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 I'm not long for it. So we're recording. So whenever you're ready, I can go ahead. All right, we're going to go ahead and open up. We have a forum.

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 So we're going to call the meeting to order at 104 PM.

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 Basically, we're going to go through a working session. Ed, a 26 dash oh, six folder retreat workshop and discussion facilitated by opportunity strategies, LLC, and by staff on priorities regarding the city's economic development challenges, strengths, and goals for the 2526 and 2627 fiscal year.

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 Estimated presentation discussion time is for our with that I'll hand over to me.

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 After you record. It's great to see you. As always, I'll be very excited to attend our border Creek. Not for sure when the last board of creeds, but this is a first in the past decade, I believe.

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 We've had we're in a pivotal point in time and did history and that we can actually set the vision for what we want to be in the next two years is the goal of this retreat, but also the next decade.

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 Look at our surrounding cities like Frisco Arlington and they've done a great job of setting a big vision for the city and I want us to be the same for who we want to be and the goal for today. I want you to bring big that brought his little life here.

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 The light that I have in my office. I was reminded to bring big because we're all there's a lot of momentum and didn't and I think our team, as well as chamber and our boards and our city management. We're all doing a great job right now. There's so many opportunities in it, which is why I took the job to begin with.

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 So now it's time to focus those opportunities and grow for the future. So I'll hand it off to Brian and Dan off now to provide a looking ahead synopsis for 2026, 2027.

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 Sure. So I just want to say I'm also very excited about doing this. We have not done this as long as I've been on several different boards and everything in the city of Latin America.

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 Lived and dead. So I do very much appreciate everyone's coming in here and I hope that we can get out of here with a lot of good discussion and direction going forward for the next year.

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 Maybe skeleton out some of the processes and deliverables that people would like to meet kind of as a next process steps as well. But very excited about this. It's a long time coming and please, please participate.

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 To be my past for everybody. So that I will hand it over to our facilitator.

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 Thank you. Good afternoon. Okay. My name is Alicia Cook. My company's opportunity strategies and I'm your facilitator today and tomorrow. Good to see some familiar faces. I think most all of you were here for the economic development training and more training and sales tax training that we did a few months ago.

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 So I appreciate y'all coming back today and opportunity strategies. We did three things. The first thing is training. So we train city councils, economic development boards, chamber boards and other community boards on governance on community and economic development.

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 Just so you can make your community as strong as it can be lots of different workshops. Second thing we do is professional facilitation. We facilitate town hall meetings, public hearings, adult and youth leadership programming and team building retreats.

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 And the third thing we do is strategic planning. So we help chambers, economic development organizations and city councils get their goals on paper, develop strategies to achieve those goals and metrics and timetables and all that good stuff. So

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 everybody should does a little bit about kind of what all we do. We're going to be doing no training today, but we're going to do a facilitation and strategic planning today and tomorrow. Everyone should have an agenda there in front of you. If you would take a look at the working agenda.

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 I want to walk through that today and tomorrow. So you kind of know what we're going to be doing in just a moment. I'm going to ask you to introduce yourself and tell me

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 who you are, what organization you represent, how much your paid job is, if you're paid then somebody will send your paid job today. What's your role is here on the board.

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 And if you came here today with an expectation, if there's something that you want to make sure I talk about or you want to make sure you talk about or someone else talks about

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 you came here with any expectation, please tell me what that is and I'll do my best to build your expectation into today and tomorrow's agenda. You came here with no expectation at all. That's completely fine. You don't have to manufacture one. I just want to make sure we capture anything that's important that I might not have about already.

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 So after we do that, then we're going to talk about your homework. So thank you everybody for doing the homework. We have a lot of content to go through. In fact, there's so much content

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 on your homework that we it was like 10 or 11 pages. So instead of going through 11 pages of comments today.

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 I condensed and combined all that into different categories and it's an order of how many people said which things a little bit more

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 easier to digest before pages instead of 10 or 11. So we'll do that first. And if you remember your homework was the SWOT analysis, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and then the start stop accelerate and then what do you feel like need to be the top goals for this strategic plan. So we'll see what everybody had to say about that.

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 And then you can count on a restroom technology break every 90 minutes today. So the first break will be around 230 240 somewhere in there.

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 And then we're going to talk about what of the things on the homework that everybody had things to say about which of those things stand out. What are the things that we need to talk about and talk through in order to start thinking about what the goals should be for the organization.

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 So two things we for sure want to talk about recruitment and business retention and expansion. Those are two of the city's comprehensive goal comprehensive plan.

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 Goals for economic development is strengthen local inclusion and fostering growth. So we'll talk about kind of what that means in 2026. I think your comp plan was written in 2019 or 2020. So some things have changed since then.

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 And then we're going to start getting into the goals. What do the goals need to be for the remainder of this fiscal year and for next fiscal year. So we're really kind of doing like a 19 20 months something like that. You just saying, I think.

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 So what are the goals that need to move forward. Now, one thing I've learned after doing this for a long time is that there is a magic number to the goals and that magic number is three to seven.

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 So we're going to leave. If y'all come up with 15 goals, we're going to condense up down till we get down to a real manageable number. So I'd rather you have three goals.

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 With a lot of strategies underneath those than to have 15 goals moving forward. The next two years. It's just a lot

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 for staff to manage. It's a lot for Ryan to manage those four chairs. So we want to keep it concise. So hopefully by the end of today, we will have determined what those three to seven goals are. We will adjourn by five o'clock and then we're not adjourned. We will suspend

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 the meeting till tomorrow and then we'll start back at eight o'clock tomorrow. Tomorrow is on the backside of your agenda.

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 That's when we will start getting into language strategy development and then we'll get into the metrics and key performance indicators. How are we going to measure the things that y'all said that you want to do. And then we'll be out of here by noon tomorrow. So any questions about what we're going to do today or tomorrow.

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 A lot of stuff to cover in a real short period of time. So it's pretty, pretty fast paced today. Okay. I like to start every meeting with a set of ground rules. So I would like to put these before you.

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 See if y'all can agree to these. First of all, we want everyone to participate. You've either been asked to serve on this board.

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 Asked to work here because your opinion is valuable. So I want everyone to please speak up. This is your plan. I'm facilitating it for you. But your opinions are what's going to build your goals and your strategies.

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 So please do speak up and participate. Next, out of respect for one another. If you Google and turn your cell phones on silent or vibrate unless of course you manage critical services or you have a

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 Emergency in your family or your office today, you can feel free to keep it on and just step outside if you need to.

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 And same thing with laptops. Some of you, you know, have laptops. That's fine, but just

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 Well, well, when I had so much distraction with that and then sidebar conversations. The microphone is on and is recording every word and we tested it earlier and it will pick up a whisper. So if you whisper to your neighbor, it will be recorded and it'll be broadcast. So just keep in mind, even a whisper.

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 And it disrupts everybody else anyway. So we'll get a chance for everybody to have to have a say today. I keep an open mind. Y'all like each other pretty well.

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 For the most part, usually. Okay.

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 Just keep in mind today, even if there's someone here that you don't know or someone here is not your favorite person. Maybe there's different philosophical beliefs of how economic development should operate.

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 Or be governed. Maybe there's different religious beliefs or political beliefs. But today we're going to judge them the ideas on the merit of the ideas.

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 So try to keep an open mind with new ideas. Next day on target. We do have a lot of stuff to cover in eight hours. So we're going to be going really fast paced today and tomorrow.

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 Get creative. I want you to be willing to do some things that you haven't done before. I heard Brian say it's the first time y'all had a strategic plan. I think Britain had told me that too.

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 So get creative. What can this organization do? What can this community do that maybe you haven't tried before? Maybe you've seen some other economic development organizations across the state or across the country. And you're like, well, that's interesting. Maybe we could experiment with that or try that. So

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 Be willing to try some new creative things that Denton's never done before. And think big. Like Brittany said, she's got the dream big. Think big. Sign back there. So I want you to think about what's next for Denton in a big way. Next share the air.

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 I can't remember from the first meeting who the big talker is, but they usually reveal themselves in the first few minutes. So if you'd like to talk through every board meeting or whatever, just make sure you get everybody else's chance to participate today. And ask questions. This is a great place to ask. Uh oh, I see some grounds.

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 With me. Is it you? Okay. Nobody was pointing a finger, but usually when there's snickering, I know that somebody's got somebody in mind. I'm sorry. I don't think you're going to prevent anybody.

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 That's good. Good. So that's the next thing. Please do ask questions. I have been an economic development for 33 years now.

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 I have worked with economic organizations all over the country and I teach the first day of the basic economic development course, which is the course.

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 That every economic developer in the United States has to take if they plan to pursue any kind of economic development certification. And this will be this is my 23rd year teaching that so

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 If I don't know your economic development question and someone else in the room doesn't know it, we know somebody somewhere who does. So use me as a resource today and use my network and people I know

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 to get questions answered. If you have a question, chances are someone else in the room has it too. You don't want to ask in front of the group. You can come ask me on a break and I'll get you answers. Okay, so

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 And the most important thing is to have fun. I know that everybody here could have been somewhere else today. But the fact that you care about jobs.

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 You care about people opportunity community and economic development enough to take a day every two years to do this says a lot about y'all. So I want you to have a good time while you're here. Y'all live with all this.

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 Okay.

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 Alright, couple other things before we do introduction. So everybody should have a tent card. If you don't see your tent card here on the table. It is printed outside on that table. So I printed them and then somebody's staff printed them too. So if you don't see it, here is outside.

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 And then we have some blank ones to

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 Name tags. Everybody should have a name tag. If you would just your first name is fine on your name tag. If you'll write that with your Sharpie. Everybody has a Sharpie marker here. You'll just write your name on the name tag. That would be great. I'll help me.

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 I'm really flexible and the way back. You do not need to wait for a break to get more food. They brought snacks for y'all drinks for y'all things outside. Go help yourself. You don't need to wait for a break. You go to the restroom. Just go do that.

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 Deliverable. So after tomorrow, when we adjourn tomorrow, these walls will be covered with all ideas and your

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 Framework, your goals that you want to set forward for the next few years. I will take all of that. Get that typed up within 30 business days, which is about six weeks.

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 Y'all will get a draft of all everything that you said, you'll get a chance to look at it. Make any edits to it.

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 Get it back to me. And then my graphic designer will put it in your brand kit. So your logo, your color, your fonts, your style, all that stuff. So it'll look like it was in-house produced, but you will get your work plan that we're building today. Then you'll also get a one pager. It's going to have like mission, vision, goals, guiding principles, whatever y'all, you know, adhere by and then what the goals are. So y'all can post those in the chat and then we'll get back to you.

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 You can post that on your social media or newsletters or places where someone doesn't have to see every single goal and every single strategy and all that.

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 You'll have that document. So you'll have two deliverables. Restrooms. Has everybody been to this facility before? If you haven't been in this room before, the restrooms are behind this door. So walk like you're going out and the road on the left.

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 And then the last thing is five cleaners. So everybody should have a couple of five cleaners here. We did not have time today or tomorrow to do team building. That's either reassuring or disappointing to some people.

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 But we're not going to do any team building. But if you're a fiddler, these are just for you to fiddle with. Studies show that people are more creative when they have something tactical to do. So if you're a fiddler,

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 these are for you and I have a couple hundred more. So you can use as much as you need to create your works of art there. Okay, so that's all on the housekeeping stuff.

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 Let's go ahead and do introductions. And if you play with an expectation of me or of someone else in the room, that's fine. Just let me know what that expectation is. Anything that's

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 on your mind, on your heart, stuck in your crawl, elephant, I don't know about, whatever. Just let me know. So let's do introductions and then remind me how long you've been on the board or involved here. So, Jeremy, we'll start with you.

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 Jeremy Fikes, I'm the president of Jerry Bank Trust here in town. I've been on the board for almost two years.

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 Okay. Okay. Great. Thanks. Lucy. Hi, I'm Lucy Dari. I'm the chief financial officer at Medical City Denton. This is my second year. Oh, great. Okay. So were you here for the board training? Yes, we did. Okay. You look familiar to me. Okay, great.

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 I'm Rick Wilford. I've been on and off the airport floor for most of the last 45 years. So I'm here as the aviation representative. I was also on the school board for nine years. So I have some interesting experience from that perspective. And I'm chair of the downtown economic development board. They're doing a cooler job. Great, good deal. We'll get to see you again. Thanks. All right. Jason.

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 Jason Thomas on Texas Fomans University. So seven or eight years. I'm the chief financial officer.

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 Right. Y'all came here with no expectations. Anything on your mind or heart today? Okay. Okay. It looks like it's already built in. It is. All right. Thank you.

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 I'm Garza Turner, UIT's designee. And I handle corporate, external, and community relations for 50 brand new as a second meeting. And I have no expectations. Okay, great. Thanks.

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 My name's Vanessa Sparsa. I'm your board secretary and liaison.

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 Okay. Great. Thank you. Great. Right. Thanks.

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 And I have a lot of expectations. So we really need guidance from you. We really appreciate your opinion. So that's why we're here today.

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 So I'm Brian, deputy city attorney. I've been with the city for four years. And I'm the parliamentarian for this board. Okay. My expectation is home and compliant.

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 Good. All right. Good. You keep us at work. All right. Good to see you again. Thanks. Brian.

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 Brian Danoff. I've been on the board for a couple of years. I've been on the Peterbilt for 21 years now. I've been for about seven.

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 Five's meditation or be in love with, say, two or three actionable things that will really tackle in the next year, year and a half.

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 All right. We can definitely do that. All right. Thank you. Thanks, Leo.

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 Leo Morales. You see a funny hanging there and on the board for the second year and until the second, I guess.

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 You know what I mean? Almost two or something like that. Okay.

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 My expectations are sitting, especially now here that we haven't done this for a while, is to reengage our long, short and

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 immediate term decisions because I was thinking, like, Brian, two or three actionable items, but I was

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 more thinking of along the way that when I look back at my children, here's to now, I can say this was the

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 board that spent some time to make a decision. Okay. So, but that has to go short, long, and

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 of decisions. Okay. And I don't know that in two half days, well, this will be a comprehensive list,

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 but we'll kind of combine this. You're re-engaging some of this will fit into this two or three action

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 while I see it for sure. And you'll, we'll probably have some short minutes. Okay. That is okay.

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 Thank you, Amy. Any visits by a day job as a zoning and development consultant, as an economic

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 developer, and I think we talked about that in the last session. Yeah. Hi. Yeah, good to see you. Thanks, Vicki.

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 Hi, I'm Vicki Bird. I am representing the City Council, representing District 1 here in the

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 city. I have been on the board, I think this is my third meeting. I'm saving this, this

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 boiler. I just, I have a lot of expectations. Okay. So, what I would like for this board to do

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 is keep in mind our, of course, economic development part, our nonprofit part of us as a community,

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 keep in mind our educational community. We have families, corporations, companies coming in and

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 they want to know where their children are going to go to school with, school district, as well as the,

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 as well as the, I don't know why I'm giving a break here in my brain, but economic education

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 nonprofit, and our city, our administrative part. So, how does all that work together? How is that

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 coming in play? How will those be coming out, a free city, you know, at the moment? Okay. I'm going to

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 have some questions. Is there any people out there? Good. They have lots and lots of questions. Okay.

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 Did you come with the elected official training? Yes, I did. The understanding of the economic

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 development, I thought you did. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I did. Good to see you. Okay. I couldn't remember,

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 I still had a bunch since then. So, what were your takeaways from that, that you thought could help

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 some of your constituents with the questions that they have, just from a standpoint of the overall

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 picture of economic development here? Yes. I think I'll be meeting with the association that is

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 obviously living with POTH and I'll be going right over to the people. And there, of course,

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 their concern is a number of what they can see. And so, I'm one that I want to explain, like,

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 why are you seeing this? Why are you seeing so many apartments? Why aren't the roads being done

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 quicker? You know, just those kinds of things. So, you're just giving them that economic development

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 piece and learning more about it. That's just going to fill in. You have questions about everything.

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 You have questions about non-profit, homelessness, you know, and all of that. So, do you think that

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 your constituents and the public understand the relationship between the education of their

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 children and being tomorrow's workforce? That their children's education, their grandchildren's

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 education is economic development? Absolutely. You know, we're working on that piece here,

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 I think, including our universities, are, you know, demanding a lot out of our education. And

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 then, you know, in the same token, our families are demanding a lot out of our city to bring the

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 housing in. So, it's just a matter of educating our public that we're all, it all flows together.

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 You know, what you're, you know, gotta have this piece before this piece is like a puzzle.

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 And so, to be able to explain that to them in a basic way, trying to keep things on a six-way

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 level, where we are in the community, you know, overall. And, you know, so maybe, you know, get

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 them through that. Okay, thank you. All right, we will definitely cover that stuff, I think tomorrow.

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 So, thanks. Thank you, Leigh. Leigh Ramsey. I'm called Orson Holdings here then. I grew up here

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 then. And I've been a business owner for each year. I think I've been on the board. That's 46 years.

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 On this board? Yeah. Okay. And some expectations. I'd like to see, come up with a balanced business

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 plan. You know, not just industrial, not just, you know, construction, but a balanced business

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 improvement plan. And also talk about how our homeless is affected, our businesses here then, and recruiting

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 high-end businesses, the homeless issues that are directly affecting them. Okay. And what's your

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 perspective on the direct impact of the homeless stuff? Obviously, the visibility of it. Yeah, we

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 don't want to, I mean, I could go into that, but I think it'd be better if we could have a discussion

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 about that, I guess. You know, we have companies that come looking to my office to say that,

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 ladies, they don't want to leave the office after all. And where those businesses locate,

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 this is located, then where even could we do that? You know, for higher-end officers.

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 I thought it was a problem. Sorry, sorry. That's good to know, because I didn't realize that was

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 such a big issue. So, yeah, we'll definitely figure out a way to weave this conversation in.

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 Because this is really important. The image of your community, whether that's beautification,

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 trees, sidewalks, whatever, safety and the image impact where people want to bring their employees

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 and their families to live and work and play and even tourism. So, we'll definitely address that.

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 Okay. Anything else, Lee? Okay. And I see your tent card says, are you the chair of the

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 chamber this year? No, I'm just an employee. Okay. I saw it underneath. I was like, okay.

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 All right, good deal. He turned out, but Jeremy is our chair. Oh, okay. Good deal. All right.

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 I'm Erin Carney. I'm the president of the Denton Chamber of Commerce. So, my role here is

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 executive official, really just to support the continued role of our partnership. I've been

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 on this board the next few weeks since I started in '21. My expectation for today is to support

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 staff and to best figure out how to continue to expand and hold the administration and our

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 economic development partnership. All right. Back here. Christina?

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 Christina Diaz, president and all administrators of the city. And my expectation is to hear some

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 great input from Ron Holden. Okay. Hear good input today. Okay. Good deal. All right. Thanks,

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 Erica. Erica Sullivan, economic development programs. Administrator of the city. I use

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 the Senate administration, development district administration, staff-based to legal finance.

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 I've been here 18 years. Christina's been here nearly 19 years. So, if you need history,

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 it's educational knowledge. Okay. All right. Anything specific from a staff standpoint

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 you want me to talk about or you want anybody else to talk about today? Incentives. Incentives.

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 Senate policy. We'll be doing an update here pretty soon. The tax abatement expires in the

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 beginning of May. The what? The tax abatement policy expires in the beginning of May. Okay.

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 Have y'all already begun crafting a new incentives policy? Okay. Are y'all doing that in-house or

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 you have somebody helping you? In-house. Okay. Great. Thanks, Erica. Clay? Clay Parker. I'm a

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 business improvement specialist for the Office of Economic Development. Expectations. It's just a

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 great time for us to review the past future plan, which parts of that were great for the time of

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 focusing on COVID and everything, but expectations and trying to see that next step is now that

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 some of those parts are looked out, David. Okay. Yeah. And that's really what you'll see on the

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 agenda. Those are the two things that we pulled out in preparation for today was not all the goals,

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 because some of them were, you know, resilience from COVID, because I think y'all wrote it in 19

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 or 20. So, but so that, yeah, we are going to focus on those two main things about strengthening

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 local inclusion and support and fostering growth. Okay. Thanks, Clay. Hello. How are you doing,

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 Kristen? Kristen Bolido, Main Street Program Manager with the Office of Economic Development.

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 And my expectation is very similar to Clay's. I think it's great that we have all these

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 great minds in the room and kind of updating that strategic plan to put us on the right path forward.

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 Okay. All right. Good deal. That might be that. And Jamie? Jamie Adams, economic development

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 partnership. Expectations are here to learn and listen and take the knowledge and be able to share

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 your opinion. Okay. Good deal. Thank you. Sir? Oh, just for the public. Are you the public? Okay.

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 You have to? Okay. Yeah. Okay. Great. Okay. Great. Thank you. Thanks for being here. All right. Good

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 deal. So, thank you for the introductions and expectations. I'm going to try to build all of

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 these again, behind it and tomorrow. We're probably going to be helping.

186
00:29:54,520 --> 00:30:02,680
 Okay. So, do y'all want to see the homework you did? Everybody else did?

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 Is that a resounding yes? Yes. Okay. Actually, I'll take that one back.

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 I don't know. But I'll, you want to hear a story about that?

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 So, when Christine Gossett was here, your downtown plan, your downtown, I did her strategic plan in

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 this exact round. And it was, either the heater went out or the air conditioner went out. We were

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 all in this room for Main Street Forward. And I can't remember who was the heater, the air

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 conditioner, but this whole space became uninhabitable. And we had to move all the

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 tables and chairs and even the markers out here, and the markers out here into the grass.

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 And we facilitated her board retreat outside because it was, I think it was too cold.

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 You know, it got so cold that they had to call in.

196
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 Yeah. Do we have anybody here that is with building facilities that can control the air back there?

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 We have someone, we have someone.

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 All right. Also, on the back of this page, we'll start with five. Is there one, three,

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 four somewhere else? That's not the right page. Did I hear you? No, no, no. This was already

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 at my desk unless that isn't. Oh, yes. That's the first page right here. This is page one and two,

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 and that's page. Yeah. This is one, two, three, four, like SWAT.

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00:32:06,520 --> 00:32:21,080
 And that's the form that you see underneath this, this SWAT. Okay. So the one I just handed you

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 is the board, an elected official. Everybody that was sent the link that you filled out online

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 is the sheet I just passed out. The sheet underneath your agenda that looks like this,

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 that actually has SWAT spelled out, is the staff responses to that. So we're going to go through

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 board responses first, and then we'll talk about what the professional staff had to say and we'll

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 see how some of that stuff lines up. Okay. So number one is strengths. I asked you on the link,

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 what do you think are the strengths of this economic development program?

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 I'll give you this. I'm not going to read every single bullet point to you, but I will give you

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 just a minute to read through these and you can see the highest ranked ones were at the top.

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 Okay, so what stands out to y'all on the strengths?

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 Definitely several weeks of that one. You're in a perfect location for any kind of work, right?

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 But the thing to think about, especially from our last session together, is that y'all are not a

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 desperate community. You don't have to take every single project that comes your way. Y'all are

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 a prestigious enough place that you can say, "No, we don't want certain things." So proximity is

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 great, but it also gives you the authority to be able to turn away investments you don't want here.

217
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 That would be a better fit somewhere else, right? So what else stands out?

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 Responsibility of diversity around here has improved. Workforce development.

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 Really good. Workforce development.

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 Entrepreneurship and all sorts of other things out of it.

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 As we talked about last time, economic development, one of the eight pillars is education,

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 workforce development. So when we can have lots of post-secondary education facilities,

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 institutions in the area, that just raises the bar of the community. So that's a

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 definite strength there. What else stands out to y'all?

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 Obviously, I think the airport is not known by most citizens in this community,

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 and a lot of elected officials probably don't know about it. A lot of the businesses understand

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 the importance, but I think the general population is still unaware.

228
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:12,040
 Okay. And what do you think is the reason for that?

229
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 It starts with city council, but it won't go down. There was a period of time when the

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 council took the management of the airport way. Nobody on that board had any expertise whatsoever

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 in the airport language for four or five years. Now it's starting to turn around.

232
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 Okay. So what kinds of things are you doing out of the airport right now?

233
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 Can you say turning it around? Like what does that look like?

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 We're building runways, renewing our runways so it's stronger.

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 Good.

236
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 Working on another tower, trying to expand to the west side.

237
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 New master plan for now for the airport or how?

238
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 We're doing a master plan every so and so. I think you asked the question that answered

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 the other question, which is I don't think because you got VFW, you've got to figure

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 out what we're looking for. I don't think people understand what we're looking for.

241
00:36:05,080 --> 00:36:10,680
 Thank you. When you take the airport, you have to figure out the word.

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 Right.

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 You don't think about the word.

244
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 That's a good question.

245
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 And the counties will get a little traction with their attempt to go to commercial service.

246
00:36:19,880 --> 00:36:20,940
 Right.

247
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 I think they're going to find more problems and find solutions for several years.

248
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 Yeah, it's a lot. No plan intended is a hard thing to launch.

249
00:36:30,520 --> 00:36:35,320
 So, okay, so yeah, let's talk about some of that.

250
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 Well, three people did mention that was one of the greatest strengths.

251
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 So that's a good knowledge in this room.

252
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 By the way, the Den Airport is a 15-minute airport in the state of Texas.

253
00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:47,260
 Really?

254
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 I did not know that.

255
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 So what was needed in the airport business in the United States?

256
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 Right. Who in here knew all that?

257
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 Me.

258
00:37:00,940 --> 00:37:06,380
 Okay.

259
00:37:06,380 --> 00:37:11,000
 Okay. What else strengths stood out to y'all?

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 I think our existing business is underspoken.

261
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:20,680
 Like Peterbilt, I think it's recognized, it's appreciated how many businesses Peterbilt

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 brings. If Peterbilt were to leave, they would have waves of them by.

263
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 So there's other businesses here the same, but Peterbilt will definitely be anchored.

264
00:37:31,880 --> 00:37:34,600
 I mean, so four new businesses that Peterbilt

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 has actually almost required to leave are concerned miles and maybe get on my skis.

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 And I keep talking, but I mean, they can get employees like that.

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 So there's suppliers and markets here.

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 Like you drive through the industrial park, there's all kinds of businesses out there.

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 They're on time delivery stuff.

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 We have only 26 million square foot of other facility outside of the house.

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 I didn't know that.

272
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 That's a big number.

273
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 I don't know what percentage of the market and it's a pretty large percentage.

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 So I think building on that to talk to larger employers

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 and see how they're considering businesses here.

276
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 I think that ties in, sorry.

277
00:38:20,040 --> 00:38:24,040
 When Erica was talking about the extended program that ties in,

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 wasn't that a good proper way for that?

279
00:38:25,880 --> 00:38:36,840
 Yes. And one of the important components of a good recruitment program, of course,

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 is a TIA, a target industry analysis.

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 Where y'all have one of those?

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 No.

283
00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:48,600
 So one of the important things that kind of build on what you were just saying,

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 a good target industry analysis shows you as community,

285
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 which businesses are most likely to succeed here.

286
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 And a lot of that is based on which businesses are already here

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 and like who are your suppliers already.

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 And that goes into an input number at a university.

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 And then we also take into consider, not me, I don't do that work,

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 but take into consideration water capacity, electric capacity,

291
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 workforce development, what kind of skills are we producing

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 in the universities and the CTE programs and community college, all that stuff.

293
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 Takes all that stuff, whips it into an algorithm, spits it out and says,

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 these are the top five or 10 businesses that are most likely to succeed here in the future.

295
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 So in order to do that, somebody has to know

296
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 what all those businesses are that are your suppliers for Peterville.

297
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:48,120
 And so the next natural question is, is there a list somewhere that's kept

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 of all of Brian's supplies?

299
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 Do we know who those 1.6 million square feet employers are?

300
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 So, and that's an important component because in economic development,

301
00:40:04,680 --> 00:40:06,360
 we call that warm leaves, right?

302
00:40:06,360 --> 00:40:11,240
 So somebody has to be calling on Brian, sitting down asking him and his HR manager,

303
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 what skills do you need for the future and who are your suppliers?

304
00:40:15,720 --> 00:40:19,480
 And somebody's got to be getting on an airplane and going to go fly to meet

305
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 his suppliers that are currently in Chicago or Ohio or Miami or wherever they are

306
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 to grow that number of suppliers that he's already got here.

307
00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:33,800
 So just question based on this, did most of those suppliers come here

308
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 because of your efforts or someone in your organization

309
00:40:37,160 --> 00:40:40,040
 or someone at the city or economic development go get them?

310
00:40:40,040 --> 00:40:43,880
 I think in the past, it was kind of us.

311
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:46,920
 I think in the last couple of years, it's been important.

312
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 So engine tech in particular is important.

313
00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:51,080
 Okay.

314
00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:53,560
 I think in the past people have been curious about this.

315
00:40:55,560 --> 00:40:59,000
 They've been very humble. They've been able to lean on their suppliers.

316
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 We want you close and they've got a huge impact of regular people here.

317
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:06,440
 But we have other business like Cypron.

318
00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:09,960
 We have Tetra Pak.

319
00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:13,720
 We have all these others that the ideas of what you're doing that aren't as proactive

320
00:41:13,720 --> 00:41:17,880
 as Peterbilt, that would be great.

321
00:41:17,880 --> 00:41:23,240
 A lot of it depends on the industry and what they do.

322
00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:27,560
 Those webs, you know, could we be reaching out to Stoltz

323
00:41:27,560 --> 00:41:30,520
 if they're here and what we've been doing with Peterbilt.

324
00:41:30,520 --> 00:41:35,560
 A lot of it depends on your rate of costs and everything else.

