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 I'm gonna go ahead and get the meeting started. We've got a lot going on. Please continue to enjoy your lunch, but let's go ahead and get things kicked off so we can get out of here at a reasonable time.

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 So with that I'll just say welcome and we're on the mic. Alright, so welcome to the Denton Economic Development Partnership Board meeting. My name is Marty Rivers, chair of the partnership board.

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 It's 1115. We have a quorum and we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. And our first item up for consideration is EDP 20-008. Consider the approval of the meeting minutes for November 13, 2019 and January 15, 2020.

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 I move approval as sent on in advance.

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 On both minutes. There's a motion for approval of both sets of minutes.

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 Second. And we have a second. Any discussion, comments, questions?

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 All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed?

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 The minutes are approved. Thank you so much.

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 And our next item is to receive a report. A whole discussion to give staff direction on an update to our policy for tax abatement incentives.

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 And I promise this will be probably the shortest presentation on this policy that this board has ever gone through and there'll be a reason why.

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 So I'm just going to give you a very brief overview of the update, the recommended updates to the policy and kind of give you a status update on why we're making certain changes.

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 So just to kind of put this into big picture here, Chapter 312 of the tax code requires the governing body to adopt these guidelines to be able to give tax abatement incentives.

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 So they are only good for two years after the two year mark. We have to readopt, reauthorize, amend, or we're no longer eligible to offer tax abatement as the city.

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 This policy expires on March 20th, 2020.

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 So right now we're only recommending minor changes to the policy. The reason for that being is if the board recalls you went through a number of work sessions and items in 2018 to make significant revisions to the policy as it stands today.

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 From the staff perspective, as the policy is written and has been an effective tool, we have been able to offer incentives and abatements that were successful in recruiting companies to Denton.

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 And then the last point is sort of the main reason we're all here today in the major discussion we're going to be having is that the policy is actually being evaluated as part of the strategic planning process.

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 And so what we didn't want to do is tell you we're going to make some strategic shift in the policy and then get feedback in our strategic planning process and have to go through this again.

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 So we wanted to save time, save your time and be a little bit efficient in how we move through the policy process.

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 So we're making a few minor tweaks to the policy. The first is a clarification of the goal to increase jobs paying more than $75,000.

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 The way that the goal is written, it includes a specific date requirement. We just want to make it the overall goal that we want to increase higher paying jobs.

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 So we made a little clarification to the language. You do have a red line copy in your backup if you want to see it.

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 We've added the word average to where we're looking at wages. And the reason for that being is, as you've seen over the last two years, we've also we've included both median and average in our analysis.

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 So we just wanted to make that clear to applicants under our policy that we're going to be looking at your average wages.

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 And we made a sort of technical clarification on what constitutes a complete application. It wasn't necessarily clear in the application procedure section, so we made a very small amendment there.

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 We updated the qualified census tract map. It was out of date. We updated it to the 2020 map.

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 And then certainly we found some typos and errors that we found when we were not perfect and we made those corrections throughout the document.

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 And that's all of the changes that we're recommending at this point.

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 So I don't have a big presentation, so our recommendation is to move forward with really a simple reauthorization of the policy as written.

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 And then our goal would be to come back to the board subsequent to the strategic planning process being concluded for any changes that might be necessary at that point.

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 That's my presentation.

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 On the wages, paying more than $75,000, is that are we considering that all in with benefits and everything or is that just the wage itself and then everything else would be a bonus?

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 We evaluate it based on salary. When we ask applicants to submit us wage information, we ask for the salary information.

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 They will often provide us both salary and wages, generally if they're below that number.

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 We like both. We'd like to know if someone's making $70,000, but they have a significant incentive package or something to go along with that.

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 We want to know about it, but generally we're looking at just the wage.

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 How does that stack up with are we finding a great difference between this side of the lake and the other side of the lake when it comes to that salary?

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 I wouldn't say it's necessarily a north of the lake, south of the lake. That's sort of the mark in terms of job categories. Generally at that range you have a degree or a technical position, some sort of certification.

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 That's more of the, it's not necessarily a, we're not in the living wage argument, it's considered a higher wage position. It's based on a single person making $75,000, where would you fall in the median income of your, so that would be considered a high wage.

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 Well the reason I was asking was I don't know what the others think, but to me that's a pretty significant increase.

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 The $75,000? That's $75,000 is what's in the policy today.

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 That part didn't change.

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 But if you ask people when they're coming, we want you to pay $75,000 in wages. That's what it's going to be.

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 We wouldn't be asking for every position to be $75,000. We want to incentivize positions that are making over $75,000.

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 The goal is not to attract people all with $75,000, it's to increase the number of jobs, the number of people that are making that kind of money with other kinds of jobs as well.

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 But to qualify for the jobs you have to have an average over the Dent County average.

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 What's the Dent County average?

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 It's $22-ish.

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 Yes.

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 Which is I would say higher than the city of Denton average.

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 That's a higher order.

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 $22-ish would put you at $45,000.

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 I don't know if the top's going to understand.

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 That's what I'm saying. If you've got a city average of $45,000 and you're saying $75,000, that's pretty significant.

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 But I like it.

56
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 Yes.

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 I like it. It's just a question of...

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 I think the goal is to try to bring higher paying jobs, not offer incentives to lower paying jobs.

59
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 So those doors are closing that chapter of history.

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 We're not changing anything.

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 I don't get that.

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 I'm just saying, if they're not going to come this strong, then don't even come.

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 No, that's not saying that.

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 That is just a goal. So when we're looking at incentives for people coming to town...

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 Yes.

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 We want to bring people with higher paying jobs.

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 That doesn't mean we won't bring people with jobs less than $75,000.

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 That means the goal is to increase higher paying jobs.

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 When somebody applies for an incentive and we're looking at the jobs, one of the things they get credit for is they have to have

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 to show that their average wages are higher than the county average wages.

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 So that's the thing.

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 The first one is a goal.

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 The second one is, if you want to get credit for coming here, then you've got to show that your wages are higher than the county average.

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 So that's what they were doing.

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 So let's say someone comes and they are not in this category, or at least in this ballpark.

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 What ballpark you're talking about for coming is they have to be higher than the $22 an hour.

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 Our goal was to try to find more people that pay higher jobs.

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 That doesn't mean they can't qualify for both of those.

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 I'm above $22,000. I was at the $75,000.

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 So just so that you know, the statement in the policy right now says increase the percentage of jobs paying $75,000 per year

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 or more from 10% to 14% by 2020.

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 We're just striking the 10% to 14% by 2020.

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 We're keeping the goal.

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 We're removing the timeline since it is 2020.

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 And instead of putting a future date on that, because we know we're going to come back with a policy, we just struck that last statement.

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 We made no change to the goal or how we would operate for companies coming in.

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 If I could just add to that, some of the incentives we've seen, Mr. Baines, they have a chart.

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 And some of the majority of the workers make less than that.

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 And then so some of them, a few of the higher ones make a little bit more than that.

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 And so with the average, it equals what the incentive policy qualifies for.

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 So that's kind of been where I have found the sticking point.

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 When do you get 100 jobs that make $10 an hour and only three that make $8,000?

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 $400,000.

94
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 Yeah.

95
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 That's kind of where you take the average of those and you qualify.

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 Well, that, again, I think we're trying to change a few things here just to update the policy, just for clarification.

97
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 But that's a good discussion to have with TIP strategies on how do we change that number.

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 Mr. Chairman, I've got a quick question.

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 So in the general provision document, Exhibit H, when we define higher wage, right,

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 it talks about average of $55,000 or greater and at least that's on page three of the general provisions.

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 So how does that definition relate back to the $75,000 number?

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 So the $75,000 was one of the general goals of the council and of this board.

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 The higher wage is a threshold that we use in determining the qualification for a specific incentive.

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 The investment fund includes that higher wage term that says you have to have the $55,000 or greater

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 for all positions or 25% making above $65,000.

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 So that definition ties to that specific tool.

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 I've got a question on changing the, basically the packet has to be complete with all that information.

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 Yes.

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 Are we expecting an applicant to know if they're compatible with the NIT and 30/30 plan and the building code

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 and the city ordinances and put that in the packet or is that something that's backed up?

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 We would review it with them.

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 Generally it's a, I wouldn't say they kind of hand it off to us and we've never met with them before.

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 Generally we've had meetings with people who are considering applying.

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 And one thing that we tell them is certainly making sure that your use is compliant with your zoning

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 or is there a path forward if you need to seek a zoning change that would be compatible.

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 What we don't want to do, this is a bad example, but say we wanted to have a heavy industrial user

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 and they wanted to be in downtown Denton.

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 We would probably say that's not the place and there's no compatible use in any continuous area for that to occur.

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 You might want to consider this location.

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 Again, that's kind of an off the wall example, but we try and work with the applicants to make sure

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 that they're familiar enough with the code, that they're not bringing in a project at that point,

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 that regardless of what incentive we offer them, development wise, it can't happen.

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 We try and head that off right at the beginning.

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 Has there been a problem with incomplete applications that we're adding that language in there?

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 Yes.

126
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 Okay.

127
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 Yes.

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 So we want to make sure that kind of from the shop clock perspective, once we have a complete application,

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 we want to get applicants through the process as efficiently as possible.

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 What we don't want to have happen is preparing our analysis to bring to the board

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 and find out that we don't have the information that we need.

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 So we try and work with applicants ahead of time.

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 And then we're updating the census tracts map.

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 I guess we have one census tract that has fortunately risen above the line.

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 And then I guess we're also adding, we're picking up another qualified census tract in the north part of town

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 between Sherman and Locust.

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 These come from the census.

138
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 Yeah, I understand.

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 I'm making sure I'm reading the map correctly.

140
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 Yes.

141
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 That we've picked up one qualified census tract.

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 But then fortunately, one census tract kind of in the heart of town has risen above the line.

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 So if folks living there, that's a good thing for people seeking certain grants, maybe not so much.

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 But generally for our town, that's a positive development.

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 So this is just a couple small items to get us through the end of this process with the strategy

146
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 when we come back with a holistic view of the whole thing.

147
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 Yes.

148
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 Anybody have any more questions or comments, discussion?

149
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 Or if not, would anybody like to jump out there?

150
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 I have one question because I think I saw where you can only make amends or change it.

151
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 What was that?

152
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 So after, in the two-year period, you have to have a three-fourths vote to make an amendment.

153
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 So when this gets adopted or if this gets adopted by city council,

154
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 you would then require a three-fourths vote of the city council to amend it.

155
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 During that two-year time period.

156
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 I will say that we've kind of thought this out and, you know, how do we move forward in a timeline?

157
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 Based on the recommendations we get, we're not asking TIP to rewrite our policy.

158
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 We assume we'll be getting the plan later this year.

159
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 It could be a six-month to a one-year process for us to workshop and rewrite the policy of the plan.

160
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 And we thought that was just too long of a way to go without.

161
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 We have companies we're speaking to now, active projects that we think are going to submit applications.

