1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:11,680 good morning everyone my name is John Baines and I have the privilege of being the chairman 2 00:00:11,680 --> 00:00:17,360 of the economic development partnership board and we want to welcome you to our February 3 00:00:17,360 --> 00:00:24,000 10th meeting you will notice that we have a number of folks on the meeting here with 4 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,520 us and they're all smiling and they're all happy and we're going to talk about the good 5 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:34,320 things that are going on in the city of Denton there's a lot of things that are really positive 6 00:00:34,320 --> 00:00:42,460 and excellent and we're going to get into those in just a moment the we want to consider 7 00:00:42,460 --> 00:00:51,160 80 excuse me first item on the agenda is EDP 21-001 consider the approval of the minutes 8 00:00:51,160 --> 00:01:00,320 of the December 9th 2020 board meeting if there's someone that could provide us with 9 00:01:00,320 --> 00:01:10,160 a motion we'll get started okay we have Lee Ramsey with a motion a second second this 10 00:01:10,160 --> 00:01:17,520 is Jill Jester okay Jill Jester is the second do we have any conversation or any consideration 11 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:31,540 concerning the minutes okay hearing none we're going to do a verbal vote and we're going 12 00:01:31,540 --> 00:01:48,160 to go across the board here Bob Ames okay let's see Lee Ramsey, Mayor Pro Tem, welcome 13 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:57,580 aboard Tina Albert your first time with us thank you can you hear me okay we can do you 14 00:01:57,580 --> 00:02:09,620 accept the minutes as presented okay Jill Jester aye Jason Tomlinson aye Tony Clark 15 00:02:09,620 --> 00:02:28,020 everybody aye Steve Edgar on the phone can we hear you Steve can't hear you you're on 16 00:02:28,020 --> 00:02:36,540 mute okay while you get yours together there Mark McClellan aye and John Baines is aye 17 00:02:36,540 --> 00:02:51,500 so the minutes pass unanimously and we'll move on to EDP item 20-057 receive a report 18 00:02:51,500 --> 00:02:57,340 hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding implementation of the economic development 19 00:02:57,340 --> 00:03:03,060 strategic plan but I'm going to break protocol here for a moment and before we do that Tina 20 00:03:03,060 --> 00:03:07,340 could you tell us a little bit about yourself and we want to welcome you properly to the 21 00:03:07,340 --> 00:03:17,140 board yeah great thank you very much and welcoming me to this I am Tina Albert and I have been 22 00:03:17,140 --> 00:03:26,020 with PACCAR for 21 years I am a CPA most of my history here at PACCAR has been in our 23 00:03:26,020 --> 00:03:31,900 controllers or accounting group and I did move to Mississippi about eight years ago 24 00:03:31,900 --> 00:03:38,100 and I just recently moved back two years ago and when I moved back to Peterbilt I went 25 00:03:38,100 --> 00:03:42,660 into operations so I left my accounting field and moved to operations so now I'm the plant 26 00:03:42,660 --> 00:03:50,460 manager and Chris Davis who was on the board prior and he was my boss so he's moved off 27 00:03:50,460 --> 00:03:57,260 to Chillicothe, Ohio to work for Kenworth and so now they're taking place so it's very 28 00:03:57,260 --> 00:04:03,780 very honored to be part of this committee well thank you Tina we we love and respect 29 00:04:03,780 --> 00:04:08,380 Peterbilt very much and we look forward to a wonderful long-term relationship with you 30 00:04:08,380 --> 00:04:16,500 of course thank you okay thank you and let's see Jessica is this going to be the city manager's 31 00:04:16,500 --> 00:04:28,380 last meeting so yes Todd will just a quick announcement so Todd Hollman will be leaving 32 00:04:28,380 --> 00:04:34,380 the city of Denton he's accepted a position in Palm Desert so I don't think he was able 33 00:04:34,380 --> 00:04:39,820 to join us this morning he has a lot going on with the transition I think David Gaines 34 00:04:39,820 --> 00:04:44,200 is on the phone with us who's our assistant city manager David will continue to be our 35 00:04:44,200 --> 00:04:52,580 assistant city manager and will be who I report to who I report to now so so I don't think 36 00:04:52,580 --> 00:04:58,180 Todd was able to join us this morning okay well hopefully we'll get a chance to extend 37 00:04:58,180 --> 00:05:03,980 our best to Todd before he leaves us for the wonderful job he's done and helping the city 38 00:05:03,980 --> 00:05:15,180 of Denton during these past few years so coming back to EDP 20-057 we have who's going to 39 00:05:15,180 --> 00:05:21,580 handle that presentation for us Jessica so that's me and we don't have a presentation 40 00:05:21,580 --> 00:05:28,260 for this item mainly because I was up last night putting the finishing touches on the 41 00:05:28,260 --> 00:05:36,180 strategic plan and sometime around 8 o'clock 830 mayor Pro Tem can correct me the city 42 00:05:36,180 --> 00:05:43,180 council formally adopted the economic development strategic plan by a vote of 6 to 1 so I really 43 00:05:43,180 --> 00:05:50,420 just want to take this time to first say thank you to this group you participated in a lot 44 00:05:50,420 --> 00:05:57,060 of hours of a lot of meetings over the past year helping us get that plan providing your 45 00:05:57,060 --> 00:06:01,260 expertise and your feedback even those of you I don't think who were on the board when 46 00:06:01,260 --> 00:06:06,900 we started the plan Lee was involved in the plan in some other capacities so you guys 47 00:06:06,900 --> 00:06:13,400 represent really some some great industries great fields and gave us all the input we 48 00:06:13,400 --> 00:06:18,920 need to make sure that for the next three to five years that we can continue to represent 49 00:06:18,920 --> 00:06:25,740 and support Denton businesses and grow our local economy so I want to say thank you to 50 00:06:25,740 --> 00:06:31,980 all of you for for that commitment in time that you put into this and then with that 51 00:06:31,980 --> 00:06:37,860 just give you a quick update is that what I told city council last night is yes we did 52 00:06:37,860 --> 00:06:43,740 a lot of work to get where we are today but our real job started this morning and that 53 00:06:43,740 --> 00:06:49,820 is as we move into the implementation plan there's a lot of work to be done as it relates 54 00:06:49,820 --> 00:06:56,060 to policy and program decisions so over the next few weeks we're going to be mapping out 55 00:06:56,060 --> 00:07:01,940 sort of a timeline of how we're going to workshop those various elements and bring those back 56 00:07:01,940 --> 00:07:07,940 to this board before they come back to city council so there's still a lot of work to 57 00:07:07,940 --> 00:07:14,220 be done with Jessica I did have one question I did see the implementation matrix there 58 00:07:14,220 --> 00:07:19,420 did you want to say anything about that or should we move on to the next agenda item 59 00:07:19,420 --> 00:07:25,700 so the implementation matrix summarizes that key actions activities and sort of a timeline 60 00:07:25,700 --> 00:07:33,140 of when those will take place those really covered the the sort of strat the strategy 61 00:07:33,140 --> 00:07:39,340 related items we also have a lot of operational things that need to get addressed those are 62 00:07:39,340 --> 00:07:45,940 the things that are in the capacity and resources section of the strategic plan so we're going 63 00:07:45,940 --> 00:07:52,060 to work on sort of our organizational and operational things as well as starting implementation 64 00:07:52,060 --> 00:07:57,980 of that those first few items in the implementation matrix that are identified as our initial 65 00:07:57,980 --> 00:08:05,900 implementation items and last month I sent you our first revised comprehensive quarterly 66 00:08:05,900 --> 00:08:12,740 report there is a section of that report that is dedicated to providing updates to this 67 00:08:12,740 --> 00:08:22,420 board related to the implementation matrix okay so should we proceed to the next agenda 68 00:08:22,420 --> 00:08:28,220 item I think you have one question okay we have a question okay from Jill Jester please 69 00:08:28,220 --> 00:08:34,620 you um and forgive me Jessica I did not watch the entire city council meeting I was able 70 00:08:34,620 --> 00:08:41,700 to kind of go back and look at some snippets can you fill us in a little bit on the discussion 71 00:08:41,700 --> 00:08:48,860 if any regarding funding a economic development fund that was discussed and seemed to be 72 00:08:48,860 --> 00:08:54,020 kind of the last little piece that seemed to be up in the air concerning as far as council 73 00:08:54,020 --> 00:08:59,140 deliberations is that still tabled or was that addressed and voted on as part of the 74 00:08:59,140 --> 00:09:06,000 package so what and David's here and can kind of add to this so when we were working on 75 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:10,380 developing kind of the pro formas for that and what that would look like we realized 76 00:09:10,380 --> 00:09:15,740 that that has a really significant impact as it relates to the overall city budget process 77 00:09:15,740 --> 00:09:20,500 so we didn't want to have that conversation completely separate from the budget process 78 00:09:20,500 --> 