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TDC Minutes 12/10/2002 RDecember 10, 2002 TRANSCRIPT OF THE MEETING OF THE COLLIER COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL Naples, Florida, December 10, 2002 LET IT BE REMEMBERED, that the Collier County Tourist Development Council, in and for the County of Collier, having conducted business herein, met on this date at 1:00 PM in REGULAR SESSION in Building "F of the Government Complex, East Naples, Florida, with the following members present: CHAIRMAN: Commissioner Jim Coletta Vice Mayor Gary Galleberg Gene Vaccaro Kevin Durkin Jerry Thirion Susan Becker Joe Dinunzio Rhona Saunders Councilman E. Glen Tucker (Absent) ALSO PRESENT: Bleu Wallace, CDES Operations Dept. Ron Hovell, Project Manager-Public Utilities Div. Heidi Ashton, Assistant County Attorney Ms. Elaine McLaughlin, Tourism Mgt. Consultant Jack Wert, Director of Tourism Page 1 COLLIER COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL 1:00 p.m., December 10, 2002 AGENDA II. III. IV. Ve VI. Call to Order (Roll Call - Determination of Quorum) Chan~es and Approval of A~enda Approval of Minutes - October 21, 2002 Presentation · Staff Update Items Requiring Action by the Tourist Development Council I. Category "B" - Advertising/Promotion. Recommendation to Board for adoption of Resolution establishing the Greater Naples, Marco Island, and the Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau. 2. Category "A" - Beach Renourishment. Recommendation to Board to approve surplus declaration for two beach rakes. 3. Category "A" - Beach Renourishment. Proposed new grant application form. 4. Category "A' - Beach Renourishment. Recommendation to Board to approve Beach Renourishment Engineering Services Grant - $635,000 5. Category "A"- Beach Renourishment. Recommendation to Board to approve Wiggins Pass Maintenance Dredging Grant Application - $450,000 Council Discussion VII. Ad|ourn December 10, 2002 Meeting was called to order at 1:00 PM. Pledge of Allegiance was recited. Roll Call taken - a quorum established. II. Changes & Approval of Agenda- none III. Approval of Minutes - October 21, 2002 Susan Becker - Page 4 - should read end of the first quarter of 2004-not 2003. Page 4 - correct spelling of Darren Robertshaw's name. Mrs. Becket moved to approve the minutes with the above corrections. Seconded and carried. IV. Presentation - Staff update: Bleu Wallace Annual report is due on all Advisory Boards and Councils subordinate to the County Board of Commissions for the past 4 years. Bleu asked Mr. Thirion to ask for his assistance in preparing the report. Heidi Ashton - Assistant County Attorney- stated Boards that are created by the BCC are under review. This Committee is different as the Tourist Development Council is statutorily required - may not be a requirement for a yearly review but can meet and advice the TDC accordingly. Meeting date - Bleu asked the Committee if the 4th Monday of each month for 2003 from 9:00 - 12:00 meets with everyone's schedule. It was decided to keep those dates. - Update from Elaine McLaughlin on the Budgeting and Media recommendations for coming year. Elaine MeLaughlin - discussed available monies for what is needed to do additionally. They already have committed $108,000 for ongoing Public Relations support. The $602,000 additional funds are divided into direct special projects, public relations expenses, and funding collateral. They will target an advertising budget for the off-season with no specific publications, developing through Mr. Wert, the ad agency and the Advisory Board. Want to be in several Florida FLAUSA directories. The budget has and will target specifics along with the Website. There are operational monies in the Budget for developing the Website. In the Amendment they are amending the Contract to add $602,000 additional dollars into the system and leave the categories general. She stated they want the staff to bring them recommendations, and are doing just that. She would like the Council to approve the attachment to the agreement. Mr. Vaccaro wanted to know if this locked in the figures, or they can be changed or shifted from one category from another without coming back to the Council. Page 2 December 10, 2002 The answer was "no". That is why they have made the categories as broad as possible. He feels they shouldn't have to come back to them again, and Elaine said it will give them flexibility in the budget categories and feels it will help them tremendously in planning the advertising strategy. The $20,000 was discussed to whether that was enough to advertise the Golfing activity, since the two big attractions in Collier County is beaches and golfing. Elaine stated golf will be addressed in about every ad and publication they do - it may be a more generic market. Direct marketing, golf packages and working through a golf tour operator are other ways of marketing golf. Bleu noted one of the provisions in the existing contract is to allow KSR to transfer unspent line item funds that result from lower negotiated prices into the marketing line item that can be used for anything in the future. Heidi Ashton asked about the $9,000 Public Relations fee and how the county is going to regulate the monies spent and how it is allocated over the year. Bleu stated the $9,000 in the fiscal 2002 Contract did end on September 30th. The TDC and the BCC approved the use of the unexpended added investment advertising funds until January 31, 2003. The $9,000 