We are going to go ahead and get started. I am calling this meeting to order. Is someone available to
call rule? Chairperson Zulek. Here. Vice Chair Heidel. Here. Mark Bell. Lenny Bush. Here. Gretchen Knapp.
Here. Julie Thomas. Here. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Up next on our agenda is approval of summary minutes as presented. Do I hear a
motion? Move approval. There's been a motion. Is there a second? Okay. Okay. Motioned. Oh, she's second.
Okay. Great. Thank you. And all in favor, since there's no one over Zoom, please say aye. Aye. All opposed?
that's great. That passes and now we will move on to an update on the food and beverage revenue totals
by Miss Megan Miller. Hi so the December 31st 2025 county cash balance ended in $2,558,316.49 and for
the city, the December 31st 2025 total cash balance ended in $19,258,285.99.
I will go ahead and apologize for the delay here, but I did send all of you an updated email with accurate
numbers as of today's date for the city and the county. We did recede in the September 2026 food and
beverage numbers yesterday. So between me getting the numbers to the packet and today, they've slightly
varied. So the updated number as of today for the county.
total is $2,701,089.51. And for the city, the total is $10,333,330,709.31. But this total does not include
the payment of $367,927.96 received yesterday pending receipt in their accounting software. Could you
repeat that $10 million number for the city? There's a lot of numbers up there that don't quite drive.
Yes, I apologize.
$10,330,709.31. Thank you. Any other questions? Great. Thank you very much, Auditor Miller. And now
we have review and approval of the 2025 annual report, which everyone should have in front of them.
Are there any questions or comments? OK, in that case,
I would entertain a motion. I'll make a motion. Second. Great. Can you say what your motion is? Oh,
sorry. I make a motion to approve the 2025 annual report. Second. Okay. There's been a motion and a
second. I believe this should be a roll call vote. If you could please call the roll. Commission member Bell.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
So the food and beverage tax spending plan for 2027 should be in, sorry, Jeff McKim, City Controller.
This is actually my first FabTAC meeting. The food and beverage tax spending plan for 2027 for the city
is included in your packet. And statutorily, it is...
we've used the same format that we've used in the past and just moved everything down. So at the very
top, we now have, uh, the 20 27 proposed spending of
the least rental bonds. The 7,000,783,000. Is for lease payments. That's two years of lease payments
for the for the lease rental bonds. The reason why there are two years worth of lease payments is because
when we first established the when we first received
We agreed to set up a revenue stabilization fund that would consist of one year's worth of lease payments.
So this is essentially doing that. We have the two lease payments that would be our regular lease payments
for the year, and another two that will be deposited in an interest bearing account with the bond trustee,
and they'll just sit there
to be used in case there's ever a dip in food and beverage tax revenues. And if not, then they'll just
be used as the final two payment, two lease payments on the bond. And then the rest of our spending
plan includes the capital improvement board's 2027 budget for the, for the capital improvement board.
the completion of the construction of the Convention Center expansion, and we have the Capital Improvement
Board Chair John Weickart here if anybody has any questions. We will also essentially, you will also
have essentially the same item at the end of today's agenda where you'll be asked to review the proposed
CIB spending for 2027.
So that's, and then we have the January 1st fund balance is $19,258,285.99. Thank you very
much. Commissioners, any questions? Any comments? Okey-dokey. We will move on from section six and move
to the county plan.
commissioners meeting. Would anyone like to present on the county parts? I can do so great. Thank you.
Yes this was a spot off the press. This was it. Um. Accepted our commissioners meeting yesterday. Um
and it includes, of course, expenditures to date at the very top. Um and note that.
that. 186,000 and some change was has been utilized so far has been expended so far, but the rest will
be expended shortly, I believe. Um so our
to the property. This is the 409 acres on 446 and Morris Pike that was granted to Monroe County residents
in trust in order to receive. That land in trust in perpetuity. The county had to make. Certain changes
to the property, and this was the only mechanism to fund it, but we do believe it is related to
to be open to the public. Um so it's a terrific plan. It should be open, um, late. 2027 to the public.
Um but there will be lots of nature trails. Um. Dog park parking. Um there is a plan for picnic shelters.
Um and hopefully in the
and the parks board will be seeking input from the public. Early next year on that. The quarry in the
Uplands project continues. We're meeting on the 13th. Um and that has been in the plan in the past.
And we have money set aside for a master plan,
that we have access. At least initially to start. This is going to become a history center. Um outdoor
exhibit of limestone history. Um hopefully in the near future and indoor museum classroom space for
Children to come on field trips, etcetera. But also a lot of economic
that will be coming to the public in 27. Um, Lastly, the Monroe County
and we're happy to offer funding toward that end of moving this project forward.
