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 Good afternoon. My name is Jill Jester. I'm the current Vice Chair of this board and I

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 would like to welcome everyone as we open the Economic Development Partnership board

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 meeting. Today is Wednesday, November 10, 2021. I want to start before we start going

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 down the agenda to welcome a couple of new members to the board that we're thrilled to

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 have. I'd like to begin with Susan Holmes. She is the UNT President's designee. We're

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 so happy to have you here and do you mind telling us just a little bit about yourself?

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 Sure. Susan Holmes. I'm with the University of North Texas. I was at UNT and left and

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 I returned in this role of corporate and government relations in the office of the president. So

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 I look forward to being part of this group. Wonderful. We're very glad to have you here

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 and please feel free to speak up offline or online with any questions, comments, concerns.

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 We value everyone's input here at the table. Our next and last new member almost needs

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 no introduction here with what he's done in our city. Cary Gorey is a representative from

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 the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce and a friend of mine and we're so glad that you

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 are volunteering here with us on this board. Do you mind, for those that may not know you,

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 tell us just a little bit about yourself? As you'll see, my name is Cary Gorey. I am

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 currently the chairman of Denton Black Chamber of Commerce. I've been head of that position

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 for the last 14 years. I'm a retired state farm agent here in Denton. That's what brought

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 me here 29 years ago. I enjoy working with the city, economic development. The board

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 has been a pet of mine that I'd like to see. I happen to be a representative of the Denton

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 Black Chamber with the city of Denton and hope that we can do some wonderful things

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 together. We look forward to hearing your input and I look forward to working with you

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 on this board, Mr. Gorey. Thank you. We are going to reorder a bit of our agenda today

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 to take care of some very important business that I'm thrilled to do. At this time, I

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 would like to introduce our mayor, Mayor Hutzpeth, who has a proclamation on behalf of the city

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 council and this board to present to our beloved John Baines, our former chair of this board,

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 Mr. Hutzpeth. Mayor Hutzpeth. Is that all right? It's acceptable. Thank you very much.

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 Not a lot of it. Yes, got to check with you. It's important, man. It's important. So honored

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 to be here. Thank you. Apologies in advance. I have a veterans event that I'm going to

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 slide out to, but I did want to be here just to kind of honor what I believe to be my friend

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 and he's been just a true servant in our community and has brought a lot of people together.

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 He's stood in a lot of gaps and some contentious moments and brought reason and kind of some

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 pragmatic approaches to things. So really appreciate his wisdom and contribution to

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 the city at large, this group. And then, oh, by the way, John, I have a bag of receipts

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 that I'm going to drop off on the way out. And then I need you to process through. I'll

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 see you in a little bit. Never mind. I'll hang on to them. Okay. And so the proclamation

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 reads a well, and John, come on up. Come on up here. They need to see you. They need to

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 recognize I didn't start winning campaigns till I won John's vote. Once I won John's

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 vote, then things started going the right way. So here we go. It says a proclamation

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 by the mayor of the city of Denton to all whom these presence shall come greetings,

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 whereas in recognition of John Baines for his dedicated service and leadership to the

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 Denton community, and whereas John served as West Park Tour's number two board and

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 didn't need economic development partnership board from 2015 to 2021, where he serves as

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 a chair of both boards during his tenure. And whereas John tires Lee champion economic

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 development and the support of Denton's businesses community. And whereas John has provided great

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 benefit to Denton through countless volunteer hours in support of the city of Denton, the

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 Denton economic development partnership, the Denton chamber of commerce, the Denton black

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 chamber of commerce and the small business development center. And whereas the city of

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 Denton is extremely grateful for John and his selfless leadership and service to the

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 city of Denton, including his unmatched contributions to economic development and the entire business

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 community in Denton. Now, therefore, I Gerard Hutz, but mayor of the city of Denton, Texas

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 do hereby declare and proclaim November 10th, 2021 as John Baines day in the city of Denton

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 and encourage all citizens to recognize and honor the many contributions of John Baines

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 to the community and the city of Denton. We give him a hand.