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 And we certainly didn't want to deny them that opportunity.

163
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 And denied this board or council the opportunity to receive those applications and consider them.

164
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 So we do have to have something by law to be able to consider those.

165
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 Just kind of follow up.

166
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 So it can still be amended, it's the three-fourths vote that is the qualifier?

167
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 Yes.

168
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 And we would always hope to have a policy that is 100 percent.

169
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 Right. For sure.

170
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 That's our goal.

171
00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:52,000
 Right. Okay. Thank you.

172
00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:54,000
 Anybody else?

173
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 Anybody want to make a motion?

174
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 I move that this body approve the changes to the tax-cutment policy as presented here today.

175
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 We'll obtain a motion for a second.

176
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 Second.

177
00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:22,000
 We have a motion and a second.

178
00:17:22,000 --> 00:17:24,000
 Any further discussion?

179
00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:26,000
 All those in favor say aye.

180
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:27,000
 Aye.

181
00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:29,000
 Any opposed?

182
00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:31,000
 All right. Motion carries.

183
00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:39,000
 Our next item is to revisit with our friends from TIP Strategies about the process we're going through.

184
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 Thank you guys for coming back.

185
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 Such a lovely day.

186
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 Yeah, I'm not going to take responsibility for the weather.

187
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 Although we were in Detroit earlier this month.

188
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 Except it's not frozen yet.

189
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:04,000
 Well, thank you guys.

190
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:10,000
 It's great to be back and continuing to meet with the leadership here.

191
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:15,000
 We've already had a great 24 hours as we got in yesterday about lunchtime.

192
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 As usual, Jessica keeps us really busy.

193
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 Lots of meetings.

194
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 We'll talk about the meetings that we've had so far and what we have ahead of us.

195
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:31,000
 And are really interested in your feedback today.

196
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:41,000
 So this is less about us making another big presentation than it is getting your feedback on some of the things that we've heard.

197
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:47,000
 But right now, we're getting a lot of anecdotes and opinions about what's going on.

198
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 And so our job next will be to go back and really validate some of the things that were here.

199
00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:07,000
 And we will be excited as we get through this process to make some recommendations as we review your current incentive policy.

200
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:13,000
 But as Jessica mentioned, the details of how you would go through that.

201
00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:24,000
 You know, you'll want to take the strategic direction that we give and then consider how that sort of manifests itself in the new incentive policy.

202
00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:28,000
 But so just a quick project update.

203
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 We are approaching the end of drinking from the barbodes, which is really just trying to understand since we were here last what's going on in the community.

204
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 And then when we come out next time, we'll be talking about sort of our ideas and some of the best practices that are out there for you guys to consider and to beat up.

205
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 That will be what we do on the next.

206
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 And then the third phase is implementation.

207
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 And we are right on track.

208
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 I don't feel the need to go through a timeline with you guys or a detailed scope.

209
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:08,000
 But we're right on track with where we need to be at this particular point.

210
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:15,000
 On the last trip, the Chamber, Erica did a great job of pulling together a group of businesses for us.

211
00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:24,000
 We also held what we called a tech/entrepreneurship roundtable and then more of the traditional industry came together.

212
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:27,000
 Thank you, Peter Belt and others who came to that meeting.

213
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:40,000
 We also met with school district, workforce board, got a lot of really good workforce information, did sort of an infrastructure development with the staff roundtable.

214
00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:47,000
 Also, you know, we meet with economic development staff in between just about every meeting, so we appreciate your feedback.

215
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:54,000
 And then had a city executive leadership that was Todd, city manager, and a couple of others got some feedback there.

216
00:20:54,000 --> 00:21:04,000
 And then met with the county, has an economic development director now, Michael Talley, as I was saying, has been with them for a while.

217
00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:11,000
 And then on this trip so far, we are going to be meeting with every city council member.

218
00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:16,000
 I think we've got everybody scheduled and we really appreciate you guys taking the time to meet with us.

219
00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:20,000
 And unfortunately, we only have about a half an hour, 45 minutes for those meetings.

220
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:26,000
 But just know that we're going to be available after that for additional meetings as this process goes forward.

221
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:30,000
 And Jason was in here a moment ago from TWU.

222
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,000
 Did he have to go to another room?

223
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,000
 Yes.

224
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:35,000
 John keeps it busy.

225
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,000
 That's right, so now I can talk about him now.

226
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:45,000
 We had a great meeting yesterday, kind of filled us in with what he could, because I think he's been there a couple of years.

227
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:51,000
 But he did a great job telling the history, and so we shared notes there.

228
00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:57,000
 And then we had an energetic meeting with the judge.

229
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:08,000
 I feel like he's very interested in economic development, I guess, in a way that the county hasn't necessarily been as proactive in economic development.

230
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,000
 And so it was a great meeting.

231
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:22,000
 And then yesterday evening, we met with a group that -- Erica, they were many big fans of yours in the Chamber, a young professionals roundtable group.

232
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:26,000
 But I think they -- I don't know if this is public or not.

233
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:28,000
 No, it's all right.

234
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:29,000
 It's in the works.

235
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:30,000
 It's in the works.

236
00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:38,000
 Yeah, so I know that that's a group that has been active in the past, but over the last year has struggled a little bit and is feeling some new energy.

237
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:47,000
 But you've got a Chamber that's also interested in maybe partnering with how that young professionals group might be more active in helping support that.

238
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:59,000
 So we think that's a very important group, and the group that was in front of us was a very diverse group from race, ethnicity, standpoint.

239
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:07,000
 And so I thought that that was one of our best sort of feedback sessions so far.

240
00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:23,000
 And then -- what else have we done, Jacqueline? A lot. Met with Councilmember Paul. Met this morning. Met with Development Services from the city.

241
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:29,000
 And then we have a busy afternoon, more meetings and a roundtable with you.

242
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,000
 So are we wearing you out just talking about it?

243
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:32,000
 Yes.

244
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:37,000
 All right. All right. Just letting you guys know. Just letting you guys know this is our schedule.

245
00:23:37,000 --> 00:23:49,000
 So -- oh, here it is. So here's the actual list of who we're meeting with and when over the trip that we are on today.

246
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:53,000
 So any questions?

247
00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:58,000
 Is NCTC and UNT on the right over?

248
00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:06,000
 They definitely are. We actually met with the Chancellor from NCTC as part of the first workforce and education group.

249
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:17,000
 But we'll also reach back out the fact that he serves on the statewide association -- are they called community colleges?

250
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:18,000
 Community colleges.

251
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:29,000
 Community colleges, talk boards, something like that. Association of Community Colleges.

252
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:30,000
 We've been keeping UNT up to date through both AMLA and through the President's office.

253
00:24:30,000 --> 00:24:34,000
 They just weren't able to attend the February meetings or the meetings this time.

254
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:44,000
 But we're working for some more university-focused meetings in March, hoping that we're not falling on their spring break week.

255
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:53,000
 Yeah, and we'll get on the phone if we need to. We're going to do whatever it takes because I feel like that's a big part of the input process here.

256
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:56,000
 Any other questions, Marty or anybody else?

257
00:24:56,000 --> 00:25:07,000
 Once again, this is an update of what we've been up to so that if we're missing something or you guys have some ideas for us, you have a chance to weigh in.

258
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:15,000
 So some of the emerging themes, and Jacqueline, feel free to pipe in here. I don't want to take over.

259
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:20,000
 So remember last time we asked you guys to do some little pollings, some real-time polling?

260
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:28,000
 And one of the questions we asked was around, you know, rating these statements.

261
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:36,000
 Is it economically competitive? Is it an attractive place for young professionals? Does it have the capacity?

262
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:42,000
 There weren't any big surprises in terms of how this went. I was a little surprised by the 3.9.

263
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:51,000
 And some of the things that we heard yesterday from the young professionals group were really interesting because they were very positive about certain things,

264
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:59,000
 but they also felt negative about certain things, which came out in other themes, you know, access to affordable housing and transportation.

265
00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:06,000
 Some of the things that were very important to a younger professional group felt like they were still lacking in this community.

266
00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:11,000
 So it's interesting to hear, you know, this crowd says, oh yeah, it's great for young professionals.

267
00:26:11,000 --> 00:26:20,000
 You ask the young professionals, you might hear a little bit different sort of angle, which for us means you actually have to go and ask those questions.

268
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:24,000
 You know, it's not enough to make assumptions. Yes, sir?

269
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:35,000
 Yo tengo una pregunta por las razas diferentes. ¿Tú tienes la habilidad para comunicar con los áreas diferentes en esta ciudad?

270
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:37,000
 Sí, o hablo español.

271
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:38,000
 Muchas gracias.

272
00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:49,000
 Sí, pero también tengo un compadre, un empleado que puede hablar español mejor que yo.

273
00:26:49,000 --> 00:27:02,000
 Pero yo veo los vistos allá, no veo los africanamericanos, los mexicanos, los asianes.

274
00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:09,000
 Yo creo que es muy importante para incluir estas partes.

275
00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:19,000
 So you guys are getting the gist of John's, including the populations, and I appreciate the test.

276
00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:21,000
 I'm making a point.

277
00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:29,000
 I think you committed to purchasing a car for me.

278
00:27:29,000 --> 00:27:31,000
 You heard it.

279
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:33,000
 That's what I heard.

280
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:37,000
 I'm giving away cash.

281
00:27:37,000 --> 00:27:39,000
 I can tell you some stories.

282
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:47,000
 So I'm married to a mexican-american woman when I first left home to meet her dad.

283
00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:57,000
 And he asked her and my mother-in-law in Spanish, you know, "Does this white boy eat beans?"

284
00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:59,000
 And I apologized for that really.

285
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:03,000
 I mean, he said, "¿Este gingo come frijones?"

286
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:10,000
 And so my wife answered, "Yes, Dad, he does. Andy speaks Spanish."

287
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:15,000
 And that began the relationship I had with my father-in-law.

288
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:21,000
 It's really shifted things quite a bit.

289
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:22,000
 Would you catch my drift?

290
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,000
 No, I do. I do.

291
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:33,000
 As a matter of fact, when we were in Detroit, this was the last we could read before.

292
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:35,000
 I don't know if it's coming together.

293
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:42,000
 But part of what we did is we helped facilitate several different sessions around diversity, equity, and inclusion.

294
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:48,000
 And anytime I'm in those sessions, I always realize I'm really not the best person to be in that discussion.

295
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:50,000
 But actually you are.

296
00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:55,000
 I mean, in a way, I opened up the session by asking what does diversity mean to you?

297
00:28:55,000 --> 00:28:59,000
 And so everybody in the group started defining what it meant.

298
00:28:59,000 --> 00:29:04,000
 It started with race. It started with income, LGBTQ.

299
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:08,000
 But then it went to age, sort of the diversity of ages.

300
00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:15,000
 And right now, there's biases against whatever you want to call millennials or whatever you want to pick on.

301
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:20,000
 There's the OK Boomer.

302
00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:23,000
 At that, in my house, it's like, OK Boomer.

