March 18th, 2025 may come to order. Please silence all cell phones. I'll take that action myself. Bear with me. And Ms. Huffman, please call the roll. Diana Poole here. David McKenna. He's excused. John Joaquin. Here. Jesse Romero. Here. Charles Titan. Here. Well, welcome everybody. Hope you're having a good spring, spring break. It's not really spring yet, but it feels like it out there. That's the kid that's been breaking. It is. So first on the agenda is to approve the meeting minutes from the February 18th meeting. Is there a motion to do that? Make a motion to approve the meetings. Second. Please take the roll on that. Diana Poole. Yes. John McKeen. Yes. Jesse Romero. Yes. Charles Tagman. Here. Yes. Yes. John McKin. Yes. Jesse Romero. Yes. Charles Tagman. Here. Yes. Thank you. So the meeting, the minutes from the February 18th meeting are so adopted. Now let's see. Is there anyone in the room that would like to participate, Ms. Martin? You sure? You've got three minutes. Okay, thank you. If there's no public participation, actually I was supposed to ask are there any presentations? I don't see anybody. And no public participation. So let's move on to old business. Old business. Is there any old business that we need to discuss? There is. All right. Thank you so much. Good morning, everybody. So first thing on our agenda is to review the results from the business survey. As you recall, we sent this out. Made it live on February 28th via survey monkey. And this Chamber of Commerce and each city promoted to the respective businesses using social media, direct email, websites and newsletters. The window to participate was opened through March 6th. The Chamber also added incentive to participate by offering a chance to win a gift card to a local restaurant. the 3 3000 plus businesses in the Southeast Volusia region, we had 66 businesses respond. But I looked back and back in 2019, when we did a business survey, we had 34 responds. So we got 100% response. When I spoke to our colleagues at the county, they said that had similar issues that people are just not really interested in taking surveys these days. I don't know if it's because they're so prevalent or they're so popular or used so much or inundated with information. But we have the results and they are in here and I love SurveyMonkey because it gives you really nice charts. So I included the entire report in here. I also do have an Excel spreadsheet, which I extrapolated. It's about this long. But it has all of the individual comments and things if anyone wanted to see. We had about 12 people that asked to be Responded back to and so the chamber we're splitting that list up some of them for we're from edgewater some from New Smurnas Some were interested in workforce development and so I provided that list to Anaris and men with our Daytona State College of South campus here and he was going to reach out directly to those businesses that wanted to be contacted back about workforce development and training and some things like that. So kind of in the process still of digesting all of the information and providing those feedback and that information. So just quickly through, if you wanted to just quickly go through it, the survey told us that 83% of the people that participated live or hear their businesses are here in New Sermon Abiche. 28.79% consider themselves other when they look through the list and those included personal services, insurance and financial services, housing, beauty, fitness, photography, theater, not-for-profit, a church, and a thrift store. 21% are in the leisure and hospitality industry. And then some of the other questions, 53.3% have zero to four employees. 68% said they provided their goods and services here in Southeast Valusia. 28% have approximate sales between 100,000 and 499,000. 34% consider their business to be in the mature stage. 33% of them in the growth stage. So that might be something that we look at of, you know, maybe helping those businesses come up with the new mouse trap, if you will, to kind of as their businesses maturing is how to kind of bring new life into it, offer a different product, a different service or something about nature. 71 percent of the respondents have a single location. 31 percent stated that workforce was their biggest challenge and of those 79% express a shortage of workforce as the greatest impact in 2024. So those are the ones that we are going to reach out to. I'm also going to make sure that we reach out to them and invite them to the job fair. If they're looking for workforce and looking for employees in job fair as April 1st. 38% expressed business grants could support future growth plans. So if you noticed, if you receive the newsletter from March, I had some information in there about some business grants and business opportunities for help. So those would be something that I'll really be targeting and focused on with our newsletter of those kinds of grants and any kind of opportunity that's like that for our businesses. So I mean, it's good information that we got. Let's see, 48% sell from their physical storefront. 26% shows a seven on a scale of one to 10 regarding the ease of doing business in the city. 44% chose this area to open their business because they live here and 75% chose not to be contacted. So that's kind of their synopsis. Thank you. Thank you for your leadership in doing this and all of those that participated in the effort. Did you find anything? What jumped out at you at this? Was there some surprising data that I didn't think that? Not really. I wasn't surprised that Grant's nor workforce were coming to some of the big businesses felt that that could be the biggest help for them. You know, the challenge is that very few times is there free money. You know, a lot of the grants and a lot of the opportunities that I have found, because I've done a lot of research, you know, it was something you and I had talked about months ago. And so I went through and did a lot of research on, you know, City, county, state, and federal opportunities. There are some private entities and organizations on the federal level that do offer grants or low interest loans. But a lot of them have like a membership fee where you have to join. There's some kind of fee involved, so it's not exactly free money. but our businesses that's really what they're looking for. So that's a challenge. But any kind of help that we can provide it off. There are a lot of government programs, but those are a little harder to navigate. They're a little harder to navigate. The application process is very cumbersome. And I think sometimes a lot of are- Is that purposeful or just the way we- It's because it's federal money. And it's because there's all kinds of checks and balances to make sure that the money that you get from a federal entity gets used in a way that it was intended. And so there's all kinds of reporting after the fact, just like I've done some federal grants for even environmental or through the state DEP or things like that that are just reporting and it just kills you. Do you expect that those, you know, they're less of those available or they dry up given the, you know, the doge world that we quite possibly. I think everyone's kind of biting their fingernails waiting to see what happens with