a project that is a $300 million project and investment, she is all ears on hearing about what the
Board can do to help them out; one never knows what the best investments are for those
funds; she knows for many, many years, the County has invested a lot of money in Cocoa
Beach marketing, so no one can ever say that it did not; to call that corporate welfare is sort of
disgusting to her considering that for many, many years it was the hoteliers of Cocoa Beach
that ran that TDC; and she is not criticizing the individuals that are members of that board now,
she is just saying that was how it was before this current Board on the Commission. She added
she does not think this is a picking winners and losers as was stated, she thinks this is more
looking at can this project justify a public benefit; she will have some more questions, but that
does not mean she is 100 percent on board right now; so far she likes what she has seen; and
she likes the idea of bringing something like this to Brevard County. She advised if someone is
going to take the existing $270,00 that they are getting now and triple that just by just opening
their doors, and they are going to guarantee that marketing is going to guarantee marketing for
the space coast marketing for their operation, she does not know how that is a bad thing; they
are not spending it on themselves, they are not spending it on their employees they are not
using it for capital, they are spending it directly to benefit the marketing of the Space Coast;
maybe those are some of the terms that they work out; if she were to support this, and she is
not committing to that now, but if this is going to continue to move forward and likely see the
support of her as a Commissioner, she wants to see a marketing plan; and she thinks he has
already agreed that it would be subject to audit at least on some degree or have to bring
something to the TDC, maybe a committee that’s part of the TDC that approves the marketing
plan. She commented if they are investing that money, that is essentially from the tax that they
are collecting, back into the Space Coast marketing and back into marketing the Westin, she
does not know how to argue that; basically, all that is being done is holding them to using $1
million to marketing, it is not really seen as a financial benefit; others may see it differently,
however if that money is being reinvested in the County she does not see how that is a
negative; she looks forward to hearing what more they have to offer and she hopes Mr.
Wasserman is available to ask questions; and she is sure the Board members’ phones are
going to blow up from the time they walk out this door, for the next month. She mentioned that
is okay, the Board was not elected to make easy decisions and sometimes it is hard to make
tough decisions too.
Commissioner Smith added recently maybe in the last three or four weeks, he was speaking
with these people and they were showing him their layout and something came to mind with the
outdoor space; he attended the space symposium in Colorado Springs three or four years ago
and Jeff Bezos showed up and had one of his rockets, a used rocket on display and it had the
burn marks and was just sitting there, and he immediately thought when Mr. Wasserman was
showing him that outdoor space, gosh, the County could have a Space Symposium here or
maybe a mini Space Symposium, and wow, what that would do to the community; and what
that would do for the room nights for all these other places. He stated if that brought in and he
does not know how many people they bring in, six, eight, or ten thousand rooms, something
like that, at the Space Symposium, that would fill up every hotel room in the County; he just
thinks this is a game changer; it has so many possibilities and if the Board can give them some
incentive to that and if this added $3 million to the TDC and they want $1 million back, he would
not object to doing that with any of the other future or present people, if they could say or show
him that they can come up with another $2 million above, then the Board could talk about giving
them some incentives too; and as Chair Zonka said, this is not going in their pockets, it is going
to be directed toward promoting Cocoa Beach and everybody benefits from that promotion. He
noted he thinks the Board should move this forward and he would certainly make the motion or
second whoever wants to go in that direction.
Commissioner Pritchett commented since they are getting to the fun stuff, this is almost like
working for commission; if they do not raise those extra funds, they do not get any; it is really
not much of a risk for the County; she was checking to see what this means and what they
