WEBVTT

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 All right, good morning. My name is Marty Rivers, Chair of the Economic Development

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 Partnership Board. It is 1106 a.m. on June 24th and we do have a quorum so I'll go ahead

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 and call the meeting to order. Before we get to our items of consideration, I want to make

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 sure we introduce Mark McClellan with UNT. He's one of our newest board members. This

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 is his first meeting. Welcome, Mark. Glad to have you on board.

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 Thank you, Marty. Happy to be here. My wife and I moved here a few months back before

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 the world changed with COVID, but we're happy to be here and excited to be joining you.

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 Great. Well, welcome to the board. This is a perfect time to get started with our new

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 process. All right. Our first item that we need to consider is approval from the minutes

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 of our February 12th, 2020 meeting. Can you do a roll call real quick just for the record?

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 All right. Let's do a roll call. How do you want me to do that?

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 You want me to call it? I have it in front of me. Okay. Marty Rivers?

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 Here. John Baines?

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 Here. Keely Briggs?

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 Present. Tony Clark?

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 Present. Chris Davis?

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 Right here. Jesse Davis?

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 Here. Bob Eames?

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 Here. Steve Edgar?

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 Here. Jill Jester?

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 Here. Jimmy Mejia?

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 Here. Jason Tomlinson?

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 Here. And then Mark McClellan?

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 Here. Erica Pangburn?

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 Here. Todd Hallman?

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 Here. And Jamie Wilson?

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 Here. Okay. We're good.

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 Did you get everybody?

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 I got everybody.

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 Okay. All right. Need to consider minutes from February 12th, 2020. Any comments,

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 questions, or I would entertain a motion?

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 Tony Clark's on move.

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 John Baines, second.

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 We have a motion from Tony Clark and a second from John Baines.

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 Any discussion about the minutes?

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 All right.

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 Do I need to go around everybody and ask if they approve?

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 Yes.

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 All right. I'm going to go around to my screen here and start with John Baines.

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 Bob Eames?

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 Approve.

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 Keely Briggs?

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 Uh, yes. Approve.

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 Chris Davis?

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 Approved.

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 Tony Clark?

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 Approve.

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 Mark, you weren't here for that meeting, so Jason Tomlinson?

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 Approve.

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 Jill Jester?

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 Aye.

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 Did you hear me?

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 I could not.

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 Okay. Aye.

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 You're saying aye?

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 Yes.

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 I can hear Jill.

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 Wait. I thought you were saying aye and had some comments.

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 Sorry.

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 Steve Edgar?

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 I have never heard that Jill Jester couldn't be heard before, so that's...

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 Approve.

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 Jimmy Mejia?

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 Hello. How are you?

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 I need to... we're just... we're voting on the minutes.

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 I approve.

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 All right.

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 Yeah. Sorry. Just connected right now, so I didn't know where we were at.

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 I couldn't have had a little bit of hard time connecting.

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 All right. We're good to go. I think we had a unanimous approval there, so we will move forward.

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 All right. What we've been waiting for is to receive a report, hold discussion,

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 give staff direction regarding the comprehensive economic development.

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 Strategic plan being completed by TIP strategies, including, but not limited to,

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 community economic development goals and vision, business attraction, retention,

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 and expansion programs and strategies, marketing and outreach, business support,

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 education, labor, and workforce development, community advantages and disadvantages,

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 incentives and related policies, development districts, and general economic development

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 strategies, policies, tools, and related matters. So we'll turn it over to Tom and get the report.

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 Thank you.

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 Before we get started, I just want to let everyone know that despite all of the chaos and changes we

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 have seen in the world over the past few months, Tom and Jacqueline have continued to work on the

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 strategic plan to the extent possible and have been in constant communication with our office

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 and even helped us with some pivoting that we needed to do in March and April and early May

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 with the ongoing COVID pandemic. So we're very appreciative to the hard work that they do,

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 and we're so thankful that they're able to join us remotely. I believe Jacqueline's somewhere in

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 the Metroplex and Tom is still in Austin. So we're happy that they're here and able to join us.

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 And I'm going to turn it over to Tom and we're going to figure out this technology stuff as we go.

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 Thank you guys very much. I was especially interested in Mark from UNT and your background

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 because you said you just moved here, but I noticed that you're somewhere up north right now

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 because I know that background is real.

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 That is real. It's from Utah. And I was running down a path on a snowmobile path.

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 That's how I feel when I stopped for that photo. But I moved here from Oregon. I was in Portland.

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 And so anyways, thanks, Tom.

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 All right. Hey, you bet. You bet. That's actually been one of my favorite things for Zoom is just

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 the backgrounds. And then in a couple of calls with Jessica, she's been nice enough to share her

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 family with us, her dog and her cat, and just about every call that we've had. So very much

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 Erica, you too. So thank you guys very much. And I appreciate Jessica pointing out that

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 we had to pivot. The work that we were asked to do was really a three to five year economic

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 development strategy. And so we were pretty far along that path with you guys. I think we had met

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 back in February and laid out where we thought there were a lot of opportunities and you guys

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 seemed pretty excited about them. And then I think we were scheduled to come back in March and that's

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 when our first trip was canceled. So we're thankful to be able to meet with you guys virtually today.

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 But as we go through this, I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time on the project recap. I have

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 more slides than I need today. But I think backing up just a little bit and talking about the current

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 context and some of the things that we're all concerned about right now from an economic

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 standpoint, we'll do that. And then we'll give a quick plan overview. And then you guys may have

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 been looking for target industries. We've got kind of a new name, strategic growth areas that

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 kind of replaced the path on target industries. And I'll talk about that here in a minute. And

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 we'll talk about strategy and then a couple of recommendations around how you guys can organize

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 yourself going forward to do a little streamlining. So with that, let's go ahead and go to the next

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 slide, Erica. So from a project recap, the goals haven't changed. An assessment, looking at targets

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 and tools, we're going to do all of that. I would look at item number six, creating an actionable

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 work plan that guides the next three to five years. I think we've done a good job of that

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 in this draft. But if you'll notice, if you had a chance to read the plan itself,

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 we did a big pivot. The first strategy is all about recovery. And so it's worth pausing for

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 a moment because we're in a totally different place than we were 90, 120 days ago.

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 But we felt like we needed to make a choice in how we went forward in this plan. Did we

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 make the plan just about recovery or did we go ahead and address the longer-term positioning

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 of Denton within the Metroplex? And so we've done both. We've put together a pretty detailed

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 recovery strategy. And as Jessica mentioned earlier, during this period of time, there's been a lot of

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 back and forth between our staff and yours to help identify best practices and loan programs and

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 microloans. And how do you get this stuff out? How do you distribute it? And I feel like the city and

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 the chamber and the county have all been working really hard in Denton to make sure that the

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 existing businesses are supported. And we were happy to be able to support that over the last 90

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 days. So thank you guys very much for the opportunity to help. So next slide, Erica.

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 We were at the end of the opportunity phase. We're about to do an opportunities workshop,

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 2.4. That's where we were when we stopped. And so instead of waiting 90 days and coming back and

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 starting over, we went ahead and continued working and worked on a first draft of the plan. So what

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 you have is what we've worked on over the last 90 days with input from the staff. So next slide.

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 I don't think there's really a need to go through this. These were the groups that we had met with

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 back in January and February. And then since then, we've also had some additional phone calls

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 meeting with the number in the community. So we've done a lot of homework was done

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 to get to the point where we are right now. Next slide.

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 And just a quick reminder, at our last meeting with you guys, we went through

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 a SWOT, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. And we categorized items based on

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 whether this was something really local or was this a state issue? Was this a national

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 issue or a global issue? And go to the next slide. And you guys know well your assets,

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 the universities, community college, the fact that you have your own electric utility, an airport.

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 You have a greedy little downtown that's had an entertainment and kind of art scene that was

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 burgeoning. You've got entrepreneurial interests in the community. And much of that is still with

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 you. This pandemic, this changing economic conditions, you still have all of these assets.

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 And so I think you guys are still in great shape. You have the West Park industrial area. You have

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 an amazing anchor in Peterbilt. You've got US cold storage. You've got the interstate.

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 So from an economic development standpoint, you guys are still in the path of growth.

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 The question before us is really at what rate is that growth going to recover? Is this 18 months

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 from now? Is this 36 months from now? And I'm not pretending to be a DFW area economist. You guys,

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 I'm sure, especially on the bank side and others, real estate side, you probably know

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 what's being said right now in the DFW area in terms of recovery. Go to the next slide.

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 Some of the challenges being a university community that's got a pretty good demand

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 on housing, the low end housing, it's really, it's all taken up. It's difficult to find housing.

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 That may change. Right now, I have a daughter who is a senior at the University of Texas,

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 and I just resigned an apartment lease for her. But I'm sitting here thinking, what's going to

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 happen to the university? And you guys, how many of your students are going to return in the fall?

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 What decisions? There's a lot that's still up in the air over the next 60 days.

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 So, there's still some uncertainty there that may impact your housing market.

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 And, you know, like I said, this is all stuff we went over back in February,

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 and not a lot of it, I think, has changed. Let's go to the next slide, Erica.

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 So, opportunities for you guys. Obviously, leveraging the higher education assets that

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 you have, telling the Denton story better, taking advantage of Peterbilt being, you know,

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 an anchor there and the logistics hub that you guys are. All of that still makes sense,

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 although I'm happy to hear from you guys as we get through this,

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 if you feel like anything has really, really changed dramatically. Next slide.

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 So, I will point out on the threat slide, you know, and this was before

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 the pandemic really hit us, we did have that up in the far right-hand corner as a sort of global

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 threat. Unfortunately, you know, we had no idea at that time what the significance of that was

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 going to be. It is changing, you know, supply chains, and, you know, not mentioned on there

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 that really we had no idea is the current social unrest that's been happening across the country,

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 and then we're going into a presidential election, a national election, that I think there's probably

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 going to be some additional disruption that occurs between now and then. So, uncertainty

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 still ahead of us. I think you guys are following the cases from COVID and, you know, what that means

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 in terms of being able to go back into an arena. I follow NBA right now and just, you know, excited

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 that there might be, you know, a continuation of that season, but right now there's discussions

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 about whether that's even going to happen because of the concern from the players

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 about going to do that. So, there's still a lot up in the air. So, and I'm not, you know, this wasn't

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 meant to be, you know, a bad news call. I'm just acknowledging the situation that we're all in,

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 really, before we talk about the plan. So, next slide. So, you know, we did the plan back in 2002

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 for Denton, undiscovered college town, really the business park was just fledgling,

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 economic development was a new thing for the city, and now in 2020, you know, the city was

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 experiencing growth out of the Metroplex, thriving downtown, business park that's kind of known

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 throughout DFW as a next destination, especially for logistics and distribution, creation of

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 different tools, and you guys have found yourself with better connections to the DFW, including the

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 commuter train that takes you into DART, but Chris, I think it was you who pointed out that

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 each morning when you went for a run, you saw four or five people on that commuter train.

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 Every day. Every day. Every day, yeah. So, it wasn't obviously being utilized, but and right now,

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 you know, the rush to get back on a bus or your rush to, you know, get back on public transportation

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 has been questioned across the country right now. So, what the trends are remain to be seen. So,

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 next slide. So, the current context, I'm going to riff a little bit on just some of the points

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 that I just made. You know, the questions for us are, you know, how long is this going to last and,

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 you know, what does this mean for us? What's going to happen to certain sectors of the economy? I'll

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 talk about here in a minute, you know, what regions of the U.S. are going to be hurt disproportionately.

