Dean?

Yes.

Yardy?

Yes.

Bowie.

Ford?

Here.

Hagan?

Here.

Lop.

Here.

Schneider.

Swanson.

Yeah.

All right.

Action item three, presentations to six-158.

Discussion about the seven propositions for the 2026 general obligation bond package.

So we have a special guest here this afternoon.

City manager Michael Spurgeon is going to talk to you all about the Go Bond.

Thank you, Michaela.

So I have to apologize to Jennifer and Ted, they've heard it three, four times.

I know I know that.

So I've started actually been doing this for on behalf of the council administration for about 45 days now.

So the first thing I do is I look around the room to see how many folks have actually been in one of the previous presentations, and then I try to tailor it towards that.

But uh members of the board, I really do appreciate the opportunity to be here to spend a couple of minutes with you to talk about this exciting initiative that the city council uh officially authorized on on January 6th.

And so what I'd like to do today is just walk you through a little bit of it and then hopefully answer a question or two of you as citizens and or business owners or operators, uh you may get encountered by folks that uh you engage every single day that you can maybe answer one of their questions.

So um the first thing I want to mention is I believe everybody has one sheets or the palm cards.

So you have the one sheets.

Up on the board, I've got what we call the palm card, and I'll I'll explain that in a minute.

So let me let me go back a little bit and just share with you that this initiative that the city undertook started about two and a half years ago.

And whenever you put a bond package together, it does take time because uh mainly you want to make sure that it's community driven.

So when we still sat down for the first time, we were looking at probably close to 1.2 billion dollars worth of projects that we could choose from for this community.

Now, we decided to do this as a program rather than just a one-time bond package.

So in 2020 2036 and 2046, the mayor and the councils at the time, city managers won't have to try to reinvent the wheel, is they'll have a program of projects that were not included in this bond package that they can consider, they'll just have to update the estimates, and they'll have a real good starting point to work off of in addition to all the other exciting opportunities that could be happening ten years from now.

And so, in order to keep the property tax rate the same, which council said as we've done in the past, we had to narrow that 1.2 billion down to 415 million dollars.

So obviously we had to cut two-thirds of that.

We actually didn't have trouble getting to about 615 million, but between 615 and and 415, it was a little challenging because there are just so many great projects that the the community weighed in on, we had to make some tough decisions, and I'll speak in that in just a few minutes.

Um I wanted to share with you is over the last two years, this was not a package that I like to say that was put together in a smoke-filled back room by the council and myself.

Okay.

We've never been that way, we're fully transparent.

Our new city hall municipal service building working on is going to have a lot of glass because of the theme of being transparent.

And so we did uh three public forums last summer.

We had HOA meetings, we had community meetings, we had meetings with citizens, uh, we met with our partners at the chamber and the broken arrow uh school district, and we had a steering committee.

And so the projects that are in this package are truly a representation of what the community felt was most important at this particular time.

And that was tough because obviously we only had 415 million uh dollars, and there was much more uh projects that there were than that.

But I can tell you is that of the 129 projects that are in all eight propositions, we feel comfortable that these are the projects that broken air residents that responded, whether it was to one of the six surveys or to attend at any of the meetings uh engaged with the council and myself, these are the projects they would like to see.

So uh if you can see up there on the board, the on the palm card, which I'll work off, the the package is broken into two parts.

There's a tag there's a part that's broken into property taxes, which is propositions one through seven, four hundred and fifteen million dollars that keeps the property tax rate exactly the same, which is about sixteen point four eight.

And what's interesting is out of one dollar, I just learned this recently, out of every single dollar you pay in property taxes, the city gets 13 cents.

Because remember, we don't we don't get any money from property taxes to pay for operations.

We only get we only get proper the property taxes we receive from all of you, albeit for your home or your business, goes toward the repayment of bonds or repayment of any judgments.

So our our operational expenses come predominantly from sales tax and other revenues.

So that 13 cents you pay is what is used to repay bonds.

And so 415 million keep the same property tax rate.

How do we do that?

Well, we have bonds approved previously that will roll off that we'll we're making debt service payments on, and then the assessed value of the city will increase with new homes and new businesses will give us the capacity to issue the additional bonds over over the 10 years of the package.

The second part of the initiative is a sales tax initiative, which I'll talk about here in just just a second.

I want to share with you is that uh this is eight votes.

It's not one time, go in, one vote, winner take all.

You have to go in and you have to vote eight times.

And so when you get your sample ballot, you have to turn the page.

Uh we back in 2018, it was interesting, interesting.

There were there were two propositions that were on the on the back page that we had to do a quick social media post back in 2018 to remind people to turn the page because they didn't, and it was interesting on those two on those two propositions.

The number of people actually voted was less.

You would think there would be consistency in all six propositions, but there was significant number less on those two propositions where people didn't turn the ballot.

And so it's so when you do go to the poll, should you do choose to do that, make sure you turn it over because there are propositions on the second page.

Um when it comes to percentage-wise, you see right there.

Uh I want to say proposition one, two, three, four, seven, and eight only require a simple majority.

One, two, three, four, seven, and eight.

Propositions five and six that relate to stormwater require 60 percent.

And the reason they do is because they're by state statute, there is opportunities with projects that we may have to spend public dollars on private property.

So the state says that in order to use public dollars on private property for stormwater.

Uh we're doing a road winding project and we need a retention basin, or if there's a community that has a erosion problem because it's got Hagee Creek running through it, you need some bank stabilization.

If that to fix those banks, the just the project is just well outside the scope of what that homeowners association or those residents can do.

It's called the drainage money in proposition six.

The city could actually go in and do stabilization in those areas to help those residents that that basically are having that type of erosion problem that's affecting their property or affecting could be their um their parks and recreation areas.

Those require 60 percent, 60 percent because you're gonna spend private public dollars and private land.

I can tell you what prompted this in 2018, Indian Springs Golf Club was having huge problems.

I know Ben remembers this, and so they came to us and what can we do?

Well, the statute said if you if the voters will give you 60 percent, then you can actually fix a problem.

And so the problem was it was a public problem.

We uh it passed by 74 percent.

Uh proposition number six did.

That's how important the folks felt to make this happen.

And from that, the city created the drainage advisory committee.

So now we have a full committee of citizens and council members that come in and hear applications for from residents who are having challenges with stormwater in a community over 100 years old, you're gonna have those.

So those require 60 percent.

Uh let's go to the next page, if you would please.

This is the breakdown of the different propositions.

Those those right there, uh, the first seven totaled 415 million dollars.

And as you can see, uh, transportation is always the largest expense.

And transportation, I call it all things streets and streets and roads or asphalt and concrete.

And you have the one sheets, and so I would encourage you when you get a chance to look look at those, because it'll tell you every single project's in there.

And what's exciting is there's I believe 12 road widenings, 10 intersection upgrades, money for for maintenance in homeowners associations, subdivisions, uh, connectivity, there's just some great projects in there.

Uh public safety, 74 million dollars, and it works us on the way down to as I mentioned, the five million uh for um uh four and five million dollars, excuse me, five and six million for drainage and storm water.

