The Board of County Commissioners of Brevard County, Florida, met in special workshop session on January 20, 2000, at 10:05 a.m. in the Government Center Florida Room, Building C, 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Viera, Florida. Present were: Chairman Nancy Higgs, Commissioners Truman Scarborough, Randy O'Brien, Sue Carlson, and Helen Voltz, County Manager Tom Jenkins, and Assistant County Attorney Shannon Wilson. Absent was: County Attorney Scott Knox.

REPORT, RE: BROADCASTING OF FLORIDA DRUG CONTROL SUMMIT 2000

County Manager Tom Jenkins advised of a request from Toni Jennings, President of the Florida Senate, to televise the Florida Statewide Drug Control Summit 2000 on February 11, 2000, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., on the Space Coast Government Television Channel.

Motion by Commissioner Voltz, seconded by Commissioner Scarborough, to authorize televising the Florida Statewide Drug Control Summit 2000 on the Space Coast Government Television Channel on February 11, 2000, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Commissioner O'Brien stated his concerns with a State agency using the television channel the County pays for; and commented if the State wants it broadcast, it should pay the County a fee.

Chairman Higgs advised it is a public access channel, and the Board pays for its meetings. County Manager Tom Jenkins advised it is a local government channel; and the County received a grant from TWC of $50,000. Commissioner O'Brien inquired who pays for the County personnel to stay at work all night; with Mr. Jenkins responding the Board because it is part of its broadcast.

Chairman Higgs called for a vote on the motion. Motion carried and ordered; Commissioner O'Brien voted nay.

DISCUSSION, RE: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

Chairman Higgs advised the purpose of the workshop is to talk about economic development strategies and what the major agency in Brevard County is doing and is planning to do. She requested Ms. Weatherman introduce herself and the people with her.

Lynda Weatherman, President of the Economic Development Council (EDC), introduced Debbie Pavlakos, Chairman of the EDC; Jean McCarthy, Secretary/Treasurer of the EDC; and James Dwight, Chairman of the Government Relations Committee of the EDC.

Chairman Higgs advised the Board received copies of the EDC's Strategic Plan; and recommended Ms. Weatherman tell the Board about their plans, then the Board can react to that and discuss where it wants to see economic development go.

Debbie Pavlakos thanked the Board for giving EDC the opportunity to discuss its plan; and stated Ms. Weatherman can do a formal presentation or highlight the issues and open it for discussion. Commissioner Voltz stated she attended the EDC function where Ms. Weatherman gave a complete presentation for over an hour, and she could summarize that presentation. Chairman Higgs advised all the Commissioners have the information, so it may be best to have Ms. Weatherman highlight the issues. Commissioner Scarborough stated the workshop is being televised so there should be enough information for the community to understand the issues; and recommended Ms. Weatherman present the basic concepts of where the County is headed with economic development.

President of the EDC Lynda Weatherman advised the Board was given the Strategic Plan and the Addendum; and the Addendum talks about issues which impact the success of the economic program, but are not directed to the role of the EDC, and are more community-wide issues. She stated the Plan was developed by the EDC staff which makes it unique to most strategic plans and saves a lot of money; it is tied to the soldiers of economic development; and it was developed by those people who will actually carry it out. She noted the Plan is divided into four sections; the first section talks about the economy, population changes, manufacturing shifts of the economy, and overall findings and conclusions; and that is the "why" they do what they do. She stated the second part is the strategic goals, which is "what" they do and what they are going to do based on the findings in the economic section; the third part is the program of work which is what they will do this year to address the overall strategic goals, or the "how"; and sometimes that connection does not occur if an outside person is involved in development of the Plan. She stated the fourth part is measuring their success; and they will track, quarter to quarter, what they do, how successful they are, and when they do every endeavor. Ms. Weatherman advised there are five overall findings; the first is that there is a decrease in the working age population; from 1990 to 1998, the population of Brevard County increased by 19%, but the working population decreased by 1.1%; so what the County has is a shrinking working age population which is an area of concern for any economy based on industry. She stated the shrinking working age population on top of a very tight labor market of 4.0 unemployment rate is an area of concern that they need to address with some of their strategies. She stated another finding looked at the economic base, the manufacturing economy, and how the County grew in the 1980's and early 1990's; it was hit tremendously because it had an economy tied to the "Star Wars" buildup that was tied to government and military buildup; and they have done well since 1995 and continue to diversify. She stated the third finding is that manufacturing employment in Brevard County is 18%, compared to the State which is 10%; the County has a manufacturing driven economy; but the manufacturing base share of labor has shrunk compared to the State which has remained constant. She noted a lot of it was tied to defense downsizing; so they need to continue working to expand the existing industry base and work with companies that are looking to make an investment in the area. She stated when looking at areas that have grown, such as Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas, they found a strong link with the universities and R&D; and Brevard County needs to encourage that linkage with research and development taking place at University of Central Florida and Florida Institute of Technology, and the manufacturing arm doing the applied research. She stated one way of measuring that is a program called SBIR, Small Business Innovative Research loans; that is research done on behalf of the manufacturing and government sectors; they looked at the SBIR's success rate by manufacturers in this area; and the odds are one in eight of getting an SBIR loan. Ms. Weatherman advised the State of Florida gets 1.9% of all SBIR's awarded and needs to encourage the use of it; the County gets less than 1%; and the EDC needs to bring to the attention of manufacturers those resources and opportunities. She stated STTR's are programs from the federal government that require linkage with universities; one STTR has been awarded in Brevard County; and they need to address that and measure the linkage between universities and manufacturers. She noted strengthening the relationship between universities and the manufacturing base is in their strategic goals.

Ms. Weatherman advised the goals and strategies for economic development success contain some objectives, such as continue to provide industries that diversify, operate export-oriented businesses so their market is not tied to the national and domestic markets, make a stronger tax base as those industries grow, create synergy with colleges and universities, provide jobs with higher wages, and be environmentally friendly. She stated they need to make sure there is training available that meets the requirements of the manufacturers, and that the curriculum developed at the community colleges and universities matches the demand. She stated the EDC plays a role in making sure the relationships between the business and training providers are met; and they have done that for three years with their manufacturing alliance. She stated they want to make the area more attractive to support industry that wants to come here and make an investment; there are over 5,000 organizations competing for less than 300 relocations worldwide; it is a very competitive business; and it is an eclectic decision when a company makes that choice. She stated they look at the quality of life, school system, policies and procedures by local governments, value for money, incentive base, etc. Ms. Weatherman advised the strategies to implement include participation in trade missions and trade shows and exhibits to tell the story of Brevard County to industrial America, because many people do not know about the competitive advantages Brevard County has to offer. She stated another equally important strategy is to promote the use of Brevard-made manufacturing goods; EDC is the only one in the State that has developed a CD-ROM of all the goods that are manufactured in the area; so as they look at companies to relocate in the area, they are just as strong promoting the buying of Brevard-based products which is another reason they want to do trade missions besides promoting the area, increasing linkages with universities, and working with consultants. She stated there are many consultants who are paid to promote companies and work with companies to do their relocation efforts; what they have done for the last year and a half is have a continued outreaching campaign with those consultants; they need to know why Brevard County needs to be on their list of recommended sites; and why is it, because Brevard County is a good value for the money, has a tax abatement program, a skilled labor force, is driven by a high-tech manufacturing base, and is unique to the State of Florida. She noted they have to sell the State before they sell Brevard County. Ms. Weatherman advised Franck Kiser, was in Dallas making appointments with companies; one traditional thing they do in any place they go to is interface with consultants in that area; in a meeting with one consultant they have been corresponding with for over a year, they got a client, a 1,500 computer-related client; and had they not consulted and interfaced with that consultant for a year, met with him face-to-face, and kept promoting what is good about Brevard County and its competitive advantage, they would not have gotten that client because there are plenty of other communities competing for that too. She stated will Brevard County get it remains to be seen, but they are on the list which must happen before they can compete for it.

