Agreement Extension – Black Jack Media Group, Inc. – June 30, 2024 Expiration – No Funding Required

1:36:05Yours and A? Okay, it fails because of three to two. Okay. All right. Move on to uh irregular items. Uh R45.

1:36:21Respect.

1:36:25I think that's presentation.

1:36:27You are correct.

1:36:30I

1:36:30don't.

1:36:30I think you're correct. Okay. So Mr. Chairman? Yes. Oh yeah,

1:36:34we've got to go back.

1:36:35The reason I wanted to bring this item up Was many years ago.

1:36:39This item?

1:36:40This item, yeah. Okay. I think it's under my name, right?

1:36:44Huh?

1:36:48Ready?

1:36:49R forty five.

1:36:50I'm here. Good afternoon. Okay. Commissioner. Me again. Um Janina Elkin with Gopasco, Gopasco Director. I'm just here to give you a brief update in regards to our uh bus wrapping advertising uh program.

1:37:05Mr. Chairman, if I could. I mean I asked for this item. I think I should speak to it first.

1:37:10Do one of

1:37:11I brought this item up.

1:37:14Well

1:37:14I

1:37:15don't have

1:37:15nothing that says that to me, so

1:37:16No, I

1:37:16know

1:37:17it's right on the agenda. R forty five is under my name under district five.

1:37:24Oh gotcha.

1:37:24Okay, I don't see that now. Yeah, I couldn't see it.

1:37:27Okay.

1:37:28All right. So Years ago, uh Amanda Hart came to me at a business function. And uh she says, you know, what about taking a look at doing some wrapping of the buses, others are doing it, take a look at it. Long story, we went through, we did an RFP whenever they wanted to bid, uh, went through it. There were a few things we had to go through. One of 'em was as far as attorneys go. Uh at the time SINCHO claims are really really high, so we didn't want to have attorneys out there advertising because we didn't want to be advertising bad bad

1:37:58things. And if you look at the current contract, it's got a few things in there that are there as well. Having said all that, we took attorneys out of it. as we went forward. But we clearly wanted to create revenue if we could. And we did. Uh there were some issues with the old buses, the bluebirds. They would die down. They could be off the road for thirty three hundred days, a hundred days. It was really tough to rent those out

1:38:26to

1:38:26make revenue from them from going on. We've made improvements with that all the way through and that's been a good thing to s speed it. But some of those buses are still there so we kind of take them off the list. We don't allow every single bus to be advertised on, but we do a bunch of them that are going forward. Um Another thing where this is going to end To me it would be very appropriate as it was a county commission initiative to go forward with the RFP. If we wanted to end it The county commission should be the ones

1:38:57directing where to end it. It should be coming from staff. That they don't like it, they want to end it. Uh so that bothered me quite a bit uh where I wanted to bring this forward. I think there's some great conversations we can have to improve it, improve revenue as well as quality of the product. But again, uh I appreciate this coming forward, Mike, for bringing this forward. I appreciate you for being here too. But I think it's a conversation which you've made some improvements to kind of extend this out, but I do think it's

1:39:27Of something that we should probably put a group together with the uh with Blackjack and our own our our team, maybe a commissioner, to kind of talk about what we want to see in the future. But if we have revenue opportunities to subsidize what we have as transportation costs, then we should be maximizing everything. And if they have other ideas to improve more stuff. Bring in more revenue. I'm good with that. So just having said that, um I'm glad you've made some steps to get us through the next six months, but

1:39:58kind of that's where w I was coming from with this whole thing.

1:40:00I understand that. Yes. Okay.

1:40:04Um can we have the board presentation? Yeah.

1:40:06Can we have the presentation? Yeah, that's what she's here for.

