Good morning. I'm Marty Rivers, the chair of the Denton Economic Development Partnership
Board. Welcome to our meeting. We were going to start the meeting at 11.03 a.m. Our first
item for consideration is item EDP 19-031, which is to consider our minutes from our
last meeting on May 8th. I'll second. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion?
All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Minutes are approved. And item B, EDP 19-027,
our staff report, so I'll let you guys go ahead and present. Well, we'll continue our
tradition of saving time if at all possible. We're happy to answer any questions about
the staff reports, but we don't have a formal presentation prepared. That's it from the
city. And I have some notes if you want me to go over mine. I'd love to hear some notes.
I know you've been on the road. Sure. So some highlights would be awesome. Yeah, no problem.
Right now we're at we've had two new projects for the month of May. We're totaling 40. We
have a total of 49 for this fiscal year. Keep in mind that as part of a city chamber contract,
we have to be at 42. We're at 49 right now with four months still left to go. So we're
already beating that target and we'll be way ahead. Additionally, we've had eight site
visits this year, which on the contract we have to have seven. Once again, four months
left to go. So we're beating that by one. We will certainly have two or three more,
I would expect. Most active projects that we're working right now, one of them is called
Project Global. It's a company out of New York, Amsterdam, New York, that is looking
to relocate their whole project to Denton, Texas in the Westgate Business Park building.
Right now they have about 65 current employees. They're looking to lease about 20,000 square
feet out there and relocate some of those employees but then hire new additional employees
here. A company called Project Element, which is a manufacturer of specialty ceramic coatings
for the aerospace and automotive industries. They're looking for 50,000 square feet and
will create 40 new jobs. Project Terrazzo is one that originally Christina and the city
started working with them. It's kind of a, it's a joint effort now. We're all working
on this project. The consultants came in town the week before last to kind of talk about
potential incentives. This is a manufacturing project. It's a great company. The average
salaries without benefits will be $51,222. With benefits will be roughly $58,000. And
we're looking at about 90 new people, capital investment of about $26.2 million. They've
already been to Denton. The company's been to Denton. The CEO's been here. The consultants
have been here. So they actually sent over the preliminary application this morning.
So the city will start working on that process and hopefully we'll get them to Denton. They
are looking at a few other locations in DFW. We're doing our best. We'll get them here.
Project Bell is another manufacturing operation. They have been in town. All the company executives
have been here, including the CEO and their attorneys out of California. This will be
a relocation out of California. I showed them five different sites over in the industrial
park. They've narrowed that down to two. As of three weeks ago, we've made it to the final
steps where they have now asked for some estimates on construction costs. We've put them in touch
with Lynx Construction here in Denton. They're working over those cost estimates and a timeline
which is going to be very important as well. Adam, I'm sorry to interrupt. Sure. Did you
say project name Bell? I called this one Project Bell. Okay. I just didn't see it on the sheet
so I wondered. Oh, okay. I didn't miss here. It was really the fairs or the blue edge.
The five that I'm bringing up there, I call them my most active projects, but they're
not necessarily the new products in the format that you have in your backup. These are the
more active that are really looking here and have already been here and we're working through
the process with. It's fantastic. Even more. Sure. Thank you. The last one I call this
Project Pickle. They make little Vienna sausages that you probably all ate in college and things
like that. They come in a little can. I met them on a marketing trip with Team Texas in
Chicago. Their headquarters is in Chicago. They're looking to do a small cold storage
plant here in Denton. It'll be more on the pickle side of things, which is why I call
it Project Pickles. They do Vienna beef and pickles. They're importing their pickles from
Mexico. Thank goodness the Trump tariff didn't take effect because that would have killed
their whole operation. We are working on that. It'd be about 30,000 square foot cold storage
plant and 50 new jobs. We all know what happens when cold storage plants look here. We don't
typically lose. If they get serious, we'll probably get it. New EDP investors. Once again,
it might not be in the backup, but we've had five total new investors for the year, increasing
our private revenues by $7,000. The newest ones, as of the last 45 days, are Pacific
Western Bank. They just have one guy here in DFW. The banks are all in California. They
just have a guy here on the ground doing business development. They wanted to join just to see
activity reports and things like that. The embassy suites by Health and Convention Center
came in at the $1,000 level, and then Surf Pro, which is a company that was already in
force. They opened up an expansion here in Denton, and they joined at our biggest level,
the chairman's level at $5,000. It's a great new company. They also joined the chamber.
They've been great at being a good citizen. Marketing activities. It attended the Industrial
Asset Management Council's spring professional forum. Once again, IAMC is the one where two
years ago we recruited Penske trucks from this one, so it's always a good one to go
to. Key contacts from this one were NFI, which they have a fourth location. We worked a project
with them a couple years ago that we ended up not getting here in Denton because we couldn't
have a 700,000-square-foot building built within six months, which they hadn't had that
time frame, so they expanded within Alliance. But I'm still keeping constant interaction
with them to hopefully work something in the future. Addison Young, Lennox International,
Prologis. Prologis builds a lot of big industrial buildings. Ben's Wanger, which the head site
selection consultant for Ben's Wanger is out of Dallas. Holmes Davis, who did bring us
the Tyson Foods project that we located two months ago. I've known him for seven years.
I just stay on his radar all the time, taking the lunch in Dallas every time I get a chance,
and constant interaction with him. And then McGowan Real Estate Advisors. They worked
with Winkle Foods of expansion operations from the past. They didn't do the one here
in Denton, but they've done others such as Idaho and Phoenix. So constant interaction
with all those site selection consultants. And recently attended the area development
consultants forum last week where there were 17 site selection consultants in attendance.
I met with about three-quarters of those personally on one-on-one interaction. We did get a new
project from one of them as well that we're working immediately. It's a standard DC operation
for Lowe's, about 125,000 square foot project. But we are helping him with the site selection
work right now here in Denton and have found two locations for him. So I'll keep you all
apprised of how that works out. The next upcoming marketing activities and opportunities, International
Economic Development Future Forum, International Economic Development Council. That was earlier
this week from June 9 through 12, a professional development forum. And I'm leaving tonight
for the Texas ED Council's media conference, which is our state, our state group. And I'm
on the board for the team Texas marketing group. So they asked that I attend all those
GDC events. That's any questions? That's all I had for that report. That's all going
on. Yes. For those of you who may not have seen the press release at the end of May,
our own Adam Gavrowski was named by his peers as one of the top 20 economic, top 50 economic
development professionals in North America. So I just wanted to honor you, Adam, and thank
you for that and recognize you. Thank you. I was excited to see my name on that list.
They just started doing that last year. And they put 50, you know, they recognize 50 people
across North America. And that's, you know, you can figure there's 6000 economic development
directors and VP. So to get recognized as one of the top 50 is great. And that's just
from the site selectors voted me in on that and then my peers as well. So it's best practices
and marketing activities and just how they view you out in the public and working projects
and things that you're doing for your community. So great job. That's also comes from ADP being
very helpful and responsive. And so it's a more of a group award, I should say. Thank
you. Thanks for bringing that up. All right. Our next item, you may have any questions.
Thank you. Just to hear what's going on ahead of time. Next item is ADP 19 dash 029. We're
going to receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding our economic
development downtown didn't task force. And just we brought this up in the past just kind
of that's a subcommittee slash task force of this body. And I'm just going to give everybody
an update on where we're at with that and maybe send direction on how to move forward.
If anybody has any questions, Hank Dickinson with the University of North Texas athletics
is here to answer questions. He's on he's been on that task force for 15 years, probably
close to that. So he's here to answer some questions if anybody has any directly. Thank
you, Jessica Rogers, director of economic development. And there are lots of people
in the room who have more experience with the task force than myself. So if you see
me kind of point to someone or if I need to call on Julie, I certainly will. But I appreciate
all of the knowledge that everyone has. So I'm going to give just a very brief overview
over the roles of the ADP and the downtown task force. There's a little bit more of a
robust timeline in your backup. This is just going to be a super high level. So the ADP
was actually formed in 2003 under the direction to provide guidance to the city council and
the Denton Chamber of Commerce on matters related to economic development in the city
of Denton. The original duties were established in 2003. They've remained fairly constant.
