MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA

 

 

February 25, 2010

 

 

 

The Board of County Commissioners of Brevard, Florida, met in special session on February 25, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. in the Government Center Florida Room, Building C, 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way, Viera, Florida.  Present were:  Chairman Mary Bolin, Commissioners Robin Fisher, Trudie Infantini, and Andy Anderson, County Manager Howard Tipton, and County Attorney Scott Knox.  Commissioner Chuck Nelson was absent.   

 

 

Rodney Long, Florida Association of Counties (FAC) Chairman, stated he would like to thank Howard Tipton, County Manager, for allowing him a few moments to speak to the Board.  He stated he is joined by Chris Holley, who is the President of Florida Association of Counties.  He noted he appreciates the great and important work the Board does for the state, to help save the Space program.  He stated this issue the Board is tackling today is not a local issue, or a local loss of the Space Program but it will impact the entire state; and it will be a detriment to the state’s economy, recruitment, and ability to retain high quality brain power.  He stated Alachua County, his County, will feel first-hand a small portion of Brevard County’s loss; Alachua will be impacted by roughly $50 million; so many of the advances that have been made is due to the discoveries and research of NASA; and if America and Florida’s 67 counties are going to continue to be on the cutting edge of the ever evolving economy they must continue to invest in NASA and space exploration.  He stated he appreciates the struggles that Brevard County has had, made more serious by the loss of the historic and vital Space Program; he is in Brevard County to talk about the many issues that counties are struggling to face throughout the state; and the important issues that are before the legislature in the current session.  He stated he will be meeting with Florida TODAY to talk about issues such as TABOR, and the Medicare cost issues people may be experiencing, ways savings can be passed onto local governments.  He advised on March 24, 2010 the FAC (Florida Association of Counties) will be having Legislative Day in Tallahassee; there will be nearly 200 county commission members attending on March 24^th; and it would be a great opportunity for the Board to make sure the people of the State of Florida, especially the elected officials, understand that the loss of the Space Program in Brevard County is a statewide issue.  He stated the FAC will be passing a resolution in support of Brevard County’s efforts in keeping the space exploration program; and will ask the counties throughout the state to do something similar.  He stated he appreciates the Board had giving him a few minutes to speak; and the FAC appreciates the efforts the Board is making to secure the future of space exploration; and also, hopefully it will help to save Florida’s economy. 

 

 

 REPORT, RE: SAVE SPACE WEBSITE

Commissioner Fisher stated the Commissioners get asked all the time what they are doing to help minimize the job loss situation; and just like the FAC, the Commissioners talk about how the Board is working with the Economic Development Commission (EDC), Brevard Workforce Development Board, the different Chambers of Commerce, state legislators, and NASA; and he tries to explain what the Board is doing, but there still seems to be a lot of confusion.  He stated Commissioner Anderson is going to Washington, D.C. in a couple of weeks; some of the Commissioners are going to Colorado Springs for the Space Symposium to talk to space companies; and the Board is doing a lot of things.  He stated he has asked Kimberly Prosser, SCGTV Program Director, to talk a little about the website being created, because there are a lot of people asking what they can do to help but they do not have a place to go; and he has been working with Space Florida to re-vamp the website to help make sure that the grass roots part of the effort is getting everybody involved. 

 

Kimberly Prosser, SCGT Program Director, announced membership in the Save Space Facebook and Twitter groups has increased significantly since the 2011 NASA Budget has been proposed; there are almost 200 followers on Twitter, and over 11,000 Facebook fans; and people are calling and emailing to ask what they can do to help.  She stated following the Governor’s Space Summit last week, and in partnership with Space Florida, staff began a complete revision of the Save Space website; changing the images, the colors, and the messages to address the issues and questions that have been raised; it was decided that Save Space should take this opportunity as a grass roots effort to be vocal and aggressive with regard to the proposed budget in the accompanying lap of the bold goal, a destination, and a timeline; and the new website is going live today. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated that there are some key message points that were passed around; he believes that one of the challenges the Board has had is that not everyone understood what the message should be, or is going to be; message points were developed with the help of Frank Dibello and Debbie Spicer; and some of them are pretty bold, but it is time to be bold. 

 

Ms. Prosser stated the Space Shuttle in the logo has been replaced with the International Space Station, to show that Brevard County is not simply interested in extending just the shuttle; the background has changed from red and blue, to black; when someone visits the website, those message points appear in bright aqua, and change every 10 seconds on the front page to draw attention; and the questions that have been raised are also very visible, as well as the President’s quote from his August 2008 visit to Titusville.  She stated the Mission Possible page describes what people need to tell their congressional representatives, state legislators, local newspapers, and their families and friends; there are additional speaking points also on the page; and congressmen and congresswomen are being called upon to withhold their votes on any legislation until the NASA budget, and these issues, have been addressed.  She stated the  It Matters  section describes  why Save Space exists, and why space needs to be a priority for America.  She noted the How to Help section provides convenient web links to enable people to email their senators and representatives in Washington, D.C., including the entire delegations of Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas; and there will also be email addresses for key committee members.  She noted the Sample Letters page contains letters that can be downloaded and customized and then emailed or printed and mailed to the appropriate elected officials; the Space Policy Page has links to the NASA Fiscal Year 2011 Budget Request, along with speeches and information about both Florida and National Policy; she stated the Partners Page contains logos and links to those organizations and businesses that are supporting Save Space’s efforts; and the News and Bills pages will be populated automatically with new articles and legislation as they are posted elsewhere on the internet.  She stated the Facebook and Twitter pages show how people can join the groups; it includes a Twitter Widget, which shows the latest Tweets that are sent out by Save Space; it enables people who are not Twitter users to keep up-to-date on the messages, and also shows the timeliness of the information; and staff will continue to update and tweak the website as new information and suggestions come along. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated the website is being used to show the grassroots effort; so hopefully, when people ask what they can do, they can be directed to www.savespace.us, and sign up, write somebody, or tell somebody. 

 

Chairman Bolin noted that Commissioner Nelson is not with the Board today as he had a family emergency. 

 

 

 

Commissioner Infantini stated she attended a dinner function last night with County Manager  Howard Tipton, who did a wonderful job of presenting; he let everybody know  the County was going to be facing some tougher times with the budget; he did an excellent job in presenting and showing the hurdles; some of the things being done to help out in the employment area is putting a moratorium back on impact fees to try to help people get into business, or start new businesses; and that is where they are standing locally.  She stated the space issue is really not just a local issue, but more of a national issue the Board has very little control over; and from a local front the Board is trying to streamline the permitting process to help businesses and business owners. 

 

 

 

Commissioner Infantini stated she neglected to mention in Tuesday’s reports that she was fortunate enough to attend the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Awards program, and they did an excellent job; and expressed appreciation to all of the deputies for all of the work that they do. 

 

 

Commissioner Bolin stated she not only was at the governor’s summit on space, she was also at the board meeting of Space Florida, which wanted to relay appreciation and support back to the Commissioners who were involved with the awarding of $800,000 to Exploration Park. 

 

 

Commissioner Infantini stated she would like to make one correction to Commissioner Fisher’s report.  She noted that not everyone will be travelling to Colorado Springs, there is at least one Commissioner that will not be travelling out there, and she did not want it to be miss-quoted. 

 

 

Howard Tipton, County Manager, stated the Board is having the Space Workshop as an approach to look at the County’s current situation, the President’s Budget, NASA’s proposed missions, and then to hear from United Space Alliance (USA).  He stated the Board will then look at the community initiatives, Brevard Workforce Development, the EDC, Kennedy Space Center Development Team, and Tourism Development Council, who can talk to the Board about local impacts; and then there are State initiatives, such as the Florida Space Caucus, which is headed by Florida Representative, Ritch Workman.  He noted Florida Space Day will be held in Tallahassee next week; space industry bills and budgets are to be discussed; and then finally, he would like to discuss federal initiatives through the federal advocacy.  He stated he believes the workshop will be very informative; it is designed to be a discussion format; the idea is to go ahead and get questions out there because everyone is learning, as this is a very dynamic and fast changing environment; and he believes this is the Board’s opportunity to learn and continue to work through the issues.   

 

Marshall Heard, Space Consultant for Space Florida, and EDC of Florida Space Coast, stated the federal government uses a five-year budget planning cycle, with the first year being firm; then there is four years of guidance thereafter; and when the president sent his budget request for NASA over to Capitol Hill in January, he provided a five-year guidance plan with a firm budget for 2011.  He noted there are a couple of things he would like to emphasize; the issue is a long way away from being resolved; there is a complete authorization and appropriation cycle to go through; and he pointed out that the United States Congress has not passed a Bill on time in 12 years, so there is the prospect of another omnibus, or continuing resolution, from October 1^st.  He stated the good news is that while every federal agency is being generally thought of as a target of opportunity to reduce federal funding, this particular budget request adds $6 billion over the five-year period compared to the fiscal year 2010 Budget; he stated it invests heavily in science and technology, and research and development; and instead of doing operational missions, NASA is now in the enabling businesses developing the technologies that are required for the future.  He stated there are a series of robotic  precursor missions that are  being talked  about; the most prominent one is the Mars Lander, which is a science experiment that is about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle that NASA  will  send to  Mars in 2011 that  will supplement  the two little  rovers that  are up there today; and for the first time, there is a major piece of science hardware that will be on the surface of Mars.  He stated there is major emphasis on commercial spacecraft or spaceflight; $2 billion is specifically identified for Kennedy Space Center infrastructure; other sectors in NASA are looking at that $2 billion to see if part of it should accrue to them, not just all to one thing.  He stated that the International Space Station (ISS) is being extended to at least 2020 and beyond; the Constellation Program is cancelled, which was a series of hardware elements that sort of play together; the Aries I is a medium-lift rocket; sitting on top of that is the Orion Crew Capsule; those two things carry both cargo and people to low earth orbit, which is a couple hundred miles up; and the ISS is roughly 200 miles up.  He noted low earth orbit can extend out to whatever is desired, providing it is measured in hundreds of miles, but certainly not measured in anything more than seven or eight hundred miles; and low earth orbit is where all the action is today for human spaceflight.  He noted the Constellation Program also contained an Aries V vehicle, which is a heavy-lift vehicle almost the size of Apollo; on top of that vehicle sits an earth departure stage; and on top of that sits an ulterior lunar lander.  He noted when trying to go to the moon, a small rocket has to be fired with an orion on it, and a big rocket with the earth departure stage and the lunar lander; those two things come together in orbit, and the crew vehicle then attaches to the lunar lander once the earth departure stage is fired and is headed to the moon; and then the lunar lander separates, it goes down to the surface and goes back up.  He noted NASA has lost that capability if the recommendation is followed through; and the cancellation of the Constellation Program essentially says that NASA is not going to go beyond low earth orbit for the foreseeable future, which means there will be no exploring.  He stated that is the biggest single change in the budget; it retires the shuttle as had been previously talked about; there are four shuttle missions remaining; and the budget does make it possible for those missions to go into 2011, if the schedule forces them into 2011.  He stated the science budget in 2009 was $4.5 billion, the Recovery Act added $4 million to that, so in 2010, there ended up being $4.5 billion total; in 2011 it jumps to $5 billion, and increases to $5.8 billion; and that change from $4.5 billion to $5 billion is a good, solid, 10 percent increase, which is a big change in the science budget.  He advised science budgets are used to seeing little or no growth; but in this budget it is 10 percent in the first year and it goes up steadily; and by the time 2015 rolls around, it is a solid 30 percent above where it is today.  He noted that tells the Board that science is important; science is normally about revalidating the laws of physics, and inventing knowledge for the sake of inventing knowledge; technology is where what is learned is applied; between 2010 and 2011, NASA has more than doubled the technology budget; and by the time it has reached the end of the period, NASA is up to a factor of over $3 billion.  He stated space operations peak in 2010 and 2011; that reflects shuttle operations and shuttle termination; and then it drops down in subsequent years and again it becomes hardware oriented at that point in time.  He  noted  of the major themes, science came  out of the budget extremely well.  He stated there are three categories of science NASA is looking at: earth, observation, and climate science; there are roughly 15 satellites in orbit today that look at the earth; and the satellites look inward from low earth orbit, and from geosynchronous orbit, and show NASA what is going on in the world.  He stated climate science is obvious; planetary science is about 15 devices in orbit; in each of those first two categories, NASA will add three or four new satellites, which makes the people at Goddard and JPL happy, because they are the developers of those satellites; and there will be some launch business at KSC from those new satellites, so it is not totally a doom  and gloom story.   He stated  astrophysics and  heliophysics are also big businesses; there are 10 or 12 satellites in orbit today for those; and there will be another three or four.  He stated in the exploration end, NASA will be looking at a new concept for a heavy launch vehicle; Aries V will probably not pass the test when looking at all of the new opportunities; there will probably be a different approach to a heavy launch vehicle; and there will be some money spent on materials, propellants, and combustion processes.  He advised NASA is trying to improve the technology that goes into the heavy lift vehicle; those monies would typically be spent by design centers like Johnson and Marshall; and very little of that money would probably end up coming to Brevard County.  He stated there is a new topic of interplanetary propulsion that bears discussion for a moment; when leaving low earth orbit, the earth departure stage, or something similar, is fired; it burns for a short period of time, typically measured in minutes; at the end of its burn, everything is shut off and the vehicle coasts; if going to Mars, the vehicle would coast for 260 days; for nine months, the vehicle has no propulsion; and whatever the last boost gave it sends the vehicle on its way.  He noted that 260 days in space, in something the size of a 10x10x10 room, is confining and monotonous, and it is a lousy environment; the person, or persons, are being bombarded by radiation; it is a very harsh environment; and anything that can be done to reduce that time is significant.  He advised there are what he loosely calls ‘electric propulsion systems’ that could be burned continuously and accelerate continuously if that is done; the flight time could be reduced from 260 days to 39 days; and that kind of propulsion will be under development as part of this effort.  He stated the way that system works is that the vehicle is continually accelerated to a half-way point, at which time the vehicle is turned around and would be decelerated half way; it is a lot different than coasting for the 260 days that is done today; and the difficulty is that most of the monies would be spent by other centers, primarily by Marshall and Johnson.  He stated to date, there have been about 2,000 hours of science generated using that capability; there is now the capability to have six people in orbit to generate 2,000 hours a year of science; that will be continued at least to 2020; and there is a good chance that it will go beyond that.  He stated everybody knows the shuttle story at this time, which is after four more missions it is phased out.  He advised the big thing that NASA saw that changed in its budget request was the reliance on commercial research companies; there is a new series of Space Act agreements funded by NASA to six different vendors to provide concepts for how cargo and crew could be carried to low earth orbit; with orion being cancelled there has to be some way for the U.S. to carry cargo and crew; but right now, for the foreseeable future, NASA will have to use an international partner, either a Japanese, European, or Russian, vehicle.  He noted the major change in the program is the emphasis on carrying crew to low earth orbit; the current programs are designed only to carry cargo; NASA has always had an option to extend that to carry crew; and those options will probably get exercised over the next few  years, but  it will be a  competitive effort.  He  stated  everybody will  have some sort of offering that they will throw into the hat; NASA will pick the best one or two of those; the precursor missions are interesting; the Augustine Committee met and had a number of options, such as going straight back to the moon, for which there are good, scientific reasons for why NASA would simply go back to the moon for the next major step, or it could go to lagrangian points; there are places in space where all of the forces balance out; and an object can be placed in one of those locations and it will stay there forever.  He stated it makes a great platform for observation; and big telescopes can be placed there and do a great deal of work that way.  He noted NASA can go to an asteroid; cosmologists believe that more can be learned  by landing  on  the surface of an  asteroid  than any other  single thing; there is

