On the agenda

1. 1Call to Order - Roll Call▶ 0:00
2. 2

   ↳You arrived here from a search for “FY 17-18 and FY 18-19 special event in-kind support budget” — transcript expanded below

   Recommendation for In-Kind Support for Special Events

   discussed

   City Manager Manz presented staff recommendations for in-kind support (police, fire, public works) for annual special events for fiscal years 17-18 and 18-19, totaling over $60,000. Event organizers including Greg Armstrong (parades) and Chip (Chamber/Bike Fest) discussed challenges with funding and sponsorships. No action was taken as this was a work session.

   • direction:Staff to bring funding recommendations back at a future meeting for a vote if council wants changes; no action taken at work session. (none)

   🏢Chamber of Commerce🏢Main Street Program🏢Tourism Bureau👤Chip👤Elizabeth👤Greg Armstrong👤Kara👤Ms. Manz👤Robert#Chasco Fiesta#Cody River Bike Fest#Cody River Seafood and Blues Festival#Dr. Unger Winter Fest#FY 17-18 and FY 18-19 special event in-kind support budget#Holiday Street Parade#KFS Main Street Blast#Night in the Tropics#River Lights Boat Parade and Winter Fest#Two-year rolling funding cycle for special events#Veterans Freedom Fest

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   [00:00:16] We only have one item on the agenda tonight, and that is a discussion about in-kind support [00:00:18] for special events. [00:00:19] Ms. Manz? [00:00:20] Thank you, Mr. Mayor. [00:00:22] I'd like to start by reinforcing the fact that the culture of the City of New Port Richey [00:00:30] is certainly to support community events. [00:00:35] Two years ago, we effectuated a formal process whereby the in-kind support for annualized [00:00:44] events was put through a series of criteria so that quantifiable recommendations could [00:00:52] be advanced to you in respect to the funding that is used to support the setup and operation [00:01:02] of special events from the police, the fire, and the public works departments. [00:01:08] The values, as espoused by you at that time, were to promote the city as a destination [00:01:13] to visitors, show economic impact to businesses, and provide a family-friendly program. [00:01:21] As all of you know, the last fiscal year was a challenge for us in terms of taxable value. [00:01:30] Our growth was less than 3%. [00:01:33] That resulted, for me, in something pretty significant. [00:01:36] It was the reduction of 4.5 full-time positions in the city. [00:01:43] That being said, we need to continue the tradition of supporting our community events. [00:01:52] In the 15-16 fiscal year, we provided $45,000 to support special events. [00:01:59] In the 16-17 fiscal year, we supported special events to the tune of just in excess of $50,000, [00:02:09] and this year's recommendation is in excess of $60,000. [00:02:17] No question about it, though, the special event organizers requested much more than [00:02:24] the funding that's available to support them, so we had to make some pretty difficult choices [00:02:31] about how to disperse those funds. [00:02:34] The last time we collected around the table to have a discussion on this matter, you asked [00:02:39] me for a couple of things. [00:02:40] You asked me to prepare a two-year recommendation for you to consider so that the event organizers [00:02:50] would have an appropriate time period to plan for soliciting additional sponsors for events, [00:03:00] as well as the city would have an appropriate benchmark by which to budget for future fiscal [00:03:06] year's support of in-kind events. [00:03:13] You also asked me to determine the amount of money that was going to the not-for-profits [00:03:20] from the Tourism Bureau so that you would have a gauge of some of the additional funding [00:03:26] that the not-for-profits were receiving. [00:03:33] In terms of the factors that were considered to come up with the final recommendation, [00:03:39] one and probably the most prominent of which is other forms of subsidy that the city provides [00:03:46] to the special event organizers. [00:03:48] In the case of the Main Street Program, we afford a $15,000 appropriation to support [00:03:55] their administrative costs associated with the operation of the program. [00:04:01] In the case of the Chamber of Commerce, we extend a very favorable deal to them in terms [00:04:06] of the rent that they pay on a piece of property that's owned by the city. [00:04:13] The other factors that were considered are the use of the net profit. [00:04:20] Is it devoted to community results that are of interest to the city and you specifically? [00:04:31] And whether or not the past performer of the event organizer in terms of the administration [00:04:38] of the event, the setup and the cleanup, and adherence to safety standards is complied with. [00:04:48] The last factor and probably the most important relates to the percentage of costs versus [00:04:55] the percentage of expenses that the city uses to support events. [00:05:02] There were some years in the past where the city provided 100% of the costs of our administrative [00:05:12] and support staff working on events. [00:05:15] I'm not sure that that's appropriate or prudent for us to do anymore, and so we have taken [00:05:21] some steps to minimize in a stepped fashion the amount of funding that we're recommending [00:05:29] between 17-18 and the 18-19 fiscal year. [00:05:33] Because to be frank with you, I don't want to be in the same spot I was this year. [00:05:37] I don't want to have to cut employees any further than I have because I can tell you [00:05:44] there are places I need them and the funding is not currently available to support the [00:05:50] administration's request. [00:05:52] Again, with that being said, I'd like to review for you the recommended appropriations and [00:06:02] then I'm prepared to respond to any questions that might be presented by the folks in attendance [00:06:07] this evening. [00:06:08] I'm not asking you to take action this evening as this is a work session item. [00:06:13] Very good. [00:06:14] Before you get started on the specific recommendations, for the benefit of folks at home and the folks [00:06:19] that are in the audience, the intent of City Council is that we'll look at two years, 17-18 [00:06:30] and 18-19, and then next year look at 18-19 and 19-20 and keep it on a two-year rolling [00:06:38] basis. [00:06:40] There are some events that come up very early in the fiscal year, most notably Bike Fest [00:06:48] and for that matter, everything that happens at Christmas time, where if you don't know [00:06:53] until October 1st what sort of funding is available, it's pretty difficult and the Veterans [00:06:59] Freedom Fest falls in the same category. [00:07:02] It becomes very difficult to deal with and even with an event like Chasco that's in the [00:07:06] spring, having that extra time so that you can look on a multi-year basis, we hope will [00:07:15] make it easier for all of the event organizers to make any adjustments that they need to [00:07:21] do with plenty of lead time and they'll know what sort of financial nut they've got to [00:07:26] crack as they go out looking for sponsors and other things. [00:07:32] With that. [00:07:33] Okay. [00:07:34] Mr. Mayor, for the 17-18 fiscal year, we are recommending an appropriation of $30,000 for [00:07:43] the Chasco Fiesta and for the 18-19 year, we are recommending $29,000 and last year's [00:07:54] expenditures for that event were $36,000, nearly $37,000. [00:07:59] Is there any way we can get to what we're looking at up on the screen? [00:08:04] I'm sorry. [00:08:05] I didn't prepare a PowerPoint. [00:08:06] I'll have a PowerPoint just so everyone in the room can see. [00:08:10] I did send my recommendation out to all of the event organizers so that they would have [00:08:15] an opportunity. [00:08:16] Let's just ask, because we can get copies of this made in a few minutes, did anybody [00:08:21] bring their copies with them? [00:08:22] Well done, Chip. [00:08:24] That's right. [00:08:25] We've got two out of 10 or 12? [00:08:37] Somebody else? [00:08:38] Does somebody need the copies? [00:08:40] Raise your hand if you need a copy. [00:08:49] Okay. [00:08:52] Freedom Fest, which was an event that was put on for the first time last year, was done [00:09:02] so with the assistance of the city in the amount of $6,022. [00:09:09] Our recommendation for the 17-18 year is $4,500 and $4,000 for 18-19 should they determine [00:09:17] that that's an event that they'd like to continue. [00:09:22] The Holiday Street Parade is something that has been funded in the amount of $2,500. [00:09:33] In the past, we are recommending for 17-18 an appropriation of $3,000. [00:09:41] That's in large part due to the additional programming that they have included as a component [00:09:47] of the event. [00:09:48] For 18-19, we are recommending $2,500. [00:09:54] The River Lights Boat Parade and Winter Fest received $1,000. [00:10:01] In the past, we are recommending an appropriation of $3,000 to support the event in 17-18 and [00:10:09] an appropriation of $2,500 in the year of 18-19. [00:10:14] The increase is representative of the fact of the Dr. Unger Winter Fest that they brought [00:10:21] into the event this current year. [00:10:25] The Cody River Bike Fest was supported in 17 with an appropriation of $6,000. [00:10:34] We are recommending for 17-18 an appropriation of $6,000 and an appropriation of $6,000 for [00:10:43] 18-19. [00:10:46] The Night in the Tropics was not supported with any funding and our recommendation is [00:10:55] not to recommend to you any funding consideration for that event in either 17-18 or 18-19. [00:11:04] The Cody River Seafood and Blues Festival has traditionally been supported by an appropriation [00:11:14] of $5,000. [00:11:16] For in-kind support from the City, we are recommending that this year, the 17-18 year, [00:11:23] that it be supported in the amount of $4,500 and that in 18-19 it receives $4,000 in funding. [00:11:33] KFS Main Street Blast, which is principally our 4th of July celebration, has traditionally [00:11:41] received $5,000 and the recommendation from the staff is to continue that tradition and [00:11:49] to apply an appropriation of $5,000 to support that event in both 17-18 and 18-19. [00:11:59] With that, I leave the really difficult decisions to you. [00:12:03] We've already budgeted the amount of money that's available to support the activities. [00:12:09] If there's any difference in the way you want this to be funded, please let me know [00:12:16] and I'll bring that back to you at a future meeting for a vote. [00:12:19] Very good. [00:12:20] I would open it up for any comments from folks in the audience. [00:12:25] Greg? [00:12:26] It's being a work session. [00:12:30] Can we allow them to come in and join in as possible or we're not ruling them out right [00:12:34] away after this? [00:12:35] No, I'm asking. [00:12:37] Oh, you're asking if we have to chase them out? [00:12:40] Greg, why don't you come sit down at the seat up here? [00:12:43] No, I mean, as we're having a discussion, if someone wants to. [00:12:47] To the mic, Greg. [00:12:50] We know you project well. [00:12:52] Chip, you might as well come down too since you also raised your hand. [00:12:56] We got two seats. [00:12:57] Go ahead, Greg. [00:13:04] My name is Greg Armstrong. [00:13:05] I am the organizer of both parades, so I'm kind of speaking out of both sides of my mouth. [00:13:12] I do understand and I have full respect for the financial situation you're in. [00:13:21] I know going forward, things that are possibly coming down the pike from the state, it could [00:13:26] be even worse. [00:13:28] With that said, I also have to tell you that I understand that both parades represent the [00:13:34] biggest financial cost, if you put those two things together, the biggest financial cost [00:13:40] of all these events put together. [00:13:44] They're both two different types of events. [00:13:46] One's a feel good for the community and the other is designed to bring people to New Port Richey from outside. [00:13:55] The problem that we have to face, and I do this without any malice, is we have to face [00:14:02] how long do the parades continue. [00:14:05] Unfortunately in Florida, about a third of the parades in the spring are gone. [00:14:11] About 50% of the