WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.140 All right good morning welcome to the meeting of the economic development 00:00:09.140 --> 00:00:14.280 partnership board is April 15th Wednesday April 15th we've established a 00:00:14.280 --> 00:00:24.560 quorum so I call the meeting to order at 11 a.m. I begin with presentations from 00:00:24.560 --> 00:00:38.440 members of the public comments from the public so now we're going to start with 00:00:38.440 --> 00:00:44.440 the first item calling out so we'll now begin with the item for consideration 00:00:44.440 --> 00:00:54.640 item A EDP 26-008 consider approval of minutes of the March 11th 2026 economic 00:00:54.640 --> 00:00:59.400 development partnership board regular meeting are there any questions about 00:00:59.400 --> 00:01:07.360 the March minutes I got a motion from Rick I got a second from Jeremy Fikes 00:01:07.360 --> 00:01:25.880 with those can I get a move on the item B EDP 26-009 consider approval of the 00:01:25.880 --> 00:01:31.960 minutes of the March 23rd 2026 economic development bar report economic 00:01:31.960 --> 00:01:41.400 development partnership board retreat special called meeting from Lucy second 00:01:41.400 --> 00:01:53.620 from Lee Ramsey all in favor all right move on to item C EDP 26 - oh one oh 00:01:53.620 --> 00:02:01.540 consider approval of the minutes of the March 24th 2026 EDP be retreat 00:02:01.540 --> 00:02:07.320 special call meeting are there any questions about those minutes and I get 00:02:07.320 --> 00:02:14.900 a motion I got a motion from Amy take a second second from Vicki bird all in 00:02:14.900 --> 00:02:19.080 favor all right any opposed 00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:28.640 all right we've got the minutes out of the way go to item D EDP 26 - oh one 00:02:28.640 --> 00:02:34.340 receive a report hold a discussion and consider recommending approval to City 00:02:34.340 --> 00:02:41.320 Council regarding an incentive agreement for Tio sky for a sales tax rebate on 00:02:41.320 --> 00:02:46.200 construction materials up to ninety four thousand five hundred dollars a job-based 00:02:46.200 --> 00:02:52.120 grant up to two hundred and twenty seven thousand dollars and an ad valorem 00:02:52.120 --> 00:02:57.720 rebate on real property improvements and business personal property up to four 00:02:57.720 --> 00:03:03.720 hundred ninety thousand five hundred and sixty four dollars and a headquarters 00:03:03.720 --> 00:03:10.200 grant up to fifty thousand dollars under chapter 380 of the local government 00:03:10.200 --> 00:03:20.040 coach chair recognizes Brittany Saltillo to present at this I'm here to present 00:03:20.040 --> 00:03:24.480 an overview of Creteo skies incentive application we first started working 00:03:24.480 --> 00:03:28.520 with the company back in September 2025 when they reached out to inquire about 00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:33.600 the size we heard back from the company in December January timeframe but they 00:03:33.600 --> 00:03:37.120 wanted to move forward with one of the sites in addition they were also 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:41.800 exploring another side in the DFW multiplex we hosted them for a site visit 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:48.280 in February 2026 and now today joining us for the company is Ellen McCarthy 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:52.160 she's a senior vice president of global government affairs and they have 00:03:52.160 --> 00:03:57.520 contracted with KPMG and Bob Maida is also here he's a tax managing director 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:05.440 and he's here to represent the company it started the company was founded in 00:04:05.440 --> 00:04:10.960 2025 and they're undergoing rapid growth there are currently exploring two sites 00:04:10.960 --> 00:04:15.260 in the DFW Metroplex to assemble a large-scale manufacturing facility that 00:04:15.260 --> 00:04:19.280 will enable the company to establish itself as a dual-use producer for the 00:04:19.280 --> 00:04:22.920 autonomous aerial robotics the manufacturing facility will design 00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:27.080 produce tests and refine the company's autonomous aerial robotics product 00:04:27.080 --> 00:04:31.440 offerings here in the final stages of closing the acquisition of multiple 00:04:31.440 --> 00:04:36.440 operating UAS assets in the very near future and they're strongly capitalized 00:04:36.440 --> 00:04:40.080 with initial funding raised through existing partners and additional funding 00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:44.760 commitments from outside investors the company is also in the process of 00:04:44.760 --> 00:04:48.600 evaluating options for their future global headquarters providing a central 00:04:48.600 --> 00:04:52.760 hub for ongoing corporate acquisitions product management and strategic planning 00:04:52.760 --> 00:05:00.120 within the next few years project overview the autonomous aerial robotics 00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:03.840 industry is rapidly growing and the country has an immediate requirement for 00:05:03.840 --> 00:05:09.360 American-made at scale UAS the company is a dual-use grown manufacturer that 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:13.800 wants to focus on both military and commercial markets and say they will 00:05:13.800 --> 00:05:19.040 focus on defense security inspections agriculture law enforcement and search 00:05:19.040 --> 00:05:24.480 and rescue logistic and construction industries the company is planning on 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:27.760 leading the industry by creating the first Western at scale unified 00:05:27.760 --> 00:05:32.840 intelligence and actuation platform that is monetized through services and they're 00:05:32.840 --> 00:05:40.920 uniquely positioned to win with its seasoned leadership team so Scott wine 00:05:40.920 --> 00:05:47.680 is a current CEO of the tail sky Scott is also the former CEO of Polaris which 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:52.600 is the recreational vehicle manufacturer he served with the company from 2008 to 00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:57.540 2020 becoming chairman in 2013 and during which he transformed the company 00:05:57.540 --> 00:06:01.640 from a 1.9 billion dollar company into nearly seven billion dollar global 00:06:01.640 --> 00:06:06.040 power sports leader he also led the company through significant growth 00:06:06.040 --> 00:06:10.040 including major acquisitions portfolio diversification and expansion into 00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:17.720 international market the company also has representatives from that formerly 00:06:17.720 --> 00:06:22.760 were employed by Boeing the chief technology officer and they also have 00:06:22.760 --> 00:06:29.480 expertise in AI autonomy and advanced manufacturing Ellen McCarthy she has 00:06:29.480 --> 00:06:34.840 experience in government relations during her career she was a former chief 00:06:34.840 --> 00:06:39.120 of global affairs for Polaris which is how she knows Scott and she has secured 00:06:39.120 --> 00:06:42.280 over 200 million dollars in congressional funding throughout her 00:06:42.280 --> 00:06:47.080 career and she was a former Senate Finance Committee adviser she's also 00:06:47.080 --> 00:06:51.280 retired a retired Marine lieutenant colonel 00:06:51.280 --> 00:07:03.800 the company plans on leasing a facility at 3411 Mingo Road building number two 00:07:03.800 --> 00:07:10.800 the building is a little over 165,000 square feet and it's at the 280 288 3d 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:15.480 logistics part they will make several improvements to the building including 00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:20.080 adding a manufacturing floor and office space build out additional facility 00:07:20.080 --> 00:07:24.920 modifications climate control systems and adding power distribution upgrades 00:07:24.920 --> 00:07:30.240 it will also add manufacturing equipment tooling assembly fixtures testing 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:37.000 equipment and other personal property within their incentive application the 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:42.320 company estimates to create 23.5 million dollars in total capital investment 12.6 00:07:42.320 --> 00:07:46.000 million dollars in improvements 10.9 million dollars in