WEBVTT

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 All right. Welcome to the July Economic Development Partnership Board meeting. It is 1114 a.m.

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 My name is Marty Rivers. I want to go ahead and call the meeting to order. And our first

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 item up for consideration is to consider approval of the minutes from our June 24th, 2020 meeting.

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 And I would open the floor for any nominations or comments.

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 Hey Marty, it's Tony. I'll move for approval.

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 We've got a motion. I'd like to second.

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 Jill Jester, second.

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 All right. We have a motion from Tony, a second from Jill. I'm going to ask for any

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 comments or questions.

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 All right. Hearing none, I will go around the room and ask for you to say aye or nay,

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 I guess, if you're opposed. And so get ready to turn your mute off. And Chris, you're first

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 on my screen here.

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 Tony?

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 Aye.

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 Jesse?

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 Aye.

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 Mark?

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 Aye.

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 Jill?

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 Aye.

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 And I'm an aye myself. So we have a unanimous vote for approval of the minutes. Thank you

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 so much. And our next item up for consideration is EDP 20-015. Receive a report. Hold the

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 discussion and give staff direction regarding an incentive application for a team of defenders.

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 Good morning, everyone. Jessica Rogers, Director of Economic Development. I am going to turn

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 it over to Erica Sullivan to do the formal staff presentation today. She's giving me

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 a break, very much appreciated on this one. But I will let you know we do have Mark Sierra

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 and Nathan Wright with us. And they are the representatives from team of defenders. So

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 as we get through the presentation, we'll certainly have Mark and Nathan as well as

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 staff available for questions. And with that, I will turn it over to Erica.

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 Okay. Got it. I didn't have to talk last time.

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 Good morning. I'm going to be presenting an incentive application from team of defenders

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 and my name is Erica Sullivan and I'm the economic development analyst here at the city

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 of Denton. The objective of this presentation is to provide information on the team of defenders,

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 provide some background on a tech entrepreneurship initiative that we are working on and consider

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 possible incentive packages. Team of defenders founded in 2018 is an IT platform technology

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 and service delivery company. They are focused on innovation, research and development and

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 deployment. They currently have office space in Stoke but outgrowing their current space

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 and they are poised for growth or in the process of expanding their hub company through offshoot

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 spoke companies. And they're using existing talent pipelines for their current and future

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 staffing needs. Team of defenders is currently seeking investment from private equity investment

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 banks and angel investors. They are projecting rapid growth in value, revenue, customers

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 and employees. One Stoke company storage defender, a smart unit for storage is projected to be

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 in more than 2,500 facilities by 2023. And they have the ability to apply this technology

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 in other areas such as a boat and RV, smart unit storage as well. And they are rapidly

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 adding different spoke companies as they move along. About one per year. The goals of the

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 company are to reduce funding needed from investors to keep more of the company ownership

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 local. And the reimbursement of costs is needed to relocate offices to secure a larger facility,

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 recruit and add additional staff, purchase furniture, fixtures and equipment and make

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 any necessary fiber infrastructure upgrades. Before we move forward, I wanted to provide

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 a little background since we don't normally look at an application like this. Staff has

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 met with team of defenders to understand their needs and their business goals. We've researched

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 similar entrepreneurship, technology and innovation based incentives as well as job based incentives

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 being used across the country. We've attended entrepreneurship, economic development support

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 and building successful ecosystem training. You can see some of the ecosystems in our

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 new strategic plan, our proposed plan. And this has all led to building an entrepreneurship

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 tech based program around our existing policy and funding mechanisms. So we created an application

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 in the early part of this year and then we received our first two tech incentive applicants

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 shortly thereafter. We were going to bring these items forward in March, but were delayed

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 due to COVID and we're moving forward now. The incentive policy has a number of provisions.

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 I'm going to briefly go over how this project meets some of these. One of them is diversifying

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 the tax base, creating quality jobs. In our current policy, we have targeted industry

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 sectors and this particular application meets to the research and development and the information

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 technology. In our incentive policy, we have also identified priority considerations that

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 we will look at and this application meets eight of the 10. Talking about committee investment,

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 diversifying the tax base, promoting public private partnerships, increasing high wage,

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 high paid and knowledge based jobs and encouraging startup and small innovation to promote entrepreneurship

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 and innovation. Under our policy, we also have five programs under chapter 380 grants and

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 loans and this particular application supports for those. Again, the industry sector directly

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 with startup and small business to promote entrepreneurship, also for infrastructure,

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 fiber in this case typically, and then increasing the percentage of jobs paying $75,000 or more

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 per year. In our policy, we also have additional or other considerations and this application

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 meets three, including job based grants. The economic development investment fund was

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 created in 2016 and this program gave us a cash grant. It's paid for by mixed beverage

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 of $150,000 per year that's put into this fund and this allows us to be more competitive

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 with other projects. It's geared towards high wage. It's also geared towards investment

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 and target industries. To be eligible, a company must meet two or three criteria, higher wage

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 or knowledge based jobs. In this case, $55,000 or greater wage for all of the employees or

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 25% making $65,000 or more. Substantial capital investment, $15 million in this case and then

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 recruitment of industry sector targets. This is the innovation in R&D. You can see the

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 jobs from the application over a five-year period and then summarized it a 10-year period.

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 When we look at economic development, we usually look about over a 10-year period. The current

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 employees are two, but we've just been informed that they hired an additional employee during

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 COVID which is good news. You can see the new employees added through years and then

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 the cumulative jobs of the employees added including the current jobs for a total of

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 56. You can see the jobs paying $65,000 or more and then you can see which is a 30 and

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 then you can see the jobs paying $75,000 or more. To give you an idea, one of the last

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 grants that we looked at was Tyson and Tyson had 100 jobs and they had 13 making over $65,000

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 or more. In this table, you can see the wage information, the payroll, the weighted average

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 annual wage. All the salaries are over the Denton County average wage of $45,900. You

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 can see the new, all and incentivized and the payroll as well. To give you another comparison

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 again using Tyson, Tyson for their 100 employees had a payroll of $5.1 million. If you look

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 at all the 56 jobs, this particular project, Team of Defenders, is almost $4 million and

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 it's about half the jobs at 56. The incentive proposal is performance based and it's a business

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 expansion incentive and it combines two main components. The first component is an expansion

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 grant to reimburse relocation cost, fund additional equipment, make necessary upgrades, site finish

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 out and any incremental increases in rental costs from the larger facility and this is

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 all based on demonstrated reimbursed cost. The second component is a stratified job based

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 incentive and this is into four categories and then we are also giving additional consideration

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 for employees living in Denton because we definitely want to encourage that. This will

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 be done via chapter 380 agreement and the economic development investment fund that

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 we discussed would be the source of funds for this and then the agreement would also

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 include a term and a cap on the funding amounts. Here's a table of what we are proposing. You

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 can see there are five years and then they accelerated to 10 and I'll explain that further.

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 Because it's a job based grant, we really didn't want to go over five years. The first

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 item you'll see here is a one-time expansion grant that we discussed and this is $50,000.

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 The second component is the job based grant and this will be stratified from $500,000

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 to $5,000 reimbursement for salaries greater than $65,000 to $100,000 in the four categories.

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 Then we also include a bonus for Denton residency hiring local residents and then you'll see

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 this accelerated option. We do our analysis on 10 years and our applications based on

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 10 years and we wanted to give them the opportunity to accelerate and hire additional jobs within

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 the five-year term. So we estimate the total as the five years to be $80,000 but we are

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 actually giving it a cap of $106,000 if they accelerate. Some of the qualitative benefits,

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 I wanted to highlight those. The economic impacts. Typically what we invest in or have

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 invested in in the past is capital, very large facility projects and equipment and this time

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 we're going to be investing in human capital and quality jobs. And this goes along with

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 the pipeline for university training programs and the reduction of brain drain, keeping

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 our people here. This also is a benefit by keeping a Denton startup, by retaining a local

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 company, fostering entrepreneurship, diversifying the tax base, development of an economic system

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 that supports entrepreneurship and locally owned businesses. And then finally the fiscal

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 impact would be less demand on our utility services and infrastructure because it's not

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 a capital heavy project. Some of the quantitative benefits are the economic impacts. The direct

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 impact of jobs created by the event would be $54,000, $56,000 with the current and with

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 the average wage is $68,959. The ripple effects which include induced and indirect impact

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 add another 81.8 jobs with an average wage of $36,254. Property tax, sales tax, utility

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 system revenue generated by the projects and other benefit as well as the attraction of

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 venture capital and investors. Some of the fiscal impacts is the cost to provide government

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 and utility services is low. And then a return on investment using our impact model is $22.2.

