WEBVTT

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 Okay, so then we have a quorum. I will now call the regular meeting of the Economic Development

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 Partnership to order. It's about 1108, so thank you for coming. First item on the agenda

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 is item A, number EDP 24-030, to approve the minutes of our February 14, 2024 Economic

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 Development Partnership order. Do we have any comments, questions, or corrections for

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 the minute? We have a motion to approve. Do we need a second? I can second. Any other

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 questions or questions? So we have a motion and a second to approve our minutes from last

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 month. All in favor, aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion passes. Next up, we have item A, number

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 EDP 24-032, receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding the incentive

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 evaluation matrix. Chair recognizes staff presenting this item, Erika Sullivan. Good morning, my

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 name is Erika Sullivan. I'm the economic development program administrator for the city, and I'm

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 giving a presentation on the incentive evaluation matrix. We'll start with the background and

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 history. So the first tax abatement policy was adopted in 1989. Chapter 312 of the tax

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 code requires that we adopt a tax abatement policy every two years. So the economic development

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 strategic plan was approved in February of 2021, and then the policy for tax abatement

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 and incentives expired in March 22. In 2022, staff worked to align the incentive policies

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 with our new strategic plan and the city's core values. And then we have a recommendation

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 on the incentive policies from February to May when they were actually adopted in 2022.

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 And this board will review the updates. We meant to do it at the March meeting, but now

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 we're doing them both at the May meeting, but it's so that you can approve the policies

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 that are expiring in May of 2024. So here we have the incentive evaluation matrix and

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 we're going to go over each of these sections individually. You also have them at your table.

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 The first one with less colors is the current evaluation matrix. It's gray and green. So

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 we selected three different projects to review so you can get an idea how the matrix works.

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 The first is a project with a significant capital tax case that they received an incentive,

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 100% incentive for a period of seven years. The next is a expansion project that received

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 100% chapter 380 rebate for a period of 10 years. And then the last one is an entrepreneurial

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 tech project. And this project received a $50,000 expansion grant as well as a job-based

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 grant in the amount of $29,500 for a five-year term. It was also a residency bonus.

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 So we'll begin with the first section. These are our SGA, our strategic growth areas identified

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 in our strategic plan that help us for recruit different targets and they are connective,

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 creative, sustainable, and competitive. And so you can see we have the three different

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 examples here, the capital example, expansion example, and the tech entrepreneur example.

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 Both the capital and the expansion fell under the connective category and our tech entrepreneur

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 sample fell under creative. And then we also have, and this was added during that process

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 when we went back and forth between ADP and council, there was a suggestion to add in

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 other categories. So we added another category and the expansion example received additional

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 A points because their secondary makes was aviation. So they received it for that. And

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 then our tech entrepreneur sample received additional points for their hub and spoke

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 offshoot companies. The next is the priority considerations. This

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 is the first half of the priority considerations. And you can see the capital example, the expansion

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 example, and the tech example again. The capital and expansion generates more utilities. It's

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 a large capital investment, more jobs, more space than the tech entrepreneur sample. The

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 next item encourages new business markets, suppliers, and entrepreneurship. Our entrepreneur

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 tech grants scored highest in this area. Sustainable practice, our capital example, they had a goal

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 to be compostable and recyclable by 2025, as well as reducing their waste by 15%. So

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 we gave them additional considerations there. And then increases high wage jobs. You can

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 see the entrepreneur tech samples scored highest in this category because their overall average

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 wage was $68,000 and then the incentivized average was $70,000. The priority considerations

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 continue. You'll see here we have the encouraging knowledge based jobs. Again, the tech entrepreneur

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 sample scored highest in this category. Spring infill development, redevelopment, our expansion

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 sample scored highest in this category since they moved into a new building that was larger

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 and vacant for over two years. Encouraging a living wage. Again, the tech entrepreneur

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 sample scored highest in this category. And then other considerations. Our expansion and

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 our tech entrepreneur sample received additional considerations for retention and expansion.

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 And our other consideration, capital, was for their different investments in the community.

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 Before we move on, I just wanted to show this table. It was in your backup as well. This

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 is the living wage table that we added to the policies the last two years. The council

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 requested that we add a living wage component. So I brought three different things to this

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 board at that time. So we looked at housing, the department housing and urban development

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 income limits. We looked at this calculation for the living wage, MIT from Michigan. And

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 also we looked at Texas workforce income limits as well. And this is the one that this board

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 recommended to the council and we've chosen for that economy. Finally, we have our public

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 benefit factors. This includes expanding the tax base, fiscal and economic impacts. You

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 can see the capital example scored better on expanding the tax base as well as the expansion

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 sample because there's significant investment in a new and expanded facility. The fiscal

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 and economic impacts all scored pretty well. The tech sample scored well in the jobs and

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 the additional multipliers that benefited from that. Community investment all scored well

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 in this category. The tech entrepreneur sample continues its involvement with Stoke and they

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 also mentor and offer internships for UNT students. The expansion sample works with

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 our ATC, Advanced Technology Center at DISD. And then community investment with the capital

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 sample, they have a Kids Smart program with our large capital investment. And they also

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 contribute to food banks. And then we didn't have any other special considerations in the

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 public benefits. So you could see how these particular projects scored. The capital sample

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 scored the best in the excellent category and the expansion and tech entrepreneur goals

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 scored in the acceptable category. And all these items are taken from our policy. It's

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 just a method in which we always look for conformance, but it's a method in which we

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 can evaluate it. This is a first time because a number of you haven't been here. There's

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 about three of you who were here during that process. But it allows us to go back and look

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 at it versus the regular conformance that we did prior. And this was also brought up

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 when we presented the strategic plan. It was a council request to do the evaluation. At

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 that time we had four or five considerations we were looking at when the strategic plan

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 was adopted. And so I'm happy to entertain questions.

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 Any questions for Erica? I have one. Back on the living wage graph that you put up chart,

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 how do we as a city track, I know that the demographics are, you know, having the census

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 and all that stuff, how do we track as a city where we are, you know, relative to the demographics

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 of our community, the trend that we're looking, we're seeing relative to wages and wage growth,

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 things like that. We keep up with that very well. We have a software. We used to use MC.

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 Now we use Job CQ. So the software allows us to get down to the city level for most

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 things. A few things you have to use approximation of zip codes. But any type of published data,

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 the lowest you can get is the MSA. So we use that and we utilize that frequently to compare

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 them as well. And then to get our average wage because in order to meet the threshold

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 for high wage jobs, you have to have 65,000 or more to be the average wage or weighted

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 average and or 25% making 75,000 or more. Our prospects will request certain job codes

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 that we will look up and provide what the average wage is. It also gives us a location

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 quotient. So it will tell us where we stand compared to the national average. So if we

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 are one or higher, then we have a higher concentration, equal or higher concentration than the national

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 average.

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 Does the fact that we have all these college kids in our community, does that distort those

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 numbers in any way relative to they're part of that, you know, study or demographic?

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 It does somewhat. And there's definitely an influx and you'll see changes in the summer

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 and you'll see it with unemployment, too. There have been a few studies that the census

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 has done that looked at the group quarters and looked how they've done that, but they

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 only do it every so many years. But we still perform pretty well and we also use comps

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 with Waco and San Marcos, because they're University townships.

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 How is this used to evaluate on your actual overall matrix? The reason I'm asking is just

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 doing some math in my head. That's $62 an hour versus $125,000 a year.

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 It's $65,000 a year. So if you divide it by 2008, you can get the hourly.

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 When you convert hourly to salary, you divide by 2008 and you multiply by 2008. So this

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 is done in hourly. So if you multiply these by 2008, you get the salary, the annual salary

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 versus the hourly salary.

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 Any other questions or thoughts for Eric?

00:11:28.120 --> 00:11:39.760
 Thank you. Next up, we have item A, number EDP 24-031, receive a report, hold a discussion,

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 make a recommendation to the City Council regarding the City of Dixie's policies for

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 incentives. The Chair recognizes staff who's in this item, Erica Sullivan.

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 Again, Erica Sullivan, Economic Development Program Administrator for the City, and I'll

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 be giving a presentation on our incentive policies. So we began with a history, we're

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 going to discuss some tax abatement considerations, and then we'll look at the proposed changes.

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 We're not making significant changes to policy since it was a complete rewrite on the last

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 day.

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 So our policy history, again, first tax abatement policy in 1989, we added green incentives

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 in 2010 and 2012. Once you implement something, you realize you missed something, so we added

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 green incentives in 2012. The policy was broadened in 2014 to include Chapter 380 of the Public

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 Government Code, which allows us to make cash grants and loans. Retail was addressed, some

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 of our sales and use tax for construction definitions were added to the policy in '18.

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 In 2020, we held off on making any updates other than the Census updated maps, since

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 we were working on our new strategic plan.

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 So our strategic plan was adopted in February of 2021. We have our five guiding principles

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 that provide the framework for economic development, core resiliency, future-focused, inclusive

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 growth, entrepreneurial spirit, and cultural vitality. And then we also have the three

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 major goals that our programs are aligned to, accelerate recovery, foster growth, and

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 strengthen communication.

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 So Chapter 312 of the tax code requires that we update our guidelines on policy for tax

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 abatement every two years. It's effective four or two years after adoption. If we want

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 to amend it during that two years, we need a superintendant vote. If everybody must hold

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 a public hearing before we adopt them, Denton County chooses not to participate in Chapter

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 380-1, so we typically do a tax payment. We want the county to produce pay. And that's

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 just the county equivalent to Chapter 380.

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 So we work with the county to facilitate any incentive where an incentive applicant will

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 be seeking an incentive from the city. So those are just some of the considerations.

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 So the proposed changes to the policy. Since we adopted the policy, the city has changed

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 our city values. So you'll see that the items that have changed are in green here. Conclusion,

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 quality service, and fiscal responsibility stay the same.

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 So some of the changes that we're proposing here. After you implement a policy, you realize

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 that those are the things you need to change. So we've received feedback and also staff

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 input into the proposed changes. One of them is realigning what we had as the priority

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 considerations and our community benefits into our strategic growth areas. So again,

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 that's our priority targeted areas.

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 So we also updated the evaluation matrix to match that. So you have three categories.

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 Now we have the four SGA's and then an economic and fiscal impact section. And then we incorporated

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 possible underwriting into the policy. As we utilize that for the fine arts theater

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 and might be using in the future, we want to make applicants aware that that might be

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 part of the process. And then again, update to the census maps that we do over two years.

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 So again, our strategic growth areas are connected, creative, sustainable, and competitive. And

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 we again organized all of the considerations under these areas.

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 So here's our new matrix. So you have the old and the new matrix that you can compare

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 at your table. The major factors didn't change. Where there is a change, I will note it in

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 greens. We're going to go over each section individually again. So we'll begin with our

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 SGA targets. So this is our targeted industry sectors in our former policy. Again, this

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 is now our strategic growth areas. The change that we added here was adding the NAICS. I

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 would put it off to the side because this is an Excel document. Now I can add it here

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 where everyone can see it. So it might be semiconductors or manufacturing or whatever.

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 We will have the industry number there and then the description. And all of these categories

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 include other. I just didn't include it here because some of the tables would not fit.

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 This one, for example. So again, we have economic and fiscal impacts now all in one category.

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 One of the changes that we did make is expanding the tax base and economic impact were grouped

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 together. They were separate prior. That was the only major change to this section. Next

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 we have connective. So in implementing this particular project, we made a change in on

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 focusing on electric as we have our own municipal electric utility and we have our EGR economic

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 growth rider where we can offer an incentive working with DME in our demand bill. So it

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 can reduce their payments at 50% over a five-year period, decreasing 40, 30, 20. And again,

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 there's another consideration for all of these. I did change the other from 10 points to five

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 points since we have more categories now and we didn't want to inflate the point structure.

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 Next is creative. There were no changes to creative and the items that fall under it

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 are community investment, encouraging new business, market suppliers, and entrepreneurship

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 and childcare assistance. Next we have sustainable. So engaging in sustainable practices for infill

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 development, redevelopment, and competitive. So our headquarters and then use of local

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 infrastructure. And then our total point structure. So our total point structure went from maxing

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 out at 175 now to 155. So this board has a couple of options. They can recommend the

00:18:03.360 --> 00:18:08.040
 staff proposed changes that we have here or the board can make a recommendation to include

00:18:08.040 --> 00:18:25.960
 exclude other items in their recommendations. Any questions? A lot of stuff there. You know,

00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:35.120
 first I want to say what I really like about this rubric that it's half actually, more

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 than half just a straight up economic analysis. But that, you know, you can get likely all

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 the way there just on project economics, the city strategy. And the rest, you know, is

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 organized to reflect the city's adopted economic development strategy in those areas. I think

00:18:55.640 --> 00:19:08.280
 that feels very, very untargeted. I'm a little unclear about exactly what kinds to give on

00:19:08.280 --> 00:19:15.200
 this point that they're making. If you've got, for example, let's say a movie studio

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 wants to come in here, pretty clearly, like, created, right? We tap resources for community.

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 But because, you know, it might not fall under, whether or not they have child care assistance

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 or these other very important things that we like and want to keep credit for, you know,

00:19:35.960 --> 00:19:39.840
 maybe the most they could score under created would be five points because it would be other.