business personal 00:07:46.000 --> 00:07:53.560 property and a total of 258 jobs currently the building is evaluated at 00:07:53.560 --> 00:07:58.440 16.4 million dollars with the estimated improvements in business personal 00:07:58.440 --> 00:08:03.480 property we estimate it will create 18.8 million dollars for a total of 35.2 00:08:03.480 --> 00:08:08.920 million dollars after the improvements are completed current city revenue is at 00:08:08.920 --> 00:08:12.240 ninety eight thousand dollars with the building with the improvements we 00:08:12.240 --> 00:08:16.060 estimate an additional hundred eleven thousand dollars for a total of two 00:08:16.060 --> 00:08:24.040 hundred ten thousand dollars our incentive proposal to the company is a 00:08:24.040 --> 00:08:29.800 65% chapter 380 at alarm rebate for eight years on real property improvements 00:08:29.800 --> 00:08:33.480 in business personal property with a cap of four hundred ninety eight thousand 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:38.960 five hundred and sixty four dollars a 50% sales tax rebate for construction 00:08:38.960 --> 00:08:43.080 materials based on their ability to I'm sorry the cap of ninety four thousand 00:08:43.080 --> 00:08:47.860 five hundred dollars it's based on their ability to obtain a Texas direct pay 00:08:47.860 --> 00:08:54.080 permit and it's a one-time rebate in addition we're offering a job-based 00:08:54.080 --> 00:09:00.040 grant up to 227 thousand dollars and a headquarters grant up to fifty thousand 00:09:00.040 --> 00:09:05.400 dollars and the headquarters grant will be provided if they choose it as a 00:09:05.400 --> 00:09:10.280 location as our headquarters and we're providing them up to two years to make a 00:09:10.280 --> 00:09:18.560 decision fingers crossed the company will hire a variety of positions including 00:09:18.560 --> 00:09:23.040 production and quality test technicians supply chain warehouse staff production 00:09:23.040 --> 00:09:27.640 engineers facility staff controller and HR personnel and a plant manager with 00:09:27.640 --> 00:09:32.560 executive staff the average salary for those positions is seventy eight thousand 00:09:32.560 --> 00:09:37.720 seven hundred eighty seven dollars and currently we at their last jobs ET report 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:42.320 that we ran is sixty four thousand one hundred dollars which is the Denton 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:50.040 County average salary the company will also provide health and television and a 00:09:50.040 --> 00:09:56.000 401k match which is something that we ask on our scoring matrix and going back 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:00.600 to the job grant proposal we estimate that we are funding up to a hundred and 00:10:00.600 --> 00:10:05.400 twenty three jobs with a cap of two hundred twenty seven thousand so for 00:10:05.400 --> 00:10:09.840 jobs sixty that are funded sixty five thousand to over a hundred thousand 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:14.220 dollars that's ninety eight jobs and then we added a didn't resident residency 00:10:14.220 --> 00:10:19.680 bonus for twenty five jobs up to twelve thousand five hundred at five hundred 00:10:19.680 --> 00:10:29.120 dollars per job on the economic impact report the net benefits lesson centers 00:10:29.120 --> 00:10:33.280 estimate is nine hundred fifty thousand seven hundred fifty five dollars but the 00:10:33.280 --> 00:10:37.160 city would generate over a ten-year period for the county it's four hundred 00:10:37.160 --> 00:10:42.280 eleven thousand and the school district is a little over one million the rate of 00:10:42.280 --> 00:10:46.200 return for the project is twenty point six percent and the payback period is 00:10:46.200 --> 00:10:49.200 four point six years 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:56.360 benefits of this project is this will serve as a catalyst for additional UAS 00:10:56.360 --> 00:11:01.080 opportunities and didn't we just posted a mobility summit that focus on mobility 00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:05.560 and we think that this would be a great segue to open up more opportunities to 00:11:05.560 --> 00:11:10.400 recruit similar companies this is also within our strategic plan under 00:11:10.400 --> 00:11:15.880 connectivity or transportation and logistics this also will create 00:11:15.880 --> 00:11:19.760 additional research partnerships and employment opportunities with UNT, UTW, 00:11:19.760 --> 00:11:26.280 and NCTC and there's potential to test some of their technology at the Dent 00:11:26.280 --> 00:11:33.440 Enterprise Airport or UNT's UAS test center so our staff recommendation is a 00:11:33.440 --> 00:11:37.320 chapter 380 abalone rebate on real property improvements and business 00:11:37.320 --> 00:11:42.400 personal property at 65 percent up to eight years with a cap of four hundred 00:11:42.400 --> 00:11:46.960 ninety eight thousand five hundred sixty four dollars a 50% sales tax rebate for 00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:51.400 construction materials up to ninety four thousand five hundred dollars a job based 00:11:51.400 --> 00:12:03.120 grant up to 227,000 and headquarters grant up to 50,000 and Ellen and Criteo 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:07.080 Skye they're a bit of a rush to move forward so they can finalize the site 00:12:07.080 --> 00:12:11.360 and so we are proposing taking this to City Council next week on Wednesday so 00:12:11.360 --> 00:12:14.680 by the time we posted this presentation we weren't able to have we were able to 00:12:14.680 --> 00:12:18.000 have a draft agreement we do have some of the performance measures that will 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:23.120 require for this incentive as an additional slide but I just wanted to 00:12:23.120 --> 00:12:34.080 state that any questions you go back to the salary in benefits slide and you 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:40.220 said the average in Denton is 64,000 right so these are good paying jobs with 00:12:40.220 --> 00:12:50.680 benefits up to 200 was it hundred or up to 225 jobs is that the other spot probably 00:12:50.680 --> 00:12:54.920 higher closer to 300 I was really conservative in all of my estimates our 00:12:54.920 --> 00:13:00.380 capital investment says 23 million it'll be somewhere between 25 and 50 million 00:13:00.380 --> 00:13:07.800 we anticipate jobs closer to 300 but I didn't want to overestimate anything no 00:13:07.800 --> 00:13:15.240 appreciate the transparency there thank you I just wanted to get that on the 00:13:15.240 --> 00:13:22.480 record yes ma'am I'm on the and just forgive me if you explain this the 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:28.080 economic impact report over ten years slide you've got salaries there and then 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:32.280 it says fifty seven thousand eight hundred and thirty six average what is 00:13:32.280 --> 00:13:38.200 that reference yes so that includes all the positions that are proposed so what 00:13:38.200 --> 00:13:42.440 happens is with the economic reports it includes indirect jobs that are created 00:13:42.440 --> 00:13:47.160 so that can include small businesses that hire more employees waiters and 00:13:47.160 --> 00:13:51.920 waitresses to supply potatoes guys employees or maybe their additional 00:13:51.920 --> 00:13:55.880 suppliers and so that's estimating the potential salaries that go into that 00:13:55.880 --> 00:14:02.800 average wage okay so it's a little bit lower but yeah so it's not the current 00:14:02.800 --> 00:14:08.240 average wage and it's not the anticipated average wage for the company 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:15.320 correct okay just want to make sure and then can you talk about you know it's a 00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:20.800 lot of people to hire are they going to be building are they working on the 00:14:20.800 --> 00:14:30.200 software what is it that these what kind of positions are these I want to thank 00:14:30.200 --> 00:14:33.960 Clay and Brittany for working with us over the past several months and Elena 00:14:33.960 --> 00:14:58.000 Glassman from congressman Jackson's office is here so thank you so I want to 00:14:58.000 --> 00:15:03.600 start by explaining because we're a newer company but we're not a traditional 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:07.640 startup and I think that will feed into your question