Downtown Development Board - Regular Meeting

Monday, June 2, 2025
Transcript
Video
Agenda

About this meeting

Government Body
Downtown Development Board
Meeting Type
Downtown Development Board
Location
Clearwater, FL
Meeting Date
June 2, 2025

Transcript

183 sections (from 199 segments)

8:290

So 06/02/2025 Downtown Development Board is now called to order at 1PM. Item 2.1. Is there a motion to approve the 05/12/2025 minutes?

8:381

So move. Second.

8:400

All in favor? Aye. Unanimous. Item 3.1.

8:46 – 9:022

Schedule a special community development agency PM, and a special CRA meeting on Wednesday, 09/03/2025 at 05:15PM, and Wednesday, '7 September seventeenth twenty twenty five at 05:15PM.

9:043

Hey, sir. Nino, CRA executive director for the record. Don't have any changes besides what the clerk indicated. So staff is requesting approval of those dates.

9:150

Any questions or comments?

9:174

Yes. Is why do we have that item on the agenda?

9:223

What was the question?

9:234

Why do we have that item on the DB agenda?

9:263

So we can be in alignment with the city's budgeting process and also not to be in conflict with the county's process for

9:324

budgeting. Okay.

9:36 – 9:480

Any further comments or questions? Does anyone in the audience wish to speak on this item? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve agenda item 3.1?

9:481

Move to approve agenda item 3.1.

9:500

Second. All in favor?

9:540

Units. Item 3.2.

9:573

Staff has requested approval of the April 2025 statements for filing that are attached to your documents there. I'm here to answer any questions if you have any. Otherwise, I'm requesting approval.

10:08 – 10:220

Any questions or comments from the board? Seeing none, is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak on this item? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve agenda item 3.2?

10:225

Motion to approve agenda item 3.2.

10:240

Is there a second?

10:256

Second.

10:260

All in favor? Aye. Unanimous. Item 3.3.

10:313

Next, I'll have miss Vicky Schire come up and present the next three items since she is CRA program manager.

10:37 – 10:532

Approve a high impact grant funding request for Intensity Academy to produce a two fall fall event fall y'all at Kirkland Park at October 2025 with an amount not to exceed $30,000 and authorize appropriate officials to execute today.

10:53 – 11:337

Good afternoon. Vicky Shire, CR division manager. Staff is presenting a high impact grant request from Intensity Academy to produce Fall Y'all, a two day family friendly celebration at Cochrane Park on October 2025 from 10AM to 4PM. The event organizer, Michelle and her husband Atlas, who you might better know as Saucy Queen and Saucy Hubby, together have been adding spice to the Tampa Bay market and event scene producing successful monthly markets and foodie festivals throughout Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, and Hernando Counties. They've also been featured by several media outlets and have built a loyal following with over 12,000 followers on their Tasty Tampa Bay Food Facebook page.

11:34 – 12:197

Fall You All is expected to draw 1,500 attendees per day. Will activate multiple zones of Coachmen Park with pumpkin contest, live music, costume characters, a kids' zone, seasonal food trucks, and local vendors. The total budget to produce Fall Y'all is $36,586 Of that amount, the applicant is contributing 38% of the total cost. They're requesting 30,000 in DDB funding to support eligible direct expenses, including estimated $10,125 in city fees based on projections provided by parks and recreation staff. Under section three of the DD's funding policy, this proposal meets the following criteria.

12:19 – 12:367

Attendance over 2,000, free and open the public, the applicants match, staff recommends approval of funding not to exceed 30,000 as the event lines with DD's mission and the city's strategic plan. At this time, I have Saucy Queen team here to answer any question you may have at this time. Thank you.

12:390

Any questions from the board? Any comments?

12:44 – 12:571

I have a couple. Manino? Yeah. How did we do the how did we come to the math on the percentage if it's a $36,000 expense event and the city is contributing 30,000?

12:578

We also didn't include our staff in that budget because we thought these are only the items that you guys are going to cover, so we didn't include that as well.

13:071

Okay. And then $13,000 for marketing and advertising?

13:128

Correct.

13:141

3037% of the budget seems a little high. I mean, We special events.

