City Council - Special Meeting

6, 2026 to order. Um, hold on. It's on. We're good. Okay. Um, all right. Uh, Natalie, will you do roll call for city council, please? Mayor Brandonto here. Mayor Pro Tim Marks here. Council member Shider. Uh, he'll be here late. He's probably pulling in right now. Council member McCain here. Council member Janette excused. And Council Member Dickerson here. We have a quorum. And And then we'll have roll call from the roll call for the economic development uh committee. Uh director Jason Hayes here. Director Gary Somerville here. Director Brad Duffy here. Director Matt Crabel

here. Secretary Treasur Terry Okonnell here. Vice President Pam Schwartner here. President Bob Wley. All members of the president. We have a quorum.

All right. Thank you. If y'all please stand with us, we'll do the pledges of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible. If you'll remain standing and join me in a word of prayer, please. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening. We thank you for today. This is the day that you have made and we rejoice in it. Father, we thank you um that we have a um a representative government where we can be elected and appointed to uh represent uh the our neighbors and the citizens. And uh Father, we know that it is a blessing from you that we are able to be here. And so we ask that you would just be here with us tonight, Father, that um everything that is said and done would be pleasing to you um and that it would be according to your will in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. All right, we have uh item number three, business a new business one, executive session closed to the public pursuant to chapter 551.072, 072 Texas Government Code deliberation regarding purchase, exchange, lease, or value of real property. So, um it is 6:32 p.m. and uh we'll go into executive session. We're going to stay here.

the formula and it's all right. Uh council and EDC, it is 7:50 p.m. I'm going to call this meeting back to order. Item number two, consideration and possible action, approval of the 2020 2026 strategic plan of the economic development corporation action to be taken by the economic development corporation. Mr. Bob,

and I'll start this off if you don't mind, Bob, just to let me interject. So, um, we work together, city council, um, our staff and the EDC board on putting the strategic plan together. Um, each of these, um, items listed on this plan, uh, were, uh, were discussed. If there's anything that you guys would like to add or take away tonight, please let us know. Now, um before we uh place this into the city council's uh strategic plan, this is the EDC strategic plan, but it will become a portion in the next agenda item uh to become part of the city's plan uh once adopted. Um but uh I think everything on here is there any questions on here? Anything that we need to talk about to consider going forth? Well, I talked to Zth prior to the meeting. Uh, and I mean, we when we met with you guys last time on the strategic plan, there was a lot of stuff discussed, okay? But there was nothing in writing. You know, it's like we talked about this, we talked about that. So, I asked Seth in the very when when I got here tonight say, "Look, you know, we we just we just received this in our package. My board hadn't actually seen all this stuff yet." And I said, I asked if there was any room for us to to uh take take what you guys have now given us in writing, take it back, us discuss it, and then come back to you again. Well, he he kind of told me and I kind of agree with him. Look, we need to move on. We need to move on with this. So, I said, "Well, that that's the case. I don't have a problem with that. But I just want to go uh if if you guys it's going to take up a little bit of council's time for us to go for my board to kind of go through each one of these uh bullet points and see if there's something we need to add or delete. So you guys understand why it's because we just got this. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. We're all just kind of seeing it. So uh I kind of want people to have a little food for thought before we get into it. So, so basically I guess

uh le let's just go ahead and jump right into the the thing. Uh project prioritization list hire EC director coordinator by April 1st 26. I think we can take that off the list. No, we keep we keep those those those milestones on there. It's kind of like our strategic plan uh that was adopted by city council. There was several items that were taken care of in between strategic planning and now. We just wanted to be a part of the strategic plan. It'll change for next year, but for this year, that was the top item mentioned during that time. So, as I say, since we've already hired him, do we leave that on there or Okay, we'll just leave it on there. Okay. The next one is to still within his 90 days. Don't take

still on. Yeah.

Number two, amend the bear business expansion attraction retention grant uh guidelines that fits for specific needs of the business. that will come up later in the meeting to get get down to the the nuts and bolts on that one. So, that's definitely on the list if anyone and as we're going through these, if y'all have any questions about it, I want to ask more questions or like the may the city manager said, if there's something we need to you guys want to add or delete, this is the time to kind of kind of flag it and let's talk about it. All right, so uh let's go to three. Consider funding grants a funding a grants coordinator position to research grants opportunities. All right. So, I guess I've got some questions about that one. We We talked about it, but we didn't actually say So, you're asking, am I reading this that you're considering we're doing it and we pay for it?

That's correct. To consider it. It's not funding a grants coordinator position. It's consider if it's willing, if you know, if it's the the value, if the juice is worth the squeeze on it.

Understand? Well, this is a topic that I think would be better discussed when we're in one of our meetings to say, "Okay, what's the what do we really want to do that? Is there any way that the city the city uh has already got somebody in their in their working for them that we could pay part of their salary because uh so y'all don't y'all y'all don't have anybody right now that's going to work on grants?" Well, we do, but I I think that if we were going to hire somebody to look if we were going to invest in that, I want to invest in um a experienced professional for this role that can really return um uh the money that we're paying for their salary. Um what what are we talking about for a salary?

We're just look, it's just to consider it. It's not putting a a salary to it's not creating a new position. And it's just to consider, you know, I'm just asking for the salary. I mean 70,000. That's what I 75,000. Have you talked to the county? They have a grants. They they do they've got several um uh grant writers and grant coordinators uh that work for them. And so they're anywhere between 70 and 150 in that department. But I mean, could we utilize that?

Um we, you know, potentially. Um, I don't know that the county would be willing to do that, but potentially you could contract uh with them. Um, in Georgia, uh, my grants administrator with one of the cities, she gave 10% of her time, and so 10% of her salary uh came uh from that city. Um, you know, I'm not going to say that I'm against it um or for it. it is an option but it's not preferable in my mind because their interest is going to be with one of their juris one of their jurisdictions. So

that's right. So it's it's just going to be you know where they're when they're looking for grants. Um it depends especially if the people at the county if any of them u one know our community and know what the the challenges are and if they're willing to you know to put in that time. It's hard to me uh to quantify that like if they're doing 10% of their time for us, what are the, you know, um objectives they've got to meet? How can we really monitor that, enforce it? Yeah. Um that they're bringing in that funding for us. So, I'm not against it. I'm not saying that I'm against it. I just think that it's difficult. I was at the county level and I can tell you the county, we got a lot more use out of her than the city did uh there. So,

it's almost got to be a soft money deal. So, this would be an employee of the city and then the EDC would be funding it. I think this conversation that we're having right now is just what y'all are agreeing to do in one of y'all just to agree to the conversation. We're going to have a conversation within ourselves like Bob. That's the reason I was trying to get as much information as possible. It's just a a topic of of consideration right now. That's all it is. Consider is correct. All right. Uh next one. uh construct a welcome to Santa Fe sign to be installed at farm road 646 uh on the uh Shineright uh island.

Uh I think we've talked we've talked a little bit about that. I've reached out to a couple councilmen and asked them to look around for ideas. I think it's a great idea. My question would be will we come up with the plan and bring it to you guys or or how do we do that? How do we decide what the sign needs to look like? I guess

so. Me and Charlie would work together on that. Um, and so, um, we've already been approved by TechOt to put a sign there. Of course, we've got to get with them to give them the schematics. Um, but they have no issue with it. Uh, they've given us the go-ahad. Uh, so, uh, we would work together on that sign. We would want it to match the sign or be similar to the sign that we're putting here at city hall. Uh, so we would come to you guys with that. I will say the price range is probably going to be between 40 and 50,000. I talked with the city of Manville and theirs were 50,000 a pop. Okay. To put them up and they're beautiful. Have y'all Have y'all already got your design for what your sign's going to be out front? No. Okay. You So, you don't know what it's going to look like?

I We have a general idea and we're working through that right now, but we have quotes and and No. Y'all sign and that sign out there we would like to match. Correct. Am I Would I be uh uh I guess you know I think there's going to be other places we might want to put signs. So is the plan. Whatever design we come up with, if we decide to put one on this end of town, we put we all make them look the same. We don't have one sign for this side of town and one side, we kind of come to an agreement and put that same sign every place. Does everyone understand that or have any questions about that? That makes sense. It does.

