Economic Development Board - Regular Meeting

Thank have one today. Sorry about that, Katie. Roll call, please.

Ms. Jamieson?

I'm here. Ms. Cruz?

I'm here.

Mr. Kelly? Mr. Edmund? Ms. Power?

Here. Mr. Champion?

Here.

Mr. London?

Approval of the minutes.

There's a little bit of a Backlog, I know. No, technological knowledge gap now. So we are trying to figure out how to add new members into the software. So we have them done, but we don't know how to put Tim and London in. And we're missing someone who knew the software very well. I broke the system. Yeah. So we are trying to figure it out.

I understand. Okay.

Not for nothing, but why don't you go back to city clerk? Why don't you reach out

Robin? Hey.

To Bonnie. I mean, I'm serious. Isn't that worth a phone call?

It's just I'll have to find that phone number. Yeah, remember there's only two people in my department that have been here longer than me.

Can help with that. All

right, so we don't have any minutes at this time, although we look forward to having them in the future because it's very helpful when we prepare for the next meeting to remember. I know we discussed it, but did we take any action?

Did we vote on that?

Did we vote counting on Mr. London to help us with that. He seems to have read everything and have quite a good memory. We have some people from the public with us today. Would anybody like to say anything? I see Mr. Lou Paris with the Volusia County Economic Development Department. Thank you for coming down here so early. Ms. Judy, did you want to say anything today?

No? Okay. Well, welcome. You're welcome. It's very exciting.

All right. Well, moving on to new business. Ryan, you wanted to make a presentation and discussion of

Yeah. Thank you. Good morning. So we have two new members, Joshua Champion and Tim London, to the board. So I thought it'd be a good time to recap the Economic Development Board's bylaws.

So one of the things that Tim London had pointed out was that the Economic Development Board in the membership section, Article III, shall have nine voting members. The board has always, from my knowledge, seemed to have seven. One of the advantages to having nine members is that within Article III number two there is that the quorum for the board is five members. So five out of seven have to be present in order to have a meeting, five out of nine. So there are some advantages to doing that.

We don't have enough enough chairs.

I mean, so logistically, I mean, we'd add two chairs and four people would have to share two microphones. Unacceptable.

I will share with you.

You can make it work. So I do have there are two applicants right now who have applied to serve on the board. Question is there's really no cutoff time line. Do I hold it open? Do I bring it back? And do we want it last time we spoke about whether or not we wanted to amend the bylaws, That was what we had talked about last time. So I just

wanted I couldn't bring it remember if we made a motion or

We didn't do any action. We did not.

We were also supposed to look into how to amend the bylaws.

Which I did find. So it's a motion by the board, and then the council just approves it. So it's a pretty straightforward process.

So two questions. Can can it say up to nine members versus finite number? That's the first question. And what do we have for Volusia County Economic Development? What are your membership? How many members on the economic development for Volusia County?

Don't have a board. Only the city's office. No, only the city's office. Up in New Smyrna Beach, they had of Oak Hill, back when they had one, I believe they had seven. Right now they have none.

Still there, but the board. And they had one, but then COVID. And with COVID, everything just shut down and so they just never resurrected it. Now that Oak Hill Hill has their new city manager, John Barclay, they have been discussing bringing it back. And we're hoping they will bring it back.

So can it be up to a certain number? Does it have to be

a finite number for the articles? I would, yeah, it would need to be finite. I would think so because this is the bylaws for the document. And then how would you establish four? The

quorum would still be five.

That wouldn't change. But that you wouldn't have to have a total of

nine If there's times when people because we get low, people rotate off, and it takes us wild to be a challenge sometimes. Are we allowed to discuss the applicants that you have right now? I don't have them. That's something you could send to us so Maybe we can do for the next one, we take a look at

I can put it on. The thing is, typically, I would put the applicants on the agenda beforehand. And that week ahead, if I knew you would review it before then. Just because you also need to discuss it, since this is a board, you need to discuss it at a public hearing.

Lou Paris, Economic Development. One point of reference that I was trying to think and make a connection was Team Volusia. If it helps, they have in their executive committee, they have 14 people that serves as a point of reference. There's many more people on the board, I think to the tune of maybe 40 people, business that invest in it. But the executive board has 14. It seems to be a number Bliss, you go to those meetings. So it seems to be a number that works somewhere around those parameters.

Thank you.

Well, do we have a motion one way or the other? To keep it at nine as the bylaws are written or to change it to seven? Is there

I move to amend by laws that we shall have seven

voting members.

Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second?

I would second that.

Okay, so we have a second. Do we have any discussion?

A question.

19. Strong quarter of vacancy? And as soon as that term is over, the next person sits? It's not how it has been happening, the vacancy. But can that be done?

Yes. I mean, that's just being proactive and

But with that, we would have to open it up. I mean, we can't just pick one person out of the public and say, okay, it will be you. We have to post it.

Yes, I understand understand

that. Okay.

I'll just put, that would help keep them to keep some happening.

Yeah, like when we know vacancies are coming. We know people are expiring.

As

it relates to the ratio of voting members nine to five as a quorum, should we also adjust the quorum?

Well, this is what my whole thing is. If we were going to have nine, did the quorum go up for voting or for the quorum versus seven?

