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MINUTES
ESCAMBIA COUNTY TOURIST DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL
September 23, 2015–3:00 p.m.
201 East Gregory Street 
Pensacola Bay Center 
Pensacola, Florida
             
1.   Call to Order, Chairman Nash Patel

Proper advertisement of TDC meeting was published in the Pensacola News Journal, on Saturday, September 19, 2015.
             
2.   Approval of Tuesday, June 4, 2015 Tourist Development Council Meeting Minutes
*TDC member Denis McKinnon called for the approval of the June 4th meeting minutes.
*TDC member Doug Underhill seconded the motion to approve and the motion passed 7-2, with members Shirley Cronley and Gregory Jones absent.
             
3.   Status of Funds Available, TDC Collections and Receipts, Stephan Hall, Director, Office of Management & Budget
*Up to 10.8% over collections same time last year August 2014.
*Handout of TDC Collections given to the TDC Board as backup. (available upon request).
             
4.   Visit Pensacola Quarterly Updates, Steve Hayes, President, Visit Pensacola
*Chairman Patel thanked the group comprised of Visit Pensacola Board, Perdido Key Chamber and Pensacola Beach and Pensacola Sports Association *for working together which makes the TDC Boards easy to do our job with the Tourist Development Tax (TDT) in the community and with Tourism.
*Handout given to the TDC Board per the Powerpoint presentation. (copy available upon request.

*Discussion TDC Board:
Member Underhill- Board of County Commissioners passed 5-0 in support of the ACE/PSA/Visit Pensacola initiative, which means the Board has faith in these organizations to manage the dollars and hit the diversity goal.
Steve Hayes, Visit Pensacola- We do appreciate you making the statement.
Member Underhill- BCC is out of the TDT business and we are better for it.
Steve Hayes- Referenced the 2016 unified budget per the power point to be 7.4K per the handout given to each TDC member.
Chairman Patel- As we move forward we need details as to where the funds were spent under ACE, PSA and Visit Pensacola.
Members McKinnon, Member Wu and Underhill- Applauded the board on the effort of the work they have done with the dollars compared to a few years ago.
  • Steve Hayes- Pensacola beach Information Center received a min-grant of about 50K-90K which included due to the SRIA regorganization.Underhill commended Visit Pensacola on their service to the community.
  • Councilman Wu-thanked the board for the work they have been doing
  • Member Underhill-Steve Hayes Back to Chairman’s question regarding operation, it seems there is about 110,000K to Pensacola Beach which they rely on volunteers. However, Perdido Key is twice as much due to staffing.
  • Justify what is the return on investment for the difference in the numbers?
  • Break out man hours and look at the overall contribution
  • Tina Morrison,Perdido Key Chamber of Commerce- our personal cost has decrease 10%
  • Member Spencer- I would just say as we are compiling competitive shopping with your initiative to brand Pensacola
  • The target should be to look at other cities, an example is I visited Toronto a few weeks ago and it is noted now for being the most livable city to live in, where a few years ago it was not.
  • Overview of 2020 Planning Workshop
  • Per power point Rev up tourism as an economic engine
  • Mona…….presented the 5 year strategic plan on video that was presented the community on May 7, 2015 at the Pensacola Rex Center
  • She noted it is posted online and the Destination 2020.org website is up
  • Mission: Lead and Connect Collaborate
  • As we moved forwarded the plan fell into three categories of advocate, own, collaborate
  • Goal: Tourism is a vital, highly valued and if supported is a economic engine
  • Member Underhill- Infrastructure and Community Development in the 2020 Plan would fall under advocate as I look under transportation and looked at the connectivity between communities; I feel we should make all of the areas between a part of the plan.
  • Under Own- you should create a Visit Pensacola ‘Secret Service Team” and use Visit Pensacola.org site as message board and information portal.
  • Expand Visit Pensacola to vetting of proposals.
  • Collaborate- Stakeholders cross marketing and cooperation.
  • Show Case Team, Mona, Liz and Bryan showed a video referencing Destination Marketing Plan 2015-2016 and noted: Tourism is up 11% compared to last year at 7%.
  • TDC Discussion:
  • Member McKinnon- I would like to make a motion to approve the unified budget, Motion second by Member Spencer.
  • Member Underhill- Called the question regarding the man hours at Pensacola Beach Visitor Information Center
  • Liberal numbers-116,000-lower than 199,000 for Perdido Key and I would ask the board to know I do not know the right numbers or the right kind of person or the man hours
  • Chairman Patel- I would ask Perdido Key Chamber to speak to this issue
  • Tina Morrison, Perdido Key Chamber- 199K is for personnel and benefits
  • For 5 full-time people and we are open 7 days a week.
  • Decrease 85% from only funding the cost of labor
  • We have an Event Coordinator that does several jobs and the bed tax has increased 10%-15%.
  • Member McKinnon- We should only be funding tourism related events
  • Member Mckinnon ,made a motion to amend the motion so that Steve Hayes can revise the numbers for Perdido Key budget and come back to the TDC board
  • Member Spencer seconded the motion and it passed 6-2 with members Shirley Cronley and Gregory Jones absent.
  • Tina Morrison- asked how this amendment would affect their support of the budget, it was noted by budget that it would not being the fiscal year starts 10/2015.
  • Bryan McCall and Liz Palt did a PowerPoint presentation regarding UGA vs. Auburn on 11/14/2015 in which they are a sponsor
  • Noted they are redoing the website for Visit Pensacola next year.
  • Member P.C. Wu- states the presentation was great!
  • Showed the power point video in which VP partnered with BET and worked on a video with VP member Robin Reshard, filmmaker/author.
             
5.   *Old Business/New Business/Next Meeting Date/Adjournment of Meeting:
  • Ron Ellington, DMO member- introduced the new TDC member Pat Sidler whose appointment will be approved at the BCC meeting on 9/24.
  • Chairman Patel- The special TDC meeting will be set and all members will be notified by Audrey.
  • If no other business to come before the board, is there a motion to adjourn?
  • Motion to adjourn was made by member Nan Harper and seconded by member Doug Underhill.
  • Meeting adjourned at 4:50 p.m.

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