Good morning today is Wednesday July 10th at 1104 we're going to call the
Economic Development Partnership Board together and my name is Marty Rivers the
chair of the board and we're gonna start off a little bit out of order compared
to what your agenda says this morning we're gonna start off with the item
number I guess let her see the EDP 19-039 receive a report hold a
discussion and make a recommendation regarding an incentive application for
Tracks Corporation call Jessica up to give that presentation also before we
get started I was asked to remind everybody if you're speaking to make
sure we're speaking into the microphone and you want to make sure you are heard
all the minutes so specifically pointed out Jill's being too quiet
well good morning everyone and before I get started this morning I want to make
sure that everyone knows we have a few special guests in the room that will be
helping with the presentation this morning and so Craig Silver's who's the
CEO of Tracks Corporation is here from California so we hope he's enjoying our
very hot day and I think Kim will be probably doing the primary but Kim war
with new new Mark Knight Frank as well as Erica and Gary who are here with the
consultants as well so if if I can't answer something I'm positive that they
can so let's get started so the first thing I'll do is go through a little bit
of the background of the company at four tracks so they were founded in 2007 and
their headquarters in Pomona California and their facility there includes both
manufacturing research engineering distribution sales it's a fully
integrated facility they are a leading manufacturer of floor installation
products that are those are things like carpet seam tapes tack strips and I can
tell you that's about the extent of my knowledge of flooring products but I'm
glad we have mr. Silvers here to answer any follow-up questions if you have any
on those and those products are sourced from all over the world but the company
does maintain a made in America policy wherever possible so the project here in
Denton they're looking at building a one hundred and fifty thousand square foot
fully integrated facility very similar to their current facility they would be
relocating their headquarters in manufacturing to Denton they would
bring 90 full-time benefits eligible employees with the weighted average range
of twenty four ninety seven and we'll come back to the wages in a few slides
and the estimate as well as the investment dollars and the estimated
investment for this project is about twenty seven million with it to offer a
value add and about thirty four million when you count in inventory so the
project and site that they are considering in Denton and is included in
what is currently the ironwood business park the full site is about 86 total
acres the site that tracks is looking at is about 10 acres the rest of this
business park is being developed with speculative buildings and so you'll see
on the next slide a preliminary site plan that we received from the developer
and the ironwood group and so this is the ironwood site and I do apologize the
last map is a little off scale the site looks much bigger but this is about 10
acres of the site as mentioned they are looking at a hundred and fifty thousand
square foot partial climate controlled and this facility because of where it's
located on the site would assist in bringing the developer and bringing the
utilities and the needed infrastructure into the site and so it's a great
catalyst project for this development and the site size is plenty to allow for
building truck parking materials and that that they will need for their site
so we're gonna switch gears just a little bit and talk about the current
conditions and the proposed conditions for this project so the current
conditions the property does currently have an agricultural exemption on it so
as you can see it doesn't generate a lot of revenue for the city and its current
state about $25 a year with 10 going into the tears and 15 going to this
city generally and the proposed conditions based on some estimates on
the site and the values provided by the company and the total valuation as I
mentioned would be just under 27 million and with generating about $34,000 per
year into the tours city we're getting a hundred and thirty two thousand and then
the gross tax about a hundred and sixty six thousand that's a lot of numbers in
a short amount of time so there are questions
yes this would be one year thank you so we're anticipating improvements to be
completed within one year in this amount so I believe the full build out is for
end of 2020 yes I'm getting a head nod yes excuse me John Baines so as part of
the application the applicant did submit wage data and these are just sort of
averages based on the number of positions that you have but total payroll
of just under 4.5 million and these would be the estimated hourly wages for
each position and I'm gonna go into really the part that's important which
is how that number relates to the requirements in the city's policy for
abatements and that is that they are weighted average their average wage
needs to exceed the county median and county average so here's the county
average and county median and here's where their wages stack up both their
average wage in their average weight in weighted average wage exceed those requirements
so for the incentive they requested an abatement and additional incentives we're
going to focus on the abatement first it will assist in offsetting the
relocation and development costs of the property it also enables them to apply
for Denton County tax abatements and to the Texas enterprise zone as you remember
Denton County's policy is that they can't consider an abatement unless the
municipality grants one first so we have been engaged in conversations with the
county and they are certainly open and if the city does offer an incentive they
would engage in conversations with this company as well so under the city's
policy tracks does meet a few of our priority considerations business and
community investment they are expanding the tax base and they are increasing
jobs with wages above Denton County's average wage and median wage our city
policy to call out sort of this was on the abatement side what they would
qualify for and what they what considerations would qualify them for an
abatement and they must create a minimum of five million as you saw they're
create generating about 27 million in value so they exceed that they're also
exceeding the higher paying jobs based on the established criteria of the
average wage being above the county median wage they are relocating a
national headquarters and then as they indicated in their application that they
would be using 25% of local contractors and construction or 25% of the new jobs
would be filled by Denton residents so for the abatement based on the
information that we had and in the application we did an analysis based on
valuation and how this project compared to other abatements that have been
granted by the city so staff recommendation on this is a 40% tax
abatement on business personal property for four years the reason that this
incentive is only on the business personal property you'll remember
probably from the Tyson discussion is this area is within the TURS so the land
and improvement value is going into being captured by the TURS 40% of that
and only 60% is going to the city and some quick numbers on this and I'll give
you the full chart in just a slide but a hundred at this value for of this
incentive is a hundred and twenty nine thousand to the company it would
generate about a hundred and ninety three thousand in revenue on the
remaining business personal property in that same four-year period in a ten-year
period it would generate about six hundred and seventy seven five total
revenue to this city on only on the business personal property and the
cumulative revenue which has this fun formula down here sixty percent of land
and improvements plus sixty percent of the business personal property during
the period of abatement plus 100 percent of the business personal property tax
revenue for the six years outside of the abatement would be a one point just
under 1.2 million revenue to the city the TURS would benefit about three
hundred and forty five thousand dollars over a ten-year period so that's where
all of those numbers come from it's a fun chart as we typically do we we do a
ten-year analysis to look at an apples-to-apples comparison of all of our
projects with ten years being the most number of years that we could offer an
abatement so we've broken it down here as you see here's the TURS fund getting
its thirty four thousand per year the abatement on the business personal
property which generates a hundred and twenty nine thousand for the company and
then the city revenue which gets a little bit you know more fuzzy down here
that's sixty percent going into the city every year that's not being captured by
the TURS on the land and improvements the sixty percent that's not being
abated right here and then there remain hundred percent when the abatement ends
and that's the six hundred and seventy seven thousand we discussed cumulative
revenue being one point two million sorry that was a lot so I want to make
sure that everyone is comfortable with that analysis and John's giving me a
smile I think that's good I do have a question please yes John Baines because
I don't always remember tell me about the the the fact check on on these
projections I know as a numbers guy sometimes they include a lot of blue sky