Christmas parades are gone. [00:14:14] Float companies have gone from three to one as a result. [00:14:18] That's unfortunate, but that's a reality of the times. [00:14:23] I especially feel bad about the Christmas parade because given the extremely horrible [00:14:28] weather we had last year, the turnout was knocked down a bit. [00:14:31] It was a tremendous turnout considering how cold it was. [00:14:37] When we walked behind it with the kids to pick up trash and the police officer was yelling [00:14:41] out, please help the kids by giving them your trash to clean up New Port Richey. [00:14:45] People were actually going out of their way to get trash to pick up trash off the ground [00:14:49] to hand it to the kids. [00:14:51] I've never been as tired in my life. [00:14:53] I've never been so proud of this town as I was that night. [00:14:58] That's a good thing. [00:15:00] Can we continue? And getting sponsors for parades, I will tell you we've got a Chasco parade coming and we don't have a sponsor for it. [00:15:08] So something else is going to have to take a hit to to cover the cost of that. [00:15:12] And we're committed to do that this year. But how long we can continue, I don't know. [00:15:18] Mr. Mayor, if you'll allow me, in the case of both parades, the recommendation before you this evening represents an increase from previous year's funding. [00:15:28] And that's due to the fact that the parade organizers, Mr. Armstrong in particular, has had such a strong past performance. [00:15:37] It is a family friendly event without question, and it does bring residual income to our downtown area. [00:15:43] So thank you for that. That's all I've got to say. [00:15:48] Thank you. And recognize while the Chasco parade may have some commercial support, shall we say, [00:15:58] I've always wondered how the Christmas parade had any visible means of support from because it's just not that that big. [00:16:06] There's no fee for the Christmas parade, but there is for Chasco parade. Is that correct? [00:16:09] There's a fee now for the Christmas parade. [00:16:12] For the years that there was no cost to do the parade, then finding a one just one sponsor for the parade was was good. [00:16:20] But but when you did a little research and analysis and I've got some information I'll pass out to you to peruse on your own, [00:16:26] that that we needed to start charging for people to be in the parade. [00:16:31] Well, it was kind of nominal, but we did start charging people. [00:16:34] What is there a percent difference between the Christmas parade and Chasco? [00:16:39] I don't know anything about Chasco Fiesta parade. A percent difference of what cost? [00:16:44] You know how much you cost, how much you charge an entry. [00:16:47] We charge one hundred dollars for an entry for the Christmas parade. [00:16:51] The non-profit, the non-profits and that get in the kids, the scouts, all that are free. [00:16:55] But the businesses are if they're chamber members, one hundred of a non-chamber member, two hundred. [00:16:59] What's the charge of Chasco? Chasco, the average cost is varies from profit or non-profits around 250. [00:17:05] We're identical to the Strawberry Festival Parade. [00:17:08] That's our biggest one that we can go by as far as what we can get. [00:17:12] It is four hundred dollars for Gasparilla. We don't even we can't even weigh in on that level. [00:17:20] Chip, you had some other. I have a question and it'll help my brain a little bit on this is when we keep talking fiscal years, [00:17:28] I'm confused if the fiscal year. What is your fiscal year starts in October 1st, September 30th. [00:17:33] OK, so this this past that you're saying right now that the recommendation for the fiscal year of 17, [00:17:39] 18 is four thousand dollars for the holiday street parade. [00:17:43] But I got an invoice. Three thousand. [00:17:47] I got an invoice today for that said that in that the in kind was twenty five hundred. [00:17:53] And I've got an extra five hundred bucks to play with. [00:17:57] Great. We'll take it at any time at any time. [00:18:01] My point being is, is that last year when we when this whole process was started last year at the in the spring, [00:18:07] we came before you and and you all were beginning to discuss these these monies. [00:18:13] And one of the things that that you all said at that point in time was at least it was it was reported to me because I left before you [00:18:20] all had your discussion at the end of the at the end of the evening. [00:18:22] But it was that bike fest wasn't even within the time period you were giving the money at that point in time. [00:18:29] That was that that was in the next fiscal year. And so we should wait to see what that will be. [00:18:34] Last year, we got ten thousand dollars from the city and we split that up. [00:18:39] Seventy five hundred dollars. And this is for the 2016 bike fest. [00:18:44] We put seventy five hundred dollars towards the bike fest and we put twenty five hundred dollars towards the parade. [00:18:54] Then when we got our bill, we at that point in time questioned that fire was not supposed to be on the bill. [00:19:03] And so there was more money taken off at that point in time. [00:19:06] So the actual for bike fest last year was ten five and twenty five hundred for the parade this year. [00:19:15] I'm it's it's six thousand. But that's the street parade street parade. [00:19:21] When I when I look at at the recommendations and again, I we at the chamber, we thank you for the for the great bill that we get for the ability to be there and do business. [00:19:34] We appreciate the support you give events like BDW with the funding that you do for that as a sponsor. [00:19:40] But as but as we as I look at these things, the recommendation, the fiscal year 17, 18 and 18, 19. [00:19:48] But we've already had the 17 and there's been no decision. [00:19:52] So I'm just trying to figure out what what those times are on that list. [00:19:56] Playing catch up. OK, but the the idea is as soon as we get this settled out, as we start working for real on the the 18, 19 budget, we also pick up then 19, 20 on the. [00:20:10] But I do appreciate the fact that you've mentioned the fact that we have evolved in terms of our consistency on the billing and that we've refined that system. [00:20:22] No question about it. It that wasn't the case. [00:20:28] And we're trying to be as prudent as we can in passing along expenses to you. [00:20:34] If they're not real expenses to the city, then they're not real expenses to you. [00:20:40] The the other thing that I I want to say is that and I'm not telling on you, but we would have had this recommendation before the council sooner if the applications had been turned in on time. [00:20:58] And that wasn't the case. And that's delayed us a little bit. So I'm sorry that you you didn't learn in advance of your event this year what the specific recommendation was. [00:21:08] Although we talked and we knew we'd be sort of in that field. [00:21:12] Yeah, there was after bike festival. Right. That was it. And that was the that was the question we had. [00:21:17] We had a family emergency and there was some things that occurred and we didn't get that in. [00:21:22] I thought it was in on time and it wasn't. And so that's my fault. But it was a matter of of calling you and you said, yeah, you've got time. Go ahead and get it in. [00:21:30] And then you reminded Liz that it needed to be in and she got it in. But it was after all the whole process was due after bike fest. [00:21:36] Besides that, the council decided last year that we weren't going to approve events on a calendar year, that it just made more sense to do it on a fiscal year. [00:21:46] I completely understand. I would also like to commend Public Works. [00:21:51] Robert and his staff have because we do this doing praise twice a year. [00:21:56] They're not afraid of looking at a way to save money like this year. [00:22:01] We had the kids picking up the trash bent over backwards to work with us to find a way and working with me already to find a way to make it a little better next year. [00:22:11] A lot better. But those are the that's the kind of forward thinking that we that we need to survive these events. [00:22:19] I don't see how we can do it without it from your side or ours. And I just want to commend them. [00:22:24] I talked to other parades in the Tampa Bay area, other parade leaders, and they don't get that kind of cooperation. [00:22:30] So I want to commend Public Works for their we want we want to commend just almost everybody. [00:22:35] And I mean, because we wouldn't have these great events without them. [00:22:38] And I and I know that the other events also can can adhere to that, too, that that this is a city works with us. [00:22:45] It's not that you're not working with us. As I said, a couple of or a month and a half ago when I came to city council, [00:22:51] I was speaking on behalf of all of the nonprofits, not just the Chamber of Commerce at that time. [00:22:56] And we wanted you to consider funding more. [00:22:59] And from my from my perspective or from the chamber's perspective, I should say, I have some information. [00:23:05] I'm not going to go over with you here. I'm just going to pass it out to you. [00:23:08] But this pretty much details the the expenses and things for our two events. [00:23:13] And it's a historical as well as a as as current. And so I'll pass those out to you. [00:23:18] There's one for each of you. But I but just for the record, I want to make sure, you know, that that this includes the pre event. [00:23:26] In other words, a lot of times what's in the bill is not include that we get at the end is not the money that we've put out ahead of time. [00:23:33] For example, this year, the pre event, we put out thirty three thousand and fifty dollars for a bike fest ahead of time with fees. [00:23:43] Like there's an alcohol fee of two hundred and fifty dollars. I asked the council to look at this. [00:23:47] It costs two hundred fifty dollars for an alcohol permit from you all and fifty dollars from the state. [00:23:52] And so just trying to figure out why those there's some discrepancies there. [00:23:57] The next thing is I have that that's on it would be your post event fees and then the total the total fees that we've paid. [00:24:04] And then I gave you a wrap up of the bike fest from 2005 to 2017, which includes all the fees and everything. [00:24:12] And of course, our our holiday festival. [00:24:14] One thing that we've not done in this man's you mentioned it earlier is we have to be as cost effective as we can. [00:24:20] And as an organization, we have never taken our salaries out of what the actual expenses for the event are. [00:24:26] And as our our chamber will soon find out, is that had we done that this year, that there would be no profit at all for the events. [00:24:34] If we took out. I'm not talking the total salaries. [00:24:36] I'm talking the percentage of salaries that that we would spend on Elizabeth, Kara and myself to run those events for the amount of time. [00:24:44] Like for myself, budgeting 10 percent of my time, 20, 30 percent of Liz's time on as the bike fest person that coordinates at a time. [00:24:52] So just just wanted to throw that out to you. And that's all I have. [00:24:55] Real quick. The majority, I would imagine, of in-kind contributions from the city goes to police, correct? [00:25:03] Depends on what the event is. Talk about bike fest. [00:25:06] Yes. With with bike fest and with Chasco, it's unquestionably police services. [00:25:12] In the case of something like a parade, it would be a public works. [00:25:15] Well, the respect of the two hundred and fifty dollar alcohol permit. [00:25:19] Once you I mean, it may seem two hundred dollars more than what the state's charging. [00:25:22] The state's not giving you free police, though. We are correct. [00:25:25] I'm not. I'm not. I'm just saying you compare the two. [00:25:28] The issue that that's tough for us up here, we're responsible for spending the money of the citizens of Newport to the taxpayers. [00:25:36] Correct. These big events, as everybody in this room knows, are not city events. [00:25:41] We just we just provide the venue. Correct. [00:25:44] The majority of people, I would say, that come on these huge events and