1:40:09Okay, so hello again. Uh Nina Janina Elkin, uh Pasco Director. So I was saying I'm gonna just provide you guys with a brief explanation or brief update on where where we are at with the bus advertising. So we currently have uh assigned um thirty seven vehicles for this effort. So basically wrapping is you know the the exterior of the bus where they put vinyl graphic to to promote a business. So we entered into an agreement with Blackjack back in 2019,

1:40:40five year contract. Uh the last year of this contract it was three year contract by plus two additional. So the last and s the second and last um uh renewal was last year in June 2023. So last week uh this this contract ended the five year agreement. So what we are doing uh currently is extending this contract for three months And uh to close out fiscal year twenty-four and in addition to that we're gonna add

1:41:10uh three more month, one month extension for the next six months, so this will bring us till December thirty thirty-one, twenty twenty-four. In the meantime, what we're gonna be doing is putting out a solicitation for this type of um uh advertising. Now our department is looking to implement new strategies to bring up not only revenues but also to be more modern as we modernize our uh system. So Uh there are three components or

1:41:40three um items that we have to take into consideration of what we're doing. So the initiative that we have currently is we're improving our services on type performance and reliability. We currently have a RAT study being done so we can achieve those goals. Second of all is the onboard technology. We're purchasing an ITS system that not only will we will be able to have automatic passenger counters, but provide real-time information for our riders, as well as digital advertising

1:42:10on the buses. And also we want to provide a professional and clean look image, safe image in our community so to increase ridership. So what we're looking to do is to over time as we collect revenues, you know, to shift the current model to be more again, modernize our fleet, our modernize the way we're doing business and pro create more digital advertising not only on our buses but also on our future transfer stations. And what we will do is uh as we move forward

1:42:40and we implement those uh strategies, we will be uh bringing back uh we will have a couple of years, we will have to work on these efforts and then we'll be coming back to you and update you with all the the the items that that we are talking about right now. And that's What's it? Any questions?

1:43:00Any questions?

1:43:01No, just um no offense to Blackjack, it's wonderful company, but I've never been a fan of wrapping our buses with other people's messages. I have always thought that um if we were gonna wrap the buses, then I would like to promote us. And we should be promoting our assets like our parks and um using it for our benefit. Um I'm fine with all the ads going on the inside. Um but I just think we should

1:43:31be using using them for promoting are the wonderful places and the wonderful things to do in our county.

1:43:38So

1:43:41Thank you Mr. Chairman Mariano this shifting from the outside wrapping to the inside Uh I want to take advantage of every opportunity we have to make income, to cut. the cost d' more money we take and create revenue, the less taxes we have to have for this like this MST we just put forward. So I want to see both done. If you have opportunities to find digital and use that, I want you to do that. But I'm not looking to take away revenue uh from the wraps. Uh I'm very comfortable with getting a

1:44:11conversation going down to see how it can be improved, make it better, find out opportunities. Um I also think we should be looking very closely to talk with our uh congressional leadership federally to find out if we're being restricted from rules by the federal government that we look to overturn those. So if they say you can't wrap a bus if you're getting money from us, that we take a look at trying to find out a path forward. Uh We've got a feder federal lobbyist we can engage. We're already paying them. Let's go see if we can f make that because if we've been our busiest routes

1:44:41and we don't wrap them. And we could, shame on us. That's an opportunity. And it's not just promoting uh blackjack making money. We've got local businesses that love the advertising that want to continue it. So I think we should look at all opportunities to cut taxes whenever we can and if it means you get a little bit more on there, what's the difference if something says go Pasco or Vir's plumbing? Who cares? If it's gonna create revenue for us, r rather I'd rather do that. The branding part, you can still leave room for branding for us to put certain things out there. Like

1:45:11if we're gonna run a something on US nineteen, maybe we could put something up there for enclode park for Starkey Ranch, for Sun West Prayer, for Hudson Beach, whatever Green Key Beach, we can put those on there too. But let's go maximize what's best. So I'm I'm fully Like the idea that you put in the clause to look at the RFP again. I think we can do probably better. But it's a great opportunity we should be looking at for every every revenue we can get.

1:45:38Okay.

1:45:40Any

1:45:41other discussion?

1:45:43Move

1:45:43up the status recommendation. Second. I got a motion and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passed 5-0. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll move on to R 47.

1:46:00Yeah.

1:46:04I think