00:09:24,740 and believe it or not we're actually we've already started our budget process for next 79 00:09:24,740 --> 00:09:30,580 fiscal year and so we're integrating that catalyst fund discussion into that budget 80 00:09:30,580 --> 00:09:35,140 process so there'll be a full picture that council will be able to review and make a 81 00:09:35,140 --> 00:09:40,180 decision on so no they didn't take a final vote or incorporate that catalyst fund decision 82 00:09:40,180 --> 00:09:45,340 into their approval of the plan and can you let us know or do you know what when is that 83 00:09:45,340 --> 00:09:49,860 process does that is that the summer that that really kicks into high gear or when should 84 00:09:49,860 --> 00:10:01,040 we start paying attention and talking to our city council members and and so our fiscal 85 00:10:01,040 --> 00:10:07,340 year for those who don't know goes from October through September but we actually get started 86 00:10:07,340 --> 00:10:13,140 on our budget process specifically the utility funds early in the process right now really 87 00:10:13,140 --> 00:10:16,420 we'll be going to council here in the next few months to start those preliminary looks 88 00:10:16,420 --> 00:10:21,460 at the utility funds and really the purpose of pushing this or incorporating the budget 89 00:10:21,460 --> 00:10:27,380 process is if we increase those ROIs teach us funds it has a significant impact obviously 90 00:10:27,380 --> 00:10:31,140 in those out years so as far as the timeline we're going to have those initial discussions 91 00:10:31,140 --> 00:10:35,740 with council and really the decisions will be made all the way up to September by city 92 00:10:35,740 --> 00:10:41,140 council but those the budget uh the proposed budget will be submitted to council around 93 00:10:41,140 --> 00:10:46,820 August 1st and so that'll be the first time the council really gets a chance to to dig 94 00:10:46,820 --> 00:10:51,180 in and start giving some direction on what they what they want us to to bring forward 95 00:10:51,180 --> 00:10:58,680 in the ultimate budget. Mr. Chair could I add something to that? I would be happy for 96 00:10:58,680 --> 00:11:05,700 you to do that. So from a from a council perspective as well you know remember we've got two two 97 00:11:05,700 --> 00:11:10,420 new folks on the council as of the November election and then finally December when we 98 00:11:10,420 --> 00:11:15,860 finally wrapped up the last of our runoffs the council was set those two new folks had 99 00:11:15,860 --> 00:11:20,980 not been a part of the conversation regarding the catalyst fund and how that's going to 100 00:11:20,980 --> 00:11:26,620 be funded and where it's going to come from and I think overall it's a really good thing 101 00:11:26,620 --> 00:11:33,060 that we're talking about a catalyst fund which is the term term we're now using for the type 102 00:11:33,060 --> 00:11:37,980 of fund we've we've kind of coalesced around. It's a really good thing that we're talking 103 00:11:37,980 --> 00:11:42,180 about in terms of the overall budget. Imagine talking about a budget and never talking about 104 00:11:42,180 --> 00:11:46,620 road maintenance. Imagine talking about a budget and never talking about future staffing 105 00:11:46,620 --> 00:11:50,940 needs. We're finally talking about economic development in the context of the overall 106 00:11:50,940 --> 00:11:55,780 city budget and I think that's the appropriate place for it to be. I didn't know that was 107 00:11:55,780 --> 00:12:00,740 going to be Jessica and David's response this morning to the to the question a very good 108 00:12:00,740 --> 00:12:06,740 question but I for one appreciate that it's going to be put in that larger context and 109 00:12:06,740 --> 00:12:11,780 that way not just the current council we have now but the councils going forward will hold 110 00:12:11,780 --> 00:12:17,460 it in that context and they'll understand the place that the critical place that that 111 00:12:17,460 --> 00:12:24,260 catalyst fund holds in our economic development activities and hopefully in future years we 112 00:12:24,260 --> 00:12:28,260 just keep budgeting that line item and working through that fund the same way we do all of 113 00:12:28,260 --> 00:12:33,060 our other funds just like fixing streets and paying the police and fire and all that kind 114 00:12:33,060 --> 00:12:41,700 of stuff. It just becomes part of the landscape. Thank you. Thank you councilman Mayor Pro Tem. 115 00:12:41,700 --> 00:12:48,060 I also wanted to underscore a point here in our in one of our recent discussions I asked 116 00:12:48,060 --> 00:12:57,980 the question about members of the of this board being more proactive when it comes to 117 00:12:57,980 --> 00:13:02,980 