1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:18,000 All right, everyone. We're going to call this meeting to order. Welcome to the very exciting, very much anticipated economic development partnership board meeting, Wednesday, May 11, 2022, in a form we do have a forum, and I certainly appreciate everyone's attendance here today. 2 00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:26,000 And we'll get started. I also want to thank our Vice Chair, Steve Edgar, who chaired the last meeting. I bet it was really fun. 3 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:36,000 It was so brief. He probably brought snacks, and he probably has like, you know, breaks and games. So, sorry to miss that, but thank you very much. 4 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:55,000 We will move forward with items for consideration, eight, and that's EDP 22-030. Consider approval of the minutes of April 13, 2022. If I could, let's hear a motion to approve in a second, and then we'll have discussion. 5 00:00:55,000 --> 00:01:03,000 Thank you, Ms. Holt. It's been moved to be approved as distributed. Is there a second? 6 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:14,000 Second. Thank you, Mayor, and of course, congratulations on your next term. Thank you. I look forward to working with you another couple of years and feel very lucky. 7 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:35,000 I want to note that there was one omission on the minutes from April 13, 2022. So, if I could make a friendly amendment that Aaron Carter was left out of those minutes. Are there any other changes or edits that anyone has seen needed to those minutes? 8 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:49,000 All right. Can I have a quick second and to my friendly amendment? Second. Thank you, Mr. Tomlinson. All right. So, we're going to vote now on approval of the minutes as amended. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. 9 00:01:49,000 --> 00:02:18,000 Aye. All those opposed, same sign, and the motion passes. Great job. Subsection B, you can tell I've had vacation in between seeing you, so apologies. EDP 22-031. Receive a report and hold a discussion about a new workforce training program by U.S. Aviation, and we have here with us Scott Sikes, who's going to present a fairly new program, but something that I think we all should know is happening here in our backyard and see what we can do to help encourage this. 10 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:32,000 Great business that brings a lot of people to our area to spend money. So, Mr. Sikes, hi. Hi. Well, they tell me I'm going to be somewhere in this area to be on camera and recorded a little further. 11 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:56,000 It faces this way, so if you could go over here. About here? All right. So, I'm Scott Sikes with U.S. Aviation. We are the FBO, so the fixed base operator, which provides fuel and hangar at the airport, as well as the academy, which provides flight training and now aviation mechanic training services at the airport. 12 00:02:56,000 --> 00:03:19,000 So, first question I usually ask local people, "Have you been to the airport?" This is kind of the group in the know. Usually I get about 80% to ask me if I'm talking about DMW airport, and the other 20% ask me if that's what's that down airport road. So, indeed it is. 13 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:35,000 So, our motto is to provide world-class flight training services and aviation services to support global customers. So, that's what we do. We probably see us all around town with our vans. We provide transportation for many of our students. 14 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:54,000 They stay in housing with the other college students for TWU and UNT just downtown, and then we pick them up, bring them out to the airport, and provide both flight and now ANP, which is airframe and power plant mechanic training. 15 00:03:54,000 --> 00:04:20,000 So, a bit about us. We got certified by the FAA for our course with maintenance training in January of 2021. So, we've been at it right out of year, but are now really gathering some steam, getting the approvals that we need for Texas Workforce Commission, working on our VA approval, which should come sometime in the next month, 16 00:04:20,000 --> 00:04:35,000 as well as just some other state approvals so we can use those state funds, as well as have access to federal funds to let students pay for the program a little bit more easily. 17 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:48,000 You see here is actually one of our alumni from the flight program. We've been doing that a lot longer. You guys have probably seen us buzzing around town in the Cessnas. If you hear a small plane over your house, it's probably us. 18 00:04:48,000 --> 00:05:02,000 This is one of our graduates came in, did some training with us, worked for us, and then Nicole, this picture is when she was a first officer, an envoy, which is kind of the American Eagle feeder for American Airlines. 19 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:15,000 But I heard just last week that she has moved on to American Airlines mainline, so flying the bigger jets. So, good to see our graduates moving up. 20 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:22,000 So, a quick overview of the Flight Academy that I'll go into detail on the maintenance training course. 21 00:05:22,000 --> 00:05:33,000 So, we fly about 40,000 hours a year. We're FAA certified for the Flight Academy. We have about 120 aircraft overall, and roughly half of those are based in Denny. 22 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:49,000 That's our headquarters as well as our biggest base, but we also provide support for collegiate programs across the US, including New York, Missouri, Houston, and then Tarrant County College just down the road. 23 00:05:49,000 --> 00:06:04,000 A little breakdown of the fleet, but generally small piston aircraft. So, nothing big, nothing with jet engines, all piston training aircraft. We're their first step in their career for them learning how to fly. 24 00:06:04,000 --> 00:06:19,000 But what I'm here to talk about is our new program, A&P, so Airframe and Power Plant, which are the two certificates the FAA gives for people to work on planes. 