On the agenda

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

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   Approval of August 1, 2017 CRA Meeting Minutes

   approved

   The CRA Board approved the minutes from the August 1, 2017 CRA meeting with no changes or comments.

   • motion:Approve the August 1, 2017 CRA meeting minutes. (passed)

   👤DeBelle Thomas👤Phillips#August 1, 2017 CRA Meeting Minutes

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   [00:00:22] Next item on the agenda is the approval of the August 1st CRA meeting minutes. [00:00:27] Move for approval. [00:00:30] We have a motion. [00:00:31] Second. [00:00:32] And a second to the maker. [00:00:33] Nothing. [00:00:34] Second. [00:00:35] No comments, thank you. [00:00:36] Mr. Phillips? [00:00:37] No, sir. [00:00:38] Ms. DeBelle Thomas? [00:00:39] Nothing. [00:00:40] Hearing no changes or anything else, all those in favor, please signify by saying aye. [00:00:46] Aye. [00:00:47] Opposed? [00:00:57] Ms. DeBelle Thomas, were you an aye or a nay? [00:01:00] I'm sorry, an aye. [00:01:02] Thank you.

   This text was generated automatically from the meeting video. It is not a verbatim or official record. For exact wording, consult the video or the city clerk.

3. 3

   Memorandum of Understanding with New Port Richey Main Street, Inc.

   discussed

   The CRA Board considered a Memorandum of Understanding with New Port Richey Main Street, Inc. Staff recommended $15,000 for administration of the program for the next fiscal year, while Main Street representatives requested $35,000, citing the loss of city-provided executive director and office space. The item was discussed with public comment from Main Street board members; no formal vote is captured in the available transcript.

   • direction:Council discussed staff recommendation of $15,000 for Main Street administration versus Main Street's request for $35,000; no final action recorded in available transcript. (none)

   📍4003 Rudder Way🏢Dr. Cato's office🏢Friendly Kia🏢HITS 106🏢Hospitality Members Association (HMA)🏢New Port Richey Main Street, Inc.🏢Newport Richey Parks and Recreation🏢Tampa Bay Times🏢West Pasco Chamber of Commerce👤Bob Smallwood👤Chief Bogart👤DeBella Thomas👤Debbie Leon👤Eric Gales👤Janine Humphreys👤Jose Cardenas👤Mayor Marlow👤Mr. Iazzoni👤Ms. Manns👤Nancy Bratko👤Selwyn Birchwood👤Steve Sherdell#Bayfront tree lighting#Cotee River Seafood Festival and Blues by the River Concert#Downtown Christmas Village and Holiday Street Parade#FY 2017-2018 funding#Florida Mural Trail Program#Friendly Kia Main Street Blast#Friendly Kia Trolley Pull#Main Street four-point approach#Memorandum of Understanding with New Port Richey Main Street, Inc.#Night in the Tropics#River Lights Boat Parade

