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 Good morning everyone. My name is John Baines and I have the honor of being the chair for

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 the Economic Development Partnership Board. And we want to call the meeting to order.

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 And I believe we have a rather decent agenda this morning. And the first item is to consider

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 the approval of minutes of May 12, 2012, excuse me, 2021. And that's EDP 21-022. We'll give

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 everyone a chance to look at those minutes briefly and see if you see any items that

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 require an adjustment. And once you've read them or you're ready, you can just give me

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 a wave and that'll give me an idea of how long I should wait or not wait. Thank you.

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 Chair, if you need a motion, I'll go ahead and move that we accept as presented pending

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 any corrections forthcoming. We have a motion on the floor. Do we have a second? Second.

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 Lee Ramsey second. Okay. Do we have any further discussion before we call the vote? Okay.

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 Seeing none, we have to do, because we're in this somewhat hybrid situation, we'll have

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 to take a roll call vote. So we'll go around the room and we'll start with me. I'll start

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 with me. I'm in favor. Jason? Yes. Lee Ramsey? Yes. Jill Jester? Aye. Mark McClellan? Aye.

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 Gerard Husspeth? Aye. Steven Edgar? Aye. We have a unanimous passage of the minutes. Thank

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 you very much. We'll move on to the next EDP item. EDP 21-028. Receive a report, hold

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 a discussion and give staff direction regarding a memorandum of understanding between the

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 City of Denton and the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce. Who will lead that conversation,

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 Jessica? So for the staff presentation, we'll have Kay Brown-Patrick, who is our business

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 development administrator. And then as you can see on your screen, we have Mr. Gorey

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 and Mr. Hill here from the Black Chamber of Commerce. And so we'll let Kay start this

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 thing, get the presentation going, get the conversation going. And then certainly we

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 invite the board's feedback and Mr. Hill and Mr. Gorey to participate as well. Thank you,

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 Jessica. And Kay, you have it. Good morning, everyone. I'm going to go ahead and pull my

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 screen up here. So we're going to go ahead and get started on the presentation. So as

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 you all are aware, the council passed the economic development strategic plan in February

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 as a guiding policy for economic development goals in Denton. One of the things that was

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 mentioned in that plan was a call for coordination with the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce

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 and other multicultural organizations to provide business information and resources for minority

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 owned businesses. Staff have met with the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce on several

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 occasions this year and to discuss the partnership in the area of support needed and the role

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 of each organization in developing and supporting a sustainable relationship for business support

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 within the community. So to enhance that relationship, the city and the Black Chamber of Commerce

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 have prepared a memorandum of understanding for your review. The MOU identifies the scope

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 of the partnership between the city and the Black Chamber of Commerce, and it also establishes

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 guidelines for the process of developing mutually understood roles and responsibilities to entities.

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 The agreements between the City of Denton Economic Development Department and the Denton

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 Black Chamber of Commerce, both ad hoc and standing joint committees and task force can

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 be created by mutually agreed upon between their executive board and the EDP board. There

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 has been no commitment from either party to provide funding. However, the city may allocate

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 resources and funding on a case by case basis for a specified program and events that are

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 offered by the Black Chamber of Commerce in the form of sponsorships. And one of an example

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 of that would be we recently collaborated on a how to do business with local and state

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 agencies with the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce for minority women owned businesses.

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 And the resource that was allocated from the city side was myself, and I worked closely

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 with one of the staff members there to put that on. And then they were going to utilize

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 our zoom platform because of the capabilities of that, but they ended up purchasing their

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 own. So that's just an example of resources and more than that, but that's just an example

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 of how that what that will look like. The city and the DBCLC will work collaboratively

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 to share visions and goals for business and economic development purposes. And the city

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 in alignment with the policy will promote activities and events that are hosted by the

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 Black Chamber of Commerce. Any trainings that they've done, they have done a great job.

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 They've been hosting a monthly activities and events and trainings this year. And so

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 with this MOU that allows now for us to promote those activities on our social media sites.

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 Both entities will engage at minimum with quarterly meetings or updates on progress

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 regarding any programs and city led initiatives. The Black Chamber of Commerce will provide

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 a informal annual report to the economic development department regarding any of their activities,

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 any changes that they may have on the board side, staff side, and then the city will provide

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 their executive board with updates and presentations on any city led initiatives that affect business

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 and economic development. And at minimum, we will provide that to them by annually.

