Jan 10, 2024 Economic Development Partnership Board on 2024-01-10 11:00 AM

>> Yes, I know, but I want to get it if they lose it. All right, we'll get started. >> That's me? >> That's you. >> All right, everyone, good morning. Steve Edgar, I'm sitting in for Jill until she gets here, hopefully. Is she going to be here? All right, I'm sitting here for Jill. And the first order, I'd like to call the meeting formally to order. The first agenda item is an election of a chair and vice chair for the partnership board. >> All right, we have had internet connectivity issues the past day, so we lost the network connectivity to our folders. I'm not able to pull up the information sheet. I do have it printed, so I'll quickly run over the item. Welcome, anyone who is new. This is the economic development partnership board meeting. I'm Christine Taylor, the assistant city manager over economic development. We do have a vacancy with Lane Emerson, so I'm the B team stepping in until we get someone hired. I work closely with Aaron Carter, who is the chamber president who oversees our economic development partnership. So this first item as a body for you all is to elect a chairperson and a vice chair from your members. This is an annual item, and so we have an ordinance that indicates this body shall elect a chairperson and a vice president among its members who will serve as the one-year term. And the eligible members are Rick Walford, I apologize if I put your name. Gerard Cuspeth, Jason Tomlinson, Paul Meltzer, he is out sick today. Jeremy Fiedeckx, Jimmy Mejia, Kerry Gorey, Lee Ramsey, Steve Edgar, Aaron Roberts, Brian Danoff, and Tony Clark. So if anyone is interested in making a motion for anyone who would like to serve as the chair. Do we have opportunity for comment first, or does it go right in? Make your nomination and then you can discuss. Okay. B team. I think I just indicated I shouldn't be the board chair. That is true. Well, I would like to nominate Steve as our board chair. You've been serving the assistant board, the chairman for a number of years. We've been on this together for a long time. I think you understand the dynamics of it with all the new players here. I think if you would accept that role, I would certainly think it would be a great opportunity for us to continue that. So I would nominate Steve as our new chairman for this coming year. I'd second it if Tony says it's good. No, that's a new discussion. Do you accept the nomination? Yeah, that's what I wanted to have the conversation for. Certainly, I thank you for that question. Okay. Any other nominations or have a vote? Okay, that's for me to call a vote on me. So all those in favor indicate by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Please feel free. All right, that measure carries. So then we move into the vice chair with the same eligibility from everyone here other than you. Yeah, that's the lighter. Well, being the new guy, but knowing Tony's been around a while, I nominate Tony Clark to be vice chair. Second. I think it'd be great. Opportunity for comment. No comments. Go forward with the vote for Tony. That seems fair to me. Obviously, I can't turn that down. Be your wingman here. Thank you, Tony. And we'll take that to vote. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. Congratulations, Tony, and thank you. All right, we'll move forward now with consideration of approval of the minutes from our last, which does not seem possible, but June 14th, 2023 for the board. Have a move, please, and a second. Second. Any conversation around it? Any corrections? All right. Motion for? I've got comment. What do we have? What do we need? Just ask you for the motion. Who made the motion? It was Lee. Thank you. Did you all speak up just a little bit? Because we are using the microphones in the ceiling. We want to make sure we capture everything. You got everything. Perfect. All right. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries as well. Thank you. Just keep on rolling. We're into item C now, the consideration of recommendation for ordinance of the city. Conversation around that is being led by? Are you doing that, Christine? OK. OK, good morning again. Again, I'm Christine Taylor of Assistant City Manager. Eric Carter and I are going to be presenting this item together. So the city contracts with the Chamber of Commerce for the Economic Development Partnership through a funding agreement. A little background on this agreement. The city and the chamber entered into the partnership in 1986. And through the economic development program agreement, the city funds a portion of the administrative and operational budget for the Chamber of Commerce Office of Economic Development, which focuses on prospective generation activities, marketing activities, printing, administration, marketing materials, small business development, and the support center. Over the past couple of years, the agreement between the city and the chamber has morphed and continued to improve and include specific goals, deliverables, metrics for the Chamber of the Chamber's Office of Economic Development, along with clauses regarding financial reporting, insurance requirements. So in 2019, the chamber approved a new format of the agreement that allowed for incorporation of a work plan. And that came with more details related to the ongoing partnership and division responsibilities, along with reporting requirements. The existing agreement is a one year and was extended for three twenty three twenty four. Why we're here today for the amendment is during the city of Denton budget process for fiscal year twenty three twenty four, the Chamber of Commerce requested a fifty thousand dollars supplemental funding increase for marketing and staff salaries. The city has gone through a compensation study and significantly increased salaries. Aaron's been working through a vacancy and was seeing that there was a lot of marketed competitiveness limiting what she had as far as budget for salary. So this fifty thousand dollars was subsequently approved by the city to include in the budget. At the end of that fiscal year, we lost Wayne Emerson, who was our economic development director. He went to the city of Addison with David and then also Aaron received notification that Dan was going to go to school full time to get his master's degree. So we have two key vacancies for our two departments in the partnership. These vacancies kind of provided Aaron and I the opportunity to look at what are our strengths, where where can we go next with this partnership? The chamber is so in touch with the business community and what's going on. We wanted to realign and maybe take some of those work plan items and swap them. So key changes to this agreement include shifting business recruitment and marketing from the chamber back over to the city and then business retention and expansion, expansion, shifting from the city over to the chamber. This then, since we're going to, since the city will retain the marketing piece of that fifty thousand dollars, the city will retain the twenty five thousand to focus on marketing efforts for economic development. And the twenty five thousand dollars, we recommend going over to the chamber to support those salaries for that hire for her for the business recruitment expansion position. This proposed amendment kind of outlines those key duties where the city will focus as the primary, where the chamber will focus as the primary, the activities that we will jointly do together and the cooperative efforts. And again, the tone here is this is a partnership, it is an economic development partnership. So all of these will be done together and it's just sorting out who will be the primary lead on each one. If this board is in favor, you're making a recommendation today to approve or deny the next step in this process would be to take this forward to council. We would like to get it on the January twenty third agenda. And before we move to any questions about the amendment, Aaron is going to run through the annual report. Technology is a key strength of mine, so I don't need to be doing this right now. Okay, as Christine said, I'm Aaron, I'm the president of the chamber. The chamber is the economic development arm in partnership with the city of Denton. And I'm super glad that I sent this over in an Adobe file because our server wouldn't let us send it over in a PowerPoint. So this shall be fun. As Christine said, we've been working in partnership with the city to streamline and divide out what we'll be doing separately and then what we'll be doing together. Christine and I have been meeting every week now for a good period of time to really clarify what we will be doing. Obviously, we office in with the city at the development services center and it's been a really good opportunity. Glad Teams is on through this as well. The mission of the economic development partnership is to expand the city's tax base and support the creation of jobs through targeted marketing, strategic partnerships and stakeholder education. What is also great is Agrifen Rick, who I'm so excited to meet, and Aaron, who I met a little bit before this. All of you are investors and this feels like talking to you. The EDP plays six key roles in facilitating the region's continued prosperity. This report serves as our annual report to the economic development partnership board. So if at any time you have questions, you certainly don't have to wait till the end. You can reach out, you can just ask them, and these are really familiar to all of you as investors in the partnership. We market debt and assets. We are the public-private connector or convener, Brian. We broker new business information. We navigate prospects. We convene industry players and we support small business. Christine mentioned that the marketing side will go back over to the city, but for the sake of our partnership, we will continue to help market debt and that will be something that we will continue to do regardless of that change. It will be something that we do in tandem partnership. Last year's goals to meet the contract needs were to revamp digital and video marketing assets, create new company toolkits, organize industrial round tables, refresh the EDP website, and