Because thing is if we can find a company that does it, if we can say, look, it's not a one-sign deal. It might be a four sign deal or a three sign deal, might be able to get a little bit better price. All you got to do is drive down the feeder road on 45. They're putting them right there at the front, right? I mean, we're exactly what we're talking about. But it's the ent on 45 like if you went to Bies. Oh, okay. I mean, they're doing all those entrances like Lomar Drive, all the different ones now rock facade with that. Yeah. Maybe they'll give us a discount then for the development. All right. There's no other discussion on four. We'll go to uh five. uh fund drainage improvement projects across the city. Y've already done that where

basically we've done but here's the thing. I I think I'm speaking for Bob. I don't think it ought to be the last one we fund as things come up. I think we ought to I think that's a big part of our infrastructure is what we do. And so I I think should be considered for other projects as they come up too. So we'll just have to wait and see how that goes. Think anybody's going to argue with that? No, I don't believe I don't believe anybody would argue with that one. It's where the money came from was infrastructure. That's it. That you're right, Rusty. That's what we do. Uh fund infrastructure upgrades to Joe Trella Joe Tumbrella Park. I think we've already done that.

You guys don't hadn't heard the other night, we uh we uh took some funds and I think it's 150,000 up to $150,000. Is that right, Matt? For the the Tumbrella the Tumbrella upgrades. you guys are putting in 90 and uh we're kind of going to get the upgrades there. So, the one thing I will add to that that really ties number five and six together is I've been told by several different people now that we have a drainage problem there at Tambrella Park. That's right. Hey, let's look the back part there. The very end. Yeah, I've heard that. I've heard that too. Yeah. And then right there before the basketball court on the uh

I would say put your drainage person on it and tell us what we need to do and bring it to us. Let us take a look at it. I think we could help with that because I think we'll do the park. Let's do it right. Put put 18s under that under that. Uh going to have to get with DD1 though because it's going to go under there right away. put 18s under that one area and then put you a good grade on it and just have a like a French strain and then send it to that canal. That'll help that area. I don't know about the back. All right. And the next one, number seven, uh work with community service to apply for tourism and friendly city uh destination. So tell me a little bit about that one

for uh the designation. Um, and so that's to try to put us on the map to get people to come to Santa Fe to uh uh view um uh the museum. Uh and uh Charlie do that. Fill out the application. Okay. Well, I was saying yeah, if we got a person here and that's kind of what That's right. It's an easy designation to get. So, just trying to get that designation to uh get us a bad

grants. Uh like we see on the highways and stuff when you're going you stay underneath the signs it'll have like you know next stop and then it'll have all the businesses you know is this part of that you know where you get your your I always you know pay for those dot correct dot to have their name you have to pay for and the other thing is on the and just to kind of jump back to the sign that's on right island it's very limited that what we can say on there. All we can say is basically welcome to the city of Santa. Cool. I'm not established 1978. That's the extent of about like those green signs on the freeway and it'll say next exit Exon.

But that is something that the ED thing. I've got something I want to ask. Okay. Seth, these aren't uh in order of importance or anything, right? They're just listed. Just listed. That's correct. Any questions on seven? All right, we'll move down to strategic goals. Uh develop a property acquisition plan.

So, so and uh so looking at property acquisition um uh you know, uh looking at real estate and putting a plan together on, you know, what we'd like to bring in, what the EDC if uh you guys would like to purchase anything. Um but to put this plan together to kind of help us develop our future for the city of Santa Fe. All right. Uh, analyze and develop a water sewer improvement project for Arcadia Rangi Park. So, uh, since I've came to the city of Santa Fe, we have um, uh, spoken about, uh, doing a, uh, extending the water and sewer out to Rangi Park. And so, this is just looking at and analyzing what the numbers would be uh, of putting that plan together. I know that we're going to talk about infrastructure later on in the night and that's actually a portion of the infrastructure discussion that I want to have. Um, so this is just to look at and analyze.

It's a project that we're looking at trying to do, figure out how we get there. That's right. All right. Number three, explore options for water/ sewer expansions on the city's main corridors. So, this is again just exploring options. You know, 646 north and 1764 going east. U since I've gotten here, these have been, you know, discussions that want to look at what our our future is going to look like. So, this is just looking into uh expanding water and sewer to help bring in businesses. Okay. So, this would be a plan that's put together by the city and the EDC.

That's correct. That toide, you know, we got Here's the thing is I think everybody some I've seen it. I've been here been here a while. For a while, we were going up 646 and then we changed it. we're going up 1764. Then we said, "No, maybe we ought to go." So, at some point, we got to have a plan and decide. I We can't do both of them. And I don't even know. Some people, well, maybe we'll do a little bit on 646 and a little bit on 1764. I'm not so sure that would get us a whole lot either. So, how far do we go up on 6 go up on 646? SCV. Just Just past. Really?

Just past two just past uh as far as I know, Rusty. Don't hold me to this. I heard it's going to go to the far end of uh the uh Centerpoint building, right? Center point land. They we got them to run that water line. They didn't need it there, but they agreed to run it past their place and it stops right there for now. That's just water. That's not sewer. That's just that's just water. All right. So, and then uh I I know Z has told me and I've talked to uh James uh they're trying to put together some some numbers for the sewer line. We'll just have to see what that's going to end up. H who how many players and who are the players are going to be in that project.

All right. Develop and implement a comprehensive strategic marketing campaign. Well, I think that's got our our director written all over it. I mean, you know, to come up with something, put something in writing that we can uh we got to do something to tell our story here in Santa Fe and to help, you know, our current businesses here and and and and attract more to come in. So, um I feel like that's an area that we have lacked a little bit. So, uh, just trying to develop something that's, um, can't keep a director long enough to do that. Hopefully hopefully our our new director is going to be here a little bit longer. We'll go from there. I've got, can I say something on that? Absolutely. This is uh, we got competition there in Lamar.

We got competition on 517 in Dickinson. And then we have people coming down Highway 6 and they pass 1764. I'd like to see some kind of signage like say in Lamar uh somewhere. They're they're do those dozing that land right next to Taco Bell coming this way today. You know, they're they're going to build something there. Autozone. Really? Right across from Wow. And then the bank is reopening. Uh they're coming.

Why don't we have some type of signage there? I don't know how much it cost. I I've even thought about a billboard. I've even thought about the EDC buying a billboard and the EDC selling the advertisement off of it. It's $250,000. I've already priced it because I thought about putting one on my land. Are you talking about one of those electronic ones? I'm talking about a billboard. Just a plain billboard. I'm talking No, I'm talking electronic. That's what they put they put post on this uh billboard. Yeah. But that's one one I mean we got to catch these people when they're sitting there looking at raising canes and whatever else is coming there. But they really want barbecue and they sit there and say and then you go we got to let them know they got miles right down the road. We've got hubcap

right and we've got big horn barbecue and we've got driftwood and we've got seafood seafood. I mean, we got everything, but nobody knows it's there because And then we got the same problem on 517 because I got Geo's Pizza. They got the Mexican food restaurant. They don't have a fat Indian. If we get to buy the 550 with a house on it, we can put a sign there. But see, you got to have it where the people are. We still got that that stretch. We got to have it where the people are. I was going to make my question, Rusty. Where would we put it? Where would I don't know. You'd have to you'd have to find somebody there. Yeah, we could acquire property to do there is there is a billboard there, but it's too far down.

Yeah, we got to get it. But discussion people don't know what's here because we don't tell them it's here. We got to advertise our our businesses that those guys don't have. Right. And I think that's part of the strategic campaign you put together. Absolutely. You're absolutely right. Let's keep going down. So, the next one is Go ahead. uh develop an long-term EDC infrastructure investment plan. So, we're going to talk about infrastructure a little bit later tonight, but coming up with a plan to look at if we want to um potentially pave roads, do some, you know, um uh significant drainage projects, but putting the an action plan uh together uh that kind of helps uh set a plan for the next five years for the EDC to look at.

I I wouldn't I wouldn't want to go any further than five years out. Absolutely. Let's start at five and see where it goes. You know, that's just my my opinion. Things change a lot. All right. Develop a plan of action to address blight on the city's main corridors. Yeah. Well, Seth found out the other day, we still have some money. Uh for you guys that weren't on the board at the time, we gave the city $200,000 to to deal with blight.

100. That's right. They asked for 50. We gave them 100. And so, uh they did they did about four houses. We think four or five houses, but I wouldn't call them on the main three, but we didn't do them. None of them were on the main corridors. So, uh I have no problem. There's some things on our main corridors. I'd like to bulldoze them tomorrow. Uh but uh uh but anyway, we need to we need to look at some things that we can clean up. If you want somebody to come here as they're driving through our town, you want it to look nice. And right now for nobody, it's no fault of anybody else. It's just the way it's worked out. We need to do a little house cleaning. So, especially if you're coming from Mal. Yeah. I have a question. Yes.