303
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:26,000
 You know who's paying your insurance bill right now?

304
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:30,000
 But those discussions, it's really fascinating.

305
00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:32,000
 And so we take that very seriously.

306
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:34,000
 And we will continue to work on that.

307
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:36,000
 So thank you for pointing that out.

308
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:37,000
 Thank you.

309
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:46,000
 But the last time, we also asked, you know, you compete with Dallas, Frisco, Plano, Alliance, Fort Worth, McKinney.

310
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,000
 These were some of the items.

311
00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:54,000
 And so as we start thinking about comparing you guys to others and understanding what other groups are up to,

312
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:58,000
 these are some of the communities that we're going to look at, but we won't limit it to these.

313
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:10,000
 We also asked what constituted success for the project, buy-in, actionable strategy, measurable action plan, unified direction, clear vision.

314
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:13,000
 A lot of common themes around, we want to have a plan.

315
00:30:13,000 --> 00:30:16,000
 We want to feel like there's consensus around what that plan is.

316
00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:17,000
 Question.

317
00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:18,000
 Yes.

318
00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:25,000
 Are these answers, are these coming from the totality of the groups that you've met with thus far, or is this from our group?

319
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:27,000
 This was just your group.

320
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:28,000
 Okay.

321
00:30:28,000 --> 00:30:29,000
 Right now.

322
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:30,000
 Just curious what I'm seeing, right?

323
00:30:30,000 --> 00:30:31,000
 Right now.

324
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:41,000
 And what you would have expected since this is your charge, you know, your charge with the vision and being clear about what it means for the community.

325
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:54,000
 And really, this was just reminding you guys, because I know while Jacqueline and Jessica and I have thought a lot about, you know, this over the last 30 days,

326
00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:57,000
 you guys may have other things on your minds.

327
00:30:57,000 --> 00:30:59,000
 I can't imagine what it would be.

328
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:12,000
 So some of the things that we heard over the last trip and then so far, kind of this theme of Denton has been discovered.

329
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:27,000
 In other words, since we were here back in 2003, 2004, you know, you can't really describe this as a sleepy sort of, you know, arts-oriented college town anymore.

330
00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:31,000
 You've got major medical that's delivered here.

331
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:37,000
 You have, you know, Razor Ranch, another retail that's in this community.

332
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:44,000
 You have a downtown that's now, at least a portion of it is more vibrant.

333
00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:54,000
 And while we know that only four people actually drive the A-Train, that's about right.

334
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:58,000
 So I promise I wouldn't quote anybody.

335
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:07,000
 No, it's that, you know, you now at least have a public transportation option to get into Dallas, whereas at that time you didn't.

336
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:17,000
 So there have been a lot of changes, and you've got major developers that are looking at tracks of land on I-35 toward, you know, all the things that you know.

337
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:23,000
 So this is no longer sort of that sleepy college town, and that growth is moving this direction.

338
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:29,000
 And I've worked in a number of communities, and I've lived in Austin for 40 years.

339
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:39,000
 And I've watched sort of perceptions about growth and what we do about it and how we respond to that over, you know, periods of time in a lot of different communities.

340
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:45,000
 And you guys are in that position where growth is going to come this way.

341
00:32:45,000 --> 00:32:56,000
 I mean, we may go through a recession at some point, and that growth gets slowed for a period of time, but in terms of development corridors and what's happening in Fort Worth and the growth there,

342
00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:05,000
 what's happened with Alliance and what's kind of coming up, you know, 35 West, you know, you are going to continue growing.

343
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:07,000
 That pressure is going to be there.

344
00:33:07,000 --> 00:33:14,000
 We are in Texas, and there are things that you as cities and counties do to slow some of that growth or manage that growth or be smarter about it.

345
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:22,000
 But for the most part, you know, if population continues to grow in the DFW area, this is going to be an area that is going to grow.

346
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:25,000
 You know, just the way that it is.

347
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:28,000
 So people are attracted to Denton's Authentic.

348
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:34,000
 I'm not telling you guys anything you don't already know, but I think it's important for you guys to react to some of the things.

349
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:37,000
 And that's what we're looking for, is like, you know, your reactions.

350
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:42,000
 Is this off or is this different than what you hear or what you think?

351
00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:52,000
 But one of the, you know, this authentic charm and quirky culture is seen by many people as a differentiator for you.

352
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:59,000
 You know, that's something that's harder to find in a greater DFW area.

353
00:33:59,000 --> 00:34:03,000
 And probably a lot of that comes out of the universities that are here in the industry,

354
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:10,000
 similar to Austin and how we became, you know, weird and quirky in different ways.

355
00:34:10,000 --> 00:34:14,000
 That that's one of the unique factors of this community.

356
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:16,000
 Lots of assets.

357
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:19,000
 You know, you own your own utility.

358
00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,000
 You've got the multiple universities, the vibrant downtown.

359
00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:27,000
 You've got, you know, an industrial park that has major, you know, world-class tenants in it.

360
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:33,000
 You've got a number of assets here that, you know, are very valuable from an economic development standpoint.

361
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:43,000
 You know, byproduct of the growth, outpacing, you know, the infrastructure is that your development services guys and the infrastructure,

362
00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:49,000
 you know, right now under a lot of pressure to try to figure out, you know, how do we finance and what do we do first,

363
00:34:49,000 --> 00:34:54,000
 what do we do second in terms of the infrastructure that's needed.

364
00:34:54,000 --> 00:35:00,000
 And this, the infrastructure question doesn't happen in a vacuum.

365
00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:04,000
 When we met this morning with development services, you know,

366
00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:13,000
 we're pulling up text-dot maps and they're showing where the planned sort of loop, the outer loop is

367
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:21,000
 and how that's impacting current road projects that the city has planned because of text-dots,

368
00:35:21,000 --> 00:35:26,000
 decisions about connections to that loop in the future.

369
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:34,000
 So, you know, infrastructure is a big deal and it drives a lot of what's going to happen.

370
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:40,000
 So, competition from DFW communities such as Frisco and McKinney.

371
00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:50,000
 I mean, what do you guys, when I ask the question about who you compete with, do you really compete with Frisco and McKinney?

372
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:59,000
 I'm just going to throw it back out to you. How do you feel about that? Because that's come up quite a bit.

373
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:02,000
 Well, we put a new facility in McKinney, so yes.

374
00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:09,000
 All right. From an economic development standpoint and definitely.

375
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:21,000
 I feel like the comparisons comes because McKinney is or was similarly sized city on I-75, so on a highway.

376
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:25,000
 And it seems like the growth kind of, you know, a lot of different growth happened over there.

377
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:29,000
 They've got a square happened over there first.

378
00:36:29,000 --> 00:36:32,000
 So because we're north of the Metroplex, I think that's that draw.

379
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:38,000
 I don't know that we competed for projects against them or there's things going on over there.

380
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:46,000
 Frisco, you just see they have attracted a lot of stuff, but they started with farmland.

381
00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:51,000
 We've got a hundred and fifty, sixty year old infrastructure here and it's not the same.

382
00:36:51,000 --> 00:36:57,000
 So they can go in and say, we want to have a sports themed, you know, growth and offices.

383
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:05,000
 That's a little bit different thing. So yes, but not directly because the kind of folks that are looking here maybe aren't looking there.

384
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:08,000
 They don't want there.

385
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:12,000
 But it just seems like that's where you hear major announcements.

386
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:19,000
 It's South Denton County, West or East Denton County.

387
00:37:19,000 --> 00:37:30,000
 Some of the PG headquarters is coming. It's kind of those kind of things like offices and Charles Schwab and all those kind of things are going on the outskirts.

388
00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:38,000
 Any other reactions to who you compete with?

389
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:43,000
 It really just depends on the circumstance and what kind of competition you're talking about.

390
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:45,000
 We offer a completely different product.

391
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:54,000
 I mean, if it's a question of where do suburban rooftops go or where do grocery stores go and kind of those bread and butter kind of thing,

392
00:37:54,000 --> 00:38:00,000
 sure, there's some competition there, but that's almost all population driven stuff.

393
00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:11,000
 I mean, if we're not competing with Frisco McKinney for who can be the most aggressive about growth because we're not trying to grow in the same way that they're trying to grow.

394
00:38:11,000 --> 00:38:20,000
 We're not really trying to be. I don't think this one man's opinion. I don't think we're trying to be much like those communities in a lot of ways.

395
00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:29,000
 I think we just offer a completely different product, and there may be competition in some sectors, but we're not going for PGA.

396
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:33,000
 We're never going to go for the PGA. Charles Schwab would have been nice.

397
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:35,000
 Why not the PGA headquarters?

398
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:36,000
 What's that?

399
00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,000
 Why wouldn't you want the PGA headquarters?

400
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:44,000
 Why wouldn't we want it? It's not a fit. It never would be an economic development fit for them.

401
00:38:44,000 --> 00:39:01,000
 We just would never offer the same things, that critical mass of, like you said, sports centered, sports themed stuff, access to, quick access to Dallas, all that kind of thing that I don't think ever would have been positioned the same way Frisco was.

402
00:39:01,000 --> 00:39:05,000
 It's not that we would want it. We're just, we didn't offer the things that they were looking for.

403
00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:20,000
 We've had a lot of discussions on why don't we get office, large office, campus headquarters, like a Salisbury kind of thing. That would be one. We may not be a fit, but I would love to have had them have a discussion here and then about that.

404
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:27,000
 It would have been worth the conversation. You might just have to agree to disagree for, because we didn't get them. The PGA didn't come here.

405
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:36,000
 But Charles Schwab, maybe that's something we would have looked at if we had had the ability to do that. But again, we weren't there yet.

406
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:42,000
 So there's some things that maybe we are in competition for, and that we'd want to be in competition for.

407
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:52,000
 But even just now, the interaction with Marty and I, we're not sure what we want to compete for. We're not really sure what is, that's the whole conversation, right? That's the whole strategy conversation.

408
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:57,000
 What are we really wanting to be competitive for, and what are we going to leave on the table?

409
00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:03,000
 Well, in a way, that's why I kind of threw this back out to you guys, because that's the conversation that we need to have.

410
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:11,000
 And it's okay. We're not going to make a decision just off one comment or anecdote. It's really what makes the most sense here.

411
00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:26,000
 What aligns with where the market is going? What kind of businesses are looking? What aligns with your current and maybe future sort of talent base that's here?

412
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:36,000
 I have a comment. I'm going to use an analogy to make a statement. When I was in high school, I loved to play basketball.

413
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:46,000
 My brother was the city leading scorer at 5'6", but he got overlooked because they weren't looking for 5'6" people.

414
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:53,000
 You know, it's like he didn't have what people were looking for. He was qualified, but he didn't have what people were looking for.

415
00:40:53,000 --> 00:41:10,000
 I feel like Denton is qualified, because I'm not sure we have what people were looking for. And that's one side of a cake. If you flip the cake, I would like to think that we should be able to attract whomever and whatever we want.