for those of you for those of you're not familiar with that term a little fluff
and so how are we doing when we're projecting these kinds of things when we
go back and double check the projections versus the actual how do we how do we
how we're looking on those so the numbers that we get are actually
provided by the company what their estimated total valuation is what we do
and have done in our abatement contracts is we actually include a clause about
them maintaining a certain level of it that they have to reach that investment
to trigger the abatement and then they have to maintain a certain level of
investment to continue the abatement so that's where that check comes in so we
also cap usually the abatements based on our estimates if they were to achieve
this number our calculations pretty straightforward we would say with the
account so if they invested more we would still cap the abatement at a
certain dollar threshold so for example here we have one point one nine four as
the cumulative city potential so and our fact-checking is that you know the
procedure that we use to come up with this number do we go back and look at
the projected versus the actual is this kind of projection yes yes every year as
we're verifying the incentives we're tracking how much was actually generated
by a project that gets reported in our net revenue report each year thank you
for helping me remember because I don't always remember thank you okay so in
addition to the abatement the company has also requested some consideration
some additional incentives so the first would be a construction sales and use
tax grant this is a fairly typical request we usually offer about 50% of
the construction sales and use tax rebated granted back to the company for
these types of projects as a consideration and they've also asked for
nomination to the Texas Enterprise Zone program and I do have the value of those
in just a few slides and then they've also asked for an additional grant or
abatement on rollback taxes and those are when a property is being converted
from an at removing its agricultural exemption it owes five years of back
property taxes as if it was used for a higher use for this property the
estimate is that would be just under $4,000 and then based on the estimated
electric use they would not qualify for the economic growth rider if they did of
course that's an automatic trigger so if they did generate we use one megawatt of
energy that growth rider would automatically be triggered so I wanted
to give you a quick comparison of the projects that we've had come forward
recently just to give you some context of how we got to the numbers that we
did so Tyson in US cold storage were the most to recent abatement requests that
we received their investment levels are here for you Tyson at about 97 million
total 50 million AV value US cold storage was about 34 million with 29 AV value
US cold storage did not get an abatement they did qualify for the growth rider
and they were given a construction sales and use tax grant Tyson qualified also
for the economic growth rider they were given an abatement of 25% of business
personal property for six years but they were not granted a construction sales
and use tax grant they were nominated to the Texas enterprise zone program so as
you can see here here's where tracks lines up with those any questions about
that right so that pretty much sums up my portion of the presentation I'm all
certainly let mr. Silvers or Craig answer any questions that you guys have
but for you today for your discussion is to consider a tax abatement 40% on
business personal property for a term of four years you could also recommend a
different percentage or term of the tax abatement or you could recommend new
abatement and then I'd also like to have the discussion and direction on the three
additional incentive requests that have been made on behalf of the company
I got a couple questions for you yes sir could you go back a couple slides there
so our other discussion a lot of times you will come or staff will come with
recommendations to do those so my question is why are you not recommending
that or why is that not an option for us maybe maybe just a change this is my
first one that I'm doing but my understand was to just seek direction
from the board but I we would recommend consideration of all of those and on our
so on the four-year 40% versus Tyson's six-year 25% the numbers or maybe eight
or nine thousand dollars different but why are we doing it in a short higher
percentage in a shorter amount of time so when we look at the percent being
abated we look at it might be helpful when we get back to that slide so when
we're looking at the percent being abated here we're actually looking at
priority considerations how many boxes of those items are being checked out of
the policy when we're looking at the term in years we're looking at the total
investment so Tyson had fewer priority considerations but a larger investment
tracks has a lower investment but more priority considerations that's not a
hard and fast rule that's simply how the staff policy has been for conducting
the evaluation thank you also have any questions for staff
I do so I'm not in favor of the actual recommendation per se and I know that
businesses are supposed to ask for incentives that's what they do it
doesn't necessarily mean that we have to grant them but what I want to know is
what is unique about this company because we have a lot of manufacturing
jobs we're doing a lot of the same thing so what are they bringing to our
community that is special I think for this project like I mentioned the there's
a few of these priority considerations the city councils made it their policy
or stated these items in their policies these are the types of companies that we
want to have located in our community and consider for incentives higher
paying jobs a national headquarters relocation and 25% of jobs filled by
didn't residents or 25% of local consideration so those are the that's the
direction that we have from council and so when we receive an application from a
company that meets those considerations that meets those requirements that
council has said this is what qualifies you for an incentive we would certainly
want to bring that forward for consideration so I appreciate that I'm
having an issue with 70 of 90 of the jobs below 50,000 a year we're doing a
lot of studies on living wages and what it would take to have a good quality of
life in Denton County and 50,000 is what it would take anything below that is
considered you know borderline poverty for a family of four so if we're if
we're looking at wanting to get higher paying jobs if it's just one individual
out of college just makes you know okay sense but if it's somebody who is trying
to support a family it doesn't so and I have a question for the company because
there are let's get questions for Jessica first and then so people have to
come back and forth to the microphone so I've got some questions to anybody else
have any questions for Jessica all right we get somebody up
who would you like if you wouldn't mind stating your name so we can get you on
good morning I'm Craig Silvers I'm the CEO of tracks corporation and hi I'm
Kim Warren I'm a senior managing director with Newmark night Frank so my
questions are you're moving the headquarters are you relocating people
from California to here we haven't offered relocation to people yet but
we've talked you know to a handful of people and once once we've determined
where we're going and what we're doing we'll offer relocation packages and
state packages to the current employees are you shutting down the California
moving to wherever moving moving someplace most of our headquarters that
get credit for having an international or national headquarters and maybe you
guys can help remind me but the repeater belts and Sally Beauty and there they
have a pretty large component of office space and office staff and I hire paying
jobs so do we have anybody else that is a manufacturer that is industrial space
that we're counting as headquarters do you have how much of your space is
office space versus right currently we have two locations we have a location in
Pennsylvania just outside of Philadelphia and we have the Pomona
location the current plan is to consolidate the Pennsylvania into
wherever we relocate to so we have 130,000 feet in California and we have
38,000 feet in Pennsylvania Pennsylvania has eight employees and
California has 90 so the consolidation would happen over probably the next 18
to 24 months and that of your trying to get the current the current office staff
we have 12 people so are you gonna have 5,000 square foot of office higher
costing nicer looking office space than all we're actually looking currently we
have about 10,000 feet of office that has a training center or a lab but it's
not you know we're not overrun with office staff it's it's a pretty lean
operation all ahead Kiwi yeah so you kind of mentioned the 12 office staff I
assume that those are the ones that make a hundred thousand or above on the list
when I counted it equaled about our production people production facility
managers those people are pretty highly compensated they're making you know
maintenance guys production plant superintendent shipping receiving those
guys are all making north of 60,000 a year I'm going by the list that's a
hundred thousand and above so that's that's where I mean we're trying to get
those higher paying jobs here into into the city do you have a residence
requirement so if anybody that works at your facility they have to live within a
