432 good afternoon. My name is Marty rivers. I'm chair of the
economic development partnership board. It is 1102 and we will
call this meeting to order. Thank you all for being here
today. Our first item for consideration is the minutes of
our October 9 2019 meeting that was dispersed in advance. So
we got a motion.
Second and a second.
Any further discussion?
I'm sorry.
Motion to make a motion.
He made the motion that Chris went second.
And any discussion?
All those in favor say aye.
Any opposed?
Motion carries.
That's our approved.
Our next item is EDP 19.081. Receive a report, hold a
discussion and give staff direction regarding the annual
marketing plan from the Chamber of Commerce Office of Economic
Development. And Erica Pangberg will give that presentation
today.
So as you know, Adam Fevoreski has left the general chamber to
pursue other opportunities. So what you won't see in these
slides is the number one item on our marketing plan is to search
out and hire a new marketer. But that pending we have this
completed before he left. So I'm going to go ahead and share with
you what our plans are moving forward.
Okay, our office is hired, contacted by the city to do the
marketing of the economic development activities. And
this is just a brief outline of what our plans are for this
year. The components of our marketing plan are a timeline
for plant and digital advice, maintenance and updates to
DentonEDP.com platforms and scheduling for our social media
and our plan marketing trips. I do want to say the city of
Denton's strategic plan is an action oriented roadmap that's
going to help the city achieve its vision. Under that plan are
five long term key focus areas, organizational excellence,
public infrastructure, economic development, safe, livable
family friendly community and sustainable environmental
stewardship. Our fulfillment under that plan is obviously the
economic development arm. So we're going to continue to
pursue that. I know the city is contracting with an outside
organization to set in place a new strategic plan, which we
anticipate taking place over the next 12 months. So in that time,
we're going to continue operating with the old one, but
we look forward to what the new plan is going to look like to
make sure that we're meeting those deliverables and marketing
Denton in the most effective way possible. Some of the
publications that we market Denton in are Site Selection
Magazine. And the other one is the Dallas Regional Chambers
Economic Development Guide. We partner with site selectors
across the country and also obviously with the Dallas region
to bring visitors and draw attraction to Denton. So those
are big printed publications that we participate in. Karen,
are there any other printed publications that we're in?
Another thing that we do is there's a, there are so many
site selector shows, trade shows, opportunities to market
Denton across the country that with an office of two people, we
can't cover them all. And it's also not financially sustainable
to hit all of them. So what we do is we park it. We partner
with site selectors. In this case, his name is Mark Darcy,
and he hits all the shows that we can't get. And he goes to
represent Denton and takes our banner and takes our information
so we can have coverage across multiple areas at the same time.
Some of those trade shows and contacts that we have through
him are listed here on the screen. And that's a sample of
our banner. I believe we have a new banner.
It's actually the banner that's on his website.
Okay, and we have a new banner that he takes with him also that
features Peterbilt. That's right.
Maintenance and regular maintenance and updates to
DentonEDP.com. I'm sure you're all familiar with this website.
We want to keep the information up there as current as possible.
And we're working on an updated plan that will launch in 2021.
Our social media platforms that we're active on posting by
monthly on LinkedIn, weekly on Facebook and weekly on Twitter.
We are funded in two ways. So we're funded publicly through
the contract with the city. And then we also raise our own
private funding. That funding is broken up into our professional
development and our target marketing, and then private is
just for target marketing.
Under the operations publicly funded budget. These are the way
we break out our budget planning and so professional development.
Those are memberships in the TEDC and the IEDC for continuing
practices, best practices, and continuing certifications,
recertifications. We also participate in targeted marketing
groups, Team Texas, the Southern ED Council, the DFW, Martin
Team and NACAR.
Erica, what does the two mean?
There's two trips each year for those.
We're two marketing opportunities. On the private side,
as you know, under our contract, we are required to raise a
minimum of $75,000 in private investor dollars. And we use
those dollars to maintain memberships in these groups and
to fund these trips.
Any questions so far?
So with the $75,000, is that enough for these? And if you
raised more, would you do more in this department with your
private funding or would it go towards something else?
I'm not going to say that isn't enough. Of course, if we raise
more, we would absolutely do more. There's always more to be
done. We split it up. It's split under the requirements of the
contract. So we try to use those dollars on the private side also
as effectively as we can in other areas that will supplement
areas of the contract.
You might so we raised more than $75,000 this year or use some
of those funds to go into
action. Right. So we did raise more this year. And right now,
Jessica from the city's ED office, and Marshall Culpepper
who works with Stoke, we wanted to pursue we know we talk a lot
about technology being something we want to pursue. So Jessica and
Marshall are at a tech conference right now in San
Diego that we use private funds to send them to to build those
relationships. So the answer is yes, we'll absolutely do more.
