City Council - Special Meeting

Good afternoon everyone. This is Mayor Siro Jefferson convening the special meeting of the High Point City Council. Here with me in the room we have every member of council present. Say council members Johnson and Holmes. Uh before we begin our meeting, well, I'll ask if there's a motion to adopt our agenda. So move. I'll second. Motion to adopt our agenda is made by Councilman Moore, seconded by Councilman Andrew. Any discussion on that motion? Hearing none. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I.

Any against? Eyes have it. And our agenda is adopted. First item is item 2026-159 presentation from our highpointed market authority uh on the fiscal year 2026 2027 budget. Uh to kick us off, I'll recognize Tammy Coington uh to come to speak to us today. Thank you. Use a different name with Well, that's what they wrote.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And thank you uh members of city council for having us today. And uh thank you as usual for your support of our organization. Uh we're going to talk a little bit about um next year's budget and kind of step through um some of what we've been working on and kind of where we're going and we're going to see how Tammy does with technology. Stephen, are doing good. Awesome. Um so uh every year when I speak with you all we talk a little bit about where our organization will focus. We think that is important and for the last three years we have adopted these same focus areas with each uh year they take on a little bit of of different strategies of course but just to review those. Our number one job here is to cultivate new buyers to come to this market and our team uh works hard to uh not only retain those that that come to market but to look at new sectors. You've heard us talk some in the past about partnerships with the National Kitchen and Bath Association. That's going very well. We do see some um increased buyer uh attendance there as well as getting creative about participating in things like design edge which takes us to different cities around the US and cultivating designers that are in a 90m radius of those cities. Long story short here is we're always looking and always looking at at what's next in terms of bringing those buyer targets to market. You can't recruit new if you don't keep the ones you have. So, making sure this market stays frictionless. We use that word a lot in making sure that when buyers come, they have a great guest experience. That's everything from hotels to transportation to private home rentals to um information booths, all those things that Terry and his team do

from an operation standpoint to make sure this is an enjoyable experience. The third bullet I would say is where we're spending more time these days than we ever have. A long range technology improvement plan that is customer focused. I think I said to you all last year that this is where I feel like we played whack-a-ole is something breaks and we knock it back down. Um we are working hard to get out ahead of this technology plan. I'm going to tell you a little bit about why that is. We have just uh completed a competitive analysis where we hired a third party to come in and look at our market comprehensively uh and compare where we are as a show with where the future of those buyers will be. I'll give you an example. 15 years ago, we started concentrating on designers. Um many of you who've been around a little while can see the difference in the faces on our streets of market. uh we're much more diverse. Uh we are um uh younger and uh that means the services that we provide look different. Designers need different things than retail stores do. And so what Chris and I do every day really depends on you bending and moving according to to that next generation of buyer. 15 years ago we made that move. We're asking the question now of who is next and that competitive analysis delivered some very interesting things to us. But we know that the next generation of buyer coming to High Point will depend on technology in a way that none of us in this room currently are. And we have to be ready for that. So I'm not standing here in 5 years telling you we're still playing whack-a-ole. Um a lot of that is AIdriven. A lot of

that is driven by we know this next generation is looking for um brand equity. They are looking for um sustainability. They are looking for um they are looking for uh what this means in their home. They're looking for wellness. They're looking for a whole different host of things that are very different than what that current buyer base is looking for. And this technology will help us connect them to what they need from a market. So you're going to see more and more about um our increased uh uh concentration on that technology. And the fourth, we remain very committed to nourishing that next generation of home furnishings professionals. And this uh not only means students, we still do a lot of work in that. actually the last day of market worked with High Point Schools Partnership on a on a day where we brought high school students in and got them excited about market. Did a scavenger hunt. Uh they did presentations at the Hall of Fame was a great day. But it also means people getting into this business. We see more and more second careers of people who um decide that they have some talents uh maybe do their families home and then say, you know what, this could be a second career for me. We need those folks to get into this industry as well. So, it's a little bit twofold. We continue to work in that area. Uh you all have um in front of you our budget. It's tucked inside what we call our lookbook. We just um updated this. So, I gave everyone a copy. A lot of times when we talk to groups, it's very hard for them to understand what a High Point Market authority does. um what what we um what's our role versus the role of a building or or the city or those sorts of things. So just to give you one of those, the budget is tucked in there. And I would say if there is a story here, it is consistency. You see very little change between last year's budget