about how are we going to 00:15:07.640 --> 00:15:14.400 hire 250 to 300 people in the next couple of years so we've spent the past 00:15:14.400 --> 00:15:20.280 couple of years looking at over 200 drone companies UIS companies we've 00:15:20.280 --> 00:15:26.040 identified six that we're acquiring in the next two months and those are 00:15:26.040 --> 00:15:31.360 operating businesses with revenue we're going to create the manufacturing hub 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:37.840 and integrate those businesses here in Denton we funded the initial 50 million 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:44.680 dollars for our business from partners of our business we have another 350 00:15:44.680 --> 00:15:49.280 million dollars that we are raising through equity and debt so we're very 00:15:49.280 --> 00:15:54.080 well capitalized we have existing drone manufacturing that we're bringing here 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:59.760 to integrate and leverage the various technology and systems into our 00:15:59.760 --> 00:16:04.720 platforms so the jobs we are in the process we've interviewed several plant 00:16:04.720 --> 00:16:09.640 managers and plant engineers we have a plan for who we want to hire and need to 00:16:09.640 --> 00:16:14.840 hire I'm excited about UNT when I was here a few weeks ago I went there and I 00:16:14.840 --> 00:16:21.600 met their head of engineering and saw their UAS test facility outside so we 00:16:21.600 --> 00:16:25.960 think Denton is a great place to you know in the Denton area is a great place 00:16:25.960 --> 00:16:31.600 to find talent and hire so that's one of the reasons that we found Denton to be 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:37.560 appealing especially for the UAS market and we're looking at in your question 00:16:37.560 --> 00:16:44.920 about are we building a new plant no we we found a box so 3411 Mingo Drive is a 00:16:44.920 --> 00:16:50.440 logistics building we have a general contractor lined up I have a couple of 00:16:50.440 --> 00:16:54.040 architects I've got to decide which one to use we're going to build a third a 00:16:54.040 --> 00:17:00.920 two-story 30,000 square foot office space the rest is going to be planned for you 00:17:00.920 --> 00:17:06.040 know as you can see the wars in Ukraine and Saudi Arabia there's an urgent need 00:17:06.040 --> 00:17:12.800 for a robust sovereign American UAS manufacturing base and that's our 00:17:12.800 --> 00:17:18.520 mission Scott wine a former Naval Academy graduate me retired 20-year 00:17:18.520 --> 00:17:25.320 retired Marine to war veteran Bam Bam Smith Robert Smith 30-year Navy seal you 00:17:25.320 --> 00:17:29.040 know we're very focused on Department of War we will sell civilian to the 00:17:29.040 --> 00:17:35.520 civilian world commercial world as well but we feel there's a mandate to be a 00:17:35.520 --> 00:17:40.720 premier American manufacturer of drones today the number one manufacturer drones 00:17:40.720 --> 00:17:47.600 is Chinese company and we are focused on building a Western supply chain base we 00:17:47.600 --> 00:17:53.760 also are leveraging AI will be an AI native company and that doesn't mean 00:17:53.760 --> 00:17:58.960 eliminating jobs it means working more efficiently whether it's hiring whether 00:17:58.960 --> 00:18:02.720 it's supply chain whether it's the management of your business we're 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:07.040 integrating that at the very ground level does that answer your question yes 00:18:07.040 --> 00:18:14.760 so it's mainly logistics as opposed to the manufacturer manufacturing we're 00:18:14.760 --> 00:18:19.560 acquiring the logistics building which is like a blank slate we're building the 00:18:19.560 --> 00:18:25.280 manufacturing in that site as well as the office space for our engineers and 00:18:25.280 --> 00:18:30.840 for our tests there's two acres adjacent to this facility that assuming the FAA 00:18:30.840 --> 00:18:35.480 approves it will do some tests some of our testing there later today I'm 00:18:35.480 --> 00:18:39.960 meeting with the municipal airport to see if we can do some drone testing at 00:18:39.960 --> 00:18:45.200 the airport as well but it's not logistics it's manufacturing it's 00:18:45.200 --> 00:18:50.960 development there's a lot of software that goes into these the drone itself is 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:54.840 like the bus and then you have to build the frames and that's going to happen 00:18:54.840 --> 00:19:02.440 here in Denton as well and if I may just follow up so I'm assuming that from what 00:19:02.440 --> 00:19:06.480 from what you've said you've looked very seriously at Denton and I assume that 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:12.120 part of your decision-making has to do with the proposed incentives and what 00:19:12.120 --> 00:19:16.280 you are hoping that are granted here today important part of our decision yes 00:19:16.280 --> 00:19:20.560 okay just wanted to make sure that we were it's that and you know just like 00:19:20.560 --> 00:19:24.160 the partnership that Brittany and Clay have showed us and even Congressman 00:19:24.160 --> 00:19:29.640 Jackson's office you know visiting UNT they're excited to have us here too so I 00:19:29.640 --> 00:19:34.960 feel like it's a welcoming community for business when I found out I took this 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:39.280 job at Criteo Sky I knew how to spell drone but I didn't really know anything 00:19:39.280 --> 00:19:44.480 about drones right but I reached out to Congressman Jackson's office I was like 00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:50.600 if you were to manufacture UAS in Texas and you're just where to go and they're 00:19:50.600 --> 00:19:55.920 like good and Brittany gave us a list of potential properties we also have been 00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:59.040 looking at North Richland Hills there's one site that we've identified there 00:19:59.040 --> 00:20:05.280 that would work for us and as far as any security concerns I assume that that is 00:20:05.280 --> 00:20:12.900 all built in as far as any considering the nature of what you'll be doing we'll 00:20:12.900 --> 00:20:21.680 have a secret level manufacturing section for our defense yes and and 00:20:21.680 --> 00:20:32.280 appropriate protocols to make sure those those systems and if you know and if you 00:20:32.280 --> 00:20:38.080 don't you know don't feel put on the spot but what are you looking for in 00:20:38.080 --> 00:20:43.120 determining a location for your headquarters here in the United States 00:20:43.120 --> 00:20:48.440 so I think Texas we're looking at Texas I mean we've decided up front Texas is a 00:20:48.440 --> 00:20:54.360 good place it's very favorable for industry so we're looking at Texas no 00:20:54.360 --> 00:20:58.880 other states I didn't apply for the attack because you know you've got to say 00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:03.440 you're looking somewhere else so business favorable environment we want 00:21:03.440 --> 00:21:07.880 to make sure we can hire people right that's gonna hire 300 people in the 00:21:07.880 --> 00:21:13.360 next two years so we need we need a place where there are qualified educated 00:21:13.360 --> 00:21:18.040 talented people and this is a location where you can do that we're focusing on 00:21:18.040 --> 00:21:23.960 the Dallas area and I honed in on debt because of reasons I explained did I 00:21:23.960 --> 00:21:28.160 answer your absolutely and thank you so much for letting me continue with a few 00:21:28.160 --> 00:21:33.000 questions no I mean that's why I came I think from Virginia this morning don't 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:37.560 put this in the minutes like my own I slept through two alarms 00:21:40.880 --> 00:22:01.160 well thank you very much I just wanted to tell you all that our city is so 00:22:01.160 --> 00:22:10.280 unique and so cool but the thing about your location is in my district so I 00:22:10.280 --> 00:22:16.000 am excited to see that not only are we excited about our downtown area and 00:22:16.000 --> 00:22:21.680 north west area you know everything's going with everything's going north with 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:26.720 you all being over there you're gonna help drive more interest over to our 00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:32.880 eastern sector that's one thing that appealed to me as well is there's