supporting the economic development issues for the city of Denton because this has been 118 00:13:02,980 --> 00:13:13,500 somewhat of a point of controversy where some in the city were very interested and others 119 00:13:13,500 --> 00:13:22,260 were not as interested and so I asked if I should become more involved before the council 120 00:13:22,260 --> 00:13:30,300 when it comes to supporting the economic development issues and also discussing them periodically 121 00:13:30,300 --> 00:13:36,740 and in that discussion I was told that if I do go before the council I need to go as 122 00:13:36,740 --> 00:13:44,420 a representative of this board and with your approval so that I'm not there independently 123 00:13:44,420 --> 00:13:52,740 and as a simply as a citizen within the community but representing the premier economic development 124 00:13:52,740 --> 00:13:58,340 arm of the city of Denton and so I wanted you to know that as this process continues 125 00:13:58,340 --> 00:14:05,300 I will periodically make presentations to city council supporting the economic development 126 00:14:05,300 --> 00:14:12,900 and especially this fund that that councilor jester had talked about so any anytime you'd 127 00:14:12,900 --> 00:14:17,940 like to talk to me about it please feel free to send me an email or give me a call so that 128 00:14:17,940 --> 00:14:25,060 we can make this a paramount issue before the council so thank you for all of your input 129 00:14:25,060 --> 00:14:33,820 and I believe we're going to go on to the next agenda item now that's edp 21-002 receiver 130 00:14:33,820 --> 00:14:39,980 report hold discussion and give staff direction regarding the Denton business allies program 131 00:14:39,980 --> 00:14:46,380 well I'm going to pause one second again and take it off script I'm sorry mac but I want 132 00:14:46,380 --> 00:14:51,660 to introduce Sarah Hensley who just joined us in the meeting so Sarah Hensley is the 133 00:14:51,660 --> 00:14:58,900 interim city manager Sarah's our current deputy city manager she's been with the city about 134 00:14:58,900 --> 00:15:06,060 two years I'm not sure time has seemed to stop in our life as of late but I just want 135 00:15:06,060 --> 00:15:11,580 to introduce Sarah to the group and Sarah we will be serving in the city manager's ex 136 00:15:11,580 --> 00:15:17,020 officio role while she's serving as the interim city manager so yes thank you and I look forward 137 00:15:17,020 --> 00:15:22,020 to working with all of you what was Sarah I have not had the pleasure of meeting you 138 00:15:22,020 --> 00:15:27,220 probably everyone else has but I have not but for the sake of us that have not could 139 00:15:27,220 --> 00:15:31,500 you tell us just a little bit about yourself and some of your background it would be interesting 140 00:15:31,500 --> 00:15:35,300 okay be happy to well I've been here for about two years once started out as the assistant 141 00:15:35,300 --> 00:15:40,060 city manager then moved up to the deputy city manager before that I served as the interim 142 00:15:40,060 --> 00:15:46,280 assistant city manager in Austin Texas for two years over a variety of departments and 143 00:15:46,280 --> 00:15:54,420 over some major team efforts dealing with people experiencing homelessness working with 144 00:15:54,420 --> 00:16:01,220 mentoring young employees and served on a variety of council appointed committees as 145 00:16:01,220 --> 00:16:07,340 a staff liaison before that I've worked in Phoenix Arizona and San Jose California as 146 00:16:07,340 --> 00:16:12,140 a department head over either a parks and recreation department or a large conglomerate 147 00:16:12,140 --> 00:16:21,260 of departments including animal services grants community services neighborhood services and 148 00:16:21,260 --> 00:16:27,420 things like that well thank you Sarah and we welcome you to the board here and look 149 00:16:27,420 --> 00:16:33,940 forward to your input and participation well thank you so much right and I will turn it 150 00:16:33,940 --> 00:16:39,740 over now and to Kay Brown Patrick who will do the next presentation and she'll have to 151 00:16:39,740 --> 00:16:45,580 let me drive the presentation so as soon as I get it up and shared Kay you can get started 152 00:16:45,580 --> 00:16:55,060 no problem thank you Jessica good morning everyone this is going to be a very brief 153 00:16:55,060 --> 00:17:01,940 presentation more as an FYI in regards to I know I've previously discussed the didn't 154 00:17:01,940 --> 00:17:08,100 business allies briefly but wanted to come back and provide some additional details of 155 00:17:08,100 --> 00:17:13,340 what's been going on with that group so for those of you who have not heard about the 156 00:17:13,340 --> 