they spend on it, I would like, and I think that's how we would determine whether or not we are spending more taxpayer dollars to collect the money than we're collecting, it would be helpful if you have that information, if you could start to compile it. Well, a simple solution is if we eliminate the interlocal agreements for convenience, which all the contracts are allowed to, so we have three more cities that we would like to take back the BTRs from. In that case, our new software program that we've got with our tax collection makes it simple online. That money would be, it would just, basically the customer is doing it themselves. They put their information in, they hit enter and send the payment, and we're all done online, same as the city of Sanford does now. They only do the BTRs online. So it would really help us to be able to collect that money while a decision's being made. If we're going to wait to see what legislature does and comes with tax-wise, we would just say, well, we can get that ball rolling is really what I was trying to, last meeting here, that was what I was trying to push for. Also to say, just give us full control of the collection rather than having to go through the cities and try to maneuver on the way that they do it differently. And they don't want to spend money on it either, because literally those interlocal agreements, they get like $2.50 per transaction that they're collecting for us. So really, there's no money. There's no meat on the bone for them at all. So why, you know, they don't want to spend any time or effort. They just said, well, the money comes in, and then we'll send you a check whenever we get around to it. You know, because they don't even have dedicated staff for it. It's just been a nightmare dealing with the cities to try to get that collection and get that information. For Mr. Delari had said about the data, once again, we don't have any of the data coming from it because it is so mishmash with all the different cities and how they collect and how they put it in their own programs. And they're not going to spend money to get a new BTR program or spend the amount of money that we had to spend for our tax collection program that actually includes this BTR collection in that. So it would be a simple switch for us to just take it over. Did that answer your question? We don't know. Well, no. From a clarification perspective, I actually do understand that answer. From a clarification perspective, the workload that the two people are doing right now is because they are doing back office work to an antiquated collection process that we've not updated. But if we moved that antiquated, the cities need to collect it so the business doesn't have to drive to two locations to pay this. No one's doing that anymore. If it were to flow through electronic processing on their end or maybe they're still making somebody drive there, that's their business. But if it got paid through our tax collector's software, it's already built into the software that's already purchased. It would be an electronic transaction that would be seamless. I heard that, but that wasn't my question, though. So I think that vision that you have shared with us requires all of the other cities, their commissions, to want to do that and their city managers. Do you have indication that they are wanting to do that? No. All the contracts are written that they can be canceled by either party for convenience within 90 days. And it can be done either way. So as long as the county commissioners do it or they do it on their side, if they're going to do it on their side, then, yes, they have to go through meetings and go through everything else. But if it comes from the county commission to say we're going to cancel, it's a 90-day, and then it just will terminate at that point. So that's why, to me, it was the simplest way for us to collect this money still while a decision is being made. And if you will, yeah, thank you. And that is my understanding is that we, as a board of county commissioners, have allowed those cities to collect. So if we discontinue that agreement, it would go back to the tax collector to do that, to run the program. And have we asked the cities? No. Okay. No. I have a question for the tax collector, please. Commissioner Zimbauer. So how would you enforce the collection of the BTR as a tax collector? How would you identify every business, including home-based business, in the county to ensure that you're collecting all the BTR that is statutorily required under the current provisions? I mean, we do have the program that will search for this information, obviously, using SunBiz and things that you'll go through. It's – enforcement is not the same as property tax where you have some real property where you can say we can do tax certificates, and there's a whole thing on there. Really, it's the BTRs are almost an honor system to say, you know, if they don't pay, we just ask them to pay again. You know, it's like just keep sending it out there because there is no enforcement on, you know, an army of people that we'd have to send out to collect this money. And it is such a small amount of money to collect on top of that. You're either $25 or $45. So, really, you know, what would be – paying someone to go out and knock on doors would be kind of ridiculous. Well, and that was my next question, and maybe this is more for the county attorney. I have a business. I refuse to pay it. I don't pay it. What are the consequences? I mean, other communities enforce BTRs through the code enforcement process, and you cite them for a code violation for not having an up-to-date BTR. That's an option. There are late fees the statute authorizes that if you don't pay, and the next time you come in for something, you know, for a