1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,640 Alright, we have a quorum, so good morning, welcome to this meeting of the Economic Development 2 00:00:07,640 --> 00:00:08,640 Partnership Board. 3 00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:11,160 It's Wednesday, September 10th, 2025. 4 00:00:11,160 --> 00:00:17,280 We have established a quorum, so I'll call the meeting at 11.05 a.m. 5 00:00:17,280 --> 00:00:23,000 Now we'll begin with presentations from membership of the public. 6 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:24,000 Are there any? 7 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:30,040 We have none. 8 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:34,080 Since there are none, we will now continue the items for consideration. 9 00:00:34,080 --> 00:00:44,040 Now beginning with the item for consideration, item A, EDP 25-023, consider approval for 10 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:49,640 the Economic Development Partnership Board meeting minutes for August 13th, 2025. 11 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:54,440 Are there any questions? 12 00:00:54,440 --> 00:00:57,080 At this time, the chair will entertain a motion for approval. 13 00:00:57,080 --> 00:01:02,840 I do have a motion from Rick, I have a second, a second from Aaron. 14 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:04,520 All in favor, say aye. 15 00:01:04,520 --> 00:01:05,520 Aye. 16 00:01:05,520 --> 00:01:06,520 Any opposed? 17 00:01:06,520 --> 00:01:07,520 Motion passes. 18 00:01:07,520 --> 00:01:22,600 Now move on to item B, EDP 25-025, receive a report, hold a discussion, and make a recommendation 19 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:28,920 to the city council regarding a request to nominate United States Cold Storage LP to 20 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:36,440 the Office of the Governor of Economic Development and Tourism through the Economic Development 21 00:01:36,440 --> 00:01:38,520 Bank as an enterprise project. 22 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:42,040 The chair recognizes Erica Sullivan to present on this item. 23 00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:48,040 Good morning, my name is Erica Sullivan, I'm the economic development program administrator 24 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:52,240 here at the city and I'll be giving you a presentation on U.S. cold storage's request 25 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:57,040 for nomination under the Texas Enterprise Zone program, and a number of you are relatively 26 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:01,280 new and haven't been here when I presented the Texas Enterprise Zone program, so we're 27 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:04,760 going to begin with an overview of the program. 28 00:02:04,760 --> 00:02:11,440 So the Texas Enterprise Zone program is designed to promote job creation and to create capital 29 00:02:11,440 --> 00:02:16,560 investment in economically distressed areas of the state of Texas, and requires a partnership 30 00:02:16,560 --> 00:02:19,640 with a local community for that designation. 31 00:02:19,640 --> 00:02:26,120 Successful applicants are eligible to apply for state sales and use tax on qualified expenditures. 32 00:02:26,120 --> 00:02:31,080 The program reimburses according to the level of capital investment, jobs created or retained, 33 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:34,760 and for economically disadvantaged individuals or veterans. 34 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:39,680 The competition varies depending on the funding cycle, on how competitive it is, and the projects 35 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:44,040 are eligible whether they're located inside or outside of a zone, there's just criteria 36 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:50,520 that go into that that we'll discuss in more detail. 37 00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:54,240 So you can see a table here from the Texas Enterprise Zone program, on the left side 38 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:58,200 we have the capital investment, and it starts with a half an enterprise project all the 39 00:02:58,200 --> 00:03:03,520 way to a triple jumbo project, the maximum number of jobs under that category in the 40 00:03:03,520 --> 00:03:08,960 second column, the maximum potential refund based on the maximum refund per job allocated. 41 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:14,240 So this particular project falls under the enterprise project, the second one there from 42 00:03:14,240 --> 00:03:23,000 5 million to 149.9 million, and another point to point out is the double and triple jumbo 43 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:30,960 projects are just for new jobs, not for new and retained. 44 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:35,880 So the process project needs to apply, they need one to receive an incentive from the 45 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:41,760 city or local community, and then they also need a nomination from that city, and communities 46 00:03:41,760 --> 00:03:46,600 have a limited number of designations and it's based on population size, and the state 47 00:03:46,600 --> 00:03:50,240 has a maximum number as well that can be awarded in the biennium. 48 00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:55,320 So the state has 105 for biennium, and then Denton, according to our population size, 49 00:03:55,320 --> 00:04:00,560 we have six, and this would be the first project in the biennium, so we have five left if this 50 00:04:00,560 --> 00:04:01,560 is approved. 51 00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:05,880 And then we decided to participate in the program through an ordinance and then we nominate 52 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:08,880 via resolution. 53 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:15,040 Project designations are good for five years, we have three active projects currently in 54 00:04:15,040 --> 00:04:23,160 the queue, jobs must work 1,820 hours minimum per year, this equates to a 35 hour work week 55 00:04:23,160 --> 00:04:28,080 for 52 weeks, and then jobs must exist through the end of the designation period, which is 56 00:04:28,080 --> 00:04:34,520 three years after the date or when the state benefit was received, whichever is later, 57 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:41,440 and then applications are received on a quarterly basis on the first of the month. 58 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:48,000 So in blue you will see the Texas Enterprise Zone, and again we mentioned under the overview 59 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:52,120 that they could be physically inside or outside of the zone, if it's inside a company has 60 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:59,300 to meet 25%, the economic disadvantage criteria would be actual lay living in the zone or 61 00:04:59,300 --> 00:05:08,000 be a veteran, and then if it's outside of the zone it's at 35%. 62 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:13,200 So Cold Storage submitted a request for nomination, they're investing approximately 35 million 63 00:05:13,200 --> 00:05:17,040 at the Denton facility, if y'all remember this was brought to the board in May and then 64 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:24,160 was approved by City Council in July, and they are looking at 100,000 square foot expansion 65 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:29,680 and investing in machinery and equipment. 66 00:05:29,680 --> 00:05:33,080 So the current facility is located within the Enterprise Zone, you can see a map on 67 00:05:33,080 --> 00:05:37,040 the bottom there as well as the physical facility there. 68 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:42,960 It would be expanded to the north and south of the facility, and then with that 35 million 69 00:05:42,960 --> 00:05:47,760 de-investment, again according to that table they fall under the enterprise project category 70 00:05:47,760 --> 00:05:53,720 of 5 million to 149.9 million, under that category it's a maximum of 500 jobs with a potential 71 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,720 free fund of 1.25 million. 72 00:05:56,720 --> 00:06:01,920 Theirs is estimated if all were to qualify of their new and retained jobs it would be 73 00:06:01,920 --> 00:06:02,920 800,000. 