with that. Any easy free money from the state? You know, that's not federal pass through. No, not really, but there's there's like tax incentives is mostly what the state offers. You know or if you're in one of the targeted industry, you know there's some we had the speaker from at the team Volusia annual meeting last week and Florida Commerce has some opportunities available that I'm going to research further and make those available to our businesses so that it's easy to find. But there might be some incentives or grants or dollars available through Florida Commerce. Would do, I don't mean to fill a buster the conversation here but please jump in. That's good information. But is, would our, the demographics of our business community qualify for those type of, I mean, are they aimed at the hospitality and leisure and support services? I think a lot of them are aimed towards like entrepreneurs and things like that and for startups. So there might possibly be something available. Yeah, I'd wonder, you know, as we live on the space coast, if there isn't, you know, incentives to bring, you know, kind of space tech companies here. And there is, there are incentives for that, yes. Could you share that? So, remember when we passed the commercial space opportunity of relay district, part of the point of doing that was say that we were able to land a company, it wouldn't even have to be a large company, wouldn't have to be a SpaceX or a blue origin. But if it's a company that's related, maybe they make a module or they make a widget that goes on, you know, something that's used down to Kennedy Space Center is one of their major clients, let's say. The reason, if they were able to locate in part of the area in the city that is zoned, that has that overlay on it, they could- But that's not Daring Park, is it? It is. So what we did is, each city, when we did that, we, so a new smart of each, we We targeted all the properties around the airport. We targeted this. I'm sorry. It is. So what we did is each city, when we did that, we, so a new smart beach, we targeted all the properties around the airport. We targeted the Sylvesterie property. So any industrial zone property or mixed use zone property got that overlay on it. And what that's supposed to mean is that number one, that they would get expedited permitting to get up and running. Because a lot of times they have contracts with Blue origin or spacex or somebody and they've got to be up and running within six months. So it's time. It's you know time is money right. So part of that would be the expedited permitting. It would also open up some dollars. So through SpaceX a lot of times you could have the SpaceX would help with some of the land purchase Dollars as well as infrastructure Plus the state has other tax incentives and other incentives and SpaceX the private company space X private company Blue Origins private company. Yeah, they're they're providing incentives But through no through, no, space Florida. Space Florida. Through space Florida. So we would connect with the county and team Volusia and get connected into space Florida and be able to help that company get up and running quicker. But there's also incentives to the state for those key targeted industries and the same targeted industries, remember for our tax abatement that our just approved Same targeted industries from learning to make sure that we were aligned with what the state and the county are targeting So that's how that works plus it's it's does it's designed through floor statue I was also sharing with some of you earlier that You know obviously there's a push to Move NASA headquarters down to this area. Our senators introduced a bill I think four or five days ago to that impact and it is targeting Brevard County but you know this is the best place to live in the area. I saw that and doesn't it even say here they have businesses here because they like to live here? Yes. Yes. Maybe that's not the case. I saw that they were targeting Bavard County, especially, but I do know they were very interested in NASA when we went to spacecom. They were very interested in Dearing Park Innovation Center as a potential location. I think there's a deal to be made there. I do too. I do too. I'm very hopeful that, yes. Now, is that the future of our town that we want? I don't know. But it would be their offices. It wouldn't necessarily be where they be launching from. It's just their offices. They're professional offices and engineering and those kinds of things. So, right, right. So I think for our city, when you look at all of our plans and strategic plans and economic development plans, that that kind of clean industry and headquarters like that, those are what we've been targeting for years. Well, that would be a game changer for us. It would be a game changer for us, it would bring all of those high paying value at a jobs to our community, which would be spectacular. And we would have homes for them to live in and stores for them to shop and all of that. Yeah, it would definitely be a game changer. And clearly there's momentum towards that, I think, you know, with the Trump administration trying to push government out into the communities away from Washington, DC. And having moved from there, terrible for Washington, DC. Yes, yes. You can buy a house a little cheaper. Any comments from? Yes, have we looked at diversifying the future of the inquiry besides just NASA and Space Coast for example. Of course, yes. Like, you know, different headquarters as the companies are coming to Florida. Yes. I know that Miami has a lot of high tech coming in. It's a lot of high tech coming into Florida also. Yeah, I mean, if we could land a couple corporate headquarters as a big piece. How do we land it? How do we do that? do that is hey. So I mean you travel a lot. Jess you've got a great group of folks that you are a center of influence for, you know, with your connections. And basically, I mean, the biggest part of your job on our task force is being that advocate for bringing business here and being able to talk positive to any kind of naysayers in our community and just Telling people that we've what we have available what we've got planned You know that we're ready as far as our infrastructure and our water and our sewer and our stormwater that we've got all these plans going on and that you know where you are Definitely thinking ahead, you know 2050 years out so that we have that smart growth That it's well planned planned, it's well thought out, and that we are ready, and that we want them to come. The challenge that we've had in the past with corporate headquarters, as some of them, as you know, these large businesses, they have a whole department of marketing people and a number of crunchers, and that's all they do. And a lot of times for corporate headquarters is they're looking for the cross section of two major interstates. So that's why you look at Daytona, where Daytona where I-4 comes into 95. That's why a lot of that activity has landed there, but as those spaces fill up, I think that we are prime and ready for that. But that has been the challenge. You have to look at their business models, you know, just like when you talk to anybody from Wawa or any of the companies that we've been trying to target and get