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 The term is due December 31 of 2023, but because this is non-binding, that is that's fluid

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 and either party may for any specified reason terminate with written notice. So staff is

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 here to recommend that the EDP board recommend approval of the MOU outline the partnership

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 with the intent to bring the MOU forward to city council consideration later this summer.

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 So with that, I will take any questions. Mr. Goree, did you have any input? I did get your

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 message in regards to the whereas in the actual document, but we hadn't had a chance to speak.

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 So if you were Mr. Hill had any input, but I know I met with you two for review of the

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 MOU at the end of April. So if you guys have anything that you would like to add to that,

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 you can do so at this time. Thank you, Kay and the board for inviting us. I think you

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 are taking a good step forward on things that haven't been done and didn't that needs to

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 be done with the MOU. First thing I'd like to mention with the signature, if it's approved

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 by our board, our president doesn't sign any documents. This should be signed by our chairman

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 of the black chamber commerce. So if you could correct that, that would be the first thing

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 we'd like to have you address on the MOU. The second item, and it's a group of items

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 on the MOU, and I'm not pulling up that MOU, the document itself, but when you pull up

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 the document, you'll see some, whereas the black chamber commerce agrees to do so forth

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 and so on. And the next statement said the black chamber agrees to do so, so, so forth

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 and so on for small businesses, minority and women owned businesses. That's a good statement

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 except for one thing. There's no mention of the black chamber doing anything for black

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 owned businesses. We do not want to be lumped in the category with small business owners.

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 We do not want to be lumped in the category with minority business owners and women owned

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 business owners. In the past, this has been a disaster for black owned businesses and

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 any organization to be lumped in. It dilutes our effort and we're unable to have any functional

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 results from that. If you look at the city, I think your chair, John Baines, had asked

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 the city once before, DME, the county for A&D availability and disparity study to show

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 what businesses has been done for black businesses. There's never been a study. There's no paperwork.

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 There's no history. So when you're going to dump the black chamber in with other organization

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 and don't even mention the term black, then we're going to see that we're going to be

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 lumped in. And if you look at HUB, HUB is something that started in 1991 and a couple

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 of the state representatives, we're looking at dissolving HUB because HUB has been diluted

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 with so many other organizations. HUB now is African American, Hispanic American, Native

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 American, Asian Americans, disabled veterans, and white females. Mind you, of all the contracts

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 that have been given, state level, city level, county level, national level, white females

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 are getting, where blacks are getting about 1.3% of the state even have over $200 billion

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 budget. We got 1.4% of that. White females are getting 60% of that. We do not want to

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 be lumped in there and get lost in the shuffle. So if you could correct these whereas, and

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 I don't mean to be in no pun intended, but correct that whereas, well, we want to be

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 as a black chamber commerce want to do things that promote black business owners. Our goal,

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 our mission is the creation, development, and general wellbeing of black owned businesses.

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 Not that we don't care about minority owned businesses, but that's the job for the big

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 chamber to deal with minority business. Our role as a black chamber is to deal with black

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 owned businesses. That's our primary goal, and that's our primary emphasis, and that's

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 where our work is today.

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 Kay, if I could ask you and Jessica to pull up that schedule that I submitted. And as

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 Mr. Gorey said, thank you. Thanks to the Economic Development Partnership Board for beginning

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 this conversation. It has been well overdue. And for those who have not had the pleasure

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 of dealing with the statistics, this is just a little view. Are you able to pull that up,

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 Kay? The documentation.

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 I did not bring that over to City Hall with me in digital form. I do have it in written

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 form. I did print it off, but I did not have it in digital form. I was not.

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 If you could, if I could be allowed to share a document, and it's mainly for informational

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 purposes only, I think some of the audience is not aware of the disparity studies that

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 have been done and the history that Mr. Gorey is speaking of. Is that okay, Jessica? Can

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 I get?

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 I'm not sure if we have the capability for you to share your screen. I'm just not sure

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 about that. I need tech support, but I'm going to try and get my email. We're in a remote

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 situation, so I don't have my email on this computer, so I'm going to try and get into

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 it remotely, and then I'll pull it up if I can.

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 Should I email it to someone?

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 It's in my email, so I just need to try and get into my email, sir.