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 Yeah, got it. Let me slide out of your way. I wasn't expecting this cake or something.

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 Thank you for the thoughts and the words. They mean a lot. I am so happy to have served

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 the city of Denton in various capacities and I look forward to my friend Kerry Goree stepping

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 in and continuing the conversation and continuing to carry the torch. Thanks to all of you for

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 making my time so pleasant. And I look to see you around town as we go forth. And I'm

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 going to head back to the office and you guys have a great day. Thank you very much.

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 That was wonderful. Just wonderful. Thank you again, John. Thanks for the example you

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 set for all of us. We will now move on to business under our agenda items for consideration.

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 We will begin with item A, EDP 21-031, consider approval of the minutes of August 11th, 2021.

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 That was previously distributed via email and you have a hard copy in front of you,

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 Exhibit A, the information agenda sheet and Exhibit 2, the draft minutes. At this time,

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 I will entertain a motion and a second and then we can have discussion as far as any

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 proposed edits. Move approval of the minutes. All right. It's been moved and seconded. At

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 this time, is there any discussion, any proposed changes as the received drafted minutes? Hearing

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 none, I will call a vote. And just to let you all know, we're transitioning from Zoom

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 world into in-person world. So if we could, when I ask for all the ayes, if you would

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 not only say aye, but please raise your hand. We do need an actual count. We don't necessarily

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 need to go name by name, but we will need a count. Same thing with any nays or abstentions.

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 Please raise your hand as you indicate verbally. Thank you so much. So at this time, I will

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 call the vote. Approving the minutes as previously distributed. All those in favor, please signify

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 by saying aye and raising your hand. Aye. All right. Any opposed? All right. And the

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 motion carries. Moving on to items for consideration B, EDP 21-047, received nominations and elected

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 chair and vice chair. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Erica Sullivan, our ED

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 program administrator for the city, to give you a little background on what these positions

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 are. Thank you. Yes. I just wanted to give you an idea of what the chair role entails.

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 So as many of you are aware, the chair leads the economic development partnership board.

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 Some of you may not be aware, but the chair is also the chair of the tax increment reinvestment

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 zone number two, our West Park industrial tours. So why don't you be aware of that?

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 We normally try to schedule a meeting on the same day and the West Park tours is usually

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 a shorter meeting in order to be cognizant of everybody's time. Another item that is

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 part of the strategic plan is a work group. So there's a monthly work group meeting that's

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 involved. We've been doing those mainly via teams. That's one that we aren't required

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 necessarily to have in person. Another item that you may be asked to do is what Jill was

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 recently doing for us is some of our business awards. We normally have a mayor council breakfast,

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 but we did them in here at the chambers and then we went on site for a number of the awards.

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 You may also be asked to visit a business with Kay. She's our business retention and

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 expansion person. So you may be asked to do that as well. So the chair would be involved

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 in reviewing genders and of course giving staff direction and insight for the board.

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 All right. Thank you, Ms. Sullivan. So at this time, on behalf of the board, I will

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 open the floor to nominations. Once we receive all nominations, we will then take a vote

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 to elect a new chair. This is a one year term. I would like to make a nomination for Jill

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 Jester. That's me. Any other nominations from the floor? Okay. With that, okay. Well, with

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 that, we will take a vote. All those in favor of Jill Jester serving as chair of this board

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 for the next year, please say aye and raise your hand. Aye. All those opposed, please

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 same sign. And those abstaining. Well, yours. No abstention. Now let's really get into it.

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 At this time, the chair will entertain nominees for a vice chair position. Myself having served

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 in this position for the past year, it really mirrors the description that Ms. Sullivan

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 gave as far as the chair. The vice chair is also invited to those standup meetings where

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 we discuss any red flags or anything that happens in between meetings that need input.

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 It serves a similar role and is invited to participate in all of those leadership activities.