25 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:32,000 And so, we get certified by the FAA. That was about a year-long process. We worked with them consistently over the course of COVID, unfortunately, which made it slightly harder than anticipated. 26 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:38,000 But we worked with them over the course of COVID to get certified and set up our facility. 27 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:45,000 That's one of the unique parts of A&P training. There's not like a place where you go buy all the stuff that you need. 28 00:06:45,000 --> 00:07:00,000 You have to scavenge junkyards and beg and plead from other providers to get all the pieces you need for training, because you're looking for broken aircraft that students can fix over and over and over again, and you need a lot of them. 29 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:13,000 So that's one of the unique parts of setting up one of these is you really got to go scrounge the earth for all the stuff that they're going to work on over the course of the program. 30 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:20,000 Kind of a unique part of our A&P training program is that they learn at the airport. 31 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:34,000 So most mechanic training programs are put in warehouses, just anywhere in the city, right? They just put it in a warehouse, and they have pieces and parts of planes, but never a whole aircraft for the students to work on. 32 00:07:34,000 --> 00:07:41,000 And they don't get to see any live aircraft flying, any actually operating, because they're at a warehouse, right? 33 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:56,000 And although that meets the technical requirements for training, right, that they are able to do the tasks that they need to earn that certificate, it doesn't get them that real world experience that A&Ps really need, right? 34 00:07:56,000 --> 00:08:11,000 When you have a mechanic, although a lot of what they do is tasks that are in a hangar or in a warehouse, putting aircraft together or putting it back to new parts on it, whatever, right? 35 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:37,000 The other part is they actually liaison with the pilots and the air crews and the people working at the airport and taxi those aircraft back and forth, they have to learn how to talk on the radio, and all that stuff is really valuable experience that they can gain if they're at an airport that they really don't gain if they're at a warehouse. 36 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:51,000 As for the personnel, myself, I really know absolutely nothing about being a mechanic at all, which was a tough uphill climb for getting certified for sure. 37 00:08:51,000 --> 00:09:02,000 I've learned way more about being a mechanic than I ever even wanted to learn in this process, but still do not ask me to fix anything, because I cannot. 38 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:08,000 We do have our director of the A&P program, Tony Picardy, on staff. 39 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:24,000 He was a trainer for the Blackhawks in the Army, and so he's got tons and tons of experience training new mechanics from that Army time, and it's bringing it to us to lead that program, bring up the next generation. 40 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:32,000 We'll talk a little bit more about that kind of towards the end, but most of the mechanics nowadays are, we'll say, a little bit up there in years. 41 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:38,000 The average age of mechanic in the U.S. is around 55 years old. 42 00:09:38,000 --> 00:09:40,000 I like to challenge that definition. 43 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:43,000 I think that sounds fantastic. 44 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:57,000 That's about the end of the road right there. 45 00:09:57,000 --> 00:10:11,000 Somewhere out on the prairie. 46 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:16,000 Another thing that sets our program apart is that it's really quick. 47 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:22,000 Most aircraft mechanic programs are somewhere between 18 and 24 months. 48 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:39,000 A lot of them are done at community colleges, that 24-month schedule where they do a two-year associate's degree, and even most of the more vocational courses are about 18 to 21 to 24 months, just depending on where it's at and how they structure it. 49 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:51,000 Uniquely, ours is not accredited by a Department of Education, which gives us a lot more flexibility to do the program how we'd like to do it and allows us to do it in 12 months. 50 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:53,000 So we treat it like a full-time job. 51 00:10:53,000 --> 00:11:02,000 Students come in at 730 in the morning, leave about 4 o'clock, and it's treated like a full-time job for them to get done in a year. 52 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:10,000 So I always say we're not the right choice for everyone, but we're the right choice for some who are looking to get into that career quickly. 53 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:12,000 And it is a good career. 54 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:23,000 So as I put on there, about $20 to $27 an hour is the starting wage you'll see in this area, just depending on where they end up working and what they're doing. 55 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:27,000 But experienced mechanics make $30 to $50 an hour. 56 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:43,000 So particularly, you know, if you're a shift manager at Southwest Airlines, you'll be making around $100,000 a year, along with great benefits and everything else that comes with working for one of those airlines. 57 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:50,000 We break it up into three sections, which is kind of defined by the FAA. 58 00:11:50,000 --> 00:11:57,000 General, Airframe, and Powerplant, without going into too much detail. General is your basics, right? 