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 While you're doing that, let me give everyone an overview, a high overview. I don't want

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 to belabor the point too much, but this is an opportunity to at least address the point

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 adequately for everyone. There were some statistics at the state level on how much business goes

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 to African American businesses, Latino businesses, Asian American businesses, right on businesses,

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 and however, if you use the term minority, you don't really get to see the impact on

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 the black-owned businesses, as Mr. Gorey was saying. This particular document kind of gives

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 you a snapshot that if you simply look at the grouping that says minority-owned businesses,

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 it's deceiving. This particular document broke out the percentage and the dollars that actually

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 went to African American-owned businesses. I can pull it up now.

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 All right. Thank you so much. This is 2006. I rushed in this morning to find a document,

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 and even though it's old, it'll still give you kind of the idea. If you go and look at

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 HUB dollars, let's see, let's see, $36 million, and HUB got $10 million. However, African

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 American-owned businesses got $320,000. Let's go down to a friend, TW, $38 million, HUB

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 $4.6, and of that, African Americans received $1773. Then you go down to, let's see, Texas

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 A&M, $173 million, minority business owners, excuse me, got $38, and then African Americans

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 got $2 million. Texas Department of Transportation, up above, $6 billion. Minorities, $700 million,

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 and then African Americans, $46 million. Then we'll go to the very bottom, UNT, and sorry

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 to pick on you, Steve, and Mark. This was in 2006. I know that the numbers have improved,

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 but UNT had $68 million in expenditures, $13 million went to HUBs, and African Americans

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 got $427,000. It just basically kind of makes the point that if we don't track the amount

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 that goes to African American-owned businesses, we get lost when we get to the idea of what

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 kind of progress we're making. And I'll make this kind of as a statement, as an African

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 American-owned business, I've received one contract with the city of Denton. However,

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 I have invested in being a volunteer in various aspects to see if I could make a difference.

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 So I've basically said, I'm not going to pursue the money, I'm going to see if I can pursue

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 the influence. And so that's where my emphasis has been over the last 30-plus years. And

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 so Mr. Hill, I didn't know if you had anything you wanted to say while we were on this conversation,

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 or if any of the other members of the board would like to have a conversation or make

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 a point. So thank you for listening to me, and thank you, Jessica, for pulling that up.

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 Thank you, Mr. Baines. This is Steve Hill. Just taking a look, even though this information

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 you shared with us was dated, and I know that we've made significant, when I say we, UNT,

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 has made significant progress since then, especially in the last five years. But I can

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 see. I can see the concern that Mr. Gorey points out, and that you pointed out, John,

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 you know, how, you know, if you just combine everything into one overall category, how

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 some parts of that category can be lost, or maybe not getting a fair share of the success

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 that we've seen. So I don't have any additional comments, but I do understand, and I'm not

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 sure what the recommendation is as far as the verbiage to go on the MOU, to change it.

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 We need to change it to say Black-owned or African-American-owned businesses would be

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 its own separate category. So that way, while we do applaud the effort, without that, I

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 think we would have some dilution in both our understanding and monitoring progress.

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 And if I may, if I may really quick, and Matt, you can step in here, then. So I had a meeting

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 with both Mr. Gorey and Mr. Hill, and I forgot the other individual's name, to review this

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 document as it is now. At that time in the review, this wasn't a change, so it's gone

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 through legal. So there are a couple of items in the document that are directly pulled from

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 the strategic plan, verbatim in its references to sections. So in those sections, it says,

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 it calls out women and minority-owned businesses. The other whereas is, and Matt, correct me,

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 you can jump in here, we can make those changes, but if it's speaking directly to the strategic

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 plan, then we will keep those, whereas the same, but the other ones, we can change to

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 Black-owned businesses. Absolutely right. Okay. Okay. I just want to make sure that

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 I pointed that out. And then, Mr. Baines, your email, I wanted to let you all, to let

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 you know, and I'm glad you mentioned that, in January, I met with the finance department

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 to discuss disparities in spending and efforts that can be taken to address that. And that's

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 where the webinar about how to do business with, and then we had the diversity, the DFW

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 minority council on there on the call and some other individuals speak to that. But

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 finance, they were very open to pursuing a vendor utilization policy. They have not been

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 tracking spending and dollars at all, whether it was hub or minority or Black-owned businesses.

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 They have now started to code spending now to collect data that's required for a disparity

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 study to take place. And I can send the disparity study from Dallas. Disparity does exist in

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 Denton. Dallas' disparity study included Denton in their disparity study, and it highlighted

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 the disparity that took place. But the city of Denton has to have their own disparity

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 study in order to put an actual program in place. But they have started making efforts

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 to addressing that by going ahead and encoding some of the vendor data, start collecting

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 the information in regards to spending. They've also implemented a Amazon beta program. So

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 anytime anyone in the city is shopping for anything on Amazon, it prioritizes if a minority-owned

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 business or Black-owned business provides their product, it places them at the top of

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 the list to prioritize spending with the Black-owned businesses from the city standpoint. So I wanted

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 to make you all aware of what's going on internally to address the disparity in spending.