Ms. Weatherman advised regarding conventional financing requirements, there are programs that the EDC needs to make sure it promotes the use of; there are enterprise bonds and industrial revenue bonds (IRB); enterprise bonds responds like an IRB but allow for half a million dollars to two million dollars, whereas IRB's are seven to eight million dollars; and small manufacturing companies do not need that much money. She stated it is a new program; and EDC needs to make sure the manufacturers understand it is a resource and an opportunity for them, and to promote the use of conventional financing for the existing manufacturing base. She stated they need to talk to the banks and ask what they need to help promote opportunities for banks and supply regular conventional financing mechanisms. Ms. Weatherman stated regarding start up seed and venture capital, the State has never been a big competitor in having start up venture capital, but the I-28 Boston corridor and Silicon Valley have it; there are millions of dollars that are available; and EDC needs to play a role in making sure venture capital opportunities are there. Ms. Weatherman advised in the next quarter they will invite the Commissioners to walk through a factory in their Districts; they would be impressed that the factories are all eclectic, different, not aviation driven, and deal with cutting edge technologies not just in the product they are developing. She stated there are two types of technologies that will drive the country; one is the process or building the better mousetrap, and the other is having a better mousetrap; Brevard County offers both, but EDC needs to make sure that any opportunity it has in start-up seed and venture capital funding comes this way. She stated there are programs out there now; EDC will sign a joint technological agreement with Central Florida Innovation Center to encourage them to look at Brevard-based products; they are looking at some Brevard companies now; but EDC wants to make sure they continue and that it offers and introduces companies that are building the cutting edge technologies and products. She stated EDC needs to assist in the development of technology-based companies; it can be anything from providing them information that there are incubators in the area to promoting the use of SBIR's, introducing them to angel networks, letting them know there is a manufacturing technology center representative in this area, and if there are problems with production system they will introduce them to the right persons, and let them know there is a program called TOP out of TRDA that will provide up to 50 hours of free assistance of NASA engineers who will help them if they run into a problem in the production of their company, and bring to their attention resources and opportunities.

Ms. Weatherman advised from the beginning of her tenure at the EDC, they have put attention on existing manufacturers; it involves a lot of work and is very eclectic in the nature of their problems and concerns; the traditional method is to look at companies looking to relocate into the area and focus on those companies that want to make the investment; this EDC's philosophy is to make sure it takes care of industry at home; and gave a scenario of how a company would come in, look at existing companies of similar size and nature, and talk to the president about the community. She stated they have been serving manufacturers and interfacing with them through emails and newsletters, because that is what will sell Brevard County before any marketing brochure will or an ad in the Wall Street Journal. She noted the simplest but most important thing they can do is take care of existing industry; in her business it is called "gardening," and the other thing is called "hunting"; and explained how both operate, noting it is very labor intensive. She stated they have a full-time person dedicated to existing businesses; 80% of all new jobs created in the County come from existing industries; and in less than 30 days they will probably make an announcement about a company they have worked hard on to relocate in the area. She stated it is harder when a company is looking to expand because they know the community and are not innocent like companies wanting to relocate; so they must have realistic and strong answers. She noted they have a strong existing business program, and will continue to do that.

Ms. Weatherman stated three years ago, they told the EDC Board they had concerns about the availability of labor and ability to hire qualified labor; and every year they survey manufacturers. She stated they did a specialized survey, talked to many factory owners, did a study with the Workforce Development Board, and asked 5,000 companies about their concerns; and workforce issues came up to the top. She stated they looked at studies where 340 CEO's were surveyed, and their number one concern for locating in an area was a qualified workforce; it was not free land or cheap labor, it was qualified workforce; so they focused on that three years ago by developing a manufacturing alliance which will continue to be something they need to promote. She stated they work closely with Brevard Community College which is developing a center for business and industry; and that will help promote, support, and strengthen the economic development efforts of the County. Ms. Weatherman advised they will continue to play a role in the Space industry; she attended a meeting that was exciting and got the leaders together for the first time; and EDC has played a role in Venture Star. She stated there are two sides to the Space industry--the launch activity and the manufacturing side; EDC will play a role in the manufacturing side; in less than two weeks they will send a community delegation to a conference called Satellite 2000; they will be the only EDC there; and they need to interface with that industry because it is at phenomenal growth numbers.

Ms. Weatherman stated two-thirds of the world is not going to have access to the telephone; in four to five years that is going to change; and it will be wireless communication. She stated somebody has to build those; Standard & Poors said satellite production facilities were at full capacity two years ago; and an industry with high growth current crossed by full capacity has to go somewhere or expand somewhere; and that is why they will be talking to the manufacturers and sub-units to tell them they need to consider Brevard County when they expand, and give them reasons to consider Brevard County. She noted relocation takes about three years; and they are trying to answer the questions before they are asked because they know the growth curves are going to occur and want to be in front of them talking about the competitive advantage of the area. Ms. Weatherman advised they are co-partners with Spaceport Florida Authority; they are involved in the Space Commerce Partnership; they did a lot of support work for Boeing and Lockheed-Martin EELV launch pad facilities; and the Board provided programs to help them make it happen here.

Ms. Weatherman advised the EDC plays a role in looking at policies being developed at the State level that will encourage the development of Brevard manufacturing; the company she mentioned earlier that is looking to make an expansion, required a presentation to the president in San Jose and bringing UCF to the table to talk about the fiber optic center being developed; and one of their issues was that there are programs at the State level that allow for a company to take part of its sales tax and reinvest it into a State university to do research and development for the company. She noted a company in Orlando is using that and doing very well. She stated they need to make the definition of "silicon" more reflective of the industries and communities that are involved in the IT corporate world, and not a definition that does not match real life, so when companies want to expand, those opportunities are for them.

Ms. Weatherman advised regional cooperation is one thing they should be looking at very closely; they need to look at opportunities that come out on the County's side even if they are not economic development related; there are a lot of other ideas and opportunities they need to look at and take part in; and they want to promote the Central Florida Hi-tech corridor. She stated they need to sell not only Brevard County but all of Florida; there is a silicon alley of development going on, from Harris Corporation to a pharmaceutical development in Tampa; and they need to promote that to corporate America. She stated the same way people immediately identify with the research triangle, silicon valley, and the I-28 corridor, is the way they need to promote a hi-tech corridor; and part of that is marketing and telling their story. She stated an example of their close working relationship with regional cooperation was her appointment as Chair of the Marketing Committee of the Florida Hi-tech Corridor; that means Brevard County's concerns about how it is going to promote the area as a Central Florida corridor are going to be met with the Chairman coming from Brevard County; and it was a compliment to have Brevard County play a leadership role.