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   [00:01:05] Next item on the agenda is memorandum of understanding with New Port Richey Main Street, Inc. [00:01:09] Ms. Manns? [00:01:10] Yes, sir, Mr. Mayor. [00:01:12] The city has traditionally, in fact since 1988, provided support to the greater New Port Richey [00:01:22] Main Street program. [00:01:25] The types of support have varied over the course of time. [00:01:31] In large part, though, they have consisted of monetary support to be used in the administration [00:01:40] of the program, and secondarily, in-kind support for their special events. [00:01:50] And I included in a communication to you dated the 15th the history of the funding that has [00:02:05] been appropriated to the program. [00:02:08] I guess I should also report in terms of support that I'm fortunate enough to have a seat on [00:02:14] that board, and I can see a few of my fellow board members in attendance this evening. [00:02:21] The recommendation to you for the next fiscal year is to support the administration of the [00:02:31] program in the amount of $15,000. [00:02:35] I do not, at this point, have a recommendation for you for support on in-kind. [00:02:45] That will be considered by you at a meeting in October, and we'll cover their programs [00:02:54] and requests for the 2017-2018 fiscal year. [00:03:00] As indicated, the recommendation for the next fiscal year, and that was in the amount of $15,000, [00:03:10] and communicated to the director of the Main Street program on August 7th. [00:03:16] And if there are any questions related to the recommendation, I'm prepared to discuss them with you. [00:03:24] I do want to additionally note, though, that as part of the Memorandum of Understanding, [00:03:29] which was an attachment sent out to you twice in regard to this council meeting, [00:03:36] there are performance objectives set forth which delineate responsibilities both on the part of the city [00:03:44] and the part of the Main Street organization as it relates to the administration of the program. [00:03:51] Thank you. [00:03:53] I'll open it up for public comment. [00:03:56] And I do see we have some folks from Main Street. [00:04:04] I think we can relax the three-minute rule. [00:04:07] Hello. [00:04:08] My name is Steve Sherdell, and I live in New Port Richey at 4003 Rudder Way. [00:04:13] I've been a member of the Main Street Board since 2005. [00:04:16] Our executive director is at a Main Street conference right now and out for a few days, [00:04:20] and our president could not be here tonight. [00:04:22] We prepared something for you to look at, and it was a summary for this year. [00:04:29] Well, thank you. [00:04:44] And the summary was an attempt on our part to share with you what occurred over the last fiscal year, [00:04:49] which runs from October through September. [00:04:52] And we're just ready now to head into our next fiscal year. [00:04:56] This year we operated without an MOU in place with the city because of some inability to define terms [00:05:03] and some of the technical aspects of the agreement. [00:05:06] We're hoping to have one in place this year. [00:05:09] I was just hoping we could just really quickly review the commitment of Main Street to the four-point approach, [00:05:15] and if you're familiar with it, there's four facets of the organization [00:05:18] that the Main Street organization is supposed to implement. [00:05:22] In the past, we've been very good at one or two and lacking at a few of the others. [00:05:26] There's been, over the last year, probably more of a greater effort than ever to make sure that we round out all the facets. [00:05:34] But we wanted to give ourselves a report card, and that's really what this is, [00:05:37] and we present it to you so you can see what we discovered about ourselves. [00:05:41] We did note on the year-end review that it was another tumultuous year for New Port Richey Main Street. [00:05:47] We had some times where our executive director was forced to resign years ago, Ms. DeBella Thomas. [00:05:53] We've been through some ups and downs, but have always been able to remain in our position assisting the downtown. [00:06:01] This last year was interesting because we had tried a new experiment with an executive director that would be paid by the city, [00:06:07] and we all went into it with good faith and great expectations. [00:06:11] We note that, for one reason or another, it was a poor fit. [00:06:14] That actually did not work out, and we feel that we lost some momentum at that point. [00:06:20] Our group operated under the direction of the board and our president, Debbie Leon, [00:06:25] from the time our previous executive director left. [00:06:28] And in May, we hired an interim executive director, Nancy Bratko, who's been in place since that time, [00:06:35] and we feel doing a very good job. [00:06:38] Over this period of time as well, the termination of our office space, which was provided by the city, was terminated. [00:06:45] We didn't have quite the notice we had hoped for on that, [00:06:48] and it was offered that we rent the space or lease the space back from the new tenant at a rate of $800 for one room. [00:06:55] We chose to pass on that offer, and our understanding is they're still trying to sublease that space. [00:07:01] So in the meantime, we've had another financial hardship of going from an underwritten office space [00:07:06] with no cost to the organization of finding our own office space. [00:07:10] We have been successful in locating a building, downtown Newport Ridge, right next to Dr. Cato's office. [00:07:15] It's 1,300 square feet, at a rate of $1,000 a month. [00:07:19] Part of the reduction in rent was based on the reputation of the organization and the things that we had done in the city. [00:07:25] There was an appreciation there by the business owners, the building owners, and we had a chance to meet with them. [00:07:30] We plan to move in on or before September 1st, 2017, and this will be our fifth location since 2016. [00:07:38] So I kind of feel like a foster kid. [00:07:41] We're moving from place to place, and that's nobody's fault. [00:07:44] It's just difficult sometimes to gain momentum when there's no sense of permanency. [00:07:49] But over the year, we also created a map of our downtown district, [00:07:52] and that was under the direction of our former executive director, [00:07:56] labeling merchants, restaurants, bars, and historical monuments. [00:08:00] And we're proud of this because we've added more new members in the past two months than we had in the previous fiscal year. [00:08:06] Ms. Brodko has done a great job with Feet on the Street, going door to door with the merchants, [00:08:10] and we've had an encouraging amount of people joining us. [00:08:13] The one thing that I do want to close with is for the first time ever, [00:08:16] we sat down and looked at the financial model of supporting ourselves 100% with the dues of our members, [00:08:24] and it's just not an economically feasible number. [00:08:28] If you took the number of viable businesses in the downtown, [00:08:31] their dues would have to be in excess of $400 or $500 a year to support the organization. [00:08:36] Right now, the Chamber of Commerce is at $225 for some larger businesses. [00:08:40] So we think that there's a dynamic with the size of the businesses in the downtown, [00:08:45] the struggle some of those businesses have in remaining profitable. [00:08:48] So we're still committed to keeping the dues structure low, but trying to increase the number of members. [00:08:53] But we did want to caution that there would be no way that you could, [00:08:55] I don't think you could fund a Boy Scout troop annually with the amount of money that we collect from dues-paying members, [00:09:01] even if that number was at $150. [00:09:04] You know, we would have between $15,000 and $20,000 in an operating budget for an entire organization. [00:09:09] So we did want to bring that to light. [00:09:11] Just really quickly, and I don't want to take a lot of your time, [00:09:13] but we wanted to go through that in the 2016-17 year, we have four events that we did this year. [00:09:22] The first event was the New Port Richey Main Street Holidays. [00:09:24] We're proud of the fact that we incorporated the Bayfront tree lighting, the River Lights Boat Parade, [00:09:30] and for the first time ever, the West Pasco Chamber coordinated tree lighting downtown. [00:09:34] And anybody that was there thought it was, I think you would agree, it was a beautiful event, [00:09:38] a very hometown feel, and people are already asking about us and looking forward to it for next year. [00:09:43] The Downtown Christmas Village and the Holiday Street Parade. [00:09:46] I wanted to point out that when we do an event like that, there is a benefit in advertising to the city and promotion. [00:09:52] On this event, we had ads in the Tampa Bay Times, radio ads on Hits 106, social media, [00:09:58] including websites, Facebook and Twitter, posters, flyers distributed through the downtown, [00:10:02] and we put a conservative estimate on that of $4,000 in value provided. [00:10:06] The second event was the Cody River Seafood Festival and Blues by the River Concert, April 21st through 23rd. [00:10:13] We had seafood vendors and some other food item vendors this year. [00:10:18] We have acted on some constructive criticism from the council and tried to attract some new vendors. [00:10:24] We think we were successful in upgrading it this year. [00:10:26] We're hoping it's even better next year. [00:10:29] We had also a great, I think, blessing in that we were able to sign two national blues headliners, [00:10:36] a gentleman named Selwyn Birchwood and another gentleman named Eric Gales, [00:10:39] who play big venues all over the United States. [00:10:42] And the quality of the entertainment really increased the attendance this year. [00:10:45] It was a noticeable cause and effect of having them there. [00:10:48] The estimated value for the media for this promotion, again, with the radio, the TV, not TV, I'm sorry, [00:10:54] radio and newspaper and the other sources was about $8,000. [00:10:58] Our third event was Friendly Kia Fist Main Street Blast with our vendors, free fireworks, music. [00:11:04] And I pointed out that this year we had kind of a unique event. [00:11:07] We do an event called the Friendly Kia Trolley Pull, [00:11:09] and we're trying to engage local not-for-profits and charities to get involved, [00:11:14] participate and raise money for their organizations. [00:11:17] We had three teams this year. [00:11:19] We performed it in a downpour. [00:11:21] We all looked like drowned rats, and I know Chief Bogart was there, so he can attest none of us looked too good in that rain. [00:11:27] But we had three teams that pulled in the pouring rain. [00:11:30] The New Port Richey Parks and Recs won again this year, [00:11:34] but based on the attitude and the atmosphere, we decided to give all three teams a donation of $500, [00:11:40] underwritten by HITS 106. [00:11:42] So that was a benefit to all of those three. [00:11:44] And, again, we think the estimated media value, about $8,000. [00:11:47] The fourth and final event of this year will be Night in the Tropics. [00:11:51] It's been rescheduled until September. [00:11:53] We hope to have that on the weekend of September 23rd, but that's still in the planning phases. [00:11:58] I just wanted to point out really quickly that return on investment we think is important with the program, [00:12:03] and we tried to show corresponding volunteer hours for the different events. [00:12:07] And if you look, and we just named them as the first event, second event, third event, [00:12:10] and upcoming is forecasted, the fourth event. [00:12:13] But if you look at that, there's a total of 1,445 hours, and we tried to make this a very conservative estimate. [00:12:19] We didn't say, you know, 30 people at 10 hours a day. [00:12:23] This was based on 10 full-time volunteers over the period of hours that we did the festival. [00:12:28] And that's a total value of $13,000 in donated man hours and a total media value for the year of $25,000. [00:12:35] I wanted to update you quickly on the design committee. [00:12:37] We had a gentleman, and some of you have met him, and if you meet him, you'll never forget him, [00:12:41] Jose Cardenas, who's very, very artistic and very driven in making our downtown beautiful. [00:12:47] Jose started out very driven and very excited. [00:12:50] Unfortunately, some things caused him to become a little bit detached and uninvolved for a while. [00:12:56] I think under our new executive director, Jose has regrouped. [00:12:59] He's back, and he's assisting people in the downtown. [00:13:03] He has done things like facade designs and free consultations to local downtown businesses. [00:13:09] He's provided some things to the city that the city has beautifully implemented, [00:13:13] like the redoing of the building that we used to be housed in with the paint and the other things there. [00:13:18] So we think that the design has really started to come into its own again. [00:13:22] And now the committee is revisiting some of the unfinished projects. [00:13:26] One of the things we're talking about is an artistic crosswalk that you may have seen in some other cities [00:13:31] where it's a painted mural that brings people, and again, it's part of the design that we have in the downtown. [00:13:36] And plans are underway to fully participate in the Florida Mural Trail Program [00:13:40] and facilitate the inclusion of the murals designed and commissioned by New Port Richey Main Street's design committees over the past year. [00:13:47] And we have to say a special thank you to Janine Humphreys because she was really the catalyst behind that. [00:13:52] Finally, we graded ourselves on economic vitality and revitalization, [00:13:56] and we always acknowledge that's the toughest thing because we don't control unlimited resources. [00:14:01] We don't own any of the businesses, so it's very difficult. [00:14:04] But under the mandate of Main Street, one of the things that we are supposed to do is assist them, [00:14:09] work with property owners and stakeholders to help them work with the community, [00:14:13] to try to be a liaison with the city, and whenever we can, we direct people to Mr. Iazzoni and the other city departments [00:14:19] and work as closely as we can. [00:14:23] And we've also reactivated the HMA, which is Hospitality Members Association, to work on other events in the downtown. [00:14:30] It kind of brings us to our next page, and as Mayor Marlow said, [00:14:34] he had sticker shock when he looked at some other things. [00:14:37] You probably have sticker shock when you look at our request. [00:14:39] But we based our request, again, on what was offered to us in the previous financial year [00:14:44] when the city hired the executive director at a salary of roughly $33,700, [00:14:51] and then with benefits and other things. [00:14:53] We were asking funding this year in the amount of $35,000. [00:14:58] We