literally the technology to fly a vehicle out to an asteroid and land on it; and then gather data and go home.  He advised the next step would probably be to fly around Mars and then coming back without landing; Mars has two moons; NASA could also go up and orbit one of the two moons; and it could send exploration vehicles down to the surface of those moons much like it has sent the exploration vehicles to the surface of Mars.  He noted the notion behind the flexible path is two-fold; NASA advances scientific knowledge incrementally as each one of those things is completed, but there is also the spirit of exploration because a series of first events have to be continued, such as the first time landing on an asteroid, and the first time going around a moon of Mars; and so that was the logic behind the flexible path.  He stated some of this can be done without people involved; it can be done robotically on some missions; but some missions will need a crew along.  He stated in situ research utilization means living off the land; for example, when going to Mars, the astronauts would be on the surface for a year before they could come back because the planets have drifted apart; NASA would not want to make that trip any longer than it needs to be; the question is how they would raise food, how they would take care of waste management, and how they would make the propellants to get back home; the rockets do not carry enough propellant to return home when they would leave mars, so when they get to the surface they would literally have to mine the minerals, put them into a micro factory and convert them into propellant; and if they did not do that, they would not return home.  He advised there is $2 billion in the president’s budget for Kennedy Space Center infrastructure; when reading the verbiage that goes with that, it implies that some of those monies could be available to improve the efficiency of the space wing, eastern range; NASA is going through the deliberation of how it might do something like that; and it is going through discussions about what would make sense to do for the range.  He advised there are two goals; one is to improve the operation efficiency of all of the infrastructure at KSC and the range; and the second is to lower costs; but the real thrust is how NASA can prove to be a true partner for commercial operators.  He noted NASA is trying to figure out what it can do at KSC to bring the commercial business to fruition; there are a series of teams in place right now at KSC addressing those issues; and the next step is the role of headquarters. 

 

He stated KSC has no choice but to execute the current contracts, as well as NASA at large; KSC does not have permission  to  stop  anything,  it cannot  cease  and desist,  and  it  cannot  call  up  the Constellation contractors and tell them to stop; the train is moving and NASA is spending whatever money it is spending from prior years; there is no choice but to continue to do that; NASA can only plan for what might happen if Congress accepts the president’s vision. 

 

He advised NASA is in a process of developing the new plans; when that is done, it will send that information to NASA headquarters, which in turn will carry it across to Congress and have the debate; NASA is looking at a series of partnerships; it has created a new center planning office at KSC, which is the front door to the Center; and it is actively looking for partnerships that advance the cause of both industry and NASA.  He stated Congress will go through its deliberations and ultimately end up with a budget; that budget will have language that implements whatever it is Congress believes it should do; and not necessarily, wholeheartedly, accept what the president has done.  He advised the number one concern that is being voiced is that there is not a firm destination in mind for exploration; NASA has talked about a flexible path, but nobody has  driven  a  stake in  the  ground;  for  example, it is  going to Mars  in 2025,  but  the difficulty is, when being lost, any road will do; and until that stake is driven in the ground, NASA will not know how far back in the chain it will need to go to set aside time for building hardware, which in turn means it would not know how much time it would have for science and technology.  He noted because NASA does not know where it is going, or what it will be doing when it gets there, it does not know which sciences it will need to concentrate on, or which technologies to bring to the application stage; there will be a lot of pressure on the administration, including NASA leadership and the White House, to set some goals; and those goals will get set over the next three, four, or five months, and then communicated to Congress.  He advised the last message he wants to leave the Board with is that for the foreseeable future, at least from now until October, all of the actual deliberation in the course of action that openly is chosen will be done in Washington, D.C.

 

Chairman Bolin inquired what Mr. Heard’s professional opinion would be for the Board to take action as a unit to assist. 

 

Mr. Heard stated he believes the best thing the Board can do is recognize that everyone is looking for the correct answer; creating a partnership environment where there is a lot of dialogue with NASA is the right thing; and NASA is going to be looking for input.  He stated there are a number of tools the County has that NASA does not have access to; and he believes when bringing those things together, and literally reasoning together, they will figure out the best way to handle Exploration Park.  He stated as an example, there are a number of incentives the Board could offer businesses to relocate here that will be associated with new technologies.  He stated at this point in time, NASA trucks in almost every ounce of liquid oxygen it uses; some of it comes from as far away as New Orleans; and it may make sense for the Board to incentivize a contractor to bring a gas plant to Brevard that would manufacture oxygen and hydrogen.  He noted the Board would probably have to talk about donating land that is available, low cost leases, or tax incentives; and an open dialogue with the NASA leadership, he believes, is the best course of action at this point.

 

 

Lee Solid stated he was asked to discuss NASA’s proposed mission; and he is aware of the Board hearing from the KSC Director on Tuesday, when he shared KSC’s response to the president’s proposal, and what some of NASA’s intent is in proceeding on this new program.  He noted the Board just learned from Mr. Heard about the elements of the budget and how they work; some of what he has to say may be a little redundant to what Mr. Heard has presented; but he will try to be very brief, and not to be too repetitive.  He stated he will briefly contrast what NASA’s current program is with the new program, and show how it is revising its pursuit strategy as economic developers; he does not believe his role is to challenge the program, even though as a former aerospace executive and engineer, he would like to do that; but his role is to understand where NASA is going, and to help capture as much work as possible in Brevard County.  He stated as Mr. Heard said, the previous mission, Constellation, was going to fly out the shuttle in 2010; even though much thought and debate has gone into attempts to fly in the shuttle longer, it certainly was a subject for discussion in yesterday’s hearing; and the new program keeps fly-out as before, which is in 2010.  He stated the current program ended the U.S.

participation in the ISS in 2015; the new program extends it to 2020, which is necessary; and the current program developed a replacement system for the shuttle.  He stated Mr. Heard described what those elements were, and the pursuit strategy on that program; all of those elements, Aries I, Orion, Aries V, and Altair, were directed at capturing as much of the assembly work and other affiliated peripheral work as possible on those elements; and capturing the final assembly of the Orion was a product of the pursuit strategy.  He noted the new program, Constellation, is cancelled; as already stated, it does not necessarily mean that human spaceflight is being abandoned; and NASA is certainly going to spend time, energy, and money to research how human spaceflight can be done with a new heavy lift system and how NASA can look to the commercial industry in the interim to least carry through the space station. 

 

He advised today’s program opens the door for commercial transport of cargo to space; and two companies are in the process of demonstrating the capability to do that.  He stated the new program expands the commercial role to carry astronauts to the ISS and back; NASA enabling the commercial industry to become the crew carrier has always been its domain in the past; and now NASA will help the commercial side by preparing to do that job.  He advised the current program does Research and Technology (R&T); a lot of the R&T was directed to spaceport needs; the new program is heavy in the development of technology that is going to make space exploration more feasible, more safe, and less expensive; and that is a good thing.  He stated the current program includes launch services for NASA’s science missions, which results in several launches a year using expendable vehicles; and the new program does not change that, except there should be more science missions.  He stated from an economic development perspective, NASA’s charge is simple and basic; and NASA is simply going to plan on what it has been given.  He noted NASA will proceed on the basis that the president’s budget will be adopted by Congress; but NASA is also smart enough to know that programs can change; and it must review and understand the new program.  He stated NASA has 10 centers; most are design and development, or research centers; KSC and Stennis Space Center in Mississippi are really the only Test and Operation Centers; there is a line in the specialties that it takes to do operations as opposed to design and development; that line could get rather wide; and NASA would press the edges of that line in identifying more work for KSC.  He advised NASA would look at each budget element and identify specific opportunities for Florida; an example might be something like on-orbit fueling technologies; a design center would claim that task; no one knows more about fueling rockets than KSC; therefore, NASA would identify that task and pursue it on the basis that specialties and capabilities exist here to do that; and KSC will work very closely with NASA to track its activity as it transitions into the new program.  He stated Mr. Cabana has spoken about the teams that he has already assigned to start the capture process; NASA is already working with team leads, understanding what it is that they are doing, and how they can help; and finally, the teams will develop capture strategies and get to work.  He stated with the emphasis on commercial, NASA has identified the probable players that would develop new crew carriers; some have hardware, some have PowerPoint slides, some have capsules that have names, some have capsules that have not been named yet; and every one of the players has some unique ideas.  He noted there have been initial discussions with different companies; a plan has been built around maximizing their involvement here in Florida; and the intent would be that their  hardware  systems  would be  built, assembled,  serviced,  launched, refurbished, recovered, or whatever here in Florida, thus restoring to some degree the workforce at KSC. 

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired if there was an ability to launch out of Virginia at Wallops.  Mr. Solid responded yes.  Commissioner Fisher stated astronauts have always been launched out of Kennedy Space Center; with this new concept, Wallops got $43 million for revamping its launch facility; and further inquired what that would mean for Kennedy Space Center, and if it means that it is gearing up to think that they can do more commercial, or does that hurt KSC if NASA is directing money to Wallops.  Mr. Solid replied he is unsure that he can answer the question directly, but he does know that it is Orbital Science’s intent that the commercial re-supply services contract would be executed there, and that they would indeed transport cargo from Wallops to the ISS; much of that prep work would be done at KSC; but there are some things that would need to be done at Wallops; and as far as crew transport from Wallops, the Center Director said the other day that it is the expectation that any astronaut travel between earth and the space station would emanate at the Kennedy Space Center.  He stated as it pertains to crew transport, and as far as what has been appropriated, he is aware that NASA is dealing with Congressional Delegations from two rather major states, Maryland and Virginia; and he is aware that there is a lot of political clout on making MARS, which stands for Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport, and is a big player in the space business. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated it is concerning because it is assumed the shuttle is going to be launched from Kennedy Space Center. Mr. Solid stated that he assumes NASA would pursue some of that money that has been appropriated for the 21^st Century Spaceport; he is sure they will pursue some of that money; and he does not believe it will all be directed to KSC. 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated he was happy Commissioner Fisher inquired about the launch area; when he went  to Colorado  Springs, to  the Space Symposium, to find out

how competitive these corporations are amongst each other, they were setting up their capsules in front of their competitors, and it was getting almost petty.  He inquired, for Brevard County, from an economic development standpoint, who really drives where NASA launches from; for instance, if there is a commercial crew transport vehicle like Space X that comes out on top, and they are ready to go and they are the ones that are going to do that first, where would they launch from; and inquired if it is the commercial company or NASA that pushes it, or if it is Congress.  He noted it is nice for the Center Director to say that he wants to guarantee human spaceflight at KSC, but there really is no guarantee. 

 

Mr. Solid replied physics has something to do with it; another way Commissioner Anderson could ask the question is if could the shuttle could be launched from somewhere else, or could an arbitrary decision be made on NASA’s part, or someone else’s part, to launch from its location of choice; he has never thought of it that way, as it just seems that NASA has a stake in it; and he would assume it will be directed that it be launched from the east coast.  He stated he cannot really answer the question; it is the Center Director’s intent that the kind of capability is provided at KSC that will cause any of the users to want to come to Florida and utilize the talent and capability that is here; and NASA’s intent would be to support him and have him do what he can to make that happen. 

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired out of the corporations that are listed, how does NASA know who to court; one might get slighted, as he has found out, if NASA talks to one company, and another company finds out that Brevard County wants it, then they go to another company; and further inquired how NASA knows who is going to come out in front. 

 

Mr. Solid replied he assumes there would be competition; and NASA would approach it like it did the CEV.  He stated NASA would put together a package, or an offering, from the State of Florida that would involve the incentives that the County and/or State can offer a company; and it would offer that to any and all.  He advised as has been experienced with the CEV, there are different approaches to some degree; there are different needs; and one might need a thermal vacuum chamber, for example, that costs $25 million to build, but the other one did not have that in their plan.  He noted the package that was put together was finally good enough that it was attractive to any and all comers. 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated that was all that he wanted to say, that there is a cautionary tale that as a community, and as an economic development commission, they all walk a fine line.  He noted he had a rude awakening in Colorado Springs last year; and one of these people had come up to him at an evening event and said he did not feel the love in Brevard County, and he did not know enough; and it felt like a knife in his heart, so that is when he found out that they get slighted when they feel like they are not getting something that their competitors are getting. 

 

Representative Ritch Workman stated if Brevard County was successful in acquiring every one of those companies to move their operations to KSC, the County would pick up 2,400 of 9,000 jobs that are going to be lost by the end of next year; every one of them are talking about putting humans on private spacecraft; but that is not going to happen for a decade.  He advised private companies are not going to do the risk reward analysis and come up with the fact that it is worth it to put humans on their rocket, and launch it into outer space for a long time to come; and he is not trying to be a downer, but he lives and breathes it every day, and he is sick of what is happening.  He noted he sees these jobs and thinks, even if KSC were to land them all, some are not even real; and KSC would not even get back a quarter of what it is going to lose.  He stated Commissioner Fisher inquired what the Board of County Commissioners can do; and he believes what the Board is going to have to do is think way outside the NASA box, think way outside the horrible budget by the president, and think of drastic changes to the aerospace industry in Brevard County and what can be done for immediate jobs, not a pie-in-the-sky type of deal.  He noted Commissioner Anderson inquired where else the shuttle could launch from; within 10 years, a whole lot of other places, such as floating platforms, and other countries; and by that point, Brevard County will be so far behind the space race, that it will be out of it, even second-generation.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated he has another slightly political concern about the other places; and the reason he always brings that up is that it is very obvious that it is beyond the NASA budget, what is done locally, and what the president talks about.  He stated there are other ambulatory agencies that hinder the development of human spaceflight in the country; he knows the Board likes talking about NASA, but it needs to start talking Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with all the other agencies that have a lot of restrictions; and he believes NASA is finally talking about looking at the broader spectrum because of those issues. 