Think five was just the majority of nine. Then Four? Yeah. I'm willing to offer a friendly amendment to my motion. So I move that the board shall have seven voting members and a quorum quorum of four. Okay.

So we have an amended motion with a second. Any other discussion?

Is there any concerns about an even number? I know everything always seems to be odd, but a quorum being an even number. Is there any thoughts or process associated with that? I appreciate that.

It would be hard to hold.

Yes. I think we need a tiebreaker.

That is a very good point.

Just have always I We

need the I

just yeah.

Discussion is good. Okay. So we go back to the first motion.

The original motion, yep.

The original motion.

Scratch the amended motion. Go back to the first motion.

With seven and five.

Seven and five. I can't wait to read the meeting.

They'll be simplified.

Good point, though.

Not to have I don't want to give you that. I was going say we could have if it's a tie, it could go out for an email vote for the rest of the But that's going get really

think about how often we vote on things. I mean, we have a lot of discussion. We have a lot of report outs. But we don't vote that often.

It needs to be succinct

concise. I agree. That's why I kind of was backing away from the point. We have administrative.

Right. Okay. Shall we take a vote? Let's do.

Seven-five as a

reminder. 7.

Yes.

Mr. Edmond? Yes.

Mr. Lundin?

Yes. Yes.

Ms. Jameson? Yes.

Ms. Cruz?

Yes.

Mr. Champion?

Yes.

All right. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Okay. And our next presentation is about the Economic Development Department budget and the Community Redevelopment Agency budget.

Ryan, before you start, you talked about the other two applicants. So we will just let those pass, correct?

Yeah. I'll just I'll let them know. And I'll look at their files and see if they had applied to any other boards. Then just let them know.

We're at a quorum.

And if Katie gets the information on the expiration of terms, we may have people coming up and terming out soon. Just let them know that we're we'll keep it warm.

Thank you. I just wanted to close that loop so that they don't sit off their hand. Absolutely.

Okay, the budget. So on your screen here, I've included the CRA. This is revenue through the years. And you can see here in 'twenty six, we had $641,870 in revenue. City staff had allocated $100,000 to the small scale facade grant, another $100,000 to the large scale, and then another $233,000 towards land acquisition.

And then the remaining funds there are remaining funds, I should say the $208,000 that is the county's portion, was allocated towards the streetscape on Park Avenue. Remember, the county's funds has to be used for allocating it towards some of those hard infrastructure costs with doing the Main Street for Park Avenue.

What does the hard cost actually encompass?

So it will encompass undergrounding the utilities on both Park and then Riverside.

So we're getting rid of the big poles?

Yeah. Hopefully, that would be the idea. Yay. And then obviously, if we want to do angled diagonal parking and we want to have a main street with larger sidewalks where you can have outdoor dining and that sort of stuff, then the right of way needs to get expanded. It just has to get larger in that area along Park Avenue there.

And then just storm water infrastructure for the street, for the main street itself, all those are improvements that can be used with county money because it's public infrastructure that's being invested in. So that's a large portion of budget do we have? I mean, I heard Park Avenue. Do we have things in the works that Yes. So the

utilities and how much that costs and what the plan would be, who votes on what direction that money goes to?

Yeah. So the council votes on ultimately where the money goes acting as the CRA. Right now, the direction from the council is to continue continue with with the the land acquisition and then to keep massaging the vision. And that's what staff are doing. So we haven't really gone to the next step of having gone out and done an RFP to do the Main Street, partly because it's going to cost a lot of money, too. And so that design work, of that has been done yet.

That money just sits

Yeah, it's just being allocated in the CRA right now. And there is obviously, the county doesn't like to see that the money just sits there. But to do a full Main Street, it takes a lot of money. So a Main Street is probably going to be 2,000,003 million dollars investment into just the infrastructure. And so putting money away now makes sense while the city's using their funds to purchase purchase the land and get everything ready to then have the county kind of come in on the back end to facilitate this decision.

I just know engineering takes a bit of time and people to do design if there's underground utilities that there could be some bidding out for those types of things might get us a jump start as we envision. The county is Okay with keeping the money there, and we're Okay with it?

I tried to impress upon the council the importance that the CRA really only has a decade left. So we need to move. But I don't want to do any I don't want to spend county or city taxpayer dollars until I know that the vision's set. So I don't want to go and spend all that money on engineering until I know that that is what

I guess I was was only talking about the underground utilities, that portion of the engineering. I think there's a 90 plus percent chance that it's going to be underground. That's what everybody's vision is, right? The big ugly poles or concrete. So that portion, I know the electrical and DOT, I don't

know if they're involved in that, but it's a long process. The other thing, so doing the study for it itself, would it have to be city funds? So part of it, too, is understanding and allocating money. The direction is to use the city funds right now to get

as much property as said. I'm Okay. It's just a lot of money that sits in for a while.

My question is, is it in an interest bearing account?

Yes. It looks like it's $60,000 last year. It looks like you get money each year and you don't spend it, so it's getting larger and larger, except there were some expenditures in 'twenty five. What was that for?

So in 'twenty five, spent well, we spent money for the CRA, for the facade grants for the city. So we had about $90,000 go out between the two funds and reimbursements. And then city staff put another $100,000 into each fund for next year. So there'll be a little

a to

And then I know we're negotiating to get pick up property over here. That would come out of these funds, correct or not?

Correct. Yes. And

is that in '25 or '26?