00:19:39.840 --> 00:19:45.840
 You know what I'm saying? There's not a way for an overwhelming on-target, you know, on

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 strategy thing to score as much as it maybe ought to in that area.

00:19:54.200 --> 00:20:00.200
 They would give points under the creative category in the SGA. So they don't get 10

00:20:00.200 --> 00:20:05.920
 points there. And it is in our SGA because council specifically added creative.

00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:14.880
 Oh, okay. I guess kind of the false point. One thing I would look at, maybe getting back

00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:21.440
 to total compensation and living wage, depending on the business, I'm just talking about Peterville.

00:20:21.440 --> 00:20:28.760
 We don't offer a child care voucher, for example, but we offer a very premium wage. So could

00:20:28.760 --> 00:20:37.360
 that be like basically a total compensation versus because I offer more than a wage voucher

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 plus the premium wage, but that's going to show up for me as just 110 points in the category.

00:20:43.040 --> 00:20:45.040
 Does that make sense?

00:20:45.040 --> 00:20:50.120
 Yes. And one of the things that I haven't noted is in the application when we have a

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 separate tab, it's an Excel document and we have the applicants actually, they don't point

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 structure, but they check the box. So if you check a box that tells me that you have that,

00:20:59.840 --> 00:21:02.920
 I'm going to ask you for the documentation that goes along with that.

00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:14.360
 I agree. But if I say the living wage is $20 an hour, just for a number, and child care

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 is worth $10 an hour in real value, and I offer my employees $40 an hour, I'm actually

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 offering more. Does that make sense?

00:21:25.720 --> 00:21:26.720
 Mm-hmm.

00:21:26.720 --> 00:21:27.720
 And we look at all sorts of things.

00:21:27.720 --> 00:21:33.880
 In the way this matrix is set up though, you could miss that. So I guess maybe another

00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:42.880
 way of looking at it is total compensation, total value that you're giving for your employees.

00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:43.880
 Does that make sense?

00:21:43.880 --> 00:21:44.880
 Yes.

00:21:44.880 --> 00:21:48.320
 And we do look at other things like some have --

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 Because we also offer 50% tuition reimbursement. I mean there's all sorts of things --

00:21:52.320 --> 00:22:00.560
 I mean there's all sorts of other things, so it might be one of those things where instead

00:22:00.560 --> 00:22:05.040
 of being very specific about those things, I understand why they're there. They should

00:22:05.040 --> 00:22:11.360
 maybe have that plus a value that that's worse. So that when you look at -- roll it up to

00:22:11.360 --> 00:22:19.000
 total employee compensation, you can -- because a lot of your big employers that I'm thinking

00:22:19.000 --> 00:22:25.320
 you want to attract are going to give people the choice of how to spend their money as

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 a strategy versus paying someone lower and then giving them a voucher.

00:22:33.600 --> 00:22:35.600
 Does that make sense?

00:22:35.600 --> 00:22:41.600
 Whenever we have anyone complete our application, we do ask them, "Does this include benefits?

00:22:41.600 --> 00:22:47.000
 And if so, what are your benefits?" So it does factor in to that as well as a tuition

00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:52.000
 reimbursement and those different types of things. We actually haven't had anyone come

00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:55.000
 forward with a child care system. Part of the issues with that, I think, is the liability

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:56.000
 of that.

00:22:56.000 --> 00:23:01.360
 Oh yeah, for sure. That's what -- I think you've got to look at all those things that

00:23:01.360 --> 00:23:06.600
 you're pushing out, though, and my point is as a value. So like if annualized child care

00:23:06.600 --> 00:23:14.160
 is either I have an on-site child care center or I pay my employees $15,000 more a year

00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:18.360
 than everybody else, those are really the same thing. That's what I'm kind of getting

00:23:18.360 --> 00:23:19.360
 at.

00:23:19.360 --> 00:23:24.400
 We had to pick a threshold and we picked a weighted average of $65,000 or more.

00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:25.400
 That makes sense.

00:23:25.400 --> 00:23:26.400
 25% making $75,000.

00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:31.080
 You're going to have companies coming here that have different policies that really address

00:23:31.080 --> 00:23:37.080
 the need and you're going to, based on how we evaluate them, if you don't go to the total

00:23:37.080 --> 00:23:45.880
 compensation at some point, you're not potentially giving credit to premium employers that are

00:23:45.880 --> 00:23:53.200
 going to actually be a better tax base for them, if that makes sense, for both the people

00:23:53.200 --> 00:24:00.240
 with more expendable income living here and the company itself investing more money in

00:24:00.240 --> 00:24:01.240
 the business.

00:24:01.240 --> 00:24:06.840
 So it's just something you've got to be careful with with these matrices is you're not artificially

00:24:06.840 --> 00:24:12.440
 because we do the same thing. This is the reason I'm bringing it up. It's not criticism

00:24:12.440 --> 00:24:19.440
 as much as advice. It's like you have to, at some point, put everything into the same

00:24:19.440 --> 00:24:25.160
 term and the easiest thing for everyone to understand is money. So child care for a year

00:24:25.160 --> 00:24:34.000
 is worth this much money. So if I give a voucher, it's worth $10,000 or if I pay $75,000, that's

00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:42.880
 the same. Right. Maybe there ought to be an aspect in the total amount of compensation

00:24:42.880 --> 00:24:48.120
 that if they go over that $65,000 or whatever, that it credits some of the other things so

00:24:48.120 --> 00:24:51.600
 that we don't forget it. Well, that gets kind of on getting that when you're evaluating

00:24:51.600 --> 00:24:58.680
 those things, you have to make sure you're kind of not. I agree, but yeah, it ought to

00:24:58.680 --> 00:25:03.600
 be figured out. I agree with that, too, because you got 401k matching, you got all these other

00:25:03.600 --> 00:25:10.200
 things that are great long-term benefits for the employees, and we have to take that because

00:25:10.200 --> 00:25:14.440
 we fight that all the time in our business, right? Somebody's making no money or this,

00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:18.760
 but what are they paying part of health insurance? What are they paying all that? All those things

00:25:18.760 --> 00:25:23.800
 matter for quality of life, and I think it's really important that we look at a total compact

00:25:23.800 --> 00:25:29.280
 package. And when we make offers to people to hire them, we show a total compact package.

00:25:29.280 --> 00:25:36.040
 That's part of our deal, so I think it's really important. I think in Paul's comments, I think

00:25:36.040 --> 00:25:41.000
 it was about if somebody scores, if there's meeting the criteria, just meeting it, and

00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:45.680
 then there's vastly exceeding it. So how do you, that's what we're seeing, how do you

00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:50.600
 knowledge if somebody's vastly exceeding it, where it may be worth an extra look, just

00:25:50.600 --> 00:25:54.320
 other than the 10 points you gave them? Well, some is the other. We have another category

00:25:54.320 --> 00:25:59.600
 in each of these categories, so you can put individual things in there.

00:25:59.600 --> 00:26:06.720
 I think we actually had this discussion when we first developed this. I mean, this was

00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:13.520
 part of the discussion on comp when however many years ago it was we put this together.

00:26:13.520 --> 00:26:19.520
 Erica would, and I agree completely with Brian's comments, but back to the childcare assistance,

00:26:19.520 --> 00:26:25.000
 it says vouchers or other financial assistance. And I would hope that we would be able to

00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:30.960
 interpret what Brian was saying when companies are really paying above market. You know,

00:26:30.960 --> 00:26:38.280
 that other financial assistance could in essence, you know, be considered childcare or even

00:26:38.280 --> 00:26:42.960
 assistive benefits that other companies aren't providing. It gives them that point factor

00:26:42.960 --> 00:26:47.920
 maybe that they wouldn't get because they don't check that exact box.

00:26:47.920 --> 00:26:54.560
 We could definitely add that to that section or other benefits to the, to the childcare

00:26:54.560 --> 00:27:00.520
 and then we could put IE 401(k) to issue. I think Brian's, I mean, I'm not going to

00:27:00.520 --> 00:27:05.760
 speak for him. I think he's, he doesn't want a company like Peterbilt to get deemed because

00:27:05.760 --> 00:27:10.800
 they maybe not don't provide childcare, but they do provide a salary that's far above

00:27:10.800 --> 00:27:16.440
 maybe what an average company would bring in. So they're in essence going over and above

00:27:16.440 --> 00:27:20.760
 what other companies might compensate for childcare with their just basic salary benefits.

00:27:20.760 --> 00:27:26.480
 That's exactly. And it's, it's not about Peterbilt, but it's, but it's, it's, it's

00:27:26.480 --> 00:27:32.600
 about making sure that we're trying to get the companies in here, incentivizing companies

00:27:32.600 --> 00:27:37.760
 that are going to pay our people, have a good education. I think it's all the things you

00:27:37.760 --> 00:27:41.920
 want to do is just when you do a matrix and you're putting these things side to side and

00:27:41.920 --> 00:27:48.400
 give them point values. If you don't have like an overall, well, compensation for Peterbilt

00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:53.400
 or whatever company X is, is this, you know, it's, it's a hundred thousand dollars all

00:27:53.400 --> 00:28:01.680
 in with 401(k) block out all this stuff. This, this person is $80,000 because they offer

00:28:01.680 --> 00:28:07.840
 $65,000 plus the childcare voucher. Plus the, if you don't have those things lined up to

00:28:07.840 --> 00:28:14.880
 the money, they, that you can, so I just think all these things like very specific like that

00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:21.760
 should be, that's worth this much money. You got to kind of put it in the money. Like 50%

00:28:21.760 --> 00:28:27.840
 tuition reimbursement at UNT is this much money. Like a pension is this much money.

00:28:27.840 --> 00:28:33.640
 401(k) is this much money. I could definitely change the heading of that one to benefits

00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:39.640
 package to include childcare, 401(k) tuition reimbursement, that type of thing.

00:28:39.640 --> 00:28:42.920
 Or if we just do, because what happens on a lot of these things, you know, we all make

00:28:42.920 --> 00:28:47.160
 these decisions and get approved, council changes, this board changes, gets down the

00:28:47.160 --> 00:28:51.560
 road and well, we have to go by the letter of the law, right? Of what this document says.

00:28:51.560 --> 00:28:57.000
 So, you know, even if we just attach the supporting document to say, when making these decisions,

00:28:57.000 --> 00:29:01.720
 keep these things in mind, right? To these categories, just so it communicates, not just

00:29:01.720 --> 00:29:06.360
 a checklist, it communicates what the thinking was behind this. Because, you know, I worked

00:29:06.360 --> 00:29:11.000
 at UPS during college, they paid for my books and tuition. I made less money working at UPS,

00:29:11.000 --> 00:29:17.000
 but they paid for my books and tuition and health insurance. So, I think a supplemental document

00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:21.080
 could be of assistance. And this isn't code, this isn't saying it, this is just thoughts

00:29:21.080 --> 00:29:25.880
 when these decisions were made. Just to help clarify people in the future to kind of know what,

00:29:25.880 --> 00:29:30.760
 why. We can actually put that in the policy. Well, that's fine. I mean, it can be in the policy.

00:29:30.760 --> 00:29:35.480
 That's fine. But just, and so many times it's just, okay, it doesn't check its box by interpretation

00:29:35.480 --> 00:29:39.640
 down the road. We need to leave a little bit of room for whoever's making those decisions,

00:29:39.640 --> 00:29:43.880
 whether it be counsel, or ourself, or whoever it is, to kind of know this is the thought.

00:29:43.880 --> 00:29:51.560
 It doesn't have to be like perfectly specific, but just kind of outlines the thinking.

00:29:51.560 --> 00:30:01.240
 The other comment I'd have, did the connectivity, did a lot of that get pulled up into like some of the general,

00:30:01.240 --> 00:30:05.720
 the second from a strategic plan, is the only thing that's just got one thing in it? I'm just curious.

00:30:05.720 --> 00:30:11.320
 There's a whole host of industry sectors that fall under Kennedy semiconductor, for example,

00:30:11.320 --> 00:30:15.480
 that's one of the ones I used in there. It's just the only one on our factors of consideration.

00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:19.720
 And there's some of these that could fall under a couple categories.

00:30:19.720 --> 00:30:22.120
 Yeah, that's kind of what I was wondering. Some of that stuff.

00:30:22.120 --> 00:30:27.240
 So you just ultimately have to pick one if you choose to do it that way. And that was

00:30:27.240 --> 00:30:33.080
 one of the feedback we received was to organize it under the SGS, which made sense.

00:30:33.080 --> 00:30:33.720
 It doesn't make sense.

00:30:33.720 --> 00:30:39.880
 That's kind of where I was coming from. I chose creative, just to see something connected.

00:30:39.880 --> 00:30:47.640
 Invariably, something's going to pop up that we didn't exactly anticipate, or where, you know,

00:30:47.640 --> 00:30:54.920
 reasonable people will look and go, that is entirely on strategy being connected.

00:30:54.920 --> 00:30:59.160
 You know, there ought to be a way to, you know, for the body to say,

00:30:59.160 --> 00:31:06.920
 yeah, it wasn't anticipated in the checklist, but you know, we want to award all the points that are

00:31:06.920 --> 00:31:21.480
 such, you know, I feel like it needs a little more room for interpretation.

00:31:21.480 --> 00:31:34.360
 We do have in our policies that we can do everything on a case-by-case basis.