more 00:22:32.880 --> 00:22:37.920 space it's a little more open rather than having our manufacturing site in a 00:22:37.920 --> 00:22:43.560 heavily industrialized area there's more space so that's that's really cool thank 00:22:43.560 --> 00:22:49.800 you all for that consideration the other thing is so we're the city council is 00:22:49.800 --> 00:22:55.120 meeting on I'll be here for that meeting all right so we say yes for you how long 00:22:55.120 --> 00:23:01.640 will it take from a yes vote to get to a point where you are now hiring and 00:23:01.640 --> 00:23:06.240 settled in what do you all think about so if you're a general contractor we 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:13.000 haven't signed a lease yet you know but we're talking with the landlord once we 00:23:13.000 --> 00:23:21.400 sign a lease and get occupancy approved certificate of occupancy the plan is put 00:23:21.400 --> 00:23:26.080 a curtain up so we can put a manufacturing line up immediately and 00:23:26.080 --> 00:23:31.600 just start on one of our one of our systems we already have orders lining up 00:23:31.600 --> 00:23:37.480 even though we you know our partners that we're acquiring as far as up and 00:23:37.480 --> 00:23:43.480 running and like full speed ahead Gordon Lighthizer is the general contractor 00:23:43.480 --> 00:23:49.880 I'm talking to they said by the end of fall so be quick you know speed is our 00:23:49.880 --> 00:24:04.440 middle name number two there are four to five hundred members of the North Texas 00:24:04.440 --> 00:24:12.400 University Drone Club and number three similar patrol is a consumer of drums we 00:24:12.400 --> 00:24:17.160 fly for FEMA during disasters and we cannot fly anything but a u.s. 00:24:17.160 --> 00:24:21.840 manufactured because the Chinese are monitoring the other the system so when 00:24:21.840 --> 00:24:26.240 we're flying for FEMA which we do extensively we're really limited on what 00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:31.040 we can do because we don't have enough u.s. manufacture drugs one of the drugs 00:24:31.040 --> 00:24:41.560 we're acquiring flies and hurricanes or tornadoes and that's good to know I'm 00:24:41.560 --> 00:24:57.240 glad they will stay in place and we're not a venture capital firm we're about 00:24:57.240 --> 00:25:03.280 aggregating and growing so we will keep those businesses in place and continue 00:25:03.280 --> 00:25:08.880 to invest in them but also invest in our make all our manufacturing here what's 00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:13.960 happened with a lot of these drone companies it's fractured industry they 00:25:13.960 --> 00:25:19.560 have you know a couple of tables in their manufacturing room and they can't 00:25:19.560 --> 00:25:24.000 build scale so this would be a credo to those this would be this would be this 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:33.360 is where we would manufacture to scale and quickly yeah Kim thank you for being 00:25:33.360 --> 00:25:37.840 here thank you for having me do you have any projections on how much of your 00:25:37.840 --> 00:25:41.800 business model or business revenue will be based on federal government contracts 00:25:41.800 --> 00:25:48.160 probably about 60 to 67 percent 00:25:48.160 --> 00:25:56.840 just looking ahead five years ten years what are you looking for as a community 00:25:56.840 --> 00:26:01.360 that we would say hey you know this is an industry that I think is at the it 00:26:01.360 --> 00:26:04.160 doesn't sound like it's the beginning but it's the beginning because it's 00:26:04.160 --> 00:26:11.600 fractured so so what does a community like us does to prepare on the growth 00:26:11.600 --> 00:26:14.800 and expansion and the direction that you guys are going and I'm talking to 00:26:14.800 --> 00:26:18.560 universities but just curious about the future employment the future development 00:26:18.560 --> 00:26:23.160 like what is it that we can partner and say hey you and T here's opportunities 00:26:23.160 --> 00:26:28.240 for your students hey here's here is here's the manufacturing jobs here's the 00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:34.080 technical analysis we want in the future yeah so I think part of that is you know 00:26:34.080 --> 00:26:43.920 advanced manufacturing software system integration they're not just assembly 00:26:43.920 --> 00:26:54.120 jobs these are high-tech positions so as the UAS ecosystem grows and advances 00:26:54.120 --> 00:27:00.280 those jobs will as well my CEO and we also have somebody who's on the ground 00:27:00.280 --> 00:27:05.560 in Ukraine and we're looking at a few companies to partner with there as well 00:27:05.560 --> 00:27:09.720 what they've told me every two weeks there's advancements in the in the 00:27:09.720 --> 00:27:14.520 drones right so it's not like we're gonna put in a few screws or we're 00:27:14.520 --> 00:27:19.200 assembling a couple of things this is a an industry that's growing and advancing 00:27:19.200 --> 00:27:25.160 at a very rapid place at pace and I think the jobs well does that answer your 00:27:25.160 --> 00:27:29.200 question it does it does and it's harder it's a crystal ball that is not clear 00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:33.840 right now because of what you just said because my brother was in Ukraine you 00:27:33.840 --> 00:27:36.880 know doing medical work since the beginning he's like everything is 00:27:36.880 --> 00:27:44.640 changing so fast it war is not what it used to be notice everything else I remember more 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:48.560 story in the Marine Corps you know all of a sudden we started learning how to fight 00:27:48.560 --> 00:27:53.040 urban warfare and that was a big thing and then when I went to Iraq the second 00:27:53.040 --> 00:27:57.880 time the IEDs were everywhere and that was a whole new way now it's drones you 00:27:57.880 --> 00:28:02.240 know we want to make sure our service members are safe and our country is safe 00:28:02.240 --> 00:28:07.120 so I think that's an important mission for our company I don't want to sound 00:28:07.120 --> 00:28:11.800 like like a goal or anything like that but I think it's important and I think 00:28:11.800 --> 00:28:16.520 being in debt and being in a place where we can really partner with community is 00:28:16.520 --> 00:28:24.160 important for our success ready to go back to the recommendation I just want 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:30.760 to make sure if you're done with me I'll get out of the spotlight everyone's done 00:28:30.760 --> 00:28:35.200 asking questions I think we are thank you so much for your input and thank you 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:43.760 for visiting us all right so guess what I'm gonna look for is a motion to 00:28:43.760 --> 00:28:57.080 recommend or approve the stated so I got a Rick's bailing me out here all right I 00:28:57.080 --> 00:29:04.160 got a motion from Rick can I get a second all in favor I I any of any 00:29:04.160 --> 00:29:10.320 opposed all right motion passes thank you very much and thank you thank you 00:29:10.320 --> 00:29:39.920 coming all right we're gonna move on to working session call item 00:29:39.920 --> 00:29:44.840 PDP 26 - oh one to receive a report and hold a discussion regarding Greek 00:29:44.840 --> 00:29:50.560 business program and recent sustainability award winner recognized 00:29:50.560 --> 00:30:00.760 Karen for burner thank you thank you yeah as I said I'm Karen burner I'm the 00:30:00.760 --> 00:30:04.640 sustainability engagement specialist with the city of Denton's environmental 00:30:04.640 --> 00:30:08.400 services and sustainability department and I'm just gonna talk to you today a 00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:11.400 little bit about the green business program and the awards that we gave out 00:30:11.400 --> 00:30:17.320 in 2025 so today's focus we're gonna go over a back a little bit of a background 00:30:17.320 --> 00:30:22.520 of the program and an overview and what it means to participate in the program 00:30:22.520 --> 00:30:26.880 then we're gonna talk about awards and recognitions including our 2025 awards 00:30:26.880 --> 00:30:32.360 that we gave out with a project of your highlight from our friends over at ESAP 00:30:32.360 --> 00:30:39.340 they're gonna come up and tell us about so with the background there was a pilot 00:30:39.340 --> 00:30:44.040 program launched in 2019 with nine participating businesses that pilot 00:30:44.040 --> 