you align in the streets of Chasco, the holiday, which I love these parades. [00:25:50] I don't want to see them go away either or not. People live in the city limits. [00:25:54] Yet we're footing the bill. You're all well connected people. [00:25:57] I guess my question is, has anyone ever reached out to the county, the county officials to see if they would provide some in kind police support for some of these large parades? [00:26:06] It's not just Newport residents that are coming. We're just providing the venue. [00:26:09] I mean, we wouldn't object to having Pasco County Sheriff's Office. [00:26:12] Well, they do participate. They do. [00:26:15] There's a big trade out that goes on with it, with between the different organizations, whether it's I know they're there. [00:26:22] We've had them from I know they come from different places. [00:26:25] But I mean, we provide our police as in kind. Correct. [00:26:29] Percentage. Percentage. [00:26:31] Well, see, that's what that's what I'm looking for a way to spread the bill out a little bit. [00:26:35] Well, that's what that's what more of my question. [00:26:37] It might help you with that, Jeff, is I want to know what their bill is, is that if we're supporting, let's say, let's say the bike fest. [00:26:44] What is the bill that we give them? And we're sponsoring six thousand of it. [00:26:47] We're giving them I mean, what is our bill? Nine thousand is our bill. Twelve thousand is our bill. [00:26:52] What is our bill? So what percentage are this? [00:26:55] This year's are they going to this year's police bill that I got from the I didn't I've not gotten a bill yet for this year's bike fest. [00:27:01] I do have the estimated costs that I got today from Parks and Recreation. [00:27:05] But the the city police was twelve thousand nine hundred eighty five dollars. [00:27:10] So we're considering sponsoring at 50 percent in that particular event. [00:27:14] Six thousand. Yeah. So. [00:27:17] So I would like to know what the percentages are as we go down the line. [00:27:21] What percentage is the thirty thousand or or if we look back to thirty six thousand seven ninety five. [00:27:26] What percent is that as of their bill? You're on the tourism board. [00:27:29] I mean, could the county. Well, they do. They get sixty five hundred dollars from the tourism for bike fest. [00:27:34] OK. What about Chaska? Fifteen thousand. Fifteen thousand. [00:27:38] And has that been pretty. It's going down. It's going down. [00:27:41] It's going down. We're weaning them off. It's basically. [00:27:44] Really? Yes, because we figured that there's other events and other people that want the money. [00:27:48] There's the same type of situation we have. We have somewhere in the area of one hundred thousand dollars. [00:27:54] I think it's a little less than that, but I'm going to use that number that we can distribute to these types of events. [00:27:59] And they have to apply just the same as they did. And they come with a figure that they would like. [00:28:03] And then we we say, sure, we've said Chaska over the last few years and the bike fest, too. [00:28:09] We're bringing them down. We said you can't totally depend on this money forever. [00:28:12] We have only so much and we want to spread it to other events. [00:28:16] That goes with with a bug jam in Zephyr Hills and multiple things. [00:28:20] We wanted the money there as well from the the the the thing about where all the money comes from. [00:28:25] The thing the thing about the TDC is you talked about bringing people from outside the city into the city, which creates economic impact. [00:28:33] I know there's several establishments that are here that that that do quite well during the events. [00:28:39] And but the TDC money we have to add, we can't spend that money in Pasco County. [00:28:45] That money has to be spent in advertising outside of. [00:28:48] Yeah, that's total to draw 100 percent from outside. [00:28:50] And we have and they have to show them where they spent the money. [00:28:55] So it's not any money coming from any any in kind in the in the city. [00:28:59] And that money is specifically reimbursement for money spent for advertising. [00:29:05] Yes. Right. They have to they have to show it's back to my original question. [00:29:09] What do you have the percentages of these numbers? [00:29:12] What is thirty thousand dollars, you know, or Chasco in 16, 17 of that of that 36, 795? [00:29:20] What percentage of, you know, we support we sponsored that. [00:29:24] Is that 100 percent? Is that 90 percent? Is that. [00:29:26] I'm not prepared to respond to that question, but I can do that for you. [00:29:31] Just a little bit of math for me to determine what the percentages are. [00:29:36] If you're asking me from the previous fiscal year to the current fiscal year. [00:29:41] But I don't know the expenses associated with the current fiscal year's event. [00:29:47] I would I would find that helpful. [00:29:50] Well, why I'm asking that is that's the whole thing that we are doing at TDC. [00:29:54] We're saying, OK, we've given this we've given that kind of money. [00:29:57] They spend that kind of money. We're we're we're. [00:30:00] with that. But here, you know, I mean, I'm sure that Chasco, you know, our bill is [00:30:05] somewhere near $36,000, $37,000, $40,000, you know, $45,000, some number. What, you know, and [00:30:10] you're saying right now that it's $12,000. Just for the police. Yeah, roughly $12,000 [00:30:16] so far. So, and we're saying we're gonna sponsor maybe to $6,000 next year. Well, [00:30:19] what, I'd like also know the Street Parade, you know, the Blues Festival, you [00:30:25] know, Main Street Blast, all these type events. How much is, how much are we [00:30:29] sponsoring? 50%, 60%, 100%? I think there should be some number that we're kind of [00:30:37] dealing with, you know. If it's, we're gonna sponsor them all at 50%, I mean, you [00:30:40] know, we're not gonna take Chasco if it was 100% and give them, you know, from, [00:30:44] say, $36,000 to $18,000. That's not too fair. But, you know, weaning down so we're [00:30:49] all, we're all, because I see this weight. I see what you're talking about, the [00:30:54] citizens saying, hey, this is our tax money. But I see all these businesses [00:30:58] back here saying, you know, this is, you know, we're taxpayers too in the town and [00:31:02] we want these because, in my opinion, when I owned Jilly's, it was the 13th [00:31:07] month of the year. I'd surely, you know, and I'm sure that Joe Carl, if I [00:31:12] mind quoting him, he, you know, he's sitting here, but he said, if I had a bike [00:31:16] fest once a month, I probably wouldn't open the rest of the month, you know. So, [00:31:20] so, you know, you can see that it's helping these people too. So, I weigh, [00:31:25] they're paying tax, they're taxpayers too. I get that too, and I'm not against the [00:31:28] bars or restaurants of our town, believe me, by any means. I'm recruiting people to [00:31:32] open breweries and have been for the last two years and I think it's going to [00:31:35] have a huge impact on our downtown. But, not to sound like Negative Nelly, but we [00:31:39] just have to remember there's other businesses that are negatively affected [00:31:41] by large events. There are. I mean, if you don't sell beers or sell sandwiches, [00:31:46] you're not making a lot of money at Bike Fest. I mean, you're really not. I'm [00:31:49] just throwing that out there. I mean, Kelly has come here and basically said, I [00:31:52] need that, you know, I might as well shut down, you know, that whole weekend. The [00:31:56] mayor is not real crazy about when Chasco comes around having a carnival, [00:31:58] you know, right outside his office as well. He's made that clear. But, you know, [00:32:03] we'll find a way to make it work. I don't want any of these events to go away. It's [00:32:07] just, the more we talk about, the more scared I get with this Save Our Homes [00:32:10] homestead and talk up and up. And I can only imagine the conversation if that [00:32:14] passes and, and, you know, some of these events might not even be feasible from [00:32:19] the city's standpoint. It's just really, really scary stuff we're projecting. [00:32:23] I just want to say one other thing, you know, to Kelly. I wish she was here, [00:32:28] actually. I didn't, what I, the food that I sold at Jilly's at Chasco Fiesta is not [00:32:34] the food that I sold during the rest of the year. I modified based on, you know, [00:32:38] so I think that, you know, she should look into, you know, modifying her menu to [00:32:42] draw the people that are there for that particular event. Kelly had a specific [00:32:46] problem in that they, they set up immediately in front of the entrance to [00:32:49] her business. And there, there were some coordination issues that had to be dealt with. [00:32:54] Yeah. On the street. And it was, it was absolutely blocking the view. And SIP [00:32:59] right across the street, just, they shut down for the weekend. Yeah, I'm not saying [00:33:05] that they, but they need to stand up and work and say, hey, I need this space [00:33:08] because I'm gonna sell hot dogs and I don't normally sell hot dogs. You made a [00:33:11] very good point as well. And these are business owners that pay taxes to the [00:33:13] city as well. They may not live here and I understand that. Anything else, Chip? I [00:33:20] just wanted to clarify two things. One is, and again under the billing, the [00:33:24] consistency when we budget and we get ready for events, as you guys are looking [00:33:28] at what we actually get charged for. Last year there was no cost for fire on the [00:33:32] parade. This year there's a cost of $3,355. So that's, there's, that [00:33:39] consistency on the billing would help us a lot. But you said you just got the [00:33:43] bill yesterday? Today. Today. So that's, but 90 days, over 90 days, we didn't bill [00:33:48] for 90 days? I'm not certain, but if Mr. Wickmanowski indicates that he received [00:33:57] it today, I'm certain that that's the case and it may have taken us that long [00:34:01] to get all of the information from the various departments. I'm talking about the Christmas parade at that point in time. [00:34:07] Oh, okay. Have you got the bill for the bike fest? I've not got, I've only got, was the, the [00:34:11] only thing I've received so far is the, and I was hoping it was free, but the [00:34:15] only thing we've gotten so far is the, is the estimated final costs. But there [00:34:20] could be. When did you get that? Today. For the bike fest? For bike fest. Because I [00:34:25] was trying to prepare for this so that you'd have all my numbers and stuff. [00:34:27] Last year. The one that was just this past 2017. And that was, and that was the actual [00:34:34] costs in there. That's why I know that it's $12,985 for police because that's [00:34:38] what they billed us. It was 90 days and you just got the information from bike fest. [00:34:42] But don't forget, I, you, I'm not trying to. I'm trying to figure out our side of [00:34:47] the picture here. Because the city's been very generous to us on allowing us time to pay [00:34:51] the money off that we owe for those events too, so we do thank you for that as [00:34:55] well. It'll be nice to get them wrapped up. I'm gonna ask this now. When they have a set [00:34:58] meeting, is there a lead person in the set meeting? There is. Okay, now does that [00:35:02] lead person disappear after the event or does that person? No, they do not. Do they [00:35:06] disappear? They coordinate the event through closure, which means that they [00:35:14] are the one responsible for facilitating the billing. Well, then whoever that [00:35:19] coordinated 90 days is not acceptable. I mean, I agree with you. It is not [00:35:24] acceptable and I will address the matter. So, and I, and I understand that this, in [00:35:30] my tour around town to investigate this, we had a vets and pets or pets and vets [00:35:36] thing in Railroad Square in November and that person hasn't received their bill [00:35:40] yet either. I will look into that. Thank you so much. And, and actually, the guys [00:35:49] already told me he's not paying the bill because no one came and closed down the [00:35:52] street until two and a half hours after the event started. And