here. They have very specific marketing, you know, business plans of where their locations can be. And, you know, a lot of them need a corner. They need a traffic light. They want to be on a major thoroughfare, certain population, certain demographics, not only with rooftops, but also discretionary income and those kinds of things. So we're getting there. We are getting there. We didn't have all of that to get Trader Joe's, but there is one coming up at, why don't I always talk about Trader Joe's? I don't know. I'm gonna fucking nanowide. Yeah. Oh, well. You know, it's so fun that you mentioned that because in the last two weeks, I have been approached by two different site selectors and each of them are site selectors for what they call organic grocers. So I'm not sure exactly which brand that is, but brand name, but time will tell. Yeah, we'll see. Charlie, you had some. Yeah, just kind of going through this survey. I find it interesting that 52 of 65 respondents ranked newsborne of beat your seven are better on the ease of doing business. And if I were to do a press release, that's probably where I would focus the press release saying that, you know, what is that? That's almost, it's over 80% of respondents scored the city seven or better on a scale of zero to 10. So we actually got a bunch of happy respondents which is often the flip of you usually get a prejudice of unhappy respondents. I think that's good. Is there any plans to publicize this and I assume it's on the website. It is. It's on the website, on the Economic Development page. Yes, I was going to talk to Phil. I wanted to bring it to you first as the board, the task force, and get your feedback and comments. And then I'll work with Phil, our public information officer, on getting it done. On-down news might take a lot might pick. They do a lot. They pick up a lot of it. They love us. So they would make a great relationship with us. I think they would pick it up. And if you did a press release, it probably publish it pretty much in the entire. Are there any regional awards or state wide awards for most business friendly? You know, from the state Chamber of Commerce. Probably, yes, I could probably look into it. Yeah, maybe our tag is we're business friendly. Yeah, I'll put Stephanie up. I've heard our permitting processes a little. We're getting there. We've, Shane Corbin is our development services director and he's a wealth of knowledge and great guy and he's building his team and I've been trying to help as well as kind of be that on Budsman for businesses that are working on getting things permitted or getting things straightened out that maybe they did some work that wasn't permitted and trying to get that straightened out and kind of hold their hand of who they need to talk to and what they need to do to kind of get these things straightened out. So that's more and more, I have a couple local businesses that I'm working with right now on that. Do you have any breakdown of the express shortage of workforce, what industries are having shortage of workforce? I didn't put that correlation together yet, only because of spreadsheets like this, but I can. Because if we focus on manufacturing, for example, we know we have a shortage of year, but yet we're going towards manufacturing. So we need to balance that somehow. Yes, the great thing about some of those skills, one of the reasons when we formed Southeast militia manufacturing technology coalition was there's a correlation with the task and the skill set that goes from boat building into aviation. And that was one of the things why we created SCBMTC was because we knew that if we had a downturn in our economy and we were able to diversify our economy and create more manufacturing and more like aerospace aviation and those kinds of jobs, that we already had the skilled workforce to be able to just be able to jump right over into that. I think it would be interesting to know whether that comment and the know, that comment and the survey is around skilled workers or is it around hospitality workers finding, you know, waiters and, you know, kind of restaurant staff. I can take it. I know that is an issue. I can share that. Excel's spreadsheet with you all if you'd like to. By the way, Daytona, they do a great job of workforce development and building specific training programs for industry here. I know they had a fiberglass program for Boston, Waillard at times. They do. They're small enough to be very nimble and be able to quickly put together a program for us. as long as they have enough students to justify the class and at least break even on it. There have been a wonderful partner for us for many, many years, and we're very lucky to have them. And then when you lump that together with career source, and that is a huge partner, and now that with career source kind of joining forces with the three counties together, they're very helpful as well. One thing on a national trend is, you know, A.I. is advancing considerably with autonomous agents that can do things without human interaction. So that's going to ripple across our workforce and you're seeing a kind of a trend for desire for you know more physical skills that are provided through trade schools and community colleges and well-need remember we probably are a veg we took shop there at high school yeah hopefully that comes back you know I took wish you had many Three finger jazz. Exactly. Any other thoughts comments on the survey, Charlie? On the page 518, the other shows that we have four global nationally export businesses. How are they going to be impacted with this? Tara's going on. That's going to be a big question. Maybe they can come here and put headquarters here. Instead of being overseas. It's so locally. And I was going to ask you another question. And I don't know. Oh yeah, I did read that the federal government is scaling back on community CRAs. I read about that. That is happening. They're going through it and evaluating who's getting what. There's a senator down south. It just does not like CRAs. Last year he put, you know, that they all sunset in 2045. And now they've been trying to do more. Not being able to bond, especially with the limitations that the county put on our CRA. We won't be able to bond anything or do anything. So it is very limited on what we can actually accomplish as far as some of our big plans that are in the CRA plan. It's all right. I do know that at the Toronto College, State College does offer classes for whatever the business they need, like exempl example, I would glass. What about high school? It's a high school looking at starting earlier, for example, in engineering or in fight schools or building. They do. They do. Do they have anything in that kind of pipeline, for example? They do. And actually, you need to get into the middle school. At this point. And that's why SCBMTC, Bliss, and all the board members there, they actually get in front of the middle school students because as they're choosing their academy for when they go into ninth grade, they need to kind of have that already on their list. So we're trying to help educate and try to, you know, how's that working out? Get more, well, it's slow, it's a slow go and it's something that you just have to chip away at every day. You gotta to sell