00:30:48.800 ended in 2020 and then the program was put on hold through the pandemic and 00:30:48.800 --> 00:30:52.580 through some staff changes but we did have a full program relaunched in 00:30:52.580 --> 00:30:58.200 January 1st of 2025 and we've now completed that first calendar year a 00:30:58.200 --> 00:31:03.040 small overview of the program it it's meant to encourage sustainability within 00:31:03.040 --> 00:31:10.080 businesses and provide resources to highlight or initiate green practices so 00:31:10.080 --> 00:31:14.480 basically we want to meet businesses wherever they're at and provide some 00:31:14.480 --> 00:31:17.960 guidance and resources for any sustainability goals that they might 00:31:17.960 --> 00:31:21.600 have or if they have corporate sustainability goals help them reach 00:31:21.600 --> 00:31:27.240 that area within their local businesses here in Denton and the focus areas are 00:31:27.240 --> 00:31:32.040 water conservation, energy conservation, transportation, materials management which 00:31:32.040 --> 00:31:37.200 just means diversion from the landfill so recycling, composting, things like that 00:31:37.200 --> 00:31:42.280 wildlife, community resilience and it's also meant to be an opportunity for 00:31:42.280 --> 00:31:46.140 businesses to network and collaborate with each other to gain to increase 00:31:46.140 --> 00:31:51.640 sustainability throughout the city so some of our some of the things that were 00:31:51.640 --> 00:31:59.120 done within the green business program this past year this picture on your left 00:31:59.120 --> 00:32:03.480 is actually it's a lunch and learn that we did it out at Peterbilt so we know 00:32:03.480 --> 00:32:07.480 that some of these employees they do reside within the city of Denton and 00:32:07.480 --> 00:32:11.480 we'd like to get information out to them and we do provide workshops but they're 00:32:11.480 --> 00:32:14.960 on weekends and after in the evenings and we know not everyone's going to be 00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:19.600 able to come out and get to those places so we want to come to them where they're 00:32:19.600 --> 00:32:23.520 at give them some free food so nice incentive to come and listen and then 00:32:23.520 --> 00:32:27.480 for this class we talked about the city of Denton sustainability incentives we 00:32:27.480 --> 00:32:33.520 have so people who live in Denton are able to take advantage of those and then 00:32:33.520 --> 00:32:39.400 on the other side that's at ESAB so we like this program to be a collaboration 00:32:39.400 --> 00:32:44.720 not only do we want to provide resources for the business but we can help each 00:32:44.720 --> 00:32:50.440 other so over at ESAB they are actually a registered wildlife habitat within the 00:32:50.440 --> 00:32:55.520 National Wildlife Federation's community wildlife habitat program and that is a 00:32:55.520 --> 00:33:00.800 goal that the city is working on to become a certified wildlife habitat city 00:33:00.800 --> 00:33:07.240 so ESAB gets this beautiful area that brings in wildlife it helps Denton 00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:12.440 critters as well as gives the employees a beautiful spot to sit and look have 00:33:12.440 --> 00:33:17.480 their lunch have their breaks all of that and we did get the Bird City to 00:33:17.480 --> 00:33:21.440 Texas designation as well this year and so having the things like the bird 00:33:21.440 --> 00:33:27.720 houses that they have all over their campus is perfect so for awards and 00:33:27.720 --> 00:33:32.120 recognition within the program it's based on three categories and it's by 00:33:32.120 --> 00:33:39.040 employer size so the small businesses are 1 to 75 employees a medium is 76 to 00:33:39.040 --> 00:33:46.200 300 and a large is 301 above and they can win awards in resource conservation 00:33:46.200 --> 00:33:49.980 which includes energy water materials management transportation and then 00:33:49.980 --> 00:33:57.480 wildlife and community resilience so in the end we can have up to nine awards if 00:33:57.480 --> 00:34:03.440 we have all three employer sizes for all three categories and then we also have 00:34:03.440 --> 00:34:10.640 project of the year which is one award for any size business based on the 00:34:10.640 --> 00:34:15.680 sustainability project that they are proudest of that year basically at the 00:34:15.680 --> 00:34:19.240 end of the year we have a little report they can fill out for whatever they've 00:34:19.240 --> 00:34:25.240 done and send it in and then we decide from there who wins project of the year 00:34:25.240 --> 00:34:35.200 so for 2025 he said one the wildlife and community resilience award they also got 00:34:35.200 --> 00:34:39.800 the resources managed conservation award and project of the year and then over on 00:34:39.800 --> 00:34:48.720 the side we have Peter belt who won the transportation award for 2025 and for our 00:34:48.720 --> 00:34:52.400 project of the year I'd like to invite our representative from east of up to 00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:55.400 talk about it a little bit 00:34:55.400 --> 00:35:17.120 well firstly let me say thank you for having us over here my name is Bruce 00:35:17.120 --> 00:35:23.720 I'm the senior director of operations for North America from the south Kimberly 00:35:23.720 --> 00:35:29.320 Smith I'm the environmental health and safety manager so it's been exciting just 00:35:29.320 --> 00:35:33.300 being here and just reflecting back because it goes back to my time but Kim 00:35:33.300 --> 00:35:38.040 and I started I started as a plan manager there and then we started 00:35:38.040 --> 00:35:42.200 working on all of these programs and then just goes back flashback memories 00:35:42.200 --> 00:35:46.280 like wow the last few years what the difference we have made but this one is 00:35:46.280 --> 00:35:52.180 very close and dear to us because when we started having working from Michigan 00:35:52.180 --> 00:35:56.880 moved into Texas not used to the necessarily the weather but started 00:35:56.880 --> 00:36:00.920 seeing our employees going through a lot of these cases of water and then used to 00:36:00.920 --> 00:36:05.880 go to get some of these sashes that we would give it to our employees that we 00:36:05.880 --> 00:36:09.600 went through these a lot of things that we went and then maybe one is like God 00:36:09.600 --> 00:36:13.520 what are we doing for sustainability and we start looking the number of plastic 00:36:13.520 --> 00:36:17.880 that we throw around as well and I will leave it to Kim who came up with the 00:36:17.880 --> 00:36:22.480 solution because this is where I think having a good DHS partner and she 00:36:22.480 --> 00:36:25.880 understanding the core of our business and more importantly taking care of our 00:36:25.880 --> 00:36:31.040 people it was important to our community so you want to go ahead and talk but how 00:36:31.040 --> 00:36:34.400 you went about getting this water station yeah actually I just did some 00:36:34.400 --> 00:36:38.320 work with research on the water stations and this fit our facility so we have 00:36:38.320 --> 00:36:42.560 eight stations and they're just around our entire facility but not only that we 00:36:42.560 --> 00:36:48.240 provide water belt bottles for our employees so our employees love this we 00:36:48.240 --> 00:36:52.520 give them a what new water bottle every year and like you can see we say 00:36:52.520 --> 00:37:01.260 actually saved 77 of water last year so it's it's huge and not only from a 00:37:01.260 --> 00:37:07.960 sustainability point view but also from employees our top thing is to take care 00:37:07.960 --> 00:37:13.880 of our employees and they like it what's important is they taking that message to 00:37:13.880 --> 00:37:19.520 their homes so we started giving out yes as companies we do do the branding in 00:37:19.520 --> 00:37:24.960 terms of our own ESOP logo bottles and everything but they started taking back 00:37:24.960 --> 00:37:29.960 to their homes teaching the kids as a company we're using this as a best 00:37:29.960 --> 00:37:35.320 practice across all the other sites that we have in North America in fact I'm 00:37:35.320 --> 00:37:40.360 responsible for Mexico too so if we started this program there as well try 00:37:40.360 --> 00:37:45.140 to spread anything that we can do sustainability you don't need to reinvent 00:37:45.140 --> 00:37:49.200 the wheel something simple as this it should help our employees and help our 00:37:49.200 --> 00:37:53.560 earth let's go for it so this is something that we take