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 Jacqueline and I are working for the city of Detroit right now and talk about a community

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 that can't catch a break. You know, this is a community that was just undergoing an amazing

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 renaissance in their downtown and really on the upswing and then COVID hits large African-American

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 population that's been hit disproportionately. It's really tough up there. One of the other things

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 that was pointed out in one of my meetings this week was that part of what we're experiencing

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 from a consumer demand standpoint right now is being propped up by the stimulus checks

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 that many received, the unemployment checks that are still in the pockets of many. I have a son

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 who is unemployed right now, who's receiving larger checks from unemployment than he was

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 actually getting paid. And so, you know, at what point does that run out and how does that impact

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 the economy? And then the last question is one of the things that we're seeing across the country is

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 that the impact of COVID has been disproportionately toward those that are of low income. It's just,

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 it's been a real challenge for folks in certain categories. So, next slide.

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 And I am going to stop here in a moment and give you guys a chance to react to some of this. But

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 so, you know, what we've seen in this first wave of impact, places that were dependent on tourism,

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 places that had, you know, heavily dependent on air travel have been impacted, leisure and hospitality.

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 When I talked to Charlie and Erica with the chamber, I talked to, you know, Erica and Jessica

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 with the city, just, you know, what does this mean for hotel occupancy in the community?

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 Charlie, I think you pointed out when you were at the hotel last, there was, it was you and maybe

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 a half dozen other people at the hotel. Yeah. And so, you know, some of the things that we all know

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 and we're seeing, the industries that were most exposed, restaurants, retail, auto parts, air and

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 ground travel, one of the things that's being pointed out right now is that we will likely

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 we will likely experience a second wave as those companies that are serving many of the other

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 industries are going to start seeing professional services and finance and real estate begin to

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 experience some cutbacks. So, I think that's yet to hit us. Most of what's hit us so far has been

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 in the low end, low end occupations and not on the high end side. But we're going to probably start

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 seeing a little more of that. Next slide. And so, we anticipate, you know, restructuring and supply

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 chains as businesses look to potentially reshore remote work. You know, we're all beneficiaries of

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 being able to do our work remotely. And so, a question that a lot of people are asking right

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 now is that as a company, if you've got, you know, 90% of your employees working from home right now

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 and it's working out, you know, do you need that office space when you start reintegrating, you

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 know, employees back in telemedicine, online retail sales, broadband, demand for IT, these are all

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 things that were sectors that we're seeing growth in. So, I'm going to, I think I've got one more

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 slide I don't want to talk about before a pause. And we're working with a number of communities

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 right now that are focused on how do they support communities within their city that have typically

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 not participated in sort of the upside of economic growth. And it was interesting, we followed some

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 numbers that black and Latinx-owned businesses just as a result of the CARES Act did not receive

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 proportionate distribution from that. And a lot of that has to do, there are a lot of small and

00:22:53.680 --> 00:22:59.040
 medium-sized businesses that operate informally. You know, they're actually cash businesses,

00:22:59.040 --> 00:23:02.720
 and so they're not eligible. So, let's go to the next slide.

00:23:05.440 --> 00:23:12.240
 And so, before I go into this, I want to pause just for a minute. And is there anything that you

00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:18.080
 guys from your experience in Denton right now, or Denton County, or in the DFW area

00:23:18.080 --> 00:23:26.480
 is different than some of the trends that I talked about? And I know you guys haven't

00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:33.120
 had a chance to chat much with each other, so I would be happy if you've got a comment on

00:23:33.760 --> 00:23:40.240
 something that struck you in the data that I've shared, or the thoughts that I've shared,

00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:48.400
 or you're experiencing anything different with the university, or with your manufacturing,

00:23:48.400 --> 00:23:53.200
 Chris, from Peterbilt, or the banking industry. Is there anything that surprised you?

00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:59.600
 If you'd like to respond, raise your hand. I see Mr. Baines raising his hand. Go ahead, John.

00:24:04.080 --> 00:24:11.520
 I promise not to be too long. I did want to talk a little bit about a report from the Texas

00:24:11.520 --> 00:24:15.200
 Association of African American Changers of Commerce. Can everyone hear me okay?

00:24:15.200 --> 00:24:22.480
 Okay. Yes, if everyone could just make sure that they're muted, because sometimes we get

00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:28.080
 feedback when someone starts speaking. If you're on a little bit of a delay, we hear them through

00:24:28.080 --> 00:24:32.320
 your microphone as well. So, just make sure you're muted if you're not speaking. Thanks.

00:24:33.280 --> 00:24:42.400
 There was a lot of discontent with the PPP program in that a number of the small, mom-and-pop African

00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:50.320
 American-owned businesses did not get PPP loans. They had difficulty processing the information,

00:24:50.320 --> 00:25:02.880
 and there was kind of a consensus that a lot of the way the loans were structured were difficult

00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:12.240
 for some African American and Latino businesses. A number of my clients received the PPP loan.

00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:19.040
 I received the PPP loan, and it's greatly benefited us, and I'm really concerned as to what's going to

00:25:19.040 --> 00:25:26.320
 happen when that money runs out, and if we can't get some more stimulus, I'm very concerned as to

00:25:27.280 --> 00:25:36.560
 what's going to happen to the, I would say the, I won't call it the underbelly, but the lesser

00:25:36.560 --> 00:25:43.920
 financed sector of our community. If there's really some strain there, I'll stop and pass it to Tom.

00:25:43.920 --> 00:25:53.280
 Yeah, thank you, John. That's something that we're seeing kind of across the country right

00:25:53.280 --> 00:26:01.840
 now. It's not just limited to Texas. Small businesses that don't have the same relationships

00:26:01.840 --> 00:26:10.240
 with their banks that other businesses have in their track record and just the complexity

00:26:10.240 --> 00:26:17.840
 of having to go through it, so definitely, and that's a big issue, so.

00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:24.320
 Kaylee has a comment or question. I was just wondering, Mr. Baines,

00:26:24.320 --> 00:26:28.960
 if you can say that or share that study with us so that we can look at it.

00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:38.560
 That's all my comment was. Did you want it today or should I forward it to you as the city or to you

00:26:38.560 --> 00:26:45.520
 as the individual? I think just to Jessica would be okay. Yes, you can send it to me and I'll

00:26:45.520 --> 00:26:54.480
 distribute. Thank you so much, and one last comment. The forgiveness program, they can't

00:26:54.480 --> 00:27:00.800
 figure out what to do. I mean, you know, we got a report from one of the banks that says we don't

00:27:00.800 --> 00:27:08.640
 know what to do. The SBA is not giving us adequate information, and so there's some backlog there

00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:16.880
 that when the money was given out, there was a certain expectation, but they changed the rules

00:27:16.880 --> 00:27:20.720
 as they went along, and here we are two months later with a different set of rules than when

00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:26.240
 we first started. So it's a very complicated kind of a situation. Thank you.

00:27:36.480 --> 00:27:42.240
 Any other comments or reactions to any of the trends or any of the information?

00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:48.880
 Yes, Chris, did you have your hand up? So Marty, you need to acknowledge them, I guess.

00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:58.800
 I lost Chris. Yeah, I officially acknowledge that's good. Yeah, I think many of the things

00:27:58.800 --> 00:28:05.920
 you hit on, I mean, being a manufacturer, a couple things, I mean, deploying as many

00:28:07.200 --> 00:28:12.640
 employees to work from home was an initial challenge. You know, we moved over a thousand

00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:18.880
 to working from home, and, you know, those are the kind of discussions we're having. You know,

00:28:18.880 --> 00:28:23.280
 do we really need to bring everyone back, you know, if they're being successful in their

00:28:23.280 --> 00:28:30.400
 current off-site locations, you know, how we interact with customers?

00:28:31.920 --> 00:28:37.600
 You know, we haven't had, we haven't allowed any visitors here on-site since we restarted

00:28:37.600 --> 00:28:45.680
 production last month, and we don't really have any plans to allow that, and, you know,

00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:52.080
 we're a site that had 6,000 visitors a year that would come through, customers and what have you.

00:28:52.080 --> 00:28:58.080
 Just the financial impact, you know, for us, you know, being kind of a large business is,

00:28:58.080 --> 00:29:03.360
 I mean, it's an expense. You know, we spent millions of dollars to get the facility ready

00:29:03.360 --> 00:29:09.360
 to reopen. There's protocols that we have in place that, you know, many businesses

00:29:09.360 --> 00:29:18.720
 frankly won't be able to afford to do. You know, we've got building, temperature screening buildings

00:29:18.720 --> 00:29:27.280
 now on-site, and we use a lot of infrared technology to monitor people that come into

00:29:27.280 --> 00:29:30.800
 the facility, so I think there's a lot of things that are going to change. I think it will create

00:29:30.800 --> 00:29:39.120
 some new industries along the way, but at least for us, you know, we're just happy to kind of get

00:29:39.120 --> 00:29:44.080
 get the thing restarted and kind of see where we go, so.

00:29:50.400 --> 00:30:02.000
 That's Kaylee. Go ahead, Kaylee. Okay, thank you. Yeah, just from a city perspective,

00:30:02.000 --> 00:30:09.520
 as we're looking at budgets and everyone knows sales tax and things are way down as we're

00:30:09.520 --> 00:30:17.680
 looking at different budgets in the city, which is a concern. Just watching the trends, the grocery

00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:24.880
 stores, the lows of home depots, those types of things have been increasing, but the main concern

00:30:24.880 --> 00:30:30.800
 is the colleges and the impact to our local community if they don't return to normal, because

00:30:30.800 --> 00:30:37.840
 that impacts, like you said, the housing and then the small businesses, and so that's

00:30:37.840 --> 00:30:45.840
 just a concern for me as well as a council member. I don't think we realize, or we've said, but I

00:30:45.840 --> 00:30:53.680
 don't think we realize the impact the community, the college students have until they're not here.

00:30:53.680 --> 00:31:00.160
 And then also another concern is just empty retail space, you know, with the work from home.

00:31:00.160 --> 00:31:06.960
 It's just a concern for that as well, just the empty buildings sitting.

00:31:15.840 --> 00:31:22.960
 Go ahead. Is it Mark or Tony? Tony's, go ahead, Tony.

00:31:22.960 --> 00:31:41.840
 There we go, I'm sorry. Yeah, I just wanted to give you, and I'm sure Marty can share

00:31:41.840 --> 00:31:47.040
 similar information from his bank on the, to address John's comments on PPP.

00:31:47.040 --> 00:31:54.480
 You know, we did, in our footprint, we did almost 800 million across Texas and Colorado.

00:31:54.480 --> 00:32:04.560
 Denton County did about $60 million in PPP loans. We had about 98% approval rating or submission.

00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:12.640
 So I think not to throw the big banks under the bus, but I think a lot of challenges

00:32:12.640 --> 00:32:19.120
 that were seen by a lot of small businesses, minority businesses, just off the whole gamut,

00:32:19.120 --> 00:32:24.960
 really kind of were a direct result of those relations with larger banks.

00:32:24.960 --> 00:32:33.520
 Our average loan size was about 158,000. We are a preferred SBA lender, so we've got a pretty

00:32:33.520 --> 00:32:39.760
 sophisticated SBA program. We are, you know, in constant contact with them on the forgiveness

00:32:39.760 --> 00:32:46.880
 component. And as John mentioned, it changes daily. Obviously, there's been some modifications to it,

00:32:46.880 --> 00:32:52.080
 which have helped, you know, extending the repayment program, modifying the percentages

00:32:52.080 --> 00:33:00.240
 of what the customer can use for forgiveness, went from, I think, 75%, 80% salary to 60%.