There's been some minor changes. There's been about five or six ordinance changes over the
years. But the current duties and membership were set in 2017. Those included that you
have the ability to create task forces or subcommittees within your own membership to
assist with the implementation of projects or activities that you deem sort of related
to the economic development mission that you have. You're responsible for economic development
incentive policies and recommending those policies to the city council for final adoption.
You are the recommending body for city council for any incentives that are authorized under
the law and under the city's policies. And you can review, consider, and make recommendations
to the council relating to marketing and branding for the Denton Enterprise Airport, airport
incentives, airport incentive policies, and specific airport incentives. So this is much
bigger up here. So on the screen, it's very small. Your board is actually made up of a
really diverse array of representatives from the community, both Chamber of Commerce, the
Denton Black Chamber, the Denton Hispanic Chamber having representatives, the city council
having representatives, the Chamber of Commerce having representatives, aviation, of course,
being related as it ties back to your charges. And then there's a couple ex officio members.
Those are non-voting members of the board. That membership was established in that 2017
ordinance. And again, it's also been amended over time, but it's certainly a good mix of
economic development related stakeholders in the community. Switching gears a little
bit, the downtown task force was also formed in 2003 at the request of the initially formed
economic development partnership board. And the goal was to assist with downtown related
activities that were established in the 2002 strategic plan. At the time, it was very specific
to those identified responsibilities in that strategic plan. However, over time, its duties
changed. In 2007, the downtown grants, reinvestment grant was created and the task force was assigned
that responsibility. Over the years, task force became the recommending body to EDPB
on those downtown reinvestment grants with final consideration going to city council.
In 2008, that responsibility was changed a little bit and now task force makes recommendations
to the TURS board related to those grants. So what does the task force look at in terms
of their general responsibilities? They're a recommending body on really a number of
things. And I kind of listed off for your view sort of items that they've considered
in the past, but really the key is that bottom bullet point and that they serve as a general
advisory board for any issues concerning downtown. So if a city department is working on a project,
they generally will go to the task force and say, we might need your feedback on this and
they might consider how the task force would, representing downtown stakeholders, how they
would react or their opinions and get feedback so that it can be incorporated into a project.
So this is sort of a general list of items that have been brought forward to the task
force since its creation. So the task force members, this is a list of the current members.
Right now, the task force does not have a chair. That's because the chair is typically
a member of the EDP. And right now there are no EDP members that are currently serving
on the task force. EDP could certainly nominate someone and that person would more than likely
then be chosen as a chair. If more than one member of the EDP wished to serve on the task
force, then the task force would designate the chair among those members. We don't have
this posted as an appointment today. We wanted to get your feedback generally. Our plan would
be if there were any types of appointments or changes that you wanted to make, that we
would bring that back in July. One of the questions that came up was what's the difference
between the task force and Main Street? Certainly there are some overlapping duties related to
those boards and there even I think are some overlapping memberships, but it's not significant.
That's correct. But know that the task force is actually authorized under a city ordinance.
Main Street Association is a separate nonprofit. It's a 501(c)(6) organization. The task force
itself doesn't have any dedicated funding other than the grant administration portion,
but that's actually administered through the city itself. The task force is really focused
on economic development and management of the downtown core as it relates to any type
of business related activities and again serving as a sounding board to city departments. That's
really where there's overlap. Many times city departments will want specific merchant feedback
for a project and then they might take that to Main Street and have them provide feedback
to that type of stakeholder. Main Street has a much more robust membership that's more
merchant and business based and not just inclusive of all stakeholders. Main Street is also funded
through membership sponsorships and fundraising activities and they have a separate 501(c)(3)
foundation that they use to fund certain events, that they use to fund things like the Arts
Walk of Fame. And as noted in their bylaws, their focus is on historic preservation, reinvestment
in downtown and on heritage tourism or cultural tourism. And that's pretty much the broad
overview of those organizations but happy to entertain any questions or just turn the
floor over for discussion to the board. So I guess the reason I asked to have this on
the agenda is one of the, I guess two things. It's a task force, so the subcommittee of
this group, we can, if we had a project going on, we can set up a task force or anything,
you know, airport related or whatever we wanted to do. So this one just happens to have been
in existence for a long time. Over the years, we have always had somebody from this board
as chair or co-chair of the downtown task force so that when Adams came back up to discuss
to this board, we had somebody here that was involved in it. So not unlike any other organization
you might be involved in, if you had it set up beside a committee, you'd want somebody
involved in that, being on that committee. So currently we don't have a chair, so we
need to figure that out. Nothing is written in stone that says we have to have somebody
that's on this board as a chair of that task force either, which has always kind of been
a good idea. It started out with no funding mechanism. They weren't doing grants. It was
a feedback to this board. We recognize downtown as one of our biggest economic development
engines in the city. When the grant program came about, then we started making decisions
on those grants and forwarding those on to the city manager of this board or city council.
That has been taken away from us and the downtown task force. That mechanism is going to be,
I guess, approved through our TIF funds and TIF board, downtown TIF board. So many of
the reasons that those folks are getting together were to administer and make recommendations
for those grants. That's going away. So I wanted to bring this up for us to talk about
is downtown still important enough from an economic development viewpoint? We're not
talking historical or anything like that. Economic development, this is an economic
development board. Do we need to maintain a subcommittee or task force to hear, use
as a sounding board to help us stay in touch what's going on there, even though that funding
mechanism is not there, they could still do that through the TIF. Is there a better place
for these folks? In my personal opinion, we need to keep this board and this group of
people in place because there are a wide variety of folks that have some really good input
and opinions to help us shape what's going on in the downtown area. So do we need do
we want to keep this group involved as a task force? Do we want to recommend they go report
to the TIF as a task force? Keep them with us some other idea? Do we need to have a chair
from this board on there if we keep it here or not? Or how would you guys like to proceed?
Mr. Baines? John Baines, my question, Mr. Chairman, is this how what is the the boundaries
of the what we consider downtown? Is it is it the four streets or is it beyond that?
Now there's a downtown implement implementation plan that defines those boundaries. I couldn't
draw that line for you. For the common person, give me discount. It's more than a square.
So it goes over to Bell and maybe across to the train station, stops at Eagle, Carroll
and North. I can't remember how far it goes. It's actually right now when we amended the
grant it is now the TERS boundaries because only only TERS money can be spent within those
boundaries. So it is pretty much, you know, we don't include this property in the post
office because it's tax free, but it does go down to exposition on this end, to Carroll
on that end. I want to say Mulberry. It's kind of a long skinny thing. Mulberry and
then Parkway on this top. Also the way the ordinance is written right now, the latest
updates we did to it, the grants still start at the task force. So they are they are the
ones who review the grants first. So it goes task force. At this point, we still have some
money in the general fund, a little bit of money, like about $28,000. Once that general
fund money has been expended, then the task force money will take over at that point.
So right now we're doing first review by the task force, second review by you, third review
is by council that will change that middle part would change to the TIF board after the
general fund money is gone. So the boundaries are the same as the TIF boundaries with the
change there. I wasn't aware of that. It makes sense for a visual actually in the cultural
district application section of your packet. That is almost identical to the TURS boundary
on page 150. Just as a reference point, there's a it goes the cultural district is a little
bit further south of me for an extra street. Just as a visual, that's the general area.
So the group for our purposes, just economic development focused, their grant funding that
we're continuing downtown is through the TURS. So they will still need to meet and make recommendations
for grants for downtown businesses within the TURS. They're making those recommendations
after we run out of our funds to the TURS going forward. So they'll still do that. Do
we need to have them do that with the TURS and still come be a task force with this group?