don't expect that you're going to jump up and go over it. [00:15:00] OK, that's in, you're good to go. [00:15:01] But we would like you to consider the operation of Main [00:15:06] Street and what we do. [00:15:07] The final page is our budget. [00:15:09] And if you look closely at our budget, [00:15:11] the expenses and the incomes are pretty well matched [00:15:14] to the needs of the other side. [00:15:15] And we've been criticized in the past about doing some events. [00:15:18] You shouldn't do events. [00:15:20] You shouldn't sell alcohol. [00:15:21] But the events really fund the organization [00:15:24] and expect the organization to be [00:15:26] able to sustain itself without those types of revenue [00:15:29] streams means that the funding has [00:15:31] to come from somewhere else. [00:15:32] In most Main Street organizations, [00:15:34] they are not funded by member dues. [00:15:37] They are funded by a combination of events and grants, [00:15:40] underwriting, and donations. [00:15:41] So we appreciate everything the city does. [00:15:43] And whatever amount that you would [00:15:45] decide to give Main Street, we're appreciative for it. [00:15:47] We want to continue to work together. [00:15:49] But we would like to ask you to consider the benefit [00:15:51] that we brought to the table and also [00:15:53] to remember during the periods of economic downturn [00:15:57] when the city did not have the budget to do their own events [00:15:59] and do other things in the area. [00:16:01] I don't think there's a year that we missed events [00:16:03] in this downtown that people appreciated and enjoyed [00:16:06] and came down. [00:16:06] We have two other board members, so I've [00:16:08] taken way more than three minutes. [00:16:10] So I'll sit down now. [00:16:10] But thank you very much for listening to us. [00:16:15] Anyone else? [00:16:15] Thank you. [00:16:26] I'm Bob Smallwood, 7-1-2-4, I'm in court. [00:16:29] I'm glad Steve talked, because Steve's much more eloquent [00:16:31] at what's going on. [00:16:33] But I just wanted to let you know, and you all know this, [00:16:38] I live in the city, try to volunteer as much as I can. [00:16:40] I complain a little bit, but I want [00:16:42] to be able to give back so I can kind of complain [00:16:44] some more, so to speak. [00:16:45] But my volunteer, my time hours, to me are precious. [00:16:50] And where I volunteer, it's something [00:16:54] I have a little bit of control over. [00:16:56] And I try to volunteer with as many organizations as I can, [00:16:59] but I find that the lion's share of my volunteer time, [00:17:02] I've been pouring towards the Main Street program, [00:17:05] and not because of the events, but because of what [00:17:08] the entire program brings, and particularly [00:17:10] the economic vitalization and the design aspect. [00:17:13] Because as we moved here about 12 years ago, [00:17:17] and when this downtown was kind of vibrant, [00:17:18] and since then, with the recession, [00:17:20] things have kind of gone downhill. [00:17:22] One thing I see lacking has been some of the revitalization [00:17:25] efforts within the city, and particularly, [00:17:27] there's a lack of art anywhere within the city as well, too. [00:17:31] So that's kind of where my volunteer hours wanted to be, [00:17:35] and that's why the Main Street program attracted me, [00:17:37] to the point that I got volunteer and got on the board [00:17:40] right about three years ago. [00:17:42] And then the last year and a half or so, [00:17:43] I was actually president of the board, [00:17:45] right about the time when we changed the funding model [00:17:48] from the city providing a set of funds [00:17:52] to the city providing the executive director [00:17:54] and some space. [00:17:56] And that process really started about in January of 2016, [00:18:01] where we had an executive director for about a month [00:18:03] before she was let go, and then we had another one [00:18:07] that was hired back in April, May, [00:18:09] and then she was let go, [00:18:11] or reassigned positions back in February. [00:18:13] So during this experiment, [00:18:15] we've had two executive directors, [00:18:17] we've had a period of time where we had no directors. [00:18:20] Steve mentioned we'd been in five different locations, [00:18:23] which three of those had been city-provided locations. [00:18:26] The first one was the arts gallery, [00:18:30] and then we were in city hall here for a little bit of time, [00:18:32] and then we'd been in two locations in the incubator, [00:18:35] and now we're gonna be at our own location on Main Street. [00:18:37] So there's been a lot of turmoil. [00:18:41] We bought in, we were excited about the new model [00:18:45] because it was gonna give us a chance [00:18:46] to go away from trying to fund ourselves [00:18:48] by having a bunch of events and selling alcohol [00:18:52] and such like that to kind of give us a breather [00:18:54] and be able to focus on the other aspects of the program. [00:18:57] And it turned out it really hasn't worked out quite that way. [00:19:00] We seem to have focused back on the events, [00:19:04] and we weren't getting the response [00:19:06] from our executive director. [00:19:08] We expected on the other aspects of the program. [00:19:09] So we're kind of taken back in our own hands now. [00:19:14] We got our own building. [00:19:15] We're kind of excited about the location we picked out [00:19:17] because this gives us a little bit of office space, [00:19:19] and it also gives us an area [00:19:22] where we can have some meetings. [00:19:24] We can have a pop-up art gallery. [00:19:26] We can do some maybe pop-up retail [00:19:28] if you want to try out a retail idea. [00:19:30] There's a lot of neat little things we can do, [00:19:31] and now we're actually downtown. [00:19:33] So we're excited about that, [00:19:36] and we're excited about the opportunity [00:19:37] of really fulfilling on the Main Street program. [00:19:40] But the problem is, if I look back through the MOU, [00:19:43] you want us to hire a professional director. [00:19:45] There's a lot of things that cost money, [00:19:47] and I don't want to go back to the model [00:19:50] where we got to have a bunch of events, [00:19:52] try to sell beer, try to do this and that, [00:19:54] the other to try to fund a program. [00:19:56] I'd like to find a way to really work with the city [00:19:59] and take some of the money that's maybe in the CRA [00:20:03] that's assigned to maybe other salaries [00:20:06] that are focused on economic development [00:20:07] and kind of refocus those back into the Main Street program. [00:20:10] So people like myself, that's why I want to volunteer with. [00:20:14] I don't want to volunteer. [00:20:15] I volunteer with the events, [00:20:16] but it's not my love and forte [00:20:19] what the program's all about. [00:20:20] It's about the other aspects of the program. [00:20:23] So thank you much. [00:20:27] Thank you. [00:20:29] Anyone else? [00:20:32] Seeing no one else, I'll bring it back to the directors. [00:20:36] Discussion? [00:20:40] Do you have any figures before this last year at all [00:20:46] what kind of monies we gave? [00:20:49] Has it been in the $15,000 range in the prior years? [00:20:54] In response to your question, [00:20:56] I believe you're referring to the in-kind support, [00:20:59] and it typically ranges between $15,000 and $20,000 per year. [00:21:03] Well, what do we actually donate to them in other years [00:21:06] before this? [00:21:08] Donate, I want to make sure [00:21:09] that I'm responding to you accurately. [00:21:13] There are two sources of funds. [00:21:16] Do you have the contractual, [00:21:18] which is the amount that is given [00:21:20] to support the administration on the program, [00:21:23] and then there are in-kind? [00:21:24] We've been giving roughly in the last, [00:21:27] since 13, we've been giving $10,000 [00:21:29] before that in the 25 and 35. [00:21:32] Excuse me, I'm sorry to interrupt, [00:21:34] but whoever is speaking, I can't hear. [00:21:36] I hear Ms. Manns, but I haven't heard [00:21:38] what the question was or what the conversation was. [00:21:40] I'm sorry, I got the information I needed. [00:21:43] I didn't hear the, oh, thank you. [00:21:45] I just didn't hear the question, thank you. [00:21:47] I've been involved in this program since its onset. [00:21:51] I've seen more changes than you can even imagine. [00:21:58] I've seen directions go, I've seen emphasis go. [00:22:03] I'm disappointed that when you were unhappy [00:22:07] with the director that the city had gave [00:22:08] that you didn't come back to us up here [00:22:11] because we had actually okayed for that position, [00:22:16] okayed for that money, [00:22:17] just went right to the city manager. [00:22:22] And I think I would have come back and seen us [00:22:24] and say, we need to work this out. [00:22:27] So I'm disappointed in that. [00:22:29] I think that the CRA program has, [00:22:32] and help me a little bit with that with Mario, [00:22:35] there is funding for most of the businesses downtown [00:22:39] to help with their facade and their remodeling [00:22:43] and things of that sort. [00:22:45] That's correct, and we've asked to increase that budget [00:22:47] for this coming fiscal year. [00:22:49] What was it last year and what is it gonna be this year? [00:22:54] I mean, you've still got to deal with us yet. [00:22:56] Yeah, we had two years ago, [00:22:59] we have $450,000 appropriated in that grant program. [00:23:04] And of that, we use about 250,000 [00:23:07] and we're carrying another $200,000 this year. [00:23:11] And so in the past two years, it's been 450. [00:23:14] And we've added a new grant program, [00:23:18] which is what we call the commercial real estate program [00:23:21] for a half million dollars. [00:23:23] The goal with that program is to increase [00:23:25] the number of dollars that individuals invest [00:23:28] in their property in relation to the number of dollars [00:23:31] that the cities invest. [00:23:33] So those are the two programs we have there. [00:23:35] And next year, we'll have an additional 350,000 [00:23:39] based on our calculations at this point in time [00:23:41] to do additional improvements. [00:23:44] Do you reach out to the community [00:23:46] or is the community reach out to you [00:23:48] or is it kind of a 50-50 thing here? [00:23:50] It's a two-way street. [00:23:51] I mean, a lot of people hear about the program [00:23:54] and one of the things that we don't do [00:23:57] is put our application online [00:23:58] because we want to meet with them personally [00:24:00] and I do do that. [00:24:01] And we go over the details of the program [00:24:03] because it's important for them to understand [00:24:05] that it's a reimbursed program [00:24:06] and we like to explain the details. [00:24:08] But we work very closely with the chamber. [00:24:11] A lot of realtors are very familiar with the program. [00:24:14] So they funnel a lot of people to us, [00:24:16] but at the same point in time, [00:24:17] I do make myself available to the community [00:24:18] in a variety of ways. [00:24:20] The people that, and you've been around [00:24:22] like three years now, two, three years? [00:24:24] I'm going on my, this is my fourth year. [00:24:26] Fourth year. [00:24:27] I'm getting old. [00:24:30] When you came aboard, [00:24:30] we were roughly about 50% occupancy in the downtown area. [00:24:34] I'm not talking about west of the bridge [00:24:37] or south of like Delaware, [00:24:39] or even up on Massachusetts. [00:24:41] But in the downtown area, is that a fair figure? [00:24:44] Yeah, we couldn't even rent, [00:24:45] four years ago you couldn't rent a downtown space [00:24:47] out for $6 a square foot. [00:24:49] It was a real challenge. [00:24:51] Your parking lot over there was empty. [00:24:56] Now my biggest challenge is having the right type [00:24:58] of retail space. [00:24:59] There's a very strong interest for a variety of reasons. [00:25:05] A lot council has to do as a group in terms of approving [00:25:08] a lot of the economic development programs. [00:25:10] I talk to people virtually every day [00:25:12] that is interesting coming to Newport. [00:25:14] We have a salon open up. [00:25:16] If you go over to the west side of, [00:25:17] I call it West Main. [00:25:18] It's a very strong street. [00:25:21] It's a great place for startups. [00:25:23] We have a salon moving in there. [00:25:24] I've got four, where Pasco Camera is, [00:25:26] I got four units in there. [00:25:27] The Pimanites are very happy with what's going on. [00:25:32] So right now we're looking at negotiations for rent rates [00:25:35] in the $11, $12 per square foot model. [00:25:39] And I was working with some of the business owners [00:25:41] to understand, well, if you bring two more people per day [00:25:43] in your business, you can afford a better location [00:25:45] at $12 a square foot. [00:25:48] And we have 22,000 new retail square feet coming online [00:25:54] between Main Street Landing. [00:25:55] So I think it's important to have higher rent rates. [00:26:01] I think it's important to have specific retail. [00:26:04] And there's just a lot of interest across the boards. [00:26:09] But again, as you know, for growing businesses, [00:26:12] there's a lot of obstacles to overcome [00:26:14] to execute on your business concept. [00:26:16] Are you getting people approaching you [00:26:19] for down in the old hospital area? [00:26:22] Or is that kind of still at a low? [00:26:24] No, no, because I've talked, you know, I've been, [00:26:31] well, you know, I think, you know, [00:26:34] Applicant Insights down there and the building [00:26:37] that we're in are fairly fulled out. [00:26:39] And there is some growth there around those two. [00:26:43] We do have some specific challenges [00:26:45] right there on Grand, just up from Leaning Tower. [00:26:47] But, you know, we've introduced, as you know, [00:26:50] some business owners down there to some vacant properties. [00:26:54] But it's, you can't, you know, I talked to a firm [00:26:58] that bought one of the middle buildings down there. [00:27:01] I think that they kind of move in there quietly. [00:27:03] If you really were to count the businesses down there, [00:27:06] there's more there, they're very active. [00:27:10] You know, there's, I'm trying to think of one [00:27:13] rather recently, the building that was on the market [00:27:16] for a long time that their real estate sign's gone. [00:27:18] I've worked with three medical practices [00:27:20] and assisted living facility to kind of get in there. [00:27:21] I noticed a sign was missing the other day, [00:27:23] which I hope is a good sign. [00:27:24] Maybe Bob knows a little bit more about that. [00:27:27] But the Marine District is very challenging [00:27:29] and it's an area of our focus going forward, for sure. [00:27:35] Can I ask what the membership is [00:27:37] of Main Street at this point? [00:27:41] We've got, I think it's right around 70 members, seven, zero? [00:27:47] Approximately 70 members, for