 

Representative Ritch Workman stated Mr. Solid’s presentation was excellent; between him and the last presentation, and looking through the president’s budget again and again, he has to sit on his hands and his vocal chords because he is upset about what the County and State is facing; and every presentation starts with, “Well, the good news is the president has extended $6 billion over five years”.  He stated KSC is to become climate change experts; and not for manned spaceflight operations facility. 

 

 

Mark Nappi, United Space Alliance advised the market will drive where space vehicles are launched from; and if it is believed that Florida has the birthright for human spaceflight operations, then Florida should be the Pittsburgh of the steel industry, and the Detroit of the car industry.  He stated USA is a human spaceflight operations company; it is NASA’s prime contractor for shuttle operations; USA does shuttle processing; it takes the vehicle once it has landed, processes it, and launches it; and takes care of the facilities associated with that.  He noted USA had involvement with the Constellation Project; it is a sub-contractor for ATK on the first stage; it is also a sub-contractor for Lockheed Martin on Orion; and USA was in the procurement process for winning the ground operations contract which was cancelled just a couple weeks ago.  He noted there is one point he would like to make, because occasionally things are seen in the media; occasionally, people talk about the distractions among the workforce and the safety of the shuttle system during this fly-out; but it is his position that the Board does not have to worry about that.  He noted it is a very passionate and dedicated workforce; they are professionals; it bothers them, but it does not affect the work they do; and the Board can be assured that the fly-out of the space shuttle is going to be safe.  He advised USA has an impact in Brevard and across the State; the payroll is about 5,500 people, or was 5,500 people before the first layoff in October of last year; there was $462 million in annual payroll in 2009; employees reside throughout Central Florida; within Brevard County there are 4,850 employees currently; in North Brevard there are about 3,250; in South Brevard there are about 1,600 people; and that gives the Board a little bit of a demographic of the workforce that he will be speaking about.  He stated USA has a total of 446 vendors and suppliers in Florida, as of 2009; and above that $462 million in annual payroll, there is $64 million spent in 30 counties on vendors.  He noted an example of that is Brevard County, where there is another $45 million spent on vendors; the economic impact is obviously bigger than USA, as it is a NASA budget; and it impacts the State as well as the country.  He stated in 2008, $1.2 billion was spent by NASA in Florida across 25 counties, and that was without Constellation; the bottom line with the shuttle program ending, and Constellation being cancelled, is that there is an opportunity to lose $1.5 billion worth of business; and what KSC will get back is still relatively undefined with the budget that was presented to the Board this morning.  He noted the purpose is to assess the impact to the local community; with the way things are today, and if planned accordingly, and possibly affecting the debate that is taking place right now, this is the beginning of the process; and the Board should not be bashful about being vocal about concerns, and possibly affecting the outcome of the debate.  He stated the Board needs to be clear about a couple of things; the only hope is to lessen the impact to the community; the Board is beyond status quo, as it is in competition with other states and other NASA centers; and Brevard stands a chance of losing Florida as a spaceport if it is not aggressive as a state and a community.  He advised some of the hard facts around the shuttle retirement and Constellation cancellation as known today are that the job losses at USA are going to exceed 4,500 people; for KSC the estimates are 7,000; and then add in the economic impact to that, and how it affects the laundromats, restaurants, and everything else from there.  He noted the first priority is to try to maintain the workforce throughout the end of the shuttle program; USA is working weekly to understand what the budget impacts are to it for 2010, when it will do the next layoff, and how it can keep the right set of people to safely fly-out the shuttle; and USA has been pretty successful thus far.  He added, it is a month-to-month process; the first layoff was in October; and the biggest one would be at the end of the shuttle program; close to the last flight, or just after the last flight.  He advised the best way to maintain the workforce is to bring jobs to Florida; that is a hard thing to do with such a short period of time to do it; if the fear of security is taken away and the employees can stay until the end of the fly-out and then find a job someplace else, then that will help keep the right workforce in Brevard County;  but they are having more luck in states like Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina; and stated USA is going to work to get those people jobs as best as they can.  He noted the

Board should care about what is happening with the plan that was laid out, and what he is explaining; there is a big picture that he calls the gap, but it is really not a gap any longer with the plan that has been suggested, it is indefinite; the gap may last longer than the Apollo to Shuttle gap; and he believes NASA should pursue the commercial effort, but it will not support the front end of the gap with positioning of jobs from shuttle to what is next.  He noted there are a couple of points he would like to make because he has heard people talk with respect to job losses; he has lost a job before; it is not that bad; things are learned from it, and one moves on; but there is not going to be one job loss here; not even 1,000 jobs lost; but it is a core capability that this county has that is going to be lost.  He stated another thing he hears that somewhat infuriates him is that this was all created by the last Administration and nothing can be done about it; and he believes that is a copout.  He stated Europe, India, and China are all trying to accelerate their space programs, whereas the United States is putting a pause in its; the loss of human access to space puts the United States at a disadvantage; and the U.S. will have to rely on the Russians for transportation to the ISS.  He stated that was the big picture, but to be a little more parochial and talk about the state and the area, there is no good solution for Florida, or for Central Florida; USA is in the mode to try and minimize the damage of some of the job losses that he has spoken about; the workforce certainly represents a sizable economic impact to the area; the trickle effect out to indirect jobs is a sizable impact; but the county is starting with a 12 percent unemployment rate, and then adding on top of that; and at this point there is no manageable transition, it is a cliff. 

 

He noted when there was the Constellation Program, there was a two-year gap; there was a manageable transition because the shuttle was going to fly-out at a lower flight rate; it was going to start with five flights, four flights, two flights, one flight, and then transition into the Constellation Program; and that no longer exists, as there are five flights this year and then there is a cliff.  He stated with no human spaceflight operations in the foreseeable future, KSC certainly stands a chance of losing its leadership as a spaceport; and the commercial providers are not only courting the State of Florida.  He advised the current federal budget proposal heavily invests in research and development, and technology and innovation, but KSC is not known for those things; and KSC is going to be in competition with other NASA centers.  He stated honestly, KSC is not good at being in competition with other states and other centers; KSC has to become more parochial with its approach; it needs to become more aggressive; and it needs to become selfish.  He advised to be able to move forward, KSC needs to realize there are two problems; there is a short-term problem with the end of the shuttle, when it will lose a significant number of workers; and the second problem is finding out how it postures itself for the future of spaceflight operations to figure out how to make KSC attractive to commercial companies, or how it gets some other kind of rocket launches.  He advised those are the two problems; and one cannot be solved at the expense of the other, but they both have to be solved.  He stated the workforce needs to understand that it needs to be unified; they must speak as one voice from the local community, to the State and federal level; and to contractors  and to  NASA.  He stated  part of the  problem is  that the  messages to the Representatives have been too disjointed; there is a spirited debate that has already started; there is an opportunity to influence that; and everybody must prepare for what is about to happen.  He noted for the community, if the job losses turn out as they are projected, there is going to be some difficult economic times; for example, people are not going to be able to pay their mortgages, so there could be an influx of foreclosures; inquired what the community can do to potentially lessen that impact; and how can they plan today to avoid the foreclosures that could exist; and further inquired if the Realtors Association or a banking association could do something to lessen that impact; and stated those are the things that need to be thought about today.  He advised there needs to be workforce assistance, because no matter what happens, KSC is going to be smaller in 2010; the workforce needs to be trained to do something else; new space related businesses need to be attracted; from the State’s perspective, it needs to preserve the tax incentives it has for the businesses to come to Florida; and then it needs to do what it can to encourage other businesses to come here, such as the commercial sector, the Department of Defense, and other aerospace companies.  He noted there is a better understanding this year of what is being faced, and there is better understanding of programs that are available, and of NASA in general; and the workforce can go to a lower level of detail with just about everybody when it comes to explaining what they can do. 

 

He stated there are several reasons to band together to work towards an acceptable solution; it is for the good of the county and sustained human spaceflight, and the preservation of the workforce that is here; it is also for the good of the state and its economic health; and it is the workforce that made Central Florida what it is today, which is 50 years of being the spaceport of human spaceflight.  He stated these people have dedicated their lives to it, and some have lost their lives doing it; and right now they cannot do anything about what is going to happen to them; but as leaders in this community, the Board can. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he likes Mr. Nappi because he is blunt and honest; he does not blame him for being upset about the space program; and he feels the same way Mr. Nappi does.  He stated he had heard a lot about the comment about the shuttle not being safe, and inquired if NASA has painted itself into a picture where it says the shuttle is not safe.  Mr. Nappi replied human spaceflight is inherently risky, as it is a risky business.  He advised the shuttle is a very complicated vehicle that NASA makes look easy; and the assembly of the ISS was one of the most incredible engineering feats ever to take place.  He stated the shuttle is safe; he believes the reason to cancel or retire the shuttle was not because of shuttle safety; it was to use the money to develop the next vehicle; and the demonstrated reliability of the shuttle is higher than the demonstrative reliability of the Soyuz Rocket that NASA is about the put the nation’s astronauts on.  

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired if Mr. Nappi thinks it is elected officials to ask, not only the congressmen and congresswomen, that they hold up all votes on anything that has to deal with Washington, D.C. until they can  make sure  Florida is taken care of.  Mr. Nappi stated he told the group last week that he is not a politician, so he does not know what is going to be affected from a political point of view; but he does believe politicians need to offer solutions and they need to band together for what is best for the State of Florida; and what is best for the United States Space Program.  He noted he personally does not feel the plan that is in place today is what is best for either one of those.  Commissioner Fisher inquired if Mr. Nappi was in support of that position. Mr. Nappi stated he is in support of everyone banding together and finding a solution. 

 

Chairman Bolin stated one of the things discussed at the governor’s summit was that through the efforts of Space Florida, it is trying to band together as a unit using those other states that are already strong; having them all go into one fold so they can have a very strong voice for the space program in general, and not just Florida; and have everyone at the table.  She noted Representative Workman has always been making the statement about the safety of the shuttle, and she would like him to repeat that statement. 

 

Representative Workman stated NASA will tell anyone that it is tired of being a Shuttle Transportation System (STS); NASA has low earth orbit, it can go back and forth all day long; but NASA wants to move forward, so it was really excited about having the next generation human space launch vehicle; and as pointed out by Mr. Nappi, phasing out the shuttle and using the money to build what became the Constellation Program was the plan.  He stated what NASA began to do as a selling point was say the shuttle is getting old; it has done great; but it is time to move on; yet NASA has spent billions of dollars; and the contractor that built the shuttle made sure one of the parameters were that each shuttle had to fly a minimum of 100 launches.  He stated none of the shuttles have crested 30 launches yet; now it has taken longer to get there than expected, but if he were to buy a car that is guaranteed for 100,000 miles, he expects it to go 100,000 miles; and all of the shuttles could all go about 70 more launches before they have to be retired based on the manufacturer’s specs.  He noted NASA has painted itself into a corner because it wants to move to the next project; but now the rug has been pulled out; and it needs to do a 180 and go back to a bird that has about 70 flights left, and fire up the sub-contractors get some solid rocket boosters manufactured again and continue to fly the shuttle.  He stated there is life expectancy on the shuttles; and NASA has flown them 30 times out of a contracted 100. 

 

Commissioner Infantini stated that one of the biggest problems is NASA sat on its hands because it knew KSC was in the big three; and no one could take it down until it got taken down.  She noted Florida has so many rules and regulations, it has lost any competitive edge against any other state because they do not have the same rules and regulations; and now Florida has pulled itself out of the competitive market.  She stated if Florida does not break down some of  the barriers, it is never  going to be  competitively

advantaged; corporations will always go to other launch sites than Florida specifically because  Florida  is not  business  friendly.  She stated  if the  legislators  do not change the rules, and the federal legislators do not change the rules, then Florida will never be competitively advantaged; and she appreciates all of the dialogue, but if the business environment is not changed, then nothing will ever get done, or be competitive. 

 

Mr. Nappi stated the market will drive where businesses will launch from. 

 

Representative Workman stated Representative Steve Crisafulli could not be present today, so he will read a great quote from him, which is, “Brevard County used to have the worlds renowned Spaceport; we now have a really great National Wildlife Refuge with a Spaceport in the middle of it.” 

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired about the jobs and relocating some of the employees; noted it was mentioned that employees are having better luck in Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia; and further inquired why there is better luck in those other states.  Mr. Nappi replied those states have the jobs, and they have the opportunities.  Commissioner Anderson inquired if he is talking about Huntsville and places like that.  Mr. Nappi stated yes, Huntsville; and yes, there is a Boeing plant in South Carolina; and there is a Lockheed Martin plant in Georgia.  He noted they are having better luck in dialogue and opportunities there than they are having in Florida. 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated they are all transitioning back to other aerospace industries.  He stated he likes what Commissioner Fisher said that Florida should just tell Congress to hold everything up; and that would really put a burr in the Administrations saddle, when things are trying to get passed.  He stated he believes that the timing of this and to play with the livelihoods, jobs, mental health of employees that have worked very hard to make Florida the place where people leap off the Earth for the last 50 years, is unfortunate; and his thought is if looking at the three states impacted, Texas, Florida, and Alabama, it is not out of the realm of possibilities that Florida has just become a bargaining chip in something larger. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he feels strongly that the Board needs to tell the delegation that the expectation is for them to not vote on anything in Washington, D.C. until they can give Florida some bold directions and a bold timeline on when something will be done; and Washington D.C. needs to do what it said it would originally do and stop the gap and keep people working.  He stated he knows the country is bigger than Florida, but national security is important to the whole country; and this is a national security issue that may affect the whole country.  He stated he believes the Board should be tough and use the Save Space website, and help the elected officials to start putting the pressure on the congressmen, congresswomen, and senators. 

 

Representative Workman inquired how many Space Shuttle related jobs there are in Alabama and Texas.  Commissioner Fisher advised he heard Texas is expected to lose around 7,000 people.  Mr. Nappi stated if talking about shuttle related jobs, he would guess at least a couple thousand jobs at each center.   