00:17:19,860 didn't business allies it was established in September of October of last year to establish 157 00:17:19,860 --> 00:17:25,740 and build relationships amongst local organizations that provide business support and resources 158 00:17:25,740 --> 00:17:31,260 and the purpose of that was so that we can one try to avoid duplicating efforts but also 159 00:17:31,260 --> 00:17:37,900 maximize all the organizations in the network in the city that provides support to the business 160 00:17:37,900 --> 00:17:43,980 community one to connect our businesses with those resources and that support support being 161 00:17:43,980 --> 00:17:52,440 any type of training technical assistance access to capital meetings networking opportunities 162 00:17:52,440 --> 00:17:57,340 all of those opportunities that the businesses may have individually with these organizations 163 00:17:57,340 --> 00:18:02,360 just bringing all of those resources together into the table and we're already seeing those 164 00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:08,780 efforts pay dividends we were able to assist one of the businesses rose costumes the school 165 00:18:08,780 --> 00:18:13,660 district stepped in to provide her with free services that she needed to continue to maintain 166 00:18:13,660 --> 00:18:18,740 her business regarding photography and online presence and then some of the organizations 167 00:18:18,740 --> 00:18:25,660 within the dba have connected to support one another so it's been an awesome an awesome 168 00:18:25,660 --> 00:18:32,700 awesome connection for the for the businesses and so far we're we're making you work the 169 00:18:32,700 --> 00:18:37,460 list of the participants include the didn't business chamber the didn't black chamber 170 00:18:37,460 --> 00:18:43,700 of commerce the university of north texas their murphy center but also they have a business 171 00:18:43,700 --> 00:18:49,660 development director on the committee as well and then we have twu's women entrepreneurs 172 00:18:49,660 --> 00:18:56,100 center and several other organizations you'll see there we've added the economic development 173 00:18:56,100 --> 00:19:01,940 partnership board they were not previously on the list but in an effort for information 174 00:19:01,940 --> 00:19:13,260 gathering and sharing miss jill jester has offered to serve on the on the dba for to 175 00:19:13,260 --> 00:19:20,660 represent the edp i think that was the next slide that's okay yeah to serve as representative 176 00:19:20,660 --> 00:19:26,220 for the edp as we want to serve provide that information to you all as well so i said it 177 00:19:26,220 --> 00:19:32,020 will be brief and and and chair bangs i think that is the proactive approach you were talking 178 00:19:32,020 --> 00:19:38,820 about miss jill jester was being proactive in her offer to to serve on the dba as a representative 179 00:19:38,820 --> 00:19:54,980 so and now i'm open to any questions or comments from you all please don't be shy great great 180 00:19:54,980 --> 00:20:01,660 thank you k for your work and your effort and i look forward to to hearing more about 181 00:20:01,660 --> 00:20:09,860 your outreach and the activities of the of the particular committee that you're overseeing 182 00:20:09,860 --> 00:20:20,740 thank you very much absolutely the next item on the agenda is edp 21-003 staff report statistical 183 00:20:20,740 --> 00:20:29,340 trends and news of the dentons well i don't have a lot lot to report other than you do 184 00:20:29,340 --> 00:20:36,740 have um what's really our sort of summary of economic development stats and that we 185 00:20:36,740 --> 00:20:40,820 produce every quarter and so i'm going to pull it up real quick because there is an 186 00:20:40,820 --> 00:20:46,260 interesting um addendum that we made to the report so if you'll recall in our strategic 187 00:20:46,260 --> 00:20:52,260 plan the first goal was about strengthening uh accelerating recovery from the covid pandemic 188 00:20:52,260 --> 00:20:58,980 and a key part of that is making sure that we're tracking indicators of um our economic 189 00:20:58,980 --> 00:21:04,580 recovery effort and so we've added an addendum to the stand report so the last page of the 190 00:21:04,580 --> 00:21:10,100 report which has a section that's titled economic recovery data and so we went through i don't 191 00:21:10,100 --> 00:21:15,180 know dan how many data sets that we've kind of whittled it down that we're tracking but 192 00:21:15,180 --> 00:21:21,420 we've cut it down to about the top seven we felt gave a good perspective um in summary 193 00:21:21,420 --> 00:21:28,660 of the um you know whether it's retail um impacts or development impacts or business 194 00:21:28,660 --> 00:21:34,460 impacts um