No. So that's in '25.

Update?

So those funds are already out of these

dollars? Yes. This is just the budget for 2026. I didn't show because the finance director said it was confusing. I didn't show adding in the carryforward amounts just to make it easier. So right now, the city's using the land acquisition here. We're going to go and So we'll purchase 104 North Park Place, which we just tore down. And then we're purchasing 114 North Riverside. And we are gonna close on that in this month. And then we are gonna to purchase once the budget gets adopted, we'll then purchase 123

East Park. And that will come out of '26?

And then we wanted to look at the department budget. So I didn't have enough time, but next year I will bring this earlier. That way you guys will have more insights and provide feedback. I kept it mostly the same. There is a minor reduction that I did from year to year, and that was mostly having to do with going to conferences. I'm not going to be going any conferences. I don't have time. Save the taxpayers a little bit of money there.

Well, Okay. My question is, I understand your reasoning, but you're wearing two, three hats. And should we hire an economic development person, I mean, a dedicated person in later 'twenty five, 'twenty six, it'd be good if those funds were there. I mean, just because the funds are in the budget does not not mean they have to be spent, but they're there and available. So has this already been passed? No. No?

So you recommend raising a backup?

I recommend keeping it because somebody new is going to need that conference or may benefit from that conference. And here, you're taking that opportunity away from them just because of your personal inability to attend due to all of your jobs. So I think a dedicated economic development person would

I think there's enough work. I've personally, in my professional career, never got to to a conference. So know. I think it's not I understand where you're coming from.

Well, the other component is could you assign one of us a quote? Now that's a double dip, and we're not getting paid. As long as it's expensive to cover it, I'm sure everybody would be willing to, if it's interesting.

Well, Okay, what conference are we talking about exactly?

The Economic Development Council Conference.

And it's held where? And it's for the state?

This is the floor to eight.

See, I see that as a golden opportunity to network with other economic development directors from across the state. Agree.

I mean, I just There isn't any huge nugget that you take from conferences except relationships, team building, the opportunity to reach out to somebody that you've met, at least, unless it's some kind of significant workshop. But usually other

you know, to I agree that we should perhaps leave that in the budget. Do we we're need a a motion?

Yes.

Okay. One

other question. Any statistics on out of the $72,000 from last budget, how much was consumer spent? So it means what we're talking about is minute because it's not being spent.

Well, a lot of it is spent.

Yeah. I mean a lot of like the lunches and stuff, but

Well, okay. We're going to have to nitpick it then because if you go through it, Team Volusia, that $30,000 is spent. Constant Contact, that $1,000 is spent. The monthly luncheons, 500, gone. Business after hours, gone. Volusia County Annual Meeting, spent. Postage, no, I don't know about postage. We don't use postage anymore. So, okay, you have $1,000 saved there. But we're going to okay, so we have $1,000 saved.

All right. Printing and binding, 1,500. You haven't spent any, but in the past, that has been spent. Copier paper, here again, 1,000. But here again, that is spent because, say, one of us is going out and going to a job fair or this or that, in the past, Samantha would print out color printers, color copies for us to go and distribute.

So you can argue that that that's not spent, but then if you're going to broadcast the message, printing costs money, and it saved me as a Board member from putting it taking it out of my pocket when Samantha provided that service. Moving on, Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce sponsorship, that's 6,000 that's spent. SEBMTC promotional money, every penny is spent. Miscellaneous promotion, well, here again, this is where Samantha in the past would have extra funds that if we needed it for, I don't know, the princess ball or whatever, she had some discretionary money that we had not spent that she could use. The CRA annual report advertisement, did you do that?

Okay, so that's $300 spent. Office supplies is $100 Operating supplies, I don't know about that $2,500

What is that used for?

That is for that's going be for whoever comes in, whoever gets hired.

And whatever they need. Okay, uniforms, those were typically for board shirts, which none of us wear. Really, in all the years? I have several in my closet.

I have several shirts, so I'm good. Okay.

The FRA membership dues for the CRA, you spend that?

Okay.

And the DEO, Special District Reporting? Florida

the board

to board is

those board services? Or there's something different to to say that?

Yes, we're spending those dollars. I think my reference was we didn't have to Bliss' point, yes, we spent a lot of this money. We didn't spend in the grand budget for economic development. We didn't spend a lot because the salary is the majority of it. I mean, yes.

But these expenses, when we say not a lot of it's spent, 90% we just went through it, 95

Yeah. Percent of it a lot of it's is kind of automatic. Just Thank of checks are cut.

And so outside of the economic development director salary, the majority of this particular budget is spent. So it seems like it was a worthy exercise to go through and make sure that we still have those monies allocated. So we were back at a motion to put back in the conference.

So we have a motion. Do have a second? May I just mention something?

I noticed between '25 and '26, the miscellaneous promotional went from 2,500 to 500. Is there any concern with that if you said there was some discretionary spending, if there's a brand new person?

Well, here again, we already identified at least 1,500 from postage and stuff. So I'm good with that.

Operational supplies, I'm assuming that's a computer.

Is there a way to see the actual spend against these budgets?

To see what we actually spend? Yes. We could print the income.

We've never ever gotten into that detail, but

Usually when you said budget is what you spent the last cycle, to know if it needs to be increased or decreased.