complete marketing collateral build-out. Obviously, I put little checks next to them because we completed all of those things within the contract window. To go through some of those in greater detail, we highlighted debt into national audiences. We collaborated with our friends at Denton ISD, UNT, and TWU to be key and our key major employers for a video series. I'm not able to show one of those today, but many of you have seen them and we're happy to show them. I actually think it was talking to Matilda before this on the city's economic development team and we'll start highlighting those at these meetings. We've done six thus far and we'll continue to work on those. We did a complete redesign of our website and it's garnered 6,000 users post launch and that was actually from last year's numbers, so we'll continue to update those. We developed a marketing toolkit for real estate and community leaders. It's really been much easier for our broker community and our development community to use as they're navigating the real estate market and why to attract businesses to Denton. We launched a business blog platform featuring a wide Denton series from leaders locally. Here is a snapshot of those shared stories from Denton's best themselves. One of them is in the room today. He's very busy working on his iPad because he's tired of hearing me speak all the time. I'm kidding, Dr. Wilson. It's Dr. Wilson, the superintendent of schools for Denton ISD. Jason Scoub was also one of the first we did from Peterbilt Motors, Neil Semotrix from the University of North Texas, Ashley Bagley from Saffron, and Jean Schimler from EMLS. We went to all of their places of work and we talked about the power of doing business in Denton and why Denton is the place to build, grow, and sustain your business. Each of them are approximately one minute and 30 seconds to two minutes long, so it's bite-sized, it's retainable, and it's information that we can send to potential businesses looking to come here. I know this isn't my presentation. However, Brian or Dr. Wilson, as individuals who participated in the video series, benefits to participating by any chance? Yes, absolutely. It was a great experience. Peterbilt has always tried to strive to be a good partner with the city and the local area. From the challenges that we have and just getting words out there, it was great. We've worked closely with the universities and the school just to make sure we've got a ready workforce. That's our biggest thing that we can do locally here to make sure we're really successful. I think this ties right into that. Good partnership. From our perspective, it was very beneficial just to be able to have a conversation about how the school district can help partner with businesses that are here currently or those that are wanting to relocate for workforce development. We highlighted some of our programs at the Lagrone Academy and future opportunities there as well. We were able to talk about our Peterbilt partnerships, talk about our Sally Beauty partnerships, talk about our Acme Brick relationships and those kinds of things too. It really gives an opportunity for someone who's from here to see how invested the local school system is in our local businesses and also for someone looking to relocate that same type of relationship they could expect from us. It was very beneficial. We appreciated partnering with both of you and we'll continue to do that work. We are always very proud of our team's work. A member of our Discover Dent team actually produced the videos, so we're very proud of Conrad Allen's work and we feel like they were very well done. We will continue to do those videos to make them accessible to individuals looking to relocate to debt and with their business. We held quarterly forums. Many of you in this room have attended them, including the team on the economic development side for the city. We had 430 attendees at four events. Our goal is to educate regional leaders and major employers at the value of investing in debt. These are snapshot pictures from those four events. We facilitate dialogue between public and private leaders to understand the work that we are doing but the work that's also being done on the behalf of their employers. Themes included future workforce, debt and CEO panel, real estate outlook and of course a recap of the 88th legislative session. This was new this year and I think it's one of the things we are most proud of. We heard from our industrial sector that they needed a time to get together to discuss issues that were specific to them. So we got a plant manager and an HR roundtable that is totally focused on the industrial sector in debt. We've held two so far for our plant manager roundtables and one for the HR roundtable. It takes time to build trust with the industrial sector. We really had to make sure to separate it for them to know that the EDP is separate from the Chamber of Commerce and we really like to make sure that they understand that. I'm just going to pick on you Steve and Tony and Jeremy are bankers in the room. We wanted to make sure they knew that the hospital wasn't going to be there. We love the hospital but you weren't going to come to the industrial roundtable and neither were our bankers because it really was a time when it was a discussion focused on just the industrial partners needs and concerns. Because we can really keep the integrity of that group growing. I know that Peterbilt has hosted one of them for us, EMLS hosted one of them for us, Saffron has hosted one of them for us and we were able to address the critical topics of workforce development and employee transportation. And as we can continue to grow that we're able to collaborate with partners at UNT Career Services, North Texas Society for Human Resource Management, more commonly known as SHRM. That was a huge win for us in continuing to build and understand the needs for our industrial sector. Now we do love working with you Steve so just to make sure that's known. And of course just so that makes it into the minutes. We definitely appreciate those partnerships just we have to understand the different markets and the time and place. We connected new businesses with critical resources. This is a little bit more about that website transition but we also partnered with the city to be featured in the certificate of occupancy emails. I think this was a huge opportunity. We don't see this in every city. We don't see this opportunity in every city and as Christine pointed out earlier this really is a partnership. In the EDT being located in the development services building we were able to walk across the room, sit down in a meeting and say how can we work better together. And this has really optimized the way we're able to communicate with businesses to strengthen the opportunity to understand the need to partner. This is a really text heavy slide. I hate doing this to people so I'm not going to read it all to you. It was available in your packet. But the EDP helps debt and businesses thrive amidst challenges and fuel continued growth. So on the left side of the screen there are challenges, there are EDP efforts in the middle and then the results we've seen there afterwards. I'm going to highlight the competitive need for top talent. We see that constantly. Businesses come to us and say we need to drive talent. The EDP has helped to develop talent pipelines. There are many of our UNT, TWU and debt and ISD partners in this room. Those are some of our most strategic partnerships and I would be remiss to leave out NCTC. That is something that we continue to see a need for with our partnerships and so as we build those talent pipelines we want to make sure talent stays in debt. So that's something we'll continue to work on. We see secure major economic drivers. We had 181 leads this year and those led to under 1 million square feet of new industrial leases. I think that's huge for the city. We submitted 58 RFPs which led to 40 new industrial leases. 46 companies and brokers were engaged and we did engage 100% of our major industrial brokers in debt. So that's why relationships matter to us. They will always be top of mind. We are always available to each of you. Something that people often don't know we do is we do fund a partnership with the SBDC, the Small Business Development Center. New businesses started through relationships with the SBDC or 72. Jobs supported were a little over 3,000. Unique clients served were like under 800 and a capital infusion of under 40,000. So that's a great opportunity for us as well. We love working with them because economic development partnership is not just about big business. It also is about supporting small business growth here in Denton. And then as a reminder, the EDP is also supported by private investment. The Chamber of Commerce is contractually obligated to raise $125,000 from the business community. Funds do not come from Chamber memberships. Support is raised specifically for economic development efforts. At the time of this presentation, 131 businesses invested in the partnership, which is up from last year at this time, which we had 97. Companies in all of the city's strategic growth areas are represented. I'd just like to make that clear because often people think there's an intersection of Chamber membership and EDP membership and there are two separate membership bases, so I just want to make sure that's clear. Again, thank you for your partnership. It is a privilege to work and partner with the City of Denton, to work with the City of Denton's entire staff. We work most closely, obviously, with planning, zoning, permitting, techs, and the wonderful team in economic development. We truly are a partnership and what we do best we do together, so I'd be happy to entertain any questions, ideas, or strategic opportunities to go and work together. Is this our time just to come in on this or kind of discuss the whole? The whole item, the amendments. If there's questions about the plan that was presented or specific questions about the amendment, Aaron and I can stand for questions. One, I want to thank you guys because it was a big risk when we moved the Chamber into the city. There was a lot of discussion around that, so it's