Aug 16, 2017 Economic Development Partnership Board on 2017-08-16 8:30 AM

[INAUDIBLE] You kidding me? OK. We're on stage. Good morning. OK. It's 8.30, and we're going to begin our meeting. It's August 16, 2017. And this is a meeting of the Economic Development Partnership Board, and we do have a quorum. We anticipate the meeting to be quick, since we only have one item. And we appreciate everybody accommodating your schedule to be here. We'll now move on to the work session, which is EDP 17-042. Receive a short report, and keep it short, please, since we all have the data in front of us, and hold the discussion, and nominate an award recipient for the Business Awards Breakfast. And with that, I will turn it over for hopefully a quick presentation. Thank you, Michelle. Each year, the Economic Development Partnership Board recognizes a local business for its contribution to the economic growth and prosperity of the Denton community with a focus on public-private partnerships and investment in the city. Recipient selection criteria previously adopted by the board is used to aid in the nomination and selection of the recipient company. The EDP board chair confers the award on behalf of the EDP board at the Annual Mayor and City Council Business Awards Breakfast that is coming up on September 7. And each of you has a matrix that depicts the data across the criteria that you have established for selecting an award recipient. And the determination is up to you all in the discussion. Thank you. Thanks. That was short, concise. All right, most of you guys know, I think, all these certainly have good data in front of you. Do we have some discussion before we move on to the regular session? Any thoughts? I know Jim has already conveyed a few. What are your thoughts, Jim? We'll start with you. Well, I think Victor certainly has stood out. We gave them an incentive. They've actually moved other people into Denton. I don't know whether anybody's noticed the parking lot or not. That parking lot is full. So they've done a good job of living up to some of their commitment. And I think they've still got some more things to do. So that would be my recommendation. And obviously, they've been here quite some time and now consolidated. I noticed they had 450 employees, plus an additional 225. So very large employer in our community, as well as the valuations are very nice, too. Other thoughts? I just had a question, a minor question. Are we supposed to give out two awards, one for the large and then one for the small to mid? No. The board had requested that we include medium and smaller sized businesses so that we would be able to look at the entirety of the Denton community. So we're just doing the one award? Yes, sir. Yes, sir. OK. Excuse me, did you say just one? Yes. Yes. I think what Jim had to say about Victor's spot on, and they seem to be a logical company to make this award to . They definitely have grown significantly. They're doing everything right. They're a participant in the community, chamber member, all those kinds of things. And so I think I could support going with Victor. And they've been on discussions before. They've been on the list for several years, I think, actually. So I think they've kind of risen to the top from what I'm looking at. Not that there's other bad companies with some great options, but I concur with that, too. Other comments? Larry, you, John, or Jimmy, or any-- I do have a comment. I was thinking about this on the way here. When I was doing auditing as part of my business, one of the things I wanted to do to grow was to partner with a large firm that would do audits, like, for the city, or for the county, et cetera, et cetera. But never could get a good collaboration. So small companies will stay small if they don't have some assistance. And I think, while I think Victor is very deserving of this recommendation, somehow I'd like to see us find a way to help some of the smaller businesses become recipients. Well, we used to do that as a response. But that's why it was consolidated just into the larger one. And we are looking for the major impact, too. So probably, if anything, my comment would be the board might consider, at some point, instigating a smaller startup or some entrepreneurial ship type thing in a different group area. Because it's hard to compete with the magnitude of what Victor does for the community. It is. It is. But good comment. Any others? Well, if not, we'll adjourn the work session and go into the business session. And now what we need is a nomination, a motion, and a second for-- I'd like to nominate Victor. All right, thank you. So I'll second. All right, we got a couple of seconds. Pick who you'd like, three. All right, any further discussions, comments from staff or the board? So since we do have a little bit of time, I want to take the concluding items section to just throw out for a little bit of discussion. Well, let's get the vote. Oh, I'm sorry. You're doing like I do now. You're moving it on, which I appreciate. All right. Reel it back in. Here we go. We'll call for the vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right, so thank you. Appreciate your expedited-- Thank you for-- yes, so as we are now experiencing, our EDP board meetings are going to be televised. So we're going to be going about them in a little bit of a different way. We will be having them on the regular second Wednesday of each month. And they will be starting at 11 o'clock promptly. We have been in the tradition of providing lunch to board members during the meetings. And that is what we need to decide how we want to handle. There are a couple of choices that I think we have. We can meet, get started at 11, get our business finished, and provide lunch after that. We could eat lunch on camera, which is not my favorite option. But I don't know if other people might not be bothered by that. Or we could think about just having the meeting at 11, getting the business done, and letting everybody go on their way. And I'm just curious what board members' thoughts are on those options for how to proceed. When do you need a decision by? Today? No, not necessarily today. This is more of a feeling out of how those here think we should proceed. It's not for voting or anything. Anybody have any opinions on it? I think I'd just get the meeting first, and then everybody get on their way. Let's be the most efficient. I agree with that. I think we're all busy. Yeah. I agree with that. OK. And maybe we can have-- we'll have drinks and that kind of thing in case we get thirsty. You're singing old Scotch. No, sir. Absolutely not. Well, it sounds good right now. You'll have to do that on your own time. It'll be what it'll be. OK. Well, thank you, everybody, for sharing your opinions on that. And that's the way that we'll handle things going forward until we hear something different. Will all the meetings be here now since we're doing this, or we still have one? All of the meetings will be in this room at this table going forward for the purposes of being televised. All right. OK. All right. I think that concludes our business. If there's other comments, we will stay on the adjournment. Thank you all. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Thank you for your time.