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 Our summary and recommendation is again a five year performance based incentive with

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 a total not to exceed 106,500. This involves the expansion grant, which is a reimbursement

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 of actual costs, a stratified job grant in those four categories for a total of 29,500,

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 a possible residency bonus of 500 per employee up to 27,000 if the jobs are accelerated and

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 then we will be verifying this on the IRS form 9-4-1 and the chapter 3D agreement is

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 to be funded by the economic development investment fund. The options and recommendations, the

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 board could approve the staff recommendation, could modify or create a new incentive recommendation

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 or have a no incentive offer recommendation. And I'd be happy to entertain questions.

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 Thank you, Erica. That's a good job. Sorry, I got knocked off the computer there for a

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 second. Anybody have any questions? Raise your hand if you would like to speak. I'm

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 going to ask some questions while you guys are thinking up your questions. Jill, I did

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 see your hand raised there. On the $50,000 initial grant that's for some of the infrastructure,

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 do they install that and we reimburse them? Is that a reimbursement grant? Yes, that will

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 be a reimbursement grant. And is that limited to certain items? Is that furniture, fixtures,

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 equipment? We have, let's see, I may have gone too far back. Okay, so relocation costs,

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 fund additional equipment, which would be your furniture, fixtures and equipment. They

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 could make necessary site upgrades, finish out even incremental increase in rental costs

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 for the new larger facility, but these would be actual costs. So it would be reimbursement.

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 And I'm sure this is going to be our next Amazon type business. But what happens if

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 on the other items, they don't get any of the funds unless they perform this case, they

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 could, we could, and I'm not, no offense, Mark and you guys, but if they're not in business

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 in a year, we've spent $50,000 on moving costs and help somebody finish out an office in

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 somebody's building somewhere. Is there any free course, I guess, or any way that the

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 city didn't, didn't just out $50,000? In the contract phase, we would have a recapture

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 provision where we could recapture typically a portion, like maybe 50%, but it could be

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 negotiated at that time. Okay. In a scenario where we do this with any company though,

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 I guess if something, if they were out of business, their likelihood of recapturing

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 any funds would not be very high. And while I've got the floor, I know Jill's out there

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 waiting on the occupancy, I guess on the employees that live in Denton, is that tested every

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 year or is that tested one time? How does that work?

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 That would be done on an annual basis. All right. Jill had a question.

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 Thank you. One of my questions got answered. So thank you for your very good question,

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 Marty. And with that, I would like to hear from the applicants. First of all, we appreciate

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 you doing business here in Denton and thank you for coming before us today and spending

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 time. I see the connections with UNT, but since we have you, can you talk to me about

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 why you've decided to expand here in Denton and speak a little bit to the community involvement

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 in your planned community involvement? Sure. Absolutely. Thanks for the question.

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 And all thanks for the opportunity here to come and make this proposal. I also thank

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 Jessica and Erica. We've been working with them for a while and they really dug in. It's

00:18:04.840 --> 00:18:09.920
 nice hearing you talk about our business, Erica. That was wonderful. So the answer,

00:18:09.920 --> 00:18:17.200
 Jill, is Nathan and I established our first office back in 2018 at Stoke. The reason we

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 did that is we both, first of all, it resides about halfway between where we live, proximity.

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 But secondly, we have this belief that Denton offers a very unique, we could have went down

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 to Deep Ellum, we could have went to Frisco. There's other places that we could have went,

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 but we like the concept of colliding tech with the creative culture of Denton. And we're

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 looking to create a competitive advantage with our platforms there. So Nathan and I

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 are both degree engineers. Nathan is the CTO of our partnership and then I'm on the business

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 developments that I've moved over. Tech, we've got covered very well, but out in the industry,

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 your real differentiator is user experience. And so we like being part of the community

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 because we believe there's more, a more creative, more in touchness with actual people and that's

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 ultimately it's people, consumers and businesses that are actually purchasing solutions. And

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 we think we have harnessed that and we continue to do so. That's number one, the culture.

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 Two is we have leveraged UNT. We've hired, I'm happy to say that we've hired two UNT

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 grads as interns and made them full-time employees in our software development and we'll continue

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 to do so while we have not been able to find an established internship program. We've done

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 pretty good job working with them and finding what we've needed. And the reason for that

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 is point three is we work with one of the advisors in our company actually is the head

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 of the, Nathan help me what his title is again. He chairs, he's on the chair of the computer

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 and engineering and science advisory committee for UNT. So he's an advisor in the company

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 and we believe working with a first rate university is a great feeder program, but we're also

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 leveraging, we've talked to some of the professors about some of their technology and how we

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 might be able to work with them and use that. And then thirdly, we've been highly involved

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 with UN, NCTC. We love the tech hire grant program. And so I think we have, we're trying

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 to leverage the local universities. We're trying to leverage, of course, and contribute

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 to the culture. We've spoken in at Stoke, we're an active member at Stoke and we've

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 done a lot in the entrepreneurial community. I've done speaking engagements at Stoke and

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 at UNT. We just feel that Denton is a bit special. And, you know, we think that we can

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 also potentially be shapers, not only consumers.

00:20:45.560 --> 00:20:54.200
 Well, thank you. Thank you very much. I'm super glad to have you. My husband's an IT

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 technician. I know all the possibilities that are out there and I'm sure Texas Women's University

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 would love to speak to you as well. There is a lot of opportunity there. And as far

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 as what is the interest in community involvement as far as, you know, giving back to the community,

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 is there anything in the plan for that? Yeah, I mean, I think with us, I mean, happy

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 to talk about that. Number one, there's different ways to give. One of the things that we give

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 is we've hired three people from Denton to work in our company. So we've chosen our

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 most recent hire was well above the minimum threshold. We hired a top developer in Denton.

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 So one is to actually employ Denton residents. That's one way we give to the community. Two,

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 we engage, we do mentoring. We do, you know, like I said, with our interests in STEM and

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 sciences we've done work with young students. We were supposed to do an engagement with

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 what's the name of that program, Nathan, for the high school program at UNT, where high

00:21:59.520 --> 00:22:04.400
 school students go to UNT. I can't think of the name of it. It eludes me where they take

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 in high school students and we were going to host a TAMS. What was that? TAMS. Yes,

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 we were talking to some of the students with TAMS and we were going to have a lunch and

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 learn with them. And again, to talk about tech and to really pour into, you know, the

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 students. And then aside from that, Nathan and I, on the charitable side, we do have

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 a portion of our business that we are going to donate a portion of our profit once we

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 get to profitability to funds that we feel moved to do. And obviously we would expect

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 that a portion of that would go to the community that we're in. But that's part of our bylaws

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 and what we've set up as a company. Really great. Thank you so much. You're welcome.

00:22:47.440 --> 00:22:54.880
 Thanks for the questions, Jill. All right. Anybody else have any questions or comments?

00:22:54.880 --> 00:23:03.960
 Chris? The initial $50,000 was going to come out of that mixed beverage fund. What would

00:23:03.960 --> 00:23:14.360
 the balance be in that fund after this project? That'll be a little under $800,000. Okay.

00:23:14.360 --> 00:23:33.600
 Thank you. $772,780.21. Okay. Any comments? Questions? It's a little bit different than

00:23:33.600 --> 00:23:42.560
 what we're used to looking at and kind of an exciting opportunity. With no more comments

00:23:42.560 --> 00:23:47.120
 or questions, I guess I would open it up to the floor. Our job today would then be to

00:23:47.120 --> 00:23:55.120
 make a recommendation to city council if we so choose. So I would open the floor for any

00:23:55.120 --> 00:24:01.240
 motions recommendations or comments. Marty, this is Mark. I'm happy to make that

00:24:01.240 --> 00:24:08.040
 recommendation and the positive to support this. Okay. We have a motion from Mark that

00:24:08.040 --> 00:24:16.080
 we, I'm going to put words in your mouth, recommend to city council the staff recommendation

00:24:16.080 --> 00:24:24.120
 for the incentive. Yes. Would anybody like to second that? I'll second that. Jill Jester.

00:24:24.120 --> 00:24:32.880
 We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All right. I'm going to go around

00:24:32.880 --> 00:24:56.840
 the horn again. Chris. I think that was an aye. Tony. Aye. Jesse. Aye. Steve. Aye. Mark.

00:24:56.840 --> 00:25:07.240
 Aye. Jill. Aye. And Marty is an aye as well. So we have a unanimous consent. John Baines

00:25:07.240 --> 00:25:15.360
 joined you during the presentation. John joins us. Did you get enough of that? I did not.