Why are houses or business on Highway 6 built on an angle? Because Highway six is on an angle. The road is straight. The road. Yeah. No, but but the problem is if the road is angled and you build your look at all the Here's your road like this. But we had the same when we built the fire station. People were going, "How come the fire go the fire station is built to the you don't want?" Because if if not the one part of your building's up by the highway and the other part's you know 300t back that road you can but you don't know how much angle highway 6 has. It's got a lot of angle it on a map and see it. Why wouldn't you just build it parallel to the road? Yeah, he's asking Gary's asking

nothing else nothing else is built that way. Everything else is they been they uh where it's straight. I'm not saying it's right or wrong but that's the way everything has been built. We can talk about that. We can talk about that. I don't know if we're gonna move any reset I just want to know. Was there a recent

and uh let's see where did I stop? Oh, the blight buildings. And the next one uh fund grant opportunities utilizing the EDC's budget for capital projects. So, I know every year that the city has ED has capital projects and and I and I think uh you know, hey, no doubt sometimes with the money coming in, we've got some money. We can't spend all our money on capital projects, but we maybe can kick into some of the capital projects that you guys go down the road. And what we've talked a lot about in our in our uh uh committee is identifying public art and beautifification opportunities. So, everyone's got a different opinion about what that looks like or should look like, but I think it's a for discussion because that's kind of what these things part part of our goal. It

it is and it's been an ongoing discussion and um I I want to thank Brad um Pam and Terry. I know that they met with College of the Mainland um and then Santa Fe High School to look at to see if we could partner with some of our students to do this and at a very low cost if we could you know the EDC could provide uh the material equipment and materials to to do that. Um so I think that that that's great. Um, and then I think I know it's been discussed by several of the members that looking at coming up with a plan if they're going to do this art to make it all cohesive to make it an attraction uh almost uh for people to go and you know take pictures with or uh just to bring people into Santa Fe to visit. So um another part of selling Santa Fe sorry another part of selling our town.

That's correct. Yeah, that's where this is going to be. We generally speaking just generally speaking John we plan That's what is is to set um guidelines going forward. And if y'all guys I'd like to add uh I noticed today at Best Buy. I was there uh in Webster area. They look they look like spent probably half a million to a million dollars on some nice artwork. You got two two shuttles. They're all bright uh chrome looking. Uh it's a memorial for uh space exploration

and the people that work at NASA. and they got this big globe and like I said it looks like they spent at least a half a million on these two right there in that shopping center. So they took an existing shopping center took some of those parking spaces and cut out area put up nice light poles, flags, benches and then put I mean I got a video clear lake is that it's in clear it's uh what is that mean right there with the uh right there at Best Buy area and all that. So uh it is noticeable. It's it's noticeable. It's new. It's beautifully. It's really nice. And uh you know their traffic boxes, they don't have a a lot of them. They don't have the artwork on them in Webster. They're just white and it says city of Webster. Has their brand on it. That's all it says.

The ones they have two in the same shop. So they have two other art pieces that was a little different. These big hearts, they were about 14 14 15 foot tall. There were two of them on there. And those look like they're about 30 grand a piece. And uh I don't know what those significant those but those bring you up to date about the meeting that we did have with college of the mainland Brad was there and uh they're on board about doing two of our uh the traffic boxes. Perfect. Good deal.

Good deal. So this is a portion of that. Is there anything else that you guys would like to add to the strategic plan that I may have missed um during our discussions that we had in January that you guys would like to add or something that you bring up for discussion? Now, I can only speak for myself. This is a pretty heavy duty list. There's a lot of stuff on here. Absolutely. We need to work on it. And so, uh all of that won't happen overnight, but you know, I think, uh I think the main part, as you said in the past, Seth, is uh if you don't have a plan, we'll never get anything done. That's right. It's just a starting point. And hey, as we move along, we might have to take some add to add to it and take off it. It's just it's kind of a living document the way I see it as we as we move along. So,

the only other thing I'd like to add is a lot of of cities have like um like a sculpture like IART. We could have a iheart SF and people could take pictures there. You know, that's something that we could have that would draw people in to take a picture. And a lot of cities you go to have Oh, yeah. I I R NY or whatever. Something we could add to that uh RFP that we were talking about. Yeah. Something in front of that, you know, in front of that shopping center or whatever because wherever you travel, they have big signs that have the name. And it's just it's just something that we could use for uh you know, kids from the yearbook might want to have their pictures. The cheerleaders might, but it's just something an attraction that we could add. Like the Bucky.

Good point. Yeah, like the Bies. a bookie statute. All right, with that said, uh I guess we've been asked to consider these items. Sound like we're all pretty much on board. Uh and uh I guess what Beth has asked is that we approve this tonight as a as a board. I move that we approve the what is it called? The strategic strategic plan for economic development strategic plan and is presented. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second. Uh, we've had a lot of discussion. Is there any further discussion on any of this?

If not, uh, I'll call for a roll call vote. Gary Somerville, yes. Pam Schwartner, yes. Terry Oonnell, yes. Pat Crrael, yes. Jason Hayes, yes. Brad Duffy, yes. Bob Wy, yes. Motion carries. Item number three, consideration and possible action adoption of a resolution of the city council of the city of Santa Fe, Texas, authorizing the approval of the 2026 strategic plan of the economic development corporation. Council, do I have a motion? Motion to approve the plan is presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the plan as presented. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none. Natalie, roll call, please. Council member Shider, yes. Council member Mckame, yes. Council member Dickerson, yes. And council member Marks,

yes. Motion passes. Item number four, discussion and direction regarding the guidelines, criteria, and application procedures for the Santa Fe Economic Development Corporation's business expansion, attraction, and retention bear program package incentives.

All right. So, I'm going to start off um this the bear program, I believe, has been a very successful program uh for the EDC. Um, and it has been a pilot program and we've made a couple of changes uh to that program. But tonight I wanted to open discussion between city council and the EDC board members um on um amending this pilot program. Again, uh we want it to be uh successful for our community, for our businesses here. Um there's definitely been some some changes um uh that I would like to make to it and I think that um everybody in the room has an opinion on it and I want to hear that tonight. Um so if we can you know just um bring our uh uh concerns and issues forward uh with a solution. So the first thing that I I've got a few items, but a couple of the items that I want to uh for us to consider is giving the first being uh is giving metrics uh to the uh uh bare committee and putting it actually in the document on what they will be judged on uh coming forth. Uh so one is uh coming up with a metric for uh property and site improvements. I I think if you if you made it a 100 points and so people would have to to pass or get a higher score to be approved for funding. So for that um looking at doing property and site improvements. So of course for facade renovations giving them a higher score. If it's a signage improvement giving them a lower score if it's parking lot or road improvement giving them maybe a medium score or doing foot footprint expansion adding on to the building giving it a higher score. just coming up with some options for that. Um, also looking at the longevity of the business being in the city limits, how long they've been here for. Um, also looking at location, if they're on one

of our key corridors, giving them points based on that. Um, and then um, uh, you know, uh, lastly making sure that u, of course they've got to be located within the city limits. They've got to be current on all their taxes, uh, fees and then utilities here in the city. um uh make sure that they hold all the required permits and licenses and then um uh they have to have a minimum of 50 points. It's just a arbitrary number that I gave. Uh so that's that's one item having those those metrics. Um is anybody in the room against that or for for it or against it? If y'all want to make y'all's voices heard, I'd love to hear them. I'm I'm for those things. But we also considered how many employees they had

when we uh the number of employees people they employed as well as uh the tax sales tax uh how much sales tax we generated. We can't consider the the amount of sales tax generated. That's not uh allowable. That's not allowable. Okay. So in other words, they don't have to generate any sales tax and we can use them. That's correct. if we choose to do so. We don't have to choose to do so. But we can't judge them based on the amount of sales tax or if we get any or not. That's correct. Okay. Well, that's the first time we've ever heard that and we've been doing this for a couple years. So, good to know what the rules are.

So, basically set this matrix. We put together a m and it's for it's for it's for a lot of reasons. Everybody's going to have a you know, we we set the matrix. Here's a score. This is what you get if you fall into this. And it's it's another way of determining which which grants we're going to approve and not approve. So if we've got a guy a person that's got a high number, well, they're pretty that's a pretty easy choice. That's right. And then and then uh but you would go in a basis of the score. So let's say somebody made a 99 and you got somebody made a 95, a 93, and a 70. The 93, 95, and 99 are the ones that

That's right. So, and and what it does is when people saw, well, how come uh they got approved and I didn't get approved? We've got something to show them as opposed to Well, that's what the scorecard, it's kind of a scorecard. We talked about a scorecard, you know, that way we put it through that rubric and that that takes the human element of decision, not bias. We want to eliminate make it fair all the way around. That's it. That's it.