the benefit [00:27:49] of those that are watching. [00:27:51] And that increase was what, 10, 20% in the past two months? [00:27:57] I think it was, and again, I don't have the specifics. [00:27:59] I believe it was 60 just a few months ago, [00:28:02] so we want to, we've been setting a 60 for a year or so. [00:28:11] Do you happen to, off the top of your head, [00:28:13] know what percent of the downtown, [00:28:15] like meaning the Main Street and Grand, [00:28:19] downtown to Delaware, to the bridge, [00:28:21] the bridge to Madison, in that area, Circle, [00:28:27] what percent of those businesses [00:28:28] actually belong to your organization? [00:28:33] I don't, I can't answer that. [00:28:37] Well, I would know that off the top of my head. [00:28:40] I'd know who my weaknesses were right off the bat. [00:28:45] I'll pass at this point. [00:28:48] Mr. Starkey? [00:28:50] I'll be honest, this is a tough one for me. [00:28:53] It is every year, because I think the people involved [00:28:56] in the organization are extremely passionate [00:28:59] about our city, and extremely passionate [00:29:01] about the organization, but it seems like every year [00:29:04] you're barely keeping your head above water. [00:29:06] I understand during economic downturns, [00:29:10] it's been extremely difficult, [00:29:12] but what I hope to see this evening, [00:29:14] there are business owners in here saying, [00:29:15] man, I love the Main Street Organization. [00:29:18] They help us out so much. [00:29:19] I love being a part of the organization, [00:29:21] and we don't see that. [00:29:26] The organization continues to have to rely [00:29:30] on the events, basically, to sustain itself, [00:29:34] and historically, I mean, there have been [00:29:37] some awesome things that the organization has done. [00:29:39] One of my favorite parts about driving [00:29:41] and walking downtown are the murals on the wall. [00:29:43] You know, that wouldn't be here [00:29:45] without the Main Street Organization, [00:29:46] from what I've been told. [00:29:48] But when I look at these four, the four-point approach, [00:29:51] economic vitality, design, promotion, organization, [00:29:55] I feel like Mario and his department does that [00:29:58] very, very effectively. [00:29:59] I know, obviously, you have more [00:30:00] funds behind you, but I would just love to see the organization get to the point where [00:30:05] it's not always just needing so much help. [00:30:09] Not just from the city, but just in general. [00:30:10] I mean, I'm looking at your financials. [00:30:12] You make $25,000 off the Seafood Fest, that's great. [00:30:15] The Kia Fest, just have the, you know, your income is $60,000 and the expense is $56,000. [00:30:21] So that's something you just do for the community, but what I'm looking for, I guess, is just [00:30:27] a council member and a resident of the city, with these amazing things that I see happening, [00:30:35] with the businesses I see coming in, with the interest from investors. [00:30:40] You know, four or five years ago, we couldn't pay someone to come and invest money in our [00:30:45] downtown it seemed like. [00:30:47] Now we have millions of dollars coming in from investors, and we have people, you know, [00:30:50] still coming and saying, you know, I don't want that, I don't want that. [00:30:53] To me, it's, you know, these developments that we're seeing are just incredible. [00:30:58] It gives me such optimism in our downtown and where it's going. [00:31:01] And I think if our downtown continues on that path, it's going to help your organization [00:31:04] tremendously. [00:31:05] I think you're going to get more business owners that want to revitalize downtown, that [00:31:09] want to be a part of it. [00:31:10] Not that the current ones don't, but it's good to shake things up a little bit and get [00:31:14] new people, new types of businesses. [00:31:16] I think this microbrewery trend, if we can get that going in downtown, it's going to [00:31:20] be tremendous. [00:31:22] I'm just torn. [00:31:23] Like, I want to help the organization out because I know you all are so passionate and [00:31:25] you do care about our community. [00:31:27] But then again, it's like, I don't want the city to continuously be the financial, I don't [00:31:33] want you to have to depend on the city so much financially for, you know, for CRA funding. [00:31:38] I want, I'd love to see where you're able to do so on your own. [00:31:42] So for me, you have to, when you're talking about distributing funds, you have to look [00:31:48] at the return on investment. [00:31:49] You know, a great example was what we were paying the Pasco Economic Development Council, [00:31:53] $50,000 a year when we started. [00:31:55] And other than, at least with my tenure, other than being able to help be a part of retaining [00:32:01] Applicant Insight in the community hospital district, which is an incredible business [00:32:05] and most people don't even know it's there, and it's a huge employer for our community. [00:32:11] I just lost my train of thought, but, oh, return on investment. [00:32:16] Then we hired Mario, and the things that he's been able to do, and we took that funding [00:32:20] from the PDC and kind of put it in our own pocket and hired our own person, and the return [00:32:24] on investment is just, you know, tenfold. [00:32:26] I mean, I can't give him enough props, I can't give Debbie enough props. [00:32:30] So, you know, I'll probably speak more later after I hear Judy talking, Judy's very passionate [00:32:35] about the organization. [00:32:36] I'd like to hear what the mayor and Councilman Phillips have to say as well, but I'm just [00:32:40] torn. [00:32:41] I feel bad that y'all are financially struggling all the time, it seems like, yet you're so [00:32:46] passionate about our city and our community, and I, you know, I just, I thank y'all so [00:32:51] much for what you do. [00:32:52] I know, you know, you give the advertising dollars you give away, Mr. Schradel, through [00:32:55] your radio, or just, you know, you can't match that. [00:33:00] You could be making money doing that, yet you choose to promote, you know, these events [00:33:04] that are going on in Newport-Richmond for free, and, you know, that shows a lot of heart [00:33:09] on your part. [00:33:10] And, you know, you're taking money out of your own pocket to do so, and I think that [00:33:13] says a lot about your character and your passion for our city and the organization, but it [00:33:19] just seems like we keep coming back to the same spot where, you know, we're trying to [00:33:23] get on the right track, we really want to do this, but, you know, when I look at these [00:33:27] four things that I look at downtown, like where's the design, you know, I attended one [00:33:31] meeting with Jose, and he's just one person, he had some great little sketches he had up [00:33:35] at the business incubator meeting that I went to, and then I didn't hear anything of it, [00:33:39] and that was probably almost a year ago, so, you know, I look for these things, where's [00:33:42] the promotion of the businesses, where's the design, and I know you need funding to do [00:33:48] it, and I wish I had the magic answer on what's going to make it feasible, but I just don't [00:33:56] think as a city we should, I have a hard time with the organization basically depending [00:34:03] on the city and the large events just to sustain itself, I don't want to see it go away, but [00:34:09] it's just a tough one for me, because I know you all are passionate, and I think, once [00:34:13] again, as we do promote our city from within, and get new businesses and more investment [00:34:18] dollars coming in, I think that's going to help your organization, so it's not like I [00:34:22] just want to say, I don't want to give you any funding now, because I think we're on [00:34:25] the cusp of some really cool things happening that will in turn benefit your organization, [00:34:30] that will in turn come back into the design and what we're trying to do as a city, so [00:34:35] I'd like to hear input from my colleagues, but that's kind of where I'm at, this is just [00:34:39] really tough for me to be honest with you. [00:34:42] Thank you. [00:34:43] Director Phillips. [00:34:44] Mr. Mayor, I've been around this, or Mr. Director, I've been around this program, and I was around [00:34:53] back in 92, 93, 94, when it was a community cooperative, it was at City Hall, I've seen [00:35:00] the evolution, obviously, they had, when the CRA was funding well, and it was receiving [00:35:11] quite a bit of funding, it operated, you know, $45,000 a year on par with dollars that were [00:35:20] being invested back in Chasco and the Chamber of Commerce, but, you know, it always has [00:35:29] seemed, at least the last five years that I've been on council, that it's been striving [00:35:36] for an identity, it's been striving to try to find and position itself, part of that [00:35:42] came through the economic downturn and then the revitalization, and what's happened is, [00:35:49] is that other organizations and other entities have come up and have taken away from some [00:35:59] of the base that they have, you know, just tonight we've got two new people, we have [00:36:07] one in particular that's going to have an event in downtown in September that's benefiting [00:36:13] another not-for-profit, which is an element that Main Street obviously isn't involved [00:36:19] with. There has been opportunities in the last couple of years for initiatives that [00:36:28] the city was looking to do, but because of the way that the organization was structured [00:36:35] and elements that were out there, obviously there wasn't a way to make them the driving [00:36:41] force behind that, so, you know, as Mr. Starkey has aptly put, you know, and we talk about [00:36:49] it just about annually, we get at a crossroads, and then we look at the expenses, and then, [00:36:56] you know, bad timing sometimes is unfortunate for them with their events, and because they're [00:37:04] specifically run like that, and then, you know, trying to have benchmarks so that we [00:37:10] can evaluate it and make sure that the money that's being invested from the citizen side [00:37:17] and the CRA, that we have benchmarks that we can show to our constituents why we believe [00:37:23] it's viable and why we think it's a net benefit to have the organization part of and part [00:37:29] of the process of the city coming out of where it was at, but again, you know, you've [00:37:37] got some hard costs in your budget that, you know, you're just not going to get over, and [00:37:45] then we talk about where are we going to find those funds, and we talk about wanting to [00:37:49] use CRA funds to help do some community policing. We have all these, it's kind of the chicken [00:37:56] and the egg. We want all these businesses, and we have to help them. You have to be their [00:38:00] partner to bring them into existence, and then, hopefully, they'll join your organization, [00:38:06] but over and above that, and then we just had, I wasn't at the last meeting, but we [00:38:12] have an event that's coming up for the veterans, which is a very worthy cause. Main Street [00:38:17] isn't involved in that, and we're obligated for $7,500 that we don't know where those [00:38:22] funds are going to come from, from the final budget, so at the end of the day, I, and that's [00:38:29] the reason we thought that the new model last year was going to give us a place to kind [00:38:35] of step from, and it didn't pan out the way that we hoped. So over and above that, when [00:38:42] I look at everything, and I took all your expenses and all your income with your cap [00:38:47] and what you had suggested for us, you know, there's about a $40,000 carryover there, and [00:38:55] then that ties back into payroll and some other items, so like I said, I just, at this [00:39:01] point, you know, we want an MOU so that we can have benchmarks, but at the end of the [00:39:07] day, I don't know how we're going to get that place where we want to be, and everybody be [00:39:15] on somewhat, some of the same page, won't be on the same sentence, but be on the same [00:39:20] page, so that's kind of where I'm at with it, Mr. Mayor. [00:39:23] Thank you. Mr. Bell-Thomas. [00:39:26] Yes, thank you. Well, there's a couple of things that we need to embrace and understand [00:39:34] as a Main Street city. The program itself, the Florida Main Street program, was designed [00:39:42] and developed specifically for cities like ours, and if we look at the monies that were [00:39:51] in place, the contractual services, the grant awards, going back to 88, the organization [00:39:57] was housed in City Hall up until 2001, so prior to that, they were operating rent-free [00:40:06] with minimally one employee. At best, they did one event, but they were holding to the [00:40:17] tenants of the Main Street organization. It is not a membership-driven organization, so [00:40:23] it's different from a chamber or some other type of organization. The model from the state, [00:40:31] which goes to the national, pushes the point that it is not a membership-driven, that rather [00:40:39] it is a program that cities adopt or become part of because of its success for small cities. [00:40:49] If we look at the monies, at the years that the organization was most effective, it's [00:40:56] from the 2001 to 2012, when they were funded, the early years in 2000, there was also a [00:41:09] reimbursement program in place for special events. The program itself has been very responsive [00:41:16] to the critiques and criticisms from the council. I remember many years ago, much to their detriment [00:41:24] as a matter of fact, many years ago, council was concerned about the carnival and they [00:41:31] eliminated that program or that activity from their program, which had a direct impact on [00:41:38] their bottom line. They were innovative in bringing stellar entertainment to the community [00:41:47] by bringing in the likes of Three Dog Night, Blood, Sweat, and Tears, the Classic Rock All-Stars, [00:41:59] the Real Deal Guys, and paid and charged nominal money to come into the park, but they were [00:42:05] criticized by council at the time that the organization was charging money for citizens [00:42:14] to come into the downtown. It was that impetus, there was also Love and Spoonful, Felix Cavalier [00:42:25] and the Rascals. It was that criticism that they took to heart and they went to the next [00:42:34] level, which was tribute bands, but they stayed with that excellence and they stayed with [00:42:38] that quality by making sure that their tribute bands were as close to the real deal as possible. [00:42:46] Now, I'm making those points because each time they did that, there was an impact on [00:42:54] the bottom line of the organization. The other piece is our city looks the way it looks and [00:43:01] has the definition that it has because Main Street Program helped to define that. Again, [00:43:10] going back to those early days when they were better funded or were funded