City Council - Regular Meeting

you you do do do do do do Thank you. Thank you. you you you

Good afternoon, Mr. Johnson. Here. Mr. Bailey.

Present.

Mr. Brown.

Here.

Ms. Herbert. Here. Mr. Brennan. Present. Mr. McDowell. Here. Mayor Rickman. Aye. Thank you. That's the new mayor and council.

I think it's kind of really cool for our city to have two mayors back to back and end up moving to a larger organization.

Don't mess it up.

Say it again, Peter.

Don't mess it up. Well, I was actually going to say something before our 4 o'clock session. I feel like a very unique space having worked for our previous mayor and watched him go through the process you just went through to get in the line to be second vice. I want to make sure it's very clear. I was going to say something to make sure our citizens understand You don't just wake up. You've got to serve this organization on the advisory capacity and the trustee capacity. What is the loudest voice amongst municipal organizations in the country is a loud voice for the city, which also means that not only in all seriousness will he be Mr. President for asking for resources for their cities all across this country. And the words of Peter Brown, buckle up. Got it. But it is a tremendous honor. If anybody has a free second, if you go to usmayors.org and you look at the lineage under leadership of all the different presidents of the organization, you'll see very, very few Especially small cities. I know. So it's a tremendous honor for Columbia, seriously. Absolutely.

Well, congratulations. Thank you, Mr. President. I'm proud of our mayor. I'm Mr. President. Thank you, Dan. I'm not there yet. That was good.

I liked it. Didn't he, too?

It's going to be exciting.

Let's pray over it. Do you want to say a word?

Yes. Let's bow our heads. Eternal creator for all that you've done for us for this day and for all the gracious possibilities you've allowed us to share in. Bless this city of ours. Continue to let it grow each community to prosper within itself. Touch us individually and yet collectively. Let us be a faith leader within our community. Don't let violence or the evidence of violence deter and break our spirits. We belong to the creator, and the creator is able to do all things. Amen.

Mr. Mayor, right before we adopt the agenda and after prayer, I would love for Reverend McDowell, I know it's automatically extended over to particularly phenomenal women in our midst who are both sharing their birthday today. Who knew that? But our city clerk was Erica Hammond and our executive assistant, Ms. Ethel. So we are so thankful for them. You know, you have people in your midst who are like the glue who keep us together, and you all would agree with me that they both do that. And so we love them dearly and want them to have a wonderful special day, even on a council day where we're like, okay, we love you, it's your birthday, but you get this for me, you get that for me, and they just do it with a smile and such grace. Thank you. Thank you, ladies. Thank you so much.

Happy birthday. Happy birthday.

Do without the cupcakes, of course.

So who's going to start singing?

I know.

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday to y'all. Happy birthday to you.

Eric and Ebony.

person to share my birthday with you.

Aw, aw.

Isn't that sweet?

We got a card for you ladies. I know we need to adopt the agenda first. There's a couple of items. As I know, a couple were fluid right before this agenda kicked off, but let me give it a, do you want me to give this a try, Mr. Mayor, to adopt or Madam Mayor Potem?

Yes. Yes.

Probably for later.

Would you rather, I guess we do it later. Okay. All right.

And that may give time for a few of these to settle out to before the evening's agenda. So with that, we can adopt this agenda.

I'VE GOT A MOTION AND A SECOND. ANY FURTHER DISCUSSION? HEARING NONE, SEEING NONE, MADAM CLARK, DO YOU READ THE RULES? YES.

AYE.

YES. YES. AYE.

THANK YOU, MR. MAYOR AND COUNCIL. WE WILL CONTINUE OUR BUDGET WORKSHOP WORK AS WE WILL THEN DO A BUDGET PUBLIC HEARING THIS EVENING AND OUR FIRST REVENUE, MS. COFFMAN, OUR ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER FOR STRATEGIC INITIATIVES AND INNOVATION WILL TAKE US THROUGH THE HOSPITALITY TAX FUND, ACCOMMODATION TAX FUND, FUELS AND DEVELOPMENT FEE, REBATE, FOLLOWED BY PROPOSED SPECIAL REVENUE ALLOCATIONS. WE WILL GET TO THOSE

