OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Visit Broken Arrow Board Meeting Summary: May 12, 2026

Meeting Portal — Tuesday, May 12, 2026
BodyBroken Arrow, Oklahoma
SessionMeeting Portal
DateTuesday, May 12, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 22:18

Transcript — Verbatim
0:45

We ready to get this party started?

0:47

Yes.

0:48

All right.

0:50

Call to order meeting Tuesday, May 12th for visit Broken Arrow agenda.

0:59

Dean?

1:00

Yes.

1:01

Yarty.

1:05

Ford.

1:05

Here.

1:06

Hagan.

1:07

Here.

1:07

Muskrat.

1:09

Mop.

1:10

Here.

1:10

Schneider.

1:11

Here.

1:11

Swanson.

1:12

Here.

1:19

All right.

1:20

Action item three presentations.

1:25

This one is going to be via Teams, and we are trying to let her in the room at the moment.

1:32

Or is that presentations?

1:34

Okay.

1:36

Oh, never, no presentation.

1:38

Sorry.

1:41

Sorry, you can go to 4A, but we are waiting to look.

2:27

Oh, there she is.

2:30

Hello.

2:30

Hi, Debbie.

2:31

Can you hear us?

2:32

I can.

2:33

Okay.

2:35

Brian, I'll let you introduce, I guess, 4A.

2:37

That's the one we're going to be on.

2:38

4A.

2:39

Say what?

2:40

4A.

2:42

Okay.

2:42

Uh, General Visit Broken Arrow Business A two Six Dash Six Four Seven Consideration Discussion of Possible Approval for the Mocha Conference or MOK for Blind Hotel Rebate Requests and the amount not to exceed twenty-five hundred dollars.

2:59

Yeah, so um Debbie and the Mocha team visited us last fall, and um they're gonna be up at Stony Creek this year.

3:08

This is the first year that they'll be in Broken Arrow, and um we're excited that they're gonna be joining us this year.

3:15

Um, as a reminder, we did approve last meeting changing our room night rebates, but we're gonna start that starting June 1st.

3:24

So this would be um one of if not the last 500 for every 12 room nights of this fiscal year.

3:31

Um, and there are remaining funds available for this 2500 request, just to let you guys know in advance.

3:37

But Debbie, if you can hear us, I'll let you just go ahead and talk a little bit about the conference and what you guys are expecting and um just share with the group a little bit about um about what you guys have going on.

3:50

Okay, well, uh to start off with my organization is called My Limitless Vision Foundation, MLV Foundation, and um this is our third MOCA conference for the blind, it's a four state regional event.

4:06

We started off our first conference in Mintonville, our second conference was done in Springfield, Missouri, and then this one in Oklahoma is of course at Stony Creek in Broken Arrow.

4:21

And um, we started it as a way to get the resources in the four state area out and about so that the blind and visually impaired community and the professionals that work in the field have a great way to access all those resources within our area.

4:46

Um if you can only imagine how difficult it is to market to the blind and visually impaired because they don't read newspapers, not that very many people read new newspapers anymore anyway these days, but you know, they don't you can't necessarily try to hone in on marketing to them through radio channels.

5:08

Um and so you have to rely on a lot of times the people that are working with the blind and visually impaired, like through state agencies, and like in our case in Oklahoma Newby Oklahoma, to get the word out to the blind community because it's very hard to reach them.

5:27

And so the difficulties that we have meeting the needs of this demographic, we felt several years ago.

5:38

Let's put on a conference that we can showcase what is actually available in our backyard and our neighboring states and stuff like that.

5:46

And so that's how we started this grassroots effort on putting together this conference.

5:53

Um for the most part, the only conferences that the blind and visually impaired community go to are membership advocacy group type of conferences, and you know, those type of national conferences and state conferences are typically full of things like committee meetings and stuff like that.

6:16

It's very kind of political-minded advocacy-minded per se, and we saw a need for just having a conference to help deal with the living the blind life, um, and getting all the resources out there in a great exhibit hall and the stuff that's available for that, whether it's technology, whether it's um learning about ADA issues and how do you go about filing for disability and stuff like that, and putting together lots of workshops that just deal with day-to-day dealing with going blind, and also help for caregivers like this year.

6:59

We've got a big push on mental health, you know, depression within the blind and visually impaired community is is quite high, and so bringing in some mental health things, workshops and stuff with with this particular conference that we're doing this year is is really gonna be great and very helpful.

7:19

And so, anyway, that's how we kind of got started.

7:22

That's where we are.

7:23

We got I think a little over a hundred people signed up for this year's conference, and we feel pretty good about that.

7:32

We we're not getting our Arkansas contingency this year, only because the state of Arkansas has furloughed a lot of their uh their state employees that are working in the uh vocational rehabilitation program and stuff because they're dealing with federal funding issues because so they can't send people this year.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Tourism Promotion██████████████████████████████████████████42%
Film Industry Promotion███████████████████████23%
Procedural███████████████████19%
Disability Rights████████████████16%
Summary of Proceedings

Visit Broken Arrow Board Meeting Summary: May 12, 2026

This meeting of the Visit Broken Arrow board was held on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, and covered several key actions including approval of hotel rebates for a blind conference and a film production, adoption of a tourism data tracking tool, and review of monthly financial and activity reports.