74 00:06:02,920 --> 00:06:10,560 So some of the benefits to U.S. Cold Storage, they receive a refund of 800,000 for their 75 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:17,320 320 full-time jobs, and then they would, because they're in the zone, they would only be responsible 76 00:06:17,320 --> 00:06:23,720 for 25% of creating new positions and turnover that would be given to economically disadvantaged 77 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:28,840 residents of the Enterprise Zone and/or our veterans, and then nominating U.S. Cold Storage 78 00:06:28,840 --> 00:06:35,620 enables us to assist the company in receiving state funds and it has, does not have a fiscal 79 00:06:35,620 --> 00:06:39,080 impact to the city. 80 00:06:39,080 --> 00:06:43,880 So staff recommends at this board, recommend that the City Council approve a resolution 81 00:06:43,880 --> 00:06:47,600 nominating U.S. Cold Storage as an Enterprise Project. 82 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:52,360 The next step would be going to City Council for individual consideration once the application 83 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:53,360 is completed. 84 00:06:53,360 --> 00:06:59,040 They would be applying under the December 1st round. 85 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:02,840 I'm happy to entertain questions. 86 00:07:02,840 --> 00:07:12,600 This refund is based on actual sales and use tax revenue that they're generating. 87 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:21,320 It's four purchases, I have a hidden slide I was trying to get to. 88 00:07:21,320 --> 00:07:22,320 There we go. 89 00:07:22,320 --> 00:07:23,320 One more. 90 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:30,240 Okay, so if you look, thank you for making it bigger. 91 00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:36,960 Okay, so step seven demonstrates payment of sales and use taxes, qualified expenditures, 92 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:37,960 and job creation retention. 93 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:41,760 So they have to demonstrate it to the state and the state reimburses that. 94 00:07:41,760 --> 00:07:45,680 The amount they're eligible for is based on the number of jobs created, right? 95 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:46,680 Yes. 96 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:51,120 According to that, Table 8 Max is out, yeah, and then they're within that threshold with 97 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:52,120 that one. 98 00:07:52,120 --> 00:07:57,120 It also sets the amount. 99 00:07:57,120 --> 00:08:05,880 U.S. Cold Storage, yes, they are currently under construction. 100 00:08:05,880 --> 00:08:11,040 We approved, like I said, we approved their incentive and we recommended it here in May 101 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:15,560 and then we approved it in July. 102 00:08:15,560 --> 00:08:17,840 Are there any other questions? 103 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:23,860 If there are no other questions at this time, I'd like to entertain a motion to approve. 104 00:08:23,860 --> 00:08:26,860 I have a motion. 105 00:08:26,860 --> 00:08:31,960 I got a second from Rick. 106 00:08:31,960 --> 00:08:34,960 All in favor, say aye. 107 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:35,960 Aye. 108 00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:36,960 Opposed? 109 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:46,400 All right, with that motion passed, we'll do a call out for working sessions. 110 00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:56,280 I'll call item A, EDP 25-027, receive a report and hold a discussion regarding the TxOMA 111 00:08:56,280 --> 00:09:02,200 Logistics Innovation Engine from Dr. Terence Poland of the University of North Texas. 112 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:06,640 The chair recognizes Dr. Terence Poland to present on this item. 113 00:09:06,640 --> 00:09:08,240 Thank you for joining us. 114 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:10,280 Well, thank you for inviting me. 115 00:09:10,280 --> 00:09:15,060 Just a little bit of background on me, I'm a logistics professor over at UNT. 116 00:09:15,060 --> 00:09:19,740 I'm the senior associate dean for the G. Burke Ryan College of Business. 117 00:09:19,740 --> 00:09:23,240 I'm the director for the Jim McPatt Institute for Logistics Research. 118 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:25,200 They can't keep me busy enough. 119 00:09:25,200 --> 00:09:31,280 And then I'm also the lead primary investigator on a National Science Foundation grant to 120 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:37,320 create an innovation engine focused on logistics in the North Texas, Southeastern Oklahoma 121 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:38,320 region. 122 00:09:38,320 --> 00:09:42,720 And as you can see, we have quite a range of individuals that are key personnel on this 123 00:09:42,720 --> 00:09:51,600 grant, but our focus has been capitalizing on DFW's position as the logistics hub for 124 00:09:51,600 --> 00:09:53,160 North America. 125 00:09:53,160 --> 00:09:56,960 When you take a look at our area in terms of the amount of freight that we move, where 126 00:09:56,960 --> 00:10:04,560 Fort Marge is freight market, we're the second in terms of industrial distribution space. 127 00:10:04,560 --> 00:10:09,760 I just saw all that on the cold storage, but when you take a look at our market alone, 128 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:16,160 think of DFW Airport completely under one roof and then another 10 square miles. 129 00:10:16,160 --> 00:10:21,820 That's how much is dedicated to distribution just in this one market. 130 00:10:21,820 --> 00:10:27,780 Also in terms of intermodal movements, we're either third or fourth largest in terms of 131 00:10:27,780 --> 00:10:31,160 intermodal containers coming into this region. 132 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:33,440 And that really supports growth. 133 00:10:33,440 --> 00:10:39,960 So we were ideally, in my opinion, were ideally positioned to be an innovation hub for logistics. 134 00:10:39,960 --> 00:10:43,680 Now you're probably trying to figure out where does this all come in for debt, and I'll 135 00:10:43,680 --> 00:10:46,240 be getting to that. 136 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:51,200 But to put together this innovation hub, we put together a variety of different stakeholders. 137 00:10:51,200 --> 00:10:57,920 And one of the things I want to emphasize is this is not a university initiative. 138 00:10:57,920 --> 00:11:02,640 To make innovation work, you've got to have stakeholders from all of the different groups 139 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:04,280 represented. 140 00:11:04,280 --> 00:11:08,360 So yes, we do have several academic institutions involved. 141 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:15,800 But we also have corporations, venture capital, entrepreneurs, government agencies involved. 142 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:18,360 Now why am I here today? 143 00:11:18,360 --> 00:11:25,400 I'm going to propose holding an innovation summit on urban mobility in Denton in March 144 00:11:25,400 --> 00:11:26,400 of 2026. 145 00:11:26,400 --> 00:11:27,400 Okay. 146 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:32,080 And that's going to capitalize off a couple other initiatives that we have. 147 00:11:32,080 --> 00:11:37,840 For example, as part of the innovation engine, we're not only just focused on innovations, 148 00:11:37,840 --> 00:11:40,640 but what workforce is going to be. 149 00:11:40,640 --> 00:11:46,320 Because when I look at logistics today, and I start looking out 10 years from now, the 150 00:11:46,320 --> 00:11:51,480 way we move for it, the way we process information, the way we store it, the way we pull it, the 151 00:11:51,480 --> 00:11:57,520 way we deliver it is going to be very different from how we do it today. 152 00:11:57,520 --> 00:12:02,480 And so the workforce of tomorrow has got to be prepared. 153 00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:08,040 So what we are also working on quite closely with Dallas College is looking at all the 154 00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:15,400 different logistics positions, career pathways, mapping our academic institutional programs 155 00:12:15,400 --> 00:12:16,400 into them. 156 00:12:16,400 --> 00:12:23,940 Not only just universities, but also the workforce development training organizations as well. 157 00:12:23,940 --> 00:12:29,120 And so this effort has been led by the Dallas Regional Chamber. 158 00:12:29,120 --> 00:12:33,240 Last week, some of you were probably out at UNT Frisco and heard about the Texas Talent 159 00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:34,240 Accelerator. 