working on requests and we'll talk you through some of those as well good afternoon mayor president to be and city manager miss Wilson and miss Erica just left the room and I was going to say when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she said top of her list was a budget workshop so I that we could fulfill her birthday wishes today. And so she has let Leveney step in and enjoy that. And I'd also like to take a moment to acknowledge we have, today we're going to be doing special revenue, which as you all know, includes our hospitality tax, state accommodations, tourism development fee, or otherwise known as local accommodations, and liquor price rebate, which are all governmental funds but are classified as special revenue because they are distinguished by the specific uses of those revenues by state law and so we acknowledge them this way and most of these funds we we do award through grant programs and with those grant programs city council has two committees that are helped to make recommendations for those committees and i'd like to acknowledge some of those committee members now we have with us today Ms. Amy Booth-Frank, who will be presenting to you later. She is the chair of the Hospitality Tax Committee. With her is Julie Roof. And new to the committee this year is Ms. Kelly Barberi, also on the Hospitality Tax Committee. And also see Hal. Oh, there he is right there, right in front row. Hal is with the Accommodations Tax Committee chair. They will both be presenting to you all later on. this afternoon following this initial discussion. I also want to acknowledge Tina Saxon, our grants coordinator for both the hospitality and accommodations tax. She is, as you all know, she fields a lot of questions and a lot of requests for information and helps keep down some of the phone calls hopefully to you all and keeps our grant recipients happy. So thank you to Tina and all the work that she does. And while it's intern week, we have an intern with us today from the budget program in its office. She's sitting way back in the corner, probably sweltering. Mackenzie Naismith, she's with us. She is a rising sophomore at USC majoring in international business and double major in human resources. So we're glad to have her with us today. With that, we will go ahead and move forward with the presentation. Once this gets woken up. Levin, I might need your driving assistance. There it goes. So we will talk through hospitality, state accommodations, all of what we've already mentioned. I don't know if the, go into the next, there we go. So just a graphic demonstration of our revenues for all of the different communities. As you can see, hospitality tax is by far the largest source of funding of these different revenue streams with a budget rising now of 17 million, followed by tourism development fee, state accommodations, and then liquor permit rebate. So the proposed budget for the hospitality tax fiscal year 26-27 is $17.4 million. Those revenues are still coming in fairly steady. That is an increase of the budget of $1.6 million or 10.5% for 26-27. Budget overall, though, is a net decrease because this budget does not include the use of fund balance. It's just not any funding necessary at this point in time with regards to allocation of fund balance. So there's no fund balance reflected there. Next, we'll talk about the allocations for the hospitality tax. Just to point out, the eligible uses of hospitality tax is promotion and support of tourism. So that's the primary function and focus of the hospitality tax funds. City Council allocates these funds primarily to external organizations, again through the committee process, as well as the line item agencies. The hospitality tax committee this year has a funding Total funding commitment of $4.6 million. The line item agencies is $3.2 million. And then, of course, there's designated allocations from city council that are still pending, that will be pending. We do have some other funds that we support through the program that are eligible for hospitality tax that are ongoing commitments, if you will, from city council and from the city with Columbia Parks and Recreation Foundation as well as River Alliance. We do have continuation from holiday decorations that you did this year and your third and final year for a three-year commitment towards trust us for a capital campaign. And then we have retained $100,000 towards continued city marketing. Is that it?

Second year or third year?

I thought it was third year, but it could be second. We'll confirm. I'll get with Tina and confirm. The transfer to the general fund is maintained at $4.8 million. Debt service is continued at $2.3 million. That is based on the debt service schedule, not additional or new debt. And then there's also a budgeted reserve of $2.3 million. As far as the Hospitality Tax Committee, those requests, the applications were due February 28th. The committee commits a whole week to interview applicants, so those were held May the 11th through the 14th. There was a total of 70 applications that were received, 59 that were returning, only 58 of those were recommended for funding, and 11 new applicants, so six that were recommended for funding. The grant program received a 10% allocation a couple years ago. We set a recommendation that whatever the revenues grew, the committee allocation would also grow by that amount. So committee funding was increased by 10%. Total requests for all of those applications, though, was $7 million. And of that, the committee approved $4.6 million, all but $2,300 of their allocation. The hospitality tax line item agencies, those are allocated by city council. They are also subject to the same rules and requirements of the hospitality tax committee applications. They have to submit applications. They have to submit requests for funding. They have to spend the funds and get reimbursed for the expenditures that are eligible, but city council makes those allocations. The hospitality tax line item agencies are those groups that the city either has some kind of fiduciary responsibility in or some other type of partnership, and so they're distinguished differently from the committee. Next, we'll have the accommodations tax. The accommodations tax, this is the state accommodations tax. If you remember, these are the funds that are collected by the state and remitted to the city on a quarterly basis. Those revenues are budgeted at three point, proposed budget is 3.9 million. That's an increase of about 72,000 or approximately 2% over the current year budget. but is in line with prior year collections and where we see collections. At this time of the year, we have booked, I think, still just two months of revenues, but so far revenues seem to be still coming in. The largest month of both hospitality tax and accommodations tax collections are generally May and June. So, of course, we're in those months and looking at those revenues. We'll be looking at those revenues in future months. State law is a lot more prescriptive with regards to the use of allocations of state accommodations tax. $25,000 goes directly to the general fund. 30% is for advertising and promotion of tourism. 65% is for tourism-related expenditures, and another 5% is used for general purpose expenditures. The committee was allocated $2.8 million, which is a combination of both the 30% funds and the 65% funds, which makes up the 2.8%. The debt service is also budgeted $872,000, and that comes out of the 65% tourism-related expenditures. It's a five-year, five years, four more after this? Yep. All right. Next, we have the tourism development fee. That budget is proposed at $5.9 million, right at $6 million. This is also referred to as the local accommodations tax. We collect those funds directly. I may need some help, Ms. Erica. Driving. Thank you. These funds are collected directly by the city, remitted directly to the city every month. So we do see these funds more frequently than the state accommodations tax. Those funds are dedicated to the... It's on. And it could still be operator error, but it's on. So, yeah, thank you. Debt services, $872,000 as well. We are also transferring $1 million to the general fund as an increase of $250,000 towards the operations of Finley Park. The convention center and the Midlands Authority for Convention Sports and Tourism has requested for $3 million. These are the funds that the city uses to fund our commitment to the convention center on an annualized basis. And then, of course, there are some pending allocations and requests for city council. Most of these funds are being reserved for some future use regarding additional development. Next, we have the tourism development fee. I'm sorry, excuse me, the liquor permit rebate fee. This is a much smaller revenue stream of 445,000. Those funds are, typically we have utilized those funds for historic renovations to historic Columbia properties that the city owns. There is also requests for funding from, if you could advance the slide, Ms. Erica. Thank you. there are two requests for City Council's consideration. They came in both for capital requests from two organizations that you have funded from this source previously, Gemini Arts as well as Columbia Music Festival Association. And while they came in directly requested from liquor rebate, they're not only limited from liquor rebate, those requests would also be eligible from hospitality tax because they're historic and cultural.