00:31:34.360 --> 00:31:40.120
 Okay, so this is a guideline. These factors for considerations were taken from the policy as well,

00:31:40.120 --> 00:31:44.840
 and these are the things that we utilize. The scoring document, we never utilize a

00:31:44.840 --> 00:31:50.680
 formal scoring document prior to the last update. We did have factors for considerations less, mind

00:31:50.680 --> 00:31:58.760
 you, and they would increase the incentive award by five percent in abatement or rebate, limit five.

00:31:58.760 --> 00:32:06.680
 That's what we had prior, so. This actually allows us more leeway than that. It was an

00:32:06.680 --> 00:32:10.360
 actual formula where if you wanted to give them more, you really kind of were stuck and you were

00:32:10.360 --> 00:32:24.040
 limited by. Any other thoughts or comments or questions? I do want to understand what is our

00:32:24.040 --> 00:32:33.880
 goal to affect these areas or to have the opportunity affect these areas, right? So for example,

00:32:33.880 --> 00:32:39.720
 per diem, right, you get paid X amount per day. I can eat at McDonald's every day and bank that,

00:32:39.720 --> 00:32:46.520
 you know, whatever, 20 bucks, or I can go someplace and max that out or exceed that, right? But

00:32:46.520 --> 00:32:52.840
 I don't think the city cares, right, if how I manage that money. So in this instance,

00:32:52.840 --> 00:32:59.400
 if I'm getting child care money, is our goal to make sure they spend that money or, you know,

00:32:59.400 --> 00:33:08.120
 or they can just say, hey, this is going to cover my partner's income and they'll just stay home.

00:33:08.120 --> 00:33:13.560
 We're not going to spend all the time. Do we? That's what I just need to understand. What are

00:33:13.560 --> 00:33:19.800
 we trying to do? This is a way for reviewing it. These are all in our policies, so you're looking

00:33:19.800 --> 00:33:24.200
 for conformance to our policies and you're justifying basically how they affect those.

00:33:24.200 --> 00:33:30.440
 You do have some leeway, like the example I gave with the high capital project and the expansion

00:33:30.440 --> 00:33:35.320
 project as they did a significant investment, our expansion, the larger facility, but then you have

00:33:35.320 --> 00:33:39.880
 the human capital and they still scored well because of the human capital. They're investing

00:33:39.880 --> 00:33:46.680
 in people, in wages, and we're detaining people here. So we do have that ability. If we want to

00:33:46.680 --> 00:33:51.320
 be restrictive, what we do, we do that in the agreement phase. If we want to require that they

00:33:51.320 --> 00:33:56.520
 spend it on X, then we put that in the agreement phase. So like, for example, the expansion project,

00:33:56.520 --> 00:34:00.840
 we tell you exactly for the entrepreneur tech what you can expend that money on. It's not just

00:34:00.840 --> 00:34:06.840
 anything. It has specific items that are eligible. But using the discussion we had about from at the

00:34:06.840 --> 00:34:13.880
 individual employee level, if they're making $100,000 and that's above, we don't, we're not

00:34:13.880 --> 00:34:22.760
 prescriptive to say, okay, well, we want, you have to require them to go invest in a child

00:34:22.760 --> 00:34:26.440
 carried to see in the city and all those things, right? So you could, that could just be, that's

00:34:26.440 --> 00:34:31.160
 just, you get points there, but you don't have to spend it there. We don't require you to donate to

00:34:31.160 --> 00:34:36.840
 the United Way. Right. No, we don't put those in the agreement. Right. It's a consideration when

00:34:36.840 --> 00:34:42.760
 making the recommendation. Right. Okay. My concern was more around someone who

00:34:43.400 --> 00:34:49.160
 pays more money to say, we're all used to zero out of a hundred because we all went to school like

00:34:49.160 --> 00:34:57.000
 with ABCD. So I know this is 125, but just, so someone who pays a hundred thousand dollars a year

00:34:57.000 --> 00:35:04.520
 might get a 90 and someone who pays $60,000 a year, but then gives a $10,000 voucher to child care

00:35:04.520 --> 00:35:10.600
 might get a hundred just based on how the matrix is. That was my concern. Yeah. I'm very careful

00:35:10.600 --> 00:35:15.560
 about the matrix. Yeah. And I think that's, that's a great example. And that's where I just kind of

00:35:15.560 --> 00:35:25.560
 wanted to understand how we evaluate that. Right. Because it nets out on here. It nets out the same,

00:35:25.560 --> 00:35:31.640
 but as a pop for me, I think, right. If it points wise, right. If I give you points, if you, oh,

00:35:31.640 --> 00:35:36.600
 if you pay a higher salary, but don't give the credits and, but I give you those points,

00:35:36.600 --> 00:35:42.760
 the points are even. You just have to know that. Right. So how you write your matrix is important.

00:35:42.760 --> 00:35:50.840
 Right. So then beyond that, how do we, do we want to differentiate? Do we want to, do we value

00:35:50.840 --> 00:35:59.000
 vouchers or salary more, right? Just as a policy, right? If I'm reading this and I understand that

00:35:59.000 --> 00:36:04.840
 one employer pays more and so that's cash in your pocket that you can do whatever with, do I, let's

00:36:04.840 --> 00:36:11.720
 say it's round numbers, $10,000. So do I look at that $10,000 and I say it's a $10,000 worth of a

00:36:11.720 --> 00:36:21.000
 childcare credit and I assign that what value and then $10,000 on your check, I assign that what

00:36:21.000 --> 00:36:29.000
 value and does this group weigh those things? Cause I would opt for the latter 10,000 on your check

00:36:29.000 --> 00:36:35.400
 and you can do whatever you need to do with it is a higher value. I think if we're bringing that in

00:36:35.400 --> 00:36:40.200
 the community, if there's a tie, that's a tie breaker for me, but that's just my personal.

00:36:40.200 --> 00:36:45.800
 We recently had a site visit from a prospect from Europe and they were thinking about offering what

00:36:45.800 --> 00:36:52.360
 they do in Europe is a cafeteria where the meals are paid for, for employees. So it varies and that,

00:36:52.360 --> 00:36:56.520
 that's an example of something we don't typically see here, but we may see here in the future.

00:36:57.160 --> 00:37:02.840
 Yeah. Yeah. No. So I just always think whatever it is, it's flexibility versus a credit for a

00:37:02.840 --> 00:37:07.720
 single thing. Like if I'm, it's either, if I'm going to give a gift, I'm going to give a Visa

00:37:07.720 --> 00:37:13.000
 credit card because it's accepted wherever Visa is accepted versus a Bed Bath Beyond, you know,

00:37:13.000 --> 00:37:17.080
 gift card because you can only go to Bed Bath Beyond. So same thing. Whatever gives the most

00:37:17.080 --> 00:37:23.000
 flexibility, I think just for what it's worth from a policy evaluation perspective, I think that

00:37:23.960 --> 00:37:27.480
 should be more valuable because it has more flexibility. Your kids may not

00:37:27.480 --> 00:37:30.920
 start to go to school and now you still have that value though.

00:37:30.920 --> 00:37:35.880
 For those of you who weren't here when this board made the recommendation,

00:37:35.880 --> 00:37:41.160
 remember we looked at HUD, we looked at workforce and we looked at the MIT. MIT was the only one that

00:37:41.160 --> 00:37:50.360
 addressed living wage. The rest were like thresholds. So income limits. But I guess Erica,

00:37:50.360 --> 00:37:56.840
 just to summarize what you're saying is from a staff perspective, this is kind of a roadmap,

00:37:56.840 --> 00:38:03.800
 it's got flexibility to it. And you guys can interpret some of the, you know, the dynamics of

00:38:03.800 --> 00:38:09.240
 different companies with Peterbilt or a company that doesn't pay, that pays less, but adds chocolate.

00:38:09.240 --> 00:38:15.720
 You guys can interpret that and make that recommendation when this becomes, when this comes into play.

00:38:15.720 --> 00:38:23.000
 Yes. So CFO, if you see numbers, you got to add them up.

00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:31.000
 So we would have

00:38:31.000 --> 00:38:40.200
 20, 25, 30, 50. We could check those numbers. 50. I did have 55 points at one point and did change

00:38:40.200 --> 00:38:45.880
 it so that might be, we've had it changed to a total circle. But we'll check that before we make

00:38:45.880 --> 00:38:49.240
 that recommendation. CFO, when you see numbers, you might want to start getting a rash.

00:38:49.240 --> 00:38:56.280
 I did have them on the side of the cell document to add them up, but I did make one change,

00:38:56.280 --> 00:38:59.080
 so I would guess it was the... You probably did that in your head too, right?

00:38:59.080 --> 00:39:09.720
 Love it. Yeah, we changed the other from 10 to 5 since we had more categories,

00:39:09.720 --> 00:39:16.440
 and this probably worked better. Other comments. Would you mind putting back up the options that

00:39:16.440 --> 00:39:22.600
 we have? Sure. From a motion perspective?

00:39:22.600 --> 00:39:30.600
 So we have two options here. With the board can recommend the proposed changes to the

00:39:30.600 --> 00:39:34.840
 economic developments in policy city. The board can make a recommendation to include items,

00:39:34.840 --> 00:39:39.640
 some of those we talked about, exclude items, provide other direction concerning the policy

00:39:39.640 --> 00:39:45.720
 than the board recommendations in the council. So I would ask before to, if someone would want

00:39:45.720 --> 00:39:51.080
 to make a motion relative to one of those. I can make a motion recommending two,

00:39:51.080 --> 00:40:02.040
 with some form of having things that can be expressed in a monetary value. I think

00:40:02.040 --> 00:40:10.600
 how to phrase this properly, get that value when considering so that you can figure out a total

00:40:10.600 --> 00:40:21.080
 compensation when talking about employees and living wage. Everything else, I'm on board with.

00:40:21.080 --> 00:40:29.160
 Question? Offer an amendment. Haven't you heard anybody

00:40:29.160 --> 00:40:33.320
 that go, "Yeah, I totally agree with Paul so far, but let's find out."

00:40:33.320 --> 00:40:41.640
 Remember to what has already been proposed, totally fine. That there also be

00:40:41.640 --> 00:40:53.960
 an option for the board to give points within the strategic, the four strategic categories

00:40:55.160 --> 00:41:03.960
 for attributes not yet anticipated. Just to say a little bit more about,

00:41:03.960 --> 00:41:09.160
 just to use the example connected. Let's imagine somebody is going to come in and add some incredible

00:41:09.160 --> 00:41:18.200
 new capacity to the airport. That will clearly improve our connectivity with other communities.

00:41:18.200 --> 00:41:24.120
 Because the only thing other than five points for other that's in there is generating new

00:41:24.120 --> 00:41:30.280
 utility customers. There's nothing that's even sort of bang on about connectivity in that

00:41:30.280 --> 00:41:34.760
 category right now. I do believe that if we had the flexibility to just say,

00:41:34.760 --> 00:41:39.880
 we're going to award points for connectivity, I think this might configure that out.

00:41:39.880 --> 00:41:48.040
 So, can we restate it? I have an option for board to give points

00:41:48.040 --> 00:41:52.600
 and I have parentheses in the strategic growth areas for attributes not yet anticipated.

00:41:54.200 --> 00:41:56.280
 "Brian, are you good with that amendment?" "Oh, yeah."

00:41:56.280 --> 00:42:18.920
 "Do we not have that flexibility under every category with other maximum five points?"

00:42:18.920 --> 00:42:23.320
 "Well, the maximum five points is really bad." "So, we've got only five more points."

00:42:24.520 --> 00:42:32.200
 "Yeah, but if you've got something that's bang on, there's 100% for connectivity

00:42:32.200 --> 00:42:40.280
 but because it's not about utilities, the most you could do is five. That strikes me as wrong."

00:42:40.280 --> 00:42:48.280
 "To maybe put it in a policy, I agree with what you're saying. Could you just give this board

00:42:49.720 --> 00:42:56.040
 a general category that says strategic and you don't get into the

00:42:56.040 --> 00:43:00.760
 knit of what bucket and just give it a 15 point?" "Well, I'm happy with..."

00:43:00.760 --> 00:43:10.280
 "I think that does the same thing." "Not exactly for me. I'm very supportive of the fact that

00:43:11.720 --> 00:43:20.040
 have been consulted, Council waited and adopted these four strategic directions. So, I'm very bullish

00:43:20.040 --> 00:43:28.520
 on the idea of this body saying this opportunity fits or doesn't fit these four strategic directions

00:43:28.520 --> 00:43:33.560
 that we're seeing want us to go after. So, I'm working with myself. I'm working within the

00:43:33.560 --> 00:43:38.600
 framework of those four strategic directions. I just want us to have flexibility within those."

00:43:38.600 --> 00:43:46.760
 "So, maybe a different way than when you did that. Was any one of these categories

00:43:46.760 --> 00:43:51.560
 more important than other categories? The reason I'm asking that is..."

00:43:51.560 --> 00:43:54.680
 "I notice they have different point values." "They have different point values. So, if you just said

00:43:54.680 --> 00:44:01.400
 every one of these was worth 30, which looks like it's close, and the total number goes up,

00:44:01.400 --> 00:44:07.560
 then you effectively do the same thing." "Rint was saying this. Wait, both examples,

00:44:07.560 --> 00:44:12.600
 you get both. You could do other on all five, all categories, and you get up 25 points, because you

00:44:12.600 --> 00:44:15.800
 could say it's going to have that, but that doesn't mean it's going to have 50. I think each..."