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 Any other questions about that role before we open the floor to nominations? Okay. Well,

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 at this time I will entertain nominations for the vice chair position. Madam Chair. Yes.

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 And nominate Steve Edgar. And are there any other nominees to be voted on for the role

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 of vice chair? Any. All right. Well with that, we will go ahead and take a vote on Steve

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 Edgar serving as vice chair. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye and raising

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 your hand. All right. Any abstentions? All right. Thank you. Steve Edgar will be serving

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 as vice chair and thank you for accepting that responsibility. I like that Tina seconded

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 and then opposed. Well, every board has one, so we've got. Well, thank you very much for

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 the vote of confidence and I will do my best. At this point, we will move on to item D,

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 D P 21 dash zero four nine. Receive a report and hold a discussion and appoint or reappoint

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 members to the downtown economic development committee. There is a substantive group of

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 information that you all receive that shows who is up for reappointment that they have

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 now introduced staggering those roles so that not everyone rolls off at once. I think before

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 there weren't so many parameters, so that is in front of us. Currently council member

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 Davis serves as our representative and serves as chair of that committee. So at this time,

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 I'll turn it over to miss Sullivan to tell us more about what action needs to be taken

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 before us today and any information needed. Thank you. The downtown economic development

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 committee is a subcommittee of this board. It was formally called the downtown task force.

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 All members of the meet the current requirements for reappointment and Jesse Davis was appointed

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 to an unexpired term on November 11th 2020 is also eligible for reappointment. The only

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 member not wishing to be reappointed is Monte Jensen. So staff has made a recommendation

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 you'll see in your AIS for consideration and this is Jason voter from just Saudi downtown

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 right on the square. He's a downtown business owner has served on various boards Main Street

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 executive board for six years, chamber board for three years, Main Street Foundation for

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 four years and Denton community health clinic for two years. The company has also assisted

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 the city with some of our proposals such as the HQ two for Amazon and help downtown businesses

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 pivot from in person to moving online. We've been a great mentor and the result, but representatives

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 also required to be a downtown business owner and they meet that criteria. Great. So incorrect

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 me if I'm wrong. The what needs to be voted on by this party is by this board is first

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 of all adding Jason Bodar which probably most of us know he's very involved and has been

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 very committed in the especially in the downtown area and it seems to I believe is a very good

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 recommendation from city staff. Additionally at page 13 of our packet we can see down here

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 the names of those persons mostly in bird Beth Lewis Nick Miller Bob Moses Georgina see who

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 are willing to serve again and need reappointment have agreed to that reappointment. In addition

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 I was able to speak offline with councilmember Davis who is willing to continue to serve

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 and he is an unexpired spot there and can continue to serve as chair of that is our representative

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 on that narrowing of what we do to just the downtown area. Is there a motion to reappoint

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 those as presented by staff here today to move forward and that's all that's needed

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 brought in this motion. I move for that. All right. All right. It's been moved and seconded

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 to appoint or reappoint the members of the Economic Development Committee of the downtown

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 Economic Development Committee as recommended by staff. All those in. Is there any discussion?

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 Yes. There are 13 members that's that's the maximum member on this board. Yes. It's nine

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 to 13 and 13 is the maximum. How many? I believe we have 13 with the addition of Jason Bodor.

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 Sure. Since this is an extension of this in this board is there a regular report out on

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 the progress and all the improvements? So there are well our representative is councilmember

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 Davis so when action is taken you know we do ask for updates additionally there is a

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 staff city staff economic development representative who is also there. I know I certainly know

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 that we have had reports from that committee on more than one occasion but I don't know

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 if it's monthly but I also don't know that they necessarily meet monthly if there's no

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 actionable items but Councilmember Davis could you tell us a little bit more? Sure. So action

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 items that particular committee doesn't have action items in and of itself almost everything

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 is a recommendation forward to another group either this one or the Turge Board but then

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 also Christina Davis in the Economic Development Department does a really good downtown summary

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 report and it is it's useful to all the Main Street folks it's useful to anybody who does

