Economic Opportunity Committee Meeting Transcript –5/11/2015 Title: ATXN 24/7 Recording Channel: 6 - ATXN Recorded On: 5/11/2015 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 5/11/2015 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== [2:10:11 PM] >> Hello. Welcome to the committee meeting on economic opportunity. It is may 11, and the time is 2:10. I am Ellen troxclair. I'm joined by councilmembers, pool, Houston and Casar. We will have a time limit and we will try to keep going so we can be respectful of everybody's time. We have a few staff briefings. One on overview of art and public places program. One on the cultural arts funding program and then an overview of the sister cities program. And then from there, we have a few items up for committee consideration. >> Have you decided how much time to give to each [indiscernible]. >> Yeah? >> Is it 10, 15, each, something like that? >> Yeah. >> The first item is the approval of minutes from the April 13, 2015, meeting. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? All right. Councilmember Houston moves approval and councilmember Casar with a second. All in favor of approving the minutes. All right. Minutes are passed. Now we have a couple of citizens signed up for citizens communication. Nicole peroda. Hello. And Christi whites here? And you're donating your time? Ok. So she has six minutes. >> Ok. Great. >> My name is Nicole perrada, I'm the education director for Texas women in business. We were founded in 2010 as a member-driven nonprofit organization. And we currently have a little bit over 350 members [2:12:17 PM] we appreciate the time you have allotted us today. Is that good? We're excited to share with you today who we are. What we have done, more importantly, what we're creating right now that we believe will make a difference in business and personal lives for women in Austin. As I mentioned we're established in 2010 by five ordinary business women who 0 an amazing vision. They created an organization that is living up to its mission every single day. And that mission is to foster an environment that supports ordinary women doing extraordinary things. So we do this through many different ways. And we provide many valuable resources to our members and the community in three key areas. The first is connecting. We offer many opportunities to connect and network through our monthly luncheons, monthly happy hours and morning coffee connections which happen twice per month. The other key area is philanthropy. We offer many opportunities for members to give back to the community by donating time and money. We're very proud that we have been able to donate quarterly, since the beginning of Texas women and business. We started out donating $500 per month. We upped that to a thousand the next year. And currently we're donating $2,300 for month -- I said per month, it is per quarter. $2,300 per quarter to nonprofit organizations that support women and children. In addition, our philanthropy chair also coordinates quarterly events. We're able to donate our time to local charities. Lastly is our education. Our last key area is education. We believe that education is the foundation of supporting the personal and professional growth of business women in Austin. We support this through our online education portal. Our smart cookies series, which is our monthly lunch and learn. Our coaching and mentoring programs and our annual conferences, which is what brings me here today and prompted us to speak with you about what we're creating. [2:14:18 PM] We're very excited that we're in the planning process of developing our may, 2016 conference, which we are calling the Austin women's education conference. We'll also be nicknaming that the all- conference. As a background we had the pleasure of hosting the beyond 50 conference for three years, prior to 2015. We enjoyed great support and sponsorship by the governor's commission for women as well as the city of Austin. The event was originally designed to provide education support, and resources to women over the ages of 50. So that might be a woman that is entering the job force for the first time after getting hear children off to college. Or a veteran coming back from her tour of duty, trying to reenter the market or maybe for women that decided to transition jobs later in life. So at this conference we offer amazing keynote spokers, break out workshops, speed coaching and offered sponsorship to some women that weren't able to afford it yet. We had over 200 women participating in each of the conferences and great reviews and many wonderful success stories. In fact, I had the pleasure of coaching a woman at one of the first events that started her own business after leaving corporate America. During this session, she was able to shift how she thought about herself as a sales woman, because of that she created a great breakthrough in her business and wonderful seeing her business flourish after that. We have had a veteran that took advantage of a resume writing workshop and landed a job quickly after the conference. And countless other stories. So this year, as a board we're talking about how as a board we can capitalize on that beyond 50 conference. We wanted to extend our reach in two ways. One extend the reach to all women, under or over 50 and extend our reach to woman by supporting them and their growth after the conference. So we intend to create an [2:16:19 PM] inspiring, educational experience that lives beyond just this one day. The day itself will be filled with keynote spokers, panel discussions, breakout workshops, coaching sessions and a preview into our education portal. We will, as in every year past also be providing scholarships. After the conference, they can find continued support and resources to achieve their goals established at the conference through resources available through Texas women and business. By empowering women through educational opportunities at the conference and then availing them to twib resources after the conference we seek to foster and nurture sustainable growth for business women in Austin. If you remember the biblical story you give a man a fish, you feed him for a night. You teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. We believe if you give an Austin businesswoman a day of training her mind will be inspired for a day. If you teach an Austin businesswoman how to be a powerful business leader as well as a pillar in the community, you feed her mind, heart and soul for a lifetime. So we seek your support to create this awe-inspiring conference. Our president Kristin ruff and I would love to set up individual meetings with council members who are interested in finding out further about what we're doing. I thank you for your time. >> Thank you. I appreciate the update. Thank you for your work. >> Troxclair: Ok if no other speakers, we will move into idea 3, which is the overview of the art and public places program. A presentation by city staff. >> Good afternoon, Kevin Johns, director of economic development. We have three short presentations, synovia hope Rabb our society director will make the first two on the 30-year-old cultural arts initiatives and David cul gan, our global business manager [2:18:21 PM] will make a short presentation on the sister cities program. >> Thank you. Good afternoon, as Kevin said, I'm sin overio holt-rabb. I want to remind you that the cultural arts division works to implement programs and strategies for economic development, community development and neighborhood revitalization. The cultural arts division's programming includes not only cultural funding, art and public places, but it also includes civic arts and creative industry development. We seek to invest not only in people, but in places and in knowledge. So today, I'm going to give you a brief overview of two programs, the art in public places program and the cultural arts funding program. I believe you have been -- we distributed our arts in public places resource guide. In this resource guide is a very well- developed chart of the art in public places process. It also includes a Gantt chart for you. And the Gantt chart just walks you through a basic scenario of how we go from bond to completion of the design, I don't want you to get into the details. Today I will walk you through the actual project so you can just listen. I would like to walk you through what we developed the bmx skate park. This project was funded from the 2006 bond election. On January 8, 2008, the arts in public places panel decided on the goals. And I think you questioned on how you are involved. The art in public places panel [2:20:21 PM] is made up of seven members. Those members are appointed by the art commission. The arts commission are