Oct 14, 2020 Economic Development Partnership Board on 2020-10-14 11:00 AM

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the economic development partnership board meeting for the month of October. My name is John Bain, CPA. I'm the interim chair for this board. And I think we have a pretty decent agenda this morning. And before we get into it, I think we have two new people that are with us this morning I'd like to acknowledge. We have a new board member, Lee Ramsey, and we also have a new economic development staff member, Kay Brown-Patrick. If you could at least tell us who you are, what you represent, and maybe give us about a minute's worth of wonderful information, I think that will be a great deal. You first, Lee. Well, I'm excited to be part of this, so thank you guys for allowing me to be. I'm owner of Orson Holdings, based here in Denton, and we have a few operating companies. I grew up here in Denton. I have been married for 20 years, and I have a senior in high school daughter and a freshman in high school son, and my daughter is going off to OSU next year, and just love doing business in Denton, and glad to get to serve with a lot of really familiar faces and leaders in the community, so thank you guys. Thank you, Lee. Kay. Well, thank you for the introduction, Mr. Baines, and I'll just briefly, I'm Kay Brown-Patrick, the new business development administrator. I have been in economic development for 10 years. I am a proud graduate from the University of North Texas. I received my master's in public administration there, and so I'm happy to be here, back working, where my career and my pathway to public administration began, and I'm looking forward to working with you all. Thank you, Kay, and welcome aboard. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we have, I believe, six items on the agenda, and the first item on the agenda is EDP 20-47. We're to receive nominations and elect a chairperson and a vice chairperson of economic development partnership board for the coming year, 2020 through 2021. We will now accept nominations from the floor. And just as a brief statement, I want to let everyone know what the chair's role is, particularly because we recently adopted the new work plan, and we're working through the strategic plan, and so the chair of the EDP not only leads the meetings, but you also will be asked to attend monthly work group meetings, and then you might also be asked to attend some of our recruitment, retention, and expansion meetings that may occur throughout the year. You also work with our team over here at the city department to review the agendas, making sure that the board's priorities get addressed and that they're properly posted and agenda items are clear, and then as well as meeting with staff on an as-needed basis to help provide insight or give direction regarding any issues or strategies that we're working through with the board. So with that, I will turn the floor back over to the board to discuss and make nominations. Let me ask for a point of clarification here, so should we ask for a chair nomination first and then a vice chair or should we get them as a combination? I think we'd prefer them as separate motions and votes would be the cleanest. Thank you. Katie Briggs. Thank you. I would like to see if the vice chair, Mr. Baines, would like to move up to chair. I would love to nominate you if you would accept the position. I would not turn away your nomination. Then I would like to nominate John Baines, please, for the chair of the economic development board. We have a nomination on the floor. Do we hear a second? Second. Second. Let me see. I couldn't tell who seconded first. Mark McClellan seconded and then also Bob Ames. Okay. We have a motion on the second. Do we have any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor of selecting John Baines as the chair for the coming year, we'll need to show a vote by hands. Sorry, can you vote by name? Can you see everyone and call out their names individually? I should call them off? Yes. Starting from the top then, Erica, do we go with everyone? Okay. Bob Ames. I enthusiastically vote for John Baines. Thank you. Let's see. Tony Clark? The same, John. I for me. Okay. Jill Jester? Aye. Of course, Keely, you made the motion, so I take that as a support. Yes, I still stand with my original decision. Thank you. Jason Tomlinson? Aye. Lee Ramsey? Yes. Mark, you did the second, so I take it that you're in favor? Yes. Did we get everyone, Jessica? I believe Steve Edgar is on the line. I'm sorry. Sorry, I forgot. I didn't see your picture there, Steve. Steve, there's a motion on the floor in a second to have John Baines serve as the chair for the coming year. I was a strong yes until I was not -- I was not recognized by the nominee. I am still a strong yes. Thank you, Steve. Thank you very much. And John, you need to vote. And because? You're a board member. All right. I find it a little strange voting for myself, but I will. Okay. Let's see. So are there any votes against? I don't think we heard any. That was everyone. Okay. So we have a unanimous vote there. Thank you very much. The next vote, motion we need is for a vice chair. Do we hear a nomination? Jason, you