certain distance from it no so they could live in you know Fort Worth or
Flower Mound or okay thank you
first off thank you for considering for your relocation a couple questions one
why are you moving from California so it's interesting you know why secondly
are you coming well I am coming okay right now 85% of our business is outside
California okay so you know freight is probably the biggest driver
secondarily it's just you know transiting you know we have a plant in
Pennsylvania to service the East Coast because it's a 10-day transit time so we
we have the dominant market share in our business segment we have a manufacturing
plant in China you know so we're trying to balance you know where do we
manufacture where are we most efficient and you know trying to remain efficient
and ship 85% of our product outside of California we're paying it to a lot of
other people and you know we could we could be retaining that so it just makes
sense you know we've looked at it for the last seven years and finally it's
it's just time to do it so one other quick question what is your philosophy
your personal philosophy your company's philosophy on involving the community
supporting the community things like that you encourage that with your
employees and staff yeah that little bit for us well we're acting on until
about 10 years ago I was active in Rotary and did all that I have five kids
and you know they were all active in youth sports and we support the local
Little League teams and soccer teams and youth camps and you know it's it's all
part of one I had several questions once again thank you for coming and
considering Denton my question is this how many other locations are under
consideration currently we've we've focused on Denton we're trying to see
if this if we can get this done we looked at a couple other sites in the
greater Dallas Metro but the bulk of our freight moves JB hunt over the BNSF
rail so proximity to those rail hubs is important the farther you get away from
them you know it's that's kind of what drives our business as a small business
owner I'm always interested in and when people come to my office I always ask
them how did you find us so I'll know how to continue to spend my money so how
did you find it tell us about that process this was a national search to
start so we were considering other locations outside of Texas then we
started zeroing in on the DFW Metroplex and had three locations within the
Metroplex that we were looking at we provided a labor study to help figure
out where best suited it would be to actually pull in the type of labor that
he would be pursuing and with that we started looking more and more towards
the north here in Denton so that's kind of how it came to pass but we did look
at others outside the state they're actually very prominent in the industry
that that he focuses in and it also has a lot to do with where do I want to live
the senior management relocate where were we gonna live sulfur springs made
us a great presentation so you would live here in Denton then I'd live some
place close I'm just curious if the because I did check on the the pollution
and the permitting and that didn't seem to be a concern there was zero pollution
but does the is there a smell from the glues or anything that you okay thank
you how you envision having a significant relationship with universities
here so we have two universities here with and so can you elaborate on how you
envision that not everybody is going to have an office job and we have good
paying mechanically inclined jobs so we spent money with the alexidius school
and it's part of the fair LA County fairgrounds where they're training young
people to work with their hands and work on cars and that kind of stuff and that
translates over into the mechanical stuff we were in the middle of an
automation project with robotics and that kind of stuff and it's hard to find
people that are they're trained with those kinds of skills so that's that's
really you know the the new kind of modern robotics and automation isn't in
my opinion is not very well taught everybody's of the mindset that they
need to do something else so the industrial engineering is is pretty
important to us
quick question so so you have your I guess your lowest position is production
there's 66 jobs projected out would you I guess you would anticipate most of
those jobs would be filled from people that already live here in this area none
of that would come from California I wouldn't expect that those people yeah
okay okay thank you is there any kind of degree requirement for those types of
jobs as far as high school we do have a great vocational program in our school
district what kind of qualifications do you need for the entry-level positions
that you have for the entry-level positions I mean we would prefer high
school you know the the labor pool on the lower end you're looking for stable
reliable good honest people right and we don't have a lot of turnover a lot of
these people that work in these production jobs that they've been there
a long time you know it's it's a it's a decent place to work and you know the
climate is not much different in California that it is here we treat them
well and I noticed that you do give benefits including dental life insurance
401k we medical vision even so is that available to the entry-level tech
position it's available to everybody that's great that's great thank you
that's hard
do you do you hire felons or do you have a second chance program that you
I would love to but I don't I don't currently have any that we know of
you're not allowed to ask part of the issue is here is that once an individual
gets out they have a hard time starting over with you know job and then that
means you know homelessness and so I would love to hire people like that
honestly you know everybody talks about the veterans and stuff and where we are
you can't find them you know there's there's there's you're looking for
people we invest a lot of money training them so you want them to stay that's
that's a fixed cost that you know I want to train people that'll stay and work
through there's there's opportunity to advance through the company our VP of
operations started at 16 years old in the machine shop now he's a VP you know
it's it's if you're willing to work there's opportunity for advancement you
mentioned the bulk of your product goes out via rails that 55 percent or 90
percent well rough it goes out in truckload which is hauled over the rails
so very a very small percentage in Southern California if it goes if it
goes over a thousand miles it's going on rail if it goes five to eight hundred
miles it's going on truck over the road so it's over the road and then
intermodal but it's all leaving the premises by truck and the same with the
in bounds in the in bound is coming in by truck so you know our internal you
know we started doing the budgeting on this probably a year and a half two
years ago we currently have about 15 million dollars in inventory sitting on
the ground at our site just the cost to move that inventory to Dallas is over a
million dollars no equipment no people no you know reconnection or any of that
stuff so I know there's a there's a negative attitude towards corporate
welfare but I think if you look through those slides and you see the amount of
taxes that a new business brings not to mention the jobs and the other components
of that the cost of picking up and moving you know at this point in my life
my wife asked me you know why are you doing it you know I mean how long gonna
work and and I think about it and sometimes I think yeah why am I doing it
but you know the long-term objective of the company is you know you do that you
do the best for the business and people that are there and you know that's that's
kind of the focus right now but it's not it's not an inexpensive proposition to
pick up and move and it truly does bring a lot of good things to the community so
thank you John I had one last question slash comment I was in a meeting
recently with Ross Perot jr. and he was quoting the the the principal at Schwab
who said that he was encouraging as many businesses as possible to relocate to
Texas he said this is really a wonderful place to do business and this is my
question there's a lot of things on the table would you still be consider
Denton if you didn't get all those things on the table well I don't want to
say I wouldn't consider it but but my biggest objective is trying to how long
is it going to take me to recoup the cost of relocating and the total
disruption to the business for probably a year year and a half so that that's
the biggest component to it you know how do you how do you you have to justify it
at some point so the point mr. Perot is making or sorry the other gentleman's
name yes about everybody you know should be relocating to Texas well there's a
lot of other places that work you know besides Texas I grew up in a family
business and we had a plant just outside of Kansas City for me I was looking at
places where can I go in one plane ride right one short relatively short plane I
got on a plane last night at 530 and I was here by 10 you know so it's I'm
trying to balance that you know the rest of my family is still in California and
they don't plan to move so if I go to you know Dallas Arlington or wherever
you know it's got to be something reasonable but there's a lot of other
good places to that are sort of centrally located in my and one of my
biggest concerns is with all the people coming here all the companies coming
here what's it going to do to the labor market and my outbound freight situation