it, you got to be social marketer. Well, that's what we've done. We've asked businesses like Custom Two products and Boston Whaler and some of our other businesses that we have is to be able to have one of their younger employees come in. The baby is just early 20s and come in that can relate a little bit easier to the young folks at school and talk about, you know, how they started and they didn't really want to go to college. And, but this was something that worked for them and now they've got a new truck and they, you know, they're living in this place. Some of those things that are relatable. So there's a, we've been very strategic in that of who we put in the classroom. Well great. If there's no other comments. I just have one comment. I'm curious when we talk about what stage your business is in in the life cycle. The ones that indicated growth, 22 of them, I'm curious which industries they're in or what they said they were in. I can send you the Excel spreadsheet. Okay, thank you. Thank you. I think we probably covered that topic. Moving on to the next topic. Review the Southeast pollution chamber of commerce. Intercity tour to Abacoa and Alton in Jupiter, Florida on a Thursday April 10th of this year that's a tour to show concerned citizens, leaders, what the future of Deering Park could look like with representative neighborhoods, light industrial, mixed use town center. You want to touch on that or you want me to cover that? I would love for you to cover that. Oh, since you're kind of charging that. Well, I'm involved in some of that. Any touch charge. So the idea here, guys, is to, you know, when people think about growth and development here, they often think, you know, flooding and, you know, traffic congestion. And there is an alternative view to that of amenities and diversified tax base and, you know, lower cost housing because there's more housing. So, you know, the developer, Miami Corporation and Coltler, you know, and they're a conglomerate of different organizations targeting different type of development, but the Homes Group, they've partnered with Miami Corp and some development agreement and they're going to be managing that development because I don't think Miami Corp is a land developer per se. So they wanted to show the community and elected officials who are voting on these things to see, you know, what it might look like. And it is just a representation, but to also meet with other officials who went through this process so they can understand, you know, the best practices, the challenges, how they mitigated, you know, concern. And it's open to the public. It does have a small cost for the transportation and, you know, some of the, you know, lunches provided. And it looks like it'll be an interesting tour. It's probably a two plus hour drive and meeting somewhere in Edgewater and the details are in our packet here. And you get an opportunity to interface with a lot of the leadership on this project and make your case for what you want. The Venetian Bay community has been invited. I extended that invite to them through the chamber because they have a concern there. The benefit that I think they'll see is that all these amenities that I think were promised in a know, Venetian Bay that didn't come to fruition will be across the street, no trade or chose, but I'm not getting on that. But yes, there will be an opportunity to see what a future could look like. And you know, I've had a number of conversations with Miami court people and their representatives. And I think they're a good steward of the land owning it for almost 100 years. And it's a beautiful place out there. And if you toured the facility? I went out for the barbecue that you're essentially mature, length, potentially, mature for the name. facility. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I do not know her, but I did the leadership program with the chamber and we, one of our days was a tour there. And it's a, you know, I grew up a farmer kid in California, so it resonated a lot with me of seeing this wildlife that, you know, we all drive by as we're going to the airport or wherever and to actually tour it. It's a, you know, a pine plantation or tree farm. It's a cattle ranch. it's a quail hunting club, it's water conservation areas, you know, many acres or I think 44,000 to Audubon. I don't know all the details, but there's a great story out there that's not necessarily being told. And the one thing that I thought was interesting is, you know, right now, edge water can put, you know, stormwater overflow, gray water into the lagoon, and this, you know, the development that they're doing here will put that back on property. And so, you know, there's an environmental benefit. And you'll learn more about this at the event. I would invite everyone in this room to attend if there's no sunshine laws being broken. $85, I'll be there. And. Well, it's not anything that you guys would have a vote on. So I mean. I'm just going as a concerned citizen to learn. Yeah. I think we all shared that we want our community to develop properly. That's about a lot. Share any questions on it. April, town. That's right. We'll be there. Okay. The chamber is also going to do video of I hope the speaking and some of the educational key points as well as you know what it looks like and everything so you know after the fact I think it will be great to have that video available to you. Yeah you know they're starting a broader campaign to show the vision of the future. So folks are, you know, put more at ease if there's concerns. And they are definitely addressing the big issue of, you know, stormwater abatement. I don't think it would pass if not for that. Right. And you have to remember too, this is a 50 year plan. It's just because it gets approved. If hopefully it will get approved in April, but that doesn't mean that they're going to start in May. Is there first reading for is in April and then May would be the second reading in the meeting. I think that's how that works. Yes, but it's PUD. And I think there's a workshop March 25th. Oh, that's OK. On this? And how did you find the February 6th of Ann? I was invited, but I was actually out of town. Yeah, and they. The ninth issue I'm interested in is more socializing than really getting to know that. OK. So, you had one of my times that the long term questions might have, it was not the band-aid to get to know that. Yeah, and I gather this workshop will probably try and entrust some of that, but enjoy the tour. I thought it was really impressed by the fact that Pat Norley stood up, you know, because Pat Norley, when she was on county councils, I mean, the trail queen and huge environmentalist and very anti-growth sentiment with Pat. And when you have someone like that that stands up and says, this is going to be a good thing, I think that's just a huge statement by someone like that. And she's a planner, so she understands planning and land development and growth. From my perspective, I believe it is entitled for 2,000 ranchettes out there with septic and well water. And imagine. And no conservation. And no conservation. And they're trying to focus the development into what, acres yeah closer than 95 so that they're staying out of that wildlife corridor so that seems to be a better approach yeah