1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,120
 >> Yes, I know, but I want to get it if they lose it.

2
00:00:05,120 --> 00:00:07,980
 All right, we'll get started.

3
00:00:07,980 --> 00:00:08,640
 >> That's me?

4
00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:09,520
 >> That's you.

5
00:00:09,520 --> 00:00:12,220
 >> All right, everyone, good morning.

6
00:00:12,220 --> 00:00:18,360
 Steve Edgar, I'm sitting in for Jill until she gets here, hopefully.

7
00:00:18,360 --> 00:00:19,400
 Is she going to be here?

8
00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:21,960
 All right, I'm sitting here for Jill.

9
00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:26,300
 And the first order, I'd like to call the meeting formally to order.

10
00:00:26,300 --> 00:00:32,820
 The first agenda item is an election of a chair and vice chair for the partnership board.

11
00:00:32,820 --> 00:00:44,560
 >> All right, we have had internet connectivity issues the past day,

12
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 so we lost the network connectivity to our folders.

13
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 I'm not able to pull up the information sheet.

14
00:00:50,520 --> 00:00:53,840
 I do have it printed, so I'll quickly run over the item.

15
00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:55,600
 Welcome, anyone who is new.

16
00:00:55,600 --> 00:00:58,960
 This is the economic development partnership board meeting.

17
00:00:58,960 --> 00:01:02,800
 I'm Christine Taylor, the assistant city manager over economic development.

18
00:01:02,800 --> 00:01:09,360
 We do have a vacancy with Lane Emerson, so I'm the B team stepping in until we get someone hired.

19
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 I work closely with Aaron Carter, who is the chamber president who oversees our economic development partnership.

20
00:01:14,840 --> 00:01:21,360
 So this first item as a body for you all is to elect a chairperson and a vice chair from your members.

21
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 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.

22
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 And the eligible members are Rick Walford, I apologize if I put your name.

23
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 Gerard Cuspeth, Jason Tomlinson, Paul Meltzer, he is out sick today.

24
00:01:44,240 --> 00:01:54,480
 Jeremy Fiedeckx, Jimmy Mejia, Kerry Gorey, Lee Ramsey, Steve Edgar, Aaron Roberts, Brian Danoff, and Tony Clark.

25
00:01:54,480 --> 00:02:04,880
 So if anyone is interested in making a motion for anyone who would like to serve as the chair.

26
00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:11,120
 Do we have opportunity for comment first, or does it go right in?

27
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 Make your nomination and then you can discuss.

28
00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:16,880
 Okay.

29
00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:17,520
 B team.

30
00:02:17,520 --> 00:02:23,280
 I think I just indicated I shouldn't be the board chair.

31
00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:24,800
 That is true.

32
00:02:24,800 --> 00:02:30,240
 Well, I would like to nominate Steve as our board chair.

33
00:02:30,240 --> 00:02:33,680
 You've been serving the assistant board, the chairman for a number of years.

34
00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:35,840
 We've been on this together for a long time.

35
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 I think you understand the dynamics of it with all the new players here.

36
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 I think if you would accept that role, I would certainly think it would be a great opportunity for us to continue that.

37
00:02:45,840 --> 00:02:50,320
 So I would nominate Steve as our new chairman for this coming year.

38
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 I'd second it if Tony says it's good.

39
00:02:57,520 --> 00:02:59,840
 No, that's a new discussion.

40
00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:02,880
 Do you accept the nomination?

41
00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:07,280
 Yeah, that's what I wanted to have the conversation for.

42
00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:12,640
 Certainly, I thank you for that question.

43
00:03:12,640 --> 00:03:13,360
 Okay.

44
00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:23,120
 Any other nominations or have a vote?

45
00:03:23,120 --> 00:03:25,280
 Okay, that's for me to call a vote on me.

46
00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:31,120
 So all those in favor indicate by saying aye.

47
00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:31,920
 Aye.

48
00:03:31,920 --> 00:03:33,760
 Any opposed?

49
00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:36,000
 Please feel free.

50
00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:37,280
 All right, that measure carries.

51
00:03:37,280 --> 00:03:44,720
 So then we move into the vice chair with the same eligibility from everyone here other than you.

52
00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:50,800
 Yeah, that's the lighter.

53
00:03:50,800 --> 00:03:56,400
 Well, being the new guy, but knowing Tony's been around a while, I nominate Tony Clark to be vice chair.

54
00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:59,680
 Second.

55
00:03:59,680 --> 00:04:02,720
 I think it'd be great.

56
00:04:02,720 --> 00:04:06,720
 Opportunity for comment.

57
00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:07,840
 No comments.

58
00:04:07,840 --> 00:04:11,680
 Go forward with the vote for Tony.

59
00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:14,400
 That seems fair to me.

60
00:04:14,400 --> 00:04:17,280
 Obviously, I can't turn that down.

61
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 Be your wingman here.

62
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 Thank you, Tony.

63
00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:21,280
 And we'll take that to vote.

64
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 All in favor signify by saying aye.

65
00:04:23,040 --> 00:04:23,840
 Aye.

66
00:04:23,840 --> 00:04:26,640
 Any opposed?

67
00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:27,040
 All right.

68
00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:32,480
 Congratulations, Tony, and thank you.

69
00:04:32,480 --> 00:04:46,800
 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.

70
00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:49,200
 Have a move, please, and a second.

71
00:04:49,200 --> 00:04:50,960
 Second.

72
00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:52,640
 Any conversation around it?

73
00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:56,160
 Any corrections?

74
00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:58,400
 All right.

75
00:04:58,400 --> 00:05:02,080
 Motion for?

76
00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:02,800
 I've got comment.

77
00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:04,640
 What do we have?

78
00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:05,120
 What do we need?

79
00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:06,000
 Just ask you for the motion.

80
00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:07,440
 Who made the motion?

81
00:05:07,440 --> 00:05:08,000
 It was Lee.

82
00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:08,400
 Thank you.

83
00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:10,080
 Did you all speak up just a little bit?

84
00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:12,080
 Because we are using the microphones in the ceiling.

85
00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:15,520
 We want to make sure we capture everything.

86
00:05:15,520 --> 00:05:16,400
 You got everything.

87
00:05:16,400 --> 00:05:16,880
 Perfect.

88
00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:17,840
 All right.

89
00:05:17,840 --> 00:05:20,000
 All in favor signify by saying aye.

90
00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:20,480
 Aye.

91
00:05:20,480 --> 00:05:22,640
 Any opposed?

92
00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:24,160
 That motion carries as well.

93
00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:27,120
 Thank you.

94
00:05:27,120 --> 00:05:28,000
 Just keep on rolling.

95
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:35,120
 We're into item C now, the consideration of recommendation for ordinance of the city.

96
00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:38,720
 Conversation around that is being led by?

97
00:05:38,720 --> 00:05:39,600
 Are you doing that, Christine?

98
00:05:39,600 --> 00:05:40,640
 OK.

99
00:05:40,640 --> 00:05:41,920
 OK, good morning again.

100
00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:44,800
 Again, I'm Christine Taylor of Assistant City Manager.

101
00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:47,760
 Eric Carter and I are going to be presenting this item together.

102
00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:55,280
 So the city contracts with the Chamber of Commerce for the Economic Development Partnership through a funding agreement.

103
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 A little background on this agreement.

104
00:05:57,040 --> 00:06:01,520
 The city and the chamber entered into the partnership in 1986.

105
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 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.

106
00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:39,840
 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.

107
00:06:39,840 --> 00:06:47,360
 So in 2019, the chamber approved a new format of the agreement that allowed for incorporation of a work plan.

108
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 And that came with more details related to the ongoing partnership and division responsibilities, along with reporting requirements.

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 The existing agreement is a one year and was extended for three twenty three twenty four.

110
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 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.

111
00:07:17,200 --> 00:07:21,920
 The city has gone through a compensation study and significantly increased salaries.

112
00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:30,800
 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.

113
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 So this fifty thousand dollars was subsequently approved by the city to include in the budget.

114
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 At the end of that fiscal year, we lost Wayne Emerson, who was our economic development director.

115
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 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.

116
00:07:50,640 --> 00:08:05,360
 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?

117
00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:09,520
 The chamber is so in touch with the business community and what's going on.

118
00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:14,400
 We wanted to realign and maybe take some of those work plan items and swap them.

119
00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:28,880
 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.

120
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 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.

121
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 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.

122
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 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.

123
00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:16,880
 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.

124
00:09:16,880 --> 00:09:25,600
 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.

125
00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:34,720
 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.

126
00:09:55,600 --> 00:10:22,720
 Technology is a key strength of mine, so I don't need to be doing this right now.

127
00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:33,920
 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.

128
00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:44,160
 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.

129
00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:53,520
 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.

130
00:10:53,520 --> 00:11:01,200
 Christine and I have been meeting every week now for a good period of time to really clarify what we will be doing.

131
00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:07,600
 Obviously, we office in with the city at the development services center and it's been a really good opportunity.

132
00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:19,200
 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.

133
00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:32,080
 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.

134
00:11:32,080 --> 00:11:43,200
 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.

135
00:11:43,200 --> 00:11:54,000
 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.

136
00:11:54,000 --> 00:12:08,480
 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.

137
00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:22,560
 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.

138
00:12:22,560 --> 00:12:41,040
 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.

139
00:12:41,040 --> 00:12:49,760
 Obviously, I put little checks next to them because we completed all of those things within the contract window.

140
00:12:49,760 --> 00:13:03,680
 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.

141
00:13:03,680 --> 00:13:16,640
 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.

142
00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:29,920
 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.

143
00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:45,760
 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.

144
00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:58,720
 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.

145
00:13:58,720 --> 00:14:11,360
 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.

146
00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:21,280
 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.

147
00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:30,480
 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.

148
00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:42,240
 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.

149
00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:56,400
 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?

150
00:14:56,400 --> 00:15:08,000
 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.

151
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:19,680
 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.

152
00:15:19,680 --> 00:15:29,120
 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.

153
00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:41,760
 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.

154
00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:59,200
 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.

155
00:15:59,200 --> 00:16:15,840
 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.

156
00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:32,480
 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.

157
00:16:32,480 --> 00:16:40,000
 We will continue to do those videos to make them accessible to individuals looking to relocate to debt and with their business.

158
00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:55,920
 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.

159
00:16:55,920 --> 00:17:14,400
 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.

160
00:17:14,400 --> 00:17:28,160
 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.

161
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:46,400
 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.

162
00:17:46,400 --> 00:18:00,720
 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.

163
00:18:00,720 --> 00:18:16,800
 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.

164
00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:32,160
 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.

165
00:18:32,160 --> 00:18:47,840
 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.

166
00:18:47,840 --> 00:19:02,400
 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.

167
00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:12,080
 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.

168
00:19:12,080 --> 00:19:21,840
 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.

169
00:19:21,840 --> 00:19:32,720
 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.

170
00:19:32,720 --> 00:19:42,800
 And this has really optimized the way we're able to communicate with businesses to strengthen the opportunity to understand the need to partner.

171
00:19:42,800 --> 00:19:48,880
 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.

172
00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:54,160
 But the EDP helps debt and businesses thrive amidst challenges and fuel continued growth.

173
00:19:54,160 --> 00:20:01,920
 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.

174
00:20:01,920 --> 00:20:12,240
 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.

175
00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:20,560
 The EDP has helped to develop talent pipelines. There are many of our UNT, TWU and debt and ISD partners in this room.

176
00:20:20,560 --> 00:20:26,080
 Those are some of our most strategic partnerships and I would be remiss to leave out NCTC.

177
00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:33,520
 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.

178
00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:36,640
 So that's something we'll continue to work on.

179
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:45,520
 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.

180
00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:53,200
 I think that's huge for the city. We submitted 58 RFPs which led to 40 new industrial leases.

181
00:20:53,200 --> 00:21:00,880
 46 companies and brokers were engaged and we did engage 100% of our major industrial brokers in debt.

182
00:21:00,880 --> 00:21:08,880
 So that's why relationships matter to us. They will always be top of mind. We are always available to each of you.

183
00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:17,440
 Something that people often don't know we do is we do fund a partnership with the SBDC, the Small Business Development Center.

184
00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:25,760
 New businesses started through relationships with the SBDC or 72. Jobs supported were a little over 3,000.