59 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:03,000 We teach you just how to use tools, how to use the materials, what the regulations are. 60 00:12:03,000 --> 00:12:16,000 And then they learn Airframe, so that's the structure of the aircraft, the wings, how they attach, how we bolt everything together, how the landing gears and other systems that make the gears come up and down work. 61 00:12:16,000 --> 00:12:29,000 And then we teach them Powerplant, so how jet engines work, how piston engines work, how all the different types of power plants work. 62 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:42,000 So this is probably a little hard to read on the TVs here, but generally, this is a resource I got from United Way, but it shows the wages, lifetime wages of a mechanic. 63 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:58,000 And so you see the starting wage is right, this is for a national level, not this county specifically, but on a national level for the BLS, around $50,000 to $55,000 a year starting wage. 64 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:04,000 And that's around what it is here in Denton. We might be slightly lower just because of the cost of living. 65 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:13,000 But you see, the average wage after 20, 30 years is around $95,000. 66 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:24,000 So that's typically what you would see for a mechanic that's been at an airline for 20 years, is around $35 an hour to $50 an hour. 67 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:37,000 So it's a pretty good job if you're spending your life in it. It's something that you can really afford to buy a house, support a family, you know, make a career out of. 68 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:49,000 As I briefly alluded to, this is a report with the age distribution of mechanics, but what it points to is just there's a huge need coming up. 69 00:13:49,000 --> 00:13:57,000 You know, Mike Rowe is kind of famous for talking about this, the need for hands-on jobs and hands-on training. 70 00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:02,000 Well, this is one of those jobs that really just got ignored for a couple of decades. 71 00:14:02,000 --> 00:14:10,000 You know, a lot of people trained from the 70s through the mid 90s or so. 72 00:14:10,000 --> 00:14:17,000 And then from the mid 90s onward, there's a steep drop off in enrollments in AMP schools. 73 00:14:17,000 --> 00:14:21,000 It just kind of fell out of favor for quite a bit. 74 00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:30,000 And so we have a lot of the AMP staff who are working throughout the country that are 50 plus years old, 75 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:34,000 which means they have a wealth of experience and are doing a great job. 76 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:42,000 But it also means, especially with the benefits that they have, they're going to be looking to retire sometime in the next 10 to 15 years. 77 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:50,000 So we expect that roughly 60 percent of the AMP workforce will retire in the next 15 years. 78 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:55,000 So that's a huge need and huge change in the industry. 79 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:58,000 Is this indicative of more females than males in the-- 80 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:00,000 No, no, no. So other way around. 81 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:07,000 It is currently about, I want to say, 96, 97 percent female, or sorry, male. 82 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:13,000 There is very, very few females currently working in the AMP workforce. 83 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:18,000 I was actually at a conference, I guess, two weeks ago now. 84 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:29,000 And I think the statistic they said is about 70 percent of the overall total AMP mechanic workforce is about 70 percent white male. 85 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:35,000 So it is extremely dominated by white male currently. 86 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:44,000 We see that changing. You know, my last class of mechanics was about 40 percent white male, 30 or 40 percent white male. 87 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:53,000 So it is changing. And I have, I just want to say, about 10 percent of my students are female at this point. 88 00:15:53,000 --> 00:16:01,000 So I would say it's changing slowly, but it is changing. 89 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:11,000 This is where they go. So business aviation, manufacturers, general aviation, major airlines, regional airlines, and repair stations. 90 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,000 Repair stations being the biggest. 91 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:23,000 Repair stations, not something the public sees a lot, but the major work on aircraft for airlines are actually done by repair stations. 92 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:34,000 Most airlines don't do that themselves. The heavy checks on their planes, they sub out to some other repair station, MRO, as they're called. 93 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:41,000 That MRO, National Conference, was actually held two, three weeks ago in Fort Worth. 94 00:16:41,000 --> 00:16:44,000 And that's because Dallas is just a huge aviation market. 95 00:16:44,000 --> 00:16:55,000 We have tons and tons and tons of airlines, regional airlines, and MROs, repair stations here in this area. 96 00:16:55,000 --> 00:17:04,000 For example, you guys may be aware, Gulfstream is moving their main facility to Alliance Airport as well as expanding it. 97 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:12,000 So they're hiring hundreds of mechanics at Alliance Airport to both refit and repair Gulfstream aircraft. 98 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:18,000 Lockheed Martin makes the F-35 down in Fort Worth at the base. 99 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:28,000 We've got L3 at Greenville, and we have American Airlines, Southwest, Envoy, Mesa, Republic. 