And let me add, because I think there may be some thought process regarding these funds for yet another request that came in, but the legal review that we've done in regards to residents, it would apply to liquor rebate as well. I mean, it's any of the funds of the city that the city council would be administering because they're considered to be Public dollars. So public dollars can't go directly to a private benefit. Right. With private homes.

Right. They have to be for tourism and tourism-related activities.

Capital improvements.

Recreational, yes.

So those things that are... What you're saying, essentially, though, just because you have a historic designation doesn't make you a tourist location.

A historic overlay doesn't make your home a historic property. Right. for tourism. But the other, and so those uses for the capital, for cultural, the two requests there are not necessarily historical, they're cultural facilities. So they didn't, I mean, these are organizations that also were requested through, they also have requests through the hospitality tax application, but I think because of prior practice receiving them from the source, the request was made to this specific funding. I will also say that, I'm sorry, excuse me, yes, sir?

So historical overlays in communities, it's all about tourism, is that correct?

Yes, sir.

It's all about tourism.

Mm-hmm.

And the overlays, of course, all right, I got it. We found that. Okay. It's coming back now.

Okay. These funds have also been used to renovate City Hall in the past, and I know that there are some additional requests for that as well. So, again, this is a very small funding source. These funds are also remitted to us by the state on a quarterly basis. Yes.

Jim, no.

through it was it was for capital because it was for capital requests these funds are typically capital requests as well capital projects improvement I'm sorry see how people CIP programming relates to historical overlays

It's related to cultural and tourism and historical properties for capital projects.

Okay, that's a tough one.

They have to be public spaces. So I wanted to kind of keep that brief and fast so we can allow the committee members to come and present. But if there are any questions, we'll be around and can answer any additional questions. That's right. Favorite day. All right. Thank you. So with that, I believe first up we have is Amy Beth. Thank you. Pardon me. I wasn't trying to give your space away.

That's all right.

All right.

I agree. I'm sure it's... Honorable Mayor and Honorable Councilman. You'll see that all written out here. I know you are all honorable servants of the city, so thank you for your work. As you know, the Accommodations Tax Committee is reviewed, and the work that you all do on accommodations tax will be reviewed by the state agency, the Tourism Expenditure Review Committee. They're pretty comprehensive. strict about the use of the funds and what exactly it is, more so than the hospitality tax. And so our committee primarily funds two organizations, Experience Columbia and Lake Marie Country. We had a meeting in May, a lunch meeting. Following the past things that we've done on the committee, we have usually allocated 85% to Experience Columbia and 15% to Lake Murray Country. And though we've had other presenters in the past or askers in the past who've come and presented to us, we have not married from that 85-15 in quite a few years. This year we met, and because they were the only two presenters, we invited them to come in together and present in front of each other. We had a really great discussion around the table. We had a couple of new members on our committee um very productive because they do work very closely together throughout the year on promoting columbia and doing the work that they've been called to do there so we voted and asked the council to consider our recommendation to again allocate 2.398596 a million to Experience Columbia, that's 85% of our allocation, and $432,282 to Lake Murray Country, and that's 15%. And we also ask that any overage that comes with these tax collections late in the year, sometimes there will be more money to be allocated, and we recommend that that be allocated at the same percentage.

We respectfully may ask you all to meet again to look at possible, if there is other funding coming in, looking at possible other groups to help fund that would be beneficial from that. So I hope y'all are open to that.

Well, we are open to whatever y'all tell us to do, frankly. In the years where we have kind of varied from the tradition, the council has restored those small changes that we made. So if council would like us to do that, we'd certainly be glad to consider doing that.

May or may not.

would be important for if we run through the process properly yeah i would just say that that um you know if we we want to do a check with some of the turk people just to make sure whatever that organization is meets their guidelines any other questions thank you very much thank you

Hello, Mayor, members of council. Thank you so much for allowing us to come and present to you our recommendations on behalf of the Hospitality Tax Committee, which a few of us here, Julie, Kelly, we're proud to present to you our list of recommendations today. Like Missy said earlier, we had 70 applications this year. We are recommending funding for 66 of those applicants. for a total of $4,612,025. We take this process and these funding recommendations very seriously. Thank you to Councilman Johnson for joining us this year for a few of those. It's a long week. But it's really exciting to get to see how many people are working so hard to make our city so special and to make it a place that others from outside of the city want to come and be a part of. So I won't go into too much of the detail. If you've got questions, we're happy to elaborate on any of our recommendations.

Why couldn't you just spend the last $2,300?

That would make things too easy. You know, we don't want to just throw money at people. We take their recommendations or their requests very seriously. We are strong stewards of the money, so we couldn't just make it that easy for you.

Does anybody have any questions for Ms. Franks? First of all, on behalf of the city and city council, thank you and Tina and everybody for your time, because it is. To go through 70 applications is a lot, and there's a lot. And granted, a lot of these folks are... are repeats and you'll be able to see their growth. But the fact that we had 11 new applicants, I think is great, right? And that you're able to fund over 50% of those is even better, which means that this process is working like it should. So thank you all very much for all the hard work.

Absolutely.

We may tweak a little few things here and there as we go. Our goal really today was to take all this information in and then look at our next meeting to present and part of that. Some options. Some options. But really appreciate because this gives us a great basis to work forward.