where we're forecasting where we will come in this year and then next year's budget coming in um at 9,175,472 um is what we're looking at uh in uh just a little bit higher than last year's from 9134. If you look at that revenue and how this shakes out, I always think this is very interesting. We look at this a lot from from our office. It is uh a great public private partnership. Local dollars making up about 20% of that. The state kicking in just under 50% and the industry at 31. So those have stayed very consistent as well. If you look at the expense side of this, uh we're hanging very close to those budget numbers. last year's budget coming in um 9,126 forecasting 9,18 and then splitting the difference for next year's budget at 9,166. So, a lot of consistency there. This is more the important slide and I think breaks down sort of what you see in that spreadsheet, but how we're spending our dollars um as it spreads across what uh our main headings here. Um you'll see the increase in administration being um we have invested a lot of money in it this time. A lot of that is around some new equipment for registration um that needs to come our way in the next fiscal year. Um you will see that uh a little bit of increase for transportation that's mostly in fuel and vehicle costs. um we all go to the pump and see what that looks like. And when you're renting 75 pieces of equipment for market, uh that that does tend to hit our pocketbook a little bit. Um registration probably uh making a uh the largest um

increase here. Um that again is is equipment as well. Um and uh staffing just really working. It's so important that that piece of what we do is very seamless. This is not only the active registering. This is also the database and the back end of what we do. So, um, we talked a little bit about technology. You'll see marketing actually goes down. The story is actually not in the 2.8. The story is more in the 3.1. We changed last year a lot of our creative. So, it meant reprinting a lot of signage, a lot of collateral, all those things in last year. So you'll see this more regulate around the 2.8 probably going forward. And then guest service uh went down a little bit but basically flat there. So um a lot of a lot of comparable numbers as we look at um going into next year. If we look at the wise of market and why it's important for you all to continue to support what we do. Um, I have a couple different slides where I point out several things, but I put the people first because I feel like as we um do what we do, this is probably the most important for us locally. Um, we hire about 250 temporary staff people and I am very proud of this number. We have a 92% retention rate in our temporary staff. Um, we love local people working on this event. It makes the piece that we hear every day of market. Gosh, these people are so nice. Are y'all really this nice all the time? It's the southern hospitality part of what we do that is so important. It is our folks finding the answers. It is those who are freezing to death standing out in the terminal trying to get people to bring their barcode to be scanned um with a

smile on their face. Um and does this retention um include recurrent every year or is this the same group that comes back every year? Is it a new group of uh employees? Uh we have hung it that night. It is the same group that comes back every 6 months and we Yes, we continue to very much the same. Is it Chris? You look out your your door and it's kind of the same guy in the same intersection directing traffic.

Only if I could get you a secret. Yes, it's tough and I that guy is a big reason for it. Um, it is it is training. It is also doing the right thing year round. It is sending birthday cards. It is making sure they have somebody's cell phone number if their check didn't arrive on time. It is being very responsive. But it's also making sure they understand how important this is to our community. And I feel like that makes a difference. Um, I get asked that question a lot in the grocery store. There's a young woman who works for us in transportation who works in the bakery in Harris Cedar and every time I go in, she wants to know what the numbers were.

Um, it's important to her and that that is why this 92% happens is that and we want to continue that. But I think this impacts us as a city because um these are the folks who live here year round and we love that part of it. The other thing I'll say is that um it's also quite the spectrum the variety of people in terms of some of them are people who are retired and looking for a little additional income and really want to stay busy, want to stay active. It's uh people who take a week off twice a year to be there. Um yeah, a few of those

stay at home moms at home moms. So, it's really a it's really a a very diverse group, but they kind of come together and get to know each other and it's a little bit of a a family feel, right?

I y'all will love this. I was doing a tour this past market and I was in a van. I just had a few pe a couple people with me and the gentleman that was driving the route cuz part of what I like to do is put them in a van and let them see the expanse. You can't go in one or two buildings. You really can't pick that up. So, we kind of drive them around. Well, I get a phone call as usual. So, I answer the call and he continues the tour. He's been with me so many times. I'm driving this route. I He's like, "Do you want me to stop?" And I'm like, "No, just keep going." And he's like, "And once we cross the railroad tracks, this is the high-end district." And I'm like, I mean, this is a guy who knows nothing about market other than he's ridden with me way too many tours, I think. But, um, again, that's important for us. Um, I'm going to hope this plays a video here, Stephen, if I hit um because the economy, we know, is an important part. But we loved this coverage from Fox 8 this time. See if it plays.

Oh, no. If I can. Oh, there it goes. Okay, here we go. A local restaurant owner, this rush is hard to keep up with. for furniture market. You know, a restaurant on Main Street few miles away from the High Point Furniture Market sees about five times the normal crowd during furniture market week. That one weekend it will last us couple months. The economic success during this weekend, this is the blessing water that I created is important.

And I would ask to bless the showroom and bring the blessings so they could make good sales and that success spreads across the city.

Yeah. So just we love that we can enjoy some of the things that we do year round because we hope this event is just that little bit that pushes them over that profitability edge. Um and somebody like two is a great u great spokesperson for that. But it's also those of us who rent homes uh or rent our homes out. Uh uh Britt Moore shared at our board meeting the other day that uh he's had you're on your third generation of market guests uh that rent his home. Um which is they're part of the family at this point. You're supposed to raise the rate every generation coming back.