have someone? If she's interested, I would like to nominate Jill Jester as vice chair. Okay. Are you interested, Jill Jester? If there are no other nominations and feel I'm best to serve, I would definitely serve. So how do we do this, Jessica? Do we continue to ask for nominations from the floor? You can. Okay. Keely? I would just like to second the recommendation for Jill Jester as vice chair. Okay. We have a motion and a second. Let's see. Do we have any other nominations from the floor? Okay. Hearing none, we'll do the roll call once again for confirmation. Let's see. We'll start with Bob Ains. I just as enthusiastically vote I for Jill Jester. Wonderful. Tony Clark? Let's see. Keely Briggs? Yes. Jill Jester? I will abstain. Okay. Jason Tomlinson? Aye. Lee Ramsey? Yes. Mark McClellan? Yes. Okay. So we have, what's that, six. And I also will vote in favor of Jill Jester that makes seven in favor and one abstention. Steve. Steve. Steve. At some point this becomes personal, man. What am I going to do? What am I going to do? I'm known for being quiet. I absolutely support Jill Jester. All right. Thank you, Steve. Thank you. Thank you for dealing with the shortcomings of the newly appointed chair. Let's see. Did we miss anyone? Did we get everyone? I think we got everyone. Did we miss anyone? Okay. So I believe that we have a anonymous selection for Jill Jester as vice chair. Yes. Okay. Let's say then moving on to the next EDP item, Jessica. Let's see. We have EDP 20-044. This is to consider the approval of the minutes of the September 9th, 2020 meeting. So a copy of the draft minutes are included in your packet for consideration. If there are any amendments or changes, let us know. Do we have a motion from the floor? Move to approve the minutes. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Second. Jill Jester. Jill Jester, second. Do any discussion of the minutes as presented? Hearing none, all in favor of approving the minutes as presented, we're going to do a roll call. Once again. Bob Ames. Aye. Let's see. Tony Clark. Aye. Keely Briggs. Yes. Jill Jester. Aye. Steve Edgar. Aye. Jason Tomlinson. Aye. Lee Ramsey. Abstain since I wasn't at the meeting. Okay. Thank you. And Mark McClellan. Aye. Okay. The minutes have been approved. And moving on to the next agenda item. Receive a report, excuse me, EDP 20-048. Receive a report, hold a discussion, and appoint or reappoint members of the Downtown Economic Development Committee. And I believe, Jessica, you told me you would take over the discussion on this particular item. Yes, sir. So if you'll remember correctly, last year, this board adopted a new policy for the Downtown Economic Development Committee, previously known as the Downtown Task Force. With that, you established terms for the Downtown Economic Development Committee members. They drew lots, and half of the board served one-year terms in their initial term. And so those board members are eligible for reappointment this year. We surveyed those members and received positive feedback from all of them that they all wished to continue to join. So presented to you for your consideration would be the appointment of Peggy Capps, John Cartwright, Hank Dickinson, Brock McKnight, Alex Payne, and Michael Talley to serve on the Downtown Economic Development Committee. And then in addition, the Economic Development Partnership Board also appoints a member of this committee to serve as the chair of the Downtown Committee. That position was held by Marty Rivers. And so with Marty turning out on EDP, that leaves his seat open on the Downtown Committee as well. And so we are seeking a nomination from the membership of the Partnership Board to serve as your representative and the chair of the Downtown Committee. Jessica, would it be appropriate to take a look at the matrix that you presented in the packet just to refresh everyone on what we're doing and who's involved? Sure. I don't have that pulled up. It is provided in the packet, so I would have to leave it to everyone to look at that in the packet. So just for a sake of clarification, you had mentioned that Marty was chairing that committee? Yes. Will he continue to chair that committee? No. He served as the Economic Development Partnership Board representative on the Downtown Committee. So since he is no longer on the Partnership Board, he is no longer chairing the Downtown Committee. So how will we handle the appointment? You will need to select a nominee from your membership on the Partnership Board, and that person serves as the chair of the Downtown Committee. Okay. So continuing this dialogue then, so is that something we do today or is that something we do offline or is that something we do this morning? If it pleases the board, you can do it this morning. If you do not have a nominee or a member that's willing to serve, we could certainly put it on a future agenda, but the Downtown Economic Development Committee will likely meet again before this board does. It doesn't mean the seat has to be filled, but they're working without a chair until this board appoints one for them. Let me, I don't know if this is proper protocol or not, but does anyone here on the board have an interest in serving on that