good to hear that that's actually working. One year, it's kind of the honeymoon period. Two years, it's working. Two is, I think $25,000 is like, hey, let's appease everybody if they've got $25,000, right? If you look at our office vacancy in Denton right now, especially small business office vacancy around downtown, and even some of the external areas of some of the office vacancy, it's growing, especially in the smaller office. So it's getting backfilled with some things we may or may not want in our city. That's my opinion. My opinion may be different than somebody else's. Two is, we've had a very, that's existing space and then growing existing business may be bringing that. Second thing is, if you look at the amount of industrial that's been invested in our city over the last 24 months, it's been large. We keep a track of every industrial development under construction or built. So there's been a lot of money invested in Denton, probably one of the larger in the areas other than Alliance in South Dallas. So my opinion, and it's about 80% vacancy right now in Denton in our industrial space, and that's not because we haven't been doing a good job, that's because we've had so much coming online at one time. I mean, you look at, there's been a lot of new construction, so it's filling up. We're reaching out to people, but I think in this time, this is a time for the city and the chamber to double down on our marketing for that. So we get the tenants we want, because what will happen is, these people that own these buildings, they'll start putting anybody in there just to get it paying, because their debt service has got to be covered, they've got loan commitments they've got to make. So they're just going to put anybody in there that might pay rent. They'll do a little TI dollars, they evict them. So we want to be cautious on, we have so much online right now, which is a positive that investors believe in Denton. We want to be cautious that our tenant quality stays up where it needs to be in our new, and then backfilling any space that may be coming out. And our offices, especially our downtown area and any other offices, what tenants go in there. So I think, in my opinion, this is a time to double down. I think we ought to, Mayor may backhand me right now, but I think what we're investing in at $25,000 is just barely saying, oh, here's some money to say we did some EDC dollars. In my opinion, we need to go out and we need to look and say, what are those two positions, who is the best we can hire, since we have an opportunity to reset right now, which we may never have a chance again to do with both positions. We need to double down on this, and the $25,000, I think we need to go to market and say, what's a real number to hire these people? And if it's $50,000 each, if it's $100,000 each, with the vulnerable place that we're in as a city, we need to seriously consider what those numbers are. I just want to answer on that one question. So the budgeted salary for the economic development director is separate from this agreement, and Erin already has an existing budget for the position. This was an additional $25,000 on top of that, but that doesn't limit her. If she has funding, we'll do the same thing. On the city side, we are looking for the best candidate. We have a range, we have a budget, but we know the importance of these key hires and have funding. Both of us feel that there's enough funding based on the market to find really good candidates with this increase. If y'all think the $25,000 is enough on top of what we have, I know what we're having to pay people from, what everybody in this room knows that, what we're having to pay people from just 24 months ago is drastically different today. So we're here to support you guys, is what I'm saying. So whatever we need to do to make sure we get the two best people that we can keep. The last few people, I've been doing this a long time with the Chamber, it's a filler position until they find something else. And I just want to make sure whatever we do, we can hire really good quality people that are going to be long term. And if I get a question, let me ask Scott. We are going to give a hiring update through the staff report side, but we've hired a national recruiting firm specific to economic development to help us on our side. We're air and serving on our panels, I'm going to meet with her candidates. So we understand, we both feel like everything is right and didn't right now for this growth and we have to make key hires with these two positions. I'm just communicating, y'all have our support and if we need to recommend if that's enough funding or if we feel like that's just what sometimes when we go with these recommendations, we think that's what we can get. You know, being on these boards for years, just make sure it's right. So whatever, if you guys both look at us, say thumbs up, we've discussed this and you know, it's good. But if we need to push for more funding to get those two positions right, let's do it. Is this a voting or information? Hey, so kind of explain to me again, what is the chamber, what's the focus shifting from and to in your opinion? Obviously, what were the pluses and minuses of this new arrangement with the city? I know it's always been a partnership, but it sounds like it kind of changes the mats here. Yeah, there's going to be some changes. So there was just some duplicative work and it was not at fault of either team. It really was, there really wasn't some drilled out areas. We naturally at the chamber through the partnership do business retention. We will always do business retention when we when we would go out to meet with you. For example, we would naturally ask you how's it going and how are things going with your clients before we weren't contracted to do that, but we were naturally doing it. So now we will be contracted to do that. So it's really utilizing our skill set to the best of its ability. We will not be doing direct marketing services. Now our team, we have a director of marketing. She will be partnering with the city, but we won't be contracted to do that in the same level. It will change also. We will not be the ones filling out the RFI, but since we hold the relationships with the development community, we will still work with them through that process. So it's really about looking at the staff we have and then looking at the staff the city has and understanding the skill sets and then applying them to the opportunities. I believe our strongest suit is in business retention and expansion, where the city has a greater budget to attract and will be the ones ultimately doing the incentives, which we hopefully start to see flowing through again. That is a better opportunity. Well, we've talked in here before over the years, and the mayor knows this better than I do, but we're always competing with one arm tied behind our back, or two arms, because of all the incentive options that other communities in the Dallas Fort Worth area have that we don't. We don't need to go down that rabbit trail. But I'm like Lee, man. I think we continue to be in a great position, and it just seems like we're never getting to where we need to be. I'm not saying we're treading water, but like Lee said, we've got all this space now that has come into our market, and now it's time to fill it up and really get the benefit from that. And the only way we do that is recruitment incentives to get the right people, the right businesses here, and not just the ones that, like Lee said, come and go because of their financial capacity or whatever. I think economic, so traditional economic developers that tend to be close to the best, right, because they, I don't want to tell Jeremy what I have maybe coming in because I don't want him maybe to take it to another city, but I think the difference in what Christine and I have really worked through will disarm that concern. So our director of strategic partnership, so the chamber and the city used to both have directors of economic development. That was incredibly confusing. Because if I would go to Peterbilt with our directors of economic development and then later the city would, that sends very different messages. We have a director of strategic partnership, the city has a director of economic development. When they come together to talk to Peterbilt, they're talking to them from the partnership, but they're both bringing different lenses to the table to help them solve issues and bring them the best opportunities. And so I think what Christine and I have done is disarm the concern and really enabled sharing and hopefully moving the needle forward for debt. And I think before maybe the chamber and the city both just accepted the contract every year, but Christine and I were to be, I mean to be frank, tossed it out and said let's go clean slate and bring the drawing board back and just do what we know is best for the community, for the business community. And I would say that's helped both of us truly understand what we need to be doing. Thank you. My dear, and I think part of that too, what you've got done is when we were developing that agreement, it was, we didn't know really what, we all took the best path we could when we did that and with a couple years experience, I don't know that you threw it out, I think you took what you learned, whose roles were the best and maybe morphed it into some better guidelines of what we've learned over the last couple of years. So I think that's been a real positive. That's why we like you so much, you rephrased it back then. That's why you print the packet of it. Any other conversation? We'll move to votes. All in favor of the, do we have to make a motion on this motion on it? Any motion on the proposed? Move approval of the recommendation presented under EDP 24-007. All second. And a second. Any further conversation? I don't know if this is the right place or not, I don't think it is, but I haven't seen the city do any strategic planning like maybe 10 years ago when we finally convinced them we needed to change that stupid little road that's now called Western Boulevard. And by making that a high quality four-lane road for most of it, the development that's been out there is incredible. I think it's time for us to look further. I think we need to push the county on Route 288 around the north and the west side. I think that will blow our top off of a lot of things over on that side. That's the joint effort, I believe, but I'm not sure it's the right place to talk about that, but I hope we'll consider that. We can follow-up on a future agenda item and bring back the progress of what's happening with those capital plans. Council is having those strategic discussions so we can do a follow-up with what we know what's going on for the rest of the city. I've asked about the same thing at the airport. I would just like to, this is probably my one chance to chime in on the hires. In my world, there's, in my estimation, there's two kinds, there's, when you're looking at sales, there's hunters, right, and then there's kind of cultivators, like someone's walking in the door, they can manage them with the best of them. We need somebody that's going to go out and kill it and bring it back, right, to the point we have those deficits that are against- We're calling up gun fighters. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, that's what we need. Somebody that can work with a little next to nothing, right, Boy Scout that has a stick and, you know, some, whatever, creek water and can start a fire, right, that's going to, you know, you can get some mud, some sun and build a hut, right, and so I just think that really is critical for the position. Because the assets we have are viable and very good, right, it's just about going and finding the right pain points. And I talked to some folks, I'd love to get in front of the folks down in Kroger, because that shipping center at Heritage Trace is an absolute nightmare, right, and you had an HEB to that, and they're all right next to the rail, well, let's plug them in here right off I-35, you know, and so from my perspective, from my office, whoever's out there hunting from a, if you have, you know, tilt wall buildings and you have speculative space, you reach out to me and let's go have meetings, right, I'll sit with you and we'll give them the hard sell. But same thing, whoever we're looking for to fill these positions needs to be one that's creative and able to work with the natural benefits we have in lieu of some of the other things that other communities have, but are built out and face challenges and aren't right off I-35. So I think there's some gangsmanship there and how we present those things, but there's some absolute advantages. Any other metaphors that we want to bring forward? Yeah, yeah, let's get them all in. I'll take some notes, I got them later. We'll start infiltrating this. Yeah, as I said last night, a word's worth a thousand pictures. Yes. That was free for you. I'm writing that down. Alright, are we ready to move to vote? We have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Any opposed? The motion carries. Thank you. We'll bring this to council on the 23rd. I apologize, I have to step out and take a call real quick and I'll be back. As the chair. Alright. I'm going to act as chair. I did get a message that Councilmember Meltzer is watching. He was unable to attend, but he wanted to pass along. He is watching online and following along. So I will call item D, which is receive a report, ADP 24004, receive a report, hold a discussion, and appoint or re-appoint members to the Economic Development Partnership Board for the Downtown Economic Development Committee. We don't have the exhibit likely because of our internet, but Christina Davis is going to walk you through this item. So I'm not sure if everyone here knows, but the Downtown Economic Development Committee is a subcommittee of the Economic Development Partnership Board. And part of that board policy and guidelines requires a member of the ADP board to be the chair of the Downtown Economic Development Committee. So our last chair was Jesse Davis, as he was the county, but he also happened to be a council member. So we're looking to feel, we're going to re-appoint existing members who are eligible to be re-appointed. And then we're going to appoint a couple of new people to fill vacant positions. And then we'll also appoint a person from the ADP board to be the chair of the DEDEC. So we'll go through each one of these. Jason Voder is a downtown property owner and business owner. He is due to be re-appointed. He would like to be re-appointed. Melissa Lindenberg is also a property owner. She's eligible to be re-appointed. And Beth Lewis is the Texas Homes University representative, and she's also eligible to be re-appointed. Tracy Long is the, or was the Denton Main Street Association representative on the board. Her term ended on that board, and there is a replacement for her. And Georgina Nagazi, who is with the Denton Greater Arts Council, she retired and there was a new person to fill her position as well. So what we're asking you to do today is to re-appoint Jason, Melissa and Beth. And then in place of Tracy Long and Georgina, we would like to ask you to appoint Kristen Bigley, who is now the Main Street manager, and Chrissy Oden, who is the new Greater Denton Arts Council executive director. Do we have any questions? Did we get a recommendation from this board? Yes, so this board actually appoints and re-appoints members to the data, because it's a subcommittee of this board. Do we need to make a motion? So Steve Gohn, I guess I would like to have a motion to approve those recommendations. So moved. Second. Third. Okay. The next item as part of this or part of that recommendation is we need to appoint someone from this board to be the chair of the data. In periods of years, someone has volunteered. What are the time commitments? The time commitment for this board, this board meets the first Thursday of every month at 8.30 in the morning. It's generally an hour meeting. The committee covers items that are part of downtown. So anything having to do with downtown, they also assist with things like the downtown parking study. They help filter some information for the ambassador program. They also assist in the downtown reinvestment grant approval process. And where do they meet? Did you say that? They meet at our building at the Development Service Center. I'd like to nominate Jeremy Fox. So we have a nomination for that slot, Mr. Jeremy Fox. Mr. Jeremy, is that something that you'd like to do or have an interest in? It's a one-year commitment, right? It's a two-year commitment. Two years is a new one-year. You've been hanging around Aaron. Hi, Jeremy. Thanks so much for coming here. It's so good to see you. I would like to say we do have a committee of 13 people. They're very engaged. We have excellent attendance on this committee. And we only meet when we have action items, so it's not going to be -- in the last year we had four meetings. Okay, yeah. So -- Well, before that, is there anybody really -- Before that, I mean, it could be 12, but -- Anybody that really wants to do that, is there somebody that -- Anyone have a passion for downtown? Yeah, there. But you got -- I'm the guy. I'm the guy. Okay, so we do have a motion to approve Jeremy and the other -- The staff is just telling me that Paul Meltzer is also interested. Okay. If no one else is interested, is that fine? I'm fine. I'm fine with it. Yeah, we got a motion that we've got to deal with. Do we have a motion? We have a second. Okay. Any other questions, comments? All in favor, aye. All right. Any opposed? Clarification. Yeah. Did we already vote on the people the first time? Yes. Okay. Good one. Okay. So Jeremy? Yes, ma'am. Welcome aboard. Thank you. Christina, can I just ask you a question? Yes. Hopefully, I'll appreciate that. Is Hank still on the board? It's going to cost me. Yes. Can we change his seat? Because he's not really with the University of Texas. Oh, that's -- you're right. Yeah. He's with the chamber. He's with the chamber. Yes. Can we change his affiliation? We will. Okay. Thank you for catching up. Oh, can I -- obviously, I'm going to be getting information on that. Can I make sure that it goes to my G&TY email, as opposed to the Yahoo email? I'm getting them on both spots, and then I thought I corrected it, but then I got some more stuff this week at the Yahoo, and I just -- I missed it. Okay. We'll get it, thanks. Okay. All right. Are we good? Okay. Thank you. [inaudible] Next up on the agenda, receiver and board hold discussion and staff directions for the meeting dates and times for our meetings in 2024. I'm busy the first Thursday of this month. [laughter] I'll bring you direct. Christine Taylor, Assistant City Manager. So, annually, in addition to appointing the chair and vice chair, this committee needs to set the meeting dates and times. I apologize, I'm trying to pull this up. Currently, the board is set to meet monthly. We did have a conversation with last year's board about the potential of moving to a quarterly basis. Ultimately, the chair and the board decided that you would like to continue to meet monthly. If there weren't meeting topics, the meetings can always be canceled. So, we'd like to talk about are you interested in continuing to meet monthly, or are you interested in continuing to move to a quarterly basis. Attached in your backup was a list of potential meeting dates. The board currently meets monthly on the second Wednesday at 11 o'clock in the day, and we're looking at approximately an hour and a half time commitment, and that backup kind of outlined the meeting dates. So, we're looking for discussion on if the board is interested in continuing with that schedule, or is interested in pursuing an alternative schedule. My thought is if we're going to have a new ED person, we need to meet more often than once. I think monthly is where I'm at. Well, historically, like you said, if there wasn't an agenda, we just wouldn't meet. But it gave them the option, because we are set up for monthly meetings, to have one of the meeting ones instead of waiting for a quarter, three months rather. I would agree with that as well. I agree. How many of we have monthly meetings? Second. On the day currently? So, we have a motion to keep our meetings monthly, and we have a second on the second Wednesday of the month, I'm assuming? Is that two