pride in and we 00:37:53.560 --> 00:37:57.960 thank you for the city of danger to come in it was a surprise to be one day they 00:37:57.960 --> 00:38:02.080 walked into this and hey you got your awards like wow okay we didn't realize 00:38:02.080 --> 00:38:07.120 that but it once again thank you so much for the opportunity well and if there's 00:38:07.120 --> 00:38:11.160 anything else you folks want to know or understand even with the other project 00:38:11.160 --> 00:38:18.240 that could be briefly touched upon LED is a big thing saving energy we also use 00:38:18.240 --> 00:38:23.600 the local community help like French East landscape of which helps us in 00:38:23.600 --> 00:38:28.400 drip irrigation we also use nonprofit organization so this birdhouse that you 00:38:28.400 --> 00:38:34.120 see it's a foundation USA we actually use them and every month they're giving 00:38:34.120 --> 00:38:40.160 us 20 pounds of bird feed to support the natural habitat in addition to that our 00:38:40.160 --> 00:38:45.040 employees are very big we support the local church of we raised about 12,000 00:38:45.040 --> 00:38:49.200 pounds of pantry food I think it was good Easter out country is what we did 00:38:49.200 --> 00:38:54.460 that daily bread a big proponent we go about doing that there's an animal 00:38:54.460 --> 00:39:00.000 shelter I'm a big animal guy but love to try to do these animal essential drives 00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:03.760 so we try to give them all of this stuff so anything within the community we're 00:39:03.760 --> 00:39:08.040 doing here so again it's all about community we can hear come here and I 00:39:08.040 --> 00:39:13.780 can talk to you but presentations even there was margins it's all about 00:39:13.780 --> 00:39:17.720 community is that something that is near and dear and that's what we need for the 00:39:17.720 --> 00:39:21.320 future on our generations to come and that's near and dear to us at least if 00:39:21.320 --> 00:39:25.880 the folks in Indian as well as in peace up so again thank you for the opportunity 00:39:25.880 --> 00:39:29.800 but you are more than welcome to come and visit us whenever you want to see 00:39:29.800 --> 00:39:36.560 anything else that we have in our facility thank you thank you congratulations 00:39:36.560 --> 00:39:41.480 it's really great and the first first annual project of the year something be 00:39:41.480 --> 00:39:51.400 very proud of so congratulations again well thank you all right we're now going 00:39:51.400 --> 00:39:58.680 to move on the item EDP 26 - oh 13 receive various reports 00:39:58.680 --> 00:40:07.560 we've had two downtown economic development committee meetings since the 00:40:07.560 --> 00:40:13.920 last report a couple of months ago particularly exciting I want to thank 00:40:13.920 --> 00:40:22.480 Christine Portello and her team the group is very engaged and one of the 00:40:22.480 --> 00:40:28.240 reports was how have we been doing giving incentives and what does that 00:40:28.240 --> 00:40:36.160 mean to the community and the return on our money is what well over 200% I 00:40:36.160 --> 00:40:42.520 suggest to the team that maybe we discuss at a future point time how we go 00:40:42.520 --> 00:40:46.000 to the council and ask for some more money we've been doing such a good job 00:40:46.000 --> 00:40:51.840 of putting it in the downtown community and getting a return on the money to try 00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:56.320 to help people in the downtown area attract people to the downtown area so 00:40:56.320 --> 00:41:00.880 that is a future agenda item but I want you to know the people on that committee 00:41:00.880 --> 00:41:08.320 are very engaged I'm privileged to be representing this board to work with any 00:41:08.320 --> 00:41:14.520 questions for Rick again kudos thank you so much for what you do 00:41:14.520 --> 00:41:36.440 quarterly directors report on the Brittany all right we had a very 00:41:36.440 --> 00:41:42.880 productive q1 this year in the news didn't was featured a variety of times 00:41:42.880 --> 00:41:47.360 in multiple news outlets Tetra pack broke ground on their 22 million dollar 00:41:47.360 --> 00:41:51.920 expansion their u.s. and Canada headquarters which is based in didn't and 00:41:51.920 --> 00:41:56.640 it's aimed at enhancing food and beverage product development the project will add 00:41:56.640 --> 00:42:00.840 a product development center and a customer innovation center doubling 00:42:00.840 --> 00:42:04.800 capacity to support rapid small batch prototyping so we're very excited about 00:42:04.800 --> 00:42:10.000 that and then Germany based Arvato announced that they are leasing a 00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:15.040 270,000 square foot facility and didn't as well this actually got a lot of likes 00:42:15.040 --> 00:42:20.840 on our LinkedIn page they are let's see there's data center supplier supporting 00:42:20.840 --> 00:42:25.560 inbound and outbound flows of sensitive hardware and complex like love delivery 00:42:25.560 --> 00:42:29.080 services for active and under construction data centers not actually 00:42:29.080 --> 00:42:33.840 data centers are supplier for data centers and then this now featured us 00:42:33.840 --> 00:42:40.880 and two times during the first quarter this first article was really helpful we 00:42:40.880 --> 00:42:44.780 received a lot of leads after it came out it's called didn't aims to go from 00:42:44.780 --> 00:42:48.080 the FW's best-kept secret to next boomtown did anyone get a chance to read 00:42:48.080 --> 00:42:53.480 it by chance well I'll send it to you after this meeting and we were also 00:42:53.480 --> 00:42:58.400 featured in an article talking about life sciences and how DFW is aiming to 00:42:58.400 --> 00:43:03.600 recruit more other companies in this field I got one quote that says we have 00:43:03.600 --> 00:43:08.640 land that's it I want anyone that's reading this to know that they should 00:43:08.640 --> 00:43:12.600 look at us if they're going to expand their life science company and of 00:43:12.600 --> 00:43:16.320 artists is a gift that keeps on giving we continue to see articles that future 00:43:16.320 --> 00:43:22.320 Novartis and other expanding to didn't partner events the team attended the 00:43:22.320 --> 00:43:26.760 economic development partnership coaster event that Dave put on thank you Jamie we also 00:43:26.760 --> 00:43:31.720 attended the American Cancer Society's bright edge Texas Innovation Summit this 00:43:31.720 --> 00:43:34.880 is how that Pegasus Park in Dallas if you're not familiar with Pegasus Park 00:43:34.880 --> 00:43:39.400 they're also a life science hub that's funded by private private donations and 00:43:39.400 --> 00:43:43.600 corporate sponsorships they've been a great job landing some of the startups 00:43:43.600 --> 00:43:47.920 in this field from all over the world and so the American Cancer Society they 00:43:47.920 --> 00:43:54.240 have a division that supports cancer treatment startups so they they actually 00:43:54.240 --> 00:43:58.720 fund some of those businesses which is pretty cool and then we also did the 00:43:58.720 --> 00:44:05.120 stalls ribbon cutting this company has gone over beyond to support local vendors 00:44:05.120 --> 00:44:10.520 and they wanted to make a big show for the groundbreaking so I know several of 00:44:10.520 --> 00:44:16.560 you were able to attend they got two large long horns to represent Texas they 00:44:16.560 --> 00:44:20.960 had the contract of the local vendor they had all types of food and it was a 00:44:20.960 --> 00:44:24.040 great event and if you see Brian Hatmaker the CEO please don't thank you 00:44:24.040 --> 00:44:28.160 for all of his efforts because he really wants to support the community the next 00:44:28.160 --> 00:44:32.720 day after the salts event he came to our Mobility Summit and he presented on why 00:44:32.720 --> 00:44:37.880 didn't and so he had a really great a few great quotes according to council 00:44:37.880 --> 00:44:42.440 member Jill Destory and so we wanted to make sure that we share those I don't 00:44:42.440 --> 00:44:46.000 want I wish I didn't write him down I wish I could share him today I it's been 00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:52.280 a lot of things going on but that was a great event so we also our Mobility 00:44:52.280 --> 00:44:57.720 Center the remote mineral Pearson event and we had over 200 registrants it was a 00:44:57.720 --> 00:45:01.800 pretty great event considering it was our first time putting it on