So it sounds like you're requesting or suggesting that when we look at a new budget, it isn't compared against the prior year budget, but it's

date annualized spend. How we used to do our budgets at

changes. Now hiring a director is anticipated changes that would increase the budget. Yes. I'm sorry, I just makes sense.

No, it's good. So, okay, in the past, we are appointed. And we are an advisory board. So therefore, we advise, and then the council and with the direction of the finance director approves and everything and has the last word. The more direction we can give at this point for our council to help out our council, great.

I'm not opposed to it at all. I was just explaining the history and the fact that in the past, we had somebody who was in the position longer than eighteen months and had a lot of history. And so therefore, they could explain line by line what we did with this extra money and this, therefore. So hopefully, we will have that position filled in the future and have more explanation as well.

And maybe that's the guidance. I would assume if we feel like there's more information if we're comparing a new budget against the prior year spend or year to date spend with anticipated things coming out, which is basically how most businesses do that, that would be the recommendation. Instead of publishing last year's budget, publish a comparison to year to date spend.

I want to vote for all I of the like the information. Okay, so we're back to we have a motion. Yep. I'll second. And we have a second. Roll call, please.

Can I get a recap on that motion?

Keep the conference dollars in

the budget for the new economic development directive. Which would make it 72, right?

Ms. Jamieson?

Yes.

Ms. Cruz?

Yes.

Mr. Inman?

Yes.

Ms. Power?

Yes. Mr. London?

Yes.

Mr. Champion?

Yes.

You. All right. Moving on, more discussion and review of the comprehensive economic development strategy. Because we have the regional Southeast Volusia Summit coming up October 23, which I urge everybody to put on their calendar and plan to attend. AdventHealth is sponsoring.

I would like us to take take a look at SEDS twenty twenty five, if you pull that up. And then I don't know if everybody brought their regional economic and Joshua, I apologize, you probably don't have one. I don't know if Ryan has extras. But the regional economic development strategy, because I would like to go ahead and get I'd like to get a motion of recommendation for this summit so that we are ahead of it and be able to make a motion of recommendation to the council so that come time for the summit, they are actually prepared and ready to make a decision and actually maybe get something accomplished at the summit, fingers crossed. So, okay, that's the objectives.

I was looking for your twenty twenty five.

Oh, you want me to actually pull up the actual sets?

Yes, twenty twenty five. Also, last time we had discussed this is where minutes would have been handy too. We discussed the River CTPO and our cities. You'll have to go on down. A lot of your red.

Where do you want me to start, please?

Where you had added in all these roads that you wanted to. Right there.

Right here.

Okay. So for the chamber summit coming up in October, they're going to focus on two main issues, stormwater and flood protection. And it's a shame we aren't going to have our stormwater and flood protection analysis back yet. But in preparation, we're going to be having that regional conversation and hopefully identifying sources of funds and that sort of thing so we can work together as a region. But the other thing is going to be roads and connectors.

So with that, I wanted to pause and ask you, Christine, if there's anything coming up that you know of here, and Ryan, anything you know coming up on our in the motion for our road connectors. I mean, that's in the works, not a plan, in the works, on the list.

Coming up for approval for the City Council, you mean?

No, for the CRA. Because we would have already pushed advanced it past the council to the CRA. Mean, me, to the river to see TPO.

Yeah, so I mean there are things on the long range plan. They're just in the 2,045 long range

plan, whatever. So nothing's imminent?

Okay. I mean, there's something on Bikepad that moved up the priority list.

Well, I think it's within isn't the old mission design or is that at 90% of the land sale?

That one is only for safety. It's nothing else. So that is going to come up at the summit. And because it is a regional connector, and I think we discussed last time it's already improved at the north end, it's already improved at the south end, improved.

The discussion was do we do something in the middle versus making progress or

discussion? Yes. So I was hoping we could get a recommendation today that we would recommend to the city council to resolution to support effort for the widening and stormwater improvements of Old Mission Road from Josephine to Park Avenue as the only other connector between State Road 44 and 442 other than I-ninety 5 and US 1. And this would be led by the county, supported by the cities. So with that, just a little more discussion there.

That would encompass not only the safety, because that's what is on the River to see TPO4, the safety funds. It's been on this since I've been around and I was on the river to CTPO CAC for years ago and they robbed the funds and gave them to Turnbull Bay Bridge and that was just for guardrails. So you were going to say something? Yes,

Flagler, not the River Sea anymore.

They changed it it again?

Yes, because Flagler portion of Flagler is added in. Okay.

So anyway, they keep robbing the funds. Nothing ever happens for this portion. It is dangerous. And I think we also discussed last time that trucks are using Glencoe Road, which is a substandard two lane residential road as a shortcut rather than going down 44 and Old Mission. So we have the possibility of having the safety funds, which we know those are there, using storm water and flood protection money because that is an issue in that whole area.

It flows north to the Trimble Bay and then possibility of getting the job growth grant. So there is other possible funding there. But right now, also a note, there is support for this to be county council, which if we were to get a resolution to support it and it passes the regional vote in October, we can actually move this project forward if we move the steps forward.

So what are our steps here today? Is to make a recommendation that

city the city council passed a resolution to support the regional effort for the widening of Old Mission Road and the stormwater improvements of Old Mission Road from Josephine to Park Avenue as the only other North South connector between State Road 44, State Road 442 other than I-ninety 5 and US-one, which would be led by the county and supported by the cities. It's a long one, but it lays it out.