committee? So don't everyone raise your hand at the same time. So with that being the case, Jessica, it looks like we may need to make a few phone calls and just find out and before the next meeting we can make that appointment. Okay. Do you wish to move forward with the additional appointments of the board members that have reached or that finished their first year term? That was Peggy Capps, John Cartwright, Hank Dickinson, Brock McKnight, Alex Payne, and Michael Talley. So they would not be the complete committee, but they would just be continuing for another year? For two years. For two more years? Yes. Okay. I don't see why not, unless someone has an objection to them continuing. Mr. Chairman, I would make a motion that we approve those nominees for their two-year term. I would second. I have a motion on the floor in a second to approve the slate of committee members for the next two years. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all in favor, we'll do a roll call once again. Bob Ains? Aye. Tony Clark? Aye. Keely Briggs? Yes. Jill Jester? Aye. Steve Edgar? Aye. Jason Tomlinson? Aye. Lee Ramsey? Aye. And Mark McClellan? Aye. Okay. And yourself, Mr. Chair. Okay. All right. I'm in agreement that they should continue as well. So it looks like we have a unanimous agreement that the slate of committee people would continue to serve in that capacity for the next two years. And we also need to get a chair from this committee to sit on that board. And so after my deadline tomorrow, we will look at making some phone calls to see who might be willing to assume that role. I believe we're done with that agenda item. The next agenda item is EDP 20-050. Receive a report. Hold a discussion. Give staff direction regarding a business retention and expansion program plan for economic development. And Jessica, I believe you're, once again, are one of your staff. We're going to take care of this discussion. Yes. So what I always appreciate is that someone else will be presenting an item. So I'm going to turn it over to Kay Brown-Patrick, as you all met Kay earlier. Kay is our new business development administrator. And I think she's been here now four weeks with us. And she had one goal from day one, and that was to look at the city's business retention and expansion plan, revamp it, do a deep dive into what we can do better to better serve our business community. So Kay has been hard at work doing that for the past few weeks. And we want to get the board's feedback. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Kay and let her present her initial work to you guys. Thank you. Thank you, Jessica. So I am going to be discussing what our efforts are going to look like in regards to our business retention expansion program. I reviewed the previous plan. I believe it was dated from 2017 and identified some opportunities for enhancement and finding a more intensive and robust manner to support our businesses. So that coupled with what the strategic plan identified as opportunities for enhancement as well. I'm sorry, this slide, this is stuck. But the strategic plan identified some opportunities as well for enhancement. And so we took what the strategic plan said and created an outline. Now, this is going to be the directive that we use coupled with your feedback to finalize the BRE plan. But the strategic plan specifically pointed out prioritizing our efforts based on strategic areas in the community, as well as diversifying the business size, the industry type, and the location, and then also structuring the efforts to serve several purposes. I think in the past, the BRE efforts have been more focused on just visits and making contact with the businesses, as opposed to you'll see in the outline, we're going to have a little more activity in ways to touch the businesses because we may not be able to visit all businesses in a cycle, but we will be able to create opportunities for us to engage the businesses. So here's the mission in brief, identify and address the local business needs by providing them with quality assistance and access to resources in order to retain them and help them expand. What you'll see here as well is that the expand component is not just focused on businesses that are existing and helping them become larger, but also focusing on our startups and entrepreneurs and helping them expand as well. In the past, the expansion has been focused on expanding our larger businesses to include more employment opportunities and jobs, but we want to ensure that that expand includes expanding, assisting our startups and our entrepreneurs. So goal number one, and the goals are in no particular order, is to establish and build relationships with our local employers to better understand their business needs, challenges, and their opportunities for expansion and growth. Goal two is to provide us with better information and understanding for our stakeholders and leaders as like you all in regards to the strengths and weaknesses of our business climate, and this will help us to refine any policies or programs that we have in regards to our efforts to support our businesses. Goal number three, foster more employment opportunities, and this goal enables us to prevent a