The other project I want to mention is the partnership with the library.

Uh they came to us about 18 months ago and said that they have about a $13 million project when you add their furniture, fixtures, and equipment to build a brand new South Broken Library, and they were short.

And so we met with them and we decided to do a survey of citizens to say would they be willing to contribute to this partnership.

Over 4,000 people took the survey.

Uh it was like 65 to 70 percent said they would support giving up to five million dollars uh to double a new a new library down in South Broken Arrow to uh double the size.

What's interesting, that's a third busiest library out of the 24 in Tulsa County because of homeschoolers.

And so it's it's um overwhelmingly uh been a great proposition and partnership so far in the response we got from the community.

So the the community itself, private sector has pledged a million dollars, and so the council went with four instead of five.

And so there's gonna be private investment from Broken Arrow, and if this passes only needs 50 percent, then we would we would have the five million that they need to complete the $13 million project.

And so that's what's exciting about the about proposition number seven.

And then the final project, which is fifty-three million dollars, it's uh funding for overdue improvements to our sports facilities, uh, specifically Arrowhead Sports uh Sports Complex that you're aware, the end of South Maine, Indian Springs Sports Complex, Need Hoss, where the uh football and soccer complexes are at, and then Challenger Sports Complex.

Uh several of our our facilities, such as Indian Springs and Arrowhead Sports, Indian Springs and Arrowhead, it's just been long overdue.

The type of improvements because they're so expensive.

And so we're asking the voters to consider an increase in sales tax for a very short period of time to fund the $53 million.

And here's what I want to share with you about.

Um first off, the council said that they wanted to do the sports complexes, and we didn't have the capacity in the $415 million, and they didn't want to leave them out.

And so they did a survey of the citizens and asked them would they be willing to support a half a cent.

334 folks took the survey, 88% said they were registered voters, and the response was 68% said they would support the half a cent for five years.

And so the two criteria the council set was they wanted over 3,000 responses, and they wanted over 60% to give them a good barometer that this has a good shot of actually actually passing on on April 7th.

So the two criteria they set, they met those benchmarks, and so they went forward with this initiative.

So here's here's what uh what I want you to know about this.

What is the cost?

The cost for every hundred dollars you spend at Research, it's an additional fifty uh fifty cents.

If you spend two hundred dollars at Reese's or Walmart or Target, or if you go out to eat, it uh you spend two hundred dollars, it's a dollar for five years.

Now, fifty cents and a dollar, it means a lot to a lot of people.

Okay, so that's why the council decided to make it a small increase for a short period of time, but because of this amount of sales tax a half a cent generates, it only it's only gonna take five years to generate that kind of money to be able to complete these improvements.

And so uh if it passes, the tax will go into effect July 1st of this year, and it will end on June 20 June 30th of 2031.

So that's to be the five-year period.

Here's a probably the number one question that the council and I've gotten over the last 45 days.

Well, is the city just going to automatically renew the tax?

Because you know, obviously, governments love taxes, and it wants it we don't ever like to see them go away.

Well, the reality is council said, and I've said, I'm joking by the way, um, is that this is not going to be renewed, it's not going to be considered.

Uh I have no intentions of recommending that.

Uh plus, bottom line is it would have to be reauthorized by the citizens.

The city council cannot unilaterally just keep the keep the half a cent on there after June 30th of 2031.

And so here's what's exciting about this initiative.

By doing it this way, broken air taxpayers are not paying the whole bill.

They're only paying about half of it because 50% of the sales tax that we generate here comes from people outside the city.

And then, secondly, is uh we're gonna complete all the improvements within three years.

And so that means the kids and the grandkids of the parents and grandparents that vote for this on April 7th, we'll be able to use those facilities almost immediately.

Three years is almost immediately if you think about it when you have to design it and then construct it.

If it was in propositions number three, because if there was enough money to accommodate that, then they would be competing with roads, uh, fire stations, fire trucks, uh, city facilities, parks, other parks and recreation, and it would take 12 years because you'd have it would get you so much competition with the other projects.

This way it's gonna get done in three years.

And I can tell you, especially those to this board, the tourism.

I mean, I think it's gonna be a generational type package in terms of the amount of increases we're gonna see in hotels and restaurants and incidentals people purchase while they're here.

Because right now, I would say the number of turnips were happening happening have gone just steadily gone down because of the threat of rain.

Uh we used to be the number one place between Kansas City and Dallas until about 15 to 20 years ago.

All of a sudden, Northwest Arkansas is a place people go between Kansas City and Dallas because they have natural turf.

And so for us, we're gonna I think we're gonna see a significant increase as soon as the fields are built in our hotel motel tax, our hotel motel sales tax, and our economy because we're gonna have so many more teams and parents, grandparents are gonna be in in the community.

So just in close uh everything up, um it is 468 million dollars, April 7th, got to vote eight times.

And I do believe this is a generational opportunity to actually make about a almost 130 projects because we are the 12th best city in America, and we all stand on the shoulders of every bond package that has been approved before us, and there's an opportunity for us to continue to maintain the great quality of life we have in here in Broken Arrow.

So with that, um Mr.

Chairman, I'd be glad to answer any questions from from the board.

I would think that the um most challenging would be eight.

Proposition eight.

Um do we have any idea, ballpark of what kind of revenue comes from the sports complex.

Well, I can give you an example of a of a pro of a uh event that happened last fall with soccer.

And so they had between three and four hundred teams here, I think it was in late October, early November, and Barbara Wilson, who is the executive director of uh Broken Air Soccer, which is the largest soccer club in the state of Oklahoma, uh gave me information that said that the impact was well over three million dollars for the four days, three or four days that they were here.

For one tournament.

For one tournament.

And so I feel it in the traffic that weekend.

It's big.

Okay.

Um so I can't give you I can I I could give you some generalities, but until I know the number of tournaments that we're going to be able to have, because especially with girls fast pitch, they're usually the parents and grandparents are usually here Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Uh baseball is usually Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Once I get an idea, I can come back and give.

In fact, make McCain will be able to give that information as we start to see the growth, because I believe it's going to happen.

Uh but right now to know the number of tournaments, it'd be not knowing how we're gonna have it, it's kind of difficult.

I can attest to also like Arrowhead down here.

If you rewind 10 years ago, that was full every single weekend with tournaments.

Well, when Caroline was or Carolyn Chaber was on this board, and they would come and ask for money, and they really haven't lately.

I don't know.

Have we approved a softball tournament, Michaela?

Uh not lately, though.

No.

I mean, I know they kind of just not having as many events as they used to.

I was looking over here.

Yeah, that's right.

So those those improvements would be big.

I I think you guys have done a phenomenal job putting this together like it's so much bigger and better than what we did before.

How can we help you spread the word?

I guess how can we build?

How can we trumpet it from the from the rafters?

Well, I mean, you have uh Jennifer Deal sitting behind me, and obviously they're a recipient of uh a project in um in proposition number four.