BTR, you have to pay whatever that fee is. But that's – But we currently do not have that. Correct. Correct? The late fee? No, the collection enforcement to collect those fees. I don't believe we're engaging in that. Correct. No, because we don't have control over it currently. We don't have – so we – I mean, there are third-party companies out there that will, of course, for a percentage of the fee, they will go out and start aggressively collecting. You know, so that's an option. Or try to. Yeah, exactly. But, you know, that's how they get paid. So if they don't collect, you know, it comes to no real cost to us besides less money that they're going to take their cut out of, whatever they do collect. Understood. Commissioner Constantine. Thank you. Thank you. You know, this is a very interesting, you know, discussion because I can see both sides. But I also saw from both Commissioner Delore and certainly from Commissioner Lockhart a lot of questions that are unanswered, a lot of questions that are unanswered. I also have two licenses, business licenses in Altamont Springs. As you can see, they're much more aggressive than other folks. So Jay and I share in that, that we have those things. But they're not, quite frankly, they're not a lot of money. I mean, it's $15 and $45 or $25 and $45 in Altamont Springs. Some of them are $15 and things. We're not talking about a lot of money, and we are talking about the opportunity to have, you know, flexibility in this. I can guarantee you that if we stop this today, there wouldn't be a $310,000 savings in the tax collector's office. There wouldn't be. And so, you know, we're going to have to find additional funds somewhere. You know, we're not talking about millions, but we're talking about hundreds of thousands. Again, the motion, I mean, the mention was the home rule. Commissioner, I hate the fact that the legislature's got their little fingers in it. They always do. I'm just saying that before we do anything, let's make sure we know what we can and cannot do. And I see a lot of questions out here. And if this does not pass, I'm ready to make an alternative motion that would request the staff to come back with a potential program that works and maybe can get, because they're a lot smaller than we are, what Altamont gets, or come back with a recommendation that they think it's not worth having. And that would be basically my motion if this one does not pass. So I have not weighed in yet. I'll do that now. I do believe we should stop allowing collections by the cities. We should make the collection process for the county uniform in the tax collector's office as the statute originally contemplate. I appreciate the fact that the interlocal agreements were done for convenience, but we need to modernize that. Convenience happens online now, not by shifting money back and forth between government entities. I do have concern for the loss of data because we work really hard. So if you ask me what you get for that $25 or $45, we work really hard to make sure that we continue an economic development program that benefits all businesses. If we don't know about them, we can't do that. So we can continue to bring, I'll use an example, fried chicken joints into this market until we are all fried chicken to death. Or we can source alternatives because we know what's out there. And I think that's beneficial. I also think that if we do away with it now, it becomes our burden to figure out how we get that data. If the state legislature does it, there will be a market upswing that figures out how we get that data, and the market will be more ready for it. So God bless America, opportunities are generated every day by governments around the country. We should not generate one prematurely to the market because I think it doesn't save money. It may save some in the tax collector's office, but it's going to shift a burden to the other departments that we mentioned to go do and figure out. So I don't think we're ahead by getting rid of it right now. I do think we need to clean it up. I also don't think we know what we're walking away from. The collections, clearly, they're down 100,000, so they're down 25%, or it would be up 33% if we collected what we did last year. The current collection methodology is not working as well as it could. And that's been brought to our attention by the tax collector with a potential solution and software in-house to solve it. So with that, how about we call the question? And to that point, we don't know what we're doing already. We don't have the data today. So if you do away with it, you still don't have the data, to your point. What we're doing is doing away with the opportunity to get the data through a software system that's already been purchased by the tax collectors. Well, wait a minute. Maybe I misunderstood. So you're telling me the data, the software you're buying will tell me every home-based business, every commercial entity in this county? I don't know the details of how much details. I don't think that's what I heard. But with that program, because you can add fields in there and you can have it, whatever, we can selectively go in and have control over what we're using to find out what they are, if we want to code it a different way. It's our codes, not the city codes. Correct. And like I said, they send it to us now, and we don't know what it means. Right. And it's trying to get the information out of them, and the payments come in late. They come in sporadically. It's just a different question. Your software will not populate every business in this county. Will it or will it not? Unless they've already registered and are on the honor system. No, it doesn't automatically. It has to. It does search through. We can search through SunBiz when we find the new