00:25:15.360 --> 00:25:21.060
 So I'm just going to abstain and allow the majority to vote. Thank you. All right. Thanks

00:25:21.060 --> 00:25:27.760
 for joining us. I saw that. Sorry, I missed you. Thank you. So motion carries. We'll make

00:25:27.760 --> 00:25:34.400
 a recommendation to city council and let them take that up there next or whenever that gets

00:25:34.400 --> 00:25:40.240
 on the agenda. And I want to thank Nathan and Mark for attending today. You're welcome

00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:46.120
 to stick around and enjoy this wonderful conversation we're having, but certainly understand if

00:25:46.120 --> 00:25:57.380
 you have other things to do. All right. Our next item is to, I'm not going to read this

00:25:57.380 --> 00:26:06.840
 whole paragraph, but it's EDP 20-025 and we'll get an update from tip strategies on our strategic

00:26:06.840 --> 00:26:14.840
 plan that we've been working on. And we'll let Tom and Jacqueline take it from here.

00:26:14.840 --> 00:26:27.200
 Thanks for being here, guys. You bet. And can everyone see the slide deck? Yeah, we're

00:26:27.200 --> 00:26:33.600
 going to keep the slide deck pretty brief today so that we allow enough time for any

00:26:33.600 --> 00:26:41.920
 discussion that they actually want to document itself. But I appreciate the fact that Jacqueline

00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:48.840
 and I were able to be included at the first part of your meeting to get to hear the incentives

00:26:48.840 --> 00:26:57.320
 application. We actually couldn't have really scripted it better in terms of fitting within

00:26:57.320 --> 00:27:02.880
 some of the recommendations that were outlined in the plan and are very encouraged that you

00:27:02.880 --> 00:27:07.000
 guys are willing to take that step and kind of get outside of some of the traditional

00:27:07.000 --> 00:27:14.020
 ways of thinking about how you incentivize projects. So that's all good. And if you don't

00:27:14.020 --> 00:27:22.480
 mind, Erica, do you have the slide deck? Okay. Yeah, if you don't mind, go ahead and advance.

00:27:22.480 --> 00:27:28.880
 So I'm going to make a brief reintroduction of the concept of the strategic growth areas.

00:27:28.880 --> 00:27:35.840
 And then I think Chris and a couple of you asked last time if we could gather some information

00:27:35.840 --> 00:27:40.840
 about what some of the other communities are doing in terms of their sales tax and the

00:27:40.840 --> 00:27:45.320
 competitive environment. So we did that and we'll talk about that briefly and then talk

00:27:45.320 --> 00:27:56.440
 about next steps. So the next slide, reminder that the goals accelerating recovery is the

00:27:56.440 --> 00:28:02.920
 first priority based on the current environment that we're in. Second priority is making sure

00:28:02.920 --> 00:28:10.600
 that you don't pause on doing economic development. You continue to market the community around

00:28:10.600 --> 00:28:18.240
 the four different areas that we saw as strategic growth areas. And then the third is that making

00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:24.040
 sure as you go forward, as you think about economic development, you're thinking of it

00:28:24.040 --> 00:28:28.640
 not just how do we fill up the business park, but how do we support the universities? How

00:28:28.640 --> 00:28:33.640
 do we support workforce development? How do we support keeping and attracting talent in

00:28:33.640 --> 00:28:42.160
 the community? Next slide. So the four, a reminder that four growth areas, the first

00:28:42.160 --> 00:28:50.480
 one being the most traditional being transportation logistics. That's where attracting, helping

00:28:50.480 --> 00:28:55.240
 Chris off on Peterbilt, making sure he's got his suppliers, making sure that your business

00:28:55.240 --> 00:29:03.160
 park is in those that are investing, you know, highly from a capital standpoint, creating

00:29:03.160 --> 00:29:10.400
 revenue for the community. Creativity, that's where the incentive application you just heard

00:29:10.400 --> 00:29:15.480
 fits very neatly. Also taking advantage on the sustainability side, the fact that you

00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:22.560
 guys have your electric utility and sustainability has been a goal for the city for a long time.

00:29:22.560 --> 00:29:29.080
 And then that fourth box competitiveness is where, you know, the Class A office space

00:29:29.080 --> 00:29:35.480
 as the coal hunter ranch starts to develop over time, that's where a lot of those strategies

00:29:35.480 --> 00:29:42.720
 would fit. So each one of these strategic growth areas, and Erica, I'm not going to

00:29:42.720 --> 00:29:50.280
 spend much time on each one of these, but go ahead to the next one. Connectivity, the

00:29:50.280 --> 00:29:56.880
 common idea that I'll point out here is this idea that over time you take advantage of

00:29:56.880 --> 00:30:03.200
 what you have going with UNT and logistics and create a kind of a center of excellence

00:30:03.200 --> 00:30:09.040
 around that that includes your employers and other assets in the community. Go to the next

00:30:09.040 --> 00:30:20.080
 slide. Creativity side, I think we've called out EdTech as a particular target for the

00:30:20.080 --> 00:30:30.800
 region based on your educational assets along with technology growth. The next slide. Sustainability,

00:30:30.800 --> 00:30:38.240
 I think I mentioned that up front. Having your economic development sort of align with

00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:43.920
 your sustainable development goals and your current, you know, simply sustainable strategic

00:30:43.920 --> 00:30:57.640
 plan that the city's been working on. The last, next slide. Competitiveness, as I mentioned

00:30:57.640 --> 00:31:01.520
 last time, I think I was asked a question about budgeting and really, you know, you

00:31:01.520 --> 00:31:10.360
 could dedicate one or two staff specifically for the properties along 35 West. Continuing

00:31:10.360 --> 00:31:19.240
 to promote downtown development, that's one of your biggest assets. And as the gentleman

00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:25.920
 applying for the incentives mentioned previously, the culture was a big part of their decision

00:31:25.920 --> 00:31:32.960
 in your downtown, the universities there really capture that culture. And so just making sure

00:31:32.960 --> 00:31:40.240
 that you pay attention to that. And then professional office space, I don't have a crystal ball

00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:49.360
 about how this environment is going to play out in terms of the next Class A office spaces

00:31:49.360 --> 00:31:55.280
 that are built. The guys from Hillwood and others can answer that better than I can.

00:31:55.280 --> 00:32:01.460
 We're monitoring closely what this means in a COVID environment and as we go forward,

00:32:01.460 --> 00:32:04.680
 what the demand for office space is going to be and what that's going to look like.

00:32:04.680 --> 00:32:11.440
 But that still needs to be a part of your areas that you focus on for the long term.

00:32:11.440 --> 00:32:19.480
 Next slide. So I just have a couple more slides here. As we talked last time, we think that

00:32:19.480 --> 00:32:28.800
 in order for Denton to remain competitive while the beverage tax, the $150,000 that

00:32:28.800 --> 00:32:33.560
 you guys are putting into your fund and the $800,000 that you currently have remaining,

00:32:33.560 --> 00:32:38.540
 as you mentioned Erica, are really important. The competitive environment for you guys in

00:32:38.540 --> 00:32:44.480
 order to actually embrace the plan that we've helped lay out here is going to require not

00:32:44.480 --> 00:32:51.400
 only a larger operating budget, but it's going to require what we think of as a catalyst

00:32:51.400 --> 00:32:57.520
 fund so that the right projects that come along. I don't think, I'll show you some numbers

00:32:57.520 --> 00:33:03.200
 here in a second, but competing head to head with Frisco is probably not what you're going

00:33:03.200 --> 00:33:08.600
 to find yourself doing. So you may not need the same cash that they do, but you do need

00:33:08.600 --> 00:33:14.560
 something that's, that at least gets you to the table for some of these projects. And

00:33:14.560 --> 00:33:24.700
 so Jacqueline is the next slide. Go ahead, Erica. If you don't mind Jacqueline, maybe

00:33:24.700 --> 00:33:34.120
 remind folks that we had looked at sales tax and what the numbers look like.

00:33:34.120 --> 00:33:40.400
 Sure. So we presented this a couple of months ago, but this just gives you a sense of some

00:33:40.400 --> 00:33:48.220
 surrounding DFW communities who either have type A or type B sales tax they put into an

00:33:48.220 --> 00:33:56.420
 economic development corporation. So you can see that this sort of EDC structure is commonly

00:33:56.420 --> 00:34:02.600
 used by other communities to help fund economic development, particularly in the DFW metropolitan.

00:34:02.600 --> 00:34:26.000
 So they're surrounded by communities dedicated funds to economic development. Next slide.

00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:33.120
 So this, we pulled some information based off of questions during the last meeting.

00:34:33.120 --> 00:34:39.360
 This gives you a sense of how much revenue is flowing into those economic development

00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:46.760
 corporations for a couple of surrounding communities. You kind of get a sense of the amount that,

00:34:46.760 --> 00:34:52.340
 you know, your, your neighbors are, are devoting to economic development. And then on the right

00:34:52.340 --> 00:35:01.080
 side, I pulled out a summary from, from the Texas Comptroller about type A, type B, and

00:35:01.080 --> 00:35:06.720
 what kind of projects can be funded through those just for extra information. But this

00:35:06.720 --> 00:35:11.560
 gives you a little bit more of a sense of what we're talking about in terms of fund

00:35:11.560 --> 00:35:19.040
 sizes and kind of amounts that other communities are setting aside for economic development.