I would like to keep them in place. And I think that a member from this board, especially
since it's not going to come to us anymore, I think it would be beneficial to have a member
from this board on that board so that we're aware of what's going on and we can continue
to just just keep up to date. That would be my recommendation. So something's not coming
to us anymore? Is that what the grant requests are that the funding is coming from the TURS
that has its own separate board and they will be making those recommendations there? Back
to us? No, to the TURS. We won't be involved in helping make recommendations on any funding
of money anymore. For me, the information is still pretty vital for this board and to
have someone come back here and have an update or share any important topics or discussion
that happened there, I think would be important. Well, that's what that's the point I was getting
to is making sure that something came back so that there would be information shared
and I think that's important as well. I want to make sure I'm on the same page, but there's
a lot of changes going on. I want to make sure that we all understand what the downtown
task force is, why it's here and that we're on the same page going forward. So I'm opening
it up to the group to help make all those decisions. So we won't see grant requests
anymore, it'll go to the TURS, but I think it is helpful to keep these folks in place
and thriving and as they've got some really sharp people involved in that. I'm asking
you guys at your pleasure, do you want that information coming back to this group? It
sounds like it's a yes. Mr. Chair, Tony Clark, I would be interesting to hear Joe Gesture's
thoughts as the former chairman of that and kind of your opinion on where we are and where
you think we need to go with that as well. Well, so I have not been present at those
meetings for the past few meetings, but served in that capacity for over a year. It is an
impressive group of people from a wide variety of backgrounds and interests, whether it's
someone that works downtown, owns residential property downtown, owns commercial property
downtown or a business. There are a lot of changes, so I think it is wise to clarify
what our expectations of the downtown task forces and how it flows through us. If we,
I think a good idea would be to maybe every other meeting have someone from the downtown
task force come and talk to us about what is happening. And I think that that's part
of our roles on this board is not only the recommendations and decisions that we make
on this board, but also out in our community being someone that people come to to talk
to about what's happening, concerns that they have, ideas they have as a sounding board.
So I think in that capacity, you can see the value of this task force. I mean, yes, you
can see that the makeup right here of who it is. I would just want to utilize them as
much as possible to help us do our job so that maybe there is some kind of reporting
component to it. Since we are out of the funding and grant requests pipeline, which I kind
of have mixed feelings about, I would say yes, so long as it's like Mr. Baines mentioned
there's some kind of flow through with this group so that we are benefiting from this
group of people that give up their time to come and meet and discuss how to improve downtown
and availability of services, et cetera. And then we might even discuss, is there another
type of task force that would be useful to this board in making decisions and working
with city council to inform them of issues that affect economic development? I don't
know if that was too long or too short, I'm not sure.
>> Do they have a set meeting date or they just meet as needed?
>> No, they meet monthly. >> Okay.
>> And I believe, hey, you're here as the representative today. Would you like to perhaps
give a year or two since as far as not only the past but where you see the direction headed
in the future for this task force and how they can be used most effectively?
>> Sure. >> Thank you.
>> I'm just happy to be listed among a group that you think is smart. It is a good group
because of the makeup and I think what you get from this group that you wouldn't necessarily
get from Main Street is people like myself or Beth from the universities that really
value our downtown as, I call it an asset in recruiting students to our town. I don't
know that 10 or 15 years ago it was as strong and our task force I think has tried to guide
some decisions on how our downtown looks and feels, safety, lighting, certainly the eclectic
makeup of the businesses that we get. And right now between UNT and TWU we're talking
over 50,000 students in this town. So moms and dads come and making trips and really
experiencing downtown Denton and leaving the money behind which is the economic development
aspect. So I feel strongly that this group really represents a good clearinghouse for
you to talk about things that are important downtown. And to John's question, we sometimes
get that, you know, are you just worried about Oak and Hickory and the four streets down
there? A lot of what we have done initially really impacted the square in particular,
but we've spilled all over and downtown is a much bigger district now than it was. When
you talk about spreading all the way to exposition, think of how much more growth we can have
downtown on the other side of the tracks where people are coming every day via the train.
So there's a lot of good decisions still to be made that are not right there on courthouse.
One of the corollaries related to what I was speaking about with the boundaries is if those
boundaries were set in a previous time period, it may need to be expanded, you know. So just
to, I don't think there's any question about that. This is the time and place. But to me,
if that boundary was set years ago, then it may be time to update it.
Sure. And as it relates to the TURS boundaries, so that would only be limited to the grant
funding. The grants would have to be used. But if there were some expansion of downtown
or this board wanted to say, we want to be more inclusive of what we define as downtown
for the responsibilities of the task force, that's something that this board could do.
Other than reviewing and giving input and scoring the grant proposals and the funding,
what else do you see as the role of the downtown task force, as a task force of the EDP board?
I mean, just to kind of help us talk about where we are today and moving forward.
I don't know that I can speak for the entire body, but I know this has come up enough.
You know, part of the beauty of downtown is the challenge of how do you get downtown and
what does our city look like on your way to downtown. So there's different portals coming
in. I think most of us really feel like, you know, Fort Worth Drive could stand some real
concentration on how it looks and how you have your gateway off the highway. I think
that's important as citizens and I think it's really important if you're, again, representing
the university and in my case, the athletic department, you just want your best foot forward
all the time. We've got a lot to celebrate in this town, but many towns within driving
distance look a lot different coming off I-35 than we do. And so, you know, that's something
we've talked about. Maybe that becomes a little bit more of a task force focus for some group.
And that's just one idea.
>> I apologize for being late. Marty, who is the -- who's going to be the vacant E?
>> That's what happens when you're late.
>> Yeah.
[ Laughter ]
>> I nominate Steve Eggers.
>> I'd like to congratulate Steve.
>> I'd like to nominate --
[ Laughter ]
>> Well, the question is, we just have -- we haven't had any formal rules of the task force.
It's really just been a subcommittee of this group and we've always had somebody represent
us at that level. I did it for 15 years and resigned from that a couple years ago. Just
like somebody else needs to have fun doing that. It's a great group. It's really not
that much time. I mean, probably meet nine months out of the year, really.
>> Right. Take some time off in the summer and Julie pretty much gives us heads up. If
we don't have a lot to talk about, then that's one thing. If we have a lot, then we definitely
meet, but it's consistent.
>> Well, we can. We don't have to. We can still get the information back up here through
Julie. I'm throwing out ideas and I co-chaired it. That was off of this board for two years
and Greg Johnson was on the board and he chaired it and I co-chaired it with him because they
wanted me to stay involved in the task force. So that's kind of the effort discussion, too.
Everybody is passionate about downtown on this board and wants to continue to represent
us as a group. That would be great. We've got some veterans on the task force to work
with.
>> So you need a motion?
>> I don't know. We can't do that today. We're just --
>> No, in terms of nominating someone to serve --
>> Not nominating someone.
>> Just general direction.
>> General direction. Okay.
>> Erica.
>> So you said it's a task force, but it does meet regularly. I'm a big fan of the use of
task force, so my question, I guess, is, is this something that you need to have -- you
feel like you need to have in place all the time? That's one of my questions. Or is this
something that you can recruit periodically, six weeks, 12 weeks, to tackle a specific
issue, like gateway corridors or a lighting issue or a safety issue, where you, you know,
you bring them in for a specific amount of time and say, let's tackle this task and give
recommendations, rather than saying, you know, hey, just keep your pulse on things and let's
meet regularly anyway. And also, another part of that that I was wondering is how does the
TURS board relate to this task force? Is that something that they ask for the input from
this task force too?
>> The TURS board would only take recommendations from the task force as it relates to the downtown
grant administration.
>> And have they been receptive of the recommendations in the past?
>> It currently doesn't report to them because it's still funded through general fund. So
when that --
>> We're in a transition.
>> Right.
>> Okay.
>> We haven't made the full transition yet.
>> I mean, this group would be a good sounding board for the TURS board also. So actually
there's a couple of people on this task force that are on the TURS board. Melissa and Alex.
Bob used to be.
>> Anybody have any more questions for Hank? Thank you.
>> Thank you for serving.
>> Well, the goal of the task force members is to have a variety of folks. And you'll
notice loosely we have -- want to make sure there's somebody from the county, somebody
from UNT, TWU, the greater Denton heart center, and then whoever is the president of the main
treat association that is an ex-official member divided to ten. So that changes. That could
change every year. Just want to have those people involved. And then people who are interested,
Peggy's our resident, historical person to keep everybody on track there too. So business
owners, developers, bankers, property owners, all in the downtown area.
