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BCC Minutes 12/07/2001 S (Tourism Contracts)December 7, 2001 SPECIAL MEETING OF December 7, 2001 OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Board of County Commissioners in and for the County of Collier, and also acting as the Board of Zoning Appeals and as the governing board(s) of such special districts as have been created according to law and having conducted business herein, met on this date at 9:35 a.m. In SPECIAL SESSION in Building "F" of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: CHAIRMAN: JAMES D. CARTER, PH.D JIM COLETTA DONNA FIALA TOM HENNING FRED COYLE ALSO PRESENT: TOM OLLIFF, County Manager DAVID WEIGEL, County Attorney JIM MUDD, Deputy County Manager SUE FILSON, BCC Administration Page 1 COLLIER COUNTY BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS AGENDA December 7, 2001 9:15 A.M. NOTICE: ALL PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK ON ANY AGENDA ITEM MUST REGISTER PRIOR TO SPEAKING. SPEAKERS MUST REGISTER WITH THE COUNTY MANAGER PRIOR TO THE PRESENTATION OF THE AGENDA ITEM TO BE ADDRESSED. COLLIER COUNTY ORDINANCE NO. 99-22 REQUIRES THAT ALL LOBBYISTS SHALL, BEFORE ENGAGING IN ANY LOBBYING ACTIVITIES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, ADDRESSING THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS), REGISTER WITH THE CLERK TO THE BOARD AT THE BOARD MINUTES AND RECORDS DEPARTMENT. REQUESTS TO ADDRESS THE BOARD ON SUBJECTS WHICH ARE NOT ON THIS AGENDA MUST BE SUBMITTED IN WRITING WITH EXPLANATION TO THE COUNTY MANAGER AT LEAST 13 DAYS PRIOR TO THE DATE OF THE MEETING AND WILL BE HEARD UNDER "PUBLIC PETITIONS". ANY PERSON WHO DECIDES TO APPEAL A DECISION OF THIS BOARD WILL NEED A RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS PERTAINING THERETO, AND THEREFORE MAY NEED TO ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS IS MADE, WHICH RECORD INCLUDES THE TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE APPEAL IS TO BE BASED. ALL REGISTERED PUBLIC SPEAKERS WILL BE LIMITED TO FIVE (5) MINUTES UNLESS PERMISSION FOR ADDITIONAL TIME IS GRANTED BY THE CHAIRMAN. IF YOU ARE A PERSON WITH A DISABILITY WHO NEEDS ANY ACCOMMODATION IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS PROCEEDING, YOU ARE ENTITLED, AT NO COST TO YOU, TO THE PROVISION OF CERTAIN ASSISTANCE. PLEASE CONTACT THE COLLIER COUNTY 1 July 31, 2OOl FACILITIES MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT LOCATED AT 3301 EAST TAMIAMI TRAIL, NAPLE S, FLORIDA, 34112, (941) 774-8380; ASSISTED LISTENING DEVICES FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED ARE AVAILABLE IN THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' OFFICE. 1. Pledge of Allegiance Consideration of approval of tourism contracts as recommended by the Tourism Alliance 3. Adjourn. 2 July 31, 2001 December 7, 2001 (The following proceedings commenced, Commissioner Carter not being present:) ACTING CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. And, Jim, would you go ahead and throw the magic button down there? (The Pledge of Allegiance was recited in unison.) ACTING CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Good morning. Good morning, one and all. Dr. Carter will be here in a short while. Meanwhile, I'll start the meeting. This is an emergency meeting of the Collier County Commission regarding the tourist tax money that we're looking for for emergency advertising. Go ahead, John. MR. DUNNUCK: Well, I think you pretty much summarized it. Thank you, Commissioners, for being here this morning and taking time out of your schedule. We really appreciate it. What you have before you is one agreement that we're bringing forward. And it's an agreement with Kell -- Kelly, Swafford, Roy, Incorporated (phonetic), which is the marketing firm that previously was under a contract with the tourism alliance. In an effort to -- to clean up the program and follow the attorney general's opinion, we have -- we have taken this contract and -- and put it before the Board of County Commissioners directly as a way of ensuring the accountability is fulfilled and that we are doing it in a more efficient manner. In this case they will directly report through staff, well, the -- the work in the advisory capacity with the tourism alliance on what the marketing program is, which has been previously agreed to, but that the invoicing and everything will come through staff and the county directly. We think it's an efficiency plan, and we're recommending approval. ACTING CHAIRMAN COLETTA: And this is the Page 2 December 7, 2001 recommendations of Dwight Brock's office, and this satisfies his requirements too? MR. DUNNUCK: Correct. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I -- MR. DUNNUCK: Go ahead. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'd just like to say this is an important -- important issue to be passed immediately because the other counties all have a leg up on us around Florida, and I would like to see this go through, so I'd like to make a motion that we approve this. ACTING CHAIRMAN COLETTA: We have a motion. Do I have a second? MS. FILSON: We have a speaker. ACTING CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Oh, we have a speaker? Well, we'll get the second first; then we'll go on to the speaker. Do we have a second? I'll second it, if you have some hesitation. COMMISSIONER COYLE: Yes. I need to ask some questions about it. ACTING CHAIRMAN COLETTA: No. We -- we just want to get the issue out front so we can hear from the speakers and start a discussion and, also, to keep in mind that the commission now has this on the -- as a first and second for approval. So if-- for any reason if you wish to waive after one or two people speak, we'll continue and go forward from there. First speaker is -- MS. FILSON: Dawn Jantsch. COMMISSIONER COLETTA: Dawn, good morning. MS. JANTSCH: Good morning. It's nice to see you at this emergency meeting. Sorry that it had to be called. Dawn Jantsch, for the record, representing the Naples Area Chamber of Commerce, the largest business organization in Page 3 December 7, 2001 Southwest Florida. I'm just going to throw a couple numbers at you this morning just briefly. According to the Collier County budget, 9,000 -- 9,666,000 was budgeted to be raised by the tourist tax for fiscal year 2002. You know that's raised by hotels, motels, and short-term rentals. Of that 70 percent pays for beach renourishment. Thirty percent is split amongst the events museums with a -- 1.4 million going for tourism advertising. That's a low figure compared to what the other counties are spending. The sales tax revenue forecasted for the county budget was 27 million, over 27 million, representing the second largest source of operating revenue for the county. In a forecast of that county revenue, it was estimated by noted economist, Hank Fishkind of Fishkind & Associates, this past summer that tourists contribute 26.41 percent. Boy, you know that figure by heart, don't you? Tourists contribute 26.41 percent of that -- our sales tax dollar revenues. Okay. This budget is starting to look a little scary, isn't it? On another note, gas taxes were expected to be over 16 million. The tourism tax revenue was down, according to your budget office, 36.1 percent for the September receipts. That was reported in October. It was down 36.1 percent. COMMISSIONER FIALA: For Collier County? MS. JANTSCH: Yes, ma'am. The revenue raised for October reported for November was down 20.8 percent. It's obvious that our community is being affected and that this has become not just tourism but a health, safety, and welfare issue for our county. I urge you to pass these contracts today. We expect that there will be some changes in the furore. There is a visioning process that has begun. It's been discussed among several groups, and we do plan to see many changes. But the emergency stares right now is that we have not had any advertising Page 4 December 7, 2001 since September. We are the only county based on tourism that has not had any advertising from September. Mack Chaundry (phonetic) was -- from Marriott was telling me yesterday that he was in New York, and he was embarrassed that three days after New York had advertising after September 1 lth. And they were laughing that Collier County did not. Our whole economy is based on tourism. I urge you to pass these contracts today, and I'll be meeting with you again on the visioning process in the future, as will many others, I'm sure. COMMISSIONER FIALA: Thank you, Dawn. Jim, I'd like to mention, just so it's on the record, I've talked with a few people in the tourism industry. I come from the tourism industry, so I probably have a little closer feeling to this than -- than maybe other people would. And I know that the counties, in their emergency funds -- and, of course, you-all know that we have this emergency fund set aside and the TDC funds just for a situation like this, to advertise. And the other counties who also have a emergency fund have jumped right in there and gotten that thing going and in -- in many cases started advertising already for the dry business in October. And here it is in December, and we're still here. So I'm -- I'm hoping that we move this forward. ACTING CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Another speaker? MS. FILSON: That was the last speaker. ACTING CHAIRMAN COLETTA: Okay. Commissioner Coyle? COMMISSIONER COYLE: Does the staff have anything to say about this other than what's in the executive summary? MR. DUNNUCK: No. From the perspective of this and this agreement we have before you today with KSR, we are very much in support. And I personally had a meeting with the tourism alliance the other day, and I think we all recognize that from a process standpoint Page 5 December 7, 2001 we need to make some changes. And they committed through -- through a recommendation there that they're willing to make that change and work with staff over the next couple of months so that we can improve this program and the responsiveness of it. You will also -- and I'm not sure Miss Jantsch is aware; the other three agreements will be coming to the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday. They were less critical of nature, but we wanted to make sure from a marketing standpoint we got this one rolling. That's pretty much where we are with it. We're recommending approval of this agreement. COMMISSIONER COYLE: Well, I -- I don't intend to stand in the way of your approval. I think we need to do -- get the advertising started. And I think it's unfortunate that we haven't done so before, but I -- I -- I'm not in the tourism business, and I don't know anything about it. (Commissioner Carter entered the room.) COMMISSIONER COYLE: So I'd just like to share my -- my opinion. And then maybe you can do whatever you want to do with it because I really am not an expert in this area. But I've been doing a lot of flying recently, and I see some of the crowds coming back on the airplanes. But most of the people are staying away, I think, not because they don't know about Naples. They're staying away because they're terrified of flying. And the airline industry really hasn't done a lot to reassure them. And I -- I think that it makes a lot of sense if -- if you -- if you really want to establish that -- reestablish that traveling public fly -- people flying in here, we need to deal with their fears, and -- and one of the ways of doing that is to target affinity groups. People get on a charter aircraft or on a aircraft that we get -- you get from a major airline, which you can book entirely with people they know and people they feel comfortable traveling with. And I'd be really surprised if you couldn't book up a lot of charter Page 6 December 7, 2001 aircraft that way if you target the affinity groups in specific portions of the country. So -- you know, my -- my only concern with this is that we are confronted with extraordinary circumstances, and we are approaching the solution pretty much in the same way we've always approached the advertising for-- for tourism. And with respect to the driving public, we, again, are competing with-- with dozens, if not hundreds, of other communities who are going after that same public. And I -- I -- I hope this will produce results. I personally am not convinced it will do so. So I would encourage you to -- to take a look at some innovative -- some more innovative ideas. I know you've had some innovative ideas. But take a look at some more innovative ideas to see if we can't find a more cost-effective way of reestablishing the tourist trade here in Collier County. And with that, I would wholeheartedly support the contract. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I think we'll have some interesting things come to light on Tuesday, too. COMMISSIONER COYLE: Okay. Good. CHAIRMAN CARTER: Commissioner Coletta has been running your meeting. After listening to Steve Forbes this morning, I'm encouraged. COMMISSIONER FIALA: I'd like to hear what he has to say. COMMISSIONER COYLE: I wouldn't make that leap. CHAIRMAN CARTER: Well, it was a good meeting. But you got the motion for approval? You have a second? COMMISSIONER COLETTA: We have -- we do. CHAIRMAN CARTER: board members? (No response.) CHAIRMAN CARTER: we have public comment? Any further discussion among the Any further comments by staff, or do Page 7 December 7, 2001 COMMISSIONER COLETTA: that. CHAIRMAN CARTER: in favor signify by saying aye. (Unanimous response.) CHAIRMAN CARTER: (No response.) CHAIRMAN CARTER: The motion carries 4-0. business in front of us, Mr. Dunnuck? MR. DUNNUCK: No, thank you. CHAIRMAN CARTER: Hasse Park. We've already been through You've been through that. Okay. All Opposed by the same sign. Any other We're off to the dedication of Max Page 8 December 7, 2001 There being no further business for the good of the County, the meeting was adjourned by order of the Chair at 9:45 a.m. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS/EX OFFICIO GOVERNING BOARD(S) OF SPECIAL DISTRICTS UNDER ITS JAMES D. CARTER, PH.D, CHAIRMAN BROCK, CLERK These minutes approved by the Board on //X/~ / , as presented or as corrected TRANSCRIPT PREPARED ON BEHALF OF DONOVAN COURT REPORTING, INC., BY BARBARA A. DONOVAN, RMR, CRR Page 9