then, what was the [00:35:57] other, there was two and a half hours, there was, anyhow, they didn't do that and [00:36:03] it was something else that they, that was promised by the city and it didn't [00:36:06] happen. Oh, the tents, the tents were not inspected. Tents were not inspected at [00:36:10] all. Well, they haven't got a bill yet, you know. Well, they say they're not paying [00:36:17] because they never got inspected and, and, and the police came and tried to tell [00:36:21] them to open the street up and they had all the paperwork, so the police and, and [00:36:24] public works didn't work well on that. Okay, well it sounds like there may be [00:36:28] several issues that warrant my attention, so I'll make sure to follow up with the [00:36:32] event organizer. Councilman Phillips, you had a comment? Yeah, well, you know, being [00:36:37] disappointed about not getting a bill, but I think, in all honesty, we placed [00:36:41] some other rather important things in front of our finance department to get [00:36:47] accomplished in January, like the, like the audit. And if, I'd rather have the [00:36:53] audit done knowing that these people are, know they're going to get a bill and [00:36:57] they're going to, we're going to give them time to pay their bill, even if [00:37:01] they've got to pay it in, in installments, because that's the way we [00:37:05] are, even though it's not in an ordinance, not, not, not in anything else. We, we [00:37:10] work with them because they're our citizens, they're, they're our, they're our [00:37:14] constituents, they're the people that run businesses in town. So, you know, yeah, [00:37:20] that's the reason for us to be in the, in, in the, in the funding element and the [00:37:27] staging element of all of these things that happen in the city, and expect that [00:37:32] our staff that works a 40-hour week, and then we stress them out on weekends and [00:37:37] everything else, because I can tell you, from experience in the park, that when [00:37:42] people get upset about, or businesses that are, that are there working for a [00:37:47] nonprofit, when they're there to set up and something doesn't go right, like the [00:37:52] power goes out or something else, our folks get, get, get blasted. It's happened. [00:37:57] But in the same token, they keep on, and then they have to show up on Monday to [00:38:01] start their next 40-hour week, so there's a lot of balance and stuff here. [00:38:06] Obviously, the billing cycle is always going to be an issue, especially when [00:38:12] we're trying to meet year-end and fiscal and all those other things that are out [00:38:16] there. Excellent, excellent point. So, set your priorities, stand by your priorities. You can be [00:38:22] disappointed all you want to be about not getting their bill, but I don't want [00:38:26] to have to be jacking with the state of Florida because my audit is late, or it's [00:38:31] not correct, or we come back around. These folks know we're going to treat them [00:38:35] fairly, as we always have. My only other point is, we were talking about the [00:38:41] police department, and we're talking about police coverage during those times [00:38:47] that special events are going on. The one thing that always comes back to me, and [00:38:53] only because it says to me, you need to net out what your service would have [00:39:01] been that day anyway, because they're going to be working. This is over and [00:39:07] above, so if you have that, and I don't know how your bill's set up, Chip, if it [00:39:11] shows you what the cost is with a net out for what the actual, [00:39:16] because we're going to have officers on duty anyway. They shouldn't be charged to [00:39:20] an event. They should be netted out, because that's an expense the city is [00:39:24] already incurring on that. The city's already explained it on that day, so. Just [00:39:28] so you know, they do it extra duty. They have on duty and extra duty, and just so [00:39:34] you know, this year on duty was zero people, and on duty was at $35 an [00:39:44] hour, 371 hours. Okay, all right. I'm just trying to make sure that you give [00:39:48] some allocation, because you do, you do have people working that day, and that [00:39:53] shouldn't be charged completely back to the fire, and things like that. You've been [00:39:56] very generous with that in the past. Thank you, and if you'll allow me, Mr. [00:40:00] Mayor, just to more completely respond. We do not pull officers off the street to [00:40:05] work special events, so the likelihood that someone's going to be on duty [00:40:11] working event is very small. It does happen from time to time, but in large [00:40:18] part, it's overtime expenses, because they're in over and above their 40-hour [00:40:24] commitment to the city. You had one last comment. I just have one question, and [00:40:29] this is as a business person, not as the parade organizer, but we have some of the [00:40:34] events like the Christmas Parade, the KFS, things like that, that we know [00:40:39] exactly what's going to happen every year. It's the same thing. Why can't we [00:40:45] just say, okay, we know your expenses are going to be around $14,000. We're going to [00:40:50] sponsor $4,000. You owe us $10,000, because I see a whole lot of time spent [00:40:56] determining each time that it's $13,500 or $14,500. As a business person, I'd rather [00:41:02] know what the number is, rather than have to worry about it being figured out, and [00:41:09] nickel-dimed. Right. Just tell me what it is, we deal with it, and your staff [00:41:15] doesn't have to spend all that time figuring out in advance how much they [00:41:18] think they're going to spend, and then collect it. Now, you can't do that in [00:41:22] everything, but a lot of the events, as a business person, it seems logical. I [00:41:28] agree, because you can't go into this event, I mean, you know, if you're [00:41:33] looking at Chasco, and you know, here we come, and you're going to be [00:41:37] sitting in a SET meeting, and you're trying to budget it right away here, and [00:41:42] you're coming out of it, an event in three months down the road, you still, I [00:41:47] mean, it's just, we need to work with the system. I think that's probably the [00:41:55] biggest complaint, that's not really the right word that I want to use, but the [00:41:59] feedback from event organizers is that, you know, there's time spent at the SET [00:42:04] meeting determining what the price is going to be for that MOU, the event then [00:42:08] takes place, and then it's a surprise when they get the actual bill, because [00:42:15] sometimes it's grossly more than what was anticipated in the SET meeting. So, [00:42:20] to Greg's point, I think that that is a thought, that we should have some kind [00:42:27] of a template, or some kind of a formula that we can at least apply to some of [00:42:34] these things that are, I mean, looking at these particular events, I think every [00:42:38] one of them has a formula to them as to what activities are anticipated, you know, [00:42:45] the ones that have a parade, or don't have a parade, or whatever, and the key [00:42:49] piece to Trapper's point was not knowing what the MOUs are. I mean, looking at [00:42:55] this and seeing that it's $30,000 at Chasco, $45,000, $3,000, whatever, but we're [00:42:59] not, we have no clue what that is in terms of what the MOU is. In response. [00:43:06] If I might, Chip and Greg, we've got some other people in the back that want to [00:43:10] come up and say a few words. I just want to say that we know the constituents, your city, [00:43:15] your residents of the city, your businesses in the city, want you to do [00:43:19] the best you can with spending the money that you have. Again, for all of us, [00:43:23] whether it's our chamber or anybody else, we would hope that you all [00:43:26] consider raising the bar just as much as you can. It may not be much, but as [00:43:30] much as you can. Real quick, I agree. These events are unique and they create [00:43:36] the hometown atmosphere that we have here in Newport, that separates us [00:43:39] from the rest of the county. We're looking at all different angles and [00:43:43] aspects. You had a great point, Judy, when we discussed this during our last regular [00:43:46] council meeting, that some cities pay themselves out of their own city budget [00:43:49] for the events. Our events are being provided by these entities, correct? And [00:43:54] we don't know how much they pay. The city of Clearwater pays quite a bit of [00:43:56] money just to set the event up themselves, correct? We have the luxury of not [00:44:02] having that expense. Exactly. And some of the cities, I'm trying to [00:44:07] remember the two key ones that have major events that they're paid for. I [00:44:12] think Lakeland is one of them, and I'm trying to remember what the other city [00:44:14] is. But several, not just two. I mean, we probably would find that some of these [00:44:18] key things, especially ones like fireworks or whatever, that cities are [00:44:23] funding those because it's less, it's most cost-effective for them to do it [00:44:28] that way than to try to wrap up their own staff with doing those things. Just [00:44:35] to make a comment based on Mr. Armstrong's last comment, the events are [00:44:45] not the same every year. The rates are not the same every year. So his point [00:44:52] about the efficiency and billing is not lost on me, and I'll look at that and if [00:44:56] there's a way that I can maneuver them to be a little bit more efficient. [00:45:00] We'll do that, but we can't suggest that the events are cookie cutter because they do have [00:45:09] some ebb and flow to them every year. [00:45:12] I understand that real well, but I think that at the SET meeting, you know, with discussions [00:45:18] about what's going to happen and, you know, we probably could get a lot, you know, he [00:45:22] was playing with $500 or $1,000, but I think that we could be real close, you know, wouldn't [00:45:28] be as big a surprise at the end. [00:45:31] You had some comments for us? [00:45:32] I did. [00:45:33] Brian Anderson, Veterans Alternative. [00:45:36] First of all, you know, building up for an event in the city of New Port Richey, it was [00:45:43] a challenging experience, but Debbie, your staff, did an amazing job of guiding us through [00:45:51] that process. [00:45:53] And for a two-day event, yeah, events aren't the same. [00:45:57] For the third parade in New Port Richey, and the first time that we had a Veterans [00:46:01] Day parade, which was amazing for so many of the warriors who were out there. [00:46:08] Comparatively, James A. Haley has done a parade every single year for the last 15 years, and [00:46:14] I think we ended up with over 50 entries into ours, and they have 65 on a continual basis [00:46:21] for something they've ran for a long time, so it was awesome to be able to participate [00:46:27] in an event like that, and quite honestly, I just want to say thank you to the city of [00:46:31] New Port Richey for working with organizations like the Veterans Alternative and the other [00:46:35] folks that are here, because there's not a better venue, and I look forward to continually [00:46:42] seeing the downtown area grow. [00:46:44] Jeff, I hear a lot about the microbreweries coming in, and the more that we make it an [00:46:51] attraction for people to be a part of, the better off we are. [00:46:55] I truly appreciate all the support that the city of New Port Richey, you guys, I mean [00:47:01] geez, I had Chopper out taking down tents and putting up tents, just putting in sweat [00:47:07] equity, and same with Judy, she's not putting up tents and taking them down, but you guys [00:47:13] were putting in sweat equity on a regular basis, so it's awesome to have such an active [00:47:19] council as part of the city too. [00:47:22] Thank you. [00:47:23] Do we have anybody else that wanted to chime in? [00:47:26] Please come on down. [00:47:27] He did exaggerate, because I heard he had really 44 entries, not 50, but still, compared [00:47:32] to the 60, but I did get that from Mr. Battle, that 65 number was a good number. [00:47:38] I'm Joe Carl, I've been in the city for almost 27 years now, had Jillies for a little [00:47:46] over 12 years, and I'm still with the Coral Reef for going