>> As far as speaking to your question, Erica, I would say that it doesn't meet if there's
no need to meet. And I apologize if I misrepresented. There are set meeting dates monthly. However,
if there's nothing to be proposed and there's no topic, it is up to -- it's a conversation
between Julie and the current chair and usually vice chair as to whether or not it is worth
having that meeting. So it is a little more task force-y than a committee in that respect.
So there are set times so people can calendar for the year. However, it is as needed.
>> And I highlight that as --
>> Correct.
>> It's really a committee.
>> I'm coming from the point of view of someone who loves a task and also as someone who sees
a empty space where a Chamber of Commerce would be represented.
>> You've got a lot of members on there.
>> Right.
>> Yeah.
>> No, and that's a great group. If there's an opportunity to put a voice at the table,
of course we want to do that.
>> I haven't been to the meeting in a while, but CVV usually shows up to that because they're
interested in -- any -- so if I'm hearing correctly, the direction is we want to continue
to use this group as a subcommittee of the Economic Development Partnership Board, and
we would prefer to have somebody on this board chair that and/or co-chair that with somebody
to be involved at those meetings so they can come back. I'm going to throw out some -- maybe
it would be a good idea for us to kind of outline formally what the make-up is and how
-- we're supposed to be, as a group, approving that every year, the task force members on
a recommendation. Maybe we could formalize what that is so that we -- if we're missing
anybody, maybe -- probably need to have somebody from NCTC on there now.
>> How do the members get chosen? Are they nominated or do they just kind of -- and how
often does it turn over? Are these things that we need to kind of formalize and make
sure --
>> That's what I'm saying. We need to formalize it. It's been -- it is in the minute somewhere
because I'm the one who did it years ago that we're supposed to be formally approving this
member at this level, these members, annually. And so we -- and it's been pretty much the
same people for the last four or five years. So yes, ma'am.
>> I would just tell you that right now we are short a couple of people. Of course, the
chair position. But Don Lee from First United Methodist, the pastor from that church, has
been on this for a long time. And they've just -- as they've changed pastor, that person
has inherited that group. He recently resigned. And we lost Kate Linus at the county when
the -- you know, the judge retired and so she no longer works for the county. So we
do have a couple of positions that -- but you can -- you can appoint whoever you would
like to and we can get that on a future agenda.
>> I think it would be -- any appointments ought to come as recommendations from that
group. But it would be nice for us to set aside, maybe not mandatory, but target, UNT,
TWA, arts, NCTC, the Methodist Church, because this downtown has been involved like that.
So is that -- any other discussion or recommendations?
So our next meeting, maybe we can come back with some recommendations on how to do that
and put on the agenda to add a chair.
>> Yeah, we'll break back another discussion on formalizing the membership and then also
put an item to nominate a chair.
>> Great. Anybody else have any comments or questions? All right. Our next exciting item
is EDP 19-028, receive a report, hold discussion, and give staff direction regarding the fiscal
year-end '19 and '20 budgets for the city's economic development department and the Chamber's
Office of Economic Development.
>> Good morning again.
>> So I'm going to start it off by doing the city's economic development, the departmental
budget, and then I believe Adam is going to do the Chamber's portion, so we're going to
tag team a little bit today. So -- and I will say that as I go through this, we've presented
ours internally. We have not taken it to city council just yet. We're scheduled for late
July, early August, so certainly all of the numbers that you're seeing are really preliminary
but we welcome any feedback that you have. If there's something that we can change or
incorporate into our budget, we'll certainly do so.
So we'll start off by reviewing our FY 18-19 accomplishments. This, of course, is just year
to date, but in terms of our department, one of our big accomplishments was achieving the
renewal of the Stoke contract, and that now goes through 2021. We've also updated the
tax abatement policy for consideration of historically significant properties. We completed
the Tyson Foods Incentive Agreement, and that will generate a net revenue of about $5 million
over 10 years to the city. We've completed and repaired -- completed the repair and reinstallation
of the Pops Carter statue. If you haven't been to GDAC, it's a lovely statue. Please
visit it. And then, of course, we are significantly completed with the cultural district application.
I'll do a very brief presentation on that later. That was a huge undertaking, and we're
really excited about that and how that will be used as an economic development tool. I'm
also really excited because I get to mail those applications today, so I'm very excited.
In terms of our goals for 19-20, I will say that these are not comprehensive department
goals, and we're certainly still working to establish these, but just to give you a high
level overview of what we're working towards. The first one, and I would say is probably
the biggest, is that we need to update our economic development strategic plan. Later
in the presentation, I'll talk about the supplemental request that we've made for that. Our goal
here is that we want to make sure that we align our work plans with the strategic needs
of the city. That's very important to make sure that we understand what our mission is
and what we're working towards. In partnership with the Chamber as well, and we'll talk about
that again a little bit later in the presentation. A big thing that's important to me, and I
know it's important to Erica because we've talked about it with both of us being new
to our positions, is really how can we further leverage the partnerships between the Chamber
and the city? How do we work together more effectively to achieve greater prosperity
for everyone in the city? I promise I didn't have this planted, but working on corridor
improvements, Hank's not here to see that in my presentation, but what can we do to
improve the gateways and the corridors in the city? We actually have a meeting on that
this afternoon, so I'm excited to see what progress we've been making. Then continuing
our engagement and working towards promoting the growing creative sector, and that relates
back to the cultural district, but certainly also in relation to the universities and then
implementing year one of the cultural district. When we look at how we design our budget and
how we allocate resources, we focus in these six key areas. Business development, entrepreneurship,
workforce development, community engagement, project administration and creative sector.
There's certainly not six probably co-equal branches of our budget emphasis, but they
are the six primary areas in which our department works in. I will say, being relatively new
to this position, my job, as it relates also back to the strategic plan is identifying,
are those the six areas that we need to continue to work in or are there some additional areas
that we need to consider moving forward? One big thing here at the city is making sure
that we're good stewards of the taxpayer dollars and what are we doing to ensure that there
are cost containment measures or process improvements that are going on. Things that we're doing
in our department is we're holding monthly meetings with other departments, capital projects,
engineering, legal, development services, finance. We're making sure that those silos
are broken down. We want to make sure that any business that's operating in the city
has a very seamless and pleasant experience with the city and they're not getting one
answer from one department and then getting another answer from another department. We
want to make sure that we're all communicating and that we're all working towards a common
goal. We're cross-training staff to make sure that everyone is up to speed and can
fill in. That makes us more versatile. It makes us better at our jobs and we can fully
comprehend and understand the full nature of our project. We're certainly partnering
with our human resources department. Again, this goes back to that strategic plan and
our goals. Do our job descriptions, do our work plans, do our core competencies align
with the goals of our department of the city and achieving economic development prosperity
in the city. What are our completed improvements for this year? One thing that you see regularly
is our customized reporting that we use for our monthly reports that we're tracking metrics
that we're evaluating those. I'm asking questions. Where are we at on things? Are we going to
achieve our goals? Then another big key that we have going on is documenting processes
and procedures, making sure that someone could come in and take over and carry out a project.
We get pulled in many different directions so we certainly want to make sure that we
fully leverage our staff and can do each other's job. Then again, back to the job description
and work plans, making sure that those meet our strategic goals. In terms of our revenues
and expenditures, this is sort of a high level overview. I will say this is slightly different
from what you have in your budget or what you have in your backup because we are constantly
evaluating our incentives as we get the most up to date information. We're actually going
to be about 700,000 less overall. The key drivers here are the conclusion of the slumberjay
incentive, the termination of the Sally incentive, completion of the one-time O'Reilly incentive,
and then in general, a reduction in sales tax that's being remitted by incentivized
retail centers. That certainly impacts us both on the revenue and expenditure side.
I won't spend too much time on this slide. This is just our high level overview. This
actually includes both of the two operating divisions under the economic development budget.
Includes both our general staff operations but also STOKE. I have those broken out. Makes
it a little bit easier going forward. So quickly, STOKE. The real increase that you see there
is the increase in rent and a little bit of operational costs. Otherwise, it remains very
flat. Our contract with the property owner has an escalating rent clause. So that's that
adjustment that you see there. Yes. Chair? Yes. And can you tell me again when that expires?