13:21 – 13:528

We do big events such as this, we really do make a splash with advertising. We do postcards. We do Facebook ads. The event we're doing this weekend, is the Brooksville Watermelon Festival, we anticipate having 27,000 attendees. So we do want to do a big event here at Coachmen. We don't know since it is our first event, so we do have to do a splash of a lot more promoting than we normally would.

13:53 – 14:101

Got you. Okay. Just customary advertising budget should be about 15% to 20% of your potential gross revenues that, you know, puts you 5,006 thousand dollars more, we get your money's worth out of it. Dollars 6,600 on live music and stuff?

14:10 – 14:418

Correct. So we have two bands, but we also have to pay for the stage. We have to pay for we're doing a Little Miss and Sir pumpkin contest. So we'll have the kiddos dress up two different days. One day will be fall themed. So, we'll see a lot of scarecrows and pumpkins throughout. So, we need prizes for that. We also need to decorate the stage and decorate the areas with little vignettes for photos and that type of thing.

14:411

Beautiful. And I'm not questioning the post polls or anything, I just want to make sure

14:458

Of course.

14:46 – 15:011

We start setting a precedent as a board. Absolutely. We're here to be a good partner and help you succeed. But what we don't want to be is just handing out money irresponsibly, that's the only reason I'm questioning some of these line items. I appreciate you

15:01 – 15:208

answering Absolutely. We also anticipate we're already approved to do Jingle Bell in December 20 and then in 2026, our big foodie event, Tasty Tampa Bay. So we want to be partners with you is what saying.

15:201

Thank you.

15:210

Anyone else? Can

15:254

you tell me a little bit more what's going to be happening at your event? I know it's a two day event.

15:29 – 15:438

Sure. So we have live music. We'll have contests for the kiddos. We're going to have a beautiful kids zone and pumpkin, you know, all sorts of things that are pumpkins and just a lot of fun.

15:434

Got it. Any vendors will be participating?

15:45 – 15:598

Oh, yeah. We plan on having about 160 to 180 vendors. We're currently at 70 on booking, and we're currently on Facebook at about 4,000 interested as well and with months to go.

16:004

Got it. Is it going to be a paid event or is it

16:029

to be free?

16:028

For what?

16:034

Is it going to be a paid event for public?

16:068

Oh, yeah, free public event. No paying. Everything will be free, yeah. Thanks. Except for when they buy something from a vendor.

16:144

Right.

16:14 – 16:478

Or if they purchase something from a food truck. We also plan to invite like the restaurants and the shops right here to come in if they want to have a booth. I will give them a free booth. If they want to give me materials. Our check-in area, we're going to pass materials out. I'm also making swag bags because we have a lot of media contacts, so we'll have media folks coming in. Our VIP bags can have information from the different shops and restaurants. Whatever they give me, we will promote, promote.

16:48 – 17:130

You. So you answered the questions for me about the local businesses. Don't want local businesses to be involved in anything that's going on. I just wanted to I wanted some further clarification and piggyback off of Board Member's Menino's comments. Did I read it correctly that $4,000 alone is gonna be on Facebook? Was that just an example of a social platform or the

17:138

only social platform? An example of

17:150

So that's not only on Facebook for Correct.

17:178

We do other social platforms too. Yeah.

17:200

Can you

17:2010

list some?

17:21 – 17:378

Yeah. So Instagram and Tik Tok and Okay. Those are the main ones. Alright. But I do have to say Facebook, the majority of our target audience, the families that come out, they do see it on Facebook.

17:380

Anyone else? Okay, so at this point, is there anyone in the audience who wishes to speak on this item? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve item 3.3?

17:486

So moved.

17:490

Second. Is there a second?

17:514

Second.

17:520

All in favor? Aye. Unanimous. Congratulations.

17:558

Thank you so much. And we hope you guys come out. Thank you.

18:040

Item 3.4. Approve a

18:06 – 18:212

high impact grant funding request from the market culture to support the market mostly artisan market at Coastal Park on the second Saturday of each month from June 2025 through May 2026 in the amount not to exceed $30,000 and authorized the FERC official tax.