That's the last section of

the road to be upgraded, correct? Correct. So I

do just want to bring up Williamson. Williamson is going to start here in Edgewater and go north, and that northern part is five, ten years away. So this is something that here again, we can throw and then you look at this list, which we discussed, some of these have never even been discussed ever. This is, a lot of Ryan's creative thinking here and projection. And I'm saying, let's take the low hanging fruit.

We've got the north end improved. We've got the south end improved. But nobody ever wants to fix the middle because we keep going like a ping pong ball to everything else. I'm just asking for one section to be finished because this is also a gateway, a connector, a major connector between State Road 44 And 442 into the largest contiguous industrial corridor in the county, which is Park Avenue. And we have, to support this even further, a million square feet of industrial space coming out of the ground in Parktown.

We have the new public works off of Dale Street, and the first 300,000 square feet of industrial space has already been permitted in Parktown. This is going to mean more trucks. It's going to mean more jobs. It just blows my mind that this has been such a struggle to get this one section of road finished, and it will be a huge asset. It will also help the kids go from Forest Shores to school up there on 10th Street, which is Josephine.

Okay. I can't make the motion. I've suggested it. I'll make the motion. Is there a second?

I will second that motion. I think having that corridor to support the industrial development in Park and all the goals to try and attract new jobs is a priority. I know it's an expensive section because of all the water we talked about that last time. It was much more expensive than other things, but it's never going to get cheaper. So getting that done and creating that pathway because it is dangerous, and you do have trucks going on Glencoe. They are taking no shortcuts to get around.

The important part of it is the regional aspect, which hopefully the council will understand that regional is an issue. And we have have water here, but it has to go somewhere.

Is the water component almost as much as the road component?

Yeah, probably. I

So I know, Ryan, you have a lot of things on your plate. But ultimately, projects like this report, motions like this kind of fall into your valley wick to support. And based on some of the discussion that Bliss had with economic development, Parktown, the renting trucks, does it make sense to you, even though it could be very very expensive, but to do that section of road incomplete?

Yeah, yeah. I think the city is just really limited. So our road impact base, the city doesn't own any any collector roadways. Our first real arterial collector roadway will be the extension of Indian River Boulevard. And so what does that mean? Our impact fees are very low, multi modal. Majority of that goes to the county because they have to maintain the arterial collectors. And so, yeah, getting that prioritized is really important.

I think it's something we have to fight for, right? Have to Yeah. Yeah. Pushing don't allow that to fall back on the wayside.

Otherwise, it'll be twenty, forty five. Yes.

Well, and I think getting the traffic because the intersection at Old Mission and 44 is failing, and it's gonna continue to fail. Yeah. Getting the traffic south on Old Mission to get onto the interstate will be really important to get people. And people will naturally, when there's four or five trying to make that left hand turn, four or five semis, people will start just taking south and get on the interstate to get up.

Those of us from Edgewater that are going to Home Depot go all the way to 95 and get off on 44 and come south versus trying to make that connector. Okay.

I can also tell you that the city of New Smyrna Beach is looking at that intersection of 44 and Mission. So I mean, they realize it needs fixing and all that stuff. And with that also, you're getting the new Pioneer Trail exchange right there, which is going to bring more traffic

to the

collector kind of running north south, which would be Glencoe, pull Glencoe all the way down to Calgary. And

with that, we have an S term, which would have to be straightened out. You have to have all the engineering studies, all the this, all the studies, all the that, and Old Mission Road's already improved on both ends. We just have to fix them. Can we call for a vote? Yes.

Ms. Jamieson?

Yes.

Ms. Cruz? Yes. Mr. Inman?

Yes.

Ms. Power? Yes.

Mr. Champion?

Yes.

Mr. London? Thank you.

And we have the support. And so if we support it, it sends a message to the other economic boards. They can say Edgewater, they're I mean, they're leading, and they are supporting it. And then it helps the council to support it, because we already have some people at the county council

that

are interested in supporting it. So it's not going to happen without a push and without support.

This will have to go to the council to vote on it? County council. Correct.

So it's a regional effort.

No, I understand what you're doing. I'm just trying to clarify it.

So How it gets passed.

So at the summit, if they take action, they may or may not, but it could at least be in the works because they're going to focus on this. And then it'll go to the county council. But you have to have a plan, you have to have strategy in order to meet it. So this is the first step.

So Bliss said there's two things that the summit is concentrating on. One is the storm jobs for fiscal Southeast pollution. Great. Thank you, Bless.

Thank you. Thank you all. With that,

do we need to finish that motion? I know we took a vote. Any discussion nays? Everybody is going vote. Do we have to finish that?

We did it. Finished it. Okay. Thank you. You. Discussion items. Does our department director have any comments, No, questions,

we are getting really close to getting Gearing Park in. So likely

it changed anything here? Has our moratorium stopped or you

No. There was I mean, it was so city staff had based on on the letter that we had received and opinion from the attorney, city staff had declared the moratorium null and void, which bought the council time. The council did not repeal the moratorium like SP one eighty required. But because their logic was because staff had declared it null and void and we're not enforcing it, that it didn't need to be repealed. So, yes, it is an active ordinance, but it's not being enforced.