00:33:01.040 --> 00:33:07.920
 So all those things have been good, but I think we're still really concerned and interested about

00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:14.480
 when we get the final information and how our customers can submit those, you know, those final

00:33:14.480 --> 00:33:20.960
 packages for forgiveness. And I'm hoping that what we're seeing from the banking industry

00:33:20.960 --> 00:33:27.520
 as a whole is more pressure on Congress to simplify that process. I think the first

00:33:27.520 --> 00:33:33.280
 document that came out was five pages. One of our customers, if we wanted to today,

00:33:33.280 --> 00:33:39.200
 could not submit that for forgiveness because there's not an avenue for it yet. So once again,

00:33:39.200 --> 00:33:46.400
 hoping that as we go down the road the next few days and weeks that most of the, hopefully,

00:33:46.400 --> 00:33:52.080
 the banking industry as a whole can pressure Congress so that there is a lot more simpler

00:33:52.080 --> 00:33:58.000
 process, especially for the smaller business, the smaller ones that are, say, under $250,000 or

00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:02.560
 whatever the number is. But that's kind of what we're seeing from our end. And I'm sure Marty and

00:34:02.560 --> 00:34:11.920
 his bank have similar observations, but just an FYI. >> Couldn't have said it better myself.

00:34:14.800 --> 00:34:22.320
 Let's keep moving forward, Tom. >> Okay. Mark, did you have one thing? Sorry, I saw Mark put

00:34:22.320 --> 00:34:27.600
 his hand up. I didn't know what you wanted. >> Just real quick, since Kaylee raised the

00:34:27.600 --> 00:34:35.360
 question about the universities, we will start our first students back onto campus

00:34:36.080 --> 00:34:45.920
 for second session summer, which is right after the 4th of July. Our expectation through the end

00:34:45.920 --> 00:34:53.440
 of summer and into fall is a reduced student presence, but still a large student presence.

00:34:53.440 --> 00:35:02.960
 We will shift all very large courses online and we'll shift smaller courses into those large spaces

00:35:02.960 --> 00:35:12.560
 to create socially distanced teaching opportunities. Our expectation is come Thanksgiving.

00:35:12.560 --> 00:35:19.440
 We will be pushing all those students to encourage them to go home and to stay home for an extended

00:35:19.440 --> 00:35:29.520
 winter break in order to create space to be very frank for them to catch their flu or COVID or

00:35:29.520 --> 00:35:36.000
 whatever and deal with that in a home environment. We think that would be safer for everyone.

00:35:36.000 --> 00:35:44.320
 And then, of course, bring them back for spring and into somewhat of a normalized spring. That's on

00:35:44.320 --> 00:35:52.960
 the teaching side with the students. So you can expect that engine to start running certainly

00:35:52.960 --> 00:36:00.000
 come July, August, although at a significantly reduced rate. On the research side,

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:07.280
 we are in a stage two research operations now, which means we're in what we call fully socially

00:36:07.280 --> 00:36:14.640
 distanced research. Many of our laboratories are up and running. We probably have one of the most

00:36:14.640 --> 00:36:24.000
 aggressive growth in research proposals going out the door that we've ever seen. And our expectation

00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:31.120
 is that's going to lead to more success in research grants and more spending on research

00:36:31.120 --> 00:36:38.080
 as we start to go into next year. Of course, that's my job is to build that part of our world

00:36:38.960 --> 00:36:44.880
 in a big way. And we've got a lot of moving pieces to try and make that work.

00:36:44.880 --> 00:36:52.720
 So not quite all doom and gloom. It will be a different year for us. Until there's a vaccine,

00:36:52.720 --> 00:37:01.760
 we simply will be holding reins as much as we can to create distance and space

00:37:02.880 --> 00:37:15.760
 to try to minimize infection. All right, Erica, I'm good to go if you want to go back to the slide.

00:37:15.760 --> 00:37:29.280
 So let's go ahead and go to the next slide.

00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:44.240
 So this was our thinking prior to COVID, is that as we thought about this plan,

00:37:44.240 --> 00:37:51.200
 we really wanted to help you guys modernize your approach in the way you thought about economic

00:37:51.200 --> 00:38:00.240
 development. And that going beyond the marketing to a company, finding a site for a company,

00:38:00.240 --> 00:38:07.840
 and locating that company and offering incentives to that company, is that being the total sum

00:38:07.840 --> 00:38:14.000
 of what constitutes economic development. We thought it made sense to take more advantage

00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:19.600
 of some of the other significant assets you have in the community, such as the universities,

00:38:19.600 --> 00:38:26.880
 the downtown, the fledgling entrepreneurship strategies that were going on. And so we still

00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:33.840
 hold to that, but I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. And item number three,

00:38:33.840 --> 00:38:41.760
 we point out while many assets of this plan or many of the recommendations in this plan

00:38:41.760 --> 00:38:46.960
 don't make sense in the next 12 months as you recover. But we're going to lay them out over

00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:54.480
 a three to five year period. And one of the things that will help the city with is delivering an

00:38:54.480 --> 00:39:01.600
 implementation plan after this that will be the document by which we lay out the timelines for

00:39:01.600 --> 00:39:06.640
 when all of this would be implemented and who would be responsible for it and how it would go

00:39:06.640 --> 00:39:14.560
 forward. And that's something that would be developed by you guys and the city to determine

00:39:14.560 --> 00:39:18.560
 the best way to implement these things. Go ahead and go to the next slide.

00:39:21.440 --> 00:39:31.680
 The guiding principles that we're working off of, core resiliency over the next 12 months,

00:39:31.680 --> 00:39:40.080
 you need to take care of your existing employers and hang on to what you have, make sure that you

00:39:40.080 --> 00:39:46.960
 are solid. I mean, that's you've got major employers that are on this board and others

00:39:46.960 --> 00:39:51.760
 that they serve that you need to do everything that you can to make sure that they remain solid.

00:39:51.760 --> 00:39:57.520
 But you have to believe that you have to keep looking toward the future. That's why we've

00:39:57.520 --> 00:40:03.760
 designed the plan in the way we did. We do feel like in the U.S. of the metros that should

00:40:03.760 --> 00:40:12.000
 recover more quickly, we think the DFW area is at the top. You're in one of the strongest

00:40:12.800 --> 00:40:17.680
 economies in the country in the state of Texas. And yeah, we're getting hit kind of hard right

00:40:17.680 --> 00:40:23.280
 now because of oil and gas. But for the most part, you know, we have one of the most diversified

00:40:23.280 --> 00:40:31.520
 economies and we think it will recover. We do think that there is now room, this was our thinking in

00:40:31.520 --> 00:40:38.480
 advance of COVID, that based on the residents in your community, there are populations that

00:40:39.520 --> 00:40:44.800
 need additional help and that they should be rolled into your economic development strategy.

00:40:44.800 --> 00:40:52.240
 Your entrepreneurial spirit goes without saying. I mean, I think that's long been part of your

00:40:52.240 --> 00:40:57.680
 community. And the fact that you've been, you know, an arts and a music community, also including

00:40:57.680 --> 00:41:07.680
 that in the way you think about the community's future. Next slide. So three primary goals. The

00:41:07.680 --> 00:41:16.640
 first one is accelerating recovery. And had we not gone into this crisis, this would not have been,

00:41:16.640 --> 00:41:23.600
 you know, the first goal. The fostering growth and managing growth would have been the first goal.

00:41:23.600 --> 00:41:30.960
 But we have pushed that back because you really have to focus on the recovery right now. There's

00:41:30.960 --> 00:41:35.200
 so many moving parts. You need to work as a team to make sure that you're supporting your existing

00:41:35.200 --> 00:41:41.040
 businesses. It doesn't mean that you're not out, you know, working with companies. I talked to

00:41:41.040 --> 00:41:48.720
 Erica and Jessica and to Charlie about, you know, there are companies that are still looking right

00:41:48.720 --> 00:41:53.680
 now, you know, at the DFW area, and you have to be able to respond to them in a professional

00:41:53.680 --> 00:41:58.240
 and organized way. You have to keep your act together. We're not saying that you're not

00:41:58.240 --> 00:42:02.480
 recruiting companies. You are. You'll continue to do that. But it's going to be a little more

00:42:02.480 --> 00:42:10.320
 responsive than it is, you know, proactive and looking for them. And then the last goal

00:42:10.320 --> 00:42:16.000
 really is around strengthening community inclusion. In this case, we really mean, you know,

00:42:16.000 --> 00:42:23.760
 workforce as part of what you do. And then your small minority of businesses,

00:42:23.760 --> 00:42:28.160
 as John mentioned earlier, that's a group that's really strong in your community,

00:42:28.160 --> 00:42:32.240
 but is also very vulnerable in your community. And so you have to pay attention to that.

00:42:32.240 --> 00:42:37.200
 And it's really, it's bringing, it's thinking about not just what's traditional economic

00:42:37.200 --> 00:42:41.440
 development, but thinking about some of the things that fall into our community development

00:42:41.440 --> 00:42:45.440
 as being part of what you as the Economic Development Partnership pay attention to.

00:42:45.440 --> 00:42:56.000
 Next slide. So I mentioned earlier that we're shifting a little bit from a traditional approach.

00:42:56.960 --> 00:43:03.040
 On the right hand side, these have been Denton's existing targets, you know, supply chain,

00:43:03.040 --> 00:43:09.360
 logistics, advanced manufacturing, aviation, renewable energy, IT, R&D. These will all still

00:43:09.360 --> 00:43:17.040
 remain as part of the mix. It's just we're not leading with these companies as the way we talk

00:43:17.040 --> 00:43:24.800
 about where your growth opportunities are. And so we've, we talk in terms of strategic growth areas

00:43:24.800 --> 00:43:32.400
 instead of target industries, and we have four of them. And so the next slide will point those out,

00:43:32.400 --> 00:43:38.720
 and then I'll go into a little more detail. But our approach for strategic growth areas,

00:43:38.720 --> 00:43:45.920
 and I apologize, this looks like a slide made by a consultant. And it was. And it's really

00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:52.640
 the way we think about strategic growth areas. How are you leveraging your anchor institutions?

00:43:53.840 --> 00:44:01.040
 How are you, you know, calling upon capital within the DFW area to support? What are the,

00:44:01.040 --> 00:44:06.240
 you know, who are the key and emerging players within that sector? But I'm not going to spend

00:44:06.240 --> 00:44:12.960
 a lot of time on this. I'd like to go directly to the next slide and talk about what we're calling

00:44:12.960 --> 00:44:18.640
 your growth areas. And one of them we call connectivity. And that is, you know, that's

00:44:18.640 --> 00:44:23.920
 your manufacturing, that's your transportation, that's your logistics, the fact that you are at

00:44:23.920 --> 00:44:31.120
 the intersection of 35 West and East, taking advantage of that and building out that you

00:44:31.120 --> 00:44:39.200
 have an industrial park to support that, you know, that's a key growth area. On the right,

00:44:39.200 --> 00:44:47.280
 you guys have been a, you know, from a green technology standpoint, you've got a utility that

00:44:48.640 --> 00:44:53.200
 takes that seriously. There are other opportunities for you to take advantage of that. I think you

00:44:53.200 --> 00:45:01.120
 guys are on your way to being 100% renewable for your power, for the city. This is something that

00:45:01.120 --> 00:45:07.760
 you should continue to tout and think of as an economic development opportunity. The creativity

00:45:07.760 --> 00:45:15.040
 component is based on the entrepreneurship that you guys have supported in the past.