325
00:41:35,560 --> 00:41:36,060
 Yeah.

326
00:41:36,060 --> 00:41:38,200
 That's what it looks like.

327
00:41:38,200 --> 00:41:40,840
 And what you're making, you know, what is the actual product

328
00:41:40,840 --> 00:41:44,600
 depends on, you know, who the suppliers are and where they are.

329
00:41:44,600 --> 00:41:46,440
 Okay. Yeah.

330
00:41:46,440 --> 00:41:51,640
 So we'll talk some about that because that is one of the most important components

331
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:54,520
 of a really robust VRE program.

332
00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:57,800
 So where would y'all say, this is probably going to come up in just a minute,

333
00:41:57,800 --> 00:42:04,280
 but where would y'all say you are on VRE business retention and expansion initiatives?

334
00:42:04,280 --> 00:42:11,480
 One of the pluses here, I have a story on Channel 4 or 5 yesterday,

335
00:42:11,480 --> 00:42:15,160
 that our Texas is experiencing financial shortfalls

336
00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:18,840
 because of the decline in the number of students at 12, 15 million dollars.

337
00:42:18,840 --> 00:42:24,280
 I'm a little concerned. How can we help them in trying to make sure

338
00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:27,960
 that that institution continues to be as enforced as it is?

339
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:32,920
 Right. And it was one particular institution or is it all the UNT?

340
00:42:32,920 --> 00:42:33,560
 UNT specific.

341
00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:38,520
 That's what I'm supposed to be helping with.

342
00:42:38,520 --> 00:42:42,040
 Yes. Yes.

343
00:42:42,040 --> 00:42:45,320
 All right. So fair say shrinking enrollment, right?

344
00:42:46,280 --> 00:42:51,800
 Then 12 or 12, 12, 12 shrinking homes, what they're trying to do.

345
00:42:51,800 --> 00:42:52,040
 Yeah.

346
00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:54,360
 You know, combining two departments.

347
00:42:54,360 --> 00:42:57,320
 Right. Right. And I'm sure you can speak to that.

348
00:42:57,320 --> 00:42:59,720
 I remember you speaking about that a little bit last time too.

349
00:42:59,720 --> 00:43:04,440
 Okay. All right. So back to my other question, where are y'all on a VRE?

350
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:07,240
 Would y'all say, yes, we have a strong VRE program.

351
00:43:07,240 --> 00:43:10,920
 Everybody knows what they're doing, where they're asking, where it's deposited.

352
00:43:10,920 --> 00:43:14,120
 We built dossiers. We know the visitation schedule.

353
00:43:14,120 --> 00:43:16,840
 Is all that?

354
00:43:16,840 --> 00:43:22,200
 I think that we've recently realigned responsibilities.

355
00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:23,080
 Okay.

356
00:43:23,080 --> 00:43:30,600
 And the VRE is housed under the Chamber of Commerce now, which I think is a good place

357
00:43:30,600 --> 00:43:34,600
 for it. It's the Chamber of Commerce experiences in our community.

358
00:43:34,600 --> 00:43:38,600
 But that's a very recent realignment.

359
00:43:41,000 --> 00:43:44,280
 So we have, I don't want to repeat things that you already know.

360
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:51,480
 So we have a public-private partnership.

361
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:54,520
 The Chamber of Commerce has the public side.

362
00:43:54,520 --> 00:43:59,880
 So underneath the contract, we each have different responsibilities to hopefully help

363
00:43:59,880 --> 00:44:01,640
 the city's strategic plan.

364
00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:06,040
 And that's the economic partnership within the Chamber different from this partnership,

365
00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:06,280
 right?

366
00:44:06,280 --> 00:44:07,080
 That's in this room.

367
00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:08,040
 This is the partnership.

368
00:44:08,040 --> 00:44:08,600
 Okay. Yeah.

369
00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:10,200
 I'm sorry. Go ahead.

370
00:44:10,200 --> 00:44:11,720
 It's okay. No, that was going to be looked at.

371
00:44:11,720 --> 00:44:13,640
 So we do the private side, so we have an invest.

372
00:44:13,640 --> 00:44:18,920
 So JB is the employee under the partnership from the Chamber side.

373
00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:21,720
 And then Brittany and her team are the employees from the public side.

374
00:44:21,720 --> 00:44:25,480
 And so we collaborate to accomplish the contract for service.

375
00:44:25,480 --> 00:44:31,480
 But in the last contract renewal, roles were reversed until we handled the retention side

376
00:44:31,480 --> 00:44:35,080
 and received just over 100% of the improvement side.

377
00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:36,280
 Yes.

378
00:44:36,280 --> 00:44:39,960
 And I think from our department's perspective, we have multiple contractors.

379
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:43,880
 So we have a contract with Stoke to support small businesses.

380
00:44:43,880 --> 00:44:46,760
 They'll have a cohort being centered.

381
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:49,560
 And then we also – I don't know if I'm going to mention.

382
00:44:49,560 --> 00:44:56,680
 But we also do barry as a city because we're the city for a taxpayer-funded organization.

383
00:44:56,680 --> 00:44:59,400
 And so if a business calls us, we have to help them, right?

384
00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:04,680
 So I think at some point, I've helped every business probably in the room already with

385
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:05,880
 certain aspects.

386
00:45:07,160 --> 00:45:11,880
 But we also have Main Street, what is underneath our program.

387
00:45:11,880 --> 00:45:14,680
 We have a product for the Texas Main Street Association.

388
00:45:14,680 --> 00:45:22,920
 And so when that was brought underneath the city in November of '24, then we also have

389
00:45:22,920 --> 00:45:25,560
 a new BRB component, too, because that's part of the Main Street program.

390
00:45:25,560 --> 00:45:27,160
 We have a contract that we have to maintain.

391
00:45:27,160 --> 00:45:29,000
 And so we do BRB as well.

392
00:45:29,000 --> 00:45:31,020
 Okay.

393
00:45:32,840 --> 00:45:37,720
 I mean, it takes from, like, from my standpoint, I don't have a bunch of experience, but it

394
00:45:37,720 --> 00:45:42,280
 seems like from the city's standpoint, and even the analysis that we do, where we go

395
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:47,560
 through different jobs, capital events and things like that, it seems to be geared more

396
00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:49,800
 toward the new businesses.

397
00:45:49,800 --> 00:46:01,000
 And maybe we, from the city's standpoint, don't look at retention the same way as they

398
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:07,960
 did, or in any case, probably, but it seems like there should be similar, in the incentive

399
00:46:07,960 --> 00:46:09,960
 standpoint, we do the calculation.

400
00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:15,720
 There should be a lot of work placed on retaining that business.

401
00:46:15,720 --> 00:46:20,120
 Especially, what I just read, 68% of job growth is from...

402
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:24,440
 What we'll do is parent them.

403
00:46:24,440 --> 00:46:26,920
 Give you God, and that's the best way to disenfranchise.

404
00:46:26,920 --> 00:46:31,880
 What would be the target for the, sorry, what would you be tracking?

405
00:46:31,880 --> 00:46:35,480
 I guess when you say it, it makes sense, and I never even thought about it until you said

406
00:46:35,480 --> 00:46:44,920
 it, but like a retracking number of jobs created, years that have been in at Benton, and then

407
00:46:44,920 --> 00:46:50,120
 coming up with some matrix that allows some type of benefits a period of time, and then

408
00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:53,800
 incentivize businesses to grow, expand, and to stay.

409
00:46:53,800 --> 00:46:55,800
 Is that kind of where you're going with it, or?

410
00:46:55,800 --> 00:46:57,480
 Not usually, sorry.

411
00:46:57,480 --> 00:47:01,400
 I don't even know, I'm just letting you know, kind of like the perception of being on the

412
00:47:01,400 --> 00:47:05,720
 board, and just where it seems the incentives tend to be geared toward, whenever we provide

413
00:47:05,720 --> 00:47:06,280
 those.

414
00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:11,880
 But then when I read this, it says on the business retention and expansion, 60 to 80%

415
00:47:11,880 --> 00:47:16,280
 of all new jobs and capital investment typically come from within the existing firm.

416
00:47:16,280 --> 00:47:23,240
 So if that's the case, then there may be a short-term surge on a new business, but if

417
00:47:23,240 --> 00:47:28,360
 we look at more of a longer-term approach, and you know, have a plan for some of the

418
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:33,880
 business retention, then we'll probably have further gains of long-term, and then we aren't

419
00:47:33,880 --> 00:47:36,680
 just in a short-term intermediate there, if they were looking at our paper.

420
00:47:36,680 --> 00:47:41,480
 I don't know how to tap into that, maybe they'd be in the, have to create something in that,

421
00:47:41,480 --> 00:47:43,480
 like a model they need, I would imagine.

422
00:47:43,480 --> 00:47:49,160
 I would just say, no one, and just getting involved, because I was more curious than

423
00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:58,520
 anything, is there's not a systematic way to like, maybe make sure we're touching points.

424
00:47:58,520 --> 00:48:02,440
 Like, I think it's gotten better in the last few years, but like, there's not really a

425
00:48:02,440 --> 00:48:08,760
 good systematic way of, hey, we're surveying existing businesses, you plan to grow, you

426
00:48:08,760 --> 00:48:12,120
 plan to, what's your challenges, you know, what, do those kind of things.

427
00:48:12,120 --> 00:48:18,440
 Maybe that's maybe a way to reach out, or we do a lot of things informally, like leadership

428
00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:25,720
 and then maybe a lot of economic development days, but there's not really a systemic, like,

429
00:48:25,720 --> 00:48:32,120
 same state of the union, state of the business, and then you might have an insight, you might

430
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:37,400
 get insights more from larger employers, say in the next two to three years, do you see

431
00:48:37,400 --> 00:48:42,200
 for growing, or do you see what's your challenges, whatever?

432
00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:46,040
 Right, and we call that predictive data.

433
00:48:46,040 --> 00:48:51,800
 So what you're describing is a serious, robust VRE program, where all that stuff is laid

434
00:48:51,800 --> 00:48:58,120
 out, it's all systematic, where there's a visitation schedule, there's, we know who's

435
00:48:58,120 --> 00:49:03,800
 visiting which businesses when, there's a dossier built, the staff can go in and see

436
00:49:03,800 --> 00:49:09,080
 what your last conversation was with a business owner that was visited, and to answer your

437
00:49:09,080 --> 00:49:14,680
 question, that right there, what he's talking about, is where an organization or a city

438
00:49:14,680 --> 00:49:22,200
 determines who gets which incentives, so the only way that we can figure out if an existing

439
00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:28,840
 industry is interested in expanding or is being courted by another state, coming in

440
00:49:28,840 --> 00:49:33,640
 here trying to steal your business to go to another state, that's what we base the retention

441
00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:39,320
 incentive policy on, so every good economy, every good community needs a refinement incentive

442
00:49:39,320 --> 00:49:46,040
 policy, a retention incentive policy, and expansion incentive policy, so, and those

443
00:49:46,040 --> 00:49:51,960
 are determined by what Brian was just describing, a program that says we can go in and see,

444
00:49:51,960 --> 00:49:57,480
 but the only way that a business owner is going to tell us if they're being courted

445
00:49:57,480 --> 00:50:02,760
 by Louisiana, or Oklahoma, or New Mexico, or wherever, is that we've already built a

446
00:50:02,760 --> 00:50:09,240
 good relationship with them, and that relationship is fostered in person and documented inside

447
00:50:09,240 --> 00:50:14,760
 a dossier, so. If I may, we used to have that, Christina and Erica have been here a little

448
00:50:14,760 --> 00:50:21,720
 bit, so they may know, we used to have a shared platform in HubSpot, or everything, I don't

449
00:50:21,720 --> 00:50:27,400
 believe that exists anymore, but that did exist at one point in time, where if I were to go,

450
00:50:27,400 --> 00:50:32,200
 or Christina were to go, we collaboratively shared and were able to update, so we was

451
00:50:32,200 --> 00:50:36,440
 business owner X, and we was considering moving, but I had a better relationship with him,

452
00:50:36,440 --> 00:50:42,040
 I could go meet with him and still collaboratively share, so it broke down any of that barrier

453
00:50:42,040 --> 00:50:46,280
 between two organizations, but it doesn't matter who's running the organization, or

454
00:50:46,280 --> 00:50:51,240
 who's bringing credit in, do we get to keep the business, how do we keep them, what can

455
00:50:51,240 --> 00:50:54,760
 we do to keep them, do we get to recruit the business, what are we going to recruit them,

456
00:50:54,760 --> 00:50:58,520
 how do we get them here, doesn't matter who wins the trophy between the two organizations,

457
00:50:58,520 --> 00:51:02,280
 it doesn't matter, we had that, Christina, I don't mean to keep referencing you in the

458
00:51:02,280 --> 00:51:06,520
 back, but you had to be here the longest, yes, definitely, you definitely know.

459
00:51:06,520 --> 00:51:10,520
 So what happened, what happened, y'all think we're getting off track, but this is the whole

460
00:51:10,520 --> 00:51:17,240
 purpose of this part, is to start picking apart some ideas here, so why did that go away, why

461
00:51:17,240 --> 00:51:22,680
 is there not a central hub that we gather all that data anymore? I do not know the answer.

462
00:51:22,680 --> 00:51:27,720
 When I came online, I realized that HubSpot was kind of out of date, so I've used multiple CRM

463
00:51:27,720 --> 00:51:32,360
 and economic development, and it wasn't the most robust system, so we wanted to update it,

464
00:51:32,360 --> 00:51:37,320
 but we also realized that some of the projects that we're working on as a city, we can't share

465
00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:41,240
 with our outside partners, so some of that's confidential that we can't share with outside

466
00:51:41,240 --> 00:51:45,800
 contractors, and so that's why we have our own system. I think, I need to look at the

467
00:51:45,800 --> 00:51:50,040
 work plan, that we may have tasked the Chamber of creating their own CRM to start tracking VRE

468
00:51:50,040 --> 00:51:55,240
 business, I don't have to look at a contract again, but I think we did try to accommodate

469
00:51:55,240 --> 00:51:59,080
 the change. Can the, can a contract be written where there's an NDA, where

470
00:51:59,080 --> 00:52:03,640
 that's not, they have access to it, but they can't disclose it? I think it'll be difficult,

471
00:52:03,640 --> 00:52:08,520
 because it would be hard for the city, who's actually saying what, right, like how can we

472
00:52:08,520 --> 00:52:14,520
 actually track if information is being shared, so that would be a little bit difficult. Well,

473
00:52:14,520 --> 00:52:20,040
 and a lot of times, it's not even the city's, city doesn't have the authority to make that call,

474
00:52:20,040 --> 00:52:25,080
 it's usually the business that's being visited, that makes y'all sign it, makes somebody sign an

475
00:52:25,080 --> 00:52:31,080
 NDA, that says, you know, I'm fixing to lay off 100 people back in my home state, and that can't,

476
00:52:31,080 --> 00:52:38,040
 that can't be called acknowledged, so. Well, when I, I work at a bank, we had a process,

477
00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:45,080
 there's like the core system that we use, so like Lee had an account with me, it would be our core

478
00:52:45,080 --> 00:52:51,880
 system, which to Jack Henry, who's our processor, they have access to that in the agreement, you

479
00:52:51,880 --> 00:52:56,360
 know, they can't disclose Lee's account information that they, I mean, like anybody, right, I mean,

480
00:52:56,360 --> 00:53:00,840
 it's just kind of part of doing business, right? Yeah. I can give you the history of why,

481
00:53:00,840 --> 00:53:06,360
 because we, Jill's not here, but Jill and I worked with the past city manager, whenever there was,

482
00:53:06,360 --> 00:53:13,000
 hopefully you guys were here, it was, there was very much a silo between the health and

483
00:53:13,000 --> 00:53:20,360
 development, and it was not a good situation, so Jill and I, who believe, put the city manager in

484
00:53:20,360 --> 00:53:25,640
 there, and said, okay, we got to get some roles here, because we're running two sites, you know,

485
00:53:25,640 --> 00:53:29,720
 we need to get this work done on the same page, and ever since then, I mean, there's been a little

486
00:53:29,720 --> 00:53:34,520
 pushback here and there, just being real, but it's a much better process, and I think we're on our

487
00:53:34,520 --> 00:53:40,520
 second in front of the city manager since we did that, that's been years ago, but, you know, and

488
00:53:40,520 --> 00:53:45,000
 then it, the question always comes up, okay, you got to do business coming in, and they don't want

489
00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:51,240
 anybody to know who they are, city can't sign the NDA, because it's all public record, right? I could

490
00:53:51,240 --> 00:53:58,040
 document your request, I didn't get any of that. There's some protected under-executive sessions,

491
00:53:58,040 --> 00:54:04,120
 yeah. It's very, so that gave some opportunities for us to talk to some of these businesses,

492
00:54:04,120 --> 00:54:10,280
 by either they were going to lose, for your exact reason, people wanted, so that's the reason we

493
00:54:10,280 --> 00:54:15,560
 brought this together and said, okay, let's work as a team, rather than being sent to silence,

494
00:54:15,560 --> 00:54:20,680
 and I still, to this day, believe that's the best scenario, is how we're working through that.

495
00:54:20,680 --> 00:54:25,800
 How we communicate that, I mean, we can get the technical details of that, right,

496
00:54:25,800 --> 00:54:29,400
 but I think the important thing is, as we're aware, is that who cares who gets the trophy,

497
00:54:29,400 --> 00:54:34,360
 how do we get it finished? All right, that's what we can. And I think what, indicating in here too,

498
00:54:34,360 --> 00:54:38,920
 is like, there's not a lot of understanding of what that delineation is. Well, it is, it's very

499
00:54:38,920 --> 00:54:44,760
 clear, we have documents and worksheets, and it's very, very clear on whose responsibility is at what,

500
00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:49,240
 because I know they work very hard on that, and so I don't think that's a problem.

501
00:54:49,240 --> 00:54:57,240
 Some people in the room think it is, well, we'll get to that in a minute, but if it is crystal clear,

502
00:54:57,240 --> 00:55:03,080
 maybe it's just that we need to fully, you know, expand on what they... I think it is crystal clear,

503
00:55:03,080 --> 00:55:06,920
 anybody who reads the document, right, and I think both of them know very well,

504
00:55:07,560 --> 00:55:13,720
 you know, pretty clear, and work, I believe, work together well on that. So, I mean, we can produce,

505
00:55:13,720 --> 00:55:18,280
 I think those documents are approved by city council. Yeah, I mean, so the contract that

506
00:55:18,280 --> 00:55:22,040
 both organizations have together should be in everybody's board notebooks. Yeah.

507
00:55:22,040 --> 00:55:29,080
 I will say for the NDAs, the city can, we have an NDA template that we send to businesses,

508
00:55:29,080 --> 00:55:32,280
 and so we don't have any issues with those businesses, and they've already signed it.

509
00:55:33,560 --> 00:55:38,680
 Some of them are all, I think, panel rated as well, and so it hasn't been an issue thus far,

510
00:55:38,680 --> 00:55:43,080
 and we've had the most capital investment injection over the past two years, versus over

511
00:55:43,080 --> 00:55:48,120
 the past, like, since Amy. Amy was over economic 10 years ago, so I think that's when actually they

512
00:55:48,120 --> 00:55:54,040
 had the most activity, so it hasn't been an issue for city managing NDAs. Well, and so I was talking

513
00:55:54,040 --> 00:55:58,760
 about the reverse. I was talking about when the city, when the company requires you to sign an NDA.

514
00:55:58,760 --> 00:56:03,080
 Like, we will tell you who we are, but you have to sign first, and you have to agree to not tell

515
00:56:03,080 --> 00:56:08,120
 anybody else. That's the flip side of that, but it goes both ways, so yeah, I mean, as long as

516
00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:14,760
 there's some process in place for that, then that's what's most important. Kind of switching ears

517
00:56:14,760 --> 00:56:19,400
 going back to that business position. Yeah. So, like, I don't know how to say this, but I mean,

518
00:56:19,400 --> 00:56:25,000
 I've been thinking about 15 minutes trying to figure out a way to say it, but, so obviously,

519
00:56:25,000 --> 00:56:29,800
 Peterville has been very successful in getting suppliers and everything else to the area.

520
00:56:30,840 --> 00:56:41,240
 From a kind of a geographical concentration, it seems like business retention and working with

521
00:56:41,240 --> 00:56:49,720
 other companies in the area to help do what they have done to the area would help balance that mix

522
00:56:49,720 --> 00:56:55,720
 so that as a city, we don't have a huge concentration risk of basically one company and all of their

523
00:56:55,720 --> 00:57:01,160
 suppliers. Now, I say that, and I was hesitant to say it, because I'm not, I certainly don't believe

524
00:57:01,160 --> 00:57:05,240
 that we need to hit the brakes or anything on Peterville's side. I'm just saying we need to hit

525
00:57:05,240 --> 00:57:12,520
 the gas on the other side, and that alone, from a risk standpoint, should be the best reason to hit

526
00:57:12,520 --> 00:57:20,840
 the gas on economic development in order to balance that out. If, you know, 1.4 million square feet

527
00:57:22,200 --> 00:57:28,600
 could be affected by one industry, you know, can we get other industry and focus on other industry

528
00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:36,200
 as well to help balance that? Okay, it's not that, it may be an economic issue in Peterville,

529
00:57:36,200 --> 00:57:41,080
 they aren't selling as many trucks, right? So, it's not a thing that Peterville's going to ever do

530
00:57:41,080 --> 00:57:44,760
 that. It may be a business decision. They don't have a choice to do that, right? They say, "Hey,

531
00:57:44,760 --> 00:57:50,680
 our truck count's gone down." So, to crew... Yeah, economic factors that force a company's data that

532
00:57:50,680 --> 00:57:57,080
 could impact the community. That's right. And, Peterville should not be penalized because of

533
00:57:57,080 --> 00:58:04,280
 the success that they've had, and the fact that they've promoted Denton for 55 years. Yeah.

534
00:58:04,280 --> 00:58:16,120
 A lot of companies don't do what they did. A lot of companies are just here,

535
00:58:16,120 --> 00:58:20,920
 and then we'll have to figure out who their suppliers are and where they're located. And, technically,

536
00:58:20,920 --> 00:58:25,240
 truthfully, that's the job of the economic developer. The economic developer's job is to

537
00:58:25,240 --> 00:58:30,120
 go sit in Brian's office and say, "Who are your suppliers? Where are they? What are they supplying

538
00:58:30,120 --> 00:58:35,480
 you with?" And, that person taking the initiative. But, the fact that they did it on their own

539
00:58:35,480 --> 00:58:41,720
 is a coup. I mean, it's coup coup for y'all. But, like, you can't go around teaching every employer

540
00:58:41,720 --> 00:58:46,280
 how to do that, or even how to do that well, like they have. And, that's why you have economic

541
00:58:46,280 --> 00:58:51,160
 development, because the paid professional is the person that's supposed to be building those

542
00:58:51,160 --> 00:58:56,440
 relationships, making those calls, flying out to talk to his suppliers wherever they are. And, so,

543
00:58:56,440 --> 00:59:03,000
 I don't know if that falls under recruitment, or BRE, or whatever, but here's somebody in this

544
00:59:03,000 --> 00:59:08,840
 organization that should be doing all of those visits and all of those outreach. Right.

545
00:59:09,480 --> 00:59:15,560
 And, to diversify the things, the important things. I mean, that way there is a downturn in

546
00:59:15,560 --> 00:59:22,280
 one sector. It doesn't affect the entire town. So, I think that that should be a huge point in

547
00:59:22,280 --> 00:59:30,360
 economic incentives. Uh-huh. Yeah, for sure. And, that's what incentives are based on. It's like,

548
00:59:30,360 --> 00:59:36,520
 what are our values here? What are we targeting? Who are we going after? What do we need here to

549
00:59:36,520 --> 00:59:40,760
 make our community more balanced? And, that's what we put incentives behind for recruitment.

550
00:59:40,760 --> 00:59:45,880
 Now, retention, it may look different. Your incentives for retention, but either way,

551
00:59:45,880 --> 00:59:50,680
 you need it. Y'all said you're working on incentive policies, right? Erika,

552
00:59:50,680 --> 00:59:57,160
 you need three separate sections of that. And, so, you don't always pull out the retention one,

553
00:59:57,160 --> 01:00:02,920
 right? That's actually good for business. That's right. For us, for example, you get a bunch of

554
01:00:03,720 --> 01:00:09,640
 automotive companies in here. We're going to be just competing for each other's workforce all

555
01:00:09,640 --> 01:00:13,960
 the time. That's right. That's not good either, right? It's not good. It's like, you got to have

556
01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:20,520
 that diversity. So, there's a totally different economy, like medical or whatever, right? That's

557
01:00:20,520 --> 01:00:27,480
 growing while we're trying for here, right? And, a TIA will show you that. A TIA, with a contract

558
01:00:27,480 --> 01:00:32,760
 with the university and a consultant that does that, they can say, "Enough of that. We don't want

559
01:00:32,760 --> 01:00:36,920
 any more of that." Because, now, we're getting into the territory that hurts Peterbilt. So, now,

560
01:00:36,920 --> 01:00:41,880
 we need to go after something else. So, that's what a good strong TIA shows you is what the

561
01:00:41,880 --> 01:00:47,240
 breaking point of all that is. This is exactly what I'm saying about this business. That's it.

562
01:00:47,240 --> 01:00:53,800
 So, that we have an ecosystem of both of us. Right. And, that keeps our young people here, right?

563
01:00:53,800 --> 01:01:04,360
 Yeah. I mean, I think that the city's reliance on the developer to bring utilities in certain

564
01:01:04,360 --> 01:01:09,160
 areas. And, that's what I kind of asked. If there was a way we had kind of an overlay or

565
01:01:09,160 --> 01:01:13,880
 number one, where the city council wanted to develop a big. And then, where they want the

566
01:01:13,880 --> 01:01:18,680
 developments to be is kind of north of way, from my standpoint, when it comes to this type of product.

567
01:01:20,680 --> 01:01:26,120
 And, then, with the utilities overlay on that, they're not available. So, they're kind of at

568
01:01:26,120 --> 01:01:32,360
 least at this point. So, they're just kind of in interest there. And, the developers are sure that,

569
01:01:32,360 --> 01:01:38,040
 yeah, can't really, a business can't sum up that cost and the city's not willing to pay for it yet.

570
01:01:38,040 --> 01:01:43,240
 So, that's the catch. Are y'all operating off of a future land use map right now? Does the city have

571
01:01:43,240 --> 01:01:51,560
 a good future land use map? The 2040 plan already laid out there. And, I was going to try to squeeze

572
01:01:51,560 --> 01:01:56,840
 my little point of view in here because it was going to lead to number five, committed or dedicated

573
01:01:56,840 --> 01:02:06,280
 to staff, a dedicated staff. It's the idealism of someone coming in here to the city. They're

574
01:02:06,280 --> 01:02:13,960
 going to be expecting certain things. And, it does gyrate with business. Businesses want to know

575
01:02:13,960 --> 01:02:18,360
 what the school district is like and where are the parks located and where we're going to live.

576
01:02:18,360 --> 01:02:26,280
 So, the land use map is very important to see out to 2040 at least. We still have that plan

577
01:02:26,280 --> 01:02:32,520
 that things change. But, it is definitely a lot of work. And, that's where the infrastructure should,

578
01:02:32,520 --> 01:02:39,640
 and you know, in an ideal situation, once council adopts the top plan, the 2040 comprehensive plan,

579
01:02:39,640 --> 01:02:44,120
 and they say this is where we're going to build our infrastructure. We're going to build water,

580
01:02:44,120 --> 01:02:50,920
 sewer, electric, whatever. They're going to build their utilities based on that land use map.

581
01:02:50,920 --> 01:02:57,960
 And, so that growth should be following that map that's already there. So, you said 85, 15 inches?

582
01:02:59,080 --> 01:03:04,760
 No, council does have to put the infrastructure in because, you know, we're in a competitive

583
01:03:04,760 --> 01:03:11,320
 situation where these, I mean, I have to tell y'all, y'all are on this board. Like,

584
01:03:11,320 --> 01:03:16,600
 when businesses come here and they're ready to locate here, they're not saying I need a building

585
01:03:16,600 --> 01:03:24,040
 in six months or say I need a building six months ago. And, so if we don't have a site that's site

586
01:03:24,040 --> 01:03:29,240
 ready, that has infrastructure on it, that's shovel ready, then y'all don't have an economic

587
01:03:29,240 --> 01:03:35,720
 development program. Well, I'll add something, but this is what I do every day. So, I would say in the

588
01:03:35,720 --> 01:03:43,080
 last, Scott McDonald left, but while Scott McDonald here is our planning director for engineering,

589
01:03:43,080 --> 01:03:49,240
 the city has taken a very different step over the last 24 months on a huge water infrastructure

590
01:03:49,240 --> 01:03:55,480
 project that's going on, a sewer project that's going on out west of town. So, we have, it's not,

591
01:03:55,480 --> 01:04:01,080
 you know, advertised all over because it takes time, engineering time, and easement acquisitions,

592
01:04:01,080 --> 01:04:07,560
 and all these things. So, there are some projects that the city is doing to enhance that. I think

593
01:04:07,560 --> 01:04:12,280
 we've kind of moved into the weaknesses here. I think we flipped over a little bit. But, to what

594
01:04:12,280 --> 01:04:17,160
 Jeremy was saying, we're looking at a pilot industry and we said, okay, we want a financial

595
01:04:17,160 --> 01:04:25,400
 corporation here, a whatever, Wells Fargo or Schwab. I think we do have to identify some of those

596
01:04:25,400 --> 01:04:30,600
 sites. It's like, where would we have a spot for that? But right now, Schwab came again and said,

597
01:04:30,600 --> 01:04:36,840
 hey, you're going to build a 200,000 foot office soon. I know every side of this town, and it's

598
01:04:36,840 --> 01:04:42,760
 pretty hard to find. And that goes back to the conversation about safety, and where do we put

599
01:04:42,760 --> 01:04:48,840
 those sites? How do we access them? So, I think, you know, identifying some of those locations for

600
01:04:48,840 --> 01:04:54,760
 those types of tenants and making sure we're ready for those, to Jeremy's point of view, transport.