on 24 years now. [00:47:52] The events we've had in the past, and hopefully in the future, for the most part have been [00:47:57] good. [00:47:58] A couple things we talked about, where we were saying, what Jeff was saying about, it's [00:48:03] not good for all the businesses downtown, which is absolutely true, but there's certain [00:48:08] ones like, I do well on Bike Fest and pretty much Chasco, the other ones, you know, I could [00:48:13] take relief, even the ones that are down, or even like the Kia Fest and stuff like that. [00:48:18] Not really. [00:48:20] But it's a good thing, because it does bring in different people. [00:48:23] Some people might not come down because of the event, but other people do, which is new [00:48:27] people are always good. [00:48:30] The one thing I wanted to mention on the business part, and I'm speaking for several businesses, [00:48:34] is that the last two or three years, they've been doing events in the park, and with the [00:48:42] Sims family, they were doing that park for non-profits, and now they've been doing stuff [00:48:46] for profits. [00:48:47] I don't even know how that even happened. [00:48:49] I always thought anything that was going on in the park was for non-profits, and that [00:48:54] was the family wish when they did Sims Park, you know, years ago. [00:49:01] I don't know what happened. [00:49:02] I don't know why that even changed that way. [00:49:05] But what happens is, too, some of the businesses that come down are not part of the downtown [00:49:09] business, or the businesses in New Port Richey, and they'll come in for a few days and pay [00:49:13] a nominal fee, and the businesses downtown, like some of the restaurants and all, have [00:49:20] closed recently, have told me that that hurts the time they could actually make some money, [00:49:24] put away, like I do for Bike Fest, that it helps me out. [00:49:27] If I didn't have Bike Fest, basically, I mean, that's 20% of my profit for four days, for [00:49:33] the entire year. [00:49:34] An example, like the Caribbean Music Fest, something like that, is that what you're referring [00:49:36] to, like where they're making money out of it? [00:49:37] That, partly, but I mean, even Chasco and all, even Bike Fest, they had, you know, most [00:49:42] of the vendors over in the park were not not-for-profit anymore, the food vendors. [00:49:47] In the past, I'm not against food vendors, but I think the food vendors that are there [00:49:52] should be for non-profit, however they set it up. [00:49:55] That was the original intent all along. [00:49:58] And somehow, and it was always that way until the last, I don't know, maybe two to three [00:50:02] years it's changed. [00:50:03] And on the Bike Fest with Chip, when we set up the Bike Fest, closing down the streets [00:50:09] and all, they wanted to be like what Dunedin does and stuff like that, which is great. [00:50:13] They tried to do it where they weren't getting enough funding and they weren't going to shut [00:50:18] the streets down. [00:50:19] They tried that and it destroyed Bike Fest, you know, and that's the same thing with certain [00:50:23] events too. [00:50:24] You know, when you, and with these new businesses coming down, we're losing some, but the ones [00:50:29] that are coming down that are going to be opening up this following year, it's better [00:50:33] if we incorporate the park and the city. [00:50:36] I know you can't do that all the time, but if we can do another event or events where [00:50:41] we can actually close the street down where people can not only see the park, but can [00:50:45] also walk around the streets of the city, I think it's very important. [00:50:47] And it's very important for the businesses that are, you know, 365 days a year, not just [00:50:52] six or seven days. [00:50:53] That's a very good point because I hear that from other business owners other than yourself [00:50:55] where there's events in the park, people go to the park, but they don't come to the businesses, [00:50:59] right? [00:51:00] They don't. [00:51:01] So that's not benefiting you guys. [00:51:03] Right. [00:51:04] While I've got you totally off topic, you have a young local talent that comes and performs [00:51:12] on the third Tuesday night of the month. [00:51:15] Right, that's the night actually. [00:51:16] That's a standing city council meeting for us. [00:51:18] Could you try it some other night once? [00:51:20] I'd love to come down and see it. [00:51:22] Well, that's what we're trying, that's what we're working on now, you know. [00:51:27] The rumors have been going around about the microbreweries, that deal fell through. [00:51:30] They didn't, they were very not nice, to put it politely. [00:51:35] I don't even think they were ever interested because they didn't even give a counter offer. [00:51:39] And I worked with them for six and a half months. [00:51:41] So we were very, and this has happened the day before the contract, before they could [00:51:45] back out of the contract. [00:51:46] I got a letter to our, Steve Booth was my attorney, he got a letter at 358 in the afternoon [00:51:52] and all it said was, contract out, we're out. [00:51:56] So that was very disheartening to us. [00:51:58] So now we're going to push and redo, we're going to be, we're pretty much going to change [00:52:03] the format. [00:52:04] We're going to go to sports and work, clean the place up as best we can. [00:52:07] I say, if you do some of that local music on anything other than a night when we're [00:52:10] in city council, I say, I'd love to, I'd love to come down. [00:52:13] We'll be working on Thursdays, actually. [00:52:14] Great. [00:52:15] But that's what I wanted to say, to make it quick, was that. [00:52:18] Well, not so much, you're not really a restaurant or something, you have some food, you know. [00:52:21] Yeah, well, we want to push more of the food, but what happened in the past, so when we [00:52:24] did the food, and the places that have closed would like to be, like, I think if you're [00:52:31] going to let them, we should showcase the businesses downtown, say like Estella's that [00:52:36] closed up or all, if they're going to do it, offer them a chance to be in the park also. [00:52:40] That's why I was just going to ask, do any of these events on this list here, do they [00:52:44] come to you and say, hey, would you like a booth in the park? [00:52:46] No. [00:52:47] But like I said, I don't think we should bring outside people in unless they are for non-profit. [00:52:53] They shouldn't be showcasing other businesses that are not paying taxes in the city. [00:52:58] You showcase, you take care of the non-profits, which is, like I said, 100% we're for. [00:53:04] But not showcasing other businesses that are going to, you know, pay $200 and, you know, [00:53:10] make $10,000 or $15,000 and pull out, and then the businesses downtown that are trying [00:53:13] to sell food aren't doing it. [00:53:16] You have to come up here and talk, Chip, if you want to talk. [00:53:21] I just wanted to say, we have... [00:53:23] To the mic. [00:53:24] To the mic. [00:53:25] To a mic, please. [00:53:26] Just saying, Dulcet was in the park. [00:53:27] We do offer booths and things in the park, and we specifically do not allow food vendors [00:53:32] downtown, nor do we allow, do we have beer trucks downtown with Bike Fest now, so that [00:53:36] we do not conflict with the businesses downtown. [00:53:39] Thank you. [00:53:40] Thank you, Jim. [00:53:41] That's what's important. [00:53:42] That's what I said, we were bringing in, like, a friend, I mean, my guy who owns Cake Wings [00:53:45] is a friend of mine, but still, it's not helping the places that are going to come [00:53:49] downtown now and in the future, if they, I think we should concentrate on them and give [00:53:54] them the option of doing that, and even giving them the option of saying, hey, we'll let [00:53:58] you in the park, but you're going to put 20% of your sales towards, you pick your charity [00:54:04] or organizations you want to contribute to. [00:54:06] I don't think anybody should be over there for profit, even if they're a business downtown. [00:54:11] When did they pull, just back to the contract, when did they pull out, because as early as [00:54:15] last week, I was told it was still a go, with the brewery. [00:54:18] Thursday. [00:54:19] It was past Thursday? [00:54:20] Yep. [00:54:21] That's a shame. [00:54:22] Like I said, I don't believe they were ever interested in the beginning, because there's [00:54:28] no reason why we've had four inspections since December the 1st, and they didn't count, I [00:54:34] mean, if they were to say, okay, this electric panel needs to be redone, I don't care, $50,000, [00:54:39] you counter-offer, I've been doing business for 35 years, they didn't even counter. [00:54:44] You waste your time, basically. [00:54:46] Yes. [00:54:47] Thank you very much. [00:54:48] Thank you. [00:54:49] We had somebody come down here from greater downtown New Port Richey, also? [00:54:55] You know, some of the businesses, too. [00:55:00] Joe? [00:55:02] Please. [00:55:04] Carmen Passarella. [00:55:08] Carmen Passarella. [00:55:11] I've been in the city here 42 years. [00:55:14] Hard to imagine. [00:55:17] First I'd like to say, any business that says that they're negatively impacted by an event, [00:55:23] I just think they don't understand marketing. [00:55:26] Any time you get 10,000 new sets of eyes on your business, whether you're open or not, [00:55:31] I think that's a good thing. [00:55:33] I mean, you don't sell something that day, but certainly having people see your business, [00:55:37] I mean, you look super bold. [00:55:39] They spend all this kind of money, not to get sales that day, but just to get people [00:55:42] to see who they are and what they do. [00:55:44] And I think, you know, even if it's a gift shop, and you've got all these people walking [00:55:48] up and down, I think the gift shop right across from us on Grand Boulevard, they put out a [00:55:56] display a couple, I don't know if it was this past a bike fest or whatnot, but they did [00:56:00] their window up and so forth, and people that walked by got to see that. [00:56:03] Other places that say that no one's coming into their place, I don't think they're marketing [00:56:07] themselves properly. [00:56:09] And the other thing I was going to say is, again, I've been here 42 years, but over the [00:56:14] last five years, I spent some money and I bought a couple commercial properties, another [00:56:21] eight or ten residential properties, most of them downtrodden and in really bad shape, [00:56:26] spent a lot of money fixing them up. [00:56:29] And I think you have to spend the money to make some money. [00:56:34] And I think with the city, some of their shortfalls and maybe the money that they're taking in [00:56:40] comes from the fact that valuations are low and there's not a lot of businesses and until [00:56:45] recently not a lot of residents moving into the area. [00:56:49] Now certainly that's been on the upswing, but again, if you don't promote yourself, [00:56:52] the city doesn't promote itself and promote the businesses and help make things work instead [00:56:58] of looking at, again, I know you got to look at the numbers, but when you get too busy [00:57:03] looking at the numbers, you don't see the big picture. [00:57:05] And the big picture is, I think, is that you got to promote the city and you promote it [00:57:09] by having these events, whether they're good for this particular business on this event. [00:57:14] Some of the stuff that's in the park, I'll be honest, we do well when there's things [00:57:18] in the park because people, they don't even stay in the park until 10, 30, 11 o'clock. [00:57:21] Then they got to walk downtown. [00:57:23] And we do well with that. [00:57:24] And anytime you got people walking by or walking from place to place, they see every business [00:57:29] open, closed or otherwise. [00:57:31] And I think that's a good thing. [00:57:33] And like I said, I think these events, especially the bigger ones, I think promote the city. [00:57:38] When you get 10,000 sets of new eyes coming into the city and looking at all these other [00:57:43] businesses and seeing what's available, if some of them would promote themselves better [00:57:47] and let