together and 00:45:01.800 --> 00:45:05.960 then this was a partnership with UNT the economic partnership and multiple other 00:45:05.960 --> 00:45:10.600 stakeholders dr. Terry pull and actually volunteered to pay for the entire event 00:45:10.600 --> 00:45:15.040 through NSF grant that he applied for previously which was amazing and this 00:45:15.040 --> 00:45:18.520 was actually his recommendation so he knew that we wanted to start this tech 00:45:18.520 --> 00:45:22.200 ecosystem and start recruiting some of the mobility companies in and so this 00:45:22.200 --> 00:45:25.240 was just the first step of hosting it so now we feel like we have a better path 00:45:25.240 --> 00:45:31.560 forward of how we want to maybe structure our incentive policies and 00:45:31.560 --> 00:45:36.600 board retreat I took a good photos of our work sessions I have a lot more by 00:45:36.600 --> 00:45:40.240 the way I just want to feature all of them and thank you so much for spending 00:45:40.240 --> 00:45:45.520 eight hours of your week in March to talk to us and provide feedback and 00:45:45.520 --> 00:45:50.440 collaborate I think it was a great retreat it was a first retreat that I 00:45:50.440 --> 00:45:54.600 think that economic partnership work out in quite some time and but we have 00:45:54.600 --> 00:45:59.720 really great board members and my team and I left thinking you were confident 00:45:59.720 --> 00:46:05.040 about the results and just the overall feedback that you provided so thank you 00:46:05.040 --> 00:46:12.440 and I think that we have a good path forward as well right we felt confident 00:46:12.440 --> 00:46:16.160 that we feel more aligned we felt more alive than what we thought we didn't know 00:46:16.160 --> 00:46:22.640 what we were going to hear from the retreat but it was a great event all 00:46:22.640 --> 00:46:27.800 right partner events that our department led Federal Reserve met with UNT and 00:46:27.800 --> 00:46:33.160 actually coordinated with UNT, TWU they hosted a get-together at Docu Stadium I 00:46:33.160 --> 00:46:36.840 attended in the morning and we're multiple business stakeholders including 00:46:36.840 --> 00:46:40.880 some in the room were in attendance and then during lunchtime Chris and Polita 00:46:40.880 --> 00:46:45.240 our main strip manager hosted a downtown tour for the Federal Reserve so their 00:46:45.240 --> 00:46:50.480 pictures in the top right Matilda hosted a no more grow more workshop and this 00:46:50.480 --> 00:46:54.680 featured a free tool through the Denton library called reference solutions and 00:46:54.680 --> 00:47:00.200 it's for market research we also attended several UNT tours at the media 00:47:00.200 --> 00:47:05.480 arts facility in the UAS testing center and then zip line I don't know if the 00:47:05.480 --> 00:47:10.760 video will work we assist it well I'm gonna let you watch this first 00:47:10.760 --> 00:47:28.000 the volume work so we assisted zip line with their launch at the Walmart on 00:47:28.000 --> 00:47:32.560 University Street so zip line is a different type of drone there are all 00:47:32.560 --> 00:47:36.680 types of drones as we're learning right and their drone in particular will go 00:47:36.680 --> 00:47:42.320 over the destination dropping point and they'll drop the package via a stream 00:47:42.320 --> 00:47:45.680 which is pretty cool because in my mind I thought I'll just see a regular drone 00:47:45.680 --> 00:47:50.200 that just drops the package in total but they dropped the package by a stream 00:47:50.200 --> 00:47:54.040 which is different to see so we helped them typically they partner with 00:47:54.040 --> 00:47:59.520 municipalities and to feature City Council members and receiving a gift so 00:47:59.520 --> 00:48:09.120 my your husband brought his daughters along so that was a fun time all right 00:48:09.120 --> 00:48:14.320 trainings workshops and conferences two most notable trains that we attended 00:48:14.320 --> 00:48:20.040 Vanessa Sparsa she is all of our board secretaries for economic development she 00:48:20.040 --> 00:48:24.760 attended the Texas Economic Development Council basic training workshop so we're 00:48:24.760 --> 00:48:28.200 very thankful for all the help that she provides us and I'm most proud to say 00:48:28.200 --> 00:48:32.800 that all of our team has attended a basic economic development course because 00:48:32.800 --> 00:48:35.800 we believe that if you're not learning you're not growing you're not growing 00:48:35.800 --> 00:48:38.640 you're not innovating if you're not innovating you're not competing we want 00:48:38.640 --> 00:48:44.560 to be competitive with other cities and then also Erica Sullivan our team served 00:48:44.560 --> 00:48:49.400 as a panelist on a webinar called cities that model good economic development 00:48:49.400 --> 00:48:53.720 transparency you know Erica she's one of those organized people that you've ever 00:48:53.720 --> 00:48:58.280 met but that I've ever met actually and so this was perfect for her to 00:48:58.280 --> 00:49:04.840 represent the department all right going to our Q1 recruitment stats we have 25 00:49:04.840 --> 00:49:10.640 active projects in the queue this seems to be our average running total we had 00:49:10.640 --> 00:49:14.600 10 new leads for the quarter that came from a variety of sources we had two 00:49:14.600 --> 00:49:19.560 city incentive applications that came through our office we also hosted five 00:49:19.560 --> 00:49:24.920 recruitment visits and 14 leads were reclassified so those went from active 00:49:24.920 --> 00:49:30.120 projects to reclassified those either went to cold or lost or they transferred 00:49:30.120 --> 00:49:35.240 to business support the good news is that we only lost three and then 00:49:35.240 --> 00:49:40.280 recruitment outreach a chance Clay Parker will reach out every month via email to 00:49:40.280 --> 00:49:48.280 targeted industries via email and so he had reached out to 266 leads for 00:49:48.280 --> 00:49:54.360 downtown we have four very visits for new downtown grant leads and then for 00:49:54.360 --> 00:49:57.760 leads that were lost they're either not moving forward with the project or two 00:49:57.760 --> 00:50:05.080 that went cold and then we have 20 recruitment outreach attempts our high 00:50:05.080 --> 00:50:09.560 stats so we received 18 from the governor's office and Dallas Regional 00:50:09.560 --> 00:50:15.240 Chamber we submitted on 12 we did not submit on 8 and we didn't have any leads 00:50:15.240 --> 00:50:19.560 converted unfortunately out of the ones that we did submit we had five point two 00:50:19.560 --> 00:50:24.840 billion dollars in potential capital investment and then a potential of 8700 00:50:24.840 --> 00:50:30.360 jobs and so the majority of the leads came from the governor's office then I 00:50:30.360 --> 00:50:38.320 will hand this off to Matilda we then talk about music and film we had a nice 00:50:38.320 --> 00:50:45.120 I would say a nice little break in quarter one so not as many permits that 00:50:45.120 --> 00:50:50.200 applications that I received but I've been working a lot on internal projects 00:50:50.200 --> 00:50:56.680 to better our film program especially working with Scott on a new film 00:50:56.680 --> 00:51:02.040 ordinance I attended the media arts career kickstart so talking to a lot of 00:51:02.040 --> 00:51:10.000 students about their next steps after graduation and then fine arts theater 00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:15.320 announcer tentative opening in August so Kristen and I have been working with 00:51:15.320 --> 00:51:20.600 them on several different projects related to the theater and their impact 00:51:20.600 --> 00:51:26.400 on downtown as well as film and then Brittany and I did submit one RFI for 00:51:26.400 --> 00:51:31.820 film which is kind of exciting and new foray into a different industry that we 00:51:31.820 --> 00:51:38.600 normally target for our eyes and then music there is a Denton band called 00:51:38.600 --> 00:51:46.280 Smothers that is in the jambaloo music prize aiming to win $20,000 which 00:51:46.280 --> 00:51:53.680 musicians can use $20,000 I'll just say it like that so it's kind of a local 00:51:53.680 --> 00:51:58.760 competition they're DFW based bands but jambaloo is a regional music festival 00:51:58.760 --> 00:52:05.920 hosted by jambaloo and then Mullen and Mullen law firm so they have concerts for 00:52:05.920 --> 00:52:11.600 about a week straight at different venues within Dallas and Fort Worth last year they did 00:52:11.600 --> 00:52:17.320 have Andy's venue in Denton participate