Uh and actually, if you remember in 2018, uh we had a we had a we had a partnership with ABB Bank where they basically donated the land and then demolished the building, and then the voters approved the funding to build phase one.

So, for example, phase two is in there because the council has said I'm gonna answer your question, but I think it's it's a it's the it's I want to talk a little more 30,000 feet.

Council has said that we're growing about one and a half percent per year, but we're gonna continue to do things that are gonna promote our city as being uh a smaller community, a a community that comes together, okay.

Well, the the facilities we have in in the downtown area primarily are a way to gather, a way to bring people together to still give us that small town feel.

And so um that's one of the projects, and I'd encourage everyone to number one is to talk to the user groups uh such as the senior center, the uh military history center, the veteran center, arts 302, or the or the history center itself, and just talk about their missions if you get a chance to to to uh to visit with them about the importance of the dollars that that have been been allocated by the governing body in proposition number four.

Uh, what can the the tourism uh uh the visit board visit broken air board do?

Uh number one is the city can't the city can't say vote yes.

Uh we can talk all day long, but I think just mainly just making sure that uh everyone knows that first and foremost, not everybody pays attention like we do because we're on top of this all the time, is just talk to people about are you aware that on April 7th there the city's having a uh a bond election with eight propositions and just engage them.

I will tell you this starting the 16th or 17th of this month, there's gonna be a bond book that's coming to every home, over 42,000 homes in Broken Arrow that will have exactly uh what uh you all have is the one sheets.

So for those that folks that basically may not be fully engaged with what's happening, they're gonna get a bond booked probably well but well in time before the election to go in and look at it.

It's got much more detail in there about why this is so important, but really just spread the word about making sure that they're aware of uh of the fact that there is a vote on April 7th.

And then secondly, is we still have three public forums.

Uh if they have questions, you can text me and I can let you know when they are.

We have one Thursday night, then one on the 26th, and then we have a final one on April 2nd.

But I think it's just more just more awareness, honestly, Ben, because um I still run into some people every now and that that have not heard about it, and then once I get a chance to talk to them about it, they they seem very supportive.

Great question.

I'd I have to bite my tongue on social media all the time, or I'd be fighting people all the time.

But I I have a better I'm I'm comfortable doing it in person.

I don't I don't like to be the keyboard warrior, but well, I would tell you between the council myself and members of senior leadership, we have probably in the last 45 days been before over 1,300 residents, citizens, and the the response in person is overwhelmingly in support.

In fact, every single meeting that we have, hypothetically, there's five questions about the bond, and there's 17 questions about the amphitheater.

Yeah.

Or when is when is um uh Home Depot going to be open?

And and in fact, several people said, you know, Mike, you're done.

We we're we support this leave.

Yeah.

Um, so so really, but online, obviously, those are those people that seem to be less engaged.

And what's interesting is we have we have a number of people that vote no that follow and say vote no, but then again, the people that say vote yes are not the same people.

And so it's been interesting to see both, but I can tell you when we have a chance to visit with citizens, we're going to country air tonight, which is one of our largest subdivisions.

Uh council Ford will be helping lead that one.

Uh, plus we've I've got another, I think altogether we'll then have almost over 70 different meetings over 60 days to make sure we get the word out, leave no stone unturned about public education.

And we had broken build a better broken arrow, which can vote yes, that has the funds to be able to do a mailer as well as billboards uh and also maybe even a television or radio ad to be able to say to be able to say vote yes.

But but really just more public education and and the importance because we are one of the best cities in the country to live in, and we do stand on the shoulders of those people that have made that happen before us, and so now it's this is this is uh our turn uh to step up and basically um go to the polls and have an opportunity to approve these 129 projects that are gonna continue to make this one of the best places to live and work and raise a family in the entire country.

Remember, there's over 19,000 cities in America.

So to say that you're number 12 in the nation at a hundred out of 19,000, I mean that's almost unheard of.

So I'll be glad to answer any other questions.

Do we have more of these cards?

Okay.

Uh Aaron.

Aaron is he's the palm man, he's the palm card guy.

All right.

Thank you for your time, folks.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

Action item four, general visit broken arrow business.

Uh we need to make a motion on four e get that number.

Two six um yeah, two six-three nine six um to uh move that to the front.

So I need a motion.

I'll make the motion.

Second.

Okay.

Dean.

Yes.

Yardy?

Yes.

Bowie?

Yes.

Ford.

Yes.

Hagan?

Yes.

Lopp.

Yes.

Schneider, yes.

Swanson.

Yes.

Okay.

So today we have a couple representatives from the national.

Oh, wait, let me say it.

Let me say it right.

Hold on.

I'm sure National Grange 160th Annual Convention.

And we are very excited.

We've been talking to these our new friends for over six months about this convention since um before they had their last one.

Their last one was on a cruise.

Um I don't know where they went, but it sounded really fun.

I tried to get them to let me go just to learn.

But so they've chosen Broken Arrow to come to um so I'll let you talk, I'll let them talk to you about this grant request.

However, I want to show you guys something really quickly or talk to you real quickly about this.

Um, this form I put in front of you all, this like spreadsheet that's got red and green.

Um this was just something I put together really quickly because I want to make sure that we're talking about money spent, money remaining, because this was a request, and we've become a lot more popular than we were.

So we have to be more careful about just handing money out.

So the highlighted is fiscal year 27 versus 26.

So right now we'll just focus on the top, which is fiscal year 27.

So as you know, this starts July 1st of this year.

Um the red are all of those that we've already approved so far, the past few months.

So they're events happening after July 1st.

So we've already approved, of course, Tuesdays in the park, we approved the junior golf association and the Christian interpreters conference.

So that number, the 32,500 is our funds that we've already tentatively given to someone else.

Um, and so the remaining that we have for fiscal year is 57,500.

So I just want to make sure that you guys know that um before we have this conversation.

Um, and then I left off chalk it up, which they're coming up later in the agenda.

But um just wanted to provide this beforehand so you guys are aware, and we can kind of start keeping track of this because I think it's a great problem to have, but I think what's going to start happening is we're gonna have to start saying we're we've used up our money for fiscal year 27, we're now you know, booking 28.

So I like it, um, but I just want to make sure that we're paying attention to what we've got remaining.

So with that, um, I will let Mark and Susan um tell us about their convention that they are bringing to Broken Arrow, and it's big.

So ahead.

Thank you, Michaela.

Yeah.

Thank you, everyone.

Um, appreciate you allowing us to spend a little bit of time.

Uh I'm joined by Susan Hanks, who's also a committee member with me.

Just a brief um history of the um national Grange.

It is a the grain was uh established in um 1867.

We are a fraternal non-partisan organization with roughly 1,400 local chapters across the country in rural and small town communities.

Uh our age limit is anyone uh age 14 and older uh and they're interested in agricultural rural concerns or better in their community.

Uh we don't uh ever endorse a candidate, uh, but we do lobby on policies that are created through our grassroots vetting uh that starts at our community levels.

Our convention, this is our hundred and sixtieth convention.

Um like the Michaela alluded to, we did try one on a cruise ship last year that was different.

But uh I think I'm gonna stay stateside for now on.

