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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCEDC Minutes 2008-10-08 RegularFriendswood Community and Economic Development Committee Minutes October 8, 2008 The Friendswood Community and Economic Development Committee met on Wednesday, October 8, 2008, at 8:00 a.m., in the second floor conference room of City Hall, 910 S. Friendswood Drive, Friendswood, Texas, with the following members present: Chair Jamie Ballard, Vice Chair Brett Banfield, Claude McEwen, Cody Owen, Bill Provenzano, Troy Waters, and Dr. Hilmar Zeissig. Liaisons present were Friendswood Chamber of Commerce President Carol Jones, Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership representative Barbara Cutsinger, Friendswood Independent School District Superintendent Trish Hanks, Clear Creek ISD representative Eva -Marie deCardenas, and Griffin Integrated Marketing representative Deanna Wilke. Also present was City Councilmember Jim Barr. Staff member present was Karen Capps. Absent from the meeting were Kirk Lippert and Pauline Moore. 1. Call to Order. The meeting was called to order at 8:10 with a quorum present. 2. Roll Call. Roll call was made. 3. Approval of Minutes. Bill Provenzano made a motion to approve the September 10, 2008 meeting minutes. The motion was seconded by Troy Waters and it passed unanimously in the committee. 4. Consideration and possible action regarding the Community and Economic Development Committee's mission statement Chair Ballard will ask Griffin Marketing to review and wordsmith the mission statement. 5. Consideration and possible action regarding amending the City's tax abatement policy Karen Capps stated that she sent the draft tax abatement policy to the City Attorney. Hilmar Zeissig stated the definitions section is too lengthy and questioned the legitimacy of some of the definitions and their applicability to other parts of the policy. Dr. Zeissig will review the draft policy's definitions and submit proposed changes that will be sent to the CEDC prior to next month's meeting. 6. Discussion and possible action, but not limited to the following goals and action items to be included in the Community and Economic Development Committee's 2008-09 strategic plan. A. Business Recruitment, Chamber and billboard advertising for the corporate relocation program The "Live Where You Work, Work Where You Live" campaign was discussed and how the theme was incorporated into an ad in the Chamber's Annual Membership Directory. More concepts of the Live -Work campaign for a billboard on FM 2351 were discussed. Also discussed were available places on FM 2351 since Hurricane Ike removed some of the billboards that were previously available when discussed the prior month. C. Business retention and expansion The committee decided to not move forward with a mail or internet survey. The committee would like to highlight businesses that are visited, particularly businesses that are owned by Friendswood residents, in the media. D. Retail business, ICSC Tradeshow Karen Capps reported that she will be at the International Council of Shopping Centers tradeshow from October 29-31. This will be the third year for the City to have a booth at their retail tradeshow called the Texas Deal Making Conference. E. Incentives This was discussed under Item 5. 7. Reports: A. Planning and Zoning P&Z was not present. B. Liaisons Councilmember Jim Barr provided a copy of City Council's adopted strategic objectives and review them with the committee. Also reported were the proposed projects for Galveston County's bond election on November 4. Trish Hanks reported that kids were back in school from the hurricane. There was about $200,000 worth of damage to Windsong Intermediate and some portable buildings but the biggest problem was the loss of power for the schools. Due to the hurricane and recent economic crisis some of the schools fundraisers will be scaled back. There are approximately 40 kids from Galveston that enrolled in FISD and a few are still here. The new Junior High school will go out for bid next week. Ms. Hanks also reported on the upcoming school board election and information that is available on the school's public channel 15. Eva -Marie deCardenas reported that CCISD estimated approximately $15-20 million of damage to their schools. Only one of CCISD's schools did not receive some kind of damage from the hurricane. CCISD enrolled 475 new kids from Galveston and the area. Fundraising has also been scaled back, i.e. a gala that was planned will now be a lunch. Of the eleven days missed by students in CCISD, four to five days will be made up. All Schools are now open. Carol Jones reported that the Friendswood Chamber didn't have power for one week. Galveston's Chamber was completely lost which was the oldest chamber of commerce in Texas. Alvin's chamber lost their roof. Ms. Jones reported on upcoming events. The Chamber's 81h annual Halloween in the Park will be held in Stevenson Park on October 30 and the I Ith annual Swing Into Fall Golf Tournament will be held on November 6. Barbara Cutsinger reported that Dan Seal was at the National Business Aviation Association Conference in Florida promoting Ellington Field. The 501h anniversary for NASA is being celebrated this month. On Friday, October 10, there will be a disaster recovery follow-up press conference with Mayors attending from many of the bay area cities. Despite Hurricane Ike and the economic crunch, BAHEP is still receiving leads and visits from site consultants. Don Gartman reported there was no damage to the Galveston County Economic Alliance's office. Texas City and La Marque faired well compared to the job loss on Galveston Island. Mr. Gartman expressed concern about UTMB and the mall of the Mainland's recovery from Ike. C. Marketing Deanna Wilke reported on work being done for the broker & developer day. She also provided rates for advertising in the Houston Business Journal. D. City Staff Karen Capps reported on the possibility of having water and sewer infrastructure funded for the panhandle area. She said the Dr. Baden should move into his new building at the end of the month and is planning a grand opening in November. If the drainage bonds get approved in Galveston County's bond election on November 4, it will help downtown projects such as HomeTown Center. The Park Plaza project has secured construction financing and will move forward with its groundbreaking in early November. She also said that a veterinary clinic, a business park, and a shopping center development proposal attended DRCs in the last month. Another prospect is completing their application to submit for a municipal grant. E. Project Status Reported above in D. 7. Adiournment. The meeting was adjourned at 10:20 am.