appointed by city council. So each council member gets to appoint a commissioner to the arts commission. They in turn interview and appoints the arts in public places panel. So the arts in public places panel -- you have to apply. You're interviewed and approved by the arts commission. So for the bmx project -- again this is a 2006 bond approved project. The arts in public place panel decided January 9, 2008, the goals for the project. And the goals for the project included an irk sneak experience and environment for users and visitors going beyond the graffiti art and the typical assets associated with a bike or skate park. They wanted to incorporate color in the artwork to help provide the park an identity and interactivity. They wanted the artists to also consider skatability. And contributing to an overall destination location. So we released a call to artists on March of 2008. The art in public places panel then on April 8, 2008, reviewed 26 eligible artist teams. The call was for artists within 100 mile radius of Austin. The selection panel and advisors, which the advisors were made up of park staff and a skate shop decided on the first selector, which was Chris lavek and Johnny walker as the alternate. [2:22:22 PM] The art in public places commission then approved the recommendation by the art in public places panel on April 4, 2008. The project was then subsequently approved by the council on February 26, 2009. And I would like to show you this project, the bmx skate park, just so you can see from 2006 to 2008, until it was commissioned in 2009 by council. And here is a picture of the award-winning skate park. It was named one of the 50 best artworks in the U.S. By the Americans for the art in public places network. Again, it is a long process. We hear from the community at various points. You have an influence by appointing arts commissions who therefore appoint the art in public places panel. It comes back to the commission for approval and then ultimately to council for financial approval. And all of this is articulated very well in your resource guide. So are there any questions related to how art goes from the cradle of bond approval to finish out? I'm here to answer any questions, if you have any. And I also have law here into speak to the ordinance and our cip package officer Kim springer is in the audience. >> Troxclair: Any questions? Councilmember Houston. >> Houston: Does everybody know what a cip is? >> I'm sorry. You're right, capital [2:24:23 PM] improvement project. Arts in public places. >> Troxclair: Questions? >> This is a 30-year program. We're celebrating our 30th year. In 1985, the council approved 1% and we were one of the first Texas cities to actually incorporate art as part of our capital program. Then in 2002, the council approved to increase it to 1%. So just more background that is also in your resource guide. >> Pool: I recognize some of the names, I remember jimmy jalapeno. Pau -- Paul Hernandez. Damian Pryor. There are a lot of Austin artists that we have both supported and given a start to. These are the ones with as opposed to music, these are more intact and instillation practicals. -- Projects. And we support music and theaters not in arts in public places but in the cultural arts program. >> Yes, I will get to that presentation. >> Oh, good. That's great. >> Do you have a map that shows an inventory of where all the different instillations are around the city? >> Yes, we can get you a map. We have mapped that out. >> Great. That would be good for people that come to town. They come to see our bats and we can show them where all the murals and sculpture and photography exhibits are as well. >> Yes. >> They have good information -- your original binder from March 23, there is map where all the art in public places is. >> Thank you for that, Mr. Johns, I thought I had seen it but I -- >> It was a big binder. [2:26:25 PM] >> Pool: They usually are. Thank you. >> Troxclair: I have a few questions, you said the program was established in 1985. And at that time we were one of the first cities in Texas to establish an art in public places program? >> As part of the capital projects, yes. >> Troxclair: Ok. So we originally established -- it was approximately -- 2002. >> The ordinance was revised. >> Troxclair: Was also there a cap on the total amount spent on each project. >> 2002, we removed the cap and added street and streetscape improvement projects. >> Troxclair: Ok. Between 1985 and 2002, there was a $200,000 cap on each project, you couldn't go more than $200,000 on a specific project, regardless if the capital improvement budget was larger than what would have been 1%? >> I believe so, yes. >> Troxclair: Ok. And do you know how that change has impacted the number of projects, the total amount of money that has been spend, dedicated to this program? >> I believe we sent a copy of what we have spent from fy 08 to now. Again it is based on the bond program and the funding. It depends on the bond projects. If 2009 was higher than 12, if there were many more projects, [2:28:27 PM] you could find yourself with more projects. I think the total value of the portfolio now is around $10 million. >> Troxclair: Ok. It looks like this year we're planning on spending a little over $6.1 million. And 2011-2012, it was around almost $900,000. So it is about a 3,000% increase. >> Again, it depends on the bond and the timing of the bond projects. >> Troxclair: That is also since 2002, but that had to do with increasing the percentage. So I know we had talked about -- before there were questions about how we make sure local artists are able to benefit from the program. I think there was a comment made or somebody pointed out the goal of the commission is to have 90% -- I think was it 90% -- can you remind me what percentage of the projects we try to award to local Austin artists? >> I know the current portfolio is about 73%. Again, the goals for the project are established by the art in public places panel. So they decide if it should be a local or national search for the art -- artist. >> Troxclair: I would be interested in knowing -- maybe I can speak to the members of the panel about this. My question, from the original project that we approved as the new council was about the -- about having a blanket 2% policy across the board. I wondered if there were ever projects that they said, well, really for because of the locate of this project, only because 2% amounts to $200,000, we can do an incredible piece of work for [2:30:33 PM] $300,000, which would exceed the cap or if there are times that maybe the artwork that the artist wants to put there only ends up being -- maybe they have a budget of $100,000, but at the end of the day the - - you know it is closer to $50,000. I wonder if the blanket 2% policy was -- if there have been moments where there are those cases and if how the 2% policy has worked or if it is better to allow for more plexibility within the program. >> -- Flexibility within the program. >> I know in one of the spreadsheets we prepared some projects had additional funding contributed. I don't have those specific projects. I know some cases more funding has gone into the project to make it more robust. >> And maybe it might be helpful to add that we try and attract private investment to match it. In the green water treatment plant on the other side that Trammell Crowe is developing, I think they provided a $250,000 match, just as you said, the project was bigger and they would try and have a bigger impact. Wherever possible we try to leverage private investment. I don't know if that answer your question. >> Troxclair: I think we all agree art is important to the Austin community. And I want to make sure that the artists or the city -- that we have the resources that are adequate, depending on the situation. So I'm wondering if this is the best proposal or if other cities do have more flexibility in their programs. >> There is some wonderful best practices that we can [2:32:36 PM] share. We're doing a great job. But at the program in Seattle, they have taken an aggressive program and developed a whole group of statues along the river that are quite beautiful. It is the olympictue park. 50, 70-foot statues, it helped revitalize that area. There are examples that we can send you from other communities that are doing a great job. Philadelphia invested a billion dollars in one corridor for the Philadelphia -- I can't remember the name of it -- for a billion, I should -- but it was a very exciting program. In Baltimore they renovated the torpedo factory for art. So if it would be helpful, each month we can send you different videos from best practices that might help you see what other communities are doing that are our size or greater. We