160 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:36,880 We're going to be collaborating with them as well. 161 00:12:36,880 --> 00:12:40,400 Again, we want to understand where are different industries going? 162 00:12:40,400 --> 00:12:43,760 How do we support that? 163 00:12:43,760 --> 00:12:48,080 Now what we're going to be doing with the program here in Denton is going to be capitalizing 164 00:12:48,080 --> 00:12:51,600 off a couple other initiatives that we have ongoing. 165 00:12:51,600 --> 00:12:56,860 We have a dual use summit coming up this Saturday at the Frontiers of Light Museum. 166 00:12:56,860 --> 00:13:02,320 So when I say dual use, defense and commercial applications. 167 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:06,880 Many applications in the defense side don't necessarily get translated over to commercial 168 00:13:06,880 --> 00:13:09,720 applications or vice versa. 169 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:14,400 And so we have quite a program lined up. 170 00:13:14,400 --> 00:13:20,640 We have two former deputy secretaries of defense speaking. 171 00:13:20,640 --> 00:13:25,040 We have a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that's going to be speaking. 172 00:13:25,040 --> 00:13:28,800 So we have quite a cast of individuals. 173 00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:33,800 Right now our registration list is at 514 people for that event. 174 00:13:33,800 --> 00:13:40,240 We had a very successful event in May at the Circle T Ranch. 175 00:13:40,240 --> 00:13:43,840 Also focused on national defense and innovation. 176 00:13:43,840 --> 00:13:47,360 And I think we're going to be building off of that. 177 00:13:47,360 --> 00:13:49,680 Another summit that we have, we're not busy enough. 178 00:13:49,680 --> 00:13:53,480 We got one coming in October, it's going to be at the U.S. Capitol building in the Canon 179 00:13:53,480 --> 00:13:54,480 Caucus Room. 180 00:13:54,480 --> 00:13:58,880 And that's going to be focused on space innovation. 181 00:13:58,880 --> 00:14:03,320 And from a UNT perspective, we're very much focused on some of the initiatives in the 182 00:14:03,320 --> 00:14:06,160 Golden Dome Research Area. 183 00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:10,680 So I think this is going to be a first for UNT to be holding an event at the U.S. Capitol 184 00:14:10,680 --> 00:14:13,600 building, but we're very excited about doing that. 185 00:14:13,600 --> 00:14:20,280 Our keynote speaker is General Sulzman, the Chief of Staff for the U.S. Space Force. 186 00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:25,600 Then in October, we're holding an event at UNT Dallas. 187 00:14:25,600 --> 00:14:31,800 And this is going to be focused on trying to expand our ecosystem for logistics innovation 188 00:14:31,800 --> 00:14:34,160 in the South Dallas region. 189 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:39,120 So we have panels focused on workforce development. 190 00:14:39,120 --> 00:14:44,480 We have it focused on advanced air mobility, energy and emissions. 191 00:14:44,480 --> 00:14:47,480 And I know there's one other and I can't think of it off the top of my head. 192 00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:51,120 But any of you are any of you are interested in attending, please send me an email. 193 00:14:51,120 --> 00:14:54,940 I'll be glad to have you attend. 194 00:14:54,940 --> 00:15:00,400 In January of next year, we're also holding another innovation summit, this time in Oklahoma 195 00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:02,920 City at Rose State College. 196 00:15:02,920 --> 00:15:08,880 That is going to be very much focused on advanced air mobility and defense applications. 197 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:13,040 We within our group of stakeholders that I showed you earlier, we have both the Choctaw 198 00:15:13,040 --> 00:15:16,120 Nation and the Chickasaw Nation. 199 00:15:16,120 --> 00:15:21,440 And so we wanted to do an event in their area that would help promote their entrepreneurs 200 00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:26,200 and make connections also with the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center. 201 00:15:26,200 --> 00:15:32,400 We recently hired Major General Lee Leedy to work in the Jim McNadd Institute. 202 00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:35,960 General Leedy was a former commander of the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, so I know 203 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:40,200 we're going to be making lots of good connections there. 204 00:15:40,200 --> 00:15:45,840 Now we're going to be ending this NSF grant in the April timeframe, but the thing I want 205 00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:51,040 to emphasize is all of the stakeholders that we have are saying, "Let's not stop here. 206 00:15:51,040 --> 00:15:53,040 Let's keep going." 207 00:15:53,040 --> 00:15:57,880 And so we're going to be continuing to hold a bunch of these innovation summits, have 208 00:15:57,880 --> 00:16:01,080 convenings of these different stakeholder groups. 209 00:16:01,080 --> 00:16:07,560 But the one I want to round this out is an Urban Mobility Innovation Summit here in Denny. 210 00:16:07,560 --> 00:16:12,960 And looking at the March 26th date next year, I've already checked with the Monroe Pearson 211 00:16:12,960 --> 00:16:15,840 Building that happens to be available then. 212 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:19,960 It also follows spring breaks, so we don't conflict with that. 213 00:16:19,960 --> 00:16:24,400 But my thought here is, let's take a different slant on innovation. 214 00:16:24,400 --> 00:16:26,960 Let's look at urban mobility. 215 00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:31,560 So look at urban freight mobility, because we've got different challenges when we're 216 00:16:31,560 --> 00:16:35,320 moving trucks, delivery trucks in an urban environment. 217 00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:41,720 Urban passenger movement, we've got different autonomous systems coming online. 218 00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:47,200 But what are some other things that we can do that would promote economic development 219 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:53,240 in the region, as well as promote efficient passenger transportation? 220 00:16:53,240 --> 00:17:02,120 Probably another one that focuses on information technology, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity. 221 00:17:02,120 --> 00:17:08,120 And then a final panel probably focused on either promoting entrepreneurship and innovation 222 00:17:08,120 --> 00:17:13,360 in Denton, and then also marrying that with workforce development. 223 00:17:13,360 --> 00:17:18,600 The purpose I really want to see out of this last summit, and I won't speak for Brittany 224 00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:26,180 and the EDP or anything like that, I want to see Denton view as a center of innovation, 225 00:17:26,180 --> 00:17:30,080 especially in the logistics mobility area. 226 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:35,160 And with companies like Peterbilt, U.S. Cold Storage, we're seeing distribution centers 227 00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:38,500 just come right up along I-35. 228 00:17:38,500 --> 00:17:44,640 We also at the university have a good relationship with the Alliance Mobility Innovation Zone, 229 00:17:44,640 --> 00:17:46,640 the Alliance Development. 230 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:50,480 There's lots of potential here to really build off the strength and logistics. 231 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:57,140 And I think if we play our cards right, use this summit, we can really position Denton 232 00:17:57,140 --> 00:17:58,400 as a leader in this area. 233 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:00,560 And I'm probably very close to my time. 234 00:18:00,560 --> 00:18:03,000 So any questions? 235 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:04,000 You can have more time. 236 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:07,000 This is very interesting. 237 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:14,040 I hope that this gives us enough lead time to start working on brochures and things like 238 00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:16,880 that that we can hand out to people coming in here. 239 00:18:16,880 --> 00:18:22,480 I see that as a critical addition to what you're trying to do, advertise what they're 240 00:18:22,480 --> 00:18:28,240 doing, because former military, I'm very aware of the number of military folks coming through 241 00:18:28,240 --> 00:18:31,680 here to give graduate degrees in the logistics area. 242 00:18:31,680 --> 00:18:36,120 What a great opportunity to continue to expand those relationships that we have. 243 00:18:36,120 --> 00:18:38,120 Now I'm a retired Air Force logistics officer. 