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04/27/1976 ,.....'-;'. " .' . .' ! " . ~'.' .. " " . I," ,':,'j. , , I " . ..... ,'. ".t. "".< " ' ,'., .' .1, "1, , , ' ."I'J ":: , i' 1 l ,,' ~ '~' I . '. . I .: " . ' , . .' , ' '0' ,. ' , . : '. " . , ' r " f::"I',:;,"'." "0 ,..," ;:: ," ...-: ." '. ';' , ,. ' , , :' ' '.' ,:,' , ........71 ,". ",,,.,~. f'.::<',. ", . ..{ji;';~~~':}: , , <IN p - 2 0.. ,. statements and stated that they would present to their membership a proposed plan to help in~ediately to resolve the problems of park- ing in the downtown area. This meeting will be held at 7:30 P.H. Wednesday, April 28th, and it is hoped that our board members will be on hand. A request by Hr. Brown to take advantage of our willingness to be helpful and cooperative with them, asked the Chairman to appoint a group of three people to work with the Clearwater Downtown Association on the problem of parking immediately. The people picked by the Chairman are: Nrs. Phifer, Joe R. Wolfe and Dale Warren. These people agreed to be involved in this program and will work as best they can to be of complete assistance to,the CDA. The Chairman introduced ~tr. Pillorg~, of the RTKL Consultant group who responded by introducing two members of his group, present ~ith him at our meeting. He went on to briefly review there approach, primarily in the area of interviews with the leaders in the city of Clearwater, both inside and outside the Central Business District~ and secondly he emphasized the need for continuing input, citywide by means of questionnaires to be distributed. Hr. pillorge said that they had arranged for an initial interview with some thirty of the leaders in the City of Clearwater, including city Comrnission~ the Downtown Development Board and the other active organizations in the city. He went on to say that additionally there will be questionnaires left with these people at the time of their interview and that some- thing in the neighborhood of one hundred additional questionnaires will be distributed by mail throughout the city. Nr. Pillorge again stated that the need for input from the population of the entire city is highly important. . The Chairman asked Nr. Wolfe to comment on section 10 of the RTKL contract. V~. Wolfe had previously distributed, to all board nembers, a letter and a copy of the statute which covers the problems of con- flict of interest. ~~. Wolfe advised members of the board to consult with their own attorney~ or himself, in the preparation of an exposure of each board member's interest personally in the downtown area, which in his opinion would best be distributed to each of the other board members as well, with a copy of the disclosure filed with the city Clerk of the City of Clearwater. The Chairman called on Nr. Leon Hammock to zmke a statement regarding several applications for financial funding from civic groups in the citYJ and he read letter excerpts from ~tr. Ponder, President of Greater Clearwater Business BUreaU. The purpose of his statement was to get direction from the Board of Directors as to how far we should go, and legally allowed to go, in regard to making contributions to civic groups, such as the Greater Clearwater Visitors Bureau, the Clearwater J. C~s, Clearwater Downtown Association and others. . It was stated that several of these applications for funding have already been received, and we should be able to respond to them fully within the context of requirements as established by the Board of Directors. There was considerable discussion abou ... ': '. ~ , ,. . 0<.": : '. .r.\ ':.1,',.' ": "', ~', " ~....' '. >' '. ".. J.: I...... ,'. ~-~~~-~ .'. --~'~. '... -",.;". /-~~' ;', .' > ,'j .: ':'::','::'"<:,;:,:,,. ':',," , ..', : ".' " ':,.', . , . ':' :.~:: . ' .',.': ~', , ':," , , ;', i' , " ....., . .< .' '.":1' ":. ' , ')' ." '..,'.' ,".'" , ,:'" r.,.\,::<..>,.1;,'r i ,. r',' ;.".:' '."< " "'I' ..,,' P - 3 . whether or not in fact our board being a taxing district can legally pay cash contributions to civic groups, and it was finally resolved wi~h a request by the Chairman to have our attorney ~lr. Wolfe, research the question of contributions to civic groups by this organization and give us his opinion in writing so that we may approve it at our Hay 25th meeting. The Chairman asked the Executive Director to conment on a new lease presented recently, which becomes in effect Nay 1, 1.976 should the board approve an increase in the space we now occupy. Palmer responded by saying that on several occasions he had approached the city regarding available space in the city annex and indicated that although the rent out there could be somewhat less then we are currently paying in the Bruce Taylor Building, that at the moment no space is available in any event, and therefore asked the board to sign the lease begir.ning Nay 1st, 1.976. A motion was made to approve, was seconded and was passed. The Chairman asked the Executive Director to comment regarding the Com- mittee action during the balance of the year, 1.976. Palmer responded by saying that there are of course committees that must continue with work, such as the Nomination Committee for the election in November, as well as the pUb1.icity and Public Relations committee, and the Beautification Committee. Actually Palmer indicated that since the RTKL people are now here and ready to begin work, since their prime interest is in the Land Use and