people know, here's what we have to offer, not today, but from this point forward, [00:57:52] you see that. [00:57:53] A lot of the events we have at our place, at the Village, we just recently bought Jilly's. [00:58:00] A lot of people seem to have owned Jilly's in here. [00:58:02] But some of the events we have at the Village, we don't actually make any money off of those [00:58:08] things, but we get a lot of new people in. [00:58:10] And we notice from weekend to weekend and week to week that some of those people come [00:58:14] back. [00:58:15] And that's how we've built the business over the last five years. [00:58:17] I mean, the first few years was tough. [00:58:19] But again, you've got to stay in the game long enough to see the fruits of what you're doing. [00:58:25] And like I said, promoting the city and having these events, losing the Night in the Tropics, [00:58:31] which I thought was a great event, I think was a bad thing because that was kind of a mix. [00:58:35] You had early on, you had a lot of families. [00:58:37] And those families are adults that have children. [00:58:39] And those adults see your place. [00:58:41] And later on or another time, they come back. [00:58:44] So I think anything you can do to keep the activities and the events going. [00:58:49] And you hear too much negativity, and I think that's just false. [00:58:52] I think anything you can do to keep these things going is a good thing for the city, [00:58:56] not a negative thing. [00:58:58] I think some of the events, to speaking to your point, if you want the foot traffic in [00:59:03] front of the places, and I'm a downtown merchant, too. [00:59:09] But the issue that we have seen is that the event organizers don't tend to focus on what's [00:59:17] happening to the businesses. [00:59:19] And in many cases, will set their layout out and the city staff lets it happen where you [00:59:28] put the tents up right up along the parking area, the parking spaces and the sidewalk, [00:59:35] and you completely block any visibility that the local business might have. [00:59:40] To fix that is as simple as moving the tents into the middle of the street. [00:59:45] And that way, you'd force the traffic out both sides and people would then see places [00:59:52] like your place, places like mine, places like Kelly's, as they're walking. [00:59:56] Because you'd have tents in the middle and people on either side. [01:00:00] either side. Those are not insurmountable and they would help, I think, for a lot of [01:00:06] us. And quite frankly, getting the businesses involved when there is an event. And we had [01:00:18] this discussion with the Bike Fest folks that, you know, if you've got somebody like Kelly [01:00:26] who did up a nice display in her window, you know, that's the sort of person you want to [01:00:32] try to suck into getting involved in the event itself. The other thing we have talked about, [01:00:40] and it's not really on the agenda tonight because this is talking primarily about the [01:00:44] big ones, but looking at a lot more small-scale events that would, for instance, shut down [01:00:51] Grand Boulevard between Main Street and your place, just on a Friday night, outside the [01:00:58] park. But specifically, something designed to draw people down. We've talked about, you [01:01:03] know, golf cart cruise-ins and get them to all, you know, we've got, I don't know how [01:01:08] many hundred golf carts we've got in New Port Richey now. But encourage them all to come down to [01:01:12] that stretch of Grand Park, go to dinner, have a drink, watch a show, and just basically [01:01:19] have a good time. But small-scale stuff that doesn't have to cost thousands and thousands [01:01:24] of dollars to put on. [01:01:25] Does that mean shutting down some streets and so forth? [01:01:28] Yeah, a couple blocks. [01:01:29] Yeah, they have, well, they have First Friday in St. Pete, and they have, what's the one [01:01:38] in Clearwater? No, it's not, Blast Friday. It's called Blast Friday. Blast Friday, and [01:01:43] they're only shutting down a couple blocks, you know. [01:01:46] But that's the sort of thing we've been talking about, trying to encourage some of the group's [01:01:50] Main Street organization and some others to look at. [01:01:53] If you guys did that, I would imagine it would be the city doing that. And if the city did [01:01:58] that, they'd be paying for the police or paying for the public works and whatnot. And I think [01:02:03] that's what, I imagine that's what you're saying. I mean, I don't know where else the [01:02:07] money would come from. [01:02:08] It's true. [01:02:09] But I think that's sometimes the thought process and the feelings of business owners and even [01:02:15] some residents is that it's almost like the city reluctantly allows these events to go [01:02:22] on. Some of the charges obviously have to be there, but when you get people coming in [01:02:27] and asking as a business to kind of foot the bill to promote the city, it kind of sits [01:02:32] in a bad place for a lot of business owners. [01:02:35] What we've got in mind is more proactive. Deputy Mayor? [01:02:37] You bring up a great point, and we've been talking about it, but little action has been [01:02:41] taken, but nothing that's been truly eye-opening to me other than the video that Mary and some [01:02:46] people put together promoting the city is we're building all these new upper-scale residences. [01:02:51] There's a true renaissance going on in our city. We all know about it, but unless, in [01:02:56] my opinion, unless you live in the immediate area, you don't. [01:02:59] For instance, a gentleman, a good friend of mine works in the craft beer industry. He [01:03:04] brought a girl who's very well-networked in the craft beer industry to our downtown Friday. [01:03:08] She's from St. Pete. She's worked in the industry for over 10 years, and she was actually [01:03:13] just absolutely just blown away by what's going on, what we have to offer here in downtown. [01:03:19] Took her to the park, showed her where Frank Starkey's apartments are going to be. I think [01:03:25] he introduced her to Frank. She's from St. Pete. St. Pete's just got such a cool downtown [01:03:30] vibe, obvious on a much larger scale, but Casey's doing the parks and recreation videos. [01:03:37] The video I thought Mary did was a great start, but as a city, I agree with you. It's not [01:03:41] your responsibility as a business owner to promote our city. We have to come up with [01:03:46] a game plan. There's too much positive going on not to get the word out on a much larger [01:03:51] scale, and I think we need to come up with a way to accomplish that. [01:03:56] Doesn't the greater downtown New Port Richey have a hospitality something or other? [01:04:04] HMA? Is that a very active group? [01:04:11] Yeah, come on down. [01:04:14] Now it seems like that's the entity that should be hooking up with the city and putting it [01:04:19] together. [01:04:20] The HMA meetings, and we've tried over and over to kind of get that going. As new businesses [01:04:24] are coming in and new money is coming in to the area, you're getting a better HMA. Five [01:04:31] years ago when we first had a meeting and we talked about it, it was just a bunch of [01:04:35] griping about spending money, and I got that. We were new, so we were looking forward to [01:04:39] spending some money and promoting things and building things, but I get where they were [01:04:43] coming from. It's like, why do we have to spend money to have an event or to promote [01:04:47] something that we're here as a business trying to make it as a business and therefore paying [01:04:53] taxes? Why is it that we have to, in a sense, again, going back to the same thing, why do [01:04:58] we have to promote the city for the city? That was the feeling then. It's getting better. [01:05:03] That's why I think meetings like this are really important because the thing that we've [01:05:06] run into, and it's easy for people to get upset with the other parties when you're trying [01:05:10] to put something together, and I'm guilty of that. I get frustrated sometimes because [01:05:14] I only see my side of it, but the thing that we run into that's the most difficult with [01:05:19] the downtown and the small events is where does the funding come from to promote the [01:05:23] event because one of the things, whether we like it or not, alcohol in the park has [01:05:28] made events doable for most of the not-for-profits, and I think if you took away the beer budget [01:05:33] from Bike Fest, they wouldn't have a profit that year. Chasco, beer drives profit there. [01:05:38] It drives profit for us, and I think the challenge about doing things in the downtown is if we're [01:05:43] in the downtown and we sell beer, then we're competing with our merchants, which is something [01:05:47] that they've asked us not to do, so if we're not deriving profit from beer sales in the [01:05:52] downtown, the average sponsor in today's world is less likely to stroke a check for [01:05:57] a one-night event. If you can put them there for three nights, you give them, and the other [01:06:01] thing we've seen is the demand on cars from auto guys. It used to be an auto guy would [01:06:05] write you a check for $5,000, just display two or three cars and be happy because that [01:06:10] was the business model back then. Now we had Daniel Jacobs from Auto Enterprise come in. [01:06:16] He needed 11 or 12 cars in there to justify it because he felt like he needed to sell [01:06:20] cars because the economy is better, cars are selling, cars on his dealership will sell, [01:06:25] cars in the parks may not, so we end up in a situation that as much as we love trying [01:06:30] to do the smaller events, when you factor out the alcohol sales revenue, when you factor [01:06:35] sponsorship dollars drop from a potential of $5,000 sponsorship levels to maybe $1,000, [01:06:40] maybe $1,500, maybe $500, then you need to fund the stage, the band, the street closures [01:06:49] and the other MOU fees. It gets very, very expensive. So what we've been pressed to do, [01:06:53] and I think it's been a little bit of a misunderstanding, sometimes in the HMA meetings we'll say to [01:06:58] the HMA members, if you guys could go a couple hundred dollars each, we could do this. Their [01:07:02] point is we're taxpayers. We're here. You do the stuff in the park, why don't you come [01:07:06] do it for us? But the bottom line is that the economics just don't work. I mean, we've [01:07:10] done, one year when Debbie Pennevalope was our New Port Richey Main Street director, [01:07:15] she did away with Main Street, and Pat Ammons and Doug Ferris and I decided it wasn't going [01:07:20] to end, and we just made it happen on our own. Night in the Tropic. You did away with [01:07:23] Night in the Tropic. We lost money that year. You said Main Street, you meant you did away [01:07:26] with Night in the Tropic. Oh, I'm sorry, Night in the Tropic. Yeah, I didn't do away with [01:07:29] Main Street, but we tried to make it happen and we lost money that year. We lost a couple [01:07:32] thousand dollars, but our commitment was it's a good event for the downtown bars. I like [01:07:37] the downtown bar businesses because I've been in the area since 81. These guys are business [01:07:42] people and survivors, and there used to be a sentiment downtown, all we have is bars, [01:07:46] like it's a bad thing. Well, these guys are business people that can survive in the community, [01:07:50] pay their taxes, keep their doors open, and I think that the quality of establishments [01:07:55] we have are good, and I think the area is continuing to grow. So I think the biggest [01:07:58] challenge is, like when we were forced to move our Main Street blast out of the park [01:08:02] the year the park was being renovated, it cost us an extra $7,000 that year for generators, [01:08:09] for staging in the park because we didn't have the park bandshell to use, and all those [01:08:13] other things. And one of the challenges is if you decide to put it in Main Street, or [01:08:18] not Main Street, I'm sorry, Railroad Square, and just use the arms, then what you do is [01:08:22] direct the business to Joe Norton's establishment, Rose's establishment, the sports bar bootleggers [01:08:28] now, and Danny's