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 Do any of the other partnership board members have a comment? I do have two more comments

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 before I wanted to leave this topic, but I didn't want to dominate the conversation.

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 I wanted to give way if anyone had a question or a concern. I'm going to give you a little

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 story and then I'm going to give you a real-life example about opportunities. My nephew grew

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 up in a tough part of Houston and the Bloods and the Crips, two gangs, were courting him

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 as a teenager. He reached out to me and said, "Uncle Johnny, can I come and live with you?"

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 He would come to us in the summers and he realized we had a different lifestyle. And

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 this is a rough kid coming to live in my house with my kids and there's going to be some

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 issues. And so when he came to live with us, he couldn't even look in the eye, his handshake

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 was weak, his grades were poor. So we had to spend extra effort to bring him up to the

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 standard where my kids were. But the amazing thing was my kids were jealous. They said,

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 "Dad, you gave him four french fries and you only gave us two. Or you gave us a dollar

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 and you gave him $5." So there was a lot of comparing as to the effort that was being

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 expended. And eventually my explanation to them was, "Your cousin is in a deficit." So

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 when did you do some extra to bring that family member up to the level of the other family

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 members? So here we are, city of Denton, you got to do a little extra effort to bring those

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 that are less than on up. Mr. Gorey would probably not mention this, but I'll mention

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 this on his behalf. He brought a proposal to the city for his company and an idea that

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 was never thought of before. He and his business partner brought it to the city. It was an

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 insurance benefit for all of the city employees. The city of Denton had another employee who

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 worked with the same company. And so rather than the benefit going to Mr. Gorey and his

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 associate, all of the premiums and the benefits went to this city employee. So off the table

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 went a significant amount of revenue over many years to a city employee who was not

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 a minority. I know Mr. Gorey has addressed that concern with some other things, but this

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 is an evidence of where we have to work together to make sure that the opportunities are both

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 there and they were equal. The only difference was the statement, the final statement was

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 the city felt this was best for its employees. So thank you once again, Kay, Jessica and

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 other committee members for the effort to improve in this area, allowing for African

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 American owned businesses to have a better participation in the economic success of our

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 community. So unless we have any other comments, Mr. Gorey, I didn't know if you wanted to say

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 anything else before we left this area, otherwise we'll move on.

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 No, I just appreciate the opportunity to express the ideas that we want you all to really help

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 bring into realization because an ideal is just an idea. We want the ideal to get off

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 the table and become a reality for the city of Denton. As John said, myself, he Steve

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 Hill, we volunteer with the city over many years. I've been a city, I've been a business

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 owner in the city of Denton for 28 years. And as John said, the one time I came to the

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 city for an idea, Jessica and John, they gave it, they gave the bid, they gave the contract

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 to a city employee who brought the same thing to the fire department. And they said, regarding

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 of best value, we're not going to even look at you Kerry and your idea, even though you

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 brought the idea to the city, you caused the city to do a feasibility study with all the

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 employee groups and they came back and said, we want to go with that. And when we readdressed

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 the city, they said, well, this employee is for city rep for the fire department and said,

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 we brought this to the fire department, it's best that we make the whole city do what the

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 fire department is doing. Irregardless of your program, if it's better or worse, it

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 doesn't matter. We're just going to go with what the other city employee did for the fire

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 department and disregard what you did. I had a meeting with the mayor, he's been there,

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 he can, he can follow us for this. We met with the mayor, they told us we hadn't even

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 made a decision yet, Kerry. At the second meeting, they sent us a memo saying, we're

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 going to have a meeting to tell you why we did not choose you. From the time they told

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 us with the mayor, they hadn't made a decision. All of a sudden, they made a decision and

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 they want us to sit in a meeting to tell us why we weren't chosen. This is the things

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 that we are, hopefully the economic development partnership, partnership board can help eliminate.

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 And I see friends of mine, Jill Justus, she has understanding of what we've been through.

