1st Quarter
Meeting Minutes
The first quarter meeting
for Florida Film and Entertainment Advisory Council was called to order on
March 24, 2006, at 10:15 a.m., at the The Capitol in
Members Present
Excused Members Not Present
Lew Klechak
Hollis Batchelor
Mark Zubaly
Todd Roobin
Patrick Keating
Lucia Fishburne
Marty
John Welch
Leslie Ann Bartlett
Alan Randolph
Raul Mateu
Ann Herberger
Raquel Cisneros, Communication Coordinator
Natalie Recio, Executive Assistant
Susan Simms,
Robert Rodgers, Intern
The Chairman, Paul Meena at 10:15 a.m, called meeting to order.
Introductions
Roll call was taken and review of excused and unexcused
members. Council members in attendance
introduced themselves. A special thanks
was given to Film
The 2nd quarter meeting will be held in
FFEAC 4th Quarter Meeting, December 12, 2005
The Council did not approve the 4th quarter minutes because there was not enough time for the members to review them. The Council will review the minutes and notify the OFE of any necessary changes that need to be made. During the 2nd quarter meeting the minutes will be formally approved.
From now on the OFE will send the minutes to the Council via e-mail as soon as possible after our meeting. Council members will have two days to send feedback to the OFE with any changes before they are posted online. The Council members will then formally approve the minutes during the next formal meeting.
Judy McDonald reviews the current status of the House of
Representative Interim Study. This study
focuses on other states and their financial incentives. It also addresses current needs for
Paul Sirmons informs that HB 1321 passed unanimously through the first two House committees: Tourism Committee and Finance & Tax Committee.
Representative Don Davis and Senator Burt Saunders have been
very supportive of our new bill. The
incentive rate maintains the current 15% ‘rebate’ via tax credit on qualified
expenditures, which are all production costs made in Florida to Florida
vendors, cast and crew minus the two highest Florida resident salaries. All the three queues remained the same except
for the House added language to the Film and Television queue indicating High
Impact TV Series are eligible for the first 5 seasons in
Monetizing the incentive changes the funding of our
incentive from an appropriations base to a transferable tax credit. It allows productions receiving the tax
credit, if they have no tax liability in
A compilation of interviews with the producers of past and present incentive recipients productions was shown to the Council members. It is an informative thank you video to all the legislators that was shown at the Governor’s Agency Head meeting and given to all the legislators.
Paul Sirmons describes that Talent Agents’ program has operated in a deficit since its inception. The intent of the $1,800 special assessment was to address that deficiency. As of that date, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation has agreed to lower the assessment fee to $180 with the understanding that talent agents will form their own association to regulate themselves. Paul met with several talent agents in Tampa, Miami and Orlando to discuss this process.
The OFE had Rollins College, Crummer Graduate School of Business students create a model for the 5-year plan in order for the OFE to guide the direction of the office’s progress.
The OFE expects to commission an economic assessment to assess the size and extent of the motion picture production industry in the state of Florida. The goal of the analysis is to develop a baseline describing the size and extent of the industry and to outline regional conditions and suggest public policy responses which would be likely to lead to future growth of motion picture output and employment in Florida. The OFE will submit a drafted formal Request for Price Quote (RFP) to the Council for comments and suggestions. The formal RFP process allows any company, nation-wide, to submit a proposal for the project. The estimated cost of the Economic Assessment will be taken out of the fiscal year 06/07, when the assessment is expected to be complete.
Katie Waters goes over the Council members expiration
dates. Leslie Ann Bartlett’s term will
expire on April 30, 2006. The Membership Committee must teleconference
ASAP to recommend possible appointees to Speaker Bense
who will fill Leslie Ann’s spot. This
is the first seat to open of a member who could by statute serve an additional
term since the Membership Committee has been charged with making written
recommendations. After discussion, it
was informally decided that if a 2nd term is desired the expiring
member must notify the OFE 8 weeks before expiration date that they will be
seeking a second term. With that
notification the membership committee will, as a courtesy, include the current
member’s CV or resume among those submitted to the maker of the
appointment. Members are reminded that
they must resubmit a Gubernatorial Appointments Questionnaire or the
corresponding House or Senate document if they wish reappointment.
Officer Elections
Officer elections will take place during the next FFEAC quarterly meeting.
Paul Meena suggested forming a Task Force in order to assist with the rule promulgation process that would need to take place if the proposed ‘glitch bill’ were to pass. Members of the Task Force include, Mark Zubaly, Ann Herberger and Leslie Ann Bartlett.
Todd Roobin informed the FFEAC of the future activities of Film Florida. The next meeting will be held in Miami in conjunction with FFEAC quarterly meeting. Film Florida is planning a Florida’s Legend reception and a special tour to Bahamas.
Meeting adjourned at 1:53 p.m.