100 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:40,000 All of them have maintenance bases here in either DFW or Love, so it's a massive aviation market. 101 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:47,000 Well, that's pretty much the end of my presentation, but I am happy to answer questions. 102 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:54,000 Really, we just are looking for awareness for our program. It's just not something most high schoolers think of, right? 103 00:17:54,000 --> 00:18:00,000 If they think, "I want to become a mechanic," they think car mechanic, right? 104 00:18:00,000 --> 00:18:10,000 Which is great. There are lots of opportunities there as well, but we'd like them to think about this as another option because it is a great career. 105 00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:21,000 Scott, most trade schools pay for one-year programs somewhere around $4,500, $6,500. What is it for this program? 106 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:26,000 Ours is more, for sure. It is currently $27,000 per year. 107 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:28,000 Are there grants available? 108 00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:43,000 There are grants available, so we recently got approved for WIOA funds, which allows for those in a low-income demographic, they can get the program paid for through Texas Workforce Commission. 109 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:51,000 So if you're not going to a community college, where would I know about a program like this? 110 00:18:51,000 --> 00:19:02,000 So that's part of our challenge, right? There isn't one place that you know about it. Just at the end of this year, high school started letting us come in, talk to them. 111 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:13,000 Before that, it was COVID, so we weren't allowed to go into the high schools anymore, but what we're doing now is going into the high schools, talking with them about this as a career option. 112 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:21,000 And I assume you're on all of the social media, so that if we followed you, we could maybe find a link to help push out the information? Sure, yeah. 113 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:35,000 And so just a few days ago, posted a video of our students installing a jet engine on a Lear that we have, so it's a cool time lapse of them fully installing a jet engine on a Lear. 114 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:38,000 It's one of the major projects for our power plant. 115 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:41,000 What's the volume of students that get to the program? 116 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:56,000 We currently have 45 students, but I expect to be somewhere between 75 and 100 by the end of the year with a couple more starts, and then hoping to grow to 150 over the next 18 months, give or take. 117 00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:59,000 Are you just doing accreditation? 118 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:07,000 We're not, because it's difficult to do the program the way that we want to and be accredited. 119 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:13,000 So there are costs and benefits of accreditation. The benefits are a much wider access to capital and bonds. 120 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:16,000 Right, that's what I was going to say. Great way to credit the program. 121 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:22,000 It's a great way to pay for the program, but it also comes with a lot of restrictions. 122 00:20:22,000 --> 00:20:29,000 Do your graduates find a harder time gaining employment because it's not in the credit program? 123 00:20:29,000 --> 00:20:37,000 To be honest, the airlines couldn't care less. They have the certificate, same to them. 124 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:39,000 The demand is so high at this time, maybe. 125 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:56,000 Even without that, for example, the largest trainer in the country is a company called AIM, and so they train, I would say, 21st percent, give or take, of the mechanics nationwide, and they're accredited, but they don't earn a degree. 126 00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:04,000 As far as the FAA is concerned, it's the same license and certificate, and the airlines don't really know the difference, either, because all they see is you have a certificate. 127 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:08,000 There's no degree attached to AIM's graduates, either. 128 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:19,000 So the plane side of things, what's the largest kind of capacity plane you have that you fly people to a destination? 129 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:28,000 Ours are just for flight training, and the largest one we have is a hyperseneca, which technically seats six. 130 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:33,000 That said, we only keep three seats in them because we exclusively use it for training. 131 00:21:33,000 --> 00:21:59,000 So my point there is, and I take your point, and this may not be an option, but I think at some point you may consider mixing the two. For example, if there's a golf team in Denton that needs to go to Houston, et cetera, et cetera, if now you're flying those kids, those kids now are aware by proxy that you fixed planes, and this could be an option, that sort of thing. 132 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:06,000 It's like, oh, by the way, here's a resource, and we'd love for you to go consider our school when you graduate. 133 00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:16,000 I don't know, just the mixing of the two worlds, I think, as people, as travel picks back up, it's roads congested, just kind of a way to generate interest. 