I was down February 6 and we took some times particularly with the stormwater folks that were there very very, very knowledgeable, being in Venetian Bay, and on the board in Venetian Bay, that's one of our biggest concerns. Because the traffic, you know, is a little more less of a concern because it's closer to 95. But I was very pleased with what they were saying from a stormwater perspective and all the conservation. And they say that, you know, there will have to be something done with that 44 or 95 of the interchange. It needs that now anyway. And they're doing that down at 442 for the one. I don't think can go forward without rebuilding that that intersection. So when we get NASA there will just the world will change a little hopeful there, but any other comments on this one or we can move along on which one on the during park? Yeah, on the site tour. Oh, site tour. Yeah, that's site tour. Okay, we'll move on to the point C. Volusiate County Innovation Challenge March 27th. I'm going to let you talk about this. I would. So I'm actually a coach for one of the teams that is submitting and so they're getting ready. We have a big meeting on Thursday, where they're pitching and they're gonna whittle it down to the finalists. So I've been coaching, I have SIPSAFE, which is the drink protector. So yeah, it's a great idea. And he already has a prototype and everything all designed and there. I'm ready to go. So pretty exciting. So the Volusia Innovation Challenge offers an aspiring entrepreneurs, innovators and small business owners of chance to validate their business concepts through a pitch competition and compete for cash and in kind prizes to launch or scale up their ventures. So the winner of this will not only get the $10,000, but also a year at the UCF incubator. So to further educate them and build their business acumen. So on March 27th, it's open to the public. Watch the finalist compete in front of a panel of judges for first and second place. Each finalist will pitch their business concept for five minutes. The innovation showcase allows attendees to cast their vote for the People's Choice Award for one of the innovators exhibiting at the innovation showcase. Votes will be tallied and the 2025 People's Choice winner will be announced during the awards ceremony. They've been as free to attend, but you must register to get your parking for free as well. And I went ahead and provided the link on here for the event bright. It's very easy to register. And like I said, it is free, but there's specific parking lots that against the west and the south side. I believe it says it on the flyer. But it's very easy to register. We hope to have a really great attendance at that event. It's 530 to 830. Even if you just come for just a few minutes and walk around and see all of the entrepreneurs that applied, that maybe they didn't make it to the finalists, but they're all be available and able to exhibit their ideas at this event. So even if you just came early at 5.30 and walked through and got to see that, I would be a great experience for them. Some of them are college students. Some of them are at Emory Roodle and some of the other colleges here in Volusia County. And some of them are just kind kind of walks of their business people that you know are just starting out in that growth phase and just starting out so more people we could get there that would be great I'm attended good yeah me too yeah I'm gonna try well you're a coach yes I'm gonna try to yeah great you know as we do our job here on the task force, you find there are more and more opportunities and organizations promoting economic development in the county. You kind of think, leisure tourism, there's not much going on. But there is the incubator of UCF up near the airport. There's Emory Riddle in the Micah Center. I think Daytona State has a pitch competition in the next couple of weeks. And then this innovation challenge, so support your entrepreneurial community. I'll share a story though that one of the gaps that we're trying to fill here in the community is around investing in these companies. You know, not all of them are, you know, not worth the investment, but they might be a little risky, not at the right stage, whatever. But there are some, probably some great businesses that are coming out of these efforts. And Lou Perish shared at a meeting recently about how a company out of the Daytona area raised $9 million in an A round of funding, but the funders made the move over to Tampa to, you know, so we need that here. We need to, here we'll fund you, but you got to be in an architect. And even just for this event, we still are in need of the sponsors for the prize money. That they invest in there. Just $10,000. That's cheap. What do I sign? Venmo? Right? Venmo. Venmo. I'm thinking my phone. You're right now. So yeah, I still need a sponsorship for that. And I feel like this event could turn into that into like a venture capitalist type of event as we grow it and as we kind of fine tune it a little bit better. Oh, a little shark tank. Yeah, exactly. You know, we have shark stuff here in this town. And surprise does not call that. I mean, they had 40, I think, applicants. And then we had to whittle it down. It was really hard to whittle it down into the top 12. They would actually go for the seven-minutes. That's an over on the Western part of the county. Has they do this and they have an angel investing group. And there's some venture capital over in Orlando as you would expect. But nothing really driving folks to our- We've done it a couple times here. And I mentioned I'm putting in contact with Tom Elkorn. He actually, when he was the chair of the Economic Development Committee here at the Chamber and here for Southeast Volusia, he did too. But that was back in the 90s and then kind of, you know, after kind of the recession happened and we haven't seen things like that happen, but we are a very creative, innovative community and entrepreneurs are left and right and it's just kind of getting those entrepreneurs and the venture capitalists together and providing that venue and that opportunity. I kind of safe place if you will with a little bit of the great thing about this particular program is the education parts of it. So they have score and they have Daytona State College Small Business Development Center is helping these entrepreneurs with their business acumen part because that's what I see the most is we have businesses that open and they're gung ho and they're really great at making their whatever but then they don't know how to get it to market or they don't know the business acumen or all the licensing available that you need is required or all the insurance that's required and all those little fine points and then within less than two years they're out of business. And so this I think about education piece helps people stay in business longer and be more successful. Well there are a lot of successful people who probably retired to this area that might be business mentors for some of these startups that's another idea. Well great, any questions on the Volusia Innovation Challenge? I have a question. How has this been marketed to like maybe companies even if they're not in this area but might be so inclined to invest in some of these