Ms. Weatherman advised one important community-related goal is the Patrick Air Force Base 45th Space Wing, Avtech, and Cape Canaveral Air Station; they have a Space Coast Defense Alliance whose chair is Randy Harris who is also chair of the Military Affairs Council; and they are closely watching the base realignment and closure activities. She stated it is something EDC needs to take an active role in knowing what opportunities are out there. She stated in working with BRAC issues, one of the things they need to do as a community is make the uniqueness of the Base stand out; one uniqueness is something called DEOMI; it is the center for equal opportunity studies; and people from all over the country come to Patrick Air Force Base, like they do to Avtech, to participate in those programs. She noted it is unique and sets Patrick Air Force Base apart from the rest of the bases; and they met with them and asked what they need that the community can assist with. She stated EDC said that with the understanding there was $4 million available at the State level for infrastructure improvements; and one thing they needed was video conferencing opportunities to make sure DEOMI's message is sent around the national sector; so EDC wrote a grant for that and will find out in three weeks if they are going to get it. She noted Patrick Air Force Base and the people at DEOMI were surprised that someone from the government wanted to help a government agency; and they are at the table with General Paddock and have a Space Coast Defense Alliance made up of the Chambers, Cities, EDC, and Congressman Weldon's Office, so when the list comes out for BRAC, they will not be caught flat-footed. She stated it takes a lot of effort and planning, but EDC needs to play a role in it.

Ms. Weatherman stated in economic development there is plenty of work to go around; the Board plays a role in it; the Chambers play a role in it; and it is not operated in a vacuum. She stated the Program of Work for the year 2000 is how they will do it; every community has the same vision and wants a good future for children, high-paying jobs, and a sound tax base; and the Program of Work is tied into those things. She stated Brevard County gets less than one-half percent of all SBIR loans awarded in the State; that is a concern because SBIR's can help a lot of small and medium size businesses in research and development efforts; there is not a lot of funding for R&D in the County and State; so SBIR's are the tools that are realistic and are there. She stated EDC should encourage and promote SBIR's; they can play a role in supporting industry; so they will have an SBIR conference. She stated they have a list of the SBIR award winners in the County who will come to the conference, and they will bring SBIR people from Washington.

Ms. Weatherman stated they have Monday morning measurements and talk about issues of economic development; her question is what can they do to take them one step closer to achieving a goal; and that is what the Program of Work is all about. She stated they talked about industrial recruitment, consultant outreach campaign, and all the things they have done last year which they will promote more this year; they will have minimum standards and procedures for every trade show they visit; and before they go to a trade show, they will purchase the database. She stated for Satellite 2000, they know who will have booths on February 2, 2000 in Washington, D.C., who will be walking through the doors, and the registrants; and they sent three mailouts before those people get there, which enhances their odds of telling their story be of the competitive advantages for locating in Brevard County. She stated if they are impressed, they may not want to relocate, but they will talk to their peers and can say how much Brevard County knows about their products. She noted she did not know much about the product, but manipulated the information from the database, or called J. D. Kump of Boeing and asked him; and that is one of the pleasures of having a technologically-driven area. She stated the owners of a company thinking about coming into an area normally ask to talk to their peers; so she brings them together and leaves them alone, which is part of the connection between EDC and existing businesses.

Ms. Weatherman advised they are going to enhance the Satellite Campaign and Team Brevard; there are a lot of other economic-related organizations in the County; there is the Port, Airport, Spaceport, and Chambers of Commerce; and she has met with them every other month for five years. She stated they want to expand and include utilities to talk about what their problems are, what they are facing, and are there anything EDC can do in the Team Brevard effort. She stated they need to promote availability and access on an equitable basis throughout the County; that can be done with high-speed data transmission wires like Kentucky has; and she needs to meet with the utility people to do that and with the Board to make sure those are some things that can happen. She stated it is beyond the realm of the EDC, but it is an issue to discuss; and that is why they want to expand the availability of Team Brevard and the success they can get out of it.

Ms. Weatherman stated community outreach is another goal; they have many markets even outside industrial America to tell them to consider locating here; they have over 600 industries and manufacturers who need the market locally; and they have the community at-large not just the members who make an investment into EDC, but the cities, Chambers, and the County Commission. She stated every quarter they talk with people involved in economic development, tell them their story, and ask if there is anything EDC needs to do.

Chairman Higgs stated Ms. Weatherman is basically at the end of the strategy and moving into performance measurements; and perhaps those measurements need to be looked at in terms of the Board's relationship with EDC because it has a Contract to perform certain services and needs to look more specifically at that Contract when talking about what their goals are for this year. She inquired if anyone had any questions. Commissioner O'Brien recommended Ms. Weatherman finish her report, then the Board discuss the topics it feels are important.

Ms. Weatherman stated there are three things she would like to highlight in the Program of Work; they talked about relocation of companies and what they look for; and one thing they added was workforce and how it is a real serious concern with a shrinking working age population. She stated they interface with existing manufacturers all the time and hear their concerns; and one thing they are going to add to their Program of Work is a talent recruitment section that is unique. She stated the same way they tried to get companies to relocate in the area, they need to look at relocating talent, technically-trained workers and university graduates; and they will stop at the graduate university placement offices and talk about Brevard County. She stated they need to sell opportunities to bring more C++ engineers into Brevard County because it has manufacturers here now who cannot get C++ engineers; so if EDC can help to promote the use of technically-trained labor that will help the manufacturers become more competitive. She stated another example of doing that is during Spring Break; and EDC is going to play a role in Spring Break and talk to students about Brevard County's dynamic companies that are doing cutting-edge development. She stated with a shrinking working age population and 4% unemployment rate, in addition to interfacing with UCF, they need to recruit a technically-trained labor force; that is a responsibility EDC has; and if the Board differs with that, they can talk about it. She stated it is a different twist, but as economists they have to look at where the system is right now. Ms. Weatherman advised the supply of labor is important to the demand for labor; the EDC's that do not take part and understand that are missing the boat; and if they continue to look for companies to relocate, they better have the intellectual infrastructure. She stated they need to look at the students leaving the school systems that are not bound for college; the average wage in the manufacturing economy is about $35,000 a year; and if they are young and capable, they can start packing boxes making $7 or $8 an hour and in three years make $40,000 if they are qualified. She stated manufacturing has a food chain of skills; they want to interface with the school system to let them know there are opportunities here; and her personal feeling is students think about manufacturing as the Charles Dickens kind of manufacturing. She stated they are very clean and safe; and the EDC has to play a partnership role with those students and tell them there are opportunities to consider, give them a list of the companies, and invite them to do walk throughs at Renco, or Harris, or Crown Simplimatic. She stated they could let the school system know about trade shows in Orlando and provide free tickets for students to get into the trade shows so they can see the people who manufacture things and their skills and who take pride in being able to do that, because manufacturing drives the economy in the United States.

Ms. Weatherman advised the membership will continue to go out and encourage an equitable investment by the private sector to support the EDC; they talked about getting databases to research before going to trade shows; and they need to consider quarterly tracking and performance measures to determine if they did things right or wrong. She stated she can tell the Board how many prospects they have had in the last five years, and how many site tours they have had which have increased because their prospect activities increased; but they have a modest size staff and expect their efforts to diminish somewhat if they have to put more effort into workforce development and talent recruitment. She noted she does not think their level of prospect activity and marketing is not going to change; but if it does decrease, it could be because of an overall trend that companies are not expanding any more. She stated they go back and look at the highs and lows and try to find the reasons for it and adjust accordingly; that is what the quarterly tracking and performance measurements are for; she gave that to the Board so it could see exactly the year-to-date performance and goals. She stated every quarter she and her staff go over those things and count the numbers; every other month she has a presentation to the Board of Directors to go over a lot of the performance measures; and every month she meets with the Executive Board to go over issues of the EDC. She stated economic development is objective, but it is also subjective; and she is interested in hearing the Board's improvements to the Plan.

