There were two reasons Thursday’s quarterly meeting of the City’s Tourist Development Council lasted more than 2 1/2 hours.
First, there were 11 grant requests on the agenda in addition to the usual items like approval of the last meeting’s minutes and discussions of funding marketing.
Second, the requests were punctuated by discussion and debate concerning the TDC’s responsibilities, what types of grant requests should and should not be approved and how Visit Jacksonville, the TDC’s sales and marketing arm, is conducting its business.
University of North Florida Athletics Director Lee Moon appeared before TDC with a request for $200,000 for a capital expenditure to improve the track and field facility at UNF in preparation for the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track and Field East Division Preliminary Championships. UNF has been selected as the site for the event next year.
According to the request filed with TDC, the three-day event will generate 8,000 guaranteed room nights with a projection of 10,500 room nights.
Moon said UNF invested $2.5 million in its track and field facility three years ago, but ran out of money before the area designated for discus, shot put, javelin and hammer throw was completed.
He said the facility in its current state is suitable for most collegiate competitions, but UNF wants to make improvements to attract national and international events.
UNF has also been selected as the site for the Florida High School Athletic Association State Track and Field Championship in 2012 and 2013 and is a candidate for a future USA Track and Field Junior Olympics event that could generate as many as 34,000 room nights, Moon said.
City Council President and TDC Chair Stephen Joost questioned granting funds derived from the Duval County bed tax collected on hotel room revenue for a construction project.
Joost said he disagreed with using TDC funds for a capital improvement because “our mission is about telling people what a great place Jacksonville is.”
TDC member Fred Pozin agreed and said the TDC should not set a precedent to fund capital improvements, but former Council President Richard Clark disagreed with Joost and Pozin.
“Sometimes you have to make an investment. When track events find a home, they don’t often move and they become an annual event. We don’t get a lot of events that guarantee 8,000 room nights,” said Clark.
Moon told the council he’s confident that if the facility is improved, UNF will be able to retain the event and its economic impact on the local hospitality industry.
“I know what we need to do and how to do it. If the coaches are happy with the venue, they’ll vote to keep it here,” he said.
When asked how UNF might fund the improvement project if TDC denied the grant, UNF Vice President for Administration and Finance Shari Shuman said the university is prohibited by law from using general revenue funds for its athletics program.
She said one option would be to divert funds from other capital projects, the planned new dining hall, for example.
Ron Salem, chair of the Sports & Entertainment Board of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission, attended the meeting to support the grant.
“It’s like when we invested in the Arena and the Baseball Grounds. It’s important to the future of Jacksonville sports,” he said.
TDC member M.G. Orender said that awarding a TDC grant for a capital improvement would be “opening Pandora’s box” and that if the request had been made based solely on the number of room nights it would generate, it would have been approved with little discussion.
Based on that point, the grant request was amended and approved for up to $200,000, based on $10 per room night.
Another policy discussion began based on a $34,615 grant request on behalf of Diversified Clinic Services Inc. The company is based in Jacksonville and provides training for health care professionals.
DCS recently merged with a similar company in Boca Raton, National Healing Corp.
The request, based on 4,500 room nights expected to be booked by visiting physicians, nurses and technicians over the next year, was described by Assistant General Counsel Jim McCain as a “relocation fund.”
Visit Jacksonville President and CEO Daniel O’Byrne said the company generates 2,000 room nights annually and if the two firms’ training operations were combined in Jacksonville, it could represent as many as 6,500 room nights per year.
“Our fundamental mission is to retain room nights and get more. Our board saw this as an opportunity,” O’Byrne said.
Joost, who is CFO of Firehouse Subs Inc., said his company probably accounts for 1,000 room nights each year for visiting franchisors and training.
“I’m not getting TDC money. Any business generates room nights. Where do we draw the line?” he said.
McCain said the Office of General Counsel believed any appropriation of funds for DCS should be taken up by JEDC, not TDC.
“I don’t think the TDC wants to get in the business of corporate relocations,” said Joost.
During a discussion of a second $100,000 disbursement to Visit Jacksonville from a previously approved $234,000 CVB Grant Fund, Pozin said he’s concerned that $43,000 of the first $100,000 disbursement was used to secure business for only one hotel, the Hyatt Downtown.
The CVB Grant Fund is administered by Visit Jacksonville, which has the authority to award grants from the fund without prior TDC approval of individual requests.
It was established as a tool Visit Jacksonville can use to close agreements with potential convention accounts and was referred to as “Cash for Contracts.”
Visit Jacksonville Senior Director of Sales Kim Ritten said Jacksonville has to compete with other cities that are offering $3-$10 per night. Because the Hyatt is the largest hotel in the market, more than 960 rooms, it lands the larger events and therefore, larger grants.
Clark said he too was concerned about so much of the incentive grant funds being used to bring business to one hotel.
“That’s not the mission. It’s wholly unfair to the other hoteliers,” he said.
Clark also said he would support a policy change that would require a minimum level of performance based on verified room nights in order for an applicant to receive grant funding from TDC.
“If they don’t hit their minimum, they shouldn’t get $1,” he said.
‘O’Byrne said it would be “competitively untenable” to ask for a guarantee and that meeting planners would not expose their clients to the risk of having a grant revoked after an event.
Jacksonville has to compete with “industry norms” and “we can’t change and expect to be competitive,” said Orender.
The $100,000 installment from the fund was approved, but not before Joost assigned Clark, Pozin, O’Byrne and TDC member Sonny Bhikha to a subcommittee charged with studying how Cash for Contracts is administered by Visit Jacksonville and to establish clear parameters.
“We’ve got to give them better direction,” said Joost.
Grant requests approved Thursday included:
• $500,000 to the Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl for team payout and the national television package.
• $20,000 to the American Bar Association Annual Conference 2012 to offset costs of marketing, transportation and meeting room and venue rental at the Hyatt Downtown.
• $20,000 to “Springing the Blues” for regional marketing and advertising.
• $20,000 to the National Team Roping Finals for regional advertising and national marketing.
• $14,390 to Jacksonville BMX 2011 for marketing, advertising and a starting gate at Ray Greene Park.
356-2466