businesses. That's a simple enough side on our side. But right now, if we did that, we would search through SunBiz and then have to still send it to the city to ask the city to collect it, and they're going to say we don't have the staffing or anything to really worry about doing anything on it. Yeah, I don't. Okay. So, Commissioner Zimbauer, if they're starting out with the database through SunBiz, I'm sorry, I didn't see you, started through SunBiz, because I don't know that that gets to every home-based business, and I also heard some consensus up here that we would probably all be willing to walk away from home-based businesses, because that's not the effort here. That is not the effort here. Commissioner Lockhart. So, I agree with Commissioner Constantine's statement that there are a lot of questions, because if I create on SunBiz ABC LLC, I don't have to tell anyone what ABC LLC does. It's nobody's business. As long as it's a business that is legally operating the state of Florida under the Florida statutes, that's all anybody has any business to know. So, you can download all the information you want from SunBiz for all the new businesses. If the point of this is to collect what type of business these businesses are, someone is going to have to reach out to the owner of that business or the registered agent and ask them, pretty pleased, would you be willing to tell us what type of business it is you are engaged in, whether they're home-based or not. So, I think the expectation that somehow there's this gold mine of data just waiting for us to somehow sync with this new software is not accurate. And I don't want us to think that, you know, all we have to do is wave the magic wand with the new software and then poof, all of a sudden we have this great database. That's not how this is going to work. No, we're not concerned about the data at all. You're not, but we are. That's what's being – I never said that it does it magically or anything. It's going to be – No, you didn't say that. But I think there is an assumption on the part of some of us who would like to have the data. Economic development would love that to be the case. There's nothing wrong with them wanting the data. It's great to be able to serve our businesses and know how to serve them. But I think it is an overreach of local government to start to pry into what local businesses are doing. If they want to be a part of our ED team and, you know, reach out. If we want to do something that's proactive and is, you know, hey, we'd love to have you call us and tell us what type of business you are and what you do and how can we serve you in Seminole County, that's entirely different than a proactive – I can't tell you how many times, Commissioner Constantine, I heard you use the phrase aggressively pursue or aggressively enforce. I am not interested in aggressively enforcing anything right now in this community, in this economy. We just raised taxes. We're looking for ways to continue to minimize the effects of that decision, I believe, moving forward, not because of our collection but because of the people who are paying taxes in this community. And, yes, it's only perhaps $25, but I think it sends a significant signal that we as a Board of County Commissioners are in tune enough with the climate of small home-based businesses and small commercial businesses who may own property that we're saying, hey, it's one more thing. We understand. We don't want you to have to go through this. The hoops that I jumped through to get mine had nothing – my business tax receipt had very little to do with the interaction with the tax collector's office. It was getting the information that I needed to get from our staff in order to submit it to the tax collector. So that whole rigmarole is a part of the steps in this process that, yes, there is a lot of staff time that is being spent on this by county staff, and we don't know what it is because we're not tracking it. So, anyway, that's my rant off my soapbox. Thank you. And I have a question for Guy. I called the question about 15 minutes ago, so I'm going to call the question again. So let's go ahead and vote. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Nay. Motion fails. Commissioner Constantine? Madam Chair. Commissioner Lockhart, again, you brought up a lot of good points. When I say aggressive, I mean something that works. It either works or it doesn't work. And what I would like to do – we've got a lot of questions here. We've got a lot of potential ways other people have done this, both successfully and unsuccessfully. And it is the responsibility of the staff to, you know, I feel, to find out what's right, what works, what doesn't work. And then, in addition to the fact that you've talked about the staff time, whether it's worth our time to do it. So my motion is to send this to the staff to bring back either a program that works for the county, what they feel can work for the county, or a recommendation to eliminate it. That's my motion. I thought that was what this was. No? We just voted it down. No, no, no. Like, wasn't this to have – wasn't this process – And that's why I've got a question for staff, if I may. Okay. Well, we have a motion. I'm looking for a second. I'll second it for discussion purposes. And I'd like to ask the motioner, can you define – can you repeat what you're saying? Yes, certainly. I want to give this – the staff did give us an overview in the work session. Got it. They did not provide us – and I see the county manager shaking his head – a process which they would recommend that we move forward on or the fact that they feel that it is not worth doing. And therefore, I want to put it in the hands of the staff to come back not with options. We've given some of the ideas that we have, like