Commissioner Voltz inquired if Ms. Weatherman likes economic development; with Ms. Weatherman responding she loves her job; it is very exciting; they create jobs that will impact the economy; and it is a pure experience, but it also gets tough.

Commissioner Carlson advised in her trip to San Jose, there were four elements that came out as being very important; she discussed those with Ms. Weatherman who agreed with them; and those four elements were workforce issues, research and development issues based on university research, access to capital, and quality of life. She stated that is what she gleaned from interviewing people out there who were in startup, economic development, etc.; and what is missing in the Strategic Plan is statistics. She stated when a course of action is laid out, there is usually statistics that are measurable and that can define a goal and determine the path to get to that goal; but the goals in the Plan are not measurable. She stated Peggy Busacca and Lynda Weatherman went to Austin, Texas, and brought back information on the strategy Austin had done for them by a consultant; she appreciates Ms. Weatherman not wanting to spend a lot of money on a consultant; but she wants more information, something with a little more meat in the Plan. She stated the Austin Plan had a methodology, purpose, and research elements; and she used it as a checklist when she went through this Strategy Plan, and checked off the areas she thought EDC accomplished and the areas she could not find.

Commissioner Carlson advised the first purpose is to diagnose the region's current economy, including market conditions and technology trends; and Ms. Weatherman did a good job with that and did historical trends, but there is nothing that extrapolates the historical trend into the future to define what the needs are. She stated for example, why is the County losing its workforce, where are workers coming from, what are their skills and education, what types of education are local universities providing, what research is being done, and who are the people working for are questions that need answers regarding the workforce; and Ms. Weatherman may have those answers in the talent recruitment section that says those are things they need to collect to do a good talent recruitment program. She stated it goes on to say benchmark the region's economy and the economic performance against a set of competing regions, but she did not see anything on what Orlando or places in south Florida are doing. She noted it would be helpful to see how Brevard County is acting regionally and where it is going. Commissioner Carlson stated she wants to get the global perspective to see if the Board agrees with what she is saying is missing in the Plan; and she would like to finish her comments before the Board discusses the issues. She stated identifying emerging industries that could be attracted to the area either through existing or yet to be developed competitive advantages has nothing about itemizing the competitive advantages in terms of quality of life, research universities, etc. included in the Plan. She stated she did not get a real clear picture that she wanted to get; she wanted to ask if the Internet is the economy the County is looking at now; that is what California is looking at as its next economy; and it was Silicon Valley before, but now it is going to become an Internet economy. She stated the recommended strategies and actual programs for enhancing today's industries and for developing those industries to be industries of tomorrow are the kinds of things she wanted to see; and she thought Ms. Weatherman would dwell on industry clusters during the summary because that is vital to the overall understanding of the Plan. She stated under research is determination of industry clusters through data analysis; they provided the top six that they see as being clusters, and gave three that are emerging clusters; and inquired how did they validate those clusters, and if they went out and talked to the industry and asked if they thought those were the clusters, because what she saw missing was communications. She stated the Board talked about satellite communications, communications in general, and communications as a cluster, and she did not see it anywhere in the Plan. She advised the venture capital has been given to communication industries; and inquired why it was not in the Plan under clusters. She stated Harris, Collins, Microtech, Symetrics, Nokia, and all the Internet type of small businesses that are growing in Brevard County are in the communications industry; under the top six clusters are information technology which is core, but it is not in the emerging clusters; and that should be one of the top priorities as emerging clusters of economic development. She stated another area is to develop comparative analysis and a benchmarking system to compare Brevard County to other communities; and analyses of economic foundations and technology and market dynamics are included, but she did not see competitive advantages. She stated gardening and hunting is a great analogy; but what she saw was a huge amount of hunting and not much cultivating in the gardening side of the equation; there is very fertile ground for a great garden in Brevard County; but it is not being cultivated. She noted she sees it from many different angles; the corporate sector has not been cultivated; and it should be brought into both the economic strategy and overall visioning strategy. Commissioner Carlson stated the other confusing element was in the top clusters; the memo from Ms. Weatherman was a summary of the Milliken Study; and it said Brevard County is third overall nationally in search and navigation equipment, third nationally in engineering and architectural services, and second in communications equipment; but she did not see any in the Plan, and was very confused when she was looking at all the information and trying to digest it. She stated Ms. Weatherman is an economist, but does not have the technical background; she has a technical background, but is not an economist; so she is trying to put those two together and make some sense of it.

Ms. Weatherman stated under the section of Applied Economics, they want to dissect the upstream and downstream of the industry clusters, and get to know the companies better; there is a lack of data; and trying to find information on who is getting venture capital is very difficult. She stated they contacted UCF to find out what companies it is working with and to get information, but there is very little information; so she acknowledges the deficiency in the report. She stated by upstream/downstream, they mean who the company buys from, who it sells to, and its inter-linkage with other companies which becomes the cluster; and the deficiencies Commissioner Carlson pointed out are because it will take a lot of work to get into the middle of those companies to look at the upstream/downstream mechanisms. She stated the study has what is called IT Brevard; it is getting the IT companies together and asking them to tell EDC about their companies; and they would like to have a Commissioner on IT Brevard. She noted it is beyond the manufacturer alliance; and that is where they hope to get information about what they need and the inter-linkage. She stated the talent recruitment section talks about getting the industries together; they need to sit down with the industries and tell them what EDC is going to do, and find out why employees are not coming into the area, how long they stay, the turnover rate, etc., but all of that takes time. She apologized for seeming to be doing more hunting than gardening; and noted a lot more press coverage is given to hunters because it is not news to talk about SBIR conferences since it is not very dynamic. Ms. Weatherman stated one of the things that came up in San Jose was building the fiber optic network and the pro-business work environment; that comes in the addendum and something they need to acknowledge; but the communication issue is valid, and she will look into that.

Chairman Higgs inquired if the industries in Brevard County that are identified as the top two and three nationally are encompassed in the six industries but named differently; with Ms. Weatherman responding yes, for the most part.

Commissioner Carlson stated her question was how did EDC validate the cluster analysis, and did they go into the community and ask if they agree with the clusters, since they know their business and can say how to group their companies. Ms. Weatherman stated a lot of that will go in the upstream/downstream analysis, but for the most part they focused on looking at the division of the Standard Industrial Classifications (SIC) Codes and how they fell into certain clusters. She noted the cluster analysis can be expanded; and hopefully they will do that over the next year with their upstream/downstream analysis, IT Board, manufacturing analysis, and more in-depth manufacturing survey. She stated they are excited about their surveys, but they are pretty simple; and they hope to focus on workforce issues, but they are not going to do recruitment talent without understanding the demands of the manufacturing base. Commissioner Carlson stated EDC has to understand what the universities are putting out, the percent of graduates, degrees they are graduating with, where they are going, why they are leaving, and why Brevard County is not keeping them. She inquired if it is because wages are too low; and stated she wants to see what the wages are and the competitive advantages in the Plan. Ms. Weatherman stated she talked to Tom Dennison of Brevard Community College and inquired how she could ask the graduates where they are going; they are starting to do that; and that information will be very critical, as well as information from University of Central Florida. She stated she meets once a month with the hi-tech corridor engineering departments; they are in the preliminary stages of developing a database of information; and as time goes on they will get more competitive and sophisticated in their understanding. She stated it is a deficiency right now, and a modest industry cluster analysis. Commissioner Carlson stated she would be interested in seeing another rendition of the report with more statistics gathering and justification of goals with a measurable goal come back to the Board so it can review it; she does not know how much time that will take; but she would rather have the local EDC do it than hire a consultant and pay a lot of money for it.