inbound and outbound the what happened when I started in business in the early
90s was California was a consumer so all of those goods that were made in the in
the rust belt in the Midwest and shipped to California by truck created an
available pool of empty equipment so shipping east was very inexpensive and my
concern is right now in the summertime California can't get enough trucks to
ship all the imported goods out so when when does that flip and become a problem
for the greater Dallas Metro when is there more companies here trying to
ship their goods out than there are people here to consume you know our our
business were essentially logistics companies how do we get our goods to the
customers efficiently and when that changes and it becomes too expensive to
ship out of here I think a lot of these a lot of these you know you see the
Amazon and all these big buildings all over those are all consuming outbound
freight so it is a thought in the back of my head thank you mr. Sears who are
your customers our customers are primarily for wholesale floor covering
distributors so if you PFS professional flooring services and supply based out
of Fort Worth they have 25 branches in Texas and CNC wholesale based in Dallas
those are those are some of the bigger ones locally but it's it's not it's not
a product you're gonna go Home Depot carries it but they don't really sell it
they just carry it it's it's a professional trade if you're gonna have
carpet or flooring installed in your home and you hire a contractor he's gonna
go to our customer to buy it any other questions for our applicant thank you so
much I'll open up the item for any recommendations for further discussion
we're taking motion thank you thank you thank you very much yes that's a good
idea so our job today is to make a recommendation on a tax abatement and
consider any of the other options as well so to get the party started I'll
make a recommendation that we accept the recommendation of staff on the tax
abatement on the tax abatement thank you we've got a motion second any further
discussion absolutely so I I'm just gonna say that I really appreciate that
they're looking at Denton and I know that din would be a great home we have
the wonderful location and a fantastic workforce the people that you're looking
for are actually here so I and I know that if you were not going to recoup some
of that money the move wouldn't be made at all so it's going to be very
beneficial for your company to be here in Texas and even in Denton so I'm not
necessarily I'm not in favor of this recommendation I would be in favor of
something different I am in favor of the construction sales and use tax grant I
think that would be beneficial for for everyone but the recommendation I'm just
not I'm going to be voting no thank you any more discussion does the incentives
the construction sales and they use tax grant I'm assuming and this is probably
dumb question that comes out of our general fund is that check written out
of the general fund then because that's many going out as opposed to not taking
the money in with a thank you so much good question Tony Tony point the chief
financial officer actually this this would be sales tax that the city
wouldn't otherwise get they would have to set up separate contracts through
that are required through state law they would source all the construction
material to Denton and then they would shake we would share back with them
either percentage or the entire amount so so again this would be sell sex that
we wouldn't otherwise get if it wasn't for this type of agreement and am I
correct I believe that Jessica spoke earlier that these other incentives
incentives I'm fine and the keys I can drive these are pretty common is what
I'm understanding this is not way out of out of line that these other types of
incentives are pretty are pretty common yeah I think they are common I will say
that with the enterprise zone we are limited to three per year or no there's
no limitation on that okay maybe I use that it's four per biennium so we've
talked with the applicant about this so they would be in the net they would be
applying in the next biennium which starts on September 1 but we have two
bonus projects so we were actually allowed up to six I went back and did
some research on this knowing that that question came up on the last one we've
never reached our cap during a biennium that I could find so I don't think that
that I mean certainly there is an opportunity cost but I'm not sure if we
could quantify that because we've never hit that cap of having six combination
in the rollback taxes are estimated to be about 4,000 and that sometimes dealt
with in the purchase sales contract you know as far as you know who's gonna get
tagged with those but okay that's been looked at and that's the number we're
talking about $4,000 when we estimated thank you very helpful thank you any
more questions or discussion on the motion yes if we were to if we were to
put forth a 25% abatement how would that change the color thing a 25% for how
many years about 15% last John so at 25
is available for tax thank you 25% for four years would be eighty thousand six
hundred and sixty two dollars estimated so it's about fifty thousand dollars
less to their company so for the recoup then it would be an additional how many
years to recoup that that difference to get close so five years would be a
hundred thousand just over a hundred thousand six years would be 120 and then
seven years it would jump up to 141 so it would have to be a longer term the
reason I'm when I look at the comparison sheet where we compare tracks Tyson and
US cold storage US cold storage did not get an abatement Tyson got 25% so I'd be
hard-pressed to do 40 u.s. cold storage was approved here and denied it city
council and Tyson is for a longer period of time so I guess you can see where I'm
headed right okay Gerard thank you Gerard the citizen because it's still just
repeat makes me crazy that we're making a recommendation to Gerard the city
council person but that being said drug the citizen says this this this checks a
lot of boxes one as we're moving closer to so the city in this area has the
police firing range right next door to that and so this begins to have
development we're gonna move that right and so what I'm saying is it helps us
continue to develop that area put that you that area to a different use and and
kind of incentivizes others to come together this this area it moves it
closer moves development closer to the airport which is not a bad thing and
then you talk about friends family relatives coming from California we're
gonna have two runways and hopefully with the automation there's gonna be
Texas so I think it benefits the airport that general area one two it helps bring
that development closer so that you kind of feel encompassed by the airport and
for that as just as an individual I'm encouraged by the years don't give me
heartburn for years and is appealing I think we do have the workforce and I
look forward to the opportunities to discuss different skill sets you know
and I think it just fits well especially with the I'm passionate about
internships and that type thing so we need these type businesses to support
our college students so that they can stay here and work here so I'm fine with
staffs recommendations I'm good with the construction sales grant that's
that's worked well in the past but I think it just again it fits well with
what where we're going and kind of the organic progress we're making in that
area thank you any more discussion for the comments we've got a motion and a
second for recommendation for a 40% tax abatement over four years there's no
more discussion all those in favor say aye aye any opposed get that noted motion
carries let's tackle the other incentives I guess one at a time
anybody want to discuss the sales and tax use grant or make a recommendation
there
Tony would you mind coming back up for some questions of course not of course
not just so we make sure the group understands that thirty nine thousand
dollar is a savings to the company but not necessarily a loss to the city is
that that is correct okay correct so there's it's not the city giving you
thirty nine thousand six hundred dollars is just a way for them to have the
product ship here where they save on the sales tax correct again that they will
have to source all those those construction materials to Denton so
there's some contracting that they'll have to do as a reporting requirements
I'll do back to the city I will just want to make sure that we're clear is
that there will be a separate third-party contract because the company
that's actually going to build that site for them is not the company so we'll
have to have a third-party agreement between I think it's is it ironwood and
the company in the city to be able to get that back and so again we'll have to
work through that but again this is sales tax that is going to be paid right
now it's not going to be sourced to Denton so it's going to go somewhere
else so this would be sourcing it to Denton and I think we're giving them
back a percentage not the entire thing is a double thing it's 50% so 50% correct
so there'll be $40,000 Delta that that'll come back to the city to whenever
otherwise I've received okay that's it's good to know so if we don't do that we
miss out on $40,000 maybe we'd like to make a
recommendation I'll make a recommendation that we approve the other
incentives that's recommended by staff all of those or just the first we're