416
00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:21,000
 But that's from our side. I don't know what other people are thinking. When you look at the Internet and the confusion that it's created, who's spreading these rumors about Denton?

417
00:41:21,000 --> 00:41:32,000
 Are we spreading them about ourselves or somebody else? I'm saying that you don't go to Denton. They're slow. They're old. They're behind the times.

418
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:52,000
 Well, I appreciate the analogy. Unless your brother is spud web. He's not, or maybe not, NBA fans. 5'6" I believe was spud web. One dunking contest. Best NBA player.

419
00:41:52,000 --> 00:42:09,000
 But I think the idea that, you know, there are things that Denton has the capacity to do. But right now maybe it's being overlooked because it doesn't have the perception or the image that you've got capability of supporting Charlottesville.

420
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:24,000
 Or supporting something that, you know, because the demographics or the income levels or whatever it is doesn't fit within the corporate, you know, because a lot of the corporate guys, they're drawn circles.

421
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:36,000
 And they're saying, you know, they've got their algorithms and they're looking at, you know, where do we place this where we can pick up, you know, the highest number of people with these types of technical skills or degrees or whatever it is.

422
00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:44,000
 And you guys being on the periphery, you know, you may be, you may just be three miles outside of that ring that they're drawing.

423
00:42:44,000 --> 00:42:52,000
 And so, you know, it's going to take some additional growth coming up, maybe 35 to improve your numbers.

424
00:42:52,000 --> 00:43:11,000
 Because as mostly a college town and the incomes that are associated with the service industry that supports that, you know, you're not going to meet their first threshold. And you're going to have to work your tail off to change the perspective with the individuals who are making those decisions.

425
00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:26,000
 And they have to go back up to corporate and say, yeah, we're looking for a million people with certain income levels and certain educational attainment levels that have to be within a certain number of miles, whereas people are going to have to justify it.

426
00:43:26,000 --> 00:43:36,000
 Because it's a $175 million worth of first days investment.

427
00:43:36,000 --> 00:43:56,000
 See, move forward. So over your competitive advantages, you know, Austin uses quirky culture, attracts sort of the tech crowd in a way that no other city in Texas has been able to do.

428
00:43:56,000 --> 00:44:10,000
 And so that's a real advantage, especially in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Because the greater perspective of, you know, Dallas is that it's all about, you know, high rise office space and master plan communities.

429
00:44:10,000 --> 00:44:16,000
 And we love those. Those do well. They pay a lot of taxes. You know, it's like you want to support those.

430
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:30,000
 But if you're trying to attract tech talent and you're trying to differentiate yourself as a small employer that's in growth mode and you're trying to get somebody out of Dallas or somebody out of Denver, you know, what is it that you're going to offer?

431
00:44:30,000 --> 00:44:43,000
 And you guys have something here that is attractive. And Heather, we appreciate the tour yesterday of Stoke and having some of those conversations with you and Washington.

432
00:44:43,000 --> 00:44:57,000
 City-owned utility, not quite sure what to think about that yet, other than the fact that you guys have, you know, the ability to negotiate rates and generate income.

433
00:44:57,000 --> 00:45:12,000
 And when I say I'm not sure what I think about that yet, that's just for me throwing that out there because I want you guys to understand that we're going to look at it very seriously because we understand what an asset that is for the community overall.

434
00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:17,000
 You know, how do we leverage that for economic development? What does that really mean?

435
00:45:17,000 --> 00:45:28,000
 That means, you know, for the big users of electricity, you know, having a really solid utility at a decent rate is a big deal.

436
00:45:28,000 --> 00:45:44,000
 That gives you a competitive advantage. But what does it mean from a resource standpoint? What are the other things that you could, with some creativity around your utility, position that as an economic development asset?

437
00:45:44,000 --> 00:46:01,000
 Well, for me, when I see that, because we are a municipality-owned utility, we can do a lot of things that other utilities cannot do whose main focus is income.

438
00:46:01,000 --> 00:46:16,000
 So we are going 100% renewable. There are a lot of businesses out there who are very environmentally conscious. And so we are being very responsible in that way.

439
00:46:16,000 --> 00:46:35,000
 And I feel like that is, especially when we're talking about part of our charm or, you know, we consider ourselves a pretty sustainable community, and that's not up there. But I do know now there's more corporate responsibility out in the business area.

440
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:57,000
 And so for us to provide those things, when people look for those, that could be something that we do, not with just our utility, but with other parts of the departments that we have, our water, solid waste, those types of things that I consider a really good advantage.

441
00:46:57,000 --> 00:47:04,000
 Thank you. Because that's kind of what I'm looking for, sort of the creative ways we think about using your assets.

442
00:47:04,000 --> 00:47:18,000
 I was going to say something along the same lines, but even further, I mean, we're on track to be 100% renewable electric utility. We have a commitment in the city to sustainability.

443
00:47:18,000 --> 00:47:32,000
 Green is marketable. Some would say that green is mostly marketable. But it's highly, highly marketable in this environment. And I think we can do a little bit better position ourselves in that way.

444
00:47:32,000 --> 00:47:42,000
 And I have to push back just a little bit on the quirky culture. We're not going to emulate what Austin did with Austin's weird and all that kind of stuff.

445
00:47:42,000 --> 00:47:53,000
 We have a unique culture, and I think that's part of the draw. But I don't think not everybody who's attracted to our culture is attracted to it because it's quirky or autistic or offbeat or whatever.

446
00:47:53,000 --> 00:48:09,000
 We're just different. We're just our own unique thing. And that's special. We're a separate entity, a separate culture. And that's what's special about it. Not that it's kind of funky.

447
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:28,000
 I think the Austin weird campaign was actually developed by a group of small retailers that were locally owned and used that as their slogan. It was a little sleepy for a while and then it got picked up and emulated by others.

448
00:48:28,000 --> 00:48:48,000
 I just want to add to the utility. As you're thinking about that in a way to keep it here in this list, if you could explore the rebates that we offer. We offer 100 solar households now, and that's really high compared to other places in Texas.

449
00:48:48,000 --> 00:48:59,000
 We do offer those for larger companies, too, and corporate headquarters.

450
00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:28,000
 I'm sorry that Jill walked out, but the presence of higher education as an outsider, you think it's a no-brainer. But the experience you may be having, do you feel like you're really taking advantage of having the presence to two universities and a college?

451
00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:31,000
 Are there opportunities for that?

452
00:49:31,000 --> 00:49:39,000
 You're from Austin. So what's your perception of our education? What do the Austin people think of our identity?

453
00:49:39,000 --> 00:49:59,000
 I think a lot of people think that the City of Austin has always gotten along with the State of Texas, and that the City of Austin has always gotten along with the University of Texas. The University of Texas is its own city.

454
00:49:59,000 --> 00:50:12,000
 And the things that they do happen to leverage, or happen to have huge economic development value, but it hasn't always been perfect.

455
00:50:12,000 --> 00:50:25,000
 But I think the Chamber and the City of Austin have over the last 30 or 40 years been much more strategic about how they think about the University and their relationship.

456
00:50:25,000 --> 00:50:37,000
 And so I feel like I haven't really learned yet much about how T.W.U. and U.N.T. and the City and Chamber work together or don't work together.

457
00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:47,000
 No, I was asking specifically, as a person from Austin, when you think of the Denton educational facility, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

458
00:50:47,000 --> 00:50:48,000
 You mean?

459
00:50:48,000 --> 00:50:59,000
 Knee-jerk. Oh, well, I mean, I think of music and arts as being a strength. That's the reputation that we've known.

460
00:50:59,000 --> 00:51:07,000
 And then just sort of discovering over the last 10 years that they're strong in engineering and business and some other things.

461
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:20,000
 In T.W.U., I'm just now learning their strengths and excited about the women in leadership and entrepreneurship and some of the other things that are going on.

462
00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:28,000
 Can I make a comment? I used to travel to Austin a lot about 10 years ago.

463
00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:37,000
 And one of the things that was interesting to me in Austin was most people that you ran into went to UT and they graduated.

464
00:51:37,000 --> 00:51:43,000
 They stayed in Austin because Austin could give them the job opportunities they needed.

465
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:48,000
 I don't think that's the case here for us. Unfortunately, I think that's one of our biggest challenges.

466
00:51:48,000 --> 00:51:54,000
 I was reading this morning, I guess in the last 10 years, that Dallas-Fort Worth area has created a million jobs.

467
00:51:54,000 --> 00:52:08,000
 I don't think we've got nearly our fair share in our market. So all of this, to me, is about how do we change that going forward and take advantage of these educational facilities and be able to retain those kids that graduate.

468
00:52:08,000 --> 00:52:14,000
 And some of them would love to stay here, but there's just no opportunities for them.

469
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:16,000
 Call me about Detonate professionals.

470
00:52:16,000 --> 00:52:17,000
 Pardon?

471
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:24,000
 Call me. The Detonate professionals are being task force.

472
00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:38,000
 Actually, their first meeting is next week, and they're going to sit between now and October and talk about that question and what program can they put together to attract, retain, engage young talent and capture that.

473
00:52:38,000 --> 00:52:52,000
 The universities are actually capturing them in town. So how do we network them and connect them to something here that they'll, so by the time that they're ready to build something, either take a job or create an opportunity, they're already connected to this community.

474
00:52:52,000 --> 00:52:59,000
 That's an opportunity I think we've been missing for a while, is a strong young professionals networking group.

475
00:52:59,000 --> 00:53:07,000
 And that's what we have been talking about with that group for a couple of months now. And we have a task force built that are coming together at the end of this month.

476
00:53:07,000 --> 00:53:21,000
 But at the end of the day, it's how we as a city, our strategic plan, you know, our efforts come up with opportunities to bring business into this market, into our community.

477
00:53:21,000 --> 00:53:28,000
 And make available jobs to those people that are graduating with finance degrees, business degrees, other than the music degrees.

478
00:53:28,000 --> 00:53:41,000
 You know, UNT, TW, all these have great other departments. They may not be world renowned, but they are generating a lot of educated, you know, men and women in various fields, and they can't stay here.

479
00:53:41,000 --> 00:53:53,000
 Yeah, it was funny because it's exciting that they're going to come together and help communicate, you know, because I think having them communicate with this group, just what they're thinking, what's on their mind, and what their challenges are.

480
00:53:53,000 --> 00:54:09,000
 Because they said yesterday, one of their biggest challenges is finding a job. You know, which is kind of to your point, which is we come here, we get a decent job, but just there's limited mobility for us.

481
00:54:09,000 --> 00:54:26,000
 As young professionals, there's a strong gravitational pull, you know, from the metroplex because we go down to Frisco, we go down further, yeah, maybe the cost of living is a little bit higher, but the compensation differential and opportunities are much, much higher.

482
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:32,000
 So how do we get those jobs here? I'm going to come to you and then I'll come back.

483
00:54:32,000 --> 00:54:41,000
 To your question about higher education, about are we adequately leveraging? I think the portion of our reputation has to do with music and the arts and all that kind of thing.