Was there any changes or allowances for property that's been leased? Um so currently in there there is um in the plan that uh uh they just have to have a a lease for up to 24 months. Um I don't have that in the metric. That is something that we can add to the metric if you guys would like to whether if it's leased or if it's owned to give them points based on that. And this is a searchable metric. There's already other cities with EDCs that they're already they already have these metrics online. I've already Yeah. Yeah. It's just putting something in place. That's great. Start. That's right. hear any you're making a vote a decision on on numbers not feelings. Correct.

So in the scoring system if the first project you get out of the gate is a lower score but it meets the minimum threshold you would fund that project. So when I guess I'm asking when does the waiting come into play?

That's actually something I'm going to talk about next is the application deadline. So right now we're just basically taking rolling applications or we were taking rolling applications. We've stopped taking applications at this point, but we were taking a role as they would come in. What I think that we need to discuss is having a deadline. Hey, whatever that date is, you've got to have your um uh application put in by October 1st. If you want to be funded for next for the next fiscal year for to be considered instead of taking it as a as basis as it is right now, let's look at having a hard deadline. you've got to apply and then that way the committee which currently Terry, you and Pam are on, you guys can look through and go through and score them and then the top projects are the ones that will be funded to move to the east.

The only reason I wouldn't like that is if we're we're attracting a new business and they're wanting to come in December, we can't say, "Oh, sorry, we closed that back in October." That's true. I think you do it twice a year by annually. There's nothing preventing the EDC if we have a new business from having a separate conversation about an incentive to that individual choosing who you have a special meeting for or not for new business I mean we would do that anyway wouldn't we I mean we talked about it through bear if because really focused a lot more because you're you're penalizing businesses based on how many years and how many employees a new business isn't going to necessarily have all that information new businesses might be a separate conversation alto together I would say

but it's a business attraction yeah but is get really used to that and that's that may be part of what we talk about. I'm not so far, but we've had no applications for that. They wouldn't know to a new business that they're going to they're going to struggle to even understand. So, hopefully if our director does a good job, we got new businesses coming. So, you know, we need to think about that. It's it's it's something that I think it's worth trying to figure out how we're going to do those. Just depends what y'all want to do, you know, with the money. if you want to like um the mayor prom mentioned to to have kind of uh two tranches if you will of of funding. Um are you going to just basically kick those who are not at the top score to the second I guess the second meeting if we do that or the second trial

like a December 1st and a June 1st and then then if they haven't applied by June 1st they have to wait till next December. I mean personally I I don't like the cut off. I feel like we should leave it open and it If you meet our minimum score and we have funds available, you fund the grant. So October 1st when we open at 7, whoever gets their applications in, just take them by by application is what you're stating. So the month So we could wait say, you know what, whatever it is within that 30-day period, we'll take those that we took for the month of October. You meet November and you make decisions from that point. That's what I'm proposing.

So what if you spend all of your money in October? the whole grant is gone. We're forgetting one thing. That hurts new businesses, too, just like a deadline then because if a new business comes in in March, we can amend our budget and we can amend it and add more money to it if we It's got to be approved. It's got to be approved. Yes. But I'm saying to come up with a number that we're going to put there's 140 right now. Um that's what the number is. But that's what the number 140 and you're talking that's $350,000 drops essentially. Yeah. That's not enough is what I'm saying. I I propose we started low rusty on on I understand because we weren't sure where it was going to go.

I understand and I mean right now I'm just gonna what I'm saying is $140,000 is not a realistic number. It's not. We're going to ask for more. I know you're going to ask more. I've got a number that I'm cutting it off cap out like how much a person would get like if they scored this amount that they could get. So potentially it could be done that way. Um, you know, if you wanted if they if we wanted to do it that way, if they scored, let's just say between 85 and 100 points, they could get up to 50,000 is our max.

That's right. They could get up they could get the full 50,000 if to me and I'll skip down if they have a a 100,000 uh dollar project. So, I think that we need to have some skin in the game um and looking at doing a 50%. I know I've talked to a couple board members on that uh and moving that um you know right now from from 100 to to 50%. So what's the collectively is everybody on board to do that? There any which question are you asking on the matching funds? Funds. Yeah, I I definitely believe people ought to have some skin in the game. Me too. Me too. Me too.

And also I would like to have the discussion about doing less than 50,000 Nobody has to get 50,000. That's just a max. Yeah. Nobody has to get lowering the cap. You talking about lowering the cap? Yeah. Because then you us back to how who decides who gets 30 and who dec who gets 40 and who gets 20. We had people apply for uh we only had one person apply for 50 and we gave them 50. Nobody else has applied for that much. We had what 43. We had a 22. Yeah. we've funded. I think if we come up with let's just randomly say 30 and they have to match it with third, you know, we're given

whatever that percentage is of matching funds, but if we did lower than 50 would make our budget go further. Well, that's correct. But I think the matching funds will help reduce the larger ask anyway. And yeah, that's a good point. We we also had $122,000 that we has has been encumbered for years waiting on this Corey Boyer thing that is now null. My proposal was put that towards a bear grant because I mean the money has was essentially spent I mean why not put that towards it and make it right about $250,000. So there'd be more money in the bear account. Yes.

I don't I don't like the idea of like a moving target on the budget though. We want to create That's what I'm saying. use it and if you don't come ask for it, that's on you, not on us. I don't want to get just keep asking. We'll just keep raising the money. No, no, no. I'm just saying I don't think 140 is enough. Let's Let's make it an amount and that I only used that 122,000 because we had already essentially spent it. Y'all have a bank account, right? You're going to take that money out. This that that money never left y'all. No, it didn't. It was encumbered. Yeah. So, just forget about it. We do this today. Y'all are making a budget item and this is your bare program budget. What' y'all approve in October?

140,000. 140. Yeah. So, and and there's I'm going to say there's no hard number per se today. It'll go into the budget. The number that if we want to discuss doing a hard number today, y'all will use that. Charlie will put it in the budget. I'd like I'd like to have a I'd like to talk. Okay. I'd like to see where everybody is that that number is in here. I'd like it to be the top budget number, Rusty. the the the max number. Yeah. What what are y'all gonna fund the bear program with? How much money? 140 down. You know how far it went and you know how and you know what's sitting there waiting. But we're not looking at that. But you know one of them

uh we're going to open this back up. This isn't going to be like it was two years ago. You're going to have said people sent to Well, October 1st with an application. People have seen that we're we're uh helping and so they're going to come ask for help. But that's what we that that's the program. That's what we're here for. Now we just got to decide what the guidelines are. Got to understand what the guidelines are and you got to understand what that business brings to this town. That's it. That's it. And that's part of putting this matrix together to decide, you know, uh based on a number, not how we feel about this particular person. Well, I like this guy, but I really don't like this guy. It's all about sales tax. All about sales tax. Boss,

I have a question because I just pulled up some stuff that I did a while back because I'm trying to get the back my head. The ROI benchmarks, are we allowed to do anything like that? Uh, let's circle back, Seth. Yes, I do think we need that that timeline for existing businesses. But for new businesses, I think it could be openended. I think anytime we get new business in here, we make an exception. But an existing business, they need to have that timeline. You have to have the application in on this state to be funded here. Then you're going to have to earmark a separate fund. You're going to have to separate, which is fine. That's fine.

You could say, "Hey, we're going to do 150 for existing businesses and we're going to leave a 100 for new businesses. And then the hunter, you know, and then that that fund just continues to grow or you can, you know, y'all can move money over for existing business that way it doesn't shut the door on new business that we want to get in here. Well, what my recommendation would be, and I'll just throw an arbitrary number out there. Um, you know, if we're going to do 250, do you do 50 for new businesses and do 200 for existing and then that way you've got some money to um, again, that's a starting point. A grant. That's right. You got to start somewhere. I feel like instead of setting an arbitrary number, I feel like it should be a percentage of our budgeted revenue for the year.

So for instance, 20% or 25% would give us roughly the numbers you're talking about. We do 800 a,000 is what our budget is in revenue. To me, it should be 20 or 25% of that max. And then as hopefully our budget grows and we can you don't have to keep and our dollars are going up and we're staying consistent with how much we're spending on the program. So I have I want the percentage like you were saying but but it's so essentially it's going to be adjusted each year adjusted each year. Yeah. based on our revenue.

And then that way also, you know, if we all believe in the project, you don't have someone come in and say, "Well, I only want to do zero." Or someone that comes in and says, "I want to do 500." It's tied to an actual number. That makes sense.