00:35:19.040 --> 00:35:28.840
 Yeah. If you don't mind, Eric, go back to that slide for just a moment. Yeah. And so,

00:35:28.840 --> 00:35:33.960
 you know, what this doesn't capture is how much some of these communities have in the

00:35:33.960 --> 00:35:41.520
 bank right now. In other words, these are the actual annual revenues that they bring

00:35:41.520 --> 00:35:47.040
 in based on the sales tax. And so I don't think it would be too difficult. Typically

00:35:47.040 --> 00:35:53.520
 the, you know, Frisco, these guys will share with a phone call just what they're currently

00:35:53.520 --> 00:36:00.920
 sitting on. And many times they'll also share what is obligated out of those revenues based

00:36:00.920 --> 00:36:06.560
 on current projects. Just because Allen is bringing in 13 and a half million doesn't

00:36:06.560 --> 00:36:10.600
 mean they have 13 and a half million to spend every year because then they have half of

00:36:10.600 --> 00:36:16.440
 that or three quarters of that already obligated to specific projects. So really you have to

00:36:16.440 --> 00:36:20.040
 pay attention to, you know, what is their net in a year and what they have available

00:36:20.040 --> 00:36:27.940
 to use. But many times they're also, they're also sitting on a significant amount of cash.

00:36:27.940 --> 00:36:35.720
 So just give you an idea of what's out there right now. Marty, can I ask a quick question

00:36:35.720 --> 00:36:42.640
 on this slide? Thank you. Jill Jester. Tom, thank you. This information right here that

00:36:42.640 --> 00:36:46.560
 we're looking at, I assume that this is public information and that's where it was gathered

00:36:46.560 --> 00:36:55.240
 from. Yes, the Comptroller reports out what each group, what the revenues are every year.

00:36:55.240 --> 00:37:00.180
 Okay. I just want to know what information I can share with others and which I can't.

00:37:00.180 --> 00:37:08.840
 Thank you. So another thing to keep in mind is that EDCs like cities have to have CAFERS

00:37:08.840 --> 00:37:16.040
 that are publicly adopted by their boards and city councils. So any of their revenues

00:37:16.040 --> 00:37:24.880
 or funds that they have are publicly available. If you want to read a bunch of CAFERS, Jill.

00:37:24.880 --> 00:37:35.360
 Marty, I have a quick question. Go ahead. Yeah. So on that chart you guys are looking at,

00:37:35.360 --> 00:37:40.440
 it shows two different sources of economic development funds. So I'm assuming you would

00:37:40.440 --> 00:37:45.220
 add those two numbers together and that's the total amount of revenue that each community

00:37:45.220 --> 00:37:52.960
 that you've noted raises and then the way those funds are distributed kind of are detailed

00:37:52.960 --> 00:37:59.200
 to the right of that chart. Is that a good way to look at it, Tom? Yeah, those are the

00:37:59.200 --> 00:38:10.680
 categories that the Comptroller says are how the money can be used from each of those.

00:38:10.680 --> 00:38:17.440
 There is some flexibility to move money toward different projects one way or the other. You

00:38:17.440 --> 00:38:26.800
 can take type B money and use it for type A projects. Sometimes the actual election

00:38:26.800 --> 00:38:33.800
 is required in order to do something or a council vote is required to be able to move

00:38:33.800 --> 00:38:40.640
 the monies around. But typically type A is... Go ahead, Tom. One thing that's not noted,

00:38:40.640 --> 00:38:48.720
 I guess we know the percentage of sales tax that they charge for each type. Is that fairly

00:38:48.720 --> 00:38:57.280
 easy to determine? Yeah, that's also available. They typically range from half a percent down

00:38:57.280 --> 00:39:08.440
 to an eighth of a percent for each one of them. Yeah, gotcha. Thank you. So the last

00:39:08.440 --> 00:39:23.680
 slide, Erica. Move ahead. We'll open it up for discussion. So in terms of the process,

00:39:23.680 --> 00:39:29.640
 I talked to staff this morning. There may be some adjustments and when this would go

00:39:29.640 --> 00:39:37.840
 before city council, but from working with you guys, our hope is to get feedback from

00:39:37.840 --> 00:39:45.680
 you about the plan generally, and then begin working. If you guys are good with the structure,

00:39:45.680 --> 00:39:55.000
 then the next step for us would be to take this and put it into an implementation by

00:39:55.000 --> 00:40:06.320
 matrix that we would then start filling out timeframes. And then we will also take a look

00:40:06.320 --> 00:40:11.880
 at how... We've got a couple of other tasks. One would be to take a look at your current

00:40:11.880 --> 00:40:19.200
 incentives policy and see how that would align with the plan itself and if any adjustments

00:40:19.200 --> 00:40:24.000
 need to be made. Because one of the things that I noted is, Erica, as you were going

00:40:24.000 --> 00:40:32.120
 through your incentives policy, the target industries are one of yours. And so for us,

00:40:32.120 --> 00:40:36.240
 our target industries are structured a little bit differently. And so we would need to maybe

00:40:36.240 --> 00:40:42.040
 make some adjustments there and a couple of other places. But that's a next step for us.

00:40:42.040 --> 00:40:51.280
 But really, that's where we are right now. So if you guys, now that you've had a little

00:40:51.280 --> 00:40:55.360
 more time with the plan, if you have any questions or concerns or things that you think would

00:40:55.360 --> 00:40:59.480
 be nice to have a little more detail here or there, obviously some of that we'll get

00:40:59.480 --> 00:41:05.400
 to when we get to the implementation component of this, which would be the next step for

00:41:05.400 --> 00:41:08.720
 us, if you guys feel like we're on the right track.

00:41:08.720 --> 00:41:13.120
 Marty, I'll hand it back to you.

00:41:13.120 --> 00:41:15.160
 All right, Tony.

00:41:15.160 --> 00:41:21.920
 Yeah. Hey, I would just like to ask Jesse, if he can share with us maybe a little bit

00:41:21.920 --> 00:41:29.780
 of his thoughts relative to the discussions at the city council level on where you guys

00:41:29.780 --> 00:41:35.400
 are, because I'm assuming there's been several meetings over the last few months, kind of

00:41:35.400 --> 00:41:40.920
 the attitude maybe of the city council on this whole project and where it's going and

00:41:40.920 --> 00:41:45.160
 the funding mechanism and those things, if you could share some of that with us, maybe

00:41:45.160 --> 00:41:48.440
 some of it is confidential, but curious your thoughts.

00:41:48.440 --> 00:41:55.760
 Sure. I'll do my best. I have to warn you ahead of time though, I'm going to be, the

00:41:55.760 --> 00:42:00.640
 answer is probably going to be a little disappointing and vague. I can speak only for myself being

00:42:00.640 --> 00:42:07.600
 one of seven members. As far as the overall project, I can tell you that there's enthusiasm

00:42:07.600 --> 00:42:15.240
 on the council for an updated economic development strategy. I know that as these things come

00:42:15.240 --> 00:42:22.680
 up kind of project by project, we're looking for some additional guidance and a better,

00:42:22.680 --> 00:42:27.440
 more up-to-date kind of touchstone for what our overall strategy is, so we can better

00:42:27.440 --> 00:42:35.600
 evaluate individual projects as they come through. As far as a funding mechanism for

00:42:35.600 --> 00:42:40.600
 an ED fund, I think you would probably find seven different opinions on the best way to

00:42:40.600 --> 00:42:46.880
 go forward with that. I have my own thoughts. I'll kind of keep those to myself for now

00:42:46.880 --> 00:42:53.200
 because I do want to hear from my colleagues and really from this group what we think is

00:42:53.200 --> 00:42:58.680
 most feasible and then also, I don't want to go lean real heavy into one strategy and

00:42:58.680 --> 00:43:04.560
 then find out from city staff and the council meets that my bright idea is patently illegal

00:43:04.560 --> 00:43:11.280
 or fiscally irresponsible or whatever, so I can tell you the council would like to hear

00:43:11.280 --> 00:43:18.160
 from this group in a recommendation on this strategy and this plan where you want us to

00:43:18.160 --> 00:43:24.720
 lean in and where you think it needs to lean in and how aggressive we need to be. I personally,

00:43:24.720 --> 00:43:28.160
 y'all know this already, I personally think we need to be aggressive about funding an

00:43:28.160 --> 00:43:33.600
 ED fund, and if this group feels the same way, I think the council needs to hear you

00:43:33.600 --> 00:43:38.520
 on that. If you want to be a little more cautious or less aggressive, then we need to hear that

00:43:38.520 --> 00:43:39.520
 also.