That's always the goal.
Eric, I have a question. Yes, sir. It says 1819. Is that and
the one before it said 1920. So
I'm sorry, I don't want to go backwards.
I didn't know.
That's his marketing trips. You're right. So should that
other one by 1920 also? Okay, that's okay. I just wanted to
make sure. Thank you. This is the plans for next year. We want
to maintain what we're doing. And we're going to add a few
things as directed. Like I said, we are in the middle of searching
for a new development director. And we also have formed a we
meet with our private investors, check in with them and see where
they want to go. So we're looking at planning for new
opportunities. And under the consultants that are coming in,
we've asked them to tell us if the areas that the city and the
chamber have decided to target on are the areas we should be
target targeting. So we're going to get those answers first
before we make out any more specific plans and planning
trips. But we are looking to do the most effective marketing on
Dennis. I did have one other question. Yes.
What do you find to be your most productive endeavor when it
comes to the marketing? Where do you get most of your bang? Or
is that is that a fair statement?
I'm going to defer to Karen, I mean, I know a lot of it has,
there's so many, it's, it's a matter of timing, we're
maintaining relationships with site selectors. So a closed deal
is always going to be the most productive. We're going to point
to that's the most productive thing we've just done. But
Karen, if you want to talk about some specific opportunities.
And like Erica says, it's a relationship building process.
It's getting the name of it out there. Currently. Right one this
way. No, that way. There it is. Team Texas is on both our
operations and private side. That is where a delegation from
the state go out and advertise the state. You don't advertise
didn't even talk to someone about didn't, of course, but
you're advertising the entire state. And we try to do is two
of those every year. And then we last year we had enough funding
to do two and private two and operations. And the other kind
of off tangent there, sorry. The operation funds are normally
annual conferences, or specific conferences to a industry, where
sometimes the private side is more of a consultants, more that
relationship building, not necessarily all about the
particular targeted industries. And thus far, the probably the
best one that we've gone to are the team Texas ones, because
they have a variety of industries that they're looking
at for manufacturing, aerospace, industrial specs, and things of
that nature.
Thank you.
Like I add the site selectors, because they can represent so
many countries, and my country's so many companies, and types of
companies, instead of going just to an industrial conference,
site selectors are working for companies all over the United
States will have the relationships with those guys
who are in that business. A company that's looking at
moving their headquarters from California to Texas is going to
hire somebody to do that we're not going to have a relationship
or meet someone in a conference and they're going to call us
directly to the site selectors that are the ones that
that's what I was going to add, it's collecting as many already
established relationships as we can, is where we're going to get
the best bang for our buck.
I have one more question.
Yes, sir.
So you say you have these sites selectors that we're using to
help send us business. How do we make it worth their while? How
do we make them happy? What do they get out of it? We're not
we're not using them. Companies hire them and we have to stay on
their radar. Just like we don't have site selectors. Companies
hire site selectors. And we need to make sure they know that in
Texas out there, we're raising our hand enough to where they
recognize. Absolutely. Okay. All right.
Thank you being responsive as RFPs and providing the data that
they're requesting as well.
Absolutely. The more information that we can get them the quicker
the process. Thank you for educating product. And here's
where you did that. Are there any more questions?
So what's our plan for replacing this condition that we have to
fill now? What kind of person are we looking for?
We're looking for someone with a minimum of six years already
working in the industry looking for someone who is a certified
economic developer. That's not a certification that you can begin
to apply for until you've already been working in the
industry for years. We're looking for someone from a city
who is either coming from a metro or a city this size
already. There's lots of personality types that I would
love to put in there and get them the necessary certifications,
but we don't have that kind of time. So we're putting together
a search committee of people who understand the economic
development of this region. And I believe we've even invited a
former economic developer to sit on our search committee. We're
looking for someone who's already at the top of their game
and has those relationships that we talked about. We don't want
to waste any time.
So you know, typically when you you know, you have somebody
believe like this, you can reevaluate, you know, what he
what he or she brought to the table, what did they always
what was their strengths, what were their weaknesses and how
you going forward, find somebody that maybe has more, you know,
different strengths, less witnesses, all the above. So
once again, how do we how do we find this person? Do we send
out? Do we use social media? Do we use, you know, our people
that we know in the industry? How do we identify our
candidates, I guess.
So we already have the listing on the TTC and IEDC both have
job listings. So most economic developers will who are looking
for work in Texas will go to one of those two sites to look for
that. So they are already looking for us. We are actually
also talking to a group that head hunts these particular
candidates. So we're hoping to not use social media probably.