Um we had uh the ship um had some issues with coming in later, but it was a great conference.

People enjoyed it, but I think people are excited about coming back to the states uh proper and exploring new areas and broken arrow seems to be an outstanding uh facility for us.

Our convention will last from November 6th through the 15th.

Uh we are staying at the per the our permanent hotel is the Stoney Creek Hotel and Conference Center.

We're also gonna be overflows gonna be at the Hilton Garden Inn.

From my understanding, and I have not been to this location yet.

Um I understand they're they share our parking lot or pretty pretty close uh approximation.

Um as you can tell by our branch application, we are seeking a remake of 40,000.

Um I'm not sure when your new um fiscal year begins.

Like I said, our our convention is in November.

Um Susan, I know that uh we were gonna have the president of the national president join us, but she had to take care of some other things.

So I know she passed with some notes on with Susan, so Susan, you pass on what she wanted you to cover.

Absolutely.

So our focus on this convention is kind of changing it up.

So we have a business meeting, but we also do a lot of enhancements for our members.

Um our members can come as young as five, they're a junior and ranger, um, and then at 14 they can be a voting member.

But not everybody is a voting member at this national meeting, and we need to have all of these engagement items that help us help showcase the environment that we're in.

Um we would love to have speakers.

Um I know that your poet laureate is high on our list of people to come and speak with us.

We would like to have our members come and enjoy your town.

We want to have them do either tours or enrichment activities, and that is the bulk of what we're asking for is to make their experience the most amazing that it can be.

We want them to be able to go, wow.

Do you remember the year that we were in Broken Arrow?

Can we go back?

Even if it's not a Grange thing, I want to go vacation there because we were only there for five, six days, and we didn't get to see enough.

So that is our goal in terms of the liaison with your uh visitors bureau.

And we're also uh thank you, Susan.

We're also trying to do things with the community.

I know Wednesday evening tentatively, we're looking at doing a uh what's it day, a food truck uh dinner session.

So we're gonna open that up to the public as well.

Um again, we have um family members ranging from five or younger all the way up to you know eighty, or if not older than that.

Um but every place we've gone and give you some examples.

We've got we've been in Niagara, we've been at Reno, we've been uh what you call Kansas.

We we go to other places.

We are looking going back to Reno uh next year, and I think they just announced uh outside of a small town outside of Austin the following year after that.

So we're we always try to put back into the community.

We also try to see what kind of activity our youth can do for some type of community uh service day, whether that be on a Friday or a Saturday, to help out different uh organizations in the in the broken arrow community in the past.

We've done uh coke drives or school supplies, just various activities uh throughout.

But we're seeking this this rebate from the uh conventional leaders bureau and new um board members to kind of help us uh make sure that the members that come to the commission have the best possible experience uh they possibly can.

Uh I think this would be a long lasting um bond and relationship.

We do have ranges in the uh Oklahoma area and the state surrounding.

We have um Granges in almost every every state almost.

Uh we still have some that we don't, but we're we are spreading again.

This organization's been around a pretty long time, and our convention has gone a long time.

This will be 160th, so it's pretty special to us.

Are there any questions that I can answer for you or any concerns?

What have and some of your past um events?

What have they offered you?

Is this a normal ask is around $40,000, or what are some of the asks from other communities?

Yes, in some of the communities uh we have uh gone with different partnerships, whether it's been through corporate means that they've introduced us through, through maybe like the chamber of commerce.

But we normally, if there are uh rebates available, then we do ask for that.

Not all uh locations offered uh hotel rebates, so we were pleased to see that this is something that at least was available as a uh as a possibility.

Um again, a lot of the money we raise is just through the registration fees.

Um we are trying to figure out how we can uh help us not be in the red.

Um again, this is a uh a large group of people.

Um they do spend money.

Um like I said, we with our youth, we're hoping to take tours and and after this.

I know Michael, I'm gonna reach out to you next week.

Um we're trying to make sure that we have contracted all the transportation uh uh companies in the area because in our case, a lot of our um members are elderly and they need um um special transportation because of their scooters and things like that.

So we're having a hard time trying to find enough transportation to help support uh tours and things like that.

So we'll talk to you offline about that.

Um I'm sorry, I did not I think it kind of occurred.

I will add something that I'm excited about, is they're gonna be here during our Christmas kickoff.

And so, as far as entertainment goes, like that's our best night for entertainment.

So I am hoping that everybody will come down and and join us for that event because that's gonna be something that they will not forget.

So that's great.

Then yeah, then I'll definitely get that that information from you so we can start advertising it because we always try to find some some nice things that people can do and experience that they wouldn't experience someplace else.

Uh and that sounds like a great kickoff to the season, and we'd be glad to uh to attend that.

There's gonna be reindeer, so I doubt I doubt they've seen that before during one of the conferences.

So they haven't, so that'll be great.

So we're gonna throw it back.

I'd like to have like kind of a budget conversation, like probably with them offline before we commit to that.

Yeah, and I had a question as well.

Um you mentioned that it starts on the 6th and goes to the 15th, and you're anticipating 400, but only um meeting 960 room nights.

What's the average length of stay for your for an attendee?

For an attendee, the average stay is around five nights.

Um we have a lot of people that will just drive in.

Um the families will normally start arriving later on that week, so that'll be that go Wednesday.

Um if you look at our um, I think we have so many rooms to both from that that opening Thursday to 6 all the way to that Wednesday, and then we're adding another uh hole by the hotel.

Um but usually a majority of our folks are there at least five nights.

Um but that also uh again that could be uh individual rooms or that could be where people don't occupy, but normally they are uh single rooms.

Uh like I said, we do have families that live in the area, and they um uh will be community back and forth.

We have this the high school age short coming in from all over the country, so they will be arriving until Wednesday evening, but they take a major part in our convention, they do an opening session for us, and they're there for um the president's uh um uh yeah, address external address and things like that.

What is your like normal um attendance?

I know you're anticipating 400, but what's the average attendance you get at these events?

It depends on the location to be honest with you.

Um go ahead uh Susan.

Um we had a vast number of people three years ago um in Niagara Falls.

Um I think part of that was the novelty of the area.

Um, but it was really well received.

We had uh close to 500 people.

Um the cruise was a little bit different.

We have a tendency to throw that one out because when you're looking at statistical averages, it just doesn't really play by the rules.

So um I think we had over 500 on the cruise.

When we were in Iowa, the attendance was a little low, we couldn't offer them these wonderful you know, extracurricular activities, which is why we're looking at a solid 400.

Right.

So to answer your question, the range has been anywhere between 350, 375, all the way up to 500.

Uh I'd like to make a motion to table this until we can have our budget discussion.

Oh, second lisa.

Okay.

Dean.

Yes.

Yarty?

Yes.

Bowie?

Yes.

Ford, yes, Hagan?

Yes.

Lopp?

Yes.

Schneider, yes.

Swanson, yes.

Thank you.

Perfect.

No, thank you.

Thank you for listening to us.

Look forward to hearing from you working with you.

Thanks, Mark.