Exactly. Exactly. No, we love that part. But it is part of the economy. I also toured this market. um the North Carolina Department of SEC uh commerce secretary Lee Liy um first time he'd ever been to market and we talked a lot about I took him to two showrooms uh one being Universal who just made a a pretty large investment in Hildebrand, North Carolina with their new upholstery um factory, but also took him to John Richard who is an importer but who has a huge distribution center out on I40 in Gibsonville. If you're ever driving to Burlington, you see it on the right. So, he's made um this commitment in our community or in in Guilford County specifically bringing jobs and even if it's not making the furniture or making the accessories there, he still sees value in being here because market is here. So, another uh good part of what we bring. And the last is the brand. Uh uh Councilman Holmes, this is for you. We are the center of the creative revolution and we feel like High Point Market is the tent pole for that and we love the creativity that this brings to our city. You all may have seen that we announced uh that we are moving our offices into a new location here on Hamilton Street, 115 South Hamilton, where we're moving the dirt around right now. um and or the owner is we're going to occupy the third floor of this building and it's going to give us an opportunity to brand what we're doing in a bigger way. And more importantly, back to that frictionless piece is be able to execute some of our guest services in one place in a more consistent way that uh we feel like will be more on brand for us. So you will know see more about that as we go. Uh but we hope a year from now that we'll be moving into that new space. So, we're excited about that. Uh, lastly is the district, and this has

been a great partnership with the city um to execute on that $9 million from the state of North Carolina. um not only uh messing up South Main and bearing some power lines and us all getting frustrated by street closures, but I hope you've seen the tidy team, which are folks that we have hired that are in the district prior to market to try to get ahead. So, public service doesn't have as much of a heavy lift when it comes to right before the show. This has been a game changer for us and we get lots of good feedback from folks about that. And we all love the hanging baskets. That's been just a little bright spot I feel like as we um there are 200 of them and uh keeping them watered and growing um has been a fun challenge for Terry. But um they're looking good and will be up um until next market. They are up through the summer.

Yeah. We're trying to do is keep them uh keep them watered and alive. We did we accomplished that last time. We we had uh new plantings before April market and they survived through October. and we took them down and started all over again. Yes. So that that will be the cadence on those going forward. So that is my presentation. Any questions? Any questions at this time?

So you don't expect with the gas price increasing so much that it's only going to be I know we don't know the future, but I mean 60,000. The reality is there's some savings in there on some other things that um that number would have been big. You're exactly right, Councilman. That number would have been bigger.

Yeah, we uh we we've really been um looking at transportation from kind of examining our data really really closely, getting new data and able to make some some uh decisions that have saved us some money. In fact, I was telling Tam here, our budget for this year probably will come in right at $2 million. So, that still gives us enough of a gap for um for increased u um vehicle costs, but also fuel costs. Yeah, because you're right, those are good guys.

Tammy, have we rebounded at all with international visitors coming into market? I know over the past 18 months we've been navigating global trade uncertainty. That's the best way I can say that.

Absolutely, Mayor. Uh you're absolutely right. We have um we started making some gains in 2022 with internationals beginning to come back after CO. Um and then most recently with sort of the the um global situation, we have seen that begin to fall off. uh probably the largest fall-off being la at the last October market. We did show some gains in April from October. So, we hope that is a good trend, but we are not back to where we were. Um I would say that again. Mhm. It is. Yes, sir. Okay. I was wondering why what are you saying, Chris? I missed last thing.

I said I was wondering why you was being so nice about that, but tariffs. But anyway, um yes, a lot of tariff. You're absolutely right. That's on the lips of a lot of folks um at market. Yeah, international. A lot of the international customers I spoke with was spoke of the challenges of it. But yes,

um all I can say mine's more of a statement. Um if you I having worked in multiple cities with multiple markets, I will promise you that they are a they lift the heavy load. Um, I love working home versus working away because we we do so much more in house and um they they do so much more with less when we when we consider the cost. So, thank you. Any other questions from market authority team at this time? Thank you. No question, but I just want to also y'all do a fabulous job. I mean, the energy, the just everything is just amazing. Thank you all so much.

Thank you. What's your answer to the question when they ask you if everybody's always that nice around here? Of course. Yes, we are. We're always that nice. So, yes, you might want to think about living here. That's right.

Well, if if there's no other questions or comments, we'll say thank you Tammy and Terry for coming and presenting and best of luck as you all prepare and thank you all. Our next item is a closed session item for personnel. I ask if there's a motion to go into close session. So move second. Motion is recognized to Mayor Pro Tim Peters. Second to council member Andrew. Any discussion on the close session motion? All those in favor please signify by saying I. I. Any against? The eyes have it. We'll go into close session.