so that they [00:43:18] were able to concentrate on the four legs of that program. They were the ones that were [00:43:25] the economic restructuring drivers. They were the ones that were advertising the rental [00:43:30] space in the downtown, meeting with potential tenants, turning them over to the CRA director [00:43:36] who was the city manager at the time, developed a great relationship with the city and hosted [00:43:44] things like the Discover Your Downtown trade show. They brought in antique road shows. [00:43:50] They helped to bring in one of the first fresh markets that eventually incubated businesses, [00:44:00] the Fish Guy down on Grand Boulevard, our very own Rose's Bistro. It was the Main Street [00:44:05] organization that wooed her into the downtown off of Massachusetts Avenue to a location [00:44:12] on Main Street originally and then by connecting with them as a potential tenant with the landlord [00:44:22] in the downtown. This is the impetus to putting into place. I'm delighted that we had Tasty [00:44:30] Tuesdays at the New Port Richey Library. Many of those vendors were at the fresh market [00:44:35] that was started by the Main Street organization and developed with kudos from the state when [00:44:45] the state was very interested in cities starting fresh markets. So it's all of those things [00:44:52] that they were able to do concentrating on responding to the needs of the city. [00:45:00] that again helped create the atmosphere that we have now. [00:45:04] It was back in the, I think it was in the 2000s, [00:45:10] when a merchant in the downtown came [00:45:14] to a city council meeting and complained about the, [00:45:18] she was leaving, she'd invested over a million dollars [00:45:20] in the downtown, she was leaving because of attitudes [00:45:24] from the city staff, and it was Main Street [00:45:27] that stepped forward and asked if we could collaborate [00:45:29] with the city, we hosted a conference [00:45:31] that had far-reaching results. [00:45:34] It brought the landlords, the tenants, city staff, [00:45:37] the residents, and the business community together. [00:45:40] It was over a three-week period, [00:45:42] and it was hosted or facilitated, rather, [00:45:45] by a world-renowned Mercedes, I'm sorry, [00:45:47] not world-renowned, but locally-renowned Mercedes Lopez, [00:45:50] who is a facilitator from USF, and from that came [00:45:54] tremendous changes to the face of our city. [00:45:58] The development department had a reorganization. [00:46:03] Coming out of that conference were the brochures [00:46:06] and informational pieces that the community [00:46:11] was looking to have. [00:46:14] The program developed a walking tour. [00:46:17] They developed the antique roadshows. [00:46:22] And the reason they were able to do that, [00:46:25] because the funding, again, if you go back to those years [00:46:28] and you look, it wasn't a lot of money, [00:46:31] but it was enough for them to be able to focus [00:46:36] on all four of those, the prongs of the program. [00:46:43] The most effective Main Street, and again, [00:46:45] the model is that the cities support the program. [00:46:49] The program is not designed to become, [00:46:53] is not designed to become anything other than [00:46:56] what it needs to be, which is a collaborative partner [00:46:59] with the city. [00:47:00] As a Main Street, we need to encourage and support [00:47:05] the program, because that's what the program is all about. [00:47:09] And the idea, and I know that it's floated around [00:47:12] for a very long time, the idea that the city will, [00:47:15] that the program, at some point, will divest itself [00:47:19] from the support of the city, but it's not the model. [00:47:22] The model is that the city should be providing [00:47:26] a percentage, and I think it's a 30, 30, 40, [00:47:30] you know, where they're expecting, again, [00:47:32] the model is expecting that the cities, [00:47:34] the Main Street cities will support their program. [00:47:37] The program would then also be supported by [00:47:43] events and donations and the activities. [00:47:47] It's the Main Street organization that brought to the city [00:47:53] the very fact that we owned that building [00:47:56] that is now, that became the incubator [00:47:59] and is now the My Network One. [00:48:01] It was the Main Street program that kind of dusted off [00:48:05] the draft, the blueprint, and shared that information. [00:48:10] And it was with, when Mario first came into the city, [00:48:15] it was the Main Street program that sat down [00:48:16] and coached him on introducing him to the community partners [00:48:21] and, you know, really helped pave the way for his success. [00:48:28] And again, I think that we, as a city, [00:48:32] again, looking back to the very, very [00:48:37] excellent program, knowing that it is the benchmark [00:48:43] for others, for the state program to point to [00:48:46] because we were, the New Port Richey Main Streets program [00:48:50] had been so successful in riding through the recession, [00:48:56] the changes in our downtown, the community. [00:48:59] As I said, the last five years is probably an anomaly [00:49:02] for the program, but again, if you look, [00:49:04] it's a direct correlation to the financial support [00:49:09] that we gave them. [00:49:10] When we dropped the funding to $10,000 in 2013, [00:49:17] you know, that definitely had an impact on, you know, [00:49:20] what they were able to do. [00:49:23] There's just so many hours in the day [00:49:24] and just so many things that could be accomplished. [00:49:29] It's not that their focus changed. [00:49:32] It's just that, you know, the priorities had to [00:49:36] reposition themselves in order for them [00:49:38] to maintain the program, [00:49:41] which is at the bidding of the city. [00:49:44] I mean, contractually, they had a contract with the program, [00:49:48] with the city, to do these things [00:49:50] and to perform these things. [00:49:53] You know, it's not, it's not, certainly not a handout. [00:49:55] And I think that they've been good partners with the city. [00:49:59] I think that they are now at a point, [00:50:02] I think that if we, as an organization, [00:50:05] are serious about being a Main Street city [00:50:07] and the benefit to that, [00:50:10] that we should consider at this point, [00:50:14] not faulting them or penalizing them, [00:50:17] but rather assisting them and aiding them [00:50:20] in their efforts to be good partners with the city. [00:50:26] They, I think, are still at a point [00:50:32] that they have had to morph to what the community is [00:50:39] and what the community of downtown merchants is. [00:50:42] There was quite a change over the last five or six years [00:50:48] in several of the businesses that are in the downtown. [00:50:52] And again, as I said, I think that partly [00:50:55] they had to scramble or refocus to maintain [00:51:01] all parts of that program. [00:51:03] They're held to a standard by the state [00:51:09] that to perform the functions that they need to function. [00:51:12] They are an accredited organization. [00:51:14] And I think that they do the city proud. [00:51:18] They have, during the years, I think it was for 12 years, [00:51:24] they operated an art gallery that eventually spawned [00:51:28] two other art studios in the downtown, [00:51:33] although short-lived, but they are the ones [00:51:36] that are pretty much responsible for spawning [00:51:38] the opening of the current Gateway Gallery and Emporium, [00:51:41] which again, which was quite a feat [00:51:44] to gather the artists of the community [00:51:47] and host that center. [00:51:50] And it created what eventually became Author's Night, [00:51:56] again, connecting our community with authors and poets. [00:52:02] They launched their radio plays, [00:52:04] all of those things that had like a ripple effect [00:52:07] within the community and continue to let our city shine. [00:52:14] Out of that art gallery, [00:52:16] the artist that was commissioned to do the quarter, [00:52:20] he came and participated in the gallery as an artist. [00:52:26] They had international programs. [00:52:27] I mean, all of those things are part of the history [00:52:31] of this organization. [00:52:33] And I'm not sharing that to look back and say, [00:52:36] that's what they were. [00:52:37] It's, this is the continuation. [00:52:40] It can continue to be a vital part of our community. [00:52:47] I think right now, it's not unreasonable to suggest [00:52:51] that we assist funding them. [00:52:54] We were providing them space last year [00:52:57] and assistance with their director. [00:53:01] And now we have reduced them to $15,000 [00:53:06] or suggesting 15,000. [00:53:08] I don't think that 30 or 35,000 is unreasonable. [00:53:11] Again, looking at the past 15 years, [00:53:16] seeing that that is probably about the average [00:53:19] of the money. [00:53:21] Again, remembering that in addition to reducing that budget [00:53:27] that we have also created a different model [00:53:29] for special events and that they were having to, [00:53:37] are now having to pay rent. [00:53:40] It's unfortunate that they were not able to, [00:53:44] some main streets, I was sharing this with Ms. Manza [00:53:47] this afternoon, there are some main streets [00:53:48] that are housed in city-owned property [00:53:52] or properties that are donated to them. [00:53:55] Some of them partner with the chamber. [00:53:58] Again, our main street is, you know, [00:54:00] a model for other main streets to look at. [00:54:03] So I think that what you see with the people [00:54:09] that participate in the program, [00:54:11] that is across the board. [00:54:12] I think that is just the model for the program. [00:54:18] People gravitate towards it, [00:54:21] who are passionate about their city [00:54:23] and that's what makes the program itself so great. [00:54:26] Many of the events and activities, [00:54:28] as you mentioned, the Main Street Blast, [00:54:31] which was originally Rally by the River, [00:54:34] that event was created and designed specifically [00:54:37] for our residents so that they could come, [00:54:39] have an incredibly quality event [00:54:42] and be proud of their city. [00:54:44] And I think that's something that we can all be proud of. [00:54:46] Does it make a lot of money for the organization? [00:54:49] No, but they do operate in the black with that event. [00:54:55] They have reduced the number of events that they host [00:54:58] and are keenly interested in going back [00:55:01] to what they were doing. [00:55:03] You know, the smaller events on the street, [00:55:05] the art show, the classic car cruise-ins, [00:55:08] the kinds of things that most main streets, [00:55:11] small main streets, or main streets rather, [00:55:14] host that becomes, you know, all American Americana. [00:55:19] I can tell you that they are keenly interested [00:55:21] in participating in that Veterans Day celebration. [00:55:28] And very many of their board members, [00:55:31] as well as their members, [00:55:32] are already on the committee for that organization. [00:55:36] I think that they had to move slowly on that [00:55:41] to not commit because, you know, financially, [00:55:47] but I think that definitely they're embracing that event [00:55:51] and will definitely be part of that activity. [00:55:59] I know that you know that I have a long history [00:56:02] with that organization. [00:56:03] We were part, my husband and I were business owners [00:56:05] in the downtown back in the 90s, [00:56:08] and we appreciated and understood [00:56:10] how important that type of organization was. [00:56:13] And it was from those first years of us [00:56:18] being a business downtown that we recognized [00:56:21] that a partnership with Main Street, [00:56:23] or a collaboration with Main Street, [00:56:25] as well as a membership in the chamber, [00:56:26] was part of the success of our own business. [00:56:29] And it was after we sold our business [00:56:32] and stayed vitally part of that organization. [00:56:37] It's an infectious group of people, [00:56:39] and you find that even going to other cities [00:56:43] and going to the Florida Main Street program. [00:56:45] You're going to find those same folks. [00:56:46] They are people that are passionate about their community [00:56:49] and they want to do what they can to help it. [00:56:51] The organization is then able to garner [00:56:55] the support of sponsors because they do events. [00:57:00] And yes, again, that's not necessarily the focus of it, [00:57:04] but those promotions do become what defines the city [00:57:11] and helps the residents understand [00:57:13] that this is part of my city, [00:57:15] the fact that we were able to participate. [00:57:19] The program also has indeed assisted other organizations. [00:57:24] Very many of the, when they had the art gallery, [00:57:28] were all about other organizations coming in [00:57:31] and creating fundraising pieces. [00:57:34] To this day, they are supporting A Fire, [00:57:37] the Boy Scouts, they are partnering with Eagle Scouts [00:57:42] going forward on initiatives, [00:57:45] as well as other nonprofits. [00:57:47] I know that a few years ago, [00:57:49] they partnered with the Walgreens, [00:57:51] which was the leukemia organization. [00:57:55] And for three years, they hosted, [00:57:57] which actually is how the Trolleypool came to be. [00:58:01] They launched the Cody Man Triathlon, [00:58:02] which again, that is just a classic Main Street thing, [00:58:07] which is, again, apple pie, ice cream, and Main Street. [00:58:11] They just go hand-in-hand together. [00:58:14] And I believe that we as a city owe it to ourselves [00:58:20] to help continue the program. [00:58:22] And I would certainly recommend that we look to boosting, [00:58:28] especially the monies are available. [00:58:33] And I think that the return on the investment [00:58:36] for the monies that they have showed, [00:58:38] and I know that in the past, [00:58:38] they have produced documents [00:58:40] to show what the return on the investments are. [00:58:43] You know, a $10,000, a $30,000 investment in the program [00:58:49] has garnered far more in marketing and promoting our city [00:58:55] and creating the kind of city that we wanna have. [00:58:58] It was Ken McGurn who stood on the bridge [00:59:02] and looked into the park [00:59:03] when there was a Cody River Seafood Festival. [00:59:05] And I think that was, he will tell you [00:59:07] that that was certainly an impetus [00:59:09] in him deciding to bring his business into the downtown. [00:59:13] And if we look back on the businesses [00:59:16] that were in our downtown, no fault of their own, [00:59:21] but they chose the city for reasons [00:59:23] that this is where they wanted to have their business. [00:59:28] And it's the Main Street program [00:59:31] that kind of set the groundwork for that. [00:59:35] Looking right now on Main Street, [00:59:37] you know, Frank Starkey, Jose Cardenas, [00:59:40] you know, they're participating in the