$85,000, or 49 percent; that is to go from an expenditure of $175,000 to $260,000; they
justified that with three things, an increase in tourism, an increase in fuel costs, and an increase
in material costs, so the scope is not expanding; and these are the three added costs. He
stated unfortunately, none of those even get close to justifying a 49 percent increase; he did
look these up, because when one comes and asks for more money, he thinks it is very fair to
have some baseline; he looked over the period of time since the last contract; using the data
from 2022 to Fiscal Year 2024, the County has seen roughly 12 percent increase in Tourism
Development Tax (TDT) collection; but when drilling down a little bit more, it has actually seen
about an 11 percent increase in Cocoa Beach. He noted when getting to fuel costs, over the
past five years according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, have gone up 35 percent;
he does understand that 35 percent is close to 49 percent; but he was informed walking in that,
that only counts for 10 to 15 percent of their budget; and finally, materials. He stated there is no
justification of what those materials are; he has no problem with a 49 percent increase as long
as the Board can justify why it is providing a 49 percent increase; he would be more than willing
to provide a three percent per year over those five; but that does not get anywhere near that
$85,000; in fact, it would be about $57,000 less than what is collected here; he would be willing,
again, to vote for that 49 percent, but there is no justification; tourism is up, fuel is up, but
neither is up 49 percent; and they have given the County any justification of what materials they
needed. He mentioned they did the job at $175,000; he does not know why the Board needs to
arbitrarily offer a 49 percent increase; he thinks that would be irresponsible of the Board; and
by doing the 3 percent increase, that would be $57,126 less than what they are asking for.
Chair Steele passed the gavel to Vice Chair Pritchett.
Commissioner Steele commented he understands what Commissioner Tobia is saying; he
thinks what has happened here is these good people have been working short-handed and
using volunteers to supplement what they are doing; they have been getting underpaid to be
able to do the work that they need to do; he is perfectly comfortable with their proposal; and he
would absolutely, unequivocally, without any question support it. He noted he understands
Commissioner Tobia’s option on it; and he does not have the same opinion, so hopefully, the
Board can come to some understanding on this and move forward.
Vice Chair Pritchett passed the gavel back to Chair Steele.
Commissioner Pritchett asked if the gentleman from KBB can come back up if has any
explanations of what it would cost.
Deb Harman, Board Chair of Keep Brevard Beautiful, advised she understands Commissioner
Tobia is concerned; she is going to explain how they arrived at these numbers; he is asking for
a percentage increase; it is nearly impossible for them to get to a percentage increase that she
can make sense of and defend; and Mr. Nico will tell the Board that when he showed her the
numbers and estimate that was put together for Peter Cranis, Tourism Development Office, for
both offices, she said based on what. She went on to say they dug in and analyzed their costs
for the last two years, and have given a pretty detailed cost estimate for what it is costing them
now and what they can foresee next year; just to clarify one thing, on the beach contract,
before the Pineda entered in there and were asked to do that, and are grateful for the
Waterway Warriors and what they are going to do together, they originally paid $60,000 in
2019; in 2022, she believes, they were given an extension of $40,000 for that one year to take
care of the additional trash from the people coming back to the beach during the pandemic for
one year; they are asking for 120; and that expired at the end of the County’s Fiscal Year 2022,
maybe 2023. She pointed out they were compensated $100,000; the trash did not go away;
they did not cut their level of service; they have analyzed their costs and said it is going to cost
120; if the Board looks at the number for Pineda added, they are roughly similar numbers; and
the Causeway, if the Board remembers, the level of effort on each Causeway varies, so there is