00:44:15.800 --> 00:44:20.120
 "Oh, if you could just find a bunch of places to put it." "Yeah, we have to get each five, each other

00:44:20.120 --> 00:44:24.360
 under all of the other categories within them, because you could trick those all into it. That's

00:44:24.360 --> 00:44:28.680
 what he was trying to do. You have access to 25 points, I think, what he was trying to say,

00:44:28.680 --> 00:44:33.240
 and you could try to do that, which is what you're saying, which is creating another category that's

00:44:33.240 --> 00:44:39.880
 just as strategic that you weigh in on. That's not what the other one does, but you can pull that out."

00:44:39.880 --> 00:44:45.480
 "I'll see if I can get a second, because..." "We have a motion by Ryan, we have a second,

00:44:45.480 --> 00:44:50.040
 and we have an amendment by Paul that needs a second to move forward. We have a second

00:44:50.040 --> 00:44:55.480
 from the floor for Paul's amendment." "I guess I'm just not real clear on what the amendment is."

00:44:55.480 --> 00:45:03.080
 "That within the four strategic categories that exist, and that's important to me,

00:45:03.080 --> 00:45:08.120
 that it's within the four categories, not just general and strategic. It conforms with the

00:45:08.120 --> 00:45:16.360
 strategy. Within each of the four strategic categories, that this body would have the

00:45:16.360 --> 00:45:25.720
 ability to attribute points up to the full value of each of those four." "I'm not against that at

00:45:25.720 --> 00:45:31.000
 all. It's just how do we put some framework around that, because I think it needs to be as

00:45:31.000 --> 00:45:36.040
 pretty open as possible, because we're competing against all these other cities. We don't want to

00:45:36.040 --> 00:45:40.920
 restrict. We want this to move forward if it comes before us. We want to have as much

00:45:40.920 --> 00:45:47.400
 flexibility as we can have in making these recommendations. I think by that, you said

00:45:47.400 --> 00:45:53.480
 earlier that this is just a guidance form. We can make whatever decision we need, but it helps.

00:45:53.480 --> 00:45:59.640
 I'm open, for me personally, of having as much flexibility in this thing as we can have, because

00:45:59.640 --> 00:46:05.960
 I've sat in these meetings and made decisions on, "Okay, are we doing this deal? Gosh, does it fit

00:46:05.960 --> 00:46:16.040
 here? Does it fit here?" I think going forward, it gets complicated. I'm open to making this more

00:46:16.040 --> 00:46:20.440
 flexible, because at the end of the day, we're going to make a recommendation to council, and

00:46:20.440 --> 00:46:29.320
 this is just a guiding document." Lee, I like your idea of the explanation statement that goes with

00:46:29.320 --> 00:46:34.520
 it, so maybe there's a way to marry those two to say, "Within the four accepted strategic

00:46:34.520 --> 00:46:49.560
 pillars, the body can assign values as it comes up with an explanation, with a Lee Ramsey document

00:46:49.560 --> 00:46:55.400
 attached." Just whatever the discussion was around it and why we did it, because there could be good

00:46:55.400 --> 00:47:00.280
 debate in these meetings about how do we get there, and that's going to go to a summary to council,

00:47:00.280 --> 00:47:05.480
 which is going to ultimately make decisions. So maybe just a supplementary document explaining,

00:47:05.480 --> 00:47:10.440
 say, "The board can have some flexibility of where it puts these as it sees fits, if it's not

00:47:10.440 --> 00:47:17.160
 specifically defined," or something like that. Put it that way, I'm in favor of that. That way,

00:47:17.160 --> 00:47:22.760
 it gives this board some room to move. I think that achieves your goal, correct? Yeah, yeah.

00:47:22.760 --> 00:47:32.520
 Yeah, that's a problem I have. My understanding is we have to communicate to everyone the same,

00:47:32.520 --> 00:47:43.240
 right? So you get this nebulous, points can be attributed, how many points? It's hard for me to

00:47:43.240 --> 00:47:48.440
 even lock in on, even if you call these the pillars, economic and fiscal impacts. That is,

00:47:49.000 --> 00:47:56.760
 to nail that down to something specific is near impossible, right? It is everything. So I do agree

00:47:56.760 --> 00:48:02.280
 with Rick. The points are available there. It's clearly communicated to everyone, "Here's the

00:48:02.280 --> 00:48:08.280
 maximum amount of points you get for these categories. If you maximize the others,

00:48:08.280 --> 00:48:13.880
 you get these extra 25 points." And then to your point, there's some narratives that can be added

00:48:13.880 --> 00:48:18.360
 there to kind of, "Hey, here's why we're forwarding it." But I just think when you start sequestering

00:48:18.360 --> 00:48:24.920
 the number of points that aren't prescribed for something that may happen, I don't know how you

00:48:24.920 --> 00:48:29.480
 communicate that equally to everyone, right? And so that everyone- And the case-by-case basis

00:48:29.480 --> 00:48:35.480
 addresses that as well. Right, yeah, yeah. So I think we have, all the tools are here to Lee's

00:48:35.480 --> 00:48:42.760
 point to give us the flexibility we need to maximize, because every project's going to touch

00:48:42.760 --> 00:48:51.880
 on these. I mean, define creative, right? It's like you can't nail something down to these

00:48:51.880 --> 00:48:56.840
 categories. I just don't believe. We try to make things apples to apples as much as we can. We do

00:48:56.840 --> 00:49:03.960
 10-year analysis despite terms. You see when it falls off and the city receives 100%. We have our

00:49:03.960 --> 00:49:08.680
 return on investment report, net revenue report, that we try to track that. We can try to put them

00:49:08.680 --> 00:49:12.680
 as apples to apples to every product that you need. And you need that flexibility if you're going to

00:49:12.680 --> 00:49:18.680
 be competitive, too, to Lee's point. So I'll second the motion with a little summary statement,

00:49:18.680 --> 00:49:26.440
 you know, that this is our guideline. And like I said before we started this part of the debate,

00:49:26.440 --> 00:49:34.520
 some explanations of our thoughts with our approval of how the board got there,

00:49:34.520 --> 00:49:45.480
 when it goes to council. I'm seconding his motion, but with Brian, I mean, I guess there's

00:49:45.480 --> 00:49:50.440
 not really a second. We just have our conversation. Brian, why don't you remake your motion?

00:49:50.440 --> 00:49:59.000
 My motion was purely around putting a monetary value to things that can be monetized. Obviously,

00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:04.840
 you can't monetize creativity, but you can monetize tuition reimbursement. You can monetize

00:50:04.840 --> 00:50:10.520
 child care voucher. There's certain things that are specifically on here that you can give a

00:50:10.520 --> 00:50:16.760
 monetary value to, so that when you look at an employer or an employee, you can kind of see,

00:50:16.760 --> 00:50:24.040
 this is total compensation that this employer offers. That was mine.

00:50:24.680 --> 00:50:29.800
 How about this? I'll draw my motion and I'll let Lee say whatever he wants to say that he

00:50:29.800 --> 00:50:35.880
 thinks is missing. I'll second that. With that, we submit a document with this, kind of our thoughts

00:50:35.880 --> 00:50:46.840
 of what our goals are in economics. And those being, to Brian's point, and I don't know how

00:50:46.840 --> 00:50:52.040
 everybody says we can't do this, but to Brian's point saying, you know, whether it be financial

00:50:52.040 --> 00:50:57.240
 or whether it be creative or however this board needs to fit those in those buckets, we can do.

00:50:57.240 --> 00:51:03.800
 I don't know if we can do that or not. A summary document of some kind.

00:51:03.800 --> 00:51:10.280
 So just the flexibility to categorize the money?

00:51:10.280 --> 00:51:15.240
 Not how we want. So what I'm trying to get to, guys, and maybe somebody else has got a recommendation,

00:51:15.240 --> 00:51:20.760
 is I don't want to corner ourselves in to, if it doesn't check this box, and maybe by having

00:51:20.760 --> 00:51:27.160
 the other consideration, that gets us there, maybe already. So maybe we're okay with where we're at.

00:51:27.160 --> 00:51:34.600
 I think Brian's supplemental motion includes what he's recommended, gets us there.

00:51:34.600 --> 00:51:40.920
 Okay. I just think it kind of broadens our ability to interpret things maybe better.

00:51:40.920 --> 00:51:47.640
 So I think his, I would agree with his motion as well. Paul, you have your draw.

00:51:47.640 --> 00:51:52.600
 I withdrew my amendment. Just, I got it said. You know, wherever you want to go with that.

00:51:52.600 --> 00:51:55.080
 Second motion.

00:51:55.080 --> 00:51:58.920
 Would that be a new category that you're suggesting?

00:51:58.920 --> 00:52:03.640
 No. It would be within the categories that already exist and you could,

00:52:03.640 --> 00:52:09.800
 at the end of the day, roll that up so that you have an apples to apples compensation

00:52:11.640 --> 00:52:19.720
 for employees and calculation of tax base revenue, whatever. I just want to make sure staff is getting

00:52:19.720 --> 00:52:24.440
 it all down. I was going to ask, when there was a final motion, I was going to clarify,

00:52:24.440 --> 00:52:32.440
 because what I have in my notes is amending the child care to a benefit package, which could include

00:52:32.440 --> 00:52:39.720
 all the things that we discussed here and others not. It needs to have a, it needs to have a value.

00:52:41.720 --> 00:52:49.320
 I'm not, I think you're right. It's probably salary and benefits package. Salary has a value.

00:52:49.320 --> 00:52:56.280
 Benefit package has a value and that's total compensation. Because if you just look at hourly

00:52:56.280 --> 00:53:03.960
 wage or if you just look at child care voucher, this is an example, you're not getting the total

00:53:03.960 --> 00:53:08.840
 compensation that that employee is providing and it's really not probably making the best decision

00:53:08.840 --> 00:53:14.520
 for them. Who's to say it has to be child care? We've got a lot of people working in the plants

00:53:14.520 --> 00:53:21.080
 right now. They have a dog that they have to take care of. So are you suggesting that the whole

00:53:21.080 --> 00:53:41.400
 child care package is child care? It can still be to creative. It's fine. Well, I mean it's, I mean,

00:53:41.400 --> 00:53:49.960
 what I'm hearing in the Vanoff's comments is a desire to compare the value of total compensation,

00:53:49.960 --> 00:53:58.360
 whatever the components are, salary or cafeteria or some way to put them all under the common metric

00:53:58.360 --> 00:54:04.360
 of dollars. Will you staff and do that and then you can address it like you do a case by case,

00:54:04.360 --> 00:54:09.480
 cases where they can cross, these categories can cross. Just like some categories they fall,

00:54:09.480 --> 00:54:13.880
 NAICS fall in different categories, some of these benefits are going to cross.

00:54:14.920 --> 00:54:20.360
 If I change the child care assistance category to other benefits, then that gives you the ability

00:54:20.360 --> 00:54:25.640
 to award the maximum number of points based on the benefits, all of the benefits offered,

00:54:25.640 --> 00:54:33.000
 not just the child care. And we can certainly do that. I don't mean to be teased. This goes to

00:54:33.000 --> 00:54:48.040
 City Council. If there is a specific desire from council that have child care, I mean,

00:54:48.040 --> 00:54:55.960
 understand that, right? There might be, you could put I.E. child care or 1K, attention. Adult care,

00:54:55.960 --> 00:55:02.200
 adult care, whatever. That's what I'm trying to categorize it. So we have employers who are paying

00:55:03.080 --> 00:55:06.600
 total compensation for their employees, we're getting the best employers here,

00:55:06.600 --> 00:55:15.320
 based on total compensation. Not very specific. It happens all the time in tech, right? You hear

00:55:15.320 --> 00:55:19.080
 about these guys in San Francisco, they go give you a ping pong table and they'll lay you off.

00:55:19.080 --> 00:55:29.800
 Okay, well I'd rather have a pension. It's safe to say your motion is to change the child care

00:55:30.600 --> 00:55:37.000
 section to a general benefit section. Yes. That also includes total compensation above

00:55:37.000 --> 00:55:44.520
 just the wage. You have wage and you have total benefit. Yes. So I'm going to try to

00:55:44.520 --> 00:55:51.240
 communicate what I think I heard. Erica, so under the child care assistance under creative,

00:55:51.240 --> 00:55:58.920
 we're going to change the definition of that to total compensation or some other descriptive

00:55:59.720 --> 00:56:09.800
 compensation terminology. Yes, please. Which would include. It's your benefit side here.

00:56:09.800 --> 00:56:14.120
 So you have a salary side and you have a benefit side. Okay. And they just happen to call a very

00:56:14.120 --> 00:56:18.680
 specific one. Can we get a second again to that motion? Now that's good. I'll save it.

00:56:18.680 --> 00:56:24.360
 We have a second, Lee. Okay. Any other discussion?

00:56:27.800 --> 00:56:32.600
 So once again, I think we understand what we're voting all in favor. Any opposed?

00:56:32.600 --> 00:56:39.800
 The ayes have it. The motion passes. Thank you, Erica. Thank you. You always do.

00:56:39.800 --> 00:56:47.320
 That's what we're here for. I really thank you guys.