different motions, or the same motion? Same motion. Same motion. Same motion to adopt the monthly meeting schedule. The monthly meeting schedule attached to the record. So, we have a motion, second. All in favor, aye? Aye. Any opposed? Yes. I guess with that next meeting being on Valentine's Day, I might just for a record vote, no, but I'm going to, I mean, price for y'all. I said no. Yeah, item F is up next, receive training and hold a discussion regarding an economic development partnership board member orientation. In addition to Wayne being vacant, Erica Sullivan was going to lead this item as she's sick, so again, you have me stepping in to get you through this item. We wanted to do just an annual orientation. We're going to break it up, and since we're going to meet monthly, that'll help, so it's not one huge chunk. We're going to go over a couple things today just to orient you with the structure. What is really your role as this board? And again, we're here to answer any questions along the way. So, what is economic development? It is a purposeful process for us focusing on the growth and restructuring of the economy through our city policies programs to enhance the well-being of the community. So, we do have a department in the city who is staffed to focus on these efforts. Again, we partner with the chamber for the economic development partnership to get through to facilitate those goals. A brief history is included in there. We talked about it in our last item. The partnership began in 1987 between the city and the chamber of commerce. We did have a local economic development sales tax election in 1996 that kind of led to the questions on what funding tools does the city have. In 2001, we had the city selected economic development as one of its top priorities. In 2003, it was their first strategic plan. And in 2021, there was an additional work on a strategic plan that was adopted and updated by the city council. This is a quick visual of that partnership that we spoke about. So, between the city and the chamber, we have created economic development partnership, which takes both entities working together for the common goal of a thriving economy. We talked multiple times about where there can be some confusion between our two groups. So, we want to provide you at our back of what that structure looks like and who your contacts are so you can reach out if there are additional questions. On the city side right now without Wayne, I'm serving as that main point of contact. And on the chamber side, Aaron Carter is the president. Both of us are always available to answer any questions and facilitate anything that's needed for economic development. So, this board is created as an advisory board that serves as a recommending body to our council. So, your goal and your objective here is to review incentive applications, any economic development policies that we bring forward, strategic plans and programs. The board makeup is listed below. It is composed of two council members, two chamber board members, two top 20 taxpayers in the community, a member with aviation experience, a member from the Dent Black Chamber, a member from the Dent Hispanic Chamber nomination. And we have worked a little bit on that language since there isn't a Hispanic chamber anymore. It is an underutilized business, historically unutilized business can serve on that role. We have one out large member and then representation from UNT and TWU, three ex officio, city manager. Sometimes she defaults that to Cassie or I, chamber president, which is Aaron, and the superintendent, Dr. Wilson. I'm currently serving as that board liaison, but once we make that higher, the new director will be. So, again, we wanted to just orient you with the board structure while you're here. Again, we're happy to answer any questions today. And over the next series of meetings, we'll take some time and focus on that strategic plan. Go through that to orient the board. Really talk about those areas that we're focusing on going after and getting incentives for. And then we'll talk about a little bit about financing tools in the future. And I think you'll be excited to learn. In this past year, we've had two new financing tools come on board. So that will be a great discussion to share how we're kind of adding some tools in our toolkit to help us be more positioned to go out and get new businesses to come through today. So Aaron and I will stand for any questions you have on the relationship, the structure, the goals of the board. I'll just make one quick comment. I'm very proud of what you guys have done, especially with the transition we've had over the last few years and how you guys put this together, and y'all have full-time jobs, both of you. And thank you guys for dedicating the time, because I know what it takes to do that. So thank you. Okay. Well, then we look forward to if there are any other questions. Those are the top two items that we'll be bringing back next. Of course, we'll touch base with Steve and Tony to see if we need to adjust that, if there's anything you're more interested in seeing as we continue to have that orientation. But we look forward to continuing to meet with you and strengthen our economic development programs. Do we have all of our meetings here to occasionally meet over at the -- where the new chamber offices are? We'd like to always meet over at the Development Services Center in the room. Obviously, it just fits more and it's better suited for this board meeting. There was a calendar conflict to put us in here today, but we are going to secure all of our grants at the Development Services Center. If I could, I want to apologize for stepping out. I'm on call this week, and I had to step out. So thank you. We've got your back. My apologies. We're throughout a match. There you go. There you go. With the increased presence of college or the junior college, the community college, how are we thinking about offering them an opportunity to have a little bit more input into this? Because they're dealing with a lot of students. I can tell you from an operating perspective, the city is constantly working with North Central Texas College. We can certainly look at that. But we do have ongoing on how our programs, how they go into our workforce. So we have partners as one of our city managers priorities to make sure we're working closely with NCTC. Thank you. Next. I apologize. Okay. We're on G. Staff reports. Thank you. Port, Krista Foster, customer service manager. And I was asked to come in to give an overview of the commercial service deposit practices in customer service and then answering questions that may be there. So it came up in June, a question on how we assess commercial deposits and what our practice was. I provided an informal staff report. At that time, it was not able to be added to the agenda for this meeting because it was a little late when we realized to ask. But I do have copies if they're needed. So the way that we work with commercial accounts is we do a soft credit check or we look at existing history with the city of Denver, with the utilities. As long as the credit score comes back okay, then we would allow that business to open without deposit. If we need to assess a deposit, we may assess a one to two month deposit, which stays on file for the account until it closes when it is refunded to the account with accrued interest. Additionally, if a customer has payment history downgrade over time, we may assess the deposit at a later date. Any business can provide us an irrevocable letter of credit rather than putting down a cash amount for a deposit. And then again, when it closes, we return those to the customer with interest. So the way that we got to this practice is in 2010, we conducted a focus study with an outside consultant. And after they benchmarked our performance against the performance of other private and public sector utilities, they found that we needed to make some changes in our collections practices. So at the time of the initial study, our unrecoverable debt for the city of Denton was 0.42%, where the industry average is 0.21%. So we had a much greater amount of outstanding debt liability that was uncollectible. So we put in place our new deposit guidelines and our credit guidelines, and then we brought them back in 2019 to do a follow-up study and look at the practices that we had in place, as well as our performance against benchmarked entities. And one of the things that they noted in the 2019 study is that we did need to monitor the security that we had on our accounts because we were seeing a slight uptick in unrecoverable debt where we had normally performed at below 0.25% and sometimes as low as 0.18%. So when I received the question asking to outline what our practices were, I reached out to that independent consultant and said, "Hey, do you happen to have any benchmarks on this topic?" And so what she did is she provided to me a list of 20 benchmarked organizations across the country, private and public, and what we found is that the standard practice is to collect one-sixth of the annual bill, which is a two-month bill, and the length of time that they may hold that deposit ranges from 12 to 36 months, but one-third of those individuals also retain commercial deposits for the lifetime of that commercial account. So there's not a very set clear standard on exactly how this operates, but what we were doing is within the guidelines and the tolerances of what we see in the industry. And then we also looked at nine area utilities, and roughly 50% of those also retained commercial deposits for the lifetime of the account. It varied from utility to utility as to whether they allowed any form of waiver or whether it was a 100% all businesses paid deposit. And then finally what I did is I looked at our debt performance over the previous 12 months, and this was as of June last year. What we found is that we had $823,000 in uncollectible debt over the previous 12 months. $176,000 of that was commercial businesses, and it was 90 total businesses accumulated $176,000 in unrecoverable debt. And what I found is that even though commercial businesses make up 14% of our customer makeup, they represent 21% of our uncollectible debt because