ideas they would see? So each of the cities we've been helping to promote it like their Facebook posts and their share it. It's been in our newsletters. It's been on our sites as well. Direct email. And then also, Volusia County also did some paid advertising via social media. I think through LinkedIn and Facebook to try to reach out to specific groups and different interests. Okay, thank you. And there is what is it? Florida Venture Fund, I think they have a big there was just a big conference down in Miami that brings a lot of the entrepreneurs and venture funders together. Okay. Yeah, that might be a future place to promote this, but hey, you got a crawl before you walk before you run. Right. We were thrilled to have 40 applicants for the first time. Who knew we had that in this community? Yeah. We're ready. Charlie? Anything you want to have? Good. Okay. Okay. Moving on. let's see where we are Just a footnote because I did participate in some of those Can you talk into your oh sorry? I did part the challenge with the young people though is getting them to the point Where you can invest that they keep their books in a manner that you can look at and understand. Because even if it's a small investment, even if it's $10 or $20,000, you want to make sure that $10 or $20,000 just doesn't fly out the window. So the ones that we used to go to, they had both council and accountants there. And if you wanted to, if you wanted to invest, you could sit down with the company you had interest in investing in and you could have council and an account sitting there and say, okay, if you take outside investment, here's what happens to you. Exactly. And the next Volusia business resources, our next event is on funding and it's on finance and how to get funding and it's I lobbby'd really hard and it's going to be held here in New Smirna Beach at the Brandon Center Last year we did it over in Deltona at the Deltona Center And I believe that date is May first. I was originally going to be April 23rd But speaker challenge with schedules and so I believe it's been changed to May 1st So look out out for that and try to just spread that. And they used to tie up with score also. We do. So we connected with all of those resources and those professionals are the ones teaching this class as for these entrepreneurs. So I'm really excited about that. It's a big score group here in town. Very active. So Lillian Conrad is our local Southeast Felicia. I thought at the breakfast recently. Yeah they have a they have a great presence here. That's another resource that people might not know about. Okay we're kind of at the new business section so moving along any new business. I think strongly that we need to discuss this during park. We will give it on December 17th. Did you get this there? We should look at maybe next meeting. Look at this package coming up. And we should be very knowledgeable about what this package says all the way through. I've reading through it and I have some some concerns about that and some questions. Maybe we can next meeting we can do this go to the package. Okay so this is what would be presented to commissioners on the. No no no it's what we would be discussing. Yeah understand but what package do you have? Yeah so I had gone and pulled all of the items from I believe is from the planning and zoning board that was last year when it was first brought to them, but I understand that there will probably be some updates and so forth that will come to commission. And I'd rather have updated talking points and so forth from after the visit, after the April 10th tour. I think that it's... And I'd rather have updated talking points and so forth from after the visit, after the April 10th tour. I think that it's going to be a whole more enlightening type of talking points that we will be able to formulate. Their plan is to develop a lot of material that comes out of that visit and for that visit and then there will be a video that Because I think what yes Jess I Totally agree with where you're going with that But I think that the data that's in those because it was almost a year and a half ago now I think that some of those things will have been will updated by the time we get to April. So is new business for next time at maybe an update on the materials that are likely to be presented to the commissioners for that first reading and review and the other thing? Maybe we review from the March 25th workshop. Why don't we review and discuss that at our next meeting in April and then any new data that comes in from the tour? Would that be all right? Okay. Okay. The March 25th, that's in the morning and goes for... It's in the afternoon and the evening, so we have a very, we'll have a March 25th, we have a CRA meeting, I think it's 6'10 and I think prior to that is a 45 minute. Is this a regular workshop? Yes, a regular workshop meeting day, but it'll be earlier in the afternoon when the commission is meeting to, we have a commission meeting of 630. Yeah, it's gonna be basically that. Yeah, because I promise to make my CRA meeting very short. So why is the bookshop? I believe it's before that. I believe it's gonna start at four cars. Five, something. So it's a very short workshop. It's that one of these three hour one, it's just regular one hour. It's a 45 minute workshop. That's a very short workshop. It's that one of these three hour one, which is regular one hour. It's a, yeah, it's a 45 minute workshop. That's presentations from the website. I believe so. Yeah. So that would be the material to discuss for sure. Okay. I assume you'll probably attend that one. If you're willing. Because I'm sure a lot of the documentation from 18 months ago was probably will be updated and it's next week. Yeah, we just have to make sure to make whatever they approve the pass. If it's going to be changed, it's time to change it. Sure. Yeah. Well, and even between the first reading and the second reading could potentially be as good. 515 is the workshop. Okay, so we have to be knowledgeable on how to speak about it. If it's okay with you, that's what that'll be our meeting. We'll just be that topic as we get ready to prepare for April 22nd meeting. Or unless anyone else has anything that pops up, let me know. Just shoot me an email or text and I'll put it on the agenda. One, and maybe we cover this in your director's report, but I saw in the strategic planning workshop some change to advisory boards or, know, so curious about that. I would be happy to talk about that. So when I looked at our term limits for all of our task force members, everyone expires September 1st. So I would like to take that opportunity to when this sunset, let's bring back an economic development advisory board that doesn't have those kind of limitations that it's very specific that we're supporting because we've got the comprehensive economic development strategic plan to update as well as our CERA plan. So we're going to have a lot of work that we're going to need to do together going forward. So that was one of my reasons for wanting to bring back the economic development advisory board and not necessarily a task force, task force is very just for a task. And then it sunsets and goes away. So keeping a perpetuating forward. That was similar to the way it was done before