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 She's been a very big partner of ours. I don't have to explain a lot of these things to any

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 of you all. I know the names of many of you all here today and I hope you have an understanding

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 that we're not here to tumble the the House of Cards. We just want our hand will be played

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 fair. Thank you, Kerry. And unless someone else has another comment, how do we conclude

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 this section, Jessica and Kay? Do we need to go back and make those revisions and then

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 bring them back once again? Or tell us how we're going to proceed. No, sir, I think we

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 would welcome a motion just with the amendments as presented the section that Mr. Gorey was

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 referencing. I think we can have a textual change that really doesn't impact the spirit

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 of the agreement or the body of the agreement. So we can just make that adjustment as recommended.

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 And so the motion can just include that change to the language. But I do before the motion

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 is made, I want to encourage the board members. You know, it's been a while since we've looked

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 at the strategic plan itself, and there's a very specific reason that we wanted to make

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 formalize our relationship with the Black Chamber of Commerce. And so I encourage you

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 to go back and look at those sections of the strategic plan because inclusivity is so important

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 to economic development, and it is incredibly important to me as a director in making sure

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 that we're fulfilling on those promises. We adopted that strategic plan, and we said this

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 is important to us, and so we are here to make those things happen. And so I hope that

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 the board understands, you know, this is a goal of this department, and so we appreciate

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 Mr. Gorey, Mr. Hill, Mr. Baines, your input in working with us, with myself and Kay on

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 this MOU, and we feel this is a very important step forward.

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 So who will make that from the amendment?

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 I'm happy to make the amendment. And if we can just, if we need to specify again what

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 that change is, what paragraph and what it's changed to, Jessica, did you get that down?

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00:31:00,600 --> 00:31:04,760
 Can you maybe read that to us so we know exactly what it is we're changing?

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 Yes, we will change the language in the whereas clause that says, whereas the city desires

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 to enter into a non-binding memorandum of understanding with the Denton Black Chamber

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 of Commerce to assist with support of Denton's Black-owned businesses and provide business

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 assistance to such businesses. We'll make that change. It's on the first page of the

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 agreement.

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 Okay. So if I could, Mr. Baines, I would like to move that we amend the memorandum of understanding

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 between the City of Denton and the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce, as Ms. Rogers stated

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 in one of the whereas clauses, as she just stated on the record at this time.

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 And there's one other section. We'll make that same language change. There's another

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 pair of two places where it will replace small minority and women-owned businesses with Black-owned

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 businesses in the whereas.

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 If I could modify my motion, the motion will be to conform the entire document to specify

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 the goal will be in Black businesses and Black members of our community versus the global

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 term for all minorities. And any necessary scrivener's changes will be made as needed

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 with the intent.

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 We have a motion on the floor. Do we have a second?

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 This is Jason. Second.

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00:32:28,920 --> 00:32:30,320
 Thank you, Jason.

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 Chair, just to be clear, this is a motion to approve the agreement with those changes.

283
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:35,480
 Is that correct?

284
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 That is correct.

285
00:32:36,480 --> 00:32:37,480
 Okay.

286
00:32:37,480 --> 00:32:48,040
 Thank you, Mac. So we have a motion and a second. Do we have any further discussion?

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 Hearing none, all in favor of approving the motion on the floor with friendly amendments,

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 signify by saying yes. And we'll start with you, Jason.

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 Lee?

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00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:04,440
 Aye.

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 Jill?

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00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:06,440
 Aye.

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00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:07,440
 Mark?

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00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:08,440
 Aye.

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 Mayor Hutzpeth?

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00:33:09,440 --> 00:33:10,440
 Aye.

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 And then where is my friend from the hospital?

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 Mr. Edgar had to leave, unfortunately, at 1130.

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 Okay. And then John Baines also approves the motion with the friendly amendments. I believe

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 we passed that motion unanimously. Thank you all for both the conversation and your attentiveness

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00:33:39,260 --> 00:33:41,080
 while we had it. Thank you.

302
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:42,080
 Thank you.

303
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:46,760
 Yes. And Mr. Hill and Mr. Gorey, you are more than welcome to continue with us, or you can

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 go about your morning and we'll give you a little bit of time back.

305
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:52,260
 All right. Thank you.

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00:33:52,260 --> 00:33:56,520
 I think I may just hang out with you for a minute. I may learn something else.

307
00:33:56,520 --> 00:33:57,520
 Okay.

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00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:03,040
 I have a patch of grass that I haven't finished mowing, so I'm going to get to that before

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00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:06,880
 it gets too hot. Or I get into hot water.