2021. Okay. Thank you. So this is our actual department operating budget. As you can see,
we're relatively flat other than that 700,000 that was in relation to the incentives. And
I apologize, Jill, this is very hard to see. I was going to say the tables get a little
difficult when we put them on there. It's a lot of numbers in a table. But I tried to
break out in terms for you guys to see the real difference in our budget is driven right
here by the chapter 380 agreements. Otherwise, we're staying very constant in our expenditures.
So basically the same in most lines, personnel services, that's changed based on items that
we can't control. Yes, ma'am? May I ask a question? Sorry. Jill Jester. So the number
going down here on the operations on the 380 agreements, is that because of the numbers
of those agreements going down, therefore there's not as much operational funding needed
to monitor those? Is that the reason for this? So we actually budget the expenditure related
to the incentive out of our budget. So the check that we write to whatever incentivized
company is accounted for here. So if a retail center is generating less sales tax, their
payment is going to be less. So in terms of the general city revenue, the revenue number
is going to be lower, but our expenditure number is also going to be lower. And that's
you're only seeing one side of that equation in our budget, if that makes sense. Thank
you. Sure. Everybody on everybody. Understand that had to be explained to me. Well, if you're
just in case, I want to make sure I understand myself. If didn't town crossing is bringing
in a million dollars in sales revenue in 2017 and we're getting half of that through an
incentive that we gave them, we get 500, they get $500,000 in 2018. If sales go up or down,
our number goes up and down because it's so there's say their sales went down to $800,000
that year sales tax, they get 400 and we get 400. We're splitting whatever they get on
their sales tax every year. So that number goes up and down. We're expensing our portion
that we're rebating back to them in this budget. That's the, that's the $3.6 million there.
So that's a moving target. Yes. From all the people that we're giving incentive to throughout
the city going, going up or down. So we're only giving them, if we are saying we're giving
them half of their buckies is getting half of their money back or sales tax. We're, whatever
they collect, we're giving half back. It's, we don't have any choice in any of that. And
so is this determined by a projection of sales tax for going down this? Well, I wanted to
talk specifically about several large line item changes. Yeah. Right. I mean, it's a
combination of every, it's a forecast based on what we think is going to happen with all
of these, I guess. And I'm going to guess we're forecasting conservatively based on
history. But if you'll like, if you'll look at page 58, and they're back up, repeat that
page number please. 58. Thank you. That has the detail line items like a 78 51 through
78 53 are main chapter three 80 agreements. You can see the years past. The peach color
is what we're estimating through the end of 2019. And the green is what we're projecting.
So summer up summer down. Marty, if you'll, if you'll permit me. So Tony point the chief
financial officer. So there's a couple of things that certainly that's going on into
that particular line item. Both we have sales tax rebate agreements and we also have property
tax rebate agreements that are built into that. Part of the part of the explanation
is that there was some one time expenses that were associated with the O'Reilly hospitality
management that we won't see again in the following year. So that's being dropped off
and the budget's been adjusted for that. And so we do have that phenomenon. We have some
agreements that are actually going away based on different circumstances. And the other
thing too is for the current year, we did relook at what those projections were and
we've made some adjustments. And so you should be seeing a, a decrease in the estimate for
18 19 over what's budgeted. And then we took a, you know, a much closer look at what those
estimates and projections were for, for 19 20 and try to, to realign them to something
that's a little bit more, more in line with what we've seen historically. So there's
a lot of different moving pieces to that. That information is as Marty's mentioned detailed
out for you, we do have another more comprehensive sheet that we can, we can send out to you.
We'll be happy to send that out to your group. I don't think that was included in your backup
that gives you each particular incentive and kind of ties back out to those numbers as
well. Maybe, maybe it's a little bit easier to digest. So we can get that out to you.
Thank you Tony. In a, in a nutshell, all these questions are gonna, I'm going to get back
to my real reason why I'm asking all this, but so like razor ranch marketplace is projected
to decrease roughly $700,000. So if you look at actually the columns kind of to the left
and you see kind of what Tony was talking about, the actuals. So we took them, took
a much closer look in our forecast at what has actually been collected and we're adjusting
that number to be more aligned with those actuals than what we had budgeted. So we're
trying to get better at being closer to what it is in terms of what is the actual expenditure
we expect.
So I guess my, so my, the 18-19 estimate is a million nine. Is that really what we think
is gonna happen?
At this point, I'm going to look at, sorry, I'm going to look at Erica and see if we've
updated the estimates for 2019 for this fiscal year.
The number that we have estimated for this fiscal year.
Razor Ranch Marketplace budget is the same as estimate. So are we, is that estimate updated
based on what they're doing this year?
I don't believe so at this point.
Currently what we have is that we think that they're going to be at budget, we've not adjusted
that number down.
Okay.
Yeah. Billy's getting mad at us for, you know, talking into the microphone.
Sorry, I made a rookie mistake. So yeah, so currently that particular number has not been
adjusted down or up. It's, so we're assuming that it's going to be at budget based on what
we know today. So, but again, we're
budgeting based on the previous years. Yeah, correct. So, okay.
Mr. Chair, can I ask, if you're looking at Razor Ranch, there's a marketplace and then
there's a town center. The town center doesn't have any estimate for budget, but there is
a favorable estimate. Is that the offset?
Well, that's, that's the southern part with the new, that's all the new stuff that's going
on.
Yes.
Yes, that, that development is split into different segments.
Even though it's been being developed, they have to reach certain goals where they start
getting money back.
Yeah.
So it's just starting.
Okay. If, so Slumber J is going away, we don't have to, so we're getting 100% of that money
into the general fund because what we don't see here is the revenue. The revenue, whatever
our expenses, the revenue is going to match and I'm going to jump ahead just real quick.
We do have, so this is the other side of the equation. So if you go forward to a couple
slides, this is the complete year numbers. But we do on the revenue side for the city's
general fund account for the, what we call the positive, you know, revenue into the city.
So budget, the expenditures out of the economic development budget, but all of the revenue
coming into the city's general fund from those developments is being accounted for in the
revenue, general revenue side. So we do calculate our net revenue. So while you see it as an
expense in our department budget, it's about a three to one net positive to the city in
terms of revenue.
That's the return on this one.
Yeah.
Yes. Thank you. So I'm going to use Denton Crossing as an example of that. It's going
away this year.
Yes.
2020, 2021, it's partially, it's like August of, um, 1920. So a partial year. It'll be
a partial year in, um, 1920. I believe it's August. And you'll see that in the five year
forecast. I do have a five year forecast every year. We haven't distributed it to this group.
We will have to redact a couple things of single taxpayers, the Buckees in O'Reilly,
but I can certainly send this out to everybody. And it's, again, it is constantly changing
up until we finalize the budget.
So for some reason I thought Denton Crossing was going away this year.
But to the chair's point, Jason Donaldson, it drops to 398 is all you're getting in Texas
and when you're realizing 1.6 million, almost 1.7. So to your point, all of these are Tom.
You'll see it in the end notes. I'm reviewing it to make sure Denton Crossing's 180 payments
and with the eight 20 report, which will be paid in nine 20.
Where I'm going with this is as these agreements go away, and we're splitting the money between
575 half and half or whatever. There has been some talk on establishing economic development
fund that we would be able to have money set aside for when big projects came in that we
could help immediately. And I don't see anything in our budget. Maybe it wouldn't be in this
budget or not, but I would like us to find a way that's easier for me to say that always
gets down to money but money set aside for an economic development fund to be able to
help with projects as it come up.
So, so a couple of things to that. So, so we do have an economic development fund that's
already established. We're taking $150,000 of mixed beverage taxes annually we're putting
over into an economic development fund. To date, that fund has about a million dollars
I think and we haven't been utilized yet so it's there. What you're what you're talking
about is something that that the city has discussed in the past I know the mayor had
been a proponent of that at one point. I will tell you that currently that's not something
that's that's on the radar it's certainly not something that we've been working towards.
And so you're exactly right as these economic development agreements drop off. Those expenses
are basically just going back into the general fund if you will, to pay for other things.
And so they're not being captured into a separate fund. Again, but if that's something
that this committee would like for us to consider we can certainly take that back. It just hasn't
been something that that the council has given us general consensus on to include in the
budget.