can look and see what they have done over a five-year period to make sure it ended up being beautiful, pays for itself and is legal. And if that would be of any help. >> Troxclair: Well, I mean -- I would love to see art in other cities but I know y'all have a lot on your plate. So we'll see what other council members think is appropriate, but the project you mentioned you said another city invested a billion dollars in a large scale art project. I doubt that that was 2% of a much larger budget so I'm wondering -- that is exactly what I'm wondering. So was that just separate and apart from whatever policy that they have. I'm curious, how we make decisions that are -- how other cities make decisions that may be different from the [2:34:37 PM] 2%. That was the Philadelphia avenue of the arts. So it was a major public private effort to create a mega-art district. So the art museum all participated. Is it is leveraging -- it is similar to second street. A major effort to envision in an area anchored by art. Again, we would be happy to help you come up with ideas or if you have suggestions for the cultural arts division or the economic development department where we can use art to infuse more quality of life in a community or increase its walkability. All of the things that we look for when we try and regenerate a community. All of it has to do in some way, shape, or form with its beauty. >> Troxclair: Uh-huh. Well, yeah, y'all have a little more in-depth experience of the program. I was trying to get a better understanding of the history or other proposals are tried. It doesn't sound like it. Thank you for providing that perspective. Councilmember Houston. >> Houston: Thank you so much. I've got a question about the relationship between tourism and arts and how funds are awarded. Is there a connection? >> I'm getting to that. >> Houston: That will come next? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Houston: Before you get to that part, so how is the art wall classified? As we talk about art in public places over on Baylor and 13th street? >> Around the energy control center over in cel? Yes. >> Houston: No, no, this is off of Lamar, up on the hill where the castle is, I think that is Baylor street. There is an art project up there. >> I will bring new friends up [2:36:37 PM] to talk about that project -- my friends up to talk about that project. >> Houston: Ok. >> It's the hope area. It is the graffiti wall there. That is not associated with art in public places. That is a private area. That is not something we do as a city. I'm sue lamb, a project manager with art in public places. >> Houston: Ok. Does hope stand for something, or is it just to give people that call the streets of Austin home the opportunity to be creative on the walls? >> I don't know the origination of the name is, we would be happy to find out for you. >> Houston: Ok. Thank you. You'll talk about tourism and the relationships. >> Troxclair: Councilmember Casar. >> Troxclair: She has a presentation on a different program. >> Casar: Thank you for the program. Looking at the map for arts in public places is, I certainly understand why there would be more in the downtown area. We obviously centralize a lot of services and have many public buildings here I do think before I get into that, a quick question about our policy through the cip program we traditionally put the piece of art on-site as we develop a new project; is that right? >> Exactly. >> Casar: But is -- >> That is not the only. >> Casar: That is just the way we traditionally -- >> That is the way we have traditionally done it. But we have an arts place America grant where we're mapping our cultural assets. As part of the merchant's challenge we plan to infuse art in areas that are lacking or need additional artwork. We recognize it is not everywhere. So as part of our grant, we're actually mapping our assets and part of the merchants challenge is when we go into districts -- excuse me. And infuse economic development, it will come with art. It will come with music, because that makes a community [2:38:38 PM] vibrant. >> Casar: Great. I think that for us to advocate for the programs, which we know we do have to pay for art somehow, it just will be much -- I think it will be much appreciated by the communities we want to advocate it to, to see the art in their communities. Just briefly flipping through the graph of hundreds of projects with a quick scan, the map shows about two projects in my district, but scanning through it looks like there are about four. I know a couple of them are larger at the ymca and St. John community center that are significant projects -- >> That is an award-winning program, too. The garden. >> Casar: The garden at the ymca is fantastic. I think what we do have is great. I think we should be thinking about how to make sure that these are, on streets that people can see them so people can appreciate them. I know we have one in one of our police stations. While that is a public space, I think people would maybe prefer to see it on the street. Not that our public servants and people there don't appreciate the art. I think a district that has four of the projects on hundreds of the sheets of paper I would be interested in thinking about as we develop our bond programs and develop the arts in public places program I will be in touch with folks of the commission. As councilmember troxclair mentioned, perhaps we can chop some down into some of the other zip codes. One area in my district doesn't have any of them. It is not a criticism, but a challenge to overcome. It is why people wanted to attend. I'm open and excited about supporting art but trying to get it as close to as many of my people I can. >> Exactly. The drawing line it is project is exciting because each district will have a unique piece and all 10 districts will come together for one project. We're excited and looking forward to seeing what the artists come up with. [2:40:39 PM] >> Casar: Thank you for your work on that project. I will follow-up with a note about the initiative you mentioned about trying to get art in more public places. >> Yes. >> Troxclair: Councilmember . >> Pool: Is everyone familiar with the drawing lines? They came and did -- she does ora -- origami, she folded swallows which are more intricate than some I've seen in the past. She strung them from the ceiling. You come in the office and see them from one side to the other. It is beautiful and gives a nice feel to the office. I urge you to invite the artist who is assigned to your district come and possibly do something in your offices, if you have room for them. >> Troxclair: Councilmember Houston. >> Houston: One last question and I will let you go on to your next presentation. Some of the concerns that people have -- and I know the aviation department is a different entity than the city of Austin. People are concerned when art in public places are inaccessible to the art in the public. Like the $4 million project at the airport. Those are criticisms I heard while on the campaign trail. If it is public money, whether it is federal or city or state or we get it because we leveraged some grants, people want to be able to see that. When it is in inaccessible places to the public, that causes some angst. That is not a criticism of the artwork. I haven't seen it either because I don't use that terminal. Those are some of the things that people are saying about how we use those dollars. Even though that is aviation [2:42:40 PM] and separate and apart from what you are talking about. It is all mixed together in the public's mind. I just wanted to share this. >> Thank you. We're exploring better outreach options to get all work in front of the public, but if on our website, the public can actually go in and see all the art inventory, but we are exploring better communication tools to get better feedback from the community. >> Troxclair: Ok. >> Ok. Next you requested information on the cultural arts funding which comes from a motel hotel tax which is through the cultural arts funding. We actually have five programs now that we fund through the cultural funding program, the core, cultural expansion program, community initiatives, cultural heritage festivals, and capacity building. But I want to clarify. Capacity building does not use hotel motel tax. It uses funding from the Texas arts commission to fund the capacity building programs. So just want to make sure that is clear because it is not an eligible expense under the hotel motel occupancy law. So the core funding is a two-year program as well as the cultural expansion program. It is on a two-year funding cycle. But we started the cultural -- the core in 2005 and we're starting the expansion this year. So they're off every other