I'm not going to put a jail on the quarry in the uplands. I love the idea I do, but I just want to make
sure we're not going to put a jail right next to it. Is that totally? Kind of squash right now. No and
here's the thing. It's next to a highway. It's between Arlington Road and 46. So it's a
I don't think it's going to matter what's next to it because it is really, it's heavily wooded right
now. And then there's a number of quarries on the property as well. So yeah, but I understand your concern.
I appreciate it. The concern is the jail, not the surrounding. Your concern is the jail being located
itself. Yes, I'm concerned with the jail being located right next to something with kids and all that
good stuff. So it just doesn't seem like the two go together.
like Fairview School in our current jail. OK, gotcha. OK, other questions? Thank you. Any comments?
OK, Mr Weigart, would you like to add anything? I know we just had a city and county update. We have
our president of the CIB here. I just. If you would like to add something you are welcome to.
I don't know that I want to add too much. Commissioner Thomas mentioned the request for $300,000 for
site development. Let me explain that a little in more detail. We're in the midst of negotiations now
with the hotelier we've selected, and those negotiations have been extremely productive. We've had a
number of meetings, and we have meetings that are continuing to be scheduled.
part of those negotiations will obviously have to do with some work associated with the site. So that
could be utility replacements or relocations, but primarily what we have learned in the process and
the negotiations is that we may very well want to retain our owner's representative.
in this process, not in the same fashion that we have an owner's rep now for the construction of the
expansion, but an owner's rep who will be able to work more closely being watchful, if you will.
of both the design process and when we move into the construction process to protect the interest of
the CIB and the county and the city. So it will not be as expensive as we've been dealing with with
an owner's representative over the last three years, but we think it will be wise for us to have that
professional service added. It was not one that we had frankly anticipated in advance, but it's developed
as part of the negotiations. Thank you. Are there any questions for Mr. Weickart?
Thank you very much. And next up. I have a question about the county fund balance. So Megan just told
us it was 2.701089.51. So I'm with like a tally of what it is that we're approving today and what will
be left to still have money. So as I understand it, looking at this written plan here,
under twenty twenty six in the first section it talks about nine hundred and five thousand was appropriated
as of October twenty
And that 186,824,34 has been expended. But then in further down, it talks about the nature preserve.
And so it mentions the 905 again. So I presume there's money to cover that amount. Is that true because
of what's already been? There is. I need to look at the new fund balance because I don't know if because
the fund balance we had on October 21st was 2,739,000.
And that's not matching what we have now. And I don't know if that's because money has been expended
on the maybe from the yes, or there was a miscalculation. So that is that is not that is not clear.
So what we have is in the other projects we have one
of the food and beverage tax to account for the remainder of the funds. So let's use the lower figure.
What would be left if we use the figure she talked about today, then. So it's just kind of basic math.
Is there a
I have only part of the number in front of me. OK, so I would rather do that. Not here, but I could.
We can do that. OK, look at that. So that'll be discussed at the next Fabtech meeting or it could be
if you wish. I'm not like I would like to be in the county of that, OK? So yeah, because I don't know
where that 38,000 went. You know, so I need to figure that out. So sure, please. So if we have.
Can you get your microphone down here? There we go. I was talking to you about a brilliant be talking
here. So we have something under a million, but let's say 700 domain. Can that be involved under the
broad range of economic development, which can be used for grants so forth to the services that are
actually putting the money in?
What I guess I'm getting is that can the restaurants and the other hospitality services find ways of
getting grants to develop their own economic development, which I know comes in the broad range of tourism.
But when I try to see if there was funds that you could be available for lighting to kind of enhance
the area, because to be honest, most of us are the outliers in the county have a hard time letting people
know where we are. And so I was trying to invest in lighting
And I felt like, well, it didn't really come in any category of tourism. So I thought, well, maybe it
comes under the broad name of economic development. But it would be helpful. And I would think this
would be the body to do it, to try to develop some guidelines so that people could try to propose possible
grants or fit within the guidelines. Because what I found is, like, Blighty didn't necessarily come
under tourism. But if you're, say,
in for winds and you need to let everybody know how far you need to go down in Fairfax to find them,
lighting would help. If you were the, what used to be the Fairfax Inn, one of the problems they had
is that nobody drove past them before you found out where they were. And the guy at, I think his name
is Schaefer, who manages the Eagle Point, again, found he's off the road. It'd be very helpful to have
lighting, again, let people know where they're at.