the elimination of the county-run – I mean, the city-run businesses and not go after them because they're already paying it and other things. And I would like the county staff through the county manager to come back with a recommendation on this program and to make it work. Or if they feel it is not worth it, then ask for, you know, a recommendation of elimination. Options, yes. For clarification purposes – no, this is easy. This should be easy. It would also include allowing the tax collector to collect all of the county's receipts. And it would include sharing of data, what the data is. It would include the mechanism within your system by which you're requesting it. Most businesses are just going to answer the question. We wouldn't make it mandatory, but most want to be known. Most want to be known. What they do. What they do. And it would include, to wrap your question into this, the cost of administering it from an FTE equivalent. So what's the full-time employee value to this on both the county side and the tax collector side? Madam Chair, I would agree with your clarification, but I'd like to ask an additional question, if I may. Would that also include asking the tax collector to rescind the agreements with the cities? Because that's not – he said – If that was the recommendation. If that was the recommendation. Yeah. I had that in there, so I – but I'm going to ask this question. Should we be doing that today as opposed to when it comes back? You want to hold on that as well. And, Madam Chair, that's one of the reasons why I kept it as open as I did. I don't want to put in so many things, okay, you have to do this and you have to do this, and bring it back to us. Well, quite frankly, that's what they've done. They brought us options. This was a work session. They have not brought it how it would work. But we didn't come to a conclusion, Commissioner Zimbauer, so we're trying to figure out how to bring it again to a – We didn't come to the conclusion you wanted, let's say that. We did come to a conclusion. So the chance of moving this forward with alternatives is important, and that's what Commissioner Constantine and Commissioner DeLaurie are attempting to do. There's one item I'd like to clarify. We didn't go into that in today's presentation, but it has come up a few times. The county has five interlocal agreements with five cities. They collect on our behalf, and they keep $2.50. One of those agreements has been terminated by the City of Winter Springs. They sent us a nice letter. They're no longer collecting. The other four cities are requiring it to come to this board to terminate, so we would bring it back to you on a future agenda. I just want you to understand it's up to this board to terminate those agreements. If that's your recommendation. I think we did understand that. The question that I was asking was, do we want to do that today, or does the motioner and seconder want to hold that for later? The answer is they want to hold that for later. I'm seeing nods. All right, so now we have a motion and a second. With all of that clarification, which may or may not have helped, and I'll call the question on this. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? No. No. Passes three to two, so it's coming back. We clear? Would you like us to bring it back before the conclusion of legislative session or after? Oh, that's a good, sorry. How did I not think of that? That would be my recommendation. If we're going to bring it back, let's wait until the legislative session. It'll be over next month. First week of March. First week of March. Yeah, we're there anyway. Yeah, of course, bring it back. Yeah. Okay, thank you. All right, good to go. All right, I think that brings us to the, thank you for being here, Tax Collector Kroll, to the county attorney's report, and I will point out that Mr. Gray, who was here earlier, had a handout that he wanted shared with all of us. Gray Wilson. Gray Wilson. I'm sorry, I did say Mr. Gray. I'm sorry, I did say Mr. Gray. What? Mr. Wilson. County attorney. Thank you, Chairman. Over the last week, I've had individual discussions with each of you updating you on the circuit court's order in Seminole County v. Middleburg communities. The judge in the case last Tuesday ruled in favor of Middleburg's motion for summary judgment. This is a final appealable order, and we have, the county has 30 days to decide whether to appeal that order. So, I am seeking direction from the board on next steps, whether you were interested in appealing. Given the conversations I've had with each of you and the complexity of the issues involved, I am recommending that the board conduct a closed attorney client session so we can have an open and frank discussion of the board's options and the various issues involved. Commissioners, by nod of head, are you in concurrence? I think it would have to be at the next meeting. I think that's a close question. Yes. We have plenty of time. We have until March 5th to file a notice of appeal. So, if you're agreeable, we would do this in two weeks from today, which we will have noticed in everything according to statute. We are agreeable. We are agreeable. All right. Sounds good. Thank you very much. My other item is that late yesterday I did circulate the response letter that we received from the CFO's office. It looks like it came from the director that conducts the auditing of the various clerks' offices around the state. I don't know that the questions we posed in the letter were answered directly, but we did finally get a response. You sure it wasn't AI? I'm not sure. That's your law card. Would it be incumbent upon us at this point to submit a public records request for the information that we are seeking? I mean, we could. We provided, you know, all the