so we've tried to pick our our top indicators to to put in this report and 195 00:21:34,460 --> 00:21:41,220 so we've started tracking um and reporting on how our sales tax collections doing how 196 00:21:41,220 --> 00:21:48,580 our home sales hotel occupancy office rents um the unemployment rate the number of jobs 197 00:21:48,580 --> 00:21:54,380 that are available or in our community and then consumer spending and so all of those 198 00:21:54,380 --> 00:22:03,060 come from um various sources whether internal or external um to our department but we track 199 00:22:03,060 --> 00:22:08,180 all of those and that gives us the ability to assess if there's anything that we need 200 00:22:08,180 --> 00:22:14,340 to do um or outreach that we need to do in any particular area so that's really the only 201 00:22:14,340 --> 00:22:19,380 thing that i wanted to call out that's changed in the report and we did make our initial 202 00:22:19,380 --> 00:22:26,140 2020 update so some of that data that's annual data um we were able to incorporate the 2020 203 00:22:26,140 --> 00:22:31,340 data and get that loaded into the report um but you'll see this report every quarter and 204 00:22:31,340 --> 00:22:36,260 as long as we're continuing to see the impacts of covid on our local economy we'll continue 205 00:22:36,260 --> 00:22:44,060 to report on those metrics um and and track how we're doing and jessica you had a report 206 00:22:44,060 --> 00:22:49,540 uh that you showed us it was a quarterly report so that was that for the fourth quarter of 207 00:22:49,540 --> 00:22:57,060 2020 that we looked at so we we prepare our organizational comprehensive report so the 208 00:22:57,060 --> 00:23:02,460 report that you saw or that i emailed out to you in in lieu of our meeting in january 209 00:23:02,460 --> 00:23:10,420 that was reporting on um our organizational operations so whether it was um corey or myself 210 00:23:10,420 --> 00:23:16,100 or a member of my team sort of what we were doing um what our office is doing the stand 211 00:23:16,100 --> 00:23:22,700 report is a demographics statistical based report it's it's information that we're publishing 212 00:23:22,700 --> 00:23:28,460 and that businesses can use or that other even other city departments can use um as 213 00:23:28,460 --> 00:23:34,500 they're doing analysis so it's really just a dat a data dashboard report so let me and 214 00:23:34,500 --> 00:23:38,740 the reason i was asking was is it going to be quarterly or is it going to be monthly 215 00:23:38,740 --> 00:23:44,140 that was really the place both reports are both reports are quarterly so this report 216 00:23:44,140 --> 00:23:48,940 both of these reports represent the first quarter of our fiscal year which is the fourth 217 00:23:48,940 --> 00:23:55,500 quarter of the calendar year so both reports cover october to december okay thank you very 218 00:23:55,500 --> 00:24:00,060 much and so that way i wouldn't be looking for another one until the end of mulch so 219 00:24:00,060 --> 00:24:10,380 yes okay good yeah um and i believe we're on concluding items and and i'm gonna i'm 220 00:24:10,380 --> 00:24:14,620 gonna walk out on the plank here for just a minute and and if you guys could indulge 221 00:24:14,620 --> 00:24:19,900 me a few folks could indulge me i'm gonna read this little section because i i don't 222 00:24:19,900 --> 00:24:25,740 know if we've been taking advantage of this uh this area so if you'd go to that last 223 00:24:25,740 --> 00:24:33,220 item it's on the second page it says under section 551-042 of the texas open meetings 224 00:24:33,220 --> 00:24:41,780 act respond to inquiries from the economic development partnership board or the public 225 00:24:41,780 --> 00:24:48,620 with specific factual information or recitation of policy except a proposal to place the matter 226 00:24:48,620 --> 00:24:54,780 on the agenda for an upcoming meeting and under that section of the texas open meetings 227 00:24:54,780 --> 00:25:01,020 act provide reports about items of community interest regarding which no action will be 228 00:25:01,020 --> 00:25:08,940 taken to include expressions of thanks congratulations or condolence information regarding holiday 229 00:25:08,940 --> 00:25:16,940 schedules honorary or salutary recognition of a public official public employee or citizen 230 00:25:16,940 --> 00:25:22,940 a reminder about an upcoming event organized or sponsored by the governing board excuse 231 00:25:22,940 --> 00:25:30,940 me governing body including information regarding a social ceremonial or community event organized 232 00:25:30,940 --> 00:25:38,540 or sponsored by an entity other than the governing body that was scheduled to attend excuse me 233 00:25:38,540 --> 00:25:43,900 to be attended