reduction of job losses. And then goal four, provide assistance to businesses to help them overcome any challenges that they may have, and this is particularly regarding if something like COVID-19 were to happen again, setting them up for resiliency and sustainability if something like this were to happen in the future. Goal five, providing support for our minority businesses and hub, and this item is particularly pointed out in the strategic plan to address inclusivity in regards to our efforts to support businesses in the community. And then goal six is to develop a collaborative relationship with our stakeholders so we can have a comprehensive long-range retention and expansion activity and events. And I have been meeting with stakeholders from day one since I came to the city of Denton, and I will say that everyone is doing what they do great, but they are doing it in silo, and I think there's power in numbers, so I really want the goal for a collaborative and more cohesive effort to better support our businesses and create a synergy for our businesses and our support efforts. So here you see for our implementation is in progress, engaging the stakeholders. I have met with NCTC, TWA Entrepreneurs Center, UNT's Murphy Center, United Way, Texas Workforce Solutions, many stakeholders that I thought were important, and then Jessica added to the list, and I am wanting to hear from you all in regards to if there's anyone that you think that I should probably connect with. I have not made a connection with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I'm not sure if that's still a thing in the community or not, and then also have not been able to connect with the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce. But outside of that, I have been consistently meeting with the stakeholders, and then we're reviewing the draft outline. That's what we're doing today, and that's going to assist us in going back and revising what the final plan is going to look like. Our goal is to bring that back to you all in November, and then workshop it to council for approval in December. Business selection and visits is going to be important in determining what businesses we visit, who are our targets. I think we really need to focus on first cycle on the businesses that have never been touched. If we've had several visits to the same businesses repeatedly, we need to look at connecting with businesses that have not had any visits or been contacted in the past, and also engaging businesses in advance. What we think support for the minority-owned businesses and the hub businesses looks like may not be what they actually need, so making the introductory contact with them to say, "We're building a plan to support you in the community. What does that look like so we can ensure that we include that?" And then just diversifying our efforts. Like I stated earlier in regards to the sizes, large, medium, small, and startups and entrepreneurs. In the past, it had been just downtown, large, medium, and then small, and it didn't really encompass any startups, and so we want to make sure that we identify and support those businesses in the plan as well. Here is a list of the activities and initiatives. Early on, I mentioned the strategic plan stating the expanding what the BRE plan will look like as opposed to just being about visits. You see there, I have a number there, a goal between 10 to 15 per size, and that's the large, medium, small startup. The goal previously was 72, I believe, when it was presented previously, and so we want to keep within that and make it realistic, and you'll see in a couple of slides down the cycle that I'll mention in regards to what cycle those businesses will take place on. And then we have here networking opportunities. Virtual roundtables are a big thing right now in regards to business engagement, and so just connecting businesses with one another and then with city leaders is important. In the past, city council has gone on the visits with staff, and so we wanted to make sure we included them in our efforts but in a more formalized, direct way, so we're going to provide some opportunity for them to engage with the businesses in their district by hosting city council business forums by district, and I'll talk about that a little later. And then the business allies, it's just the cohort that I spoke about and the collaborative efforts for everyone. Everyone that I've met with, like I stated, is doing everything great, but I think it's going to be important that we all come to the table on a consistent basis to discuss our efforts so that we're not duplicating anything and make the businesses aware of the resources that are out there because there's some amazing resources available to them, and I think it's important that we let them know that. And then here, just assessing our results and evaluating the program after we've done our visits. These are some quantitative and qualitative efforts, and the qualitative are fluid. They can change if we are asking the questions and obtaining the data, and we don't think that we're actually getting the information that we need in order to evaluate our program, then we can go back and re-evaluate those, but I