601
01:04:54,760 --> 01:05:04,280
 Yeah, and then, how are y'all on, you know, class A office space availability? Like, a ton of it?

602
01:05:04,280 --> 01:05:10,600
 Zero? Yeah. Okay, that's very common right now. Well, it's back to this own situation of where to

603
01:05:10,600 --> 01:05:18,680
 put them, where do they do, you know, you know, our wait, our offices is on January 8th, and all the

604
01:05:18,680 --> 01:05:23,800
 way out there, we have all these issues. Okay. And so, it's, where would we put them? Schwab

605
01:05:23,800 --> 01:05:31,000
 came to me right now and said, we want to put the campus or Google, I'd be going. All right,

606
01:05:31,000 --> 01:05:35,240
 that's fair. I actually want to capture that, that available sites are not just industrial,

607
01:05:35,240 --> 01:05:40,520
 but commercial too. Erica? I was just saying that the location goes along right now,

608
01:05:40,600 --> 01:05:44,760
 with Opportunity Zones, because they're coming out with new maps. We have to submit some sites

609
01:05:44,760 --> 01:05:50,680
 this summer. So, we have a couple of sites we've identified that have infrastructure issues. So,

610
01:05:50,680 --> 01:05:55,880
 that'd be another thing that would be good to discuss. All right, the Opportunity Zones stuff.

611
01:06:05,320 --> 01:06:13,240
 Okay. All right. So, kind of dig a little bit deeper into the weaknesses here. So, the first

612
01:06:13,240 --> 01:06:18,760
 thing that came up, at least five of you said, our greatest weakness is

613
01:06:18,760 --> 01:06:24,520
 siloed city departments and lack of interdepartmental collaboration. So, this isn't

614
01:06:24,520 --> 01:06:32,680
 with partners, this is inside the city. So, what is, what is this siloed city departments here?

615
01:06:32,680 --> 01:06:42,680
 I'll speak to that. I think you asked about both Jeremy and Lee, and the, you know, economic

616
01:06:42,680 --> 01:06:48,600
 development may well have one vision, and planning has an event, and engineering has a vision,

617
01:06:48,600 --> 01:06:55,480
 and none of them are really well coordinated on, when the food's on the ground, maybe from the

618
01:06:55,480 --> 01:07:04,440
 council level, it looks coordinate, but when I'm actually in the, in the weeds trying to get a

619
01:07:04,440 --> 01:07:11,960
 project through the whole process, you know, we identify, okay, well, we almost had sewer capacity

620
01:07:11,960 --> 01:07:17,960
 in our industrial area, and then we lost it, because there was a lack of vision in the engineering

621
01:07:17,960 --> 01:07:26,440
 project about how important having sugar costs to that, to future economic development opportunities,

622
01:07:26,440 --> 01:07:34,440
 it was essentially sold off for the price of the infrastructure itself, and left us with no

623
01:07:34,440 --> 01:07:49,000
 capacity in that area for several years of the future. And I even said it to somebody in engineering, and it's like, it feels like I don't talk after a long time, and 10 years, and nobody talks about it, and I don't talk about it.

624
01:07:49,000 --> 01:08:00,600
 Oh, he is. Okay, so that's a structural, internal operations issue. So, is the city manager here today?

625
01:08:02,040 --> 01:08:07,960
 Okay, so that's a, that's something that has to come from the city manager. The city manager has to say,

626
01:08:07,960 --> 01:08:13,240
 you're all going to get in our room together, you're all going to make sure we're all focused on jobs

627
01:08:13,240 --> 01:08:17,800
 and opportunities for our children and grandchildren, and that includes economic development, that includes

628
01:08:17,800 --> 01:08:23,000
 partnership, that includes planning, that includes development services, because engineering and the

629
01:08:23,000 --> 01:08:30,440
 council has to be, you know, the council has to make sure that that's, we want collaboration in working

630
01:08:30,440 --> 01:08:35,640
 together, and then that message goes from council to the city manager, and it's that person's job to make

631
01:08:35,640 --> 01:08:41,160
 sure that all this happens. So, is this the whole first city manager to be in meeting like this?

632
01:08:41,160 --> 01:08:49,480
 Sometimes, yeah. Sometimes. The first city manager, she's a city manager, so we're at economic development, she tries to take it as she can, I'll say,

633
01:08:49,480 --> 01:08:57,480
 but they, so from our perspective too, is we have felt the same from our perspective, and it's been an

634
01:08:57,480 --> 01:09:04,360
 uphill battle. However, we have implemented new processes where we're actually helping our others

635
01:09:04,360 --> 01:09:08,920
 understand economic development, because I think since the city didn't manage recruitment, the city

636
01:09:08,920 --> 01:09:13,880
 directors, they didn't understand what economic development was, so even, I think, city council were a

637
01:09:13,880 --> 01:09:18,920
 little bit disadvantaged, they weren't seeing the projects up front, so when we take our incentive

638
01:09:18,920 --> 01:09:25,240
 proposals to do their whole process, we first stop at city council during closed session, and we let

639
01:09:25,240 --> 01:09:30,920
 them know what's coming up their way. Then it goes to EDHB, then it goes back to city council, but I think

640
01:09:30,920 --> 01:09:38,760
 that has actually, sometimes with the way the partnership was in the past, it's hindered

641
01:09:38,760 --> 01:09:43,080
 the other city departments knowing what economic development is, and now they're using it in their

642
01:09:43,080 --> 01:09:47,720
 terminology, they're following us now. It's actually kind of overwhelming, it's great, I'm happy, right,

643
01:09:47,720 --> 01:09:52,520
 but they're sending us leads, they're putting two and two together, so it's improving slowly,

644
01:09:52,520 --> 01:09:56,680
 it's still up for battle, trust me, if you don't want to take an opportunity, I'll be all about it,

645
01:09:56,680 --> 01:10:01,480
 so you have to listen to me, but it's getting better, but we felt it too, it's one of those years.

646
01:10:01,480 --> 01:10:11,960
 Okay, and so in order for it to get from not great to better to ideal situation, there has to be a

647
01:10:11,960 --> 01:10:18,360
 room where all of y'all get together, the development services team, the planner, the engineer,

648
01:10:18,360 --> 01:10:24,200
 everybody has to get together, and it means something different, it's no offense to you

649
01:10:24,200 --> 01:10:30,200
 for anything, but it means more when they hear from their boss, the ACM, or the city manager

650
01:10:30,200 --> 01:10:37,560
 that says we're all on this together, and your performance, department officer, your performance,

651
01:10:37,560 --> 01:10:44,040
 building inspector, code enforcement, planner, engineer, your performance at this city is going

652
01:10:44,040 --> 01:10:48,680
 to be based on how well you help these projects move through, so y'all remember last time when

653
01:10:48,680 --> 01:10:54,200
 we did the training, we talked about frictionless, about removing friction, and so if this is a

654
01:10:54,200 --> 01:11:00,280
 friction here, somebody's got to boil this machine to where it functions right, and whether that's

655
01:11:00,280 --> 01:11:06,760
 council saying we want this to happen, or city manager saying we want this to happen, or ACM,

656
01:11:06,760 --> 01:11:15,960
 or whatever, this is what your reputation is, y'all, your reputation's not what some investor

657
01:11:15,960 --> 01:11:24,360
 tells you it is, it's what some investor from the outside says, and you remember my story about how

658
01:11:24,360 --> 01:11:30,040
 when these developers and builders leave and speak to this, you go to a sign and build conference,

659
01:11:30,040 --> 01:11:37,480
 what do y'all talk about? So you can get things moving the quickest, and which are the slowest,

660
01:11:37,480 --> 01:11:43,000
 right, they don't talk about least group, they don't talk about the okay communities, they talk

661
01:11:43,000 --> 01:11:47,800
 about the communities that they can't get a single project to go through no matter what, and I'm not

662
01:11:47,800 --> 01:11:54,280
 taking any more business there because they don't handle me with with kid gloves, and then they sit

663
01:11:54,280 --> 01:11:59,640
 around and talk about the places that are so great to do business that everybody took care of me,

664
01:11:59,640 --> 01:12:05,560
 the process was smooth, the permit process was easy, somebody answered all my questions,

665
01:12:05,560 --> 01:12:12,200
 the checklist stayed the same, the whole project through, and then they want to do more business

666
01:12:12,200 --> 01:12:18,520
 there, so that's an internal expectation that has to happen, so wherever there's friction,

667
01:12:18,520 --> 01:12:25,080
 we got to pull out the oil machine here. Another major surprise to me after I got on this board,

668
01:12:25,080 --> 01:12:29,640
 the airport had started a new master plan, and I don't think they'd ever talked to planning until

669
01:12:29,640 --> 01:12:35,960
 I suggested that they come make a presentation to this board, and it was like, you know, duh,

670
01:12:35,960 --> 01:12:43,320
 and even when he was there, I'm not sure they followed through at the same level, but my god,

671
01:12:43,320 --> 01:12:50,200
 when they started a master plan now, we talked to the planning department to see what the airport

672
01:12:50,200 --> 01:12:56,760
 needs to support. I need to defend staff a little bit here because our council has put

673
01:12:56,760 --> 01:13:03,400
 on the view of economic development, like multiple times over the last 20 years,

674
01:13:03,400 --> 01:13:10,440
 probably more times than the economics council, so I think that has crushed services and staff

675
01:13:10,440 --> 01:13:15,080
 a lot of times, and we've had a lot of staff turn over because they're headed down the path,

676
01:13:15,080 --> 01:13:20,920
 doing a good job, counseling the blips, and then all of a sudden they don't get in different direction,

677
01:13:20,920 --> 01:13:28,680
 right, so I've been on many boards rewrapping our codes and all these things over the 20 years,

678
01:13:28,680 --> 01:13:35,160
 and so I think that that's something that our city manager has to try to filter. I think that

679
01:13:35,160 --> 01:13:41,640
 maybe while we've had some city manager turn over over the years, and that takes a little bit out of

680
01:13:41,640 --> 01:13:45,800
 some of staff's hands because now they're just getting different correction under

681
01:13:45,800 --> 01:13:52,280
 any of these things. So I don't know the solution for that, and I don't think we're going to come

682
01:13:52,280 --> 01:13:57,640
 up with that solution, but we can identify it as a hindrance to say, okay, how do we manage that,

683
01:13:57,640 --> 01:14:06,280
 right, because that's just something. From a operations, from a structure standpoint,

684
01:14:06,280 --> 01:14:13,880
 the comp plan is the boss, not the council, not the city manager. The comp plan should be so strong

685
01:14:13,880 --> 01:14:21,560
 that the public helps write it, they help design the future ladies map, everybody participates in

686
01:14:21,560 --> 01:14:27,560
 the process, developers look at it and say, yes, this makes sense, and then city council adopts

687
01:14:27,560 --> 01:14:33,320
 the plan. That's the vision for Denton, and you shouldn't be able to get elected if you don't

688
01:14:33,320 --> 01:14:39,880
 believe in that vision. That the people wrote, the people wrote the comp plan, and so that should be

689
01:14:39,880 --> 01:14:45,000
 the vision, and then everything else should fall for that. The council gets elected because they

690
01:14:45,000 --> 01:14:49,480
 believe in that vision, the city manager gets tired because they believe in that vision,

691
01:14:49,480 --> 01:14:54,120
 the economic development plan comes from that, the downtown plan comes from that,

692
01:14:54,120 --> 01:15:00,760
 the land use map, all the pieces of the pie, the main street, downtown, all pieces come from

693
01:15:02,040 --> 01:15:07,000
 a good strong comp plan. Now, I don't know if that's, you know, the way it's operated,

694
01:15:07,000 --> 01:15:10,120
 but that's the way it's supposed to operate. That's why they call so much,

695
01:15:10,120 --> 01:15:15,160
 because it's such a big, strong robots of planning. So, I don't know if that's...

696
01:15:15,160 --> 01:15:18,200
 I think that's a good speech that everybody needs to know.

697
01:15:18,200 --> 01:15:29,400
 When communities have a really strong vision for the future, and they say this is what we want to

698
01:15:29,400 --> 01:15:35,800
 be, and this is what we want for our children and grandchildren, you can't get elected here unless

699
01:15:35,800 --> 01:15:41,160
 you believe in that. Unless you believe in that vision. So, anyway, that's...

700
01:15:41,160 --> 01:15:45,480
 Because you're talking about a line one person agreement, we're going to agree until we have

701
01:15:45,480 --> 01:15:49,960
 the majority of the direction, oh, we have a line. When we create a vision that we have a line,

702
01:15:49,960 --> 01:15:56,200
 most of the issues that I see on that piece of paper is, they were all working with different

703
01:15:56,200 --> 01:16:03,160
 calendars. I'm working with 2027 deadlines, you're working with 2029 development, and the

704
01:16:03,160 --> 01:16:09,000
 engineer has to get it done in 2026. So, and I know it's not silly to simplify it that much, but

705
01:16:09,000 --> 01:16:15,640
 that focus has not been expanded for the engineering as to what their impact is, and why they need to

706
01:16:15,640 --> 01:16:21,160
 think greater than being asked. And it goes back to the vision leadership, I don't know what you've

707
01:16:21,160 --> 01:16:26,760
 said, but they'll have the good calendars. And I think that's where this is the number one weakness.

708
01:16:26,760 --> 01:16:30,440
 People in this room with us, the number one weakness is this silos and apartments.

709
01:16:30,440 --> 01:16:36,360
 So, it sounds like y'all made some progress, but it sounds like that's still the number one weakness

710
01:16:36,360 --> 01:16:43,160
 here. And number two goes right with it, by the way. They do go together, and I think that

711
01:16:43,160 --> 01:16:50,200
 while we can't solve that problem that you've got written up there, that's outside of our purview.

712
01:16:50,200 --> 01:16:55,480
 I think we have the opportunity to put a tool in place that helps circumvent that problem.

713
01:16:55,480 --> 01:17:00,920
 For example, incident policy that helps create an infrastructure that's been removed from our

714
01:17:00,920 --> 01:17:07,080
 incident policy and still developing them, but it may not be constructed. And there's no point

715
01:17:07,080 --> 01:17:20,040
 system that they could think of. Oh, wow. We're forcing us to accept all of it, but we're the

716
01:17:20,040 --> 01:17:26,920
 ones that are helping write up our public plan. And if they're not feeling like people are hearing

717
01:17:26,920 --> 01:17:34,120
 and understanding them and their needs, their basic needs, then it's very hard to get things

718
01:17:34,120 --> 01:17:40,120
 pushed through because we do have that public input, the strong public input system here.

719
01:17:40,120 --> 01:17:46,360
 And so, if they're not feeling comfortable with it, of course, that's going to pressure the council.

720
01:17:50,040 --> 01:17:56,200
 You don't know if it's behind these to make sure that we are

721
01:17:56,200 --> 01:18:04,360
 in the most satisfied. And sometimes we don't do a good job of explaining what economic development

722
01:18:04,360 --> 01:18:09,000
 is all about, right? I mean, I could walk down the street and ask 10 different people and they

723
01:18:09,000 --> 01:18:14,280
 wouldn't know what that meant. But they do understand that they want their children and

724
01:18:14,280 --> 01:18:19,240
 grandchildren to have opportunity. They do understand that they don't wish their family

725
01:18:19,240 --> 01:18:25,320
 all moved away because their only opportunities were away. And so when you package it like that,

726
01:18:25,320 --> 01:18:31,560
 like what everything we're doing here today and tomorrow is so that our children and grandchildren

727
01:18:31,560 --> 01:18:39,880
 have opportunities in not in Florida or Oklahoma, they have them here. And when we want our families

728
01:18:39,880 --> 01:18:45,480
 to be near us, we have to find ways for workforce and education to succeed for that pipeline.

729
01:18:45,480 --> 01:18:50,040
 So sometimes we just don't do a good job of explaining that to families that this is what

730
01:18:50,040 --> 01:18:54,760
 your taxpayer dollars are going for us to help your children and grandchildren have opportunities.

731
01:18:54,760 --> 01:18:58,840
 Now, if you don't like your family and you want all your kids to move away,

732
01:18:58,840 --> 01:19:05,480
 then be anti-development. That's okay. But, you know, so that process. Okay. So one and two kind

733
01:19:05,480 --> 01:19:10,200
 of go together like a funding mechanism. So if you don't have a sales tax perforation,

734
01:19:11,320 --> 01:19:19,160
 infrastructure goes back with one and two kind of there to strategic alignments short term versus

735
01:19:19,160 --> 01:19:26,360
 long term goals. So I guess that kind of goes back to getting all this aligned. And Amy,

736
01:19:26,360 --> 01:19:30,360
 to kind of speak to what you were saying, this group, you're right, this group doesn't really

737
01:19:30,360 --> 01:19:38,760
 have the authority to mandate this as a group, but this group can say, hey, look, we're hindered

738
01:19:38,760 --> 01:19:46,040
 because this thing isn't working right. And so what if we host a quarterly round table and we

739
01:19:46,040 --> 01:19:51,880
 invite all these people, city manager, council, engineering, whoever, development services,

740
01:19:51,880 --> 01:19:58,440
 think we'll get all these people in one room once a quarter and say, let's all talk about what your

741
01:19:58,440 --> 01:20:04,680
 role is in the vision. And when we cast a vision and we start crafting a vision and casting the

742
01:20:04,680 --> 01:20:10,200
 vision, it's real hard for this to go sideways when they're all in the same room to go. So

743
01:20:10,200 --> 01:20:16,520
 y'all, I can dictate this, but you can say, uh, this partnership is going to host the first

744
01:20:16,520 --> 01:20:20,760
 quarterly meeting. And at the end of that meeting, you say, who's going to host the next one engineering

745
01:20:20,760 --> 01:20:27,080
 or city manager's office or planner or whatever, and just getting all the players at the table.

746
01:20:27,080 --> 01:20:32,760
 Maybe that's one thing y'all can control on him for last year. So pretty helpful.

747
01:20:33,560 --> 01:20:40,360
 I wouldn't have an issues like that. We hear about it in the community to let her talk to the other

748
01:20:40,360 --> 01:20:45,080
 departments. And then there's a situation, I guess a little less than a year ago where it had been

749
01:20:45,080 --> 01:20:49,640
 going through plenty of development for 13 months. And then they came back and said, they've been

750
01:20:49,640 --> 01:20:56,200
 having water and already gotten the rights from x-optical one and 380 and everything improved.

751
01:20:56,200 --> 01:21:04,920
 Then they switched gears, the values of kind of a change in home and, uh, pretty helpful in that.

752
01:21:04,920 --> 01:21:09,480
 And that's when it first came up to like, they need to be part of the economic development meeting.

753
01:21:09,480 --> 01:21:21,480
 This is all your sales team. Like when we say your economic development sales team, we're talking

754
01:21:21,480 --> 01:21:29,960
 about all these players, plus the chamber, plus the school superintendent, plus the CTE director,

755
01:21:29,960 --> 01:21:35,400
 plus all the university representatives. That's the sales team. And all those people have to be

756
01:21:35,400 --> 01:21:42,520
 on the same page about what we're doing here. And that's where you can uncover duplications,

757
01:21:42,520 --> 01:21:49,720
 gaps, misunderstandings, miscommunication, all that gets smoother when you do a quarterly,

758
01:21:50,600 --> 01:21:55,320
 you know, like we're in a development meeting, but just a bigger group than at four.

759
01:21:55,320 --> 01:21:59,640
 Kind of skipped all three, but with the recent election we just had, and there were some

760
01:21:59,640 --> 01:22:05,720
 constitutional sentiments talking about funding and things like that, maybe we need to go back

761
01:22:05,720 --> 01:22:10,120
 and look at funding, making miscommunication and see if there are changes that need to be made.

762
01:22:10,120 --> 01:22:11,400
 Okay. Like what?

763
01:22:11,400 --> 01:22:20,040
 I know that water tax goes against cut in property tax because it was pretty high back in the day,

764
01:22:20,040 --> 01:22:26,840
 and it's still hot. I'm not saying that, but maybe we need to have a tax corporation or

765
01:22:26,840 --> 01:22:33,640
 catalyst fund or something like that. Okay. So y'all are maxed out, right?

766
01:22:33,640 --> 01:22:42,600
 So in order for y'all to float the idea of having a sales tax corporation, you would have to

767
01:22:42,600 --> 01:22:46,200
 pull back a rebate, a tax rebate, or you'd have to pull back DARC or what?

768
01:22:47,000 --> 01:22:54,600
 Yeah, there was a vote back in like 1996, I think. So the vote failed for the economic development

769
01:22:54,600 --> 01:23:00,520
 sales tax. It goes to DCTA, debt and county transportation, which is another form of economic

770
01:23:00,520 --> 01:23:05,640
 development. So it would have to come back. It would have to go to a vote again.

771
01:23:05,640 --> 01:23:11,080
 Okay. We do have a council member that sits on the DCTA.

772
01:23:13,560 --> 01:23:18,200
 Okay. And we do have a catalyst fund that we created in '24 with the budget.

773
01:23:18,200 --> 01:23:25,800
 And then we were talking about infrastructure. We do have water and wastewater plan line funds,

774
01:23:25,800 --> 01:23:30,120
 two million dollars that swirled into the catalyst fund. Can I address any of these comments?

775
01:23:30,120 --> 01:23:35,240
 So not that we don't need to be even more robust, but you were here when we used a different way,

776
01:23:35,240 --> 01:23:38,440
 though. Yeah, it's been rolled into the catalyst fund. That's good, too.

777
01:23:39,480 --> 01:23:43,880
 Good deal. Okay. So, yeah, we can talk about exploring some more of that, too.

778
01:23:43,880 --> 01:23:52,040
 Okay. Anything else standing out in weaknesses to y'all? Some of the stuff I already mentioned here,

779
01:23:52,040 --> 01:23:58,440
 BRNA. You're going to say something? Oh, anything else standing out to y'all?

780
01:23:58,440 --> 01:24:04,120
 Well, I think right now we're getting ready to have our

781
01:24:06,120 --> 01:24:15,960
 next mayor, mayoral, local, municipal voting coming up in May. So I think all of us are

782
01:24:15,960 --> 01:24:23,160
 very interested to see how that's going to turn out because there's some significant swings in

783
01:24:23,160 --> 01:24:32,920
 diversity of thoughts among some of the, you know, people that are running. So I want us to

784
01:24:32,920 --> 01:24:38,520
 keep that in mind as well. We're going to have to listen to what they're saying. Usually when people

785
01:24:38,520 --> 01:24:45,560
 are speaking, they're going to try to, you know, run that into position. So, you know, as we've used

786
01:24:45,560 --> 01:24:54,920
 a lot of surveying purge, everyone here will listen, at least to the mayoral contest to see

787
01:24:54,920 --> 01:25:00,520
 how they are. If they're aligned with the people's vision. Right. All right. That's fair. And another

788
01:25:00,520 --> 01:25:07,320
 thing is y'all haven't updated the cop plan since 2020, right? I know I developed a strategic plan.

789
01:25:07,320 --> 01:25:15,800
 Yeah, but the comp plan is updated, I think 2020 sounds about right. 2020, comp plan? 2020.

790
01:25:15,800 --> 01:25:23,320
 We did a whole new one, the 2030 and then the update. But I mean, you did it in 2020 for 20,

791
01:25:23,320 --> 01:25:27,640
 that's the 2020 plan. Okay, so that's pretty, that's still pretty recent. I mean, there's

792
01:25:27,640 --> 01:25:33,560
 probably some shifts since COVID in there, but it's probably still at least 80, 90% for all in.

793
01:25:33,560 --> 01:25:39,080
 Okay. Public awareness issues. I think that goes back to what y'all were saying over here,

794
01:25:39,080 --> 01:25:43,480
 like the public just doesn't really know what all we do and how it works and all that stuff.

795
01:25:43,480 --> 01:25:55,640
 Watch it. Okay. Well, that's always pretty solid. Yeah. Yeah, we can. Yeah. Yeah,

796
01:25:55,640 --> 01:26:03,320
 two 30. You're right on the dot. Okay. You're a good time watcher. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Let's go

797
01:26:03,320 --> 01:26:08,760
 ahead and take a 10 minute break. 10 minutes is enough for y'all. Okay. There's a line out of

798
01:26:08,760 --> 01:26:14,680
 that and we'll take longer, but 10 minutes and we'll hook up with number three opportunities.

799
01:26:14,680 --> 01:26:23,880
 Do I have a recess for everybody? Yeah. Yeah. All right. We're going to take a 10 minute

800
01:26:23,880 --> 01:26:30,280
 recess. So we can't discuss business during that recess, right? That is correct. All right.

801
01:26:30,280 --> 01:26:38,680
 So we'll read, we'll read it can be a two 40. All of these back to work. Thank you.

802
01:26:38,680 --> 01:26:51,400
 Right. Let's move into number three, greatest opportunities

803
01:26:52,200 --> 01:26:56,200
 that you feel like are facing this program, I think economic development here,

804
01:26:56,200 --> 01:27:02,280
 before four mentions, four different people said the greatest

805
01:27:02,280 --> 01:27:07,560
 potential opportunity is the expansion of the terms. So who wants to speak to that?

806
01:27:07,560 --> 01:27:16,360
 I want to share that I can guarantee you with Amy, there's four different people.

807
01:27:16,360 --> 01:27:21,880
 Amy has been speaking about creating another industrial part or potentially expanding the

808
01:27:21,880 --> 01:27:28,280
 west part. We're creating another tours for a separate industrial park. And so I do think

809
01:27:28,280 --> 01:27:33,720
 that's important. I think if we're running out of heavy industrial land, could we focus on

810
01:27:33,720 --> 01:27:38,600
 like science part, could we focus on a different industry? That'd be cool too. But I think that's

811
01:27:38,600 --> 01:27:45,960
 what Amy just wanted you to complete. Yeah, because we have 350 acres, I think it'd be perfect.

812
01:27:45,960 --> 01:27:50,600
 It's industrial that we're developing right now. But I think Amy's point is let's find the spots

813
01:27:50,600 --> 01:27:56,440
 that the utility expansions as she's speaking earlier, she'll be back, she'll have the big.

814
01:27:56,440 --> 01:28:02,360
 But I think the tours helps with utility expansion. And that's one of the main reasons

815
01:28:02,360 --> 01:28:08,760
 she's pushing for that because there isn't a lot of opportunity for that unless the city just funds

816
01:28:08,760 --> 01:28:12,760
 it. But in those areas, sometimes it's easier to have a joint venture.

817
01:28:15,720 --> 01:28:21,640
 Right. So what's the right word for exploration, science? Yeah, there's science. I can't tell you

818
01:28:21,640 --> 01:28:27,720
 whether it would be. But it's just getting it done because some of them are multiple landowners.

819
01:28:27,720 --> 01:28:32,920
 So it may be an EDC thing, taking the lead and saying we really want to turn this here. We want

820
01:28:32,920 --> 01:28:37,720
 to drive development in this area instead of maybe waiting for developers just to come and say,

821
01:28:38,760 --> 01:28:46,360
 like, again, that goes back to, you know, engineers got to be involved, you know, but

822
01:28:46,360 --> 01:28:54,680
 Okay, yeah, well, we'll circle back to that. Okay. And then anybody else can comment forward,

823
01:28:54,680 --> 01:29:01,880
 you mentioned that. So I think one thing just kind of on that is that we did have our first would be

824
01:29:02,920 --> 01:29:10,440
 last meeting. It's really kind of the story of what that does. That last package version is very

825
01:29:10,440 --> 01:29:16,200
 successful. You can look at all the charts, you look at the ROI, the impact in that area,

826
01:29:16,200 --> 01:29:22,680
 need to be, we need to be informing people and educating people exactly what that means,

827
01:29:22,680 --> 01:29:28,200
 what that means. And that helps city council, what else? Everybody say, well, what I'm doing,

828
01:29:28,200 --> 01:29:37,480
 this is why it's not just giving people money or whatever. And most of the time,

829
01:29:37,480 --> 01:29:42,280
 it's developer funded in the first. So I think a lot of people don't understand that. Yeah.

830
01:29:42,280 --> 01:29:48,760
 And I think to transport this, we've done some 380 agreements with Johnson Tours, and a lot of them

831
01:29:48,760 --> 01:29:55,080
 have been wildly successful. But the people who put those in place are no longer in the EDC or

832
01:29:55,080 --> 01:29:59,720
 city manager or whoever. So I think it's important to go back and celebrate those lands. Yeah.

833
01:29:59,720 --> 01:30:08,920
 There used to be a slide that Westpac heard, it said all this land got 96 dollars in tax revenue.

834
01:30:08,920 --> 01:30:14,680
 Wow. That's a powerful placard to have out, you know.