Well, from a public perception and it's chaos and mess and people don't understand it. There's a lot of people upset thinking that the city is moving forward with the moratorium. And it's not unless you speak to somebody like yourself or a city council person and they say no. It stated at the meeting

that the staff wasn't not following the moratorium.

I still say it's contradictory and messy. Know, we

have a public I agree with that. There's, you know, whether Orange County investigating, I know it's financial, but we're not closing the rules on things. And I think that making no vote or saying we're not enforcing it is a decision and it's not. Well, you're

breaking your own ordinance.

Yes. I think that this world today needs to follow guidelines and judgments and law and make those decisions and decide that it is not valid and we were asked to not. And I only mentioned that because I hadn't heard anything. I heard exactly what you said, that it was kind of just going to let it die. It's three month death, four months left.

And the other part of that is they voted to join the lawsuit, correct?

So I believe that'll be on that's on the next city council agenda.

And is that going to cost us money, the city money?

It's $10,000 to join with a $5,000 fee if there's an appeal. Which

attorney is leading that?

Jamie

Cole.

Oh, there a

So,

I

we're issuing permits. They made the decision, so it's

the I hope somebody actually watches this because it's politically advantageous to them to make a show of it. In all caps, counsel, counsel, in all caps, we're not going to repeal this. And that's

kind of my thought, is that we know we make decisions because it's the right thing to do. Don't not not worth anyway, further discussion, but I agree with you, Christine. Smoke and mirrors. We stand up and we do what's right. The law says this is not, and we've been asked by the law to do something different, and we

should do that. It's all about reelection or whatever. Have something to bring up. Wait a second. Are you done with your report? Okay. Thank you. I don't know if anybody has been really really paying attention to the property tax, to abolishing the property tax in the state of Florida. Has anybody been paying attention to that? Is the city paying attention to that in any way?

That's the state portion, correct? That doesn't abolish all property tax, correct?

Yeah, think they're looking at abolishing all property tax. And I think the issue with it is, so for one, yes, they have it in Europe and that is successful. But a lot of that is because it coincides with concentration of power up in Tallahassee because all European nations are kind of got that centralized planning at the top down, very top down heavy. And the reason it would have to become that way is because if it's a consumer tax on, say, for example, it's not on groceries and utilities, then because if each city had its own little state's vat, well, the people that are winners are going to be the people who have big box. So now it'll be a race for the big box stores.

That'll be the next chase of chasing down because if you're taxing everything you purchase, then you want to have as many big box retails that's not groceries.

So that puts the little person out of business.

Yeah. So I don't know. I think it's definitely got a lot of problems that I don't think they're going to just figure out in the next six months how to redo really the financial system of the state of Florida. This doesn't doesn't seem feasible.

I'm watching it as it puts more centralized power and nobody's talking about how to make up the difference in the revenue.

Yes. That is scary. It is scary.

As a

citizen, not as a Yes.

Because I will tell you that if it went to a constitutional amendment and it needs 60% to pass, you know that the city of Edgewater would vote 80% to repeal it because most people are like, oh, I wouldn't have to pay property tax.

And they would wonder, like, what happened to my services?

And it really begs the question. It's like, yeah, except, well, but what if there's now a 20% tax anytime you buy a car, right? It's like

Right. Revenue has to be replaced somewhere.

Will there be a state income tax, yes, to replace it?

It's a major shift that they're not talking about.

Yes. Correct.

Anyway, I just thought I would

have of the COVID-nineteen then we a permit? No. No? Okay. Question

No, nothing new. Or at least No, we're just still working through kind of the large workload.

Okay. Anybody else have any questions or comments on Ryan's report? I'd like to move on to Board reports.

I'm looking at you. I did mine already. Okay, Sorry.

Benares?

School is back in session. We are bursting at the seams at the college. Very excited about that. I don't want to take away from Brad's thunder, but just a reminder about the Innovation hub that's opening on what? Sixteenth? Fifteenth. Fifteenth at 04:30 to seven. So I'll be there. Very excited about that. Doctor. Williams will be there as well. So hopefully you guys can check it out. I think you have to RSVP, if I'm not mistaken. Does

this mean that the New Smyrna Beach Edgewater Daytona State campus is busting at the seams?

Yes.

Awesome.

That's fantastic. Long story short, it was just a matter of looking at scheduling. There were a lot of conflicts that wouldn't allow students to take a full time schedule. And so, just working through that and bringing new courses in a way that allows them to hit everything that they need. The nursing program, as you guys know, is expanding. So offering the courses that they need for that is crucial. So scheduling for that is crucial as well.

Well, Anaris, I want to thank you for your leadership and determination there because I've been here long enough. I know that it was you.

Your words. That only

Yeah. That you are the reason that finally got resolved. The champion of trying to make this campus

valuable. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Absolutely. Because that helps our community tremendously.

It does.

And we certainly, on behalf of AdventHealth, appreciate all that this school is doing. Certainly, I've heard a lot of feedback from our staff and individuals who are attending as well.

The nursing program that you guys

helped

sponsor? A real partnership, isn't it? Having a local school and our largest employer in the city. So that's awesome.

Is a milestone for the college down here.

Actually, is a milestone. That campus has been

It's a huge deal.

We're always concerned it was going to get absorbed.

Not while I'm here. Job security. Well,

and much needed. I applaud your efforts. You very much. Mr. London.