wanted to give you a list of some examples of how we will assess the results when we come back to communicate the program and the results and the success of the program. And this is the time that I mentioned, so the program, the visitation cycle that we have, we have the vision of January to August, so that we're not doing visits all year round. We are doing the visits in that visitation cycle. We are addressing any challenges that they may have, but we need a time in the cycle to evaluate the data that we collected. One, we're evaluating the program, and then two, evaluating the business climate. And in that cycle, you see there the district business forums, May to September, and then September will be the at-large forum for the at-large positions, because we have the districts, we're going to hold the forums by district, and then the at-large positions will be one big one in September. That's our goal, and I want your feedback on that as well. So that was quick and brief, but again, it's just an outline to get us to where we want to go to finalize a program. And so with that, I am open to your comments and questions and feedback. Thank you, Kay, for that presentation, and now we open the floor to see if there are any questions from any of the partnership board members. I see Kimmy Briggs with your hand. Welcome, Kay. Really glad to have you here. I appreciate that presentation. It was fantastic. I don't really have any comments, just to say that I am really excited about all the work that you've put into it and the opportunities here for retention. I think it's fantastic, and I agree with the goals that you have, and so I'm excited about it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Kay, I would also like to say thank you for your outreach. I took your email and communicated it to the leadership of the Denton Black Chamber of Commerce, and you should be hearing from them shortly. Tony Clark. Thanks, Mr. Chair. I would like to welcome Kay as well. Quick question. So it seems like a lot of these businesses that you're going to target are members of the Denton Chamber, the Black Chamber, Hispanic Chamber. What conversations or coordinations have you been making with those entities to parallel maybe the similar efforts on their part to do the same thing? Is this going to be kind of a joint effort? Is this something the city is going to run with? Is it going to be collaboration with us or with the city and the chambers to accomplish? I think it's a great mission, but just curious about your conversations or your thoughts there. Yeah, great question. So I have had the pleasure of meeting with Erika on several occasions. We've discussed that, and so the business visits and the targets have not necessarily been determined, but we will include the businesses from those chambers, and there will be joint visits. So it's not necessarily that we're targeting just members of the chambers, but it's the business community at large. So we will include the Texas Workforce Solutions. If we're visiting an entrepreneur, we'll include maybe someone from Stoke or TWU Entrepreneurs Center. So it depends on the visit and the business type and maybe their needs that we have identified in our pre-survey or our pre-conversation, who goes on the visit. And if I could, I'll expand on it a little bit. Kay, she's trying to catch up, but I don't know that she's watched all of our discussions related to the strategic plan and the chamber contract just yet, but we have talked about this, that our goal is not to duplicate efforts or be inefficient in our work with the chamber. This is a partnership, and Erika and I, and I know Kay and Erika have had those discussions, and Charlie and I have had many discussions, is that our goal is to have Kay serve as the lead project manager over this particular program, but she's not operating in isolation. So she's doing this in conjunction and coordination with the chamber, with the black chamber, with Hispanic chamber, with TWU, with many other representatives in the community to really give a comprehensive view of the business climate in Denton. That's information that can be shared with the chamber. That's information that can be shared with the city council, with this board, but really to get a comprehensive view of this program. But I hope Kay didn't go back and watch 20 hours of EDP meetings just yet. We want her to come back, so that's the second month task. Do we have any more questions from the floor? Kay, thank you once again for your presentation, and we look forward to working with you throughout this coming year. Perfect, thank you. Let's see, do we need any type of acknowledgement on that report, Jessica, or do we just need to move forward to the next agenda item? Well, today we just wanted to make sure that this board had an opportunity to provide input, ask questions, give direction, make sure that we were tracking on what the expectations were, and then we'll work very diligently over the next month to put together the full plan, and we'll bring that back to the board as your November meeting, and then we'll go forward from there. But no, no action today. Thank you. Kaylee, I see your hand up. Yeah, I did come up with a question. So I