audit reports that we were referring to were provided to the CFO's office, but they were also produced by his office at some point. We could. We could ask if they have more detailed information. If they have done the work that was supposed to have been done, there would certainly be record of that, and maybe they don't want to put that in writing that they have completed it. Maybe we have to ask for the actual record that shows it. The letter indicated that they would follow up on the findings made in the 2024 audit the next time they audit the office, and they will not announce when the next time is going to be. So I didn't really get the impression that there had been follow-up when I read that response, but I'm kind of reading in between the lines. Okay. I've got mixed emotions about it. I don't know if you're ever going to get an answer. I think the answer we got was purposeful and direct. I don't know if a public records request will even be responded to. You know, we asked very specific questions. I mean, very direct. I mean, there should be no misunderstanding what we were trying to understand. But I do find it somewhat disingenuous from the standpoint of we are charged here at the county level to protect the taxpayers' dollars during our budget session. We're also required to fund all the other constitutional officers to the point that we're supposed to, yet we don't have the auditing capability in the Florida statutes to audit the ones that we have to fund on behalf of the taxpayers. In other words, the taxpayer themselves can't go behind the scenes and see exactly what's being spent, so we have to rely on the CFO, who doesn't want to share, apparently, information of what's going on. So I don't know where you go from there. I mean, I really don't. Our hands are tied. So I think the interesting thing from my perspective is that in the standard use of the word audit, there is the reporting of the findings, and then there is typically a response to the findings. Now, that would bring the assumption that typically there's not a finding. If it's good news, a finding would indicate that something has to be rectified. So if we're going to ask for a public records request, the public records request would be for the disclosure of the findings, that was his reference in the letter, that are not going to be followed up upon until the next audit. There should be a required response to a finding similar to the way we would respond to a finding on an audit, but that seems to have been left out. Now, it just could be back to my thing earlier with education. It just could be a writing flaw. It could have just been missed. So inquiring minds, my inquiring mind would like to know what the findings were, and if that mechanism is a public records request. I do also agree with you, Commissioner Sandbauer. I don't know that we're going to get it, but it can't hurt to ask for it. Well, we have the findings in the Division's 2024 report, the audit report. I don't know what other backup exists. It exists, and I have seen, I think it's for the 2024 report, I have seen a one-page responsive letter that the clerk provided following that audit. It wasn't, from my recollection, very detailed. It was a one-page letter, I think, acknowledging the findings, which I think I have that, and I can send that all to you. We should do that. And I found that in the same place where I found the audit, the original audit. I think it's part of the record online. But I don't know that there was any additional backup to the Division's audit or findings. I can see if there's any other information that's public record or if there was any further communication from the clerk's office. I'd be happy to follow up in that regard. So perhaps the best solution would be to share the findings along with the response to the findings, and then depending on what that generates in terms of interest of public records requests, we bring that back. Commissioner brings it back in a district report if we want to follow up. I'm fine. Is that fair? I'm fine. That's fine. All right. Okay, understood. That was the end of my report. Thank you. Awesome, awesome, awesome. County manager's report. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Just a couple items. One, thank you all for those who have attended the Fire Station 39 opening. It was great. That was one of the first projects when I became the county manager that came before us. Yes, three years ago. It took a little bit of challenge. There were some challenges, little hiccups. We have the right team now in place, as you know, in our facilities area. So all vertical construction got a good team there. So as projects move forward, we're always going to have challenges, but I don't foresee any of the hiccups that we had with this fire station. But it was a great, great day, and I appreciate that, especially in the northwest part of the county where we needed another station for response time. So thank you for that. And then regarding, we hit another milestone with our microtransit program with Scout. We're over 75,000 riders that have taken a part of our microtransit program, and that is just a little over four months. So what we plan to do as staff is after a full six months, so the end of April, 1st of May, we'll be bringing that whole program back to the board. As you know, there have been some challenges with that, like with a new system that we put in place, but we are receiving an overwhelming response on how we are actually moving people around our county that had not, as Commissioner Lockhart had mentioned, was almost the forgotten segment of our population and that had not had that opportunity before. So that is continuing to increase our ridership, and the response rate, the, I guess, success rate, or the, what