There's um there's two metrics that I would like to discuss that I don't think that you brought up. One of them I think is a is a yes or no on whether it is considered or not. And then I think maybe the other one could be a a sliding scale. But from a city standpoint, one of the original ideas that I had whenever I came to the EDC and and talked about some different things about what I wanted to see the the bear program used for. Every time, and y'all probably know this anyways, but every time they get together in Austin, they take more and more local control away from us. Y'all know that we can't control things in the city. People think we can, but we can't. Materials. To me, there ought to be a required materials list. If you want us to fund 50% of your facade improvement, you have to use this color palette. You have to use this materials. You have to use these things to start working towards that uniformity that we discussed with our signs. That's that's my opinion. I think it ought to be a requirement that you have to use a pallet and and certain materials. Then the other thing that I want to discuss maybe on a sliding scale is uses. Right now the way this is written, if somebody wants to bring in a vape shop or a doughut shop, they would be eligible for it and we would have to fund it.

We don't have based on this scale. You don't have to fund anything. Well, if we go to the score system, I think it would be hard to if they meet the score, they meet the score. Hard to say, well, we you justify that. Oh, but you Yeah. So, I think we should put uses, you know, preferred uses as a scoring as a score as a matrix part of the matrix thing you're saying. I I would agree with that. That way you control things you really don't want to come in. I mean,

what are those uses? I don't know. That's that's for discussion, right? I I feel it can be part of the weighted scale. Uh and but they still might meet the minimum threshold based on other factors. They may that's free enterprise when you were talking about new business. We got we got rid of free enterprise when we started giving when the government started giving businesses money. Matt and that's okay. I mean I think it's okay to tip the scale if it's for the greater good of the community. Can we put restricted uses? Are we allowed to put that these that we're giving certain businesses are are not eligible for funding? Yes. Then I think we do that.

Well, I mean we already know that like churches nothing religious is is allowed uh there's a separation of church and state. So that that is already there. Where's that separation of church and state? Uh it's it's uh we found out after that we cannot fund anything any church. When we went into the with his ministries there was a question are they a church? They're not. We found out they're not a church and because because it's clearly stated in the thing you can't fund in the state statute. Yeah. Our our EDC money can't go for anything for a church, right? So, it's very clear clear that you can't do that. And it's fine. And we we didn't know at the time. We didn't we never knew that before. So, we found out something that we didn't know.

Matt, you were talking about new businesses like 50,000. When would we be funding our a grant for a new business? I mean, uh, we haven't done it yet, but if I want to put in a a great clips in, a one of the strip centers and the buildout's 180, they could apply for 50 grand to be covered in that buildout is what I'm just throwing out.

The thing about it and and we've gotten push back before is our existing businesses aren't being um represented as much as trying to get new businesses in here. Well, in this scenario, our budget is scaled where we're giving more dollars to existing businesses than we are new businesses. So, I would say we are meeting that. Well, you have 50,000. That's for new businesses, right? That's what I'm saying. Yeah. And 200, but existing. I mean, but you get a and there it is attraction. So, you're you're trying to protect the existing. So, we're giving them 150 and the other people are only getting 50. So I'll take that as part and then not a chance for more money than a new business.

And the other thing is does it have to be a permanent improvement? What does that mean? Let's say a business wants to put together a um social media campaign. We're not doing that. No, it has to be it has to be permanent infrastructure. That was all. It has to be infrastructure. Yeah. And we also said that if we fund them and they sell within two years, they have to give us all their money back that we put in. So if you know if we if Rusty opens a vape shop and we give him a new sign and then he sells it. Give his going all the way into Rusty. Well, I would I would like for y'all to please strongly consider a list of required materials. I think if we're gonna if we're gonna

the only thing only thing I'll say to that if it's um economical and what I mean by that I don't want to force a business to go buy white Austin stone because we want a wide Austin stone then we're paying twice as much and they're paying twice as much for a white Austin stone sign. I I personally I finance a lot of businesses. the one that go buys the fancy sign is usually the one that doesn't make it. So, I like uniformity. So, if we want to say if you're going to buy a sign, it needs to be of a certain size and quality. I'm all for that. But I don't want to dictate high-end materials.

It has to be high-end. It could I mean, I would say Adobe that you gave. It has to be adobe. There you go. That's the I'm just kidding. I was going, "What did I miss?" What y'all did at DW and that color change, I'm going to tell you right now, that pops from what that was to what it is now. You You look What are you talking about, Rusty? DW floor. Oh, yeah. It's beautiful. I mean, it's it's I've looked at that building for I don't know how long, how many years looking at the same way for 100 years. Exactly. And all of a sudden, you see it now. You It looks better. You step back and you look, you slow down and you ex you see what's there. Yeah.

You know, and that's that's that's what we like to hear. I encourage you think the outside looks good. Go look at the inside. Art is unbelievable. I haven't been in there, but I've seen it. Looks part of y'all's strategic plan that we just adopted was, you know, public art and beautifification opportunities. I think uniformity is part of beautifification. And when you do it, when you tie it into the bear grant, now you've got the businesses paying 50% of our beautifification instead of y'all funding 100% of it. The only thing again, I'm for it as long as it's within reason.

Because when we talked about that before, they said the legal ramifications if we forced them to use this or that and then, you know, a storm came and it blew it over. Well, you forced us to use that. So that's why we pulled that out of there because if we said I mean that's I thought we talked to the attorney about that and he told us he advis advised us he said it was thin ice you got to be kind of careful do when you start doing things like that I would imagine that's why everybody's going to landmark signs probably most cities are requirements is landmark no more no more

I'm not just talking about signs we're talking about he's talking about a materials list period like if we had have told uh DW floral they had to have this type of I don't know wood or this this color paint or whatever if we had have told them, you know, that they had to use that is what you're saying, right? Yeah. And so what did the attorney say? He said you're that when you require certain materials or you or you choose uh for instance, there's three biders to do your work and you say, "Well, that's low bid. You have to use them." And then something goes wrong, they want to hold hold you liable. So we can't tell them who they who they choose. They get to choose.

So, we don't tell them who they choose. We just tell them what color it has to be. The color painting. Yeah. Seemed kind of ironic. The state came in and said, "You guys can't do that." But now we're going to do it. We're not requiring it to them. They don't have to take the money if they if they can use whatever color they want. I don't want to pick polka dotted. I'd love to see y'all go to Ortega shop, Ortega Center over there, and it's the exact same color painting uh outline that you did on DW Florals. Sick of seeing that orange stuff.

I mean, it's Are we going to take all these recommendations, put a document together, a proposed document, and we'll run it by us and then run it by you guys? Correct. So, we're just we're asking for ideas to recommendations. That's right. And so we're not going to vote on anything tonight. This is just a thing. We're just Can we come to Can we come to an agreement on a number and then let them figure out how they wanted to I just want to come to an agreement where we're going to agree on a number for the at least. Right now we have this year's budget about next year's budget. Correct. Yeah. But I mean do we need a number? I like about percentage. We don't have the numbers right now. I mean

percentage of our total. Uh, I guess we can't do that because we're doing it. Well, we need to see where the percentage comes because I I've got a number in my head. What's your number in your head? $250,000. 250. Okay.$4 million. That's $550,000. I don't think you're going to do more than $250,000 new business projects a year. That's 150. You had 140 before you did everything with it. You have 150 now to attack these little projects. But that number change, Russy, if the percentage of the percentage is better, but the last three out of four months, we've had a losing I mean, we've made a sales tax, but we have not hit our projected sales. We're not going to set a dollar amount. We're going to set a percentage of our budget that might

Let's see what that percentage is that gets closest to 250 as a starting point. Yes, sir. And then the following year, it might be 300. Matt, we don't want to go down. October 1st when Centerpoint opens up and then new businesses come in here, we're going to start growing. I mean, I have faith in that. And I I I don't think we're going to go backwards. I just don't see it. There's no more land left. We're just like the idea of us You don't like the idea of giving uh existing business aount and a budget for just new businesses or you just want to go

I I like what Matt said. I like what Matt said, but what I'm saying is I don't think you're going to have two $50,000 grants for new businesses. If you do, that's great. I mean, if you have say you have a third that's on hold, then that's when you come back to council, you know, we have a meeting and you say, "Hey, we're going to present this because we have this opportunity." Like Matt's talking about this guy just came into town. That's the

Well, I know it, but I mean, we have to have a set number to start with. We can't just say it's an open because we have to get back to what Terry's saying all the time in these meetings asking about that that landlocked money, you know, why can't we move that? We don't have to talk about that no more because we're going to put the money right here and then y'all figure out where it comes from you want to put it at, you know, and and I'm like exactly kind of does what they're saying. Yeah, exactly. Just like what my whole point was raise up the amount because $140,000 wasn't enough. Correct. What do you think, Jason? I I believe the bearer program will change drastically if you make people match it.