18:23 – 18:497

Afternoon. Vicki Shire. Staff is presenting a request for high impact grant funding from the market culture to support the Market Marie, a monthly outdoor market held at Cochrane Park on the second Saturday of each month running from June 2025 through May 2026. Market Marie has grown into a signature downtown clear water event. Each month, it features over 130 local and small business vendors and draws more than 5,000 attendees.

18:50 – 19:307

The market runs from 10AM to 2PM and is free and open to the public. The total cost to host the twelve month season of Market Marie is $139,720. Of that, the applicant is contributing nearly 80% of the total budget. The applicant is requesting 30,000 from the DDB to help fund eligible direct production costs and city fees estimated at $19,080 on monthly projections from the parks and recreation staff. The funding request remains CDB eligibility criteria, including free and open to the public, the financial match, and supporting materials, including event history.

19:31 – 19:457

Staff recommends approval of this request and the amount not to exceed 30,000 for city fees and direct production costs. I have Blair from Market Culture here to assist with any questions. Thank you. Hi, everyone.

19:450

How are you?

19:461

Do you

19:460

guys have or comments from the board?

19:49 – 20:0011

Yes. So I know you have been extremely successful and we're really proud to have you guys down here. But I haven't seen you and the DDB requesting money in a while. Just wondering, has something changed?

20:00 – 20:2110

Yeah. So recently, because the amount of consistent customers that come to our event, the city has required that we have EMS on standby at every event. And so that budget item just prompted us to come before you guys again, take a closer look at our budget. And since it is a requirement moving forward every month, yeah, that was the biggest change

20:210

for us. Got it. Anyone else? Thank

20:26 – 20:431

you for choosing our beautiful park. It's been one of our most successful successful events events downtown. Downtown. Thank you. But I was just commenting on the previous about a marketing budget, know, here your entire year 12 events and your marketing budget is $2,500 per event.

20:44 – 21:131

That's a little more in that realm of partnership where I was looking for, and you having the responsibility of the financial burdens at eighty percent is appreciated in that partnership, so thank you for that. I just want to make sure, again, we're not setting a precedent as this board that we're able to just frivolously throw out money for events and hope that they're successful. And I think your budget reflects reality. And I thank you for that.

21:130

Yeah, thank you. Anyone else?

21:155

I'd just like to say thank you. We love coming to the market. You guys, something we look forward to and me and my family always love coming down to the park and enjoying it.

21:22 – 21:3410

Thank you so much. Well, guys have helped us grow tremendously. So I want to thank the entire board for previous funding and would be honored to be approved again.

21:34 – 21:510

I think this is a great investment, 30,000 for 12 proven successful events. I actually have family members that periodically come and visit me and they actually book their flights around your market. So kudos to Congratulations and great job. We all appreciate what you're doing.

21:5110

Thank you so much.

21:53 – 22:120

Okay. Any other questions or comments? Is there anyone from the audience who wishes to speak to this item? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve item 3.4? Motion to approve 3.4. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Unanimous, congratulations. See you

22:121

soon. You.

22:140

Item 3.5. Approve a

22:16 – 22:282

high impact grant funding request from Florida Best Promotions Inc. To support SADASA at the district, Halloween edition on 11/01/2025 in an amount not to exceed $29,000 and authorized to perfect officials to execute the same.

22:29 – 22:537

Good afternoon again. Vicki Shire, CRE division manager. This item before you is a high impact funding request from Florida Best Promotion Inc. An amount not to exceed 29,200 to support salsa at the district Halloween edition. A free one night culture event scheduled for Friday, 11/01/2025 from six to 11PM at Station Square Park in the 500 block of Clearwater of Downtown Clearwater.

22:54 – 24:037

This high energy event will include live salsa orchestras, Latin DJs, dance lessons, culture performances, and Latin cuisine, all in a family friendly Halloween themed setting. The total event the total expected attendance is 5,000 with the goal of activating downtown, attracting regional visitors, and supporting local businesses. The total event budget is $79,440 The applicant applicant is contributing $15,530 with an estimated third party totaling 49,007 and $10 The applicant has been approved for in kind city fees, support through parks and recreation valued at $9,710 The applicant is requesting 3,000 funding from the DDB. Staff recommends awarding amount not to exceed 29,200 to cover eligible direct production costs. This proposal meets all criteria under section three of the DDB grant policy, including open to the public, the attendance, the applicants match, and supporting documentation.