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 We wish you the best, Mr. Gorey.

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00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:13,040
 Thank you, Sarah.

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00:34:13,040 --> 00:34:15,680
 Thank you.

313
00:34:15,680 --> 00:34:23,440
 We come now to EEP 21-029, Receiver Report. Hold the discussion and give staff direction

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 regarding nominations for the annual business awards.

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 And we have Kay again to lead that discussion. And I believe I have the list of past recipients

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 if we need it, but I will turn it over to Kay to lead that discussion.

317
00:34:49,040 --> 00:34:50,040
 Thank you.

318
00:34:50,040 --> 00:34:55,160
 There was no presentation for this particular item. Just coming to you all to receive the

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00:34:55,160 --> 00:35:00,540
 nominations for the business award. As you know, in the past, the board has nominated

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 for the large and small business. And then at the May meeting, you all approved adding

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 the minority veteran business of the year. We have those three awards coming to you all.

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00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:19,280
 So we will receive the nominations and then do the legwork in regard of the legwork. I'm

323
00:35:19,280 --> 00:35:24,880
 thinking about a workout. We will do the work to retrieve the information in regards to

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00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:30,200
 the criteria that's needed for those businesses.

325
00:35:30,200 --> 00:35:37,080
 So Kay, I have a question for you. So we have this information. Were we expected to come

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00:35:37,080 --> 00:35:43,900
 today with names or are you sending us away to get names?

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00:35:43,900 --> 00:35:53,400
 Either or. We were expecting nominations today, but if you do not have any, you can send them

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00:35:53,400 --> 00:36:01,120
 to us. The criteria information from May is the same now. And so you can send us the nominations.

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00:36:01,120 --> 00:36:08,000
 I think there is an August, what do we have for the deadline? August 4th, Jessica?

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 So at your next meeting, you will be voting and discussing and selecting the winners of

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 the business awards. So we would need the nominees today at this meeting or via email

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 in enough time that we can prepare for the August 11th meeting. I think we skipped last

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00:36:29,740 --> 00:36:34,040
 month's meeting, which would have been the first time that we talked about the nomination

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 process. And I think we had sent that out in the email and just said, be thinking of

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 this. But if not, we are willing to just tickle everyone's brains today and get you thinking

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 about it. And then I can follow up at the end of the week and say, send me your nominations.

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00:36:52,940 --> 00:36:57,760
 If that works for the board, we are willing to accommodate you. We have plenty of time.

338
00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:05,040
 Some of us, we have dogs that ate our homework and our notes. For the rest of us, perhaps

339
00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:08,840
 there are some names. OK, Jill Jester, I see your hand.

340
00:37:08,840 --> 00:37:16,720
 Oh, sorry. I just wanted to say, and I also have a dog that ate my homework as well. What

341
00:37:16,720 --> 00:37:22,560
 a coincidence. But Jessica, you mentioned some of the past recipients and having a list

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00:37:22,560 --> 00:37:28,120
 of that. If we are able to, which is thank you for your graciousness and allowing us

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 to make nominations within the next day or so, I think a list of past recipients would

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 be helpful so that we're not recognizing this thing because there are so many great businesses

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 in our community. And if someone's been recognized in the past just two or three years, we would

346
00:37:44,520 --> 00:37:48,640
 maybe like to look elsewhere. And especially for those that haven't been on the board very

347
00:37:48,640 --> 00:37:55,840
 long or for many years, it might be helpful to kind of see who's been recognized and then

348
00:37:55,840 --> 00:38:00,240
 everyone just a reminder that the criteria is listed. I mean, it's set forth and is really

349
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 a great criterion. So my thought is also to encourage myself as well as others to look

350
00:38:05,520 --> 00:38:10,320
 at that criterion and include what they know about how the business meets the criteria

351
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:15,360
 when they make the nominations. Is that the most helpful and in paragraph form or in bullet

352
00:38:15,360 --> 00:38:21,680
 points, whatever that may be. But there are very specific things that this award these

353
00:38:21,680 --> 00:38:27,400
 awards are for. And just to keep that in mind. And I just want to apologize for not being

354
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 prepared with a great set of nominations, which it seems would be so easy to make in

355
00:38:31,160 --> 00:38:36,560
 this community. However, I'm prepared as well. Thank you.

356
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:44,480
 We can absolutely send out a list of all of the past award recipients as well as the criteria.