And I knew we had the fund but I didn't see since we're using the the beverage taxes didn't
come through this budget. So that's I guess that's what I was getting through. I don't
there's nothing in here. If we're sitting inside money for economic development, you
would think you would come through this budget. And I don't care how we do it. It seems like
it matches up better if it's if you could tie we're setting aside money from a previous
ever warm tax abatement or 380 agreement. When that goes away, some of that maybe goes
starts going into that fund and we're not missing it. Easy for me to say because you
guys have a lot more things to worry about.
And we didn't and we didn't bring that particular budget, if you will, to this board. But we
can certainly start doing that going forward. If it's something that you're truly interested
in at this point, we've not had any project that we've identified other than you know,
we were talking about the Sally beauty project and it was an item that came through on that
that we were thinking about potentially utilizing that. But again, that that particular project
went away. And so so that's no harm for consideration. But that fund is currently there and there's
nothing program for it. We don't we're not making any recommendation this coming fiscal
year to utilize any of those funds. But again, at any point, if there is a project that there's
an interest to use that on a specific project, it's there and we just have to amend that
budget. So we would like to come to this board for a recommendation, go back to the council.
So piggybacking off of what my colleague here said, if we're getting some some monies, what
is the game plan for, you know, right now you've got mixed use. But if we're eventually
going to get 100%, can we not increase that amount? What is that? What does that number
come from? Well, I guess what I would like for us to see that and I'm talking in general
terms to the city is to formally say we would like I mean, we have an economic development
fund, I don't I don't know if we this board hasn't made a recommendation is there. So
how much are we trying to get? We've stopped at $5 million, $10 million, $1 million of
wheat is this board is this board said, we want to put money from whatever sources into
an economic development fund until it gets to x and the city council has said yes, we
agree with that. I think I think at this point, if the if the board wants to make a recommendation
that staff take to the council, something like what you described, we can certainly
take that back to the council as part of this upcoming budget process. Again, that'll probably
be in the form of a supplemental request that will then have to look at how that ranks with
all the other priorities that the city has has has identified. What I'm trying to what
I'm trying to establish is a formal policy from this board and the city that says we
would like to have an economic development fund with an amount of money that can be tied
to probably numerous things. But once we get there, that's all we're going to keep that
maybe $100,000 or $10 million, whatever city wants, or we all agree that thinks is enough
money. Second to that is how do we fund that so is it $150,000 a year out of general budget
or do we want to tie it to expiring contracts or however do that I just think a big discussion
on here's how we want to have this much money in a fund to help with the things like Sally
Beauty and how do we get there and have a formal plan that we can have a discussion
on pass it on to city council and that probably didn't happen this year. But you know, where
do we get there and then let them discuss that that's what I'm asking. Yeah, so, Gerard,
the board member, thanks. Again, because I buy it for Kate, the two makes me crazy. And
that's why I try not to say anything, but I can't take it. So I absolutely am trending
with you, but for the limit, right, the limit throws me off a bit what that number is, I
think if you have the account and have it grow until and then I think what's the trigger
for that right to what's the activation and I think at that point you I would lean on
Adam and the chamber to say hey, here's this opportunity. And here's what we're looking
to activate. And here's what it would take what do we have and kind of a meeting of the
mind. So I would see that fun growing exponentially until there's a trigger from and I'd say maybe
it's a three person thing. It's our four let's say it's city staff kind of economic development.
It's Adam, it's the chamber and some representative of the so maybe the mayor. And so those kind
of heads get together and say yes, this is worthy. Here's the number that goes to that
and then run it through the system. So that kind of hierarchy triggers it and then it
runs through the system to get get approvals is what I envisioned just based on on your
question and then I also see an influx of money coming that I'm going to push hard for
the other Gerard the City Council Gerard is going to look for is from DCTA. So you understand
I understand we're paying them $14 million a year $13 million a year and I expect some
of that to come back because one they're not using it they're sitting on it to we're going
to have new members coming in and they're going to have to then pay in so that pay in
can subsidize some other costs and so I I think that that fund you target I and I envision
trying to press to get some of that 13 $14 million a year past three or four years back
and and what a better that's a great place to put it so that we can continue to grow
our community. Yeah, I just think I'd like to have a line item for us to have these kind
of discussions and I know a agenda item for us knowing that we're just a recommending
board and you guys have to figure out how to pay for it and where all the money comes
from but I think it would be good and I just put a cap because if we say we're going to
do whatever and it keeps growing and growing and growing at some point somebody says hey
there's too much money in there why aren't we spending that on new fire stations or whatever
the deal is so I under I'm just trying to say I understand your limitations as council
members that we just can't keep growing growing growing money over like the tree funds you
know was come up as issues so it seems to me like we ought to have a formal plan to
establish a fund if we want to do that that recommendation would come from here with ideas
on how to fund it you know coming from from you guys yeah my question is since it's already
a fund and it already is existing with can we just transfer that or set up or have a
discussion on how that is accessible to us and what we can use it for can we can we just
work with what we have and keep building that fund but then have this board integrated into
it somehow what I would tell you is that so currently there is an ordinance the council
passed that that created that particular fund there there is no cap on it if you will so
so if you put a five million dollar cap on it then then it's going to be capped currently
it's an unlimited cap you know and so that was that would be the only thing so what we
could do is for your next meeting in July we could bring back to you just the status
and the history of that particular fund the other thing too that I'll mention is that
there are additional funds out there reserves in the water and wastewater fund for development
plan lines and there's a million dollars in water a million dollars in wastewater that
are also available we can bring you back that kind of information as well because that again
talking about that economic development toolbox those are tools that are there as well that
maybe hasn't always been very clear to folks and we can bring you back that kind of information
as well.
Tools I guess I'm asking us to more formalize you know if some say we spend a million dollars
on something how do we get that back in there and what's the mechanism to do that maybe
next year we don't have the funds to do it so with now we don't have it down the road
so just a more formal discussion of how that we want to have that and how we get there
and the comment that Mr. Hutzbit made is exactly right and so there could be in the future
money that come back to the city from the CTA through an ELAP program those ELAP funds
are very specific and will be used on street related improvements but there's monies that
the general fund is now it's an accounting and so there's monies now that are being
transferred to the streets from the general fund that could be supplanted with ELAP funds
and then therefore those general fund dollars could go to do exactly what you're talking
about.
I think this is what Mr. Hutzbit is kind of referring to so.
You guys have to figure out how to fund it I think we make a recommendation as we would
like to have it we would like to have X amount of money or set aside money and just more
of a formal recommendation.
But I see there's two parts I do think that yes I'd like to see it come back and just
kind of understand what we have part one.
Part two I think it is a trigger but I don't I think to avoid exactly what you touched
on as far as fire getting diverted to fire departments or the fund growing I think there
needs it's a great discussion to have what triggers that so if you have something that
triggers outside of the political process which is absolutely brutal then I think it
helps right because then it's it's not something an elected official can trigger by themselves
it's this body that triggers it so it kind of takes that pressure off that political
process and politicizing the account and saying hey these these kind of key department heads
trigger where that goes probably is this board right well either way we need to memorialize
that to your point so that there is a process so that does remove that pressure to put it
to a fire station that that that particular councilperson says I can't trigger it but
for this board taking action and so then that that brings interested parties to this board
to make their pitch and removes that from from the other arena.
I think it's a great point I just think there it needs to be crafted well.
Mr. Chairman, quick comment I've always felt like we as a as a city have been at somewhat
of a disadvantage because you know we haven't had the resources like a lot of our competition
and obviously we've talked about a economic development sales tax before that didn't happen
it's probably not going to happen but I definitely believe that we need something that along
the lines that you've talked about to have at our resource whether it's incentives whether
it's corridor improvements whatever that looks like from an economic development improvement
standpoint so I think that's a great suggestion however that may work out in the long term
but I think that would really give us more ammunition and more opportunities to to develop
our economic system.
