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HomeMy WebLinkAbout02/08/06 EDC I MINUTES THE COLONY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION REGULAR BOARD MEETING CITY HALL CONFERENCE ROOM FEBRUARY 8, 2006 The Regular Session of The Colony Economic Development Corporation of the City of The Colony, Texas, was called to order at 7:03 p.m. on the 8th day of February 2006, at the City Hall conference room with the following roll call: Board Members: Bob Norris, President Al Garcia, Vice President Kevin Greene, Treasurer Rick Casterline Paul Koenig Perry Schrag, Council Liaison Present Present Absent Present (arrived at 7:09 p.m.) Present Absent (business) I Staff Members Present: Tom Terrall, Director of Economic Development Cindi Lane, Economic Development Specialist And with three voting members present, a quorum was established and the following items were addressed: Item 1.1. Pledge of Allegiance: President Bob Norris led in the Pledge of Allegiance. 2.0. CONSENT AGENDA Item 2.1. Reports: a. Cash flow projection b. Monthly ~ Cent Sales Tax graph c. Tax Allocation Summary for January d. Summary of current activity regarding development e. Marketing update f. Report on DFW Marketing Team g. Weitzman Shopping Center Survey & Forecast January 11, 2006 h. NT CAR Breakfast January 19, 2006 i. TEDC Winter Meeting January 19-20, 2006 j. Update of council members attending ICSC tradeshow in May I (a) Tom Terrall made some changes to the 2005-2006 Cash Flow Projection regarding the incentive payments being made to Jackson-Shaw and explained that funds needed to be taken out of the 4A account because the bond money hadn't come into the City at that time. These incentives totaled $1,155,610.40, but those funds will be replaced by the bond money since they were designated to be paid with the debt service. Mr. Terrall also noted that revenue was approximately $33,000 ahead of projection for the fiscal year. (b) Mr. Terrall said that the graph shows a growing, strong economy. (c) The summery shows that The Colony has a 22.17% increase in sales tax revenue from the previous year. (d) Mr. Terrall said that there is nothing to report from the planning department. Whatever might have been submitted has not gone to planning and zoning so it is not public information yet. (e) Cindi Lane showed the board a new ad developed by OnMessage that was published in the Commercial Real Estate Quarterly in the January 27th edition of the Dallas Business Journal. She also showed the ad that was published in the Dallas 2006 Economic Development Guide. This publication is sent out to all businesses inquiring with the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. She said that for the 2007 edition, The Colony EDC will run a full page ad developed by OnMessage. She reported the web site statistics and gave an update of the website. There is a meeting scheduled with OnMessage next week to review the updates and changes before going live. She said that there will probably be a few tweaks made and then the new site should be live by the end of February. As soon as it is, she will email the board so they can view the site. (f) Mr. Terrall reported that he attended the January, 2006 meeting where they laid out the 2006 scope of work. Some DFW marketing team members will attend the CoreNet convention in Philadelphia this spring, but Mr. Terrall said he does not think it would be in The Colony's best interest for him to spend the money to go this time. The Colony will be represented since he is a marketing team member. He did receive a great lead from the fall convention last year and is in the process of following up on it. The team is working on a trade show booth and developing a regional banner. (g) Mr. Terrall said there was an excellent turnout, as usual, and he went over a summary report that was included in the EDC packet. Although getting better, there is still a vacancy rate in retail, office, and industrial buildings throughout the metroplex which makes it unlikely that spec buildings will be built in The Colony until the vacancy rate drops further. (h) Mr. Terrall said there were over 500 attendees at the breakfast. He thanked the board members who were able to attend. Mr. Terrall encouraged the brokers to pick up literature as they leave when he spoke at the meeting and he was told that after the meeting, everything but a few tri-fold brochures were taken by the attendees, which was great. (i) Mr. Terrall attended the Winter TEDC meeting which was mostly internal administrative in nature. His committee revised three bylaws and presented them to the TEDC Board. The bylaws will be presented and approved at the annual meeting. (j) Mr. Terrall said that at the council meeting on February 6th he gave a brief background ofICSC and left it up to council to decide if they wanted to send one member or more than one member to the tradeshow. As they talked it became apparent that two of them wanted to go, so they decided to send Joel Marks and Allen Harris. Mr. Terrall said that only one of them was budgeted so he would EDC Minutes February 8, 2006, Page 2 I like to offer to pay for the other one since the council approves any amendment to the EDC budget anyway and this would be a chance for the EDC to help the City. The board agreed that the EDC could fund the other council member. Item 2.2. Approval of the minutes of the regular board meeting held January 11, 2006: President Norris asked if there were any corrections, changes or additions that anyone would like to make and there were none. Paul Koenig made a motion to accept the minutes as written. The motion was seconded by Al Garcia and all members voted in favor. 3.0 PUBLIC COMMENTS 3.1. Public Input: There was no public input. 4.0 REGULAR AGENDA I Item 4.1. Discussion of distribution of board members' email addresses for communication with residents for information requests: Mr. Terrall read an email from Diane Baxter, Public Information Officer and Assistant to the City Manager, regarding an idea of creating one email address for each board so that residents can email them to find out information. The idea was for this email to go to the liaison of the board and if generic, the staff would respond and copy all the board members of the communication and keep hard copies on file. The correspondence could also be reported on at board meetings. President Norris thought it was a good idea to funnel everything through staff in order to keep track of correspondence and communication more easily and efficiently. The board was in agreement. Item 4.2. Discussion of legislation update from TEDC legislative consultant: Mr. Terrall explained that TEDC employs a legislative consultant to keep up with current events going on in the Texas legislature having to do with economic development. She sent out two memos recently, one regarding the House list of charges for the House Economic Development Committee and the other regarding the Senate interim charges regarding economic development and emerging technologies. It seems that the House is going to re-visit the Development Corporation Act next session and the Senate is going to review how other leading states and countries have developed their economic development programs. Mr. Terrall said he will do everything he can to keep up with the proposed changes. Other groups are looking at the 4A and 4B sales tax revenue and it will be interesting to watch and see what happens next session. I Item 4.3 EXECUTIVE SESSION as authorized by section 551.087 of the Local Government Code regarding Economic Development, to-wit: EDC Minutes February 8, 2006, Page 3 A. 4A shall convene into a closed executive session pursuant to section 51.087 of the TEXAS LOCAL GOVERNMENT CODE To deliberate an amendment to an incentive agreement for a business prospect: There was no executive session held. Item 4.4: Consideration of appropriate action to be taken as a result of executive session: A. There was no action taken. President Norris adjourned the 4A board at 7:53 p.m. , ~~,~ Cindi Lane Economic Development Specialist d~~/V~I Robert E. Norris' President EDC Minutes February 8, 2006, Page 4