talking about the first way I do have a note on the last one and you could do
the first two together and the last one the additional four thousand I will say
that an additional grant of that can be dealt with most simply through the
abatement process because five percent on the abatement in year one would be
equal to about four thousand dollars and it just eliminates an administrative
burden on both sides so I would make the recommendation that if you if that's
something you want if the board wants to pursue that that we simply increase the
abatement in year one to accomplish that my comment on rollback taxes I don't
like we've ever done that before that's not a large amount of money I'm gonna
say for either side what concerns me is if we do start doing that and everybody
else starts asking for it as well well then I'll restate my motion to approve the
construction sales and tax grant and the nomination to the TC zone program got a
motion and a second Jason discussion Keely well these come to a council as
two separate items or is it just all one because like I said before I was
completely in favor of the other incentives without the abatement but
together it's not so I mean I'm in favor of these so yes but if it's all together
then no so I'm just trying to so break it up the general plan would be to bring
the entire package forward as a work session item on August 6th okay but each
individual agreement has its own approval process so the contracts the
abatement would be done separately the contract for this construction sales and
use tax would be separate it would be a separate action item for council so the
other incentives would be a separate I mean for us like I'm first city council
yes each individual the abatement would have to go through the public hearing
and then the approval process the construction sales and use tax contract
would go through that process and the enterprise zone would go through the
approval process okay I just I submit like from here from this board going to
them so having some familiarity with the Texas enterprise own program I just
want so having some familiarity with the Texas enterprise own program I would
point out that it is tied to the creation of the reinvestment zone and
the public hearing that would also have to be going on are part of the
application process for the enterprise own program so those two kind of do get
tied together slightly and there is no contract for the Texas enterprise zone
for the city it's kind of a pass-through for you guys that goes straight to the
state but normally the creation of the enterprise zone or the reinvestment zone
that goes with the tax abatement and public hearing that goes with that go
into the application that makes some sense yes they could dip sorry city
council typically approves a resolution formally nominating you that's the
approval item so the sales and tax use grant is really not a incentive that
we're giving them by allowing them to do that we're getting more money than we
would get normally so based on their construction costs they would bring in
another eighty thousand dollars in sales tax revenue as an estimate to the city
of Denton by going through this process we would capture half of that and they
would save half of that so that's actually a better deal for the city by
approving that we need to call that in incentive or not but anyway just by not
approving that we lose forty thousand dollars so we have a motion for the
sales and use tax grant and Texas Enterprise zone for approvals any more
discussion just one question all of these proposals are a recommendation to
consider something that's not a recommendation that we do it so why are
we going through all this we're making a recommendation that we do it but the
recommendation is to City Council they they approve it okay that's not what it
says I just I remember an old district judge we used to have when he was
qualifying jurors somebody would ask him the question could you consider giving
probation he would quickly say they can consider to go into the moon question is
can they consider it with the idea of doing it well I'm just not sure what
kind of recommendation the right the way it's worded up there is that they've
asked us to consider this and we're making a recommendation the
recommendation is not to consider it it's to we recommend to the City Council
to do better not to do it we're considering it right now good point
though change words so motion and the second to approve a construction of
sales use grant and nominate them to a Texas Enterprise zone program any more
discussion comments questions all those in favor say aye aye any opposed all
right motion carries and on the rollback taxes is anybody have any discussion or
comments or want to make a motion on that
Tony do you mind tell me understand Marty's point is valid so others have
not utilized this tool what kind of help me understand the rationale or benefits
pros cons of it can you help me understand just the process generally and
what it's targeted to do the rollbacks it's objective is to what so so
basically these are ag exempt properties and so per the statute once that use
changes then there's a retroactive look at what the taxes would have been for a
period of time and so that's kind of the rollback component but again this is all
really specific to those ag's exempt properties that that are out there and
certainly as we start looking at development across you know a vast
portion of the city of Denton will probably be seeing more and more of
these rollback scenarios but again it's not something that we've seen at least
in the recent past but again as we continue to develop into those outlying
areas in the city likely to see more and more of that so so if making sure I
understand you right there's going to be removing that ag exempt there's kind of
a spike or peak and so it's to one way to dull that to to kind of transition it
that's correct that's correct and again it's a it's about a four thousand dollar
impact that that we'd be looking at like all the entities the entire property
will be subject to the rollback taxes the four thousand dollars is just their
portion of the since they're just taking that small component of the business
park property that's the portion attributable to that area got it so the
rollback taxes is something that's retroactive so they go back and it's as
if they did not the property did not have the ag exemption they then appraise
it at the value without the ag exemption and then you pay that amount going
forward for the past few years had there not been an ag exemption once the change
occurs so it's incurred taxes in the back for past years that you pay moving
forward once you've changed the use of the property that helps those taxes are
paid to the county in the school as well correct the exemption applies across all
the jurisdictions but it to your point it looks like we're talking about I'm
sorry Steve Edgar we're talking about maybe a quarter of the overall ironwood
business part so you're saying for this particular application it's 25% of four
thousand dollars no the value the 37 it was 3760 somewhere in there that it's
attributable just to that 10 approximate 10 acres that tracks would be taking
ownership of not the entirety so they conducted an analysis what were the
rollback taxes for the entire property entire ironwood site and what if those
is attributable to their site and that's the number that we're looking at true
attribute so the entity that purchased that property from the razor family is
paying rollback taxes on all of that stuff and they're selling this part
trying to pass that on to your applicant today
I'd like to just give my opinion is I don't know if I want to open Pandora's
box as far as this has not been something typically considered I don't
know that 4,000 is going to be the make or break and it's not necessarily this
one here today but I'm personally not inclined I'm in favor of all of the other
abatement incentives I'm probably not in favor with adding tackiness one unless
anybody wants to make a motion to do that I guess we'll call this item closed
everybody a few seconds for lack of emotion for lack of emotion we will move
forward and these will go towards City Council for recommendation based on one
of those actions today so thank you for being here appreciate the opportunity
all right since we started out of order I'm going to go out of order again and
we'll start with her next with
EDP 19 - 036 receive report whole discussion and give staff direction
regarding the downtown task force policy had discussions about this last month
and the staff has put together a recommended policy hopefully everybody's
had a chance to look and review that Jessica will come up and give everybody
a report
a little bit of a more exciting item on this one we have a lot of items to
discuss so the task force policy really the purpose here today there are
actually two agenda items that you'll see related to this we separated out
sort of the discussion where we want to get your feedback we put a separate
action item on it if you want to adopt the policy today you can but I will say
the task force meets tomorrow morning and we have an item on their agenda to
discuss the outcome of today so if for some reason you wanted to get their
feedback or recommendations before adopting the policy that you would have
the opportunity to do so there is no need to take action today if you choose
not to so at our last meeting you gave us direction to continue the task force
but bring back a policy or guidelines for consideration and some of the items