244 00:18:38,120 --> 00:18:42,400 So that's where we're getting some of these military connections. 245 00:18:42,400 --> 00:18:44,400 This is exciting. 246 00:18:44,400 --> 00:18:45,400 Yeah, very exciting. 247 00:18:45,400 --> 00:18:46,400 I think there's a lot of opportunity. 248 00:18:46,400 --> 00:18:50,880 I guess my question would be, as you're putting it all together, and I might be interested 249 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:59,080 about how sadly, is to collaborate into what industries we need to start focusing on, especially 250 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:04,760 for development, for warehousing, for, you know, there's so many options there. 251 00:19:04,760 --> 00:19:08,960 We talked about the emissions last, you know, two times ago, you know, how do we get into 252 00:19:08,960 --> 00:19:13,160 industries that have low emissions to not, to sandbag the opportunity to get something 253 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:17,280 later, because the DFW area is getting saturated with it. 254 00:19:17,280 --> 00:19:21,680 So I think I'm with you, I'm really excited about this topic. 255 00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:25,680 Well, one of the things that I would like to have as feedback from you, and I'm kind 256 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:31,160 of listing out a couple panels, and I'm kind of just putting out there as strong end. 257 00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:33,640 What would you like to see? 258 00:19:33,640 --> 00:19:34,800 You know, what kind of panels? 259 00:19:34,800 --> 00:19:35,800 What companies? 260 00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:36,800 What entrepreneurs? 261 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:38,680 What venture capital firms? 262 00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:40,760 What would you like to see come in? 263 00:19:40,760 --> 00:19:44,480 Also, you know, there's a group, you know, over at Stoke. 264 00:19:44,480 --> 00:19:50,360 I'd like to have some of them that are especially interested in this space have tables set up 265 00:19:50,360 --> 00:19:55,680 where they can promote their innovations, their ideas, because in many cases, they might 266 00:19:55,680 --> 00:20:01,200 be working in an area that they think is not related to logistics and transportation, but 267 00:20:01,200 --> 00:20:05,760 just a one-off, and they could be, you know, doing something that, you know, improves the 268 00:20:05,760 --> 00:20:10,440 efficiency, the scheduling, a variety of different things in the logistics area. 269 00:20:10,440 --> 00:20:15,480 So I'm hoping that all of you will also give some ideas and say, "Hey, we would like to 270 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:16,480 look at this." 271 00:20:16,480 --> 00:20:22,680 Like in South Dallas, yes, emissions and noise are big issues, you know, with all the distribution 272 00:20:22,680 --> 00:20:27,040 centers going along, the people in the Haslett and all those other areas aren't too keen 273 00:20:27,040 --> 00:20:28,840 on all the trucks coming through. 274 00:20:28,840 --> 00:20:34,360 Okay, if that's an issue, let's bring different people in to talk about how do we reduce those, 275 00:20:34,360 --> 00:20:36,480 how do we reduce the emissions. 276 00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:40,000 How can we schedule trucks, especially if they're telling us to operate at night versus 277 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:41,000 the day? 278 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:45,000 Are you the contact person for us? 279 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:46,560 Yes, I am. 280 00:20:46,560 --> 00:20:51,360 You can also contact Brittany as well if you have any suggestions or ideas. 281 00:20:51,360 --> 00:20:55,160 And I hope the Chamber is thinking about a special group to maybe coordinate. 282 00:20:55,160 --> 00:20:58,160 That's a great idea. 283 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:01,240 You know, also I'd like to have some ideas as a keynote speaker. 284 00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:06,640 I've got a couple, you know, that we're working on, but if there's somebody that really could 285 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:12,400 -- you know, I'd like to have somebody, especially as we have like a fireside chat at the end. 286 00:21:12,400 --> 00:21:13,400 Why Denny? 287 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:17,440 You know, people can really talk to that at the end. 288 00:21:17,440 --> 00:21:20,080 Why think about Denny in terms of innovation? 289 00:21:20,080 --> 00:21:21,080 Why locate here? 290 00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:22,080 Brian said that he would be the keynote speaker. 291 00:21:22,080 --> 00:21:23,080 They have a great R&D program going on at Peterville, and they work with a lot of those 292 00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:31,760 technology startups, so, and logistics, they may be a great keynote. 293 00:21:31,760 --> 00:21:40,440 But we're excited for the opportunity because I know a lot of cities have gotten ahead of 294 00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:45,560 us in the startup ecosystem game, and I think this will allow us to start visioning for 295 00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:46,560 the future. 296 00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:53,360 And the reason also I picked the Monroe-Pearson building, I didn't want this to be viewed 297 00:21:53,360 --> 00:21:54,640 as a UNT event. 298 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,080 I wanted to be viewed as a community event. 299 00:21:57,080 --> 00:22:02,280 I may not get -- maybe some of the UNT now is going to come after me for that, but I 300 00:22:02,280 --> 00:22:03,280 doubt it. 301 00:22:03,280 --> 00:22:07,720 But I just really think that having it in that setting really would bring in civic leaders, 302 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:11,560 others, and they get to see Denton as opposed to UNT. 303 00:22:11,560 --> 00:22:17,880 And I see you as being on the catboard seat on a lot of this because Peter built some 304 00:22:17,880 --> 00:22:19,560 of the things you're already doing. 305 00:22:19,560 --> 00:22:24,400 You have a far greater understanding of what he's telling us than I do. 306 00:22:24,400 --> 00:22:31,360 On certain parts of it, there's a lot -- there's a lot of -- I mean, it's a whole ecosystem. 307 00:22:31,360 --> 00:22:34,360 We're just one sliver of it, really. 308 00:22:34,360 --> 00:22:37,360 And then we can also look at inside the warehouses as well. 309 00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:40,800 We could be looking at, you know, different types of innovations there because there's 310 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:42,680 quite a bit going on. 311 00:22:42,680 --> 00:22:47,320 Because in logistics right now, with trucking, you know, other areas, we have a severe workforce 312 00:22:47,320 --> 00:22:48,320 shortage. 313 00:22:48,320 --> 00:22:54,840 Yeah, there's a lot of due for logistic opportunities as well, but that's in the scope, but for 314 00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:55,840 sure. 315 00:22:55,840 --> 00:22:58,360 Brittany, can we get an update in December at the latest? 316 00:22:58,360 --> 00:22:59,360 For sure. 317 00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:00,360 We could do that. 318 00:23:00,360 --> 00:23:03,360 Yeah, so we can do the help as you develop more and more ideas. 319 00:23:03,360 --> 00:23:04,360 We love help. 320 00:23:04,360 --> 00:23:09,480 So we have a meeting with head of Gregory, Jamie Adams, and Dr. Pollin every two weeks 321 00:23:09,480 --> 00:23:11,120 right now to try to get this in order. 322 00:23:11,120 --> 00:23:12,120 So we'll update you. 323 00:23:12,120 --> 00:23:16,600 Clearly, I see the airport as part of this deal, and you know, we have grown out to where 324 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,920 we can handle a number of additional capacities. 325 00:23:19,920 --> 00:23:25,240 We need the west access road out there, but that's coming. 326 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:26,240 I agree. 327 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:27,240 All of them rhymed, for sure. 328 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:28,240 I told him about it. 329 00:23:28,240 --> 00:23:29,240 He was excited. 