 

Representative Workman stated he had not heard the proposal before about banding together and staying tough; there needs to be a specific ask; and his druthers would be that states could band together for what would cumulatively sound like 10,000 or 12,000 jobs.  He stated the shuttle only needs to launch one or two a year to keep almost all of those employees employed; he asked the Board to continue the path to look for the specific task, but it cannot be to just support space; and the task either needs to be bring back the Constellation Program or continue to fly the shuttle.   

 

Commissioner Fisher stated one possible suggestion for the Board was for it to urge elected officials to call for endorsement on the Constellation Program, for bold direction; it is urged that all votes be held on everything until Florida is taken care of; and no votes should be cast until the president sets direction that is right for the United States and preserves the U.S. as a world economic superpower and military power, which can only be achieved by space exploration and leadership.    

 

Mr. Workman stated being told to bring back the Constellation Program is good, or any follow-along that would save a couple thousand jobs; and stated with the current budget, the only thing that saves 6,000 jobs is continuing to fly the shuttle. 

 

Catherine Rudloff, Assistant to Congressman Posey, stated on the topic of what the strategy could be with the legislators, she would like to weigh in on how to support becoming united on the message and assessing the situation, and hopefully coming together as a community and deciphering what the priorities need to be, what the strengths and weaknesses are, and how to minimize the weaknesses and capitalize on the strengths.  She noted as far as the legislative outlook right now, it is squarely in the hands of Congress; and it will not be a quick fight.  She advised because it is an election year, Congress has been known to get business done on time because none of them want to come back afterwards; the risk of coming back afterwards in a lame duck session when there is so much on a high priority agenda to do, makes it a very complex year going forward; but if there were a year to gamble, that they would actually have a budget before they break, it would be the type of year that might actually happen; and  the hearings yesterday were just the beginning.  She stated in terms of the legislators banding together and shutting the system down, there is another senator from another state that has started to take that exact same action, and really stand up.  She advised there are 435 members in the United States House of Representatives; there are 60 members in the United States Senate; and Congresswoman Kosmas and Congressman Posey have both been very committed to working together to fight towards the key message of what is wonderful about commercial spaceflight and what is next, but the focus needs to be on extending the shuttle and not handing the jobs over to the Russians.  She noted while those two are committed and are working together daily on the floor to reach other members, they are two of 435; whereas one or two in the U.S. Senate make a huge difference; Congresswoman Kosmas and Congressman Posey would welcome any opportunity to call on such leadership to help them in this situation because that is where a little bit of political muscle happens; and they are always there and to listen.  She  stated  she appreciates the opportunity to have detailed discussions; hopefully, they will turn into action items; and she will be there throughout the day to see what can be done to help with those action items. 

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired if Ms. Rudloff had the numbers for the different space centers and how many jobs they are going to lose because of the ending of manned spaceflight; and further inquired if her office has that information, can a copy be provided to the Board.  Ms. Rudloff stated she does not have the numbers, but she can get them for the Board before the end of the meeting; and in terms of how states are banding together, there is outrage.  She stated she knows the kind of outrage Florida is feeling, but other states, and not just Alabama and Texas, but Louisiana, and across the country, where there are operation centers, they are upset as well, and are trying to engage; there is an increased presence as she has spoken to many folks; and as Congressman Posey has emphasized, the focus needs to not be just on the local press, but it needs to be on national press, taking the effort to the street to the larger media scale to get the American people fired up.  She stated that is why the Save Space effort is expanding and re-vamping to have not just the Florida focus as key, because there is outrage that the president has shocked the world with his budget proposal in terms of everyone being surprised to see that there is no set actual direction or timeline; and that can be capitalized on right now.  She stated Americans have been first in space for so long; much can be done here in Florida to make it better in terms of the federal fight; but it is going to take absolute cooperation and a national spotlight to help get there. 

 

 

Lisa Rice, Brevard Workforce Development Board (BWDB), stated the third phase of the Aerospace Workforce Outlook Report is finalized; it is a snapshot in time; and it shows what is going on with all of the contractors regarding workforce issues.  She stated the BWDB finalized the report before the president’s budget; and at that point there were 7,000 workers that were going to be left without a job.  She noted the challenges at the time were still the same, such as where KSC is going to go, but because of the president’s proposed budget, the job loss has increased to 9,000, and that is aerospace workers who are directly impacted with the shuttle ending and because of the cancellation of the Constellation Program.  She noted when the ripple effect is done, conservatively, it adds about another 14,000 job losses from hotels, restaurants, drycleaners, and doctors offices; and putting those two numbers together there will be an additional 23,000 people that would be without a job in Brevard County.  She reminded the Board that Brevard is already at a 12.1 percent unemployment rate at this time, which represents approximately 33,000 people right now without a job; and by adding the additional job losses, the unemployment rate will skyrocket. 

 

She advised there were some recommendations that came out of the report; the recommendations are the same as what Space Florida has as some of its legislative policies; it is also the same as the list of priorities that the Board has today; and the Aerospace Career Development Council has taken the recommendations and has approved them as well.  She noted the components of the plan are all of the things BWDB has been doing now for over two years; it has had success in a lot of things, such as success in training people, entrepreneurial approaches, and training; and  also with  the regional  approach.  She stated she wanted to give the Board a little bit of news out of the regional efforts; the Florida High Tech Corridor runs from Brevard all the way to Tampa; BWDB focused on the eastern half of that corridor; and it got some input from some of the Tampa area businesses as well that were tied into the research.  She noted in this initiative, BWDB asked businesses to fill out a survey, or to do a face-to-face interview; during that time, what the businesses were saying was what kind of workforce needs they have, what they would see as compatible coming across into their industries, where the issues were with finding qualified candidates, and basically, what was going on and what they expected to see going on in the next six-to 18 months; it is a difficult thing to do when the economy is on the downside; but BWDB has received a lot of good responses.  She stated the workforce is aging; businesses are looking for ways to hire people who are in their 30’s; and they need funds to train the workers.  She stated the top three occupations at KSC that could easily cross over to other industries were engineers, project managers, and data management specialists; the only problem is there is not a lot there for the technicians, or the tile techs, and nothing for administrative support; and that is definitely BWDB’s area of emphasis and interest at this point.  She stated she would love it if some of the initiatives the Board has talked about already this morning were to come about because there is enough to focus with the 12.1 percent unemployment rate; but the way it stands right now, the BWDB needs to keep moving and training the workforce so that they are ready to go to something.  She advised the Aerospace Career Development Council met this week and looked at a couple of different things for its own strategic action planning; there seems to be a perception going around right now that everyone is not working together; that is absolutely contrary to anything she has seen or heard personally; there is Space Florida, Economic Development Commission, Enterprise Florida, the County, and many more that are working projects together all the time; and they know what is going on with each other and where the focuses are, and where they are moving; but what she keeps hearing in the community feels like the groups have just woken up.  She advised BWDB has been on the issue for over two years; just on the workforce side; and Space Florida, the EDC, and Enterprise Florida have been working on it for a lot longer than that.  She noted one of the things that was said was that BWDB wants to try to coordinate the business plan; she needs to be clear about what is meant by that; it is not about asking Space Florida, the EDC, Enterprise Florida, or the Chambers to suddenly start sharing all of their business plans with how they are going to go about recruiting businesses, or who is the specific business, because there are some non-disclosure agreements that have to go on; but it is about if one of those agencies has a focus on a certain industry cluster, then let the others know; and more importantly, they need to put out the whole message that all of them know internally, and externally.  She noted BWDB has been to Orange, Seminole, and Osceola Counties, telling them what is going on in Brevard; and they inquired why they did not know that Brevard County needed so much help.  She noted the BWDB concept is to set up a regular communication process; it is a huge concept going on; and if it keeps coming all together, Brevard County will see more communities reaching out to it from all over the State saying they can help keep the workforce in Brevard, but they just need some help in training the workforce into specific skills; and that is where BWDB can come into play. 

 

Ms. Rice stated the Aerospace Career Development Council (ACDC) has realized it needs to add some players, such as Enterprise Florida, and the Brevard Public Schools; and the BWDB is going to work towards that.  She stated finally, there are some other items that need to be addressed; the BWDB needs champions that can quickly engage existing businesses; and the businesses are being encouraged to turn around and put those job postings, and skills, back into the system.  She stated Employ Florida Marketplace knows that 70 percent of jobs are created from an existing business expanding; and Brevard needs the champions that are grabbing those people who say they want one, two, five, or 500 people.  She stated there are a lot of incentives that are offered to businesses, whether they are expanding or coming to the area; and one of the key things BWDB has heard regionally is that businesses do not know where to go to find out that information, especially if they are looking in a regional kind of format.  She noted BWDB is talking about some kind of a web-based incentive catalog which would be a one-stop concept where businesses can at least go and click on links and go to different areas to tell what is available.  She stated there will be some cable ads starting very soon that will focus on different levels; and the ads are a way for BWDB to make businesses aware that the workforce in Brevard County and is available.  She noted the regional Economic Development Organization (EDO) collaboration is focused on how to get synergy around some industry clusters; and inquired how to start to bring the industry clusters together to take advantage of the workforce.  She stated she believes Brevard County needs to be pushing for a focus that is daily in Washington D.C; the County needs someone who knows the state’s space issues, and someone who can be there for it; the Board can ask those congressional people to withhold their votes, and that might be all well and good; but the way politics work in Washington, D.C. is, if there is not an inside person to hear what is going on, and to hear the latest rumors on aerospace, and to tell the Board what is going on, so it can be spread out to the County, and people like the EDC can go after new manufacturing and assembly, and checkout pieces, the County is lost; and Alabama, Texas, Colorado, Virginia, all have that in aces, but Florida needs that as well. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he agrees with Ms. Rice that the challenge in Brevard is that there is no bold vision, destination, or timeline; that is what a lot of the vote is; and until there is a bold destination, vision, and timeline, then let them it shut down.  He stated another thing he thinks Ms. Rice pointed out that is true is that the community is starting to realize that this is real; the Board has talked about it, and it knows, but now the people are at two months, or six months, from getting laid off; they are realizing that the reality is that this is real; and that is why they are asking what can be done; and it is going to take a position from leadership in Washington to give it that direction. 

 

Ms. Rice stated BWDB has been letting people know that they need to get registered with the Employ Florida Marketplace site, and at the Launch New Careers site before they get laid off in order for the EDC to serve them; that message has been going out and people are now registering anywhere from 100 to 200 per day, which puts a burden upon staff to try and reach all of those people and make an initial contact back with them; there are over 2,000 people on a waiting list, just waiting for the EDC to contact them back; and she would like to ask them to please be patient. 

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired about the 12 percent unemployment rate and if Ms. Rice was getting that number from the people that file for unemployment through the State of Florida.  Ms. Rice replied that is correct; but that does not include people who have quit looking for a job; and there are quite a few. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated because of the economy there are some people who are getting back into the workforce; and inquired if that did not include those people who may need to go back because their husband lost their job; Ms. Rice responding no.  Commissioner Fisher inquired if it is higher.  Ms. Rice responded not unless they have put themselves into the job market in one way, shape, or form, and so when looking at that 12.1 percent, it is those who are filing for, and receiving, unemployment compensation of some kind. 

 

Chairman Bolin stated Ms. Rice mentioned there are people on a waiting list; and inquired if there was anything that a volunteer, who might be a retired professional, might be able to do to assist in any way.  Ms. Rice stated she wishes that were true; volunteers might be able to help with some workshops that are off-site at KSC; the main problem is trying to make all of the different touch-points out at KSC; there has to be security clearance, and there has to be badges; and BWBD is working very closely with NASA to figure out how maybe some of their personnel could help with making that initial contact. She stated she has to give kudos to Representative Workman for the Space Caucus, which she feels will help at the State level; and for the whole support of the Space Florida package that the governor has in his budget, which includes the $3.2 million for the workforce training efforts. 

 

Lynda Weatherman, President & CEO, Economic Development Commission of Florida’s Space Coast, stated there has been a lot of good discussion taking place today about what should be done at a national level, and how it should be mitigated if there is the extension of the Shuttle program, or the bringing back of the Constellation Program, or a hybrid of both.  She noted while at the Space Summit, people asked her what she thought about it; her comment to them was that admittance is the first step toward recovery; and by that she meant that it really was the first time anything was being done at such a broad level; and the EDC acknowledges it needs to work on a collective statewide effort with the Congressional leaders, meeting and discussing this one ubiquitous issue that is journeying to Florida, which is manned spaceflight.  She stated what she is showing the Board is basically what the EDC has done; and when the Constellation Program was closed down, the question for the EDC was what it can do to exploit the macroeconomic dynamics that are taking place.  She advised there are three points she would like to make; the first opportunity that came out was the capture of the Orion; the EDC provided funds to hire the smart people who know what they are doing; the EDC got it, and both contractors were listed; and the State came to the table at that point, so it truly is partnership.  She advised this is how the cards have been laid; the revised space pursuit strategy is not as detailed as the Constellation Program because it is not a mutual program; the EDC went through the budget and identified within those budget sectors, areas where it thought there may be an opportunity; it is a big budget; and the EDC did not identify all of them as some have yet to be determined, so the grey areas basically are not tied to programs, but they are tied to budget items.  She stated the EDC is a fluid and dynamic organization that will respond; and if the nation decides it will be a hybrid, then the EDC will go after hybrid and change the budget accordingly.  She stated under technology demonstration programs, she sees it as being expanded more as they find out what is going on, because that is where most of the focus is; and then an orbit propellant transfer is being looked at to identify programs that can be brought back to KSC.  She advised the EDC is approaching programs and operations, and then final assembly and checkout in some cases; and that would bring the propellant program here.  She stated with In Situ Resource Development, there is a very good chance of getting it in Florida; and it is a production of food and propellant on the moon.  She stated the EDC has been talking to SpaceX for years; the Board has also talked to SpaceX; and the Board will be talking to SpaceX and many other companies when the Commissioners go to Colorado Springs.  She stated the EDC is not assuming there will be human cargo in Brevard County by Orbital Space II Operations, but it is going to fight for it; Orbital may process at Wallops because there has been a lot of money thrown at Wallops to do it; and Florida should be ashamed if it has lost that.  She advised the 21^st Century Launch Complex identifies specifically for KSC to be commercially active to attract the launch industry; that will rely a lot on infrastructure; and it will probably require a lot of joint ventures with the State as well. 