00:45:15.680 --> 00:45:21.200
 I think that's going to require you, you know, thinking about the existing companies that you

00:45:21.200 --> 00:45:27.200
 have. And then the place, the box that we're calling competitiveness is really where

00:45:27.200 --> 00:45:37.840
 the Hillwood development that's coming up, I-35 from Fort Worth, you guys will now be

00:45:37.840 --> 00:45:43.840
 in a much more competitive position as it relates to office and to things that you

00:45:43.840 --> 00:45:48.720
 haven't been able to pursue in the past. So there was a lot of talk in the, when we were doing

00:45:48.720 --> 00:45:53.520
 interviews about, you know, what does it mean for us to compete with a Frisco? This is where you

00:45:53.520 --> 00:46:03.120
 compete with a Frisco. You know, this is where class A office can go. So we think that's very

00:46:03.120 --> 00:46:16.480
 solid. So the next slide. So the strategies, as I mentioned before, accelerating recovery,

00:46:16.480 --> 00:46:24.720
 many of the things that are on this slide, the city and the chamber are well on their way. You

00:46:24.720 --> 00:46:30.240
 know, it's already underway. This isn't, this is capturing a lot of things that have happened over

00:46:30.240 --> 00:46:40.880
 the 90 days and some of the things that were even going on before that. So creating, you know, a

00:46:40.880 --> 00:46:45.440
 group that brings everyone together and is responsive. You guys have already done that.

00:46:45.440 --> 00:46:53.280
 You've done your surveys to, you know, reach out to the businesses to understand that.

00:46:53.280 --> 00:46:58.560
 You know, everybody right now is supporting businesses virtually. You guys have had a strong

00:46:58.560 --> 00:47:05.600
 relationship with the workforce, with the community college, with the university. I think that something

00:47:05.600 --> 00:47:10.880
 is a little bit new is thinking a little more inclusively from an economic recovery standpoint.

00:47:10.880 --> 00:47:16.800
 And that's where I think where John was talking about the African American chamber, Hispanic

00:47:16.800 --> 00:47:21.120
 chamber and other groups in your community. I think you've done an okay job at that in the past,

00:47:21.120 --> 00:47:24.640
 but I think there's room for improvement there. And so we think that's something you should hit on.

00:47:25.920 --> 00:47:33.280
 So to the next slide. So the fostering growth areas, as I mentioned before, the connectivity,

00:47:33.280 --> 00:47:39.760
 creativity, sustainability and competitiveness. A lot of your time right now is going to be spent

00:47:39.760 --> 00:47:48.240
 over on the connectivity side because that's where you're holding on to your existing businesses and

00:47:48.240 --> 00:47:56.720
 attracting new investment. As Chris was pointing out from Peterbilt, you know, he's rethinking how

00:47:56.720 --> 00:48:02.480
 he's going to, you know, use his workforce, whether it's remote or not, and just making sure that if

00:48:02.480 --> 00:48:08.560
 you guys have opportunities to support that, you want to be able to do that. And as I mentioned,

00:48:08.560 --> 00:48:14.880
 the ability for you guys to work with the prospects that are active, you know, that needs to be made,

00:48:14.880 --> 00:48:23.680
 that's a priority. And the other three strategies, I don't think it makes sense for us to go through

00:48:23.680 --> 00:48:32.800
 in detail, but we had laid out on the far right, the competitiveness side, a plan for how you,

00:48:32.800 --> 00:48:39.120
 you know, basically leverage the Coal and Hunter Ranch development. And Jessica, I think you had

00:48:39.120 --> 00:48:44.160
 pointed out that that's still, you know, in other words, that hasn't necessarily been put on hold,

00:48:44.160 --> 00:48:48.880
 maybe some of the timing will change. I don't know if you have anything to add to that.

00:48:48.880 --> 00:48:57.680
 Didn't mean to put you on the spot, but. No, I don't know that any of the timing has changed,

00:48:57.680 --> 00:49:05.040
 but it's original timing. You know, we're not expecting houses on the ground next year. There's

00:49:05.040 --> 00:49:11.840
 a lot of infrastructure work that has to happen. And so we expect that to continue. It may be a

00:49:11.840 --> 00:49:18.720
 while before we're able to leverage the impact. So our discussion with Tom and Jacqueline has been

00:49:18.720 --> 00:49:26.720
 that we want to start doing the groundwork now to prepare for year three, four, five out from now

00:49:26.720 --> 00:49:33.280
 when those developments become reality. And what can we do now to position ourselves for that

00:49:33.280 --> 00:49:41.520
 instead of waiting until year five and trying to play catch up? Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for putting

00:49:41.520 --> 00:49:49.120
 on the spot, but I feel like that from a long-term standpoint and many of the conversations we had

00:49:49.120 --> 00:50:00.080
 about, you know, how does, how does Denton offer up a higher end housing product so that the

00:50:00.080 --> 00:50:06.880
 hospitals are able to attract the doctors that they need that represents the best opportunity there.

00:50:08.080 --> 00:50:15.600
 If you're wanting to compete with a Frisco on Fintech or bringing in professional office space,

00:50:15.600 --> 00:50:22.960
 that represents the opportunity for that. It's the best opportunity around, you know, class A

00:50:22.960 --> 00:50:29.200
 office space. And as Jessica pointed out in the short term, it's, it's not like you're going to

00:50:29.200 --> 00:50:34.000
 go out and recruit, you know, back office right now. That's just, that just doesn't make sense.

00:50:34.960 --> 00:50:40.000
 You support those developments and you maintain relationships with the brokers and the developers

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:48.240
 that are working on that. And as, as Charlie and I had talked before, Charlie Dromgoole, the,

00:50:48.240 --> 00:50:56.480
 the DFW market for the most part is driven by the real estate community and the development

00:50:56.480 --> 00:51:05.440
 community and making sure that the city and its partners maintain those relationships right now

00:51:05.440 --> 00:51:11.200
 is more important than you guys sending somebody off on a trade show, you know, or sending you out

00:51:11.200 --> 00:51:16.240
 on a recruitment mention. Never mind that you can't really do that right now, but even in the next

00:51:16.240 --> 00:51:21.920
 six to 12 months, those types of activities really don't make sense. Most of your activities need to

00:51:21.920 --> 00:51:27.360
 be done virtually kind of upgrading the look and feel of what you're presenting, but also just

00:51:27.360 --> 00:51:32.400
 maintaining the relationships with the brokers and developers in the DFW area, because that's where,

00:51:32.400 --> 00:51:38.400
 that's where most of these deals are done. We had, you know, we had a good meeting with your,

00:51:38.400 --> 00:51:44.560
 your local brokers back in February and they, they really emphasized that too. They said that,

00:51:44.560 --> 00:51:50.880
 you know, that's, that's where, you know, economic development happens in the DFW area

00:51:50.880 --> 00:51:59.280
 is through, through that community. And, you know, we have really solid ideas around the creativity

00:51:59.280 --> 00:52:08.160
 growth area and sustainability growth area, but much of that is, you know,

00:52:08.160 --> 00:52:13.680
 is going to have to be pushed back in terms of your investments in those areas. As you go

00:52:13.680 --> 00:52:20.400
 through recovery, that's going to be the priority. And then the last strap or last goal, go ahead,

00:52:20.400 --> 00:52:35.920
 Erica. Next slide. There we go. So the number one or one of the biggest issues prior to the pandemic

00:52:35.920 --> 00:52:43.360
 was workforce, you know, finding the skill sets that you needed. And we think that represented

00:52:43.360 --> 00:52:49.520
 an opportunity for Denton to coordinate with the community college, the university, the school

00:52:49.520 --> 00:52:58.800
 district, and the advanced tech center with the school district. The current conditions in the

00:52:58.800 --> 00:53:03.600
 short term are a little different, but we think that that's something we're going to have to come

00:53:03.600 --> 00:53:10.480
 back to. Housing affordability, you might see that ease up a little bit in the short term. We're not

00:53:10.480 --> 00:53:17.920
 sure how that's going to play out, but prior to this, that needed to be, you know, a priority.

00:53:17.920 --> 00:53:23.360
 And then a growing your own talent initiative, being able to find ways to keep some of your

00:53:23.360 --> 00:53:30.080
 university graduates and others in the area represented a great talent pool for the area.

00:53:30.080 --> 00:53:37.280
 So this is essentially our workforce and inclusion strategy. So let's go ahead to the next,

00:53:37.280 --> 00:53:44.320
 may go ahead and work through this, Marty, and then we'll open it up for questions again

00:53:45.200 --> 00:53:51.920
 after I go through the rest of this, if you guys are okay with that. But within the plan itself,

00:53:51.920 --> 00:53:55.920
 you guys, you know, if you've had a chance to read it, you see now it's laid out, you know,

00:53:55.920 --> 00:54:00.640
 there's a strategy, there's an action item, and then the details. And what I mentioned earlier,

00:54:00.640 --> 00:54:06.800
 we will, with the staff, actually put all this into a timeline for when you would do it,

00:54:06.800 --> 00:54:12.400
 who would be responsible for it, how you would measure your success and whether you're meeting

00:54:12.400 --> 00:54:20.240
 that. That would be a next phase after this plan is adopted. So I think the final section, go ahead,

00:54:20.240 --> 00:54:32.000
 Erica. So one of the attempts that we made here for the, how we think about you as an economic

00:54:32.000 --> 00:54:40.720
 development partnership board was that there would remain a working group that was primarily the

00:54:40.720 --> 00:54:48.480
 staff of those who would be responsible for the day-to-day carrying out of economic development

00:54:48.480 --> 00:54:56.480
 in the community, and that the board would move to a quarterly meeting so that you guys aren't

00:54:56.480 --> 00:55:01.440
 meeting, you know, every month to go through the same things that the staff would be responsible

00:55:01.440 --> 00:55:05.200
 for, and they would report back to you guys, which you would work on a quarterly basis.

00:55:06.560 --> 00:55:16.320
 Go ahead to the next slide. And so the meeting cadence for you guys would go to quarterly,

00:55:16.320 --> 00:55:24.800
 and that you would focus primarily on the goals, and that over time, we're recommending that your

00:55:24.800 --> 00:55:36.240
 board remain the same size, but that as terms came to an end, you guys would consider making sure that

00:55:36.240 --> 00:55:43.120
 you had someone from the municipal electric, and that there was somebody representing the

00:55:43.120 --> 00:55:47.280
 entrepreneurship community, somebody representing workforce, somebody representing community

00:55:47.280 --> 00:55:53.040
 development, and somebody representing marketing and/or tourism. And I think you guys cover many

00:55:53.040 --> 00:56:00.320
 of these bases. We just felt like it made sense as you went forward to be more explicit about how you

00:56:01.120 --> 00:56:10.720
 made sure that the plan, your board aligned with the plan. And I think there's one more slide here,

00:56:10.720 --> 00:56:18.480
 maybe a couple more. So this recommendation seems a little bit

00:56:18.480 --> 00:56:29.840
 suited for the future now, because right now you're trying to figure out where the

00:56:29.840 --> 00:56:36.640
 monies are going to come from. But many of the communities that you're competing with have

00:56:36.640 --> 00:56:44.240
 economic development sort of cash. They've got cash in the bank because they've got sales tax,

00:56:44.240 --> 00:56:47.600
 and you guys don't have that. In one of our previous meetings, we talked about that.

00:56:47.600 --> 00:56:54.480
 And we felt like if you were going to be competitive on certain projects, that you needed to have your

00:56:54.480 --> 00:57:06.640
 own fund, and that fund would be partially funded through the city, partially funded through a

00:57:06.640 --> 00:57:16.880
 campaign that you and the Chamber would go through and raise funds, but also figuring out how to have

00:57:17.840 --> 00:57:24.880
 the electric utility participate in that. And right now we feel like this may not be feasible

00:57:24.880 --> 00:57:31.280
 in the short term, but as you guys move forward, we would strongly consider that you create,

00:57:31.280 --> 00:57:36.320
 we called it a Denton Catalyst Fund. There are many communities that call it an Opportunity Fund.

