Tag: bay county commissioners

11 Drowned in 2008, Why Can't We Get Lifeguards?

Tuesday the Bay County Commissioners “balked” at the idea of giving the City of Panama City Beach $108,000 to fund lifeguards at Rick Seltzer Park because of the expense and liability concerns. Seriously?  I mean, come on.  We went through this last year, all the controversy, and we had 11 tourists that drown here on our beaches!  Pensacola has had 4 drownings in five years, Walton County had none last year, we had 11!  Eleven drownings in one year!  That’s more in one year than we’ve ever had!  How does this not deeply concern those in charge?

Today, a Letter to the Editor was published in the News Herald that’s quite good.  In fact, some of the above was sourced from it.  Read it here.

The writer goes on to say that one could make a worthy argument that safer beaches could, in fact, be used as a marketing ploy to help draw people to our area.  We want a WOW marketing campaign, how’s this for a nugget:  “Feel Safe on Panama City Beach” – that will draw families.  How does the bad press look when potential visitors hear about 11 people drowning in our waters in one year, as opposed to none in our neighboring Walton County, whom I might ad is our direct competition.  Are people scared of coming to our beaches?  Are our beaches deemed dangerous to tourists looking to come to our area?  State your opinion in the comments section.

I understand there are legal ramifications for everything and liability issues with every action we as a community make, but why aren’t we taking tourism and city officials from our neighboring areas out to lunch to pick their brains on how they are doing it.  This isn’t some novel idea that no one’s figured out how to do.  Communities are doing this, communities have been doing this for a long time, there is a formula that works, and we need to employ it in Panama City Beach.

The author of the article reminds us that Chairman Jerry Girvin backed away from supporting this Tuesday after receiving conflicting reports from lawyers concerning liabilities of the County.  What!?  So, find another lawyer, read the precedents he proposes and make a more informed decision.  Again, others are doing this, and the success is obviously apparent.

Commissioner Mike Thomas was concerned about the idea of spending $100k on something that primarily benefited tourists.  Yea, benefitted tourists LIVES.  100 grand to save a few lives is more than worth it – the good publicity we’d get off it alone would make it worth our while, saving lives would be icing on the cake.  Oh, and may I remind you that tourists are the lifeblood of our area?  We have NO industry here except tourism.  We scare them off, we’re screwed.

TDC – Use 5th Cent Bed Tax for New Airlines at New Airport

Today’s special called TDC meeting will discuss a resolution to use the hopeful 5th cent bed tax to entice new airlines to come to our new airport that will open in just less than 16 months.  The 5th cent goes up for vote by the County Commissioners tomorrow at their regularly scheduled commission meeting.

Previously, the majority of the 5th cent, if it were approved was to go to improving our sports facilities and events infrastructure in addition to other capital improvements.

The resolution summary reads:

“A resolution of the Bay County Tourist Development Council recommending to the Board of County Commissioners of Bay County, Florida, the adoption of the 5th cent (1%) tourist development tax for the express and limited purpose of supporting low cost air carriers providing service into Bay County; and providing an immediately effective date. “

At this point, it is unclear whether this is a compromise in order to get the fifth cent passed or not.  The resolution stipulates that the fifth cent will be used to support low cost carriers for a period of five years.  I expect to have more information on this later today.

Related articles

Special Called TDC Meeting to Discuss 5th Cent Bed Tax Increase

Bay County Commission Meeting – 5th Cent Bed Tax Increase

Bed Tax Collector’s Office to Get 2 more Full-Timers

TDC Meeting Agenda – Discuss Bed Tax Collections, Sports Marketing

Bed Tax – 4th Cent Passed, 5th Cent Tabled

Bay County Commission Meeting – 5th Cent Bed Tax Increase

Tuesday February 17th, the Bay County Commission in Panama City Florida will meet to again discuss the bed tax increase.  This is a regularly scheduled meeting with the bed tax discussion last on the agenda for discussion.  The January meeting resulted in the bed tax collection being increased from 3 cents to 4 cents.  The 5th cent was discussed, but it was decided to table that decision until this upcoming Tuesday.

If you remember the last meeting, I predicted that the fourth cent would pass but the fifth cent would not.  Commissioners Mike Thomas, Bill Dozier, and Mike Nelson were all in support of the increase, while Commissioner Gainer was adamantly opposed.  Commissioner and Chairman Jerry Girvin was considered the swing vote, and could go either way.  In the beginning he voiced that he wasn’t sure which way he would ultimately go.  In the end, he voted no to the fourth cent, but it still passed as all it needed was a majority.

The fifth cent requires a super-majority or 4 of the 5 commissioners.

You can download the agenda here.

Here are some related articles:

Bring on the Hike

Bed Tax – 4th cent passed, 5th cent tabled

TDC Meeting – Klages, Sea Oats, JBInc, New Board

Bed tax numbers were reported to be up for October, but no percentages or numbers were provided.

Lisa Armbruster presented the preliminary plans for the Sea Oat Planting and Sand Fencing project and encouraged public comment.  The goal is to implement this plan next year after turtle nesting season, and Lisa advised that the funding is already in place.

After a presentation from Walter Klages that emphasized a need to increase international visibility, the board voted to follow staff’s recomendation and approve the contract for the current year including the extra money to start doing occupancy and rate studies.

The board voted to approve the Memo of Understanding with Jennifer Barbee Inc. under the assumption that they could renogotiate the stipulation requiring 1/3 of the budget to be deposited in advance with her firm.  The board agreed they would like no more than 1/6 of the budget to be deposited in advance with JBInc.  It was discussed that Jennifer Barbee Inc has been working on the new spring break site even without a contract.  Andy expressed his concern that $95k was too much for a web site, but the board seemed to disagree.

New officers will be chosen in January and another 6 months was added to all the board member’s term.  Originally, the 2 year appointments were to end in June 2009, but now they will end in January 2010.  I though this was a decision to be made by the County Commission/PCB City Council. ??

The New Year’s Even Ball Drop being held at Pier Park is sponsored by the CVB and will include an 8 foot ball dropped 145 feet from a crane.  Board members are unsure whether, at this point, it will be allowed to smash into the ground on top of a car.

Oh, and don’t forget the special meeting called on the Bed Tax issue on the 17th of December.  I’ll add it to the calendar on the side.