134 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:30,000 Yeah, certainly through our FBO, the fixed base operator, we've been trying to put that out there so people who come through the FBO are aware as well. 135 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:51,000 Oh, company-wide, we have about 160 full-time equivalents, FTEs. At this location, I can't tell you off the top of my head, but if I had to guess at it, it'd be around half of that, so 80-ish FTEs in Denton. 136 00:22:51,000 --> 00:23:01,000 I'm really happy to see you guys are investing in the trades and investing in McKinnon, because I think it's finally getting where that's accepted. Not everybody's cut out to go to college, not everybody's. 137 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:12,000 So I would encourage you, which you guys are already doing, heavily get plugged into the ISDs, because there's a lot of kids that don't know where they're going to go. 138 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:24,000 They can't go to college, so whatever this group can do to help facilitate getting plugged in to the different high schools in this area, Denton does a pretty good job of their vocational things, I think. 139 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:36,000 But even the outside markets of Aubrey and Pilot Point and those kind of things, anything we can help you to do to get connected, because those schools aren't big enough to have the things like Denton ISD has. 140 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:43,000 Please let us know, because I'm a huge fan of getting in some of those rural areas, as Peterbilt has seen over the years. 141 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:53,000 They get a lot of employees from those areas, if I had to guess. Not to compete with your employees, but I'm saying. 142 00:23:53,000 --> 00:24:06,000 I was going to say, the maintenance probably can't be real. She met old guys, there's a lot of the same skills that you guys use. It's very good. 143 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:16,000 As I was asking about the number of people, resources all the time. Thank you. Any other questions or comments from the board? 144 00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:27,000 All right. Well, we thank you for the presentation, your time, and we just want to support you in what you're doing here in Denton, so thank you so much, Scott. 145 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:31,000 Thanks for having me. Certainly feel free to reach out if you have any questions. 146 00:24:31,000 --> 00:24:55,000 Thank you. All right. We will move on to item C, which is EDP 22-032. Receive a report, hold a discussion, give staff direction, and make a recommendation to City Council regarding a request to nominate May Day Manufacturing Company to the Office of the Governor's Economic Development and Tourism through the Economic Development Bank as an enterprise project. 147 00:24:55,000 --> 00:25:03,000 And to explain all of that to us, Christina, thank you. That is a mouthful. 148 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:15,000 Erica Sullivan, I'm the Economic Development Administrator here, and I'm going to be giving you a presentation on a project request for Texas Enterprise Zone nomination for May Day Manufacturing. 149 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:25,000 So the Texas Enterprise Program is a state program, and this is to promote job creation and capital investment in economically distressed areas of the state. 150 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:41,000 Successful applicants are eligible to apply for sales and use tax refunds for qualified expenditures, and the program provides reimbursement according to the level of capital investment, number of jobs for disadvantaged individuals or veterans. 151 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:52,000 You can see a table here. In the first column, you've got the level of capital investment, starting with half of enterprise projects and moving on to a triple jumbo project, so it increases as you go down. 152 00:25:52,000 --> 00:26:08,000 Then the second column is the maximum number of jobs in that category, and then the maximum potential refund, you can see, and then the maximum refund per job allocation, so that increases as you go on. 153 00:26:08,000 --> 00:26:20,000 So you calculate it by taking the number of jobs and the qualifying amount, and you come up with what they could max out at for sales tax reimbursement. 154 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:38,000 To apply for the Texas Enterprise Zone funding, a project must seek nomination from the local community. They also have to have an incentive granted from the local community as well, and communities have a limited number of project designations, and the state also has a limited number of project designations. 155 00:26:38,000 --> 00:27:04,000 We, with our population size, have a maximum of six per the biennium, and the state has 105 per biennium. And Denton held a public hearing and adopted an ordinance in 2018, which confirms Denton participation in the Texas Enterprise Zone program and allows us to make nominations by resolution, and this lasts for a period of five years and expires in August of next year. 156 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:15,000 And then the state application deadlines are the first day of each quarter, so the next one coming up would be June for this particular applicant. 157 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:37,000 The criteria you can see here, a map of the qualified area in blue, and so projects can be physically inside or outside of Enterprise Zone. The ones in blue are going to be the first one inside at 25%, so the company commits that 25% of new employees will meet the economically disadvantaged criteria, be residents of an Enterprise Zone or be veterans. 158 00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:51,000 And then outside, both are eligible, but the rate is different, so a company commits that 35% has a higher qualifier of new employees will meet economically disadvantaged criteria, be residents of the Enterprise Zone, or also be veterans. 159 00:27:51,000 --> 00:28:07,000 So I mean, of course the inferences, the areas in blue are considered more economically disadvantaged than the non in blue. Yes. Okay. And both qualify just at different rates. 