00:43:39.520 --> 00:43:42.400
 Thank you. That's fair. Thank you for that.

00:43:42.400 --> 00:43:48.880
 Good question. I think the overriding consensus, if I could speak for everybody over the years,

00:43:48.880 --> 00:43:54.400
 is that we want more money to do more things with and then how we get there has always

00:43:54.400 --> 00:44:03.920
 been the challenging part of it, so we're capped at, we can't, this may be preaching

00:44:03.920 --> 00:44:09.200
 to the choir, but we can't go add anything more to our sales tax collection because we're

00:44:09.200 --> 00:44:20.160
 spending the money on DCTA, and so we're having to use what we can. The DME suggestion is

00:44:20.160 --> 00:44:27.360
 another alternative way of getting there as well, so probably whatever is the best way

00:44:27.360 --> 00:44:34.280
 for council to think about how to get some funds, but we're way behind the curve compared

00:44:34.280 --> 00:44:38.520
 to what our other cities are doing, and it's pretty sobering to look at that graph and

00:44:38.520 --> 00:44:44.560
 look at some of our neighbors, how much money that they have to deal with and what they

00:44:44.560 --> 00:44:53.960
 can do, so good question. Bring that up. Anybody have any other questions or comments?

00:44:53.960 --> 00:44:54.960
 Chris?

00:44:54.960 --> 00:45:04.840
 That was part of what I was trying to get at last time was looking at what all the competition

00:45:04.840 --> 00:45:08.440
 has at their disposal, and I knew what those numbers were going to look like because we've

00:45:08.440 --> 00:45:14.760
 dealt with many of those cities here in the last few years, and we've expanded into another

00:45:14.760 --> 00:45:20.480
 part of the Metroplex, but the other question that I had last week is, based on that and

00:45:20.480 --> 00:45:25.320
 based on the planet that you're working on here, and I really like it, I finally did

00:45:25.320 --> 00:45:31.440
 get a chance to go through the whole thing. I really think it's pretty solid, but it's

00:45:31.440 --> 00:45:35.960
 not going to do anything without money. It's going to do nothing without money, and so

00:45:35.960 --> 00:45:41.700
 I guess the other question was, based on your experience in similar sized cities, in similar

00:45:41.700 --> 00:45:47.080
 sized competitive markets with cities that have those funds that they do, what should

00:45:47.080 --> 00:45:52.520
 the debt number be? Forget how it will get there, but before you can put a plan together

00:45:52.520 --> 00:45:58.920
 to get there, you got to know what there is, so is there $5 million or is there $10 million?

00:45:58.920 --> 00:46:06.360
 In your assessment, that's got what I was looking for as the second piece.

00:46:06.360 --> 00:46:19.000
 Yeah, and I think that the $10 million number, if you feel like you want to compete on, especially

00:46:19.000 --> 00:46:26.760
 when you get into manufacturing companies, let's, for example, Chris, if you guys had

00:46:26.760 --> 00:46:32.920
 a supplier that was going to create 200 jobs and was going to put in $50 million in equipment

00:46:32.920 --> 00:46:40.080
 and everything else, in the current environment over the next two years, three years, as you

00:46:40.080 --> 00:46:48.600
 know, you probably have this money thrown at you too, it's going to be significant,

00:46:48.600 --> 00:46:55.520
 and that still may not get you in the hunt for a lot of projects, but that's probably

00:46:55.520 --> 00:47:03.360
 a good number to think about, to stretch you a little bit. In the short term, if you had

00:47:03.360 --> 00:47:08.000
 an incremental goal, saying, look, we really want to get to a couple of million dollars

00:47:08.000 --> 00:47:13.560
 in the bank so that we can at least start saying that we have a fund, and if you've

00:47:13.560 --> 00:47:19.280
 got 800 to start with and you need another 1.2 that you thought the utility could put

00:47:19.280 --> 00:47:23.720
 some into and that you could rave some from the private sector and maybe there's some

00:47:23.720 --> 00:47:31.560
 other source out there that we haven't thought of, but having an intermediate goal of getting

00:47:31.560 --> 00:47:38.960
 $2 million in the bank, but your longer term goal being $10 million. And there are interesting

00:47:38.960 --> 00:47:45.320
 strategies we've seen communities put together out there, some of the larger ones typically

00:47:45.320 --> 00:47:55.600
 will call their capital campaign Opportunity Austin, Opportunity Houston, and they will

00:47:55.600 --> 00:48:02.520
 sometimes tie their fundraising to specific efforts, like if they know that marketing

00:48:02.520 --> 00:48:09.640
 is something that is harder for the city to raise funds for specifically, depending on

00:48:09.640 --> 00:48:14.580
 how you're going to do it, that that's a private sector, you know, you end up with some private

00:48:14.580 --> 00:48:18.360
 sector investors who say, yeah, we know if this is going to be used specifically for

00:48:18.360 --> 00:48:23.520
 this fund, you know, this part of what we're doing, we're willing to put money in, or if

00:48:23.520 --> 00:48:28.520
 you're going to fund these types of projects, we'll put money into it. But we're happy to

00:48:28.520 --> 00:48:35.400
 continue as we get into the implementation discussion, providing, you know, more information

00:48:35.400 --> 00:48:39.640
 on what some others are doing and how they're doing it.

00:48:39.640 --> 00:48:47.080
 When you talk about a catalyst fund, that however you get there, is that overseen by

00:48:47.080 --> 00:48:55.720
 the city? Because you're looking at DME city funds and private funds. Currently, we do

00:48:55.720 --> 00:49:01.200
 a little different, we have private funds that fund part of our overall marketing budget.

00:49:01.200 --> 00:49:09.160
 But do you, in this scenario, do private investors, businesses put money into a fund that's then

00:49:09.160 --> 00:49:14.960
 managed by the city? Or how does that? That seems like that would be challenging.

00:49:14.960 --> 00:49:23.360
 Yeah, I know, I'll have to do some more research, Marty, on how to best structure in an environment

00:49:23.360 --> 00:49:28.360
 where you have your utility might be that the funds and the way that they're actually

00:49:28.360 --> 00:49:36.200
 distributed, have some caveats to account for that. So that if city, city money is going

00:49:36.200 --> 00:49:41.480
 to be used as part of an investment, then obviously the city is controlling that.

00:49:41.480 --> 00:49:50.720
 I've also seen, for example, the Greater Houston Partnership, we did a large workforce project

00:49:50.720 --> 00:49:57.080
 for them that was essentially funded from their capital campaign. And they had investors

00:49:57.080 --> 00:50:03.320
 who specifically said, I want my funds to go into the talent development part of that.

00:50:03.320 --> 00:50:07.000
 And so it could be that maybe just get structured that the private sector is going to put up

00:50:07.000 --> 00:50:15.640
 funds that there are some strings attached to how that gets used. But I know, Charlie,

00:50:15.640 --> 00:50:19.280
 you've worked with other groups, too, like Round Rock and others, if you've got anything

00:50:19.280 --> 00:50:22.280
 to add there.

00:50:22.280 --> 00:50:32.760
 Yes, there's, I mean, there's a number of ways that people have done this. And I think

00:50:32.760 --> 00:50:39.800
 Tom's right, we probably need to look at what are the what best fits Denton and how it would

00:50:39.800 --> 00:50:48.080
 operate. But a number of communities do this where, as Tom said, but that money is usually

00:50:48.080 --> 00:50:55.920
 specified for specific purposes in an overall economic development plan. But I'd be glad

00:50:55.920 --> 00:51:03.480
 to pull together some of those in conjunction with Tom to bring back to you.

00:51:03.480 --> 00:51:10.520
 All right. Jill raised her hand.