place, Fitzgerald's, and the other guys really have a contained area [01:08:33] where the party is and they're outside the area. So how can you explain to them the fairness [01:08:38] of an event like that? So I think what Joe said is really true. The prototype of Bikefest [01:08:44] is great. I mean you can have something in the park that's participated in in the downtown, [01:08:49] but as an event promoter, there's just no way to underwrite that type of expense in [01:08:53] today's world. If we need an event in the park for the families and the other things [01:08:58] and then a stage downtown, you're probably talking about $15,000 or $20,000 in event [01:09:03] costs and we don't charge admission. So there's no way to make it up on ticket prices if the [01:09:08] sponsor and the underwriting business sponsors don't support it. It's very difficult. And [01:09:13] we think we do a good job with the sponsors, but I will tell you this, that I sell advertising [01:09:17] at four different stations. That's what I do. It's my life. And sponsorship dollars are [01:09:22] dwindling. They're a fraction of what they ever used to be. And it's not that people [01:09:27] are cheaper. It's not that the economy's bad. There's been a rethinking of what's the value [01:09:33] of an event sponsorship. And I think someday people that name stadiums are going to wake [01:09:36] up and go, what the hell did I just do with $15 million? Because it's great for them and [01:09:42] they're probably much smarter than me, but people are just evaluating that return on [01:09:45] investment. [01:09:46] Your point is well taken. The issue, though, is that you couldn't run one of these big [01:09:51] events on a monthly basis if your life depended on it for exactly the reasons you're saying. [01:09:58] And I think for the benefit of the Joe Carls and the other folks that have bars and restaurants [01:10:08] downtown and the other businesses downtown, we need to start cultivating some of those [01:10:12] smaller things that don't cost an arm and a leg, that don't involve bringing in expensive [01:10:17] bands and other things, that are just a little more organic, I guess is the word I'm looking [01:10:23] for, to get people downtown on a regular basis so when they think what's going on on a Friday [01:10:32] night, they know that they can come down to New Port Richey and they will find something [01:10:36] that's happening. [01:10:37] Ms. Manns, could you just take two or three test months? We already are doing concerts [01:10:43] in the park. Now we've got some coming up for the wintertime now. So let's think beyond [01:10:54] that because we get past these, then we got Chasco, then we run Blues Fest right on top [01:11:01] of that. My thing is we've been doing these on Saturday night. Either pick the Saturday [01:11:07] nights in the late summer, early fall, which still stays in this fiscal year and have the [01:11:15] rec department work with the HMA group and literally from, I don't care if you call it [01:11:22] Friday blast, last blast before summer passes, I don't care what you call it, but pick either [01:11:30] pick a Friday night or a Saturday night and at least test market it, you'll get six months [01:11:36] to kind of tell everybody it's coming up and then from 5 until 8, concert in the park [01:11:42] doesn't start until 8, from 5 until 8, throw up some daggum barricades, block it off, encourage [01:11:51] people to come down and walk the streets, families, then go over to the park and just [01:11:57] test drive it. I mean, you know, because we're talking about them having to do it and they [01:12:02] can't afford it. We're doing something else on another night and there's 5, 6, 700 people in [01:12:08] the park for these cover bands that are there, you know. So in my mind, why don't we try at [01:12:15] least to merge it together and if you take it from a Saturday to a Friday, I mean, otherwise [01:12:21] we can sit here and talk back and forth all day long. Well, I can't do this because I can't do [01:12:26] that. I just don't want to do it on railroad square because then I'm only doing this. So go [01:12:31] ahead and block off those streets that are coordinated around, 3 hours, 4 hours, walk them [01:12:37] through and then go to the park for the concert. They get a full night. People can gather their [01:12:42] ice cream, everything else. But to sit here and have one group talking about one thing and one [01:12:47] talking about why they can't, why don't we try to bridge them together and just see. Because you [01:12:52] know what? If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But I don't have to hear about it from all sides [01:12:57] later on that, you know, we didn't do this, we didn't do that. Well, in my mind, if you bridge [01:13:02] them together and the folks over at the rec department have been pretty creative to go along [01:13:07] with the Main Street folks, put up your barricades, invite the people down, let them walk around [01:13:12] for a couple of hours. The first one will probably be lackluster. The second one will be a little [01:13:17] bit better. The third one might even be better. So at the end of the day, then you can bridge [01:13:22] your funding and go from there. So if you're looking at trying to set that stage, try it. You [01:13:30] might like it. I mean, that's, you know, there's a marketing phrase for you. [01:13:35] If I could respond, though, you know, I know that that's and I respect what you're saying, Bill. I get [01:13:40] that. But here's the thing that I get very frustrated by that. I don't know why it's missed, is that [01:13:45] Main Street has an excellent reputation of doing good events that bring large crowds of people [01:13:50] that do frequent the establishments afterwards downtown. I know the city does the concerts in the [01:13:56] park, and I know that's seen as an alternative, and it's much nicer. But when they pay $4,500 for a [01:14:02] Billy Joel tribute and $2,500 for a sound man, you're at $7,000 already for an event that doesn't [01:14:10] generate any revenue. If we had $7,000 of funding, we'd knock your socks off with a downtown event. [01:14:16] I disagree with you there, Steve. And we can go back and forth. I've been here 20 years. Well, you know [01:14:23] what? I'd sure like to have the debate. Because at the end of the day, that's all this is. It's a [01:14:31] debate. It's all about how much more money can I give to an organization that really needs, and [01:14:38] they've done a better job this last year. I'll grant you that. But at the end of the day, here you are [01:14:44] throwing out numbers. I don't know if those numbers are correct. Are those numbers correct, Ms. Mann? [01:14:49] I can't respond to whether or not those are accurate numbers today, but I can later this week. [01:14:55] If I could insert for one moment... [01:15:00] We do nice events and we struggle to do them. [01:15:03] Night in the Tropics would happen that they want [01:15:06] if we didn't have to pay a four or $5,000 MOU [01:15:09] to the city for Night in the Tropics. [01:15:11] If the city said, we like this event, [01:15:13] we appreciate our merchants, no cost to Main Street, [01:15:16] we'll do it every year. [01:15:17] We don't have to make a penny [01:15:19] because we haven't made a penny before. [01:15:21] But there's a point where you get tired of getting beat, [01:15:23] Bill, you get tired of doing good things for the city [01:15:25] that you see people enjoy, [01:15:27] and all we hear is how inefficient we are, [01:15:29] how we don't do it the right way, [01:15:31] and then the city can come along [01:15:32] and write a blank check for projects that they like. [01:15:35] It's your city, I get that, I understand, [01:15:37] but please don't act like we're not effective [01:15:39] is what we do. [01:15:40] If we don't do enough art strolls for you, [01:15:42] enough wine in the park or whatever, [01:15:44] we get that, we're working on that, [01:15:46] but our events are very goddamn good. [01:15:47] I'm sorry they are, and I'm just adamant about it. [01:15:50] We do a great job with them, and they're well attended, [01:15:53] and we get rave reviews from other people, [01:15:55] and I don't wanna be adversarial. [01:15:57] I appreciate what the city does for us. [01:16:00] I just don't understand why there isn't the appreciation [01:16:03] for an event like Night in the Tropics. [01:16:05] We close the streets, they sell the beer and the wine, [01:16:09] all we try to do is cover the cost of the band and the stage. [01:16:12] When we do a band that's not expensive to control expenses, [01:16:15] we get criticized that we don't bring good music [01:16:17] into the area, so it's very, very difficult, [01:16:20] and I'll go, I'll let Nancy talk, [01:16:22] because she'll be probably a whole lot. [01:16:24] We're already about 30 minutes beyond [01:16:26] where we had scheduled this meeting, so. [01:16:28] We can take it to seven, we can take it to seven. [01:16:31] I mean, she's with the. [01:16:33] No, and I apologize if I seem adversarial. [01:16:35] That's not where I wanna be. [01:16:36] I just know that the events do well. [01:16:39] I know that they're run well. [01:16:41] You know. [01:16:42] And Nancy has to come down and talk to the HMA and say, [01:16:45] well, we can have this event. [01:16:46] We either have to, it's a catch-22. [01:16:48] We either have to have $500 from each business downtown, [01:16:52] or we have to put beer trucks out there to make it work, [01:16:55] and even the beer trucks, we said we'll do the beer trucks, [01:16:58] the numbers aren't there for us to put out 500. [01:17:01] I mean, for some of us, they are, and it works, [01:17:03] but I know for not all of them, so I get that. [01:17:05] So if two or three pay $500, [01:17:07] that doesn't really garner any kind of money. [01:17:09] And then if you do, you're saying, [01:17:11] well, if the others aren't paying it, [01:17:13] then what's the incentive to pay it? [01:17:15] And it still doesn't work, [01:17:17] because even with the beer trucks, [01:17:18] we didn't have the event this year, [01:17:19] and for the last three or four years [01:17:21] since we've been there that they had the event, [01:17:24] I thought it was a spectacular event. [01:17:26] We wouldn't need any money for that event. [01:17:29] You don't have to give us anything, [01:17:30] just don't charge us $4,000 to put the event on, [01:17:33] and we'll make it work, and I'll personally get involved [01:17:35] setting tables up in the middle of the street again. [01:17:37] We did it the year we didn't want it to die. [01:17:39] So $4,000 goes towards, we're just doing that to be mean. [01:17:41] We would pay for staff, [01:17:42] and I don't want to be adversarial either, [01:17:45] but I'd like to additionally note [01:17:47] that we do establish an appropriation [01:17:50] for the Main Street program of $15,000 this current year. [01:17:54] They easily could use a portion of those funds [01:17:58] to support Night in the Tropics [01:18:00] if they so determined that it was an appropriate event. [01:18:04] I guess my question is, just so I understand, [01:18:06] why are we giving them $15,000 [01:18:08] and then charging $4,000 for Night in the Tropics? [01:18:10] Where does that $4,000 go towards? [01:18:12] Is it police, and what's the setup? [01:18:13] It's police over time, but largely it's the setup, [01:18:17] because it's in the downtown area, [01:18:19] and there's a lot of public service charges [01:18:21] associated with the establishment of the barricades. [01:18:24] Like I said, you can easily look at it and say, [01:18:25] these are real expenses. [01:18:27] However, again, the big picture is, [01:18:28] are you promoting the city? [01:18:30] Are you promoting the downtown? [01:18:31] Are you promoting the businesses? [01:18:33] Obviously, you could say, yeah, we want to promote them, [01:18:35] but then we have to charge because we have these costs. [01:18:38] Well, that's what promotion is about, [01:18:40] is eating those costs and saying, [01:18:43] we have to, of course, have public works down there [01:18:46] or a city down there or whatnot. [01:18:48] But that's the way the rest of the businesses [01:18:50] are looking at this, is that you have to pay the city [01:18:55] in order to have an event, like they're doing