00:57:36.320 --> 00:57:41.840
 There's an Opportunity Austin and Opportunity Houston. Each of the groups that realize that

00:57:41.840 --> 00:57:47.840
 if they're going to be competitive and position themselves, they're going to need to be able to

00:57:47.840 --> 00:57:55.120
 raise some funds to take economic development more seriously. And we've got more details on this

00:57:55.120 --> 00:58:03.520
 in the document itself. So I think I've got another slide there for next steps, discussion.

00:58:05.360 --> 00:58:13.760
 If you don't mind, is there a slide after that, after the next one going to keep going? Yeah,

00:58:13.760 --> 00:58:19.200
 so I'm going to talk about next steps, and then we'll come back into discussion, if that's okay.

00:58:19.200 --> 00:58:23.840
 That way you guys will know what's going to happen. So our goal today is to receive any feedback from

00:58:23.840 --> 00:58:28.560
 you. If you've got other feedback over the next couple of days, and Jessica, feel free to weigh in

00:58:28.560 --> 00:58:40.640
 here. But feel free to share that. There will be a public opportunity for comment on the draft plan

00:58:40.640 --> 00:58:48.240
 once we receive feedback from you guys and incorporate those changes. It would, and Jessica,

00:58:48.240 --> 00:58:54.800
 if you wanted to explain how you're planning to do that. Sure, so we are pretty limited in our

00:58:54.800 --> 00:59:00.400
 ability to have public meetings, but we certainly want to make sure that the community has the

00:59:00.400 --> 00:59:07.360
 opportunity to participate in this process. So we have worked with our public affairs department

00:59:07.360 --> 00:59:13.680
 here in the city, and we're going to actually do an online public forum process. So we're going to,

00:59:13.680 --> 00:59:19.520
 I think Jacqueline has volunteered to record the video, she's laughing at me, but we're going to

00:59:19.520 --> 00:59:26.000
 record a brief video overview presentation so that members of the community can watch it when

00:59:26.000 --> 00:59:32.720
 they're available to watch it online. We'll also have the plan posted online. It's a big document,

00:59:32.720 --> 00:59:37.520
 but for anyone who wants to read it, and then we'll have a comment form, and we'll allow members of

00:59:37.520 --> 00:59:43.120
 the community, and we'll make sure to market it and get it out to different groups in the community,

00:59:43.120 --> 00:59:47.520
 and groups that we wish we would have been able to meet with them in person, but unfortunately,

00:59:47.520 --> 00:59:54.000
 you know, we're in 2020, but we're going to make the best of the situation, and we really want that

00:59:54.000 --> 00:59:59.360
 comment so that after the EDP has a chance to provide their comments, we'll have the community

00:59:59.360 --> 01:00:03.840
 comments, and then we can present all of the comments to the city council and say here's what

01:00:03.840 --> 01:00:08.960
 we've heard, and here's what we think really will best serve our community.

01:00:15.840 --> 01:00:20.000
 All right, I'm going to kick things off with a couple of my own questions, and then

01:00:20.000 --> 01:00:27.920
 as you guys raise your hands, I'll try to identify you and call on you as well. So Jessica,

01:00:27.920 --> 01:00:34.240
 what do we think the time frame for all those meetings are in getting something back to city

01:00:34.240 --> 01:00:42.880
 council? So we have a tentative timeline, so again, we are as flexible as we need to be given the

01:00:42.880 --> 01:00:50.160
 environment that we're in. So our goal is to finish the presentation with EDP today. We also

01:00:50.160 --> 01:00:57.200
 have this scheduled for your July 8th meeting. Our goal would be sometime between I think July 1st,

01:00:57.200 --> 01:01:02.640
 July 2nd, is that we would have the video recorded with the overview, and we'll get that published

01:01:02.640 --> 01:01:11.680
 for public comments, and we'll keep that posted till mid-July. EDP will meet again on July 8th.

01:01:12.320 --> 01:01:16.960
 We'll have all of that opportunity then between now and then to get your comments.

01:01:16.960 --> 01:01:22.800
 We'll get the public comments through about July 14th or 15th, and then we're in a perfect world

01:01:22.800 --> 01:01:27.840
 scheduled to go to city council at their first meeting in July, which I believe is July 21st.

01:01:27.840 --> 01:01:35.040
 If for some reason we hit a hiccup in the process, we'll be flexible and we'll figure it out because

01:01:35.680 --> 01:01:45.600
 that's what we do now. So that's sort of our timeline and process. Okay. One of my

01:01:45.600 --> 01:01:54.160
 comments I guess on the partners working group, which is staff that would work together daily

01:01:54.160 --> 01:02:03.440
 and have monthly meetings, would it make sense to have maybe the chair or vice chair of the EDP board

01:02:04.880 --> 01:02:11.280
 be in attendance or meet with those folks? I guess I kind of like the idea of having a non-chamber,

01:02:11.280 --> 01:02:20.880
 non-city person involved in those conversations and just kind of being there as you go back to

01:02:20.880 --> 01:02:26.960
 the board meetings, just to have a kind of an outsider involved in that. So no need to comment

01:02:26.960 --> 01:02:33.600
 on that one way or the other, just a suggestion I had. I guess I'll open it up for comments or

01:02:33.600 --> 01:02:44.880
 questions. Kaylee? Yeah, chair, I feel the same way that you do about having someone else sitting

01:02:44.880 --> 01:02:50.240
 at the meetings. It's been very helpful, especially if you come back and there's questions,

01:02:50.240 --> 01:02:59.520
 it's easier for someone that's been there to answer. Just a comment. One, there was a slide

01:02:59.520 --> 01:03:05.040
 about affordable housing and just though you know that we're working on that and we know that it's

01:03:05.040 --> 01:03:12.720
 extremely important to have the housing stock in our community, especially now during the time where

01:03:12.720 --> 01:03:22.320
 funds are low and people are not working as much. But I did also take note of the other opposite end

01:03:22.320 --> 01:03:31.360
 where we need larger housing that are high quality for those who want to come in and have that option

01:03:31.360 --> 01:03:38.720
 as well. So that's a job for council to make sure that every aspect of that is within our city.

01:03:38.720 --> 01:03:44.240
 The only thing that I saw that was a little concerning, although I do know that we need

01:03:46.080 --> 01:03:52.960
 funds for economic development, having DME there, I'm not sure how that will correlate with our

01:03:52.960 --> 01:04:00.560
 charter because there's pretty strict rules there. And so just to make sure that that's looked into

01:04:00.560 --> 01:04:08.320
 before anything's brought to the board or council to make sure that that's acceptable is just my

01:04:08.320 --> 01:04:16.800
 request. All right, Mr. Baines.

01:04:16.800 --> 01:04:30.880
 Mr. Chairman, the only thing I was, I do appreciate all the comments that have been given thus far.

01:04:30.880 --> 01:04:38.000
 The one comment I did want to get a little interaction on was when speaking about

01:04:38.000 --> 01:04:42.560
 the need for this board to meet quarterly or to have a quarterly interaction.

01:04:42.560 --> 01:04:48.000
 You know, you and I have been on this board for a while. It seems as though

01:04:48.000 --> 01:04:55.520
 the things that have come up require more of a monthly attention rather than quarterly. So

01:04:55.520 --> 01:05:00.240
 I'd kind of like to hear a little dialogue on how transitioning to a quarterly interaction

01:05:00.960 --> 01:05:10.080
 would give us both the time and the ability to address issues that are of importance.

01:05:10.080 --> 01:05:22.720
 Tom, was that something you want to visit about?

01:05:22.720 --> 01:05:26.640
 Oh, sure. Sure. I wasn't sure whether it was,

01:05:28.080 --> 01:05:32.960
 John was asking for a dialogue about how others thought or wanted our sort of

01:05:32.960 --> 01:05:43.760
 thoughts on the rationale. But for us, in no way were we recommending that the board be

01:05:43.760 --> 01:05:50.640
 sort of taken out of important conversations. It was more a matter of, and it may be that,

01:05:50.640 --> 01:05:58.240
 you know, for the recovery period, you guys want to keep meeting, you know, monthly for sure. But

01:05:58.240 --> 01:06:06.160
 at some point, depending on how you've staffed this up, if you've created a team that you have

01:06:06.160 --> 01:06:11.760
 confidence in, that they would be able to report back to you guys, you know, maybe they're sending

01:06:11.760 --> 01:06:17.760
 you a report on a monthly basis, but that the need for you guys to have to meet every month

01:06:18.480 --> 01:06:24.880
 to go over the details that you would sort of enlist the staff or trust the staff

01:06:24.880 --> 01:06:30.640
 to be able to take care of that in the interim. And then you guys, you know, you might have to

01:06:30.640 --> 01:06:36.960
 pull yourselves together on an ad hoc basis to cover a specific project if a need was being made.

01:06:36.960 --> 01:06:44.080
 But we were also just being sensitive to the number of boards and committees that the city

01:06:44.080 --> 01:06:50.640
 currently has. And for us, it was more of a streamlining and modernizing

01:06:50.640 --> 01:06:54.560
 than it was a statement about, you know, how often you guys ought to meet.

01:06:54.560 --> 01:07:00.560
 Hey, Chris.

01:07:00.560 --> 01:07:10.800
 Thanks, Tom. A lot of information there for sure. However, in the kind of the next steps,

01:07:10.800 --> 01:07:17.200
 you talk about, you know, finalizing the plan. So did we just see a plan or did we see a PowerPoint?

01:07:17.200 --> 01:07:22.400
 Because I saw a PowerPoint presentation. Yeah, you saw a PowerPoint and the plan

01:07:22.400 --> 01:07:27.920
 is in the document. Okay, that's what I'm asking. So is there a document that we're going to see a

01:07:27.920 --> 01:07:33.840
 draft of that has the details of what the plan specifically talks about and actionable items

01:07:33.840 --> 01:07:39.600
 that we're supposed to go do? The board received it as part of the agenda packet

01:07:39.600 --> 01:07:44.240
 that I distributed. The actual plan was attached to that.

01:07:44.240 --> 01:07:49.760
 Well, I didn't, I didn't see that. So. Okay, we'll resend that.

01:07:49.760 --> 01:07:50.720
 Okay, that'd be good.

01:07:50.720 --> 01:08:02.480
 And Chris, just to your point, what the plan is missing right now is what we call the implementation

01:08:02.480 --> 01:08:09.040
 metrics. And so it will actually, you know, the plan will have the strategies and the actions.

01:08:09.040 --> 01:08:13.040
 So you'll be able to read that. And if you feel like, yeah, that they're on the right track, then

01:08:13.040 --> 01:08:20.720
 when this gets approved, then we would create a, we would put that into a sort of a work plan

01:08:20.720 --> 01:08:25.760
 that would identify the time frame to when things would be done and who would,

01:08:25.760 --> 01:08:27.680
 who would take the leads on them. Okay.

01:08:27.680 --> 01:08:37.840
 Yeah, Tom Hayes, Tony Clark, just kind of a comment or question. I appreciate your

01:08:38.560 --> 01:08:44.560
 political correctness when it comes to questions about our revenue challenges.

01:08:44.560 --> 01:08:49.280
 But, you know, I've been in Denton for 27 years. We've gone through these,

01:08:49.280 --> 01:08:53.680
 these things numerous times. We've all been involved in them.