185
00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:32,320
 Unique clients served were like under 800 and a capital infusion of under 40,000.

186
00:21:32,320 --> 00:21:39,600
 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.

187
00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:43,120
 It also is about supporting small business growth here in Denton.

188
00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:50,320
 And then as a reminder, the EDP is also supported by private investment.

189
00:21:50,320 --> 00:21:56,880
 The Chamber of Commerce is contractually obligated to raise $125,000 from the business community.

190
00:21:56,880 --> 00:22:04,880
 Funds do not come from Chamber memberships. Support is raised specifically for economic development efforts.

191
00:22:04,880 --> 00:22:15,120
 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.

192
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:19,120
 Companies in all of the city's strategic growth areas are represented.

193
00:22:19,120 --> 00:22:28,320
 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.

194
00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:39,440
 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.

195
00:22:39,440 --> 00:22:46,880
 We work most closely, obviously, with planning, zoning, permitting, techs, and the wonderful team in economic development.

196
00:22:46,880 --> 00:22:56,480
 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.

197
00:22:56,480 --> 00:23:08,400
 Is this our time just to come in on this or kind of discuss the whole?

198
00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:15,360
 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.

199
00:23:15,360 --> 00:23:24,160
 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.

200
00:23:24,160 --> 00:23:28,960
 One year, it's kind of the honeymoon period. Two years, it's working.

201
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:36,560
 Two is, I think $25,000 is like, hey, let's appease everybody if they've got $25,000, right?

202
00:23:36,560 --> 00:23:51,520
 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.

203
00:23:51,520 --> 00:24:01,200
 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.

204
00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:07,040
 Two is, we've had a very, that's existing space and then growing existing business may be bringing that.

205
00:24:07,040 --> 00:24:14,880
 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.

206
00:24:14,880 --> 00:24:28,800
 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.

207
00:24:28,800 --> 00:24:39,040
 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.

208
00:24:39,040 --> 00:24:52,560
 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.

209
00:24:52,560 --> 00:25:06,000
 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.

210
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:19,840
 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.

211
00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:27,280
 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.

212
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:37,040
 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.

213
00:25:37,040 --> 00:25:47,760
 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.

214
00:25:47,760 --> 00:25:59,760
 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.

215
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:07,120
 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?

216
00:26:07,120 --> 00:26:16,080
 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.

217
00:26:16,080 --> 00:26:27,760
 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.

218
00:26:27,760 --> 00:26:37,520
 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.

219
00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:47,520
 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.

220
00:26:47,520 --> 00:26:59,920
 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.

221
00:26:59,920 --> 00:27:14,320
 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.

222
00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:20,000
 And I just want to make sure whatever we do, we can hire really good quality people that are going to be long term.

223
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:32,560
 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.

224
00:27:32,560 --> 00:27:46,640
 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.

225
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:55,840
 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.

226
00:27:55,840 --> 00:28:10,240
 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.

227
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:19,600
 Is this a voting or information?

228
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:37,200
 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.

229
00:28:37,200 --> 00:28:54,400
 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.

230
00:28:54,400 --> 00:29:09,760
 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.

231
00:29:09,760 --> 00:29:27,840
 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.

232
00:29:27,840 --> 00:29:48,560
 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.

233
00:29:48,560 --> 00:30:04,560
 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.

234
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:21,040
 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.

235
00:30:21,040 --> 00:30:44,880
 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.

236
00:30:44,880 --> 00:30:58,560
 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.

237
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:17,280
 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.

238
00:31:17,280 --> 00:31:32,880
 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.

239
00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:48,240
 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.

240
00:31:48,240 --> 00:32:16,560
 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.

241
00:32:16,560 --> 00:32:20,320
 And I would say that's helped both of us truly understand what we need to be doing.

242
00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:21,600
 Thank you.

243
00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:45,360
 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.

244
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:53,360
 That's why we like you so much, you rephrased it back then. That's why you print the packet of it.

245
00:32:53,360 --> 00:33:06,400
 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?

246
00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:14,080
 Move approval of the recommendation presented under EDP 24-007.

247
00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:19,840
 All second. And a second. Any further conversation?

248
00:33:19,840 --> 00:33:35,040
 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.

249
00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:52,240
 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.

250
00:33:52,240 --> 00:34:05,840
 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.

251
00:34:05,840 --> 00:34:22,320
 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.

252
00:34:22,320 --> 00:34:47,760
 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.

253
00:34:47,760 --> 00:34:53,280
 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-

254
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:54,480
 We're calling up gun fighters.

255
00:34:54,480 --> 00:35:15,920
 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.

256
00:35:15,920 --> 00:35:45,680
 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,

257
00:35:45,680 --> 00:36:15,600
 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

258
00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:19,200
 we present those things, but there's some absolute advantages.

259
00:36:19,200 --> 00:36:27,200
 Any other metaphors that we want to bring forward?

260
00:36:27,200 --> 00:36:29,200
 Yeah, yeah, let's get them all in.

261
00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:32,800
 I'll take some notes, I got them later.

262
00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:34,800
 We'll start infiltrating this.

263
00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:44,400
 Yeah, as I said last night, a word's worth a thousand pictures.

264
00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:46,400
 Yes.

265
00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:48,400
 That was free for you.

266
00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:50,400
 I'm writing that down.

267
00:36:50,400 --> 00:36:52,400
 Alright, are we ready to move to vote?

268
00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:54,400
 We have a motion and a second.

269
00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:56,400
 All in favor signify by saying aye.

270
00:36:56,400 --> 00:36:58,400
 Any opposed?

271
00:36:58,400 --> 00:37:00,400
 The motion carries.

272
00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:02,400
 Thank you.

273
00:37:02,400 --> 00:37:04,400
 We'll bring this to council on the 23rd.

274
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:08,400
 I apologize, I have to step out and take a call real quick and I'll be back.

275
00:37:08,400 --> 00:37:16,400
 As the chair.

276
00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:18,400
 Alright.

277
00:37:18,400 --> 00:37:26,400
 I'm going to act as chair.

278
00:37:26,400 --> 00:37:30,400
 I did get a message that Councilmember Meltzer is watching.

279
00:37:30,400 --> 00:37:32,400
 He was unable to attend, but he wanted to pass along.

280
00:37:32,400 --> 00:37:34,400
 He is watching online and following along.

281
00:37:34,400 --> 00:37:50,400
 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.

282
00:37:50,400 --> 00:37:56,400
 We don't have the exhibit likely because of our internet, but Christina Davis is going to walk you through this item.

283
00:38:04,400 --> 00:38:16,400
 So I'm not sure if everyone here knows, but the Downtown Economic Development Committee is a subcommittee of the Economic Development Partnership Board.

284
00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:28,400
 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.

285
00:38:28,400 --> 00:38:35,400
 So our last chair was Jesse Davis, as he was the county, but he also happened to be a council member.

286
00:38:35,400 --> 00:38:43,400
 So we're looking to feel, we're going to re-appoint existing members who are eligible to be re-appointed.

287
00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:49,400
 And then we're going to appoint a couple of new people to fill vacant positions.

288
00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:56,400
 And then we'll also appoint a person from the ADP board to be the chair of the DEDEC.

289
00:38:56,400 --> 00:38:58,400
 So we'll go through each one of these.

290
00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:03,400
 Jason Voder is a downtown property owner and business owner.

291
00:39:03,400 --> 00:39:08,400
 He is due to be re-appointed. He would like to be re-appointed.

292
00:39:08,400 --> 00:39:13,400
 Melissa Lindenberg is also a property owner. She's eligible to be re-appointed.

293
00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:20,400
 And Beth Lewis is the Texas Homes University representative, and she's also eligible to be re-appointed.

294
00:39:20,400 --> 00:39:26,400
 Tracy Long is the, or was the Denton Main Street Association representative on the board.

295
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:30,400
 Her term ended on that board, and there is a replacement for her.

296
00:39:30,400 --> 00:39:43,400
 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.

297
00:39:43,400 --> 00:39:50,400
 So what we're asking you to do today is to re-appoint Jason, Melissa and Beth.

298
00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:57,400
 And then in place of Tracy Long and Georgina, we would like to ask you to appoint Kristen Bigley,

299
00:39:57,400 --> 00:40:12,400
 who is now the Main Street manager, and Chrissy Oden, who is the new Greater Denton Arts Council executive director.

300
00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:20,400
 Do we have any questions?

301
00:40:20,400 --> 00:40:22,400
 Did we get a recommendation from this board?

302
00:40:22,400 --> 00:40:32,400
 Yes, so this board actually appoints and re-appoints members to the data, because it's a subcommittee of this board.

303
00:40:32,400 --> 00:40:33,400
 Do we need to make a motion?

304
00:40:33,400 --> 00:40:39,400
 So Steve Gohn, I guess I would like to have a motion to approve those recommendations.

305
00:40:39,400 --> 00:40:40,400
 So moved.

306
00:40:40,400 --> 00:40:41,400
 Second.

307
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:42,400
 Third.

308
00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:43,400
 Okay.

309
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:52,400
 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.

310
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:57,400
 In periods of years, someone has volunteered.

311
00:40:57,400 --> 00:40:59,400
 What are the time commitments?

312
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:04,400
 The time commitment for this board, this board meets the first Thursday of every month at 8.30 in the morning.

313
00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:12,400
 It's generally an hour meeting. The committee covers items that are part of downtown.

314
00:41:12,400 --> 00:41:19,400
 So anything having to do with downtown, they also assist with things like the downtown parking study.

315
00:41:19,400 --> 00:41:22,400
 They help filter some information for the ambassador program.

316
00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:27,400
 They also assist in the downtown reinvestment grant approval process.

317
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:29,400
 And where do they meet? Did you say that?

318
00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:33,400
 They meet at our building at the Development Service Center.

319
00:41:33,400 --> 00:41:38,400
 I'd like to nominate Jeremy Fox.

320
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:49,400
 So we have a nomination for that slot, Mr. Jeremy Fox.

321
00:41:49,400 --> 00:41:54,400
 Mr. Jeremy, is that something that you'd like to do or have an interest in?

322
00:41:54,400 --> 00:41:56,400
 It's a one-year commitment, right?

323
00:41:56,400 --> 00:42:01,400
 It's a two-year commitment.

324
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:03,400
 Two years is a new one-year.

325
00:42:03,400 --> 00:42:05,400
 You've been hanging around Aaron.

326
00:42:05,400 --> 00:42:09,400
 Hi, Jeremy. Thanks so much for coming here. It's so good to see you.

327
00:42:09,400 --> 00:42:13,400
 I would like to say we do have a committee of 13 people.

328
00:42:13,400 --> 00:42:17,400
 They're very engaged. We have excellent attendance on this committee.

329
00:42:17,400 --> 00:42:23,400
 And we only meet when we have action items, so it's not going to be -- in the last year we had four meetings.

330
00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:24,400
 Okay, yeah.

331
00:42:24,400 --> 00:42:25,400
 So --

332
00:42:25,400 --> 00:42:26,400
 Well, before that, is there anybody really --

333
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:28,400
 Before that, I mean, it could be 12, but --

334
00:42:28,400 --> 00:42:31,400
 Anybody that really wants to do that, is there somebody that --

335
00:42:31,400 --> 00:42:32,400
 Anyone have a passion for downtown?

336
00:42:32,400 --> 00:42:36,400
 Yeah, there.

337
00:42:36,400 --> 00:42:37,400
 But you got --

338
00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:44,400
 I'm the guy. I'm the guy.

339
00:42:44,400 --> 00:42:49,400
 Okay, so we do have a motion to approve Jeremy and the other --

340
00:42:49,400 --> 00:42:52,400
 The staff is just telling me that Paul Meltzer is also interested.

341
00:42:52,400 --> 00:42:58,400
 Okay.

342
00:42:58,400 --> 00:43:02,400
 If no one else is interested, is that fine?

343
00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:03,400
 I'm fine. I'm fine with it.

344
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:07,400
 Yeah, we got a motion that we've got to deal with.

345
00:43:07,400 --> 00:43:09,400
 Do we have a motion? We have a second.

346
00:43:09,400 --> 00:43:10,400
 Okay.

347
00:43:10,400 --> 00:43:11,400
 Any other questions, comments?

348
00:43:11,400 --> 00:43:12,400
 All in favor, aye.

349
00:43:12,400 --> 00:43:13,400
 All right.