835
01:30:19,240 --> 01:30:25,640
 There's just how do you, how do you do that? How do you do a very simple program like that

836
01:30:25,640 --> 01:30:32,520
 where it's very package and memorable? Well, like when we first, the city came to us and said,

837
01:30:32,520 --> 01:30:37,960
 hey, we need industrial space. So we went for the 400,000 feet building that we got a 380

838
01:30:37,960 --> 01:30:43,720
 agreement and counted the city. And the problem was, investors I saw didn't believe in market

839
01:30:43,720 --> 01:30:48,360
 rates, right? Once we went out and approved market rates, it was like, oh my God, they got

840
01:30:48,360 --> 01:30:54,920
 by 50 a foot for that industrial people. All of a sudden, the Western Boulevard starts blowing up

841
01:30:54,920 --> 01:31:01,160
 because, you know, rents got bulged. Right. And, but that was because the city came to us and said,

842
01:31:01,160 --> 01:31:05,720
 hey, we need this, but we want to do the taxing. So we were scared to death because rents were 350.

843
01:31:05,720 --> 01:31:08,840
 Yeah. Right. And the old industrial. Like they're just going to make you. Yeah. I mean,

844
01:31:08,840 --> 01:31:11,880
 we're signing personal guarantees with Jeremy, he's going to take my car.

845
01:31:13,720 --> 01:31:20,840
 And I think we got to celebrate these things when they work. I think if you look with that

846
01:31:20,840 --> 01:31:24,040
 and the 380 agreements that we've done and said, look what this all produced.

847
01:31:24,040 --> 01:31:32,360
 It used to be that we had people go talk often with some rotary lines and all the service clubs

848
01:31:32,360 --> 01:31:40,760
 to tell them what was going on in various places. There's been one single program about the airport

849
01:31:40,760 --> 01:31:46,920
 because I insisted on other roads. So we have about 18 months ago, but we're not taking advantage of

850
01:31:46,920 --> 01:31:51,080
 the opportunity to sell to the business people and we're in those clubs. What does this mean?

851
01:31:51,080 --> 01:32:04,200
 Did the city develop the airport that 15 years ago, that one area, they put the money up

852
01:32:04,200 --> 01:32:10,440
 and then it developed out and it became a success. It built out. In 1982, they put in

853
01:32:10,440 --> 01:32:16,280
 six or seven taxiways and we went into a recession right about then and it took six or seven years,

854
01:32:16,280 --> 01:32:21,480
 but with some incentives and things like that, it's fully developed and been producing lots

855
01:32:21,480 --> 01:32:27,560
 of money for years. There was a specific taxiway they added or a road they added,

856
01:32:27,560 --> 01:32:35,800
 like where they did the teenagers and all that. They did that with the public and then they build

857
01:32:35,800 --> 01:32:41,800
 up. Yeah, I think I wrote that down Rick. I think that's a really good point is that y'all do have

858
01:32:41,800 --> 01:32:46,360
 some great stories to tell like Lee's talking about. Who's going to do the storytelling? Well,

859
01:32:46,360 --> 01:32:51,960
 it can be this group right here, can do the storytelling at Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions Club,

860
01:32:51,960 --> 01:32:59,640
 Garden Club, wherever, but also at a chamber, your day well or your annual meeting or whatever,

861
01:32:59,640 --> 01:33:03,800
 somebody telling the past success stories of the city there, Main Street meetings,

862
01:33:04,680 --> 01:33:09,880
 Main Street events, state of the city, when the city manager and the mayor do their state of the

863
01:33:09,880 --> 01:33:14,520
 city, that should be a story that's told, is written in their script. So I think there's a

864
01:33:14,520 --> 01:33:19,640
 lot of different places to tell that and whatever else we can think of too, but I think you made a

865
01:33:19,640 --> 01:33:28,680
 good point there. Okay, also we've got Logistics Supply Chain Center of Excellence leveraging

866
01:33:28,680 --> 01:33:36,440
 Peterbilt, UMC, and Hereford. So what is that? Well, I'm going to tell you, I'm excited about

867
01:33:36,440 --> 01:33:41,000
 what Texas is doing and the logistics and the change of some of the policies that

868
01:33:41,000 --> 01:33:50,120
 Kim has talked to us about, but there again, I think that word needs to come out to others,

869
01:33:50,120 --> 01:33:55,320
 because while we can be excited, we've got the community excited about what's going on out there,

870
01:33:55,320 --> 01:34:00,600
 they're doing fantastic things for this community. Is this Center of Excellence already in place,

871
01:34:00,600 --> 01:34:06,280
 or is this just an idea that's a possibility? So UMC's Logistics Department is number three

872
01:34:06,280 --> 01:34:12,360
 in the country, no one has that. And so of course it's the logistics hub, so I'm so sorry,

873
01:34:12,360 --> 01:34:23,640
 I'll save that seat for you. So one of our goals is to start being kind of the logistics hub

874
01:34:23,640 --> 01:34:29,720
 for the DFW area with corporate partners, and taking that lead, and on a national level,

875
01:34:29,720 --> 01:34:35,480
 it's bringing in people to be a part of this. And you are number three in the nation. Number

876
01:34:35,480 --> 01:34:46,520
 three in the nation. Yes, I'm number three. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I mean that's a story that has to be

877
01:34:46,520 --> 01:35:12,760
 told on a national stage, right? Yeah. Okay, so we've got, so flip the page over, we've got

878
01:35:12,760 --> 01:35:21,960
 P3Ds for creative incentives. Is this somebody saying we need another P3, or you're saying we

879
01:35:21,960 --> 01:35:34,200
 need this P3Ds to come up with its creative incentives? There wasn't a lot of explanation.

880
01:35:37,480 --> 01:35:42,680
 Okay, what else stands out to y'all now? After you, Graham, is there a question already?

881
01:35:42,680 --> 01:35:49,720
 I don't see it all here, just maybe it's just that maybe the different industry,

882
01:35:49,720 --> 01:35:54,520
 and you talk a lot about logistics, because we're at, you know, the 35-hour attention,

883
01:35:54,520 --> 01:36:01,800
 we should receive over where we're at, but the UNTC is a lot, but the other pieces, I just, you

884
01:36:01,800 --> 01:36:06,840
 know, there's a lot of medical and other things that are coming, and those are good industries,

885
01:36:06,840 --> 01:36:13,400
 and everyone gets older, lives longer, and it's totally not, it's totally separate, so it's not

886
01:36:13,400 --> 01:36:21,160
 going to cannibalize on something you already have, right? It's a different piece. And I imagine,

887
01:36:21,160 --> 01:36:28,920
 I mean, I'm no statistician or data person, but I imagine if y'all were to go get a TIA right now,

888
01:36:28,920 --> 01:36:35,240
 that would be in your top five, just because of the population density, this whole DFW area,

889
01:36:36,200 --> 01:36:40,760
 and, you know, aging population and certain pockets. It does tie to logistics, because

890
01:36:40,760 --> 01:36:47,400
 a lot of the supply chain from medical, they can get in and out of here between here and Alliance,

891
01:36:47,400 --> 01:36:54,040
 and very quickly, so they're a big opportunity. It's the number one drive-in, just to finish your

892
01:36:54,040 --> 01:37:02,360
 strap plan, and it's the number one. It's the medical. I'm not a good surprise. Has anybody

893
01:37:02,360 --> 01:37:10,280
 been down to the Valley lately? It's crazy. Unbelievable. The medical facility, down in

894
01:37:10,280 --> 01:37:19,160
 McAllen and Barr and Edinburgh, they are becoming the next Houston. They have any specialty you can

895
01:37:19,160 --> 01:37:25,080
 imagine. People are flying in from all over the world to get world-class treatments in the Valley

896
01:37:25,080 --> 01:37:33,320
 of Texas. I mean, people that would normally be going to, like, MD Anderson and some other places,

897
01:37:33,320 --> 01:37:40,200
 so I think there's a way we ought to carve out some of that up here, not just for medical

898
01:37:40,200 --> 01:37:46,440
 treatments, but also the medical, industrial, medical industries, that's fine, to say.

899
01:37:48,840 --> 01:37:55,320
 So Friday afternoon, somebody works in Texas. They've removed all about $30, $90 from the fan

900
01:37:55,320 --> 01:37:59,720
 work that's going on here for some reason. I don't know what it was.

901
01:37:59,720 --> 01:38:05,240
 They've removed the funding for a lot of the projects that were planned,

902
01:38:05,240 --> 01:38:12,280
 which kind of impact the airport, because we made a road on the west side, and so something's going

903
01:38:12,280 --> 01:38:19,400
 on in Texas that will kind of impact us building roads in the short term, maybe not the long term,

904
01:38:19,400 --> 01:38:26,600
 but he said they've removed all of that. Okay, interesting. Okay, kind of awful bit of

905
01:38:26,600 --> 01:38:35,400
 opportunities. Okay, so what else? So here we go, streamline permitting again. That's an opportunity

906
01:38:35,400 --> 01:38:40,440
 for us to get, for the city to get better with streamline permitting, fast-track development

907
01:38:40,440 --> 01:38:44,840
 services, all of that. What else stands out to you all on this?

908
01:38:44,840 --> 01:38:54,840
 So one more time, Kim, describing last session, when were we all together? November, October,

909
01:38:54,840 --> 01:39:03,880
 November? November. I remember you talking about this number nine. Can you speak to that again? So

910
01:39:03,880 --> 01:39:08,840
 I don't remember the specifics, but I remember you talked about. UNT, we've actually designed

911
01:39:08,840 --> 01:39:14,280
 approval for this, and what we want to do corporate concierge program is it'll be public and like

912
01:39:14,280 --> 01:39:20,120
 released on June 1st, and it will be everything that we're talking about, a lifelong service to

913
01:39:20,120 --> 01:39:26,280
 do the corporations, help our city, our county, but also help our corporations like for workforce

914
01:39:26,280 --> 01:39:32,680
 needs that we need that the president does not want to just grow, just to build. We want, we think

915
01:39:32,680 --> 01:39:39,800
 the only way to sustain us is to beat industry demands. So that's our focus. It will be very

916
01:39:39,800 --> 01:39:46,840
 complicated, but I'll have a team under me that will help with this to make sure that, you know,

917
01:39:46,840 --> 01:39:54,120
 that we toward people that we, you know, have relationships with our people across it.

918
01:39:54,120 --> 01:40:00,840
 Okay, and so how, in y'all's plan to roll out, how does that enter, how does that entity interact

919
01:40:00,840 --> 01:40:05,880
 with all these other, with the city, the ADP, the chamber, like what? You're my new best friend,

920
01:40:05,880 --> 01:40:10,360
 I feel like I'm always talking to you. You're already here, you are the catalyst. I feel like

921
01:40:10,360 --> 01:40:17,160
 always talking, yes. You're whispering, swinging out things in your ear. But yeah, I mean, we all

922
01:40:17,160 --> 01:40:23,800
 have an invested interest in this, in doing well, UNT does well, TDAV does well, so we all have the

923
01:40:23,800 --> 01:40:28,760
 same goal, that it's how we work together, and I think that has been a seamless and creative

924
01:40:28,760 --> 01:40:33,880
 perspective. We have not delivered that. That is our goal, what we will be doing. Okay, and a lot

925
01:40:33,880 --> 01:40:40,280
 of times, you know, a government, a city government doesn't quite understand how a university runs or

926
01:40:40,280 --> 01:40:46,280
 how economic development runs or how a chamber of commerce runs, and so everybody kind of lives in

927
01:40:46,280 --> 01:40:51,560
 their own little pockets, but when you can have some kind of unifying message like that and say,

928
01:40:51,560 --> 01:40:56,200
 "Here's Bob, what we're doing helps you do what you do." Well, I'll tell you with Kim running that,

929
01:40:56,200 --> 01:41:01,880
 and the new president of the university focuses very much on where can I move my needle, right,

930
01:41:01,880 --> 01:41:08,280
 not just to do things, and I've seen Kim, her fast jobs, knocking it out of the park, so I mean,

931
01:41:08,280 --> 01:41:14,280
 not to put my workload on you, but I mean, if you, she will drive that to the point of the golden

932
01:41:14,280 --> 01:41:23,320
 goes without abstraction, so I'm really excited. Okay, and then someone, when y'all mentioned

933
01:41:23,320 --> 01:41:28,120
 financial services relocation, that was on there too, strengthening our relationship with the

934
01:41:28,120 --> 01:41:35,320
 chamber, and then affordable housing, opportunity with affordable housing. But the financial services

935
01:41:35,320 --> 01:41:39,960
 probably is more in the limelight right now with some of the tax applications in New York,

936
01:41:39,960 --> 01:41:47,240
 and the fact that the tax and stock exchange will be open June 1st, down in the city area, so

937
01:41:48,840 --> 01:41:54,840
 that would seem to be a hot area. Yeah, I think so too. I don't know, I don't know what that's

938
01:41:54,840 --> 01:42:00,600
 gonna, does anybody have any predictions of what that's gonna... It's already making the changes.

939
01:42:00,600 --> 01:42:04,680
 I mean, I know it's gonna make a lot of... I just read an article in the business journal about,

940
01:42:04,680 --> 01:42:09,320
 I can't remember the name of the building, but they're going in, it's all kinds of financial

941
01:42:09,320 --> 01:42:14,680
 services are moving in. There's 200,000 people, I can't remember exactly, but it's, it's maybe...

942
01:42:14,680 --> 01:42:17,960
 The governor is begging the rich people to come back to New York to know their problems.

943
01:42:19,800 --> 01:42:25,800
 Okay, interesting. Okay, good deal. What else? Okay, anything else on opportunities that really

944
01:42:25,800 --> 01:42:30,840
 stand out? We talked about a lot of those already. What is the end... I need to go back to the

945
01:42:30,840 --> 01:42:36,760
 affordable housing. Yes. Of course, that falls on city council to make sure that we're meeting the

946
01:42:36,760 --> 01:42:43,720
 needs of the community, and we have to listen to economic development folks. We have recognized,

947
01:42:43,720 --> 01:42:55,240
 and we are a mid-level financing group of people, I mean, but a workforce, a workforce. So just

948
01:42:55,240 --> 01:43:01,000
 hearing them and knowing what types of salaries are coming in, and all of that, we put them in,

949
01:43:01,000 --> 01:43:06,440
 we want affordable housing. We've made our mark on that. See, a lot of apartments coming up,

950
01:43:06,440 --> 01:43:13,240
 but that's where that affordability is gonna come in. Yeah. We've hit that out of the park,

951
01:43:13,240 --> 01:43:19,480
 it's already in the council, but that's not really what it needs for affordability. Okay. In a unit,

952
01:43:19,480 --> 01:43:25,720
 the kind of idea of beautiful, long, you know, covered home, but it's a place to stay. Whether

953
01:43:25,720 --> 01:43:31,800
 you like it or not, the truth is that a brand new teacher, fresh out of college, a brand new law

954
01:43:31,800 --> 01:43:36,920
 enforcement officer, they can't go build the house that our parents and grandparents built. They just,

955
01:43:36,920 --> 01:43:43,080
 they can't. So we're definitely down the road out of the park, bringing in that housing for those

956
01:43:43,080 --> 01:43:52,200
 professionals. Okay. And also one thing that we have found through great staff that we have in

957
01:43:52,200 --> 01:43:59,560
 the city is that we are much less expensive, our housing is much less expensive than other areas

958
01:43:59,560 --> 01:44:05,560
 in North Texas. And therefore, we've had to adjust and say, when we talk about affordable housing,

959
01:44:05,560 --> 01:44:11,320
 we can't look at the North Texas market and say, you know, in this area, you know, this is what we

960
01:44:11,320 --> 01:44:17,000
 need. We have to go even deeper to really make it affordable housing, because some of the programs

961
01:44:17,000 --> 01:44:22,200
 and groups that were coming in selling affordable housing and we were signing on to is actually

962
01:44:22,200 --> 01:44:28,680
 market rent or higher here. So we're already starting out as far as housing better than

963
01:44:28,680 --> 01:44:33,480
 those others in the area. And now we're being really careful saying, if you're going to say

964
01:44:33,480 --> 01:44:37,560
 affordable housing, then we're going to work with you to incentivize you at all. It really

965
01:44:37,560 --> 01:44:44,360
 has to be a deep cut for those that are lower and bottom lower levels of affordability. Plus,

966
01:44:44,360 --> 01:44:49,320
 you know, with Landmark and Craver Ranch coming in, I mean, supply and demand, I mean, I know that

967
01:44:49,320 --> 01:44:53,720
 there are going to be some nicer houses. However, they're, you know, both doing everything from

968
01:44:53,720 --> 01:45:02,040
 multifamily to townhomes to small zero lot lines to larger homes. So there's no way that that one

969
01:45:02,040 --> 01:45:07,320
 also had an impact on affordability here and the ability of people to own homes. So I think as far

970
01:45:07,320 --> 01:45:12,680
 as, I mean, I know that it's something that is concerning and it's nationwide, but actually here

971
01:45:12,680 --> 01:45:17,080
 in the city of Denton, I don't think the word gets out that actually we're, we're better than average

972
01:45:17,080 --> 01:45:23,000
 as far as affordability. Anyways, thanks for letting me come in and say that. Yeah, just so y'all know,

973
01:45:23,000 --> 01:45:29,720
 from an economic development industry side, so Brittany and Jamie can speak to this,

974
01:45:30,840 --> 01:45:35,240
 that we don't even, we're not even using the word affordable housing anymore because some people,

975
01:45:35,240 --> 01:45:42,040
 some people think that affordable housing means workforce housing and some people think that

976
01:45:42,040 --> 01:45:46,920
 means section 8 housing. So we kind of abandoned that term in economic development and so the word

977
01:45:46,920 --> 01:45:53,800
 that everybody is using now is income aligned housing and that says we have housing for whatever

978
01:45:53,800 --> 01:45:59,800
 your income is. If you're a student, we have housing for you. If you're a brand new, you know, person

979
01:45:59,800 --> 01:46:05,960
 in the work, in the workforce, early 20s, we have housing for you. Your mid-career CEO housing and

980
01:46:05,960 --> 01:46:12,840
 then retirement housing. A lot of people are selling their big acre lot homes and they're moving into

981
01:46:12,840 --> 01:46:17,480
 town homes and garden homes and we've got housing that's aligned with that fixed income or that

982
01:46:17,480 --> 01:46:24,280
 retirement income. So that might be a better, you know, language for y'all to use if you're preparing

983
01:46:24,280 --> 01:46:39,160
 for all those different types of incomes. You're having housing for that. These are all board

984
01:46:39,160 --> 01:46:47,880
 members. Vanessa is our secretary and Matilda's also the lawyer. Well yeah and we, are those two

985
01:46:47,880 --> 01:46:57,880
 coming back? Yes. He is, yes. And he's purchased them. Yeah, I think they've been set up. Maybe we

986
01:46:57,880 --> 01:47:04,280
 have some people in RCC but yeah, I mean you're welcome. Jamie, you are welcome to come sit up

987
01:47:04,280 --> 01:47:09,240
 here in my spot. I'm not sitting here. I'll participate. He does more than I do so like.

988
01:47:09,240 --> 01:47:16,120
 Yeah and we can also scoot Scott over and Brittany over and, you know, we can put you right here too.

989
01:47:16,120 --> 01:47:31,400
 Oh I'm good. Thank you. Okay, so anything else on that? Let's go to the potential threats. Now

990
01:47:31,400 --> 01:47:36,440
 we're not here to spend a lot of time on mitigating every single potential threat that might come your

991
01:47:36,440 --> 01:47:40,680
 way but I do think that there's some relevant things to just think about as y'all are writing

992
01:47:40,680 --> 01:47:47,640
 goals here. Six of you said one of our potential threats is competition from surrounding cities,

993
01:47:47,640 --> 01:47:53,480
 Frisco, Dallas, and Fort Worth. So what would y'all say, since so many of you said that's your biggest

994
01:47:53,480 --> 01:47:59,160
 threat here, what would you say is the threat that these other communities bring?

995
01:47:59,160 --> 01:48:05,480
 I know you're competitive with them but what's the competitive thing? What is it that they're

996
01:48:05,480 --> 01:48:10,600
 doing better or that you're scared of that they could do better? Infrastructure ready to go.

997
01:48:11,480 --> 01:48:17,400
 Roads and utilities going to sites ahead of time. We haven't had the funding to be able to do that.

998
01:48:17,400 --> 01:48:22,680
 Other places do. It's much more turnkey and then of course everyone always brings up class A

999
01:48:22,680 --> 01:48:27,480
 office space to accompany some of the manufacturing and other warehousing that we have here.

1000
01:48:27,480 --> 01:48:36,440
 We've touched on both those. Apologies, I had to blow up and had to stay there. But you're right on

1001
01:48:36,440 --> 01:48:42,440
 track with what we've already been talking about. Yeah and just the ease of work, the standardization,

1002
01:48:42,440 --> 01:48:49,240
 what I hear a lot of complaints are as we keep moving the ball we're like Lucy and Peanuts.

1003
01:48:49,240 --> 01:48:55,160
 That group's come in and I have represented commercial clients wherein they're told this

1004
01:48:55,160 --> 01:48:58,680
 is what you need to do and then they come and say nope you got to take all that out and start over

1005
01:48:58,680 --> 01:49:03,160
 and so and part of that I think is turnover and it's just tough to compete with other cities.

1006
01:49:03,960 --> 01:49:10,520
 We do have a lot of fun here and so it's hard to get people that really know how things work and

1007
01:49:10,520 --> 01:49:15,560
 how we want things to work but I mean for decades and decades we've had this reputation. It's not an

1008
01:49:15,560 --> 01:49:24,360
 easy place to work with and that's your if that's the reputation there is no amount of money. There's

1009
01:49:24,360 --> 01:49:31,080
 no amount of economic development professionals that can bring a better situation to bear because

1010
01:49:31,080 --> 01:49:40,040
 if your reputation is I mean I've like I said I've been doing this for 33 years. I have seen a ton of

1011
01:49:40,040 --> 01:49:45,240
 economic developers love the city they were in that they ended up having to leave because of

1012
01:49:45,240 --> 01:49:51,560
 development services because once they hand their client over to the city and that client doesn't

1013
01:49:51,560 --> 01:49:56,600
 get the white glove service that they got during the during the courting process when that person

1014
01:49:56,600 --> 01:50:01,000
 was porting the business they had them over to the city and they don't treat them like they're taking

1015
01:50:01,000 --> 01:50:04,680
 them to the prom they treat them like you know they're just picking them up on the street

1016
01:50:04,680 --> 01:50:11,080
 and we can't handle there's too much competition for y'all to not be providing white glove services

1017
01:50:11,080 --> 01:50:21,720
 here concierge development services. I think it's also like Sanger and Ford

1018
01:50:23,640 --> 01:50:30,520
 immediate area cities that it's more just a reflection they don't have to prepare themselves

1019
01:50:30,520 --> 01:50:38,760
 they're willing to. And you also have to think about is that what you really want to be though

1020
01:50:38,760 --> 01:50:48,520
 you know. It's a it's a it's a fun one right Scott Scott was doing driving that matter of fact he

1021
01:50:48,520 --> 01:50:55,160
 had put together a task force of a group of us and going through okay let's go through all the

1022
01:50:55,160 --> 01:51:01,800
 checklist let's go so Scott and Donald was driving that and whether Charlie takes his place which I

1023
01:51:01,800 --> 01:51:07,000
 think Charlie can do but whatever that that needs to be scraped from the rooftops of what

1024
01:51:07,000 --> 01:51:12,440
 you're saying right when that business comes in we've got in other cities that we've evolved in

1025
01:51:12,440 --> 01:51:18,760
 and what's called fast track program it's it's expensive you pay for it you know it's probably

1026
01:51:18,760 --> 01:51:26,200
 around 30 to 50 thousand dollars but we can set down to get your plans reviewed in 15 days.

1027
01:51:26,200 --> 01:51:31,240
 A big company that's not a lot of them. Who cares like yeah I just did it with 3.0 worth on assisted

1028
01:51:31,240 --> 01:51:38,840
 living. Your timeline is more important a lot of times. Yeah so I've said that for a long time

1029
01:51:38,840 --> 01:51:45,000
 to manage that you know I can go into details fire system setup the third party contract engineers

1030
01:51:45,000 --> 01:51:52,360
 could be in play. Anyway it can be done it's not hard to be done right so I think that would be a

1031
01:51:52,360 --> 01:52:00,120
 huge needle in the work but again that has to come from city manager of okay we are going to empower

1032
01:52:00,120 --> 01:52:04,760
 our staff to make the decisions to do these things because what happened in the past

1033
01:52:05,400 --> 01:52:10,840
 is a staff member makes a decision and there's some backlash on it they get handed over and now

1034
01:52:10,840 --> 01:52:19,000
 they're like oh I'm going to lose my job I don't make that decision again. We're talking about

1035
01:52:19,000 --> 01:52:24,760
 to get you to speak on how to develop services in white gloves any surgery that committee with us

1036
01:52:24,760 --> 01:52:29,320
 going through the checklist we've been working on those things and Scott even he was starting

1037
01:52:29,320 --> 01:52:33,960
 to drive that at a pretty high level so I'd like to hear your opinion on you know how what you think

1038
01:52:33,960 --> 01:52:39,320
 that means you know a fast track plan permit whether it's 30 50 thousand dollars I just did it

1039
01:52:39,320 --> 01:52:43,480
 forward you know how could that move the needle that's kind of where we're at I'd love to hear

1040
01:52:43,480 --> 01:53:01,960
 your opinion. I think the city has extended a fast track before and it wasn't defined in such a way

1041
01:53:01,960 --> 01:53:06,600
 that it actually functioned the way that it should now it does actually slow things down

1042
01:53:06,600 --> 01:53:13,400
 but I do think there's an opportunity there to do that and that could be

1043
01:53:13,400 --> 01:53:22,360
 a solution that helps that perception that developers cost them being

1044
01:53:24,840 --> 01:53:35,560
 anti-farmers. Okay yeah and that's that goes back to that reputation management that we talked about

1045
01:53:35,560 --> 01:53:41,160
 earlier like that's how your reputation is firming and the fast track permitting if that's you know

1046
01:53:41,160 --> 01:53:49,000
 for what can even say that some cities are doing that for free because the management has demanded

1047
01:53:49,000 --> 01:53:53,320
 that it shall be this way if we're going to be competitive companies want to pay for it like

1048
01:53:53,320 --> 01:53:58,440
 and that should be passed on to the contractor right so like if this if the city is having to

1049
01:53:58,440 --> 01:54:04,040
 contract some of those services that extra fee should go to pay the rush job for the contractor

1050
01:54:04,040 --> 01:54:09,400
 so city foreword use bureau veritas they do a full plan review they do your inspections they do

1051
01:54:09,400 --> 01:54:14,120
 everything through the process and the city gets a last look and plan when they're finished with your

1052
01:54:14,120 --> 01:54:20,040
 plan the city gets a nice look and then they get a last look at your client film and co and it

1053
01:54:21,080 --> 01:54:26,680
 we were happily paid because what our size project is like for what we lost an interest

1054
01:54:26,680 --> 01:54:32,520
 carried in the time we closed the land six thousand dollars who does that uh there's

1055
01:54:32,520 --> 01:54:40,040
 yeah and that company i hear a lot of people talking good things about that

1056
01:54:48,760 --> 01:54:53,720
 there are so few so few communities doing that that could be on the front page of your economic

1057
01:54:53,720 --> 01:54:59,320
 development website and that would get traffic y'all can put ceo behind that i mean seo behind

1058
01:54:59,320 --> 01:55:05,560
 that statement drive people to your website just for that one testimonial that they took care of us

1059
01:55:05,560 --> 01:55:11,000
 there was only one checklist four different contract four different permit officers told

1060
01:55:11,000 --> 01:55:18,200
 me the same exact story each time that kind of thing is what sells projects so okay um

1061
01:55:18,840 --> 01:55:24,120
 so competition i think we're really revolves around that it revolves around

1062
01:55:24,120 --> 01:55:32,040
 quickness to you know speed to market and white glove service and that can set you apart and then

1063
01:55:32,040 --> 01:55:40,440
 the thing that jill was talking about where it's uh um you know focus on what is it you just said

1064
01:55:40,440 --> 01:55:51,160
 you're awesome trying to talk about how few things i'm sorry about the reputation having shovel ready

1065
01:55:51,160 --> 01:55:56,600
 shovel ready we're also trying to say shovel ready so yeah so the site having the site ready to go

1066
01:55:56,600 --> 01:56:02,120
 there i think all of those go into number one before we get off this it's really from what i

1067
01:56:02,120 --> 01:56:06,680
 did it's the developer's bucket right when he's taking a large tract of land and saying i'm getting

1068
01:56:06,680 --> 01:56:12,200
 this ready so that goes back to where do we want those utilities where do you want to make us in

1069
01:56:12,200 --> 01:56:17,320
 our master company and then second to that it's what britney you know deals with on a daily basis

1070
01:56:17,320 --> 01:56:23,400
 i got an end user that needs that site so you got a planning process and then you have an end user

1071
01:56:23,400 --> 01:56:30,280
 building could be building and planning but britney your opinion would it be more valuable to an end

1072
01:56:30,280 --> 01:56:38,760
 user coming in saying we can get you on the ground faster or we give you more incentives what what

1073
01:56:38,760 --> 01:56:41,880
 do you think carries more weight getting on the ground faster that's what the time they're coming

1074
01:56:41,880 --> 01:56:48,200
 to us they need to break ground in a year or two and so if my biggest fear is when we hand it over

1075
01:56:48,200 --> 01:56:54,040
 to development services is that it's going to take a year or two right and so it gives me anxiety

1076
01:56:54,040 --> 01:56:58,840
 just letting you know but again we're improving our processes we're making better but answering

1077
01:56:58,840 --> 01:57:04,840
 your question yes master development so if we're saying okay we need to focus our ideas since we