year. And again, the applications, all this information is online in terms of the core support. We fund organizational support, project support, and project second-tier project support. Cultural expansion program provides funding to strengthen the marketing and audience [2:44:43 PM] development of arts organizations and serving primarily minority and traditionally underserved audiences. Our community initiatives program is available to individuals and organizations which do not already receive funding through core. And finally, our heritage festival, which is the newest program, it responded to a number of increase in arts and cultural celebrations in our community. The goal is to support artistic presentations and performance through a competitive process. Specific to festivals. And again, your purview is that you assign arts commissions, the applications are received through purchasing. Are certified. They come in. It is a very, very stringent matrix process that the programs are evaluated on. We bring in panels to evaluate each program and genre, whether it is multidisciplinary, dance, literature, music, et cetera. And so the arts commission wants the process -- once the process has evolved and every application is evaluated, they're scored. Then the scores go to the funding working group of the arts commission. And it is a blind process. In other words, the art commission only sees the scores. There is certain criteria with which you all have that information in front of you. And it is determined then by the arts commission, the amount of funding that is received. Once that is approved by the arts commission, it comes to council for final approval. So after the budget is approved, we typically bring the contracts over council administrative limit to you for final approval. Again, this process has been audit it. It is under the purview of the arts commission and we provide you a copy of all the rules, regulations and guidelines of [2:46:43 PM] each program. This is hotel occupancy tax funding. It is covered what you can do with that by ordinance. Any questions? I would like to show you the funding as of two weeks ago to date. Of the cultural arts funding, we've funded dance, literature, media arts, music, opera music theater, and visual arts. So we've funded over 282 contracts to the tune of about $8 million. So I have staff here to help me with any questions or concerns. >> Troxclair: Councilmember Houston. >> Houston: Thank you so much. Can you tell me what multidisciplinary is? >> Yes, I will have staff come up here and explain that definition. >> Houston: And then don't forget about tourism. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Houston: Ok. >> Hi, I'm Jesus Patel I manage the multidisciplinary programs. Multidisciplinary is basically all the multidisciplines that is affected. It is anything that doesn't fit into any one discipline. It could be music and dance mixed together. There is no single artistic discipline. >> As part of the hotel motel occupancy tax guidelines, these nonprofits are to attract tourists, based on programming. So they advertise on now playing Austin, there is a concierge program that helps promote nonprofits and the events that they're having. So it is to attract out of town visitors to the various program. And as of fy 14, we funded about -- or is it 15. [2:48:45 PM] We funded at a 10-1 ratio. They employed 9200 individual. If you count the volunteers there were 15,000 working for the events. We served about five million tourists. That's part of the final report. They have to document the people that attended the performance. There is a requirement for publishing that is funded by the city of Austin economic development cultural arts division. All the advertising is there to help meet the tax requirements. >> Houston: Thank you. One more quick question. >> Uh-huh. >> Houston: And one other thing. It's geared toward tourism. >> Yes. >> Houston: So if a nonprofit, for example, applied for funding and their interest area was music but they wanted to really get children in the neighborhood involved in a project, because it doesn't have anything to do with tourism, then this is not the place where they should come and ask for funding? >> No, as a matter of fact, every summer I take my son to a musical performance at the carver. It is a summer children's music. So they attract tourists. They have youth that work in the production. So that is just a personal example. They do a wonderful job. And I think we have been funding them for at least 10 years. So ... >> Houston: But that was probably a bad example. A new startup. Past 183, where there is nothing, there is nothing out that way. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Houston: A group comes to us and says we would like to start up a program to have visual arts for our kids during the summer. [2:50:48 PM] There is no tourism that is going east of 183. So where would that -- where would that nonprofit go to seek city support in getting something set up for the kids over in colony park? >> Um ... Jesus can correct me if I'm wrong, but they could apply and search for a venue that's -- that area of 183, and have a children's performance. So the children would be trained. The children are learning about the crafts of being a stage manager or being a director or even being an actor. Maybe they participated in one of the summer acting programs. And they could then advertise and attract people to that side, to the performance. I'm trying to think of a location on 183 that they could use. >> Houston: Well, we have several schools they could yes. But -- >> That's an example that could happen. >> Houston: But the advertisement would have to be citywide to attract, quote, the tourism part into the opportunity. >> And there is now plant Austin that they're required to advertise on. We assist them. We don't just say go forth. We provide training across the city. We provide one-on-one to say, you want advertising help, let me make suggestions. There are several free websites. You don't always have to buy it, but there are several free websites that attract Austin 360 is a very robust website. So all that goes into it. If they have people coming in town, the concierge should also be saying, hey, this is the website, you're from here out of town, checkout these performances. >> Houston: I guess my concern is while this money is specifically to attract tourism, I'm trying to attract [2:52:49 PM] children to give them exposure to different forms of the arts. That is not really tourism. I can make it tourism. I'm sorry, I'm about to hit you in your face. That is not really tourism. This is about trying to get some cultural experiences into neighborhoods where they're not traditionally. But I think I understand and will try to figure out how to do something differently. >> I think it was three years ago, where the hotel industry brought in attorneys and they were -- they were very concerned that we weren't generating cultural tourism. So as part of our discussions with them, the law department and department of arts we agreed to measure the number of tourists that attended so all of the organizations that are funded have to document that tourism was in fact accomplished. So in the example you have described, it isn't really a fit for this program. But what sinovia is saying we have the small capacity program set up with Texas funds and we're happy to working with organizations to see if it is possible. Under this particular source of funds, it is not possible. >> Houston: I understand that. I'm trying to make the point that the focus of this pot -- this seven -- almost $8 million is something different than what I'm looking for, for the young people, teenagers east of 183. And there doesn't seem to be a pot of money for me to be able to do that or in councilmember Casar's district where there may be opportunities to focus on the youth, but there is no money, it is focused on people who are in town visiting, and not people who live here that need to be exposed to -- there is something creative, magical about this art world and I want to participate. [2:54:49 PM] >> [Inaudible, multiple people speaking] >> Will you talk about manpop. >> That is coming up. >> And I will let sinovia talk about the mind pop program which is used to fund in schools and also the music team has set up -- I mean muse in libraries and music in school programs upon request. You want to talk about mind pop. >> We're working with mind pop in Austin education school districts to have arts rich education in the school system. So we will get you some information on the schools that they're working in. But this is one program that Numbers have shown that when you infuse art in school, it raises test scores, it keeps