00:56:54.680 --> 00:56:58.120
 We have discussed possibly moving forward with an incentive study to measure our

00:56:58.120 --> 00:57:03.080
 competitiveness with other cities. We know that we have sales, tax and property tax rebates

00:57:03.080 --> 00:57:08.680
 center programs, but are we getting ROI on those incentives? So I just want to let you know that's

00:57:08.680 --> 00:57:13.720
 going to be on the radar. We may be coming to the end of your future with that. And hopefully before

00:57:13.720 --> 00:57:21.000
 we adjourn today, I would love to give us a little overview of herself, our new team member. I got to

00:57:21.000 --> 00:57:25.240
 meet her yesterday. I had a great conversation. I'm very impressed. So hopefully we'll have some

00:57:25.240 --> 00:57:33.480
 time for you to share that with the rest of the board today. Okay. Item A, number EDP 24-033.

00:57:33.480 --> 00:57:41.000
 Receive a report, hold a discussion regarding Atlas Energy utility update. The chair recognizes

00:57:41.000 --> 00:57:54.280
 John. There you go. Thank you, John, for coming. My pleasure. Any chance I could move this around

00:57:54.280 --> 00:58:11.080
 the way where I can see that presentation here? You can turn on the mic. I probably don't need

00:58:11.080 --> 00:58:22.840
 a mic. Can everyone hear me? Yeah, you can see. All right. First off, thank you for inviting

00:58:22.840 --> 00:58:26.680
 us out today to share a little information about Atlas Energy and the service we provide here in

00:58:26.680 --> 00:58:32.600
 Denton. I'd like to start off, share a little bit about Atlas Energy and then break it down further

00:58:32.600 --> 00:58:37.320
 into this specific division. At Atlas Energy, we have about seven divisions within the company and

00:58:37.320 --> 00:58:43.160
 we're across eight states. In this area, in Texas, we have three divisions. We have a West Texas

00:58:43.160 --> 00:58:48.440
 division, kind of like the Lubbock and Morello area. Then we have a pipeline division, our Atlas

00:58:48.440 --> 00:58:53.960
 Pipeline Texas, which is focused on bringing gas to the Metroplex to serve the human-need customers.

00:58:53.960 --> 00:58:57.960
 And then we have our Mid-Tex division, which is what's here in Denton. That's the distribution

00:58:57.960 --> 00:59:04.600
 line you see in your city right of ways. That being said, we're going to focus today on the

00:59:04.600 --> 00:59:11.800
 distribution business. And Atlas Energy's Mid-Tex division is a fully regulated local distribution

00:59:11.800 --> 00:59:17.400
 public utility. It provides distribution service to approximately 1.8 million customers

00:59:17.400 --> 00:59:20.760
 in our service area. That's 1.8 million here in the Mid-Tex division.

00:59:20.760 --> 00:59:29.160
 Our Mid-Tex division, here's some information. The top half is a corporate piece of all the

00:59:29.160 --> 00:59:34.760
 divisions put together. The bottom half is here in the Dent area, the Mid-Tex division.

00:59:34.760 --> 00:59:41.560
 We have about 32,000 miles of pipeline in our Mid-Tex division. And as we go further,

00:59:42.200 --> 00:59:48.680
 customer count, we have roughly about 23,000 customers. As you can see,

00:59:48.680 --> 00:59:54.760
 about 20,000 of those are residential, about 2,300 commercial customers, and about 14

00:59:54.760 --> 01:00:02.760
 industrial customers. Next, we're going to talk just a little bit about an overview of the services

01:00:02.760 --> 01:00:08.600
 we provide. We are a regulated natural gas distribution utility, meaning we take natural gas

01:00:08.600 --> 01:00:13.480
 from supplier pipelines and deliver it to gas to customers at their homes and businesses.

01:00:13.480 --> 01:00:20.360
 Next, throughout here, we're going to talk about some terminology to help everybody familiarize

01:00:20.360 --> 01:00:25.960
 yourself. There may be some words I use or some terms I use that are industry knowledge,

01:00:25.960 --> 01:00:31.320
 but the general public may not fully understand. One of those terms is human needs customers.

01:00:31.320 --> 01:00:37.240
 As a regulated distribution utility, our system was created and is designed to provide service to

01:00:37.240 --> 01:00:44.600
 human needs customers, which in Texas is defined as residences, hospitals, water, wastewater

01:00:44.600 --> 01:00:51.160
 facilities, police, fire, military, civil defense facilities, and locations where people congregate

01:00:51.160 --> 01:00:57.080
 in an emergency, such as schools and places of worship. We are required by regulation to

01:00:57.080 --> 01:01:03.480
 prioritize service first to those customers. Some of the customer categories we have,

01:01:03.480 --> 01:01:08.920
 we have residential customers, we have commercial sales customers, industrial sales customers,

01:01:08.920 --> 01:01:14.280
 interruptible transportation customers, and then special contract customers.

01:01:14.280 --> 01:01:22.520
 Industrial sales customers are customers' small industrial operations who have less than 200

01:01:22.520 --> 01:01:30.520
 MMBTU per day of usage. MMBTU is how gas is measured for small industrial customers.

01:01:31.640 --> 01:01:37.160
 Atmos Energy purchases gas and sells it to those customers in a manner similar to residential and

01:01:37.160 --> 01:01:44.200
 commercial customers. In return, the industrial customers pay a rate per MMBTU for the gas

01:01:44.200 --> 01:01:50.680
 that is commensurate with this level of service. The next category is interruptible transportation

01:01:50.680 --> 01:01:56.280
 customers. For industrial customers who do not meet the requirements of an industrial sales,

01:01:56.280 --> 01:02:02.520
 the interruptible transportation agreement service means that Atmos Energy charges those

01:02:02.520 --> 01:02:08.440
 customers for the use of Atmos Energy's pipeline to transport gas from a third-party supplier

01:02:08.440 --> 01:02:14.840
 to the customer. To receive this service, Atmos Energy industrial customers enter into

01:02:14.840 --> 01:02:21.160
 a negotiated contract that reflects the approved rate and terms, a rate that is lower than the rate

01:02:21.160 --> 01:02:28.680
 for sales service. The customer agrees to receive interruptible service. Now some terminologies in

01:02:28.680 --> 01:02:34.920
 an interruptible service contract, plant protection. The customer can include in that contract an

01:02:34.920 --> 01:02:40.200
 appropriate level of plant protection, which in Texas means a minimum natural gas required

01:02:40.200 --> 01:02:47.720
 to prevent physical harm and/or ensure critical safety to the plant facilities, to plant personnel,

01:02:47.720 --> 01:02:52.200
 and to the public when such protection cannot be achieved through the use of an alternative fuel.

01:02:52.200 --> 01:02:58.600
 The end result is an agreement that gives Atmos Energy the option to interrupt the service in a

01:02:58.600 --> 01:03:03.880
 manner that limits the customer's usage to the level of plant protection reflected in the agreement.

01:03:03.880 --> 01:03:11.880
 Part of the transportation contract includes backup fuel. Backup fuel. Some transportation

01:03:11.880 --> 01:03:17.000
 agreements require the customer to have an alternative fuel source. Backup fuel. All

01:03:17.000 --> 01:03:23.560
 customers are encouraged to have alternatives to Atmos Energy's transportation service to reflect

01:03:23.560 --> 01:03:30.760
 the level of assurance the energy will be available to meet the customer's needs

01:03:30.760 --> 01:03:37.160
 in the rare event Atmos Energy's transportation service is interrupted. Some customers choose to

01:03:37.160 --> 01:03:42.840
 have onsite backup generation that is powered by fuel stored onsite such as diesel or propane.

01:03:43.400 --> 01:03:49.800
 Other plans for direct use of fuel source stored onsite, which also could include fuel oil or

01:03:49.800 --> 01:03:55.160
 potentially compressed natural gas or liquefied natural gas. Some customers choose to connect

01:03:55.160 --> 01:04:00.760
 to another natural gas pipeline so that they have dual feeds for natural gas service to their facility.

01:04:08.040 --> 01:04:14.600
 So during periods of extreme weather events is what we're going to talk about next. When we

01:04:14.600 --> 01:04:20.760
 experience forecasted extreme and prolonged cold subzero temperatures we provide notice to our

01:04:20.760 --> 01:04:28.600
 industrial customers with interruptible contracts to reduce their usage and to contract plant

01:04:28.600 --> 01:04:34.200
 protection if they have that in their contract levels that protect and preserve reliable service

01:04:34.200 --> 01:04:38.920
 to our human needs customers throughout the duration of the event and we touched on human

01:04:38.920 --> 01:04:45.080
 needs customers early in the presentation. If a forecasted extreme weather event occurs Atmos

01:04:45.080 --> 01:04:50.120
 Energy provides notice to our interruptible customers giving as much notice as possible

01:04:50.120 --> 01:04:55.240
 consistent with the terms of the transportation agreement they entered into with Atmos Energy.

01:04:55.240 --> 01:05:01.400
 If an industrial customer has contracted for plant protection they're allowed to use the agreed upon

01:05:01.400 --> 01:05:08.360
 MCF and that's how large industrial gases measure its MCF. The MCF of natural gas per day for plant

01:05:08.360 --> 01:05:14.520
 protection means only. If interruption is noticed they are asked to finish all work in progress and

01:05:14.520 --> 01:05:19.560
 limit all gas utilization beyond the plant protection allowance prior to beginning the

01:05:19.560 --> 01:05:25.720
 interruption period. During the interruption period we continuously monitor the weather forecast

01:05:25.720 --> 01:05:31.320
 actual expected demand as well as system conditions and performance. We lift the interruption as soon

01:05:31.320 --> 01:05:37.080
 as the operating information available to us confirms that the system will have the

01:05:37.080 --> 01:05:43.400
 capability to meet all potential interruptible demand based on system performance.

01:05:43.400 --> 01:05:58.120
 Everything we do is primarily based and driven by our vision to be the safest provider of natural

01:05:58.120 --> 01:06:04.680
 gas. To put this information regarding interruption in context the reliability of the system is over

01:06:04.680 --> 01:06:11.160
 99 percent reliable for human needs customers. And with that that's the end of the presentation

01:06:11.160 --> 01:06:14.600
 and I'm happy to entertain any questions comments thoughts y'all may have.

01:06:14.600 --> 01:06:23.720
 What is your uh without getting political or you know getting into to

01:06:24.920 --> 01:06:28.600
 unusual conversations what's your thoughts on the issue the future of natural gas I mean

01:06:28.600 --> 01:06:35.720
 between Marcellus and Texas now and I guess Wyoming we theoretically have one of the largest uh

01:06:35.720 --> 01:06:42.840
 we have the largest gas fields in the world now in three or I've heard three to four hundred years

01:06:42.840 --> 01:06:48.600
 of supply what's what's that look like from your your side from our from our perspective it's a

01:06:48.600 --> 01:06:54.680
 great resource to utilize it's clean affordable and it's abundant I mean you have all three of

01:06:54.680 --> 01:07:00.440
 those and it's in our backyard here I mean it's a great it's a great resource um Texas is a great

01:07:00.440 --> 01:07:04.600
 market you know there's other parts of the country you may see something a little different but here

01:07:04.600 --> 01:07:09.720
 in Texas people love their natural gas people don't want to lose their natural gas stoves that

01:07:09.720 --> 01:07:13.560
 you've heard in other parts of the country meaning the restaurant industry they love cooking with

01:07:13.560 --> 01:07:20.680
 natural gas so my job is easy in Texas. How much gas are you shipping overseas?