program. [00:59:45] You know, why do you not find business merchants [00:59:48] that come in and say, [00:59:49] man, I love what Main Street's doing for me? [00:59:51] I believe that you would have found that, [00:59:54] you know, five years ago. [00:59:56] Again, this past five years was a really tough [00:59:58] on the downtown as- [01:00:00] policy organization itself. [01:00:02] I have faith in the organization, I have faith in the people that are running it, the kinds [01:00:06] of people and the caliber of people that it attracts, and I think that we would be doing [01:00:11] ourselves a disservice to not provide the monies that they, at this point, will allow [01:00:20] them to continue the program. [01:00:25] Thank you for letting me share all of that. [01:00:27] If you all have any questions, I know you have shared a lot of your thoughts and I was [01:00:35] trying to take notes to just share, again, the birthing or the things that make a Main [01:00:50] Street program and a Main Street city a Main Street city and a Main Street program. [01:00:54] You go to other cities that are Main Street cities and you'll find that same passion and [01:00:59] the same innovative thinking and ideas that represent the best of our community as well. [01:01:07] Thank you, Director DeBell-Thomas. [01:01:11] I've been involved with the Main Street program as a member and have participated in a bunch [01:01:16] of this stuff over the years. [01:01:22] My concern with Main Street is that it has, for a number of reasons, taken a look at special [01:01:36] events and it has become the proverbial tail that has wagged the dog. [01:01:42] As I look at this list of the National Main Street Four Point Approach, there is not a [01:01:47] single line on this thing that says special events, not one. [01:01:53] The closest you can come is to promotion. [01:01:55] I think the New Port Richey Main Street program has gone seriously off the rails by trying [01:02:03] to build big events over and over again, sometimes making money, sometimes not. [01:02:10] I know the Main Street blast, it was marginally profitable, but it was marginally profitable [01:02:19] an amount less than what the city provided in in-kind services to put it on. [01:02:24] We'd have been better off and Main Street would have been better off if we had just [01:02:28] handed them the money for that in lieu of providing the special services. [01:02:38] It's just an example, but it's by no means the only example. [01:02:42] Historically, Main Street has put on a bunch of special events. [01:02:47] They've lost money on a number of them and tried to make it up on volume. [01:02:54] It has not done what it's supposed to do on the areas of economic vitality or design. [01:03:03] We had a design committee and I was sitting in on it until it just quit meeting back a [01:03:08] year or so ago. [01:03:11] Hopefully that will get started again. [01:03:14] From an organization standpoint, we used to have a business owners group that met monthly. [01:03:21] We met at the IHOP and there were programs that helped us try to figure out how to make [01:03:29] our businesses a little better than they were. [01:03:32] That's all gone by the board. [01:03:36] I know we've got special event junkies on the board that are associated with the Main [01:03:42] Street group, but that is not the be all, end all. [01:03:46] The huge events are a mistake. [01:03:49] To the extent that we may have contributed to that by suggesting that the only way they [01:03:54] can fund themselves is by selling booze in the park at a big event, that's our fault. [01:04:02] I look at other towns, some of which have Main Street programs and some of which don't, [01:04:08] that have vibrant downtowns because they're doing a lot of little things. [01:04:15] They're not dragging everybody off to the periphery to a park for a big hoedown. [01:04:19] What they're doing is small things, car shows. [01:04:23] First Friday events in both Dade City and Tarpon Springs have First Friday events. [01:04:29] They don't do them in the big parks. [01:04:30] They do them right downtown. [01:04:36] That sort of thing that gets people in, if you want to do an event, that's the sort of [01:04:40] event that makes sense. [01:04:43] No, I don't want to see more big events. [01:04:47] I think those are a mistake. [01:04:48] The carnivals were a horrible mistake. [01:04:52] For a carnival to come in for a two-week period disrupts the entire downtown for three [01:04:58] or four weeks because you have a week on the front end for setup and a week on the back [01:05:03] end for teardown. [01:05:06] I remember living through that one year. [01:05:09] We had every non-profit, I think, on the West Coast wanted to have a carnival in New Port Richey because it was a great way to make money. [01:05:18] In one four-month period, I think we had 12 weeks of traffic jams and detours because [01:05:31] you physically could not get downtown because we had these stinking rides spread up all [01:05:35] over the place. [01:05:40] It doesn't help the downtown. [01:05:41] We do that. [01:05:42] We need to be talking to the businesses. [01:05:44] I'm glad to see the Hospitality Members Association group getting back together and getting involved, [01:05:52] but it needs to be not only them, but the other businesses as well, including mine and [01:05:59] all the others that aren't in the hospitality industry. [01:06:03] We've got to look at all four parts of the Main Street approach. [01:06:09] Carnival events is not the be-all, end-all, nor should it be. [01:06:13] It shouldn't be the part that the organization is depending on for funding. [01:06:20] I understand what staff's recommendation is as far as just blanket funding for the organization. [01:06:29] I understand that there's probably a like amount that's buried in the various budgets [01:06:35] that we'll be considering over the next month or so that will result in in-kind services [01:06:43] for some of these events. [01:06:46] Personally, if we had a bigger emphasis on all four parts of the Main Street approach, [01:06:58] I'd have no problem taking money that we would otherwise be spending on trying to support [01:07:03] these special events and filtering it in for specific things that Main Street should [01:07:09] be doing as an organization inside the city. [01:07:14] I don't have a problem with that at all. [01:07:15] I think it would make sense to do that investment, but provided that we're actually getting some [01:07:22] results out of it. [01:07:23] We've talked about the crosswalk painting project for probably three years now. [01:07:33] We haven't gotten a crosswalk painted in the city in that time. [01:07:38] It may be longer than that, but maybe we ought to start working on some little things that [01:07:45] Main Street can win at, get some things going that get people excited about being involved [01:07:53] in the organization. [01:07:54] I mean, heck, I'm no artist, but I'll be willing to get out there with a paintbrush and work [01:07:58] on the crosswalk. [01:07:59] If somebody will mark the lines in, I can probably paint inside the lines. [01:08:09] Get a First Friday program. [01:08:11] We've had some car shows and other stuff. [01:08:13] They typically around the lake, not in front of the businesses, but do them right downtown. [01:08:19] Get them downtown. [01:08:26] Chief Fitch will twist his arm to let them block off some of the Main Street to be able [01:08:31] to do it. [01:08:35] Do the things that actually get the businesses right, get the people that are involved in [01:08:40] events to the extent that you're going to have the events, getting them right there [01:08:45] in front of the businesses so the businesses can benefit. [01:08:50] The restaurants, the bars, the retail places like Kelly's Gifts. [01:08:58] All of that, if you want that to thrive, then we don't need to bring thousands of people [01:09:03] to Sims Park. [01:09:04] What we need to bring is maybe 100 or 200 people at a time right there on Grand Boulevard. [01:09:13] I'm open to discussing, expanding what we're paying, but I think we've got to insist that [01:09:20] there's a difference in where we're making our efforts. [01:09:24] Mr. Starkey. [01:09:25] I know you want to speak, Mr. Riddell. [01:09:29] Just real quick. [01:09:30] I know I sound like a broken record up here and just listen to the Mayor's comments. [01:09:34] I keep talking about smaller, more upper scale events, not just to raise money, but to make [01:09:43] New Port Richey a cool place to live, where vibrant young families that take pride in [01:09:49] their community want to reside, are comfortable sending their kids to our schools. [01:09:56] I look at this as a great opportunity, to be honest with you. [01:10:01] I challenge Main Street organization in a way. [01:10:04] I'm asking you to be that organization. [01:10:06] I'm asking you to step up, partner with our vibrant investors and our residents that we're [01:10:13] attracting to downtown, promote smaller, upper scale events, be receptive to new ideas. [01:10:20] I can't tell you how many times I've heard, when are they having that craft beer and wine [01:10:24] tasting in the park? [01:10:26] Those are a few tables, some tablecloths, small kegs of craft beer, some mediocre wine [01:10:33] on a nice fall evening on the Cody River that takes up probably a quarter of an acre of [01:10:37] the park and people absolutely loved it. [01:10:40] One of your members put it on for his Rotary Club as a rookie. [01:10:44] Ask Jose to do that again. [01:10:46] That's what people want. [01:10:48] In my opinion, that's the type of event that doesn't just promote our businesses, but that [01:10:54] will attract the residents that we want living here, which in turn, put money into our businesses [01:11:00] because they live here, not because they're visiting for just a huge event. [01:11:07] That's what I'm asking you to do. [01:11:09] I think the Cody River Seafood Festival should be, other than the, I love the Holiday River [01:11:14] Lights Boat Parade and the Street Parade and everything, but I think that should be your [01:11:17] signature event. [01:11:18] I think y'all can do a better job of getting, and I don't work behind the scenes like y'all [01:11:26] do, but just looking from the outside in. [01:11:28] If I hear seafood festival, I want fresh grouper, I want a seafood atmosphere, I want a guy [01:11:34] selling cast nets and showing people how to throw a cast net, maybe a tiny little shrimp [01:11:38] boat from out front of Hooters and Seaside tied up to the dock, just to create that ambiance. [01:11:44] I think if you do that and have better quality food, I know you've done a better job the [01:11:48] last few years and you continue to do a better job, but if you can get good quality seafood [01:11:52] from Get Hooked, from Rusty Bellies, from the, I'm sure Dulcet can get some fresh seafood, [01:11:59] and have a higher quality event with maybe some craft beer. [01:12:02] I keep pushing craft beer, I know, because I think that's a niche right now that people [01:12:06] will go to events just for craft beer, and make that your signature event. [01:12:10] I remember going to the seafood festival back in the early 2000s, there were artists there [01:12:14] with the mango tables made out of copper with the glass tops, like you see at Bonefish Grill. [01:12:19] That's the kind of vendors we had at the seafood event back in the day, and you know [01:12:23] it, but before the economy took a downturn. [01:12:26] Let's strive to do that again. [01:12:29] I would assume it's tough to get boat dealers to haul their boats here for an event, unless [01:12:35] they think there's going to be people here that have money to afford a boat. [01:12:39] You know what I mean? [01:12:41] That's what I'm asking you to do. [01:12:44] I'm okay, I'm going to let my colleague speak again, but I don't want to throw out a figure [01:12:51] yet, I'm okay with giving a little bit more than $15,000, but I think that's a mindset [01:12:55] we as a city have to have, and I think that you are a great tool to be able to promote [01:13:01] our city in such a fashion, and I ask for your help to do so, because I've been up here [01:13:05] saying it, saying it, saying it, but who's going to step up and do it? [01:13:08] You know, work with Jose, work with Frank, work with Jeff Wright, these vibrant new business [01:13:12] owners and developers that are committed to our downtowns. [01:13:16] You know, bend their ears, see what they think people want, the type of events they want, [01:13:21] and I know it's not all about events, there's four different things listed here, but I think [01:13:24] those smaller quality events will promote our city and will get people living here that [01:13:28] spend money in our downtown. [01:13:31] That's my feeling, if you wanted to comment. [01:13:38] If you're going to talk, could you please come down, Steve? [01:13:41] We've got people watching on the air, and they can't hear you from the back. [01:13:44] Well, and I appreciate all the comments, and one of the things that we haven't done, and [01:13:50] it's probably shame on Main Street for not pushing for it, but we've never really had [01:13:55] a roundtable discussion where we sit down and we have the opportunity to answer the [01:14:00] criticism with facts and show you why we do things the way we do things. [01:14:05] I'd like you to imagine for a moment that you had a fairly successful business where [01:14:09] you were able to feed your family, and overnight your expenses doubled and your revenues didn't. [01:14:16] How effective of a business operator would you be? [01:14:19] Could you come under some criticism that that guy's a little bit ragtag, he doesn't pay [01:14:22] his house as much as he should, he doesn't have everything in line, while you're scuffling [01:14:27] to put food on the table for your family? [01:14:29] We've been in a position where the city council years ago, I remember Ms. Miller and some [01:14:35] others seemed diametrically opposed to Main Street, and there was a drive to defund us. [01:14:39] Maryland Deschamps in the first year had a $50,000 budget, I believe the city provided [01:14:44] rent, possibly not, but payroll for one person. [01:14:48] So the ability to go out and do a blueberry stroll, no problem, the bills are paid, I [01:14:53] don't have to spend one minute worrying how I'm going to pay my bills and stay in business. [01:14:57] So there was time for creativity, there was time [01:15:00] time for the small events. The thing that I want to say very respectfully is the city [01:15:04] and this council, as much as we appreciate the city and this council, often has put us [01:15:07] in a position where we're asked to do big things and then funding is either diminished [01:15:15] from a high of $50,000 to $10,000. Stop and think, what would you work for as an executive [01:15:20] director? Would you work 50 or 60 hours a week for $16,000 a year? No. So we had to [01:15:27] pay our previous director through the city $33,700. If you do that math and the cost [01:15:33] of meager overhead, $1,000 a