And again, as far as the metrics for evaluation, that's something
that the site selection or the selection committee is looking
on. Absolutely.
Will this board be involved in that selection party anyway? Or
is that
no, that's a chamber internal. I don't mind confirmation, but Jill
and Jeff Jill is chair Jeff is incoming chair and myself. That's
Jim Fikes. Jim is the former chair of this or member of this
committee, the Chamber Board, Tim, Francis, Francis, who is
with us cold storage.
He's actually a former economic development general plan
manager.
So I could be great to make that decision.
Interested?
You know, there's room.
I'm not volunteering for it. But if you need somebody else to
sit in.
I think it's an important, important higher forces at this
point in time. I'm wondering, you know, a lot of our you know,
this consulting thing we're going through, obviously, we're
very early in that process. It would be nice to have kind of
completed that. And let them give us some feedback over what
that role needs to look like, if at all different than what it's
looked like in the past. But you have a better feel for that.
You hit the nail on the head.
We're in the middle of a relook at how we should do things city
and chamber wide. And we've got a job opening. And if those
results come back, you need a different set of skills or do
this a different way. So one of the things that we've talked
about is even pursuing somebody to do this on an interim basis.
I'll ask that. So if we if we wait, how much ground do we
lose? You know, if we wait, you know, three months or six months
to, you know, get some feedback from the study.
We're also obviously want to when we have final candidates
narrowed down, we'll want to meet with the city staff also
because that's somebody that they're going to work closely
with. We want to open all the lines of communication and make
sure that that's going to be a successful partnership.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
Thank you.
And
on to our next
regular that we're just gonna talk about it.
Our next item is ADP 19. That's your way to receive report whole
discussion to give staff direction regarding canceling
the regularly scheduled meetings for December 11 and
January 8 for the partnership board.
Understanding is we don't have any items to speak of in the
next month. And then the eight just give them the way it falls
is right after the holidays. And doesn't mean that we couldn't
call especially called meeting if we had something pop up. Just
want to throw the idea out there to talk about a lot of times we
have trouble making quorum in those months because of the
holidays. And that's not specific to this committee. It's
with a multiple committees.
If we have a project that has a timeline of anybody wants more
meetings, let's go back.
We don't have anything pressing for the December 11 meeting. And
then the January eight is only a week after I think there's a
lot of folks on vacation a week before if something pops up, we
can certainly try to get everybody together and have a
meeting. So anybody want to make a motion regarding those two
days so move second, enthusiastically second cancel the
December and January meetings like I want to be heard.
Any further discussion? All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any
opposed? Motion carries. And our last item or item D is our
staff reports. And we've got our staff here. If anybody wants to
talk or anything you want to point out and make sure we're
aware of nothing really to point out a customary. Eric and I are
here to answer any questions.
I think it's the city data. There's not anything present. It
just says ongoing. Some of them have a number. If it says
ongoing and there's no number, does that mean there's no
number? Well, for example, like if you take the site visits,
business retention and expansion visits, that's going to
continue. You have a target set for the year, but it ends at
the end of fiscal year and then it starts again for the next
fiscal year. My question is if it's blank, does that mean zero?
Yes, if it's blank that we only have one month of reporting. So
yeah, okay.
I have a opportunity maybe to I like to get the groups consensus
on for a pending item to talk about in the next couple of
months. The city has drastically changed the development fee
schedule for new projects. And there's been a lot of
conversation going back and forth on the schedule. And I
think that that is important enough subject to its economic
development subject to as far as anybody coming to town that
wants to do any kind of development, whether that's big,
large or small. So I would love for get your opinion on whether
that's something you'd like to take up as a group just to hear
the discussion on that. We it's been through city councils, but
there's meetings going back and forth between local folks and
city staff and the development office. But there's there's some
drastic changes and what it's going to cost to bring a new
project to do. Can you give us a taste?
Well, there's been a number of changes done at the state level.
It's not just specific to Denton that we're trying to incorporate
what the state is requiring. That's part of it. The other
part is the fees, the fees. So dramatic increases in fees that
I'm getting feedback is not comparable to other cities.
Yeah, so that fee schedule has already been approved. Before
this fiscal year, we did a cost of service study in the
development services department. And there was a $3 million
subsidy from the taxpayers that was popping up those. And so we
tried to right size the fees a little bit. And so I mean, I
would be okay with having the support review those and look at
them. But as far as what we can do to change them, I'm not really
sure if that's what you wanted to discuss.