kids interested. I know they have been working aggressively with Austin independent school district. We will get you information on mind pop. >> Troxclair: Just have one more question. Help me understand the difference. I understand the funding mechanisms are different between the art in public places program and the cultural arts program, but can you help me understand the differences in the process that they go through? It sounds like they both have panels. But on one panel, it sounds like we don't -- like we choose the artist before we know what we're -- what kind of art we're going to get. And in this, it sounds like there is some kind of scoring. So I assume that we do know what kind of art is being proposed. And then the panel has discretion in how much money to to allocate to a specific project? >> Right. Well, we can only allocate the amount of cultural arts funding that's been approved. So there is a robust process. I will ask Jesus to give us the one-minute version, because they're very -- lots of disciplines, very intense. We have panels that we bring [2:56:51 PM] in to evaluate each section, whether it is dance, literature, et cetera. >> Yes as sinovia said we do have different panels. They don't determine the funding amount, they do the scoring. They score on a hundred-point scale. They need to receive minimum of 75 for funding. The higher the score the more money you receive. The panel itself doesn't not receive funding amounts. >> Troxclair: Sorry to interrupt you. >> No problem. >> Troxclair: For the scorers they present the art to be scored. >> The project is already known. They present that. The panel knows what the art work that is proposed is going to be. >> Troxclair: And then the funding allocation comes when? >> That is when sinovia was talking about the funding matrix and the funding from the arts commission and they take the scores and determine how to divvy up the money at that time. >> Troxclair: Ok. Because that is -- I think an interesting difference. Because I know councilmember Houston said we approve $2 million, we know the artist and they've done great work in the past and know they can do something appropriate for the space with the money. The responsible is well, we don't want to hinder their artistic process. But in the separate program that is otherwise very similar, they are submitting the plans of what they plan to do, so then are scored so we know what the end product is going to be. So I think that that is an interesting difference and back to my point about whether the 2% blanket policy is appropriate across the board. It is an interesting difference that there is much more discretion in this [2:58:51 PM] program to decide how much money is allocated to what projects. >> And visionary and something to meet the goals, unlike say a valet Austin, or children's musical theater who we will do this play. And it follows I think they did red riding hood. Well, you are asking the artist to ago. >> Councilmember, I may also say that, as one of you mentioned earlier, sometimes the April arts inpublic places pros can take a place, and with the program specifically for the fiscal year October through September, anything we approve the events can only take place October 1 through September 30. It may be because of that time crunch that we have the specific programs already laid out whenever those are approved. >> Troxclair: Councilmember Houston. >> Houston: Well, I just want to get back to not knowing what we're buying. We just know we've got a great artist that does great work, and we say and so what will this amount of money produce? And we don't know. It's kind of a forphis kind of thing. So the more loose we get with several thousands of dollars every time, we kind of go, what? [3:00:56 PM] >> I think that, first to distinguish between the cad funding and the arts in public places, the 285 organization that's were funded, we do know what they do, and they do great work, and we have a great history. In terms of the arts in public places we do give them guidelines. We have goals about the size, the shape, what it might look like, whether it's helping children, who it's -- whether it's supposed to be free flowing, whether it's going to be something of a great magnitude. I believe in the audience we have someone from either the art commission or the arts in public places panel if you'd like to hear a little bit more. >> Houston: No, Mr. Johnson, it's not that I need to hear more. It's just that I'm trying to reconcile all of these differentthings like some of the wonderful organizations have been getting money for years and years and years and years and years and years. >> That's a long time. >> Houston: That's a long time. [Laughter] >> Houston: It's a long time, almost most of my lifetime. Yet we've got young, upstart organizations trying to do something that is different than what the current mission is, and they can't get money. I mean, we've got to kind of figure out thousand get money. Even though we want criteria and checks and balances and all that good stuff, but when did does it ever stop? Is this ad infinitum these organizations get money? Do they have to apply every year? We could say at some point, no, I'm sorry, X organization, you've gotten money for 50 years now, we're not going to give you any more? >> Well, I think that there's a good history of the department and of cultural arts funding new artists. I think we do have the good history. So if we're finding out that artists aren't being funded -- we even run courses on how to apply. And to the best of my knowledge, [3:02:56 PM] you know, we're at 90 -- in the upper 90 percentiles to funding new artists and organizations. So if you have specific companies or nonprofits or start-ups, if you'll let them know to come and talk to either myself or Jesus or sylnovia, we'll help them get start sod that they have a better understanding. But I believe that the history is that we do fund those kind of organizations, so if someone slipped through the cracks, let us try and work with them, we'd be delighted to try and do that. >> We have workshops upcoming, just so you know. They can check our website. >> Troxclair: Thank you so much for those presentations. >> Okay. >> Troxclair: Appreciate it. Okay. The next item on our agenda is one last presentation by staff on sister cities, and this was the -- a request of councilmember pool thank you for being here today. For those in the audience who came to speak about some of our other items this is the last staff presentation and then we'll move on. >> Good afternoon, David cog began for the economic development department. Thank you for your invitation to be here to introduce to you the sister cities program. It's one of the small facets within our department, within my division, really, that doesn't get near the attention it deserves for the amount of things that our groups do within the community. So thank you for acknowledging them today. I know they're excited for that. The sister cities program started after World War II, just some history here for you. To help a lot of our communities to re-establish some of the connections and relationships that were there before the war actually started, this was during the Eisenhower administration, and since the city of Austin has been able to practice 50 years of international relationship development. And so we're very proud of that, and this coming year actually we're going to be bringing forward a resolution to you to [3:04:56 PM] update our sister cities resolution and try to bring on some new features that would breathe new life into this program. Today we've got 13 cities that we've partnered with around the world, and we would have more, but some of those relationships have gone inactive over the years. And so they've got a different status at this point. But really the program is there to help a person to person basis to help us to engage in areas of education, arts and culture, global trade, business development, tourism and some other areas as well because some of our different sister committees bring different opportunities to the city of Austin, and we are inclined to participate in those areas. We've had some very active relationships, I think, one of the strongest can be looked at or highlighted would be our new relationship with the borough in alone known as hackney. We've formed quite a few relationships with industry, seep the growth of local businesses here as we've some smaller companies located here as well due to that relationship and then we've got some ongoing activities, especially when we've got south by southwest here and a lot of individuals who are already here. So we're looking at new ways of developing these relationships in the future. But what is most important to