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 business downtown and usually it's usually a weekly end of week kind of report and so

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 that all include things like openings and closings street closures construction all everything

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 going on downtown she does a really good summary of so and that's basically an email list to

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 get on and I don't think we I don't think we publish that anywhere on like a city website

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 or something it's just a kind of a courtesy email that goes out weekly and then action

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 items from the committee again just flow through other groups. And I would probably say anyone

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 that would like to be on that email I don't want to send out emails to those that aren't

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 interested in the reoccurring updates other than what happens in this board meeting but

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 if you would like that you can send that to me or if you know Christina you can send it

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 to her directly. So very good question. Another question. Yes. What do we consider as the

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 boundaries when we say downtown? There's a map in the back. Let me see what page that's

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 at. Page 30. 17. Attachment line. And that is set by city council is that correct? That's

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 not something that we decide or that group decides. It's in the policy. We have a number

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 of different maps for downtown. The downtown implementation plan area is a little bit different

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 in our tourist district has a little bit different boundaries. And I'm happy to send those out

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 to anyone who's interested. And that is page 17 in our entire packet of what currently

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 is included in that committee's purview. And on the back of the map is the current list

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 of the committee members. You'll see there's 13. And Monty Jefferson would be replaced.

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 Are there any other questions or comments before we call the vote to appoint and reappoint?

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 All right. It has been moved and seconded at this time. We will vote on the appointment

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 and reappointment as presented by the staff. All those in favor, please signify by raising

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 your hand and saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, please signify by saying nay and raising your

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 hand. All right. And the motion carries. We will move on to items for consideration EEDP

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 21-050 staff report. There are a couple of exhibits that were included in that, but we

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 will now open it up to back to you. Thank you. You'll see that we have our 2020/21 fourth

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 quarter activity report to give you an idea of what we've been doing, as well as at the

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 end of the report, some of our partner organizations have been doing. Main Street Stoke, for example.

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 We also have the 2020 net revenue report on incentives. And this report examines the fiscal

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 impacts to the city for the incentives granted and evaluates the efficiency of the public

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 investment. And it has been redesigned and condensed from prior updates. I believe it

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 was 30 pages prior. So it's in a much more readable format at this point. I'll give you

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 a little highlight on it. Since 1999, the inception of our incentive program, the city

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 has invested 22 million in tax incentives and in return has benefited from a net increase

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 in property and sales revenues in the amount of 71.3 million. The total rate of return

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 for incentives awarded, this is the benefit, is to 324%. And there have been a total of

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 8,402 jobs created and retained by these incentivize projects. You'll also see the Denton County

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 and ISD represented there as well. And if anyone has any questions, I prepare the report.

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 I'd be happy to answer now or later, if you want to dive into it in more detail.

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 Are there any questions or is there any discussion at this time regarding the report? Unfortunately,

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 there are no other action items today. We've not had action items for a month or so. So

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 we have not had a meeting, just to have a meeting. However, there was some business

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 to take care of today. So it's not a long meeting today as we say hello and goodbye

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 to board members. But I have approached Ms. Sullivan about helping us with maybe some

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 nuts and bolts presentation, generally about economic development in Texas, what's available,

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 and then specifically to the city of Denton, because decisions have been made that are

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 out of our hands that determine what our capabilities are in economic development. So what I guess

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 I'm asking is, is this something that, and this is just open to discussion, there's no

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 action item. Is that something that everyone would like a refresher on and to participate

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 in or is that something that maybe we just make voluntarily not part of the board time

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 and/or do we want to maybe do this in the January meeting? We kind of talked about a

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 couple months, but December, I know, gets crazy. So maybe we'll do it in January.

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 Yeah, so our attendance is pretty hard.

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 So I'll just open it to input at this time as to what your interest is in participating

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 in something like that. I think refreshers for everyone is a good idea while we, so we

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 have a frame of reference in what is even in the ballpark that we can do.