We'll be in touch.

All right, thank you, uh.

Yeah.

Lisa, did you second that?

I'm sorry.

I did second it.

Yeah.

Um, you may mean might need to ask our attorney if we can we're gonna have to still discuss an open meeting, even though they're not there anymore.

You know what I mean?

Because we're gonna open meeting.

That seems like a shit ton of money.

So I know we're not talking about that.

Okay, you can't discuss if you tabled it.

Yeah, we can't discuss it.

That's since it's been tabled.

I just didn't want to discuss it in front of them.

I know, but we tabled it, so now we have to bring it up next meeting.

How should I have done that?

Well, that's what I was wondering.

That's what we should have asked them.

Because it's a public meeting, so they they would have had to have right to have been involved.

So will they have to be involved next time, or can we talk about it?

I don't, I just don't want to offend them.

Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, to discuss the use of the dollars is gonna have to be an open meeting.

So I mean, it would be probably inappropriate not to invite them in.

Okay.

Um be up to them to join.

You just have to post it and it's up to them to join.

Okay.

Um, well, I I can talk about the budget, right?

Um as a particular during my report.

Okay, there we go.

Let's do that.

Well, sorry.

I guess we could have just talked about it, but action item um 26-373 consideration discuss uh discussion of possible approval for 2026 chalk it up sponsorship request in the amount of 7500.

Okay, so just a reminder.

You can stand up there.

Um, they came last month and we asked them to go kind of make a plan and come back.

Action item A 26-373 consideration discuss uh discussion of possible approval for 2026 chalk it up sponsorship request in the amount of 7500 okay so just a reminder you can stand up there um they came last month and we asked them to go kind of make a plan and come back so here they are and I believe they've made a plan and I also need to state that I recuse myself from any votes because we're I'm a sponsor so appreciated the conversation that we had last time and and the information that you guys have provided and I've talked to a couple of other people and talked to you and so we went with the recommendation and we kind of divided our ask.

So the Rose Festival is responsible for talking with the city of Broken Arrow and getting B waivers, and then we were responsible for coming to you guys, and so we're asking potentially for 7500.

So I have some notes here that the 7500, hold on, let me find you guys know about the event.

So 29,000 people, 60 professional and community chalk artists, um, lots up to 75 art vendors that will be there.

Um I think we're on our 13th or 14th year.

Um we have 40 to 50 local volunteers that contribute probably around 250-ish hours.

Um so we have a lot of community participation in this event.

Um what we plan to do, our took plans to expand the event by increasing our stage programming, strengthening partnerships with local companies, and beginning marketing and sponsorship development earlier in the year.

We've already started all of that.

Um so we're requesting support from you guys only.

Um we will not request any extra funding from the city of Broken Arrow.

Um we're trying to keep our funding stream separate as as per your requests, so the visit broken arrow sponsorship would support direct visitor-facing expenses such as stage production, entertainment, marketing, and help maintain one of Broken Arrow's most visible events.

So and we've had some discussions also about potentially expanding the festival a little bit further, discussions with some different people.

So we're cautiously optimistic.

I don't want to grow it too big.

One of the people that used to do events in Broken Arrow that I worked with a lot early days always said you'd rather have a really packed, exciting event rather than spreading out so far that it feels like no one came.

So but that that's kind of where we're at right now.

So we've not given the Rose Festival any money.

They're so they're gonna do the ask for in kind.

Correct.

So but in the past, we've given you 7500 and them 7500.

Correct.

Okay, and they already did.

So the Rose Festival did after our meeting, and we had that conversation.

They went to community development and they got that fee waiver for that amount, which is what we asked them to do.

So cool.

Yeah, I would motion to approve chalk it up.

I say Dean Recuse.

Yarty.

Yes, Bowie, yes, Ford, yes, Hagen, yes, WAP, yes, Schneider, yes, Swanson, yes.

There you go.

My word.

Thank you guys so much.

And I just want you to know I tell people to vote yes all the time on all eight propositions, as I can tell.

Don't tell us all that.

Well, and just let us remind you too that next year you probably will not get this much.

Okay if you ask.

So just start there preparing so that we are.

I mean, I think that's why we brought Chad on board because he's really helping us look at the best ways to handle our sponsorship.

And so, but I appreciate that, and I will make sure to communicate that with the Rose Festival too.

Okay, thank you.

Action item B 26-381 consideration, discussion of possible approval for the meeting minutes from January 13th, 2026.

Motion to approve, second Dean, yes, Yarty, yes, Bowie, yes, Ford, yes, Hagen, yes, flop, yes, Schneider, yes, Swanson, yes.

Lisa Action item C two six-three eight two consideration discussion uh discussion of possible approval for meeting minutes from February 10th, 2026.

Motion to approve.

Second.

We're trying to keep up with who's doing what.

Okay, Dean, yes, Yarty, yes, Bowie, yes, Ford, yes, Hagen, yes, Lop, yes, Schneider, yes, Swanson, yes.

Action item D 26-392 approval for authorization to submit a request for a proposal to obtain marketing services as set forth in the visit BA strategic plan.

Okay.

So in your large packet, um, there's I don't know, it's page 27.

And I did not put a draft watermark on here, but this is the draft RFP that I've been working on.

So as you all who have been on the board for a while probably recall, is that we have been working with in-house marketing as our third-party marketing company for the past three years.

Um we uh working with them came out of our original or our past strategic plan from 2018, and it said, you know, you need to be more professional in your marketing, so basically contract that out.

So we hired them right before I started, and then we have just sort of renewed them every year because we've been in the middle of projects with them, and it's very hard to just change projects.

So they were rebranding the first year and then working on our website and had started bullseye the second year, and then we're like, okay, let's finish or like start working on bullseye.

So during this whole time, we then did our five-year strategic plan that as you guys know, just come just completed, and through that we had multiple conversations with the consultants about you know, just the fact that we are getting bigger, and we're we're you know, becoming a more mature um tourism organization, and we just need to have a destination marketing company would be serving us very well.

So we are not unhappy with the work in-house is doing, um, but they're not their specialty is not destination marketing.

And so um two things.

One, I think it's just fair to go out to bid every once in a while, anyways.

You know, you it's a good year to do that.

Um I will say that in-house may be the best that we end up with if they decide to um to bid on this, um, but we do um I hope that we do get some, you know, a actual destination marketing firm that would be willing to work with us and and take us even further with our marketing and just kind of start growing even more the work that we've already been doing.

So um I've left it kind of generic.

Um we don't talk about bullseye in it at all.

Um, we do say what I kind of leaned on is there's there's very specific um recommendations in our strategic plan what a marketing what our plan should be.

And so I just said a lot throughout this RFP like go to the plan.

We want the people that are making that that are bidding to go look at the plan and kind of help us come up with what the marketing should look like so that we're we're working under the strategic plan.

Um so I am recommending that we post this.

Um we allow national companies and Oklahoma companies, everybody, whoever is qualified, um, to come in, um, submit their bids, and then we go through them and just kind of see what we end up with.

Well, they're gonna pitch us like they did with Bullseye.