recognize about sister city relationships is that they are driven by the residents and individuals who live here in the city of Austin. They are all volunteers, and they don't actually have any type of budget except for the funds they raise themselves. So we do have to be very careful as to how it is we actually work with those individuals, but we try to help them look at economic development opportunities for engaging with the city of Austin. We do have some individuals who are here today, of course we've got Marian Martinez who helps me coordinate our activities. She does work side by side with a lot of our sister cities as well as work with the federal organization that oversees [3:06:57 PM] sister city relationships and we've god marjie Teed, former Austin sister city international chair their board and she is also chair of the German any relationship as well. Welcome any questions. >> Troxclair: Any questions, members? >> Houston: Just a quick one. Could you tell me which ones are the inactive ones? >> The inactive ones actually are not listed on the handout that we provided for you today. We have belahorizante our first sister city out of Brazil and I know there's a second sister city currently inactive but we can get that information to you. >> Houston: Thank you. >> Sure. >> Troxclair: Capitol. >> Mr. Colligan, thank you for coming and talking about this a little bit. Can you explain what steps the city takes, what the process is with another city like Dublin, for instance? I understand we have a sister city in Ireland. What all do the cities do to create that connection? >> At this time I'm not familiar with a sister city in Ireland, but we do have very -- other types of ways for connecting with other cities. At this point in time we do rely on several of our professional organizations to connect with cities that are abroad so that we can make stronger business connections for maybe specific target markets or areas of interest. Right now we're pursuing a designation that would allow us to be designated as I creative city in the world and we can rely on that designation to be able to tap into a network of other cities. You do have individuals located here from Dublin, we do have an office here for Ireland as well, which is maybe what you're familiar with. >> Pool: I think so, the consulate just opened and we had [3:08:58 PM] the ceremonies and then the council general came and spoke to us at council and I think I must not have heard correctly. I thought he said we were sister cities or maybe he was seeking that status with us. That could be. So if we were to entertain something like that, what is the -- is that a citizen initiative? Or is it something that council initiates? >> It's both. To your question, first about Dublin, they have asked to explore creating a sister city relationship with us, and that's more akin to the business side of it. You may be familiar that -- I think it was -- David, when was the international economic development council award? >> 2013. >> 2013 our international economic plan won the world's top award of all major cities in the world. And within that the goal was to use our cultural diversity as an economic strength. And so we developed a creed with the different focus of getting direct flights, respect for rule of law, growing our small business photos multinationals, where the other cities would allow to create a soft landing pad for our companies to expand there, and we would do the same, where our universities would be connected, and all of the cities would agree to use their high-tech companies and art, culture, music to teach kids in poverty. And that creed we have put in place to cities across the world to try and figure out who would be likely partners for Austin businesses to expand to. So in the international plan, we have mapped out where our potential markets are. So we looked at the bricks countries, the Brazil, Russia, I don't know if we're looking at Russia anymore, India, China, South Africa, but we're looking at those countries for market share. But we're also using each one of our chambers of commerce, the [3:10:58 PM] black chamber is looking at two countries in Africa. They're looking at the high tech science parks around Cape Town and they're looking at Nairobi science parks and they're looking also at carasepo in Brazil, the largest black population outside of cav. In Mexico we're looking at -- we met about the head of their federal department of commerce to look at their new program called eye cluster, where we have Michael porter at Harvard mapped out all the high tech areas of Mexico and is trying to partner them up with cities in the southwest. So Monterey selected Austin to partner with. So it's a data-driven analysis of where we can get the biggest impact for Austin businesses and that we can get the direct flights and we know that our businesses are safe according to law and the general rules of commerce. So what David is ill -- has illustrated is we've got over a dozen of these, and the older sister cities we're trying to activate them into this kind of new vision of almost science cities. And we've pushed forward, as you know, the cultural and music ambassadors programs to kind of fit in with that, but we can either accept requests from the community. It can be initiated by councilmembers or by the it's themselves. We've had all three of those, as we have more attention globally, there's a lot of place that's want to partner up with Austin. >> Pool: Recent, the state of Texas sent a delegation of business leaders to havanna, Cuba, shortly after our trade regulations with them had normalize sod that piqued my interest and I'd like to just [3:13:00 PM] follow up to find out if we can -- how that delegation trip went and if there's any interest in pursuing for -- or just having a conversation about a sister city in Cuba. If that's not off -- you know, outside the realm of possibility. Then also I was interested in just following up on what the Irish console general had said about pursuing one. I'm not sure if he was talking about Dublin or another city. >> Both of those, if the economic opportunity committee wanted to look more closely at how we could develop an economic partnership with another city, for example, Cuba and havanna have been cut off for so they need everything, they need our software, they need our technology, so I think that that would be something that if y'all felt was -- you wanted us to look into it, I think we would certainly do that. The -- generally the way that would happen is we would have a teleconference with their government people, a teleconference from city hall, you'd be more than welcome to sit in on that, and then we'd see whether there was an interest. We'd have our businesses, as well as government officials, and if it looked like there was some potential there, then we would follow it up with a trade mission organized by the U.S. Department of commerce and our chambers of commerce or one of the chambers of commerce. Then we'd follow it up. In Ireland, they actually offered a different city, not Dublin. But they're entertaining both, and they've extended an interface for a representative -- invitation for a representative of the mayor of city council to go talk to hem and look at both cities we really don't know yet. >> Troxclair: How do we volunteer to go on that trip? >> Top of the morning to you. >> Pool: Do keep us apprises as that proceeds, and -- [3:15:03 PM] colleagues, would you like me to craft a resolution asking the economic department -- economic development department to proceed with trying to determine interest in a sister city in Cuba? >> Houston: Do you know what the financial impact will be on the city of Austin to pursue that relationship? >> Pool: I think that staff could give us those Numbers. It would be important to have that information. >> Houston: I would like to foe that. >> Pool: Yes. And that would be part of my good as well. What would -- I think a teleconference probably wouldn't be terriblybly fiscally impactful, but -- and then with the Irish, the request from the folks in Ireland, I'd be interested in knowing how that progresses too. I think it's really important to -- the diversity of -- and the breadth of economic development that happens in Austin to support new centers, particularly as Kevin has mentioned, are happening in Cuba. >> Houston: And I certainly appreciate that. I too am trying to get the economic diversity in parts of Austin. So I would love to know what the cost is and, surely, staff have some of that since we have 13 that we're currently sisters with. So it shouldn't be hard, should it? >> I can respond. Most of the activities are low to no cost. And this is why it's so important that these sister cities are initiatives