That's you're going to have listen. So if you get 250 is your number, you got another 250 privly invested with the city. That's a half million dollars of capital improvement on properties here in in Santa Fe. And that's you're going to have a different person come to the table and they're going to ask for 50,000 when they're going to put 50,000 their own money. That's it. They're going to get they're going to get a return on their investment. You ought to stagger. In the research that I've done on other communities, nobody gives away free money. That's true. And that that was my whole that was you just nailed my problem with that bear program. So in in most communities 50% and that's what we're kind of modeling ours after. And I say we stagger that. I say you do a 12-month payment and you finish it if we're requiring them 24 months.

Finish the project. You might do Exactly. You might do a 50 first and then a 25 and that last carries the other 25. I think I think we our was six months though. We we only gave them six months. It's only six months currently right now. Yeah. They sell they were talking about what Terry brought up the two-year buyback. Yeah. That we're just saying that's why I'm throwing two years. No, but they only have six months to complete the pro project. That's why I'm saying the project needs to be six months. Okay. Completed. Completed. I'm talking about when we reimburse them. We're not going to sit there and give you you're coming in here with a project. It's going to cost

$100,000. We're going to give you $50,000. Well, we we pay the we don't pay the business. We pay the contractor. We pay the invoices. Yeah. Yeah. We don't once the project is complete, we pay that. Say like we move it to 50%. They pay for the they paid the project up front and then that 50% number we get and say we agree to say the project's 100. So, you're going to say from the get-go, from the get-go, if we give you this, you got to match it. Correct. Man, that goes in first. Yeah. Jason, you got skin in the game. That's what we've been talking about. The people leave before the two years like you were talking about. Okay. So, if I own the business and I sell it, that 50,000 comes out of

What if you go to business? Well, the the the business has to the the idea is the money is going to a hard improvement, so it's going to stay with the facility. We're not we're not buying a new a new cooler that they can put in their car and take with them. We're buying stuff that is is is permanent. So, Matt, back to our number before. So, if we're trying to get to the number of 250,000, what percentage of our budget would that be? Now, see, I I don't think you can do that because to me that's going to be about a third of our revenue. And to me, that's too high. So, what were we trying to what?

I feel like around 25% a quarter of what we bring in in a year would go towards this program. 25% of our would be what dollar amount now? 200,000 based roughly. It might actually be a little less than that. Drop it out. We're gonna have to start 25% of 800 is two. But I don't think our exact I'm an Aggie Matt, but give me a little credit. 800 this year is what I'm saying. I think was a little less than that. But if we do our job right, then the next year if we bring in more money, then our budget goes when things start to go. That's where we have to start at that 200.

You'd be okay with 200. I'm great with 200, but I still think that I'm good with 250, but you put that 100 to the side for exactly what Matt's talking about. Bring it and you might not use it. You might not use it. That might roll. You might only get one business that comes in here and wants to match. You know, we don't get to just get one that uses it. What Matt said, the percentage is is where we need to focus on. Whatever the number, that's what you need. We got to come up with a number. We got to and then you find that percentage, you know, and we're not going to say 22.1 or anything like that. Is it going to be 20 or 25? 25%

whatever. Uh, whatever that number is. Get close enough to it. So, we have a, you know, this is what we put into the program. So, y'all know, I mean, it what you were doing. I mean, we know what we I mean, we got so much we couldn't pay for and we don't want to get back in that position. And you're and I'm going to tell you another thing. Start saying no quickly. Start don't let these people hang on the vine. I agree with that. Here's your deal. Other than that we need to be honest. You need to be honest. Exactly right. Just don't us Rusty. That was someone else that wasn't us.

That's what we're sitting here talking about. How we fix this. See, Rusty, that's that's why we have a threeperson committee so we don't have to worry about quorum and all that need getting together. Those three people can meet whenever they need to meet. We can give you an answer pretty quick when we get enough. I just say like where we're at right now. We had what, eight applications and we're just sitting there. We don't need to do that again. We Some of those we know aren't going to be hand, you know, before they give us our $500. Put them through the rubric and you go, "Here's the metrics that you have to make." You're you immediately can know pretty quickly, right? And they're knowing that If they're not qualified, we need to be honest with them, tell them you're not qualified based on this time that we know they can't they can't get it.

That's right. So, another thing that I would uh propose that we nyx um from the bear program is the target location assistance. And the reason being is because we could put that in the matrix that dependent upon um if you're on 6466 or 1764 that project's going to be looked a lot higher to me in theory to get funding than say something on Avenue N, you know, or avenue E. Uh so uh is everybody on board for that to to remove that portion of it? Yes. Yeah. Because it because your maps aren't right. Correct. So, and then that way if you're on a major corridor, you're going to get So, major corridor is 1764, 646, and Highway 6.

That's correct. Correct. But you're not going east. That That's under the old That was the old map, but now we're we're just going to make it a highway, a blank the blank slate. So, we're not Okay. Any of the highways from city limit to city limit. Correct. So, if it's, you know, out by Rusty or if it's out to the high school, doesn't matter. or if it's out. No 46 second street or 28 for 30 seconds. I'm going to ask a question here. So factor now would they have would have been eligible or they wouldn't have they weren't as high as say um or

DW floral Charlie off the subject but uh that old welding subject that old welding shop I mean that be worth talking to them people right next to the water department. We were just talking about we talked to them. We talked to them. They want a lot of money for it. Yeah. I remember the same guy owned it. Yeah. He wants a lot of money for it. Number I heard was maybe two almost 300. Well what it tells me Russy he didn't want to sell it down but he'd sell it for that. Yeah. And I like what Matt said just as a business, you know, we talk about businesses that come in here. Man, he threw a name out that

have people there. You know, that's that's one of those businesses in a strip center that we don't have something different. Fantastic. Great. Exactly. You just get one or something like that. You know, you have something sport clips. So, does anybody looking at rusty when you say that, John. We had a conversation with a guy about a barber shop today. We don't have a barber shop anymore. We've got one, I think, don't we? Yeah. Well, Tommy and there's a guy. Oh, yeah.

Ran down there. There's another one by Well, you got the guy pizza that guy where that in that to bring it back to what were the point? Did you have any other points? I know that we were Hey guys, can I get order please? How many people have read this rare thing? I hope everybody in the room has. It's really very good, but there's a lot of redundancy in here. And I think collectively we could clean this thing up, change some of the verbiage against some of the stuff you've talked about and really make this a very good document. Streamline it.

Absolutely. Get it out there. uh in the first paragraph and we kind of touched on this a little bit but I I recommen encourage business owners to utilize local contractors if they can I think that should be something we uh grant categories that could score higher on your metrics. Yeah. When they agree to buy local.

We'll go back with that one. Um, something I'm not in favor of down here in in categories A, adding parking lots. Parking lots don't do anything for us. If a business can't put a business in and figure out how much they need for parking, that's up to them. It doesn't beautify the city and it's not money I think we ought to put. So, I think taking parking out of there. Can you do Whoa, whoa, whoa. I'm gonna have to Here comes the parking lot guy. Let me tell you what we're going to turn. Go ahead. I will go to a restaurant that's a little less good than the other restaurants because the parking is easier to get in and get out. I agree.

I'm telling you, look, we have one of the best Italian restaurants in G called Love Traour and it is it's it's off the beaten path. You forget about it and parking is not good. So, we'll go to other I can't say who we'll go to another one. It's because you know parking you you're right but that's not what I'm saying. What what I'm trying to say is that business was built for a parking lot and you should have figured what you need for the amount of people coming there to park. That's an LDR. It's land regulation. But I'm not going to go in there because you didn't figure it and build you a parking lot. That's what I'm trying to say. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Yes sir.

But on the other hand, if we have done such a good job as EDC, we have driven more business to there that business. So therefore that requires more parking. No, but I see I see what Gary's talking about. Think about it. Somebody can say, "Look, I can only Well, I guess they could do it with the whole building. They could say, "Well, look, I can I could just I could get the city to pay for 50% of my building, but 50% of their parking lot, 50% of whatever. I'm all for like what we did to the four place." So, they made it really pretty. But I'm talking about a new business. A new business. Yeah. Or you could have an existing business that has a lot parking lot and they want to have it paid potential. It's easier ROI on a lot of other things

and they would come in there saying reduce enhancing the city. What makes it look there's different points, right? So a parking lot scores less than facade on his and I just made this these numbers are just arbitrary. So property and site improvements would be 60 points of the 100. So, facade renovations, they get 60 points. Not saying this how we have to do it, just an example. 50 points for a footprint expansion, like a building uh addition, 25 points for a parking lot improvement, uh so refur resurfacing something, adding on to, and then 10 points for signage improvements. So, if they came in and all they wanted was their parking lot expanded, they wouldn't have enough points.