 

Ms. Weatherman stated commercial launch operations is basically the same as has been discussed, about attracting and fighting for the ISS program; the EDC has not yet sited this major program for the commercial launch operations; and so she would like everyone to work on doing that.  She stated the commercial supplier aggregation are the second tier companies that are tied to everything that is going commercially; and so there is more than just the spreadsheets of Orion, Orbital, and SpaceX.  She stated the National Shuttle Logistics Depot, has some capabilities that are unique to the United States and work with USA, KSC, and Space Florida; and it may be an opportunity for the Department of Defense to use some of the capabilities that are already out there.  She stated the EDC is not going to just look at the transportation vehicles; but it is going to look at all factors and every opportunity possible to exploit.  She stated on Tuesday, one of the Commissioners asked Mr. Cabana what could be done with the local community; Mr. Cabana replied the Board helped the community last week by supporting Exploration Park; she knows it was a tough decision; she would not let KSC or any other group underestimate the difficult decision that was; when giving something to KSC to support it and make it successful, it is taking away from someone else; that sends a strong message to KSC; and it sends a stronger message to headquarters.  She stated the EDC is leading an effort to change the energy policy; the Board has heard about the need to do things differently to re-invent the community in a new economy; she has been in the EDC business for 25 years, but until last week had never been on a conference call with the Audubon Society about a project; and stated different players need to come to the table.  She stated if the energy policy can be changed, the solar fund at KSC can be expanded; and when it is expanded, it will create the demand for bringing manufacturing and production to KSC.  She advised right now, a solar company does not need to come to Florida; there is no market for them; they are going to New Jersey, Michigan, and Arizona; all places that have an energy policy that creates a market for them; and that is what is driving the re-location.  She stated the next thing she wanted to talk about is the satellite industry of pursuit opportunities, in addition to focusing on opportunities, or challenges, and exploiting the results from the Administration’s budget; there are also related opportunities that kind of fall under the budget, but not really; and that is the satellite industry.  She noted the satellite industry is divided into four parts: satellite services, manufacturing, launch operations, and ground equipment.  She stated the industry’s revenues from 2003-2008 grew at 14.2 percent; and globally it grew in volume by 19 percent. 

 

She noted the EDC understands the dynamics of increasing the launch rate at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, which means the need for vehicles to come here to get fixed and launched; and in addition to a growing industry, those are the dynamics the EDC needs for companies to look to expand.  She stated the EDC has identified some companies; she has spoken with Survey Satellite, and has been to their headquarters; and they have told her they want to do something in the United States.  She stated Brevard County is the biggest  satellite  market, particularly  small satellites; the  County needs to be able to provide the right infrastructure, particularly a business environment and to know this and be smart enough to be responsive to it; and there are companies that are already here, like Globe Wireless.  She stated Commissioner Infantini had asked what the County can do to be more competitive; the EDC is working with the County to look at the building permit activity, along with site permitting; when a company like Globe Wireless is granted an AVT, it sends a strong message to that company; and when it comes to a core part of a growing industry, opportunities to expand are recognized.  She stated what the Administration decides to define as the space policy will change as quickly as the nation changes. 

 

 

Mario Busacca, Office of Center Planning and Development for NASA, stated NASA is the front door for what was mentioned earlier about the commercial capability of KSC; NASA is the first agency that would try to interact with companies for the Space Center; NASA likes to think of itself as the Nation’s gateway to exploring, discovering and understanding the universe, which is what it is today; and it would like to continue to be that in the future.  He noted the land area at KSC is about 140,000 acres; it is the largest, by land area, space center out of all the NASA centers; about half of the land is under water for the most part; and there is about a quarter of that which is developable.  He stated someone mentioned earlier that Florida Fish and Wildlife manages that land for NASA under agreement; it is actually done through an agreement from the 1960’s; and it has actually been a very good partnership.  He stated the National Park Service was legislated for the Canaveral National Seashore; and of all of the 140,000 acres, only about 6,000 of them are used for space related activities, and all the roads and transportation modes that go through that.  He advised the master plan is kind of working off of what was originally developed in the 2002-2003 timeframe; at that time, NASA had a different relationship with the Air Force, contractually; some contracts were combined so that the two were sharing some resources; and they built the master plan together.  He stated over the years it has changed a little bit because of the varying missions between the Air Force, NASA, and contractual issues; and NASA has now revised that plan in the 2008-2009 timeframe.  He stated NASA is a part of an overall regional network, with multiple airports in the area, rail, water transportation, and roads.  He noted NASA considers itself not just a small entity; everybody keeps talking about KSC as an individual, isolated entity, but that is not the case at all; it is integrally connected with all of the transportation modes and activities throughout the region; there are a lot of assets at the Center, including transportation assets, such as rail; and right now, NASA employs about 2,000 employees, and about 13,000 contractors; but the current replacement value for the assets it has is just under $5 billion. 

 

Chairman Bolin inquired what NASA is anticipating as far as layoffs with its employees.  Mr. Busacca replied NASA does not anticipate any layoffs at this point; the process for laying off federal employees is a long process; it is called a reduction in force; and before that happens there has to be an announcement six months before that process is started by federal law; and NASA has not heard of that yet; but he is not the expert on that process. 

 

Mr. Busacca stated the whole space center is not used in terms of the infrastructure; and there are particular areas at the space center that will be focused on.  He stated KSC has the horizontal launch area, although nothing is launched horizontally yet; and there is also the vertical launch area, central campus, payload processing area, visitor’s center, and Exploration Park.  He stated in the master plan, there is about 900 assets of facilities at Kennedy Space Center; one of the things that is going across the federal government and certainly within NASA, is the idea of reducing the vertical footprint because all of those assets require a certain amount of funds to maintain them; and the more it can reduce the liability in terms of the cost of maintaining assets that are no longer usable, the more they can put into programs.  He stated the idea is how to identify those assets that are really no longer viable, get them off of their books, revitalize, or build new assets that would meet the new mission; and the idea behind the central campus is how to combine those things and move those things out that are not needed, and build newer, more high-tech facilities.  He advised south of the central campus is a number of payload processing facilities; a number of them have been aging; one of the larger ones to be demolished is the vertical processing facility; this particular facility has been looked at multiple times for outside commercial and other government use; but it is so big and so expensive that no one has been able to capture the ability to refurbish it.   He stated originally, NASA looked at a Spaceport Master Plan, which included it with the Air Force; and so in the vertical plan there will still be some of the vertical launch.  He noted going to commercial spaceflight is really not all that new to NASA; NASA only launches the shuttle, which not only launches cargo, but it launches humans as well; and all of the other things that are launched through NASA that do not require human launch, go off of a commercial carrier.  He noted NASA does not operate the Delta’s, or Lockheed Martin Atlas V; that is all commercial; the big shift is putting people on a commercial vehicle; and that is obviously very different.  He noted for NASA, it is kind of an expansion of the things it has done before; when looking at the array of things NASA uses, it would include the launch complexes on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station; there are only two launch complexes at Kennedy Space Center, launch complexes A and B; and there are four additional active launch complexes on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with a possibility of some others as well.  He stated there is complex 41, which has the Atlas on it; Complex 37 has the Delta IV on it; Complex 17 has the Delta II; of course, Complex 40 is SpaceX; all of those are active complexes; and there are several other areas, both on KSC and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station that could be used to either refurbish an existing abandoned launch pad, or build new launch pads.  He stated the other part of the vertical launch area is the LC-39 processing area; that is where things like the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), the Launch Control Complex, and the Orbiter Processing Facility are located; and it is all considered part of the vertical launch complex.  He stated he knows the Board is going to ask what facilities will be available when the shuttle program goes away; NASA has a list it put out; and it was actually fairly small, because most of the facilities were claimed by the Constellation Program, things like the VAB, and Launch Control Complex.  He stated NASA also has some additional areas where it said if there were new facilities that had to be developed, it has already identified some areas that could be used for that. 

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired if there is a thought process to convert LC-39 over to a commercial capable launch facility.  Mr. Busacca replied right now, the program of record is Constellation; NASA is moving forward with Constellation, going towards preliminary design review; however, given  the  president’s direction, it is  now looking at how that would change if going to commercial and not doing Constellation the way it was planned; and the thought process is how to make that change; but he does not have the answer to that question today. 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated his thought would be that to change pads A and B over from the current configuration, which is shuttle-capable, to anything other is quite an expensive undertaking.  Mr. Busacca stated indeed, NASA anticipates no matter what happens it is going to be using LC-39 A and B; it has already planned on changing those configurations for the Constellation Program; and so it has some of those things already in the budget.  He stated with horizontal launch, NASA has a really unique capability called the Shuttle Landing Facility that is 3 miles long; the primary thing it is used for now is landing shuttles; and NASA has been working on what it can do with the facility for several years and has done some environmental work.  He stated NASA already has several agreements; Starfighters being one that signed, which is a sub-orbital company; Jet Aircraft that have been modified and are out there and have started operations; and NASA is working on how it can use this great asset for new and exciting space related activities.  He stated NASA is seeing in the sub-orbital realm that other spaceports in the United States already have contracts with sub-orbital contractors; and he believes when Mr. Solid put up his list, there were some sub-orbital contractors on it.  He advised public outreach is basically the Visitor Complex; the Visitor Complex is managed by a concessionaire, which is a very specific kind of contract; and the beauty of that particular kind of contract is that the assets, while they are NASA, are not funded by appropriations; the construction is funded through the concessionaire contract, through bonding; the County has been helpful in that over the years; and the County ends up with a premier visitor complex.  He stated Exploration Park is just south and east of the public outreach area; it has a very unique capability; a little over 200 acres has been leased to Space Florida in two phases to develop it as research and development, and industrialized type park; and they have contracted with a private company to be the master developers to actually develop the land.  He expressed appreciation to the Board for supporting the park and putting money towards it, because the way it works is that NASA has provided the land, but it will not provide the monies for the infrastructure that is where the commercial sector comes in; one of the reasons for doing that is not everyone needs to be directly on NASA and in the secure zone; but they need to be very close; and Exploration Park allows them to be very closely connected to NASA, without having the burden of all of the security clearances.  He stated security clearance becomes important when there are foreign nationals working at KSC; it is difficult for foreign nationals to get permanent badges; and Exploration Park is the place for them to be able to work with NASA and others.  He noted the initial first phase, about 45 acres, could change depending on which sub-leases will come in and what they specifically want.  He stated he wanted to make sure that everyone understands that Space Life Sciences Lab is a Space Florida asset, it has never been a NASA asset; it is owned by Space Florida; but under the lease it has had for the number of years it has been operating, NASA’s contractor has been operating the facility; and that is going to change come this fiscal year, on October 1st.  He stated the operation of the facility will go back over to Space Florida, which is a little different than has been done in the past; one of the reasons this is happening is because Space Life Science Lab is a very high-tech, and state-of-the-art facility, designed to be an anchor; and maybe the anchor for Exploration Park. 

 

He stated NASA will still be in the facility; it will be leasing back some, or most, of the facility depending on how the programs develop through the new process; but the link to Exploration Park cannot be under emphasized; the design and the money the Board helped put together will help make the link to enable Exploration Park; and it will make Space Life Science Lab a much more viable piece of real estate.  He noted there is also something very unique at KSC that makes it more viable, which is a 60-year lease, with a possible addition of a 30-year lease; and that is important because if there are going to be private developers, there needs to be a long-term lease.  He noted one of the issues with SpaceX, for example, is that it had a five-year lease with the Air Force; it makes it very difficult when a company comes in to do big investment, to do a short-term lease like that; NASA tried to solve that problem so that it could have some long-term leases; the new direction supports that very directly; and NASA is excited about the development of Exploration Park.  He stated in summary, KSC has a very unique capability; other places could say they have four modes of transportation; but KSC has five, because it includes space; and there are very few places that can say that, in theory.  He stated NASA is working on the shuttle landing facility; and it is actively working on it with a number of different commercial providers to do different kinds of exciting research and development.  He stated NASA has transportation assets that can be offered out to truly commercial entities that need to be close; but that does not exclude commercial entities from coming into the secure zone; it is expected that there may be individuals or companies that need to be in a secure zone for various reasons, and they may want to use existing facilities; that list will be evolving as it is figured out where they are going, or there may be a need to build new facilities; and there are a lot of places at KSC within the developed areas that those new facilities could be placed. 

 

He stated the master plan will change; and it will be, and has been, a very dynamic document.  He noted the key message for the Board is that as NASA goes through the process, and as it works with more commercial entities, the incentives it has offered are the best it can do; NASA is looking to the State, and the Board, to provide the appropriate incentives; and it needs to be understood what those are in order to work more closely together as the new version for the space program is built. 

 

Rob Varley, Tourism Development Council, stated he knows it is odd to have the tourism guy talking about space, but it really is a direct correlation.  He stated he wants to talk about the impact of the shuttle shutdown; the TDC is predicting approximately a $90 million economic impact loss due to the end of the Shuttle Program; and that includes lodging, attractions, transportation, food, meals, et cetera.  He stated it will translate into a loss of $4.6 million in sales tax, close to a $1 million loss in resort tax; and that does not include the loss in gas tax, as he does not have an estimate of that; but it is certainly going to play a significant role.  He stated what the TDC is trying to do to mitigate those losses is partner with the Kennedy Space Center; just because the Shuttle Program is ending, it does not mean the Space Program is ending and the doors are being locked; and as Mr. Busacca pointed out, there will be 15 to 20 rocket launches per year at KSC and the Air Force Station. 

 

Chairman Bolin stated if the shuttle does retire permanently, the Space Shuttle Experience at the Visitor Complex will become a unique experience and continue to be a draw for tourists. 

 

Mr. Varley stated the TDC hopes there will be continued development of the Visitor Complex as an attraction; the Space Shuttle Experience is a draw for tourists; it is also imperative that the community push the idea that one of the retiring shuttles needs to be kept at KSC for presentation, as has been done with the Saturn V building; and noted, when the Saturn V building was opened, attendance at the complex increased by almost 25 percent.  He stated it is important to make sure KSC keeps one of the shuttles; KSC is in competition with Wright-Patterson, the National Aerospace Museum, Huntsville, and Houston; but it is his understanding that Houston has a problem with getting a shuttle underneath a bridge.  He stated KSC is not assured one of the shuttles; it is important that there be a conservative effort, politically, to make sure one of the shuttles stays at KSC, where it has always launched from; and that is the message that needs to be sent.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated there is a difference between the amount of visitors for a shuttle launch versus a commercial launch; there is approximately 10,000 to 15,000 visitors for a shuttle launch; but there is approximately 3,000 visitors for a commercial launch; and inquired if Mr. Varley thinks the TDC can offset the difference.  Mr. Varley replied no, he does not think it can be totally offset; but he believes those numbers can be increased for the rocket launches; and that is what the TDC is pushing for in the ad campaign.  He noted the TDC has developed a website to try to boost the excitement about rocket launches versus shuttle launches; the website highlights upcoming rocket launches, all of the launch viewing sites, and hotel packages that are tied to it; and there are people now talking about wanting to see a Delta IV launch.  He stated if the TDC can double the number of visitors, it can mitigate some of the loss; but to keep it in perspective, the shuttle launches themselves probably represent maybe less than four percent of the tourism business in the County.  He stated the real concern is the day to day shuttle operations, and the corporations coming to KSC to work on the shuttle year round; those are the losses that will equate to at least $18 million in direct hotel room revenue; but at the same time, the TDC is doing some other things besides that to mitigate the loss.