Public Relations money stopped on September 30th, 2002 with a new agreement for 2003 for the $9,000 per month. Two agreements are in place at the present. One is to extend the use of the 2002 monies through January 2003. They have not spent any 2003 monies except for the $9,000 per month because of the basic contract for fiscal 2003. Mrs. Saunders asked about the budget last year being $1.2M - $700,000 is being talked about to the agency- is the additional amount into the CVB portion? Elaine stated the rest of the money is going into operations, some for advertising, but not for advertising within the agency contract. Bleu mentioned they found $239,000 in unspent '02 funds that rolled into Reserves that the Board approved staff using $200,000 for start-up costs. Mr. Durkin moved to approve the Budget distribution Media recommendations for 2002/2003. Seconded Gary Galleberg. Carried unanimous 8-0. Commissioner Coletta asked for this to be put on the BCC agenda, if a problem with some of the details, it can be continued. ClassicFlorida.com is the website address and all part of the ongoing research being done. The County does own it. Page 3 December 10, 2002 Ve Items Requiring Action by the Tourist Development Council: 1. Category "B"- Advertising/Promotion. Recommendation to the Board for adoption of Resolution establishing the Greater Naples, Marco Island, and the Everglades Convention and Visitors Bureau. Susan Becker was confused and was under the impression earlier it was going to be called the Collier County Convention & Visitors Bureau. Now they are talking about beginning the name with "Greater". Elaine stated they are suggesting they call it a Convention & Visitors Bureau. Everything they have done so far is under the brand Greater Naples, Marco Island, and the Everglades to be comprehensive. It has more "brand" capability than Collier County. Collier County would be difficult to start branding. "Greater" Naples helps them. Susan felt it was impractical and unwieldy with that number of words. Elaine stated they need to be inclusive. If not, people start to fragment and the decision was made by the Council and the BCC, quite sometime ago that they would be the "Greater" Naples, Marco Island, and the Everglades Convention & Visitors Bureau. Susan still felt it was too long and not very practical. Commissioner Coletta stated a new recommendation could be sent forward if the whole Council felt it was appropriate to do so. Mrs. Saunders agreed with the wording and wondered if it would be too difficult for signage etc. Mr. Wert said it has already been on the website and been used all along. By using the name Naples and Marco Island is telling people where they are and is very important. He can see it on banners, at trade shows etc. It is a mouth full but everyone will get use to it. They are looking for their "blessing" on forming the Convention Bureau with that name and very important to be consistent - everything should say the same thing. Commissioner Coletta likes the name, if they don't recognize one name, they will recognize another. He feels they are going in the right direction. Commissioner Coletta moved to recommend approval of the resolution. Seconded Mr. Durkin. Carried unanimously 8-0. Speaker: Page 4 December 10, 2002 Stewart Jacobson - full time resident of Naples - he attended the workshop earlier in the day. He talked about the size of ads - small ads can be effective depending upon the reader and the people seeing a particular ad. Need to go after certain markets. Never know the numbers until the reality sets in. He said trade shows are good if you come up with an angle; get the press to come to you. Golf & Beaches are what people come for. He gave a few examples of what to use for advertising. Need to make noise and blow our horns. He discussed the government cutting visas for the German and Irish markets. He wishes the tourism committee and everyone thc best of luck and feels it has great opportunities. 2. Category "A: - Beach Nourishment. Recommendation to Board to approve surplus declaration for two beach rakes. Ron Hovell - Coastal Projects Mgr.-Public Utilities Engineering Dept. He gave a general overview on the main goal of the beach raking being picking up the rocks. The program grew into debris and grooming operation which means now the County owns 4 beach rakes and 3 tractors with 3 full time operators in the Parks and Recreation Dept. They have met with the Coastal Advisory Committee and the Environment Advisory Council finding out what the requirement is behind racking and the best thing to do. The CAC has let each jurisdiction set the tone on how they want to see their beaches maintained. The advice has been to move away from the big raking machines and more picking up trash by hand and back to the way things were about 10 years ago such as dragging a chain-link fence. They have not reached any final decisions yet, but they are proposing to excess two of the four beach rakes owned by the County. The Coastal Advisory Committee has made a positive recommendation, and wishes to take it to the BCC and excess the two rakes. The money from the rakes would go into the beach fund. Mr. Durkin moved to approve selling the two beach rakes that are in surplus. Seconded Mr. Dinunzio. Carried unanimously 8-0. 