00:51:10.520 --> 00:51:19.640
 Well, so as far as the input I have, I have a few points. First, I would say that I think

00:51:19.640 --> 00:51:25.320
 the philosophy is is on track. I don't think there's any major red flags. In my opinion,

00:51:25.320 --> 00:51:29.160
 I think you're going to get a consensus that we're in the right direction and let's move

00:51:29.160 --> 00:51:33.600
 forward. Although COVID-19 has slowed some things down, things are still moving very

00:51:33.600 --> 00:51:38.680
 fast in the North Texas area. And we certainly don't want to miss out on opportunities that

00:51:38.680 --> 00:51:46.760
 we might if we slow things down in any way. Second, I would say one of the most helpful

00:51:46.760 --> 00:51:52.040
 things as well as kind of putting these philosophies together is looking at the real numbers and

00:51:52.040 --> 00:51:58.120
 comparables. I think it's going to be very helpful for people that maybe have not looked

00:51:58.120 --> 00:52:03.920
 at the philosophy around economic development to see what our competition is, even within

00:52:03.920 --> 00:52:09.240
 Denton County, to where they could enjoy some of the culture of Denton, but not necessarily

00:52:09.240 --> 00:52:14.440
 do business here because of the opportunities that are set up with these type A and type

00:52:14.440 --> 00:52:20.760
 B funds very close by. So I think some of those and helping us understand what real

00:52:20.760 --> 00:52:29.080
 numbers are just down the street is incredibly helpful for determining what the next steps

00:52:29.080 --> 00:52:35.480
 Denton needs to take. I think in order to stay strategic and intentional, we do need

00:52:35.480 --> 00:52:40.960
 to not take anything off of the table as far as funding for this catalyst fund. So whether

00:52:40.960 --> 00:52:48.760
 that's the A train, whether that's DME, whether that's private investment, I think everything

00:52:48.760 --> 00:52:55.400
 should be on the table and open for consideration, understanding what current disadvantage we

00:52:55.400 --> 00:53:01.440
 are at and competing for the best businesses for our residents and to help sustain our

00:53:01.440 --> 00:53:09.640
 city. And lastly, I would say that I think the sooner the better, as far as moving forward

00:53:09.640 --> 00:53:15.920
 or giving you what you need in order to come forward with the implementation matrix, we

00:53:15.920 --> 00:53:21.920
 as we all know, our contract between the chamber and city regarding economic development has

00:53:21.920 --> 00:53:27.680
 expired and we are talking about what that is going to look like if that continues, if

00:53:27.680 --> 00:53:32.440
 it continues, what that's going to look like. And we certainly are relying a lot on all

00:53:32.440 --> 00:53:37.280
 of this input from all of these different sectors, as well as this report and trying

00:53:37.280 --> 00:53:44.000
 to determine what is best for the city and who should be doing what. So my vote would

00:53:44.000 --> 00:53:49.720
 be to, even if you feel like we're jumping the gun, trying to get that matrix together.

00:53:49.720 --> 00:53:55.560
 I think, like I said, I've not heard a red flag yet as far as what you've put pen to

00:53:55.560 --> 00:54:00.720
 paper and been able to put in a document as far as where we've been, where we are, and

00:54:00.720 --> 00:54:07.000
 where we might be able to go and the way we want to go. So I think that the sooner the

00:54:07.000 --> 00:54:15.000
 better so that we can determine the partnership between the private and the public sector

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:22.400
 would be helpful. And I just it's been a real pleasure to be involved in the entire process

00:54:22.400 --> 00:54:30.800
 and learn more. And just being a part of I truly believe this is of the utmost importance

00:54:30.800 --> 00:54:40.080
 for the city of Denton. So thank you very much. Thanks, Jill. Any other comments or

00:54:40.080 --> 00:54:50.160
 questions for Tom? Marty, I did have a question, please. Okay. I'm sorry, gang, to come to

00:54:50.160 --> 00:54:55.800
 the party a little late, but we've been without email and without internet for two days. And

00:54:55.800 --> 00:55:06.520
 we put some bubble gum wire and chewing gum together and here I am. So a couple of things.

00:55:06.520 --> 00:55:10.120
 And I know we're not supposed to speak to people directly, but I'm going to do it as

00:55:10.120 --> 00:55:17.480
 gently as I can. Councilman Davis, I would like to see, this is my personal feeling,

00:55:17.480 --> 00:55:21.840
 I'd kind of like to see the council show their hand a little bit. I feel like we're in a

00:55:21.840 --> 00:55:30.280
 poker game and nobody's showing their hand. As far as kind of what we want to do as far

00:55:30.280 --> 00:55:38.680
 as an investment. And I'll elaborate a little bit more. Another example. As a young boy,

00:55:38.680 --> 00:55:43.520
 I lived in a foreign country and I didn't know what to expect there. But when I got

00:55:43.520 --> 00:55:49.640
 with some experienced people, I was able to travel and enjoy the foreign country because

00:55:49.640 --> 00:55:54.760
 I was with some experienced people. And I feel like that right now, we need to do something,

00:55:54.760 --> 00:56:00.800
 but I've never been here before. So I'm relying on the people with experience to tell us how

00:56:00.800 --> 00:56:06.520
 much money do we need? I need a number on the table and possibly a number one, a number

00:56:06.520 --> 00:56:12.200
 two and a number three, as far as an option. Choices. This would be our first choice, second

00:56:12.200 --> 00:56:18.240
 choice, third choice. So I don't know how we integrate that into what we're doing here,

00:56:18.240 --> 00:56:24.760
 but I kind of like to at least have a ballpark of what we think we need and then develop

00:56:24.760 --> 00:56:29.680
 a plan to go and get there. Thank you for allowing me to have that input.

00:56:29.680 --> 00:56:40.480
 >> And Marty, if you don't mind me jumping in. John, I think your points are great. I

00:56:40.480 --> 00:56:47.040
 don't think it's helpful to ask the city council to brainstorm this. I think that we've got

00:56:47.040 --> 00:56:54.600
 a lot of talent in this group and what would be more helpful, I think, to lay this issue

00:56:54.600 --> 00:56:58.040
 out to them and to get their feedback that you're asking for. And I think we all want

00:56:58.040 --> 00:57:03.400
 that. It's not particularly helpful for me as the city manager to see what other cities

00:57:03.400 --> 00:57:08.260
 have to work with. I think that we can put together those dollars. I mean, we're limited

00:57:08.260 --> 00:57:16.160
 by our imagination. Quite frankly, the sales tax from DCTA, it's not coming back to us

00:57:16.160 --> 00:57:21.360
 right now, so we need to kind of ground ourselves in some reality. And I think, Tom, it would

00:57:21.360 --> 00:57:27.280
 be helpful to understand, you know, what you see is really necessary to move us forward

00:57:27.280 --> 00:57:33.400
 the next step or two over the next couple of years. We can certainly put together financing

00:57:33.400 --> 00:57:38.400
 plans right now for the council to take a look at, but they need to know what they're

00:57:38.400 --> 00:57:44.280
 debating and why. You know, and I think if we can structure it that way and get it back

00:57:44.280 --> 00:57:49.560
 in front of this group, just say, look, here's two, three, four different options. What do

00:57:49.560 --> 00:57:55.640
 you think? You want to recommend some things, as long as it's tied up in strategy and projects.

00:57:55.640 --> 00:58:00.680
 And you know, I think it gives Jesse and the rest of the council the ability to jump off.

00:58:00.680 --> 00:58:07.480
 We can solve the money if they want to, but it's just sort of where are you seeing in

00:58:07.480 --> 00:58:12.280
 the implementation plan that our, you know, first few million dollars need to be spent?

00:58:12.280 --> 00:58:16.560
 Where are you seeing that we need to have, you know, that capital fund set aside for

00:58:16.560 --> 00:58:21.200
 opportunities because we can certainly make recommendations to them. And I know that we'll

00:58:21.200 --> 00:58:25.760
 listen to them, but we need to go to them very specific plan. If we don't, it's really

00:58:25.760 --> 00:58:29.760
 not fair for them to sit there. They don't know the budget like we do and some of the

00:58:29.760 --> 00:58:34.280
 opportunities like we do, but as long as we frame it, we'll get that feedback from you.

00:58:34.280 --> 00:58:38.760
 But it's got to be more targeted. You know, what do we need for new companies? Where do

00:58:38.760 --> 00:58:43.160
 you see us, you know, maybe needing to invest in some infrastructure, that sort of thing,

00:58:43.160 --> 00:58:47.320
 and what would be a good starting point? I think this group's kind of gotten tripped

00:58:47.320 --> 00:58:53.320
 up over the last year in terms of how much money that we need and we don't have an option.

00:58:53.320 --> 00:58:58.280
 We have a lot of options that we can offer. It's just what are we trying to solve for?

00:58:58.280 --> 00:59:03.520
 I think we can help you get some compact recommendations for council. And as long as we're going to

00:59:03.520 --> 00:59:08.960
 them with the financial side, sort of, you know, a menu there, I think we'll get them

00:59:08.960 --> 00:59:14.720
 to listen and give you some really solid input. But John, your point's right on, but we have

00:59:14.720 --> 00:59:19.040
 to have that data first to give them, you know, to talk through the options with them.

00:59:19.040 --> 00:59:25.240
 Well Todd, while you and I are talking, I just wanted to say that I was uncertain who

00:59:25.240 --> 00:59:29.000
 was going to put the stake in the ground. Somebody's got to put the stake in the ground

00:59:29.000 --> 00:59:32.240
 and say, this is what we're going to go for. I thought it was the council, but if you're

00:59:32.240 --> 00:59:39.520
 saying it's us as the think tank, I'm more than happy. But once again, I don't really

00:59:39.520 --> 00:59:47.040
 know what's reasonable. So somehow we've got to find a goal that's both reasonable and

00:59:47.040 --> 00:59:52.600
 doable and we'll achieve the goals that we want. So I don't even know how to start that.