It's a gourmet shop.

As the collector of these funds, too, it's also a great contribution. The committee is actually made up of a number of restaurateurs and hotels and, I mean, obviously folks that are running their own businesses as well, so we appreciate all the committee's time with the process. It is an exciting committee to be on because you get to see all the fun, exciting, and beautiful things that make Columbia a vibrant place. All right, so next we'll have Mr. Bill Ellen to present.

you good afternoon uh mr mayor members of council city manager thank you for the opportunity to come before you today i have with me kelly barbary who will later give you more specific statistics on what's going on but i'd like to start with an overview, which is the authority is the UMBRA organization that oversees and manages three different and separate entities made up of the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center, the Convention and Visitors Bureau, and the Regional Sports Council. who all come before you requesting funding. The Convention Center requests tourism development fees. The Convention and Visitors Bureau requests accommodations tax. And the Sports Council requests some hospitality tax. All this funding makes a tremendous impact on our city. We're out there each day marketing and promoting our city to the world. And it's a very competitive arena. Every city slash destination has a like organization that is out there doing somewhat the same thing as far as trying to influence and attract visitors and convention and conference decision makers, sporting events, and other events that add not only economic impact to a community and to a city, but we also help influence the image of the city. We bring recognition and awareness to the city. So we feel like that we make a tremendous impact with the funding that you approve for us. And we could not do our jobs without that funding. It's extremely important. I think we've already mentioned the ATACs Actually, the tourist development fee requested for the convention center is about $2.4 million. The sports council is $100,000 in hospitality tax. I'm sorry, the convention center is $3 million in requests from the tourist development fee. The CVBA tax is $2.4 million, and the sports council is $100,000 from hospitality tax. As I mentioned, those taxes, majority of those, especially with CVB and sports, go to market our city to the world and to help attract visitors in these events. Council has recently helped attract and helped participate in some huge sporting events that came to our city with tremendous economic impact. Two years ago, we were involved with the Rivals in Red, which had over a $13 million economic impact to the city. Most recently we were involved and helped promote the corn fairy golf tournament out of Wood Creek Which was highly successful and that's a five-year contract. I think will only grow in significance and it brought a lot of recognition and awareness to our city, so Your funding goes for things like that, but it also goes for any smaller events that help support our local hotels throughout the city, and of course helps attract visitors in conferences and conventions to the convention center. So I hope you'll agree with me that this funding We spend it wisely. We know that it's not easy to come by, and we appreciate the work of the hospitality and the A-tax committees. I know I served on those committees years ago. I actually served with Julie years back, and I know the work that you go in to vet everybody out, and I hope that... The city will understand that and approve their recommendations. I'm going to ask Kelly if she will go over some tourism statistics for you and then be more than happy to try to answer any questions you might have afterwards.

Good afternoon. The news is good in tourism in the Columbia region. Just wanted to share with you, we have numbers from FY24-25. Obviously, we're in 25-26 now. Those numbers have not been tabulated yet. But our visitation numbers are up to 17.3 million, up from 16.4 million. which was up from 15.8 the previous year. So you can see we are continually growing. Visitor spending prior year was 1.7 billion, and this past year was 1.9 billion, so continuing to grow in that regard as well. Our convention center, this year to date, we have had 307 events at the convention center. It's busy every single day of the year that it's open. Room nights generated from convention center business, 22,000. and 5.6 million in F&B sales. Those numbers all up year over year. The Experience Columbia SC Sports, again, great news there. FY23, 24, 43 events were hosted, and then that was up to 53 events in 24, 25. So people hear about the things like Rivals in Red or the major golf tournament, but we're having pickleball championships, youth soccer, a variety of different things.

Banana ball. Yes, that's a proposal that's on the table.

We've got to finish the stadium at Williams-Brice.

We met with them. They'll only play in venues like Williams-Brice, which is not available.

We could have gotten a less... Maybe in the spring when it is available?

We're staying in constant contact with them, and as soon as we have a venue available and dates available, they're booking up. Two years in advance. It's amazing. But we did meet with them, and we're just waiting on William and Bryce to come.

Well, if anything the vice president can do, let's do it.

I'd love to, because it was a subject this weekend. I mean, every mayor in the country wants them to come because of what comes with it. Because of all the stuff they do before the game and during the game, the draws are big. I mean, it's unbelievable. to a baseball game.

And they sold out Clemson, you know, a year or so ago. But we'll get them eventually. And they're not cheap. They want a lot of money to come.

The cost of doing business, right? Yes, we may be back to ask for that. But in terms of the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Convention Center sales team is booking events only into the Convention Center. The CDB is booking events into hotels, into attractions, into other meeting venues around the city. They booked 163 meetings last year. That was over $12 million in economic impact and about 24,000 room nights from meeting and convention events.

business alone.