01:07:22.120 --> 01:07:26.520
 um that's outside the scope of what we do so I would have no idea

01:07:26.520 --> 01:07:33.880
 John maybe uh so one of the concerns we had up here I've talked to Jeff we've talked to your

01:07:33.880 --> 01:07:43.640
 president but um is we know that Denton is in this whole region is growing and even we brought this

01:07:43.640 --> 01:07:53.080
 up with him it's not that we got interrupted this time it's that we know what category we're in as

01:07:53.080 --> 01:07:59.000
 a customer someone like Peterbilt we can do exactly like you said we can invest three million dollars

01:07:59.000 --> 01:08:07.880
 and get a pipe or an extra well or whatever right to a custom to uh make sure we don't have issues

01:08:07.880 --> 01:08:15.400
 in the future as far as bring our employees to work when you know schools are working and other

01:08:15.400 --> 01:08:21.480
 things I know I know we've talked through this Ignatian but as we're growing as a community as

01:08:21.480 --> 01:08:30.600
 area the concern is more not Peterbilt it's how do we make sure that we have the infrastructure

01:08:31.320 --> 01:08:38.120
 to bring other big customers in here that are in that transportation category and what does the city

01:08:38.120 --> 01:08:47.480
 and the edp need to know to help advocate for even to say okay if I have another customer that's say

01:08:47.480 --> 01:08:54.680
 an Acme Brick or a Peterbilt or wants to be a steel foundry or wants to something that takes a

01:08:54.680 --> 01:09:02.440
 lot of energy right how are they going to feel good coming in here or we're trying to track those

01:09:02.440 --> 01:09:10.360
 businesses to say you can expect this level of service even though there's this much growth all

01:09:10.360 --> 01:09:14.920
 these other things or hey you can expect this level of service so by the way if you use this

01:09:14.920 --> 01:09:22.360
 much energy you need to have a backup because that's that's I think where we all need to kind

01:09:22.360 --> 01:09:28.280
 of level set right and as you can see from the slide we've invested over 15 billion dollars in

01:09:28.280 --> 01:09:33.560
 growing the system and modernizing the system to accommodate the growth across our territory

01:09:33.560 --> 01:09:40.200
 your specific question my best answer would be to work hand in hand with our industrial

01:09:40.200 --> 01:09:45.160
 account managers because every situation as you're doing business development as you know

01:09:45.160 --> 01:09:51.640
 each is unique their location where they are how close they are to pipelines what the availability

01:09:51.640 --> 01:09:57.080
 is what the cost implications are so if they're visiting with our industrial account managers

01:09:57.080 --> 01:10:00.360
 they should have all that information available when they're looking to come to this area

01:10:00.360 --> 01:10:09.160
 and I just other thing is Peterbilt's Peterbilt we've never said that we want to be ahead of

01:10:09.160 --> 01:10:15.720
 people but you and I understand what a transportation company is a lot of people don't

01:10:17.000 --> 01:10:24.760
 and I'll say this and the and the optics of turning off a hospital even though I know

01:10:24.760 --> 01:10:31.800
 their transportation companies too it ought to be just maybe something you consider in the future

01:10:31.800 --> 01:10:36.360
 like because I know both the hospitals got turned off as well but I also know their

01:10:36.360 --> 01:10:41.480
 transportation customers and they have transportation contracts so it's just something

01:10:42.040 --> 01:10:48.440
 from a PR perspective maybe y'all ought to think about as far as when you do prioritize customers

01:10:48.440 --> 01:10:55.000
 because that's the thing that also got us really kind of agitated before you get into the details

01:10:55.000 --> 01:10:59.880
 right but a headline is going to be a headline people like people aren't going to read the fine

01:10:59.880 --> 01:11:13.560
 print right okay Peterbilt's fine I would just suggest that that's that that to me

01:11:13.560 --> 01:11:18.760
 was what caused a lot of this consternation I would agree that our communication our transport

01:11:18.760 --> 01:11:23.720
 customers even some of the transport customers that contract doesn't make its way all the way

01:11:23.720 --> 01:11:28.760
 through the business so the local person that signed it may have understood the contract or

01:11:28.760 --> 01:11:32.760
 thought they understood the contract it may not have made it to their legal department the risk

01:11:32.760 --> 01:11:38.200
 management department or other departments so part of it is us educating folks when they sign those

01:11:38.200 --> 01:11:42.840
 contracts about what all the terms mean I mean I thought after winter storm yuri there would be a

01:11:42.840 --> 01:11:49.480
 huge push for plant protection because some contracts didn't have that that's that's we're

01:11:49.480 --> 01:11:54.920
 working with customers now to really explain what plant protection means and why it's valuable

01:11:54.920 --> 01:11:59.480
 I know a lot of people look at it as an insurance policy but there's a reason it's available the

01:11:59.480 --> 01:12:04.200
 other piece is just educating you know the public they hear an interruption in service the average

01:12:04.200 --> 01:12:09.240
 individual doesn't know what that means you know so being able to get out ahead of it and we notify

01:12:09.240 --> 01:12:14.840
 the customers multiple days ahead of time but the general public when someone's sitting at home or

01:12:14.840 --> 01:12:20.760
 my employers tell me I can't work today they don't understand why and that that's kind of you know

01:12:21.320 --> 01:12:25.400
 unfortunately behind the eight ball a little bit but that's that's what we're doing now is trying

01:12:25.400 --> 01:12:30.920
 to get out there and be better communicators when it comes to a situation like that and like I said

01:12:30.920 --> 01:12:37.160
 since 2011 we've had four interruptions in service two that have affected this area total was about

01:12:37.160 --> 01:12:43.800
 six days so if you look at it that's over a 99 percent reliability and our biggest issue

01:12:43.800 --> 01:12:49.080
 honestly when it comes to reliability is third-party damage our pipelines get damaged from contractors

01:12:49.080 --> 01:12:55.320
 excavators and we can't guarantee service if the line is cut in half by a contractor so even if I

01:12:55.320 --> 01:13:00.280
 told you today I'd love to give you a hundred percent reliable service it's just not realistic

01:13:00.280 --> 01:13:06.200
 I think the concern that we had beyond the Peterfield specific concern was two of those

01:13:06.200 --> 01:13:11.400
 interruptions happened in the last two years and we also know that's with the growth in the area

01:13:11.400 --> 01:13:18.440
 right of north Texas are we putting in does Denton have the right size gate right for distribution

01:13:18.440 --> 01:13:24.840
 that that's the kind of stuff and and to me as a board like Peterbilt's face don't worry about

01:13:24.840 --> 01:13:34.600
 people I mean we're upset but we know what we need like are we set up for natural gas distribution

01:13:34.600 --> 01:13:39.640
 and our growth right it's the same question that we have with water right right it's the same

01:13:39.640 --> 01:13:47.320
 question and roadways too yeah exactly so what do we need to do if anything to make sure

01:13:48.440 --> 01:13:56.840
 that we understand the implications as we're doing our job to natural gas or the distribution

01:13:56.840 --> 01:14:00.840
 I would tell you a lot of it goes along we have a great system planning group that is really looking

01:14:00.840 --> 01:14:05.720
 at the you know the growth in the area planning ahead running models doing all that a lot of it

01:14:05.720 --> 01:14:09.960
 is coordination with the cities too you know Denton for one is doing a lot of road work which has

01:14:09.960 --> 01:14:14.360
 given us an opportunity to get in there relocate lines out of the way when we're relocating we're

01:14:14.360 --> 01:14:20.120
 improving that infrastructure we're putting in bigger lines more or newer lines and then also

01:14:20.120 --> 01:14:24.920
 that economic development piece I mean y'all know what's coming to town better than we do

01:14:24.920 --> 01:14:28.840
 being able to communicate that to us ahead of time so our system planning can take that

01:14:28.840 --> 01:14:34.280
 into the models and then really incorporate it and then give us time pipelines take a while to

01:14:34.280 --> 01:14:38.760
 put in the ground you know your engineering plans your construction and getting it all done

01:14:38.760 --> 01:14:43.240
 so get giving us enough lead time when something is coming that we can get that in there to serve

01:14:43.240 --> 01:14:50.840
 them I mean we'd love to serve every customer out there if we could so again if we had for these

01:14:50.840 --> 01:14:57.960
 people how would they know hey I've got a I'm just gonna throw in a business out there because I know

01:14:57.960 --> 01:15:03.160
 they use a lot either I'm saying we want this here I have a steel foundry wants to come in

01:15:03.160 --> 01:15:09.240
 really interested they're gonna pay 90 grand a year per employee these guys start knowing hey

01:15:09.240 --> 01:15:19.560
 this is great they have child care vouchers like how do they know that's a good idea and they can

01:15:19.560 --> 01:15:26.040
 they can specifically tell that person hey you're gonna not be interrupted not or this is what you

01:15:26.040 --> 01:15:33.080
 need to do to make sure you're not you're not interrupting we do have coordination meetings on

01:15:33.080 --> 01:15:38.920
 the city staff side where we pull in all of those those external utilities also so when we know those

01:15:38.920 --> 01:15:44.840
 things are coming that's when we're planning those we have those meetings monthly so we do we'll see

01:15:44.840 --> 01:15:51.560
 that out of you when we get a package yes kind of like hey we think it's good that this this should

01:15:51.560 --> 01:15:57.800
 go forward we have been pulled into those meetings when perspective people are coming looking at big

01:15:57.800 --> 01:16:02.360
 industrial warehouse space or other space where we come in tell them what's available what it would

01:16:02.360 --> 01:16:07.720
 take to bring in additional you know what those costs are what assets would need to be put in the

01:16:07.720 --> 01:16:14.520
 ground we've had those discussions with folks that really the challenge is transportation agreements

01:16:14.520 --> 01:16:19.400
 and helping the customers really understand what a transportation agreement is i mean as you know

01:16:19.400 --> 01:16:25.480
 being a transportation customer the rates a lot less because we're only transporting that gas when

01:16:25.480 --> 01:16:29.880
 there's space available in the pipeline but when a winter storm like like yuri for example i mean

01:16:29.880 --> 01:16:34.200
 that was like a hundred year storm you don't design your infrastructure for the hundred year

01:16:34.200 --> 01:16:40.280
 currents i mean it's that's just not cost effective from anyone's perspective and y'all all part of an

01:16:40.280 --> 01:16:45.560
 edc really understand that better than most people i get to visit with but you know we want to do

01:16:45.560 --> 01:16:52.440
 everything in our power to serve our customers at the end of the day so we're working on building a

01:16:52.440 --> 01:16:57.800
 site database so that when we are pitching sites to prospects we are aware of the capabilities

01:16:57.800 --> 01:17:03.960
 we utility give them for them so and that's that's my bigger concern after this incident is are we

01:17:03.960 --> 01:17:10.680
 going to get ourselves in a problem that's jason's concern too about you know get some comments about

01:17:10.680 --> 01:17:16.840
 should i be recommending definitely grow right because any of those conversations i want to have

01:17:16.840 --> 01:17:21.080
 with atlas please just reach out to me i'll get you in touch with the right individuals to have those

01:17:21.080 --> 01:17:27.000
 so they're this is a booming area you know we would love to continue to see growth up in this area

01:17:28.440 --> 01:17:33.400
 do you have any interoperability agreements with other gas companies where if they have a complete

01:17:33.400 --> 01:17:41.000
 catastrophe you burnish gas to them no typically the systems aren't interconnected that way

01:17:41.000 --> 01:17:48.440
 we are a distribution company we do have a pipeline company that pipeline company serves

01:17:48.440 --> 01:17:54.680
 other distribution companies besides our mid-text division so there are other distribution companies

01:17:54.680 --> 01:18:01.240
 out there but i mean i'll say this this is denton i'm i'll share this we have a gas storage facility

01:18:01.240 --> 01:18:07.560
 here in denton down off mayville that is a critical asset for denton that is our pipeline

01:18:07.560 --> 01:18:13.720
 divisions we store gas in the summer there so when weather comes in we have available gas to pull in

01:18:13.720 --> 01:18:18.280
 and increase the pressures in the pipeline and really that's that's a great asset you'll have

01:18:18.280 --> 01:18:28.360
 in your backyard that a lot of communities don't can you go and forgive me i thought i stepped

01:18:28.360 --> 01:18:35.240
 out for a second do you have a slide on what constitutes the weather that would trigger the

01:18:35.240 --> 01:18:46.040
 interruption it's a combination of there's not a one one issue it's forecast it's actual weather

01:18:46.040 --> 01:18:50.680
 coming in and it's our forecasted demand for our human needs customers but when i talked to you

01:18:50.680 --> 01:18:59.960
 before it was made it there's a i was surprised at how low my estimation right like nice how low

01:18:59.960 --> 01:19:07.080
 a threshold that was right it's it's 100 degrees for a no the lower temperature what is the lowest

01:19:07.080 --> 01:19:13.160
 it has to be for a couple of days to trigger the interruption it's it's not measured that way that's

01:19:13.160 --> 01:19:19.720
 not how it's looked at that's what we talked about no it's not what we talked about um what we talked

01:19:19.720 --> 01:19:25.480
 about is this last weather incident typically texas weather what you see is it gets cold overnight

01:19:25.480 --> 01:19:29.960
 it freezes overnight it may rain during the day freezes overnight the roads are ice in the morning

01:19:29.960 --> 01:19:35.800
 things thaw out the weather gets above about 40 degrees when that weather warms up it gives us an

01:19:35.800 --> 01:19:40.040
 opportunity to put gas in the pipeline that's not being sucked out immediately build the pressure

01:19:40.040 --> 01:19:46.040
 back up when you had the issue back in a couple months ago you had sub zero temperatures for

01:19:46.040 --> 01:19:51.560
 multiple days with it never getting above freezing that doesn't give us an opportunity to rebuild

01:19:51.560 --> 01:19:56.440
 the pressures in the system and rebuild our storage facility and put gas in the ground

01:19:56.440 --> 01:20:01.000
 and save gas when it's below freezing for multiple days straight people's heaters are running

01:20:01.000 --> 01:20:07.880
 non-stop they're never getting a break where we can where they reduce the demand on the system

01:20:08.520 --> 01:20:13.720
 does that make does that make sense the way i'm it does but i'm trying to read and listen to you

01:20:13.720 --> 01:20:18.840
 there at the bottom it says uh followed by sustained period of hard freeze defined as

01:20:18.840 --> 01:20:28.040
 temperatures below 28 for at least 48 hours for four hours is that that's in conjunction with

01:20:28.040 --> 01:20:34.120
 i i just thought there was a number for two days if it's at a number and maybe i'm oversimplifying

01:20:34.120 --> 01:20:40.680
 i i take you i take your point that that there's many variables but i i also would ask you to take

01:20:40.680 --> 01:20:48.040
 my point right that if i need you in the room to explain that we're at a deficit right so i need a

01:20:48.040 --> 01:20:55.960
 piece of paper that is simple for me to digest to then convey to people that are here and did right

01:20:55.960 --> 01:21:03.160
 so if i'm misunderstanding fair i'll take that my challenge to you and my request to you is to give