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 I do want to say in the past, we've held our board orientations right before the meetings

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 to those who wanted to attend and those who didn't. One of the questions I want to pose

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 here too is, would you like a virtual or in-person meeting? Because we could do a virtual at some

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 point before the next meeting, or we could also do it right before in-person. It's your

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 preference.

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 Yeah. So I'll open the floor.

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 Yeah, I think an update would be great and just knowing what our tools in our toolbox,

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 you know, what we have to deal with, what we don't, what the other cities we're competing

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 against, you know, what are our opportunities here compared to, and using our tools we can

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 at our highest level, because there are some limitations that we have here in the city

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 on what EDC tools we have, and everybody just understanding what those are, I think would

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 be a great.

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 I think an in-person, I like it better. You only got something going on in the background,

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 you know?

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 Yeah.

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 X-Men, you can answer that.

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 Other input from other members?

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 I agree.

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 I'm sorry.

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 I think that's fine. I was just going to agree with the gentleman who already spoke.

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 And I was just going to say, perhaps if we could have some historical changes that maybe

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 have occurred either to broaden what we have opportunities in or to narrow the focus of

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 what we are really responsible for reviewing and supporting as well.

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 Certainly.

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 It gets pretty technical, so for those of us that are lawyers, because we like words,

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 it's helpful to have a fleshing out of what the numbers look like and what our parameters

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 are. Additionally, I don't know maybe at the same time or maybe at the next meeting, maybe

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 have a quick refresher of our strategic plan and the matrix that was created so that everyone

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 has assurances that actions that are taken by this group are always in line with what

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 has been agreed to by the city council from community input, from our consultants, et

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 cetera.

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 So they can kind of see why everyone's doing what they're doing, I think is always a good

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 idea.

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 So it's a good idea to have that up there that we're all going the same direction.

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 Okay.

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 So it sounds like to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, that the consensus is in person

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 and perhaps before the board meeting in January.

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 Would that be -- does that sound like the consensus?

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 All right.

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 Okay.

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 Is there anything else at this time before we adjourn and go on our way?

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 Okay.

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 I would like to thank our ex officios who are here today, Aaron, Kendall representing

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 the Chamber and Kay and everybody who's here on behalf of the staff.

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 What I would like to do is just make sure that we're all educated to ask the best questions

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 and give the best input that we can, whether that's online or offline.

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 Maybe at some point we could arrange something outside of this meeting just so that we all

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 get to know each other, get to know where each other -- what our backgrounds are so

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 that we know who to ask questions to if we have questions.

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 I mean, that's kind of the point of this group is that we represent a lot of varied groups

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 in town that are interested and have input to economic development.

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 So I'm honored to serve this year, and it is much appreciated, and you are all appreciated.

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 So with that, anything else, Ms. Sullivan, before we adjourn?

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 The only other thing is that we're working on our new building to be able to hold meetings

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 there, I'm told possibly January we may be able to hold that in our new development services

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 building over on the other side of the post office.

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 So you might be hearing from us regarding that.

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 Well, again, I want to welcome Ms. Holmes, Mr. Gorey.

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 Thank you for giving of your off time to come spend it with us, and we hope that it's rewarding.

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 And with that, I don't think we need a vote to -- yes, one more thing?

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 You know, I would add, I'm David Gaines, assistant city manager, if I haven't met you before,

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 it's a pleasure to see everyone in person.

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 Just wanted to note as we're talking about the staff contacts, obviously, you have Erica,

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 we have a great economic development team, you always have me to reach out to as well.

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 Our economic development director position is obviously vacant right now.

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 Just want to let you know we have posted that position, it's been posted for a few days,

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 we're using a recruitment firm to help us find the best candidates.

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 That closes on November 26th, so hopefully we can have some interviews in December and

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 move forward, but we'll keep you updated when we hopefully find a great candidate and move

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 forward.

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00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:04,480
 But just wanted to give you an update on that process.

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 Well, thank you for that update, it is very much appreciated and I know that it will continue.

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 With that, thank you everyone, we are adjourned and I hope the rest of your day goes well.