So that's saying, well, we obviously want to take a large portion. But we found it's just $5,000, $10,000,
$15,000 to make a huge difference in lighting in any one of these kind of facilities. But as I found
even with Eagle Point, which is a fairly upscale operation, they're very tight on their budget. And
he said his lighting was very old. It was really from the former operation. And they were looking how
they could fit it into any kind of budget. So anything like that could be extremely helpful. But they
didn't know where we could fit in.
that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Vice Chair Fiddle. So is that I have another topic if you're
finished. Um so at the council meeting this week, there was some discussion about maybe utilizing some
of these funds for. Cars farm park. I know there's some project work that needs to be done there, and
I want to get that on record that that might be, uh, we might be asking to have
So just to connect a couple of thoughts here, we started off with what is the fund balance and what
is the total request here? And it looks like the total request, if my math is right, is $2.755 million.
And that is more than the balance is reported here. So I think that's where Miss Thomas was talking
about. Is there a little bit of missing money? But that sounds like that would empty out essentially
the funds. And so nothing would be left for the other projects that kinds of work that you're talking
about. Is that correct? Although more money is coming in more money is coming in, of course, you know,
and the plan can be adapted and changed accordingly. So that's that's what it's for. And this body advises
and offers
that's what that's for. So. Other questions or comments. Okay. In that case, we can move on to item
number eight. 2027 CIB City Council budget, which should be in front of all of
with a vote of seven. Oh, resolution 2021 2026-21. Um. Are there any questions about this? Well and
may I just give a quick update on that. So if you actually look at the last page of your packet.
budget. And that has the total of the requests. These This is the 20 27 budget for the capital Improvement
board. We kind of already teased that earlier. Um. But this memo kind of gives a little bit more detail
about what the what the expenditures include. The total proposed budget is $4,000,513,616. And I'm not
going to read out all the
just kind of understand the scope of services that this money, this food and beverage tax is going to
pay for, which includes internal support for the CIB, their legal support and their controller support,
but also in particular their owner's rep, website, insurance, communications, meaning AV and IT communications.
building commissioning, security, graphics and signage, relocation services, furniture fixtures and
equipment, and contingency. And so we are anticipating that this will bring the construction phase of
the convention center to a close. So this will be the last budget we anticipate receiving from the CIB
out of food and beverage tax for a while. And I'll turn things over to Mr. Whitecard if he wants to
make any other comments.
I know Mr. McKim summed it all up. I will mention that Mr. McKim earlier said this was his first FAPTAC
meeting. Actually, he was here last year as the treasurer of the CIB.
I'm sorry. We lost him. You gained him and he just did what he did last year and gave the entire report
and for this for this year, but he's he's correct. This this request is about half of what you would
have seen a year ago because we're into the six month. 2027 will be the six month closeout period when
all the renovation will take place in the current building. So for your
So we hope you'll you'll come to that and then we will be spending from now through
construction activity. We moved furniture and equipment in late June on the renovation, so this is the
close out of all that construction activity. Much of what you see here. This isn't construction money.
This is kind of the soft cost money that you see. So you know the furniture and equipment budget is
in here as we move furniture and equipment in relocation services. The signage the way finding that
all is going to come along in that
a couple of weeks ago, Mike McAfee called me from visit Bloomington and said there was an opportunity
for Bloomington to land in late June of next year, a 900 person event, but they needed both buildings,
the new building and the current building, and they had to have a guarantee they could occupy it by
June 20th to have their, it's a sporting event, to have their event. Well, the completion date for renovation
was June 28th.
So we were missing that opportunity by eight days. And Weddle Brothers, we talked to Weddle Brothers,
our construction manager, they brought all the contractors together and within a couple of days moved
that completion date up from June 28th to June 16th so that we could accommodate that sporting events
convention next year.
that had to be in by June 20th. They've already signed the contract, so they are coming. And that has
a $500,000 economic impact in our community, that single event, because they worked to move that up.
And it's clearly one of the advantages of local
a local construction company, Whittle Brothers, their employees, they live here, they work here, they
contribute to our community, they raise their families here. They are as invested in this as any of
us are. But 12 days is a big deal off of a construction schedule. To cut from the 28th back to the 16th
is incredible that they were able to pull that off and we were able to sign that contract and land that
convention. But back to this, this is the closeout.
So by June 16th, we'll have the renovation of the new building completed. They said there may be some
punch list things they have to come back and do later, but that's fine. So as Mr. McKim said, this will
close us out and we appreciate all the support we've had on this project. So thank you. Thank you. That's
outstanding. And congratulations. Thank you for all your hard work over the past few years. Thank you.
