Introductory portion of City Commission work session on Casino Complex Invitation to Negotiate—Presentations by respondents

This is when the format of the meeting was discussed. As a work session, public comment is usually not allowed. However, the Commission allowed comment due to the number of people present. There was an initial question about whether comments would be limited to questions to the respondents only. This was the first public meeting where the presenters could actually present their proposal in a public way. No action would be taken at this meeting since it was advertised as a "work session."

The focus of the meeting was to get information from the respondents. The City Commission themselves never had such a presentation. Unfortunately, this part of the meeting permitted the opportunity for some rancorous discussion among the members of the Commission. Most of this part of the meeting consisted of that discussion, an introduction and review of the process by the City Manager Bornstein and a review of the ITN selection committee recommendations by the City Attorney. Commissioner McVoy, and to a degree Commissioner Maier, took this opportunity to grandstand about how the process was wrong to begin with. Remember, McVoy voted for the ITN process. He was reminded that this was a unanimous decision to go forward with the ITN process to address financial and operational flaws at the beach property and with the Casino building.

Hudson Holdings begins their presentation at the 22 minute mark. Their PowerPoint presentation is to be made available on the City's website soon.