that you wanted to see would be the appointment or reappointment of members
of the task force and review what constitutes downtown for the purposes of
the task force so staff put together based on your feedback a draft task force
policy it has three primary sections authorization and purpose membership and
structure and meetings and reporting so in terms of the authorization and purpose
as we discussed last time you are authorized under your ordnance created
by your ordinance to create task forces or subcommittees the purpose of the
economic of the downtown task force would be to advise you on matters
related to economic development in downtown Denton or any matters that may
impact economic development in downtown Denton we left that a little broad part
of the discussion last time was sometimes things happen adjacent to or
near to downtown that impact downtown and we didn't want to tie it to a
specific geographic boundary and say it has to be a project or something that's
occurring in this area we all know a road would be an easy thing that their
connections that exist beyond downtown that may be of interest to development
in downtown so we wanted to leave that broad and open we included a list of
items that would be the could discuss but not limited to discuss items these
are the same items you saw in the last presentation it may be capital projects
it may be a specific economic development project it may be recruitment
retention expansion in downtown it could also be solid waste and recycling
projects we have a big solid waste and recycling project going on downtown
right now a pilot program that we'd be looking to you and certainly that's
something we'd want to take to the task force being that they would be familiar
with how busy their business needs in that area they also would be making the
recommendations on the grant program but those recommendations will now be going
to the TERS board as opposed to you guys I think we're not we're still gonna be
recommending to you guys for the next few as we have general fund dollars but
then they'll be making those recommendations to the TERS board but
that was sort of the summation of that section of the document but I'm happy to
answer any questions or on that section yeah or or okay and as we discussed
last time I included this map now this is the cultural district map we used
this as sort of the expansion of downtown and I would consider this like
I said a soft bordered kind of map and things that would be adjacent to this
properties that might be you know at the corner of Carroll and Sycamore may maybe
something the task force wanted to discuss or a project that would be
occurring in this area just for consideration this may not be what
this group thinks it wants to define as downtown it was just simply a starting
place to have that discussion it does go as far south as Prairie right here and
Wilson and then as far north here is withers and Parkway so I certainly
wanted your feedback this map was what you were thinking is for expansion of
the definition of downtown or if you wanted to consider some other area
mr. Baynes you're good you thinking okay thank you okay so I'll move on to the
next section which is where I need a lot of feedback and recommendation from this
group so membership and structure the first item is number of members so
written in the draft policy we have at least 13 members for discussion we
wanted to bring forward whether the board would like to set a minimum number
of members a maximum number of members a hard cap of we're gonna have exactly 15
members so we know how many seats are vacant but I wanted to leave that up to
the board to discuss what you felt was most appropriate for that body we got to
13 to be fair it wasn't a number out of anywhere if you count the the number of
groups being represented it was 13 that's how we kind of came up with at
least 13 does that include somebody from this board so we have to be one of those
that's in yes separate section is that EDP would will have a member on the
task but we have 13 that was we want representative plus right that would be
that at least 13 you yeah we didn't in the draft we didn't make it a
requirement that you had someone from all these it's just saying your intention
is to have someone that represents that you could have someone like Marty on the
task force who represents the EDP who is lives downtown and who is a business
owner you know in a baker professional you could have someone that represents
multiple ones of these so instead of making them specific like this board is
leaving it open to you well maybe we need someone who does check multiple
boxes or maybe we need someone who it's just one of those but that was one of
the items we wanted to have the discussion with today get guidance on
that are there any requirements around quorum yes so in the next section what I
did was make it a flexible quorum so if there were 13 if this board said there
are 13 members currently we could have 19 but right now we have 13 officially
named to the board quorum would be a majority of appointed members so at that
point it would be seven if there were 14 members it would become eight if there
were 15 it would stay at eight and so on so it was a little bit of a flexible
that section would obviously change if if a number was selected thank you oh I
just I think I've answered my own question I'm good just for discussion I
kind of like the idea having a minimum number just so if six people show up to
vote on you know even if you have 13 if it's only six or seven show up and four
people vote for something is that really enough to make a decision coming out
of their recommendation a couple of comments that's all right
Jill jester 13 seems like a lot of people you get those types of groups
represented and at least during my time on the task force and you know almost
everyone has an opinion and so my thought is wow if everyone shows up and
everyone wants to that's a that's a long meeting maybe that's a good or bad thing
but it seems like a lot to require is our minimum maybe and the other thing I
just wanted to throw out is what about term limits where someone rolls off a
year and then can be back on just to create some diversity of perspectives
since there is right now no no type of term no type of cycling on and off I
mean not that we want to bar people that have a good perspective and an interest
and an insight but I think maybe a year off and then going back on even if it's
like a six-year term or something so currently in the draft there's no term
limit for anyone and we do or wrote in that it would be an annual appointment
process so this board would be brought forward with a list but we could
certainly add a term limit in it has that been done in the past I don't
remember voting on the members since I've been it did not appear to have been
sent since yes it's supposed to have been voted on every year I found the
last time it happened was 2017 which I believe was when you were appointed my
goal would be to schedule it to require and as part of this policy require an
annual or appointment or reappointment process to make that clear I'm not so
sure having terms is not a bad idea just something if you've had the same person
on there for 15 years sometimes that's great sometimes it'd be nice to have
somebody different they could roll off and come back on take a year off or
something like that at the same time if you ever try to get people for
committees it's awfully hard to get people to want to come and do all that
stuff so you want to keep those folks engaged and active my thought on the on
the Main Street president is to make them a voting member include them in
that just instead of those people are deeply involved in what's going on
downtown and it's a different person every year I think they all have a vote
that was that was on my list as well to have the Main Street in the membership
actually and and I also am in favor of a term limit I know that for those who
nominate if somebody is willing to stay on it's easier for us to still let them
do that and to sort of go out and you know ask for someone else in the
community to step up and so if there's not something that's there that that
allows us to I don't have an open seat at some point then it's likely that
those members will just stay on and I think at one year out and then one year
back is is a good is a good thing I we have ours is six years right on in other
policies but I don't know if we want to do that make it consistent or if we have
something different for this one like you know I'm not I'm not sure if you
want to reference this board has a six-year total of your term six to your
terms three consecutive six years total and then sit out the year and then yeah
so I mean if we wanted to make it consistent with this board that would be
probably good idea okay and then you could draw names for who's got one year
after two years or how that's gonna work in the past the that committee has put
the list together and made a recommendation to this board as far as
the nomination I don't know if that needs a changer so I'm in the draft
policy the statement on recommendations for appointments with that would be
either or either the task force could make a recommendation or this board
could make a recommendation but when the adoption of the kind of slate of
candidates would be made by this board so you may ask for recommendations from
task force or you may have to make your own
so one of the other items in this section is sort of solidifying that an
a member of the EDP we must serve on the task force it could be it's at least one