350
00:43:13,400 --> 00:43:14,400
 Any opposed?

351
00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:15,400
 Clarification.

352
00:43:15,400 --> 00:43:16,400
 Yeah.

353
00:43:16,400 --> 00:43:18,400
 Did we already vote on the people the first time?

354
00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:19,400
 Yes.

355
00:43:19,400 --> 00:43:20,400
 Okay.

356
00:43:20,400 --> 00:43:21,400
 Good one.

357
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:22,400
 Okay.

358
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:23,400
 So Jeremy?

359
00:43:23,400 --> 00:43:24,400
 Yes, ma'am.

360
00:43:24,400 --> 00:43:25,400
 Welcome aboard.

361
00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:26,400
 Thank you.

362
00:43:26,400 --> 00:43:27,400
 Christina, can I just ask you a question?

363
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:28,400
 Yes.

364
00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:29,400
 Hopefully, I'll appreciate that.

365
00:43:29,400 --> 00:43:30,400
 Is Hank still on the board?

366
00:43:30,400 --> 00:43:31,400
 It's going to cost me.

367
00:43:31,400 --> 00:43:32,400
 Yes.

368
00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:33,400
 Can we change his seat?

369
00:43:33,400 --> 00:43:36,400
 Because he's not really with the University of Texas.

370
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:37,400
 Oh, that's -- you're right.

371
00:43:37,400 --> 00:43:38,400
 Yeah.

372
00:43:38,400 --> 00:43:39,400
 He's with the chamber.

373
00:43:39,400 --> 00:43:40,400
 He's with the chamber.

374
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:41,400
 Yes.

375
00:43:41,400 --> 00:43:42,400
 Can we change his affiliation?

376
00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:43,400
 We will.

377
00:43:43,400 --> 00:43:44,400
 Okay.

378
00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:45,400
 Thank you for catching up.

379
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:46,400
 Oh, can I -- obviously, I'm going to be getting information on that.

380
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:52,400
 Can I make sure that it goes to my G&TY email, as opposed to the Yahoo email?

381
00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:57,400
 I'm getting them on both spots, and then I thought I corrected it, but then I got some

382
00:43:57,400 --> 00:43:59,400
 more stuff this week at the Yahoo, and I just -- I missed it.

383
00:43:59,400 --> 00:44:00,400
 Okay.

384
00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:01,400
 We'll get it, thanks.

385
00:44:01,400 --> 00:44:02,400
 Okay.

386
00:44:02,400 --> 00:44:03,400
 All right.

387
00:44:03,400 --> 00:44:04,400
 Are we good?

388
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:05,400
 Okay.

389
00:44:05,400 --> 00:44:06,400
 Thank you.

390
00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:07,400
 [inaudible]

391
00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:16,400
 Next up on the agenda, receiver and board hold discussion and staff directions for the

392
00:44:16,400 --> 00:44:21,400
 meeting dates and times for our meetings in 2024.

393
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:24,400
 I'm busy the first Thursday of this month.

394
00:44:24,400 --> 00:44:25,400
 [laughter]

395
00:44:25,400 --> 00:44:30,400
 I'll bring you direct.

396
00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:38,400
 Christine Taylor, Assistant City Manager.

397
00:44:38,400 --> 00:44:42,400
 So, annually, in addition to appointing the chair and vice chair, this committee needs

398
00:44:42,400 --> 00:44:43,400
 to set the meeting dates and times.

399
00:44:43,400 --> 00:45:01,400
 I apologize, I'm trying to pull this up.

400
00:45:01,400 --> 00:45:02,400
 Currently, the board is set to meet monthly.

401
00:45:02,400 --> 00:45:09,400
 We did have a conversation with last year's board about the potential of moving to a quarterly

402
00:45:09,400 --> 00:45:10,400
 basis.

403
00:45:10,400 --> 00:45:14,400
 Ultimately, the chair and the board decided that you would like to continue to meet monthly.

404
00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:17,400
 If there weren't meeting topics, the meetings can always be canceled.

405
00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:23,400
 So, we'd like to talk about are you interested in continuing to meet monthly, or are you interested

406
00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:26,400
 in continuing to move to a quarterly basis.

407
00:45:26,400 --> 00:45:29,400
 Attached in your backup was a list of potential meeting dates.

408
00:45:29,400 --> 00:45:35,400
 The board currently meets monthly on the second Wednesday at 11 o'clock in the day, and we're

409
00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:40,400
 looking at approximately an hour and a half time commitment, and that backup kind of outlined

410
00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:41,400
 the meeting dates.

411
00:45:41,400 --> 00:45:46,400
 So, we're looking for discussion on if the board is interested in continuing with that

412
00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:49,400
 schedule, or is interested in pursuing an alternative schedule.

413
00:45:49,400 --> 00:45:57,400
 My thought is if we're going to have a new ED person, we need to meet more often than

414
00:45:57,400 --> 00:45:58,400
 once.

415
00:45:58,400 --> 00:46:01,400
 I think monthly is where I'm at.

416
00:46:01,400 --> 00:46:05,400
 Well, historically, like you said, if there wasn't an agenda, we just wouldn't meet.

417
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:09,400
 But it gave them the option, because we are set up for monthly meetings, to have one of

418
00:46:09,400 --> 00:46:13,400
 the meeting ones instead of waiting for a quarter, three months rather.

419
00:46:13,400 --> 00:46:15,400
 I would agree with that as well.

420
00:46:15,400 --> 00:46:16,400
 I agree.

421
00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:18,400
 How many of we have monthly meetings?

422
00:46:18,400 --> 00:46:19,400
 Second.

423
00:46:19,400 --> 00:46:21,400
 On the day currently?

424
00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:27,400
 So, we have a motion to keep our meetings monthly, and we have a second on the second

425
00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:30,400
 Wednesday of the month, I'm assuming?

426
00:46:30,400 --> 00:46:32,400
 Is that two different motions, or the same motion?

427
00:46:32,400 --> 00:46:33,400
 Same motion.

428
00:46:33,400 --> 00:46:34,400
 Same motion.

429
00:46:34,400 --> 00:46:36,400
 Same motion to adopt the monthly meeting schedule.

430
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:37,400
 The monthly meeting schedule attached to the record.

431
00:46:37,400 --> 00:46:39,400
 So, we have a motion, second.

432
00:46:39,400 --> 00:46:40,400
 All in favor, aye?

433
00:46:40,400 --> 00:46:41,400
 Aye.

434
00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:42,400
 Any opposed?

435
00:46:42,400 --> 00:46:43,400
 Yes.

436
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:48,400
 I guess with that next meeting being on Valentine's Day, I might just for a record vote, no, but

437
00:46:48,400 --> 00:46:51,400
 I'm going to, I mean, price for y'all.

438
00:46:51,400 --> 00:47:07,400
 I said no.

439
00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:11,400
 Yeah, item F is up next, receive training and hold a discussion regarding an economic

440
00:47:11,400 --> 00:47:15,400
 development partnership board member orientation.

441
00:47:15,400 --> 00:47:20,400
 In addition to Wayne being vacant, Erica Sullivan was going to lead this item as she's sick,

442
00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:24,400
 so again, you have me stepping in to get you through this item.

443
00:47:24,400 --> 00:47:26,400
 We wanted to do just an annual orientation.

444
00:47:26,400 --> 00:47:30,400
 We're going to break it up, and since we're going to meet monthly, that'll help, so it's

445
00:47:30,400 --> 00:47:31,400
 not one huge chunk.

446
00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:35,400
 We're going to go over a couple things today just to orient you with the structure.

447
00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:37,400
 What is really your role as this board?

448
00:47:37,400 --> 00:47:41,400
 And again, we're here to answer any questions along the way.

449
00:47:41,400 --> 00:47:43,400
 So, what is economic development?

450
00:47:43,400 --> 00:47:48,400
 It is a purposeful process for us focusing on the growth and restructuring of the economy

451
00:47:48,400 --> 00:47:53,400
 through our city policies programs to enhance the well-being of the community.

452
00:47:53,400 --> 00:47:57,400
 So, we do have a department in the city who is staffed to focus on these efforts.

453
00:47:57,400 --> 00:48:01,400
 Again, we partner with the chamber for the economic development partnership to get through

454
00:48:01,400 --> 00:48:05,400
 to facilitate those goals.

455
00:48:05,400 --> 00:48:07,400
 A brief history is included in there.

456
00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:09,400
 We talked about it in our last item.

457
00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:14,400
 The partnership began in 1987 between the city and the chamber of commerce.

458
00:48:14,400 --> 00:48:20,400
 We did have a local economic development sales tax election in 1996 that kind of led to the

459
00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:23,400
 questions on what funding tools does the city have.

460
00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:28,400
 In 2001, we had the city selected economic development as one of its top priorities.

461
00:48:28,400 --> 00:48:32,400
 In 2003, it was their first strategic plan.

462
00:48:32,400 --> 00:48:37,400
 And in 2021, there was an additional work on a strategic plan that was adopted and updated

463
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:39,400
 by the city council.

464
00:48:39,400 --> 00:48:43,400
 This is a quick visual of that partnership that we spoke about.

465
00:48:43,400 --> 00:48:48,400
 So, between the city and the chamber, we have created economic development partnership,

466
00:48:48,400 --> 00:48:56,400
 which takes both entities working together for the common goal of a thriving economy.

467
00:48:56,400 --> 00:49:00,400
 We talked multiple times about where there can be some confusion between our two groups.

468
00:49:00,400 --> 00:49:05,400
 So, we want to provide you at our back of what that structure looks like and who your contacts

469
00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:08,400
 are so you can reach out if there are additional questions.

470
00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:13,400
 On the city side right now without Wayne, I'm serving as that main point of contact.

471
00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:16,400
 And on the chamber side, Aaron Carter is the president.

472
00:49:16,400 --> 00:49:22,400
 Both of us are always available to answer any questions and facilitate anything that's needed

473
00:49:22,400 --> 00:49:24,400
 for economic development.

474
00:49:24,400 --> 00:49:29,400
 So, this board is created as an advisory board that serves as a recommending body to our council.

475
00:49:29,400 --> 00:49:35,400
 So, your goal and your objective here is to review incentive applications, any economic development

476
00:49:35,400 --> 00:49:39,400
 policies that we bring forward, strategic plans and programs.

477
00:49:39,400 --> 00:49:42,400
 The board makeup is listed below.

478
00:49:42,400 --> 00:49:49,400
 It is composed of two council members, two chamber board members, two top 20 taxpayers in the community,

479
00:49:49,400 --> 00:49:54,400
 a member with aviation experience, a member from the Dent Black Chamber,

480
00:49:54,400 --> 00:49:57,400
 a member from the Dent Hispanic Chamber nomination.

481
00:49:57,400 --> 00:50:02,400
 And we have worked a little bit on that language since there isn't a Hispanic chamber anymore.

482
00:50:02,400 --> 00:50:08,400
 It is an underutilized business, historically unutilized business can serve on that role.

483
00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:13,400
 We have one out large member and then representation from UNT and TWU,

484
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:15,400
 three ex officio, city manager.

485
00:50:15,400 --> 00:50:20,400
 Sometimes she defaults that to Cassie or I, chamber president, which is Aaron,

486
00:50:20,400 --> 00:50:23,400
 and the superintendent, Dr. Wilson.

487
00:50:23,400 --> 00:50:29,400
 I'm currently serving as that board liaison, but once we make that higher, the new director will be.

488
00:50:29,400 --> 00:50:34,400
 So, again, we wanted to just orient you with the board structure while you're here.

489
00:50:34,400 --> 00:50:36,400
 Again, we're happy to answer any questions today.

490
00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:41,400
 And over the next series of meetings, we'll take some time and focus on that strategic plan.

491
00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:43,400
 Go through that to orient the board.

492
00:50:43,400 --> 00:50:48,400
 Really talk about those areas that we're focusing on going after and getting incentives for.

493
00:50:48,400 --> 00:50:51,400
 And then we'll talk about a little bit about financing tools in the future.

494
00:50:51,400 --> 00:50:53,400
 And I think you'll be excited to learn.

495
00:50:53,400 --> 00:50:56,400
 In this past year, we've had two new financing tools come on board.