00:59:52.600 --> 00:59:58.000
 I think I'm happy driving the stake out, you know, in providing the options. We just need

00:59:58.000 --> 01:00:04.440
 a little more specificity with Tom. This conversation will go nowhere with council if all we do is

01:00:04.440 --> 01:00:09.020
 show them what other cities have to work with. I mean, if we go in basically saying, look,

01:00:09.020 --> 01:00:14.440
 here's our strategy. We've got an implementation plan for the next couple of years. We really

01:00:14.440 --> 01:00:20.040
 need to have X amount aside, you know, in a fund to retain or go after jobs if they

01:00:20.040 --> 01:00:25.040
 present. We've got X amount that we need to invest out there. We'll put the plan together

01:00:25.040 --> 01:00:32.040
 and run it by you. And I just find that you get much better feedback from the council,

01:00:32.040 --> 01:00:37.840
 you know, when they have three or four realistic options where the financing's there. You know,

01:00:37.840 --> 01:00:42.120
 don't forget that this group has got, they go through hundreds and hundreds of things

01:00:42.120 --> 01:00:47.040
 every month. And so the more compact and better we can package it for them, the better the

01:00:47.040 --> 01:00:52.180
 feedback you're going to get from them. So I'm happy to have staff work with Tom, bring

01:00:52.180 --> 01:00:58.840
 something back to the group. We don't need to rush to the 28th of July and maybe next

01:00:58.840 --> 01:01:03.040
 month we say, hey, here's some ideas we had, here's some targets over the next two years,

01:01:03.040 --> 01:01:09.800
 five years, here's some ways we could get there and then run that by you and if you're

01:01:09.800 --> 01:01:15.200
 comfortable with it, get it to council. But I think that thought process there, we just,

01:01:15.200 --> 01:01:20.160
 both the council and the EDP, we get frozen because we're not coming there with solutions

01:01:20.160 --> 01:01:25.520
 for you to respond to. Thank you. Thank you. I needed that.

01:01:25.520 --> 01:01:32.240
 And Jess, if you want to jump in. Sure. I think I'm mostly going to echo exactly

01:01:32.240 --> 01:01:39.800
 what you said. In my experience, I agree with Tom. I think asking council just kind of workshop

01:01:39.800 --> 01:01:46.320
 on this idea would lead us down about a thousand rabbit trails without really converging on

01:01:46.320 --> 01:01:54.160
 a meaningful goal. I think giving us some realistic and attainable options and some

01:01:54.160 --> 01:01:58.480
 ways to get there, some ideas on how to get there. Even, you know, the most out of the

01:01:58.480 --> 01:02:03.160
 box idea I've heard yet is the DME thing. I don't think that we've really truly examined

01:02:03.160 --> 01:02:09.280
 that as a city, but ultimately it's a policy choice, right? The council decides how you

01:02:09.280 --> 01:02:15.580
 get there and they do that with the best advice they can get. I can tell you, speaking again

01:02:15.580 --> 01:02:20.280
 only for myself, but with an idea of who my colleagues are, we are not equipped to have

01:02:20.280 --> 01:02:26.520
 that conversation in the same way that this group is equipped to have that conversation.

01:02:26.520 --> 01:02:32.360
 Bringing something forward to us that leans heavily on Tom's experience and this group

01:02:32.360 --> 01:02:37.840
 vetting out what Tom brings, that puts us in a much better position to make meaningful

01:02:37.840 --> 01:02:53.880
 and realistic decisions. Thank you. Anyone else has any questions, comments? I'm gonna,

01:02:53.880 --> 01:02:59.640
 I guess just to ask Jessica, does there kind of remind us what our next steps are? I know

01:02:59.640 --> 01:03:06.360
 there was a timeline in there. Sure. We're asking for public input right now on the website.

01:03:06.360 --> 01:03:14.080
 So we've, we're hosting an online public comment session in lieu of a community meeting. So

01:03:14.080 --> 01:03:19.280
 we have been pushing out the message on social media saying, community, give us your ideas

01:03:19.280 --> 01:03:26.200
 and your feedback, really focused on, again, the broad general concepts and the ideas that

01:03:26.200 --> 01:03:30.880
 we've put forward to the board. I did talk to Tom this morning and let him know that

01:03:30.880 --> 01:03:36.560
 we were gonna push back the timeline just a little bit instead of rushing to July, that

01:03:36.560 --> 01:03:42.480
 we were likely going to council sometime later in August. What I've heard today is that Tom

01:03:42.480 --> 01:03:48.600
 and Jacqueline and I have a lot of work to do and kind of working through scenarios and

01:03:48.600 --> 01:03:53.000
 budgets and ideas. There's some additional work that I have been doing that I can share

01:03:53.000 --> 01:04:00.040
 with them on that and additional analysis as it relates to kind of possible scenarios.

01:04:00.040 --> 01:04:05.160
 And then maybe that's what we'll bring back to this group at your August meeting and get

01:04:05.160 --> 01:04:10.520
 feedback. Because what I'm hearing consensus generally about the strategies in the plan,

01:04:10.520 --> 01:04:15.800
 what I'm hearing is we need more specificity in particular on the fund and how that fund

01:04:15.800 --> 01:04:21.560
 relates back to the tasks identified in the plan. And so putting actual dollars and cents

01:04:21.560 --> 01:04:26.760
 to some of those tasks and how the, how the fund can be used to help accomplish that plan.

01:04:26.760 --> 01:04:31.640
 So if, if we have a month to work on that, then that's what we'll bring back in August

01:04:31.640 --> 01:04:37.400
 and we can go from there. That was a lot. Does that all make sense to everyone?

01:04:37.400 --> 01:04:45.480
 It does. Thank you. Anybody have any questions or comments for Jessica? All right. If not,

01:04:45.480 --> 01:04:54.880
 we'll move on to our next agenda item, which is to EDP 20-026, receive a report, hold discussion,

01:04:54.880 --> 01:05:01.280
 give staff direction regarding the nominations for the annual business awards.

01:05:01.280 --> 01:05:06.880
 Thank you guys very much. We're going to sign off. Thanks, Tom. Got our marching orders.

01:05:06.880 --> 01:05:14.280
 Thank you guys. I'm sure they're getting right to work.

01:05:14.280 --> 01:05:21.040
 So we usually have an annual awards breakfast, as many of you all know, where different city

01:05:21.040 --> 01:05:27.760
 departments, as well as boards provide awards to various businesses for different reasons.

01:05:27.760 --> 01:05:35.040
 This year, unfortunately, we won't be able to hold that awards breakfast, really out of concern,

01:05:35.040 --> 01:05:41.440
 again, for safety. We don't want to plan to hold an event in September, knowing that large events

01:05:41.440 --> 01:05:48.960
 are definitely discouraged at this moment. So we have been brainstorming ways to do online awards

01:05:48.960 --> 01:05:53.920
 or virtual awards, and we're still working out all of the issues related to that. But we definitely

01:05:53.920 --> 01:05:59.600
 wanted to make sure that this board had an opportunity to continue to nominate and select

01:05:59.600 --> 01:06:06.000
 award recipients. And so we wanted this item on the agenda to allow for the first discussion

01:06:06.000 --> 01:06:15.040
 of nominations or how we could move forward, definitely open to ideas of ways we can move

01:06:15.040 --> 01:06:21.200
 forward. But certainly, this has been an incredibly tough year on our businesses. And I think that any

01:06:21.200 --> 01:06:26.720
 way that we can demonstrate support to them, knowing that many of them have undertaken

01:06:26.720 --> 01:06:34.800
 great efforts to assist individuals as well as their employees or even other businesses

01:06:34.800 --> 01:06:42.080
 in this time. So the board normally does two awards. We added the small business award last

01:06:42.080 --> 01:06:48.800
 year. So the first award was just the EDP business award. And that was for an employer over 100

01:06:48.800 --> 01:06:55.280
 employees. And then last year, we added the small business award. In your packet, we had outlined

01:06:55.280 --> 01:07:00.880
 the award recipients from past years. Last year, the large business award went to embassy suites,

01:07:00.880 --> 01:07:07.920
 and the small business award went to LA's TECA. So I will just open it up to the board for questions

01:07:07.920 --> 01:07:16.640
 or discussion and know that we're still in progress. Any comments, questions?