know that on our annual updates, or just our updates, it had goals for retention visits in the past. Is that going to stay the same? Are we going to increase the percentages needed, or have we just kind of done away with that? So in the past, the way that our plans were set up, our strategic reporting was a kind of hard number. What Kay and I have talked about is focusing on quality and making sure that we're hitting businesses that have identified one. Kay identified a whole group of businesses that were sort of the never been touched businesses that we want to make sure that we get those visits. And so we also have more team members, Dan here, who also is working on the BRE items with Kay. So we're going to try and do more and increase our visits, but we're also trying to increase our touch points. So not just one-on-one visits, but holding forums. An example might be something that came up during COVID was that I had a lot of questions for bankers. And so it was really nice to have a network of bankers that I could reach out to and say, hey, what are you guys experiencing or what are you seeing? And so we want to encourage those types of touch points where it's not necessarily a formal visit, but where there's a group of within a sector maybe working together, we can hold a strategic kind of forum with those individuals. All right. Sounds good. Thank you. And Kay, I wanted to say that I'm in the midst of my most difficult deadline, which ends tomorrow. And so I will digest your presentation and get back with you with some Q&A. Certainly. Let's see. Moving on, on our agenda item. Let's see. We have EDP 20-049. Receive a report, hold discussion, and give staff direction regarding the meeting dates and times for fiscal year 2021. Is that you again, Jessica? That's me again. So as required by the city secretary's office here in Denton, every board must adopt their annual meeting schedule. This partnership board meets on the second Wednesday of the month at 11 a.m. So I have provided those dates to you in your packet, the next meeting occurring on November 11th. And then I've scheduled those out through next September. So we do it on the fiscal year basis, so October through September. All of those meetings, I do send out calendar appointments to everyone. I try and do it at least a month in advance. I sent out an email to everyone recently asking if you had another member of your team that helps manage your calendar to just make sure that I have that person's information, just so I can make sure to copy them in as needed. And then I will say we'll more than likely continue meeting remotely for the foreseeable future. So I just want to let everyone know that because I always get questions every month about when we're going to get back in person, but this will likely continue for a while. And so I know that leaves a little bit more wiggle room in everyone's schedules in terms of not having to travel to and from city halls. So just want to let everyone know those facts. But with that, we will need to adopt the official meeting schedule for this board. - Do I hear a motion from the floor to adopt this meeting schedule? - So moved. - Mark McClellan made the motion. - I'll second. - That's you, Steve, Edgar? - Lee Ramsey. - Oh, Lee, okay. I'm sorry. Second is Lee Ramsey. Let's see. Is there any discussion of the meeting dates that have been listed? Okay. Hearing none, all in favor signify with a roll call vote. Let's see. Tony Clark? - Aye. - Gil Jester? - Aye. - Jason Tomlinson? - Aye. - Lee Ramsey? - Aye. - Mark McClellan? - Aye. - Keeley Briggs? - Aye. - Steve Edgar? - Aye. - John Baines? - Aye. - So we have unanimous consent for the meeting dates for the 2021 EDP partnership board meeting schedule. Let's see. We've got about one more item on the list and Jessica, typically I know what Marty would do from time to time if we were, and by the way, Marty, I know you're out there watching and listening. We miss you, buddy. And so anytime you want to come and hang out and sit in front of the, you know, the economic development office, please do that. We'd love to see your face. Let's see. Jessica, I'll give you the option of kind of emphasizing the things that you feel are most important for the partnership board today. - Sure. Just know that we have included in your packet the quarterly stand report. Interesting, some very interesting data in there. If you haven't gotten a chance to take a look at that, I think one of the most fascinating things that we look at every month, let me see if I can get to the right page, is at the bottom of page five of that report is permits. And I'd encourage everyone to kind of take a look at that as we're nearing the end of the, we just finished the 19-20 fiscal year and looking at the level of growth in residential permits in the city of Denton, it's always astonishing. And so we are very interested in that final census number. And then we will also be moving forward with a new report. We are in the process of building out our reporting platforms right now in terms of the strategic plan reporting. Once city council has finalized that and adopted it, you'll be seeing a little bit of a different report from the team that will include an