496
00:50:56,400 --> 00:51:01,400
 So that will be a great discussion to share how we're kind of adding some tools in our toolkit

497
00:51:01,400 --> 00:51:08,400
 to help us be more positioned to go out and get new businesses to come through today.

498
00:51:08,400 --> 00:51:17,400
 So Aaron and I will stand for any questions you have on the relationship, the structure, the goals of the board.

499
00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:19,400
 I'll just make one quick comment.

500
00:51:19,400 --> 00:51:23,400
 I'm very proud of what you guys have done, especially with the transition we've had over the last few years

501
00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:27,400
 and how you guys put this together, and y'all have full-time jobs, both of you.

502
00:51:27,400 --> 00:51:31,400
 And thank you guys for dedicating the time, because I know what it takes to do that.

503
00:51:31,400 --> 00:51:35,400
 So thank you.

504
00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:38,400
 Okay. Well, then we look forward to if there are any other questions.

505
00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:41,400
 Those are the top two items that we'll be bringing back next.

506
00:51:41,400 --> 00:51:45,400
 Of course, we'll touch base with Steve and Tony to see if we need to adjust that,

507
00:51:45,400 --> 00:51:49,400
 if there's anything you're more interested in seeing as we continue to have that orientation.

508
00:51:49,400 --> 00:51:55,400
 But we look forward to continuing to meet with you and strengthen our economic development programs.

509
00:51:55,400 --> 00:52:02,400
 Do we have all of our meetings here to occasionally meet over at the -- where the new chamber offices are?

510
00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:06,400
 We'd like to always meet over at the Development Services Center in the room.

511
00:52:06,400 --> 00:52:10,400
 Obviously, it just fits more and it's better suited for this board meeting.

512
00:52:10,400 --> 00:52:14,400
 There was a calendar conflict to put us in here today,

513
00:52:14,400 --> 00:52:20,400
 but we are going to secure all of our grants at the Development Services Center.

514
00:52:20,400 --> 00:52:22,400
 If I could, I want to apologize for stepping out.

515
00:52:22,400 --> 00:52:27,400
 I'm on call this week, and I had to step out.

516
00:52:27,400 --> 00:52:28,400
 So thank you.

517
00:52:28,400 --> 00:52:29,400
 We've got your back.

518
00:52:29,400 --> 00:52:30,400
 My apologies.

519
00:52:30,400 --> 00:52:31,400
 We're throughout a match.

520
00:52:31,400 --> 00:52:32,400
 There you go.

521
00:52:32,400 --> 00:52:33,400
 There you go.

522
00:52:33,400 --> 00:52:41,400
 With the increased presence of college or the junior college, the community college,

523
00:52:41,400 --> 00:52:46,400
 how are we thinking about offering them an opportunity to have a little bit more input into this?

524
00:52:46,400 --> 00:52:48,400
 Because they're dealing with a lot of students.

525
00:52:48,400 --> 00:52:55,400
 I can tell you from an operating perspective, the city is constantly working with North Central Texas College.

526
00:52:55,400 --> 00:52:57,400
 We can certainly look at that.

527
00:52:57,400 --> 00:53:01,400
 But we do have ongoing on how our programs, how they go into our workforce.

528
00:53:01,400 --> 00:53:07,400
 So we have partners as one of our city managers priorities to make sure we're working closely with NCTC.

529
00:53:07,400 --> 00:53:12,400
 Thank you.

530
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:14,400
 Next.

531
00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:15,400
 I apologize.

532
00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:16,400
 Okay.

533
00:53:16,400 --> 00:53:17,400
 We're on G. Staff reports.

534
00:53:17,400 --> 00:53:22,400
 Thank you.

535
00:53:22,400 --> 00:53:25,400
 Port, Krista Foster, customer service manager.

536
00:53:25,400 --> 00:53:33,400
 And I was asked to come in to give an overview of the commercial service deposit practices in customer service

537
00:53:33,400 --> 00:53:36,400
 and then answering questions that may be there.

538
00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:43,400
 So it came up in June, a question on how we assess commercial deposits and what our practice was.

539
00:53:43,400 --> 00:53:45,400
 I provided an informal staff report.

540
00:53:45,400 --> 00:53:53,400
 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.

541
00:53:53,400 --> 00:53:56,400
 But I do have copies if they're needed.

542
00:53:56,400 --> 00:54:07,400
 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.

543
00:54:07,400 --> 00:54:13,400
 As long as the credit score comes back okay, then we would allow that business to open without deposit.

544
00:54:13,400 --> 00:54:18,400
 If we need to assess a deposit, we may assess a one to two month deposit,

545
00:54:18,400 --> 00:54:26,400
 which stays on file for the account until it closes when it is refunded to the account with accrued interest.

546
00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:36,400
 Additionally, if a customer has payment history downgrade over time, we may assess the deposit at a later date.

547
00:54:36,400 --> 00:54:45,400
 Any business can provide us an irrevocable letter of credit rather than putting down a cash amount for a deposit.

548
00:54:45,400 --> 00:54:49,400
 And then again, when it closes, we return those to the customer with interest.

549
00:54:49,400 --> 00:54:57,400
 So the way that we got to this practice is in 2010, we conducted a focus study with an outside consultant.

550
00:54:57,400 --> 00:55:04,400
 And after they benchmarked our performance against the performance of other private and public sector utilities,

551
00:55:04,400 --> 00:55:09,400
 they found that we needed to make some changes in our collections practices.

552
00:55:09,400 --> 00:55:21,400
 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%.

553
00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:26,400
 So we had a much greater amount of outstanding debt liability that was uncollectible.

554
00:55:26,400 --> 00:55:32,400
 So we put in place our new deposit guidelines and our credit guidelines,

555
00:55:32,400 --> 00:55:39,400
 and then we brought them back in 2019 to do a follow-up study and look at the practices that we had in place,

556
00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:45,400
 as well as our performance against benchmarked entities.

557
00:55:45,400 --> 00:55:54,400
 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

558
00:55:54,400 --> 00:56:05,400
 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%.

559
00:56:05,400 --> 00:56:12,400
 So when I received the question asking to outline what our practices were,

560
00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:19,400
 I reached out to that independent consultant and said, "Hey, do you happen to have any benchmarks on this topic?"

561
00:56:19,400 --> 00:56:29,400
 And so what she did is she provided to me a list of 20 benchmarked organizations across the country, private and public,

562
00:56:29,400 --> 00:56:37,400
 and what we found is that the standard practice is to collect one-sixth of the annual bill, which is a two-month bill,

563
00:56:37,400 --> 00:56:45,400
 and the length of time that they may hold that deposit ranges from 12 to 36 months,

564
00:56:45,400 --> 00:56:52,400
 but one-third of those individuals also retain commercial deposits for the lifetime of that commercial account.

565
00:56:52,400 --> 00:56:58,400
 So there's not a very set clear standard on exactly how this operates,

566
00:56:58,400 --> 00:57:06,400
 but what we were doing is within the guidelines and the tolerances of what we see in the industry.

567
00:57:06,400 --> 00:57:17,400
 And then we also looked at nine area utilities, and roughly 50% of those also retained commercial deposits for the lifetime of the account.

568
00:57:17,400 --> 00:57:28,400
 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.

569
00:57:28,400 --> 00:57:36,400
 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.

570
00:57:36,400 --> 00:57:44,400
 What we found is that we had $823,000 in uncollectible debt over the previous 12 months.

571
00:57:44,400 --> 00:57:56,400
 $176,000 of that was commercial businesses, and it was 90 total businesses accumulated $176,000 in unrecoverable debt.

572
00:57:56,400 --> 00:58:04,400
 And what I found is that even though commercial businesses make up 14% of our customer makeup,

573
00:58:04,400 --> 00:58:10,400
 they represent 21% of our uncollectible debt because the balances tend to be higher.

574
00:58:10,400 --> 00:58:16,400
 And of all of the commercial accounts that were part of that,

575
00:58:16,400 --> 00:58:25,400
 83% of them actually had good credit until they ended their business and were no longer able to pay those bills.

576
00:58:25,400 --> 00:58:36,400
 So that is kind of where we are, and the research has been done to help anyone better understand our practices.

577
00:58:36,400 --> 00:58:41,400
 So if you have any questions, please let me know.

578
00:58:41,400 --> 00:58:46,400
 I've got a few that just popped up. Obviously I wasn't here last time you discussed this.

579
00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:57,400
 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?

580
00:58:57,400 --> 00:59:06,400
 Yes, what we do is there is an account that holds them, so it's like a deposit account that will hold the funds.

581
00:59:06,400 --> 00:59:14,400
 And each six months, the ordinance states that what we do is we look at the federal interest rate,

582
00:59:14,400 --> 00:59:17,400
 and that is the new rate for that next six month term.

583
00:59:17,400 --> 00:59:23,400
 And before we do that, we actually apply it to the balances that are there.

584
00:59:23,400 --> 00:59:26,400
 The current rate gets applied, that money is dog-eared,

585
00:59:26,400 --> 00:59:31,400
 and we have a trackable record of how much there is an interest for that account.

586
00:59:31,400 --> 00:59:35,400
 And then we apply the new rate at the end of that six month term to do the same thing.

587
00:59:35,400 --> 00:59:38,400
 So that addresses the accounting of it, but where does the money go?

588
00:59:38,400 --> 00:59:41,400
 Again, it is in a city of debt and light.

589
00:59:41,400 --> 00:59:45,400
 So operating? No, it's not used in operations. It is in a standalone account.

590
00:59:45,400 --> 00:59:49,400
 So is it earning interest in excess of the required or below?

591
00:59:49,400 --> 00:59:54,400
 I will have to get you information and send something back with that.

592
00:59:54,400 --> 00:59:58,400
 Well, it has to be collecting money and then paying them more than what we're getting.

593
00:59:58,400 --> 01:00:00,400
 I would have to ask finance on that.

594
01:00:00,400 --> 01:00:05,400
 Okay. How do you determine whether you're going to collect one month or two months?

595
01:00:05,400 --> 01:00:08,400
 Could that be considered as determinatory?

596
01:00:08,400 --> 01:00:15,400
 In our ordinance on the website, it actually outlines exactly what the criteria are.

597
01:00:15,400 --> 01:00:22,400
 So if the credit rating is moderate risk, then it is a one month.

598
01:00:22,400 --> 01:00:26,400
 If it is a severe risk or no credit, then it is a two month.

599
01:00:26,400 --> 01:00:31,400
 So is there a matrix that you guys have based on a certain credit threshold?

600
01:00:31,400 --> 01:00:32,400
 Yes.

601
01:00:32,400 --> 01:00:37,400
 Do you do the same practice for personal accounts forever?

602
01:00:37,400 --> 01:00:43,400
 No. On a personal account, after 12 months of good payment history and no late payments,

603
01:00:43,400 --> 01:00:50,400
 you can request to have that brought back or we do quarterly assessments and then we'll refund those.

604
01:00:50,400 --> 01:00:56,400
 Okay. So why would we deviate from on the business side and then the personal side on that?

605
01:00:56,400 --> 01:01:03,400
 Again, this was based on recommendations from an independent consultant.

606
01:01:03,400 --> 01:01:09,400
 Our plan is to bring them back in and before they were looking at both commercial and residential,

607
01:01:09,400 --> 01:01:11,400
 but they were looking at it as a whole.

608
01:01:11,400 --> 01:01:15,400
 But to have them come back in and look at commercial versus residential

609
01:01:15,400 --> 01:01:19,400
 and determine if there are changes in the industry that we may want to consider.

610
01:01:19,400 --> 01:01:24,400
 Based on what you said the industry is, a third of them actually keep it for the life.

611
01:01:24,400 --> 01:01:27,400
 So two thirds don't practice what we're doing, correct?

612
01:01:27,400 --> 01:01:28,400
 Yes.

613
01:01:28,400 --> 01:01:33,400
 So I don't know that the research really supports our practice.

614
01:01:33,400 --> 01:01:39,400
 It's a little more complicated than that because of those two thirds that will refund it,

615
01:01:39,400 --> 01:01:43,400
 a lot of those are going to require it 100% of the time.

616
01:01:43,400 --> 01:01:49,400
 So when you have that small business that's trying to be established and they've had service with us before,

617
01:01:49,400 --> 01:01:52,400
 they would still have to pay a deposit on that new account.

618
01:01:52,400 --> 01:01:55,400
 So there's a little bit more in terms of some of the variables.