160 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:25,000 The actual nominee, Mayday Manufacturing, they submitted a request to the city to be for consideration to be nominated as an enterprise project, and they currently hold a designation that expires in June, so this would replace their current designation, and it would last for a period of five years. 161 00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:47,000 So Mayday is a global leader in aircraft parts manufacturing, and that is for aerospace, events, and homeland security industries, and they expect to create 10 new jobs over the five-year period, and their total valuation equaled about $17.3 million in 2021, and that generated $97,861 in ad form taxes for the city. 162 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:59,000 After their rebate, it was about $50,000 that was generated to the city because it's an incremental increase grant. 163 00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:22,000 The project eligibility, the current Mayday facility is located, like we said, outside the second qualifier of the Enterprise Zone, so that's 35%. They're proposing to invest $19 million in the facility, including $5.5 for an expansion of 30,000 square feet, $5.9 for new machinery and equipment, and $7.6 on upgrades and repairs. 164 00:29:22,000 --> 00:29:39,000 The investment category that they fall under, that chart that we looked at earlier, is $5 million to $149 million, and so their max jobs, they have 260 now, and they're proposing to add 10 more, so this program incentivizes both new jobs and retained in this particular category. 165 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:56,000 The larger ones don't, they're just for the new jobs, the last two, the double jumbo and triple jumbo. And then the maximal potential refund is $675,000, and this, again, city must nominate the project, and the project has to receive an incentive prior. 166 00:29:56,000 --> 00:30:15,000 The benefits to Mayday Manufacturing, a state sales and use tax refund up to that $675,000, and then to Denton, 35% of new jobs created or existing positions that would turn over will be filled by people who are either economically disadvantaged, residents of the Enterprise Zone, or are veterans. 167 00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:25,000 And then nominating Mayday enables Denton to assist the company in receiving sales tax refunds, and it does not have any fiscal impact to the city, so this is a state program we nominate for. 168 00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:34,000 We do produce annual reporting on all our Texas Enterprise Zone projects that we report to the state, but it doesn't have a fiscal impact. 169 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:45,000 The recommendation staff recommends that EDP recommend to city council that they nominate Mayday Manufacturing as an enterprise project. 170 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:56,000 All right, is there a motion to recommend approval? So moved. 171 00:30:56,000 --> 00:31:04,000 Right, it's been moved and seconded. Let's go to discussion. Questions and comments. 172 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:18,000 Yes, Mr. Clerk. So you said we have three slots? We have six. There's one that we've already awarded as biennium. It started in September, and that's for Packard. This would pick up another slot. 173 00:31:18,000 --> 00:31:31,000 So we have five years in which we would have four more slots. Biennium. It's every biennium we get six. The state gets 105. The term for it is five years, once it's awarded. 174 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:41,000 Thank you. Do we have other companies in mind for those other slots? Are there other renewals coming up? 175 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:48,000 I'd have to look at the other renewals. I know Winco is another one that could possibly be coming up. 176 00:31:48,000 --> 00:32:11,000 Tetra Pak. But again, you have to have a qualifying event, so they would need to have an expansion or additional capital. Like the last time Mayday did it, they bought a new laminator. I mean, not Mayday, Tetra Pak, because they're aseptic packaging. It was a foreign laminator. So there needs to be new jobs added or new capital investment. 177 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:15,000 Any other questions or comments? 178 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:23,000 All right, I will call the vote at this time. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. All those opposed, please signify by saying nay. 179 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:35,000 And the motion passes. We will move to item D, PDP 22-033 staff report beginning with the April 2022 prospect activity report. 180 00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:52,000 Is that you, Dan? Sure. Hi, I'm Dan Rosenfield, Director of Community Partnerships for the Denton Economic Development Partnership. Yeah, in the past month, we had 16 new leads and then eight different broker and developer engagements that we moved forward. 181 00:32:52,000 --> 00:32:58,000 But, you know, the big focus of what the EDP is doing is a lot of our workforce development and talent development partnerships. 182 00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:06,000 So that's engaging as many businesses as we can and connecting them with our universities and building a 100 percent dent in talent pipeline. 183 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:25,000 So to put on your calendar, on June 9th is our next Economic Development Partnership Reception, featuring the President of UNT, President of TFU, Chancellor of NCTC, and Dr. Wilson of DIC, and then moderated by TWC Commissioner Erin Demerson. 184 00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:39,000 So that'll be really exciting. So any questions? June 9th? June 9th, 8 a.m. Breakfast probably serves. 8 a.m.? 8 a.m. It's a morning person. It's at your mark. 185 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:56,000 It's a morning person. What are your words? TBD, but we're working with DISD to secure venue. Okay, so unknown. And I have to say, I don't know if everyone had a chance to look at the report, but I like the way you're doing the report. 