24:037

The staff recommends approving amount not to exceed 29,200, and the applicant Richel Rio is available to answer any questions at this time.

24:112

Thank you.

24:120

Any questions or comments from the board?

24:18 – 24:481

Advice? Put on great events. No questions, so when I ask some questions, it's not, again to throw shade at your event because you check a lot of boxes of bringing excitement and entertainment downtown, you bring the diversity that we're looking for in events, so I greatly appreciate that. Thank you. If you could just help me better understand a couple expenses. Over $19,000 for audiovisual equipment? Yes. Are we are you purchasing this equipment or are you renting it?

24:49 – 25:379

We have we put two stages, one in Station Square and one at the Corner Of Garden in Cleveland. So both stages need are going to have full bands, 10 to 12 piece bands. And one of the things that I've learned over the past of these events is specifically with this category, I've saved money using less experienced companies, and I've learned over the time, you know, to use good professional companies, and that just costs a little more. Yeah. But it leads to a better outcome, not for just that event, but for future events in the area and the branding of the Clearwater area to have something well done.

25:38 – 25:531

Yeah. Would and I see your entertainment and bands as a total separate category. You're spending about $8 on that. I don't I know getting good performers is expensive and you bring them in, don't live in our backyard, you got to pay to get them here. So I do get that.

25:54 – 26:179

One of the things I pride myself on and one of the missions I had when I started this company was to support local talent. Salsa bands are not easy to hire. They're 10 to 12 people, so they don't get to gig that much in the local area. And we have amazing talent in the Tampa Bay area. And one of the things I'm very proud of is that I use them.

26:181

Yeah. Gotcha. Thank you. Okay. Marketing budget. $25,000 for a one night marketing budget. What what are you what are you spending all that on?

26:28 – 27:239

So marketing is split up between different categories. One of them is radio, streaming audio, email marketing, social media, text message marketing, and Google Ads. I believe that this event kind of stands at a pivotal point. And part of my mission in doing this event and one of the reasons why I love doing it here is I think we have an opportunity to brand Clearwater, not just the beaches because I'm doing some events down there, but the downtown area as a destination for dancers all over the world. And I and I believe that that process has has started, and we're kind of at that pivotal point where it's starting to go, know, wider range of people.

27:23 – 28:009

90% of the people who are showing up to the event are from outside of Clearwater. I don't know if that's a good or a bad statistic, but it means I'm bringing outsiders in. It also says I have to do a better job locally. So the marketing is super important. That marketing budget is not coming out of the grant that, for now anyways, that I'm presenting on today. I submitted a grant with visiting Pete Clearwater as well, which I don't have an answer on yet. I won't know the answer of that until probably the June.

28:01 – 28:401

Okay. And these are hard to hard to evaluate, you know, and we just had a great we all sat here and said, it's our most successful event downtown, and with a marketing budget of $26,000 for twelve months for our most success, and then here we look at one night, one event, and almost $30,000 of giving, those are tough to evaluate. But I'm not taking anything away from the success of your event, the energy of your event. I think the councilwoman chair today spends hours out there rolling around town dancing all night. And I know that she would probably argue a little bit with me on this one.

28:40 – 29:151

So you do put on a great event. Just, again, we have to be fiscally responsible and make sure we're not just throwing numbers and I think $19,000 for audio visual equipment seems a bit high for me being in the industry. I think you could probably buy a couple stages for that price. Normally a rental fee should be about 10% of what the actual cost is, that's industry standard. And then $25,000 on marketing, that's a lot of outreach, but you do put on great events and I appreciate you. Thank you.

29:16 – 29:395

Yep, I'd like to say that I agree, I think that you put on fantastic events as well. This price point is a little high for me to try and pallet for a one night event though. And you say that you're trying to reach about 5,000 people. I know in the past we were wondering how you counted just at the regular salsa at the district. How do you plan on capturing those numbers to see if you get the 5,000?

29:39 – 30:009

So so let me start by saying that I've been doing this event since 2014. And pre COVID, we were averaging 10 to 12,000 people 12,000 people twice a year. So we know that we can get back to those numbers, and we could do it here in Clearwater. Your question was about?