I think I would like to see this board hear about what the fees
are. And I would love to get a assuming this happened in the
course of the business. But what is if I'm bringing a new
multifamily project to Denton and my fees are X, is that the
same? What are the fees and the other compared to our competitor
cities? Are they twice as much less equal to because I don't
know that every city is is trying to cover their cost of
service and their planning and development department with
with fees. And also I would like to see if we could take a
project that had gone through our system last year under the
whole fee schedule and what the changes to that would be because
I'm hearing from folks within Denton and outside of Denton
that are wanting to do projects in town that are a gasp at what
the new fees are, are and compared to other cities that
they're working in. And it's the difference of not doing it. Or
maybe instead of doing a project that's all great, you're now
doing it with signing. Yeah, I think it would be useful for
anybody involved in economic development to know about the
process we went through to get to those fees and what they are
and like you said, some of the differences between last fiscal
year and the current fiscal year. And as Keely said, it was
the result of a cost of service study. And that there was a lot
of general fund money going into those departments that was not
being recovered through the fees and talking about the kind of
one for one stuff and engineers looking at plans, not being
fully compensated, the city not being fully compensated for the
time the staff has been doing those things. I kind of liken it
to, you know, when I hear about somebody who says their electric
bill is higher, now that they've moved to Denton and they have to
be on DME. And I wish we just had like a pamphlet we could
handle. Here's the reason why your electric bill is higher. Our
rates are actually lower than where you moved from. You just
have an old air conditioner or drafty house or whatever it is.
I'd like to at least have this community kind of the economic
development community, knowledgeable and armed with good
information on how do we stack up to other cities? Are we are
we in fact higher? Is it higher depending on your project? Is it
higher depending on some of the the circumstances of your site
and the site conditions that are different? So that we kind of
have apples to apples comparisons when a site selector
says, for instance, at some conference, you know, I'm having
trouble marketing debt. And right now, those fees are so high.
And the people who are meeting with those folks know the
information, they can say, Yes, you're right, development fees
went up last year. But they're not the way you're thinking, or
actually, you need to go ahead and start talking to some of our
development folks, and planning folks, and getting the kind of
real deal on what your project is going to cost, as opposed to
what you think it's going to cost compared to last year. So I
think more information is always better. And this is exactly the
group of folks you should, you should have that information.
Yeah, I'm not saying do anything about it. I just like it'd be
nice as this group, but it's something that can and may
affect economic development. And it's like, this would be a good
group to hear that information about it.
We can certainly talk with Scott McDonald and talk about bringing
something back to the board. We also have something that you all
may not be aware of. And we can email out afterwards. But we have
open counter. I think Christina's presented this to the
board, but not all board members have seen it, depending on when
you came on. But you can go on and you set what your business
is. You can check zoning, you can estimate all your permits
and fees using that. So we could even use a business that we did
last year. And this year, internally, we can provide that
with for you as well, the same business, Christina can do that.
She's our staff liaison for open counter.
With the result being a straight difference between if you had
applied for it prior year versus this year, what the true
difference in the
as long as open counter has been updated. I know they've been
working on it as soon as it's complete. It's not already
complete. We can check on that.
I would definitely be in favor.
Just good morning. We don't have a agenda posted for this. I
know the deliberation is really focused on can we bring this
back? I would be in favor of that presentation. And also add
in the impact view discussion, which has not come to council.
That I would request for that to be the roadway. Yes.
Mr. Chair, someone along the same lines is there. I just
noticed one of the the businesses that we had approved
supporting on the square is already closed. Do we ever do a
perform a comparison?
I'm gonna make a slight observation about that. So
that's the downtown economic development task force grants.
The key there is that those are for the buildings and not for
the businesses. So for that very reason, the money doesn't go to
the business and stays with the building. So the upgrades to the
facade stay there no matter who comes back, they have to spend
the money and get reimbursed if they do what they want to say.
That's the property owner, not the business, the proposed
business.
It's the property owner. In that case, in theory, having done
those upgrades to that building should help them get somebody
else in there too. Thank you.
Good point. That's a good observation. That's specifically
why it's building not on business.
So we're, I think we agreed to add that to the one of our
agenda items in the coming months after December, January.
Yes, we'll definitely look into it.
Any other discussion? I would like to take this opportunity to
invite all of you to get tickets for our December quarterly
luncheon. When you mentioned other communities, the CFO of
the Dallas Cowboys will be our featured speaker. And he's going
to talk about why organizations like his choose the communities
that they did.
Who's that?
I can't remember his name right now. I knew you would ask me.
My name is Jones.
It's not Jones.
Agent of Jones.
Cool. That's CPA, buddy. When is that?
It is December 12.
Any other observations for the good of the order?
Call the meeting adjourned. Thank you for being here today.