01:21:03.160 --> 01:21:09.320
 me something that makes it clear where i don't need you in every room what i would share with you is

01:21:09.320 --> 01:21:15.080
 when we see anticipated weather we're following the forecast we're seeing demand on the system

01:21:15.080 --> 01:21:21.400
 when we are sending out communication which we sent out to all our cities all our chambers social

01:21:21.400 --> 01:21:27.000
 media when we're putting out messaging about conservation that tells you we're looking at

01:21:27.000 --> 01:21:35.640
 potential for drastic conditions no so but but it's a little off track so what i'm saying is

01:21:35.640 --> 01:21:40.680
 tomorrow i get called into a meeting with somebody that wants to move you

01:21:40.680 --> 01:21:48.760
 there's no forecast there's no weather there's no winter or heat advisories and they ask me

01:21:48.760 --> 01:21:56.040
 about the gas supply or that comes up i need to be able to articulate what those requirements are

01:21:56.040 --> 01:22:01.560
 hey in texas here's the weather traditionally here's the forecast these type of months and

01:22:01.560 --> 01:22:06.760
 here's where we get into areas where it gets where interruption is possible in these industries right

01:22:06.760 --> 01:22:13.480
 so i it's not about how you notice when those advisories are happening it's more what are your

01:22:13.480 --> 01:22:19.080
 standardized rules of where's that gray zone where's that red zone when we're going to enter that and

01:22:19.080 --> 01:22:23.960
 then i can look at i don't understand texas weather just as much as anybody because no one

01:22:23.960 --> 01:22:30.440
 understands it right but to understand the trends right to say okay in the summertime if the

01:22:30.440 --> 01:22:37.160
 thresholds 100 degrees for three days that's a problem because we will see that right and so

01:22:37.160 --> 01:22:41.800
 those are things like that what are the rules what are the bumper rails not when you're sending out

01:22:41.800 --> 01:22:47.560
 warnings i get it i'm saying day in day out where are the where are the guys day in day out we're

01:22:47.560 --> 01:22:55.560
 99.98 percent i understand that too so i can tell you from that perspective there is not a hard set

01:22:55.560 --> 01:23:01.560
 rule that when the weather hits 32 degrees for 4.4 minutes and 30 seconds that we're going to do an

01:23:01.560 --> 01:23:07.000
 interruption in service it doesn't work that way it's what the demand on the system is it's what

01:23:07.000 --> 01:23:12.040
 the forecast is what demand we're going to see tomorrow the day after we can't see that until

01:23:12.040 --> 01:23:18.360
 the weather comes so it's not a i'm not trying to be difficult up here with you honestly i there is

01:23:18.360 --> 01:23:24.600
 not a set temperature out there that says okay we see 40 degrees for two days we got to call an

01:23:24.600 --> 01:23:31.480
 interruption that's not that's not how it works and we don't interrupt our residential the only

01:23:31.480 --> 01:23:36.680
 people that are interrupted are transportation customers when there's an interruption in service

01:23:36.680 --> 01:23:41.320
 and they have a transportation contract they're buying their gas from a third party and we are

01:23:41.320 --> 01:23:47.800
 transporting it when there's space on our distribution system so if that space is taken

01:23:47.800 --> 01:23:54.120
 up by a residential customer or human needs customer that space isn't available in the pipeline

01:23:54.120 --> 01:24:00.840
 for us to transport that third party gas does that make you know all that so i would tell you

01:24:00.840 --> 01:24:07.480
 you could tell a perspective human needs customer their system is almost 100 reliable

01:24:07.480 --> 01:24:16.280
 certainly and and and and the customer would say okay well we make 99 of our money in this window

01:24:16.280 --> 01:24:23.560
 and i'm supposed to say well i hope the weather's good that you know me like like prime day or like

01:24:23.560 --> 01:24:27.880
 christmas or you know there's just there's i just i get it i guess we're trying to get it

01:24:27.880 --> 01:24:34.920
 hold on i take your point i take your answer just no i don't like it because i have to communicate

01:24:34.920 --> 01:24:39.320
 you know you put me in a situation where i gotta go advocate for atlas and i have no idea what i'm

01:24:39.320 --> 01:24:43.640
 talking about because there's all these variables that i don't know about but it seems like and this

01:24:43.640 --> 01:24:48.680
 is this is going to be this is not a fair slight to you so fair warning right recover your ears

01:24:48.680 --> 01:24:55.960
 it is it's super when we have when we get our next rate increase request from atlas it is

01:24:55.960 --> 01:25:02.040
 abundantly clear here's how much money we want to raise your rates and and we don't have any

01:25:02.040 --> 01:25:06.760
 of these variables that go to raising your rates just flat out give us more money for our system

01:25:06.760 --> 01:25:11.800
 so we can serve you well that that seems to be very easily communicated to the city and then if

01:25:11.800 --> 01:25:18.040
 we don't agree we get taken to court to then get your money and so and not you the atlas but i'm

01:25:18.040 --> 01:25:21.800
 saying it is frustrating and so i'm not i'm not going to belabor the point i'm not going to take

01:25:21.800 --> 01:25:27.160
 over the meeting i'm just telling you i don't like the i don't think the answer has the clarity that

01:25:27.160 --> 01:25:35.480
 we deserve and the next time the rape case comes up i'm going to be even more frustrated with that

01:25:35.480 --> 01:25:41.320
 whole process so you and you're only showing town right so we get that from dme right i understand

01:25:41.320 --> 01:25:50.120
 that i'm just telling you not plus well i would just add final comments for me that the 15 billion

01:25:50.120 --> 01:25:55.080
 we've invested that's the money we're coming to ask for a rate increase so if we weren't investing

01:25:55.080 --> 01:26:00.840
 that 15 billion dollars we recoup our money after we put the assets in the ground is how the gas

01:26:00.840 --> 01:26:07.400
 industry works so i mean we're doing everything in our power and the customers you're talking about

01:26:07.400 --> 01:26:12.280
 those customers are encouraged to have an alternative fuel source so when there is that

01:26:12.280 --> 01:26:18.280
 two-day interruption out of from 2011 to today we've had two interruptions up here over a total

01:26:18.280 --> 01:26:23.560
 of six days those customers have an alternative fuel source that all they have to do is kick on

01:26:23.560 --> 01:26:29.880
 and they can survive for two days without an interruption in their business so um i know and

01:26:29.880 --> 01:26:36.360
 i will do my best to get you better information on what you're asking for and i've tried to stop

01:26:36.360 --> 01:26:40.680
 but you gotta understand also i understand your business probably better than the average bear

01:26:40.680 --> 01:26:47.800
 atlas is grown by uh assuming companies not so you bought a company that invested the money and

01:26:47.800 --> 01:26:53.080
 there that's monetized but and so the rate that you're saying is over 15 billion that's you

01:26:53.080 --> 01:26:59.080
 investing in other you atlas investing in other companies to grow over over time come on i mean

01:26:59.080 --> 01:27:05.080
 i know the history of atlas and i bought a company since txugas that i'm aware of for rate for

01:27:05.080 --> 01:27:13.320
 customers so txugas was i think in 2014 if i'm correct don't quote me on that but i'm saying

01:27:13.320 --> 01:27:18.440
 before that so that's i mean it's all your the 15 billion dollars is that 214 200 that's that's

01:27:18.440 --> 01:27:24.040
 2014 or beyond or is that that's in the last 10 years that 15 billion dollars and we have not

01:27:24.040 --> 01:27:29.800
 acquired another company in that lab in the last 10 years every year we are investing billions of

01:27:29.800 --> 01:27:34.920
 dollars in the system to keep up with the growth and keep up with the modernization of the system

01:27:34.920 --> 01:27:39.640
 just like your infrastructure in the city you're spending what billions of dollars on road

01:27:39.640 --> 01:27:44.360
 infrastructure improving it updating it we're doing the same thing on a daily basis and that's

01:27:44.360 --> 01:27:48.840
 why you see our rate increases we we're coming in asking to recoup that money we just put back in

01:27:48.840 --> 01:27:59.240
 the system okay john thank you for all that information thank you appreciate it we need

01:27:59.240 --> 01:28:04.360
 you as a partner thank you anything we can do i'm gonna leave some cards that way if any of y'all

01:28:04.360 --> 01:28:11.880
 need to contact me i'm happy to be available thank you thank you all again okay final item

01:28:11.880 --> 01:28:19.240
 item b number edt 24-34 receive a report hold discussion requiring the quarterly stoke

01:28:19.240 --> 01:28:24.120
 didn't update the chair recognizes heather gregory from stoke didn't present the file

01:28:24.120 --> 01:28:34.040
 hi good afternoon um i'm holly gregory i am the owner of hickory and male adventures which operates

01:28:34.040 --> 01:28:37.800
 stoke uh co-working as a public-private partnership with the city of denton

01:28:38.600 --> 01:28:46.600
 and i'm going to talk about um kind of what we did in 2023 with our partnership so a little bit

01:28:46.600 --> 01:28:59.400
 about oh no oh no we're making stop okay okay so a little bit about the history of stoke um july 2016

01:28:59.400 --> 01:29:06.760
 was when the city's five-year lease on the space that we're in um at the rail yards um 608 east

01:29:06.760 --> 01:29:13.400
 hickory suite started so the city originally held the lease on the space um the original partnership

01:29:13.400 --> 01:29:19.240
 agreement was with an organization based out of dallas the city council decided to not renew their

01:29:19.240 --> 01:29:24.120
 agreement and hickory and rail adventures became the entity that entered into that management

01:29:24.120 --> 01:29:30.200
 agreement with the city which was signed in november 2017 and we took over in december 2017

01:29:31.080 --> 01:29:39.080
 in june 2021 the city's five-year lease on that space um expired so at up until that point for

01:29:39.080 --> 01:29:46.280
 that five years the city was paying for the rent um and help with kind of the repair facility

01:29:46.280 --> 01:29:51.880
 maintenance um the city's lease expired and hickory and rail adventures negotiated a new

01:29:51.880 --> 01:29:58.760
 lease with the martino group and as part of that we got 12 new offices private offices built out

01:29:58.760 --> 01:30:04.120
 to take our total private offices from eight to 20 um it's just what we needed to be able to

01:30:04.120 --> 01:30:09.880
 maintain the rent to take over the lease on the space and so at that point our partnership with

01:30:09.880 --> 01:30:15.880
 the city shifted so that the the this board and city council kind of approves a an entrepreneur

01:30:15.880 --> 01:30:21.160
 we are the entrepreneurship program for the city so we'll kind of talk about the programs and events

01:30:21.160 --> 01:30:26.040
 that we do to support entrepreneurship so we are kind of economic development i call it ground up

01:30:26.040 --> 01:30:31.080
 economic development a lot of it is supporting entrepreneurs um start and grow their businesses

01:30:31.080 --> 01:30:38.360
 since then you know well ever since 2017 we do this kind of annual report we do monthly reporting

01:30:38.360 --> 01:30:43.720
 but we come in front of this board annually and in 21 22 and 23 we've been unanimously improved

01:30:43.720 --> 01:30:50.280
 by this board and city council to continue the entrepreneurship program so this is just some

01:30:50.280 --> 01:30:55.480
 pictures of our space of our co-working space we have like i said just over 9 000 square feet

01:30:56.760 --> 01:31:02.600
 in denton right right next to the train station so this just kind of shows some of what our

01:31:02.600 --> 01:31:08.120
 dedicated desk looks like conference rooms more dedicated desk in private offices our shared kitchen

01:31:08.120 --> 01:31:15.480
 facility conference room and then this is again in our co-working space um this is kind of another

01:31:15.480 --> 01:31:22.200
 main one looking back at our co-working space with kitchen um this kind of spotlights some of the

01:31:22.200 --> 01:31:33.320
 members that we had last year um they range from tech companies to uh bookkeepers to marketing agencies

01:31:33.320 --> 01:31:44.120
 to um videography companies so they're they're creative they are um they are they're a range of

01:31:44.120 --> 01:31:54.200
 people we have largely um stem businesses in our space so tech or tech-enabled companies um and

01:31:54.200 --> 01:32:00.600
 this is again some of our members using the space conference rooms and events um member events that

01:32:00.600 --> 01:32:06.520
 we have we do um twice a month member events and then we do special events we have a cheese party

01:32:06.520 --> 01:32:13.640
 every year this is our holiday party um this is some of our member testimonials about how

01:32:13.640 --> 01:32:18.840
 the access to the affordable and flexible workspace has helped the success of their business

01:32:18.840 --> 01:32:24.680
 our programming helps their businesses grow and provides opportunities for them to be showcased

01:32:24.680 --> 01:32:29.320
 and then just some of the benefits that it provides especially for remote workers

01:32:29.320 --> 01:32:35.960
 it could really be anywhere um there in our space and they're working in a community of other people

01:32:35.960 --> 01:32:43.320
 so this is kind of the high level programs and events that we do again as part of our partnership

01:32:43.320 --> 01:32:49.400
 i put accelerate her up here because it isn't important and without stoke and the city's

01:32:49.400 --> 01:32:56.040
 partnership we wouldn't be here probably at all and so um we want but that that specific partnership

01:32:56.040 --> 01:33:01.880
 we do with texas women's university so they fund that um we kind of report to them on that but the