 

Representative Ritch Workman stated he would like to encourage everyone to send letters to his or her state representatives and state senators; House Memorial 253 will be going around soon, which is a decree to Congress to leave a shuttle in Florida; the session starts Tuesday; and he would encourage everyone to send emails or make phone calls to every member of the Florida House of Representatives, Senate, senate president, speaker, and governor, and ask for a unanimous vote on HM 253. 

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired if the goal is to keep the shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center, or just somewhere in Florida; with Representative Workman responding yes, to be kept at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.  Chairman Bolin stated because of the damage to the area because of the retiring of the shuttle, mitigation and restitution would be appropriate; and Brevard County should not have to pay a dime.

 

Mr. Varley stated it is not a done deal; he never underestimates KSC’s friends in Alabama; and there is competition.  Representative Workman noted the Air and Space Museum Director in Seattle, Washington has said he will pay whatever it takes to get a Shuttle in his museum.  He stated he has a great plan to keep the shuttle in the bay where it is prepared to launch; it will become part of the tour; it will be in its natural habitat; and eventually it will be moved to the Visitor Complex once there is a new building for it. 

 

Mr. Varley stated Port Canaveral continues to grow; it is now the second busiest cruise port in the world; Disney will be bringing in two new ships in 2011 and 2012, which will be twice the size of its current ships; and that will mitigate some of the loss.   He advised there is the potential for Norwegian Cruise Line to expand its operation to year-round; and it is working with Port Canaveral to make that happen.  He stated so far this year, Port Canaveral has had 91 port-of-calls; next year there will be 126 port-of-calls; and he conservatively estimates that people will come off the ship and spend $50 per day in the area, which is a $15 million economic impact; but he knows it will be much better than that.  He stated the great thing about the port-of-calls is when people get off the ship and see the area, they get excited about the destination; and they plan to come back and visit.  He stated Florida TODAY did a study a few years ago in which people were interviewed to find out how they heard about Brevard County; a lot of people said they were in the area because they were on a cruise; and it is really important to work with the cruise line industry.  He stated he knows Disney is talking about putting blinders on its buses so that passengers cannot see the area; but the truth is that most of Disney’s passengers come to the Port by car; and they have a right to turn left, as well as right, when they leave the ship.  He stated 80 percent of the Radisson Resort’s business is cruise business; the hotel has done a great job of working with travel agents; it has a cruise-and-stay package called Cruise and Snooze; the hotel has done such a good job in selling people on the idea, that they stay a few extra days; guests can park their car at the hotel and take a hotel shuttle bus to the ship; and guests can then save money on parking.

 

Mr. Varley noted there are some other tourism-related offsets that are happening; the Board’s support of the visitor center on I-95 is even more important; there are nine million vehicles per year that travel south by the location near Scottsmoor; if just two to three percent of those visitors stay in the County just one more day, it could generate between $20 and $30 million in additional economic impact to the community; and he appreciates the Board’s support and hopes the federal government will see it that way too in order to obtain the monies for the project.  He stated there is a huge eco-tourism around the Space Center; there is the St. John’s River-to-the-Sea Loop, which is a 260-mile bicycle trail through five counties that ends in Titusville; and the TDC’s goal is to work with the State and the Department of Transportation to expand that bike trail all the way down S.R. A1A through Brevard County. 

 

Commissioner Anderson inquired if eco-tourism is over-emphasized too much; he visits the Everglades once or twice per year; Florida City is probably one of the most poverty-stricken places in Florida; and it is right outside the Everglades.  He stated if eco-tourism is such a great generator of income, why is Florida City not one of the premier cities in Florida; he has an issue with eco-tourism; and he does not think Brevard County should put all of its eggs in that basket any longer.  

 

 

Mr. Varley stated he understands what Commissioner Anderson is saying; he would look at a lot of the smaller attractions in the area as time extenders; everyone knows the main reason why visitors come to Brevard County is the beaches; that is the number one selling item; when it is a rainy or cloudy day, visitors want to go somewhere else; they want to know what else there is to do and see; and it is a family thing to take the kids canoeing or kayaking, and get close to manatees.  Commissioner Anderson stated it is a fast set-up; and it is not a sole revenue getter.  Mr. Varley stated no, but it can be used as an additional tool.  Commissioner Anderson stated people think eco-tourism is a way to solve all of the ills;  and  with  the  millions  of  people  going  through  the  Everglades National Park every year, he thinks people in Florida City would differ with that opinion.  Commissioner Fisher stated eco-tourism is not going to replace job losses from the shuttle retirement; but it is one more tool to keep people in Brevard County a little longer.  Commissioner Anderson stated he understands that; but he wants people to understand that eco-tourism is not the end-all be-all. 

Mr. Varley noted with Port Canaveral, it is not just the cruise side, or The Cove side; the Port has 26 acres of land sitting there that Ron Jon’s tried to build something on, but it fell through; the Port did not want the land sitting vacant for 10 years; and the suggestion was made to grate it, level it out, and use it for special events to generate some business.  He stated the cool thing about special events is that they can really expand the tourism season; the TDC is excited about the Art of Sand Festival for that very reason; the Art of Sand Festival will be a 30-day event in Cape Canaveral that will draw a number of visitors; and it will help expand the season in that area.  He noted there are also events such as the Cocoa Beach Air Show and the Thunderbirds; last year, over 40,000 people watched the Air Show; and these are the things that are going to help the community.  He noted there is a music marathon planned in Melbourne that the TDC is supporting with advertising and promotion; the TDC is trying to help the Space Coast Marathon with the advent of the shuttle program retiring; there may be an opportunity to have the marathon run through the Space Center; and if that can be done, it will draw tens of thousands of runners from all over the world, because it is such a unique venue.  He stated some of the things the County can do to support the TDC is local transportation and venue support for special events and sports events; for the Art of Sand Festival, the TDC is trying to work with SCAT (Space Coast Area Transit) to have buses bring visitors to the event to mitigate traffic; and the TDC would also like to partner with SCAT to bus cruise passengers to The Cove area of the Port.  He added, if the TDC can augment the sports events with some strong partnerships with Parks and Recreation, that would help as well. 

 

Catherine Rudloff, Assistant to Congressman Posey, stated the Congressman’s staff has spoken to Pete Olson, Office of Texas, and Parker-Griff of Alabama, regarding the layoffs expected in those areas; the numbers are not official, just as Florida is still operating at ballpark figures for its communities as well; but there are thousands of layoffs planned for Johnson Space Center; and Marshall Space Center is planning hundreds of layoffs.  She noted Johnson Space Center’s job losses could be as high was 7,000 with some of its higher estimates; but that is a rough estimate.

 

 

Representative Ritch Workman stated previously he talked about not buying the party line that the shuttle is old and broken and needs to be in a museum; and now that the Constellation Program may be gone, he would like to encourage Save Space to focus its energy on extending the shuttle.  He stated Congressman Posey’s office has a detailed plan that uses the existing four ready-shuttles, plus the fifth ready-shuttle; most people do not know, but every time a shuttle is launched, there is one on the ground ready to go; and that fifth shuttle will be ready to fly when the final shuttle flies.  He stated there are two additional tanks in some capacity of being completed; it would be relatively easy to fire those back up and finish those two tanks; and that would be three additional flights

without much effort.  He stated he finds it amazing that any government would rush to end an industry; to rush to end 9,000 jobs; that is what is happening to manned spaceflight; most people in government probably do not remember that there were five shuttles launched in a single year; and he may be wrong, but he does not believe it has happened since Challenger.  He noted, as Mr. Nappi pointed out, at the end of this year, after four more shuttles are launched, there is a cliff; whereas, if there are two launched this year, two launched the next year, and two more launched the year after that, by the time the remaining seven or eight rockets are fired off, there may be a manned space program; and he would encourage the County Commission to join him and Congressman Posey in a quest to continue to fly the shuttle.  He stated he does not want to sound like he disagrees with the concept to go with commercial space launch companies, as it is overdue; it is fantastic that dollars are being put into commercial endeavors; but there is no commercial gain in going to the moon; there is no commercial gain in going to Mars; and he gets criticized by those who think government should stay out of these kinds of endeavors and stop wasting taxpayer dollars; but there would not be many of the things that are used daily if it was not for a government exploration program.  He stated it will be a long time until there is a commercial need to go to the moon or Mars; there is no one rushing to do manned spaceflight; there is a rush to do satellite spaceflight; and there is a rush to carry food and supplies to and from the ISS. He stated Senator Mike Haridopolos said it best when he said what Florida needs is an economic climate change; and that is what the Space Caucus is focused on.  He stated Commissioner Infantini stated earlier that Florida has a bad reputation for not being business friendly; Florida is not very business friendly; and the truth is that Florida has been much like a railroad when it comes to space.  He stated Florida launches rockets; rockets used to be 100 percent of the launches; now rockets launched in Florida are 20 percent of the rocket launches in the United States; and that is pretty pathetic. 

 

He stated the Florida Legislature has a couple of choices this year; the Legislature is facing a $3 to $3.5 billion shortfall; there is an option to raise taxes, or cut government and create economic diversity; raising taxes is the last thing the State can do; and if anyone would like to see the recession expanded, deepened, and worsened, they should lobby the Legislature to raise taxes.  He stated some of the other choices for the Legislature are to shut down all agencies of the government, which could save $250 billion; and there would still be $500 million short of the proposed deficit.  He noted the State is going to have to cut deep enough to come up with a lot of money to incentivize companies to uproot themselves from their current state and move to Florida; money needs to be found to expand local companies, such as Mainstream, which is wanting to build a manufacturing facility in Rockledge; and the company needs to find a way to expand and hire those workers.  He stated Representative Ralph Poppel has a Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit Bill; people ask why the County does not

have any of these companies; it is because they are taxed so heavily when doing research and development; R&D is the most expensive part for any company; and the Space Caucus wants to give the companies credit for doing their R&D in Brevard County.  He stated Brevard County needs to become a commercial launch zone; there are incentives to attract companies; Wallops does not have anything on Brevard or KSC, except currently, a better incentive program; and he intends to change that by the end of the 2010 legislative session.  He stated Space Florida needs to be funded; the governor has proposed over $30 million in funding that goes to other incentives; and it gives Space Florida the ability to act quickly and swiftly to attract businesses. 

 

He stated recently the Space Transition and Revitalization Act (STAR) from Senator Thad Altman and Representative Steve Crisafulli, and endorsed by the governor, said that Florida is talking about a Space Transition and Revitalization Act; and that Florida should not need Revitalization Act money; but it does, and it is vital. He stated what is needed from the partners in Brevard County is to be ready to spend money to make money; it is not the government’s job to create jobs; but it is government’s job to attract them; and he wishes Washington, D.C. would figure that out. He stated Florida attracts jobs, but there are 49 other competitors to attract the same jobs; creating jobs just creates bigger government; and more tax dollars are needed to hold that up. 

 

He stated he no longer wants to compete with Virginia, New Mexico, or California; he cannot believe Florida competes with those states for aerospace jobs; and he believes that through partnerships with the EDC, the County Commission, and Space Florida, they can create a package that brings companies to Brevard County, because those companies want to launch from Brevard, they want to do R&D, and they want to manufacture in Florida because Florida is still considered the launch capital of the world; but they cannot do that because Florida cannot incentivize them enough; and with the Board’s help, hopefully by the end of the legislative session that can be changed.

 

Chairman Bolin stated she feels Representative Workman has the Board’s support; everything possible needs to be done at the State level to make Florida as business friendly as possible; and the State needs to remove any of the policies, or rules, that is causing it to not be business friendly. 

 

Commissioner Infantini stated she appreciates Representative Workman for all he is doing; she believes he is doing a good job; and inquired if he could do something about the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to lighten it up, such as with St. John’s Water Management.  She noted a boat ramp in her District took five or six years to build; it would be great to finally get some projects off the ground and completed, rather than constantly having permitting issues; and any assistance with that, to help businesses start up easier and faster would be appreciated. 

 

Representative Workman stated that is true; attitudes have gotten much better since the budgets tightened; people are much more willing to work; and those problems need to be fixed before the budget gets signed.  He stated the Board can help by sending him individual problems, even if they seem really small; if SJRWMD is harassing about a boat ramp, he wants to make that phone call; currently, he is eyeball deep in a DEP issue that is not even in his county, because it is ridiculous; and DEP is closing a business because of over-regulation.   He advised he has  no problem  getting  involved; sometimes a phone call from a Representative is what it takes; he needs to know the specifics; and then there will be a draft legislation to prevent the specifics from happening again.  He stated Florida is getting to the age now where government is getting too big; it is running too much; and the only silver lining on the budget problems in the State is that it can vastly change the culture of government in Florida and come out of this thing a leaner, meaner organization.  He noted Florida is the lowest per capita government employee to citizen ratio in the nation; Florida is starting off lean, in government terms, as far as human beings on the payroll; and if the State can take it a step further and become much less of a regulatory burden on the citizens, then it can come out of the recession as a state everyone wants to live and work in.

 

Commissioner Fisher inquired what is being passed through legislation, other than the governor’s money, for Space Florida at the Space Caucus; and further inquired if anything is being done on a national level.  Representative Workman replied all of the issues are on www.spacecaucus.com; and everything is on that website about legislative priorities.  He noted federally, because he has to be focused on how to change Florida for aerospace, he has been working very closely with Congressman Posey’s office; the Florida Space Caucus does not seem to carry a lot of weight in Washington D.C.; and he needs to make sure he is working in conjunction with Congressman Posey and Congresswoman Kosmas, and not as a lone ranger.  He advised NASA is important to him; it is important to jobs in Florida; but it is not the focus of the Florida Space Caucus; and the focus of the Florida Space Caucus is the aerospace community, which because of NASA, there is a fledgling industry. 

 

Chairman Bolin stated she would like Representative Workman to be strong on educating the legislators on the issues involving space and Brevard County.