30:015

Counting the attendance.

30:021

How are

30:025

we going to capture that 5,000?

30:04 – 30:439

So most we do a lot of in our marketing, do a lot of, data collection and registry. We do we're doing a campaign called salsification and we have people register. That's kind of a good, indicator of the numbers of people that are arriving and not only, that are attending, but where they come from, which is important data. And we've done a good job of collecting that kind of data. We estimate with one email and one text message, we will bring probably on average, and we've been doing this since 2014, 3,000 people.

30:44 – 30:589

You know, with the budget that we're looking at now, 5,000 is very attainable is what I've been averaging, and we expect that to grow if we get the budget from Visit Saint Pete Clearwater.

30:595

And with that, actually, how much did you ask for from Saint Pete Clearwater,

31:04 – 31:329

25,000. So the budget from from Visit Saint Pete Clearwater would entirely cover advertising and the DDB grant would entirely cover production. And those numbers are estimates. You're right, I can probably negotiate and get the price down on audio and visual. So these are estimates and obviously I'm going to try to spend as little money as possible.

31:32 – 31:475

Right. So I'll be honest with you and don't take this personally because I do think you do a great job with your events, but I'm not feeling very comfortable with this price point for the one night event. I'll listen to the rest of my colleagues, see how they feel up here on spending that amount of money for this one time, but we'll see how it goes. Thank you very much.

31:480

Is anyone else? Can

31:51 – 32:024

you tell us a little more about your last year's event, And if you can remind us how much money did you request last year and how much was granted to you?

32:02 – 32:489

So last year was a difficult year for the event. We were affected by the hurricane and both hurricanes. We had two Latin nights scheduled. One was produced by Florida Best Promotions, the other one was produced by the City of Clearwater in partnership with iHeartRadio. We ended up having to, or I was asked to move the event to reschedule the date and move it into Clearwater and kind of Coachmen and combine the events which drastically rose the cost of production because the production that they had out there was massive for their event.

32:48 – 33:199

And in fact, that was probably the biggest production I've ever been honored to be a part of. It was exciting. But it ended up costing me probably close to 15,000 more than I had budgeted for production. And then there was another at least $5,000 more cost in marketing because of changing of the date. The band that we had hired for downtown couldn't do the new dates.

33:19 – 33:499

We had to hire different band, create new marketing material and do that, which all cost money. And we ended up losing about $20,000 last year. What But we had a successful event from an attendance standpoint despite all of those difficulties and the scheduled date that we moved to was actually pretty cold night too, which I think affected the attendance as well. But even with that, we had close to 5,000 people.

33:490

Thank you. So

33:55 – 34:1011

back to Councilmember Cotton's question. How are you actually capturing the attendance? I know you're saying that you're seeing it on your analytics, but a lot of people sign up for things and don't show up. So how do you solidify that figure?

34:10 – 34:479

It's not an exact science when you use that data, but when you combine that with your social media numbers, when you combine that with there are methods that you can use photography to estimate numbers, but they're all estimates. They're not exact numbers. But we feel that they're not just exaggerated numbers. They're using the methods that that are available out there, data collection, social media, and photography.

34:47 – 35:0211

And then I may have just heard this wrong. I feel like I heard that the total cost was 79. You had a third party at 49 and you were contributing 15. So the math kind of seems like there's only 15 being recorded.

35:02 – 35:219

In that 49 is included the 15. So it's 25,000 from visit Saint Pete Clearwater, which has not been approved yet. 9,000 from Parks and Rec and then 15,000 from myself. Thank you.

35:230

Anything else? Mr. Roberts?

35:26 – 35:596

Yeah. I'll make a comment. You know, when I look at these events, I really I look at well, first of all, have you done something before that I can instead of just pie in the sky, and and obviously, you've done a good job of doing this before. I I do think it's a little pricey on some of the way you know, some of the items that are priced out. And then what's making me feel a little uncomfortable is when are you expecting to hear an answer from St. Pete Clearwater?

35:599

I should hear an answer from them by the June. By the end of this month is what I'm told.