the balances tend to be higher. And of all of the commercial accounts that were part of that, 83% of them actually had good credit until they ended their business and were no longer able to pay those bills. So that is kind of where we are, and the research has been done to help anyone better understand our practices. So if you have any questions, please let me know. I've got a few that just popped up. Obviously I wasn't here last time you discussed this. So the funds, where are they held in the meantime, and then y'all track the interest that those funds earn each month into forever? Yes, what we do is there is an account that holds them, so it's like a deposit account that will hold the funds. And each six months, the ordinance states that what we do is we look at the federal interest rate, and that is the new rate for that next six month term. And before we do that, we actually apply it to the balances that are there. The current rate gets applied, that money is dog-eared, and we have a trackable record of how much there is an interest for that account. And then we apply the new rate at the end of that six month term to do the same thing. So that addresses the accounting of it, but where does the money go? Again, it is in a city of debt and light. So operating? No, it's not used in operations. It is in a standalone account. So is it earning interest in excess of the required or below? I will have to get you information and send something back with that. Well, it has to be collecting money and then paying them more than what we're getting. I would have to ask finance on that. Okay. How do you determine whether you're going to collect one month or two months? Could that be considered as determinatory? In our ordinance on the website, it actually outlines exactly what the criteria are. So if the credit rating is moderate risk, then it is a one month. If it is a severe risk or no credit, then it is a two month. So is there a matrix that you guys have based on a certain credit threshold? Yes. Do you do the same practice for personal accounts forever? No. On a personal account, after 12 months of good payment history and no late payments, you can request to have that brought back or we do quarterly assessments and then we'll refund those. Okay. So why would we deviate from on the business side and then the personal side on that? Again, this was based on recommendations from an independent consultant. Our plan is to bring them back in and before they were looking at both commercial and residential, but they were looking at it as a whole. But to have them come back in and look at commercial versus residential and determine if there are changes in the industry that we may want to consider. Based on what you said the industry is, a third of them actually keep it for the life. So two thirds don't practice what we're doing, correct? Yes. So I don't know that the research really supports our practice. It's a little more complicated than that because of those two thirds that will refund it, a lot of those are going to require it 100% of the time. So when you have that small business that's trying to be established and they've had service with us before, they would still have to pay a deposit on that new account. So there's a little bit more in terms of some of the variables. For a period of time. Right. In terms of looking at it overall. I guess that's where I'm going. I mean, just from what you said, I have no other information other than this five minute deal. But if we don't do it on the personal side forever, we do do it on the commercial side forever, there seems to be a little disconnect there. I don't know that we have the proof to show why we do that, number one. And then if we go to what the industry standards are, we just said that only one third of the industry holds it for life. So that doesn't really prove it. I think we might need to reevaluate that and try to get them a little more consistent with personal versus business on that. And that is why we want to bring in an independent consultant who can look at that and give us a much broader picture on what it is. And the last question I have is, so you said that your loss ratio got above a certain percentage. Now that you've done this, has it significantly improved? Has it improved or has it in what degree? We went from a .42 percent uncollectible debt to a .18 to .25. We ranged in between there. And that's commercial to commercial? No, this is all bad debt. Okay. So what is a commercial piece? How has it changed? We typically have not tracked commercial versus residential. We've simply tracked uncollectible debt. So based on that, if you're not going to differentiate the tracking of the two, then how do we support differentiating the practices on their deposit? I guess would be my question. Again, this is something that's been in place for a significant period of time. I cannot give you all of the methodologies that were there. I can tell you that I don't see it as -- in the research that I've done and looking at things, it's not an uncommon practice. But I would like to be able to have it reviewed and benchmark against the utility industry. I would offer one thing. Your points are well-made and were actually what brought the conversation forward this summer, this past summer, especially about there not being an end date. So even if it's 21% that fail, we don't know if those are disproportionately in the first year, and we could have been predictive of that. Or is there a way to be better with those companies that have demonstrated a long-term success, and yet we're not reversing them on that deposit as well? Your points are spot-on, but I think what prompted the request to maybe review that. So we're continuing to work on that or get more information on it? I think the consideration is to have someone come in and come back in and review that process. I'd like to get an idea of how much dollar amounts total deposits that we have being held between personal or commercial, and as well just to kind of put a dollar amount to this and then figure out, is it being used for the operating budget or is it being held to kind of get to where that money is? If it's an unfunded liability, that's going to be a problem down the road, depending on the dollar amount we have. What we can do is this is intended to be a staff report update that Economic Development Board wouldn't oversee. That'd be like a public utility board function and essentially a council one. So providing a staff update so you can hear your questions, we can provide an update on the information you're asking, and then ultimately when they have the consultant come in, that will go through the public utility board and then council for those any recommended changes or what the consultant has found. Can I just forward my questions to the public utility board? We'll hear them today. I've got them written down and we can follow up. I have a process step to that though. I'd like it to come, if we're going to go consultant, do their analysis, PUB, then council, I'd like to add this body back in there somewhere. Maybe it's already there and I missed it. It certainly can. Our thoughts were, since this belongs, since it's with customer service, it's with rates, it's how they're doing business, this board, I think the lens that we'd like to hear feedback and we certainly can do an update and receive feedback on because we don't want to disincentivize anyone from doing business here, which sounds like the intent is to make sure that we're not doing anything that ultimately hurts business going on. So I think we can certainly add a step in to provide updates as they go through the consulting process. Yeah, it's just selflessly, it saves trees, saves emails, right, because he's going to tell me anyway. So I'd rather just get it here, right, and then that way he may or someone may say something that then it all needs to be considered anyway. And so it's coming either e-comment or email or so why not just on a random Wednesday, knock it out. Any additional questions? These are information only, right? Yes, yeah, no direction. Thank you. Thank you. The next update is Aaron and I are going to talk about, just give a quick update on where we are in the hiring process. I'll start with on the city side, so Wayne Emerson was our director of economic development, put in his notice that he was going to go to Addison at the end of September, I think he vacated in September. Since then we've engaged the Mike Barnes firm, they focus specifically in the economic development industry to conduct a national search. We've received a ton of great applications at a higher level on that salary. I can send you that recruitment brochure to kind of show that range that we're looking in. We did look at the position through the comp study and has ultimately been reclassified up to a higher brand. So we are looking, you know, to get that best candidate. We held a two panel kind of interview process with two candidates that we knew were involved in other national searches right before Christmas. We did extend an offer on the city side to a candidate who was in the DFW Metroplex. He did unfortunately turn it down, so we are continuing to look at the additional resumes. But where we are in the process is we've received a ton of qualified candidates, over 25 on our side. And so we feel confident that we're going to find the best person. And again, I just feel like we're primed, you know, to take the city to that next level with all of these tools that we have. So together and with city leadership and the council, we're looking to make a key hire on our side. So I'll continue to provide an update. That recruitment brochure, if you see it's out on LinkedIn, it's on the Mike Barnes firm, Mike Barnes group firm. It's a really great brochure and we've gotten national candidates who are interested in coming in. So I'm hoping to make a hire in the next month or so. Okay, so kind of like the city, Dan, who was our director of strategic partnerships, they take the position to pursue an MBA at the University of Michigan. We were thrilled for him, but sad to see him go. He did a fantastic job of moving the H-12 partnership forward. He stayed on as a contract employee through the end of December. And so