this, right? Correct. Correct. And we're getting salary increases, is that? That's the way it was done. Oh, we have to wait a minute. Thank you. Zero time is five percent as the zero. That's that new math. I'm not good at that. Okay. So that... That was taken on that. No, it was just, so all of the department heads were asked to put together kind of a list of some of the things that we would like to see for, you know, future in the strategic plan. And so those were some of the things, some of the things that we had talked about and worked on with the live work play as well as You know, we need to but it's all in land development code and comp plan that we want to create a hotel Area here on Canal Street to kind of have that anchor for Canal Street. It works so well in Flagler In order to do that, we're going to have to look at in our comp plan and land development code, our Florida area ratio, as well as density, as well as height, would be the three things because right now you couldn't build a hotel on the Canal Street because of the big thing. Right, here there's some effort to do that, though. There is. And then when I was talking to the city engineer during that meeting, he was like, oh my gosh, I just was looking further into the comp plan and it can't be done. So would you have to change the comp plan? We have to change the comp plan. And you will have a lot of pushback in the far. Yes. But what if we did it in just specific district, so it's not city wide? Hmm. There's probably something to look at. Yeah, what I discovered in this city, And just like very instance, if you give Charlie a variance for his house, that's totally for Charlie. Something to look at. Yeah, what I've discovered in this city, it's just like very instance. You know, if you give Charlie a variance for his house, that's totally for Charlie. I come along 10 years later, but you gave it to Charlie, why not me? So he goes down the line, you get a good lawyer, litigate it, wind up losing, everybody gets a part. So if you may say it's a specific area, But then again, it could be changed later on. So that's why a lot of the residents were against the parking garage on third avenue there because they wanted to change the floor but not include the parking structure that include the stairwells here so my biggest thing was all right change the for today 2024 come 2035 none of, most of us probably were not gonna be here. The owners of the Seahorse stand, great couple, loved them, do a great job, amazing job here. They get tired, they wanna retire, they sell the business. I come in with $3 million, giving the money. You know what, I wanna go to seven stories here. Well, you can't, why not? Not for the part where you did it over here. It's an Atlantic. Still in the same area. Why can't I have it over here? So as you give one, it permeates down the line in the future, not today, not tomorrow. Mianchen Bay is a good example. It was a great plan 20 years ago. It was painted out beautifully. A lot of folks got and snuckered. They're living out there. So we need to also... I don't think it was intentional of the Nation Bay. You know, no one, you can never have a crystal ball to see what's gonna happen with the economy. And when all of your developers who are the key players in that project and they pass away unexpectedly, then it gets sold. It's, is that what happened? Yeah. Because, yeah. Well, really, really, a little developer went bankrupt. So. Who was that? Jerry Johnson. Jerry Johnson? Is that a local guy? He was. Yeah, he passed away recently. But there's, you know, big developments like that. I'm hoping that the city has learned some things from what's occurred out there because it's a very complex issue, right? So, you know, it's the original downturn in 2008, which is what led to the bankruptcy, bringing it out of bankruptcy, having an MDA that, you know, has a life of 20 years, 20 plus years. And so a lot changes in that amount of time, right? And then you've got, which this part really makes me crazy. You've got the builders have the ability to get these plans and things approved. And they can modify these plans at their whim as many times as they want. An MDA and it's only developer initiated. It's not city initiated, it's not resident initiated. So that's why I think we have to be very careful with during park. I am a supporter of during park. I think we definitely need higher paying jobs to keep our kids here and build a good base and get this tax base with a better ratio. But I think we have to be very honest with ourselves about what can go wrong that would derail that and address those up front and put things in place that would prevent that from happening moving forward. Because it's not just what the builder is committed to do or not do, it's what they're able to do because of other laws that can impact it ten years from now, fifteen years from now and it ended up looking a lot different than what it starts out to be. Right, and to Justice Point is making sure that the MDA is tight. And that's my biggest concern because the MDAs, I've sat in this commission of Martin knows, I've sat in this room here many, many, many times. And I've expressed my concerns when I hear residents from the condition they come up here and talk about their problems. I've been here with the flooding. I think there were a lot of issues that go on here. and I've asked the commissioners, pass and present three questions. All right, it's time to begin here. I've asked it, plus a lot of issues that go on here. And I've asked the commissioners, pass them and present, three questions. All right, it's time I've been here. I've asked it a number of times. What have you done to change the NDAs, to make them, like you said, more tighter? What have you done to change the LDRs and the PUDs? And there hasn't been one change, like Hannah Safer, for example, is that we haven't learned from the Nation Bay. Because not one policy, you know, one regulation, or any kind of, what we learn from edition bay still stays. Nothing has been changed by ordinances of development at all to regulations that you can't do this because of X, Y and Z. Still there. Well, but I think that I think the one thing you might have done is I think they've shortened the lifespan of an MDA, which is good, right? So that's a step in the right direction. But the other benefit that exists now that didn't then, I mean, people like me when I was working and just trying to raise my kids and work and keep up with life in general, I didn't keep an eye on stuff like that, rightly or wrongly. And I think today, people are much more aware of what's going on around them. So that'll be a benefit because I think residents hopefully will be eyes wide open and kind of watching what's happening. I'm not sure if shortening, they think the time of it. MDA is really, because you want those rules to stay with the land until it's built out, because it's going to take 20 to 30 years to build out any big development like that. So you want that to run with the land, because then when that ends, they can do whatever. I would agree with you with the MDA overall, but you can divide it up. For example, I'll give you an example because I do research, unfortunately. The World of Marigiancy, I came up here and I spoke to the commission