I'd like to find more information about the summit.

Okay. Well, it hasn't really come out yet.

If you can forward it when it does.

Yes, I'd be happy to.

Another report you were looking at or viewing. I've never seen that anymore.

The regional?

So I'm not sure what it is.

Will you make sure everybody because Mr. Champion needs one as well.

What do we need?

Well, one, they need a bond or

The economic economic strategic strategic plan. Plan. They

need the regional plan. They need the SEDS. Yes.

I didn't recognize that I think founders are.

Okay. We will make sure you get those.

Ryan, do you have a copy of the binder?

Do I have a copy of the binder?

Do you know the binder that he needs, I guess is what I'm asking.

No, I was going to make it for.

This lovely one.

That's why

I asked.

Because Ryan might need the template for the binder.

I'll look in the

I'll let you borrow mine.

There's printing costs.

Printing costs.

And then I did take a tour of Darren Park after our last meeting and was pretty surprised how much activity is actually going on. And Ernie did a great job, spent two hours with all around the Edgewater portion of. It's pretty impressive.

Thank you for taking the time to do that. I really appreciate it, and I hope you will share the news of what you have learned throughout the community.

Every time I get a chance to counter some of the stuff that is being said, I do. I mean, can't in our codes, but SP-one 180 can stop that. I don't know what we can

do. We

can just make notes for the future, but thank you very much. Mr. Champion, I know this is your first time with us, and I was remiss in not welcoming you from the beginning of the meeting. But we are delighted to have you with us to carry on the AdventHealth tradition of one of the largest employers in our area. And health care is so important to each member of society. We really thank you for being in our community and look forward to Advent Health's continued growth. Absolutely.

Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here, and my apologies. I've had

a little bit of a

rough start in getting here, but glad to be here today. And thank you for sharing the cadence of the meeting.

So I look forward to everyone's day, every first Wednesday. First Wednesday with the exception of July.

Yes. And maybe January.

Yes. Okay. Depending on where it falls. But it would be nice, usually do it at the beginning of the year. Unfortunately, with the first Wednesday, you kind of have to.

Ms. Cruz, do you have a report? No? Okay, I do. So, I attended the Q breakfast. These breakfasts are wonderful. And since Lou is here, do you want to walk us through? You can

go ahead and do that.

Okay. Well, please feel free to jump in, if you would. So I brought everybody a brief I mean

a copy.

Thank you. It is full of information. I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but on Page five, we're all about jobs and everything and how do we create more jobs and have community that supports jobs. So I wanted to bring your attention to number five and just look at the numbers for 2023, look at the growth, carpenters grew 10.4%, and then look at the projected numbers of jobs needed by 2031.

Almost doubling everything, right? Yes.

It's remarkable. That's carpenter, electrician, HVAC and plumber. So that ought to mean lots of students for Daytona State College. Okay? And then also with that, anybody who has students at Volusia County Schools, there are many programs in which you can dual enroll to get those certifications, which gives you an extra advantage time wise. Also, Daytona dual enrollment and I say this all the time just to educate people dual enrollment is where people, students, can take these certification courses for free as opposed to waiting until they're 18 when they have to pay for them themselves.

Just to add a little bit real quick. So the workforce and education of the Southeast Volusia Chamber of Commerce, we have these talent tours. And we take middle school and high school students in the Southeast Volusia area to kind of shadow the cities on the back end. And so on September 30, we're actually taking a group of middle school and high schoolers. We do have Burns that participates as well.

We're taking them to the ATC to see a lot of these programs. So they'll be exposed to HVAC, plumbing, construction, welding, CNC machining, paramedics, everything that's at the ATC. So that will be on September 30. And so we have these tours throughout the year, and we do take them to different industries as well. So yes, it's definitely a way to expose our educational pipeline to some opportunities.

And flipping over to Page six, you can see the other trades that are in need. Industrial machinery mechanic makes sense. Machinists, tool and die makers, and then welders. So everything is just increasing. Then if you look at Page seven, it's just more reiteration of that, but this is talking about completions, total certifications.

So that is good. But to meet the two thousand and and thirty one need, we need to be turning out a whole lot more than we're turning out.

Turning out more skilled labor, correct? Correct. Keep students in the area. So even much more important for Daytona State as you participate. But getting kids engaged. Yes. We see these numbers of average wage and so forth, but those are good numbers. I mean, those are good salaries that you can grow with.

Aniras, with what you just mentioned, those tours, do you all have a copy of the flyers regarding our, city of Edgewater's scholarship?

I know we brought it to the board. I don't know if we finalized it. But ironically, as we were sitting here, I made a note to bring that back up November ish because I know that we talked about pushing that earlier next year. And so everything should be finalized, I would hope, before we leave in December.

Did Not everybody liked it, but I don't think I've sent anything to Katie or anybody on

Okay. A letter to

I'd like to bring that back in November and have a final vote so that we can get these in his hands. Each student that has one, it's more publicity of our scholarship fund. And hopefully, we will have somebody apply for do you need it by

October so that it's printed and ready to go for November?

Either is fine. Because we can make that happen. So That's

if you would add that to the agenda and then send it out in everybody's packet.

Scholarship letter.

So one scholarship or multiple?

There are multiple multiple scholarships. Have a scholarship committee on this board. We have a scholarship committee. Rebecca, would you like to fill him in on the scholarship Sure.