so it could be more than one member of the EDP could serve on the task force if
more than one member of the EDP serves on the task force then we have to have a
selection of a chair and this policy also would solidify that a member of the
EDP serves as chair of that body so if multiple members of the EDP were on it
the task force would select their chair from the multiple members of the EDP
members on that board if there was only one that person is the de facto chair
the vice chair selection and the draft policy has written that the vice chair
can be any member serving on the task force so it does not have to be a a
member of the EDP but that's certainly up for discussion
on my last page it says this is not it was it was originally but it has
continued and so Marty and I had discussed possibly changing the name to
just be the downtown subcommittee the downtown advisory committee something to
make its name more conducive to what it does yes downtown economic development
something to remind everybody when they're there this is an economic
development committee that makes it a lot longer name but downtown economic development committee we'd
refer to everything as acronym so it's okay if the name is long so is there
any other discussion or items related to this section or with the few changes
adding Main Street as a voting member turn adding in term limits at six years
we would divide it it would be two-year terms is that anything in there anybody
wants to change or talk about I would like to recommend that we make those
changes if we can today and have that get some feedback from the task force
sure well we can incorporate those and then take that and there's one more
section what number did we settle as a minimum I don't know that we did do you
have one in mind I guess from the years of experience doing that to have all
those people and the main thing is to have enough reasons not make up reasons
but have enough reasons things going on for this group to meet and give us some
feedback and if there's nothing to meet about they don't have to have a meeting
but I have noticed in the last couple one of the last recommendations for
reimbursement grant like seven people voted so if we've got a list of
potentially 15 people and we're wanting involved in all this process and only
seven people show up I guess that can just be accounted for when we're here
in their recommendations John Baines is there a a list of things that the
downtown task forces is charted to address or are they able to discuss an
unbounded number of things she she added a broad definition second paragraph
there so yes under the authorization and purpose so it would be just kind of
twofold the first would be anything related to economic development in
downtown or that may impact economic development in downtown and then we
listed out some possible items these are a list that we put together based on the
last five years of items that have gone before the task force which would be
capital projects such as the new streets that was an item that we wanted to get
task force feedback take it lighting downtown we wanted to get the task force
feedback because that gets us really insight into a really different array of
individuals that represent different interests downtown so through the task
force we might get recommendations of as a business owner this is how a capital
project might impact me but maybe also from a historic preservation component
this is how a project might impact downtown and so we take a variety of
things through the task force just simply to get feedback from a group of
downtown stakeholders thank you
Keely so on the numbers so there's 11 now and then so 12 would be if we move
the main street up then that would be 12 right and then if you have an EDP
member on there would be 13 is that where you got the 13 from it yes there
have traditionally been 13 people on it but the groups represented it was 13 so
that's why we just sort of that's a starting place yeah we just added NCTC I
think as a stakeholder because of their move and the person that they have
recently resigned was Don from Methodist Church yeah they should be on it well I
don't know I mean that's a NCTC yeah NCTC and we added and I don't believe we
added the CBB after discussing they're they usually had somebody here
participating in that that's a big part of what's going on CBB and economic
developments are like we wanted to formally put them on on the task force I
think Dana usually attends the meetings any other comments or discussion okay so
the last section is just on frequency of meetings they meet on the second
Thursday of the month so they meet tomorrow if there's not an item to
discuss the chair would have the ability to cancel the meeting that's the same
for just about any board with the city is if there even if this board didn't
have any items to discuss we would simply cancel the meeting so it sets a
frequency everyone can put it on their calendar and know where they need to be
on what day but certainly gives them the flexibility that if they don't need to
meet they can cancel so we were just talking about well in our other
committees and I don't know if this is equal to council committees or are not
advisory committees on attendance and so with this committee be held to the same
attendance policy no no this committee is formed by this body not by City
Council okay because we have so it would be this body if you wanted to write in
an attendance requirement you would have to do so into this policy it's not this
body wouldn't the task force wouldn't be subject to a council committee because
it's not adopted by council so we so we could say if because I 13 is a good
number for me it's a lot of people and we have issues you know with quorum and
stuff but for an individual that's on the committee and doesn't show up for
meetings you know does that for I'm just trying to learn the different rules for
us we have to have a reason which you know attendance would be that for this
body they can just nominate another person the EDP would be able to remove
someone and nominate right this body yeah okay but we could write that in we
could add in a attendance requirement or if this body simply wanted to keep that
flexibility you don't have to that could just be something that comes up in the
annual appointment reappointment process like how many times they were there it's
just you know if there's a constant quorum issue each meeting then that
becomes an issue and so we also added in quarterly reports to the policy so that
whatever EDP member is appointed to the task force we would put an item on the
EDP agenda each quarter so that that member could report on the activities of
the task force to this body because that's one thing that we talked about
last time was that you don't all know what they're talking about their items
don't necessarily come to you we may get a recommendation from them and it has no
action so it doesn't move any further but this would allow you to say hey we
want to get there what what are they talking about what are they discussing
what items are coming before them would give you all the opportunity to get a
report from them so that would be another opportunity where attendance
could be addressed
we did write into it compliance with the open meetings acts that's something all
of the city boards we make subject to we have to post we do that now they have a
posted agenda we comply with the 72-hour rule we comply comply with quorum
requirements simply just saying that's our intention and we'll continue to do
that non-binding recommendations is just saying that this board does not have to
agree with any recommendation they are simply an advisory body if you disagree
with a recommendation from them you don't have to accept it that's fairly
traditional and something you've all experienced is you make recommendations
to counsel you make a non-binding recommendation can we change the meeting
times instead of saying the second Thursday of each month and just monthly
sure that way if they want to change that based on their makeup they can
change it I have to come here to change the policy it would kind of be nice if
they met before this or this meeting so it would be a month old stuff you could
do that and certainly that's something we could take to them tomorrow and say
you know could you move how that meeting falls so that it winds up better with
the EDP meetings
George drawer the resident at 606 Wilson Street says I would say nine is my
number and who's here's who I eliminate downtown developer because the
developers not there's not an exclusive developer to downtown so they're gonna
develop elsewhere so I kind of target that as it rolls into others I target
the the arts related because that's overly broad arts could be anything and
then downtown residents I think that's captured in downtown property owner and
then I also target Denton County just because they're not one there they're
gonna they'll have to have the square they're gonna be down there for another
year or so but then they're their primary business is going to be on the
loop and so I just I don't know that carries the same I mean obviously they
still own the property all that but that's just kind of my my my look at it
so and then you add in the EDP board member as a chair and the downtown
Main Street that gets you to nine I do believe so that's does it make some sense
to leave all those people as people we would like to have involved that changes
from one can change from one year to the next so depending on like when you and
T Herbert Hall you know when you and T put you and T on the square reason