by a member of the governing body or an official employee of the municipality 234 00:25:43,900 --> 00:25:50,060 announcement involving an imminent threat to the public health and safety of people 235 00:25:50,060 --> 00:25:56,780 in the municipality that has arisen after the posting of the agenda so all that being said 236 00:25:56,780 --> 00:26:02,780 there's a spot on here where we can say some things talk about some things recommend some things 237 00:26:02,780 --> 00:26:10,780 for future agenda items or acknowledge and give expressions of appreciation so i hope that as we 238 00:26:10,780 --> 00:26:16,700 move forward we will take advantage of this opportunity because each of you are very unique 239 00:26:16,700 --> 00:26:24,300 in your perspective from the business community and i benefit greatly when each of you let us 240 00:26:24,300 --> 00:26:30,940 know of your areas of interest your areas of concern and then your areas where people need 241 00:26:30,940 --> 00:26:36,380 to be acknowledged and celebrated so i hope that in the future meetings we all take advantage of 242 00:26:36,380 --> 00:26:43,340 this opportunity and i will open it and see if there are any items that we need to address under 243 00:26:43,340 --> 00:26:55,660 this section now there's one thing i would maybe add you know just as you guys are um talking to 244 00:26:55,660 --> 00:27:01,420 different businesses throughout the city if we could keep an kind of an ongoing list of you know 245 00:27:01,420 --> 00:27:07,500 from small businesses to large businesses what are what are those needs you know is it peter build 246 00:27:07,500 --> 00:27:14,140 says we need more industrial space for our suppliers is a small business saying hey we're having a hard 247 00:27:14,140 --> 00:27:21,980 time getting co's you know for our ti you know you know just kind of keeping an ongoing list and that 248 00:27:21,980 --> 00:27:27,180 i think that could open some topics of discussion of how we can maybe make a bigger influence as a 249 00:27:27,180 --> 00:27:34,060 board in helping make those decisions as you guys are visiting one-on-one with these businesses get 250 00:27:34,060 --> 00:27:38,780 some feedback and then maybe have that on the agenda i'm just kind of as an ongoing list 251 00:27:38,780 --> 00:27:46,380 absolutely so we actually uh track a lot of that data uh through our bre program what you're 252 00:27:46,380 --> 00:27:51,980 referencing and so i know k has started the 2021 visits i know she's gone on a few of them 253 00:27:52,540 --> 00:27:57,260 and so we're certainly keeping track of that information and that's exactly why we've built 254 00:27:57,260 --> 00:28:03,980 in an evaluation period um and data analysis component of the bre program is so we can do just 255 00:28:03,980 --> 00:28:10,220 that yeah i think once we we're hearing those topics back i think that that gives us some 256 00:28:10,220 --> 00:28:15,820 direction to go okay how can we make a difference as a board what do we need to be incentivizing 257 00:28:15,820 --> 00:28:22,220 um and just helps give us some more information from people we can include that we'll give a bre 258 00:28:22,220 --> 00:28:27,740 update in that quarterly organizational report it looked a little different this past quarter 259 00:28:27,740 --> 00:28:33,740 um because we hadn't started the 2020 visit cycle yet um but going forward we can make sure to 260 00:28:33,740 --> 00:28:38,140 include that on a quarterly basis and if we need to have those discussions we can schedule that 261 00:28:38,140 --> 00:28:40,380 with the board thank you 262 00:28:40,380 --> 00:28:46,060 anyone else 263 00:28:49,820 --> 00:28:55,660 chairman this is steve edgar uh just a quick question can you hear me oh yes absolutely steve 264 00:28:55,660 --> 00:29:07,340 thank you uh actually i need to ask some questions around uh the get in business uh allies 265 00:29:07,340 --> 00:29:15,900 so uh k whenever as i read it it looks like we're trying to identify what resources employers are 266 00:29:15,900 --> 00:29:22,380 needing to address their their current need um in the community whether it's from staffing or 267 00:29:22,380 --> 00:29:28,860 technology or space or am i understanding that correctly um that's a component of it um that 268 00:29:28,860 --> 00:29:36,700 group also assists like entrepreneurs um small businesses even some businesses that may not even 269 00:29:36,700 --> 00:29:42,460 have a concern but just needing some training so it's it's multi-level in regards to those 270 00:29:42,460 --> 00:29:46,060 organizations and the support and resources that they provide to the business community 271 00:29:46,060 --> 00:29:53,580 but that's definitely a component of it okay so i guess my question is