Thinking community if we were able to get a history of where we're at now I guess my
when I say cap I'm always saying goal we want to have this much money in the fund at all
times and so if we get to that point and then they an opportunity comes and we spend some
money how do we get back to that point and the city is formally recognized that we want
to be at this point wherever that is we can discuss about so a little bit of a sidetrack
only just to get back to there's no there was no funding in our budget to fund that
but that's coming out of a different budget so we can certainly bring back to the board
the that particular fund that we can have those discussions with you exactly what you're
referencing exactly what we do with the development plan lines if they're utilized over a period
of time but it's a five-year period they have to be replenished and so that would be kind
of the same kind of policy that you that you may be referring to that we can look at yeah
I think that would be great any do you have anything else to talk about on the budget
that we haven't talked about the last item would just be that we did enter in a completed
supplemental request for a comprehensive five-year economic development strategic plan certainly
any type of funding mechanism and in any type of innovative incentive would be a part of
that discussion the number that you see there is a little bit scarier than the number we're
actually going to take forward I've been calling other communities trying to get a better handle
on with the scope that we're proposing about how much would it cost and I think it's actually
going to be closer to the 100 to 150 thousand dollar range so that's actually we're going
to make that adjustment prior to taking it to City Council but the scope certainly at
this point is only preliminary and it's something we would bring back to the board to better
define but it's taking a comprehensive look at what are we doing and what is our goal
everything from labor markets workforce development in incentives but certainly how does the economic
development partnership leverage the tools that are at our disposal to get the type of
development that we need or what areas can we leverage what are our advantages what are
our disadvantages making sure that we're fully aware of what can we offer that other
communities can't and what are they offering that we need to offer and that's generally
the scope at this point and that's all I have on my budget unfortunately I think the chamber
still has any other questions yours is a lot larger you may have any other questions for
Jessica okay thank you Adam you're up well board members I'll try to keep mine a little
quicker and painless it's not as detailed as hers as theirs was goals and accomplishments
for the 18 19 fiscal year we fulfilled all the deliverables in the city chamber economic
development contract at this date and time or as of May 31st we we were at 49 prospects
with eight site visits from eight different companies the the city contract goals were
for to hit 42 prospects and seven site visits so we still have four months left in fiscal
year you see we're already ahead of those numbers and we are gonna definitely exceed
those expectations at those eight site visits we've landed two products currently Tyson
Foods and spec building materials Tyson Foods was the project a couple months ago it's gonna
be a hundred new jobs at 20 I'm gonna cut you short here I want to talk about the budget
okay you've already gone through okay we've talked about it's all great information I
want to get down to the numbers I'm not trying to yeah you'll have this in your backup so
if you have any questions I'm gonna that's okay with everybody we he gave us kind of
an update on so we're beating all the all the page views and social media is all everything's
good so I'll skip forward if you have any questions feel free to call or email the budgets
remain flat over the last three budget cycles we're requesting the same amount as I'm not
respectfully you okay I don't want you to get upset but I'm doing that I'm not okay
absolutely you want me to skip straight to this page this is the requested budget from
the city 238,836 we keep 75,000 budgeted out of a private account two separate bank accounts
that we keep through the chamber here's the budget proposed for 2019-20 you can see the
changes from the prior 18-19 budget year personnel services up slightly under retirement went
up 3% our auditor went up went up slightly we asked for more in professional development
services training or that we didn't ask for more that line item just barely changed mainly
because I'm doing all the TDCs now versus just to because I'm on that team Texas board
so total dollars requesters 238,836 same as the previous two years one question for you
Adam yes oh I'm sorry give personal services how many people is that working to full-time
staff people myself vice president and Karen bunker and does this does this budget go through
another board check the Chamber of Commerce for yes and once again this does this account
is kept completely separate from the chamber there's no flow through or anything like that
so we keep two separate bank accounts from the chambers in the CBBs bank accounts I guess
my only question Adam was it is it realistic to keep it the same as they're not our people
you know well you know we can do more with more dollars but we are increasing our private
budget as well so we did raise five new investors this year increased by 7,000 so we are doing
more on the private side okay all right thank you sure unless I'm missing something we haven't
seen this at the chamber board yet no we have not okay it hasn't been approved it will come
to the next week's board meeting I apologize for that's the way right yeah so there we'll
have a pretty thorough discussion on that or anything else correct I'll present the
same exact thing we've got the reach slide individually at that chamber board meeting
well a lot of huge changes I didn't and I didn't mean to talk about some stuff we talked
about earlier yeah I was trying to report keep up with everything so if somebody wants
to revisit any of that or has any questions on anything please speak up and I'll also
give you a little bit of an insight sort of of what our process in Eric and Adam and I
have kind of talked through this and we're just kind of following the process that this
board has taken in the past and that in July we would bring forward the draft contract
to this board between the city and the chamber and then that would be going to council either
later in July following that meeting or early August depending on the council schedule to
formalize this so that once this budget is approved of course by the chamber board it
would be this board will see it again is what I'm saying but in the perspective of the contract
you don't want to go to the advanced manufacturing expo we kept that we kept that one on there
it's uh we'll do it as part of team texas we uh we're doing a marketing package through
team texas that allows us for trips with them and now so we're going to the expo they have
a booth there as well as appointment setting the council have 10 pre-scheduled appointments
but you didn't budget for it what did you do in the past oh at a private uh through
team texas so we didn't put a specific an exact line item for that particular show but
we are going to do that one with team texas any comments questions on the chamber's part
of the budget that the city helps fund there's one last question on the small business development
center is that still nctc or is that um yes okay yes that's still the eleven thousand
dollars to pay for them to have a person here at the chamber office running the small business
development and how frequently i mean how many hours does that cover i mean if that
was increased would it cover more hours or um i don't have an exact number on the hours
i mean they they can give us a full report also that we can send to all of you on uh
the amount of loans and dollar amounts that they've uh fulfilled through their throughout
the year um typically they work a standard 40 hours a week i mean that's a full-time
job it's a full-time person here at our office yeah officer okay so i did two two half days
in gainsville and uh in carenth and then four days here they're working the standard 40
hours a week and they're constantly bringing in people they have their own meetings and
we can get you a full report on uh the loan amounts and and those numbers if you want
them who is the individual that's the advisor for sbdc right now uh brad bunt is the director
um brit i can't remember his last name how you pronounce it it's hard yeah he's the one
that's in our in our office full-time and then brad bunt's the director the regional
director and he'll come up here the regional is up in gamesville is it not i think he's
in he's in carenth he's in carenth uh-huh and he typically comes into our office one
day a week just to meet with to meet with bread and i'm needing to make some referrals
that's why i needed to oh good that place yeah yeah i'll get you some contact information
all right anybody else have any questions on the chamber's portion of the budget so
still has to go to the chamber board for approval yes sir is there anything that i cut you off
on that you didn't get to say that you wanted to say uh i think i'm good yeah thanks all
right we get to hear an awesome update on uh edp 19-032 hold the report proceed report
hold discussion give staff direction regarding the business awards breakfast michelle cunning
hand the board at their last meeting determined they would like to present both a small business
award and a larger business award at the september 20th mayor council breakfast over the next
two months you have an opportunity both at this meeting and the july meeting to nominate
companies and so i've already received indication from one board member that they would like
to nominate embassy suites as a uh a nominee for the large business award the way the process
works for those of you that are new is that staff researches the companies that you nominate
and those are presented back to you for your decision based on that matrix that is in place
and it's in your backup for both the large and small businesses so basically you are
given a grid with that information answered for each of the companies that you nominate
and that way you're able to determine a business award recipient so small businesses less than
100 employees yes sir for our purposes and so does anyone have nominees that they'd like
to recommend for either category and certainly don't feel obligated this will be on the july
agenda as well so if you want to use the next month to think about it and we can send out
a reminder as well prior to that meeting a question about the criteria um does that have
someone in mind for the small business but every single line isn't checked does every
single line have to be checked before that person can be considered no and that's a great
question it does not have to be the reason there are that many categories is some people
fit a little bit better just determined by the kind of business they are even the size
i mean you could have a one person or two person business that you might want to nominate
simply because of the ways that they're engaged in the community or their concept or you know
whatever reason versus somebody who's maybe 99 employees so no okay well i actually had
an embassy as the large um business as well and then i would like to offer for the small
business um dan silverleaf um for me they've been a dentin staple for over 20 years bringing