36:07 – 36:249

So they go I don't know if you guys are are familiar with that process, but it goes before the visiting the Clearwater Organization. They approve or deny it, and then it goes in front of the tourism board. Yeah. And that happens at the June.

36:26 – 36:386

And if you don't get what you want from them, that's gonna severely hamper your advertising budget because that's pretty much where your advertising budget is coming from, right?

36:38 – 37:029

Yeah. I would have to I would have to make I would have to make changes. I would have to cut back on production. It's one where I would have to cut back on. I would have to cut back on advertising would be severely cut out, obviously. And we'd have to fit everything within the a much smaller budget.

37:03 – 37:466

Yes. You know, compared to the other events though, and it's been brought up, I mean, it is a one night event. The other ones are a lot longer, and you gotta look at the overall. How many people you're bringing in for the amount of money that, you know, that you're giving? I'm not saying your event's not a good one. I mean, it's been well attended before. Let me ask you this, the staff has approved the 29.2 amount?

37:460

Recommended. Mr. Shire, Scranton Division Manager,

37:517

based on your DDU policy, that's what the staff recommends. We have to go based off your DDU policy, and that's what the recommendations were based off that.

38:01 – 38:276

I'd almost predicate this on, you know, what because there's two components here. If you can't get the money from St. Pete Clearwater, then the event's gonna be a smaller event or so I'd almost like to predicated on the getting approval from Saint Pete Clearwater.

38:27 – 39:109

So I anticipate if I do get to visit Saint Pete Clearwater that my numbers should be much greater than 5,000. You know, I'm doing basically 5,000 without that budget now. You know, if I do get that budget, we plan to really grow this event and take this to the next level. We do, we would like to grow this event to more than just a one day event. We do have a vision for this event, which, you know, would be weekend long event, which would include congresses, dance congresses, where we brought dancers, instructors, and people from all over the world.

39:11 – 39:469

There are a few examples of other ones that are done similarly to what my vision is in the area. One of them is called Byla Tampa. And it's kind of a similar idea for what I want to do, but I think that the city of Clearwater with its beaches and its downtown area presents a very unique opportunity for dancers and for the city of Clearwater. And that's really what the long term vision is and what what I'm building towards. And I think that we're on our way towards getting there.

39:49 – 40:030

I think you had one more comment or question. I have one question. The $25,000 that large percentage of your budget is allocated to marketing. Is that been increased in the hopes of growing or is that the standard that you've always used in the past?

40:039

No, would be an increased amount.

40:050

From what?

40:06 – 40:449

From last year, I think my budget was $15,000 that I spent in marketing plus the over budget that we went with. So it's about $20,000 that we spent. We're looking to spend $25,000 if we get this budget from visiting St. Pete Clearwater. And I just thought from an accounting standpoint, it made sense to separate production, which is what I come in front of you guys for and use this as same thing with Clearwater for the marketing from an accounting standpoint and made things a little simpler.

40:46 – 40:590

Well, I'm hearing some concern about this amount. So does anyone want to expand on that and come up with an amount that perhaps we can be comfortable with? Because that's what I'm hearing from everyone here.

40:59 – 41:314

I think that Council Member Overton made a good point. We might want to maybe we should table it and wait to see if Visit St. Peter Clearwater approved your request, and then maybe you can come back before us and we can have another more detailed conversation just because we're entirely talking about am I hearing you correctly? You never applied to visit St. Pete Clearwater before?

41:319

I did apply last year and I was not granted

41:344

Was not granted.

41:35 – 42:039

The amount. The reason why from what I understand, the reason why I did not get granted last year was their budget was much smaller. They just kind of run out of funds. This year, they do have a bigger budget and nothing is guaranteed, but I feel good about my ability to get that grant approved.

42:03 – 42:224

Right. Yes. So if your grant gets approved and if your grant doesn't get approved, we're talking about pretty much two entirely separate situations. Like you definitely difference in attendance, definitely difference in how much money you're going to spend on what

42:229

It should be a drastic difference.

42:24 – 43:034

Right. So why don't we I mean, my suggestion to the Board would be to go back to this conversation when we know exactly what kind of event it's going to be. Because I do love your events. I do think they were successful in the last couple of years. And it is quite a number of money for one night event. I agree with that. But you do have proven successful record, so I do want to recognize that. I just want to make sure that, you know, when we grant money we know exactly what we're doing and what we should be expecting. Absolutely. That would be my suggestion.