update, a regular update on the implementation items for the strategic plan. So we're waiting for final adoption, but we're actually in the process of doing the preliminary build out of that platform right now, which takes a lot of time and effort and discussions among the team and assigning project managers and all of those things. But we're going to have a really fun tool that we'll be able to provide very regular updates to this board on those efforts. And then I know Charlie has included his report as well. And so I'll defer to Charlie as it relates to the chamber report. Charlie, before you do that, Jessica, I did have a question. I'm on page five. Yes. Please tell us what, what in particular stood out to you regarding the permits and other statistics that are presented there. So I think that what is most fascinating, one is the increase in the continued value in permits and construction that is occurring in and around Denton. So if you look at the value in the far right hand column, it has value in year to date. And so in the fiscal year, 1819, there was $363 million in added value in 1920. It was $534 million in added value. That's a huge number in terms of growth of residential value in the community. And then if you also follow along, you can see that in 1819 and 1920, we had one year, 1800 plus permits, residential permits. And then in 1920, almost 1600 residential permits that had been filed. Those are incredible growth numbers when we continue to see, you know, housing growing and the population growing and jobs coming to the Metroplex and the demand on, on our, you know, public services and those sorts of things. And so that's a number that we track really closely to make sure that we're aware of where, where's the population going and what does that look like when they get here? Thank you, Jessica, for emphasizing it. I think it's always good to hear some good news and to, you know, give us a reason to smile for being here in the city of Denton. And thank you, Charlie, for your patience. Would you please give us a report? Well, I've written it and provided it to you, but I think I would like to refer to Erika right now to give you an announcement. And actually I can make that announcement if that's all right. So Erika headed up our selection committee on behalf of the chamber for a new economic development vice chair. And we had most excellent resumes coming in. We narrowed it down to three finalists that came up here to Denton. And I'm very excited to announce that we have extended an offer that has been accepted to Corey Lacey. And he plans on starting October 26th. He comes with decades of experience in economic development on behalf of Emory, Texas city of Rowlett. And most recently he has been president of the best Southwest partnership in Duncanville that is an association of 40 plus organizations, including cities, businesses and community partners, as far as economic development, etc. So we are very excited to have him on board and look forward to seeing him at these meetings. Thank you. Exciting news. Thank you very much. With that, I'll go back into retirement and I'd like to thank each of you for allowing me the opportunity to work with you at Denton. And I've really enjoyed it and got to meet a lot of really neat people, or at least got to see them all on zoom anyway. But I really have enjoyed it. And as I told you last time, your future is just extremely bright. You've got so many good things going for you. And with this new strategic plan, it's going to really set Denton off into a whirlwind. So you might want to get the ADP to buy everybody tennis shoes. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of you early, we're going to miss you. Thank you for all your efforts, sir, very, very much. Erica, did you have anything else you'd like to bring to our attention? I do not. I, again, just want to thank Charlie for the dedicated work that he brought to Denton over the past 10 months, the way that he was able to easily come in and build relationships and get up to speed. His presence here has meant a lot to this chamber. I'm really appreciative of the search committee in our search for the new economic development VP here. And I appreciate Charlie's assessment that the future is bright. We knew going in that there was going to be a big opportunity for whoever stepped into these shoes. And we're just excited to get into the next phase. Although, if we could get Charlie to stay on with us, we sure would try. Well, I think we're at the end of our agenda, ladies and gentlemen. And I'd like to thank each of you for your time and your investment to make the Economic Development Partnership Board better. A special thanks to all the city staff and the ex officio members. And a special thanks to Steve Edgar for his presence today. Thank you, Steve. That's a good recovery. We have a motion on the forge for adjournment. Do I hear a second? Second. Okay, we have a motion and a second now. Now, Jessica, you're going to make us do the hand call and we'll be okay. You're good. I think it's unanimous. All right, good deal. Thanks, everyone. Have a good week. And we look forward to everything for the coming month. Thank you. God bless. Thank you, Jessica.