484
00:54:41,000 --> 00:54:50,000
 I think we are properly leveraging, even working really hard to use that. What we're not doing is exactly what Tony was talking about.

485
00:54:50,000 --> 00:55:08,000
 We graduate, we talk about tech jobs and stuff and you want to attract tech or something like that. We graduate exponentially more business majors and finance majors every semester from UNT and TWA than we do engineers or software engineers or anything like that.

486
00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:22,000
 We graduate more finance majors than we do music majors from UNT. Well, finance and business together. But more than half of the students that currently attend each of those universities live outside the county.

487
00:55:22,000 --> 00:55:45,000
 So they come up here and they go to school and then they go back home and they get a job in Westlake with Charles Schwab or downtown Dallas with some firm or Richardson or Addison with some firm. We don't have those jobs, but we're actually very well positioned if a firm, even a medium-sized firm were to open a campus here.

488
00:55:45,000 --> 00:56:04,000
 We're very well positioned to keep the staff with interns, support staff, all the way up through middle management. And that we have not leveraged. We have some opportunities coming up in the near term and the long term and we've got to find a way to connect that pipeline.

489
00:56:04,000 --> 00:56:25,000
 Awesome. Awesome. Any reactions, Jimmy? I'm just listening to everything that everybody's saying, but it is true. I have families that graduate from UNT and they all go to Dallas, but they only go elsewhere because I've said the degrees and the opportunities in there.

490
00:56:25,000 --> 00:56:47,000
 So I think that's part of it. Part of the infrastructure, I think, needs to be improved a lot. And I see improvements coming, but we're still behind everybody else. It seems like we're two or three years behind everybody else and that's why we're not attracting the companies that we want. It's a good place to live, but as far as work, it is not the same.

491
00:56:47,000 --> 00:57:02,000
 I think you were here last time, when you were here last time, did you say something about a lot of the medical professionals have residences in other communities other than the top medical people?

492
00:57:02,000 --> 00:57:21,000
 Yeah, that's kind of what we heard from the hospital systems was that a lot of their doctors and higher-end personnel choose to go down to Flower Mound or Hardall. Education and that cultural kind of presence there.

493
00:57:21,000 --> 00:57:39,000
 Yeah, and sometimes those decisions are driven by spouses that have work in Metroplex and feel like they need to have opportunities within their career for a particular school district or a particular program in a school district these days.

494
00:57:39,000 --> 00:57:54,000
 But, I mean, we haven't been out to the Advanced Technology Center yet and we did meet with someone from the ISD, but we're planning to follow up there to really understand that asset.

495
00:57:54,000 --> 00:58:15,000
 Well, I have a few comments, but we have to meet after this so I can hold most of my comments for that conversation. I wanted to know if we know how many companies offer internships to those college students, like who has programs with the universities.

496
00:58:15,000 --> 00:58:28,000
 Do we even know that? Like this Peterbilt? Are you guys offering? 50 to 60 a year. Okay, and so just knowing how many, does the hospital do that? We can. Yes.

497
00:58:28,000 --> 00:58:46,000
 Okay, so I mean that would be helpful just leveraging that already in what you do to make sure that those students in those colleges know that that's there and then when you intern and you make friends and you build community and you start volunteering for nonprofits.

498
00:58:46,000 --> 00:59:06,000
 That's a part that's not on here is the people in the community and how giving we are and some people want to stay and be a part of that. So I think that's a really big asset. If we can provide the wage, the higher income, which we discussed earlier in our incentive policy.

499
00:59:06,000 --> 00:59:17,000
 You know, so if we can focus on that, it may start to work. I have a question.

500
00:59:17,000 --> 00:59:26,000
 You know, when you talk about jobs and talking about jobs, who has the real number of how many jobs are created each year.

501
00:59:26,000 --> 00:59:38,000
 You know, I, one of the things I dislike is that, you know, this many jobs were created and you just wonder where, where is this number coming from and where are those jobs.

502
00:59:38,000 --> 01:00:07,000
 Who has the real number? Who's monitoring that? Who, who, who, who puts their Marty River seal of approval. Marty says I approve this number. Okay. I mean, where is that going on? I mean, because if we're talking about jobs, job retention, job growth, we need to have something that gives us a feeling that this is a real number and we're making progress, you know, towards a goal.

503
01:00:07,000 --> 01:00:13,000
 So is there a measure? Yes. And who's doing the measure?

504
01:00:13,000 --> 01:00:22,000
 Please reference USA. We can get from businesses and we can do it by year and we can do it by six months. As well as a business directory.

505
01:00:22,000 --> 01:00:34,000
 And also what the percentages of salaries that are paid, how many people are at a lower end median up to the 98% pay level. So there's a way to track that.

506
01:00:34,000 --> 01:00:47,000
 So you say reference USA, but how does the average person? Not reference USA, it's MC. Well, we have multiple tools, she's talking about MC. It's the one that Texas Workforce uses, so it's actual data.

507
01:00:47,000 --> 01:01:01,000
 The data, the raw data usually comes from the Texas Workforce Commission and they have a huge database that our systems are pulling the data from that gets reported directly by the companies.

508
01:01:01,000 --> 01:01:22,000
 Okay, so let me ask the follow-up question. If that information is there, do they have a credible history of showing us what's going on in our county or in our city? Are we growing or are we staying the same?

509
01:01:22,000 --> 01:01:37,000
 And then once we get that, we need to somehow publish it and let people know that we are retaining jobs. We are growing in jobs. We are improving. Our graduation rates are increasing.

510
01:01:37,000 --> 01:01:55,000
 The file data capitals are increasing. The research contracts are increasing. So as a community, we're becoming more vibrant, more attractive, more saleable.

511
01:01:55,000 --> 01:02:15,000
 Well, my understanding is that most of that data, you guys are publishing it. Maybe what I'm hearing is that it needs to be more broadly distributed or communicated in a way that's more adjustable.

512
01:02:15,000 --> 01:02:28,000
 Is that what you're saying, John, or were you just not aware? Because what's the perception? I mean, if our perceptions are not being improved, then we've got to work on that.

513
01:02:28,000 --> 01:02:42,000
 Yeah, and I think the data is just part of that. The data tells part of the story, but there's a lot of other pieces to that story about businesses that are expanding and universities expanding and other things that are going on.

514
01:02:42,000 --> 01:02:56,000
 All right, guys. How are you feeling? This is great for us. I appreciate your taking the time being candid about some of these things, because I'm going to keep going here.

515
01:02:56,000 --> 01:03:16,000
 All right. Maybe I lost power. Turn it off. Wait three seconds. Turn it back on.

516
01:03:16,000 --> 01:03:39,000
 All those fails. Computer. Escape. Right click. Back in business. All right. So you wanted to talk data for a moment? We're going to talk about our weaknesses.

517
01:03:39,000 --> 01:03:54,000
 Challenges? Oh, I was going to skip over those things. I was going to skip over those. Sorry about that. So yeah, you know, challenges. I think we talked about the competition from surrounding communities.

518
01:03:54,000 --> 01:04:13,000
 It's hard when you've got communities like Frisco that have greenfield sites that grow at a rapid pace versus Denton as an older established community with established employers and development patterns and having expectations that you're going to grow in exactly the same way.

519
01:04:13,000 --> 01:04:25,000
 That's an easy thing to compare. Number two, limited economic development resources. I think we've heard several people say we don't have the economic development sales tax.

520
01:04:25,000 --> 01:04:44,000
 And Jacqueline has a very nice map here I'll show in a moment just to show who does and, you know, in the area because it's pretty dramatic. The number of communities just in Denton County alone. Much less the DFW Metroplex area.

521
01:04:44,000 --> 01:05:02,000
 But for a community that's about to undergo the kind of growth that is anticipated here from an economic development standpoint, you are not devoting what your competitors are.

522
01:05:02,000 --> 01:05:18,000
 And both from an incentive standpoint and from a staffing standpoint. And so really it's going to come down to, and this will get to the question of how seriously do you want to play in a competitive economic development game.

523
01:05:18,000 --> 01:05:34,000
 And I'm not saying that lightly. That's going to be a very serious question. And we'll help lay out a couple of different scenarios for you so that it's not just, oh, the consultants came in and recommended this. We'll help lay out, here's a couple of choices for you.

524
01:05:34,000 --> 01:05:48,000
 You can kind of, business as usual, here's what we recommend that you want to kind of stick with. But if you want to take seriously leveraging the presence and the growth of the universities and the plans that they have.

525
01:05:48,000 --> 01:05:57,000
 If you want to take seriously the growth that's coming up I-35 West. If you want to take seriously the potential that remains with the business park.

526
01:05:57,000 --> 01:06:08,000
 If you want to take, there's a lot of different opportunities here. And so really what's at your disposal to dedicate to economic development and how creative do you want to be.

527
01:06:08,000 --> 01:06:17,000
 So that's going to be a question that's coming up. Keeping up with the demands on infrastructure, we talked about that. We really haven't talked about housing a lot.

528
01:06:17,000 --> 01:06:28,000
 But you guys are not alone in, really in the country right now with access to what we consider workforce housing or affordability.

529
01:06:28,000 --> 01:06:36,000
 Not just during the section 8 housing, but housing at different levels. You know, that's a challenge everywhere we go right now.

530
01:06:36,000 --> 01:06:43,000
 I mean, every single community that we go, especially communities that have any kind of opportunity, it's a challenge.

531
01:06:43,000 --> 01:06:55,000
 You've got young people that are graduating from college with debt. You've got young people that are graduating from high school and taking $12 an hour jobs, $15 an hour jobs.

532
01:06:55,000 --> 01:07:04,000
 And yet the pressure on real estate in most communities puts that, you know, even the inexpensive stuff out of reach.

533
01:07:04,000 --> 01:07:15,000
 You've got doctors that may not be finding housing options within the city limits of Denton at a certain price point. So they're going down the street.

534
01:07:15,000 --> 01:07:26,000
 So it's not just, affordable housing isn't just section 8 housing, even though that's affordable housing is an issue too. So it's across the spectrum.

535
01:07:26,000 --> 01:07:37,000
 My caveat is that you're not alone, but it is an issue here. And how does that play into economic development? How does it play into your competitiveness?

536
01:07:37,000 --> 01:07:45,000
 I think that's a question that we have to ask ourselves. The town versus gown dynamic, that's come up a couple of times.

537
01:07:45,000 --> 01:08:03,000
 The sense that the university and the city squabble over parking or squabble over development, whatever it is, don't seem to be working as fluidly as you would expect.

538
01:08:03,000 --> 01:08:15,000
 That's just anecdotal. For me, it's like to have university systems that are here in that size, figuring out how to go forward.

539
01:08:15,000 --> 01:08:24,000
 But that's, maybe that's just perception. We're meeting with universities and the city and feel like that needs to be approved.

540
01:08:24,000 --> 01:08:29,000
 And then, I don't know what we meant by leadership transitions. Do you remember?

541
01:08:29,000 --> 01:08:33,000
 That there have been a lot of transitions at the city and the chamber.