01:08:53.680 --> 01:08:59.680
 At the end of the day, and I look on, I look on page 49 of the plan that was sent out,

01:08:59.680 --> 01:09:03.680
 which was, you know, it was eye-opening. I think the first time I saw it,

01:09:04.240 --> 01:09:12.320
 which showed all of the communities around us that circle us, East, East, West, North and South,

01:09:12.320 --> 01:09:18.640
 that have some type of economic development funding mechanism that, that gives them the

01:09:18.640 --> 01:09:24.160
 ability to be competitive when going out and soliciting and trying to implement a plan like

01:09:24.160 --> 01:09:31.280
 this. I would be curious to ask and really get your, your, your, if you could be really honest

01:09:31.280 --> 01:09:37.920
 with us, does this plan have any chance at all of being implemented with the almost embarrassing

01:09:37.920 --> 01:09:44.080
 amount of funding opportunities we have today as a city when it comes to economic development?

01:09:44.080 --> 01:09:47.680
 We've had those discussions with you before early on in our meetings.

01:09:47.680 --> 01:09:54.960
 And one thing that I was a little disappointed about is that that you didn't go into that as

01:09:54.960 --> 01:10:01.040
 much as I thought we would get into of how we are at a disadvantage from a competitive standpoint,

01:10:01.040 --> 01:10:05.760
 because of all the communities around us and their resources that they have available to them,

01:10:05.760 --> 01:10:13.360
 whether it's Frisco or Lewisville or wherever. But honestly, without additional funding,

01:10:13.360 --> 01:10:21.840
 without a true commitment to whatever funding mechanism or resources that we need, what's,

01:10:21.840 --> 01:10:26.960
 what's really the chance of this plan really bringing or having the effect on our community

01:10:26.960 --> 01:10:39.360
 that we all would like for it to have? I appreciate the candid question, Tony,

01:10:39.360 --> 01:10:47.040
 because honestly, I think I would answer it in that in order for you guys to remain competitive,

01:10:47.040 --> 01:10:54.800
 you have to make an investment in economic development. And it's not just in the creating

01:10:54.800 --> 01:11:00.000
 a fund. It's also in the resources that go just into the day to day. I mean, you could have a

01:11:00.000 --> 01:11:05.920
 full-time person, maybe two people just working with Hillwood on the Coal and Hunter project.

01:11:05.920 --> 01:11:11.680
 I mean, that you think about the return on your investment over time, if that's what you did,

01:11:11.680 --> 01:11:18.800
 you know, and that alone, you know, you could, you could, you could have a full-time person just

01:11:18.800 --> 01:11:23.440
 working with the universities to help leverage that. You could have a full-time person on

01:11:23.440 --> 01:11:29.280
 entrepreneurship. You can have a full-time person just doing, you know, working projects that are

01:11:29.280 --> 01:11:34.800
 going to West Park. And that's what the other communities have that have the economic development

01:11:34.800 --> 01:11:41.840
 sales tax. And so I appreciate you calling me out on that question, because it's, it's, I think if,

01:11:41.840 --> 01:11:48.800
 if I had been delivering this before the, before the pandemic, I would have been a lot bolder.

01:11:48.800 --> 01:11:54.640
 And so I apologize for not being more bold because yeah, you guys in the long-term have the assets,

01:11:54.640 --> 01:12:00.720
 I mean, that are enviable, you know, you still have land, you have major interstate universities,

01:12:00.720 --> 01:12:07.920
 you've got, you know, the, the Hillwood that's and others that are coming up at 35. I mean,

01:12:07.920 --> 01:12:15.600
 you guys are in the path of kind of the next wave of growth for the DFW area. It's just that right

01:12:15.600 --> 01:12:21.360
 now there's so much uncertainty. I didn't feel quite so confident, you know, in leading with that.

01:12:21.360 --> 01:12:28.000
 But if, if over the next six months, I feel like that's why we left it in there. You know,

01:12:28.000 --> 01:12:33.280
 we didn't take it out. We didn't take any of the long-term strategies out in the way we were

01:12:33.280 --> 01:12:39.360
 thinking about sort of modernizing economic development for Denton. But you're right.

01:12:39.360 --> 01:12:44.640
 Well, one other, just one other quick comment. I would love to hear your reaction to this as well.

01:12:46.240 --> 01:12:53.200
 In light of this whole pandemic issue, obviously we're all reading about, you know, potential,

01:12:53.200 --> 01:13:00.080
 you know, transformation really of our, of our society in our country. And, you know, from the,

01:13:00.080 --> 01:13:06.160
 the New York cities or LA's or Dallas or Houston, wherever you want to call into,

01:13:06.160 --> 01:13:12.560
 you know, moving more out to the communities like them. And it seemed like to me that, that obviously

01:13:12.560 --> 01:13:17.200
 there's an opportunity here. I may not be here today, but in the coming months or years that

01:13:17.200 --> 01:13:24.480
 we probably have, you know, as much of an opportunity to solicit and bring in great

01:13:24.480 --> 01:13:30.000
 businesses that we've ever had before. And in light of this pandemic and COVID, it seemed like

01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:35.280
 we would want to have the attitude of maybe even doubling down on being prepared for those

01:13:35.280 --> 01:13:40.080
 opportunities that we know are going to happen. And I would, I would be interested in your comments

01:13:40.080 --> 01:13:44.240
 or thoughts. Just once again, we're early into this, but you're hearing it from all over the

01:13:44.240 --> 01:13:52.000
 parts of the country. Yeah. So there's, there's a kind of two, two parts to your comment or question.

01:13:52.000 --> 01:14:04.160
 One is the, the trend that we, we may see, we may anticipate is that the density is going to become

01:14:04.160 --> 01:14:11.280
 less attractive in some, in some cases because of the, just the sort of the fear factor

01:14:11.280 --> 01:14:21.840
 and riding up a, you know, an elevator 30 stories to your condo. And so I think you're going to see

01:14:21.840 --> 01:14:28.560
 people want to be either in, you know, more suburban communities or even some rural communities.

01:14:28.560 --> 01:14:34.880
 And you guys represent sort of the, the best of three different worlds. One, you have a downtown

01:14:34.880 --> 01:14:42.880
 that represents the vibe of a city, but it's not a urban downtown. It's more of a sort of a ex-urban

01:14:42.880 --> 01:14:52.880
 type downtown. Number two, you, you still have access to the DFW area. You know, you're still

01:14:52.880 --> 01:14:56.880
 part of it, but you just have a different product. Number three, you still, you still have rural,

01:14:57.760 --> 01:15:04.000
 you know, the rural feel, you look on the West side of town, go Northwest, you know, there's a

01:15:04.000 --> 01:15:10.800
 lot of property that can be developed to bring in those who might not want to live in the density.

01:15:10.800 --> 01:15:19.360
 So I feel like you're right. The doubling down question, I think that's, you know, that, that

01:15:19.360 --> 01:15:27.840
 really has to come from you guys. And because we've thrown it out there that in order for you to be

01:15:27.840 --> 01:15:33.120
 aggressive, you're going to need funds and you're going to need the staffing to do all the things

01:15:33.120 --> 01:15:37.600
 that have been laid out. It's just a matter of the timing for when you want to do it.

01:15:37.600 --> 01:15:42.240
 So, I mean, I'm excited about the question, if there's a willingness there, you know.

01:15:42.240 --> 01:15:46.880
 Thanks for your comments. That's all I have. Appreciate that.

01:15:47.840 --> 01:15:52.960
 Okay. Chris, you raised your hand.

01:15:52.960 --> 01:16:00.320
 A couple of things. One, I did find where I was sent the plants. I've since printed that out.

01:16:00.320 --> 01:16:06.320
 So, but to Tony's point, you know, we talked about this six months ago, when you guys were first

01:16:06.320 --> 01:16:14.880
 starting to go down this journey of, you know, handing out 10 and $15,000 checks is, it's fine

01:16:14.880 --> 01:16:20.560
 for a, you know, a small restaurant maybe or something like that, but not for the kind of

01:16:20.560 --> 01:16:25.920
 economic scale and development that I think you're talking about. So, does the plan contain,

01:16:25.920 --> 01:16:30.560
 because it's obvious I haven't seen you yet, does it contain like based on your,

01:16:30.560 --> 01:16:38.640
 you know, dentin size, like a recommended amount of what that fund ought to look like for,

01:16:38.640 --> 01:16:43.760
 for dentin size and aspirations based on the recommendations that you put in this plan?

01:16:44.880 --> 01:17:00.560
 Tom, can you mute and unmute again and see we weren't able to hear you?

01:17:00.560 --> 01:17:07.120
 And I knew it was going to happen sooner or later. Sorry, guys. And I've been doing this

01:17:07.120 --> 01:17:18.400
 quite a bit. I guess to your point, Chris, the, no, we did not include a specific budget,

01:17:18.400 --> 01:17:22.080
 but I'd be happy to help think about that because we know what the budgets are for

01:17:22.080 --> 01:17:25.600
 a lot of competitors, and we'd be happy to weigh in there.

01:17:25.600 --> 01:17:33.920
 Thank you. Because, you know, you can kind of put an exclamation point on, you know, what's the kind

01:17:33.920 --> 01:17:37.600
 of at the end of the day, what are we really talking about here? Right? Because I'm pretty

01:17:37.600 --> 01:17:43.680
 sure I know what the number is. And I think some people would be pretty surprised to know that.

01:17:43.680 --> 01:17:48.960
 Okay. All right. Well, send me a text on the side and then I'll say that number for you.

01:17:48.960 --> 01:17:58.000
 Okay. I think Jill had her hand up and then followed by John Baines. Go ahead, Jill.

01:18:01.440 --> 01:18:06.480
 Well, I personally, the whole group and what's been brought to the table,

01:18:06.480 --> 01:18:13.760
 this overview has been, it's very helpful to give us a big picture of what we want

01:18:13.760 --> 01:18:20.960
 dent in economic growth to look like. I agree that I do look forward to once we can kind of agree

01:18:20.960 --> 01:18:30.800
 on these broad areas and ideas that we do get also your expertise on the nuts and bolts as far as

01:18:32.240 --> 01:18:39.280
 what types of budgets, minimum, maximum, what is typical for certain areas or certain positions,

01:18:39.280 --> 01:18:46.480
 you know, what kind of return on the investments we can guesstimate as we

01:18:46.480 --> 01:18:53.200
 do try to make sure that our city is committed to intentional economic development,

01:18:53.200 --> 01:19:01.040
 that we don't just leave it to, hey, we're a great place and people will just know about us

01:19:01.040 --> 01:19:06.560
 because of our awesomeness, that we don't want leftovers. We want to be very intentional about

01:19:06.560 --> 01:19:12.800
 what we bring into our community and how we grow our community. And so, you know, that we do need

01:19:12.800 --> 01:19:22.560
 this investment on the front end. And anyways, I think it's a great first blush. But I also look

01:19:22.560 --> 01:19:28.960
 forward to some of the more details and bringing in you guys as the experts without a dog and a

01:19:28.960 --> 01:19:35.680
 fight to talk to our elected officials as well as the public about, hey, this is how this area of

01:19:35.680 --> 01:19:42.240
 commerce works and this is what we need to do to make sure that we have choices in our community.

01:19:42.240 --> 01:19:49.920
 We can make deliberate choices. A couple of comments. I'll be fast. I also want to echo the

01:19:49.920 --> 01:19:55.520
 idea of including the economic development partnership chair and/or vice chair into the

01:19:55.520 --> 01:20:02.320
 nuts and bolts group, the working group. I think that if we do go with this organization working

01:20:02.320 --> 01:20:08.240
 or this board coming in every quarter, I also understand John Bain's concern that that might

01:20:08.240 --> 01:20:17.360
 then be a conduit for communications to give background to come from, you know, our perspective,

01:20:17.360 --> 01:20:22.320
 the business person on the grounds perspective as far as when we think it would be helpful to be

01:20:22.320 --> 01:20:30.320
 brought in more often than quarterly. So I think that that might be a good kind of compromise or

01:20:30.320 --> 01:20:47.920
 in between to maybe address that. Jill, you're cutting in and out.