1078
01:57:04,840 --> 01:57:13,960
 don't have edc dollars specifically because they were there wonderful trade how maybe we could

1079
01:57:13,960 --> 01:57:20,200
 something that doesn't cost a lot of dollars that could be an edc focus because my opinion i would

1080
01:57:20,200 --> 01:57:26,040
 rather have speed to market as a developer than tax incentives every developer i said that yeah

1081
01:57:26,040 --> 01:57:31,800
 that's exactly how does he help that though what how can we do that well scott donald's doing it

1082
01:57:31,800 --> 01:57:37,080
 i know and we can do it it's just we're redoing the checklist right now which is since scott's

1083
01:57:37,080 --> 01:57:43,800
 left to slow down my like uh our comp so i think if we could put together a program and advertise

1084
01:57:43,800 --> 01:57:49,480
 we can get you to market in this amount of time which that takes the city manager city council

1085
01:57:49,480 --> 01:57:55,000
 everybody's support i think we could do it with less incentives taxes incentives and have a bigger

1086
01:57:55,000 --> 01:58:03,480
 up right because the cost to do that is pretty low well i'm happy to help on that if if i mean

1087
01:58:03,480 --> 01:58:10,120
 that's not my area of course but if in this position that i'm in if i can be a convert to

1088
01:58:10,120 --> 01:58:16,360
 help do something now because i want to help move it out along you can even start like let's say low

1089
01:58:16,360 --> 01:58:23,720
 failure from a satisfaction standpoint you target certain markets with that so if it takes someone

1090
01:58:23,720 --> 01:58:27,960
 in california for example who wants to move here four years to do anything if you do it

1091
01:58:27,960 --> 01:58:35,240
 six months they're going to be like holy cow this this is really fast right you know when if you're

1092
01:58:35,240 --> 01:58:40,840
 trying to carve out what y'all's competitive edge is i will tell you this i work with economic

1093
01:58:40,840 --> 01:58:47,800
 development groups coast to coast almost everybody's terrible and maybe not this part the side readiness

1094
01:58:47,800 --> 01:58:53,320
 part but these things they're terrible white glove service there's a few that are good at it

1095
01:58:53,320 --> 01:58:58,440
 and but it's because it's demanded by the management that says what cities have you seen

1096
01:58:58,440 --> 01:59:05,640
 that are good at they're good at uh this competitive edge uh well i would swell and a lot of this

1097
01:59:05,640 --> 01:59:12,760
 depends on the economic developer pushing on too i would say abilene uh abilene abilene has probably

1098
01:59:12,760 --> 01:59:24,440
 the best economic developer in texas maybe in the south uh tyler texas uh in temple i would

1099
01:59:24,440 --> 01:59:30,440
 say temple uh but temple doesn't have temple has a p30 the city's not involved in it so the city's

1100
01:59:30,440 --> 01:59:36,840
 kind of excluded so but they do demand uh some of that stuff but they're they function differently

1101
01:59:36,840 --> 01:59:42,680
 but i would say tyler and abilene and um new bramples for a while but i don't know if they still

1102
01:59:42,680 --> 01:59:48,120
 are but yeah but it's just it's a decision right it's a decision that says we're going to be the

1103
01:59:48,120 --> 01:59:52,840
 best and if we're going to be competitive we're going to have available property and it's going

1104
01:59:52,840 --> 01:59:58,120
 to have utilities to us and if we're going to take care of you like we would take care of our

1105
01:59:58,120 --> 02:00:05,400
 newborn baby here and we have implemented frictionless developments are easy permitting

1106
02:00:05,400 --> 02:00:13,640
 fast track responsiveness whatever online you know some of these cities now are doing these

1107
02:00:13,640 --> 02:00:18,840
 online uh like domino's pizza you know it shows you where you are in the process of your

1108
02:00:18,840 --> 02:00:24,840
 permit order who's reviewed it what state it's in that kind of frictionless development and all of

1109
02:00:24,840 --> 02:00:29,640
 that and for us all that's who speak of working so let's talk about a couple negatives to that

1110
02:00:29,640 --> 02:00:35,480
 right because i think this is something we should really bring to the forefront of this whenever

1111
02:00:35,480 --> 02:00:40,680
 somebody else is bringing their project they go why is that project more important than mine right

1112
02:00:40,680 --> 02:00:48,280
 so another guy building a domino's pizza in town right or whatever it is you know that's something

1113
02:00:48,280 --> 02:00:53,640
 that the staff has to be prepared to answer the edc has to be prepared to answer because you know

1114
02:00:53,640 --> 02:00:59,720
 there's two sides that goes they're called city council this industry here my business has been

1115
02:00:59,720 --> 02:01:06,840
 here so we have to manage that also right and so that's that's been one of the pushbacks over the

1116
02:01:06,840 --> 02:01:13,480
 years so that's why i think if it comes with a fee that separates it right purchase this tier

1117
02:01:13,480 --> 02:01:20,520
 starts that's right and so i think we're on to something here i think it's more important than

1118
02:01:20,520 --> 02:01:26,120
 incentives but i think we would need to go through if we choose this to be one of our top ec we go

1119
02:01:26,120 --> 02:01:30,600
 through okay what's the community what are they what are they going to hear from the other people

1120
02:01:30,600 --> 02:01:36,680
 in the community right whenever we do this and why are they getting set apart and so that we can

1121
02:01:36,680 --> 02:01:44,280
 answer those questions because we need some time on this let's let's say yeah it really is a true

1122
02:01:44,280 --> 02:01:49,880
 competitive edge um and one thing i'll say to that too in addition to this i agree with the tier like

1123
02:01:49,880 --> 02:01:56,360
 if you want extra service you want to buy a lamborghini that's different from you buying the

1124
02:01:56,360 --> 02:02:02,360
 you know entry-level car or whatever so that's that's a one way to do it another way to do it is

1125
02:02:02,360 --> 02:02:07,800
 understanding that if we're going to provide white glove service we might have to have double the

1126
02:02:07,800 --> 02:02:12,280
 staff we have at development services or they may have to get different training or it may have to

1127
02:02:12,280 --> 02:02:19,400
 be different people correctly uh you guys are most better i think the initiative how do we get

1128
02:02:19,400 --> 02:02:24,920
 developed the services to pay for itself right that's been an initiative like in the last few

1129
02:02:24,920 --> 02:02:29,560
 years i don't think that should be an initiative i think we come over the services should be as a

1130
02:02:29,560 --> 02:02:36,120
 minimal investment to an edc compared to what's that if you could collect the whole tax and not

1131
02:02:36,120 --> 02:02:41,000
 have to give those incentives and you run that performer i think that the numbers tell the story

1132
02:02:41,000 --> 02:02:46,120
 right right and it's a city service just like any other city service in my opinion i mean you know

1133
02:02:46,120 --> 02:02:52,040
 if we're going to be you know it's going to be paid for out of the taxpayer dollars but they we

1134
02:02:52,040 --> 02:03:01,800
 can elevate certain parts of our city services to be white glove so it's just a matter how important

1135
02:03:01,800 --> 02:03:09,400
 but i can tell you this right here can set you apart from 75 percent of your competitors so you

1136
02:03:09,400 --> 02:03:15,240
 know number one this the number one site selection criteria in our country i said this last time until

1137
02:03:15,240 --> 02:03:20,600
 all of us are dead and gone is workforce development that's the number one thing do we have the right

1138
02:03:20,600 --> 02:03:26,200
 workers with the right skills and do we have the capability to train up the right workers and the

1139
02:03:26,200 --> 02:03:31,080
 skills that we need to employ people here in the future i would say this is probably number two

1140
02:03:31,080 --> 02:03:38,280
 once you can prove that you've got the skill set here we take care of them to the nth degree and

1141
02:03:38,280 --> 02:03:43,880
 i would say real close underneath this and it's really elevated since covid is quality of life

1142
02:03:43,880 --> 02:03:51,320
 incentives i would say four or five six down here it's just not and when i started in this business

1143
02:03:51,320 --> 02:03:56,520
 for the 1993 everything wasn't set whoever could throw the biggest pile of cash won the project

1144
02:03:56,520 --> 02:04:01,960
 every time because workforce was plentiful and uh you know this wasn't a big deal because everything

1145
02:04:01,960 --> 02:04:08,440
 was safe ready back then so anyway this is a i think this is going to be a game changer if

1146
02:04:08,440 --> 02:04:14,440
 y'all decide this is something that you want to push i i want to close that question jill and vicki

1147
02:04:14,440 --> 02:04:24,600
 as council members do you feel like that's a palatable objective given how like lades said

1148
02:04:24,600 --> 02:04:28,920
 earlier i don't think you're a fair bill yet the you know the council kind of flip-flops back and

1149
02:04:28,920 --> 02:04:37,400
 forth every couple of years with more pro-business anti-development kind of sentiment is this is this

1150
02:04:37,400 --> 02:04:43,320
 something that you think you need to get census around from the council level um

1151
02:04:43,320 --> 02:04:54,760
 so the comments are are taken i mean i the point is is taken as far as you are correct we have some

1152
02:04:54,760 --> 02:05:05,240
 anti-business and developer sentiment uh that's uh it's a small group but it's loud uh and

1153
02:05:05,240 --> 02:05:09,400
 unfortunately i think they sway some more than others you know squeaky wheel gets the grease

1154
02:05:09,400 --> 02:05:19,960
 however i think that this applies not only to business the way we think of business but it

1155
02:05:19,960 --> 02:05:27,320
 also applies to the affordable housing model models you know other types of services so i

1156
02:05:27,320 --> 02:05:34,600
 think that you know we settle in that it's just being a good partner versus this is to help us

1157
02:05:34,600 --> 02:05:38,600
 specific kind of business sure i think there's also a lack and i've talked about this in the

1158
02:05:38,600 --> 02:05:43,320
 past when i was on this board a lack of understanding of what economic development is and i even hear it

1159
02:05:43,320 --> 02:05:50,120
 today in the forums we're in uh campaign season and so you you hear things from people that it

1160
02:05:50,120 --> 02:05:57,560
 just can make me crazy because that's just not true um so i think that you are right in that i

1161
02:05:57,560 --> 02:06:03,880
 think part of what and what i wanted this board to do also is help carry that message uh so it's

1162
02:06:03,880 --> 02:06:10,280
 not just a couple of people on council saying this is why this is good for everyone uh at

1163
02:06:10,280 --> 02:06:17,080
 every income level um and those unable to make a living that this helps everyone uh to bring in

1164
02:06:17,080 --> 02:06:23,000
 these types of dollars to the community so um i think so because i think it's also going to be a

1165
02:06:23,000 --> 02:06:29,320
 multi-year endeavor this is not something i think that can be done overnight i think what i would

1166
02:06:29,320 --> 02:06:36,120
 be interested in seeing are these exemplary cities and find out what they're doing will they let us

1167
02:06:36,120 --> 02:06:42,120
 talk to them will they come talk to us um you know can we just look at their websites and see what

1168
02:06:42,120 --> 02:06:48,440
 they look like versus what we're doing um you know i i'm not sure what the comparables are but those

1169
02:06:48,440 --> 02:06:52,520
 are always kind of helpful as far as not reinventing the wheel if they've got a relationship way that

1170
02:06:52,520 --> 02:06:57,080
 here's how we made it easier and they're willing to have lunch with me or someone if we go down

1171
02:06:57,080 --> 02:07:02,520
 there uh why not include that or maybe even during one of these meetings have you know different

1172
02:07:02,520 --> 02:07:07,000
 people reach out and come back with what it is that they do differently but also what i don't

1173
02:07:07,000 --> 02:07:14,360
 want to do is be in us versus them i know that community services um has made huge strides there

1174
02:07:14,360 --> 02:07:21,240
 are some very smart professional people there um you know i i don't want to just blame uh the

1175
02:07:21,240 --> 02:07:27,160
 people there because that's not it you know it could be antiquated uh software or the inability

1176
02:07:27,160 --> 02:07:33,880
 to purchase certain um tools bless you that would help them so you know i'm also coming from a place

1177
02:07:33,880 --> 02:07:38,920
 of ignorance and so i certainly don't want to project on to that department in a way i'm sure

1178
02:07:38,920 --> 02:07:45,160
 they do get beat up a lot and so i think it might be also important to talk to and they've got a new

1179
02:07:45,160 --> 02:07:50,840
 head maybe we can have during one of our meetings that they come in and say and let us know how do

1180
02:07:50,840 --> 02:07:57,160
 things work and what do they think could be improved and how could that be improved and is

1181
02:07:57,160 --> 02:08:01,560
 it more people is it another tool so i don't want to leave them out of the conversation i want it to

1182
02:08:01,560 --> 02:08:06,840
 be an actual two-way conversation with them and um and not the adversarial at all because that's

1183
02:08:06,840 --> 02:08:13,720
 not going to help anyone so uh but sorry to answer your question yes because i also have to have hope

1184
02:08:13,720 --> 02:08:19,080
 and belief that when people understand what it can do for our entire community that they will

1185
02:08:19,080 --> 02:08:26,440
 understand that it helps everyone so i think you're right on the money i think that uh one thing so i

1186
02:08:26,440 --> 02:08:31,160
 added what you kind of said about the internal unity is another competitive edge so when you said

1187
02:08:31,160 --> 02:08:37,720
 what are other communities doing that are succeeding you know texas's biggest client is i mean biggest

1188
02:08:37,720 --> 02:08:43,320
 competitor is georgia i would say north carolina south carolina are right behind y'all but every

1189
02:08:43,320 --> 02:08:48,200
 year texas number one in business georgia number one in business next year is georgia next year

1190
02:08:48,200 --> 02:08:53,960
 is texas so a lot of projects that look at texas also look at georgia i don't know who y'all's

1191
02:08:53,960 --> 02:09:00,600
 competitors are within texas but that's texas's main competitor and one thing they do really really

1192
02:09:00,600 --> 02:09:06,680
 well in georgia is they get along the city and the county and the chamber and the edc and the

1193
02:09:06,680 --> 02:09:14,280
 school district it is like walking into it's when i go work over there is walking in a totally

1194
02:09:14,280 --> 02:09:18,600
 different environment everybody works together like you said nobody cares about who gets the credit

1195
02:09:18,600 --> 02:09:26,120
 i worked in georgia for six years and i can tell you a little bitty tiny town can have a prospect

1196
02:09:26,120 --> 02:09:31,960
 and they call up the governor's office and the governor will fly commercial and he will send

1197
02:09:31,960 --> 02:09:37,160
 his plane to this little bitty tiny little town so that they can take the prospect around to visit

1198
02:09:37,160 --> 02:09:43,640
 different places like the governor always gives up his plane because even at that high level they say

1199
02:09:44,440 --> 02:09:50,520
 we're beneath the the concept the customer the investor is the top tier over there and they treat

1200
02:09:50,520 --> 02:09:57,240
 them they roll them out you know they take them to the masters and uh take them on quail hunts and

1201
02:09:57,240 --> 02:10:03,160
 they really roll out the red carpet in lots of different ways that we don't do here in texas

1202
02:10:03,160 --> 02:10:09,000
 because we just don't walk in your comment that you know cooperation of course i'm exactly

1203
02:10:09,000 --> 02:10:14,200
 they're not heard anything about collaborating with the school district or the county which i think is

1204
02:10:14,200 --> 02:10:19,480
 extremely important because we're all in this together yes and and the school district can kill

1205
02:10:19,480 --> 02:10:23,800
 us or they can help us the county can kill us or help us and we can kill both of them

1206
02:10:23,800 --> 02:10:27,960
 i mean so i i think that really is important i don't think we communicate

1207
02:10:27,960 --> 02:10:38,120
 so that well i'm trying to say you know for the quality of life of part of we have gone we have

1208
02:10:39,000 --> 02:10:47,000
 taken significant consideration in putting ourselves out there to the rest of the world

1209
02:10:47,000 --> 02:10:53,800
 that we you know have this reputation of being a small town field type you know we're the cousins

1210
02:10:53,800 --> 02:11:00,760
 we're the small town field big city amenities that's what i've heard us say before so we are

1211
02:11:00,760 --> 02:11:09,560
 really uh wanting to uh keep that we have to be proud of sales or supporting small businesses

1212
02:11:09,560 --> 02:11:14,760
 but we never talk about those large organizations that are here is worth a lot of people don't know

1213
02:11:14,760 --> 02:11:20,680
 about what's happening on the west side of 35 unless we will take them over there they don't

1214
02:11:20,680 --> 02:11:27,880
 know where the airport is they're just here you know on the east side of i-35 and you know and

1215
02:11:27,880 --> 02:11:35,560
 that's what they know but you know we as a council we we're the ones that are supporting all of this

1216
02:11:35,560 --> 02:11:39,960
 verbally what we say all right you know a lot of times whenever we're running we'll say well the

1217
02:11:39,960 --> 02:11:44,760
 city's not doing this and the city's not doing that i'm gonna go in and save the world but then once

1218
02:11:44,760 --> 02:11:50,840
 you're getting here you can see um you know where all the hard work is and we do have to do a better

1219
02:11:50,840 --> 02:11:56,440
 job in projecting that to the people that we're speaking with they call us and they email us and

1220
02:11:56,440 --> 02:12:03,320
 they text us about all of their concerns and that's our job is to make sure that you know whatever

1221
02:12:03,320 --> 02:12:09,080
 wherever we say that we think we are we need to all be on board together right that's why i think

1222
02:12:09,080 --> 02:12:14,600
 that storytelling is so important i added uh assets to that so celebrate our past successes and our

1223
02:12:14,600 --> 02:12:19,720
 current assets through storytelling and you know there's not just a ton of cash sitting around

1224
02:12:19,720 --> 02:12:24,520
 right your city's not just like how do we spend all this money that we have laying around you have

1225
02:12:24,520 --> 02:12:29,240
 to make hard choices and some of the hard choices are what do we want to be and what do we want to

1226
02:12:29,240 --> 02:12:33,720
 be known as that do we want to be known as the place that provides opportunity for our children

1227
02:12:33,720 --> 02:12:38,520
 and grandchildren or do we want to be the place that says enough that i close the door no more

1228
02:12:38,520 --> 02:12:45,000
 no more jobs i don't think you leverage enough part because i know based on how people behave

1229
02:12:45,000 --> 02:12:51,960
 around our business that we're so close to like bfw here the reason i say that because they don't

1230
02:12:51,960 --> 02:12:59,000
 leverage that we don't leverage that because he developed it and gets more visitors than

1231
02:12:59,000 --> 02:13:06,760
 anywhere else in pack bar because anyone in the country can fly directly here and then drive for

1232
02:13:06,760 --> 02:13:14,600
 40 minutes and be where we are we have over 11 000 visitors in here that are blessed wow because

1233
02:13:14,600 --> 02:13:22,200
 we're i think it's just already we didn't know well it's just because it's easy to get to right so we

1234
02:13:22,200 --> 02:13:30,200
 we just don't really remember yeah we always talk about like what then but we don't talk about like

1235
02:13:30,200 --> 02:13:35,560
 okay i can go down the road for 20 minutes and be by three different legs they're not dead but

1236
02:13:35,560 --> 02:13:41,320
 i have to you know or i can you know go to horse country or i can see the dallas cowboys orange

1237
02:13:41,320 --> 02:13:47,880
 stars or whatever so we don't we don't really leverage that cheaper and we're easier to get

1238
02:13:47,880 --> 02:13:52,520
 around in and yet you can still do all this which is what i always looked about growing up here

1239
02:13:52,520 --> 02:13:58,360
 because concert because that's why we have a lot of visitors they want to come here see the plant

1240
02:13:58,360 --> 02:14:06,200
 and then go see the dallas cowboy yeah right and they can do it with one flight directly from

1241
02:14:06,200 --> 02:14:11,080
 wherever they're at right like that's a huge advantage that's right i mean no kind of huge

1242
02:14:11,080 --> 02:14:19,400
 accessibility i think maybe is the way to okay yeah that's a definite uh competitive edge too

1243
02:14:19,400 --> 02:14:27,720
 we often figure out how to tell that story yeah um they do that california reference that i can

1244
02:14:27,720 --> 02:14:33,480
 go to the beach you go skiing and go hang out in the lake well that's what we used to do in georgia

1245
02:14:33,480 --> 02:14:37,400
 you know you find at atlanta you can be in the mountains in an hour and a half you can be on

1246
02:14:37,400 --> 02:14:43,400
 the beach in four hours you can be at a gust of you know in three hours what they always talked

1247
02:14:43,400 --> 02:14:47,640
 about the proximity of the mountains to the gulf to the beach and so yeah i think they're leveraging

1248
02:14:47,640 --> 02:14:54,200
 that uh and you know this this should also uh dictate what airport what airports are y'all

1249
02:14:54,200 --> 02:14:59,800
 advertising in right now you're advertising in any airport yeah but we probably should

1250
02:14:59,800 --> 02:15:05,800
 forget that international can live build yeah for sure yeah uh well i mean other airports too

1251
02:15:05,800 --> 02:15:11,160
 alone i mean yeah yeah here too but uh so it just made me think of this when we were talking about

1252
02:15:11,160 --> 02:15:25,960
 georgia uh atlanta is the other huh yeah uh not that long ago i landed in um the atlanta airport

1253
02:15:25,960 --> 02:15:30,680
 i know it was dfw i can't remember which airport i think it was in dfw and you know how when you

1254
02:15:30,680 --> 02:15:36,840
 get off your flight you know go to that very little dim gates as its own baggage claim you know and so

1255
02:15:36,840 --> 02:15:42,120
 i was waiting there at the dfw baggage claim i had worked in georgia flying into dallas for something

1256
02:15:42,120 --> 02:15:45,560
 and i was standing there waiting on my baggage claim there's a big ad that my

1257
02:15:45,560 --> 02:15:53,480
 baggage claim so they know texas flights come into that thing into that baggage claim and it said on

1258
02:15:53,480 --> 02:16:00,280
 the wall why georgia is the number one place that in business in america in the dfw baggage claim

1259
02:16:00,280 --> 02:16:05,800
 and my buddy is the president of the state chamber and i took a picture of that and i was like this

1260
02:16:05,800 --> 02:16:10,680
 is pretty clever because he's targeting his audience business people waiting at baggage claim

1261
02:16:10,680 --> 02:16:16,360
 in his competitive state in his competitive city and so like y'all got to get strategic with some

1262
02:16:16,360 --> 02:16:22,840
 of that stuff too so when you have a tia your tia will dictate not just what business you should

1263
02:16:22,840 --> 02:16:26,840
 you should be talking industries you should be targeting but what businesses to target and what

1264
02:16:26,840 --> 02:16:34,600
 cities they're in so a good tia will show you that cleveland ohio or you know miami florida is

1265
02:16:34,600 --> 02:16:39,160
 the place to put up your ads so that's the kind of like strategic marketing that y'all should be

1266
02:16:39,160 --> 02:16:45,960
 doing and talking about this kind of stuff on your website as well okay so what else goes here under

1267
02:16:45,960 --> 02:16:50,920
 potential threats and if y'all are clock watchers don't worry about us not being right on we're

1268
02:16:50,920 --> 02:16:56,040
 never going to be on time on the agenda so we'll still get out of here on time but don't worry

1269
02:16:56,040 --> 02:17:01,160
 about us running over it's we're just actually you don't have more actually discussing this

1270
02:17:01,160 --> 02:17:05,480
 desired outcome trying to get to so what else do we need to bring up

1271
02:17:05,480 --> 02:17:15,400
 let's continue to be of course we've already talked about but to what jill said uh as far as

1272
02:17:15,400 --> 02:17:19,080
 council meeting was your stuff i've done a lot of projects here in town and even the

1273
02:17:19,640 --> 02:17:25,000
 some of the council members in the past not some on now some of the past online a lot of times

1274
02:17:25,000 --> 02:17:30,200
 if i communicated clearly to them what the benefits were and they just listened to what was important

1275
02:17:30,200 --> 02:17:35,480
 to them and incorporated a little bit of that in a lot of times i was able to get support

1276
02:17:35,480 --> 02:17:41,640
 just by listening so i think what jill's saying is a lot of it is communication and understanding

1277
02:17:41,640 --> 02:17:46,120
 of what is the benefit communicating that i think that was a very good point we should

1278
02:17:46,120 --> 02:17:52,760
 really drive home and then in our in fact it was staff also for the development services

1279
02:17:52,760 --> 02:17:58,680
 i think we have a pretty good staff but right now i think they communicate well i think they're

1280
02:17:58,680 --> 02:18:04,440
 pretty good but i think if we want to say as a city this is what we're going to promote time to

1281
02:18:04,440 --> 02:18:09,640
 market tell the story with the numbers see you could easily be put in a spreadsheet if we give

1282
02:18:09,640 --> 02:18:15,320
 tax incentives this is what we could keep instead of giving tax incentives but this is what it's

1283
02:18:15,320 --> 02:18:23,080
 going to cost us to go make this our cross we're going to die on right service i think the this

1284
02:18:23,080 --> 02:18:30,760
 spreadsheet tell the number so fast to go it makes sense to invest in in this because you know their

1285
02:18:30,760 --> 02:18:35,880
 workloads go like this right and they're doing i think they're doing a decent job i think it's

1286
02:18:35,880 --> 02:18:41,640
 getting engineering on the same page as development services if we make that focus and spend some

1287
02:18:41,640 --> 02:18:48,440
 dollars there i think the numbers tell the story if we can keep the taxes it always pencils out here

1288
02:18:48,440 --> 02:18:54,440
 you're a big city or you're a tiny little city it always pencils because not enough people are doing

1289
02:18:54,440 --> 02:18:59,960
 this not enough communities are making the effort because like you said this is a lot of effort but

1290
02:18:59,960 --> 02:19:07,640
 this is a decision this is just a decision council city manager the city has to decide

1291
02:19:07,640 --> 02:19:12,440
 we're going to be this competitive and we're going to be this competitive through these things

1292
02:19:12,440 --> 02:19:17,320
 and once that decision is made then yes it's going to cost some money it's going to cost some blood

1293
02:19:17,320 --> 02:19:24,840
 sweat and tears elbow grease but you can become the very best yeah and i think i don't know

1294
02:19:24,840 --> 02:19:31,880
 i don't know how to because we're going to have a very new council we have five seats up i'm going

1295
02:19:31,880 --> 02:19:40,360
 to post or we're going to have new people on the council and they there are some that i've seen get

1296
02:19:40,360 --> 02:19:52,680
 very bogged down in the development code committee and not really recognizing all of the purposes of

1297
02:19:52,680 --> 02:20:01,320
 the development code and and so i think that the interest of speed is going to be it's going to

1298
02:20:01,320 --> 02:20:08,520
 have to be put on them because there are many that have never been in in business or or developed

1299
02:20:08,520 --> 02:20:15,400
 anything and so i think they're used to a slower pace and don't understand the importance and so

1300
02:20:15,400 --> 02:20:20,600
 i think it would be helpful if it's not just me saying that but somehow we create an opportunity

1301
02:20:20,600 --> 02:20:28,200
 when we onboard these new council members to do quick economic development here's what's going on

1302
02:20:28,200 --> 02:20:34,840
 let's bring in some guest speakers bring me in and talk about what is people's problem true

1303
02:20:34,840 --> 02:20:41,000
 investors who've already invested yeah i think those are your spokespeople and right here that

1304
02:20:41,000 --> 02:20:48,280
 you know this is development code changes also speak to speed the market and white will of service

1305
02:20:48,280 --> 02:20:53,160
 it's the communities that say yes we have development codes but we are willing to change

1306
02:20:53,160 --> 02:21:00,680
 anything we need to to get the right development and to satisfy our vision that our citizens wrote

1307
02:21:00,680 --> 02:21:07,160
 in the comp plan if we're going to work for that vision the citizens wrote the comp plan and the

1308
02:21:07,160 --> 02:21:13,400
 citizens are demanding that they want these things so therefore we have to do this you found was back

1309
02:21:13,400 --> 02:21:20,440
 into you know but cities that say no we wrote that code back in 1974 and it stood strong and we're not

1310
02:21:20,440 --> 02:21:26,440
 even going to consider it those are the communities that people go not too much and work with them i

1311
02:21:26,440 --> 02:21:30,440
 think and not to discount it but i think it's currently being looked at solely through an

1312
02:21:30,440 --> 02:21:35,720
 environmental lens and there's no one else at the table explaining the purposes of the development

1313
02:21:35,720 --> 02:21:41,320
 code yeah so like you said like you just said like you got to have the people that are walking in the

1314
02:21:41,320 --> 02:21:52,360
 booth you put that up so i'm going to say just a moment of liberty here too did i draw out this

1315
02:21:52,360 --> 02:22:16,280
 tax triangle for y'all last time uh this is a very uh rudimentary exhibit but this is great

1316
02:22:16,280 --> 02:22:21,400
 from council members to when you're having these conversations this is really a tool for y'all to

1317
02:22:21,400 --> 02:22:29,320
 more than anybody but there's only three entities this is very simplified i was saying there's only

1318
02:22:29,320 --> 02:22:41,640
 three entities that pay taxes who are they citizens businesses and tourists right

1319
02:22:41,640 --> 02:22:48,120
 y'all have an award-winning downtown we know we get tourists in your downtown

1320
02:22:48,680 --> 02:22:55,000
 that's of tourists from tourists uh you have people who live here and pay taxes

1321
02:22:55,000 --> 02:23:02,360
 and you have businesses that are here pay taxes right so i'm not here to tell you what your

1322
02:23:02,360 --> 02:23:09,800
 triangle should look like some triangles look like this other triangles look like this