did some behind the scenes filling out RFIs, doing things like that for a small task. So we started to search for the job. We did a couple of interviews at the end of 2023. Jeremy and Brian met with our final candidate. And Christine is going to meet with an individual in the next week or so. They are actually a local candidate. So for us, it's not a traditional economic development job. It is also a partnership role. It's also a relationship role. And so we need someone that's kind of an in-betweener. So we're very excited about the potential hire. I think as long as Christine gives her blessing, so to speak, because we are a partnership and we want to get the city's blessing, we have the blessing of our executive committee. So we should make that hire within the next month. So we go down to one person and we greatly look forward. They've been in debt for a while and they absolutely love the community and are excited for this next opportunity. Any questions? Yes. I have a few. Obviously, I'm not familiar. I mean, I'm new to this. So I will have a lot of questions probably. Are they for me? Are they for me? Well, for this item, not necessarily. I'm a little more familiar on the chamber side. So they're more on the city side, so I don't know. I was going to -- Well, we'll stay up here together. They tied to what -- I'm sorry? Well, we'll stay up here together. Okay. And they tied to what Lee and Tony had mentioned earlier and I bit my tongue earlier. But so -- like obviously the position was posted online and it looks like the starting range was 215. Up to -- I'm sorry? Up to 215. Okay, it says starting range, I'll put it on the left side at 215,000. So I guess my question is that that's a pretty heavy commitment for that position. And being in Denton, I just don't know -- and maybe my perception on economic development is different, but as a community, are we going to support that position enough for them to be successful? And I think we should. And my question is, if we're going to pay someone that much, are they going to be -- are their hands going to be tied? I mean, I don't know. I get this back up and it's on number five, but it talks about incentive reviews that we've done and all that, but I don't know how many successes that we've had in the past 12 calendar months by this report. So if we're going to pay someone that kind of money, which I certainly think we need to -- I think it's the quarterly report, number five, that was in the backup that I printed earlier. But I guess my question is, I don't know -- I mean, obviously we have challenges on how much money we can put towards stuff for incentives and things like that, but what are successes and are we changing our methodology to -- because that seems to me like a pretty big compensation for this position, and they're probably well worth it if they have the ability to go do what they need to do, but are we going to support them as a city in that endeavor? I think I can help with that answer. So we did a -- last year we did a full analysis of what all the funding -- because that's the same question, Jeremy. All right, guys, you know, we don't have a lot of funding to go get businesses. So we put together a full analysis of all the different funding types that the city has between PIDS, between TURNERS, between all the different funding types, and we went through that. And I think with a lot of new board members, that would be worth going through again. And you talked to a lot of brokers, and I think a lot of brokers saw not a lot of stability or high level of performance and knowledge from whoever was in that position. So once we -- I want to say this with respect to the past positions, but we need a person in that position that is very, very professional, that is very interconnected within the Metroplex, which I think is probably what it's going to have to have that can show up to a broker meeting. And with some of the tools -- and I think city council is now being more open to some of those tools, we hope -- that we can have some funding options where it puts the developer -- put money up first. And it's going to take somebody at a high level to understand those, to meet with the city attorney, to meet with developers' attorneys. So I think there's more tools, and I'm anxious to hear what new tools are coming out, that we have in our tackle box that maybe just being -- that our city council hasn't been willing to use in the past, or maybe not even that hasn't been presented to them in the way that they're willing to use it. So I highly support bringing on a very high-level person and seeing if that pays off. But I think to your point, we're going to need backup support if we're going to make that commitment from city council, from this board. This board has turned things down before I was on it, my projects in the past, my personal projects. So this board needs to be accountable to -- like you said before I was involved here -- to be accountable to support those things. So I think we need the city council support to support those things if we're going to make that kind of investment. And that's where I was going with it, is that we actually at this board level need to support that. We're going to hire -- and basically the quote from the deal says, "Starting salary will be in the range of $215,000 with a generous benefit package including TMRS, health insurance, and auto allowance." So it doesn't say that's the cap. It says that's the starting range. So I do think that the city council needs to be supportive of that as well, because otherwise we're going to get someone in here and they're just going to be frustrated, and we're just going to throw away $215,000 and they're going to leave a year later. So I think that's a good point to bring up. Hey, we're ready to -- this board's ready to say let's go. We've got a lot of availability within our city, in office, in warehouse, in lots of things. I'm not speaking for the board, but what I think we should communicate is like, hey, staff has done a great job finding these candidates. We're paying them actually right to get a person that needs to go get this done. Now, when we send our recommendation, hey, we're stepping up. Let's step up. Let's use our toolboxes, make sure everybody's educated on our toolboxes, and let's go get it. Yeah, exactly. It's always right. I mean, we can't compare ourselves to other cities that have additional arrows in their quiver, so to speak, for another analogy. But we need to look at what percentages these other budgets do have so we can know what we're competing against. And we have money in a budget, and we just need to figure out if each budget is being properly supported. And I think if city staff is recommending that dollar amount, that means that the city staff is supporting this, and if we're supporting it, then we just need to make sure we're all on the same page there. I agree 100%, and that we're willing to use the tools we have. Right. Because the tools we have can be beneficial for development without the city putting a ton of dollars up. It's just getting some reimbursements back later, you know, if the projects are successful. And I think the key to that is, I've been saying for years, is understanding what those really are and what's our commitment, because they're complicated. There's attorneys, that's all they do. And so when we look at it, we look at the tip of the icebergs of these things, but really understanding those toolboxes and making sure that we've got support behind us to begin with. Where I was going with some of that is like, the committee hasn't had a meeting since June. We had an economic development for three months after that meeting that there was no meeting that was had. It's been seven months since then. Let's go. How much, I mean, so what's the point paying $215,000 if we're not even going to meet monthly? Well, it's because the problem is without that person, you don't have people bringing new business in. Okay, but what about July, August, and September when he was here? My point. That's why I asked the point, are we paying the right guy, paying enough money to have the right guy in the position. In the past, I think knowing all those guys, it's kind of, it's been a filler position. And I think it's important we invest in the right person so that we can have these meetings and be approved incentives. That's what I'm after. So we need to take the time and get a lot of the applicants. We should be able to get some really good applicants. We should take our time and get the right person. And I think this is what we've been doing. I asked Christine if I could talk first. This is really exciting for us to see. I mean, I think it's a totally different conversation. Lee is always so supportive of staff, and I know when Lee left the Chamber Board, I was excited for him to still be on this board, and I'm excited, Jeremy, for this line. When we're questioning economic development staff, I will tell you Jeremy is on the Chamber Board, and he's on our executive committee. And these questions prompt the ability to move forward because the questions help drive direction forward. And I know that having these types of conversations enable us to work harder, to understand where we're going, to get to where we're going. And I think this type of conversation, different from where we were months ago, is this board is saying we believe in economic development. And I'm glad, Mayor, you're here hearing this, and I'm glad Councilmember Meltzer is here at home hearing this, and I'm glad Councilmember Berg is hearing this, because I think all of us believe in the ability of Denton right now to do the work that needs to be done, and you all are saying we will invest in this, and Christine and I collectively know that these next two hires are very strategic for our teams, and we're committed to that. And that's why earlier I said we've been meeting weekly, and it's not just to check it off our list, it's because we want to make sure we get the job done and we get the job done correctly, and for now, just now, for the future. And so, Jeremy, that we're on the end of the-- I mean, we just all win if there's more businesses here and everything. I mean, whether you're investments, whether you're in banking, whether you're in construction, you know, everybody here wins on that, and the city wins in a tax base, and I just want to make sure we're not throwing money away is all I'm saying. 