542
01:08:33,000 --> 01:08:46,000
 Okay. And I assume that's mostly going to work out the better. This is a new opportunity for the community with new leadership.

543
01:08:46,000 --> 01:08:58,000
 These are just themes that came up during the interviews. We're not here to spend a whole lot of time on this, unless you want to.

544
01:08:58,000 --> 01:09:02,000
 Thank you.

545
01:09:02,000 --> 01:09:09,000
 Anything missing from that list?

546
01:09:09,000 --> 01:09:13,000
 You asked me to stop, Marty.

547
01:09:13,000 --> 01:09:16,000
 So, you didn't let me skip over that.

548
01:09:16,000 --> 01:09:22,000
 Yeah, a couple of quick data points.

549
01:09:22,000 --> 01:09:32,000
 Can I just open up Tableau?

550
01:09:32,000 --> 01:09:42,000
 So, I had mentioned earlier, these are communities that have 4A.

551
01:09:42,000 --> 01:09:52,000
 And I think I can just scroll in here, just within the county.

552
01:09:52,000 --> 01:09:59,000
 And I don't have the numbers for what they're collecting right now, but I know that data is available.

553
01:09:59,000 --> 01:10:08,000
 And I think it would be important the next time we come back, just so you kind of know what kind of kitty Frisco is sitting on and what kind of annual.

554
01:10:08,000 --> 01:10:11,000
 And you may know it off the top of your head.

555
01:10:11,000 --> 01:10:22,000
 I'm always surprised when I look at just how much is being collected by communities in the $10 million, $15 million, $20 million a year.

556
01:10:22,000 --> 01:10:37,000
 Do we know how many of those cities listed give a large percentage of their sales tax to public transportation as well?

557
01:10:37,000 --> 01:10:43,000
 I'm guessing that none of these do that have 4A or 4B.

558
01:10:43,000 --> 01:10:54,000
 No, so the way that the sales tax that you can split it, generally, if they're participating in 4A and 4B or 4A or 4B,

559
01:10:54,000 --> 01:11:00,000
 they would be somewhat limited in what they could participate because the one cent that's dedicated to the city stays with the city.

560
01:11:00,000 --> 01:11:02,000
 Now, the one cent is the other flexible.

561
01:11:02,000 --> 01:11:11,000
 You can see up there that there's other options, the 4A, 4B, street maintenance, that you can only split those and kind of so many eights before you run out of options.

562
01:11:11,000 --> 01:11:15,000
 And I believe eights is the limit right now from the comptroller on what you can do.

563
01:11:15,000 --> 01:11:17,000
 I don't think you can use 16ths of a cent.

564
01:11:17,000 --> 01:11:23,000
 And so there's only so many ways you can divide that one cent.

565
01:11:23,000 --> 01:11:31,000
 And so generally, communities that are participating in 4A and 4B don't participate in Metro Transit.

566
01:11:31,000 --> 01:11:33,000
 It was the same in the Houston area when I was down there.

567
01:11:33,000 --> 01:11:45,000
 If you were a member of Metro, you didn't generally participate in the economic development sales tax just because there's only so much.

568
01:11:45,000 --> 01:11:51,000
 Yeah, I wasn't going to tell a lot of stories around this particular data set,

569
01:11:51,000 --> 01:11:59,000
 but I wanted to let you know that we have it so that if you do have questions, we can take a look at it.

570
01:11:59,000 --> 01:12:04,000
 One interesting story, I think, is if -- can I select both 4B and A at the same time?

571
01:12:04,000 --> 01:12:05,000
 No.

572
01:12:05,000 --> 01:12:06,000
 No? Okay.

573
01:12:06,000 --> 01:12:09,000
 Well, I'll pick on 4B then because there's a few more.

574
01:12:09,000 --> 01:12:19,000
 But it's just always fascinating to see if you scroll out the concentration in the DFW area.

575
01:12:19,000 --> 01:12:31,000
 You guys are -- we're in the majority of the 4A and 4B sales taxes are using or where they exist.

576
01:12:31,000 --> 01:12:37,000
 But I'm going to be as much interested in how much is being raised and coming back to you guys.

577
01:12:37,000 --> 01:12:45,000
 And then in addition to that, in the areas where we can actually get information about staffing and how funds are being spent,

578
01:12:45,000 --> 01:12:52,000
 to be able to share that with you as we're thinking about how creative does Denton want to get.

579
01:12:52,000 --> 01:12:55,000
 So any questions on that?

580
01:12:55,000 --> 01:12:58,000
 I think Tauga has $12.36, and they're fine.

581
01:12:58,000 --> 01:13:04,000
 All right.

582
01:13:04,000 --> 01:13:08,000
 Oh, wait, no way for Tauga to be listed there.

583
01:13:08,000 --> 01:13:10,000
 Dairy Queen there, right?

584
01:13:10,000 --> 01:13:17,000
 Was there -- let's see, if I go down my list here, which one do I want next?

585
01:13:17,000 --> 01:13:19,000
 Number four?

586
01:13:19,000 --> 01:13:21,000
 Okay.

587
01:13:21,000 --> 01:13:28,000
 And so we're just now taking a first cut at looking at the revenues for different cities

588
01:13:28,000 --> 01:13:35,000
 and how they're generating their revenues in terms of general revenue.

589
01:13:35,000 --> 01:13:44,000
 And so Denton for 2018, and anybody from the city needs to correct me on the fly here for free.

590
01:13:44,000 --> 01:13:47,000
 We're not going to publish this data yet.

591
01:13:47,000 --> 01:13:52,000
 But if they're -- so 35% actually comes from property tax.

592
01:13:52,000 --> 01:14:02,000
 And then you've got 20% sales, 14% franchise fees, and then 32% other revenues.

593
01:14:02,000 --> 01:14:06,000
 And I think you had a question.

594
01:14:06,000 --> 01:14:13,000
 Yeah, so we were talking about earlier why our -- know that that is capturing development fees.

595
01:14:13,000 --> 01:14:19,000
 So if you look at, in the standard report, the number of the increase in building permits,

596
01:14:19,000 --> 01:14:27,000
 the increase in development that's been occurring, I would say that's probably a factor in why that as a percentage is so high.

597
01:14:27,000 --> 01:14:32,000
 Because my question, does general revenue account for income from utilities?

598
01:14:32,000 --> 01:14:33,000
 Utilities.

599
01:14:33,000 --> 01:14:34,000
 Yeah.

600
01:14:34,000 --> 01:14:41,000
 So because that would have been my first answer to this, but this is stuff that we'll research as we're thinking about it.

601
01:14:41,000 --> 01:14:49,000
 But it is interesting to see how much -- what percentage is -- you've got all that greenfield new development that's going on,

602
01:14:49,000 --> 01:14:54,000
 how much of the revenue for Frisco is coming from property tax, McKinney, Flower Mound.

603
01:14:54,000 --> 01:15:03,000
 Yeah, I think the other part of that property tax is where we have the county seat and the universities that they don't have.

604
01:15:03,000 --> 01:15:12,000
 Yeah, the fact that you've got a higher percentage of your overall taxable property that's off of tax rules than normally would have been, you know, depending on the purpose.

605
01:15:12,000 --> 01:15:15,000
 Same thing that Boston ran into for a number of years.

606
01:15:15,000 --> 01:15:23,000
 We have the state capital, we have the university, and until we reached a certain size where we had a lot more private investment

607
01:15:23,000 --> 01:15:29,000
 from other companies, we were a little bit out of whack there.

608
01:15:29,000 --> 01:15:40,000
 But once again, I'm not going to go through all these data sets, but I was just -- we're doing this and we're going to share this with the staff

609
01:15:40,000 --> 01:15:49,000
 as we think through, you know, what -- at the highest level in terms of generating revenue to pay for city services and the future sustainability of this community,

610
01:15:49,000 --> 01:15:56,000
 what does it make sense to focus on? It's easy to say, oh yeah, let's incentivize a particular type of business,

611
01:15:56,000 --> 01:16:05,000
 but if that particular business is returning an investment to the city and helping continue to pay your way based on your current structure, you know,

612
01:16:05,000 --> 01:16:08,000
 it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

613
01:16:08,000 --> 01:16:09,000
 Tom, I have a question.

614
01:16:09,000 --> 01:16:10,000
 Yes.

615
01:16:10,000 --> 01:16:23,000
 So even though you've got the blue, which shows property taxes, does it give us an idea of the strength of that community's tax base?

616
01:16:23,000 --> 01:16:28,000
 And how would you define strength of that tax base?

617
01:16:28,000 --> 01:16:43,000
 Well, let's say, for example, let me use the best I can give you. If we don't have that much -- that strong of a tax base, then we're not going to be able to generate that much property tax.

618
01:16:43,000 --> 01:16:53,000
 But if we have a lot of businesses that have a strong or high dollar value tax base, then the result is more property tax dollars.

619
01:16:53,000 --> 01:16:59,000
 Not necessarily a higher rate, but we have more taxable value.

620
01:16:59,000 --> 01:17:00,000
 Right.

621
01:17:00,000 --> 01:17:08,000
 And that generates more property taxes, which to me is one of the things that we would like to have here.

622
01:17:08,000 --> 01:17:10,000
 Gotcha.

623
01:17:10,000 --> 01:17:16,000
 Can you differentiate between residential and commercial?

624
01:17:16,000 --> 01:17:21,000
 I think we can do industrial, residential, and commercial property taxes.

625
01:17:21,000 --> 01:17:31,000
 Yeah, the CAD breaks it down in those three general categories, because that determines how they use different methods to value the property.

626
01:17:31,000 --> 01:17:36,000
 Generally, yes, we know how much value is coming from each of those broad categories.

627
01:17:36,000 --> 01:17:50,000
 We can also break it down each year by what's incremental value on properties that are existing versus what's value that's added, new construction value, those sort of things.

628
01:17:50,000 --> 01:17:53,000
 Jacqueline, do we happen to have the community data on this one?

629
01:17:53,000 --> 01:17:54,000
 Did you pull it up?

630
01:17:54,000 --> 01:18:00,000
 Yeah, it should be up on the other tab.

631
01:18:00,000 --> 01:18:02,000
 Which is right here?

632
01:18:02,000 --> 01:18:03,000
 Okay.

633
01:18:03,000 --> 01:18:10,000
 Yeah, and once again, I didn't want to make this a data presentation, but I just want to let you know that these are the kinds of things that we're looking at in the background,

634
01:18:10,000 --> 01:18:18,000
 because there's stuff that the city already does, and we don't want to replicate that, but we want to get a feel for -- yeah, if we're going to make recommendations here,

635
01:18:18,000 --> 01:18:21,000
 we want them to align with where your strengths are.

636
01:18:21,000 --> 01:18:24,000
 Could you go back to that one that you had in the blue?

637
01:18:24,000 --> 01:18:26,000
 If I could make a suggestion?

638
01:18:26,000 --> 01:18:28,000
 Yeah, it's that one.