at the time there. That MDA had the following in it. It had, the MDA was in effect for 10 years, for the day it was signed, unless the developer does not build something on that property. Then it wants to build something on it into perpetuity, as long as they want. So that Walmart is going on until we die. All it was going to get out of here, forever. So I asked the question, if I'm a landowner and I have 38% who's out there and I signed the same kind of MDA that I knew in 9.5, I build an outhouse. So now I can stay as long as I want and do whatever I want with it. Because legally you told me I have to build something on it. And as far as the MDA time, it was supposed to be five years for the MDAs. There was the latest change that I've heard of, but I don't believe it's gone into effect here. I know that Commissioner Martin, I mean Commissioner Hartman, asked that question of the colony residency is going in and then MDA was with five years, but it wasn't five years. So I've seen MDAs that go on forever and no end dates either. Well, they need to have an end date. I totally agree. The high-end Regency had no end date on it. Yeah. something that has to be shortened to where, if you don't do it in five years, you renew it again, basically. So that means that you can, you, does it go forever, it means you renew it. That's all. And out there, out where the nation- You're going to be a little bit more. short into it. If you don't do it in five years, you renew it again, basically. So that's the mean that you can't, you, that's a go forever. It means you renew it. That's all. Yeah, and out there out where Venetian Bay is in our Deezia Park going into next to it, that's a perfect example of why I would like to see an MDA shorter, not because I don't think they need adequate planning time, but let's let's look at Venetian Bay how long it's been there right 20 plus years And now you have our D'sia part coming in and over the course of 20 years you've learned oh I've got a stormwater issue or I've got this issue or that issue not just next door but in the general area and then you have our Deezia part coming in and they've already got something approved. And you say, oh, they need to be able to address this. So sorry, that was a previous year ago. Yep. That's a problem. So, you know, I'm sure there's a creative way maybe to address that, but I think it's something that everybody needs to keep their eye on for Deering Park. Yes. I've set here with Commissioner Martin one time with the PUD and the way that the commissioners get to negotiate in reality. on for Deering Park. Yes. And I've said here, the commission of Martin one time, with the PUD, and the way that the commission has get to negotiate in reality, the NDA is signed by the mayor and the attorney. That's it, nobody else signs that. I think that she comes to the commission to sign it. Because if you're going to be asked later on by your constituents, what are your signets for here? What's going on here that you should know about it? I recall what's commissioned a Martin one time was trying to negotiate with a PUD in regards about a road where it would be, what was going to happen. Because it was in the A set, so we're doing here. And the PUD gets down to the finite, what they're going to do there. That's the point in time where the developer, the commissioners get to negotiate, basically, a quick pro quote. We'll give it to give you that there. And a lot of times, I don't want to negotiate because you're just saying, you're just saying DMDA, and it's too late. The commissioners get to negotiate basically a quick pro quo. We'll give it to give you that there. And a lot of times they don't want to negotiate because it's saying, you're a signed DMDA and it's too late. So it has to be a finite and it has to be, and like I said before, the word shall is impactful in a contract because they're tied to it. And a lot of times I see, could, would, Maybe little do I see Shao, any kind of contracts or NDAs? Great information, you guys know your stuff. And a lot of times I see Kud would maybe little do I see shall any kind of contracts and the Asia Great information you guys know your stuff. It's nice to have we come to an ease I'm learning so any other thoughts on that Charlie you want to weigh in on Yeah, neither do I those acronyms are throwing out. I'm going to ask you later. OK, thank you. One other comment about the strategic planning session that you had. Any highlights that you want to share with us out of that workshop? Because that was almost a full day. Yeah, it was a full day. I was really impressed by the level of engagement with our commissioners. I was just really impressed by the fact that they all spoke and they all had prepared. And I thought it was a great dialogue and a great place to start. And of course, our fearless leader, Mr. Calper, I thought he did a great job of kind of leading that and kind of opening it up to those key points that, you know, to really focus on. So I'm looking forward to finalizing kind of that report and moving forward with it. But it was good comments. So no big news that came out of it that impacts this body. I think so. Do look forward to what happens as you've restructured what we're doing and what that future might look like. Yeah, I think when the strategic plan does come out and everything but this is something that I think will be be great to group and you know move the city forward in our economic development plan. I just got the renewed proposal from Kimling Horn so we'll have a consultant that will kind of walk us through that. But with a CRA portion of that planning it's a very finite time frame per the county that we have to update our CRARA plan. So once that clock starts, like we got to move through it really quick. So there'll be some public meetings. We'll get a lot of input from our boards like this task force, our planning and zoning board, our commissioners and residents as well. So there's more to come on those. We were in our comments period and we as well. So, there's more to come on those. Well, we were in our comments period, and we all commented. So thank you. You were gonna go through some more of your presentations. The only thing I have is just please the job fair is April 1st. If you know of anyone that is looking for employees and they need help, or if you need no anybody that's looking for, it is free, it's April 1st at the Brandon Center from three to seven. We tried to time it so that we could catch people that are working now that maybe want to move up or see what other jobs and there's all kinds of employers from all over the county. We tried to just focus on New Samarna.. Or any of the people that in the survey said they needed, you know, there's a workforce short interest. We're sending it to them directly because they were about 10 of them. Yeah, they should have done that. And or number one concern. Yes. Okay. Anything else? Okay, thank you. And I think we're close to the end. We talked about future agenda items. So if there's no further comments or are there anything anybody else wants to note here today? We want to thank everybody for their attendance and I'm going to call this meeting to adjourn. We don't vote on this I've learned so thank you everybody. It's eight. No it's nine, three, six.