Chairman Higgs inquired if Commissioner Carlson's recommendation is to further enhance the report as they go through the discussion and strategy for the community, and enhance their knowledge of the clusters, who they are, and where they are going; with Commissioner Carlson responding the workforce needs to get statistics of where they are going, outcomes, inputs, etc; and research needs to be a huge connection between industry and research universities, and find out from the universities what they are producing in research that they can leverage when marketing Brevard County. She stated one of the interesting things about Austin, as said by someone they talked to in San Jose, is Austin tied a huge red ribbon around the university system; it is the University of Texas there, but she is not sure what it would be in Brevard County; however, it probably would be a conglomerate because there are several universities that are working in computer science and other engineering areas. Commissioner Carlson stated it appears Brevard County is getting some venture capital and has SBA; she does not know how they would work with other communities to find out how they get access to capital; obviously if they have money, they will get money because there is a brain thrust; and that intellectual infrastructure in San Jose is what is missing here.

Commissioner Scarborough stated Commissioner Carlson went to Palo Alto, and Commissioner Voltz went to Virginia to look at issues; and they could give the Board a report at the beginning of the meeting. He stated he and Ms. Weatherman are going to Mid-Florida; Chairman of the Orange County Commission Mel Martinez encouraged conversations; each Commissioner has gone separate ways and has different thoughts; and he has questions for Commissioner O'Brien on where he sees the Space Center going with biological research. He stated it is a fascinating concept; he was out there last week with Roy Bridges where it was discussed extensively; and he would like each Commissioner to put together what they would like to see and share those comments with the EDC and have it come back with responses and where it wants to go. He stated constituents want the Board to play a more active role; and rather than having Ms. Weatherman respond to everything now, each Commissioner should compile their thoughts and have staff congest them and give them to EDC; then EDC could come back with a revised report. He stated the Board could meet again on this item because economic development always need to be redefined as the world is constantly changing; so the Board should never cease discussion on it.

Chairman Higgs stated she senses, from the comments of the Commissioners, that there is a need for a larger strategy in the EDC; the Board has tasked Ms. Weatherman and the EDC with a lot of activities over the years; now it is saying there is a greater need for a bigger strategy; and it wants a strategic plan it is comfortable with; and that is critical to the Board above the number of site visits. She inquired if that is what she has heard; with Commissioner Scarborough responding absolutely. He stated quality of the community could be a lot of things, and some economic development falls on the School Board, UCF, and this Board; and if they are not a team, they will fail. He stated Harris said they would hire every graduate, so UCF is not producing enough students for one employer; there is a deficit of people graduating in this area; and that is a big problem. Commissioner Scarborough stated a lot of companies are going to draw on outside of the region; the Legislative Delegation may need to support UCF's increased funding for the engineering college because that may be the primary driving force blocking the flow of people coming into the area; and if the Board had all the information, it could determine what it's job would be.

Commissioner Carlson stated she does not want to expand the strategies but wants credibility to say why they have the strategy, what the goal is, and the measurement of what it is seeking to achieve; and she is looking for supportive information to give it more credibility. She stated another analysis that was not done was on incentives, what other incentives could be offered, how much should they rely on the State, and if a 4.2% unemployment is justification for narrowing the tax abatement program specifically for the four clusters it is targeting rather than subsidize new jobs when existing companies cannot find employees.

Commissioner O'Brien stated EDC has its job and the Board's job is ill-defined; it should assign itself goals and be part of the process; and shared an example of not being part of the process at a meeting at Kennedy Space Center. He read an article from Florida TODAY which said, "Brevard County must do more in the years ahead to diversify a manufacturing base that continues to shrink so the County can maintain a stable economy. By continuing to provide an atmosphere where diverse types of companies can expand and grow, the Space Coast will continue to offset the downsizing we have in the past from government and defense sectors." He stated the manufacturing base is shrinking, not expanding, and EDC is trying to offset that; government has a lot to do with communications; and if the County does not do more to diversify its economy, major cuts in employment will devastate the economy. He stated before unemployment would rise, they need to reduce retail spending, downturn home construction, and reduce the tax base; any kind of major layoff in Brevard County, unless it is financially and economically set to withstand it, will have a direct impact on every citizen; and people who are retired say it would not affect them, but it does if property values fall, because they count on it when they sell their homes as revenue to move into a condo or somewhere else. Commissioner O'Brien stated the American economy, because of the Internet and computer age, is dividing into two parts--the haves and have-nots; if the Board is not careful it will have a lot of have-nots in Brevard County; the Board has to work with the State to change the laws; UCF cannot have a separate college for aeronautics and aerospace engineering because of the law that created UCF; and he has been working on the problem for six months and kept getting put off. He stated he finally did talk to the Chancellor and told him Brevard County does not have a real higher education facility except a community college. Chairman Higgs stated Florida Institute of Technology would differ with that statement. Commissioner O'Brien stated then there is only one; Vandenburg, California is surrounded by the University of California, UCLA, Brandice, and two others; Houston, Texas is surrounded by five major colleges; and all other sites where satellites could be manufactured and high-technology jobs could be found are surrounded by higher education institutions. He stated there are people in Brevard County who are extremely smart and who would love to teach, and students who would love to learn; and the workforce is leaving to go off to the University of Florida, University of Miami, or Florida State and find job opportunities someplace else.