 

Representative Workman stated when he became a Representative and began to talk to other State Representatives, he quickly realized that space was, by default, a Brevard County  issue;  space  initiatives  were  competing  with  a  bridge  in   Duval  County  or wherever; and he had to find out that Brevard County affects 67 out of 67 counties.  He stated NASA put out a great spreadsheet showing where all the money goes; Boeing did a great job of showing where all of its aerospace dollars are; and Boeing spent money in 63 out of 67 counties in Florida.  He stated he quickly realized that if he had to choose over a bridge widening or the 53 jobs in his District, he is going to go for the jobs; and for 2010, it has become s State issue.  He stated it has proven to be a State issue because the Executive Branch is on board; it has been discussed in every speech; the Senate President and the Speaker of the House are talking about it, not as in they should take care of their friends in Brevard County, but because it affects people in Tampa, Pensacola, Key West, and Miami-Dade, all of a sudden it is a statewide issue; and if he accomplishes nothing else as a legislator, he would be happy to say that space became a State issue as a result of the Space Caucus. 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated when he and Chairman Bolin were in Colorado Springs last year, they did not feel like anybody in Florida loved them; and he does not know if it was because of Representative Workman’s efforts, or because some people are running for election now, but all of a sudden this year, people wanted to talk to he and Chairman Bolin about space when they should have been talking about it five or six years ago; and he appreciates Representative Workman’s efforts.

 

Representative Workman stated he realized it was a really big problem; he thinks the problem is getting solved; it will continue to get solved; and there are a lot of people that still want to come on board.  He stated next week, the Florida Space Caucus will visit all 60 legislators with its priority list; the purpose of the Caucus is to have strength in numbers; there are 120 members of the House, 61 of which are needed to pass anything; it is difficult enough to get a bill to the floor; and if there are 46 members screaming they want House Bill 253 on the floor, it is a lot louder than just himself and Representative Crisafulli trying to do it. 

 

He stated that is the purpose of the Space Caucus; it is not to bully anybody; but it is to say that this issue is important; he intends to use that strength; and with any luck, the initiatives on www.spacecaucus.com will pass this year and bring some true revitalization to the aerospace industry.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated it is really a national issue; it used to be thought of as just a Brevard County issue; and now people realize it is a State issue; but in reality it is a national issue. 

 

Chairman Bolin stated she visited Moline, Illinois; on the walls of the airport were pictures of the Shuttle Program; one of the biggest aluminum manufacturers is Alcoa, which is located in Moline; and Alcoa uses the airport as motivation to make their citizens aware that they are part of the Space Program also. 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated there is no commercial entity that wants to go to the moon; he knows Congressman Posey talks about the national security side of that; and he does not think that if people really knew what was going on, and what the capabilities are of some not-so-friendly countries, maybe there would be a different outlook on manned spaceflight.

 

Representative Workman stated the United States cannot yield space superiority, which is what it is doing; unfortunately, he believes there is a push in the country to become more like Europe, which is happy with mediocrity; but that is not what the United States is; and it is not what the 50 states have banded together to do through the Constitution.  He stated the current Administration needs to be reminded that the United States likes to be number one; to be explorers; and that Americans like to have a sense of pride.  He stated if the Midwesterners, Northeasterners, and the West Coasters realize there will be no more human spaceflight, there might be an American pride revolution; and everyone needs to be on the phone with their congressmen, congresswomen, and senators, to tell them to push for human spaceflight.     

 

 

The Board recessed at 12:28p.m., and reconvened at 1:00p.m. 

 

 

Howard Haug, Chief Financial Officer, Space Florida, stated he appreciates the opportunity to introduce the Board to a portfolio of legislative priorities that essentially provide it with tools that will allow it to execute a strategy.   He stated the focus is on growth and modernization, primarily in facilities; the Board has heard some of the other speakers talk about research issues; and there was also discussion on the competitive business climate.  He stated the leveraging for making Brevard County more competitive and more attractive to the commercial side, and to diversification, is two-fold, meaning diversification to the supply chain, and vertical integration where space applications are used through other industry, and then growth.  He stated the cornerstone for most of this activity was the governor’s request for the Space Florida budget; at the top of the budget is $12.6 million, which is related to the development and management of state-of-the-art facilities; and a component of that is the initial terrestrial infrastructure of Exploration Park, which the Board was very supportive of; and he appreciates that. 

 

He advised $10 million is for financial assistance; he is unaware of who the creators of Space Florida were that created such a vehicle that has a lot of economic capabilities; literally, it is a cross between a city and a county; it is almost a savings and loan in its financing capability; but without capitalization it is almost useless; and a $10 million infusion is something that can be leveraged ten-fold.  He stated $3.2 million is for job retention of workforce; $3 million is for targeting projects on the business development side; and the last part of Space Florida’s funding is for operations.  He stated Representative Workman mentioned the Space Transition and Revitalization Act (STAR); STAR creates an investment strategy that can create some vehicles at the State level in terms of trust fund capabilities; $10 million is also included in STAR; and $12.575 million is the same as $12.6 million in the previous discussion.

 

He stated many of the speakers have touched on the tax credits to help Florida and Brevard County be a little more competitive; capital is attracted to areas that offer tax efficiency and credits; they are direct bottom line effects; and many of the companies Space Florida talks to are often publicly traded.  He advised there are some deals that are near, versus some of the others that are further down the pipeline that can be addressed with some of the actions shown in the STAR program.  He stated the Research and Development tax credit is broader, but would greatly affect the industry, which is something Florida should have done a long time ago.  He stated he is not skilled in exactly how things are scored at the State level with cost benefit analysis and legislation; it is essentially like a discounted cash flow analysis that measures all of the benefits discounted back into a current period; it is commonly used in the financial markets; and it would allow Space Florida to speak the same language that is being addressed by the legislators when talking to commercial entities.  He stated a fair amount of time has been spent on the House Memorial on the shuttle retirement in Florida; Space Florida is part of the partnership that is pursuing that; Space Florida would try to fund it through a bidding process; and it would be through a process called conduit financing, which is the same way Space Florida was able to assist in the financing of the Shuttle Experience, and the related improvements at the Visitor Center. 

 

Commissioner Infantini stated she has seen financial institutions try to handle financing for commercial and housing investments; sometimes they have not done such a great job; inquired who would be handling the $10 million within the organization; and inquired if there is someone with the expertise to research whether or not an organization is a viable organization.  Mr. Haug stated he would like to give Commissioner Infantini an example of a deal that recently happened.  He noted during the summer there was a refinancing opportunity with United Launch Alliance (ULA), which was  approximately a  $100 million deal; it allowed ULA to enter into a lease with the federal government and to own the assets, which has a lot of financial advantages to the operating entity, or profit entity; and ULA entered into what is known as a synthetic lease.  He stated a synthetic lease allows ULA to recover the cost from its customer, which is the Department of Defense (DOD); and in another way, it allows it to do a different tax treatment, which gives them the advantages for its bottom line.  He noted Space Florida was the entity in the middle that helped structure the deal; but the financing institutions that have done all the due diligence was a combination of Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Wachovia; and it probably should have been only two of them, but Wells Fargo and Wachovia were still merging and had not yet decided who was in charge.  He stated the rating of the collateral, which was the performance contract ULA had with the Department of Defense, which was used to secure the debt that is now in their name, is in their books; but it is only collateralized by that asset; and all of that rating was done by them.  He stated what it will allow ULA to do is enter into very large deals; the major players will be large financial institutions; and banks will probably continue to be seen in the forseeable future, until the market improves.  He stated eventually Space Florida will be able to issue its own bonds, as ULA has almost all revenue generating contracts; as for a commercial operator, it provides them access to a capital market that it could not get on its own; Boeing cannot go to the municipal government market and borrow money; but Space Florida can act as a conduit for Boeing; and there just needs to be a little bit of cash to make it happen. 

 

Chairman Bolin inquired if Mr. Haug could explain Frank Dibello’s qualifications and his experience as far as the financing.  Mr. Haug advised Frank Dibello began his career with a firm called KPMG, where he worked on the consulting side, based in Washington D.C.; Mr. Dibello worked a number of jobs that lived in the commercial space into the government side; and KPMG had a unique capability of that.  He stated he knows that because he competed against KPMG with his firm, Coopers and Liberan; and he actually competed toe-to-toe with Mr. Dibello, but did not know it until he worked with him a couple of years ago.  He stated Mr. Dibello left KPMG and set up his own venture capital firm to pick winners and losers; and the structure of his firm was such that not only did he have funds raised, but he raised his own money.  He stated Mr. Dibello went on to focus on smaller firms, raising money, putting deals together, and packaging; eventually that morphed into a consulting role in which he was consulting on a variety of structured deals throughout the state, just in financing; and that is when he crossed paths with Mr. Dibello.  He stated he worked for BellSouth, which was a client of Mr. Dibello’s; and he spent most of his time on the operation and financial side.  He stated he is an ex-frustrated customer of the Cape; he was part of the team at Bell South that put up the satellite for Americast, which was a video play it desperately wanted to launch from the Cape; but it could not be done; Bell South ended up going to French Guyana; and if anyone uses any element of DishTV, he or she is probably riding the Bell South’s satellite.  He stated he cannot even get close to Mr. Dibello’s background in space; Mr. Dibello dealt with a lot of publicly traded companies; he raised money in the debt markets and the equity market; and he is familiar with making deals at a different level.

Chairman Bolin stated she deals a lot with Space Florida; it is the one agency that is controlled out of Tallahassee that she actually trusts; and she appreciates Mr. Haug’s partnership.  

 

 

Leigh Holt, Government Relations Manager, representing Tracy Yates, advised the Board that Ms. Yates had to return to her office to prepare for Florida Space Day in Tallahassee, which will be held on March 3^rd, with 23 companies participating from Kennedy Space Center and around the state.  She stated this year, three of the companies participating are from outside Brevard County; and Chairman Bolin and Commissioner Nelson are planning to attend as well, to participate in the teams and the meeting.  She stated the Brevard County delegation has done a fabulous job in speaking as one voice in the past two years about the problems in the Space Program; the County has really changed the conversation in Tallahassee; and it should be very proud of that.  She stated some of the bills that Representative Workman and Howard Haug spoke about will be heard on Wednesday; in the Senate, the bill filed by Senator Altman to free up the $14.5 million will be heard by the Commerce Committee in the afternoon; and the Orbiter Memorial will be heard in the morning by the Economic Development Committee.  She noted Mark Nappi, with United Space Alliance, is scheduled to speak to the Economic Development Committee, along with Dr. Pedro Medillias, who has spoken at the Space Forum before; the R&D tax credit will also be heard that morning; and Dr. Medillias does a great job speaking to the R&D business that has gone outside the state because it was not offered in Florida.  She stated she spoke to the Melbourne Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, which is asking other groups from Brevard County to attend Florida Space Day; and the Hotel and Restaurant Association will be in Tallahassee on March 23^rd to share the information Rob Varley shared with the Board earlier about the local economic impacts of the retirement of the Space Shuttle.

 

 

 

Leigh Holt, Government Relations Manager, stated she will not spend a whole lot of time going over the bills because Howard Haug did a fabulous job of covering them, and Representative Workman touched on them as well.  She advised all of the bills collectively address the space industry in particular, or the economic development that will support the space industry; the bills are significantly different than what the Board approved as part of the legislative package; and most of it is because of the addition of the governor’s budget amount, along with the STAR legislation.  She stated she wanted to bring the budget back to the Board for approval, so that she, along with the Board’s lobbying team, can have permission to work on all of the bills on its behalf. 

 

Motion by Commissioner Anderson, seconded by Commissioner Fisher, to approve the revised Space and Technology priorities for the 2010 legislative session. Motion carried and ordered unanimously. 

 

 