1323
02:23:09,800 --> 02:23:18,280
 and they work for certain communities right so what happens if i want to take peter bill

1324
02:23:18,280 --> 02:23:27,960
 to highland park inside highland park it's not going to happen right because the citizens say

1325
02:23:27,960 --> 02:23:34,280
 i live in a multi-million dollar house for a reason and i live there because i don't want

1326
02:23:34,280 --> 02:23:41,000
 businesses in my backyard and i don't want tourists in my backyard same other gated communities

1327
02:23:41,000 --> 02:23:46,760
 you know the wealthier the more the citizens are willing to pay taxes

1328
02:23:48,280 --> 02:23:55,160
 they can squeeze out businesses and tourists right but what about like a steel mill town like

1329
02:23:55,160 --> 02:24:00,200
 allentown pennsylvania what do you not see in a big huge industrial facility

1330
02:24:00,200 --> 02:24:06,600
 i don't see homes you don't see tourists right they've chosen for their triangle to look like

1331
02:24:06,600 --> 02:24:16,600
 this what do you see in orlando florida no industrial parks some citizens but they're

1332
02:24:16,600 --> 02:24:23,320
 kind of on the outskirts in the suburbs right because they put all their eggs in the tourism

1333
02:24:23,320 --> 02:24:30,360
 basket not all of them but 90 so the all three of those are successful highland park is successful

1334
02:24:30,360 --> 02:24:37,480
 steel mill towns are successful orlando is successful so there's no right or wrong triangle

1335
02:24:37,480 --> 02:24:43,400
 but if we are anti-business we don't want any more jobs here we don't care if our children

1336
02:24:43,400 --> 02:24:48,920
 and grandchildren have any opportunities for the future then we better be super affluent we better

1337
02:24:48,920 --> 02:24:56,280
 be willing to raise those taxes sky high to shut out this and to shut out that right and same thing

1338
02:24:56,280 --> 02:25:00,920
 with businesses you know we have all businesses we're not going to have a lot of this and a lot

1339
02:25:00,920 --> 02:25:08,520
 of this so this is a very simplistic model but like you can move your triangle to satisfy whatever the

1340
02:25:08,520 --> 02:25:20,040
 tax burden can be you know what is the what are the citizens willing to pay for and the wealthier

1341
02:25:20,040 --> 02:25:27,800
 you are there's less of this and less of this but a good a good you know equidistant triangle has a

1342
02:25:27,800 --> 02:25:32,600
 little bit of all three which i think is what you are trying to be right you're trying to not have

1343
02:25:32,600 --> 02:25:40,360
 exorbitant home citizen taxes and some places to work and let's get some money out of the tourists

1344
02:25:40,360 --> 02:25:48,280
 too right so i think sometimes this is all you got to explain to some people that we're trying

1345
02:25:48,280 --> 02:25:54,680
 to keep your taxes down by having some economic development right here so i know that's very

1346
02:25:54,680 --> 02:26:02,280
 rudimentary but no i love that i mean the point is the point is through to citizens who don't study

1347
02:26:02,280 --> 02:26:08,040
 economic development they don't study development code all they know is all this development and all

1348
02:26:08,040 --> 02:26:13,800
 too much traffic and my kids don't have opportunities whatever so whatever that's

1349
02:26:13,800 --> 02:26:20,920
 worth or i'm not going to steal that news i plan to here probably maybe so did that help at all

1350
02:26:20,920 --> 02:26:29,960
 will you say vicki okay okay so let's get back to um greatest potential threats anything else on here

1351
02:26:29,960 --> 02:26:41,720
 oh yeah don't change the air it's finally getting reasonable

1352
02:26:42,520 --> 02:26:54,840
 okay um work force retention recruitment challenges um citizen perception of

1353
02:26:54,840 --> 02:27:00,760
 economic development as corporate handouts so that is one person mentioned that that is a

1354
02:27:00,760 --> 02:27:07,240
 potential threat but you can just talk economic development is not about incentives as much anymore

1355
02:27:08,680 --> 02:27:20,600
 um okay and what do you think those challenges are so being a college now come to large universities

1356
02:27:20,600 --> 02:27:29,800
 what are we doing to those graduates in this town these industries um we're challenged as

1357
02:27:29,800 --> 02:27:39,000
 health care in our nurses in this area people are wanting more than to hire anything from those universities like those

1358
02:27:39,000 --> 02:27:47,480
 those young group opportunities want to go to the doubt so they want to go without and to where they

1359
02:27:47,480 --> 02:27:55,720
 don't know where were their perception of the funding like this okay and so we are we we already

1360
02:27:55,720 --> 02:28:00,440
 know it's more horrible to live here so how do we make it more fun here how do we get number

1361
02:28:00,440 --> 02:28:07,880
 and not college focus uh good plan you were elevating professional you don't professional

1362
02:28:07,880 --> 02:28:13,960
 y'all have a young professional group with the chamber what are y'all doing that focus on i think

1363
02:28:13,960 --> 02:28:18,360
 i've heard some stuff about your chamber or working on that what are y'all doing so it was a program

1364
02:28:18,360 --> 02:28:22,600
 that was created out of our leadership that class was they did identify the next generation is not

1365
02:28:22,600 --> 02:28:27,160
 growing up is interested in paying civic rent or getting involved locally so a couple things

1366
02:28:27,160 --> 02:28:31,640
 helping them connect to service organizations and projects a lot of young people that

1367
02:28:31,640 --> 02:28:35,560
 we want to live here also want to feel connected to the community so teaching them about

1368
02:28:35,560 --> 02:28:39,560
 whether it's friends of family or children's advocacy center served at connecting them to

1369
02:28:39,560 --> 02:28:44,920
 opportunities to stay here don't just grab it drop home um and then building a community within

1370
02:28:44,920 --> 02:28:50,280
 themselves you know they all speak the same language i do i learned some new cool phrase every time i

1371
02:28:50,280 --> 02:28:55,480
 go and i feel so old um but it also helps us to understand what they're going to be out of this

1372
02:28:55,480 --> 02:28:59,560
 community going forward i think i don't know if you'll send it or if you said it would be but

1373
02:28:59,560 --> 02:29:03,880
 elevates that experience we have a lot of services for college students and then how do we keep them

1374
02:29:03,880 --> 02:29:08,920
 in that second tier so you see young professional groups kind of split doing first career and then

1375
02:29:08,920 --> 02:29:15,240
 second career maybe family maybe home ownership whatnot and tearing it off so kind of a combination

1376
02:29:15,240 --> 02:29:20,200
 but you're right we're not seeing as many young professionals stay here what can we do to get them

1377
02:29:20,200 --> 02:29:25,720
 to not just want to work here or want to live here and if you're like most chambers you're probably

1378
02:29:25,720 --> 02:29:31,640
 losing participation that's like business after hours because people would rather spend time with

1379
02:29:31,640 --> 02:29:37,320
 their newborn family than come to business after hours and so chambers everywhere are struggling

1380
02:29:37,320 --> 02:29:42,440
 with this same thing how do we keep you know the young professionals they used to come to everything

1381
02:29:42,440 --> 02:29:47,160
 because it was the right thing to do but now they're now they're choosing their yeah now they don't

1382
02:29:47,160 --> 02:29:52,440
 want they don't like that yeah they're choosing their family yes yeah so yeah but i think that's

1383
02:29:52,440 --> 02:29:59,480
 a good thing to focus on is like how do we make this the cool hip but affordable place to stay

1384
02:29:59,480 --> 02:30:05,640
 after school i actually should have identified vanessa on the ev team is on the young professional

1385
02:30:05,640 --> 02:30:09,560
 committee and she would have done a much more articulate description of what's happening

1386
02:30:09,560 --> 02:30:15,720
 okay i want to say something it's you are on the committee yes it's a lot of fun i do think

1387
02:30:15,720 --> 02:30:19,800
 i feel a lot more connected and with the community and we have talked about

1388
02:30:19,800 --> 02:30:28,680
 um doing work service events together and we're thinking about doing one of our events

1389
02:30:28,680 --> 02:30:32,280
 maybe like every month so one of our next events is going to be

1390
02:30:33,640 --> 02:30:41,080
 kind of like a volunteer fair to try to help a lot but it's been a lot of fun it's very cool been

1391
02:30:41,080 --> 02:30:47,080
 meeting a lot of people here in the city so it's been a really nice experience to meet a lot of

1392
02:30:47,080 --> 02:30:55,880
 other people and young professionals um outside of the city like just not in the local government

1393
02:30:55,880 --> 02:31:03,640
 area like setting so and what do you mean by fair what kind of uh just like having like nonprofits

1394
02:31:03,640 --> 02:31:09,960
 in with other organizations like a resource yeah like um like come volunteer for us everything

1395
02:31:09,960 --> 02:31:15,160
 because a lot of them are just saying like oh we know where to go and it's like okay well like

1396
02:31:15,160 --> 02:31:23,160
 let's all go to the keep them beautiful you know try to do something okay good thanks for sharing

1397
02:31:23,160 --> 02:31:29,080
 um so something i've thought about is listen to here i don't have a minute but um the uh

1398
02:31:29,080 --> 02:31:38,840
 the thing about connecting workforce and education and stuff where are y'all

1399
02:31:38,840 --> 02:31:47,400
 had this group or has the chamber or the city have y'all or the isb done a career showcase before

1400
02:31:48,680 --> 02:31:53,960
 like i'm wondering about the old career fairs with security tables i'm talking about a career

1401
02:31:53,960 --> 02:32:00,760
 showcase jimmy jimmy did manufacture okay christina do you want to speak for that yeah um we work with

1402
02:32:00,760 --> 02:32:09,320
 the isd to the career fair with some of the major employers um and then we also work with the cte

1403
02:32:09,320 --> 02:32:14,680
 group okay as well so um like four times a year we meet with them something like a big park at

1404
02:32:14,680 --> 02:32:20,840
 peterville brings in their equipment and their trucks and like it's all it's like a parking lot

1405
02:32:20,840 --> 02:32:28,360
 and a civic center full of stuff like they recently had a heavy like a manufacturing day

1406
02:32:28,360 --> 02:32:35,800
 and i believe that they came to that right well and what what kind of stuff have y'all done as far as

1407
02:32:36,840 --> 02:32:45,000
 employee employers okay manufacturing day we do touch the truck all the time we'll bring trucks up to elementary schools people want that

1408
02:32:45,000 --> 02:32:54,360
 but not in a one place where every every sophomore freshman sophomore and junior gets on bus and comes

1409
02:32:54,360 --> 02:33:03,880
 to you we do that so we do that with a couple like we do that guy or but it's just because the teacher

1410
02:33:03,880 --> 02:33:12,040
 did it so i think that's another game changer that y'all could consider you know a lot of communities

1411
02:33:12,040 --> 02:33:18,120
 now really up in their game career showcase if workforce development is the number one site

1412
02:33:18,120 --> 02:33:24,280
 selection criteria and it is like what are you doing to elevate that experience like raise your

1413
02:33:24,280 --> 02:33:28,200
 hand if you knew in high school you're gonna be doing the job you're doing today oh everybody

1414
02:33:31,240 --> 02:33:34,600
 you did you do as a kid lee you're gonna be doing this okay we got two okay

1415
02:33:34,600 --> 02:33:43,960
 so a lot of young people in school they don't know what opportunities are out here because they don't

1416
02:33:43,960 --> 02:33:50,280
 know what it means to work at a university they don't know what it means to run a logistics program

1417
02:33:50,280 --> 02:33:56,120
 or to be a builder developer or to run for city council or they don't know what those jobs are

1418
02:33:56,120 --> 02:34:01,400
 nobody told me in high school oh you want to be an economic development consultant so like there's

1419
02:34:01,400 --> 02:34:08,360
 so many opportunities that everyone in this room could showcase speaking at career day of course

1420
02:34:08,360 --> 02:34:17,240
 but also putting on a really top-notch y'all there's really not a great career showcase in texas that

1421
02:34:17,240 --> 02:34:23,240
 i know have you been to the corpus christi one no but i heard the bass line okay i heard that they

1422
02:34:23,240 --> 02:34:29,080
 have modeled that after alabama right they don't model that after tesla lusa for sure but i i think

1423
02:34:29,080 --> 02:34:35,800
 i have heard about they have their regional schools high schools come out to a big um just like a

1424
02:34:35,800 --> 02:34:41,320
 fairgrounds building and um they have multiple employers there with their own booth and the

1425
02:34:41,320 --> 02:34:45,960
 students get all the outfit free t-shirts and bags and they get to talk to the employers and

1426
02:34:45,960 --> 02:34:50,440
 it's a really great event that's what i'm talking about where the kids climb up in the truck they

1427
02:34:50,440 --> 02:34:56,280
 put the welding mask on they put on the safety gloves they have a they get in the bucket truck

1428
02:34:56,280 --> 02:35:01,320
 and they lift up in the bucket truck that's the kind of career showcase i'm talking about i will

1429
02:35:01,320 --> 02:35:09,560
 get them papers and have them edit it's going to be so cool but why you weren't you doing everything

1430
02:35:09,560 --> 02:35:20,360
 they're real right we have a right line to your right so yeah so yes he has done they've done big

1431
02:35:20,360 --> 02:35:26,360
 one i've participated on panels with that before as far as the people industry so you know i know

1432
02:35:26,360 --> 02:35:31,720
 that they do it and i know it's still but i don't know the details just unfortunate yeah and i mean

1433
02:35:31,720 --> 02:35:36,840
 if nobody's here has participated in something of that scale i don't know does anyone here have you

1434
02:35:36,840 --> 02:35:42,200
 been to anything like that here didn't participate you've been to that where they bring out the 18

1435
02:35:42,200 --> 02:35:52,840
 wheeler the dump truck and i was the legal so okay so does that do a good job of i think it's right

1436
02:35:52,840 --> 02:35:59,320
 we don't we just do like it's not you just do it yeah i think yeah i'm talking about the city for

1437
02:35:59,320 --> 02:36:06,040
 the school i mean the last thing we did was that manufacturing thing so i'm just saying that that

1438
02:36:06,040 --> 02:36:11,480
 could be an opportunity if you're trying to move the needle on goals that could be an opportunity

1439
02:36:11,480 --> 02:36:17,160
 but i just don't know anybody in texas i mean corpus christi yeah i've heard about them actually

1440
02:36:17,160 --> 02:36:24,040
 but nobody's doing it like tuscaloosa is doing it i mean you know chambers are flying in from

1441
02:36:24,040 --> 02:36:29,480
 all over the country just to go sit in Tuscaloosa and watch them do it i mean it's it's the best in

1442
02:36:29,480 --> 02:36:35,400
 the country and i think that you could look at corpus you could look at there's one in south

1443
02:36:35,400 --> 02:36:40,040
 carolina too up in the upper part of south carolina that's done a really good job but

1444
02:36:40,040 --> 02:36:45,640
 i think that's something else i'm not trying to leave goals in your mouth but that's something

1445
02:36:45,640 --> 02:36:50,280
 else that i just thought of when jill was talking about something that could set y'all apart from

1446
02:36:50,280 --> 02:36:57,080
 other communities here well from like the universities where people are going to get

1447
02:36:57,080 --> 02:37:05,640
 down yeah we do we track it all we um do career more fairs than cases with us and it's still valuable

1448
02:37:05,640 --> 02:37:12,920
 i'm just saying that and we do track it uh most of our lives stay within bfw like significant like

1449
02:37:12,920 --> 02:37:20,520
 85 percent uh but they're you know clearly spread out yeah yeah oh with the career and technology

1450
02:37:20,520 --> 02:37:26,120
 center and they're getting ready to build another one i would think that would be an easy i'm just

1451
02:37:26,120 --> 02:37:30,920
 wondering like where those two things intersect right we got this these kind of industries here

1452
02:37:30,920 --> 02:37:37,000
 and we got this many people in that industry getting education that are leaving like like the

1453
02:37:37,000 --> 02:37:43,720
 verbs thing right yeah what do we do to keep verses here because y'all are training a bunch of them

1454
02:37:43,720 --> 02:37:51,320
 but they're going bad right and and it is a good br it is a good retention tool for youth retention

1455
02:37:51,320 --> 02:37:57,880
 because if they know oh because every station like the way tuskloos has it said every station

1456
02:37:57,880 --> 02:38:05,640
 it'll have like a 18 wheeler truck and it says if you want to have this job as a 18 wheeler driver

1457
02:38:05,640 --> 02:38:09,640
 this is the education you need here's how much the education cost here's your first

1458
02:38:09,640 --> 02:38:15,240
 paycheck you know your first salary mid-range salary retirement salary and they have that

1459
02:38:15,240 --> 02:38:19,640
 huge sign on every piece of equipment so you kids can walk through and go oh i didn't know what

1460
02:38:19,640 --> 02:38:26,680
 welder starts with this i could i could you know retire at this amount as a plumber and so they

1461
02:38:26,680 --> 02:38:32,760
 go station to station and i just think that that's that's a good way to keep people baby in the area

1462
02:38:32,760 --> 02:38:39,320
 is to show them oh i didn't know i could work at peterville and how many job titles y'all have out

1463
02:38:39,320 --> 02:38:46,040
 there you know all you could have your own showcase that says you can do this job this job this job at

1464
02:38:46,040 --> 02:38:52,680
 these amounts of money so i just think that nobody's doing a good job of showing kids what

1465
02:38:52,680 --> 02:38:59,400
 the opportunities are if they want to stay or should should they stay i don't know what i'm really

1466
02:38:59,400 --> 02:39:06,200
 um have recognized is that we don't talk about retirement you know like these two are never

1467
02:39:06,200 --> 02:39:10,440
 growing up that that was probably things you're working with your tire what are you going to do

1468
02:39:10,440 --> 02:39:15,480
 in retiring you're 16 years old wondering you know how long does that gotta be oh yeah but you know

1469
02:39:15,480 --> 02:39:20,840
 that's a conversation to be had because i'm one of those types of retired people that i feel like

1470
02:39:20,840 --> 02:39:26,360
 i'm doing whatever i want to do what i want to do it and how i want to do it and so just even

1471
02:39:26,360 --> 02:39:33,560
 getting that mindset into a younger uh thought process like you used to be um you know they they

1472
02:39:33,560 --> 02:39:38,520
 can look at that salary and look at the benefits and all that kind of taking that knowledge and

1473
02:39:40,120 --> 02:39:46,440
 berkeley south carolina has done just that berkeley south carolina has a program in their schools called

1474
02:39:46,440 --> 02:39:57,880
 uh cool c-o-o-l cost um it's not cost of living it's uh

1475
02:39:57,880 --> 02:40:05,720
 can't remember the acronym for but it's it shows kids at each of those stations that says you do

1476
02:40:05,720 --> 02:40:12,200
 this job you can live in this house drive this car buy these sneakers and actually has the thing the

1477
02:40:12,200 --> 02:40:19,240
 lifestyle it's like that's what it is cool lifestyle quality something culture something lifestyle

1478
02:40:19,240 --> 02:40:24,200
 anyway it shows kids oh you want that best boat well you need to make this amount of money to buy

1479
02:40:24,200 --> 02:40:28,360
 this boat but you can make this amount of money if you work this job at this welding company

1480
02:40:28,360 --> 02:40:32,760
 and so it's like it splits because they may not know what a hundred thousand dollars is they may

1481
02:40:32,760 --> 02:40:39,320
 know what fifty thousand dollars is but they know what they want the ram truck is whatever so

1482
02:40:39,320 --> 02:40:43,800
 they're not even motivated to get drivers like the 16 yeah what's that

1483
02:40:43,800 --> 02:40:49,320
 they don't want that's a whole other discussion

1484
02:40:49,320 --> 02:40:58,920
 it was in still motivation too yeah and i mean we're just trying to get kids to consider staying

1485
02:40:58,920 --> 02:41:11,480
 here so so and someone said oh my gosh lisa goes back to lucy's question i think from the

1486
02:41:11,480 --> 02:41:15,320
 recruitment perspective we are sort of incorporate more family oriented businesses

1487
02:41:15,320 --> 02:41:21,880
 so christen landed monster minigolf for us she had reached out initially to them to come to

1488
02:41:21,880 --> 02:41:27,560
 downtown but they couldn't find the site that was i guess big enough for them so they are they're

1489
02:41:27,560 --> 02:41:32,840
 going to another building outside of the long triangle mall but it still worked out but we see

1490
02:41:32,840 --> 02:41:40,280
 a need for more family oriented activities yeah it's like quality of life which people are way

1491
02:41:40,280 --> 02:41:45,480
 more concerned about now than they were before now that we learned a lot of people can work from home

1492
02:41:45,480 --> 02:41:53,000
 body of life shot up the site selection criteria list since then okay someone said the greatest

1493
02:41:53,000 --> 02:42:00,520
 potential threat is a disconnect from the channel so you know working keeping the chamber working

1494
02:42:00,520 --> 02:42:08,280
 together there uh negative employee attitudes towards developers goes back to what we were

1495
02:42:08,280 --> 02:42:15,640
 talking about earlier the developers are treated with negative attitudes um you're definitely not

1496
02:42:15,640 --> 02:42:22,680
 in the competitive edge okay so i asked you we're going to go through a little bit quicker what is

1497
02:42:22,680 --> 02:42:29,400
 the city need to start doing or what does the program need to start doing stop doing and put

1498
02:42:29,400 --> 02:42:36,120
 the accelerator on so y'all said what do we need to start doing extending utilities and infrastructure

1499
02:42:36,120 --> 02:42:41,880
 well that's not this group's job but you can surely launch with that right

1500
02:42:41,880 --> 02:42:51,720
 for extending utilities and input plan and make recommendations looking at the comp plan going

1501
02:42:51,720 --> 02:42:57,080
 okay this these sites fit our kind of use and make recommendations to the city council or

1502
02:42:57,080 --> 02:43:02,920
 engineering saying we believe these areas when they're making their engineering budgeting

1503
02:43:02,920 --> 02:43:07,320
 decisions or cip decisions we can make recommendations

1504
02:43:07,320 --> 02:43:19,640
 you can also make sure the other side well we are regulation but state and federal regulations that

1505
02:43:19,640 --> 02:43:25,560
 get back to our area because they're different cook count yep they are so heavy manufacturing

1506
02:43:25,560 --> 02:43:32,760
 like you're not like if you want to put a paint booth somewhere here that does over

1507
02:43:32,760 --> 02:43:38,680
 so much about it's going to take you three years to get it so those moving to cook county

1508
02:43:38,680 --> 02:43:47,640
 the non-attainment yeah yes the air quality yeah which denton helps pay for

1509
02:43:47,640 --> 02:43:52,920
 a lot of other cities don't help it but it's just one of those things it's like it doesn't make

1510
02:43:52,920 --> 02:44:01,240
 a lot of sense to recruit those companies know that this don't like don't really help us right

1511
02:44:01,240 --> 02:44:09,240
 it's a good point and yeah yeah we'll show you that okay labor i just say 20 minutes north they

1512
02:44:09,240 --> 02:44:18,120
 could do so i think that's a very fun opportunity and i was just right he said

1513
02:44:18,120 --> 02:44:21,640
 there's no point spending time with these horses

1514
02:44:21,640 --> 02:44:36,040
 all right what do we need to start doing educating and collaborating with those city departments

1515
02:44:36,040 --> 02:44:43,160
 we've already talked a lot about that streamlining the RFI and RFP response processes so

1516
02:44:43,160 --> 02:44:50,040
 two of y'all said that is that like from the governor's office

1517
02:44:50,040 --> 02:44:56,520
 i know this is the board responses so unless you combine ours on here no yours y'all staff's

1518
02:44:56,520 --> 02:45:03,080
 responses are still on this other page this came from the board then um what did y'all have to

1519
02:45:03,080 --> 02:45:10,360
 identify who said what but what is the what is the thing that needs to be more streamlined

1520
02:45:10,360 --> 02:45:16,120
 the way we respond to the governor's office just big black leather said permit 60 days

1521
02:45:16,120 --> 02:45:24,520
 but nothing else i mean then that would get everybody's attention yeah i'm gonna love that

1522
02:45:24,520 --> 02:45:31,640
 to you at least thank you um what do we need to start doing when you start a pr campaign or

1523
02:45:31,640 --> 02:45:36,280
 residence and council on economic development successes we already got that up bigger on the

1524
02:45:36,280 --> 02:45:43,080
 storytelling piece so y'all have said that multiple times already engage community on

1525
02:45:43,080 --> 02:45:49,640
 economic development potential and use that triangle for some of that and you know maybe

1526
02:45:49,640 --> 02:45:54,840
 i've just gotten sassy in my whole age but i just say it out loud we're doing this for your children

1527
02:45:54,840 --> 02:46:00,200
 and grandchildren and if you want your kids to continue to live here and raise a family here we

1528
02:46:00,200 --> 02:46:06,120
 have to have jobs for them if you're anti-development where do you hope all your family leaves you and

1529
02:46:06,120 --> 02:46:11,240
 moves to and that's really going to boil it down that's really what we're doing we're not

1530
02:46:11,240 --> 02:46:17,160
 providing jobs for us we've all got jobs we're providing jobs for tomorrow right and so

1531
02:46:17,160 --> 02:46:27,160
 talking about it that way to taxpayers uh number six leveraging existing the business as catalysts

1532
02:46:27,160 --> 02:46:35,480
 kima hospitals universities i'm not sure what what did y'all mean by that leveraging businesses as

1533
02:46:35,480 --> 02:46:42,680
 catalysts maybe that's kind of like that your system when compared to the ecosystem that

1534
02:46:42,680 --> 02:46:47,320
 i like fear-built suppliers coming here they're doing that same kind of thing

1535
02:46:47,320 --> 02:46:55,000
 for fema for example for a university or a hospital it is like stuff that they need

1536
02:46:55,000 --> 02:46:59,800
 the anchor business and then what is ancillary to that that we could target yes that makes sense

1537
02:46:59,800 --> 02:47:06,840
 and would help you be closer uh financial services relocations i already mentioned that

1538
02:47:06,840 --> 02:47:16,280
 um utilize the edp board for site visits somebody said so right now site visits are

1539
02:47:16,280 --> 02:47:24,680
 doing are being done by city and by chamber it's by us and our utility directors typically sometimes

1540
02:47:24,680 --> 02:47:30,040
 we include the chamber and then we'll include workforce solutions as well when we talk about

1541
02:47:30,040 --> 02:47:34,920
 site visits we're talking about existing industry visits right we're talking about property business

1542
02:47:34,920 --> 02:47:41,480
 um i don't know so i just answer for recruitment visits for brv visits i'm not for sure that's

1543
02:47:42,040 --> 02:47:48,760
 james sorry okay so when somebody said you want okay so for site business i guess that meant for

1544
02:47:48,760 --> 02:47:57,960
 like off-site like y'all going to visit uh prospect somewhere yeah we will for brv visit if somebody

1545
02:47:57,960 --> 02:48:02,440
 says hey they want some real estate reports or they'd like some information we will ask somebody

1546
02:48:02,440 --> 02:48:09,000
 for us from workforce development for sort of didn't isd or unt that's that's common well one

1547
02:48:09,000 --> 02:48:14,120
 of you wrote that you want this board to be used for in some business so i don't know if that's

1548
02:48:14,120 --> 02:48:20,360
 recruitment or retention but site visits so something worth thinking about it could be of

1549
02:48:20,360 --> 02:48:27,000
 course yeah okay what do we consider to be a waste of time what do we need to quit doing on this

1550
02:48:27,000 --> 02:48:33,080
 board we need to quit visitor tourism activities and leave tourism stuff to the cdb two people said

1551
02:48:33,080 --> 02:48:40,120
 that we need to quit attending conferences that don't align with our key sectors so i guess that

1552
02:48:40,120 --> 02:48:48,760
 meant for like trade shows if it's not one of our it's not one of our target industries we don't

1553
02:48:48,760 --> 02:48:55,640
 need to go to it it's just going with what but i'm saying it still makes sense like for something

1554
02:48:55,640 --> 02:49:00,920
 that's not going to bring it up right we don't need pursuing you know person so who is going to

1555
02:49:00,920 --> 02:49:08,280
 trade show conferences right now our team um so we typically go towards this in the disabilities

1556
02:49:08,280 --> 02:49:14,440
 conferences if it's related to aviation manufacturing we're going to um the u.s drone

1557
02:49:14,440 --> 02:49:20,120
 exo this year so we typically we typically try to stay in line with what our um existing industries

1558
02:49:20,120 --> 02:49:26,920
 are in our target okay are y'all seeing much interest from south korea here yeah that's actually

1559
02:49:26,920 --> 02:49:32,920
 yeah there's a reading a big delegation of economic did you go to south korea recently

1560
02:49:32,920 --> 02:49:38,920
 no there's a big delegation of economic developers from texas that just all went to south korea last

1561
02:49:38,920 --> 02:49:45,640
 year and now i'm seeing i just asked that out of the blue but i'm seeing a ton of south korean

1562
02:49:45,640 --> 02:49:50,280
 investment in texas just because i think it was like 30 economic developers went over there last

1563
02:49:50,280 --> 02:49:54,440
 year or how's the beginning out because we're getting a few calls different yeah that's

1564
02:49:54,440 --> 02:50:04,920
 interesting um okay so not not going to trade shows that don't align up with our existing

1565
02:50:04,920 --> 02:50:11,400
 industry or our targets uh it's a waste of time encouraging businesses creation that haven't

1566
02:50:11,400 --> 02:50:17,560
 produced results programs encouraging business creation programs that haven't produced results

1567
02:50:20,120 --> 02:50:26,520
 any idea what that is programs that encourage i guess it's like entrepreneurship