186 00:33:56,000 --> 00:34:08,000 It's very easy to see what industries are dominant, where they're coming from, and what the current status is. I found it very easy to read and a nice snapshot. 187 00:34:08,000 --> 00:34:19,000 Any other questions or comments for Ms. Ruth? Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right, we'll move on to Staff Report Number 2, an update on the incentives policies. 188 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:30,000 Erica, are you taking that? I just wanted to add, I'm very pleased to report that both the tax abatement and the Chapter 380 policy were approved by City Council on the 3rd of this month. 189 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:42,000 So thank you for all your hard work and recommendations. They considered the recommendation of EDP and agreed with EDP on the living wage calculations. They just wanted to change the level of which it was at. 190 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:58,000 So we did it at Texas, which was the most conservative, and they chose to do it at the county level, which is a little bit higher. But at the same marks where you don't have the three children in each, it started with zero children, one person working, two children, two persons working. 191 00:34:58,000 --> 00:35:15,000 So it was the same area, just a different level. So I'm happy about that. Great. You did mark the meeting. Council was very complimentary of the board and really happy with your discussion and took it to heart. So that was a given variable. 192 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:31,000 That's good to know. We had a lot of... I missed a good one. Next time I'll read the agenda before. Did you play the video of the whole discussion for now? 193 00:35:31,000 --> 00:35:56,000 Highlights. Highlight me. Well, I would like to ask Mr. Gaines if you would update us on the status. I mean, as we all know, we are down a few slots in economic development. And with that, some of the things that this board has discussed and tabled until some of the staff positions have been filled so that it can be accomplished. Where are we on those? 194 00:35:56,000 --> 00:36:13,000 Yeah, so I have great news to share. We have hired an economic development director that will start just a week and a half on the 23rd, May 23rd, economic development director will start. We also have hired an economic development analyst who will start on the 23rd as well. 195 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:29,000 So very excited about that. I'll talk a little bit about the director. I just want to take this moment to recognize Christina and Erica. You know, we've been short staff for six months at least, and just the amount of work that they've done to keep things going has been great. 196 00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:47,000 So just very happy with having them here and just can't say anything to commend them for all the work they've done. And I'll also note that Christina has taken a new position. We had the business development administrator that was open when Kay left. 197 00:36:47,000 --> 00:37:05,000 She put that position out and interviews and Christina was promoted to that position. So very happy for Christina. She's done a great job, especially the entire time she's been here and especially over the past six months. So congratulations, Christina, and thank you guys so much. 198 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:18,000 So at the next meeting we should have our new director and his name is Wayne Emerson. He comes from the city of Dallas right now, the city of Dallas economic development department. He was previously with Allen EDC. 199 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:28,000 So he was with Allen for a little bit. He is a UNT alum. He has undergrad from UNT and got his MBA from McCombs School of Business down at UT. 200 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:44,000 He has an eclectic background. He was in the military. He was a teacher for a while before he decided to get his MBA and go into economic development. So I think he's going to bring a lot of energy and thoughts and really tackle a lot of those big things that we're talking about. 201 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:58,000 And since you said that, I'll also mention, I think over the over the next six months as we're in this budget process, we have a number of big conversations we're going to be having with city council on economic development. One of them is the catalyst fund conversation. 202 00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:10,000 If you were in it last year, we had a big discussion on the catalyst fund, which is contemplated in our economic development strategic plan of dedicating a revenue source for economic development programs and incentives. 203 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:18,000 The city council was supportive of it in concept at the time, but we just couldn't get to a point where there was an agreement on what that revenue structure would be. 204 00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:27,000 But at the most recent strategic plan meeting for city council, it was still a priority. They asked us to bring that back. So we're bringing that conversation forward over the summer. 205 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:53,000 It's going to be bringing forward update. We obviously have our incentive policies, creating policies. We're going to be having discussions with council and updated PIT policies, TURS policies, MND policies. And that actually starts off with a MUD discussion of policy, which is not directly related to economic development, but I think has a lot of a lot of knock on effects. So we're having that MUD policy conversation with council just next week. 206 00:38:53,000 --> 00:39:03,000 Those are some big conversations we'll be having over the next six months and excited to have almost full staff of economic development folks to have those discussions. 207 00:39:03,000 --> 00:39:10,000 Will those conversations happen in work sessions or before council meetings? Is that when most of those are going to happen? 