So those numbers again up year over year. Our visitor center is serving walk-ins. They're serving email customers, people who call in and ask for assistance. They served 6,542 walk-ins last year and sold $16,000 worth of Columbia swag. We also have an online store. We sell the t-shirts from the mayor's t-shirt contest and we sell a variety of other Columbia merchandise and swag. So that's all very exciting. Our visitor center service specialists are wonderful assets to our visitor profile. In terms of marketing and communications, we garnered 107 pieces of positive media coverage for the Columbia region and hosted eight travel writers last year. We've already topped that number for current years, so travel writers and influencers are a big part of what we do. We also had the opportunity to work alongside the city in hosting Craig Melvin for the Today Show Homecoming series. That was a wonderful promotion. We were able to Have Craig come into town. He visited with his family. They went around and filmed him at a variety of different places. We were able to film him at Finley Park right before the grand opening, and then that was, of course, on the Today Show and garnered a great deal of support. We've had lots of e-mails and phone calls about how successful that was. Yes, amazing. And we're happy to share that one-sheeter we have with you guys on the Today Show promotion. promotion, it was a success. We also do NIL promotions. We were one of the first destination marketing associations to adopt NIL promotions. We work with athletes at the University of South Carolina. We're also meeting with athletes at other colleges and universities around the region to talk about, they like to talk about what they enjoy in the Columbia region and that really resonates with potential visitors. So exciting news there. And we have two new things that we'd like to do next year that I wanted to bring to your attention. Placer AI, we're looking to partner with them. A number of other attractions and tourism groups use them, and it's proving very successful to be able to... capture how many people attended a festival or event, and then we can see where they went after that. So be able to track them. It's all off of cell phones. So we would like to be able to use that for not only our own purposes, but also to help our community. our partners. And then we're also looking at a partnership with Satisfy Labs, which is a closed source AI chat that could be placed on our website. And then also the websites of our events, the 162 meetings, the 50 some odd sporting events could place that closed source AI chat on their website so that when they're searching for information, it would be information, trusted information from our website that they would be pulling from. So those are two things that we are looking to add, and they're in our potential proposed budget. So we would love to be able to delve into that as well. And Bill and I are happy to answer any questions you might have about our numbers.

It's working. I don't know how to say it any other way. Our biggest push has been to increase our heads and beds and our tourism. Our tourism is increasing as people are discovering all the assets that we have and the events and the cultural. I mean, I've met so many people at Soda City that are now coming for the weekend because they read about us in Southern Living or this. They're finding out we have all these cultural events, concerts, all happening here all the time. But our goal is to increase that, right? Our visitors at 17.4 now, which is incredible, and increasing those beds. You know, our goal is to get to 8 million people in beds, right? I mean, that's where we want to be because that puts us at the level we want. So thank you all. You're doing a great job.

Kelly Cruz. And Bill, you know, as our branding efforts with our Three Rivers Greenways, the Three Rivers branding – Are y'all involved working with, could you tell us a little bit about that partnership and the marketing leadership that you're taking with that?

Yes. So Bill has asked me to serve on the three RVRS branding committee. So I was on that committee for about a year. They rolled out the three RVRS branding about six or eight months ago. We have been working hand in glove with The River Alliance and the Three Rivers group, for example, we did a paid partnership with Garden and Gun magazine that highlighted the rivers. And that was something that Mike Dawson interviewed Mike. We promoted the rivers. That was something that has been extremely successful. And so just dovetailing with that, we know that is a huge success. draw that is a huge asset for our region and so we're working hand in glove with them to cross promote we have three rvrs on our website people can click over to them they have us on theirs click over to us um so it's a seamless partnership so are y'all doing like the ad purchases and everything or just uh we do not do the ad purchases so john banks was hired by the river alliance to be the marketing person for three rvrs and he's an employee of the river at least we can help the flow of information and suggest and make recommendations.

Recommendations on what's working. Exactly. Perfect.

Thank you. Bill. Yes, sir. All that you do to promote our city in terms of tourism is fantastic. Thank you so much. Plains continue to grow. continue to come to this fair city of ours, this city that sits on top of a hill, the light is shining. And because of your work and your teamwork, we are able to actualize

I appreciate that. Well, thank you so much. That story has to be told, and we're doing our best to tell that story, and I think it's being all. So thank you for your comments. I appreciate it. I did want to say before we leave, because I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't first thank the mayor or congratulate the mayor on your new position with U.S. mayors, and I think that means you'll be president of the U.S. Mayors Association in a couple years. I wouldn't do my job if I didn't say I know y'all hold an annual conference. I know of a meeting venue down the road that would love to host it.

Well, unfortunately, those bids have already gone out. But that does not mean that we won't have leadership here. And we also have another opportunity with Accelerator of America, which takes kind of the top business folks and the top folks in the political world, bring them together. It's not a think tank. It's a do tank. Right. And they have chosen Columbia to come to, so we're going to be talking to you about that for the second time for next spring. And they're going to convene here. They just were in Nashville this past fall, and so they're coming to Columbia, which will be great. Yes, Mr. Johnson.

Bill, kind of to piggyback off of what Will, Councilman Brennan, just asked, between Bull Street, which is continuing to mature, the conversations around the riverfront. I'm curious if you guys are thinking through, from a strategy perspective, kind of how we shift, or maybe make the right words, grow our marketing strategy and pull folks in and make sure they're aware of some of the new offerings that Columbia has. As we look over the next few years, those offerings coming online,

We are, and I commend the council for what you're doing to the city. We talk to people all the time that have not been to Columbia in three or four or five years, and they're blown away by what's happened on Main Street, what's going on in Firepoints, the Vista, Bull Street. They're blown away by the park. And so when they come back and hadn't had laid eyes on our city in a number of years, they are so impressed. And they're like, wow, Columbia is really doing a lot of good things. So thank you all for your leadership.

And we do more good stuff to come.

As you said, buckle up, right?

Lean in and buckle up. Can we get some bumper stickers later? That's going to be Daniel's presidential slogan, too.