music and art uh to the community and every location they've been in they've been able
to revitalize um the area downtown um and so that is just somebody i want to and every
time somebody needs his business for a fundraiser or charity stores are open so i think i'm
gonna have to do some more research yes before i can vote on that give me you got to visit
is that what it means i think also i've not been to the new location but the fact that
they have a new location and just kind of their their presence uh downtown ish i'd like
to offer up steve's wine bar if it's not uh been offered up and and just because out of
absolute respect for primarily the uh their guacamole if you hadn't had it you have to
uh i'd like to nominate my alias alias help me out alias there we go my spanish needs
to be cleaned up a bit but yes i i think just one phenomenal location uh next outback steakhouse
and then to grow that be it the old piggly wiggly for those that know i mean so just
a phenomenal uh institution and he's hanging with us as for what drive is being recreated
so i think they're doing uh outstanding you know gonna be a lot of things to talk about
be thinking next for next month yeah can we email you uh recommendations or jessica if
you have if you leave here thinking something i think that'd be great for us to take a look
at and so whose job is it to make sure they meet these criteria i will be researching
them and contacting people because i know this board is particularly interested in how
they're engaged in the community and so those things typically take some digging around
so if you have some ideas uh the sooner the better so that when we come back to our july
meeting we'll have some things to talk about right excellent thank you
all right uh item f edp 19 0 3 0 receive report hold discussion on our new dens cultural district
program and jessica will i'm going to do the very abbreviated version of this in the interest of time
so um cultural districts this is fun this is probably the 17th time i've done this
presentation and it might be the 16th time council member head spiff and bricks have
seen this presentation um so i'm sure they are very excited for this um cultural districts are
new to the city of denton um and i'm going to just kind of jump right in give the board i'm not going
to show the video and we'll talk about why uh but i promise i'll play it after the meeting for anyone
who wants to linger there's a five minute video associated with our application and again for the
sake of time for anyone who needs to get somewhere i'm not going to use that five minutes of the
board's time but cultural districts are defined geographic areas that celebrate arts culture
entertainment history and they're formed around existing cultural assets assets can be anything
from parks to special events arts um music venues restaurants bars you name it districts exist around
all types of assets um in in denton we have no shortage of cultural assets we have pages upon
pages of cultural asset lists um and we have some unique ones that incorporate architecture and
history parks and historic sites we have moved forward city council designated an area the area
that i talked about in your in your packet on the map as a local cultural district and we are going
to be making an application to the state i'm going to jump through this this is the area as well for
reference this is bradshaw street so how far it goes to the east um we'll be making an application
to the state for a state designation as well so once we get that designation i'm confident we're
going to get it again i get to send off that application today it makes us eligible for grant
funding through the texas commission on the arts and that funding can actually be used for any of
these items that you see listed up here it could be a physical enhancement of the district so
sidewalks lighting um something along that it could also be used for arts programming so it just has
to fit in one of those five categories um and districts all over the state have used uh this
for anything from performing arts centers to bringing in special exhibits um further enhancing
their marketing efforts um but really it's just a tool to to gain access to additional grant funding
to further leverage all of the wonderful things that are happening in in downtown denton and the
surrounding areas um we're really excited about the opportunity for that i will say one of the
elements of the application um that we'll move on to in a little bit um we'll talk about the
marketing dollars that are already spent a little bit of the history and we've been working on this
for over a year um back in february of 2018 was when council kind of gave the go-ahead so we're
certainly excited to be here in june a year and a half later and ready to submit that application
um the application to the state is pretty significant it had these nine sections
and that required attachment section is what makes up about 90 of the 95 pages of that backup that
you have um it was sort of one of those other duties as assigned type of sections where it was
more comprehensive um we did a cultural asset inventory as part of this this was really fun
we had to research what amenities were located in the defined district and one of the coolest
things that we uh got to see was um when we worked with dana in the cvb to get the number of visitors
that come to the district um i actually think the number is a little conservative uh i think dana
would agree that that only equates to about 2,700 people per day coming to the district um those are
sort of the direct numbers are reported i think that if we counted in people that might come from
within our community to the district that that number would be much higher um and then also that
we already spend about 2.2 million dollars in marketing businesses events um all different
sorts of things going on within the district so certainly the district can help increase that
and bring more visitors and certainly in terms of economic development supporting those businesses
in downtown so we had to complete different sections of the application there's some narrative
in there about um downtown and southeast ditten and its value in our community and what that means and
who we are as a community i always put up this picture it's my favorite we really this is a true
story we sent a photographer out for an hour and said capture the district and this was one of the
photos that came back and if there's nothing more at the ditten than this a musician with a guitar
and his back probably walking over to dance um along the arts walk of fame i thought that was just
such a unique thing to have happen little kismet um we had to as i said do the asset and amenity
inventory um on this page what you'll see is actually our mapping um that we did as well as
this is a screenshot of our asset inventory that's available on the district's website
um which is original dentondistrict.com we went through a planning process where we had to go
through a mission and vision statement again the the idea here is supporting um arts and cultural
development in downtown. Can you go back to the map? Sure. Does this district include the other
side of the streets on all those? Yes so we consider it we consider it a soft boundary so
we considered anything that has an address on those streets inclusive of the there's no legal
meets and bounds that define the district mac and i had that discussion there it's it's a soft
boundary it's saying here's what we kind of generally agree are the boundaries of the district
but yes the chamber office is right here
so again we went through a planning effort um this is sort of a timeline over the the last year and
a half that we've been working on um one of the cool things that we did we did a community art
project uh many of us got to spend a lot of time out at the community market and arts and jazz
talking to people about arts and culture and denton and what it means to them um and if you
go down the hallway you can actually see the art project and its final uh state and it was really
fun and a great way to get to know people in the community and how they see art and how important
it is um to denton um we did a lot of digital engagement we had well over um 13 000 engagements
by the time that we were done in just over a month um so we were really excited about about that
all right some of the general community comments this was feedback that was incorporated into the
cultural district planning the goal here was just what does the community want this district to do
this is going to be taken back through the public art committee council designated that body as the
advisory body for the cultural district um we went through a marketing plan i have a five-year
comprehensive marketing plan this is unique in that the marketing plan says a lot and a lot of
it is leveraging the partnerships that we have so just like we talked about from the economic
development perspective of we work with the chamber on this it's work how can we work with the cvb how
can we work with the organizations that are already moving things forward to promote the district
and then okay so the required attachments as i mentioned the audio visual sample there's a
five-minute video if you haven't seen it um i will play it after the meeting for anyone who's left in
the room um but it's one of a great representations of the city and it's had well over 8 000 views at
this point so i know billy's listening billy's team put that together and it's amazing with dtv
and we also had to put together a detailed cultural district plan and that's again what
makes up a significant part of your backup and that lays out the work plan for the cultural
district moving forward what are the next steps that we're going to take and what do we expect
to kind of come out of that process and we're just really excited to to get the ball rolling
with this and see what we can do to make art in denton even more supported and for this body
certainly see how it can impact economic development in in that district so and that's pretty much it
the rest of my presentation was related to the application which is going to have a bow tied on
it later today so any questions
thank you again um on this board for this board to know how hard that all the departments in the
city worked and how hard you worked and you stepped in and you um you ran with it and you
jumped in and i really appreciate thank you appreciate it it's a good presentation it's a
giant project but i think it would be very beneficial to our city thank you
any questions or comments it's a neat i've seen the video is pretty cool but you're able to show
it after the meeting i will show it after the meeting for anyone who happens to linger in the
as long as there's no discussion about all right any uh concluding items anybody wants to
talk about or add to future agendas um did we establish a joint meeting date and time yet
for city council so we tentatively talked about having it on september night um at the last
meeting uh the consensus of the board was wait until you were available to make sure that that
date was okay okay yes i know we talked about it earlier in the meeting but just for um concluding
items that we have an item about the um fund the economic development fund come uh to us so that
we can discuss it thank you when we just discussed it just wrapping it up in a pretty bow i don't
know that it has to be next meeting necessarily but uh something to talk about thank you everyone
for for being here and participating in the discussion and uh with that we're adjourned