330 00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:30,240 All right. 331 00:23:30,240 --> 00:23:31,240 Excellent. 332 00:23:31,240 --> 00:23:32,240 Well, thank you very much. 333 00:23:32,240 --> 00:23:33,240 Thank you so much for your time. 334 00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:34,240 Thank you. 335 00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:35,240 All right. 336 00:23:35,240 --> 00:23:36,240 We're going to move on to the next item. 337 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:47,040 We'll call item BED25-024, receive a report, hold discussion, and give staff feedback regarding 338 00:23:47,040 --> 00:23:50,120 the City of Denton utility billing programs. 339 00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:58,080 Chair recognizes Krista Foster to present on this item. 340 00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:08,760 All right, so first off, thank you for having me today, dear members. 341 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:15,560 I'm Krista Foster, customer service manager, and we're going to talk about a recent review, 342 00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:18,680 like business review that we did in our billing and collections. 343 00:24:18,680 --> 00:24:23,800 So council approved funding for us to have a review done by an outside consultant to 344 00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:29,280 ensure that we are being competitive and efficient in the way that we're carrying on operations. 345 00:24:29,280 --> 00:24:33,120 What we're going to talk about today is a very high level overview of the benchmarking 346 00:24:33,120 --> 00:24:38,880 and the revenue trends, our commercial deposit policies, payment arrangement policies, leak 347 00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:39,880 adjustment policies. 348 00:24:39,880 --> 00:24:44,520 Then we'll just do a quick summary and that will take any questions that you have. 349 00:24:44,520 --> 00:24:50,880 So as far as benchmarking and revenue trending, you can see that Denton performs very favorably 350 00:24:50,880 --> 00:24:52,240 against the industry. 351 00:24:52,240 --> 00:24:58,560 We exceed the industry in our bad debt numbers being lowest, our aged revenue, as well as 352 00:24:58,560 --> 00:25:00,480 our average time to collect. 353 00:25:00,480 --> 00:25:05,320 And you'll notice over time, our performance is consistent. 354 00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:11,680 You can see that the anomalies are related to the pandemic and when the pandemic occurred. 355 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:16,440 As for commercial deposits, the consultant reviewed our policy as well as those against 356 00:25:16,440 --> 00:25:22,840 other benchmark cities and determined that our way that we calculate deposits is consistent. 357 00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:28,600 The return of deposit interest is consistent with peers, but we are not aligned with other 358 00:25:28,600 --> 00:25:31,080 cities in the retention period. 359 00:25:31,080 --> 00:25:36,920 So most of those return within one to two years and that our ordinance, the way it's 360 00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:40,560 written requires manual screening of all deposits. 361 00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:45,840 So the recommendation that we're bringing forward and again, any recommendations that 362 00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:52,680 we're making as it relates to commercial deposits to leak adjustment or to pay agreements 363 00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:56,760 is specifically consultant and customer service recommendations. 364 00:25:56,760 --> 00:26:04,000 Obviously, they will require counsel direction and legal input, so they may change slightly. 365 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:10,640 So what we're recommending is keeping our residential deposits refunded at 12 months, 366 00:26:10,640 --> 00:26:14,760 changing our commercial refunds so that they will occur at 24 months because currently 367 00:26:14,760 --> 00:26:17,360 they are held for the lifetime of the account. 368 00:26:17,360 --> 00:26:21,880 So we're going to be looking at refunding those as long as those customers have any 369 00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:26,360 credit rating and they've had no disconnections, they haven't been tampered with the meter 370 00:26:26,360 --> 00:26:31,800 and the account is current when we go in to do the reviews. 371 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:37,320 Payment arrangements, we found that the calculation date that we're using to come up with a due 372 00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:42,320 date for pay arrangements is manual, so it's more time consuming and it's a little more 373 00:26:42,320 --> 00:26:43,320 prone to errors. 374 00:26:43,320 --> 00:26:49,360 And our eligibility and administration is a bit restrictive because we only allow one 375 00:26:49,360 --> 00:26:53,600 adjustment or arrangement per six month period. 376 00:26:53,600 --> 00:26:59,740 And then any deviation to the guidelines for pay agreements would require counsel intervention. 377 00:26:59,740 --> 00:27:04,440 So the recommendation that's being made is to change the due date for a short-term pay 378 00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:09,360 arrangement to match the due date of the current bill that would be printed on the bill to 379 00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:14,640 remove the restriction on the number of arrangements someone can request. 380 00:27:14,640 --> 00:27:21,600 But instead, if the arrangements are not being kept, then we would suspend access to that 381 00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:22,600 program temporarily. 382 00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:28,400 Then we're looking at updating the ordinance so that we can authorize the program authority 383 00:27:28,400 --> 00:27:33,600 to the city manager, give discretion to the head of customer service, and still ensure 384 00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:41,400 that counsel gets to review prior to any formalized changes to the program. 385 00:27:41,400 --> 00:27:46,000 And for our leak adjustment program, we found that we weren't aligned with some of the 386 00:27:46,000 --> 00:27:52,920 other benchmark cities in that the ordinance is hard-coded, which means, again, any deviations 387 00:27:52,920 --> 00:27:59,160 to those programs would require counsel intervention, and that we had a shorter filing time and 388 00:27:59,160 --> 00:28:03,440 our policy was restrictive compared to some other cities. 389 00:28:03,440 --> 00:28:10,000 So we also had no consideration for AMI metering that's coming in place with water, then low 390 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:15,760 customer eligibility, and there was some language in there that inadvertently excludes renters, 391 00:28:15,760 --> 00:28:17,860 so we need to correct that. 392 00:28:17,860 --> 00:28:25,640 So our recommendation is that we're going to remove the 100,000-gallon cap for residential 393 00:28:25,640 --> 00:28:27,060 customers. 394 00:28:27,060 --> 00:28:32,440 We are adding a provision for outdoor elements like sprinklers and pools that they will be 395 00:28:32,440 --> 00:28:37,720 covered at a lower rate, and they will cap at 5,000 gallons excess. 396 00:28:37,720 --> 00:28:44,000 We're going to increase our submission deadline to 60 days, and then, again, for the ordinance, 397 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:48,760 we're looking at updating the language for renters, authorizing program authority to 398 00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:54,040 the city manager, discretion to the head of customer service, ensure counsel has opportunity 399 00:28:54,040 --> 00:28:59,440 for review before formalized changes, and add provisional language for water AMI. 400 00:28:59,440 --> 00:29:06,020 And, again, all of these things have to go through legal, after-counsel direction, so 401 00:29:06,020 --> 00:29:08,960 they could look different. 402 00:29:08,960 --> 00:29:15,360 And with that, summarizing it is that Denton is performing very favorably against the industry 403 00:29:15,360 --> 00:29:20,880 in our collections and billing, and then we're going to be taking those recommendations to 404 00:29:20,880 --> 00:29:25,680 counsel so that we can have better agility and flexibility for commercial deposits, pay 405 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:28,480 arrangements, and make adjustments. 406 00:29:28,480 --> 00:29:32,120 And with that, does anyone have any questions? 407 00:29:32,120 --> 00:29:37,320 I like your new bills. 