Lean in and buckle up. It's good to know that you're leaning in and not backing up. And that's the point. I think several things that has taken place in our city... Several folk around in this room today. The International Festival continues to bloom and blossom with over 25,000 folk. Thank you. Thank you, Amy Ray. Thank you, Amy Beth. Thank you for your leadership as we talk about hospitality tax. Look, it is, the mayor says there are 28 persons coming to our city every day. Midlands. into the Midlands, into our city, slash the Midlands every day. Look, I've increased that number. I've done that by myself, and that's, I'd say 32. Every day. It is amazing. Now, we're not talking about the river. I mean, gee whiz, we got so many things that's taking place here that is causing our city We're not talking about Finley Park, because Finley Park is by itself a magnet. Oh, yeah. It's putting folk in.

It is, and those 32 go out and tell 64. That's right.

You know, so it just grows. Bill, thank you so much for your leadership. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. And it's been good to have Kelly on the Hospitality Tax Committee as well for the exact same reasons I've talked about. And Hal in the Accommodations Tax Committee is also very aware of and puts forth in City Council's mind the desire to help promote and promote the city and all the different wonderful assets that we have to attract tourism. So with that, we also have one more presenter today. This will be her first time, I believe, presenting to City Council. It's a new addition to the Capital City Lake Murray Country Regional Tourism Board, and that is Ms. Vicki Davis, Executive Director, and we're glad to have her with us today.

Thank you, guys. Definitely appreciate your service, and congratulations, Mayor Recommenda.

Yes, you're right.

Bring those people to Columbia. And, of course, Vicki Davis, Executive Director, Capital City Lake Murray Country. I do have a presentation. Do you want me just to nod or click? Or do you want to give me a clicker? Okay, thank you, thank you. So I just want to share a little recap of Capital City Lake Murray Country, who we are, what we do, what we use the funds for, and then, of course, how we propose for the year 26-27. Thank you. All right. As many of you know, Capital City Lake Murray Country is the regional tourism board for the four-county region, Lexington, Richland, Newberry, and Saluda, including the City of Columbia. And what makes our organization unique is our role is regional destination marketing. We market the entire visitor journey, connecting Columbia with the engagement, the drive overnight stays, and longer visits throughout the region. Visitors do not travel by municipal boundaries. A visitor may stay in Columbia, spend the day on the lake, attend an event in the Vista, dine in the Five Points, visit Congaree National Park, and shop before heading home. That is today's traveler. Our job at Capital City Lake Murray Country is to connect those experiences together in a way that keeps visitors here longer. Increase tourism spending for the City of Columbia. Increase that accommodation tax funds. Our focus is attracting visitors from outside the region, outside the state, the exact purpose of accommodation tax funding. In fact, 63% of our visitors are from out of the state, and many fall within the highly desirable 25 to 54 age demographic. Columbia Visitor Data. We subscribed to Zardico. This year, we are subscribing to Placer AI. We've partnered with Clemson Extension for an economic impact study for all four counties in the city of Columbia. So we gave them a list of festivals, attractions, the whole four counties, and they are tracking that through the end of December, and we'll, of course, share that with all funding partners. We'll see outdoor recreation, 51%, top of the state market, Charlotte, Atlanta, Raleigh, Augusta. Through our strategic regional campaigns, we're putting Columbia in front of the audience that many have not initially considered the city as a destination. Here's paid, earned, shared, and owned. And I do have a great visitor guide and the food and travel magazine to share with everyone that I will leave. But this past year alone, 790 million national PR impressions, 1.4 million Google searches, 256,000 social media impressions, 62% engagement rate on Columbia-related digital content. And you can see what people are looking. Things to do, events, Vista Lights, and the Latin Festival was very high. This means our marketing is not just generating awareness, it is actively driving intent to visit Columbia. We also intentionally use regional assets to support Columbia's economy, food and travel, billboards, podcasts, that's year-long advertising that is focused on the city of Columbia. This year, we focused heavily on the Columbia Food and Wine Festival. Long story short, we have rerouted our vision. We are not in the event business. We are in the tourism, promoting, marketing of all the great events. So the Southeastern Barbecue Showdown is not happening. And so in talking with H-TACS, we did not apply for H-TACS. We just applied for that accommodation tax. That lines up with our vision in the future. So because we were receiving H-Tax funding, we took food and travel and spent $40,000 with them for a year-long campaign. And we had editorial throughout each issue. And of course, this issue was Columbia Food and Wine. Of course, advertisement. It's digital also. And then next month, we will show the wrap-up of Columbia Food and Wine Festival. So that was a $40,000 spend. Of course, you can see the other ways we spent some money last year. The podcast, Visit Lake Murray, highly recommended to listen to that if you're traveling and have about 20 minutes to spare. Billboards. I did a big golf campaign last year, swing into the area, especially with the Corn Fairy happening. Did some geotargeting of all the golf courses in Charlotte, Greenville, Augusta, and, oh, You're playing in those areas. Get to Columbia. Also, Finley Park, big year for Finley Park, advertising with them, supported, of course, through visitor-generated tourism revenue, popular destination for visitors and local residents. So we are, of course, outdoor recreation, sport, tourism are major drivers for this market. We are not all about fishing. We do so much more than fishing, but fishing has driven a great economic impact to our area. All right, can I hit play on this? So we have two community segments we just wanted to share with you. When, oh, nope, back here. Oh, right there should be play. Is there a play button on that video? This is for Major League Fishing, the college fishing tournament that was held in February 2026. Go on and then I'll use the link. Okay, okay, great. Okay, I'll save that one for the end then to tell people about fishing. All right, very good. Another event just happened in May, Bassmaster Elite bringing national exposure, overnight stays, measurable economic impact. When we're talking with these tournaments, guess what? We send them to hotels. The closest hotel is City of Columbia, that Columbiana area. So we work well with Hilton Garden Inn, Town Place. And for Bassmaster, that is where the production crew, the staff of about 50 stay for a whole week. So that's around 350 nights just for staff. So for this, 1.5 million in economic impact, over 2,000 hotel room nights, 9,000 spectators, hundreds of thousands of digital views and interaction. Bassmaster Elite plays on Fox Sports 1. And in our contract, we have them say Columbia, South Carolina. So it might be Bassmaster Elite, Lake Murray, but on the TV and the announcer, Columbia, South Carolina, because once again, they do not know boundaries. So we are very proud of this relationship, great coverage, social media, the streaming. Bassmaster is the cream of the crop. I'll tell you about Major League Fishing during that video. All right, so... This is a little bit of exposure from Bassmaster. Of course, those visitors, they're not just visiting Lake, they're dining in Columbia, staying in Columbia hotels, shopping in the businesses, and experiencing Columbia attractions. So our organization also invests in long-term destination awareness through these outlets. National television partnerships, search engine marketing, digital billboards, podcast promotion, visitor guides, travel writers, influencers, and let's talk AI. So artificial intelligence is not going away. We have to find a way for engagement tools. So we partnered with Style Blueprint. That's a well-known authority to get us to our area to show up a little bit quicker and more than others. We did invest in a chat bot. That's Trip on the end. He is on our website. He pops up automatically, and we get to feed him what to say. Some great data on that. For the past six months, 22% of all AI conversations resulted in a visitor clicking through to a partner page, an event listing, or a destination. So I did pull up for Findlay Park and Soda City. Findlay Park did not originate any conversations. So people aren't going and asking any AI specifically for Findlay Park. But it surfaced proactively because the AI. AI interfaces talk to each other. And so AI, when visitors asked about events, happenings on a specific date, Finley Park generated 37.5 click rate. So that is making it the highest converting proactively service destination ever. in the data set on the lakemurraycountry.com website. One of the most recommended event venues. So like Finley Park, Soda City was never the subject of direct questions. So once again, no one's asking specifically about Soda City. It was recommended proactively when visitors asked about weekend activities or things to do. And that was a 32% click rate. Visitors came looking for one thing and they left knowing about Soda City. Columbia Museum of Art, another example, it was surfaced by AI primarily as recommendations for visitors asking about indoor activities, rainy day options, or things to do in the Columbia area. So all of these marketing efforts position Columbia not just as a stop, but as part of a complete destination experience. Capital City Lake Murray Country focuses on expanding the regional tourism ecosystem, that feeds visitors into columbia and keeps them here longer all right we'll look at that last video i think there's uh two segments this is for major league fishing uh one held in february on lake murray and that plays on cbs sports and then the all-american championship in may was also uh two different community segments but you'll see how we take the regional approach and of course highlight city of columbia specifically