208 00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:23,000 There will all be work sessions for sure. And then obviously, the appropriate committees will need to have those discussions in advance. We'll have those as well. 209 00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:42,000 I think that what would be a good idea is if we could be given basically calendaring of a lot of those, because I think part of being on this board is of course knowing what's going on as well as advocating for the decisions that this board believe are in the best interest of our city. 210 00:39:42,000 --> 00:40:05,000 So I think we would love to observe when we can observe and be a part of when we can be a part. The campus plan is something for those of you that have been on this board for years that we have talked about for years that our consultants have continued to say is something that is needed to compete even to get on the ballpark with some of our surrounding cities in our own county as well as out of the county. 211 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:25,000 So I also want to thank the city leadership and Mayor Hutzbeth and your leadership for continuing to carry this ball down the field and so it's a really big deal and would be an absolute game changer for economic development in the city and so I encourage everyone to be as much a part of it as possible. 212 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:37,000 And we'll certainly be having a great point, especially as we get some of those dates firmed up, we'll give a report out. You can go ahead and put it on if you're interested. July 26 is what we have right now for the date for the catalyst fund work session. 213 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:54,000 So we'll certainly have more discussions leading up to that. That's when we plan on having that initial discussion with council and then we're having a weekend retreat now for the budget workshop with council just a couple weeks later and so that will be the initial discussion then our budget workshop is on August 6. 214 00:40:54,000 --> 00:41:14,000 And the catalyst fund was brought to this board before it went to council last year and same with the PID policy. It was brought to this board. Right now the TURS policy has been reviewed internally. We don't have a TURS policy currently, so it's been under interdepartmental review and that one will be coming to this board. 215 00:41:14,000 --> 00:41:32,000 My policy is a current interim policy and Development Services is taking the lead on that one. What time are those work sessions? The catalyst fund on the 26th of July and the August 6th budget discussion. 216 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:45,000 I would anticipate throughout the summer all of our work sessions will start at 2 o'clock, which is the earliest we do for our work sessions, what we try to do. And then the budget workshop starts at 9 a.m. 217 00:41:45,000 --> 00:42:05,000 Okay, and we'll send out reminders of course to everyone as well. But that is so exciting and again would be such a game changer and would be a huge other in our cap to have accomplished with this council. So I'm very encouraged with the vision that they got on board with. 218 00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:27,000 Any other comments, questions before we wrap this up? Yes, Mayor. Just one quick comment around that. I think David would be good to kind of cycle in updates from a construction standpoint only in that like Blue 28, I know is on tech stocks list to move forward. 219 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:41,000 100 whole timing, but I think for this board to kind of understand that because that activates about 300 acres on the backside of that industrial park area. So once that completes, that land becomes no longer landlocked, etc. 220 00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:53,000 There's some, there's a lot of economic drivers connected with some of these regional transportation plans as they come online. So I don't know what the phasing of that is kind of as you see it come in and it's and it's closer to reality. 221 00:42:53,000 --> 00:43:04,000 I think it would be a good practice kind of just to tell this group, hey, that's coming. And then I'm starting up my conversations again about and David hears me say this all the time so it's not new. 222 00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:23,000 Man, I need somebody with some property to work a swap with ready mix, so we can get them out of downtown. I mean, because they have so many industrial issues that they have to work through in this market, by the time they get through it, it's sold. 223 00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:43,000 So they, you know, we hurry up and stop. And so, if there's anyone that knows of someone that ever hears has an acre or two and wants to swap it for a acreage or property downtown didn't, you know, I think I can speak for at least me that I would be. 224 00:43:43,000 --> 00:43:45,000 Yeah, right. 225 00:43:45,000 --> 00:43:53,000 I don't, I was, I was going to venture out on them. 226 00:43:53,000 --> 00:44:02,000 But I would advocate strongly to help kind of facilitate something like that, so that we can activate that area downtown, so what it's worth. 227 00:44:02,000 --> 00:44:12,000 Hey, I'm trying to tell you there. I mean, they're, they're, they're open to it. It's just a matter of, you know, giving them time to do what they need to do. 228 00:44:12,000 --> 00:44:28,000 So with that, I just want to remind everyone that we do have the tours board meeting first number to board meeting at noon, we can't start until noon because that's what was publicly we do have a couple of other people that are invited to that meeting that are on that board. 229 00:44:28,000 --> 00:44:47,000 So, please do stick around, we're going to take a short break but that may need to start at noon and as you can see on the minutes we approve or discuss the minutes from the last meeting, and then just having the tax increment reinvestment so number two recommendation to city council that's required so it should be super short. 230 00:44:47,000 --> 00:44:59,000 So if you could please, if you can, stay to make sure we're informed for that I appreciate all of you. With that, we are adjourned. Thank you so much and we'll see you here in a few minutes.