357
00:38:44,480 --> 00:38:49,440
 And we can send that out to the board today. We can probably give you to the end of the

358
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:54,640
 maybe another week or so to the end of next week to give us nominations. You can include

359
00:38:54,640 --> 00:38:59,640
 anything you know about the company, but you don't have to. We actually have a team of

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00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:06,320
 intrepid researchers and contacts that will find out a lot of things in the process, things

361
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:11,280
 that sometimes we all don't know that businesses are doing in terms of supporting their employees

362
00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:20,200
 or educational efforts or those sorts of things. So we are happy to do that. But if that's

363
00:39:20,200 --> 00:39:25,940
 the board's pleasure, I'm happy to just send it out, give you a little bit more time.

364
00:39:25,940 --> 00:39:31,080
 And in my mistaken or in the past, I thought that staff actually came with some ideas because

365
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 of course we're not involved with every single partnership that is going on behind the scenes.

366
00:39:36,560 --> 00:39:42,360
 I mean, all that deal with economic development, I think we would know about, but it seems

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 that in the past that was, you know, and I don't mean to suggest something that would

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00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:50,240
 be inappropriate, but it seems like in the past staff has also said, by the way, in case

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00:39:50,240 --> 00:39:54,640
 he didn't know, look at what this group has been doing. So I just want to throw that out

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00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:59,400
 as a possibility. Yes, ma'am. We will do that. We wanted to give them. We didn't want to

371
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 skew anyone's nomination, so we wanted to give the board an opportunity to to nominate

372
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 first. But we do have some in mind that we would recommend and we'll add those to the

373
00:40:09,240 --> 00:40:19,160
 list. Awesome. Awesome. If I know you don't eat my dog or my homework anymore, OK, bad

374
00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:28,720
 dog, bad dog. All right. So on this particular point, do we have anything else that we need

375
00:40:28,720 --> 00:40:35,360
 to address? No, sir. I don't believe so. I will send it out to the board and that way

376
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:41,460
 we'll capture the the other board members that weren't able to join us today as well.

377
00:40:41,460 --> 00:40:46,840
 And I'll have case and lots of reminders. Wonderful. Thank you so much. Thank you. And

378
00:40:46,840 --> 00:40:58,240
 I will send them. We're now on ADP 21-032 staff reports. Yes, sir. So that is me. You

379
00:40:58,240 --> 00:41:02,760
 have three staff reports, three items in your staff reports for this month. The first is

380
00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:07,960
 a memo that outlines the board appointment process. I can't believe we're doing this.

381
00:41:07,960 --> 00:41:13,800
 It seems like it comes up so quickly every year. But included in that memo, you have

382
00:41:13,800 --> 00:41:19,720
 a list of all the current board members, your current terms, which term you are on, if you

383
00:41:19,720 --> 00:41:24,440
 are eligible for reappointment in this year. And the six seats that will be considered

384
00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:29,520
 for the twenty twenty one appointments are going to be Mayor Hudspeth, Joe Jester, Tina

385
00:41:29,520 --> 00:41:36,920
 Albert, Mark McClellan, John Baines and Bob Eames. And so those seats, of course, the

386
00:41:36,920 --> 00:41:41,960
 UNTC is really a confirmation. UNT president designates their seat, but the council confirms

387
00:41:41,960 --> 00:41:50,460
 that nomination. And so we will be going to City Council next week, July 20th, where City

388
00:41:50,460 --> 00:41:56,440
 Council will take the first step in this process, which is they appoint the nominating committee,

389
00:41:56,440 --> 00:42:00,820
 which is going to be made up of two council members and one chamber board of directors

390
00:42:00,820 --> 00:42:08,400
 member. And after that, that nominating committee will reach out to those of you who are eligible

391
00:42:08,400 --> 00:42:13,440
 to continue serving, see if you can if you want to stay, if you're interested. And if

392
00:42:13,440 --> 00:42:19,400
 there is an open seat, then they'll reach out to the entities kind of listed in the

393
00:42:19,400 --> 00:42:25,400
 ordinance to get recommendations. They may reach out to other board members to get recommendations

394
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:31,160
 and move forward. And I say with great sadness, Mr. Baines, you'll note in the memo, has reached

395
00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:36,600
 his term limits with us. So his last few months are coming up on the partnership board and

396
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:42,960
 we're internally grateful for his support and leadership this past year. So we will

397
00:42:42,960 --> 00:42:49,440
 have at least one new board member joining us in October after this process. So with

398
00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:53,320
 that, are there questions about the board appointment process? I know this is a little

399
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:56,960
 bit different. Some of you have served on other city boards, so I just kind of like

400
00:42:56,960 --> 00:43:07,880
 to call out, we have a little bit of a different process that we follow. Seeing none? Seeing

401
00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:14,080
 none, hearing none. Awesome. Great. I hope that means that my memo was that that good.