619
01:01:55,400 --> 01:01:56,400
 For a period of time.

620
01:01:56,400 --> 01:02:00,400
 Right. In terms of looking at it overall.

621
01:02:00,400 --> 01:02:02,400
 I guess that's where I'm going.

622
01:02:02,400 --> 01:02:06,400
 I mean, just from what you said, I have no other information other than this five minute deal.

623
01:02:06,400 --> 01:02:13,400
 But if we don't do it on the personal side forever, we do do it on the commercial side forever,

624
01:02:13,400 --> 01:02:15,400
 there seems to be a little disconnect there.

625
01:02:15,400 --> 01:02:19,400
 I don't know that we have the proof to show why we do that, number one.

626
01:02:19,400 --> 01:02:24,400
 And then if we go to what the industry standards are,

627
01:02:24,400 --> 01:02:28,400
 we just said that only one third of the industry holds it for life.

628
01:02:28,400 --> 01:02:30,400
 So that doesn't really prove it.

629
01:02:30,400 --> 01:02:35,400
 I think we might need to reevaluate that and try to get them a little more consistent with personal versus business on that.

630
01:02:35,400 --> 01:02:42,400
 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.

631
01:02:42,400 --> 01:02:49,400
 And the last question I have is, so you said that your loss ratio got above a certain percentage.

632
01:02:49,400 --> 01:02:53,400
 Now that you've done this, has it significantly improved?

633
01:02:53,400 --> 01:02:56,400
 Has it improved or has it in what degree?

634
01:02:56,400 --> 01:03:03,400
 We went from a .42 percent uncollectible debt to a .18 to .25.

635
01:03:03,400 --> 01:03:05,400
 We ranged in between there.

636
01:03:05,400 --> 01:03:07,400
 And that's commercial to commercial?

637
01:03:07,400 --> 01:03:09,400
 No, this is all bad debt.

638
01:03:09,400 --> 01:03:13,400
 Okay. So what is a commercial piece?

639
01:03:13,400 --> 01:03:14,400
 How has it changed?

640
01:03:14,400 --> 01:03:20,400
 We typically have not tracked commercial versus residential.

641
01:03:20,400 --> 01:03:23,400
 We've simply tracked uncollectible debt.

642
01:03:23,400 --> 01:03:28,400
 So based on that, if you're not going to differentiate the tracking of the two,

643
01:03:28,400 --> 01:03:31,400
 then how do we support differentiating the practices on their deposit?

644
01:03:31,400 --> 01:03:33,400
 I guess would be my question.

645
01:03:33,400 --> 01:03:39,400
 Again, this is something that's been in place for a significant period of time.

646
01:03:39,400 --> 01:03:42,400
 I cannot give you all of the methodologies that were there.

647
01:03:42,400 --> 01:03:51,400
 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.

648
01:03:51,400 --> 01:03:58,400
 But I would like to be able to have it reviewed and benchmark against the utility industry.

649
01:03:58,400 --> 01:04:01,400
 I would offer one thing.

650
01:04:01,400 --> 01:04:08,400
 Your points are well-made and were actually what brought the conversation forward this summer, this past summer,

651
01:04:08,400 --> 01:04:12,400
 especially about there not being an end date.

652
01:04:12,400 --> 01:04:17,400
 So even if it's 21% that fail, we don't know if those are disproportionately in the first year,

653
01:04:17,400 --> 01:04:20,400
 and we could have been predictive of that.

654
01:04:20,400 --> 01:04:30,400
 Or is there a way to be better with those companies that have demonstrated a long-term success,

655
01:04:30,400 --> 01:04:34,400
 and yet we're not reversing them on that deposit as well?

656
01:04:34,400 --> 01:04:39,400
 Your points are spot-on, but I think what prompted the request to maybe review that.

657
01:04:39,400 --> 01:04:42,400
 So we're continuing to work on that or get more information on it?

658
01:04:42,400 --> 01:04:50,400
 I think the consideration is to have someone come in and come back in and review that process.

659
01:04:50,400 --> 01:04:57,400
 I'd like to get an idea of how much dollar amounts total deposits that we have being held between personal or commercial,

660
01:04:57,400 --> 01:05:00,400
 and as well just to kind of put a dollar amount to this and then figure out,

661
01:05:00,400 --> 01:05:06,400
 is it being used for the operating budget or is it being held to kind of get to where that money is?

662
01:05:06,400 --> 01:05:11,400
 If it's an unfunded liability, that's going to be a problem down the road, depending on the dollar amount we have.

663
01:05:11,400 --> 01:05:18,400
 What we can do is this is intended to be a staff report update that Economic Development Board wouldn't oversee.

664
01:05:18,400 --> 01:05:21,400
 That'd be like a public utility board function and essentially a council one.

665
01:05:21,400 --> 01:05:26,400
 So providing a staff update so you can hear your questions, we can provide an update on the information you're asking,

666
01:05:26,400 --> 01:05:31,400
 and then ultimately when they have the consultant come in, that will go through the public utility board

667
01:05:31,400 --> 01:05:35,400
 and then council for those any recommended changes or what the consultant has found.

668
01:05:35,400 --> 01:05:38,400
 Can I just forward my questions to the public utility board?

669
01:05:38,400 --> 01:05:41,400
 We'll hear them today. I've got them written down and we can follow up.

670
01:05:41,400 --> 01:05:53,400
 I have a process step to that though. I'd like it to come, if we're going to go consultant, do their analysis,

671
01:05:53,400 --> 01:06:00,400
 PUB, then council, I'd like to add this body back in there somewhere. Maybe it's already there and I missed it.

672
01:06:00,400 --> 01:06:07,400
 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,

673
01:06:07,400 --> 01:06:14,400
 this board, I think the lens that we'd like to hear feedback and we certainly can do an update and receive feedback on

674
01:06:14,400 --> 01:06:24,400
 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

675
01:06:24,400 --> 01:06:31,400
 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.

676
01:06:31,400 --> 01:06:36,400
 Yeah, it's just selflessly, it saves trees, saves emails, right, because he's going to tell me anyway.

677
01:06:36,400 --> 01:06:45,400
 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.

678
01:06:45,400 --> 01:06:53,400
 And so it's coming either e-comment or email or so why not just on a random Wednesday, knock it out.

679
01:06:53,400 --> 01:06:57,400
 Any additional questions?

680
01:06:57,400 --> 01:07:00,400
 These are information only, right?

681
01:07:00,400 --> 01:07:02,400
 Yes, yeah, no direction.

682
01:07:02,400 --> 01:07:03,400
 Thank you.

683
01:07:03,400 --> 01:07:04,400
 Thank you.

684
01:07:04,400 --> 01:07:14,400
 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.

685
01:07:14,400 --> 01:07:19,400
 I'll start with on the city side, so Wayne Emerson was our director of economic development,

686
01:07:19,400 --> 01:07:26,400
 put in his notice that he was going to go to Addison at the end of September, I think he vacated in September.

687
01:07:26,400 --> 01:07:34,400
 Since then we've engaged the Mike Barnes firm, they focus specifically in the economic development industry to conduct a national search.

688
01:07:34,400 --> 01:07:38,400
 We've received a ton of great applications at a higher level on that salary.

689
01:07:38,400 --> 01:07:43,400
 I can send you that recruitment brochure to kind of show that range that we're looking in.

690
01:07:43,400 --> 01:07:49,400
 We did look at the position through the comp study and has ultimately been reclassified up to a higher brand.

691
01:07:49,400 --> 01:07:52,400
 So we are looking, you know, to get that best candidate.

692
01:07:52,400 --> 01:08:00,400
 We held a two panel kind of interview process with two candidates that we knew were involved in other national searches right before Christmas.

693
01:08:00,400 --> 01:08:05,400
 We did extend an offer on the city side to a candidate who was in the DFW Metroplex.

694
01:08:05,400 --> 01:08:09,400
 He did unfortunately turn it down, so we are continuing to look at the additional resumes.

695
01:08:09,400 --> 01:08:17,400
 But where we are in the process is we've received a ton of qualified candidates, over 25 on our side.

696
01:08:17,400 --> 01:08:21,400
 And so we feel confident that we're going to find the best person.

697
01:08:21,400 --> 01:08:27,400
 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.

698
01:08:27,400 --> 01:08:33,400
 So together and with city leadership and the council, we're looking to make a key hire on our side.

699
01:08:33,400 --> 01:08:35,400
 So I'll continue to provide an update.

700
01:08:35,400 --> 01:08:41,400
 That recruitment brochure, if you see it's out on LinkedIn, it's on the Mike Barnes firm, Mike Barnes group firm.

701
01:08:41,400 --> 01:08:47,400
 It's a really great brochure and we've gotten national candidates who are interested in coming in.

702
01:08:47,400 --> 01:08:51,400
 So I'm hoping to make a hire in the next month or so.

703
01:08:51,400 --> 01:08:57,400
 Okay, so kind of like the city, Dan, who was our director of strategic partnerships,

704
01:08:57,400 --> 01:09:02,400
 they take the position to pursue an MBA at the University of Michigan.

705
01:09:02,400 --> 01:09:05,400
 We were thrilled for him, but sad to see him go.

706
01:09:05,400 --> 01:09:09,400
 He did a fantastic job of moving the H-12 partnership forward.

707
01:09:09,400 --> 01:09:12,400
 He stayed on as a contract employee through the end of December.

708
01:09:12,400 --> 01:09:17,400
 And so did some behind the scenes filling out RFIs, doing things like that for a small task.

709
01:09:17,400 --> 01:09:20,400
 So we started to search for the job.

710
01:09:20,400 --> 01:09:25,400
 We did a couple of interviews at the end of 2023.

711
01:09:25,400 --> 01:09:30,400
 Jeremy and Brian met with our final candidate.

712
01:09:30,400 --> 01:09:36,400
 And Christine is going to meet with an individual in the next week or so.

713
01:09:36,400 --> 01:09:39,400
 They are actually a local candidate.

714
01:09:39,400 --> 01:09:42,400
 So for us, it's not a traditional economic development job.

715
01:09:42,400 --> 01:09:45,400
 It is also a partnership role.

716
01:09:45,400 --> 01:09:47,400
 It's also a relationship role.

717
01:09:47,400 --> 01:09:51,400
 And so we need someone that's kind of an in-betweener.

718
01:09:51,400 --> 01:09:54,400
 So we're very excited about the potential hire.

719
01:09:54,400 --> 01:09:58,400
 I think as long as Christine gives her blessing, so to speak,

720
01:09:58,400 --> 01:10:02,400
 because we are a partnership and we want to get the city's blessing,

721
01:10:02,400 --> 01:10:05,400
 we have the blessing of our executive committee.

722
01:10:05,400 --> 01:10:08,400
 So we should make that hire within the next month.

723
01:10:08,400 --> 01:10:12,400
 So we go down to one person and we greatly look forward.

724
01:10:12,400 --> 01:10:15,400
 They've been in debt for a while and they absolutely love the community

725
01:10:15,400 --> 01:10:17,400
 and are excited for this next opportunity.

726
01:10:17,400 --> 01:10:20,400
 Any questions?

727
01:10:20,400 --> 01:10:21,400
 Yes.

728
01:10:21,400 --> 01:10:22,400
 I have a few.

729
01:10:22,400 --> 01:10:24,400
 Obviously, I'm not familiar.

730
01:10:24,400 --> 01:10:25,400
 I mean, I'm new to this.

731
01:10:25,400 --> 01:10:28,400
 So I will have a lot of questions probably.

732
01:10:28,400 --> 01:10:29,400
 Are they for me?

733
01:10:29,400 --> 01:10:30,400
 Are they for me?

734
01:10:30,400 --> 01:10:33,400
 Well, for this item, not necessarily.

735
01:10:33,400 --> 01:10:35,400
 I'm a little more familiar on the chamber side.

736
01:10:35,400 --> 01:10:38,400
 So they're more on the city side, so I don't know.

737
01:10:38,400 --> 01:10:39,400
 I was going to --

738
01:10:39,400 --> 01:10:40,400
 Well, we'll stay up here together.

739
01:10:40,400 --> 01:10:41,400
 They tied to what -- I'm sorry?

740
01:10:41,400 --> 01:10:42,400
 Well, we'll stay up here together.

741
01:10:42,400 --> 01:10:43,400
 Okay.