100 percent. We need to support it. And Jeremy, I'm glad you brought that up, because it also made me think about, you know, if we are making this investment at a staff level, at this kind of chamber level, at the EDC level, I'm glad you brought that up for the council to hear, like, "Hey, we're going all in on this thing. This board's ready to be meeting, looking at incentives every month." And I think it's good for council to hear that, and by bringing up that, I think they kind of brought that to the surface, because if we can do that, that proves a win, right? And, you know, we've done a few incentives and they've won, but the only one that's ended up in the newspapers is the one in the last however many years that it -- what was perceived didn't work. We've done a lot of them, so I think it would be good to even present a report of our incentives we've done over the last 10 years and show that a bunch of them are winners. And I think that would help shut me up, probably, because when I get the report, I just didn't see -- I didn't see that. I know, we don't need you to show it. Or you take a vote on that. It's not going to happen more than that. It kind of felt like a threat. Excuse me. I have to step away just real quick for an hour call. Yes, doctor? I think it's important for us to understand -- I was on the scope board at the time. We brought the Career and Technology Center here. And so this district's 100% invested in what we're trying to do, but they don't have the same tools that we have, although training and those kind of things are there. And behind the scenes we're even talking about maybe trying to get a second Career and Technology Center because the district's getting that large. But I think the individual players -- and I ran for school board because I thought the city was totally dysfunctional and I could do more good over there to economic development by increasing the quality of schools and things like that. I think we're all trying to come together now. Correct. So when we make these two strategic hires -- I know Lee offered this to me when I first took the job. I was incredibly appreciative of it -- we will call on you to meet with these two new people to understand the ins and outs and the guts and the pipelines and the workforce development that you all have built to today. And being on this board, we hope you take the call and you help us build these next two individuals and get them running. And like Christine said, the term that we've been using is gunslinger, hunter, fisher, gatherer, hunting, fishing, loving, whatever we're doing, we just appreciate your support. So thank you in these conversations. While we haven't met for several months, I think this is helping us understand that this does matter. And obviously we're the two up here, but there are people on the chamber team and there are definitely people on the economic development team that have been doing the work in the meantime, and they are absolutely a dynamic team, and I'm very happy to work with them each and every day. I think just the three things I wanted to add is that I heard the messaging loud and clear from council and the city administration that economic development has to be a priority and made back to that by our comp study. So the salary is what we're seeing in the market to be competitive. Another initiative that we've changed is that I want whoever we hire to be out actively recruiting for the businesses we want, not waiting for someone to come in. So that's what we're looking for. And that other piece is we'll update you on the next meeting of those tools. Council has added two very important tools to our toolbox to help us be more competitive for businesses to be here. Sounds like everybody's on the same page. Let's go. Yeah, as long as we hold them accountable and have metrics in place that they have to go to. Absolutely. So I have a question. When we're talking to those candidates, give me a day in the life of that conversation, right? Are we talking about outside of they know we're located, they know all those things, right? What do we bring to that conversation and say, hey, do we give them samples of, what would you do in this scenario, or here's opportunity reports that have gone unworked while we're in this void, but here's kind of just conversations, activity. What do we do around setting the table for them to understand what they're stepping into? We worked a lot. Our chief communications officer, myself, and the national recruiter worked a lot on that brochure to just lay out what the lay of the land is, what tools we have, what's happening in the community, what's going to come online with the wood, what are we looking at, so they understand that before they apply. The pre-screening kind of vets out, what kind of caliber economic development director are you? We're looking for proven economic development history, versus kind of just saying, I have this many years. So the recruiter is actively working on, show me what projects you've actually completed, what deals you've done before they get to the city. Now, when they get to us, we did a pre-screening, and then we had in with staff two kind of panel interviews where we're focusing on talk to us about your philosophies on incentives. What do you feel? What are the projects where you've had things go wrong, talking through just how they approach? How would you go out and actively recruit? Where do you think we're missing the mark? Where do we need to be? So we're focused more on what are they going to do for the city when they come into this position? What do they expect to change? And what do they think we're missing if we aren't viable and set up for that business? So what was it -- we made an offer, someone applied. We made an offer to them, and then they rejected it. What was it that we -- at the city of Denton, that they did not -- that turned them off? I actually called and I said, I'd like to have a follow-up with you, and I had a really good, in-depth conversation with the person. They were in the DFW Metroplex, and the other city that they're working for are not in TMRS. They are so self-funded. So he had 20 years invested in that retirement system, and then he was living on the south side of Fort Worth and said to drive. So it was not things that ultimately I feel were an issue for us. He said, you know, Denton -- we've got to get back on the map of being open for business. And so he was ready for that challenge, had really good plans for it. But the two things that ultimately led to his decision were his pension and the drive, things I couldn't control. But I did want to know, like, what -- is there something I'm missing? Because this is the caliber director I'm looking for. Thanks for asking. And I think Christine just said it best is we have to get back on the map and be open for business. And I think that is a charge that collectively and collaboratively we can take hold of and make a mission of this body. And definitely through our partnership and this team, that is a charge we do every day. But he did make one other comment, and I'm going to make sure I make it really clear when candidates come in. I'm a little nervous that we made the offer that day. He said, because typically with municipal hires, it's a very lengthy process, and I said, we're ready to go. So I'll make sure that candidates know that going in that -- So you just hold off for, like, two weeks? There you go. [laughter] I felt it would be flattering. I felt great to offer, but that was the only thing that I did with him out of control. So I'll make sure we're -- You can't win. That sounds like a dream. Four hours. [laughter] I know, right? Good. Okay, and we'll go ahead and keep this as an ongoing topic until we get them hired. The last three items on there, we don't have a representative to come up and talk about them. They are either updates or carryovers from that June meeting. If there are additional questions, we can try to answer them. But it was just intended to be an informational update to the board. Anybody else have any other questions? So I guess we need a motion to adjourn. We still have two more items, right? She just said they weren't here. I do have one concluding item, if that's okay, Tony. Absolutely. Do one of y'all want to give an overview of what we decided or what we talked about or direction? Can we do that yet on downtown decision? If we can't do that yet, then that can come back at a future date. We have an item. We did a closed session item yesterday with council about a potential incentive. They gave really clear direction. And so I'll post that as an item to cover in the February meeting. Yeah, and kind of a new conversation on what's built in. Yeah, we need to do that. Kind of a general overview of that. Sure. Yeah, we provided an update to council yesterday in closed session. Here's what we know is going on in the square, which I think helps coordinate the question and talk about incidentals. So I'll post that on the February agenda. I'll work with Steve and Tony and see what we heard today to make sure we have that agenda so that we're here meeting every month, talking about what's important. And one other conclusion, I will say this. I solicit your input truly. If you've not seen, Portillo's is going in right next to At Home. And if you didn't know, Dick's Sports is going next to At Home. That's what's being built there. But my point is, Portillo's, I'll talk to staff, but y'all are out and about regularly. I'm talking to them about how to control that traffic. If you haven't seen the one in the colony, and it's right at the entrance. That's the last thing we need is more problems for that service road. So I'm talking to them, but just in the way of soliciting information going forward, think about that, and as you drive by, I'd ask for your feedback. Mr. Chair, I think we're back to the point of public adjournment. Okay, do I need a motion to adjourn, or do I just say thank you everyone? And give a time stamp, 1235. 1235, so let it be written. And there's lunch, and there's work. Thank you.