Chairman Higgs advised there are students in the engineering school at Florida Tech in Melbourne; there is a resource that is not being fully integrated into the overall plan of action; so EDC should garden the resource that is already there to better meet the needs of the community. Commissioner O'Brien stated he does not want to limit Brevard County to one college or one and a half colleges. Chairman Higgs stated there is one now; with Commissioner O'Brien responding that is right, but it cannot be expanded; and Brevard County needs more than one and deserves more than one, but it is not getting the funding it should be getting from the university system. He stated the Board should reach out to the university system and tell them it does not want just links to higher education, it wants a university beyond F.I.T. and more than UCF; and that the SSTR is very important to Brevard County because it only gets so much of the money that is available. He stated it is shameful how Brevard County has been passed over for 30 to 40 years; and it needs to go to the State and have some laws changed. Commissioner O'Brien stated Brevard County does not have a diversified intellectual bank; it has F.I.T., part of UCF, and BCC which are great; it has Webster also; but they are not full-blown universities like Harvard, Princeton, Colgate, Brown, etc. He stated firms that come here want to borrow money to build a new factory or expand a factory; they are stymied by the local banks; the interest rates do not do many favors for them; and some of them go to Indian River County or Georgia to borrow money. He stated the Board should ask for a roundtable discussion with the Chambers of Commerce and banks to discuss what can be done to improve that situation. Commissioner O'Brien advised research is important, but it is going to University of Florida in Gainesville, or University of Texas, or someplace else and is not coming to Brevard County because it does not have sufficient university capability; and that is what it needs the most. He stated if research can be done here, then firms that build satellites will come here; it is a cascading effect that starts with higher education; and it is falling down instead of going up. He stated it would be a wonderful opportunity for the young people to commute to college instead of their parents having to pay to send them to University of Florida, get apartments, spend $20,000 a year doing that, plus commuting back and forth, which is a terrible situation. Commissioner O'Brien stated the incubator possibility is here; the Board should step in and work with Kennedy Space Center on the incubator ideas; Kennedy Space Center is going to build a new road behind the Visitors Center; and that way they can avoid security. He stated they want to develop industry; some of them are going to be incubators; Brevard County can be helping that process and be a part of it; but it cannot if it sits here and say they are going to do it. He stated the Board needs to be included and bring itself to their door; they are not going to come to the Board; Kennedy Space Center goes to the gate and stops; it is very seldom that they go beyond their own gates and say they want to be a part of the community; and it is its own community. Commissioner O'Brien stated when people come here, existing companies will tell them whether the community stands with them and backs them all the way; that is an important facet for business; and it is a dynamic change in Brevard County to perform that function. He stated it was mentioned that two-thirds of the world does not have telephone service; he stated several times why the Board should not have towers all over the place, because in the near future there will be thousands of satellites; Microsoft and others have said they will put up 64 satellites; people using telephones in their cars, homes or businesses will not be talking to a tower down the street but to a satellite some place above; and meanwhile, all those towers will be rusting and falling down. He stated the 45th Space Wing was mentioned; and he had concerns about base closure at Patrick Air Force Base, primarily when they brought up the housing issue. Commissioner O'Brien stated he is excited about the improvements with economic development in Brevard County; Ms. Weatherman has set a lot of good goals and interpreted them in such a way that they are very broad schemed; but there should be something more specific on how those goals will be attained, such as phone calls, visits, advertising, etc. and not just lofty terms that they will talk to the world about how good Brevard County is. Chairman Higgs stated Brevard County needs the bigger strategy; and EDC needs the smaller strategies for its daily operation.

Commissioner Voltz advised Richmond has eight universities; all the elected officials she spoke to said that is the key to their success; they have students who come to their universities from all over the country and end up staying there, which is the opposite of what Brevard County has; and Brevard County has students going to school, taking off elsewhere to finish their education, then moving on. She stated the university system Commissioner O'Brien spoke of is definitely needed; and what Brevard County has is great, but it needs a full university with technical subjects. She stated Ed O'Connor spoke at the National Space Club luncheon about removing the gates at Kennedy Space Center and allowing them to be part of the community rather than separate entities; they are trying to break it down so Brevard County can be one big community; and that was very encouraging. She stated the Board needs to have guidelines and propose legislation on things the County needs and to remove the roadblocks so universities can come in, but the report did not include what the Board needs to do and what laws need to be changed.

Chairman Higgs stated the Board needs to come up with what it needs to have to move the community forward before Ms. Weatherman makes a list from individual Commissioners. Commissioner Scarborough stated he met with Roy Bridges on the research park who indicated that NASA does not care about the Florida education system, because if it does not work, they will bring in people to make it work. He stated the Florida education system has a level of stupidity based upon football; and the football games get into the Legislature. He stated NASA is not going to want to move things all around the world with the Space Station; they will want to hold it here in Brevard County; and conceivably there could be people speaking all kinds of languages from all over the world moving into Brevard County as part of a biological research as opposed to launching rockets. He stated he was told people are saying it is a boondoggle for Brevard County; and it is the greatest opportunity the State could have if they create a base here. He stated if MIT comes down to run the facility, there will not be people from Florida involved because they will have people from outside; if people from Florida move into Central Florida, they would be able to pull in the best minds in Florida; and maybe the Board would have an opportunity to be that driving force. He stated if Brevard County is not able to capture the imagination of Central Florida and make it happen, they will all be losers; but the State does not view it that way; it views it as whether the Gators or Seminoles win a football game; and that is the boondoggle for Brevard County.

Chairman Higgs inquired, because it is the Board's interest to see an enriched educational atmosphere, does the Board need to interact with NASA, if the State does not choose to move, and be part of the discussion with NASA to see that the educational aspects, whether from MIT, Cal-Tech, FIT, or Florida Air Academy, become a part of the vision for top-notch educational institutions. She stated if the university system is not interest or cannot move, the Board may have an interest to see that it happens; and if the Director of the Space Center does not see that it is going to happen, then the Board needs to do whatever it can to assist them; and that needs to be a priority for the Board. She stated what she keeps hearing is the Board needs to bring together the next step of where it wants to go, what it wants to see, and what it has to do to move Brevard County forward; it knows what EDC is doing; and maybe the strategy needs to be refined, but EDC cannot do it all, so the Board needs to share in it; and recommended the Board focus on the next step and give direction to EDC of how it wants to do that.

Commissioner Carlson stated Commissioner O'Brien pointed out a couple of good things; and she agrees wholeheartedly with some of the things he said based on her interactions with Mr. Bridges and with some of the Presidents of local universities. She stated the Addendum Ms. Weatherman referred to at the beginning of the meeting talks about related strategies or other issues she will call quality economic development; it talks about protecting the environment, social disparity, and the digital divide which is a massive problem in San Jose; and it is getting bigger because of the hi-tech people who are paid good wages and spend money on quality of life things that other people cannot afford. She stated the digital divide is a big issue; she wants to make sure Brevard County avoids that because it has a good quality of life here; and the Board may want to grow it slowly and carefully so it does not end up in that scenario. Commissioner Carlson stated Ms. Weatherman talked about worker skills, communications, quality of life, attracting and retaining knowledgeable workers, sanctuary qualities of the waterfront, smaller communities, etc. as assets and the competitive edge that attracts people, but goes into the diversity issue of the universities. She stated one thing she found when talking to all the Presidents of BCC, UCF and F.I.T., is that F.I.T. is narrowly defining its place here in terms of technology; it is going to streamline to do its vision, which is genetic engineering and other engineering categories; and it has been very successful in that and attracted a lot of money for aeronautics. She stated there may be a big change in narrowing its scope versus expanding it; it has a nice Humanities Department, but it is not a player in the arts in the community; and there is a little missing link that has gotten some attention from EDC. She stated she sits on the Brevard Cultural Alliance Board, and they have been going through their strategies; and one of the disconnects is with corporate Brevard and universities and their interest in the arts and how the arts can be a quality of life issue and help attract economic development. She stated Brevard County is missing out on those programs because it is such a science and technology-oriented County; and if it wants to attract high-level management positions that will look for entertainment, the EDC needs to at least market it and say it is in Orlando if it is not here, but they can still live here and have the quality of life with all its amenities while Brevard County develops a strategy to improve its arts. Commissioner Carlson stated the Board talked about the government's role, the Chambers' role, etc.; she agrees the Board needs to have some sort of role playing and define what its role is; and Ms. Weatherman mentioned a leadership council that would play a supportive role in getting the strategy out to the public and being its own lobbyist. She stated in San Jose they have the Joint Venture of San Jose that came together because the business community had a problem of going from place to place throughout the community and having to go through all the regulatory hoops; so they came together to streamline regulations among cities, the county and other agencies; and it made it a lot easier for a business entity to pick up shop and move there. She stated movement throughout the community was helped by doing that; that could be a task of a leadership council; and the Board should look at that as a possibility and the Richmond Partnership. She requested Debbie Pavlakos advise the Board on the Partnership, how it was made up, and how it actually works.