742
01:10:43,400 --> 01:10:46,400
 And they tied to what Lee and Tony had mentioned earlier

743
01:10:46,400 --> 01:10:48,400
 and I bit my tongue earlier.

744
01:10:48,400 --> 01:10:54,400
 But so -- like obviously the position was posted online

745
01:10:54,400 --> 01:10:58,400
 and it looks like the starting range was 215.

746
01:10:58,400 --> 01:10:59,400
 Up to --

747
01:10:59,400 --> 01:11:00,400
 I'm sorry?

748
01:11:00,400 --> 01:11:01,400
 Up to 215.

749
01:11:01,400 --> 01:11:05,400
 Okay, it says starting range, I'll put it on the left side at 215,000.

750
01:11:05,400 --> 01:11:08,400
 So I guess my question is that that's a pretty heavy commitment

751
01:11:08,400 --> 01:11:10,400
 for that position.

752
01:11:10,400 --> 01:11:13,400
 And being in Denton, I just don't know --

753
01:11:13,400 --> 01:11:16,400
 and maybe my perception on economic development is different,

754
01:11:16,400 --> 01:11:22,400
 but as a community, are we going to support that position enough

755
01:11:22,400 --> 01:11:24,400
 for them to be successful?

756
01:11:24,400 --> 01:11:26,400
 And I think we should.

757
01:11:26,400 --> 01:11:30,400
 And my question is, if we're going to pay someone that much,

758
01:11:30,400 --> 01:11:33,400
 are they going to be -- are their hands going to be tied?

759
01:11:33,400 --> 01:11:34,400
 I mean, I don't know.

760
01:11:34,400 --> 01:11:37,400
 I get this back up and it's on number five,

761
01:11:37,400 --> 01:11:40,400
 but it talks about incentive reviews that we've done and all that,

762
01:11:40,400 --> 01:11:43,400
 but I don't know how many successes that we've had

763
01:11:43,400 --> 01:11:47,400
 in the past 12 calendar months by this report.

764
01:11:47,400 --> 01:11:50,400
 So if we're going to pay someone that kind of money,

765
01:11:50,400 --> 01:11:57,400
 which I certainly think we need to --

766
01:11:57,400 --> 01:12:03,400
 I think it's the quarterly report, number five,

767
01:12:03,400 --> 01:12:06,400
 that was in the backup that I printed earlier.

768
01:12:06,400 --> 01:12:10,400
 But I guess my question is, I don't know --

769
01:12:10,400 --> 01:12:12,400
 I mean, obviously we have challenges on how much money

770
01:12:12,400 --> 01:12:16,400
 we can put towards stuff for incentives and things like that,

771
01:12:16,400 --> 01:12:21,400
 but what are successes and are we changing our methodology to --

772
01:12:21,400 --> 01:12:25,400
 because that seems to me like a pretty big compensation

773
01:12:25,400 --> 01:12:28,400
 for this position, and they're probably well worth it

774
01:12:28,400 --> 01:12:31,400
 if they have the ability to go do what they need to do,

775
01:12:31,400 --> 01:12:34,400
 but are we going to support them as a city in that endeavor?

776
01:12:34,400 --> 01:12:36,400
 I think I can help with that answer.

777
01:12:36,400 --> 01:12:42,400
 So we did a -- last year we did a full analysis of what all the funding --

778
01:12:42,400 --> 01:12:44,400
 because that's the same question, Jeremy.

779
01:12:44,400 --> 01:12:49,400
 All right, guys, you know, we don't have a lot of funding to go get businesses.

780
01:12:49,400 --> 01:12:54,400
 So we put together a full analysis of all the different funding types

781
01:12:54,400 --> 01:12:59,400
 that the city has between PIDS, between TURNERS,

782
01:12:59,400 --> 01:13:03,400
 between all the different funding types, and we went through that.

783
01:13:03,400 --> 01:13:06,400
 And I think with a lot of new board members,

784
01:13:06,400 --> 01:13:09,400
 that would be worth going through again.

785
01:13:09,400 --> 01:13:12,400
 And you talked to a lot of brokers,

786
01:13:12,400 --> 01:13:15,400
 and I think a lot of brokers saw not a lot of stability

787
01:13:15,400 --> 01:13:20,400
 or high level of performance and knowledge from whoever was in that position.

788
01:13:20,400 --> 01:13:27,400
 So once we -- I want to say this with respect to the past positions,

789
01:13:27,400 --> 01:13:31,400
 but we need a person in that position that is very, very professional,

790
01:13:31,400 --> 01:13:34,400
 that is very interconnected within the Metroplex,

791
01:13:34,400 --> 01:13:37,400
 which I think is probably what it's going to have to have

792
01:13:37,400 --> 01:13:39,400
 that can show up to a broker meeting.

793
01:13:39,400 --> 01:13:44,400
 And with some of the tools -- and I think city council is now being more open

794
01:13:44,400 --> 01:13:48,400
 to some of those tools, we hope --

795
01:13:48,400 --> 01:13:52,400
 that we can have some funding options where it puts the developer --

796
01:13:52,400 --> 01:13:53,400
 put money up first.

797
01:13:53,400 --> 01:13:56,400
 And it's going to take somebody at a high level to understand those,

798
01:13:56,400 --> 01:14:00,400
 to meet with the city attorney, to meet with developers' attorneys.

799
01:14:00,400 --> 01:14:02,400
 So I think there's more tools,

800
01:14:02,400 --> 01:14:05,400
 and I'm anxious to hear what new tools are coming out,

801
01:14:05,400 --> 01:14:09,400
 that we have in our tackle box that maybe just being --

802
01:14:09,400 --> 01:14:12,400
 that our city council hasn't been willing to use in the past,

803
01:14:12,400 --> 01:14:15,400
 or maybe not even that hasn't been presented to them

804
01:14:15,400 --> 01:14:17,400
 in the way that they're willing to use it.

805
01:14:17,400 --> 01:14:22,400
 So I highly support bringing on a very high-level person

806
01:14:22,400 --> 01:14:24,400
 and seeing if that pays off.

807
01:14:24,400 --> 01:14:28,400
 But I think to your point, we're going to need backup support

808
01:14:28,400 --> 01:14:32,400
 if we're going to make that commitment from city council, from this board.

809
01:14:32,400 --> 01:14:35,400
 This board has turned things down before I was on it,

810
01:14:35,400 --> 01:14:38,400
 my projects in the past, my personal projects.

811
01:14:38,400 --> 01:14:41,400
 So this board needs to be accountable to --

812
01:14:41,400 --> 01:14:43,400
 like you said before I was involved here --

813
01:14:43,400 --> 01:14:46,400
 to be accountable to support those things.

814
01:14:46,400 --> 01:14:49,400
 So I think we need the city council support to support those things

815
01:14:49,400 --> 01:14:51,400
 if we're going to make that kind of investment.

816
01:14:51,400 --> 01:14:53,400
 And that's where I was going with it,

817
01:14:53,400 --> 01:14:56,400
 is that we actually at this board level need to support that.

818
01:14:56,400 --> 01:14:59,400
 We're going to hire -- and basically the quote from the deal says,

819
01:14:59,400 --> 01:15:02,400
 "Starting salary will be in the range of $215,000

820
01:15:02,400 --> 01:15:04,400
 with a generous benefit package including TMRS,

821
01:15:04,400 --> 01:15:06,400
 health insurance, and auto allowance."

822
01:15:06,400 --> 01:15:08,400
 So it doesn't say that's the cap.

823
01:15:08,400 --> 01:15:10,400
 It says that's the starting range.

824
01:15:10,400 --> 01:15:18,400
 So I do think that the city council needs to be supportive of that as well,

825
01:15:18,400 --> 01:15:20,400
 because otherwise we're going to get someone in here

826
01:15:20,400 --> 01:15:22,400
 and they're just going to be frustrated,

827
01:15:22,400 --> 01:15:24,400
 and we're just going to throw away $215,000

828
01:15:24,400 --> 01:15:26,400
 and they're going to leave a year later.

829
01:15:26,400 --> 01:15:28,400
 So I think that's a good point to bring up.

830
01:15:28,400 --> 01:15:31,400
 Hey, we're ready to -- this board's ready to say let's go.

831
01:15:31,400 --> 01:15:34,400
 We've got a lot of availability within our city,

832
01:15:34,400 --> 01:15:37,400
 in office, in warehouse, in lots of things.

833
01:15:37,400 --> 01:15:41,400
 I'm not speaking for the board, but what I think we should communicate

834
01:15:41,400 --> 01:15:45,400
 is like, hey, staff has done a great job finding these candidates.

835
01:15:45,400 --> 01:15:50,400
 We're paying them actually right to get a person that needs to go get this done.

836
01:15:50,400 --> 01:15:54,400
 Now, when we send our recommendation, hey, we're stepping up.

837
01:15:54,400 --> 01:15:55,400
 Let's step up.

838
01:15:55,400 --> 01:15:58,400
 Let's use our toolboxes, make sure everybody's educated on our toolboxes,

839
01:15:58,400 --> 01:15:59,400
 and let's go get it.

840
01:15:59,400 --> 01:16:00,400
 Yeah, exactly.

841
01:16:00,400 --> 01:16:01,400
 It's always right.

842
01:16:01,400 --> 01:16:03,400
 I mean, we can't compare ourselves to other cities

843
01:16:03,400 --> 01:16:08,400
 that have additional arrows in their quiver, so to speak,

844
01:16:08,400 --> 01:16:11,400
 for another analogy.

845
01:16:11,400 --> 01:16:15,400
 But we need to look at what percentages these other budgets do have

846
01:16:15,400 --> 01:16:17,400
 so we can know what we're competing against.

847
01:16:17,400 --> 01:16:20,400
 And we have money in a budget,

848
01:16:20,400 --> 01:16:24,400
 and we just need to figure out if each budget is being properly supported.

849
01:16:24,400 --> 01:16:30,400
 And I think if city staff is recommending that dollar amount,

850
01:16:30,400 --> 01:16:33,400
 that means that the city staff is supporting this,

851
01:16:33,400 --> 01:16:34,400
 and if we're supporting it,

852
01:16:34,400 --> 01:16:37,400
 then we just need to make sure we're all on the same page there.

853
01:16:37,400 --> 01:16:40,400
 I agree 100%, and that we're willing to use the tools we have.

854
01:16:40,400 --> 01:16:41,400
 Right.

855
01:16:41,400 --> 01:16:44,400
 Because the tools we have can be beneficial for development

856
01:16:44,400 --> 01:16:46,400
 without the city putting a ton of dollars up.

857
01:16:46,400 --> 01:16:49,400
 It's just getting some reimbursements back later, you know,

858
01:16:49,400 --> 01:16:51,400
 if the projects are successful.

859
01:16:51,400 --> 01:16:54,400
 And I think the key to that is, I've been saying for years,

860
01:16:54,400 --> 01:16:57,400
 is understanding what those really are and what's our commitment,

861
01:16:57,400 --> 01:16:58,400
 because they're complicated.

862
01:16:58,400 --> 01:17:00,400
 There's attorneys, that's all they do.

863
01:17:00,400 --> 01:17:01,400
 And so when we look at it,

864
01:17:01,400 --> 01:17:03,400
 we look at the tip of the icebergs of these things,

865
01:17:03,400 --> 01:17:06,400
 but really understanding those toolboxes

866
01:17:06,400 --> 01:17:09,400
 and making sure that we've got support behind us to begin with.

867
01:17:09,400 --> 01:17:11,400
 Where I was going with some of that is like,

868
01:17:11,400 --> 01:17:13,400
 the committee hasn't had a meeting since June.

869
01:17:13,400 --> 01:17:16,400
 We had an economic development for three months after that meeting

870
01:17:16,400 --> 01:17:18,400
 that there was no meeting that was had.

871
01:17:18,400 --> 01:17:20,400
 It's been seven months since then.

872
01:17:20,400 --> 01:17:21,400
 Let's go.

873
01:17:21,400 --> 01:17:25,400
 How much, I mean, so what's the point paying $215,000

874
01:17:25,400 --> 01:17:27,400
 if we're not even going to meet monthly?

875
01:17:27,400 --> 01:17:30,400
 Well, it's because the problem is without that person,

876
01:17:30,400 --> 01:17:32,400
 you don't have people bringing new business in.