Are there any questions for Mr. Whitecart?
or Mr. McKim. I would like to echo the thanks to Mr. Whitehart for his fine work and stewardship and
leadership on the CIB. It's really been amazing to watch. And it's not something that you'd had experience
with, but we are so grateful to you and the whole CIB, every member, past and present. Thank you. Well,
thank you. And it's a wonderful board with representatives from
all of our units of government, and the board's worked extremely well together, and we're a board that
wants to get this done, and we're pleased and proud of what's happening. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay.
So just to be clear, but by statute,
you don't have to adopt written recommendations anymore, but we are officially asking this board for
the statute for any recommendations you might have. So we certainly welcome your both oral and written
recommendations regarding this proposed budget. OK, in that case, do I hear a motion for recommendation?
I actually have one more question, if I might. Sure.
I don't want to step on your toes. Were you going to go ahead? Okay. Okay. Um, so the city council had
a resolution on the CIB portion of the budget, but do you annually review the spending on the remainder
of the food and beverage money every year? Not as far as I'm aware. That is a question for controller
McKim. The
we already have the approval and the appropriation for the bond. So from now on, we would still come
to this body if we were going to spend on anything other than just making bond payments. OK, got it.
Thank you. Thank you, Controller McKim. Sorry. That's OK. I just wanted to say that even though I would
probably vote for approval, I must say that it makes me a bit uncomfortable
the county actually spending pretty much every dime that they have and not having anything in reserves
for any project that may come up or things that go over or whatever. So I mean, whereas I do, I would
love to have a limestone park and I know that the
that this land that we were granted is incredibly valuable. But I also believe we just need to be a
little bit fiscally responsible in having some funds and contingent that may come up. It doesn't have
to be a huge amount, but something. So to that, I agree. And as money continues to come in, that's a
great thing. We were told last time, I think it was at this meeting that we should have
that's what we did. We didn't have a plan for all the money. So that's what we did. Um and this takes
us into 27 obviously as well. And so that's. That's why that's so close to the to the bone. I get it.
But we've also been told, Oh, you should allocate this money. So we've allocated it and, um, you know,
it may be that some project comes in under. Um
deputy mayor now maybe a little bit of a follow-up on that is as we at the city finish out our commitments
to the convention center itself and wrapping that project up thank you mr. Weikert and as the county
spends out
what they currently have in there. We will in the future have decisions to make about what to do with
the rest of the city money and what to do with the county money as it continues to accrue over time.
And I just encourage us all to involve the public and our constituents in having discussions about how
that money should be spent because of course, as you know, as government institutions, we have many,
many needs and it's easy to look on this money as this is the
the pool that we can pull from, but our constituents are contributing to this money and whether these
are large projects that take it all in one fell swoop or smaller amounts that get doled out over time
that have a bigger impact for small business owners perhaps, I think that's a worthwhile public conversation
to have so that we're spending this money with the full support of the public and those who've contributed to it.
Thank you. I understand is that you're required to speak into the mic. There you go. So the requirement
you have to allocate all the funds. You can't leave them as we have historically just left them in a
reserve. That's not my understanding. That's not my understanding either. No, but we have to present
this report to the state legislature.
And the state Board of Accounts is apparently what's much sure. The state legislature is very interested
in ensuring that this money is allocated and utilized for what it's intended. Sure. Yeah. So that that
may be part of that balance. So if you so if you had any funds that were yet to be set aside for things
like I mentioned at Lenny, how would you fit in any category of allocation? I mean, you have to have
the grants prepared beforehand and
That can't happen until you've got an allocation. So how would that fit in? I guess I don't know.
I mean, I think that's what each body would have to determine is what is the use going to be with some
degree of public input and then reverse engineer what does the approval process look like for the various
bodies involved. But there's probably a bigger conversation first about what is the future
the future use of these funds. What are the future uses that are desired by the community for these
funds? Anyone else questions? Final comments. Is there a motion to approve? Or to recommend the 20 27
CIB City Council budget. I moved to recommend the 20 27 CIB
would you please call the roll? Commissioner Bush. Approved. Commissioner Knapp. Aye. Commissioner Feidl.
Yes. Commissioner Zulek. Yes. Commissioner Thomas. Yes. And Commissioner Bell. Yes. Motion passes unanimous.
Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And we will move on to item nine. Twenty twenty
seven meeting date in February.
I think it would be best to do a poll on on email. Okay Just for something that County staff can handle.
Absolutely Is there a better time of the month? Like I know I realized for county will be organizing
throughout the month of January. So is it better if we try to
Sounds good. I'm seeing nodding. Yes, that would be great. Thank you. OK. Is there any other comments,
questions, thoughts for the good of the order? OK. Then I will adjourn this meeting. Thank you all for
being here.