month, you're at $35,000 or $40,000 a month a year in expenses, [01:15:39] I'm sorry, just to operate, and the city gives us $10,000. And if we had 150 members, we'd [01:15:45] have $16,000 or $18,000 in income. So add the $10,000 and the $18,000, we're at $28,000 [01:15:50] and it costs us $40,000 or $50,000 a year to operate, and then we're criticized for [01:15:54] not doing a better job. So the point that I'd like to make is if we could ever sit down, [01:15:59] some of the smaller events, I love the small events, the problem is there's zero revenue [01:16:03] and there's expense, and there's something that Mr. Schneiger brought to the city years [01:16:07] ago called MOUs that were never there before. It used to not cost us $6,000 or $7,000 to [01:16:12] do an event. We understand that there's police, we understand there's fire, we understand [01:16:17] there's those other things, but my point is, again, back to your household economic budget, [01:16:22] expenses doubled, your revenue didn't. You can talk about all the other things that should [01:16:26] and would happen, but nothing can help you get to that point except either more revenue [01:16:30] or less expenses. So the thing we're looking to do is get to a point, we have an executive [01:16:35] director right now that's working in effect for $16,000 a year, and probably working 50 [01:16:41] hours a week on Saturdays, going door to door, doing meetings at 6 o'clock at night, coming [01:16:46] in in the morning. I think because she's a little crazy and she also learned to love [01:16:50] the program in a short period of time, we have a new expense now of $12,000 to $15,000 [01:16:56] a year in rent and overhead, and just a year ago we were told to expect that we had free [01:17:02] rent and an executive director at no cost. So we were planning our business based on [01:17:07] the fact that those expenses didn't exist. Now today they do. So the one thing I'd like [01:17:12] to ask is for a workshop session with you guys where we can sit down and go back and [01:17:16] forth. One thing you'll find out, we're not arrogant, we're not mean, we're not stupid. [01:17:20] Most of us are business people that know how to pinch a dime and get the value out of it, [01:17:24] but we're in a position sometimes where it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't. I [01:17:28] remember the old days with the council, if we didn't make money at our events, we were [01:17:32] criticized that we were inept. If we made money at our events, they voted to defund [01:17:36] us because we had money. So you're to the point, do you make money and get defunded [01:17:41] or do you not make money and be called inept? I think there's a real opportunity to do things. [01:17:47] I'm going to tell you a quick story. There's a building that was painted and Mario helped [01:17:51] with it, but that building and Mario, you and I could argue to the end of the earth, [01:17:54] but Jim Spetzer's building, a Pasco camera, got painted mainly because I would not stop [01:18:00] harassing the landowner. I called him at his house every way that I could and I said, paint [01:18:06] the goddamn thing, it looks horrible. It was all different colors, it looked like Beirut. [01:18:10] They got it painted. You know what miraculously happened? They got tenants in the building. [01:18:14] So there are lots of things Main Street can do, but we're not empowered to do it. Mario [01:18:18] helped me with that, but it was just that nonstop, tenacious, bulldog attitude. We have [01:18:23] people that love this city and that will do things like that. So what I would hope we [01:18:26] could do is do a workshop session where we can sit down, open up everything that we have [01:18:31] and maybe you can show us. If we have $38,000, $40,000 in new expense and no new revenue, [01:18:37] maybe one of you guys can easily show us, here's a way to do that. Here's how you handle [01:18:41] all those things. But in the meantime, we're just struggling to make it happen. And I feel [01:18:45] bad because I've been standing up here for years telling you we're going to get better [01:18:48] and we really have gotten better. But we're bobbing and ducking and weaving, trying to [01:18:53] make things go. The one thing we've been good at is events. We win awards for our events. [01:18:58] Thousands of people come into the community. Mayor McPherson started a committee to try [01:19:02] to bring in more events into the downtown. Now I know there's been a change in direction [01:19:06] since then, but my whole point for us, we're just trying to kind of go with the program [01:19:10] and make it all work. So if we do less events, we're fine with that. If there's a way to [01:19:15] do events with no alcohol, that's great, but we need to find a way to fund those things. [01:19:20] And remember that the small events, you have to have a paid executive director and an office [01:19:23] to work out of to the tune of about $40,000 or $45,000 a year. And then you have to have [01:19:28] money to put on those events with no revenue stream. So it is very, very difficult. And [01:19:33] I've run radio stations through a recession that we should have been wiped off the face [01:19:36] of the earth and we made it through because we knew how to save money and do things effectively. [01:19:41] So again, I want you to know that I have a great deal of respect for this council. I [01:19:45] will tell you that it's, and for Ms. Manns, it's a world better than anything we've ever [01:19:49] had before. So please don't think we're not appreciative. We really are. And I want to [01:19:53] close by saying we're imperfect people trying to do a perfect job. We know that we lack [01:19:57] in some areas, but I really would appreciate some type of a work session where we could [01:20:02] sit down, again, lay it on the table and figure out a way that we can make it work. And I [01:20:06] really appreciate you giving me the extra time. Thank you. [01:20:09] Thank you. Councilman Davis? [01:20:13] Something that Judy brought up that I'd like to just discuss for a second, and that was [01:20:17] partnerships. It seems that the people that come in front of us come through the rec center, [01:20:25] you know, that want to do something in the park and try to promote downtown and try to [01:20:29] promote their event. But I never hear the Main Street program involved in it. They're [01:20:34] never standing up here with the veterans. They're never standing up here with a fire. [01:20:38] They're never standing up here with any of these groups. And so, you know, there must [01:20:44] be some disconnect here. It seems to me that these types of events would, say, be knocking [01:20:52] on Main Street's door saying, hey, you guys already know how the wheel works. Why don't [01:20:56] you come and help us? And yet you're never here on any of these people that come and [01:21:02] stand up here in front of us and want to do their event. Also, I think that there's [01:21:05] been, it was an adversary relationship between your organization and the chamber as long [01:21:11] as Joe Alpine was there. I think it's changed somewhat now. Chip's there. But I still think [01:21:16] that that partnership should be, you know, hooked at the hip, you know, as strong as [01:21:22] what they're trying to do on West Pasco and what you're trying to do for downtown New [01:21:26] New Port Richey. And I don't see that either. You know, I mean, I think there's some discussion [01:21:31] between the two of you, but you're not working as strongly together as you could. [01:21:38] Mr. Phillips? [01:21:45] You know, I've been in contact with Mr. Phillips, just so you know, I'm not replacing him, that's [01:22:01] part of what I'm doing. [01:22:04] I'm always made aware of that. [01:22:06] But, you know, this over the X amount, Bill, you can probably tell me how long the Friends [01:22:13] of the Hacienda have been, you know, more active in more recent years, maybe four or [01:22:17] five years. [01:22:18] It seemed to me as soon as they started coming out of the woodwork, you know, Main Street [01:22:22] should have grabbed a hold of them and said, you know, come with us, come with us, come [01:22:25] with us. [01:22:26] And the two of you should have been walking hand in hand, but that's not what is seen [01:22:29] in the public. [01:22:30] Whether you are or aren't, it's not what's seen in the public. [01:22:33] Steve? [01:22:34] Can you come up and use the mic? [01:22:38] I'm sorry, but, you know, I'm glad we've had a chance to have some dialogue, because I'm [01:22:45] a board member with the West Pasco Chamber of Commerce, and I was on the executive board. [01:22:51] I resigned because I had the ability to purchase another radio station north of where my other [01:22:55] two are in Citrus County, and my time won't let me attend the meetings, and I don't believe [01:23:00] I should be an executive board member if I can't attend. [01:23:03] But the relationship is actually very, very good, and we've discussed the fact that over [01:23:08] time, unfortunately, for whatever reason, there's been personality and politics involved [01:23:13] in the Main Street organization and how we're perceived in the community, and it's made [01:23:17] us gun shy, it's made other groups gun shy. [01:23:21] And, you know, part of the thing that, you know, that we'd like to do is to help everybody [01:23:26] that we can, but we feel if I was to go to somebody and say, hey, we're going to coordinate [01:23:31] your event with the city and the park, we did not think that that was our mandate or [01:23:35] our right to do that. [01:23:36] If that's something you would like us to do. [01:23:38] No, no, no, no. [01:23:39] Not, just partner with, because you, you know, some events come here. [01:23:43] I'm not saying you take it over, you tell them how to run or anything, but just say, [01:23:46] hey, we're here to help. [01:23:47] We have a whole group of volunteers. [01:23:49] We have, we are in communication with all the businesses downtown. [01:23:53] There are members. [01:23:54] Sure. [01:23:55] You know. [01:23:56] And I understand, but we're not always aware of all the meetings, and that's through no [01:23:59] fault of the city. [01:24:00] I mean, when they allow a group to use the park, it's the city's park. [01:24:03] They have the right to do that. [01:24:05] We don't need to be notified. [01:24:06] Could we do a better job now of meeting with Elaine monthly? [01:24:10] Absolutely. [01:24:11] Our problem has been we tried cooperatively to bring in an executive director that failed [01:24:15] miserably for a number of reasons, a young lady named Misty. [01:24:18] I should not say that because I'm public, but I guess I did already. [01:24:21] But whatever, it didn't work out for whatever reason. [01:24:24] And then we tried another executive director, and it wasn't an exact fit. [01:24:28] So, again, it's trying to get that person in place that feels stable, that's not always [01:24:32] looking over their shoulder about the rug being pulled out from under them, to be able [01:24:36] to interact with those people. [01:24:38] And I do think, right now, Pat Ammon, sitting in the back of the room, is one of our board [01:24:42] members, and she's very proactive. [01:24:44] She has a son that served in combat. [01:24:47] She's involved in the Veterans Parade. [01:24:49] Main Street supports it in numerous ways, and there's board members very involved. [01:24:54] So I think Main Street does a behind-the-scenes on a lot of those things. [01:24:58] We would like to be able to do more things. [01:25:00] I had asked Mario, and I know he's been very busy, but I had asked about setting up a stakeholders [01:25:04] meeting where we sit down with business owners and building owners in the downtown. [01:25:09] I go to Rotary, and I sit at a table with Bob Carroll, who owns a building there. [01:25:13] Everybody downtown used to tell me his building's empty because he needs the tax write-off. [01:25:17] The first time I told Bob that, it took him about 13 or 14 minutes to quit laughing. [01:25:22] And he said, no, that's not the case. [01:25:23] He said, here's the problem. [01:25:24] I have 5,000 square feet. [01:25:26] It's too big for most people. [01:25:27] If I subdivide it, the city makes me put in a firewall that costs me $25,000. [01:25:32] If I do that, and the guy washes out in six months, I've had my head handed to me. [01:25:37] I can't do that. [01:25:38] I can't make that go. [01:25:39] I believe that meetings like that with Joe DeLuca, with Bob Carroll, with other people [01:25:43] that are building owners can help, and we're willing to get involved with that. [01:25:47] We're just going to have to work harder to coordinate it with the city, because we don't [01:25:50] feel like we always have the authority to set up those meetings. [01:25:53] But I do think, you know, you have, Pat, for example, is a person very, very involved with [01:25:58] veterans organizations. [01:25:59] She's a resource to anybody that would use her, and we want to be more of that resource [01:26:03] going forward. [01:26:04] Again, if I can go back to that thing of trying to pay your rent when you're scuffling to [01:26:07] do everything you can to keep your head above water, you know, it's very difficult to reach [01:26:11] out and do those other things. [01:26:12] But I think if you'll ask some of the other groups behind the scenes, they will tell you [01:26:16] there's an involvement. [01:26:17] You know, I was a board member of Main Street, and I volunteered with Chip Wickmanowski to [01:26:21] bring the Bike Fest back. [01:26:22] I mean, that's my claim to fame. [01:26:23] If I die, maybe that's the only big thing I've ever done, is help bring the Bike Fest [01:26:27] back. [01:26:28] But we were proud to do that, because we thought it was good for West Pasco. [01:26:31] We knew that it was going to be moved to another area that was in the works, and we didn't [01:26:34] want to see it go. [01:26:35] And Main Street works cooperatively with them as well. [01:26:39] So, you know, we want to do everything that we can. [01:26:42] And I think, again, if we can sit down and talk across the table one-on-one and work [01:26:47] things out, we'll absolutely follow your direction. [01:26:49] We'll do what you want us to do. [01:26:50] And I think you'll find out we're trying to do what you've asked us to do. [01:26:53] It's just trying to get there, you know? [01:26:56] Are there any other questions? [01:26:57] Because I love Main Street. [01:26:59] I hope you can tell. [01:27:00] I really do. [01:27:01] But I love the city. [01:27:02] I love the chamber. [01:27:03] I love everything that's positive in this area. [01:27:05] And the beautiful thing about it, there's a benefit for me. [01:27:08] There's a trickle-down. [01:27:09] And I'm a business person in this community. [01:27:11] And when the downtown is more vibrant, Dulcet Restaurant. [01:27:14] We formed a relationship and a friendship with Nelson O'Heon when he opened the restaurant. [01:27:19] He's been an advertiser with my radio station ever since. [01:27:21] He's