01:20:52.400 --> 01:20:59.280
 Really important and really good. We heard your first point. I think we started losing you on the

01:20:59.280 --> 01:21:03.760
 second point. So we heard the comment about the working group, but it was when you moved on that.

01:21:03.760 --> 01:21:19.600
 If you wouldn't mind, Tom, speaking to I'm on page 48 of the total package and it's page 36

01:21:19.600 --> 01:21:25.600
 of the economic development strategic plan. And I'm looking specifically if you could -- and this

01:21:25.600 --> 01:21:33.280
 is just, you know, a side note to help me understand. I understand they work for someone

01:21:33.280 --> 01:21:38.880
 from NCTC, but can you talk a little bit about -- because a lot of people will need to have dual

01:21:38.880 --> 01:21:44.640
 roles. If we're going to keep this organization board the same size and still have the types of

01:21:44.640 --> 01:21:50.400
 representation, we won't have these additional areas that we want to be intentional about representing.

01:21:50.400 --> 01:21:56.720
 Can you talk to me about who -- what type of position you're thinking of when you say

01:21:56.720 --> 01:22:03.680
 that we want someone on the board to also be someone in workforce development? I mean, is that

01:22:03.680 --> 01:22:09.280
 something that someone who is representing one of the universities, is that considered

01:22:09.280 --> 01:22:15.120
 workforce development? Is it something more specific? Same thing with community development.

01:22:15.120 --> 01:22:19.760
 Is that, you know, some of the board members that are very active and nonprofits in the community

01:22:19.760 --> 01:22:25.120
 being someone that's considered in community development. I just -- as I read this, I tried

01:22:25.120 --> 01:22:32.000
 to start thinking of people I know or positions I know of that could be included. And so maybe

01:22:32.000 --> 01:22:38.240
 in marketing and tourism, are we talking about a hotel owner or I don't really know who else?

01:22:38.240 --> 01:22:44.080
 So just kind of if you would flesh that out about what type of person that is so we can kind of

01:22:44.080 --> 01:22:54.320
 figure out where we're going. Yeah, and honestly, Jill, the categories that we put, we haven't put

01:22:54.320 --> 01:23:01.840
 the details to them because part of that will be up to you guys because we do know that workforce

01:23:02.560 --> 01:23:08.720
 is important and obviously there are people who divide the world into oh, you're in education and

01:23:08.720 --> 01:23:12.400
 you're in workforce and you're in workforce if you're doing something that's much more technical

01:23:12.400 --> 01:23:20.720
 in nature and giving somebody a skill versus a more academic, you know, science-based, whatever

01:23:20.720 --> 01:23:26.240
 that field is. And for us, a lot of times it gets blurred. You know, there can be a workforce

01:23:26.240 --> 01:23:32.400
 development person at the community college or at the university that, you know, came out of a background

01:23:32.400 --> 01:23:40.240
 with -- that's K-12 and ran the Career Technical Education Center. So you -- it may just depend on

01:23:40.240 --> 01:23:45.520
 the individual that you find. You want to find people that understand that there's more -- that

01:23:45.520 --> 01:23:51.760
 workforce matters, you know, in the community and understands whether it's a Peterbilt or it's, you

01:23:51.760 --> 01:23:58.400
 know, a retailer or kind of skill sets that they're looking for. And you -- chances are there are

01:23:58.400 --> 01:24:04.320
 people who sit on workforce boards, who sit on, you know, community college groups that may already

01:24:04.320 --> 01:24:08.880
 be on your board and fit that category. We just wanted to call, you know, special attention to

01:24:08.880 --> 01:24:18.160
 them because they were pieces in the plan that we thought were important. And I do think the tourism

01:24:18.160 --> 01:24:23.280
 question -- I think the tourism question, especially a few months ago, was important because

01:24:23.280 --> 01:24:30.400
 we feel like many times tourism gets pushed out into a separate category and people in economic

01:24:30.400 --> 01:24:34.400
 development don't acknowledge it. But many times that's some of your best marketing. People are

01:24:34.400 --> 01:24:39.040
 coming to your community, they're coming to the embassy suites to attend a conference, and we

01:24:39.040 --> 01:24:44.080
 don't think of that as economic development. You know, we think, yeah, it's, you know, heads in beds

01:24:44.080 --> 01:24:51.840
 and hotel/motel tax, but, you know, you guys with the chamber and others understand it. You know,

01:24:51.840 --> 01:24:58.000
 you understand that when somebody's visiting your community, that could be a business owner that,

01:24:58.000 --> 01:25:03.760
 you know, the impression that you make is important. So don't have a lot more details

01:25:03.760 --> 01:25:08.160
 from right now, but as you get -- as you go down this path, we're happy to weigh in and provide

01:25:08.160 --> 01:25:16.400
 more details. Thank you. And one question, can you or maybe Jessica talk about how we are going to

01:25:16.400 --> 01:25:26.080
 -- do we keep -- will we continue to go through it and develop a plan? Is this something that we need

01:25:26.080 --> 01:25:31.760
 to be doing via email? Do we hold on to it until the next meeting? And I'm curious as to how the

01:25:31.760 --> 01:25:37.520
 public comments are going to be disseminated, how is that going to be presented?

01:25:38.800 --> 01:25:46.240
 May I ask? Sure. I lost some of you, but I think I heard what the question was. So in terms of the

01:25:46.240 --> 01:25:54.800
 board providing comments to me, you can send them to me prior to the next meeting or you can save

01:25:54.800 --> 01:25:58.800
 them. That's up to you. If you send them to me ahead of time or send them to Tom and Jacqueline,

01:25:58.800 --> 01:26:03.840
 we'll just kind of combine them and get them to Tom and Jacqueline if there's something that they,

01:26:03.840 --> 01:26:09.680
 especially if it's something that needs researched or clarification on or a question that's not sort

01:26:09.680 --> 01:26:16.240
 of a face value question, give us time to get a response or do the research that we need.

01:26:16.240 --> 01:26:23.200
 In terms of the public comments, we will move this forward like we do with all of our sort of

01:26:23.200 --> 01:26:31.360
 major policy decisions is that we're taking the EDP comments and recommendations with the draft

01:26:31.360 --> 01:26:38.160
 plan and the separate public comments to council and ultimately it's council's decision to adopt

01:26:38.160 --> 01:26:44.560
 or change the plan. So we're combining all of your comments, public comments, staff comments,

01:26:44.560 --> 01:26:50.000
 and delivering those to council when we make that presentation. And is that something that's public

01:26:50.000 --> 01:26:57.360
 that we can access as far as just my interest in the public comments? Yes, we'll have a summary

01:26:57.360 --> 01:27:03.200
 report. I don't know if anyone watched the parklet presentation at the city council last night but

01:27:03.200 --> 01:27:07.280
 what we did was we summarized the comments that we received back and said here's kind of the

01:27:07.280 --> 01:27:11.440
 categories that we received comments and we provided a full report of those comments of

01:27:11.440 --> 01:27:13.840
 this is what people said or adjustments that we made.

01:27:13.840 --> 01:27:20.880
 John, I think you were next.

01:27:27.200 --> 01:27:28.640
 Lost John for a second, I think.

01:27:28.640 --> 01:27:37.120
 So let me on our ED comments, if we have any comments outside of this meeting,

01:27:37.120 --> 01:27:44.240
 we need to email Jessica separately, not as a group. We don't want any group conversations

01:27:44.240 --> 01:27:48.720
 about anything. We can't do that but if you have questions, comments,

01:27:48.720 --> 01:27:54.880
 send those directly to Jessica and she can include those in our next meeting.

01:27:57.200 --> 01:28:05.120
 We're going to continue on having this discussion on July 8th. Is it my understanding that

01:28:05.120 --> 01:28:11.120
 the city council will just take our comments and then they'll just discuss it or are we going to

01:28:11.120 --> 01:28:17.200
 see a revised version and make a recommendation that city council adopt this

01:28:17.200 --> 01:28:23.360
 as a board or it sounds like maybe that's not the case?

01:28:25.600 --> 01:28:31.680
 So we would do it the same way we kind of handle any of our major policy decisions is that we

01:28:31.680 --> 01:28:37.600
 have the sort of accepted draft and I've heard some comments I think that we can make those

01:28:37.600 --> 01:28:43.440
 adjustments like adding the vice chair in the chair to the working group, maybe adding additional

01:28:43.440 --> 01:28:51.440
 details in some areas for clarification. But if the EDP has any policy related big picture

01:28:53.280 --> 01:28:59.440
 beyond kind of the plan itself and saying hey we need to add another step or we need to add

01:28:59.440 --> 01:29:04.800
 another goal that's something we would take alongside the draft to council and say here's

01:29:04.800 --> 01:29:10.560
 the feedback that we got from EDP. That'd be no different like when we take an incentive

01:29:10.560 --> 01:29:17.280
 application forward where we say EDP approved it these are the recommendations that they made

01:29:18.400 --> 01:29:24.800
 based on that if that makes sense okay. John did you have a question and comments?

01:29:24.800 --> 01:29:34.640
 Yes I did I hope I can be very concise when we're talking about raising money Tom and

01:29:34.640 --> 01:29:44.000
 Jacqueline I wonder if you could tell us a little bit if the opportunity zone that was

01:29:44.000 --> 01:29:51.760
 promulgated by President Trump in the 87 tax plan if that would allow for a public private

01:29:51.760 --> 01:30:02.960
 collaboration that could bring in a large partner to collaborate with the city in carrying out some

01:30:02.960 --> 01:30:08.960
 major economic development opportunities so we're not trying to raise all the money ourselves.

01:30:11.280 --> 01:30:17.440
 I have no experience with the opportunity zone but I've heard that it's very lucrative

01:30:17.440 --> 01:30:22.320
 and provides a lot of tax benefit so I didn't know if he had any experience in

01:30:22.320 --> 01:30:29.760
 using that vehicle as a drawing card for large endeavors.

01:30:38.560 --> 01:30:49.760
 Tom you're on mute. Sorry about that yeah I mean I'm familiar with the opportunity zones

01:30:49.760 --> 01:30:58.880
 as a as a tool for bringing in investment to specific projects within that zone you know so

01:30:58.880 --> 01:31:06.640
 there are funds that are being created where monies are flowing into that fund and then that fund

01:31:06.640 --> 01:31:14.800
 can be used to support a specific sort of parcel or real estate development within that fund.

01:31:14.800 --> 01:31:22.560
 I'm not aware John and maybe somebody else knows better than I do of the fund being created and

01:31:22.560 --> 01:31:29.040
 then the entire city being marketed or it being used for other areas of the community

01:31:29.040 --> 01:31:36.480
 it's I think targeted geographically to where your zone is and so but we'd be happy to explore that

01:31:36.480 --> 01:31:41.200
 because it's something we're interested in and kind of looking at how others are using that

01:31:41.200 --> 01:31:46.000
 creatively to be able to bring in outside money so we'll definitely take a look at that for you.

01:31:46.000 --> 01:31:49.200
 And the reason I mentioned that is because

01:31:49.200 --> 01:31:57.600
 I'm just an outsider I don't have an insider view I don't think we can go and just ask people to

01:31:58.160 --> 01:32:06.880
 put a bunch of money in a pot without some political backlash but if we had a collaboration

01:32:06.880 --> 01:32:16.160
 it might be a little easier and so I'd heard that this opportunity zone that was created in 19

01:32:16.160 --> 01:32:23.840
 excuse me in 20 in 2017 tax act has a lot of things associated with it so

01:32:24.640 --> 01:32:28.480
 it was just an idea that was trying to get some complete back on thank you.