639
01:18:28,000 --> 01:18:32,000
 Let's say in the blue, you put the dollar value that's generating that 35%.

640
01:18:32,000 --> 01:18:34,000
 Yeah, how much is industrial versus --

641
01:18:34,000 --> 01:18:40,000
 How much industrial is generating, and you go look at Frisco, and that tells us how much industry they have.

642
01:18:40,000 --> 01:18:51,000
 Yeah, because I know I've got other files of what percentage comes from your single top taxpayer, top three, top ten, versus the other cities.

643
01:18:51,000 --> 01:18:59,000
 We've got data on sort of general obligation debt based on other communities.

644
01:18:59,000 --> 01:19:03,000
 Good question. Do you have residential versus --

645
01:19:03,000 --> 01:19:14,000
 I don't know that I have it. We may have the data, but it's just not as part of this slide deck, but I'll go back and check.

646
01:19:14,000 --> 01:19:23,000
 But I will say that it's very difficult in comparing cities to find apples to apples.

647
01:19:23,000 --> 01:19:36,000
 This is a discussion Jessica and I would have, because your tax makeup is different. Some have a lot of nonprofits, churches, universities, and others don't.

648
01:19:36,000 --> 01:19:43,000
 Some have -- they're a municipally owned utility that helps offset certain other costs that you might not have.

649
01:19:43,000 --> 01:19:50,000
 Some rely on fees. Some rely on their sales tax.

650
01:19:50,000 --> 01:20:01,000
 There was the quirk for a while that I think the legislature's trying to account for, which allowed for a point of retail sales tax collection for telecom and things like that.

651
01:20:01,000 --> 01:20:06,000
 And that debate's still going on right now, so you really have to continue drilling down.

652
01:20:06,000 --> 01:20:19,000
 We want to drill down enough to where when we make our recommendations, we feel like, okay, we're not sending you down a path that doesn't match the resources that you have in your current situation.

653
01:20:19,000 --> 01:20:32,000
 I will show one other quick one, just a reminder that we're also, you know, this question of, you know, where do residents of Denton work?

654
01:20:32,000 --> 01:20:43,000
 Where are they going to? Because that question of how many people live in Denton that are educated, that are currently leaving the community,

655
01:20:43,000 --> 01:20:54,000
 that if the better opportunities were available to them here and were able to be successful in attracting investment and new jobs here, that they would be able to stay here.

656
01:20:54,000 --> 01:21:00,000
 And what age groups, what are their current earning levels, and where are they going?

657
01:21:00,000 --> 01:21:09,000
 Obviously, Dallas is the number one destination with Fort Worth being number two.

658
01:21:09,000 --> 01:21:17,000
 But this is a relatively new, even though the data set has been available for a while, you can see where people are commuting.

659
01:21:17,000 --> 01:21:23,000
 Being able to drill down below that and find out characteristics of those who are leaving.

660
01:21:23,000 --> 01:21:29,000
 You really couldn't get to any of that unless you did a specific survey.

661
01:21:29,000 --> 01:21:39,000
 If you surveyed the residents and said, where are you going? What's your income? And give us more information. And more data is becoming available now.

662
01:21:39,000 --> 01:21:50,000
 So there's other stuff that we can look at. But we can, you know, we can drill down and show where people are going, where those concentrations are.

663
01:21:50,000 --> 01:21:55,000
 There's a little pod on the other side of the lake.

664
01:21:55,000 --> 01:21:59,000
 Can you tell me what the source says at the bottom down there? I'm trying to...

665
01:21:59,000 --> 01:22:09,000
 Yeah, it's the... Oh, gosh. Do you know LEHD?

666
01:22:09,000 --> 01:22:12,000
 It's like a combination.

667
01:22:12,000 --> 01:22:18,000
 Yeah, I'll get that to you. I'll get that to you.

668
01:22:18,000 --> 01:22:32,000
 All right, guys. I'm going to switch back. We have about 20 minutes left.

669
01:22:32,000 --> 01:22:41,000
 We are going to put together what we will consider a draft of a SWAT.

670
01:22:41,000 --> 01:22:49,000
 And I'll actually send this to you guys afterwards so you'll see our first attempt at populating this.

671
01:22:49,000 --> 01:22:58,000
 But when we think of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, many times it's really just something that's local.

672
01:22:58,000 --> 01:23:04,000
 In other words, this isn't a weakness in the greater metroplex area that's just a dent in weakness.

673
01:23:04,000 --> 01:23:14,000
 Or maybe it's a weakness that is something that's statewide. In other words, that we're kind of stuck with the way that we pay for public education.

674
01:23:14,000 --> 01:23:17,000
 You know, whatever, if you want to see that as a weakness.

675
01:23:17,000 --> 01:23:24,000
 And then also sometimes things are beyond our control. They're happening nationally or globally.

676
01:23:24,000 --> 01:23:29,000
 And I'm going to go through this relatively quickly and I'm going to give it back to you guys as homework.

677
01:23:29,000 --> 01:23:34,000
 If that's okay because we don't have a whole lot of time left. But we still understand what we've been up to.

678
01:23:34,000 --> 01:23:40,000
 And so we're going to take each one of these strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

679
01:23:40,000 --> 01:23:48,000
 And on the strengths side, I think I'm missing, I looked at it just a moment ago, I'm missing its ETC.

680
01:23:48,000 --> 01:23:51,000
 So make sure you put that in there.

681
01:23:51,000 --> 01:23:56,000
 But availability of water. I think that came up in some of our industrial meetings.

682
01:23:56,000 --> 01:24:03,000
 That's not an everywhere in Texas thing. It's definitely not. That's a big deal.

683
01:24:03,000 --> 01:24:09,000
 The universities, they're, you know, relative to other communities that are landlocked.

684
01:24:09,000 --> 01:24:15,000
 In the DFW area, which many of them are, that I've worked for, Rowlett, Saxey, Wiley, and you know,

685
01:24:15,000 --> 01:24:18,000
 a lot of those communities have very limited development opportunities.

686
01:24:18,000 --> 01:24:24,000
 You guys still have a great swath along I-35 on the south, west side.

687
01:24:24,000 --> 01:24:29,000
 There's still a lot of land available on the north side of the community.

688
01:24:29,000 --> 01:24:35,000
 So there's still a lot of room for this community to grow over the next 10, 20, 30 years.

689
01:24:35,000 --> 01:24:39,000
 That's a benefit.

690
01:24:39,000 --> 01:24:45,000
 Concludes of the interstates. Overall, affordable cost of living.

691
01:24:45,000 --> 01:24:53,000
 Manufacturing, workforce, music and arts downtown, location and a growing metro.

692
01:24:53,000 --> 01:24:59,000
 Unique culture. There's the word unique. So we didn't use quirky. That one I like.

693
01:24:59,000 --> 01:25:02,000
 Alright. We're good. We're good there. Alright.

694
01:25:02,000 --> 01:25:07,000
 Airport. I don't really have a good feel for the airport yet, but we're going to meet with those guys.

695
01:25:07,000 --> 01:25:10,000
 So I'll get a better feel for what's going on out there.

696
01:25:10,000 --> 01:25:18,000
 Your park system. While not 100% lots of plans for improving that.

697
01:25:18,000 --> 01:25:26,000
 Competitive tax climate, which is really an overall state competitiveness issue that Texas has.

698
01:25:26,000 --> 01:25:30,000
 And just overall economic growth for the US.

699
01:25:30,000 --> 01:25:38,000
 Some of the weaknesses or challenges. As I mentioned, your housing mix, limited resources.

700
01:25:38,000 --> 01:25:42,000
 It's interesting with the young professionals. We had a pretty diverse group there.

701
01:25:42,000 --> 01:25:48,000
 And for them, some of them, they felt like, yeah, a lot of people think of this as a very progressive community.

702
01:25:48,000 --> 01:25:53,000
 But there's still a lot of exclusivity. It's hard for us to feel like we have opportunities that others have.

703
01:25:53,000 --> 01:25:58,000
 And, you know, in Austin right now, we're having that discussion every day.

704
01:25:58,000 --> 01:26:02,000
 You know, it's a big part of the discussion. We've got all this tech growth.

705
01:26:02,000 --> 01:26:08,000
 But you have communities that don't get to experience the benefit of all that growth within the community.

706
01:26:08,000 --> 01:26:13,000
 How do we help those folks? Not a lot of Class A office.

707
01:26:13,000 --> 01:26:21,000
 Some of the corridors that come into the city, you know, don't give off the best sort of impression of the city.

708
01:26:21,000 --> 01:26:30,000
 One of the interviews that we had this week talked about somebody that hadn't been here for a long time.

709
01:26:30,000 --> 01:26:35,000
 And they didn't really, they had been coming through by the community, but they didn't even know that downtown existed.

710
01:26:35,000 --> 01:26:41,000
 And they had a child that was going to the university, or they wanted to go to the university.

711
01:26:41,000 --> 01:26:44,000
 They'd come into town, and they didn't know to go to downtown.

712
01:26:44,000 --> 01:26:48,000
 You know, it wasn't part of the sales pitch. They just didn't know.

713
01:26:48,000 --> 01:26:55,000
 And we all, you know, who have been in the downtown, when we talk about Denton, we talk about that as an asset.

714
01:26:55,000 --> 01:26:59,000
 But is it, you know, something that's known to the broader community?

715
01:26:59,000 --> 01:27:05,000
 Workforce for skilled trades, that's a statewide, national issue, probably should be out there.

716
01:27:05,000 --> 01:27:14,000
 And you've got a community college that pointed out to us that they operate without the taxing district.

717
01:27:14,000 --> 01:27:22,000
 They operate off of state funds and fees, tuition, fees. Interesting.

718
01:27:22,000 --> 01:27:32,000
 Let's see. Opportunities. You know what, I left this off, Heather.

719
01:27:32,000 --> 01:27:38,000
 When I was talking about strings, the growing taxing. I want to point that out.

720
01:27:38,000 --> 01:27:44,000
 I want to point that out, because I feel like we heard stories yesterday when we went to Stoke.

721
01:27:44,000 --> 01:27:52,000
 Of course, it's your business to help us understand, but it's real.

722
01:27:52,000 --> 01:27:57,000
 I mean, the number of small companies that have started here and have grown here,

723
01:27:57,000 --> 01:28:05,000
 some very heavy on the tech side, some, you know, Etsy-based artwork that's done, that gets converted,

724
01:28:05,000 --> 01:28:10,000
 and before you know it, you're selling stuff all over the globe, and one of the top sellers.

725
01:28:10,000 --> 01:28:15,000
 You know, so there's an entrepreneurial culture here that I think needs to be leveraged,

726
01:28:15,000 --> 01:28:19,000
 and I think that's a big opportunity.

727
01:28:19,000 --> 01:28:25,000
 So expanding tech, R&D innovation, leveraging higher education.

728
01:28:25,000 --> 01:28:32,000
 I know this is a sensitive issue for some, but mall redevelopment, telling the story better,

729
01:28:32,000 --> 01:28:40,000
 utilizing utility funds for economic development. That's a question mark for us.