Debbie Pavlakos advised about five years ago the City of Richmond realized it needed to do something for economic development because it was declining, so they brought the business community together with the governments and formed the Richmond Partnership. She stated 50% of the funding comes from the counties and cities; it is a partnership to bring businesses to the area; and she got the idea they did not have committees or a lot of involvement and just wanted funding to bring businesses to the area. She stated they spoke to the Partnership, but did not feel it was the type of partnership Brevard County would want because the Partnership did not want a lot of input from the various corporations.

Commissioner Voltz advised the Partnership would bring a firm to the Richmond area, and that firm would decide where it wanted to move; and if it was within the City of Richmond, they would say okay Richmond it is yours, and had nothing else to do with it. She stated Richmond and all the counties give about $325,000 per year to the Partnership to market the area; yet once a firm decides it is going to be in a community, that community has to spend money on other things. Ms. Pavlakos stated each city and county has an EDC person; and once the Partnership finds the prospect, and the prospect decides to move into one of the areas, the EDC person takes over and works with the governmental agencies and businesses.

Chairman Higgs advised she will try to verbalize what she heard from the Board and maybe identify the next steps it may want to take; it wants to see from the EDC some refinement of the data to give the Board a better idea of where the strengths are, its competitive edge, and where the clusters are, and use that to help understand a ten-year perspective or 20-year perspective of where the economy may be; and it wants the presence of top-notch education and wants to be involved in getting that. She inquired how the Board wants to do that, and if Commissioner Scarborough wants to head it up; with Commissioner Scarborough responding no, but each Commissioner could share their comments with each other and have thoughts on how to improve those and forward that product to Ms. Weatherman to review. Commissioner Carlson stated if all Commissioners put their thoughts on paper it will help Ms. Weatherman out because she cannot answer everything now. Chairman Higgs stated that is a dangerous thing to do; and she would prefer for the Board to give a few directions collectively today, then have them come back and talk more specifically about where it is going.

Commissioner O'Brien stated the Board has to give some direction as well as take direction for itself today, and meet again within 60 days to talk only about those items that are brought out today so it is very focused and defined and not a big broad scope. He stated talking in broad scales some times has no focus; he wants the Board to be a "lets do" board and join the effort; if there is a need to change the law, it should find out what the law is and ask staff today to find out what the reasoning is behind why UCF cannot create an extra college or part of a university here and cannot expand the university in Brevard County to be a full service university. He stated research dollars would start flowing towards Brevard County if it had a full university; a huge amount of money comes through NASA; so if Brevard County had real growth in its college and university system, it would stand more of a chance of having good success which is what it needs.

Chairman Higgs stated the status of the university situation is a critical issue; the Board would need to know something from staff and the Delegation; and it would also need to have input from Ms. Weatherman and Mr. Bridges.

Commissioner Scarborough stated he would like to see a three-fold focus and greater presence of UCF in Brevard County; UCF is considered a second tier college; only the University of Florida and FSU have been given the research status as universities; so the Board needs to make sure UCF moves beyond that. He stated there is some benefit in seeing the whole university system come together and identify Kennedy Space Center as the shining light for the future of education in Florida because it is the only location where certain research can take place; it could get a professor who won the Nobel Prize; Mr. Bridges said NASA is going to look at who is going to give it the most; and Florida barely has anything in the top 50. He stated the Board has an opportunity to move on all three fronts; it needs to move beyond the Board and have the capacity to do things like the relationship it is creating with Orange County, and having seven Commissioners come in and walk away with a different vision of what Kennedy Space Center is to them and their community.

Commissioner O'Brien stated Mr. Bridges said he wants his engineers and people at Kennedy Space Center and all the contractors to have the ability to go to school; it is hard to get his employees to drive 100 miles to go to school and come back to work the next morning, so they are not doing it; therefore, there is a brain drain occurring which is not good for Kennedy Space Center or the community. He stated the Board has to improve that situation now; and there are other things the Board may find important; but this is his No. 1 priority. Chairman Higgs stated nobody disagrees with the importance of education to economic development and quality of life in the community. Commissioner Carlson stated the Board is trying to define something for Ms. Weatherman to bring back to the Board; and what could answer some of the questions is to get background information, statistics that support the strategies, and goals laid out that are measurable. Chairman Higgs inquired measurable goals of what; with Commissioner Carlson responding the goals EDC has in the Plan; for example, if they want to improve the workforce by 2%, how are they going to get there and justify the strategy.

County Manager Tom Jenkins suggested focusing on a joint center where all universities participate. Commissioner Scarborough stated they talked about a consortium, so another way is to have both public and private schools. Mr. Jenkins stated they can do that; and noted there is a joint center between Florida Atlantic and Florida International in South Florida right now. Commissioner Voltz inquired how much does the Board of Regents have to do with it; with Mr. Jenkins responding a lot. Commissioner Scarborough stated the problem is the members of the Legislature who graduated from the two big State schools.

Commissioner Carlson stated another thing was the clusters; she would like to see some validation of the clusters, a cluster analysis that specifically supports those clusters and the emerging clusters, and a list of the competitive things in Brevard County and what it is competing against.

Chairman Higgs stated capital is a strong business issue the Board needs to discuss as its next step; the status of the university situation needs to be discussed further; and Mr. Jenkins and Ms. Weatherman need to come back with information on that. She stated there is a data refinement issue, cluster issue, and the measurable goals, so the Board can get to what would be a ten-year vision of where the economy is going to be, and a 20-year vision so it can make decisions to get in the best position. She stated the Board needs to talk about assisting in bringing together financing issues at the next session, how does it assist, can it assist, and should it assist; and maybe people in the banking industry could give the Board some knowledge on that. She stated there are communities that may be doing it differently that need to be discussed. Chairman Higgs advised another issue was the legislative agenda and that the Board may need to be involved in the federal, State and local levels to get some changes.

Commissioner Scarborough stated regionalization could be a leverage; the Board would have a bigger base of support; at the meeting in Orlando people from Tampa talked about a whole Central Florida area which could have a population the size of some countries in Europe; and that could identify Brevard County as being unique with the only Port on the East Coast and only Space Center in the State along with its beaches. He noted Brevard County's uniqueness would then become an asset to a greater community; and people beyond Brevard County would be promoting it, and Brevard County would promote their assets. He stated it would be dynamic in putting together a movement for support of research at Kennedy Space Center if the whole region sees it as an advantage; and that linkage would create political clout which would begin to change the view of people in Washington and Tallahassee.

Commissioner O'Brien suggested staff prepare a letter for the Chairman's signature to Kennedy Space Center and the Governor claiming that the next time there is a summit concerning Kennedy Space Center and the community, Lynda Weatherman be invited, and EDC and the Board be a part of it. He stated they talked about solutions to one of the biggest problems, and he and Ms. Weatherman were not a part of it even though they could have helped them.

Chairman Higgs stated the university issue is not just a Kennedy Space Center issue; it is a total economic issue; and depending upon government is a shaky thing in regard to the economy. She stated Brevard County has worked hard and diversified; and it needs to be sure the university supports both Kennedy Space Center functions which are critical and other private functions as well. She stated as seen in other communities, universities are critical; so when the Board gets back together, it will have a number of things to discuss and will focus on those. She stated the Board wants EDC to help it have the bigger vision to move a step down the road; it knows they have priorities and measurable goals; but one goal the Board wants EDC to have is to help it have the bigger vision and put in place a 20-year plan. Commissioner Carlson stated if they can create a document the Board can appreciate, it can market that document and get credibility that will become a magnet for outside industries to want to come here, and also for universities to get more involved and to start more synergy occurring.