So it's an application we usually raise through the princess ball and some business donations around 10,000 to $12,000 So we try and accommodate everybody that applies as long as you meet the criteria for college portion. We also have a certification portion where students that wanted to take HVAC will also have a scholarship for that.

It's usually between

12 this year, and I think for the first year we did it, but yes. And we're

targeting college courses and trade courses?

Added trade about three years ago. We haven't been very successful in promoting it. That was the point for the flyer, was to try and hand those out for students that if you want a two year HVAC certification or you want to do something else, welding, that there is a scholarship to help pay for that also. It isn't just college. Most kids think about scholarships, think about college only, not trade.

So we're trying to push that. As Bliss says, we're going to need double these trades trades that we currently have, and that's going to be more important. So maybe something with this and the amount of additional trade jobs and salaries. Well, nationwide trade isn't a problem. It is. Yes. So

Rebecca, I like that thought you were just having over there that maybe we could incorporate some of this information into our flyer. I think it would help educate and carry more weight. Looking at average jobs,

when you think about some of the trades, I don't

think Maybe perhaps you could make it something.

But maybe some kind of graph by 2031, we need twice as many for and this this is all of Volusia County, correct? Yes. So an average So would

you share those graphics with us for this purpose? Yes, absolutely. Okay. So then maybe instead of just single page flyer, it could be front and back with information. I think it's a great opportunity to educate the parents.

If you could get that to high school counselors, that

would probably

be a great outlet as well.

We don't have the time or inclination to help counsel students, unfortunately. It literally is your class schedule. That's all they have the time for. So we rely on the community community to kind of get those things out and become part of events. Scholarships students looking to go to school, they're in the counselor's office looking up all the scholarships.

Those students that are going to trade school or end up in trade school have no idea there's monies available for things like that. Just like your nursing program, how long has it taken to get that momentum going and know that you guys reimbursing that certification. So that's a big deal. It takes a while to get that out in the community. I

just saw something I can't remember. Was Instagram. Something came through that caught my eye and it had wages for different jobs, trades jobs, so it was another trying to push those forward into 16, 17, 18 year olds' hands. But and the thing that caught my eye was because diesel mechanic was $29 an hour, 29 something, and my daughter just said that my niece, who is a junior in high school, think, has said she's not going to college, she wants to be a diesel mechanic. It's getting out there.

Obviously, that message is starting to get out there, because you probably saw the same Instagram post, and that was the highest paid one out of the four things that came up. So I'm saying there is beyond the county's graphic, there's other graphics that maybe we could put in or include the information.

That's great. Would you if you can find it, will you send it to Ryan and Katie? Because that would be great if we could bring that back in October.

So I think I can take some I'd still like to do is keep it one page just because I think keeping kids' attention

I know, but if it's just one page front and

back. I understand. But there's a lot of pictures. Maybe I was thinking just an engineering degree at four years school. I don't know how to craft it yet, but his entry level is $66,000 The mechanic is making 66,000 you have scholarships. So I have to think on that.

Yes. You can get to a quicker overall cost, a quarter of the amount. Than a Less than a quarter.

I mean, it's the cost of your to go to college for the certifications. It's incredibly advantageous. And that used to be common when we were in school. Really sat with a counselor and said, your grades are kind of we recommend you go to construction school.

But it wasn't considered a bad thing.

It was good thing.

Some of those kids make more money than I know.

Yes,

yes. Industrial, sure.

And then if you'll add nursing to it, because across the country, nursing is the number one job need. Has been for for fifty years, Mr.

Lewis, unfortunately. And my guess is the nearest I've come to understanding it is it came down to the educational portion of it, having enough teachers teach. And I think you well, I know that Advent Health is doing a great job in creating value for nurses. It used to be just kind of glorified housekeepers to speak. But there is huge value in that profession. So celebrate because it's an important part of the community. Right. So nursing flyer update.

All right. One more thing I have to report on. I attended the seventh Space Coast Symposium down at the port. And Rob Long, the CEO of Space Florida, was one of the keynote speakers. Another gentleman was President and CEO of the International Space University.

And then the third keynote speaker was the gentleman from Teledyne. Okay, so all of them, the theme was space, commerce and everything is growing. It's growing in our area. And then the rest of them talked about educating our workforce, the need for engineers, etcetera, etcetera, and, the projected numbers they need by twenty twenty, two thousand and thirty, 2031. So all of this is being, supportive right and left that February and '30 is the need.

They were talking about Space Florida even has a Space Academy curriculum so that different schools or any school, Volusia Volusia County School District could partner with Space Florida and actually offer this, to their students. And different school districts throughout the state are partnering with Space Florida's Academy, and it was fantastic. And then Teledyne as well. So it's Volusia County was reporting it at the Cube Breakfast. Space Florida is talking about it.

I mean, it's here. Space is here.

Didn't the rockets just go up?

Pardon me? The rockets? The rockets go up all the time.

Like every three days.

Just now, it's like 08:00. Yes. I was like, oh, time for

the meeting. And Lou, do you know the next date for the next cube breakfast?

Okay.

We'll look for November. All right. Well, that's the last of my reports, I think. I'll stick with that. I thank everybody for coming. I thank you for your input, your ideas. I thank you for all that you do throughout the community. And with that, a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

All righty. See you in October.