730
01:28:40,000 --> 01:28:48,000
 It's like how far down that path, what can be used from your electric utility to support economic development.

731
01:28:48,000 --> 01:28:53,000
 You know, I kind of grew up with economic development in Texas being led by the electric utilities.

732
01:28:53,000 --> 01:28:57,000
 I worked for the State Department of Commerce. We didn't have any money.

733
01:28:57,000 --> 01:29:05,000
 Most of the economic development in Texas was done by the Texas utilities.

734
01:29:05,000 --> 01:29:09,000
 I can't list them off. Houston Light, I'm naming all what they used to be called.

735
01:29:09,000 --> 01:29:14,000
 Houston Lighting and Power, Gulf State Utilities, Central Power and Light.

736
01:29:14,000 --> 01:29:18,000
 I mean, these guys had budgets. When I was running the International Department,

737
01:29:18,000 --> 01:29:23,000
 Central Power and Light paid for my travel to go to Asia.

738
01:29:23,000 --> 01:29:29,000
 You know, here I was a state employee running state offices in Taipei and Tokyo,

739
01:29:29,000 --> 01:29:34,000
 and I couldn't afford to go, but they could fund it because they were the economic development engine

740
01:29:34,000 --> 01:29:37,000
 for many of the communities in Texas.

741
01:29:37,000 --> 01:29:41,000
 So what is the question for you guys, in other words, what does it mean to have a utility?

742
01:29:41,000 --> 01:29:49,000
 Is there a possibility to be created in the way that utility supports economic development?

743
01:29:49,000 --> 01:29:57,000
 And then threats. We should have started with this. We should have started with coronavirus.

744
01:29:57,000 --> 01:30:10,000
 We were there, right? And climate change, trade policy.

745
01:30:10,000 --> 01:30:13,000
 All right, so we are going to send this to you guys.

746
01:30:13,000 --> 01:30:18,000
 And the idea is for you to be able to take a look at this and say, okay, what else is a threat for us?

747
01:30:18,000 --> 01:30:21,000
 What have the consultants not captured yet?

748
01:30:21,000 --> 01:30:25,000
 I could have given you a bike slate, but the idea was to give you something to start with.

749
01:30:25,000 --> 01:30:31,000
 So any questions on the homework assignment that I'm going to be giving you guys?

750
01:30:31,000 --> 01:30:36,000
 So once you send this to us, what's your expectation?

751
01:30:36,000 --> 01:30:44,000
 So the expectation is for you to review it, and then you can just email us just any comments that you have

752
01:30:44,000 --> 01:30:51,000
 about who really missed something in one of the strengths or weaknesses.

753
01:30:51,000 --> 01:30:55,000
 Well, I'm kind of sensing that we probably need to wind down here, Mark.

754
01:30:55,000 --> 01:31:04,000
 We've got about 10 minutes left, but I feel like I've been doing too much talking.

755
01:31:04,000 --> 01:31:11,000
 Let me talk about next steps, and then if there's any closing thoughts, we'll do that.

756
01:31:11,000 --> 01:31:19,000
 All right, so we are going to be developing opportunities, and I'm going to flash through this real quick

757
01:31:19,000 --> 01:31:25,000
 so that you don't see that we're actually starting to think about what the recommendations are going to be.

758
01:31:25,000 --> 01:31:26,000
 And I'm going to skip ahead.

759
01:31:26,000 --> 01:31:33,000
 So we are going to be back in March, and at that time, we will have done additional homework

760
01:31:33,000 --> 01:31:37,000
 on where we think specific opportunities are.

761
01:31:37,000 --> 01:31:41,000
 We will have met with all of the council members to get feedback.

762
01:31:41,000 --> 01:31:46,000
 We will have met, hopefully, with UNT or at least have a phone call here.

763
01:31:46,000 --> 01:31:52,000
 We're planning to have an additional meeting with TWU, and then we've got some other things planned.

764
01:31:52,000 --> 01:31:55,000
 And so we will be back in March.

765
01:31:55,000 --> 01:31:58,000
 We're also going to be looking at the best practices.

766
01:31:58,000 --> 01:32:03,000
 Who else is comfortable to you guys that is doing economic development for you guys

767
01:32:03,000 --> 01:32:08,000
 to consider a framework for what happens?

768
01:32:08,000 --> 01:32:14,000
 So we need to -- we're going to change an R reading to back a week to the 18th.

769
01:32:14,000 --> 01:32:17,000
 Normally, it would be on the 11th.

770
01:32:17,000 --> 01:32:24,000
 Yes, so as it fell, that was the week that -- the week before that is actually the spring break week,

771
01:32:24,000 --> 01:32:28,000
 I think, for Denton ISD and I think for both of our universities.

772
01:32:28,000 --> 01:32:29,000
 NLC.

773
01:32:29,000 --> 01:32:34,000
 And NLC, and so we were going to lose, I think, quite a few people.

774
01:32:34,000 --> 01:32:40,000
 And so we were more comfortable with the 17th, 18th being the dates that they're here.

775
01:32:40,000 --> 01:32:47,000
 So pushing back your March meeting one week so that it wasn't occurring on any time

776
01:32:47,000 --> 01:32:54,000
 when someone had family or children obligations or maybe a student home from university

777
01:32:54,000 --> 01:32:59,000
 that you want to spend time with.

778
01:32:59,000 --> 01:33:02,000
 So that was our thought.

779
01:33:02,000 --> 01:33:06,000
 Yes.

780
01:33:06,000 --> 01:33:13,000
 Unless someone is still on spring break that week, I think every week in March is a spring break for someone.

781
01:33:13,000 --> 01:33:16,000
 All right, we've got to have a homework assignment.

782
01:33:16,000 --> 01:33:21,000
 And then you'll also be able to react to all the other slides if there's something in there

783
01:33:21,000 --> 01:33:26,000
 that went over a little too fast or you didn't capture it.

784
01:33:26,000 --> 01:33:32,000
 But from our perspective, we feel like we're on track.

785
01:33:32,000 --> 01:33:40,000
 We're partway through our meetings of this trip, so we have a busy afternoon and then a busy day tomorrow.

786
01:33:40,000 --> 01:33:44,000
 And then I think this evening at five we're meeting --

787
01:33:44,000 --> 01:33:51,000
 We're meeting with a number of local developers by representing some commercial development,

788
01:33:51,000 --> 01:33:54,000
 some residential development, and some industrial development.

789
01:33:54,000 --> 01:34:03,000
 So we have a good group coming this evening to give a holistic perspective of what they're seeing and experiencing.

790
01:34:03,000 --> 01:34:11,000
 Yeah, we always feel like giving the developers an opportunity to be candid with us is important.

791
01:34:11,000 --> 01:34:14,000
 And we recognize their perspective and appreciate their perspective.

792
01:34:14,000 --> 01:34:19,000
 Did you find some that are willing to give their opinions?

793
01:34:19,000 --> 01:34:21,000
 More than so.

794
01:34:21,000 --> 01:34:23,000
 And what time is that? Is that here?

795
01:34:23,000 --> 01:34:25,000
 What, the developer round table?

796
01:34:25,000 --> 01:34:26,000
 Yeah, it's at five.

797
01:34:26,000 --> 01:34:32,000
 Is it an invitation only for some people or what did their communities put it out and open for anyone to come?

798
01:34:32,000 --> 01:34:39,000
 No, I contacted the developers directly and asked for specific representatives from --

799
01:34:39,000 --> 01:34:44,000
 It's just for them to have a specific discussion about development.

800
01:34:44,000 --> 01:34:49,000
 It's not -- when we move into the later stages we'll be having open community meetings to get feedback.

801
01:34:49,000 --> 01:34:53,000
 It's for them to just provide their specific experience as a developer.

802
01:34:53,000 --> 01:34:58,000
 Yeah, and we'll definitely -- we won't attribute the feedback to any particular developer,

803
01:34:58,000 --> 01:35:05,000
 but when we come back we'll share with you guys what we said and the perceptions that we have.

804
01:35:05,000 --> 01:35:10,000
 I just know there's a large community, so I just want to make sure there's opportunities for more than just --

805
01:35:10,000 --> 01:35:13,000
 Yeah, we kept it pretty limited in this.

806
01:35:13,000 --> 01:35:17,000
 If it gets bigger than about five or ten people, it can have a big conversation.

807
01:35:17,000 --> 01:35:21,000
 It's hard for someone to get their opinion, so we did keep them somewhat limited.

808
01:35:21,000 --> 01:35:29,000
 But our goal would be in March to start opening it up to the broader community.

809
01:35:29,000 --> 01:35:32,000
 All right, guys, anything else?

810
01:35:32,000 --> 01:35:36,000
 Any surprises so far?

811
01:35:36,000 --> 01:35:38,000
 Mostly positive.

812
01:35:38,000 --> 01:35:40,000
 Mostly positive.

813
01:35:40,000 --> 01:35:54,000
 No, I mean, like I said, I have not been in Denton for a while since we worked here.

814
01:35:54,000 --> 01:35:55,000
 I'll try.

815
01:35:55,000 --> 01:35:59,000
 All right, thank you, guys.

816
01:35:59,000 --> 01:36:02,000
 All right, thank you, Tom, appreciate it.

817
01:36:02,000 --> 01:36:04,000
 That's a lot of really cool information.

818
01:36:04,000 --> 01:36:08,000
 Looking forward to further discussions.

819
01:36:08,000 --> 01:36:18,000
 Our next item is EDP 20-009 staff reports, given the short amount of time we have left.

820
01:36:18,000 --> 01:36:20,000
 Anybody want to bring it up?

821
01:36:20,000 --> 01:36:28,000
 We don't have anything specific to report right now, but I will say we're talking to a number of prospects,

822
01:36:28,000 --> 01:36:35,000
 and you might see some applications in the very near future, so I'm excited about that.

823
01:36:35,000 --> 01:36:41,000
 Charlie, Erika, anything from the Chamber side that we need to be aware of?

824
01:36:41,000 --> 01:36:44,000
 You'll see the new format for the report in the back.

825
01:36:44,000 --> 01:36:46,000
 It's a narrative reporting.

826
01:36:46,000 --> 01:36:48,000
 It's one page.

827
01:36:48,000 --> 01:36:53,000
 There's not a lot of metrics, but Charlie, do you have anything?

828
01:36:53,000 --> 01:36:55,000
 No.

829
01:36:55,000 --> 01:37:09,000
 Any other items we need to talk about or place on the agenda for next time?

830
01:37:09,000 --> 01:37:15,000
 Looks like we'll look for a calendar rotation for March 18th, Wednesday the 18th.

831
01:37:15,000 --> 01:37:19,000
 And other than that, I'll take a motion to adjourn.

832
01:37:19,000 --> 01:37:20,000
 So moved.

833
01:37:20,000 --> 01:37:21,000
 Second.

834
01:37:21,000 --> 01:37:26,000
 We're adjourned.