They would have to really hit everything else. They'd have to be a business in business for 10 plus years. I mean, there's there's several things that they So, a new business couldn't come in and have 50% of their parking lot. That's correct. Built out. That's correct. They'd have to do that themselves. Three. We need to take Deon out and put Charlie.

We have I haven't made any changes to what's approved. I wanted y'all to have what currently that's so I got to talk

I can't hear you said extend for six months period and so forth that we would encourage uh either contractor to keep a a daily log of of weather conditions or any material delays because if it goes over then we have to have a way to fund back to it. They just can't say hey well we we missed our deadline. I want to know why you missed it, you know. So, keep a daily log of contractors do that. Contractor and or the business. I had that uh didn't have anything. It's fine.

I think it was on page six. It start that is all redundant page two. And clean this thing up. Yeah, we can certainly clean it up. There's a lot. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, there's a lot in here that that that definitely um is there any other big items that we can move on just for the sake of time. It's 9:00, guys. So, is there anything else that that that y'all have of any other significant items? I have some things. Go ahead. Go ahead.

I I put this together and I shared it with Seth and Charlie and Bob and some of this stuff might be a little redundant, but it talk about create this spreadsheet and some of the things I thought we may could populate it in in our grading process. We certainly want the business to provide a detailed scope of work. Provide preliminary cost estimate. Advise the city how these upgrades would benefit both the city of Santa Fe and the business owner. Advise how these upgrades, improvements, enhancement, etc. would grow their business. Advise how many people are currently employed and with these upgrades would create more job opportunities. That was item one. Uh my item two would be require business to go out for three bids and bring them to EDC for bid comparisons. Once it is determined the biders saw the scope of work the same way and are within 5% of one another, we would fund the low bidder. However, in the event a bidder comes in with a very low EDC number, then I think we would fund the middle bid. And my reason for that is we may have three bids, 50,000, 49,000, 20,000. If we fund that low bid, we kill the bid this business owner. We we didn't help him at all.

Does that make sense? It does. Um, I think what we were doing, Gary, was we were funding the average of the three bids that they brought in basically throughout the high and low and med to to your point, they could get really high bids so that we would give them a bigger amount and then get it done for Okay, then basically we're saying the same thing. Yes, sir.

Okay. Um, it three should only fund 50% of the accepted total bid package. If a business owner elects to go with a higher bid, it will be their responsibility to cover that delta. Once a bid has been accepted and approved, the EDC will only fund that scope of work. Any extras, upgrades, etc. be the responsibility of the business owner to fund those costs. And then my last item was that the EDC shall the EDC should set a time frame. I I just put one year. I think we're talking about six months to fund the business once the work has been satisfactory completed and fully met the scope of work. In the event a completed project comes in below the estimated cost EDC should retain those monies left.

That's all I have. And I don't know if any of this makes sense. It all makes sense. No, collectively that might be something in there that we do not fund any change. Gary, thank you. I appreciate you taking the time to look through that and put those together. I think that's all good stuff. just when there I don't know it's been a while since I took a look at it but I think you and I talked about the uh permits about the you know what about city permits you know making do does the EDC pay the permits or the PE builder build a perh you know pay for the permits or we don't you know

something that we need to put in this document because it's included within that 50% are the permits that the EDC has been paying to the city so it's just kind of moving funds or I think that in document, you need to state that either y'all will pay up for 50% or you're not going to pay for the permits at all. That'll be on the responsibility of the I feel like uh to maximize our dollars, we probably should have them cover their own permit fees. Completely I think we have a unanimous They pay their own unanimous consent there. Perfect.

Because those aren't adding value per se to what we're doing. You able to capture all that? If not, he's got it recorded. Wait, permit fees. All right, guys. Anybody else? We I certainly want to make sure that if somebody has something to that they want to add that they get it in. I think it was a good discussion.

All right. Well, we'll make this last one pretty quick. This is just really following in with the strategic plan on putting that infrastructure plan in place. um is we just want to talk about uh I have a couple of projects to to hit on. Um number one being uh water and sewer to Rangi Park or to our media. Uh since I've came to Santa Fe that has been part of the discussion uh is looking at funding a potential project to bring water and sewer uh just sewer just sewer I'm sorry there water's already there purpose uh just sewer and so just want to open that up for uh a deliberation tonight. Um if you know anybody's for that again you have a cost estimate.

We we do have a cost estimate. Um, and so, uh, it's going to come in right at about 2.65 million. And that's from what point to what point? Highway six to Rangi Park. Sewer only. When you cross When you cross uh on Avenue T, when you cross the railroad tracks, you go down to the first street to the right. I believe that's Sixth Street. Sixth Street. T Jackson. No, no, no. It's coming It's not coming from there. It's coming from Oh, it's coming from T. It's coming from T. Coming from T. Sixth Street and then that's the first street. That's Sixth Street. Is that correct? Yes, that's right. From Sixth Street to Columbia Park. Let me check. Go down that residential route.

Same the same route. Same ramp that the water takes. Where would we put the lift station? I could not tell you that. I think when when uh I don't know did did he mention any of that to you? That's going to be that's going to be a that would be the big one. That's going to be a big one. Yeah, it's going to be a big one. But that's included in that 2.1 million. 65. I would think there would be. Wow. Let me tell you something, guys. We We've been talking about this for a long time. I remember the first time we started talking about it, it was 1.5. Now, here we are. Is it at 2 point? How much? 2.65. That's how much things you have. Water down Jackson. Yeah. Jackson. This goes No, it just goes to It just goes to

This goes to Rangy. This goes it goes to uh the uh uh senior citizens. There's a fire plug there. It doesn't go it doesn't go Where does the water at Runy Park come from? It comes from s from Sixth Street. Sixth Street. West Sixth Street. Sixth Street. And it comes down Sixth Street and goes all the way down. The fire plugs are there to T Ties in Avenue. T where it starts at. Okay. Do y'all at the water district? Do y'all have a map of We do. Could you could you get that to me?

I'll get I'll get it and give it to Z and y'all can Yeah. In fact, we got a brand new company in is putting that all electronically together for us now. They're going to show every valve, every cut off, every We've been trying to get that done for a long time. We finally found a a not a developer, but engineer can do that. Uh, and we're working on that right now. That's great. Y'all had some money left over from um Bonn. The money he had appropriated. We there's no money left over. There was like there's not gonna be enough as it is. Yeah. Big dreams there in that money.

So, um I'm assuming with that project it's it's kind of an all or nothing kind of deal because it doesn't do us any good to go halfway. Correct. Yeah. It's it's an all or nothing. So, something to consider. Any uh any movement on that? Is every everybody in agreement on that or is that something we need to table and talk about or we're going to check that out as far as any grants available for that? Correct. Correct. Do we do we have an idea of um so if we run that line if those residents start tapping in? Correct. Correct.

How do Okay, I'm g ask a question. If 50 people pay 10,000 bucks, does that 10,000 that 50,000 bucks come back to the 2.6 that the eating

line there's a line uh there's a calculation that we use that our engineer gives us. Every person say say you call it whoever you want to own it. Say the city owns that line that the line belongs to the city. The person that wants to tie into that line has to pay the city a number to tie into that line. You know, they don't give it to the water department. they give it to the city because it's not our line even though it'll eventually be our line when we take it over and we have to maintain it for the rest of you know eternity but the problem is uh there's a period there that if people tie into that line the money comes back to the city because y'all put the or

EDC and whoever put the line in. Now I'm just going to go ahead and talk about the elephant in the room and Zth has talked to me about this already. There's been preliminary discussions with the water department on you know how much we could help with that line. Uh but until because that number keeps changing and I don't know uh I'll have to talk to James. I did talk to him today to find out. I am shocked at that number. I want you to know that. I wasn't thinking that number. I was thinking I was thinking two tops and now 2.6. 2.6. Oh god. You said that's just sewer. Yeah. This is a sewer line. That's right. The water's already there. Yes. And a lift station. A lift station. Sewer line and a lift station.

But I'll find out. I I I would think that number has to include the lift station. But Rusty brings up a good point. Where's the lift station going to be? You know, well, for what we're talking about with certain upgrades, you're going I mean, the their their restrooms are horrible. That's what the million dollars was for. It was to fix the restroom. What do you mean by fix? Like I just say they have they have no Well, we can make new ones all we want, but the the septic tank out there is the septic tank. I mean, it's an ariation system that's not designed for mass public events.