1568
02:50:26,520 --> 02:50:32,840
 i guess like we have so i don't know how many employers have come out of that that employ people

1569
02:50:32,840 --> 02:50:39,800
 it's been around a few years but i think it encourages entrepreneurship that's when i never

1570
02:50:39,800 --> 02:50:48,040
 as far as who has started business and then hired people but i don't i didn't write it i'm guessing

1571
02:50:48,600 --> 02:50:53,320
 that's my else contracts right contractors so yes what i mean they're supposed to help people get

1572
02:50:53,320 --> 02:51:01,240
 started yes they do um and they it's more like a they're tasked with building a ecosystem and

1573
02:51:01,240 --> 02:51:08,040
 they have small business pit competitions and they work with twu on a few accelerator programs but

1574
02:51:08,040 --> 02:51:17,400
 and they also have like a full-time co-working spot too so um i really want to but we don't know how

1575
02:51:17,400 --> 02:51:23,000
 many businesses they produce or they send reports i just don't know the total i haven't told you

1576
02:51:23,000 --> 02:51:31,560
 um their reports are normally kind of explaining like how we people work in their co-working spot

1577
02:51:31,560 --> 02:51:37,800
 or how many businesses working there so their reports don't just lead to like businesses created

1578
02:51:37,800 --> 02:51:43,320
 or llc's lists have them whatever they have like program participants for the flip side of the

1579
02:51:43,320 --> 02:51:48,120
 business model that is the accelerator and all that but it doesn't have that job in that

1580
02:51:48,120 --> 02:51:54,520
 team of defenders is an example of one that came out of stoke what founders team of defenders

1581
02:51:54,520 --> 02:52:01,720
 what is that so say it one more time team of defenders team of defenders what kind of company

1582
02:52:01,720 --> 02:52:06,040
 is that they actually were a recipient of our first entrepreneurial tech grant as well

1583
02:52:06,040 --> 02:52:12,040
 so they are a hub and spoke company um they have different offshoots but their storage defender is

1584
02:52:12,040 --> 02:52:19,640
 really taken off so they um do these um units they deal in storage units but they do the uh like the

1585
02:52:19,640 --> 02:52:24,840
 it technical thing they have these little things they put on to each unit they're magnetic they have

1586
02:52:24,840 --> 02:52:30,680
 a patent on a battery that lasts an exorbitant amount of time and they can communicate so it's

1587
02:52:30,680 --> 02:52:37,720
 it's security basically but they on the site visit they they um walked us through it like we own one

1588
02:52:37,720 --> 02:52:41,960
 and we had three different cell phones and be like you're the primary you're the backup and

1589
02:52:41,960 --> 02:52:48,920
 you're x and then ran through that whole system so maybe that's what that math is about 18 now we

1590
02:52:48,920 --> 02:52:56,200
 started to so they've grown in employees that's fabulous i've not heard of that company it's just

1591
02:52:56,200 --> 02:53:02,840
 one of those things it's it's it's uh it's like venture right like how much money do you want to

1592
02:53:02,840 --> 02:53:07,880
 put in that it's probably part of your portfolio whatever you just don't go crazy with it at the

1593
02:53:07,880 --> 02:53:13,960
 same time if it's kind of breaking even or making your phone right look yeah it's probably something

1594
02:53:13,960 --> 02:53:17,880
 that you're going to get you're just hosting eventually you're getting uniform right i mean

1595
02:53:17,880 --> 02:53:22,600
 that's really what that's all about and all of this is a policy concern that's just like

1596
02:53:22,600 --> 02:53:27,640
 is this eddie is this economic development partnership going to be focused on

1597
02:53:27,640 --> 02:53:33,480
 entrepreneurship or is it going to be focused more on bre and recruitment stuff like that okay um

1598
02:53:35,320 --> 02:53:40,520
 and then a lot of you said nothing's wrong nothing needs to be cut i'm cool with the current

1599
02:53:40,520 --> 02:53:45,480
 direction okay what's working so well that we need to put the accelerator on we need to put the

1600
02:53:45,480 --> 02:53:50,680
 accelerator on our chamber partnership and business retention efforts so we've covered that a lot

1601
02:53:50,680 --> 02:53:56,680
 our tours expansion covered that our stakeholder university coordination with industry recruitment

1602
02:53:56,680 --> 02:54:06,040
 covered that lead gen and bidding on opportunities uh what is that lead gen

1603
02:54:06,040 --> 02:54:15,480
 is that y'all securing leads otherwise i think it's maybe i didn't write it but maybe

1604
02:54:15,480 --> 02:54:21,240
 it's just picking specific industries and say let's go lead generate on leaks maybe that's

1605
02:54:24,760 --> 02:54:27,080
 and don't tell me any ways to direct leads

1606
02:54:27,080 --> 02:54:36,840
 you know because this will accelerate on it yeah it sounds like you're already doing some of it

1607
02:54:36,840 --> 02:54:42,680
 um don't tell me you do have a good solid tia right now or not that's how it is

1608
02:54:42,680 --> 02:54:51,320
 it doesn't work on it um and some of those actually have a lead gen component at the back of it like

1609
02:54:51,320 --> 02:55:00,120
 once you you can buy a ta and you can buy a tag with like lead gen at the back um so uh okay

1610
02:55:00,120 --> 02:55:06,360
 what else the pr the citizens and council on storytelling again

1611
02:55:06,360 --> 02:55:15,400
 um talking to existing business owners bre again uh creating irresistible package

1612
02:55:16,120 --> 02:55:22,840
 that goes back to this competitive edge schools correct business all that in there um anything

1613
02:55:22,840 --> 02:55:29,640
 anybody want to comment on either okay what do you think need to be the top two goals

1614
02:55:29,640 --> 02:55:36,040
 so as we're kind of thinking about goal packaging here and i mentioned you know we need three to

1615
02:55:36,040 --> 02:55:41,080
 seven goals which we're not going to write the goal this minute but i want you to think about

1616
02:55:41,080 --> 02:55:47,480
 this is the compilation and then on the next page is your actual word for word i did want to capture

1617
02:55:47,480 --> 02:55:53,640
 all the word for word on this one uh but what do you think needed the top two goals uh several

1618
02:55:53,640 --> 02:56:00,440
 of you said unified one economic vision so goals that we can all get behind and that way everybody

1619
02:56:00,440 --> 02:56:05,560
 in the room can believe in infrastructure investment utilities extension even though

1620
02:56:05,560 --> 02:56:10,040
 y'all might i can control that it sounds like you feel pretty confident y'all can influence

1621
02:56:10,040 --> 02:56:17,320
 that some of that increased competitiveness that already rose up here uh so a lot of this stuff's

1622
02:56:17,320 --> 02:56:22,280
 already coming out from all these other pieces but this was just putting it together rebuild

1623
02:56:22,280 --> 02:56:34,040
 trust and clarify the city's role in economic development so um i think that could be from

1624
02:56:34,040 --> 02:56:39,720
 city's economic development department but also other partners like development services is that

1625
02:56:40,040 --> 02:56:48,360
 what this means and what is the story going y'all refresh my memory what is the rebuild trust part

1626
02:56:48,360 --> 02:56:57,160
 was that like past situations here that aren't great i would just say the city council celebrate

1627
02:56:57,160 --> 02:57:02,200
 the things right bring the lens to attention which tell the stories all the time look this work

1628
02:57:02,840 --> 02:57:13,560
 just like okay streamline incentive processes erica's already working on that

1629
02:57:13,560 --> 02:57:19,400
 community engagement telling the story funding improvements we got that managing expectations

1630
02:57:19,400 --> 02:57:24,520
 that's what's achievable you know what can we realistically do in the next two years

1631
02:57:24,520 --> 02:57:31,880
 um cast a larger vision with ideas sharing mechanism uh which kind of goes the same as

1632
02:57:31,880 --> 02:57:38,360
 number one then review comparable uh comparable cities and compete better only i didn't write it

1633
02:57:38,360 --> 02:57:44,600
 but i like it yeah and i think this right here speaks to a lot of that but i think it's also

1634
02:57:44,600 --> 02:57:51,720
 healthy to say who are competitors and if you do a target industry analysis it's crystal clear

1635
02:57:51,720 --> 02:57:58,360
 and it might be some town you've never heard of in idaho or north dakota north carolina you really

1636
02:57:58,360 --> 02:58:02,920
 don't know who you're you might know who your competitors are in the region because y'all work

1637
02:58:02,920 --> 02:58:08,760
 projects and you lose one to another neighboring community uh but i think knowing who your texas

1638
02:58:08,760 --> 02:58:15,400
 competitors are is different from knowing who your long list competitors are on the on the you know

1639
02:58:15,400 --> 02:58:22,920
 the global marketplace so um and then here's the actuals on the next page so you can actually see

1640
02:58:22,920 --> 02:58:29,800
 y'all's word for word um i'm not gonna read all this i'm just gonna let's read this for just a

1641
02:58:29,800 --> 02:58:35,560
 minute and then you tell me if you see anything here that i didn't do a good job of summarizing

1642
02:58:35,560 --> 02:58:43,560
 on the previous page some of these stood out to me though so i wanted to kind of work for

1643
02:58:52,920 --> 02:58:53,560
 you

1644
02:59:22,920 --> 02:59:23,420
 you

1645
02:59:52,920 --> 03:00:06,920
 uh we're reading the back page on the board oh the word these were y'all's word for word responses

1646
03:00:06,920 --> 03:00:19,080
 i didn't know what that meant utilities in a circle that is not

1647
03:00:20,680 --> 03:00:24,840
 i guess it's a utility getting utilities to places where there aren't utilities that people want to

1648
03:00:24,840 --> 03:00:31,080
 build and i want to turn around fast i mean that's my guess there are a lot of parts of town

1649
03:00:31,080 --> 03:00:41,640
 they're having issues up with the existing facilities in like the town property they were

1650
03:00:41,640 --> 03:00:45,640
 just outdated that when someone comes in and we develop they have to replace them is that still

1651
03:00:47,240 --> 03:00:50,840
 probably in some areas at all i don't know i'm aware of

1652
03:00:50,840 --> 03:01:00,600
 i don't know a question oh uh for some a business comes in and to get up to code they have to

1653
03:01:00,600 --> 03:01:07,000
 replace a bunch of utility infrastructure like in the downtown like elm and locust things like that

1654
03:01:07,000 --> 03:01:10,680
 that was an area where we may not now that we did the rows and all that

1655
03:01:11,640 --> 03:01:18,440
 and you're gonna be able to settle down and produce some projects that i saw in town

1656
03:01:18,440 --> 03:01:23,240
 okay so is there anything on that list that you saw that i

1657
03:01:23,240 --> 03:01:31,800
 didn't capture on the compilation i just wanted to always see somebody reporting on that okay so

1658
03:01:31,800 --> 03:01:37,960
 let's switch over to the uh staff swat it's gonna go faster because it's a lot of it lines up with

1659
03:01:37,960 --> 03:01:47,080
 a lot of y'alls so they did their own smart analysis um so i'll let you read through

1660
03:01:47,080 --> 03:01:50,360
 let's look through strains first and we'll cover that just while i was ready for you

1661
03:02:04,600 --> 03:02:10,680
 person it's been since 2020 since 2024 and then since 2020 between 2020

1662
03:02:10,680 --> 03:02:15,800
 i always say more there and increase

1663
03:02:16,680 --> 03:02:41,400
 these improvement and advice projects downtown working relationships what stands out to y'all

1664
03:02:41,400 --> 03:02:47,640
 miss a lot of the same that y'all mentioned right yeah i really appreciate our all of our efforts

1665
03:02:47,640 --> 03:02:55,400
 that are filling towards the downtown uh community uh you know that's that's part of our reputation

1666
03:02:55,400 --> 03:03:02,760
 and when we hear people coming in and just hear be you know a straight line to downtown

1667
03:03:02,760 --> 03:03:08,280
 with conferences that are not as easy you know those folks want to have a place to go that's

1668
03:03:08,280 --> 03:03:12,440
 wrong you won't go after dark though no they won't go after dark because they won't they don't have

1669
03:03:12,440 --> 03:03:19,960
 if i were to come to them and go to a conference and i want to go to a place and have a good drink

1670
03:03:19,960 --> 03:03:27,240
 and this is just music whatever i would go out to my issue is how am i going to get there

1671
03:03:27,240 --> 03:03:33,000
 especially if i flew in and have the uber or i'm talking how am i going to get back maybe if i

1672
03:03:33,000 --> 03:03:39,720
 had a belt or too much so there's that this can lead for me to all of our in all of our

1673
03:03:39,720 --> 03:03:46,280
 hotel areas you're telling the outskirts of i3 top so people have to come in and we have to

1674
03:03:46,280 --> 03:03:52,440
 do a better job of pulling some of that interest over to where our visitors come i don't know if

1675
03:03:52,440 --> 03:03:57,160
 that's an issue like yeah transportation new group everybody's got it on their phone if you're

1676
03:03:57,160 --> 03:04:01,960
 traveling in for a conference i mean i think you expect that okay i'm going to uber wherever i'm

1677
03:04:01,960 --> 03:04:10,040
 at and that's pretty fun and i think i don't look that's outside the world well and the city y'all

1678
03:04:10,040 --> 03:04:16,040
 have y'all have the hotel occupancy tax right the city can decide that they want to earmark

1679
03:04:16,040 --> 03:04:22,840
 certain dollars for uh transportation for hot dollars during events so anytime there's any kind

1680
03:04:22,840 --> 03:04:27,400
 of big event the city can say hey we're going to earmark uh shuttles or we're going to pay for all

1681
03:04:27,400 --> 03:04:31,320
 the ubers we're going to pay for all the lifts they can be in any form whatever but y'all can

1682
03:04:31,320 --> 03:04:36,440
 use hotel occupancy tax dollars for transportation during tourism events and they have to go to all

1683
03:04:36,440 --> 03:04:41,320
 the hotels and come back to the downtown it's just a matter of policy if you want your hotel

1684
03:04:41,320 --> 03:04:48,440
 occupancy tax dollars to go to transportation but you know it has to be tied to an event it can't be

1685
03:04:48,440 --> 03:04:56,600
 year-round so um okay anything else that's very much in line staff's response and very much in line

1686
03:04:56,600 --> 03:05:06,760
 with board responses here what about weaknesses same thing shovel ready sites funding incentives

1687
03:05:06,760 --> 03:05:15,560
 high rent housing median family income limits some of the retail

1688
03:05:15,560 --> 03:05:25,080
 development services regional perspective that we're not super grandly to business or

1689
03:05:25,080 --> 03:05:30,520
 polarized politics and then several organizations and city departments kind of duplicating efforts

1690
03:05:30,520 --> 03:05:36,120
 and promoting conflicting missions so a lot of the same stuff that we're said here

1691
03:05:36,120 --> 03:05:45,400
 like the air lord about the duplicate several organizations what's that who can speak to that

1692
03:05:45,400 --> 03:05:50,760
 i think when i first got here i realized that since the economic development department had

1693
03:05:50,760 --> 03:05:58,760
 had so many directors there was a lot of just i guess lack of focus and it wasn't really a

1694
03:05:58,760 --> 03:06:05,000
 strong department and there were other departments that i think were focused on they were doing the

1695
03:06:05,000 --> 03:06:10,680
 economic development director's role essentially so you had a development services they influenced

1696
03:06:10,680 --> 03:06:15,160
 development sometimes which is great but sometimes it completes with our mission

1697
03:06:15,160 --> 03:06:22,520
 um i think our religious got better but um that's the the one i think department that maybe had

1698
03:06:22,520 --> 03:06:27,320
 conflicting missions uh because sometimes we would be working with the business we'd be working on

1699
03:06:27,320 --> 03:06:33,640
 development and then uh the plans would change midway through the project so that was one of them

1700
03:06:36,440 --> 03:06:45,320
 okay a lot of what y'all identify to okay opportunities building a tech ecosystem

1701
03:06:45,320 --> 03:06:52,920
 targeting startups and mobility ai and life sciences uh do y'all have a lot of water capacity

1702
03:06:52,920 --> 03:06:59,960
 i think that there's other cities that probably have a little bit more we have our own limits

1703
03:06:59,960 --> 03:07:04,040
 per se key response to our advice she works with our water department i want you can probably answer

1704
03:07:04,040 --> 03:07:12,840
 to that i think it's it's moderate moderate amount i mean for specific projects like could we do a

1705
03:07:12,840 --> 03:07:19,160
 sign probably not but we can do a few right well that's just one thing to remember y'all that

1706
03:07:19,160 --> 03:07:25,800
 controls that you really can't target high tech if you don't have an ordinary water capacity for

1707
03:07:25,800 --> 03:07:32,360
 geeks right now that's why so many communities kind of in east texas can't entertain any data

1708
03:07:32,360 --> 03:07:39,240
 centers because they don't have any water um so um i would say just be be careful with i think

1709
03:07:39,240 --> 03:07:44,200
 water's fixing to become the hottest commodity that they're they already is the hottest commodity

1710
03:07:44,200 --> 03:07:52,920
 so that sounds sexy to say we're going to go after tech but there's only a handful of communities

1711
03:07:52,920 --> 03:07:57,480
 that are really going to be able to do that and survive being able to take care of their

1712
03:07:58,040 --> 03:08:07,400
 residential part too uh retail recruitment opportunity airport uh recruitment get an

1713
03:08:07,400 --> 03:08:14,360
 opportunity to have the airport niche tourism sports film music business-related outreach stuff

1714
03:08:14,360 --> 03:08:21,160
 like that in-field development incentivizing make-up building stuff for creative uh private

1715
03:08:21,160 --> 03:08:27,880
 public partnerships with the universities and up-skilling programs so i would say some of

1716
03:08:27,880 --> 03:08:33,720
 the council members i've talked to faster or about some of the ones that have been perceived as

1717
03:08:33,720 --> 03:08:40,680
 anti-development are more about in-field like how do we go higher or dense and the in-field

1718
03:08:40,680 --> 03:08:47,720
 the problem is is this construction cost it's best to spank the utility sizes spring yeah our

1719
03:08:47,720 --> 03:08:51,800
 spring version you know i think it's since we got a big spot on the square is the perfect example

1720
03:08:52,760 --> 03:09:00,360
 um but i so i think if if that is a something we want to do to say hey we want to have

1721
03:09:00,360 --> 03:09:06,920
 dense in-field development we have to incentivize things as far as demolition of buildings as

1722
03:09:06,920 --> 03:09:12,280
 west as a basement you know to be able to get that land basis cost i have a building right now that

1723
03:09:12,280 --> 03:09:17,880
 i actually an office user needs a 20 000 foot office user you know they want to go on a site

1724
03:09:17,880 --> 03:09:24,520
 that has an existing pretty crappy building one and uh by the time we run the numbers to all that

1725
03:09:24,520 --> 03:09:30,520
 it was our land base i said like almost 70 bucks a foot you know and they're not gonna pay 52 dollar

1726
03:09:30,520 --> 03:09:36,840
 rent to get texas for office building right you know uh so that that if we want to incentivize

1727
03:09:36,840 --> 03:09:43,400
 those are like i'm working on that project like this one and it's not going to work but uh so

1728
03:09:44,520 --> 03:09:52,520
 i i i like that idea just it's so much cheaper than our rents will support support that so if

1729
03:09:52,520 --> 03:09:57,480
 that is a one bucket like what you said earlier when it comes to startup we want to say let's

1730
03:09:57,480 --> 03:10:05,880
 allocate the buckets that may be a piece of what we allocate i think this is exactly right that if

1731
03:10:05,880 --> 03:10:10,360
 you if y'all say hey in-field development is going to be one of our goals it's going to have to be

1732
03:10:10,360 --> 03:10:16,040
 what this person wrote incentivizing it's going to have to be city dollars going to pay for

1733
03:10:16,040 --> 03:10:22,920
 those things like asbestos removal mold remediation spring wear installation all that cost i think we

1734
03:10:22,920 --> 03:10:27,720
 have an opportunity in our downtown because our downtown is on the decline everybody wants to say

1735
03:10:27,720 --> 03:10:33,160
 yeah oh our downtown is great for guys who own buildings downtown our rents are going down

1736
03:10:33,160 --> 03:10:39,240
 our buildings are staying vacant longer i got the 6 000 foot building right now that's really cool

1737
03:10:39,240 --> 03:10:44,920
 building we can't build those you know the homeless problem people are like i don't know i don't want

1738
03:10:44,920 --> 03:10:48,680
 to really open a business downtown so some opportunities are maybe we i'm i'm gonna have

1739
03:10:48,680 --> 03:10:53,640
 to leave early tomorrow because i'm meeting with the police department at 11 o'clock for this exact

1740
03:10:53,640 --> 03:11:03,320
 issue so we have a opportunity to grow those rents and make our downtown safer um there's an

1741
03:11:03,320 --> 03:11:10,520
 opportunity everyone has vacancies i think you're right i mean downtown area apartments rent houses

1742
03:11:10,520 --> 03:11:17,000
 they're all as um they're all rents are dropping more than they've ever seen and i've got vacancies

1743
03:11:17,000 --> 03:11:21,320
 as well for less you always hear people don't have less than a thousand dollar a month rent

1744
03:11:21,320 --> 03:11:27,480
 units i'm like i do yeah and they're in yeah there's a real opportunity and that's working

1745
03:11:27,480 --> 03:11:34,440
 with police department towards me yeah and that is worth i have to tell you because you know the

1746
03:11:34,440 --> 03:11:40,360
 police chief and city manager saying we're we're gonna solve for this homelessness

1747
03:11:40,360 --> 03:11:46,680
 well and kind of take council members that are on board with that that's part of the problem

1748
03:11:46,680 --> 03:11:50,040
 so say again it's gonna take council members that are on board with that

1749
03:11:50,040 --> 03:11:55,000
 right so so y'all have council members that are not on board with homelessness

1750
03:11:55,960 --> 03:12:04,120
 um problem solving i know y'all did mentioned it today already but i think there are different

1751
03:12:04,120 --> 03:12:10,760
 uh different ideas of how things uh what is the solution that solution

1752
03:12:10,760 --> 03:12:19,080
 thank you all right well and maybe that's a discussion i mean is that a discussion that the

1753
03:12:19,080 --> 03:12:23,240
 this economic development group maybe i've parted of several times now today is that a discussion

1754
03:12:23,240 --> 03:12:29,480
 that this board needs to talk about is safety concerns as far as economic development it would

1755
03:12:29,480 --> 03:12:41,480
 be helpful uh i think to way people that make those things are y'all are y'all tackling that

1756
03:12:41,480 --> 03:12:48,680
 in the chamber we hear about a lot um you know historically we've said many people say you can't

1757
03:12:48,680 --> 03:12:53,960
 arrest their way out of home right well we know the police department is a key partner to us

1758
03:12:53,960 --> 03:13:00,360
 people likely telling us that they can't fill current properties but they don't have a solution

1759
03:13:00,360 --> 03:13:05,800
 for it we've done small roundtable discussions with large scale employers to talk about what

1760
03:13:05,800 --> 03:13:12,280
 they're seeing um that's the greatest way out of homelessness it's an errands opinion not the chamber

1761
03:13:12,280 --> 03:13:17,720
 um it's a good job and an education of the sort that you want whether it's a career or technical

1762
03:13:17,720 --> 03:13:21,480
 training so having all of those assets in the community readily available um but we don't have

1763
03:13:21,480 --> 03:13:25,560
 a solution for it but we'd love to be a partner we don't have to control it to be a part of the

1764
03:13:25,560 --> 03:13:31,160
 success of it yeah i can tell you just so you know my business partner walks out of the little sushi

1765
03:13:31,160 --> 03:13:38,120
 place down there that's big block and then there gets attacked on friday night and with his two

1766
03:13:38,120 --> 03:13:44,280
 high school blonde cute girls guys still into the rainbow called police innovations so i'm having

1767
03:13:44,280 --> 03:13:48,360
 that conversation tomorrow that's the kind of problems we're having and he was sleeping on one

1768
03:13:48,360 --> 03:13:54,040
 of my apartment complex properties and 45 minutes later gets called back to the police officer and

1769
03:13:54,040 --> 03:14:00,280
 says oh i'm the only one down there yeah this is a problem and i'm pretty passionate and uh

1770
03:14:00,280 --> 03:14:06,520
 especially when it's people i love to hear that you know so this this is why we imagine my daughter

1771
03:14:06,520 --> 03:14:12,520
 as a 25 year old living in an apartment downtown walking out of her apartment there would be somebody

1772
03:14:12,520 --> 03:14:19,560
 that's strict yeah i mean attacks my dog and that's happened here in our city somebody got

1773
03:14:19,560 --> 03:14:27,160
 shot homeless person and it's a real problem and the other thing um the other thing that goes along

1774
03:14:27,160 --> 03:14:33,320
 with that is that we have also telling ourselves to be the place that provides the services

1775
03:14:34,440 --> 03:14:42,680
 we are we have a great night away we have a great serve big number of that all of these 19 non-profits

1776
03:14:42,680 --> 03:14:47,400
 and help you from beginning to the end those folks out there in the community that all those

1777
03:14:47,400 --> 03:14:52,680
 communities hear about those things and then have a train that comes right up here and just drops

1778
03:14:52,680 --> 03:14:59,480
 everybody off free passes go to dig um draw the shelter the more services you have and it is true

1779
03:14:59,480 --> 03:15:04,840
 them yeah the more i mean what less than a quarter of the people at the shelter are from the city of

1780
03:15:04,840 --> 03:15:12,600
 dentistry the last that's brought it so wow and then up here on this corner of 35 and 380 on the

1781
03:15:12,600 --> 03:15:19,080
 northwest corner i know we're looking businesses there that's where they're coming in so that is

1782
03:15:19,080 --> 03:15:25,000
 so this has to be solved somewhere yeah this is a big enough issue i mean this is a big issue

1783
03:15:25,000 --> 03:15:29,080
 we have the downtown safety committee that's meeting i think quarterly and so they have

1784
03:15:29,080 --> 03:15:33,960
 their own initiatives and i know council member jester you're working on a few uh works too

1785
03:15:33,960 --> 03:15:39,080
 potentially so yes um it's being talked about more i don't want to say it's going to be solved

1786
03:15:39,080 --> 03:15:43,640
 today but i think it is being worked on and so who's doing a good job of this hopefully

1787
03:15:43,640 --> 03:15:48,360
 acceptable is part of it too i shouldn't have the answer to this but i don't who's doing a good job

1788
03:15:48,360 --> 03:15:55,240
 with comes there's just a lot of um you know

1789
03:16:00,040 --> 03:16:04,520
 it's such a gray area i'm doing no lectures and trying to learn about it they're just not

1790
03:16:04,520 --> 03:16:11,320
 one right way but i have some friends that work at the counter right now hang on hang on here he's

1791
03:16:11,320 --> 03:16:17,560
 got the floor saying i don't think erin really has the floor uh i i think that they terminated a lot

1792
03:16:17,560 --> 03:16:25,080
 of it i i wouldn't say that maybe the most public facing friendly situation but i think from their

1793
03:16:25,080 --> 03:16:31,080
 association of commerce what they call it there they stopped offering some of the same services

1794
03:16:31,080 --> 03:16:42,920
 to change their job job yeah right who else any other towns cities i think there were there was

1795
03:16:42,920 --> 03:16:48,360
 an initiative a few years ago to look at cities who were implementing programs to assist and the

1796
03:16:48,360 --> 03:16:55,320
 ambassador program was done from the end and as a result of study of other cities it was basically

1797
03:16:55,320 --> 03:17:01,320
 but it was just eliminated the funding cuts due to the budget shortfalls so um you know it's like

1798
03:17:01,320 --> 03:17:08,840
 you took a step in my direction but then when it came time to fund it permanently there wasn't the

1799
03:17:08,840 --> 03:17:14,920
 will to do so given the choice that hadn't been made in budget this year so that program was

1800
03:17:14,920 --> 03:17:21,880
 ended it was a downtown ambassador program that's been intended to help with cleanliness and safety

1801
03:17:21,880 --> 03:17:29,640
 and hospitality it was called downtown ambassador program does anybody have any other best

1802
03:17:29,640 --> 03:17:34,920
 practices from other i'm a little bit of research this a little bit well best practices are you know

1803
03:17:34,920 --> 03:17:39,320
 just grab that zero tolerance you know i had a property manager last week you know showing the

1804
03:17:39,320 --> 03:17:44,760
 tenant manager guy back in middle of lunchroom building sleep naked and while we're walking a tenant through the

1805
03:17:44,760 --> 03:17:50,920
 building right i mean so we just gotta have zero tolerance to say look i know we can't rest our

1806
03:17:50,920 --> 03:17:57,160
 way out of it but whatever the solution i think part of it is we all we're we're a very kind loving

1807
03:17:57,160 --> 03:18:04,360
 city and that is a benefit and is also kind of a deter because you got to keep park that's right

1808
03:18:04,360 --> 03:18:11,560
 but our our city's a loving city they're proud of that but i think we've gone so far the other way

1809
03:18:11,560 --> 03:18:15,960
 if it was taking care of people from them and then we could have just probably solved it

1810
03:18:15,960 --> 03:18:23,800
 no time but the problem is so there's a lot of outside people who are not from them you don't

1811
03:18:23,800 --> 03:18:32,440
 know people come i'm ashamed to say i i had a city manager tell me about three years ago

1812
03:18:34,360 --> 03:18:38,520
 a suburb of austin they had a serious homelessness

1813
03:18:38,520 --> 03:18:44,040
 issue and i asked him what are they doing i said what did you do get this all cleaned up now and