402
00:43:14,080 --> 00:43:23,720
 I like writing a good memo. It was, it was, it was Pulitzer Prize prize-worthy. How about

403
00:43:23,720 --> 00:43:31,480
 that? Wonderful. Other two documents that you have are our standard, our quarterly operational

404
00:43:31,480 --> 00:43:38,480
 report. I encourage you to review that. My team, Corey's team, the whole team, everyone

405
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:43,280
 in Denton, I think has been working on an economic development project this past quarter.

406
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:51,720
 You'll see it reflected. At one point this past quarter, we had 65 active projects. That

407
00:43:51,720 --> 00:43:58,280
 is more than we've had in entire years sometimes. So that is incredible. There are a lot of

408
00:43:58,280 --> 00:44:02,560
 people interested in Denton. If you were, if you were wondering where Corey is today,

409
00:44:02,560 --> 00:44:08,600
 he's actually doing a site visit with one of our prospects right now. So I told him

410
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:14,480
 I would handle the meeting and let him handle the business of continuing to promote and

411
00:44:14,480 --> 00:44:21,220
 recruit in Denton. The additional report that you have is, oh, I'm sorry, I wanted to mention

412
00:44:21,220 --> 00:44:26,280
 one thing. We added a new section to our quarterly report. We added a section on culture and

413
00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:31,080
 tourism. We know that culture and tourism is a huge part of economic development in Denton.

414
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:37,560
 And so we, we worked with the CBB to get some key stats in terms of looking at tourism kind

415
00:44:37,560 --> 00:44:44,460
 of returning to Denton as the, as the pandemic has subsided and, and led up a little bit.

416
00:44:44,460 --> 00:44:48,240
 So please pay attention to that. If there's something that you want more information on,

417
00:44:48,240 --> 00:44:52,160
 don't hesitate to reach out. This is a report that's public. You are free to share it with

418
00:44:52,160 --> 00:44:58,440
 your own boards and organizations and entities. Please do so. Sometimes I think that it gets

419
00:44:58,440 --> 00:45:05,520
 lost how much work is going on in, in this sort of economic development world. So please

420
00:45:05,520 --> 00:45:11,460
 take a look at that. I try to summarize as much as possible, but do share accordingly.

421
00:45:11,460 --> 00:45:16,760
 And the last report you have is our strategic plan report. It's lengthy as always, but it

422
00:45:16,760 --> 00:45:21,560
 does outline everything that we've done this past quarter in support of those strategic

423
00:45:21,560 --> 00:45:28,320
 plan identified objectives. So I won't go through all of that. I think it's 30 pages.

424
00:45:28,320 --> 00:45:36,120
 But if you have questions, please, please reach out to us. Thank you, Jessica. Thank

425
00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:43,600
 you, Kay. Do we have any other items to bring before the partnership board? Here we will

426
00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:54,280
 entertain a motion to adjourn. And John, can I just make one comment? Please. I just like

427
00:45:54,280 --> 00:46:00,640
 to thank you for letting me ride shotgun with you this morning and thank you for all you

428
00:46:00,640 --> 00:46:09,120
 do. We appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. Okay. Hearing none, we will adjourn

429
00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:15,040
 the meeting and I'd like to thank everyone for taking out of your busy day. And Jessica

430
00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:22,120
 and Kay, please extend to all of the other, Mark, excuse me, Mac and to all of the other

431
00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:26,360
 city employees that, you know, behind the scenes that make this thing work. Thank you

432
00:46:26,360 --> 00:46:32,360
 for all of the hard work. You know, most folks don't realize all the stuff that goes on in

433
00:46:32,360 --> 00:46:37,400
 the back room to run a city. And thank you so much. Thank you so much. And thank you

434
00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:42,040
 to all of the partnership boards for board members for your time and your participation

435
00:46:42,040 --> 00:46:48,800
 and your interest. Without further ado, then we'll close the meeting and see you next week.

436
00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:50,140
 - Thank you very much.

437
00:46:50,140 --> 00:46:51,580
 - Bye everyone.

438
00:46:51,580 --> 00:46:52,420
 - Okay.