01:33:01.880 --> 01:33:06.760
 other uh programs that in events that we do are a part of this partnership with the city

01:33:06.760 --> 01:33:13.240
 so coffee and conversations is a virtual monthly mentorship call um i'm trying to show a range of

01:33:13.240 --> 01:33:18.120
 things here the people that we have spotlighted as mentors um and then the marketing material

01:33:18.120 --> 01:33:23.640
 that we are putting out um to so to promote the events that we are doing so these are like i said

01:33:23.640 --> 01:33:30.360
 virtual group calls that um there is uh somebody from our team and a mentor on the call um that

01:33:30.360 --> 01:33:35.960
 provides really valuable guidance and information for entrepreneurs then there's also peer-to-peer

01:33:35.960 --> 01:33:43.960
 learning that happens to the small groups that join those monthly calls um flint comp is our

01:33:43.960 --> 01:33:51.800
 annual conference for entrepreneurs we uh these are pictures uh from our fifth year last year and

01:33:51.800 --> 01:33:58.840
 on may 8th we will be doing our sixth year of this event um and so this just kind of shows some of the

01:33:58.840 --> 01:34:05.480
 people that have come the speakers um the women speaking here on this panel in the middle was a

01:34:05.480 --> 01:34:11.000
 winner of denton pitch competition which in 2022 which i'll talk about in just a minute and again

01:34:11.000 --> 01:34:15.800
 some of the marketing materials our keynote speaker last year was erin powell who's the ceo

01:34:15.800 --> 01:34:24.040
 of bunch bikes which is a local um cargo bike company um at this event we had about 100 people

01:34:24.040 --> 01:34:30.600
 including students this is a table um of denton isd students from lebron academy so we have a

01:34:30.600 --> 01:34:39.800
 partnership with denton isd through the um the cte uh lebron academy and then as well with incubator

01:34:39.800 --> 01:34:45.800
 edu their entrepreneurship program at geiger high school um this is some imagery from dent pitch

01:34:45.800 --> 01:34:51.560
 competition this was our second year of doing pitch competition so this program is one where

01:34:51.560 --> 01:34:59.080
 entrepreneurs apply um we vet them we bring um about 15 or 16 people into the coaching program

01:34:59.080 --> 01:35:08.760
 so we provide resources and um coaching to them to help her have the best pitch possible um we had

01:35:08.760 --> 01:35:14.120
 16 businesses last year going through the coaching program and then the top 10 pitched in front of a

01:35:14.120 --> 01:35:20.840
 panel of judges and a public audience um and then the three winners win cash um and so this first

01:35:20.840 --> 01:35:27.640
 place winner is a speech therapist and she pitched that she needed uh money to help submit her

01:35:27.640 --> 01:35:33.800
 applications to be able to accept accept insurance plans because she was just private pay um speech

01:35:33.800 --> 01:35:39.400
 therapy for young children um and we got an update from her a couple of weeks ago that they are just

01:35:39.400 --> 01:35:43.800
 a couple weeks out from being able to accept multiple different forms of insurance um which

01:35:43.800 --> 01:35:49.240
 will grow their business tremendously um triptych coffee company is a pop-up uh coffee cart that

01:35:49.240 --> 01:35:54.680
 has been in operation for less than a year they won second place and then golden root ginger beer

01:35:54.680 --> 01:36:01.240
 won third place so all of these are local businesses that are um using the money and the coaching that

01:36:01.240 --> 01:36:08.600
 we provided to help grow their businesses global entrepreneurship we have taken part in global

01:36:08.600 --> 01:36:15.400
 entrepreneurship week since 2018 um and so it is a week around the world that is to celebrate and

01:36:15.400 --> 01:36:22.520
 showcase entrepreneurship and so last year we held uh events all week long including a fireside chat

01:36:22.520 --> 01:36:28.520
 with the thistle creative reuse owner we had a big ideas creative mixer that brought out over 60

01:36:28.520 --> 01:36:33.480
 creative entrepreneurs we offer free co-working on fridays didn't pitch competition is kind of

01:36:33.480 --> 01:36:39.640
 the figure that we do as part of this celebration uh we we also produced a virtual startup crawl so

01:36:39.640 --> 01:36:46.760
 we produced um four videos that showcased um some businesses in debt um through like a virtual tour

01:36:46.760 --> 01:36:53.240
 that we have on our youtube other entrepreneur ecosystem activities that we participate in um

01:36:53.240 --> 01:36:59.880
 speed bump was an art tour that we were a location for last year we're participating again one million

01:36:59.880 --> 01:37:07.800
 cups is a um weekly kind of mini pitch event that happens um there's uh events in fort worth and

01:37:07.800 --> 01:37:12.680
 frisco and we have somebody from our team that attends regularly we sponsored the hackathons

01:37:12.680 --> 01:37:19.560
 that happened at unt both hack unt and hack tams we always attend our startup week we have had

01:37:19.560 --> 01:37:25.080
 speaking spots in the past last year we were just attendees and then the incubator bdu is as i said

01:37:25.080 --> 01:37:30.600
 the entrepreneurship program that happens at our high school so i am a coach for teams i have been

01:37:30.600 --> 01:37:35.640
 a coach the last three years helping these high school students kind of work on their businesses

01:37:35.640 --> 01:37:42.520
 and then pitch at the end of the year it's coming up really soon so these are just some of the

01:37:42.520 --> 01:37:47.400
 efforts that we do throughout denton and the region to help support entrepreneurship and in denton

01:37:47.400 --> 01:37:54.920
 my videos didn't pull up here and um to respect the sports time i will just encourage you to go

01:37:54.920 --> 01:37:59.560
 to our youtube you can go to our website at stokedenton.com there's a link to our youtube

01:37:59.560 --> 01:38:04.600
 we have some really wonderful professionally produced videos there um from the startup crawl

01:38:04.600 --> 01:38:09.960
 from flip comp last year from the denton pitch competition so you can really see some of what

01:38:09.960 --> 01:38:17.560
 um what our work looks like um some of the impacts and outcomes from last year 86 percent of our

01:38:17.560 --> 01:38:22.520
 member survey respondents said their business has experienced growth and so that includes

01:38:22.520 --> 01:38:28.200
 anything from sales growth hiring new employees landing new clients raising funds filing their

01:38:28.200 --> 01:38:33.080
 llc so that's you know that very initial step to starting a business and then launching new

01:38:33.080 --> 01:38:38.520
 products and services some of the direct impacts from their membership at stoke in terms of their

01:38:38.520 --> 01:38:45.560
 growth include collaborating um between and between members the education and resources that we

01:38:45.560 --> 01:38:51.880
 provide networking through getting to know each other just truly like in the kitchen or at some

01:38:51.880 --> 01:38:57.160
 of our member events hiring within the member community so we see people that are literally

01:38:57.160 --> 01:39:02.040
 hiring part-time or full-time or freelance workers just they wouldn't have known otherwise

01:39:02.040 --> 01:39:07.880
 but they're colliding in our space and they're hiring each other to work together and then

01:39:07.880 --> 01:39:13.720
 finding co-founders for their business um 93 percent net promoter score over 500 people

01:39:13.720 --> 01:39:18.840
 brought together through our events and programs 11 professionally produced videos highlighting

01:39:18.840 --> 01:39:23.560
 stoke programs and events and then the four internally produced videos from startup crawl

01:39:23.560 --> 01:39:32.760
 and then some of our uh impacts from our programs didn't pitch competition we did we provided 28

01:39:32.760 --> 01:39:38.120
 hours of business coaching so this is really helping people perfect their pitch and business plan and

01:39:38.120 --> 01:39:44.840
 understand the steps to growth 10 of those businesses pitch 70 were women-owned business

01:39:44.840 --> 01:39:52.520
 40 BIPOC and 10 LGBTQ we had 13 uh entrepreneur expo participants so as part of this pitch

01:39:52.520 --> 01:39:59.560
 competition event we had a side um where people set up booths and so we have people serving the

01:39:59.560 --> 01:40:07.000
 food or drink that is their business um or you know people somebody trying to start a sewing school

01:40:07.000 --> 01:40:13.000
 who had people sewing on her sewing machine so 13 participants in the expo and then the three

01:40:13.000 --> 01:40:19.720
 winners received recognition and cash prizes blimpon as i said 100 attendees we had five speaker

01:40:19.720 --> 01:40:25.560
 sessions two panel discussions and then 10 big ideas pitch so as part of this event we open up

01:40:25.560 --> 01:40:29.720
 the platform to really anybody in the room who wants to share something that they're working on

01:40:29.720 --> 01:40:35.640
 something that they think would be a big a good idea for jetten and then the coffee and conversations

01:40:35.640 --> 01:40:43.640
 we held 11 sessions with 70 attendees and the mentors are 70 women 50 BIPOC and 20 LGBTQ

01:40:43.640 --> 01:40:51.480
 we have a team of three full-time employees and our associate director is part-time but we do all

01:40:51.480 --> 01:40:56.760
 of this work taking care of our community robin is ahead of kind of our membership and our onboarding

01:40:56.760 --> 01:41:03.320
 and our our community our member events um mary helps with our marketing communications and then

01:41:03.320 --> 01:41:08.840
 i kind of oversee the programs and partnerships and all of the details that go into running and

01:41:08.840 --> 01:41:13.880
 operating and managing a business um these are just some things that i pulled from a zine that

01:41:13.880 --> 01:41:21.080
 we created last year as a way to um help inform people about what it is that we do um yeah i'm

01:41:21.080 --> 01:41:27.240
 happy to answer any questions that you may have any questions for heather

01:41:27.240 --> 01:41:32.120
 thank you for your presentation

01:41:32.120 --> 01:41:43.960
 okay look time today we're gonna i'm gonna ask you guys to uh snap before just to review your

01:41:43.960 --> 01:41:51.960
 backup information uh that was presented in our information and i want to take just 60 seconds

01:41:51.960 --> 01:41:57.160
 before we adjourn today i want britney to to introduce herself to the board and just tell

01:41:57.160 --> 01:42:02.280
 give us a little bit of overview of who you are we had a great discussion yesterday one day she

01:42:02.280 --> 01:42:07.640
 asked me was what do you want to see from the economic health area stability and she said i'm

01:42:07.640 --> 01:42:15.880
 over here for at least five years so i'll hold you that well everyone my name is race director

01:42:15.880 --> 01:42:20.360
 and um i was originally going to race with the little desk area um i got my economic development

01:42:20.360 --> 01:42:23.960
 started out there at the best chamber of commerce actually before that i've worked at the ut primary

01:42:23.960 --> 01:42:27.960
 basis small business development center as a business consultant and then i moved over to the

01:42:27.960 --> 01:42:31.560
 desk chamber of commerce who was a primary contractor for the desk building corporation

01:42:31.560 --> 01:42:36.120
 their cell site corporation um and then while i'm in the city likely i got a job at the arlington

01:42:36.120 --> 01:42:41.320
 office of economic development our neighbor an hour away from us i worked there for five years

01:42:41.320 --> 01:42:46.120
 and experience all working on all types of public private partnerships as you can imagine an

01:42:46.120 --> 01:42:50.760
 entertainment district and uh plenty of economic development projects that we recruited into the

01:42:50.760 --> 01:42:55.880
 city um after i hit my five years i wanted to live by the coast and i got a job at the corpus

01:42:55.880 --> 01:43:00.680
 christi regional economic development corporation um we covered three different counties new asia

01:43:00.680 --> 01:43:06.280
 san francisco and aransas counties and then within those counties of course there's multiple cities and so

01:43:06.280 --> 01:43:11.800
 we acted like the dallas regional chamber but we had a an agreement with the city of corpus christi

01:43:11.800 --> 01:43:17.000
 to manage and send us for their typing corporation and we also managed and and compliance for the

01:43:17.000 --> 01:43:22.120
 new aces and san patricio county so in corpus christi it's primarily heavy industrial projects

01:43:22.120 --> 01:43:28.360
 so they were home to three oil and gas refineries and while i was there testa lithium opened up so

01:43:28.360 --> 01:43:32.760
 that was exciting over the total in the next five years it will probably create about two million

01:43:32.760 --> 01:43:41.160
 dollars worth of capital investment so in the room did you have a contact there so maybe we'll do

01:43:41.160 --> 01:43:45.240
 something unique down here but i'm excited to be here everyone i've met has been super nice super

01:43:45.240 --> 01:43:50.440
 sharp i'm excited about our partners um i have an amazing team as you already know let's give them

01:43:50.440 --> 01:43:58.840
 a hand christina christin and matilda and i want to recognize vanessia as far as if she's with

01:43:58.840 --> 01:44:02.840
 development services she's going to be handling all of our administrative work moving on and i do

01:44:02.840 --> 01:44:06.680
 want to let you know we are working on streamlining some of our roles and responsibilities to set us up

01:44:06.680 --> 01:44:10.680
 for success so we'll probably present that in the near future great i hope all you do is i'm sure

01:44:10.680 --> 01:44:14.600
 you will have a chance to meet with her in the future we're all excited to have you on board here

01:44:14.600 --> 01:44:20.360
 thank you thanks for that uh there's no other business uh before our board i'll now adjourn the

01:44:20.360 --> 01:44:26.520
 meeting it's uh what 1250 so uh great meeting great discussion guys thank you for that great