but since that closed they were not in 00:52:17.320 --> 00:52:21.080 Denton this year but they might come back I had some conversations with them 00:52:21.080 --> 00:52:26.880 and then we've just been working with Dallas music office on some potential 00:52:26.880 --> 00:52:31.760 initiatives as well learning from them and seeing what maybe we could implement 00:52:31.760 --> 00:52:37.400 in Denton so kind of slow on the permit side and the interactions they have with 00:52:37.400 --> 00:52:41.880 external people but we're very busy on the internal side of working on 00:52:41.880 --> 00:52:53.040 programming. Okay upcoming events we have a Denton job fair tomorrow and attending Jamie Adams 00:52:53.040 --> 00:52:56.800 with EDP and Christina Davis on our team along with the United Way what we're 00:52:56.800 --> 00:53:00.640 solutions have been working hard to put this together and so this year they 00:53:00.640 --> 00:53:05.640 decide to get a little bit creative and they're hosting mini master classes they 00:53:05.640 --> 00:53:11.720 will be presented by UNT and NCT career coaches and so the titles are aspire to 00:53:11.720 --> 00:53:16.400 be hired leveraging social media in your job search optimizing your job search 00:53:16.400 --> 00:53:20.340 and tell me about yourself creating the effective elevator pitch because they 00:53:20.340 --> 00:53:23.880 found that last year that some of the candidates were probably needed some 00:53:23.880 --> 00:53:27.880 help right and so they're offering these free classes which is great. Right now 00:53:27.880 --> 00:53:31.400 there's 46 employers that have signed up and they've stated that they will 00:53:31.400 --> 00:53:38.000 create over 1,600 jobs. There's 1,600 jobs available I should say. Matilda and Clay will attend 00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:43.480 the EarthX conference sustainability conference in Dallas and then the team 00:53:43.480 --> 00:53:47.040 will attend a getting started on upward mobility tools and strategies for local 00:53:47.040 --> 00:53:51.720 leaders webinar. National Small Business Week is coming up if you have any ideas 00:53:51.720 --> 00:53:55.760 to celebrate let us know. Clay and I will be attending the exponential trade show 00:53:55.760 --> 00:53:59.960 in Detroit Michigan that's a UAS focused trade show and so we hope to bring some 00:53:59.960 --> 00:54:06.000 of those companies back and put them in touch with Criteo Sky and then on May 27 00:54:06.000 --> 00:54:10.080 BizNow will host their first in county state of the market and so many of the 00:54:10.080 --> 00:54:14.600 news companies are wanting to move further north in future Denton and so 00:54:14.600 --> 00:54:18.000 which is great news. So I will serve as a panelist along with Greg Johnson with 00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:22.520 SVN. So if you want to hear me outside this meeting please register for that a 00:54:22.520 --> 00:54:27.120 bit. But most importantly Judge Eads he will be the keynote address for that event. 00:54:27.120 --> 00:54:33.520 Where is that by the way? Lakotian TV. Lakotian TVA actually. Yes we put them in touch and I 00:54:33.520 --> 00:54:38.400 don't know what they decided on. We're hoping on the NBC suites. Can we get an email to the 00:54:38.400 --> 00:54:44.960 board when there's more information? Thank you. If you have any 00:54:44.960 --> 00:54:49.400 suggestions let me know. I think they typically look for sponsorships so just 00:54:49.400 --> 00:54:53.840 throwing that out there. City Transitions. Sarah Hensley our city manager. She held 00:54:53.840 --> 00:54:59.840 her going away celebration on March 27 and so we're going to miss her. I put 00:54:59.840 --> 00:55:04.240 this picture of her on the top right. The shirt says HUB believer. So I first 00:55:04.240 --> 00:55:07.320 started working here we met with HUB early on and that's all she could say 00:55:07.320 --> 00:55:12.000 during the meetings. I'm a HUB believer. So we got her a custom-made shirt and 00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:16.760 Cassie Ogden is now our appointed interim city manager and so she's already 00:55:16.760 --> 00:55:20.160 hit the ground running. She served as a moderator during the Mobility Summit. 00:55:20.160 --> 00:55:24.840 She's featured in the bottom right and Christina Davis on our team she will be 00:55:24.840 --> 00:55:30.960 retiring in May. She's been with the city for nearly 20 years and so that will be a 00:55:30.960 --> 00:55:34.840 big change for us but she's seen a variety of changes directors over that 00:55:34.840 --> 00:55:39.400 course of 20 years. So we'll be hosting a retirement party for her which we will 00:55:39.400 --> 00:55:45.960 send to you via emails what we want to attend. And that is it. Any questions? Any 00:55:45.960 --> 00:55:51.880 questions for the staff? All right hearing none we're gonna move on to 00:55:51.880 --> 00:56:07.720 including items, announcements, and reminders. So first I'll ask the question. I have to read this for me. I got a smile on my face. 00:56:07.720 --> 00:56:18.720 Oh we have two. Oh future agenda items. Was that already on there? No, it's a separate item. 00:56:18.720 --> 00:56:36.480 I'm sorry. No, go ahead. Future agenda items. All right, so coming up on May 13th, we will have, we have a tentative guest speaker. I can't confirm until we confirm the guest speaker and based on our board 00:56:36.480 --> 00:56:54.040 report feedback, Vanessa Esparza, she served on the Dindy Young Professionals group. So she wants the leader, the chair, what is his name? Dan. Yeah, what's his role? He's pretty much the chair of the company. The chair to come 00:56:54.040 --> 00:56:57.920 and speak to the group to learn more about their goals for young professionals. 00:56:57.920 --> 00:57:03.760 We're excited about that. And that's it right now. Of course we have projects in 00:57:03.760 --> 00:57:08.800 the queue. It's a matter of time of getting them through the process. Thank you. 00:57:08.800 --> 00:57:23.760 Right now are there any questions? Alicia said she should have it by the time 00:57:23.760 --> 00:57:31.240 our May meeting comes around. With posting schedules, you never know. So it's May, June time frame. 00:57:31.240 --> 00:57:40.280 Any other questions, comments? Yes ma'am. I'm unopposed. So please come to my 00:57:40.280 --> 00:57:52.280 swearing-in May 12th at 2 p.m. in the council chambers. Yes, thank you. Anyways, 00:57:52.280 --> 00:58:15.480 everyone's welcome and I hope you can come. Thank you. May 12th. That's correct. Any other announcements, questions? Yes ma'am. I'm sorry. I need to call for my concluding items. I haven't done this before. I don't know what's going on. 00:58:15.480 --> 00:58:27.480 All right. Does the board have any other business to discuss or suggestions on what they wish to discuss in the next meeting? 00:58:27.480 --> 00:58:39.480 No, mine was going to be concluding items. Go ahead. I was just going to make an announcement. It was just going to be something to the 00:58:39.480 --> 00:58:57.480 lines of what Jill just announced. I'm not sure if we're in that area. We were concluding items. Yes. Well, I was just going to announce that to you all that, you know, this is my last meeting coming off the city council. 00:58:57.480 --> 00:59:01.480 And you know, you all know that I'm running for school board. 00:59:01.480 --> 00:59:23.480 So that's going to be a beautiful transition for me if I can, of course, receive the votes. So I'm excited about that. But as I was listening to all of these really cool things happening and you know what's happening to us with the quality of life piece and I'm speaking to our company here, it's just going to be so hard not to. 00:59:23.480 --> 00:59:42.480 I'm going to find some kind of way to stay in here, you know, stay in the midst of things. So I'm really looking forward to the growth that we're going to have before us. And I just thank everybody for all the support here in the last five years. 00:59:42.480 --> 00:59:45.480 Any other concluding items I apologize. 00:59:45.480 --> 00:59:50.480 I need two more cups of coffee. 00:59:50.480 --> 00:59:59.480 Does the board have any other business discuss or suggestions on what they wish to discuss in the next meeting. 00:59:59.480 --> 01:00:21.480 Hearing done, our next EDP meeting is scheduled to be Wednesday, May 13 2026 at 11am please let staff know if you're not able to attend the meeting and submit your notification of absence online. There's no other business, I will adjourn the meeting at 12pm. Thank you very much.