do you say, the satisfaction rate maybe is still as high as that 4.7 out of 5 that we're receiving from our riders. Yeah, 100,000 by March. Yeah. Maybe. I mean, and we were up front with our riders. Yes. We told them that there's going to be some speed bumps and hiccups. Yes, be patient, and I think we've upheld our part of the deal. Staff's doing a great job of dealing with them, addressing them as they come in, trying to find solutions, and then come to the board when you need a major solution to, I think we're going fine. And that is true, and what we don't know, what we don't know, so you're right. So as soon as an issue comes in, you know, our team is on it immediately and assisting those folks that need assistance with it. Commissioner Constantine. Thank you. And Madam Chair, at the Council meeting, you know, a commissioner from Sanford, you know, gave some concerns about the time, and I said, and everyone else agreed, including herself afterwards. I said, okay, you can't get it in 30 minutes, so if you've got something in an hour, call up, you know, for them to pick you up in an hour. You know what I mean? Like, it will get better, but it's not the end of the world. I mean, as opposed to this, instead of walking to a, you know, a bus stop, waiting for the bus, okay, it comes on time. Then wherever it drops you up, then walking to the other place. You know, the bottom line is, is that if it takes, if right now we're having a little bit of problem, and they were very interested in the fact that it was like a very few people were causing about 40% of the times, thinking they can do it like they do other things and keep calling and calling and get a better time. So, you know, the bottom line is, is that I'm very pleased in an initial program, and I'm not speaking for all of us, but I think we've all had a lot of positive feedback. I have had a positive feedback. You know, a few glitches, glitches are glitches, it will get better. I would tell you that one of the things that I think we all have to do is recalibrate the measurement. I think we have other elected officials in the community and community leaders that are calibrating our wait time against Uber and Lyft, and we are not competing with Uber and Lyft. It should be recalibrating our wait time and the fact that you're sitting in your home while you're waiting or sitting at a business while you're waiting to standing at a bus stop. And so when we rephrase that conversation, the entire thing shifts. That's correct. And we just can't forget that. Commissioner Lockhart? Do we have an update on when the App Store is going to update the app so that people cannot call, order and cancel hundreds of rides to throw the system into chaos? Yes, yes. Mr. Swenson is coming up to address that. He gave me a thumbs up, so I think we do. Sorry, Christian Swenson. This is the county manager. Sorry, I'm in the back of the class. The App Store has launched it. It launched last week. We've seen the cancellations go down. There are still some that are fairly up there, so I think there's still a number of people canceling it, too, which is what the limit is before they're locked out. So we have seen that take place, and it was launched. And just for clarification, they're not locked out of the ability to use transportation. They are able to call in and order a ride, but until we understand how to better use the app, the app is not available to those folks. That's correct. If they do two cancellations, it locks them from the app only, and you're correct, then they can call in and still make the ride from that place so they're not stranded. And really probably a stupid question, but surely something pops up to tell them that that's what. It does. Okay. I just wanted to double check. Does it start with yo? You're canceled. Yo, buddy. Stop canceling you. Relax. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Swenson. County manager, does that conclude your report? That concludes my report. Thank you. All right. I don't think we have any board appointments. There are none in the board book. I just want to make sure. You're right. I don't think so, and I'll be departing early. I know you're getting ready to get into some of this stuff, but I've got a 1 o'clock that I've got to be at. Would you like to do your district report first, or would you like us to skip yours? No, I'm fine. I can do it real quick. It'll be real quick. Go for it. Everything in District 2 is perfect. Thank you. Oh, there we go. There we go. Let's start that trend going. Commissioner Lockhart, you're up. So I'm going to hover between board appointment and district appointment. So I do not have any board appointments. I did share with you all the resignation of a member from the Historical Commission. He and I had a great meeting yesterday talking about more specifically some of his suggestions and ways that he might encourage some consolidation of committees and ability to be more effective, not just for our board and what we hope these committees can do for us, but for the members on those committees. So I will be sharing all of that feedback with the county manager and his team so that we can start to look at some of those options. And I have had similar feedback, was a library board member that left frustrated, and county manager and I sat through a fairly long conversation on that. We need to retool these. This is a vestige of the past that is no longer necessarily serving our citizens. It's also probably not serving our directors. It's costing staff time, and we're frustrating people, and that can't be a good thing. So it has to be on the agenda for this year to get this modernized. Yep, that concludes my report. Awesome. Commissioner Dilawri, we're on a roll. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll be just as quick. No pressure. No pressure. First of all, I want to say I'm sad to say that a member of our community passed away, Matt Brown. Those who may have known Matt, he was sat on the planning board for 17 years, and his service will be this Sunday. Just wanted to let everyone know that. It's very sad that that happened. And if you know Matt, he was truly a big, gentle giant. He served the community very well for a number of years, served as the planning and zoning board as well as the chairman of that board for a number of years as well, as well as the Port Authority board. And he will be very, very missed. So I just want to let you know my heart and prayers go out for that family as well as to Matt. Matt's planning tomorrow. We have on the agenda that we are conducting an e-bike safety pilot program reaching about 500 students across the three counties. We'll focus on safety and responsibility for e-bike use. We'll be focusing on middle school-aged children. And I'll be bringing that data back once we have that. But that's a pilot program we're actually doing on Metro Plan because e-bikes is not just a problem in Seminole County but across the entire state. And there is legislation that is going on in Tallahassee regarding that. We have not heard yet what they're doing with it. But we'll report back when we get that. That's the end of my report. Mr. Constantine. Thank you very much. I'll move fast. Leadership Seminole Summit was this past week. And it was very well attended and quite an interesting discussions and information. The National Association of Regional Councils had a meeting in Washington, D.C. which I came back from, with a lot of good information that I will be passing along to the county manager and any of you if you would like. The Seminole Cultural Arts Council had their taste of the arts gala on the 7th, and it was very well attended and a wonderful program. A career source on February 12th will be presenting or will be having a ribbon-cutting of their new community hub in the East Coast Dream Center in Oviedo. So that will be the first of its kind here in Seminole County. I'm looking forward to our February 13th state of the county, which will be at the Orlando Marriott. And I'm sure that you want to say more, Madam Chair, on that. But also we have the Celebrate Lake Mary at Oval Park on the 14th. The zoo will be having the brews around the zoo for Commissioner Lockhart on the 21st, which is always one of their favorite, one of my favorite programs for the zoo that they do. I did want to tell you many of you received in your office the Florida Sports Commission's 80th year book. That was written by George Diaz, which was my appointment to the Parks and Rec Committee last time. But he was the author of that. I want to wish everybody, and you've got the beautiful red on, Happy Valentine's Day coming up. I also, President's Day on the 16th, which Mr. Gray, make everybody happy, gave the staff off. Thank you all that. Yeah. Your recommendation. Wonderful. I don't have to tell you all that Mardi Gras and the Lunar New Year is on the 17th. Ash Wednesday is on the 18th. Tomorrow is a very close friend of mine and someone that I think did a great deal of work for Florida in a good way. It's Jeb Bush's birthday. On the 14th, it's my favorite Darth Vader's birthday. I don't know how you got a birthday on Valentine's Day, Christian, but you did. It's all about love. It's all about love. It's all about love. That's all he is. That's right, love. But I do want to say that my long-time aide of 16, 17 years is having a birthday on the 17th, Beatrice. She tells me she will be 25. And also, our former county manager, Nicole Guier, is having a birthday on the 22nd, who now runs the airport. I do want to say one great thing that I'm very pleased with with Scout is that this month, it has been growing, but this month, the percentage of those over 65 are the highest users. And to me, that means a group that would be reluctant to go on that is now accepting it, and also we're getting folks probably less likely to drive carefully off the road. And my mother will hate me for that. And I just have to tell you one other thing. Tonight, one of the favorite game shows of everybody is Jeopardy. Tonight, one of the questions is, unfinished after 20 years, an office building in Seminole County, Florida became known as the I-4 blank. Answer is the eyesore on I-4. What is the eyesore? Yeah, okay, there you go. I'm sorry, Kate. What is the eyesore on I-4? Unfortunately. And that's my pro. That's my pro. Well, I don't know that I can top that. Thank you. We did. I won't try. And you're welcome, Commissioner Dilawri. The Sweetwater Women's Club actually would like a scout vehicle to come out to one of their meetings because I suspect that's the demographic. And I am seeing more and more folks my age and older using these vehicles to go to normal day-to-day places that normally probably would have cost a lot more or required a family member to miss work, et cetera, et cetera. So it's doing what we thought it would do. A few other things. First of all, the work that got done before the ribbon cutting, we're all talking about the ribbon cutting at the fire station. I know that building that station was painstaking and difficult, and the fact that, Darren, you and your team, Kate, and the entire team in this building did everything needed to drag that thing across the finish line is significant. The station is gorgeous. The program, Doreen, runs a hell of a ribbon cutting, and she just does a great job. The one comment that I would tell you that I had was that every single resident, we had many residents that attended, felt like it was their home. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's pretty cool. So I don't have anything other than that to talk about. State of the County is Friday. It is sold out. It's always sold out. And I look forward to being there with all of you and enjoying the day. Commissioner, before we meet again, one of our commissioners will have another year around the sun. Happy birthday to Bob DeLaurie. Do you want to go to Sweetwater Women's Club and see the scalp? Thank you for the invite. Happy birthday, Commissioner DeLaurie. Anything for the good of the order? Before public comment, we have one. Somebody who's been patient enough to sit through this entire meeting to come up and spend three minutes with us. So we would love to hear from you. Yes, ma'am. And public comment from Andrew Cerny. Andrew, please come up. Name and address for the record. Hello. Hi. My name is Andrew Cerny. I live at 500 McCaw Lane, Apartment 1 in Fern Park, Florida. I've lived in the county most of my life. I've come here today to talk to you all about the gutting of the Seminole County Public Bus Service in favor of the Scout Service. Now, I'd like to make it very clear here that I'm not totally opposed to the Scout Service. I think it does a good job and fills a good role as a final mile solution, and especially for people, as has been mentioned several times, who are older and maybe don't want to take the bus system. So I would just like to make it very clear that I'm not totally opposed to it, and I think it does have its place. However, I think the decision to gut the Seminole County Public Bus Service is maybe not criminally negligent, but ethically negligent. And I have sat here and watched you all pat yourselves on the back for your successes here and not mention things like it taking three hours to show up. So I'd like to point out here that I have been unfortunate enough to have to rely on the bus system multiple times in my life to make it to work and in order to make my rent and put food on the table. Now, luckily, I don't have any children or any dependents here, but there are people who undoubtedly do. And those people now have to wait approximately three hours, last I checked, for a Scout bus, it's not a bus, it's a little van thing, to show up and take them to work in the morning. Now, you could counter that with, you know, they can go to Uber and use Uber to get to work, to and from work. That would take twice a day, and it takes somewhere between like $10 and $20 to get one-way Uber ride. So I think you're kidding yourselves if you think that is an appropriate substitute for the bus service in order to get to work on time when someone makes $15 an hour and is required to feed their family. If it's not obvious, I'm just attempting to contain my absolute outrage at the decision that was made. I did watch the actual event on tape, and I saw, you know, open for public comment, close for public comment, you know, I mean, it's maybe on the public to show up and make a comment there, that's why I'm here today. But I don't know, I'm not really privy to everything that goes on here, I'm not like a regular attendee, so I don't know if there was any attempt to be made to actually court public opinion on this kind of a thing. But I've seen it be overwhelmingly negative in the people that I've talked to, both in person and the internet. So, you know, I just wanted to come here today and just make a comment, you know, and let you know, like, I mean, I see a lot of nice cars out there, I see a lot of people dressed very nicely, and I mean, you know, I don't know what your lives have been like in the past, whether you've ever been unfortunate enough to have to rely on public transportation to put food on the table, but it sucks. It's not fun. I got a job at a very nice place, I won't name them because they're not involved with this, but it took me about two hours in the morning and the evening to take the bus and the sun rail to get to and from my job, that would be impossible today. So, I mean, that's pretty much it, that's all I really have to say. So, thank you for your time, I guess. We do appreciate you being here and sharing your thoughts. If you have specifics with regard to whoever's waiting, not here for the microphone, I'm not calling you back up, whoever's waiting for three hours. Christian Swenson is in the back of the room, he's the director that runs this program. We want the specifics because we do have the data and we will make sure it's tended to. So, thank you for being here. I, too, appreciate the feedback. It is incredibly helpful and we can't fix what we don't know about. And to Mr. Swenson's chagrin, he and I have both been fairly active on social media. I'm not a Reddit girl, but Mr. Swenson is. So, I see a lot of Facebook. He sees a lot of Reddit. Every single one of the atrocious comments, things that have been posted that just sound egregious, has been followed up on, either from our social media team, either directly to the CEO of Freebie or members of staff. And out of the most, the comment, I mean, I would be mad, too, if these things, many of them, were accurate. What we've been able to find, because you cannot ride Scout anonymously, is that not all of the social media postings are true. And so, that is important to keep in mind that just because something is posted on social media doesn't make it so. But please know that if you are posting your experience on Scout, it will be followed up. We have the data to know exactly who has experienced things that are negative and who is posting things negatively that have not even ever downloaded the Scout app. So, please know that we are following up very, very closely because we want this to work. Thank you. Thank you. Anything else, Commissioners, for the good of the order? No, ma'am. With that, meeting adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.