Welcome to Columbia, South Carolina, where three rivers converge and outdoor adventure flows right through the heart of the Midlands.

Major League Fishing was housed at Hilton Garden Inn on Columbia, so I know that was over a million dollar economic impact, 1,500 hotel nights, six days in the event.

Connect to the West Columbia side or trace the historic Columbia Canal and Riverfront Park.

So this is played nationally on those outlets and, of course, streaming services. And the good thing is MLS is good about repeating, so it might show up on the Outdoor Channel next year.

And soaking up the city vibe. History and hiking lovers will enjoy the 12,000-year history park with wooded trails bringing millennia of stories to life.

And I know for the All-American, it was over 20 states represented here for that week. Of course, we love the kids coming because with those college kids, their parents, their grandparents, their family members, and they stay all over the area for that week.

Buzzing food scene from upscale dining to local favorites. Cross the river for brunch or dinner at beloved spots like Terra or Black Rooster, where comfort food and creativity shine. Top it off with a local brew, sip a cold one at Steel Hands Brewing or Savage Craft Ale Works. From trails and parks to vibrant neighborhoods, great food, and local brews, there's always something new to experience in Lake Murray country. Plan your visit today.

So it's great. They come in and they bring in their crew and then we get those segments and can actually get the raw files so that we can use it throughout the year. This was the All-American Championship.

This was about 20 states represented.

And this is the largest grassroots effort for fishing in America. Longest running and largest.

The lively downtown gathering spaces. There's always something new to explore. Spend the day surrounded by nature at Congaree National Park, South Carolina's only national park, where towering old-growth forests, peaceful boardwalk trails, and incredible wildlife create one of the Southeast's most unique outdoor escapes. Family-friendly fun, Sesquicentennial State Park offers wide-open green space, perfect for kayaking, hiking, picnics, and relaxing by the water. In the heart of downtown Columbia, Finley Park brings the community together with festivals, concerts, and scenic city views. And for game day excitement, head to Secra Park, where Columbia Fireflies Baseball and community events create memories for visitors and locals alike. From nationally recognized outdoor destinations, That's good.

It'll go into the, yeah. So seriously, guys, thank you. We appreciate our relationship with Experience Columbia. We've sat down a few times and we're collaborating on things. So we hope you guys will support the 8515, but definitely open for questions and any concerns or comments.

I want to thank you for all this and the way you promote. And I want to thank you for maybe changing course, too, getting out of the event business and really going heavy on marketing our wonderful assets here. So I think that was a great strategy move there.

Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Appreciate y'all. All right. Thank you. Oh, and I'll just leave these with you guys.

if you want me to just give them to you and we can pass them out later.