877
01:17:32,400 --> 01:17:36,400
 Okay, but what about July, August, and September when he was here?

878
01:17:36,400 --> 01:17:37,400
 My point.

879
01:17:37,400 --> 01:17:39,400
 That's why I asked the point, are we paying the right guy,

880
01:17:39,400 --> 01:17:41,400
 paying enough money to have the right guy in the position.

881
01:17:41,400 --> 01:17:44,400
 In the past, I think knowing all those guys,

882
01:17:44,400 --> 01:17:47,400
 it's kind of, it's been a filler position.

883
01:17:47,400 --> 01:17:50,400
 And I think it's important we invest in the right person

884
01:17:50,400 --> 01:17:53,400
 so that we can have these meetings and be approved incentives.

885
01:17:53,400 --> 01:17:54,400
 That's what I'm after.

886
01:17:54,400 --> 01:17:57,400
 So we need to take the time and get a lot of the applicants.

887
01:17:57,400 --> 01:17:59,400
 We should be able to get some really good applicants.

888
01:17:59,400 --> 01:18:02,400
 We should take our time and get the right person.

889
01:18:02,400 --> 01:18:05,400
 And I think this is what we've been doing.

890
01:18:05,400 --> 01:18:07,400
 I asked Christine if I could talk first.

891
01:18:07,400 --> 01:18:10,400
 This is really exciting for us to see.

892
01:18:10,400 --> 01:18:13,400
 I mean, I think it's a totally different conversation.

893
01:18:13,400 --> 01:18:15,400
 Lee is always so supportive of staff,

894
01:18:15,400 --> 01:18:17,400
 and I know when Lee left the Chamber Board,

895
01:18:17,400 --> 01:18:19,400
 I was excited for him to still be on this board,

896
01:18:19,400 --> 01:18:22,400
 and I'm excited, Jeremy, for this line.

897
01:18:22,400 --> 01:18:25,400
 When we're questioning economic development staff,

898
01:18:25,400 --> 01:18:27,400
 I will tell you Jeremy is on the Chamber Board,

899
01:18:27,400 --> 01:18:29,400
 and he's on our executive committee.

900
01:18:29,400 --> 01:18:32,400
 And these questions prompt the ability to move forward

901
01:18:32,400 --> 01:18:35,400
 because the questions help drive direction forward.

902
01:18:35,400 --> 01:18:38,400
 And I know that having these types of conversations

903
01:18:38,400 --> 01:18:41,400
 enable us to work harder, to understand where we're going,

904
01:18:41,400 --> 01:18:43,400
 to get to where we're going.

905
01:18:43,400 --> 01:18:45,400
 And I think this type of conversation,

906
01:18:45,400 --> 01:18:47,400
 different from where we were months ago,

907
01:18:47,400 --> 01:18:50,400
 is this board is saying we believe in economic development.

908
01:18:50,400 --> 01:18:53,400
 And I'm glad, Mayor, you're here hearing this,

909
01:18:53,400 --> 01:18:56,400
 and I'm glad Councilmember Meltzer is here at home hearing this,

910
01:18:56,400 --> 01:18:58,400
 and I'm glad Councilmember Berg is hearing this,

911
01:18:58,400 --> 01:19:02,400
 because I think all of us believe in the ability of Denton right now

912
01:19:02,400 --> 01:19:04,400
 to do the work that needs to be done,

913
01:19:04,400 --> 01:19:07,400
 and you all are saying we will invest in this,

914
01:19:07,400 --> 01:19:10,400
 and Christine and I collectively know that these next two hires

915
01:19:10,400 --> 01:19:14,400
 are very strategic for our teams, and we're committed to that.

916
01:19:14,400 --> 01:19:17,400
 And that's why earlier I said we've been meeting weekly,

917
01:19:17,400 --> 01:19:20,400
 and it's not just to check it off our list,

918
01:19:20,400 --> 01:19:22,400
 it's because we want to make sure we get the job done

919
01:19:22,400 --> 01:19:24,400
 and we get the job done correctly,

920
01:19:24,400 --> 01:19:26,400
 and for now, just now, for the future.

921
01:19:26,400 --> 01:19:29,400
 And so, Jeremy, that we're on the end of the--

922
01:19:29,400 --> 01:19:32,400
 I mean, we just all win if there's more businesses here and everything.

923
01:19:32,400 --> 01:19:34,400
 I mean, whether you're investments, whether you're in banking,

924
01:19:34,400 --> 01:19:38,400
 whether you're in construction, you know, everybody here wins on that,

925
01:19:38,400 --> 01:19:40,400
 and the city wins in a tax base,

926
01:19:40,400 --> 01:19:42,400
 and I just want to make sure we're not throwing money away

927
01:19:42,400 --> 01:19:43,400
 is all I'm saying.

928
01:19:43,400 --> 01:19:44,400
 100 percent.

929
01:19:44,400 --> 01:19:45,400
 We need to support it.

930
01:19:45,400 --> 01:19:46,400
 And Jeremy, I'm glad you brought that up,

931
01:19:46,400 --> 01:19:48,400
 because it also made me think about, you know,

932
01:19:48,400 --> 01:19:50,400
 if we are making this investment at a staff level,

933
01:19:50,400 --> 01:19:54,400
 at this kind of chamber level, at the EDC level,

934
01:19:54,400 --> 01:19:56,400
 I'm glad you brought that up for the council to hear, like,

935
01:19:56,400 --> 01:19:58,400
 "Hey, we're going all in on this thing.

936
01:19:58,400 --> 01:20:01,400
 This board's ready to be meeting, looking at incentives every month."

937
01:20:01,400 --> 01:20:04,400
 And I think it's good for council to hear that,

938
01:20:04,400 --> 01:20:07,400
 and by bringing up that, I think they kind of brought that to the surface,

939
01:20:07,400 --> 01:20:12,400
 because if we can do that, that proves a win, right?

940
01:20:12,400 --> 01:20:15,400
 And, you know, we've done a few incentives and they've won,

941
01:20:15,400 --> 01:20:17,400
 but the only one that's ended up in the newspapers

942
01:20:17,400 --> 01:20:21,400
 is the one in the last however many years that it --

943
01:20:21,400 --> 01:20:23,400
 what was perceived didn't work.

944
01:20:23,400 --> 01:20:24,400
 We've done a lot of them,

945
01:20:24,400 --> 01:20:27,400
 so I think it would be good to even present a report

946
01:20:27,400 --> 01:20:30,400
 of our incentives we've done over the last 10 years

947
01:20:30,400 --> 01:20:32,400
 and show that a bunch of them are winners.

948
01:20:32,400 --> 01:20:34,400
 And I think that would help shut me up, probably,

949
01:20:34,400 --> 01:20:38,400
 because when I get the report, I just didn't see -- I didn't see that.

950
01:20:38,400 --> 01:20:40,400
 I know, we don't need you to show it.

951
01:20:40,400 --> 01:20:42,400
 Or you take a vote on that.

952
01:20:42,400 --> 01:20:44,400
 It's not going to happen more than that.

953
01:20:44,400 --> 01:20:46,400
 It kind of felt like a threat.

954
01:20:46,400 --> 01:20:47,400
 Excuse me.

955
01:20:47,400 --> 01:20:51,400
 I have to step away just real quick for an hour call.

956
01:20:51,400 --> 01:20:52,400
 Yes, doctor?

957
01:20:52,400 --> 01:20:55,400
 I think it's important for us to understand --

958
01:20:55,400 --> 01:20:57,400
 I was on the scope board at the time.

959
01:20:57,400 --> 01:21:00,400
 We brought the Career and Technology Center here.

960
01:21:00,400 --> 01:21:05,400
 And so this district's 100% invested in what we're trying to do,

961
01:21:05,400 --> 01:21:08,400
 but they don't have the same tools that we have,

962
01:21:08,400 --> 01:21:11,400
 although training and those kind of things are there.

963
01:21:11,400 --> 01:21:14,400
 And behind the scenes we're even talking about

964
01:21:14,400 --> 01:21:17,400
 maybe trying to get a second Career and Technology Center

965
01:21:17,400 --> 01:21:19,400
 because the district's getting that large.

966
01:21:19,400 --> 01:21:24,400
 But I think the individual players -- and I ran for school board

967
01:21:24,400 --> 01:21:26,400
 because I thought the city was totally dysfunctional

968
01:21:26,400 --> 01:21:30,400
 and I could do more good over there to economic development

969
01:21:30,400 --> 01:21:33,400
 by increasing the quality of schools and things like that.

970
01:21:33,400 --> 01:21:35,400
 I think we're all trying to come together now.

971
01:21:35,400 --> 01:21:36,400
 Correct.

972
01:21:36,400 --> 01:21:38,400
 So when we make these two strategic hires --

973
01:21:38,400 --> 01:21:40,400
 I know Lee offered this to me when I first took the job.

974
01:21:40,400 --> 01:21:42,400
 I was incredibly appreciative of it --

975
01:21:42,400 --> 01:21:44,400
 we will call on you to meet with these two new people

976
01:21:44,400 --> 01:21:47,400
 to understand the ins and outs and the guts

977
01:21:47,400 --> 01:21:49,400
 and the pipelines and the workforce development

978
01:21:49,400 --> 01:21:51,400
 that you all have built to today.

979
01:21:51,400 --> 01:21:54,400
 And being on this board, we hope you take the call

980
01:21:54,400 --> 01:21:57,400
 and you help us build these next two individuals

981
01:21:57,400 --> 01:21:59,400
 and get them running.

982
01:21:59,400 --> 01:22:03,400
 And like Christine said, the term that we've been using is gunslinger,

983
01:22:03,400 --> 01:22:06,400
 hunter, fisher, gatherer, hunting, fishing, loving,

984
01:22:06,400 --> 01:22:09,400
 whatever we're doing, we just appreciate your support.

985
01:22:09,400 --> 01:22:11,400
 So thank you in these conversations.

986
01:22:11,400 --> 01:22:13,400
 While we haven't met for several months,

987
01:22:13,400 --> 01:22:16,400
 I think this is helping us understand that this does matter.

988
01:22:16,400 --> 01:22:18,400
 And obviously we're the two up here,

989
01:22:18,400 --> 01:22:20,400
 but there are people on the chamber team

990
01:22:20,400 --> 01:22:22,400
 and there are definitely people on the economic development team

991
01:22:22,400 --> 01:22:24,400
 that have been doing the work in the meantime,

992
01:22:24,400 --> 01:22:26,400
 and they are absolutely a dynamic team,

993
01:22:26,400 --> 01:22:29,400
 and I'm very happy to work with them each and every day.

994
01:22:29,400 --> 01:22:31,400
 I think just the three things I wanted to add

995
01:22:31,400 --> 01:22:34,400
 is that I heard the messaging loud and clear from council

996
01:22:34,400 --> 01:22:37,400
 and the city administration that economic development

997
01:22:37,400 --> 01:22:40,400
 has to be a priority and made back to that by our comp study.

998
01:22:40,400 --> 01:22:44,400
 So the salary is what we're seeing in the market to be competitive.

999
01:22:44,400 --> 01:22:48,400
 Another initiative that we've changed is that I want whoever we hire

1000
01:22:48,400 --> 01:22:51,400
 to be out actively recruiting for the businesses we want,

1001
01:22:51,400 --> 01:22:53,400
 not waiting for someone to come in.

1002
01:22:53,400 --> 01:22:55,400
 So that's what we're looking for.

1003
01:22:55,400 --> 01:22:58,400
 And that other piece is we'll update you on the next meeting of those tools.

1004
01:22:58,400 --> 01:23:01,400
 Council has added two very important tools to our toolbox

1005
01:23:01,400 --> 01:23:04,400
 to help us be more competitive for businesses to be here.

1006
01:23:04,400 --> 01:23:07,400
 Sounds like everybody's on the same page. Let's go.

1007
01:23:07,400 --> 01:23:10,400
 Yeah, as long as we hold them accountable

1008
01:23:10,400 --> 01:23:13,400
 and have metrics in place that they have to go to.

1009
01:23:13,400 --> 01:23:14,400
 Absolutely.

1010
01:23:14,400 --> 01:23:15,400
 So I have a question.

1011
01:23:15,400 --> 01:23:17,400
 When we're talking to those candidates,

1012
01:23:17,400 --> 01:23:20,400
 give me a day in the life of that conversation, right?