43:06 – 43:286

Yeah, and I want to be real clear. I think your event's great, especially for this area. I'd love to see you expand it and get bigger. So I'm really in back of you on this, but I think and I'll I'll make the motion to continue this after what you said, when, the June?

43:289

June, I should know, is what is what I'm told.

43:32 – 43:436

Get back get back to us and let us know and Absolutely. And and then we can look at it again as to what we're gonna support on this. That's my motion.

43:430

I have a motion. Do I have a second? Yes. Second. Okay.

43:493

We have July

43:500

Do you wanna add to this discussion? I know your hand were up.

43:545

Oh, I was

43:540

pointing at Council

43:565

Member Algren. I think that Mr. Manino had a question.

43:59 – 44:261

Yeah, I'm supportive of that and I think it makes sense solely because there's too much unknown right now. I mean, if you deduct $25,000 from your budget, your entire marketing allocation and then your ideas if you don't receive those funds that you're gonna drastically have to change the scope and size of your event, then I really don't know what I'm deciding to fund right now.

44:261

that make sense?

44:279

I agree.

44:28 – 44:571

Yeah. So that puts us in kind of an awkward position. I agree. Visit St. Pete Clearwater so often funds event based based on heads and beds and travelers coming into town. Mean, my only advice would be as you're pitching this event to them, is really pull the numbers and find out are you truly bringing heads and beds to the area and not just pulling from local because that's what our visit Saint Pete Clearwater is gonna wanna see and know. And I wanna be see you be successful.

44:57 – 45:389

That's why I said I appreciate all the advice I can take. I do I do understand that, but that's part of the the reason of the campaign that we call salsification to boost putting heads in beds and promote some of the local hotels. There's not a lot of hotel options in downtown, You know? So it's easier to put heads in beds when you're when you're on the beach. But from what I hear, that's changing soon. And and hopefully, this event will be positioned perfectly for when that time comes to fulfill that mission here in downtown of putting heads in beds here.

45:40 – 45:510

So I have a motion and a second. So at this time, I'm going to ask if there's anyone in the audience who wishes to speak on this item before we vote. Seeing none, I have a motion and a second. All in favor?

45:512

I clarify about the motion so it would be to That continue it to the July

45:560

would align with

45:572

It will align with this request and with the

46:009

meeting What date is the

46:020

July? July 7.

46:039

July 7?

46:066

Bless you.

46:070

So I think that's unanimous?

46:096

Yep. Yes. Yes.

46:101

I'll give you some more remarks.

46:139

Thank you. Guys very much.

46:141

Thank you. Luck.

46:160

Are there any old business items? No? Okay. Is there a director's report?

46:30 – 46:593

This is Nino, executive director for the record. I'll keep this short, but I did wanna celebrate the chalk art project that occurred this weekend. It was attended by a lot of graduates, and they took many, many photos out there. And I'll show you a few very quickly only because we're very proud of it, and the graduates that were out there were loving it. And I'll just show the photos, but there was several high schools.

46:59 – 47:343

I think it was 14. Very proud graduates that we're also proud of. And we're very happy that they chose Clearwater to have their graduations in downtown. And the next coming years, we continue the graduations. We'll make sure that we capitalize better on all those graduations, including Saint Pete College.

47:34 – 48:023

I also wanted to this is for miss Amber. She's our arts and culture individual. She's going to be interviewed tomorrow by WFLA News channel eight to discuss the murals over at Coachmen Park, and we're starting to get a lot of press for the downtown for our events and our pop ups and just our public art. So we're very proud of that. Other than that, I don't really have too many other DDB updates, but I do have CRE updates when that time comes.

48:02 – 48:190

Thank you, miss Daniel. Alright. At this point, are there any board members to be heard? No? No? Okay. We will now adjourn the June 2 DDB meeting and recess for five minutes.

This transcript was automatically generated from the official public meeting video and is presented unedited. It reflects remarks made on the public record by elected officials, staff, and public commenters. Transcript accuracy may vary; view the original recording for reference.