Yeah, yeah, we will narrow my plan is to you know take all of the take all of them because see what we end up with, and then last time we had a committee, so it was four four people from the board would help narrow it down, and then at that point we can decide if then if there's no one local, we can either do it just via teams or just kind of see what we went up with.

But yeah, I'd I'd like them to have to sort of show show us what their ideas are.

Um and so um does anybody have any questions?

I think it's healthy to go out to bed every once in a while to so they don't get too comfortable.

And I mean I do have to, you know, we we are we do things correctly, obviously we're transparent, but I had to sort of defend why we didn't go out to bed every year anyway, but it we it did make sense because we were in the middle of things that we didn't just want to completely change when we were doing these things, so now it's a good time.

We're kind of idle, we've got this new strategic plan that has very clear outlines of what we should be doing, and so it's a good it's a good time.

So I am just requesting now that you all approve this, and then what we'll do is post it.

Um I have it on here that they be due back April 30th, um, and then we would go through them and then come have it have the whole project done and come back to you on May 30th, basically ready to where we can just start July 1st with the new company or in-house again if we end up wanting that.

But I'll make a motion to approve item D 26-392 to obtain uh the proposals for marketing services.

Second.

Oh, one more okay.

them and then come have it have the whole project done and come back to you on May 30th basically ready to where we can just start July 1st with the new company or in-house again if we end up wanting that but I'll make a motion to approve item D 26-392 to obtain uh the proposals for marketing services oh one moment okay uh Dean Yes Yarty Yes Bowie yes Ford yes Hagan yes Lopes Schneider yes Swanson yes I will just remind you that on this item it's um going to be over 5000 we know that so it will come to you and then we'll be finally a final approval at the council meeting a city council meeting are we looking to increase our spending of with having to go to a destination marketing firm we did increase it a little bit it's kind of hard for us because we just have a set amount of money we don't just have you know um when we go through the budget process we don't like a general fund we don't get to just increase um we just have what our hotel tax is so we actually did move some things around and we put up to 175 175 thousand um where we have been in-house has been getting 15000 so it's a little bit of an increase um so isn't that what kind of drove us to have to do something local yes was our budget yeah I mean and we did have that conversation with the consultants um and they gave us some recommendations of some some organizations that do work with smaller cities um but focus specifically on destination marketing so I'm hopeful that there's something out there but we'll just kind of play it by air and see are we on both sides of uh the departure uh at the airport now I know we were on one side we were talking about doing both sides no we're on a waiting list so I've got I said let us know as soon as something comes up and so we're just I check in with her every couple months but she knows that we want to be okay on the other end but we will need to update that ad as well soon so it's been up there for a bit okay all right and uh that'll take us to 6A uh reports 26 380 okay so this is page 42 of your packets um while I'm speaking about packets one thing I want to ask you guys is if you are okay so if you see this packet is 45 pages long and we have to print 12 of them and I'm wondering if you guys are okay with us just using your laptops um so we don't have to print these every time yes as we were printing them today I always forget to ask you guys if you're good with it if you are then we will stop printing them and you guys can just scroll through on your laptops.

Yes.

Okay thank you save a tree.

Yes lots of trees actually yeah okay so um I'll just go through this so budget report significant spending in February uh we did the hotel room guide again I don't know if you guys remember that it was the hardback hotel guide that we did with Tulsa people the year before we spent like 2000 I think we did a big spread um we just made it shorter this year we just it's hard to tell what our return on investment is so we still have a couple pages we just didn't make it the whole spread in the middle and we're happy with that um the grant remaining grant funding you guys saw this on the other spreadsheet I gave you um was 16,625 and then the film incentive funding remaining for this year is 11,628 um tax collection still we're still on our streak of being up every month um of this fiscal year so that's great um general tour tourism activity just some of the things that we've been doing we had another film festival committee meeting um plans for that's going really well we're excited about how that's shaping up we went on the AMP tour or the amphitheater tour very cool some of you were there with us uh we met with Glennpool economic development um they were asking some questions about film and how how we've been doing what we're doing so that was a fun conversation um and then I've been working on that RFP and we also completed the annual report um that we will make available to you we've we found a couple changes that we needed to make yesterday so we'll probably just send you all the link to that so you can see it and then I just put some of our upcoming events that we know of we have an OMAG conference at Stony Creek March 24th and 25th the first farmers markets April 4th the Tibetan Spaniel Conference is April 21st through 26th Severe Weather Expo is April 24th or 26th and then Fiesta de Mayo and Camp Bandage are both on May 2nd and then as far as occupancy rate goes um we were down a little bit in January um but the tax collection was still up so I think that just means Trevor you can correct me if I'm wrong but I think that just means they were charging more per room for it right yeah yeah okay and then did anyone have any questions about the budget?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, and then did anyone have any questions about the budget?

Um I have a question.

We've talked about Bass Pro before and how um I vaguely remember it was just a lot of money that we give them, and like do they have to produce to us what they spend that money on?

Like, I want to know what they're doing with that 20.

Then it's 20,000.

20 or 25, yeah, and it's not you won't be impressed.

It's a um banner ad.

Um it's a banner ad, like on their website.

I can show it to you.

So my question is can we ask our city legal to look into that to see how we can get out of it?

That's not 25,000.

Like who determines that's 25,000 worth of advertisement that we're paying for, I guess is what I'm wondering is how we can maybe negotiate, yeah, either a bigger presence or less money, one or the other.

Isn't there lease up?

Isn't there a lease up?

Like, aren't they renewing their something's changing with them, right?

Yeah, we we don't have any way out of it, um, as far as not paying them anything.

We've already looked into that, but we're stuck for another nine or twelve, fifteen years.

Um I did ask last year about change is there something else we can do.

Um I didn't really get any options.

Um I mean, I can look into it again or have James look at it with me again and just see.

But maybe they can put like a link visit broken arrow, like and got you know, and like direct them to our system to at least change that banner ad because it didn't even have our logo on it.

So I had them add that, but it's really just they're really just advertising broken arrows Bass Pro.

Um, and so we can look at it again and just update you.

I don't know.

I I can see that they'll argue that a year-long banner ad would be $25,000 worth.

I mean, just I can see them saying that.

But it just irritates me.

We can look at it, it's not a good deal.

It's whoever made that deal is not a good idea.

It's a very painful check to pay out of our budget.

What's their sales tax um revenue though?

Do what?

What's our sales tax revenue that they can tribute?

Yeah, we don't know.

Yeah, I don't know.

That's confident.

Yeah, they don't share that with cool.

How do we know we can't know?

Oh, we can't.

Oh, yeah.

I think I have metroof is somebody knows that yes.

Yeah, so but we're still so we're at 50,000 for the rest of our year.

57,000 for next year.

But but we just approved it.

Yeah.

Oh, yes, yes, yes, you're right.

And I was just generally gonna say, just because someone asked for a certain amount, we don't we don't have to give that to them.

Sometimes people would just be happy with anything.

That's what I was kind of trying to get to at that earlier thing.