1814
03:18:44,040 --> 03:18:50,040
 he said we literally put all of our homeless people on a bus and give them a ticket to the austin bus

1815
03:18:50,040 --> 03:18:59,640
 station it's like i don't know what happens so never they get there but they're not in my downtown

1816
03:18:59,640 --> 03:19:04,360
 and that's probably what's happening to y'all probably some other cities are just shipping up

1817
03:19:04,360 --> 03:19:12,200
 here so there's a lot of ramifications that we also don't have a county funded hospital

1818
03:19:12,200 --> 03:19:20,440
 right so then that impacts their i'm just going to see but yeah yeah so it's a quality of life

1819
03:19:20,440 --> 03:19:29,960
 initiative okay okay so i'm going to do a work strip on this tonight so it's if i can see some

1820
03:19:29,960 --> 03:19:45,240
 settings that are going to be wrong okay so uh anything else on uh so what about threads real

1821
03:19:45,240 --> 03:19:51,480
 quick and it's a hot market land is selling developing quickly limited available ability

1822
03:19:51,480 --> 03:19:58,600
 to influence development for visionary projects so all of how built out are y'all so a lot of our

1823
03:19:58,600 --> 03:20:05,800
 good guys are this is another problem with our what that i have compassion for our city planning

1824
03:20:05,800 --> 03:20:10,920
 and services because all the tracks that are being developed now have issues right they got

1825
03:20:10,920 --> 03:20:17,640
 flood plain they got e.s.a that got trees covered up with trees so that's why amy is so successful

1826
03:20:17,640 --> 03:20:23,240
 what she does because she knows how to navigate these projects right and it's an old city that

1827
03:20:23,240 --> 03:20:28,360
 that a lot of the sites left are problem sites right and so that takes more time to get them

1828
03:20:28,360 --> 03:20:33,960
 through both services and it takes somebody like amy to know how to manage that that's why she does

1829
03:20:33,960 --> 03:20:40,760
 such a good job because she knows what takes an SUV what takes a pd and do that and and that

1830
03:20:40,760 --> 03:20:47,160
 bogs down the process so that's a threat and you a lot of projects you work on they're not just clean

1831
03:20:47,160 --> 03:20:55,080
 yeah absolutely i mean we are not super built out then has a lot of undeveloped land but we also have

1832
03:20:55,080 --> 03:21:02,200
 false smart growth policies that prevent that stall for the clearing so where there's infrastructure

1833
03:21:02,200 --> 03:21:08,280
 and sometimes where there's not you're right it's it's the land that's difficult to develop

1834
03:21:09,560 --> 03:21:15,240
 and i i agree with the comment that there's not a lot of opportunity to

1835
03:21:15,240 --> 03:21:23,480
 influence development for visionary purposes and i think some cities do a really great job of being

1836
03:21:23,480 --> 03:21:28,200
 proactive about development like let's get the infrastructure and the vision there let's have

1837
03:21:28,200 --> 03:21:33,880
 some elevated standards for this particular area that we want to attract the 200,000 square foot

1838
03:21:34,440 --> 03:21:40,440
 class a office user you know some cities do that really well and i think that this

1839
03:21:40,440 --> 03:21:45,560
 tends to be more reactionary like okay it's here it's coming and now we're going to try to manage it

1840
03:21:45,560 --> 03:21:54,920
 rather than being intentional about it okay um okay so that's what they mean by the meditability

1841
03:21:54,920 --> 03:21:59,560
 okay increasing industrial lands utilities insurance fishing companies to other cities

1842
03:22:00,280 --> 03:22:06,920
 uh so rising costs uh current local global economy tariffs affecting expansions in texas

1843
03:22:06,920 --> 03:22:13,800
 um i'm hearing my chamber clients all across the country are saying that the businesses are

1844
03:22:13,800 --> 03:22:17,080
 saying i think you're hearing that as well through the other

1845
03:22:17,080 --> 03:22:23,960
 state it's really not it's just a threat in general um i think so everybody's able to grab

1846
03:22:23,960 --> 03:22:29,960
 every every chamber economic development client i have is talking about their businesses

1847
03:22:29,960 --> 03:22:35,320
 suffering with chairs this dreads like serious that's mostly the ability to recruit a bit

1848
03:22:35,320 --> 03:22:39,640
 succinct to because some just aren't expanding but there's also some that are um you know

1849
03:22:39,640 --> 03:22:44,280
 complete onshoring but the right term right or racial it was actually it just depends on what

1850
03:22:44,280 --> 03:22:49,480
 type of business it is depends on what their cost drive record yeah so they're cost drivers raw

1851
03:22:49,480 --> 03:22:56,360
 material they're they're highly automated right they they're hitting the top of care for example

1852
03:22:56,360 --> 03:23:05,880
 make sense for them to move their costs or other so it depends on your business so business by

1853
03:23:05,880 --> 03:23:13,080
 business everyone's different yeah i think shipping is about to change too the straight

1854
03:23:13,080 --> 03:23:18,520
 up review stuff i think that that's fixing to affect some not necessarily tariffs but taxes on

1855
03:23:19,080 --> 03:23:26,520
 some on fuel too uh lack of local funding to assist with retention so y'all work hopefully

1856
03:23:26,520 --> 03:23:32,920
 y'all working on retention incentives too erica yes we've done a number of expansion projects here

1857
03:23:32,920 --> 03:23:39,800
 recently and prior okay uh and then as population increases infrastructure is costly to build out

1858
03:23:39,800 --> 03:23:45,800
 upcoming city council elections and new city management is anybody doing a candidate form

1859
03:23:45,800 --> 03:23:51,800
 y'all got five spots open yeah that's 30 oh good okay the chambers producing that okay

1860
03:23:51,800 --> 03:23:56,600
 is everybody going to the candidate forum that the chamber's producing

1861
03:23:56,600 --> 03:24:06,120
 who's writing the questions the chamber y'all taking um our government relations completed

1862
03:24:06,120 --> 03:24:13,080
 good so there's your opportunity to go support some initiatives that are economic development

1863
03:24:13,080 --> 03:24:20,040
 phase right talk to different candidates there that's a big deal for a chamber to put on

1864
03:24:20,040 --> 03:24:25,880
 uh i try to talk a lot of my time clients and the non-gaming forums because chambers are moving

1865
03:24:25,880 --> 03:24:30,840
 into the advocacy role and that's a good way for y'all to say we support our chamber as they're

1866
03:24:30,840 --> 03:24:38,760
 asking hard questions um okay so next page there this is very similar y'all see here what do we

1867
03:24:38,760 --> 03:24:43,560
 need to start doing certified sites i think y'all mentioned that several times that we need to make

1868
03:24:43,560 --> 03:24:51,400
 sure that we get sites qualified with utilities ready to go shovel ready updating incentives

1869
03:24:51,400 --> 03:24:58,440
 tech ecosystem uh improved data reporting workforce development upscaling in the bill

1870
03:24:58,440 --> 03:25:04,280
 what do we need to quit doing board administration frequency

1871
03:25:04,280 --> 03:25:11,000
 city manages and reports do more ed boards and to indirect 52 board members so

1872
03:25:11,000 --> 03:25:16,760
 speak to that sure so we'll have multiple boards you know the economic partnership board

1873
03:25:16,760 --> 03:25:21,000
 the government economic development committee uh we have two tourist boards and then we have

1874
03:25:21,000 --> 03:25:25,960
 which one am i missing we have an indirect board with the main street association sorry what

1875
03:25:25,960 --> 03:25:32,200
 indirect board the main street association and so christen really participates on there but since

1876
03:25:32,200 --> 03:25:39,240
 um since we brought on christen again in 2024 there are still things that are being the scope

1877
03:25:39,240 --> 03:25:47,080
 of works being defined and so a lot of they meet frequently and it takes up a lot of our time

1878
03:25:47,080 --> 03:25:51,000
 because it's mostly the administrative process it's the getting the paperwork together the

1879
03:25:51,000 --> 03:25:56,360
 presentation getting approved and then like for instance today we have a meeting that's

1880
03:25:56,360 --> 03:26:01,080
 needs to be posted or approved today right for duncan economic development committee

1881
03:26:01,080 --> 03:26:04,920
 so every week we're turning over the presentations and so now that we have

1882
03:26:04,920 --> 03:26:11,640
 active projects in our pipeline we have over 25 projects um we need to be spending time with uh

1883
03:26:11,640 --> 03:26:16,200
 boss building those projects and making sure they're moving out the door because we also

1884
03:26:16,200 --> 03:26:19,640
 have two incentive proposals that we have to work on right now too that we need to put on the

1885
03:26:19,640 --> 03:26:25,080
 meeting schedule so really just kind of figuring out when we're meeting and how often that we're

1886
03:26:25,080 --> 03:26:34,120
 meeting okay so um so how can y'all how can y'all lighten your load with four boards six boards and

1887
03:26:34,120 --> 03:26:43,400
 52 board members that you're helping like what what does that look like it's a good question um

1888
03:26:43,400 --> 03:26:48,440
 in your dream world what does that look like somebody to handle all the paperwork

1889
03:26:48,440 --> 03:26:52,920
 or not so many boards or what's the answer yeah i think it's just mostly

1890
03:26:54,120 --> 03:26:58,040
 well i did get approved for a new position which i've been very excited about so i think they're

1891
03:26:58,040 --> 03:27:02,920
 going to be able to help with um manding all of our board because i want to be able to talk to each

1892
03:27:02,920 --> 03:27:09,560
 of our board members and listen to your concerns more right when i could be one-on-one um so with

1893
03:27:09,560 --> 03:27:15,960
 that new position i think they're going to be able to help um but so i got anyone on my team want

1894
03:27:15,960 --> 03:27:21,320
 to contribute to that well we did alternate the tourist one board and the dex so that they could

1895
03:27:21,320 --> 03:27:27,080
 meet they meant alternating months so that really helps hold on it's okay so we have done some things

1896
03:27:27,080 --> 03:27:34,200
 make some strides we have to have a tourist board uh it's required but tours too is the same edp

1897
03:27:34,200 --> 03:27:38,840
 board except the two uh the developer representative and the county representative so that is very

1898
03:27:38,840 --> 03:27:43,160
 streamlined to process just once a year right yeah that's typically once a year this last year

1899
03:27:43,160 --> 03:27:49,800
 was twice because we had a big reimbursement but typically it's once a year right right so we'll

1900
03:27:49,800 --> 03:27:54,280
 we'll think about that as far as goals if that's something that is that something this partnership

1901
03:27:54,280 --> 03:27:59,880
 needs to address or is that more just internal department stuff right probably internal department

1902
03:27:59,880 --> 03:28:06,120
 and then we'll take it to the board at some point okay so what do we need to put the accelerator on

1903
03:28:06,120 --> 03:28:11,880
 marketing promotion of them to site selectors brokers do y'all do a developer's day here

1904
03:28:13,720 --> 03:28:20,600
 do a fan tour developer then you know okay i'm on a mission i just had this conversation friday

1905
03:28:20,600 --> 03:28:27,480
 with a economic developer in your region i'm on a mission to bring this back um almost nobody in

1906
03:28:27,480 --> 03:28:31,720
 texas is doing this do y'all know what i'm talking about when i say a developer's day

1907
03:28:31,720 --> 03:28:36,680
 yeah he does something adult spam tours familiarization force for certain things but not

1908
03:28:36,680 --> 03:28:44,280
 a developer not for developers so um i don't know why this has not caught on in texas but um

1909
03:28:44,280 --> 03:28:52,680
 louisville did the best job i've ever seen um and um cedar hill is doing this right now

1910
03:28:52,680 --> 03:29:01,400
 and uh i don't know who else but what it is huh so life is doing it okay so it looks different

1911
03:29:01,400 --> 03:29:06,200
 like different places but looks different things different places but basically it's a bus

1912
03:29:07,000 --> 03:29:12,120
 that the economic development group says we're going to charter a bus and we're going to invite

1913
03:29:12,120 --> 03:29:19,160
 all the area business developers builders brokers real estate agents we're going to put them on a

1914
03:29:19,160 --> 03:29:25,400
 bus and we're going to take them to all the industrial sites commercial sites residential

1915
03:29:25,400 --> 03:29:28,760
 whatever we're going to take them all around the town and we're going to show them all the

1916
03:29:28,760 --> 03:29:33,480
 available property and we're going to give them a little cheat sheet book that has all the property

1917
03:29:33,480 --> 03:29:40,760
 the prices the square footage who's listed it and it's just to show everybody what we're trying to

1918
03:29:40,760 --> 03:29:45,320
 get in certain places so maybe it's a vacant building in downtown we're trying to get a

1919
03:29:45,320 --> 03:29:52,120
 bakery in here we're trying to put a manufacturing facility in this industrial park uh but it comes

1920
03:29:52,120 --> 03:30:00,520
 with a tour a meal q a and a take-home booklet of science you know project like others really the

1921
03:30:00,520 --> 03:30:05,000
 perfect definition of what the public private partnership is supposed to do yes yeah that's

1922
03:30:05,000 --> 03:30:11,400
 like the definition textbook definition of the the website and the public side coming together

1923
03:30:11,400 --> 03:30:17,080
 collaboratively that this is why then yeah you're describing it like and you don't have to recreate

1924
03:30:17,080 --> 03:30:22,520
 this there's other cities and other states that are doing fantastic jobs of this and you just go

1925
03:30:22,520 --> 03:30:28,520
 copy one and recreate it like is that something that but that answers this question right here

1926
03:30:28,520 --> 03:30:36,600
 promoting death in separate groups leave what's your perspective from uh you already know i don't

1927
03:30:36,600 --> 03:30:40,760
 think you're going to get guys to come with that right they're going to the guys who are really

1928
03:30:40,760 --> 03:30:47,640
 you're going to get the junior guys you may be doing somebody says hey go i think it's something

1929
03:30:47,640 --> 03:30:53,640
 that was put together digitally for that and said specifically looking for you know i just

1930
03:30:53,640 --> 03:31:00,680
 but somebody called me to go down so yeah we've looked at and map right and aerials or street view

1931
03:31:00,680 --> 03:31:05,160
 you can walk the side if you want to walk back and sit in my office i have three screens and a 16

1932
03:31:05,160 --> 03:31:09,720
 screen in front of my desk look at everything i need to look at i think it's maybe figuring out

1933
03:31:09,720 --> 03:31:15,880
 a way to communicate what the needs are like for example selfishly like melon mushroom buildings

1934
03:31:15,880 --> 03:31:19,400
 they've been out of business for a while so really pulled out a tough building you know

1935
03:31:19,400 --> 03:31:24,520
 getting that you know the public private the city says hey we got an idea we'd love to have

1936
03:31:24,520 --> 03:31:29,960
 this kind of user downtime we're open to this building right and you just host it right there

1937
03:31:29,960 --> 03:31:36,280
 yeah we'll just get it out digitally building those kind of things i just know the brokers

1938
03:31:36,280 --> 03:31:41,560
 that we did with our vows that are marketing our big industrial tribes they're not they're not

1939
03:31:41,560 --> 03:31:49,560
 in front of me yeah you know so it's got to be a new creative way to get that out there some kind

1940
03:31:49,560 --> 03:31:54,360
 of visually in front of them where it's not just what it's massive yeah so i don't know the answer

1941
03:31:54,360 --> 03:32:01,400
 but i just we've done those bus tours christina remember we used to do those years ago and how

1942
03:32:01,400 --> 03:32:07,800
 was your attendance on those um so yeah yeah and i think it really does you're right it really

1943
03:32:07,800 --> 03:32:13,240
 does depend on what the product is okay when i flugerville did the best i've ever seen but

1944
03:32:13,240 --> 03:32:18,200
 that was 2008 yeah and it was all rolled nothing was built in flugerville yet and they had just

1945
03:32:18,200 --> 03:32:24,040
 finished the 130 you know toll road so that was a different product and secret hills a different

1946
03:32:24,040 --> 03:32:29,000
 product too so um okay that is a little bit different maybe business round table

1947
03:32:30,920 --> 03:32:39,240
 but uh it's where they have a panel 82 panels and they really get a heavy hitter panelists and

1948
03:32:39,240 --> 03:32:45,080
 and it's a ticketed event that you're in and out of an hour and a half and then you sign up

1949
03:32:45,080 --> 03:32:51,800
 for the bus tour afterwards if you want oh okay excellent spaces and then you can get on bus

1950
03:32:51,800 --> 03:32:58,440
 but the panels are talking about all the properties what side conditions what's exciting that's

1951
03:32:58,440 --> 03:33:02,440
 happening and community what developments are coming in how many housing starts

1952
03:33:02,440 --> 03:33:12,520
 and then yeah that's cool if you want and then the bus tour isn't really we're going to show you all

1953
03:33:12,520 --> 03:33:16,920
 the available properties we're going to take you around we're going to show you what all is happening

1954
03:33:16,920 --> 03:33:23,560
 what's under construction right and big projects that are underway and that really builds excitement

1955
03:33:23,560 --> 03:33:31,560
 around investing okay they started it during covalent events were okay what are y'all calling

1956
03:33:31,560 --> 03:33:37,960
 that business roundtable i wonder if we could do that after the day county press up and that

1957
03:33:37,960 --> 03:33:44,920
 were in houston with the dallas business journal and city it's very nice it's got a similar feel

1958
03:33:44,920 --> 03:33:51,480
 to it as that event will have i think um so you could tack on it's going to be like august

1959
03:33:52,120 --> 03:33:57,800
 details aren't out yet sure y'all we'll get that yeah

1960
03:33:57,800 --> 03:34:09,720
 okay who's hosting that yeah business journal and unity and then partners at city and then dallas

1961
03:34:09,720 --> 03:34:14,040
 business journals and oh that's the number one news out probably we'll stick guys

1962
03:34:14,040 --> 03:34:19,720
 so gals please just turn forward because it's the most problem y'all are co-hosting that

1963
03:34:20,360 --> 03:34:26,120
 you and you and just the paper yes okay that's another good example of collaboration

1964
03:34:26,120 --> 03:34:27,960
 right that's something august the 26th

1965
03:34:27,960 --> 03:34:36,200
 okay and a city sponsor actually there's also a biz now and the county summit that's going to be

1966
03:34:36,200 --> 03:34:43,320
 in may and so the judge judgy is going to be the keynote speaker so that'll be that's the way we're

1967
03:34:43,320 --> 03:34:48,520
 trying to get our name out and but mostly we also building relations with this now on the dvj because

1968
03:34:48,520 --> 03:34:55,560
 they've been featuring business more often so we've got more leads from um those articles

1969
03:34:55,560 --> 03:35:04,920
 okay all right so a lot of good stuff on um on marketing uh what's working so well with

1970
03:35:04,920 --> 03:35:10,440
 the big celebrator on expanded bre or bre program has been successful with several expansions

1971
03:35:11,160 --> 03:35:18,520
 um but putting the gas pedal on that they also providing senate to peterville um for a supplier

1972
03:35:18,520 --> 03:35:23,480
 in gentau uh opportunity to incorporate improvement of suppliers and their current

1973
03:35:23,480 --> 03:35:29,320
 strategy retention uh and then entrepreneur support our chapter 3a policy includes an

1974
03:35:29,320 --> 03:35:34,200
 entrepreneur grant there's an opportunity to update and expand that what does that look like

1975
03:35:36,360 --> 03:35:42,200
 so mckinney has got a really great program called the innovation fund so it's fun it's like a matching

1976
03:35:42,200 --> 03:35:50,120
 grant for businesses that one sbr sbir grant for sense of small business innovation research grants

1977
03:35:50,120 --> 03:35:54,600
 so the federal government has like seven branches where they're uh constantly looking at new

1978
03:35:54,600 --> 03:36:02,200
 technology that help with new technology in those sectors and so um mckinney that will provide a 50

1979
03:36:02,200 --> 03:36:09,720
 minimum 50k matching grant for the sbr grants so um i think that was a catalyst for mckinney to

1980
03:36:09,720 --> 03:36:15,480
 actually how many businesses did that i wanted to be sort of small i remember this was back in the

1981
03:36:15,480 --> 03:36:20,680
 day i haven't done research over the past year but um it was pretty successful i think they had 25

1982
03:36:20,680 --> 03:36:26,520
 businesses they recruited within the first three years so 25 businesses split up the 50 grand and

1983
03:36:26,520 --> 03:36:31,880
 they're all kind of startups but i think it really put mckinney on the map and that was back in 2016

1984
03:36:31,880 --> 03:36:35,160
 when i was with the city of arlington because i remember being a little bit envious of what they

1985
03:36:35,160 --> 03:36:41,560
 were doing but there's ways that we can be creative to do something similar okay all right what are

1986
03:36:41,560 --> 03:36:47,400
 what do y'all think about is that something of interest not an entrepreneur when you can't do

1987
03:36:47,400 --> 03:36:51,160
 everything so we got to be thinking tonight when we leave here in a minute you're going to be

1988
03:36:51,160 --> 03:36:55,800
 thinking about what's going to make the cut for tomorrow and you just have to be smarter about

1989
03:36:55,800 --> 03:37:02,040
 the stuff so how's that tied to like the research that universities are doing right it's not just

1990
03:37:02,040 --> 03:37:10,200
 anyone that's like hey i won't start business it seems like more of a gamble yeah it should

1991
03:37:10,200 --> 03:37:16,200
 be tied to the research and be like how do i commercialize some research at one of those

1992
03:37:16,200 --> 03:37:22,360
 two universities that's right yeah that's really what you're people yeah exactly yeah

1993
03:37:24,200 --> 03:37:30,040
 that way you're leveraging what they're all doing but all this just a little separate stuff yeah i

1994
03:37:30,040 --> 03:37:35,560
 mean i can actually i could actually embed in a competition where the university is presenting

1995
03:37:35,560 --> 03:37:41,880
 r&d stuff i use with your logistic stuff too and then a competition of you know who can build

1996
03:37:41,880 --> 03:37:48,680
 something that uses this technology and r&d that we already have we just thought tough funding so we

1997
03:37:48,680 --> 03:37:54,360
 bought back more money for research and development so that is so that we can locate in today yeah i

1998
03:37:54,360 --> 03:37:59,560
 know we do some of the things when we present our business ideas you know people can invest in those

1999
03:37:59,560 --> 03:38:06,120
 things but i think if it comes with some backing from my pro texas i'll say look this has proven

2000
03:38:06,120 --> 03:38:11,640
 there is a marketing plan here i'd love to be able to be the best in this business you know but for

2001
03:38:11,640 --> 03:38:16,600
 me it can't be just the way i got this idea right kind of like sharp thing right but if you had

2002
03:38:16,600 --> 03:38:21,160
 something that came out of the university and said okay here's the marketing plan together it's been

2003
03:38:21,160 --> 03:38:29,560
 tested you know it's in those categories that's right when just it's in five okay oh yeah that's

2004
03:38:29,560 --> 03:38:51,000
 brand new time they shouldn't be tied to those yeah yeah but that's a that's a great uh tie-in

2005
03:38:51,000 --> 03:38:57,480
 right there too and another one i mean i know this is for like you know smaller newer entrepreneurs

2006
03:38:57,480 --> 03:39:03,640
 but another great tool is well i'll tell you more about tomorrow but a chamber actually created in

2007
03:39:03,640 --> 03:39:10,520
 south georgia uh called the flex program it's like a shark tank but for high school seniors and

2008
03:39:10,520 --> 03:39:16,360
 it's a now the whole state has adopted governor said we want to make it called statewide there

2009
03:39:16,360 --> 03:39:24,760
 but it's a shark tank for high school um seniors and one more idea just because i read about it

2010
03:39:24,760 --> 03:39:30,200
 yeah i don't know how big a problem it is that i notice there's a lot of small businesses people

2011
03:39:30,200 --> 03:39:36,200
 are retiring they can't sell their small business yes it's the great tsunami right so how are we

2012
03:39:36,200 --> 03:39:42,440
 selling those existing businesses with existing contracts everything else to the entrepreneur

2013
03:39:42,440 --> 03:39:47,720
 instead of them thinking they got to create something totally new to make like it's like a

2014
03:39:48,360 --> 03:39:54,920
 the maximum so to your point i know a guy who just bought a company business from a guy who had a great

2015
03:39:54,920 --> 03:40:00,120
 company for years i thought scared me goes oh my gosh he's immediately making money

2016
03:40:00,120 --> 03:40:06,600
 right i mean he's he's 28 years old that was bought this business but that's a great

2017
03:40:06,600 --> 03:40:11,640
 challenge isn't their attention they got all these businesses they're about to buy them

2018
03:40:11,640 --> 03:40:17,080
 they're seeing i'm not trying to talk to my dad about this right now there's some things you know

2019
03:40:17,080 --> 03:40:26,680
 one university but there are others because my former institution was larger than the one on that

2020
03:40:26,680 --> 03:40:33,080
 but that was done the stated up basically helping take over the city's piece of that

2021
03:40:33,080 --> 03:40:36,280
 venture because between the partnership between business school and the law school

2022
03:40:36,280 --> 03:40:42,280
 that helped the city that structure and because of what we did spending out research we did the

2023
03:40:42,280 --> 03:40:47,240
 other side i mean thanks to the woman's been helped a lot to the women's leadership institute but that

2024
03:40:47,240 --> 03:40:52,360
 has to figure folks we are not a research institution but you know having a structure

2025
03:40:52,360 --> 03:40:56,840
 we're already doing that for faculty because we're spreading out business it's not if it's what you

2026
03:40:56,840 --> 03:41:01,240
 need to do it's not the bigger job because we do one for other parts of it becomes a partnership

2027
03:41:01,240 --> 03:41:08,280
 and you know it can be very well suited those kind of ventures to the city especially somebody

2028
03:41:08,280 --> 03:41:13,720
 else to help us on the button and stuff and we tell you know it's very specific what it has to

2029
03:41:13,720 --> 03:41:17,960
 go to you can't go to buildings and you know salaries and stuff like that it has to go to a

2030
03:41:17,960 --> 03:41:23,000
 researcher so interesting you could say that because i went to a seminar two weeks ago about

2031
03:41:23,000 --> 03:41:31,880
 somebody my work is that's three five years and it is a problem oh yeah and then a lot of lucrative

2032
03:41:31,880 --> 03:41:38,760
 businesses out there that uh baby members don't know i'm sure what to do with i love that i love

2033
03:41:38,760 --> 03:41:43,160
 that idea i think we can explore that tomorrow too and it doesn't have to be a university i mean

2034
03:41:43,160 --> 03:41:47,880
 that's a great opportunity you can have a lot of times the dental practice or veterinary practices

2035
03:41:47,880 --> 03:41:51,400
 but i did the rural state side and i had a smaller setup

2036
03:41:51,400 --> 03:42:00,760
 there's no rule that says the edp can't be the matchmaking service so you know

2037
03:42:00,760 --> 03:42:06,200
 yeah so i love that i think that's a strike while the iron's hot kind of thing so

2038
03:42:06,200 --> 03:42:12,840
 opportunity there okay bre expanded bre entrepreneurship board and then same thing

2039
03:42:12,840 --> 03:42:18,120
 what do you think need to be the top two goals certified sites tech ecosystem recruitment funding

2040
03:42:18,120 --> 03:42:23,720
 updating us in our policies everything y'all already said so oh and they're so nice to put

2041
03:42:23,720 --> 03:42:33,560
 definitions on the back okay so the good news is a lot of the staff have the exact same perspectives

2042
03:42:33,560 --> 03:42:41,080
 as the board so that's always a good sign that they have that same idea so in order to prepare

2043
03:42:41,080 --> 03:42:46,040
 for tomorrow so i need you to come in the room tomorrow we're going to start at eight o'clock

2044
03:42:46,040 --> 03:42:51,560
 and i need you to come here with what you think your top two goals are we're not going to be able

2045
03:42:51,560 --> 03:42:57,640
 to do everything so i want you to be thinking about uh improvement goal or retention goal

2046
03:42:57,640 --> 03:43:03,240
 anything that you said take home your uh take home your handouts if you want to reference this

2047
03:43:03,240 --> 03:43:09,400
 tonight but come tomorrow your top two or three or whatever you think are the top things you can

2048
03:43:09,400 --> 03:43:15,320
 take pictures of the plug charts on the walls we'll make sure everything's represented i think

2049
03:43:15,320 --> 03:43:21,720
 everything's open so you can take pictures of all this um but just remember y'all have limited

2050
03:43:21,720 --> 03:43:30,120
 resources limited time money souls to get to work here and so if we're gonna we're gonna narrow this

2051
03:43:30,120 --> 03:43:35,320
 down to three to seven goals tomorrow i want to hear what you think they are i know you put them

2052
03:43:35,320 --> 03:43:43,240
 on the handouts but uh i'm prepared tomorrow to make some decisions and argue for your opinion on

2053
03:43:43,240 --> 03:43:52,280
 some of those things any questions last night questions will be uh suspend the meeting for today

2054
03:43:52,280 --> 03:43:55,240
 if you use the proper terminology

2055
03:43:55,240 --> 03:44:09,720
 we will adjourn that we posted to you okay oh they did those two okay okay well then you will

2056
03:44:09,720 --> 03:44:18,680
 adjourn okay so closing comments uh dean you candidate for this evening six thirty or seven

2057
03:44:18,680 --> 03:44:25,160
 start time of senior what senior rec center candidate for okay in a form should be crazy

2058
03:44:25,160 --> 03:44:34,760
 okay anything else so what let me tell them on thursday please credit happens that's where

2059
03:44:34,760 --> 03:44:37,640
 we're going to try to build a techie because the first step for us

2060
03:44:39,720 --> 03:44:45,080
 all right no other comments i will adjourn this meeting at four fifty