408 00:29:37,320 --> 00:29:38,320 Thank you. 409 00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:44,120 And at least the perforation is on one of the folds, instead of half. 410 00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:48,080 We worked very hard on that, didn't we? 411 00:29:48,080 --> 00:29:49,920 I have one question. 412 00:29:49,920 --> 00:29:57,000 The benchmark cities, we know what those were, and were they regional? 413 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:03,800 The reason I'm kind of asking that question is it's good to always benchmark nationwide 414 00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:07,080 and even Texas, but you kind of compete regionally. 415 00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:08,080 Correct. 416 00:30:08,080 --> 00:30:11,120 So do we know what cities were included in that regionally? 417 00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:18,720 The full list is in the study that was one of the backup attachments; however, it included 418 00:30:18,720 --> 00:30:26,720 Garland, it included Fort Worth, I believe it included Sanger because they also had electric. 419 00:30:26,720 --> 00:30:34,480 Alice, Carrollton, Lewisville, San Marcos, Austin, San Antonio, so it was a good selection 420 00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:35,480 of pure groups. 421 00:30:35,480 --> 00:30:46,600 As you make information for the AMI metering, what kind of impact did you see on how things 422 00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:49,480 operate now versus how would that change? 423 00:30:49,480 --> 00:30:54,520 Well, we anticipate that with AMI metering coming in, we'll be able to actually look 424 00:30:54,520 --> 00:31:01,480 at the flow data to determine more specifically a time period of this is when the leak started, 425 00:31:01,480 --> 00:31:06,480 this is when the leak ended, rather than having to go just based off of average consumption 426 00:31:06,480 --> 00:31:08,560 over historical usage and things like that. 427 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:11,800 It will give us more concrete information to work from. 428 00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:17,400 So as far as waste and reduction of waste or even just targeting, right, being more 429 00:31:17,400 --> 00:31:22,000 at the bullseye, any ideas of what we can expect from them? 430 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:26,240 I mean, it seems like it's in the direction we're going, but I'm not necessarily seeing 431 00:31:26,240 --> 00:31:30,920 or hearing where this is not the topic or maybe the day for the topic, but how we're 432 00:31:30,920 --> 00:31:34,800 moving forward with it and how can it, you know, we're looking to figure out where to 433 00:31:34,800 --> 00:31:35,800 eliminate waste, right. 434 00:31:35,800 --> 00:31:40,880 And right now, if you have a smart thermostat and you show up at home in the middle of the 435 00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:47,960 day, it's 76 or 78, and it affects your electric bill, but it also affects the load for the 436 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:48,960 city, right. 437 00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:54,480 I see Tony coming because this is really more of the water department's thing, so I may 438 00:31:54,480 --> 00:31:55,480 not have those answers. 439 00:31:55,480 --> 00:31:56,480 That's okay. 440 00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:57,480 Curious. 441 00:31:57,480 --> 00:31:58,480 Good afternoon. 442 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:05,000 Tony Quent, the DME General Manager at Alverson Customer Service. 443 00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:10,160 First of all, so the AMI that we're talking about is on the water side. 444 00:32:10,160 --> 00:32:16,160 DME converted to AMI probably over a decade ago, and so, and that's worked really well 445 00:32:16,160 --> 00:32:17,160 for us. 446 00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:22,960 On the water side, if I remember the study that was done, it protected about a 15 to 447 00:32:22,960 --> 00:32:23,960 20% recovery. 448 00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:29,560 So in essence, what happens with these mechanical meters as they begin to fail, they don't record 449 00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:30,560 the full water usage. 450 00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:35,420 So the very first thing that you see when you convert to a water AMI is people's bills 451 00:32:35,420 --> 00:32:41,360 tends to go up, and that's because these meters tend to record a lot faster and more accurate 452 00:32:41,360 --> 00:32:44,800 and all of that, but we see those leaks a lot faster, right. 453 00:32:44,800 --> 00:32:53,480 And so it's about 15 to 20% type of recovery that we would see. 454 00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:57,760 Thank you. 455 00:32:57,760 --> 00:33:05,200 What interest were receiving and giving back on the certificates? 456 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:11,480 So we are still working up numbers on the deposit interest and the deposits that will 457 00:33:11,480 --> 00:33:16,640 be refunded, but it would be a fairly significant amount during the first year, but I can get 458 00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:19,160 the numbers and provide them back to Matilda. 459 00:33:19,160 --> 00:33:26,200 I think a lot of small businesses are wondering what happens to that money and then when they're 460 00:33:26,200 --> 00:33:29,200 going to get it back and what interest rates it's going to be. 461 00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:35,600 We actually apply the interest every six months with the rate that is the federal rate, and 462 00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:41,520 then we apply that and keep it in an account so that our calculations so that we know and 463 00:33:41,520 --> 00:33:43,880 they're getting the actual interest rates. 464 00:33:43,880 --> 00:33:49,760 I think a move of a cash deposit will accept a letter of credit. 465 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:51,800 Yes, a new revocable letter of credit. 466 00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:56,440 Is it possible for the city, this is probably a Scott Bray question actually, but the city 467 00:33:56,440 --> 00:34:00,600 to create a standardized letter of credit form because I know that for a lot of the 468 00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:04,960 businesses the back and forth takes more time and going to the bank, from the bank, to the 469 00:34:04,960 --> 00:34:06,560 bank, to you all getting it approved. 470 00:34:06,560 --> 00:34:14,400 Is there a possibility of a standardized letter of credit form that is accessible should they 471 00:34:14,400 --> 00:34:15,400 be interested in that? 472 00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,400 I know that's come up in the past. 473 00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:24,000 I would defer to customer service on whether they want to do that and their accounts, but 474 00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:29,600 I think a lot of banks have their own requirements for those as well. 475 00:34:29,600 --> 00:34:34,960 When this has come up in the past, we have taken that through our legal team and legal's 476 00:34:34,960 --> 00:34:38,400 recommendation was not to provide something standardized. 477 00:34:38,400 --> 00:34:42,960 We can certainly as we go back discussing these things again, bring it back up, but 478 00:34:42,960 --> 00:34:50,120 as of today, that was the direction that we never seek. 479 00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:57,040 Maybe in lieu of a standard, could there be a criteria document to kind of help? 480 00:34:57,040 --> 00:35:00,040 I will make sure that I bring that up and we're sticking to it. 481 00:35:00,040 --> 00:35:04,760 That might keep it going back, keep the back and forth to a minimum. 482 00:35:04,760 --> 00:35:08,280 Releasing that letter of credit in the same timeframe instead of that you're revocable, 483 00:35:08,280 --> 00:35:15,960 releasing it at the same time if they need the requirements. 484 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:16,960 Any other questions? 485 00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:17,960 All right. 486 00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:20,960 Thank you so much for your time. 487 00:35:20,960 --> 00:35:21,960 Thank you. 488 00:35:21,960 --> 00:35:30,640 We're going to move on to the next item, item C, EDP 25-026, receive various staff reports. 