But my point, I mean, aren't they they're meeting the qualifications that we gave them according to give them but we can we can max it out at it?

Anybody everything they asked for.

Yeah, and and and I think this is a good reset to kind of because when you look at the other amounts that we gave, like the junior, you know, like the we're giving people that don't probably even are having hotel rooms are all like I don't know.

I think we need to start maybe like like you said, we used to not have that many people ask.

Now we're not only having more people ask, they're also bigger things that are coming to us.

So in our minds, you know, that's and the more we advertise, the more people can ask.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Also I don't like the idea of when that comment was made about them being in the red, we're not responsible for their events.

Yeah, and so this idea that our money is what makes you not in the red or not, that's on you.

Yeah, well, that actually on our application, it actually says that we can't just they have to be able to pay for what that ass.

Well, and my concern was uh would we cap it at 40?

Because say what I mean, based on the room nights that they think that they're gonna have, that seemed that's why I was questioning.

We want to talk in general terms about your budget.

Okay, okay, but let's let's avoid that specific topic.

Okay, I will say our hotel rebate is very black and white, it's 12 500 for every 12 room nights, and we do not have a cap.

So a conversation that we could have for the future is if we want to put a cap on that, but it's hard to say that's what we're giving, and then not give it.

Also, um I had another.

I don't know that we need to put a cap on it, but I do think we need to use um are we still talking about the topic?

No, we'll talk about it.

We're talking about budget and not specific um part of the RC money.

I don't I don't know that we need to put a cap on that because I think something might come along that deserves that.

Um I do think we can use just discretion on what the overall economic impact will be, regardless of the room nights they provide.

You know, but an event similar to this is what our goal has been all along.

We built a convention hotel to seek out large conventions, and so you know what I mean.

I just say in something similar to that we might want to really take a look at.

And part of the reason people choose to have conventions here is because of this rebate.

So if then we say, Oh, we're actually not gonna give I mean, and if that's if there's gonna be a difference when they get here, then I just think we need to advertise it differently.

And I'm fine with whatever you all decide, but we've been paying for advertising for events.

That's kind of how we got like the junior golf, is we're saying 500 for every 12 room nights.

They say, Oh, that's a great deal.

We want to go there because of it, and then we're like, oh, actually, that is a really great deal.

So I think just uh again, I'm fine with whatever, but and this is a big this is a most of most conferences aren't five days long, 400 people.

I mean, they are using all of Stony Creek only has 170 rooms, so they're using more than two.

I think they're gonna be overflowing probably further beyond just those two.

Um we're not talking about them though.

Or I mean just big big events that bring in 400 people.

I mean, it's it's a big deal.

So it is a huge, it's a big uh price tag, but it is they're going by the guidelines that we told them it's what it was.

So uh but we do have budgetary constraints also, and that caps us out for you know so maybe we do need to look at um the option and maybe how we how we do word it on our website, you know, up to or something like I don't know to give us a little wiggle room because like um if maybe at one point we're at our max and then people come and you know ask for the money, but we're maxed out, like you know when budget allows, maybe I mean really we're looking at two conventions this size, and that wipes our budget complete budget out.

So then now we're advertising, so we're wasting money to advertising because we can't give you money, so I don't understand you know so do we need to re-look at actually the amount we're paying out.

I mean, is that something that we I know we really looked at it, but maybe we need to relook at it again.

I guess if you had an event that were four or five days long, you could kind of look at it like that's bringing X amount of room nights per day.

So it's it's kind of like say it's you know five days long, and that's kind of like 200 rooms or like 200 people coming, like or you know what I mean.

2,000 people coming, I guess what I'm trying to say.

I think right before I started, we did they did you all updated it was 500 for every 10 rooms and then we did 500 for every 12.

Right.

Um but again, you if you have these big this is a conference beyond the size that we would normally that would normally come to Stony Creek.

I mean it's I don't know this isn't gonna be a common thing.

Um although we have been advertising, we have a thousand hotel rooms.

This is kind of what we've been wanting to do is say we have a thousand hotel rooms to attract bigger conferences, and we're saying because there's hotels that are all in one area, um, that you can do this.

This is what we're saying.

And your marketing that you've been doing is awesome.

Like, let us do everything for you.

I feel like okay, I want to go to Broken Arrow.

And then you know, we do say you can be at Stony and be within walking distance of four other hotels and Bass Pro and um to try and convince them that they can we can have conferences bigger than just what Stony can hold.

How big how big is Stony?

How many people does that hold?

Uh how many rooms?

They have 170 rooms, yeah.

170 rooms, yeah.

1017.

And then how big is like I have 119 and then 97 and then Hilton Garden Inns about 100.

Yeah.

But like we're um I'm hosting a conference for women in municipal government at the end of June, and there's people that have already started booking their rooms at places like the Hilton, like where they have points, you know.

So even if if the if we're have Stony Creek's our host hotel, they're they're still staying around there because they can walk to the hotel, but they still get their points from the surrounding hotels.

It's really, I mean, that is a sweet spot that we have right there, honestly.

That's yeah, as long as we could get a commercial kitchen in that convention center, it would really be nice.

So along that same lines, I have a question, and it this may or may not make sense, but I know that so for the film thing, for example, when we approve someone and we uh we approve, are we looking only at hotel nights and not the return later?

And the reason why I ask is because I I'm assuming some of you in this room got this email from Horrified about needing more money.

And so, I mean, my question is because when I got it, it was personalized to me and it showed um my businesses and all of the stuff that whatever.

So it's not really if what if it doesn't get to the finish line?

So like the return doesn't get back to us, but we've already approved that money.

Well, so we the majority of our return we did get because they had to show us the receipts of money that they spent.

So they've come over here.

Yes, they did spend, but part of when we part of what the excitement is of approving it is oh, we're gonna now get to see Broken Arrow and people are gonna go see it, and then they're gonna want to come here to go to to wherever this to go see Stony.

So there is a portion of it that's the after it's done, but we could we talked about this.

We're like, what if they don't ever even show it?

But um we as far as what they were approved for, they did they spent the money here already.

So whether or not they make the film actually gets anywhere.

Anywhere thank you for spending your money here that you did have.

Yeah, which is why also like because apparently I didn't know anything about film, but like I guess it's mostly streaming now anyway.

So if it just streams, it won't matter because they've already spent the money making it.

Yeah, okay.

I get it.

Yeah, that's it.

Thank you.

I mean, there's a portion of it.

I don't know how to tell whether or not it's they're actually gonna have budget to finish it out.

I don't know.

And I didn't get an email.

You probably got an email because you I think we donated, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I I get that.

I was just it was I think the ask was like 45,000, and I was like, hmm, interesting.

Yeah.

I will say I'm making a change to the application because if you guys remember we have one pending that's live like that, I think it was.

They filmed in like November, and we didn't I just said you have to come back by the end of fiscal year, but I think I need to have it within like 90 days of wrap or something because now they're if they don't spend that entire amount, then that has been uh held up, like we haven't been able to give it to anyone else all year.

So I'm gonna just so you all know I'm gonna do that.