01:07:16.640 --> 01:07:23.920
 This is Jill Jester. Can you walk us through the timeline of what we need to do? At what point do

01:07:23.920 --> 01:07:30.080
 we need to start submitting nominees? What information do we need to include in those

01:07:30.080 --> 01:07:35.520
 nominations at the next meeting? Where should we be in the process? Just so that we kind of,

01:07:35.520 --> 01:07:41.200
 with everything swirling around, we know when we need to be doing things. Sure. So typically,

01:07:41.200 --> 01:07:46.400
 we would be having the awards breakfast in September. So we'd use the July, August,

01:07:46.400 --> 01:07:51.440
 and September meetings to select or to nominate, review the nominations, and make the final

01:07:51.440 --> 01:07:55.920
 selection of the award recipients. Since we don't have that deadline, we have a little bit more

01:07:55.920 --> 01:08:02.080
 flexibility. So what I was thinking is that this will kind of kick off the nomination process.

01:08:03.280 --> 01:08:08.720
 Any board member could submit a nomination between now and the August meeting. At the

01:08:08.720 --> 01:08:16.880
 August meeting, then we could bring back the research that we normally do. In your packet,

01:08:16.880 --> 01:08:23.600
 you have the business recognition award criteria sheets. And that staff then goes through the

01:08:23.600 --> 01:08:30.160
 nominees and evaluates them based on those criteria. And then we bring those back to the

01:08:30.160 --> 01:08:35.760
 board to review and discuss. So I'm thinking that could happen at the August meeting if we get some

01:08:35.760 --> 01:08:40.320
 nominations between now and then. Obviously, if not, if we need a little bit more time,

01:08:40.320 --> 01:08:45.600
 we can have that. Does that answer your question, Jill? Yes, it does. Thank you.

01:08:45.600 --> 01:08:56.800
 So in for our August meeting, we'll ask the board members to give you any names or suggestions to

01:08:56.800 --> 01:09:03.200
 to visit about at our next meeting. And then I would also ask staff to bring some names together.

01:09:03.200 --> 01:09:08.080
 You guys generally do a pretty good job of having the pulse of what's going on. And that's that's

01:09:08.080 --> 01:09:17.760
 helpful as well. Sure. We can do that. So if the board could send us nominations, if you think of

01:09:17.760 --> 01:09:25.760
 someone, send it to myself via email, or I'm sure I will see many of you at least remotely between

01:09:25.760 --> 01:09:30.720
 before the August meeting. And we'll get that work done and then have the

01:09:30.720 --> 01:09:34.960
 criteria sheets for those nominations at the August meeting.

01:09:34.960 --> 01:09:45.440
 All right, our next item is EDP 20-019, Receiver Report,

01:09:45.440 --> 01:09:49.200
 Hold Discussion Regarding the Downtown Economic Development Committee.

01:09:49.200 --> 01:09:54.400
 I'm not sure who's going to talk about that.

01:09:56.240 --> 01:10:02.400
 I think Christina has the update for the downtown economic. Christina is shaking her head no,

01:10:02.400 --> 01:10:10.240
 but she prepared the report. So reports out there. Yeah, we had a meeting the first quarter,

01:10:10.240 --> 01:10:15.360
 we had a couple meetings and we asked and then we took two months off. We actually met last week

01:10:15.360 --> 01:10:24.560
 to look at give some feedback on streeteries and parklets and one way traffic versus two way

01:10:24.560 --> 01:10:31.680
 traffic and had a pretty good discussion on that in the past. So the reports out there,

01:10:31.680 --> 01:10:36.320
 if anybody has any questions or continuing to meet, that'll meet

01:10:36.320 --> 01:10:45.280
 next week or two weeks from now. Yes, I think we're meeting the second week of August. We had to

01:10:45.280 --> 01:10:51.440
 move our meeting. Yes, but just want to, you know, brief update for the committee. Just know that

01:10:51.440 --> 01:10:56.080
 the downtown economic development committee did take a long break. I think they were one of the

01:10:56.080 --> 01:11:01.520
 last committees to meet in March and they just started meeting again in July. But after July

01:11:01.520 --> 01:11:07.680
 meeting, they did have a grant application come forward for H2OAK. And so that was recommended

01:11:07.680 --> 01:11:13.360
 for approval and that will move on to the TURS board next. And then we, in the report that

01:11:13.360 --> 01:11:20.960
 Christina did provide to you, it included some updates on the existing grants that used to come

01:11:20.960 --> 01:11:24.880
 before this board and now have transitioned to the other board. So we'll continue to provide that

01:11:24.880 --> 01:11:31.840
 information just so that this board remains aware of the grant funding that goes through now directly

01:11:31.840 --> 01:11:42.240
 from the downtown committee to the TURS board. Comments or questions?

01:11:45.440 --> 01:11:54.080
 All right. Our last item is EDP 20-027 and that is staff report. So we'll get an update from

01:11:54.080 --> 01:12:04.000
 Jessica or Christina. Do you guys want to chime in? We did not provide an additional city

01:12:04.000 --> 01:12:10.720
 report. Our last report that you got about two weeks ago still covers all the items that we

01:12:10.720 --> 01:12:19.680
 were working for. So I'll let Charlie talk about his report. Yeah, the June reports in your packet

01:12:19.680 --> 01:12:28.880
 kind of describes what we've been up to. We've been doing a lot of work on our website and

01:12:28.880 --> 01:12:35.760
 getting that updated and getting it rearranged where it's more easily accessible, particularly

01:12:35.760 --> 01:12:43.600
 for site locators. We've been doing a lot of research on digital marketing since that's going

01:12:43.600 --> 01:12:50.080
 to be the future of where we're going and how we can get there and what are some of the things

01:12:50.080 --> 01:13:00.320
 we need to do to be better prepared for the digital marketing age. We also have

01:13:00.320 --> 01:13:07.760
 been, during the month of June, we've been handling all of the RFPs for the state and Dallas chamber

01:13:07.760 --> 01:13:17.040
 and Fort Worth chamber. We submitted nine RFPs during the month of June, then had a visit,

01:13:17.040 --> 01:13:26.480
 I mean a phone visit with a company that's looking to build a facility for a company in California

01:13:27.440 --> 01:13:37.520
 that they're trying to get to move. It was a direct call to us and we'll be hosting

01:13:37.520 --> 01:13:44.560
 one of their company representatives tomorrow afternoon. He just called last night and said,

01:13:44.560 --> 01:13:51.040
 "I want to come see some sites tomorrow." So we'll be doing that as well as just staying in touch

01:13:51.040 --> 01:13:56.800
 with a lot of our developers and brokers and finding out where they are with a lot of their

01:13:58.400 --> 01:14:01.840
 we have, as you know, we have three buildings under construction right now

01:14:01.840 --> 01:14:09.360
 and just trying to stay on top of those because so many of the RFPs that we get are requiring

01:14:09.360 --> 01:14:17.040
 existing buildings. So now that we have those, that's going to be a real asset to Denton to

01:14:17.040 --> 01:14:24.400
 be able to show that we have a building available, be available at a certain point in time and so

01:14:25.040 --> 01:14:32.000
 we're really excited about that. That's going to be a great deal. Our EDP industrial license

01:14:32.000 --> 01:14:43.520
 committee met. This is the fundraising group and we met during, we met during, on Zoom during the

01:14:43.520 --> 01:14:51.280
 month and in providing them with some some marketing material to help provide additional

01:14:51.280 --> 01:14:58.320
 investors. So we're moving along and staying very busy. Thank you. Any questions?

01:14:58.320 --> 01:15:11.120
 All right. Thank you, Charlie. I think that's our last item to discuss and before we adjourn,

01:15:11.120 --> 01:15:16.000
 I want to make sure we recognize a couple of folks that are working behind the scenes.

01:15:16.000 --> 01:15:22.960
 Billy Matthews is helping record all of this and Rachel drew the short straw to get to listen to

01:15:22.960 --> 01:15:29.040
 all this all day. She probably does Zoom meetings all day long now and thank you for being here and

01:15:29.040 --> 01:15:35.920
 helping make sure things are going smoothly as I look at your picture over here on that side. But

01:15:35.920 --> 01:15:42.000
 our next meeting is Wednesday, August 12th. Make sure that's on your calendar and

01:15:43.440 --> 01:15:49.120
 we'll just plan on that being Zoom until we hear otherwise. But appreciate everybody

01:15:49.120 --> 01:15:56.720
 blogging on today and all your efforts and helping the city of Denton. So with that,

01:15:56.720 --> 01:15:59.040
 I'll take a motion for adjournment.

01:15:59.040 --> 01:16:11.440
 Come on. I'll move. All right. We're adjourned. Everybody can log off. Go back to your real job.

01:16:11.440 --> 01:16:18.080
 So thank you so much. Look forward to seeing everybody soon. Thank you. Bye, everyone.