489 00:35:30,640 --> 00:35:35,640 Good afternoon Board of Directors, Courtney Sotelo, Economic Development Director. 490 00:35:35,640 --> 00:35:38,640 I hope you had a great month of August. 491 00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:45,200 Have good news, Ditten was ranked as number nine best real estate markets in the U.S. 492 00:35:45,200 --> 00:35:46,200 by Wallet Hub. 493 00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:51,560 It's a financial online platform that tends to rank cities throughout the U.S. and so 494 00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:57,120 our competitors are some of our local cities, ranked as number one, McKinney, Bridgerton 495 00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:04,320 number five, and Briscoe number six, and we're at number nine, not too shabby in the United 496 00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:05,320 States. 497 00:36:05,320 --> 00:36:10,240 For our partner visits and training for the month of August, the Texas Main Street Staff 498 00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:16,320 came down to visit our Ditten Main Street Association, our city manager's office and 499 00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:17,320 our team. 500 00:36:17,320 --> 00:36:21,640 Kristin Folio, our Main Street Manager, a manager that visits, I want her to come and 501 00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:23,640 speak about hot wind. 502 00:36:23,640 --> 00:36:24,640 Sure. 503 00:36:24,640 --> 00:36:29,520 Good morning, Kristin Folio, Main Street Program Manager. 504 00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:35,000 So as you all probably knew from our previous meeting, Ditten Main Street Program did receive 505 00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:40,640 their accreditation and that's based on 10 performance metrics aligning with our four 506 00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:44,120 point approach of economic vitality, design, promotion, and organization. 507 00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:48,280 Again, Main Street is a preservation based economic development tool. 508 00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:53,120 I do want to share some very specific facts with that site visit. 509 00:36:53,120 --> 00:37:00,360 There are 82 Main Street programs across Texas and 73 of those programs are municipal municipality 510 00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:04,720 programs, so the majority sit under the city. 511 00:37:04,720 --> 00:37:09,800 Ditten is in the top five of the largest Main Street communities, so part of their visit 512 00:37:09,800 --> 00:37:13,400 was to discuss what an urban Main Street program looks like. 513 00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:20,480 So, Texas Main Street is very aware of our issues and our struggles within an urban program 514 00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:25,440 and so, Texas Main Street and the Main Street America program are all working together to 515 00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:28,720 figure out what an urban Main Street program looks like. 516 00:37:28,720 --> 00:37:34,040 We also reviewed our Ditten Main Street Program transformation strategy and work plan and 517 00:37:34,040 --> 00:37:39,200 so when we want to do a quarterly Main Street update, I can share that with you all and 518 00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:40,200 what that looks like. 519 00:37:40,200 --> 00:37:47,300 The two main goals right now are placemaking and community serving with a heavy emphasis 520 00:37:47,300 --> 00:37:52,920 on business recruitment right now and then another interesting fact is that we are one 521 00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:58,560 of three Main Street communities that have received the Great American Main Street Award. 522 00:37:58,560 --> 00:38:04,920 Dennis and Jeff's received theirs and so, Texas Main Street, Texas Historical Commission 523 00:38:04,920 --> 00:38:09,880 and Main Street America, we're all working together on how we can kind of promote that 524 00:38:09,880 --> 00:38:14,400 Great American Main Street Award and then again, being a Main Street community, we have 525 00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:20,120 access to small business webinars, we've been kind of with our downtown lowdown newsletter, 526 00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:23,880 pushing some of those webinars out for our small businesses just as another resource 527 00:38:23,880 --> 00:38:28,880 and tool and then grants for our small businesses being part of Main Street. 528 00:38:28,880 --> 00:38:33,720 We partnered with our transportation department on GM on Main Street grant, we did not receive 529 00:38:33,720 --> 00:38:39,280 it this year, but hopefully we can try again next year, but having access to all of those 530 00:38:39,280 --> 00:38:42,280 grants and funding opportunities for our city. 531 00:38:42,280 --> 00:38:51,000 So, in addition, I am conducting a meeting held by the North Texas Commission, it's a 532 00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:55,880 business trade association in North Texas and they invited all the regional NDCs to come 533 00:38:55,880 --> 00:39:00,440 and speak to learn more about the World Cup that will be hosted in the United States next 534 00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:01,440 year. 535 00:39:01,440 --> 00:39:07,400 So, there will be several host cities in the United States including three in DFW, so we're 536 00:39:07,400 --> 00:39:11,800 hoping to become a host city where we're working closely with Jeff Pritz, who's over at NDC 537 00:39:11,800 --> 00:39:16,840 Suites and UNT and I know Jamie Adams is working with him as well, but the goal of 538 00:39:16,840 --> 00:39:21,920 this meeting was to see how we could coordinate or host businesses that will be potentially 539 00:39:21,920 --> 00:39:25,840 sponsoring those teams as they come to the states. 540 00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:33,080 Erica attended a North Central Texas Cog Economic Development District Board meeting, she serves 541 00:39:33,080 --> 00:39:37,960 as our representative on that board, so thank you for attending. 542 00:39:37,960 --> 00:39:43,320 Our staff also attended a few webinars and Matilda attended a Public Works Ride Along, 543 00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:47,620 so occasionally our colleagues in different departments will let us ride along with them 544 00:39:47,620 --> 00:39:52,240 for a few hours to learn more about what they do, so Matilda attended the Public Works session, 545 00:39:52,240 --> 00:39:55,320 she said she had a great time. 546 00:39:55,320 --> 00:40:01,080 For our August recruitment stats, we have 29 active projects, within that pipeline we 547 00:40:01,080 --> 00:40:06,640 have a little over 3,800 potential jobs and $6.5 billion in capital investment. 548 00:40:06,640 --> 00:40:11,760 For August we had eight new leads, four that were direct, three from the broker and one 549 00:40:11,760 --> 00:40:15,640 that was from a recruitment outreach email that Clay sent out to the business. 550 00:40:15,640 --> 00:40:19,920 We had one incentive application and one recruitment visit. 551 00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:25,080 We had four leads lost, and so we moved two to our cold pipeline because typically we 552 00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:29,280 don't hear back from a company within six to eight months, we add them to cold because 553 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:31,400 we're not considered active. 554 00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:34,080 And then we moved two to our business support pipeline. 555 00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:38,840 So typically when a business reaches out, they intend to expand or they intend to apply 556 00:40:38,840 --> 00:40:42,400 for incentives and that may not happen, they may just expand or they may not only need 557 00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:47,440 our help for a few tasks and so we're moving those to our business support pipeline. 558 00:40:47,440 --> 00:40:52,640 And Clay reached out to 102 businesses during last month, so he's got a really good email 559 00:40:52,640 --> 00:41:01,360 system, email blast system that he targets to several businesses throughout the U.S. 560 00:41:01,360 --> 00:41:06,000 For our downtown stats, we had three business retention expansion visits, two new leads 561 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:11,360 for our downtown reinvestment grant program, and we had 11 leads lost, two are no longer 562 00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:16,680 moving forward with the expansion, six are cold, and three did not qualify for the downtown 563 00:41:16,680 --> 00:41:17,680 reinvestment grant. 