01:32:28.480 --> 01:32:34.720
 No you bet my understanding John is that it's mostly geared towards specific projects

01:32:34.720 --> 01:32:39.600
 and so if you've got a project that you know it's a redevelopment project

01:32:39.600 --> 01:32:43.600
 that it's a good mechanism to be able to bring funds into that project.

01:32:50.080 --> 01:32:54.640
 Anybody else have any questions or comments Jesse go ahead.

01:32:54.640 --> 01:33:03.920
 Thanks Marty I wanted to do a couple things first to comment and throw a vote behind what Tony

01:33:03.920 --> 01:33:09.840
 and Chris were talking about earlier with the fund I think if after the comment period is when

01:33:09.840 --> 01:33:14.880
 we're going to put in some metrics and some measurables I think it's time to get real

01:33:14.880 --> 01:33:19.840
 aggressive with that fund and I know what you're Tom I totally understand your position when

01:33:19.840 --> 01:33:23.600
 we're looking at a time of maybe prolonged recovery maybe faster we don't know yet

01:33:23.600 --> 01:33:30.800
 some of those funding sources are dependent on that recovery but others aren't you know

01:33:30.800 --> 01:33:35.920
 the things rolling back onto the tax rolls incentives expiring those are the things that

01:33:35.920 --> 01:33:43.520
 operate by the by the agreements or by the law so we I think we can be a little bit more bold in

01:33:43.520 --> 01:33:48.880
 the way that we talk about that fund because I may be new to the conversation myself but I

01:33:48.880 --> 01:33:55.360
 know it's a conversation that's been going on for some time and you know all the plans in the world

01:33:55.360 --> 01:34:00.640
 are wonderful but unless we have something pretty I think pretty bold and aggressive in this plan

01:34:00.640 --> 01:34:07.440
 and some some concrete measurables you know it goes in the stack with all the other plans

01:34:07.440 --> 01:34:12.720
 and we the next time we have a big pot of money which is never in city government then we start

01:34:12.720 --> 01:34:18.480
 talking about how to spend it and maybe we talk about economic development fund but if the purpose

01:34:18.480 --> 01:34:25.120
 of this plan is to really put us on the best footing to come out of this recovery then I think

01:34:25.120 --> 01:34:30.880
 what what did Chris say doubling down or was that Tony I think that's exactly what we do I think we

01:34:30.880 --> 01:34:36.000
 we stayed a very clear you know the council when it adopts this plan is going to make some policy

01:34:36.000 --> 01:34:43.280
 choices and I think we we set it up for the council to make a policy choice that is that doesn't leave

01:34:43.280 --> 01:34:47.680
 any room for doubt that we're serious about implementing a catalyst fund how much it needs

01:34:47.680 --> 01:34:54.400
 to be if it's a lofty goal then let it be a lofty goal but let it be a realistic one so from where

01:34:54.400 --> 01:35:01.280
 I'm sitting that's what I'd like to see among the the measurables and goals. Thanks.

01:35:01.280 --> 01:35:12.000
 I would love to see us tie something maybe maybe if we come back July 8th we can talk about what

01:35:12.000 --> 01:35:18.560
 Keely brought up the legalities of tying something to DME but historically the utilities have been

01:35:18.560 --> 01:35:27.120
 the primary fundraisers of economic development and I some of you guys are new I've actually

01:35:27.120 --> 01:35:34.400
 brought this up years ago it would be nice if we could peg our budget to some very small percentage

01:35:34.400 --> 01:35:39.280
 of the DME budget or income or something like that so that if we're doing our job

01:35:40.480 --> 01:35:46.400
 in theory we're bringing in more revenue and that fund gets bigger and so we you know we live and

01:35:46.400 --> 01:35:52.240
 die on how that's working so it'd be nice to see if we can work that out at the end of the day it

01:35:52.240 --> 01:36:01.040
 all gets down to money and I know that the city's got some challenges ahead so any any other comments

01:36:01.040 --> 01:36:07.040
 about about the plan I guess if you had a chance to go through that maybe shoot off an email to

01:36:07.040 --> 01:36:12.720
 Jessica with some comments or questions and we can pick that back up our next meeting just in

01:36:12.720 --> 01:36:18.960
 a few weeks anyway so we can have some more conversation about it anything else that we

01:36:18.960 --> 01:36:29.520
 need to cover with regard to the report? Before we move off that I just want to make sure that

01:36:30.480 --> 01:36:37.520
 we kind of understand I've gotten notes on everyone's comments we'll make adjustments in

01:36:37.520 --> 01:36:43.440
 the plan based on most of these we may need to come back and have a little bit more robust discussion

01:36:43.440 --> 01:36:52.480
 in some areas but I think that's kind of what we'll do and then if there are additional comments

01:36:52.480 --> 01:36:58.000
 we get we won't make any adjustments based on singular feedback we get from anyone we'll bring

01:36:58.000 --> 01:37:04.240
 those back at the next meeting so that the board can discuss those and that will be our game plan

01:37:04.240 --> 01:37:13.200
 going forward. All right we've got a few minutes left with our next item is staff reports you want

01:37:13.200 --> 01:37:19.040
 to just give us some highlights Jessica and I'd also like to give Charlie a chance to weigh in.

01:37:19.040 --> 01:37:27.120
 Sure we included a new report for the board and we've shifted a little bit of our internal

01:37:27.120 --> 01:37:34.080
 reporting and to give a little bit more opportunities to show what we're doing and

01:37:34.080 --> 01:37:39.120
 give an update on the more comprehensive look on economic development instead of focusing on sort of

01:37:39.120 --> 01:37:44.640
 a narrow area but really all of the areas that we're working in an economic development that

01:37:44.640 --> 01:37:50.080
 sometimes don't come before the board and so you have our second and partial third quarter report

01:37:50.080 --> 01:37:55.440
 we obviously didn't have a full second quarter report for our fiscal year we were in the midst

01:37:55.440 --> 01:38:00.640
 of responding to COVID and if you actually go to the last page of our departmental report

01:38:00.640 --> 01:38:07.840
 you'll see a brief summary of the activities that we did it doesn't look very brief but I promise

01:38:07.840 --> 01:38:14.800
 you it is brief our office handled hundreds of calls throughout March and April helping businesses

01:38:14.800 --> 01:38:21.120
 navigate COVID and so we did hit pause on some normal operations and move to that and I just

01:38:21.120 --> 01:38:26.160
 can't thank the board enough many of you received personal phone calls from me as I was trying to

01:38:26.160 --> 01:38:31.680
 work through questions and issues in your areas of expertise so we're willing to jump on zoom

01:38:31.680 --> 01:38:37.920
 calls with me and then I also just want to say a big thank you to the city's economic development

01:38:37.920 --> 01:38:44.400
 team because we were in the office one day and we're home the next and our lives were turned upside

01:38:44.400 --> 01:38:50.560
 down and so we can't say enough and thank them for the adjustments that they made and then one

01:38:50.560 --> 01:38:56.560
 last announcement that I'll make is that Michelle Cunningham our wonderful business development

01:38:56.560 --> 01:39:04.960
 officer retired on March 19th and so we are in the process of posting that position and seeking

01:39:04.960 --> 01:39:10.400
 a new business development officer for economic development team but I hope Michelle's not watching

01:39:10.400 --> 01:39:15.360
 but I bet she is and we just want to send her all of the love and let her know that she's greatly

01:39:15.360 --> 01:39:20.640
 missed even though we've only been without her for two days now so Michelle is watching her

01:39:20.640 --> 01:39:29.520
 retirement is not going very well she's watching this knowing Michelle she's watching

01:39:29.520 --> 01:39:33.600
 Charlie

01:39:38.320 --> 01:39:49.600
 here we go all right yes we've it's been a an interesting time working from home we've been back

01:39:49.600 --> 01:40:00.080
 here in the office for about a month now and it's been it's been a busy time last month we

01:40:01.200 --> 01:40:08.800
 your report I think I gave you a report that we submitted like four or five

01:40:08.800 --> 01:40:18.560
 RFI's last month and we've already done five in the month of June and have another one due

01:40:18.560 --> 01:40:24.880
 Friday and another one due Monday so we're seeing we're seeing a lot of activity

01:40:25.520 --> 01:40:33.440
 and you know and plus I got a call yesterday from a company in Pennsylvania that's looking to build a

01:40:33.440 --> 01:40:43.280
 a large distribution facility and we're going to be working with him over the next few months to

01:40:43.280 --> 01:40:52.640
 to help him gather the information he needs yeah it's going to be a busy time we've got

01:40:53.520 --> 01:40:58.240
 right now a million two hundred and sixty three thousand square feet of

01:40:58.240 --> 01:41:07.200
 industrial property either on the ground or under construction right now with another

01:41:07.200 --> 01:41:13.600
 two hundred and fifty thousand that's in the planning stages and so we're going to we're going

01:41:13.600 --> 01:41:21.040
 to see some activity in the near future or in the future there's there's also a lot of competition

01:41:21.040 --> 01:41:27.440
 because Fort Worth North Fort Worth has about 12 million square feet either on the ground or

01:41:27.440 --> 01:41:35.360
 under construction and about half of that is already it's being built for a particular company

01:41:35.360 --> 01:41:42.720
 so we're going to see we're going to see some movement in in that arena over the next

01:41:43.760 --> 01:41:51.200
 over the next year or so just because of having facilities on the ground and

01:41:51.200 --> 01:41:57.520
 it's been it's been fun but it's been also also very busy

01:41:57.520 --> 01:42:03.440
 but be glad to answer any questions that anybody might have

01:42:07.600 --> 01:42:16.160
 Jessica you want to talk about the future agenda matrix sure let me switch over to that

01:42:16.160 --> 01:42:24.160
 so our next meeting on July 8th we will again reconvene on the strategic plan that will be the

01:42:24.160 --> 01:42:29.280
 focus of our meeting and then we're actually going to pretend like it's March all over again and the

01:42:29.280 --> 01:42:34.560
 meeting that got cancelled we're going to pick back some of the items that we had planned on

01:42:34.560 --> 01:42:39.280
 being on the march agenda so we had two incentive applications that we'll be bringing forward in

01:42:39.280 --> 01:42:44.160
 July as long as the applicants are prepared to move forward we're still talking with them to make

01:42:44.160 --> 01:42:51.840
 sure that they're comfortable with that as well as we will talk about a revised fair council awards

01:42:51.840 --> 01:42:57.600
 breakfast idea i'm hoping my light bulb will go off of how we'll be able to do that remotely

01:42:58.240 --> 01:43:05.680
 in the near future so i'll expect an update on that at our next meeting great all right anybody

01:43:05.680 --> 01:43:15.600
 have any questions for jessica or charlie before we if not then i think we're we're done for the day

01:43:15.600 --> 01:43:21.680
 we're done all right i'm keely go ahead

01:43:24.000 --> 01:43:28.240
 i was just saying bye after a 13 hour meeting last night i'm already just

01:43:28.240 --> 01:43:36.160
 zoomed out well uh if you have comments or questions about the plan please email jessica

01:43:36.160 --> 01:43:41.520
 otherwise it's really nice to see everybody there's a few faces i hadn't seen in a while so

01:43:41.520 --> 01:43:46.320
 it always puts a big smile on my face thank you for showing up today appreciate everybody's

01:43:46.320 --> 01:43:52.000
 commitment and we'll talk to you soon we're adjourned thanks everybody