a member of Main Street, works closely with us. [01:27:24] We love guys like him. [01:27:25] You know, we love to see the people come into downtown. [01:27:28] So, you know, for the criticisms, like I said, some are deserved. [01:27:32] But some of them, if you look below the surface, I think you'll kind of understand, you know, [01:27:36] God bless their heart. [01:27:37] They're doing the best they can with what they got, you know? [01:27:40] Ms. Phelps, any thoughts? [01:27:42] I don't have any questions for Mr. Frieden. [01:27:44] I hope I'm not presenting myself as an adversary. [01:27:46] I appreciate the passion. [01:27:47] And we understood that when this was on the agenda that we would have this. [01:27:53] Because obviously the only time we get a chance to express our thoughts in a collective fashion is in these settings by state law. [01:28:03] State legislators don't have to do that. [01:28:06] We can't very much hardly say hello to each other outside of here sometimes without people thinking you're colluding or something. [01:28:13] But we understand that. [01:28:15] And we, you know, anybody that's been in the city and been around for a long time understands Main Street, [01:28:21] understands that the cheese has been moved, there's been adversarial relationships in the past. [01:28:30] I don't think you've seen that up here in a long, long time. [01:28:33] I agree. [01:28:34] It's very beneficial because we all had to make it through those really tough times. [01:28:41] And with that, in bringing Ms. Manns to town, we actually, in some ways, the city, [01:28:51] has created competitive elements in our organization because basically one of our faults is patience isn't one of our virtues. [01:29:04] Mr. Rivera can tell you how impatient we are. [01:29:07] You know, we're on him like all the time. [01:29:11] We ask something. [01:29:12] We expect a turnaround. [01:29:15] So, you know, we share that throughout the board. [01:29:17] And in that, Ms. Manns gets graded every year because of what we tasked her with. [01:29:23] And we created those dynamics where we have an economic development team, which part of that used to fall to Main Street in some areas. [01:29:32] It's not commingled now because you have that economic development. [01:29:39] Budget funding has been all over the board, and there's been a number of reasons why, up and down, personalities, you know, councils that used to do that. [01:29:49] And then really over and above that is we show a dollar amount, and then we also don't show the in-kind balances because you can't tell the true story. [01:30:00] over in kind, and you're absolutely right, [01:30:03] Mr. Snyder brought an MOU in, [01:30:05] and I said it from day one getting on, [01:30:08] a memorandum of understanding is not nine pages, [01:30:11] because a memorandum isn't nine pages, [01:30:14] and we had to go through all of those evolutions, [01:30:16] but we also had to be cognizant of fundraising events [01:30:22] and things happening in the city, [01:30:23] and what the impact was on our operational team [01:30:28] from the fire, to the police, to the rec center, [01:30:31] to all those, and the only way we could do that [01:30:34] was to begin to tie costs back. [01:30:36] How they were allocated sometimes was very interesting, [01:30:39] so I agree that, and the other thing that we're, [01:30:43] especially tonight, we're asking to put in this MOU, [01:30:47] and we really haven't gotten through to the final elements [01:30:52] of the end of our budget process, [01:30:54] so it's kind of like what the state did to us last year, [01:30:58] they'd tell us one thing one week, [01:30:59] and then they'd move the number the next week, [01:31:02] and we were always up against it, [01:31:03] so yeah, we'd like to talk about a different number, [01:31:06] we'd like to have a better dynamic [01:31:08] about how you operate, and evaluation, [01:31:13] so with that, my recommendation would be, [01:31:16] is one, to allow us to define some of the in-kind dollars, [01:31:22] so that we have a true picture of what has been shared, [01:31:28] both plus and minus, on Main Street, [01:31:31] and the county, and the city, [01:31:33] obviously look at the other elements that we're in, [01:31:36] and then allow us another three or four weeks, [01:31:41] so that we understand where all of our budget elements are, [01:31:44] with our capital improvements, with our CRA, [01:31:48] with our fire and police, [01:31:49] because right now, I believe, [01:31:51] anything we do, we're gonna change, [01:31:55] so to give you some funding, [01:31:58] I wouldn't be opposed to putting something in temporarily, [01:32:01] so you do have some cash flow, [01:32:04] and a partial MOU for a 120-day process, or whatever, [01:32:10] so that we can have that sit down, [01:32:12] and put all of those things on the table, [01:32:15] have Mr. Bella Thomas back, and kind of get through that, [01:32:18] so that would be my recommendation right now, [01:32:20] because I don't think what we do tonight's gonna be, [01:32:24] is gonna balance and be good across the board, [01:32:27] and unfortunately, I'm like you, [01:32:28] I don't wanna cover the same ground over and over again, [01:32:31] I feel like the Buccaneers years ago, [01:32:33] but that's an old adage, [01:32:35] so that would be my recommendation right now, [01:32:38] and that way, we could get all the things out, [01:32:41] have better numbers, and better evaluation, [01:32:43] so that's where I'd be. [01:32:44] And could I close with a request, [01:32:45] again, if we could do a work session, [01:32:47] before you make your final decision, [01:32:48] because we really think that there's some value, [01:32:51] that sometimes it is hard to express, [01:32:53] because when I get up here, I'm usually not nervous, [01:32:56] I get a little nervous, because I'm passionate, [01:32:58] I wanna say all the things that I have in the proposal, [01:33:01] I don't always get them out, [01:33:02] and then there's some things that you guys say, [01:33:04] that are your opinions, or facts, as you see them, [01:33:07] there's some I agree with, and some I don't, [01:33:09] but then we're at a disadvantage, [01:33:10] because we don't always get to approach all those things, [01:33:12] and I think we need to be accountable, [01:33:14] and I think a great place to do that, [01:33:16] is in a work session, we can't leave the table, [01:33:18] we have to give you an answer, we're there, [01:33:20] we have to answer, and if it doesn't make sense, [01:33:22] it's gonna be obvious, [01:33:23] and we have to change the way that we do it, [01:33:24] but on the other hand, if there's some criticism, [01:33:26] that we think is not valid, [01:33:28] or maybe there's a lack of facts, [01:33:29] we can bring those facts forward, [01:33:30] and it might change someone's mind, [01:33:32] so again, I promise not to, [01:33:33] I'll try not to get up again, I really promise. [01:33:36] Ms. Manns, we've got, what, six weeks between now, [01:33:38] and the start of the fiscal year? [01:33:41] That's correct, Mr. Mayor. [01:33:43] Do we have time in that to? [01:33:45] To schedule a work session? [01:33:46] Under any obligation to make a decision this evening, [01:33:50] if you're not prepared to do so, [01:33:53] this $15,000 that I'm recommending to you [01:33:57] is part of the CRA budget, [01:33:59] and so if there is any change to it, [01:34:02] I will need to know which of our CRA activities [01:34:07] you're interested in reducing funding for [01:34:11] when we have our CRA budget meeting. [01:34:14] And that meeting is coming up? [01:34:17] Yes, it is. [01:34:18] Help me out, Mayor, what's the date? [01:34:22] I just looked at it the other day, I... [01:34:25] We have the shred on the 23rd from 11 to 12, [01:34:28] which obviously talks about the CRA. [01:34:32] Obviously, he's got his report coming up on that, too. [01:34:36] I'm sorry, Mayor, did you ever check? [01:34:37] It's September 5th, there's a meeting. [01:34:38] September 5th. [01:34:39] Thank you. [01:34:43] Do we want to approve the $15,000 tonight [01:34:45] and then after our work session talk about more? [01:34:47] I'll go sit down, I think I'm done with that. [01:34:48] Thank you. [01:34:50] That, I believe, is the pleasure of the board. [01:34:54] We can either do that or we can wait [01:34:57] till we get a little further down the road. [01:34:58] Let me understand, that $15,000 is in next fiscal year, [01:35:02] is that correct? [01:35:03] That's correct. [01:35:04] Is there any funding between now, [01:35:06] is there any funding owed to Main Street [01:35:10] between now and September 30th? [01:35:13] No, there is not. [01:35:16] Okay, all right, that was the clarity I needed. [01:35:19] Ms. DeBell-Thomas, I didn't want to leave you [01:35:21] hanging out there, did you have any other? [01:35:23] Oh, thank you. [01:35:24] Well, I think it's been an excellent conversation. [01:35:27] I think one thing that the Main Street organization [01:35:31] can be faulted for is not telling their story [01:35:35] succinctly enough and not bringing all those pieces [01:35:38] to the table. [01:35:39] I think that to Mr. Davis's point, [01:35:44] there was not a day that went by that organizations, [01:35:47] individuals would contact the office to ask [01:35:53] about how to host events or bringing an opportunity. [01:35:59] We want to do this event, what would you suggest we do, [01:36:01] how can we do it? [01:36:02] And a lot of times, they became part of [01:36:06] the Main Street's events, that's how we were, [01:36:10] that's how the organization became partners with the fire. [01:36:13] They wanted to do their duck race, [01:36:15] and I suggested to them, that sounds like a perfect [01:36:18] Cody River Seafood Festival activity. [01:36:21] So, again, years ago, the Salt Springs organization [01:36:25] wanted to do rafting, kayak racing. [01:36:30] They are, the program, lots of people, [01:36:34] I know in New Port Richey, they're Fourth of July event, [01:36:38] contacted the organization to ask, [01:36:40] where do we begin hosting an event? [01:36:42] You know, it's a shame that they don't charge for that, [01:36:45] but that's what folks do, you know, consulting. [01:36:48] So, anyway, to that point, I think the conversations [01:36:51] that we had tonight were outstanding. [01:36:53] I think the exchange of information was great. [01:36:56] The only hesitation that I have is with [01:37:02] suggesting that that 15,000 is the amount [01:37:05] that we're gonna fund tonight, [01:37:06] I don't wanna get stuck on that, [01:37:07] because I really do not feel that that would be beneficial [01:37:10] to the city, the program itself, or to the city. [01:37:14] So, I, for one, would prefer, [01:37:18] if we do schedule a work session, [01:37:21] keeping in mind that we, and I think it sounds like [01:37:25] we're all agreeing that that 15,000 is not the nut [01:37:28] that we want to necessarily wind up with for them. [01:37:35] But I'd be curious to, if I might ask, [01:37:38] I'd be curious to know the group that's there, [01:37:41] you know, what is their feeling? [01:37:43] Would they be more comfortable having us [01:37:48] suggest that amount, or to go ahead [01:37:50] and sit down with the work session? [01:37:52] Mr. Mayor, I was gonna propose [01:37:53] that we approve the $15,000 tonight, [01:37:55] sit down, have a work session, [01:38:00] speak candidly to each other like we have been tonight, [01:38:03] just put all the past in the past. [01:38:04] I've made it quite clear tonight what I'm looking for, [01:38:08] and how I think Greater New Perch and Main Street [01:38:10] can promote our city. [01:38:12] I look forward to hearing their thoughts [01:38:15] and input at the work session as to what they feel about, [01:38:18] how they feel about my ideas, but I would propose [01:38:21] we just approve the 15,000 tonight, have a work session, [01:38:25] and then at the end of that work session, [01:38:27] determine how much more we want to fund on top of that. [01:38:32] That is certainly an option. [01:38:35] If that's a proposal, I'll second that with a comment [01:38:39] that this is all past that you've given us, [01:38:43] I really would like future. [01:38:46] You know, I mean, if you're in business, [01:38:48] you've got, you know, how many years down the road [01:38:52] are you looking at Steve with your business? [01:38:53] You know, three, five, 10? [01:38:56] You know, so this is all past, I would like, you know, [01:38:59] the future, you know, in that work session. [01:39:01] But I'll second it if that's your view. [01:39:03] Mr. Sturkey, that was a motion? [01:39:05] That was a motion, yes, sir. [01:39:06] Yeah, and I'll second it. [01:39:06] And we do have a motion and a second. [01:39:10] Further comment about the motion on the floor? [01:39:15] Well, a big comment I would like to make [01:39:16] is I think you're absolutely right, Mr. Davis, [01:39:18] and I believe that programs are fully embracing what to do. [01:39:24] We're not only looking at a 26 or 28-year-old organization, [01:39:30] but I think that they are fully ready [01:39:32] and prepared to embrace the 21st century. [01:39:35] The program itself has morphed on a national level. [01:39:39] There's so many innovative, forward-thinking [01:39:42] activities and initiatives that are swirling [01:39:48] in the mainstream pot that our city can fully embrace [01:39:54] because of the venue that we have, [01:39:55] which is our historic downtown [01:39:58] with the river that runs through it. [01:39:59] It's just made for the kinds of activities, [01:40:04] Jeff, that you are speaking about. [01:40:06] And they have been approached by several individuals [01:40:11] and organizations who want to hearken back [01:40:14] to those things that just make great sense [01:40:17] for a downtown community. [01:40:18] So I'm fully embracing what we're suggesting tonight, [01:40:23] and I have every confidence that the Main Street [01:40:25] organization will step to the plate [01:40:27] and bring to us what we, I think, [01:40:30] are all envisioning for our city. [01:40:33] I will echo Mr. Davis's comment. [01:40:35] I would love to not only see the historic, [01:40:39] what Main Street has tried to do over the last year, [01:40:42] but what would the Main Street, [01:40:46] in an ideal situation, do this coming year? [01:40:51] And if we could, I hate to put you on the spot [01:40:53] for a real short notice planning, [01:40:57] but if you could have that when we do our workshop, [01:41:00] that would be tremendous. [01:41:04] We have a motion and a second. [01:41:07] Further discussion? [01:41:10] Hearing none, all those in, [01:41:13] I'm sorry? [01:41:15] No, I thought you were asking [01:41:17] if there was any further comment, I was saying no. [01:41:19] Okay, thank you. [01:41:21] Hearing no further comments, all those in favor, [01:41:24] please signify by saying aye. [01:41:25] Aye. [01:41:26] Aye. [01:41:27] Opposed, light sign. [01:41:29] Motion passes.

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4. 4Adjournment▶ 1:41:30