It's just familiar. No, I I think it's something we need to consider, but I think we need to plan for it strategically as well. Um, I do remember when we did the 1764 project, you know, the dollar amount and the timing. It it it fell over multiple budget cycles which helped absorb the big cost versus just

out of the gate. And so I think kind of understanding that timing along with the cost plus what potential return could come back from who might tap in to help recoup some of those fees would be important. So I'm going to go out on a little bit of a limb and say that I think there is an appetite um from the state to help us with that. Um but they want to see local buyin. They don't want to they're not going to write a $2.65 million check. They want to have some local buy in. So, I'm not I'm not afraid to go back to the well and ask for it if I can if we can get commitments from the water district.

We got to tell them how much we're going to pay and and the and the EDC. I think bare minimum I loved what y'all did on the Corey Ber project even though that's a cuss word in this room. The one deal I think that's great. I think if the water district will commit and the EDC will commit to a oneto one um then you know we can go to the we can go to Dr. to Dr. Bonnan and you know figure out and ask for the other half. Um I don't know. I mean I'm not saying that he's going to do I'm just saying I would be I would avoid you like the playground.

No, he can't get too far away from he sees you. He's gonna go spend a lot of time in Austin next year. But um but um but so I and maybe with some grants possibly. You know, when y'all talk about a grant coordinator, you know, another conversation to have on that is, you know, you a grant coordinator or also just a a grant company like Grant Works or somebody else that finds grants or whatever. That's for y'all to talk about. But, um, so, but I think what we should do is, uh, as much as we can get a get a commitment, something hard that I can take to

Well, we'll start working on that. Next, I want to talk about um uh paving uh roads if we if we can on on that level of infrastructure or concreting roads. Um there's a couple of roads that come to mind that I've discussed um with a couple of you. Um one uh being uh Sixth Street um from 646 North uh to 1764. Not saying to do that whole project. That would cost a lot a lot of money. But to look at some of the areas to be strategic along that road, whether it's to Avenue P or to Avenue or Q or Q and a half right there. Um or even to Avenue S. Uh just looking at uh at coming up with a maybe potentially a number uh and looking at a project there. Um, also, uh, Avenue J, it's become such a major, uh, thorough affair for, uh, many of our residents as well of concreting that road. We do have limitations on expanding or widening that road, unfortunately. Um, and also um, uh, there's several other roads um, across the city that could really benefit that have become major thorough affairs. Um, and I wanted to get the kind of the appetite in the room for uh for looking at uh concreting some of those roads like we did Warp Path because I thought that was a very successful project for us uh here at the city. Um, you know, I'd say a majority of our residents use that road. Um, a lot of our residents use Sixth Street and they use Avenue J. Uh, if they take their kids to school, they go to the library, if they're going to HB, if they're going to Waterburger or to the bank there. Um, Avenue J. uh if you live in Aloma and you work in Texas city or or wherever or league city u you you utilize that road quite a bit. So just want to get the the temperature from you guys if I can.

I'm good on I'm good on Sixth Street from 646 to P. I don't want to touch anything past the library. How much are we talking? Do we have a S, isn't it? Yes. I don't have a um a hard number we can use kind of based on what we had at War Path. I mean, that was, you know, 1.1 million. No, I don't want to go to S. I I don't think that road's that bad from P to S. That's bad from P to 646. Oh, I see what you're saying. Start at 646. And if we even if we break it up, we can do this could be a multi-year, you know, project. We talked about infrastructure plan of doing five years. So, if you just do a little bit of at a time, I have a question. Yeah. 20% of it

and we okayed this. What have they started on? Avenue L or is that road just falling apart? I drove down that road. No, they're working on started on it. They're taking That's what it is. They started the milling. I've done it today and about lost my vehicle. Yeah. Okay. I didn't know. It was bad, but they've come in and tore a bunch of stuff. Okay. They did some on it. I didn't know. I didn't know they started. Anyways, where where are we at on uh I mean what do y'all think? We can't do both. So, we have to pick which one one or the other. Which one's worse? Six.

And I I think you can justify at least at 646 the promotion of business activity at that at that hard corner. For sure. So just, you know, I would assume that would include kind of widening it or maybe even including a turn lane if we can. I mean, I I don't know about the You have to buy the land. We'd have to purchase some land right there. Domain and I'm just going to ignore that. Uh I know I'm just saying we would have to purchase from whoever's there. Mayor Strike that from the record. See what I'm saying? As far as commercial use, it's so tight. You can we could curb and gutter it and take in the ditches.

That's what I'm saying. You would have to that adds to that number. Oh, a lot. I do like the idea of chaing cha-ching. Let us look a little bit in that when we take it all the way down to the original base, we'll get the same way. All of them. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of our roads have gotten more and more narrow as they've crowned because of overlay after overlay after overlay. Almost the same thing on Jay. If you started from 1764 and if you could get to at least like maybe Malber's turn in I bet you Jay could go down a foot. I bet you Jay could go down 12 inches to the original base. 12. I bet you we have 12 inches of overlay on Jay. We got three We got three layers.

Yeah. Look at I mean all you got to do when you go up to right here if you're going back toward 1764 get there in front of uh Santa Fe Trails and just look at that ditch and then look how much and I mean it's just a drop off street the same way street you get off of that ditch if y'all are going to put together a fiveyear capital improvement plan I think we do 20% of a 20% of Sixth Street for the next five Well, I I think you do what's bad. Do what you got money for. I think you do what's bad. Start. I I I said what's I'm being selfish here, but I don't want y'all going past war path.

I don't want you going past the library. That's going to affect our business, man. And our road is good. I mean, we don't have a problem coming from 176 1764 to warp. Your problem is 646 to P is bad. I mean it's bad. It's a water sport. It is. It is. And Avenue Jay, you're right. To Malberry Farms. I mean, I think that that if we could get to there, that would help eliminate a lot of issues that you we have to remember when we get Jay that's going to have to be on the ball. We can't have one of these guys like that over there.

I mean, this No, I'm talking about all that stuff over there we did that we waited on the people for. They didn't do what they said they were going to do. Took six months instead of two months. I'm sorry that that that Jay is going to that is you're right. I mean I don't think because it's so well traveled. It's going to mess up a lot of things. Mess up a lot of things. Second Street. Yes. Only going to get worse. That's the worst street. Only one side bond. Only one side. It's on the bond for the county to be second. They had forth their bond. Yeah. From where? From 646 to probably all the way to city. Santo Park City. Santo Park. Okay. Wow. Yeah. Why not stretch?

They need to do something with it. That the county the county bonds never pay for any land acquisition. They're just going to resurface it. Parents live on Los Santos. So, I go to L. Yeah. Telling people are not from here. They just take they just go right to the stop sign. That'll help. I hope it helps that intersection. That terrible intersection. Um, we'll start working on that plan. Do y'all have anything else that we need to talk about infrastructure tonight? Um I I want to tell you how much I appreciate your time and and coming together and and the discussion we've had tonight. It's been great. And um I know last time we met was a strategic planning. So where we are where are we on the run stuff sewer

on the run sewer. So, we're going to um look at options and talk with uh the uh uh water district to see if they would be willing to uh partner with EDC on that project. But because we have plans and we've all talked about those plans and where we want to put some of this stuff. Yeah, correct. And you and if if we can't do that that we have to think about some of that area that we we thought was going to be parking or whatever, right? Going to have to be green space. It's going to have to be septic.

Right. Well, council, before we adjourn, I just want to say one thing that I hope that this meeting, the meeting that we had during strategic plan and the meeting that we had tonight should be proof to all of us that we're not nearly as divided on things as sometimes maybe we think we are in our own heads. Council and the EDC, I think we all uh have our hearts in the right direction. We're heading in the right direction. We might get there maybe a little differently, but I certainly appreciate the discussion and look forward to many more discussions like this and working together in the future. And uh we'll plan on getting back together on the 16th I mean on the 17th

16th 16th of this month. Yeah. Special meeting before our regular council meeting. Okay. Okay. Okay. Pam gets us some real numbers. Well, if we if she gets Okay. Okay. Okay. Any other any further discussion? If not, I'll entertain a motion. Well, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let's have the EDC adjourn their meeting. Uh no further discussion. We'll uh I'll take a motion to adjurnn our meeting. So moved. Move. Adjourned. All right. And I'll motion moved and second. Second. Thank you guys. We won't have to meeting. You only have to move to a journal meeting.