Development and the long range planning required, that in his opinion it would be wasteful to have a committee, for example concerning themselves with traffic and parking, working in a para1le1. direction to what the RTKL people are doing. . At this point it was made clear that there is some doubt in the minds of the city administration, that the Hunt Property which was originally named as being the final site for the Clearwater civic Center, can be procured. The Mayor at this point responded that in his opinion the committee of the Downtown Development Board should again become extremely active in terms of presenting what needs to be presented at the right time to get the civic center located in the downtown area. This sug- gestion received unanimous approval from members of the board and it was suggested by the Mayor that we w'ork close1.y with the RTKL "Task Force" regarding this situation, although at this moment it can not be consid- ered as being a part and parcel of the RTKL contract. Nr. Wol.fe suggest- ed that the contract can be amended to include a site selection in the downtown area, or anywhere else by RTKL, and the Nayor indicated that this problem will be coming again before the city commission in early meetings and that we should be prepared to again plead for reconsidera- tion of the waterfront area in the downtown of Clearwater. The Chairman asked Mr. Warren to comment about hms recent trip to Little Rock, Arkansas. . ~tt. Warren stated that he has spent four days, with Mr. Palmer, at a mid-season conference of the International Downtown Executives Associa- tion at Little Rock and is happy to tell the Board of his impressions gained by the visit. First, he described the Camelot Inn, a new Conven- tion hote~.built by private~capitol on city property. Also built in the same block were two floors of underground parking, above which was built a convention hall and above which was built a theatre with seating capacity of 2,800. There were also . ,....' ::. ~.- .1.: . ~'. ;'~. ' ~':',... , , , '::~.l;' ~ ,:t,,:'t:-~:~/:...:~,:'. :,.';~ ...~., ' .1-'" -, ' .' .' . . '. ,.' : ' .:' -:"/':;'" ".',' . ',,', ", . .' ,', ',". " \. .,' 'J' :, " " .: .),~. '~ :;/ " . < . . . , . .' . " . ..__.._-~_.;,..-"'-~....._- P - 4 o several smaller meeting rooms on the floors above the parking facility. Mr. Warren added that this was done because the City Council were deter- mined to redevelope the downtown area, and that to him it was a tnrilling experience to witness the results of city government and private interest cooperation. Palmer added that considerable time was spent examining the various approaches to this very problem. He added that he was happy to learn that our decision to aide the newly formed Clearwater Downtown Associa- tion was confirmed by many of the people representing sixty cities in the country. He added that we need this new team to work along side us since there is no possible conflict between the two groups. ~trs. Mary McCormick and ~trs. Kotheimer presented a slide presentation showingthe prospective Clearwater }larine Science Center. }trs. Kotheimer did an excellent job of the slide presentation and received applause from the members of the board and of all the other people present. No decision was reached in regard to her request for contributions to the center project, which item will be considered in our upcoming budget for the year 1976-1977. .' .. The Chairman asked Mr. Bob Tharin to comment. ~tt. Tharin reviewed some of the problems which land owners face when trying to rent their stores. He added that he has recently faced the disinterest on the part of some city employees when he applied for permits etc. Mr. Tharin suggested that in the area of parking, where many problems come up, that we might do what was done in Dunedin some time ago, which was to hire a "meter minder" who would feed dimes into expired shoppers meters, with a slip placed on the car to tell the shopper who it was that kept her from getting a violation summons. The Chairman thanked Mr. Tharin and added that we will take his comments seriously. The Chairman stated that Palmer, our Executive Director had as]<ed for a week vacation commencing May 10th, and a week in September. There was no motion required to move, and with no objections raised, the vaca- tion schedule will be followed. Mayor Cazares asked to be able to speak on a subject not on the agenda which is the Pinellas ParJcway Referendum which is to be held on June 8th, and asked that_the Board take a position in opposition to the proposed Parkway. The :Hayor went into great detail explaining the reasons why he personally, ana in his opinion most of the people of the city, are oppos- ed to the expenditure of these monies and asked that the Board consider this and take a position. Following some discussion it was decided that the board should take a position one way or the other and it be made known publicly at the May 25th meeting. .,., The Chairman stated that the next regular Board Neeting is May 25,1976, same place, same time. M.E, Palmer, Executive Director . . .~ . t ~~ "ii;,':'; t.., l~ " ;~ ....\.~,...~';... ~~.:" "~~' .' ~.' .',' AJth\~X"f~::r~iii~S.1..\ ~\:t !~..~~.oy,{:....~~":;?f,.:r ;t~t";:..." .' . ~r.J.;1!';~l~\<';.l,I.;~'at~1'~'ft..~ ~i7~:);~i~' I~ ~,';,~t.:!~,f ~~.t"',': " '(;";'';';~~![f.:::': ", '-:-"'.:,- ~ :~" :~':,: ':"~,,,:;~~,;,, ..,~:., ' ;:;' , r..~' '-.-- '"'.',' ~ f