Chairman Higgs stated the Board understands it will have an impact on the daily and monthly plan that EDC has; it expects to see some impact to its operation from what it is asking EDC to do; and inquired if it is a problem or is it acceptable; with Ms. Pavlakos responding what they wanted today was to get from the Board what they are not doing and what they need to do, what it wants the community to be, and what types of industry to bring into Brevard County; so it will head them in the right direction. Chairman Higgs stated she does not think the Board defined that, but as it looks at those things, it will be able to better come to that kind of conclusion of where it ought to be; and that vision will help it refine what it is the Board wants to go after for the community.

Commissioner Voltz advised the tax abatement issue is what brought this to a head, but the Board did not talk about that; if EDC continues to bring in companies, then maybe the Board may not want to give tax abatements; but that may not make the Board look very credible, so it needs to get some specifics regarding the tax abatement issue.

Commissioner Carlson stated that is what the Board is going to do if it can put the plan together; it will define whether to give a tax abatement to one or the other based on how they are clustering and how they are targeting industries; and Ms. Weatherman knows a lot more about other incentives, and what is going on in the State and other states that offer incentives. She stated there is a lot of restructuring going on in Tallahassee, but no one knows the outcome yet; it would be nice to have more diversity in the incentive program; so maybe the Board can bring that up at a later date, but for now stick with what it has and get the plan underway. She noted if something comes from the plan that says the County is degrading its tax base, then it can address it once it has the statistics that would prove that it should not be doing it that way.

Commissioner Voltz inquired if they are comfortable working with the tax abatement program; with Ms. Weatherman responding they are going to promote the tax abatement program as it is currently written in the Ordinance; there are limitations defined by Statute; the Board has an opportunity at the first and final public hearing to make that conclusion; but they are going to promote it as defined in the Ordinance. Chairman Higgs stated that is the law; and even though she is not an enthusiastic supporter of the tax abatement program, that is what EDC has to do; and the Board continues to endorse it. She stated there are some communities that use a delayed abatement; they give three years then the company starts paying taxes; and she would be more comfortable if the Board would move in that direction. She stated those are options the Board can talk about later or at the next workshop with EDC if the Board wants to do that.

Commissioner O'Brien recommended discussion of any problems, philosophical, rhetorical, or tax wise, and what solutions are suggested that the Board can consider be put on the agenda; with Chairman Higgs responding it will be part of the next agenda.

Mr. Jenkins advised the Plan is to be fine-tuned and have clusters that will identify the industries they want to work on. Commissioner Voltz noted she was concerned about the interim period. Commissioner Carlson commented they have no choice but to follow the Code.

Ms. Pavlakos inquired, after Ms. Weatherman does additional research of the clusters, does the Board want to discuss the types of clusters at the next meeting and the types of industries it wants to bring in; with Chairman Higgs responding if EDC wants the Board to do that. Ms. Pavlakos stated it would help give Ms. Weatherman direction. Chairman Higgs stated it will be one of the items on the agenda for the next time they meet; and inquired if there are other things that should be included in the next step.

James Dwight mentioned infrastructure needs such as roads, transportation, and the arts that are most important to companies considering relocating to the area; and recommended the Board consider that in its ongoing deliberations. He stated he discussed with Jamie White the importance of local schools in considering relocation; and the Board may have some thoughts and ideas on that.

A person advised manufacturing is the heart of economic development; the greatest factor for manufacturing shrinking is because they do not have the workers; a lot of companies are scrambling to find anyone to hire at the beginning level positions; and even the teenagers acknowledge that they are ignorant of the opportunities that are here in manufacturing. He stated they have a responsibility to include the school system and reach out to charter schools, private schools, and everyone in the community to make them aware of manufacturing opportunities and encourage them to be partners in economic development because they are going to be the workforce in the future. He stated colleges go to fairs, but businesses do not go and invite students to visit their plants; and maybe they need to do that. He stated the bigger vision is to make the school system teach what is relevant and partner with manufacturers, which could pay big dividends in the future.

Chairman Higgs stated as the Board discusses legislation and infrastructure needs, it may be wise to have the Board, EDC, manufacturers and the School Board sit down and discuss the needs, not just the public schools, but the private schools as well. She stated teenagers from 16 to 18 years of age and young people coming out of college need skills to market; so they need to focus on that. Mr. Jenkins stated another point is to focus on infrastructure needs; and noted Ms. Weatherman pointed out having the fastest and most hi-tech communications. Chairman Higgs indicated that issue should be brought back. Mr. Jenkins stated it should be on the list of things to do. Commissioner Scarborough stated the Board is tasking Ms. Weatherman with something that would ultimately end up tasking the Board; she will tell the Board what it needs to do; and that is what the Board wants from the worklist.

Ms. Weatherman stated one section of the Addendum could pull together what the Board is talking about; and read the section as follows: "Economic development is a multifaceted program which requires input and commitment from private sectors and public sectors; however, a truly diversified well-developed community must also concern itself with the deeper issues of social justice, equity, and environmentalism. An overriding and constant concern must be focused on the need to avoid the digital divide. The overall strategy must be part of the whole which focuses on decreasing inadequate housing, school dropout, equitable land uses, protection of resources, and overall quality of life." She stated those are the marching orders they have, and those will require a lot of work because they deal with a lot of issues.

Commissioner O'Brien recommended the County Manager and Ms. Weatherman draft a document to send to the School Board and ask if Chairman Higgs and Ms. Weatherman can give a presentation of what the Board has discussed here. Chairman Higgs recommended the Board do its thing first then figure out what it wants to do with the next step. Commissioner O'Brien suggested Commissioners think about what they want to present to the School Board. He stated lack of a workforce sounds like Brevard County has a good economy; it has improved substantially to about 3.8% unemployment, down from 7%; and hopefully it will get lower as more people get jobs.

Commissioner Voltz advised one of the Board's goals was to meet with the School Board, but that has not happened; and she does not know what the problem was, but the Board needs to meet with the School Board. Commissioner Scarborough stated when he was Chairman, he had lunch with the School Board Chairman Paula Veibl; 90% of the conversation was about economic development and the EDC; and he can say at least one member of the School Board would like to be a part of this and would be glad to meet with the Board. Commissioner O'Brien stated the School Board could be asked to join the Board at the table to discuss educational needs and a partnership for economic development; and suggested sending a request to the School Board to meet with the Board at a time certain to discuss specific topics. Commissioner Carlson stated since the Board defined universities and education as key components in economic development, perhaps it should have the School Board Chairman and university heads come also to have a better representation of all educational levels instead of five School Board members; and suggested inviting Presidents Weaver, Gamble and Drake.

Chairman Higgs stated the Board needs to focus on the short list it has come up with today, get back together to understand where they are at, then go to the next step. She stated if the Board broadens its interaction too much before it knows where it wants to go, it will end up getting nowhere. Commissioner Voltz stated education was a #1 priority, so when they meet again with EDC, they should focus on education first then the other issues one at a time.

Chairman Higgs requested the County Manager coordinate the next meeting with EDC between 30 and 60 days from today.

Upon motion and vote, the meeting adjourned at 12:30 p.m.

ATTEST:

NANCY HIGGS, CHAIRMAN
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA

SANDY CRAWFORD, CLERK
(S E A L)