3. Category "A" - Beach Nourishment. Proposed new grant application form. Ron informed the Council that the Coastal Advisory Committee asked staff to come up with a revised form. He will show it to them at their next meeting on Thursday. Mr. Thirion moved to approve the revised grant application. Seconded Mrs. Saunders. Carried Unanimously 8-0. Page 5 December 10, 2002 e Category "A" - Beach renourishment. Recommendation to Board to approve Beach Renourishment Engineering Services Grant - $635,000. The Coastal Advisory Committee recommended they accelerate the planning and design and permitting of the major renourishment with the goal to do it a year from now. The overall budget estimate for engineering services is a bit over $1.2M - $600,000 is already set aside for the sand search, and this grant application is requesting the other $635,000. Page 5 of the Grant Application shows the other line items. Mr. Vaccaro talked about entering into specific contracts and wondered if there are term limits so they are not locked into any contract. Ron responded if at any time they are not happy with Coastal Planning & Engineering, they have two other companies, under fixed term contract, they could use. They are not restricted. Mr. Galleberg pointed out that the Coastal Advisory Committee approved the plan unanimously. They discussed it at length and felt this is the way to go. Mr. Galleberg moved to approve the $635,000 Beach Renourishment Engineering Services Grant. Seconded Mr. Durkin. Carried Unanimously 8-0. Se Category "A" - Beach Renourishment. Recommendation to Board to approve Wiggins Pass Maintenance Dredging Grant Application-S450,000. The Coastal Advisory Committee approved the grant application for Wiggins Pass for $450,000. This is based on estimates they had last March when Wiggins Pass was dredged. This has already gone to the BCC and taken certain actions but doesn't match up with total requested in package. To date $340,000 has been set-aside based on specific bids. He feels they will finish up next week. He is not asking for the full $450,000 so they have some flexibility. Mr. Vaccaro approved the Wiggins Pass Maintenance Dredging Grant Application. Seconded Councilman Coletta. Carried Unanimously 8-0. Mr. Wallace introduced Assistant County Attorney Heidi Ashton who will be providing legal services for the TDC. Staff extended their appreciation to Elaine McLaughlin, for working on the marketing plan and facilitating the Workshop. Page 6 December 10, 2002 Mr. Wallace discussed the subject of CVB being funded by advertising promotion funds. Heidi recommended they do an Ordinance Amendment to expand the Category for advertising and promotion to include the funding of Convention Bureaus, Tourist Bureaus, Tourist Information Centers, and use Bureaus as County Agencies. They would need the Councils recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners to amend the Ordinance that is in place- Ordinance #9260 as amended. Mr. Dinunzio moved to recommend to the BCC the Amendment of Ordinance #9260. Seconded Mr. Durkin Mr. Galleberg asked if they are revising the wording so the proper scope of activity is in the Ordinance, or the funding. Heidi answered she is referring to expanding the scope of what is in the Ordinance to mirror the Statute. That is not in the current Ordinance. To avoid any future problems is to expand the category- the language of the Ordinance to include those categories as not to run into funding problems in the future. Carried Unanimously 8-0. VI. Council Discussion: Councilman Coletta stated this is his last meeting and they have come a long way. He feels going to monthly meetings is great. He knows discussions will come up concerning TBC monies versus museums. Positive things are happening in the County and as business starts to grow it is going to be generating additional sales tax. The added sales tax could possibly be dedicated to winning the museums and the botanical garden away from the TBC. It might be something to think about. He thanked everyone for allowing him to be the Chair for this past year. Mrs. Saunders thanked Councilman Coletta for being the chair and stated he has done an excellent job in leading them. She wanted to address "seed money" - how it is going to fund for special events, or those that are ongoing. She doesn't feel there is a clear cut definition yet. That will be put on the Agenda for the next meeting. Mrs. Becker also said "thank you". She is concerned how closely they can work with the Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce and the broad base of volunteers and the promotion of tourism. Jack said it is very important to work with all the Chambers - they are an asset - also to work with a base of volunteers being very valuable. Page 7 December 10, 2002 Mr. Dinunzio also thanked Chairman Coletta - especially on the Tourism office. Mr. Thirion also thanked Chairman Coletta for his leadership, Bleu, Elaine and welcomed Jack. He enjoyed the workshop this morning and liked the coming together. He thanked Ron Hovell for his leadership in making things come together with the beach renourishment project. Mr. Durkin thanked the Commissioner for his guidance, thanked Bleu and Elaine. He welcomed Jack & Heidi. Mr. Galleberg thanked everyone also and feels a lot of great work has been done. There have been a lot of accomplishments and he looks forward to everyone working together. Mr. Vaccaro thanked everyone also and touched on what Ms. Saunders stated. He would like to see Jack and his staff focus on developing one or two major signature off-season events. Being no further business to come before the meeting it adjourned at 2:05PM. Page 8