Dale Ketcham, Federal Advocacy, stated it is clear what the president and his budget does not want to do, which is fly the shuttle, or go with the Constellation Program as configured; and there really was not anything the president was going to propose that would not have resulted in a dramatic loss of jobs.  He stated what is not very clear, and what NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said yesterday, is that the Administration is still fleshing out what exactly it is that it wants to do; it knows what it does not want to do; but it is still unclear what it is it does want to do; and as such, it is unclear about how the people of East Central Florida will be impacted.  He stated it is important to be mindful of the fact that most of what will impact East Central Florida will be out of its control; the big decisions are going to be made by the people in Washington, D.C. by people like Richard Shelby and Barbara McClusky; and Florida can influence them as much as Maryland and Alabama can influence Senator Bill Nelson, Congressman Bill Posey, and Congresswoman Susanne Kosmas.  He stated two years ago, both presidential candidates made promises on the issue of space; he believes they were just campaign promises; both candidates would have still been confronted with the same issues and problems; regardless of who won, it would be a tough situation; but he would much rather have the promise than not have the promise. He stated President Obama has a lot of work to do; however, he believes it is important to give him the opportunity, as it is not just the president, it is Congress; and as of right now, the democrats are in charge of it.  He noted if Barack Obama wins Florida in the next election, it is game-over for the republicans.  He stated Florida does not have the legislative heft that states like Alabama and Mississippi have, because there is a tendency to churn the members in Congress; Alabama elects them and keeps them until they are dead, because they are eventually going to get a gavel in the Appropriations Committee; and Florida does not have that kind of heft.  He stated it is being stressed that Congress and contractors be made aware of the fact that Brevard County is on the I-4 corridor; the president and whoever is running for the republican cycle, is going to be coming through Brevard County on a regular basis in 2012; any contractor who wants to set up shop in Brevard County for the President to talk about in a good way as something that has happened in Brevard County, will help mitigate some of the job losses.  He stated that is part of one of the messages that needs to be carried to Colorado Springs; being in Colorado Springs is one of the things the Board can do to show a presence; he has been going to Colorado Springs for nine of the last eleven years; having the presence of some of the County Commission there is something that resonates because people were talking about it; and they continue to talk about it because there is no other county there with elected officials from the local county commission making that case.  He stated the other thing that needs to continue are the roundtable discussions that were hosted in past elections; they are important to anyone running for state office; Alex Sink will have a roundtable discussion in two weeks; Marco Rubio is scheduled; Bill McCollum and Kendrick Meek also want to have roundtable discussions; and agricultural commissioners will also have roundtable discussions about how the ISS works with the Department of Agriculture.  He stated the EDC are really the hosts of the roundtables; they did them for the president; and they will do it again, because it works well for them.  He stated by making additional trips, such as the trip to Washington D.C., the County needs to move more towards how things are done in Huntsville, Alabama; Huntsville takes 150 people to Congress each year; a lot of the market in Washington D.C. is the Red Stone Arms Arsenal, which is missile defense, because it is actually four-times the budget, size, and manpower of NASA; Huntsville has a good track record; and Florida is closing the gap, but Huntsville is still way ahead of how to work the issue.  He noted the Save Space website is paying off; voices are being heard; and the letter writing campaign got a lot of attention.  He stated the rally that will be held on Saturday is another good way to continue to impress upon the White House that it will be back in Brevard County; and someone will have to stand up and ask for a vote.  He stated Alabama and Texas are digging in for a frontal assault on the Administration’s position; those two states want to go back to the full program of record for the Constellation Program; and whether or not they are successful, he does not know; but those two states are betting the farm on Constellation.  He stated there is increasing talk about extending the shuttle; he would give a 25 percent likelihood of that happening, which is more than it was before; and he does not think it is necessarily likely because Congress has been acclimated.  He stated the retirement of the shuttle has been planned for the past six years; the fact that that time is here does not change the equation; there is a greater likelihood of it happening now than there was a year ago; when getting into the president’s proposal, much of it is unclear; Administrator Bolden stated a sloppy job was done with the roll-out; he has a sense that the Administration will come back with primary things it left out of the proposal, which is a destination and a date; and if NASA says it is going to get somewhere in 2020, it could be assumed that means 2023 or 2025, but it is still a date to work towards.  He stated one particular area that is exciting is the Program Management and Procurement Authority and full responsibility for commercial crew and cargo to get to space; as of now, that is in the Johnson Space Center contract; and it needs to be a Kennedy Space Center contract.  He stated the Program Management and Procurement Authority need to be brought to KSC for everyone who wants to launch into low earth orbit; contractors and sub-contractors like to locate where Procurement Authority is; and that is why it would benefit KSC.  He stated there are a lot of other encouraging things; KSC Director, Bob Cabana is more aggressive and asserting posture on capturing things and bringing them to KSC; and he is prepared to go into battle with Marshall, Johnson, and other Space Centers.   He stated Mr. Cabana is doing a better job than he has ever seen out at KSC; and it is very encouraging to those that have a tradition of being disappointed with KSC’s behavior, as they have a bad track record of waiting for headquarters to tell them what they are supposed to do, instead of going up there and telling them what it is they are going to do.  He stated KSC is making some important improvements on a lot of fronts; but it is a difficult position to be in right now because there is a distinct lack of clarity; Brevard County does better than any other county in the country, but also has a lot more risk; and the bottom line is that Brevard County needs kudos because it is out in front of the issue.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he hopes space is a non-partisan issue, but maybe it is not; President Obama did not kill the Space Shuttle Program, he just did not extend it, which is what he would hoping he would do in his campaign; President Obama did not win in Brevard County; and Brevard County did not do anything for the Obama campaign, either.  Mr. Ketcham stated President Obama picked up 10,000 more votes than the democrats did before; that was not unnoticed; democrats did not carry Brevard County; but they did not get killed in Brevard County the way they did four years ago.  Commissioner Anderson noted President Obama did not do well in Brevard County in the primary. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated Brevard County had not been kind to President Obama; he hopes it is not a partisan issue; and he hopes it is not why the president is voting the way he is voting.  He stated there are some people that Brevard County put into office on the Senate and Congress side; and that is where the political pressure should be applied, to make sure they are bowing their necks up in the area of space. 

 

Mr. Ketcham stated he does not disagree with Commissioner Fisher; for freshman members of Congress to ask the other members to dig in to a single issue, but have them refuse to cooperate, the rest of Congress would not deal with them; and it would have no impact.  He stated on the Senate side, if something was done for Brevard County, then every other interest group would demand no less; and everything would collapse.  He noted Senator Shelby put a hold on 70 appointments, holding everything up for a while mostly over the tanker contract; but he got beat up by his own party and had to back off to just three holds, because the body as an institution reacts adversely when one member holds up the whole process to take care of a core constituency; but that is not to say there are not some additional pressures that have been put on the members of Congress.  He stated from his perspective, that is not necessarily the right approach; but he would also say that Congresswoman Kosmas and Congressman Posey are acutely aware of that because they are up for re-election, as is every member of Congress every two years. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he thinks Congress is fighting.  Mr. Ketcham stated yes, Congress is trying to position themselves based upon what the likely outcome will be; most in Congress are probably not going to have a direct impact on the final results; and when the outcome is more clearly seen, Congressmen will make a play to see to it that Florida and KSC, and the constituents, get a good piece of that pie.  He stated Bob Walker, who was the County’s lobbyist in Washington, and was a senior republican in the Science Committee for years, and loves space, did an editorial with Newt Gingrich for the Washington Times aggressively embracing the president’s plan; and Mr. Walker said that all republicans should support the plan for NASA because it is the right thing to do.  He stated he thinks the motivation behind what has been proposed was hinted to in the Augustine Report; the path under the Constellation Program would have gotten NASA a vehicle to go to the moon or even Mars; but it would have consumed all of the budget; and no investment would have been made on what to do when it got there.  He stated NASA could have gotten to the moon, planted a flag, and come back again; and that would have ticked off taxpayers because the United States has already been to the moon and planted a flag.  He stated NASA’s goal is to make the investment in technology so that when it does get to the moon, or Mars, it has something to do, such as mining, exploring, and setting up telescopes on the dark side of the moon; the Augustine Committee inquired why NASA was going to space; and NASA said it was going to space to stay.  He stated that was the purpose; that was why NASA pulled back to develop the technologies, because when it gets to the moon, or Mars, it wants to stay there; and it is not just about going to space and coming back.

 

 

Howard Tipton, County Manager, stated as the Board knows, it has been using Eddie Pauley’s lobbying services since 2007; it was a one-year contract with two, one-year renewals; and the Contract is at the point where it has no renewals to work from.  He advised the Contract is up in May; the Board has two options at this point; it can go out and recruit a replacement, or it can offer another Contract to Mr. Pauley to continue his legislative efforts; and he is looking for direction from the Board as to which way it would like to go. 

 

Chairman Bolin stated she has worked with Mr. Pauley for four years; she has found him to be extremely helpful; she communicates with him at least every other day on all issues; and he is even keeping her up to date on space issues.  She stated her personal feeling would be to give a contract to Mr. Pauley again, because Brevard County is in a crisis mode; and to train someone new would be time the Board cannot spend.

 

Motion by Chairman Bolin, seconded by Commissioner Infantini, to extend Contract with Eddie Pauley for Federal Lobbyist Services to continue his legislative efforts, similar to his previous contract, for one-year with two, one-year renewals; and directed staff to bring the Contract back to the Board for approval.  Motion carried and ordered unanimously. 

 

 

Mr. Tipton stated in dealing with Mr. Pauley, he is very impressed with the service and level of detail that he is able to provide; and it is as good as any lobbyist that he has ever had the pleasure of dealing with. 

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he did not think the Board originally hired Mr. Pauley for space issues, but more for general lobbying issues; he has been great about keeping the Board informed on space issues; but he is not sure Mr. Pauley is in Washington, D.C. on the Board’s behalf, pushing its federal space agenda.

 

Chairman Bolin stated she was on the Board when it hired Bob Walker; she did not vote to renew his contract because the Board was giving the retainer to someone to watch out all the time for space; but it was not as productive as the results the Board got from Mr. Pauley, who was giving the Board information and letting it know what was going on.  She stated the other factor is that at this point in time, the Board has the biggest bulldog in its court right now, which is Frank Dibello, in Washington, D.C.; and everything he does, he does for space.  She does not feel at this point in time the Board needs a specialist, or to give a retainer to someone just to watch out for space; and the Board has a lot of people in Washington, D.C. to work on space issues for the Board.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he was not directing it that way; he has spoken with Mr. Dibello, because at one time his idea was for the Board to have a space lobbyist that might partner with Space Florida to share the cost; but he believes Mr. Dibello is doing a great job; and he did not know if the Board would like to expand Mr. Pauley’s role form the space side.  Chairman Bolin inquired if Commissioner Fisher was thinking about adding space as one of Mr. Pauley’s areas of responsibility; and then adding more money to it.  Commissioner Fisher stated he was not thinking of adding money to the contract; he  wanted  Mr. Pauley to do  what the Board has to do,  which is operate with less money and more responsibility; inquired who is telling Mr. Pauley what the Board wants done on his next contract; and stated he would like to be part of that discussion.

Mr. Tipton stated the Board has federal priorities it gives to its own legislative delegations in Washington, D.C.; he believes Mr. Pauley is certainly responsive to the issues that pop up; and he feels, as part of the contract, the Board can go ahead and include some of the general priorities, such as transportation funding, space funding, and other areas as the Board directs.  He advised his office develops the contract; staff will put general priorities in the contract; and then he will receive feedback from the Board on how it would like Mr. Pauley to spend his time.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated he would like to give Mr. Pauley something the Board can hold him accountable for the next time his contract is expiring; and at the same time, the contract should have a disclaimer adding all other duties assigned.  

 

Chairman Bolin stated all of the Commissioners are involved in space; she has made some notes of all the upcoming activities; and she would prefer that all of the Commissioners be able to assist in some of the activities.  She noted herself and Commissioner Nelson will be attending Florida Space Day in Tallahassee; Commissioner Anderson will be going to Washington, D.C.; and Commissioner Anderson, Commissioner Fisher, and herself, are going to Colorado Springs.  She advised Legislative Day is March 24^th; the Board has been weak as far as the Association of Counties; and inquired if any Commissioner would consider representing Brevard County on that date.

 

Commissioner Anderson stated he does not plan on attending Legislative Day; but there is a conference coming up that he would like to see every commissioner in the State attend; and he would like to have a workshop at the event, but he is not sure of how that can be arranged.  He inquired what it would take for someone to propose something like that; and inquired if it would need to come up at a Board meeting, or if a vehicle such as a Space Committee could be set up.  Mr. Tipton stated he can contact Mr. Holley, the Executive Director for Legislative Day; and bring information back to the Board at its March 9^th meeting for direction.  Chairman Bolin stated she would like to direct staff to do that.  She noted there may be an avenue for the Board to be able to reach out to the League of Cities and the Association of Counties for some education; and she will follow up on that. 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated the League of Cities and the Association of Counties live off of sponsorships; and the Board might want to get some of their corporate sponsors to help. Mr. Tipton stated he will contact both the League of Cities and the Florida Association of Counties. 

 

Mr. Tipton stated Ms. Rice spoke about updates, and the correct forum in which to hear updates; and inquired if the Board would like to have updates once per month during this critical period of transition.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated perhaps Ms. Rice can use SCGTV to update the community on space issues; and that would be a good communication tool for her.  Mr. Tipton stated SCGTV could do some programming dedicated to space activities; SCGTV will be streaming the Board meetings live next month; and the community will be able to watch the meetings from the County’s website.  Commissioner Anderson stated there could also be some partnering with WBCC; DirectTV customers cannot get SCGTV; and it would be nice to approach WBCC to see what it can do. 

 

Chairman Bolin stated that the Board should be getting the notification about a government summit; and inquired if Mr. Tipton would like to address what will be done at the summit.  Mr. Tipton replied there needs to be immediate action after the March 18^th Workshop, which is where the Board will discuss the fiscal picture for the rest of this year, as well as the next three to five years; one action is to convene the mayors and city managers of the municipalities, as well as the School Board Chair, Superintendant, and some of the key non-profit agencies; they will all discuss the fiscal environment the County is in; and what will be sought is creativity and innovation to lead to greater cooperation and partnerships as the County faces common challenges.  He noted the summit will take place at the end of March.

 

Chairman Bolin stated one of the goals she hopes to achieve is that everyone in Brevard County realizes that they are all one village; they all need to work together; Commissioner Anderson had a great idea in teaming up with WBCC to get information out to the public, as WBCC reaches a group that SCGTV does not; and it is an opportunity to start working with different people, as the County is definitely in a crisis.

 

Mr. Tipton stated the schools have a tremendous impact if the space program flows as is forecasted; and having the School Board be part of the discussion is absolutely critical, because there could be the departure of thousands and thousands of students.

 

Commissioner Fisher stated for the Board’s next meeting he is going to work with staff to write a resolution to be passed by the Board; he will try to get the Association of Counties to support it and pass it as well; and he will have it on the next Agenda if possible.  Commissioner Anderson stated the Board should not leave out the National Association of Counties; Texas will be impacted as well; and maybe the National Association of Counties would be interested in supporting the resolution.

 

Mr. Tipton stated Representative Workman spoke about adding to the Save Space website, the idea of extending the shuttle; right now, the website is focused on the bold vision and the Constellation Program; and inquired if the Board would like to put the extension of the shuttle on the website as well.  Commissioner Fisher stated for as long as the website has been running, the message for President Obama has been to save jobs and extend the shuttle; now the website is trying to take a different spin in thinking about Human Space Exploration, which means cranking up the shuttle, which means Constellation; and that means human spaceflight.  He stated if he had is dream of how it would all play out, the shuttle would be extended for a couple more years; NASA would provide enough funding to either get the next vehicle running, which would be the Constellation; and both the shuttle and Constellation would be launching at the same time, which would minimize job losses. 

 

Commissioner Anderson stated the other issue is the subject of the unsafe platform as it pertains  to  the  shuttle;  someone  had  given   him  a  figure  a  few  weeks  ago;  and Representative Workman had cited data about the number of flights each shuttle was designed for.  Mr. Tipton replied each shuttle was designed for 100 flights.  Commissioner Anderson inquired if the shuttles were below 100 flights each.  Commissioner Infantini stated each shuttle has only flown 30 flights; and that would theoretically leave another 70 flights each.  Mr. Tipton stated he does not think it is anything other than a cost factor; and if NASA wants to go in another direction, it has to reduce the cost of the shuttle.  Commissioner Anderson stated the United States is going to cease its manned space program and depend on Russians to get to the ISS.  Commissioner Infantini stated the Russians increased the seat price on its vehicles; it was $30 million per seat; now it is $50 million per seat; and she does not want to think about how much a seat will be by the time it is needed by the United States.  She stated it comes down to supply and demand; and if there is no supply, Russia can get whatever price it wants.

 

Upon motion and vote, the meeting was adjourned at 2:04 pm. 

ATTEST:                                                                                                                                                                                                         ____________________________

                                                                        MARY BOLIN, CHAIRMAN

                                                                        BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS

                                                                        BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA

_____________________

SCOTT ELLIS, CLERK

      

          (S E A L)