All right, good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome to this work session of the mayor and city council.

Today is Tuesday, August 11th, 2026 at 122 p.m.

First on the agenda, I have a notice and report on our closed sessions.

First, we had a closed session today, beginning at 12 noon here at City Hall.

Topics of discussion were legal real estate and personnel matters.

Persons present were Mayor Rick Mehan, Deputy City Manager J.R.

Harmon, Council President Matt James, Council Secretary Will Savage, Councilmembers John Gehrig, Jake Metressic, Carol Proctor, Peter Bruce, and Jeff Heiser, City Clerk Diana Chavis, City's solicitor Heather Stansburg Lazo, Public Works Director Hal Atkins, and our planning and community development director George Bedler.

The mayor and council discuss pending and potential litigation, the acquisition of real property, and a personnel matter specific to one or more individuals.

And a motion from Secretary Savage, second by Councilmember Proctor to close the closed session.

That passed was seven in favor at 114 p.m.

We also had a closed session on August 6, 2026 at 12 p.m.

here at City Hall.

Topics of discussion were personnel matters.

Persons present were Mayor Rick Mehan, City Manager Terry McGeon, Deputy City Manager J.R.

Harmon, Council President Matt James, Council Secretary Will Savage, Councilmembers Jake Metressic, Carol Proctor, Peter Bois, and Jeff Heiser, City Clerk Diana Chavis, City Solicitor Heather Stansbury, Andrea Mansfield, Nick Canning, and John Favaza of Madness and Canning Associates.

Frank Balston, Mark Feinroth, and Ari Plout of Boston and Law Firm.

Mayor and Council interviewed representatives for two government relations firms.

Second by Councilmember Heiser.

The vote was unanimous with six in favor.

Councilmember Garrick was absent.

That meeting ended at 2 50 p.m.

Next on the agenda, I have comments from the public.

Any person who may wish to speak on a matter scheduled for discussion on the work session agenda may be heard during comments from the public for a period of three minutes for such time as may be deemed appropriate by the council president.

Anyone who wish to be heard shall state their name, their address, and the agenda item on which he or she wishes to speak.

Would anyone like to speak today?

Maybe good afternoon, Susan Jones, 5700 Coastal Highway.

I'm here on behalf of the OCMD Hospitality Association, and I have lots of my board members here in the audience with me.

And real quick, I just wanted to point out back in 2010.

And this topic, sports complex, which is what I'm here to talk about.

Sorry, left that out.

That topic was what we brought up back in 2010.

That was a real important issue to tourism.

And 16 years later, we're still talking about how important it is to the economics of tourism.

And a lot of communities around the country recognize what sports tourism can do for their economies.

Southern Delaware, just to our north, has DETURF, and they're expanding that, and that draws a lot of people to the Delaware rentals and to hotels.

And we're starting to see that they're taking over in leading the occupancy versus Ocean City in some cases.

And I'm sure you've seen it, you've talked about it.

But the policy agenda in 24 and 25 had two important topics.

And one was the sports complex, and one was a room tax increase.

And our association did support that room tax increase with the understanding that we would eventually get some sort of sports complex to help build year-round business.

The plan also had three really important things that it's worth mentioning, and I'm going to read them, so they're exactly correct.

Three things in your strategic plan that said recognized as a premier sports destination on the East Coast, a successful sports complex with tournaments to attract families to Ocean City, attracting respectful guests and businesses that fit our brand and needs.

But specific to this project, it's going to generate about seven to eight million in state revenue, and that's the kind of year-round business that Ocean City should be pursuing.

And this project will also be about bringing the types of visitors that our residents want.

It's going to be families who come here with their families.

They travel with their families for vacations.

They don't do summer vacations anymore.

They do sports vacations as their summer vacation.

So we'll have families instead of the H2O H2OI like crowds.

And I just want to close by saying sports tourism.

It's not weather dependent.

It's not just summer business.

It is definitely a game changer, and our association fully supports you all supporting a sports complex.

Thank you.

Anyone else today?

All right, seeing none, we'll move on to new business.

Item A, I have a request to approve minutes from work session dated July twenty-eighth, twenty twenty-six.

Council member Garrett.

A motion from Councilmember Gehrig, seconded by Councilmember Blueis to approve the minutes from the work session dated July twenty-eighth, twenty twenty-six.