you a favor [01:18:56] or that they're a for-profit thing, [01:18:57] and granted, it's not a for-profit. [01:18:59] You're just trying to make your budget. [01:19:00] But if you don't get businesses coming downtown, [01:19:03] which will bring more residents downtown, [01:19:05] then you're always going to have this problem [01:19:06] with the budget, because that's what it's about. [01:19:08] Your budget's coming from, and the money for the budget's [01:19:11] coming from taxpayers, and that's not going to happen [01:19:14] unless things start, and they are moving [01:19:16] in the right direction. [01:19:17] I don't mean to be negative, [01:19:19] because over the last several years, [01:19:20] I mean, I was here in the 80s [01:19:21] when it was a little bit more vibrant downtown [01:19:22] and then watched 20 years of stagnation, [01:19:25] and then over the last five plus years, [01:19:28] it seemed like things were moving in the right direction, [01:19:30] which is why I sold businesses outside the city, [01:19:32] but in New Port Richey, and moved downtown. [01:19:35] I mean, everything I have is downtown now, [01:19:37] because I'm seeing what I thought was moving [01:19:39] in the right direction, and I still see that, [01:19:41] but a lot of these stumbling blocks, [01:19:43] I'm afraid we're going to go back to being, [01:19:45] thinking that we're Mayberry RFD, [01:19:47] and I don't want to see that, [01:19:48] because that's not going to work. [01:19:51] I'd like to say, first of all, if I could, [01:19:53] Councilman Phillips, I'm sorry if I sounded disrespectful. [01:19:56] I didn't mean to be. [01:19:57] What I took exception at was the concept [01:19:59] that it was a great idea to spend $7,000 or $8,000 [01:20:02] as a city to show us how to do something [01:20:04] that we could do if you didn't charge us $4,000, [01:20:07] is my whole point, you know, [01:20:09] and that's what the point was. [01:20:10] Let the city come in and show us how to do it, [01:20:13] and just write those same checks like they do [01:20:15] for the concerts in the park. [01:20:16] Well, what's the difference if you fund us? [01:20:19] I mean, if we can do it more effectively, [01:20:22] and have there been complaints [01:20:23] about Night in the Tropics when we did it? [01:20:24] Loved it. [01:20:25] It was a great event. [01:20:26] With all due respect to you, I mean, [01:20:28] I don't project, I don't see it that way. [01:20:31] I don't see it because the city decides to put on a concert, [01:20:34] and we're trying to throw that in your face [01:20:35] and show you how to do it. [01:20:36] No, no, but the suggestion I thought as I heard it was, [01:20:38] why don't they do this with our events? [01:20:40] Did I misinterpret that? [01:20:41] Have the parks get involved, [01:20:42] parks and recs get involved? [01:20:44] What I was saying was, why don't they work together, [01:20:47] and if the theme is to make and close off the downtown [01:20:53] on the same night that the rec's doing a concert in the park, [01:20:58] bridge those two together, [01:21:00] close the downtown on specific nights, [01:21:02] whether it's Friday or Saturday, [01:21:04] for three hours before they could go over to the park. [01:21:08] Now, you don't have to pay for the entertainment. [01:21:10] It's already lined up, [01:21:11] but you're allowed to close the streets off [01:21:13] without an overhead cost to your organization [01:21:17] or to the downtown businesses, [01:21:19] and it sets a standard where people will come down, [01:21:21] walk around, do what they need to. [01:21:23] Then they have something to do going over to the park, [01:21:26] or they can stay in the establishment. [01:21:28] So that was the thing. [01:21:30] It wasn't that I wanted them to show you how to do it. [01:21:33] I wanted to bridge those two together on the same night [01:21:38] and not have you have to go through the MOU process, [01:21:42] which me, meaning a memorandum of understanding, [01:21:44] I always thought a memo was one page, [01:21:47] memorandum of understanding in this city [01:21:49] for a number of years started by our other city manager. [01:21:52] It's like six pages. [01:21:53] So you understand that. [01:21:55] So what I'm trying to do is I was trying to say, [01:21:57] look, take all the overhead costs away. [01:21:59] Just allow the opportunity to walk on the streets, [01:22:02] see the businesses and do that, [01:22:03] but also know at the end of that, [01:22:05] they can bridge over and go to the park. [01:22:07] So that's kind of where we're at. [01:22:08] The city concerts end at 8.30. [01:22:10] If we had the ability to not pay for the street closures, [01:22:13] I promise you we could get enough sponsorship [01:22:16] to have a band, because one of the things [01:22:18] that I do think is true, I think closing the streets [01:22:21] will not generate a huge traffic downtown [01:22:23] if you don't have a draw. [01:22:24] I think there needs to be a draw. [01:22:26] And somebody like the Greg Billings Band, [01:22:28] who is affordable, can draw. [01:22:31] Other people can draw. [01:22:33] Exactly right, and so the challenge for us, [01:22:36] and I love that idea, and I'm sorry if I misunderstood, [01:22:39] but I love the idea of the Concert in the Park ending, [01:22:42] which may be for a little bit more of a, [01:22:44] maybe a less active crowd, maybe not so much [01:22:47] of a frequent the establishment crowd, [01:22:50] and then give the rest of the folks from that group [01:22:52] that like it a chance to head downtown [01:22:54] with the other people coming downtown, [01:22:56] because I think if you pick the music properly, [01:22:59] you can get it done. [01:23:00] Like I said, our insurmountable thing [01:23:01] is that large expense of closing the streets, [01:23:05] and then the staging also is the other problem, the staging. [01:23:10] Say one more thing, and I'll get out of here. [01:23:13] But Jeff, you brought up a good point, [01:23:14] and that's the sentiment of, I think, [01:23:16] all the business owners downtown, [01:23:17] and what you're looking at is, [01:23:19] well, we're giving you $15,000. [01:23:21] Well, that should be towards some incidental costs [01:23:24] and promoting the event and making sure the event goes well. [01:23:28] But that's what everybody else looks at [01:23:30] as far as businesses. [01:23:31] They look at, you're getting 15, [01:23:33] and now for this event, the city is getting four back. [01:23:35] For this event, they're getting three back. [01:23:37] For this event, they're getting five back. [01:23:39] What are you really doing with the money? [01:23:41] It's almost like it goes in a circle, [01:23:45] and it doesn't do anything. [01:23:46] Yeah, you have money to run these events, [01:23:47] but then it should be really more for promoting [01:23:50] and setting up these events, [01:23:51] not maintaining the event or policing the event. [01:23:54] So you kind of need both. [01:23:55] And again, you deal with the budget. [01:23:58] So I mean, you gotta find out how that works. [01:24:00] But I'm just saying, you can make any case you want [01:24:03] for what things cost, but there's only one way [01:24:06] to promote things, and this isn't it, [01:24:10] because this is giving money and then getting it back. [01:24:11] And that's what most business people are looking at, [01:24:14] and that's their perception of things, [01:24:16] is most of the money for these events goes to the city. [01:24:20] And whether that's right, wrong, or otherwise, [01:24:23] that's what the perception is. [01:24:24] Typically covering the added costs [01:24:27] that these events are costing us to put on. [01:24:30] And the problem, just back six, seven years ago, [01:24:35] back when things weren't very nice, [01:24:37] we were looking at trying to figure out exactly [01:24:42] what it was costing us to do these events. [01:24:47] And that number was well into six figures. [01:24:51] And it was unsustainable, given the economy. [01:24:55] We could not do it. [01:24:58] You can't just give a blank check to Chasco Fiesta, [01:25:02] to Main Street, to the Chamber of Commerce, [01:25:05] or to anybody, and say, just do what you want to do, [01:25:08] and we'll pick up all the costs. [01:25:10] It doesn't work. [01:25:11] And that's why we set some numbers, [01:25:14] say this is what we're willing to be in for. [01:25:17] We can afford to do this. [01:25:20] It's our responsibility as council members [01:25:23] to look out for the taxpayers. [01:25:25] We can't just give a blank check written [01:25:29] at the taxpayer's expense to these groups. [01:25:32] Cannot happen. [01:25:33] And yes, what you're describing, [01:25:35] if they have an event that is gonna cost the city $4,000 [01:25:42] in hard costs that we're picking up [01:25:45] because we're having to bring in people [01:25:46] on overtime to do the job, [01:25:49] yeah, well, that's a legitimate expense [01:25:51] that that event needs to be able to pick up. [01:25:54] And that's the whole reason [01:25:56] that we're trying to get this laid out. [01:25:59] But I will reiterate, we don't just want the big events, [01:26:06] the nine-day Chasco fiestas, the three-day bike fest. [01:26:16] Those are nice as far as they go, [01:26:19] but we've gotta have something [01:26:20] that gets people down here all the time, [01:26:23] not just when we've got these big events. [01:26:26] Are really the face of the city outside. [01:26:28] No question. [01:26:29] Inside the city, the small events [01:26:30] will actually help the business. [01:26:32] And things like Blast Friday are funded [01:26:34] by the city of Clearwater in a partnership [01:26:36] with Ruth Thackert Hall, [01:26:37] who provides the entertainment for the event [01:26:39] and the Capitol Theater. [01:26:40] So it's a cooperative thing, [01:26:41] but there is funding that comes from the city. [01:26:44] My one suggestion would be possibly thinking about [01:26:47] for downtown events, maybe making the subsidy [01:26:52] a little easier for the people doing it there [01:26:54] because I will guarantee whoever you are [01:26:56] trying to do business in the downtown, [01:26:57] it's more challenging to derive sponsorship dollars [01:27:00] and dollars for those downtown events, [01:27:02] and more expensive because you need a stage. [01:27:04] The only power is at the end by Jimmy's Restaurant. [01:27:07] So if you stage by Joe's Place, [01:27:09] which is really a great place to stage, [01:27:10] facing the other way, you need to bring in a generator. [01:27:13] And that's an additional cost. [01:27:15] So we love doing the events down there. [01:27:17] I would rather have a Main Street Blast in the street [01:27:19] any day than the park. [01:27:20] Judy knows that. [01:27:21] We used to argue all the time [01:27:23] when we had the Led Zeppelin Tribute there [01:27:24] and the street was just packed with people. [01:27:26] It was an amazing thing. [01:27:27] It really was, but the cost, it broke our back. [01:27:30] On that note, we are now a full 45 minutes [01:27:33] beyond our scheduled time. [01:27:34] I just want to reiterate that I need the bills [01:27:38] that we gave so I can figure whether this is, [01:27:42] what percentage we're going to go with [01:27:43] with these numbers that you gave us here, [01:27:46] the 6,000, 4,000, 3,500. [01:27:48] What is actually a bill that we? [01:27:50] I'd be more than glad to do that. [01:27:51] I'm sure we can get a percentage [01:27:52] of what we're sponsoring these events. [01:27:54] And can I suggest that we then come back [01:27:58] to another work session as we're doing [01:28:00] so that we can continue the conversation [01:28:02] and if we could maybe make it a night [01:28:04] where it's just a work session [01:28:05] so we're not bumping up against our regular council meeting? [01:28:09] I don't see, I think we're far enough along [01:28:11] that we probably could get to it. [01:28:13] Although we may need to start it at five instead of 5.30. [01:28:16] Yeah, I mean, I don't see why we can't be back here [01:28:19] in two weeks and continue it. [01:28:21] And invite everybody to come back in two weeks. [01:28:24] And on that note, since we have run seriously over,

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3. 3Adjournment▶ 1:28:25