That's a good idea.

Yeah.

Um should we put an item on the next agenda then to talk about budget changes?

Oh, can we?

Okay.

Did you hear that?

We'll just put an item on the next agenda to talk about if we won't need to make changes.

We just did the we just did the community sponsorship update.

So we'll do we'll look at hotel um rebate and see you guys think about that and see if you want to make changes to it.

Do you think it's wise to cap those in my mind?

I don't care whether they come all at once and spend the money, or if they come in 14 different conferences and spend the money.

Um I guess I just like would we be better off spending one large amount like that, or 10 $5,000 things.

And what would the overall economic impact be on on that?

Yeah.

But I still feel like we need to have some kind of disclaimer on there, like until the you know, if the money runs out.

Yeah, because right now I don't have I mean it just says here's it's $500 for every 12 room nights.

I mean, obviously, if there's no money, then we can say that, but um you know, I do think it depends on the conference.

What are you know, these guys have talked a lot about we want to come downtown, we need to we need a community well, they need we they need a volunteer event to do, they need they're gonna be here five days, and so they're gonna need to be able to do that.

We're talking about that again, and we've already tabled that, so we can't talk about that as an example.

You should be an attorney.

Um five days.

But there may be a conference then that comes in and that we saved money for that doesn't come into town at all.

And we've just made that the rule, and so I it's hard to say it's hard to make it perfect, I think.

Yeah.

Well, that's why you have a board.

Somebody give me the bag yet.

Yeah, but if we approve that we're we're down to ten thousand dollars for the rest of the year, I mean that's that's July.

I mean, we've no we haven't even hit in my mind.

I thought about 500 for every 12 with a cap, a max of 25,000 or something or 20.

That's still a huge benefit to any conference that comes to get 20,000.

I don't know where else they're getting that from the room nights.

That's what I was wondering too, of like if anyone else was giving a perk like that just to those.

What are other mines?

Other cities.

I don't I don't know if it of any that do it as straightforward as we do, it's all kind of more like hush hush sort of.

Yeah.

We're very transparent.

No, we're a very transparent city.

We're just saying that way.

We're saying that we're right.

But we give out all the money in the beginning.

We still mean throughout the year.

Listen to you.

They come in January and they meet, like you guys would get together, we go through all the applications, but they've got to come, you know, they only meet twice, not meet, but they only go through applications for conferences twice a year, and they just have to decide at that time.

That's I don't know at what point we switch over to just we're like, oh, we're we'll take anything, you know, which is kind of what we've been doing, to now, like I said earlier, we're becoming more popular.

Broken arrow is getting bigger, and so we may have to just adjust how we do it.

Um and that's the same with film.

Like the state does film, they've got they've all got to come at there's two times a year, they apply, January and June or whatever it is, and then they go through, they sit and they go through all of them at that time and decide how to divvy up the money.

Um we're just we're kind of in between, I think.

Is there a uh point where we act as connectors to connect them with corporate sponsors?

Is that a legitimate question?

I don't know.

Yeah.

Um we've had people informally ask us about that, and we just kind of send them to the chamber.

Um we don't I I don't know.

I I don't know the answer to that, really.

Uh I'm afraid of giving we only have a handful of the corporate sponsors and broken arrow.

Right.

And I don't know they can chat GPT it because that's what I give with my women's conference, and I they literally gave me 12 corporations to ask that support women's uh things.

Yeah, and they even gave me emails.

Wow, what yeah?

Oh my goodness.

Chat GBT.

Did it work?

Don't tell our IT guy because he wants me to use Microsoft.

I just chat GPT.

Did you get some sponsors out of it?

I've I mean I have I've sent the letter, so like I mean I just liked it.

So but I mean that's what I'm saying.

It's like I just literally said who should I ask to sponsor my women and municipal government?

And then it's like I like the idea of having like the open periods, like you were just saying with the states that way we're looking at everything, we don't miss out on something that would have been amazing for the city because we ran out of money.

Yeah.

So I don't know.

Just I don't feel like our events really work that far in advance, though.

Typically, it could make generate more revenue for hotels and get more money.

I mean, films should they should be thinking ahead at least.

Sure.

Yeah.

Uh I could see the local events may not, but considering our event just we did three weeks ago.

We're not asking for money.

No, but we're not asking for money either, no, just a high five.

But what a cute idea though.

Let me just tell you.

I'm good luck to you.

Yeah.

What?

You could do it quarterly.

That way you're not too far.

I want to throw one more wrinkled in the in the attendance of the uh the five nights.

So as an attendee, if I go to a conference and I'm going to a two-night conference, I'm eating out of restaurants.

If I go to a five-day conference, now I'm talking groceries.

Right.

It's a lot more affordable on my budget.

If I'm going, you know, that may be something else you guys want to consider, is the length of stay.

Yeah.

That's kind of what I'm saying.

But if they're buying groceries at our grocery store, we're still getting I guess.

I mean I didn't I know as a restaurant.

Look, I would never do that.

I I mean, because I don't cook at when I'm at home.

Like my husband's gone for days.

I just I do I do feel like a two-day conference like is kind of a getaway, a trip, you know.

Yeah, you're gonna kind of treat yourself, and five days is kind of a slog.

Yeah.

Um I don't have an answer, I guess.

Well, we just need um, and I think you've already done this, Michaela.

Like the um events that we've every year, like for 13 years have supported, we need to start like winging them off because originally it was only supposed to get them started, like one or two years.

Yep.

And so, and we still want them to be, I mean, we still do in kind stuff, absolutely, but as far as like cash monies, we just need to kind of make sure they need to start.

Yeah, and our community events now that we did that, we did the guidelines, we have that very clear step-down process, so it's 7550.

So that's that side is taken care of.

Um, and then the hotel rebate, if we need to relook at that, um it's just been black and white and easy, and so um I don't recall ever having a large one like that.

That's a big number.

We haven't.

Now that we're talking about, I mean, for me, it's about our are hotels full and are we generating sales tax.

And if the numbers the same at the end of the year, do we care if it was split into 15 conferences or one big one that made a big impact?

It's hard to to know.

I mean, if there's more questions, maybe we need to ask in the application about are they gonna be uh coming in?

I don't know exactly how to ask questions, but how do we determine if they're going to be spending more money in town or not?

See, I like touching different people.

Like I I like I like five of those for you know seven thousand each.

I see I like touching different people like I I I like I like five of those for you know seven thousand each with different ages different demographics different yeah I think yeah well also too because this event's like November so we're stuck I mean we we know we have forty thousand dollars and then then they come in well we only needed 25 so now we have this extra money that we're not that we could have put onto something else if we yeah so maybe we cap it until after your event then maybe they could come back or something based upon room nights end of our agenda money availability or something?

Well let's put that on the agenda to talk about for next we'll just talk about budget and that kind of stuff for the next time so okay I'll make a motion to adjourn before finished.

No second who second I don't want to be in jail.

Dean?

Yes Yarty Yes Bowie Yes Ford Yes Hagan Yes Lopes Schneider yes Swanson yes that would happen really