um how are you 272 00:29:53,580 --> 00:30:00,220 getting that information of what the need is so one i'm one way i'm getting it is through the 273 00:30:00,220 --> 00:30:05,820 business retention um visits that i've had so if they're i've gone on a couple of visits this 274 00:30:05,820 --> 00:30:11,500 month we have our gba meeting tomorrow so some of the concerns that some of the businesses may have 275 00:30:11,500 --> 00:30:16,700 if i know that there's a organization that may be able to assist those those businesses i will 276 00:30:16,700 --> 00:30:23,420 mention that um texas workforce solutions has gone on each of the visits with me so if they are 277 00:30:23,420 --> 00:30:28,700 having any workforce or training or recruitment issues we're able to identify those immediately 278 00:30:28,700 --> 00:30:34,940 because they've been on those meetings with me um but also just word of mouth so i'll use rose 279 00:30:34,940 --> 00:30:40,380 costumes as an example so there was someone on the didn't business allies meeting that mentioned 280 00:30:40,380 --> 00:30:46,780 um during the meeting that she was having concerns in um in regards to having to restructure or 281 00:30:46,780 --> 00:30:51,980 reimagine her business and so i reached out to her and asked her what were her exact concerns 282 00:30:51,980 --> 00:30:57,260 so when i got those concerns i presented those to the group and her concerns was she needed 283 00:30:57,260 --> 00:31:03,180 photography because she's now selling her costumes that are renting them and she also needed assistance 284 00:31:03,180 --> 00:31:08,220 with her online presence well when i told the group that didn't isd stepped up and said well 285 00:31:08,220 --> 00:31:13,340 their communications department can provide her with that assistance um and that information came 286 00:31:13,340 --> 00:31:21,180 from another dva um organization member so it's it's a it's the information sharing there um is 287 00:31:21,180 --> 00:31:26,780 kind of the way that we've gotten information on top of our bru visits and emails from businesses 288 00:31:26,780 --> 00:31:31,100 that we get steve were you interested in having a visit 289 00:31:33,820 --> 00:31:40,860 well i'm always available for a visit certainly and willing to share any thoughts i might have 290 00:31:40,860 --> 00:31:47,260 uh i just it was interesting to me um these are wonderful resources i just didn't know 291 00:31:47,260 --> 00:31:54,460 how we're reaching into the business community to to draw out what the needs are universally 292 00:31:54,460 --> 00:32:00,540 or individually so thank you i appreciate that and i would also say this group kind of with your 293 00:32:00,540 --> 00:32:06,300 general awareness of this if you come into contact with a business in your day-to-day operations and 294 00:32:06,300 --> 00:32:12,300 you're not sure where to send them get them in contact with k k can talk about it with the dba 295 00:32:12,300 --> 00:32:17,100 group and we probably can find a resource through that group and so the more we kind of spread and 296 00:32:17,100 --> 00:32:22,140 say there is a group that is working to assist businesses and we know this is an incredibly 297 00:32:22,140 --> 00:32:27,980 challenging time period for so many businesses there's a brain trust that's behind the scenes 298 00:32:27,980 --> 00:32:32,860 meeting i've gotten to participate in a few of those meetings and and the information that shared 299 00:32:32,860 --> 00:32:36,860 um and the connections that are being made behind the scenes is going to really benefit 300 00:32:36,860 --> 00:32:43,660 benefit businesses so if if you hear of anything or you know of anything um please call our office 301 00:32:43,660 --> 00:32:49,820 and and we can help yeah great thank you thank you all know absolutely if you all know of any 302 00:32:49,820 --> 00:32:55,260 business that you would like for us to add to the list um and in the category startup small medium 303 00:32:55,260 --> 00:33:02,140 large um we can always add we have space because of the virtual meetings that has allowed for the 304 00:33:02,140 --> 00:33:08,300 calendar to be flexible so we can add a lot more businesses to the visits so please do 305 00:33:08,300 --> 00:33:18,060 did we have any more input from the economic development partnership board 306 00:33:22,940 --> 00:33:25,660 i'll entertain a motion to adjourn the meeting 307 00:33:25,660 --> 00:33:40,620 okay all right steve thank you we need a second second second okay all in favor signify by raising 308 00:33:40,620 --> 00:33:47,500 your hand okay thank you all for your time thank you for your participation and we look forward to 309 00:33:47,500 --> 00:33:54,460 more of your input thank you have a great day you too