564 00:41:17,680 --> 00:41:23,720 And we also had 12 recruitment outreach emails. 565 00:41:23,720 --> 00:41:29,160 For the RFIs, we had six that we received, we submitted four, we did not submit on two 566 00:41:29,160 --> 00:41:31,040 and we had zero lead conversions. 567 00:41:31,040 --> 00:41:35,400 And the majority of those leads came from the governor's office and the ones that we 568 00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:41,040 did submit had a total potential capital investment of $625 million and 652 jobs. 569 00:41:41,040 --> 00:41:45,200 So for the year, we've submitted a total of 45 RFIs. 570 00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:48,560 These are music and film, they're all in, no one's alive. 571 00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:55,040 Hello everyone, I don't have much from an update this month. 572 00:41:55,040 --> 00:42:01,760 We had zero film permits for August, now school is back in session and I've already started 573 00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:06,280 to receive some student film inquiries, so that number will go up. 574 00:42:06,280 --> 00:42:09,280 I went to the Didn't Film Meetup. 575 00:42:09,280 --> 00:42:15,400 This gentleman here was collective co-creator of media in Denton, hosts eats occasionally 576 00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:19,720 and they're always very well attended and it's a really good way for me to get to know 577 00:42:19,720 --> 00:42:22,200 people living and working in the film industry in Denton. 578 00:42:22,200 --> 00:42:27,840 There was about 20 people there and this one was kind of show and tell themed, so people 579 00:42:27,840 --> 00:42:31,880 were pitching their ideas and seeing if anyone else wanted to help. 580 00:42:31,880 --> 00:42:36,260 So that was fun to see what people have been working on. 581 00:42:36,260 --> 00:42:42,240 And then the Live Music Society released a toolbox grant, it's $10,000. 582 00:42:42,240 --> 00:42:50,320 So I shared that with our venues as well and one of them is confirmed to have applied, 583 00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:53,320 so hopefully that works out. 584 00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:54,320 Thank you. 585 00:42:54,320 --> 00:43:01,320 All right, for past upcoming events, for the month of August, our team with Denton infrastructure 586 00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:06,600 summit in Irving, the Data Center Investment Conference Expo in Dallas and Clay attended 587 00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:12,000 the Taiwan Expo in Dallas as well, the governor's office, their economic development team were 588 00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:16,160 there and Clay was able to contact them. 589 00:43:16,160 --> 00:43:20,000 Our team hosted a fire suppression workshop, so Chris and Matilda led that effort and at 590 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:24,160 the very bottom picture you can see a few people showed up for those, for that workshop 591 00:43:24,160 --> 00:43:30,360 and on the 26th we hosted a downtown safety meeting in partnership with Community Services 592 00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:36,160 with our Police Department and our Parks and Rec Department to collaborate on future initiatives 593 00:43:36,160 --> 00:43:41,520 and just kind of learn about our existing resources for downtown. 594 00:43:41,520 --> 00:43:46,320 And for September, this Saturday, as Dr. Pollan mentioned, there is the National Security 595 00:43:46,320 --> 00:43:51,720 Cyberland and ARC Space Summit that Matilda and I will attend, so we do work overtime 596 00:43:51,720 --> 00:43:56,080 on Saturday, just want to note that, but we think it's important to network with the folks 597 00:43:56,080 --> 00:43:59,840 that will be attending and try to generate some leads. 598 00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:05,080 On the 16th, Clay and I will attend the IC3 Life Science and Healthcare Innovation Summit. 599 00:44:05,080 --> 00:44:11,120 We look forward to learning more about biotech and exploring opportunities for Denton. 600 00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:15,880 And as a reminder, on the 24th we have the Denton Job Fair, the second job fair for the 601 00:44:15,880 --> 00:44:16,880 year. 602 00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:22,760 Christina Davis in the chamber are coordinating on this event and I believe there was about 603 00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:24,760 46 businesses already signed up. 604 00:44:24,760 --> 00:44:33,640 We actually have, as of this morning, we have 51 and 176 job seekers have already pre-registered. 605 00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:34,640 That's great. 606 00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:38,440 So kudos to them for planning the second one this year, looking forward to seeing how that 607 00:44:38,440 --> 00:44:39,440 turns out. 608 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:44,800 And on October 23rd, we are working with TWU to host the Governor's Small Business Summit 609 00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:45,800 that is women-focused. 610 00:44:45,800 --> 00:44:51,800 Both of our offices applied to host this summit with the governor's office and they said y'all 611 00:44:51,800 --> 00:44:54,800 can coordinate together, we'll host it in Denton and it's going to be women-focused. 612 00:44:54,800 --> 00:45:00,280 So we're working on finalizing the agenda right now and once we get that finalized we'll 613 00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:01,280 send it to you. 614 00:45:01,280 --> 00:45:06,240 So if you have any team members or if you would like to attend, please let us know. 615 00:45:06,240 --> 00:45:09,240 And that is it. 616 00:45:09,240 --> 00:45:12,240 Any questions? 617 00:45:12,240 --> 00:45:31,240 All right, the other item we have is future agenda items, the calls for future agenda 618 00:45:31,240 --> 00:45:32,240 items. 619 00:45:32,240 --> 00:45:38,880 So for the month of October, it's not listed on this sheet but we do have an attendance 620 00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:47,240 presentation update and that's to identify attendance policies for our board and we have 621 00:45:47,240 --> 00:45:51,800 the STO contract that we'll bring forward with you and we, our guest speaker, will be 622 00:45:51,800 --> 00:45:54,800 Dawn McCary with the UNT Murphy Center. 623 00:45:54,800 --> 00:45:59,400 We hope to continue hosting guest speakers so that y'all can meet with some of our resource 624 00:45:59,400 --> 00:46:03,240 partners that we're meeting with and we're collaborating on instead of you hearing maybe 625 00:46:03,240 --> 00:46:05,240 a once-in-a-summer in front of me every month. 626 00:46:05,240 --> 00:46:15,360 All right, does the board have any other business to discuss for suggestions on what we should 627 00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:18,360 discuss in the next meeting? 628 00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:26,440 For future agenda items, do we need to put nominations in the committee necklace? 629 00:46:26,440 --> 00:46:34,720 Yes, so last night Councilmember Duster made a two-minute pitch or I believe it was for 630 00:46:34,720 --> 00:46:35,720 board uniformity. 631 00:46:35,720 --> 00:46:41,400 So we're looking into what that means and so that will be coming up as soon as possible. 632 00:46:41,400 --> 00:46:45,600 It is our time of year to be doing it and when we send in a nomination I just want to 633 00:46:45,600 --> 00:46:47,080 knock it off on our side also. 634 00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:48,080 Got it, got it. 635 00:46:48,080 --> 00:46:56,480 So yeah, we'll put that on a future agenda once we understand the timing of that. 636 00:46:56,480 --> 00:46:57,480 Perfect. 637 00:46:57,480 --> 00:47:05,680 All right, our next EDP meeting is scheduled to be on October 8th, 2025 at 11. 638 00:47:05,680 --> 00:47:10,760 Please let staff know if you're not able to attend the meeting, submit your notification 639 00:47:10,760 --> 00:47:12,760 of absence online. 640 00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:17,880 If there is no other business, I will adjourn the meeting at 11.52. 641 00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:18,880 Thank y'all. 642 00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:19,880 Good day. 643 00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:20,880 Good day. 644 00:47:20,880 --> 00:47:20,880 All right.