1013
01:23:20,400 --> 01:23:24,400
 Are we talking about outside of they know we're located,

1014
01:23:24,400 --> 01:23:26,400
 they know all those things, right?

1015
01:23:26,400 --> 01:23:28,400
 What do we bring to that conversation and say,

1016
01:23:28,400 --> 01:23:30,400
 hey, do we give them samples of,

1017
01:23:30,400 --> 01:23:34,400
 what would you do in this scenario, or here's opportunity reports

1018
01:23:34,400 --> 01:23:38,400
 that have gone unworked while we're in this void,

1019
01:23:38,400 --> 01:23:44,400
 but here's kind of just conversations, activity.

1020
01:23:44,400 --> 01:23:49,400
 What do we do around setting the table

1021
01:23:49,400 --> 01:23:51,400
 for them to understand what they're stepping into?

1022
01:23:51,400 --> 01:23:52,400
 We worked a lot.

1023
01:23:52,400 --> 01:23:56,400
 Our chief communications officer, myself, and the national recruiter

1024
01:23:56,400 --> 01:23:59,400
 worked a lot on that brochure to just lay out what the lay of the land is,

1025
01:23:59,400 --> 01:24:01,400
 what tools we have, what's happening in the community,

1026
01:24:01,400 --> 01:24:03,400
 what's going to come online with the wood, what are we looking at,

1027
01:24:03,400 --> 01:24:05,400
 so they understand that before they apply.

1028
01:24:05,400 --> 01:24:08,400
 The pre-screening kind of vets out,

1029
01:24:08,400 --> 01:24:11,400
 what kind of caliber economic development director are you?

1030
01:24:11,400 --> 01:24:15,400
 We're looking for proven economic development history,

1031
01:24:15,400 --> 01:24:17,400
 versus kind of just saying, I have this many years.

1032
01:24:17,400 --> 01:24:20,400
 So the recruiter is actively working on,

1033
01:24:20,400 --> 01:24:22,400
 show me what projects you've actually completed,

1034
01:24:22,400 --> 01:24:25,400
 what deals you've done before they get to the city.

1035
01:24:25,400 --> 01:24:27,400
 Now, when they get to us, we did a pre-screening,

1036
01:24:27,400 --> 01:24:31,400
 and then we had in with staff two kind of panel interviews

1037
01:24:31,400 --> 01:24:34,400
 where we're focusing on talk to us about your philosophies on incentives.

1038
01:24:34,400 --> 01:24:36,400
 What do you feel?

1039
01:24:36,400 --> 01:24:38,400
 What are the projects where you've had things go wrong,

1040
01:24:38,400 --> 01:24:40,400
 talking through just how they approach?

1041
01:24:40,400 --> 01:24:42,400
 How would you go out and actively recruit?

1042
01:24:42,400 --> 01:24:44,400
 Where do you think we're missing the mark?

1043
01:24:44,400 --> 01:24:45,400
 Where do we need to be?

1044
01:24:45,400 --> 01:24:48,400
 So we're focused more on what are they going to do for the city

1045
01:24:48,400 --> 01:24:50,400
 when they come into this position?

1046
01:24:50,400 --> 01:24:51,400
 What do they expect to change?

1047
01:24:51,400 --> 01:24:55,400
 And what do they think we're missing if we aren't viable

1048
01:24:55,400 --> 01:25:00,400
 and set up for that business?

1049
01:25:00,400 --> 01:25:04,400
 So what was it -- we made an offer, someone applied.

1050
01:25:04,400 --> 01:25:06,400
 We made an offer to them, and then they rejected it.

1051
01:25:06,400 --> 01:25:09,400
 What was it that we -- at the city of Denton,

1052
01:25:09,400 --> 01:25:13,400
 that they did not -- that turned them off?

1053
01:25:13,400 --> 01:25:15,400
 I actually called and I said, I'd like to have a follow-up with you,

1054
01:25:15,400 --> 01:25:17,400
 and I had a really good, in-depth conversation with the person.

1055
01:25:17,400 --> 01:25:19,400
 They were in the DFW Metroplex,

1056
01:25:19,400 --> 01:25:22,400
 and the other city that they're working for are not in TMRS.

1057
01:25:22,400 --> 01:25:24,400
 They are so self-funded.

1058
01:25:24,400 --> 01:25:27,400
 So he had 20 years invested in that retirement system,

1059
01:25:27,400 --> 01:25:30,400
 and then he was living on the south side of Fort Worth and said to drive.

1060
01:25:30,400 --> 01:25:35,400
 So it was not things that ultimately I feel were an issue for us.

1061
01:25:35,400 --> 01:25:38,400
 He said, you know, Denton -- we've got to get back on the map

1062
01:25:38,400 --> 01:25:40,400
 of being open for business.

1063
01:25:40,400 --> 01:25:43,400
 And so he was ready for that challenge, had really good plans for it.

1064
01:25:43,400 --> 01:25:46,400
 But the two things that ultimately led to his decision

1065
01:25:46,400 --> 01:25:49,400
 were his pension and the drive, things I couldn't control.

1066
01:25:49,400 --> 01:25:52,400
 But I did want to know, like, what -- is there something I'm missing?

1067
01:25:52,400 --> 01:25:56,400
 Because this is the caliber director I'm looking for.

1068
01:25:56,400 --> 01:25:58,400
 Thanks for asking.

1069
01:25:58,400 --> 01:26:01,400
 And I think Christine just said it best is we have to get back on the map

1070
01:26:01,400 --> 01:26:03,400
 and be open for business.

1071
01:26:03,400 --> 01:26:06,400
 And I think that is a charge that collectively and collaboratively

1072
01:26:06,400 --> 01:26:11,400
 we can take hold of and make a mission of this body.

1073
01:26:11,400 --> 01:26:14,400
 And definitely through our partnership and this team,

1074
01:26:14,400 --> 01:26:16,400
 that is a charge we do every day.

1075
01:26:16,400 --> 01:26:18,400
 But he did make one other comment, and I'm going to make sure

1076
01:26:18,400 --> 01:26:20,400
 I make it really clear when candidates come in.

1077
01:26:20,400 --> 01:26:23,400
 I'm a little nervous that we made the offer that day.

1078
01:26:23,400 --> 01:26:25,400
 He said, because typically with municipal hires,

1079
01:26:25,400 --> 01:26:28,400
 it's a very lengthy process, and I said, we're ready to go.

1080
01:26:28,400 --> 01:26:32,400
 So I'll make sure that candidates know that going in that --

1081
01:26:32,400 --> 01:26:34,400
 So you just hold off for, like, two weeks?

1082
01:26:34,400 --> 01:26:35,400
 There you go.

1083
01:26:35,400 --> 01:26:37,400
 [laughter]

1084
01:26:37,400 --> 01:26:39,400
 I felt it would be flattering.

1085
01:26:39,400 --> 01:26:42,400
 I felt great to offer, but that was the only thing that

1086
01:26:42,400 --> 01:26:44,400
 I did with him out of control.

1087
01:26:44,400 --> 01:26:46,400
 So I'll make sure we're --

1088
01:26:46,400 --> 01:26:47,400
 You can't win.

1089
01:26:47,400 --> 01:26:49,400
 That sounds like a dream.

1090
01:26:49,400 --> 01:26:50,400
 Four hours.

1091
01:26:50,400 --> 01:26:53,400
 [laughter]

1092
01:26:53,400 --> 01:26:54,400
 I know, right?

1093
01:26:54,400 --> 01:26:55,400
 Good.

1094
01:26:55,400 --> 01:26:57,400
 Okay, and we'll go ahead and keep this as an ongoing topic

1095
01:26:57,400 --> 01:26:59,400
 until we get them hired.

1096
01:26:59,400 --> 01:27:03,400
 The last three items on there, we don't have a representative

1097
01:27:03,400 --> 01:27:04,400
 to come up and talk about them.

1098
01:27:04,400 --> 01:27:07,400
 They are either updates or carryovers from that June meeting.

1099
01:27:07,400 --> 01:27:11,400
 If there are additional questions, we can try to answer them.

1100
01:27:11,400 --> 01:27:16,400
 But it was just intended to be an informational update to the board.

1101
01:27:16,400 --> 01:27:20,400
 Anybody else have any other questions?

1102
01:27:20,400 --> 01:27:24,400
 So I guess we need a motion to adjourn.

1103
01:27:24,400 --> 01:27:27,400
 We still have two more items, right?

1104
01:27:27,400 --> 01:27:34,400
 She just said they weren't here.

1105
01:27:34,400 --> 01:27:36,400
 I do have one concluding item, if that's okay, Tony.

1106
01:27:36,400 --> 01:27:37,400
 Absolutely.

1107
01:27:37,400 --> 01:27:40,400
 Do one of y'all want to give an overview of what we decided

1108
01:27:40,400 --> 01:27:42,400
 or what we talked about or direction?

1109
01:27:42,400 --> 01:27:46,400
 Can we do that yet on downtown decision?

1110
01:27:46,400 --> 01:27:59,400
 If we can't do that yet, then that can come back at a future date.

1111
01:27:59,400 --> 01:28:00,400
 We have an item.

1112
01:28:00,400 --> 01:28:02,400
 We did a closed session item yesterday with council

1113
01:28:02,400 --> 01:28:03,400
 about a potential incentive.

1114
01:28:03,400 --> 01:28:05,400
 They gave really clear direction.

1115
01:28:05,400 --> 01:28:09,400
 And so I'll post that as an item to cover in the February meeting.

1116
01:28:09,400 --> 01:28:15,400
 Yeah, and kind of a new conversation on what's built in.

1117
01:28:15,400 --> 01:28:17,400
 Yeah, we need to do that.

1118
01:28:17,400 --> 01:28:18,400
 Kind of a general overview of that.

1119
01:28:18,400 --> 01:28:19,400
 Sure.

1120
01:28:19,400 --> 01:28:22,400
 Yeah, we provided an update to council yesterday in closed session.

1121
01:28:22,400 --> 01:28:24,400
 Here's what we know is going on in the square,

1122
01:28:24,400 --> 01:28:27,400
 which I think helps coordinate the question and talk about incidentals.

1123
01:28:27,400 --> 01:28:29,400
 So I'll post that on the February agenda.

1124
01:28:29,400 --> 01:28:31,400
 I'll work with Steve and Tony and see what we heard today

1125
01:28:31,400 --> 01:28:34,400
 to make sure we have that agenda so that we're here meeting every month,

1126
01:28:34,400 --> 01:28:36,400
 talking about what's important.

1127
01:28:36,400 --> 01:28:39,400
 And one other conclusion, I will say this.

1128
01:28:39,400 --> 01:28:42,400
 I solicit your input truly.

1129
01:28:42,400 --> 01:28:46,400
 If you've not seen, Portillo's is going in right next to At Home.

1130
01:28:46,400 --> 01:28:50,400
 And if you didn't know, Dick's Sports is going next to At Home.

1131
01:28:50,400 --> 01:28:51,400
 That's what's being built there.

1132
01:28:51,400 --> 01:28:54,400
 But my point is, Portillo's, I'll talk to staff,

1133
01:28:54,400 --> 01:28:57,400
 but y'all are out and about regularly.

1134
01:28:57,400 --> 01:28:59,400
 I'm talking to them about how to control that traffic.

1135
01:28:59,400 --> 01:29:04,400
 If you haven't seen the one in the colony, and it's right at the entrance.

1136
01:29:04,400 --> 01:29:07,400
 That's the last thing we need is more problems for that service road.

1137
01:29:07,400 --> 01:29:12,400
 So I'm talking to them, but just in the way of soliciting information going forward,

1138
01:29:12,400 --> 01:29:24,400
 think about that, and as you drive by, I'd ask for your feedback.

1139
01:29:24,400 --> 01:29:27,400
 Mr. Chair, I think we're back to the point of public adjournment.

1140
01:29:27,400 --> 01:29:32,400
 Okay, do I need a motion to adjourn, or do I just say thank you everyone?

1141
01:29:32,400 --> 01:29:34,400
 And give a time stamp, 1235.

1142
01:29:34,400 --> 01:29:37,400
 1235, so let it be written.

1143
01:29:37,400 --> 01:29:40,400
 And there's lunch, and there's work.

1144
01:29:40,400 --> 01:29:41,400
 Thank you.