So I'd just love for y'all to see a visitor guide, our annual report, and that food and travel. You know, that's Gordon Ramsey, and it says our info.

So I'll just leave these.

I'll give it to you, Tina. Bless you.

I apologize.

Yeah, no hurry.

Well, not necessarily. We were going to go through some external funding requests, but we've got a spreadsheet that people are referencing because... Can I make one comment? Yeah, please.

Ms. Wilson and Missy, I'd like to see us absorb the two clicker rebate requests into HTAC since they both already have line items. Okay. I guess my bigger, I guess, request to my colleagues to consider moving forward is... We had great success paying for the renovation of Thank you for thinking outside the box on that. I'd like for us to continue to focus on Parks and Rec capital improvements through that liquor rebate program. I think that is a good use of those funds that go directly into the core of our quality of life in our neighborhood. So something to consider. I know that other funding requests come up, but it seems like we're so short on some funding at the end of the day for our capital improvements in our

Mr. Brendan, with that, it was a great suggestion. Would you consider applying it to other internal capital needs other than parks? Or is your situation specific to parks?

If the list is long for capital improvements of parks, if some parks get love, great. Okay. So moved. destinations for it. But I just think as our city grows, our boundaries grow, our maintenance funding needs grow, we lose track sometimes of the capital needs for new playground equipment. We're updating some of those.

Back on what you said, one of the things that we need to invest in, which I don't know why we never did as a city before, is as simple as having irrigation in these parks. You know, we've seen a massive difference on what Owens Field looks like and has kept up. And, I mean, Sims Park is a perfect example where we had irrigation and, you know, we'd have grass year-round, which would improve that park tremendously, right? I look at a lot of the parks we have, we haven't invested in that. And I think that's a good, so as we start looking at alternatives, what are some of those quick wins that we can do to improve that quality

matching grants I mean if having having a matching grant puts you at the top so I think if there's a way for us to leverage that that'll help us get through our facilities needs the parks and recs so that is a good segue into just some conversations around so general capital projects as you know there's not funding in this budget for general capital project requests which includes our parks and roads and things like that and I know that has come up in some other conversations I'm bringing it up Missy Right, exactly. I'm glad that you did. But yes, we certainly will take those all into consideration. We did not bring you all the requests forward at this point in time, but we would consider them and look at those, as well as other funding sources that qualify that we may have, whether it's too soon to know if there's available fund balance, but things like that, as well as some of these special revenue funds, especially for the park the regional tourism you know type of parks and activities like Owens Field was of course bringing in a lot of recreational activities and then grants as well so certainly can make those all considerations as we continue to have conversations with you all with regards to the different budget needs that we have.

What is liquor rebate average of half a million dollars a year? Yes. Thank you.

It's getting close to that. It hasn't quite approached that.

Just so I'm clear, for the Gemini, well, they haven't, council hasn't considered the Gemini Arts or CMFA request. Right. But the suggestion is to switch those.

Well, yeah, compared to the available funding, if I'm reading this right, for the line item groups, CMA is already in there, can absorb the extra 180 based off of available and requested. Mm-hmm. and then I guess the same exercise for the Gemini.

Gemini is in the committee, and I think some of the suggestions that I'd like to bring forth on that would help open up that funding, Mr. Brown, to fill that gap.

Yeah, and that just opens up the full 450 from the liquor rebate for capital uses.

Okay. Okay.

At this point, or how do you want to proceed? We do have a list that we can go ahead and share with you. We were making a few tweaks to it based on some things that came up today.

Okay, so do you want to wait and give it to us, and then we discuss it next week? That's your preference. If you're ready, I mean, if you've got some additions, I'd rather get it all at one time.

we are well it's more about um thoroughness requests coming in not wanting to leave out any that have come in i'm not suggesting that we're not advocating for more to come in necessarily, but if they do, we will add them to the list. But as of today, there were a few coming in and I didn't want to have the conversation. We were trying to quickly add them to the list and all of this is for consideration and all of this is recognizing that, um, many of these most probably are not eligible for special revenue sources. So then there's that discussion as we've been having with y'all about community promotions and an allocation of funding that would be for community promotions and certainly wouldn't be able to accommodate all of the

We have most of them, so just a matter of making sure.

I think that works.

Yes, because you may get one in that forgot and had a wonderful event this year.

Sounds good to me, Mr. Mayor.

Missy, the other type internal requests, were you wanting to call that out or we'll talk about that next week?

We can talk about those as well, just kind of make sure we bring it all together. Well, thank you, Mayor. Thanks, everyone.

Thank you, Missy.

Thanks, everybody. Thanks to our guests.

Yes, thank you to the guests.

The car usually says, watch, I won't bite your mouth on my way. Usually I have to fill the charging case. Sometimes I've seen it. Sometimes I've seen it. Sometimes I've seen it. I want to make sure we have some.

Oh, yeah. He was loud. And they called it back. I wanted to on warrants or something. He is actively doing.

I think that's a public matter. So that's that. Wow, production. The other part is...

I was just texting and saying, we're announcing on the edit. And she said, we're going to do this.

But they had a great event.

You have a motion. I heard a rumor you had a motion.

I do. I have a motion that we go into executive session for the discussion of negotiations incident to propose contractual arrangements pursuant to South Carolina Code 3470, Washington Square retail spaces.

That's all right.

Can we amend that a motion to add? A motion or a motion? discussion of negotiation on proposed contractual arraignments vista bid.

I accept that amendment.

Second. We've got a motion and a second, Madam Clerk. Read the roll.