Remarks by Scott Safford
139 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 6
- Play at 43:28
“Yeah, they have a dynamic pricing model based on how close you want to be to Mallory Square, how close you want to be. the downtown area and they also have a seasonal dynamic to it. You know, I think the best thing and most prudent thing we should do is perhaps go with the 6-5. It's my understanding that that would be easy with our software company to do, maybe Thanksgiving to Easter or November 15th to April 15th.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 44:06
“Make it $6. But I think we need to have a longer, more in-depth conversation about what our software company can do, what our goals are. These guys will be able to run some numbers. We can do some forecast modeling, what that dynamic pricing would look like. But it makes no sense. I totally get what the guys in Times Square are saying. The same spot, March 17th, today is September 23rd. That same spot costs the same price. it makes no sense. And, you know, the technology we have, but there's a cost associated with it. So I'd like to maybe approve the 6-5 and then table, because we can always…”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 45:53
“Even better if it doesn't cost us anymore if we don't have to.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 46:11
“Yeah, because I think it makes sense. Right now, sunset after 5 o'clock, two, three bucks to park. We'll get some cars because we're getting none at $5. And we're certainly going to get none at $7. Right.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 46:27
“And I know, Dan, you had said, hey, people want to know what they're going to pay, but if we could have, you know, a sign at the bridge, just like when you're driving through an express lane, you know if you hit that express lane, it's going to be $3, $2, $7. Maybe just have something like that or have it on an app.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 46:52
“I'm saying for right now, I think we should have a discussion in a month or two just about parking and come up with a solution that everybody, I mean, not everybody's going to be happy, but come up with a solution that makes sense.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 51:19
“So on ‑‑ I don't ‑‑ does the public have this? Is it available?”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 51:33
“So I have a specific question about if we're going to raise the short-term rental fee, if you look on the far right, you'll see that it would be a $50,000 benefit to the town. If we currently have roughly 1,250 rentals and we're raising the price by 100, why the numbers don't work unless we didn't credit any staff into the short-term rental program and we're budgeting people next year. That's the only way. Am I making a mistake?”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 52:35
“Okay. Because one of the concerns we had was, and this is back Six seven years ago when this discussion came up I mean we we looked at a source of revenue and then I was gonna be how we're gonna how we're gonna fund workforce housing on the island and then it in the the counter argument was all you're gonna do is Bring in all this money just for staff and what's what's your benefit? You're just you're just paying for staff and it seems that if we're raising a The fee is 33%, and considering doubling or tripling the opt-up fee, I think we should get, it should not just go to staff. I think…”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 1:25:43
“Scott, you want to add anything before we go? No, I'd like to hear from the public.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 1:44:23
“John, let me, they're, they're options and selling the lands also an option, but you can't budget it because you don't know a, what you're going to sell it for, or if you're even going to sell it. So you can't, you can't, you can't make a budget based on, you know, I've, I've, I've, we've got a lot for sale right now. I'm not basing my next year's budget on us for sure selling that lot. I mean, there's, hundreds of watts for sale. So you can't budget something that you haven't sold yet. That's the whole point.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 1:44:58
“I understand you can't put a dollar figure right now. Right. I think the exercise we're going through here right now is what can we highlight in dark green to get that yellow number bigger? And do we do the stuff in the brown? Because as we said, we'd like to get some reserve money. And I think Will's gotten some good priorities. Now, if it were me, I think we should do everything in that dark green, I think we should do. And we should come back in a month or two and revisit the parking. I think it's just too much for us to figure out today. If we know based on Jeff's analysis that we raise…”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 1:49:33
“I for sure think we need to all agree that we need to have a Further discussion, whatever we decide tonight, we need to look at different models, dynamic pricing. We need to get more public input and maybe offer, as the mayor said, maybe offer some lower rates when things are slow or free. But we've got to give Jeffrey time to do that modeling. We just can't chat GBT right this second. And it's more than just CHAP GBT. It's getting input from the business owners, island residents, you know, everyone, and looking at what that revenue will be.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 2:01:17
“Carolyn, help me if I'm wrong, but In the past, Joe would have financials about two months behind, three months behind. So if we're meaning in April, he had January's numbers. Is that kind of what your target's going to be?”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 2:02:03
“So to answer your question, that's kind of why I want to have this on the MMP meeting, because they can not only take that data that Carolyn's going to provide and say, hey, look, the tricky thing with parking, though, is the way Joe had it, Let's say you're hoping to do $1.2 million. Well, January would be at $200,000. Well, you've got to remember, January is a seasonal month, so he didn't have it perfect. So it's almost like if you could really do it well, you say, hey, we're going to do half our revenue January through April, which makes sense. It's just like a vacation rental. You know…”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 2:03:06
“Yeah, we're so seasonal. Looking at your Parker revenue in September, you're like, oh, we're off. Well, no, because you're only doing –”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 2:09:46
“So I originally had thought that because we're coming into season that we do the 6-5 and then we make sure that we all come back and have a lengthy discussion with all the partners on, you know, our business partners or, you know, Residents everything else to see if we can come and with mr Rizzo see if we can come up with a good plan and do some price price modeling see what what's best and it I Just don't think it's today, but I'd sure like to see it in One of the next two M&P meetings and that way we can adjust we can get a final adjustment on our parking fees for season that everybody's…”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 2:11:00
“Well, we can't do that now, but I think in our M&P meeting... But I think it's part of our discussion in the M&P. Absolutely part of our discussion in the M&P. How can we encourage people to come down here and help the businesses, especially downtown?”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 2:11:35
“I'll tell you what, let's do some horse training. I'll do six if we can make sure that we get that M&P meeting done as quickly as possible.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 2:12:30
“Yeah, I'm okay with six, but we've got to talk about it quickly. We're budgeting reasons.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 2:15:49
“I think we all have to remember that this is a budget.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 2:17:45
“When you see an increase like after the hurricane, we need way more permitting people. That's where you don't hire the people. That's where you use contractors. But in a permanent position like a finance director, be much better to have, not go through, no offense, but not go through a contracting company like a Robert Half. And keep continuity.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 2:23:12
“I think we keep kicking that can down the road. At some point, and you saw after Ian, we didn't receive any funding because we didn't have a plan in place, and our waterways are crucial, and it's part of our strategic plan. So if there's going to be something that we – SPEND MONEY ON, I THINK, OF THE REST OF THE, WELL, YEAH, BECAUSE WE MAY WANT TO START REPAYING THAT BRIDGE LOAN, BUT THIS IS, OF ALL THOSE THINGS, THAT'S THE LOWEST AMOUNT.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 2:29:01
“I think that's already covered. That one is covered outside of these. I think the best way to look at this one, Rebecca, is we've got, I'm hearing a lot of complaints about all the empty lots that are overgrown. eyesore for sure, health and safety for sure. It could be a revenue generator for us. It's either going to be one of two things. We're either going to get those lots cleaned up, which we want, or we're going to get code on them. Get them done.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026
- Play at 2:29:34
“There's a lot of front-end work that Nancy and Phil and their team has to do, but I think that person would pretty much pay for himself.”
Town Council · Sep 23, 2026