because they're on the square we want some input what's going on there I don't
know what happens with the county in two years or not but because there's such a
big presence in downtown we wanted and we have parking things and sidewalk
things going on for those guys just too good sometimes I can take whatever
discussion is back up to the county and they can hear from different directions
some of the issues or problems and I will say to your point is sometimes it's
really hard to find someone who fits in just one of those boxes most of the
people that we have on the task force even today could fit in two three four
of those categories a resident could be a property owner where the president is
involved in downtown and property you know I think generally the justice 13 is
too too high it's you know so whatever that that there's a method to that for
me to say the 13th too high just my own I've never attended a meeting you know
so I could be absolutely wrong just my look outside looking in think that you
that was a volunteering to be nominated
kicking somebody off of it that's been in because they've had the same group of
folks involved for a long what there's okay I would say as far as the numbers
you know we can still have a large amount and I think that they can self
regulate a bit as far as if it's too many you know if we set a certain it's
the maximum versus a minimum so they can have 13 14 right if we just set a
maximum I think it's just the the minimum that's the question but they can
certainly have more we're giving them a range so we're not saying necessarily
you have to be at this number we're saying you should have this to this
depending on who's available what areas are needed recruitment is that could do
discussing so it's not so hard and fast you could say nine to thirteen you could
say yeah thirteen is the max that would let's make that recommendation nine to
thirteen
okay and then we'll make the corresponding change to the quorum
section to make sure that that's addressed all right any more discussion
that will have them make some comments and come back next month yes we will
bring it back next month going out of order
assuming nobody has anything else on that item we'll just go with G the
business awards breakfasts nominations
Michelle Cunningham City economic development I've been here the past
couple of meetings and we've discussed this topic this is the recognition by
the economic development partnership board to a large business meaning a
hundred or more employees and a small business meaning under 100 employees at
the September 20th mayor council awards breakfast that's your annual award and
last time for small business nominations Los Teca and Dan Silverleaf are both
nominated but thus far I have embassy suites as a large business nomination so
this is your final opportunity to nominate additional potential award
recipients and last year I know that you considered embassy suites winco acme
brick and target as your four large ones at that point we did not have a specific
small business award set aside but there had been discussion about looking at
smaller companies too and technology resource centers of America TRCA had
been nominated or for consideration as well and so all of those were put on the
matrix that came back to you that you made your decision from at the next
month's meeting in August you'll be making a decision for a large business
and a small business recipient from your nominees so this is your final
opportunity to nominate additional businesses for consideration should you
wish to do so Michelle does embassy have a hundred employees I believe so yes I
mean if you're counting all part-time and I would like to make a nomination of
a small business company okay Allison engineering group okay it's kind of
occurred to me over the last couple of weeks since we've talked about it they're
really good but all the candidates are good they're they're good candidate
they're also from an economic development standpoint they're an
economic development investor so they're already invested they are active in our
investor group they're very involved in the chamber Lee Allison has been
chairing the development group that's been working with the city didn't go
through the development kind of process this past year Jason fagley is leadership
didn't steering committee involving Kiwanis and served in kind of check off
all those boxes so I'd like to add those folks okay and they're a lot they're
involved in a lot of projects that come through the city didn't small and big
they've done work on the TWA parking garage and work downtown they've been
working great point
this is kind of putting you on the spot but I'm wondering how many businesses we
have that have a hundred or more employees in the city of Denton we have
about 25 or 30 it's more than folks think it is yeah I'd be curious that the
hotel does if you have staff and nighttime people and people cleaning they don't need
80 people okay well then in case I find that's not the case because that was
done again when I looked last year and the numbers are probably taken from
their incentive application frankly so I think it's a great candidate okay just
on piggybacking on Jill's comment and yours with that could you send us a list
of those over a hundred just so that we have to look at okay it would be helpful
okay and I may be thinking and I am sorry I may be thinking 50 and more
because in my mind that's kind of a tipping point in when I'm working with
companies that's one stratification there's another one the hundred is where
the cutoff is for what kind of business grants they are eligible for through the
Workforce Commission so and in this case that follows the hundred so it may be
fewer than that but it's more than people think it is no I just a hundred
I mean we go by the total headcount we need to make all our recommendations
today or at the very because we're gonna come back with information on all of them
in August and so and I need to research them so can we can I get this out to you
I'll send you all a list email list today of that listing and then if you
could provide information back by next Wednesday which is the what day is that
that is the 17th and the reason we're making that to be to be clear the reason
that we're taking bringing it back in August is your September meeting is the
joint meeting with City Council so we thought that there wouldn't usually we
wouldn't have any action items moved this up one months to make this
recommendation okay all right thank you thank you Michelle all right before we
lose anybody let's go back up to the top of the agenda and look at item ADP 19
- zero three four consider the approval of the economic development partnership
board meeting minutes of June 6 I move approval with the addition of Edgar and
that's fit to the list of present or absent I don't know which category I fit
in president and absent motion and a second on minutes as revised any further
discussion all those in favor say aye any opposed all right the minutes are
approved and we've got staff reports any a lot of that is normal information has
been sent out to you that Jessica anything you need to visit about for the
good of the order is as I mentioned September 9th which is a Monday will be
the joint my son on it is on my lights on belly Monday Monday September night
is the joint EDP City Council meeting don't know the exact time yet but
certainly we'll be working through if there are any specific items that this
board wants to bring forward for that discussion we would welcome those just
good is that typically daytime or an evening meeting it's usually a luncheon
luncheon okay thank you can we add on our next month's agenda to discuss
discuss topics that we want to discuss at that meeting we can the Adam is alley
office this week anybody have any other questions or comments I wanted to bring
up well since we're done with staff reports and our other item concluding
items our next economic development partnership investor reception is
Wednesday July 31st and that is going to be at the Spring Hill Suites by Mary
odd you all should have received an invitation by being on this board we
have secured Andy Eads to come give us an update on what's going on in the
county that is our chamber folks who are investing private money folks so those
people were the ones that are helping raise funds or up to $80,000 in private
funds to help our marketing efforts and you guys get introduced every at every
one of those meetings if you're there so I would like to see a better contingent
of folks from this board at those receptions to meet all the folks that
are investing in the chamber side of things and we try to be really good
programs so it's it's an it's an evening program use the last about an hour an
a half we're working on or an October meeting where we'll get hoping to get
plant managers from all the world facility managers from all of the
different larger companies like Peterbilt and Target just to kind of
have a panel with those folks in October so trying to bring something you guys
ought to be interested in and I would really appreciate it when you can make
those to to come attend those as possible so if you hadn't had a chance
RSVP to Karen to let her know if you could make that or not
yeah no that's a that's a benefit for investing into our partnership to be
unattended so all right anything else yes Marty several you guys missed the
picture last time we took it I'd like to make sure we include you guys take a
moment everybody all right I will find some confident person to do it
all papers off the desk and we're adjourned