Consent Calendar

  • Approved meeting minutes from April 14, 2026, unanimously.
  • Approved utilization of Zartico for tourism tracking data at a cost of $25,000 per year, for a one-year trial period. The board noted the potential to consolidate with the existing Placer data service (also ~$25k/year) after evaluation, to save costs.

Discussion Items

  • MOCA (MOCHA) Conference for the Blind Hotel Rebate (Item 26-647): The board considered and approved a hotel rebate request not to exceed $2,500 for the My Limitless Vision Foundation's MOCA Conference for the Blind. The conference will be held at Stony Creek in Broken Arrow, May 26-28, 2026. Debbie, foundation representative, explained the event’s purpose: to connect blind and visually impaired individuals and professionals with resources across four states. Expected hotel room nights: 60. The rebate follows the policy of $500 per 12 room nights. This is one of the last requests under the old policy (changing June 1, 2026). The vote was unanimous.
  • Film Incentive and Hotel Rebate Approval (Item 26-649): The board reviewed a final film incentive and hotel rebate request for $50,268.14 from a production that filmed in Broken Arrow. The producer, Cassidy Lunan, reported 665 hotel room nights, local spending of approximately $23,000, and labor costs of $204,000. The project is scheduled for release in 2027. The board voted unanimously to recommend approval to the city council, as the amount exceeds $50,000.

Director's Report

  • March Significant Spending: Included OTIA conference registration ($185 for Aaron), monthly billboard cost ($750), and state brochures ($150).
  • Remaining Grant Funds: $10,000 left for the fiscal year unencumbered.
  • Film Incentive Remaining: $11,628 unencumbered out of the original $100,000. (Flyover film currently filming.)
  • April Tax Collections: Down approximately 10% compared to the same period last year. No specific cause identified. Fiscal year-to-date collections remain above the previous year’s level.
  • General Tourism Activity: Participation in Film Day at the Capitol, quarterly hoteliers meeting, booth at farmer’s market, new municipal tourism professionals group, and MTHLA luncheon.
  • Upcoming Events: Rooster Days (this weekend), golf tournament (with potential rebate), and MOCA conference (end of May).
  • New Staff: Lisa Smith introduced as new administrative support.

Key Outcomes

  • Item 26-647 (MOCA Conference Rebate): Approved unanimously (all members present voting yes).
  • Item 26-649 (Film Incentive): Approved unanimously, with recommendation to city council for final approval.
  • Item 26-650 (Minutes): Approved unanimously.
  • Item 26-657 (Zartico Data Tool): Approved unanimously.
  • Next Steps: Cassidy Lunan will present the film incentive request to city council; staff will proceed with Zartico implementation and evaluate potential consolidation with Placer.

Meeting Transcript

We ready to get this party started? Yes. All right. Call to order meeting Tuesday, May 12th for visit Broken Arrow agenda. Dean? Yes. Yarty. Ford. Here. Hagan. Here. Muskrat. Mop. Here. Schneider. Here. Swanson. Here. All right. Action item three presentations. This one is going to be via Teams, and we are trying to let her in the room at the moment. Or is that presentations? Okay. Oh, never, no presentation. Sorry. Sorry, you can go to 4A, but we are waiting to look. Oh, there she is. Hello. Hi, Debbie. Can you hear us? I can. Okay. Brian, I'll let you introduce, I guess, 4A. That's the one we're going to be on. 4A. Say what? 4A. Okay. Uh, General Visit Broken Arrow Business A two Six Dash Six Four Seven Consideration Discussion of Possible Approval for the Mocha Conference or MOK for Blind Hotel Rebate Requests and the amount not to exceed twenty-five hundred dollars. Yeah, so um Debbie and the Mocha team visited us last fall, and um they're gonna be up at Stony Creek this year. This is the first year that they'll be in Broken Arrow, and um we're excited that they're gonna be joining us this year. Um, as a reminder, we did approve last meeting changing our room night rebates, but we're gonna start that starting June 1st. So this would be um one of if not the last 500 for every 12 room nights of this fiscal year. Um, and there are remaining funds available for this 2500 request, just to let you guys know in advance. But Debbie, if you can hear us, I'll let you just go ahead and talk a little bit about the conference and what you guys are expecting and um just share with the group a little bit about um about what you guys have going on. Okay, well, uh to start off with my organization is called My Limitless Vision Foundation, MLV Foundation, and um this is our third MOCA conference for the blind, it's a four state regional event. We started off our first conference in Mintonville, our second conference was done in Springfield, Missouri, and then this one in Oklahoma is of course at Stony Creek in Broken Arrow. And um, we started it as a way to get the resources in the four state area out and about so that the blind and visually impaired community and the professionals that work in the field have a great way to access all those resources within our area. Um if you can only imagine how difficult it is to market to the blind and visually impaired because they don't read newspapers, not that very many people read new newspapers anymore anyway these days, but you know, they don't you can't necessarily try to hone in on marketing to them through radio channels. Um and so you have to rely on a lot of times the people that are working with the blind and visually impaired, like through state agencies, and like in our case in Oklahoma Newby Oklahoma, to get the word out to the blind community because it's very hard to reach them.

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