led by volunteers or individuals who are supportive. I think marjie can tell you a lot of the individuals incur their own expenses and so the city will step forward and we may provide free space for the groups to meet. We've got Marian who helps us to coordinate feasts there's anything that's needed. We provide small gifts to [3:17:05 PM] individuals, notary traveling here to be a part of that exchange. But there's very low to no costs associated with this program. And to investigate the relationship would cost us nothing. >> Houston: Thank you. Because as we approach the budget season. >> Sure. >> Houston: -- It's always good for know know what financial cost is going to be the burden -- the burden of that is going to be. If it's none to no, then I will support that moving forward with the resolution. >> Troxclair: To follow up on councilmember pool's request, it does sound like the choosing our sister cities is a very data-driven and strategic process. So if you're hearing from councilmember pool that she's interested in looking at the potential of establishing a relationship with havanna, is that something that you really need a resolution for or is that something that you can maybe go look into this&report back to us what the feasibility or how it fits into our current structure sister cities cities, what would the benefit would be, et cetera? >> Sure. I believe we would need some direction to provide what it is you expect from staff to we can provide that information back to all of the councilmembers. So I'm not sure if that needs to take place through a resolution. >> Houston: Well, that's the question, is that can we just as a -- >> Pool: Ask. >> Houston: -- As a committee request that kind of information without it having to be a resolution? >> Sure. I think you could probably request that as a deliverable for your next meeting. We can provide that. >> Pool: Sure. >> Troxclair: That would be great. >> Sure. >> Troxclair: It does sound like do you have an analysis that you go through. So I don't know if we know -- I mean, we know generally that we would want to know the benefits or how they would fit in with Austin or what the relationship could provide, et cetera, but you might know better what the [3:19:06 PM] specifics are as to what you look at when we move forward with establishing a sister city relationship. So since this is just an idea that she's suggesting, I think it would be great if you want to report back to us at our next meeting. >> Pool: It's a concept at this time. >> Sure. >> Pool: And that would be for the Cuba initiative and the other one, since the request has come from Ireland, I would just like to follow up on what actions staff will take on that. If you do set up some kind of a teleconference, I think members of this committee would be interested in either sitting in or knowing the results of it. >> Okay. Great. >> Troxclair: Okay. Thank you so much. >> Pool: Thanks. >> Troxclair: All right. That concludes our staff presentations, and we are going to move into our items for committee consideration. The first item is item number six. We do not have any speakers signed up to speak on this issue. This item is to review and consider a design and commission agreement with Virginia neck in an amount not to exceed $68,000 for artwork for the women and children's shelter renovations and expansion project. Councilmember Houston? >> Houston: Well, this is an example of one of the items that we brought up at our work session a couple weeks ago I'm not sure what the deliverables are. I know we're paying Ms. Fleck $68,000, at the women and children's shelter operated on county land by the salvation Army and I support that project. I know they've got capital [3:21:06 PM] improvement funds or go bonds to add 20 beds to the site and upgrade the facility and bring it into compliance with Americans with disabilities act but I'm not sure what -- I know we're working with a landscaper to figure out what that's going to be, but, again, somebody has accused me the not wanting to pay artists and that's not true, I do want to pay artists, I just want to know what the deliverable is going to be. So if we have any more information, that's fine. I'mtology support it because I think that the project needs to move forward, but those are the kinds of questions that I get when I go back out in the district. >> Thank you, councilmember Houston. Again, this was -- this is a long-term project, 2012 bonds. The project definitely has goals for the -- to provide contemporary artwork that compliments the healing aspect of the shelter, provides or contributes to an exterior children's discovery area that encourages sensory interactions and integrates the artwork into a natural setting that fosters awareness and healing. So, again, we're giving the artist goals and she takes the vision to bring it to fruition. And Ms. Fleck was chosen because of her experience with children's artwork. And professionally, she volunteers with such organizations. So that's one of the attributes. So she would work hand in hand with the architect to provide the final artistic work. But, again, it follows the process where the commissioners are appointed, the art in public places panel is interviewed. >> Houston: I got it, I got it. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Houston: So the community engagement piece. >> Yes. >> Houston: -- Will be happening. Again, this is one of my concerns, is that the art commission and the panelists make the decisions and so at [3:23:08 PM] some point the women and children who are at the shelter are -- participate in the services that the Salvation Army offers at the shelter will have some -- >> They will have -- >> Houston: -- Input into what kind of art project this might be? >> Yes. The Salvation Army, I believe there's a representative here, residents will be allowed to be involved in the process of what that could look like. >> Houston: Okay. Madam chair, if I may make a motion? Unless there are other questions from our colleagues. I move that we recommend -- recommend that we move this on to the council for approval. >> Troxclair: Okay. There's a motion and a second. I think we did have a pretty thorough discussion about our -- some of our questions about arts in public places and because it was in -- wasn't in front of council it was an opportunity for us to see a real-life example of how the program is working and how the different stages happen and so I think I would be supportive of this going forward. But it does seem like there's still -- not so unanswered questions, but I do think -- I mean, I hear the same things that councilmember Houston said that she hears in their community. They say, well, I saw that y'all approved $2 million, you know, what are we getting? And we don't know. So I know that that's not particularly relevant to this project because it's already been approved and it's already in the process and it's already moving forward and I certainly wouldn't want to do anything to hamper the completion of it, but it seems like going forward if there's any changes or improvements that you want to propose in the arts in public places program, we have now a more thorough foundation and understanding of the program from which to do that. So -- >> And we have open house hours twice a month if individuals [3:25:09 PM] from the community would like to come in and ask questions. We -- both the arts in public places and the cultural arts funding, we now have open house hours twice a month, and they're published on the website. So we welcome the opportunity to explain what's in the pipeline, the process, et cetera. >> Troxclair: Okay. Thank you. So I guess we'll go ahead and take a vote. All in favor of passing this back to the full council, I guess with a -- did you say with a favorable recommendation? >> Houston: With a recommendation to approve. >> Troxclair: Okay. Please raise your hand. All right. Passes unanimously. Thank you so much. >> Casar: I just wanted to check in, my neighborhood and planning committee we had a bit of an issue where it actually did wind up on the council agenda even throw was an recommendation, I want to make sure with the economic development staff, are you all be putting it on the agenda? I know we're trying to iron out this process. >> At the last council you dividend to come back may 21 so it's already been moved. >> Casar: Great, thank you. >> Troxclair: Thank you. That brings us to item number seven and we do have a few speakers signed up to speak. So we'll go ahead and take citizen communication. And this item is briefing and possible action on the initiation of a code amendment to mitigate the effects of smoke emissions from restaurants and mobile food vendors near residentially zoned areas. So is there -- is Carter obligates here? Hi, Carter. Thanks for being here. >> Absolutely. Thank you for having me. I came because I just wanted to reiterate my opinion that the city needs to not engage itself in trying to regulate a very narrow segment of the industry [3:27:10 PM] by a specific ordinance. I believe that there are other mechanisms available to that, and while the cost of implementing this particular type of regulation will be talked about, I wanted to also say that I believe that if the city does try to go forward with limiting just wood burning establishments from emotions, I think that very quickly they'll have to include all smoke emitting establishments, restaurants, meat processors, smoking type of industries, and the net ripple effect of that would be tremendous. And as will be brought up soon the -- you know, the actual impact of that would be such that many businesses will be driven out or kept away to the great detriment of the business community and Austin at large. Thank you. >> Troxclair: Okay. So you're saying that you're worried that if we do a city-wide ordinance that's maybe specific to wood burning that it's eventually maybe going to be applied to all restaurants across the city? So from an economic development standpoint, that would be detrimental not only to barbecue but also to other food establishments? >> Any establishment -- in my opinion, yes, any establishment that would create smoke from a cooking process, which is the great bulk of restaurants, anyplace that has a fryer, that has a hamburger grill, that has a charcoal broiler, et cetera, et cetera, which, you know, there aren't many restaurants that have none of those. So if you started to look at, you know, what we would have to do to mitigate that type of smoke, you know, across the city, you're talking about our last count, I think, 7,000 businesses. You know, impact of, you know, tens of thousands of dollars each, it's significant. [3:29:11 PM] >> Troxclair: Okay. Thank you. And, yeah, I should mention that this resolution, it was before full council and it passed, and the idea was to form a stakeholder group and to explore the idea of city-wide regulations and it was referred to two committees, both the health and human services committee and this committee. So health and human services committee is focused on the health aspects and making sure that we, Austin residents, have clean air to breathe, which this committee will focus on the economic impact. For any of the speakers if you want to tailor your comments to what -- the ripple -- the cost to put in smoke-mitigating devices or impact to your businesses or what impact you think that this might have on the industry as a whole, that would be great. >> I think that's coming right up. >> Troxclair: Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Troxclair: Our next speaker is skeeter Miller. >> Mad, madam chair, councilmembers, my name is skeeter Miller, owner of the county line restaurant, I've owned that restaurant for 40 years. I'm pretty much a fos fossil in the barbecue business. I'll cut to the chase. After I choke before council about this resolution I was extremely concerned about what it meant to our industry, and so I reached out to the Texas restaurant association and the national restaurant association to get me some information on any cities that had some sort of ordinance similar to this, and I came up empty handed. So the other issue that I looked at was what does it doss put a scrubber in, to mitigate the smoke? And I talked to several restaurants that the costs were anywhere from $60,000 to $200,000. But I never really had a piece of paper in hand that really came from somebody that actually installs these scrubbers so today before I got here if you don't mind if I approach the [3:31:11 PM] dais and give you these papers? This is from a company that installs scrubbers, captive air. I reached out to them to give me some idea of what the costs would be. These bids that are here do not -- they do not include some of the additional issues of installation and the cost of installation. The first -- down at the bottom of the page, that's a low-temperature application, noncritical discharge, not using solid fuel, and that would be, you know, it's gas fired, basically, it costs $25,000, about $4,000 a year to maintain. So to skip to the bottom one, I put a big red star by that one because that has to do about barbecue and that's a -- from a solid fuel source. They clearly say captive air does not typically recommend the use of this type of unit, air scrubber in solid fuel applications because of the maintain maintenance of it. If you look down at it, it requires a core part to it, which is a fire extinguishing system, I understand the scrubber, additional cost, the weight alone is 4100 pounds, putting it on the roof would mean you'd have to reengineer your roofing system. The cost estimate was $56,000 and it would cost over $100,000 a year to properly maintain the unit. You look at that, the possibility of an all-encompassing ordinance like this would be financially crippling to the hospitallality industry in our great city. It would be a roadblock to future industry development, not to mention the financial burden that would be levied on many longstanding restaurants in the city that could be forced to close and most importantly it would eliminate jobs. [3:33:14 PM] The scrubber should be the last resort, and our association will work extremely hard with this committee and with council to do whatever we can do -- [buzzer sounding] >> -- Help you do whatever we need to do but I would like to see us eliminate forcing everybody especially the once that, good stewards and do a great job working with their neighbors to have to go to this expense. >> Troxclair: Thank you. >> Any questions for me? >> Troxclair: Yeah. Like you said, the scrub ser kind of the last resort from the business own ear perspective because of the immense cost. Are there other options besides the scrubber? There was some talk about raising -- mandating a certain height of a smoke stack or are there -- do you think that there are other things that would be less expensive that would be reasonable to require all business owners to -- or all restaurant owners to install, or do you feel like the issue can be addressed more on a case by case basis or through a nuisance ordinance or through targeting the businesses that have -- that are experiencing issues? So the neighborhoods that are experiencing issues with some of the businesses. >> I experienced this in Houston when we put in a restaurant and our neighbors came to us. What we did is a stack extension, we went up about 75 feet and it eliminated the problem. Unfortunately, on the situation on Barton springs, I'm not really sure that that's a possibility. There's a serious problem there. One of the problems that they have in that location is in order to capture this air in order for it to go through a scrub ter has to go up inside a childhood I don't know that that's something that is there right now. As far as any other issue, I think the health department is going to address the nuisance fact and the tceq, what their -- nine nuisance part of it is, but, you know, I wish I had an answer for you on that particular situation, but I [3:35:14 PM] would like to see it be a situation where do you take things on a case by case basis. >> So you're saying even a regulation that mandated a certain stack height would still not be effective in some of these cases because of the elevation or the wind or the -- or other factors that are contributing to the problem? >> That would be my opinion, yes. >> Troxclair: Okay. Councilmember Casar? >> Casar: Thanks so much for coming back and talking to us at least twice here in public. I wanted to ask briefly, and maybe my committee members have the answer or you may have the answer, if the working groups that were sort of contemplated in the stakeholder conversations had gun already, if that has happened intermittently and your view on the results so far. I was supportive of the resolution not because I necessarily thought there was a regulation that needed to be put in place but clearly there was an issue and it made sense to bring people together and talk about it. First, have we brought folks together and, second, how did those conversations go? >> Yes. I think one of the properties that was a problem, I believe it was [indiscernible] Barbecue, they did move their tailor a distance which I assume -- I haven't heard anything that, you know, fixed that problem. The one over on Barton springs I believe is now in litigation, and in my experience litigation usually fixes things. So I think that's where they're at. Other than that, I have not heard of any other problems. >> Troxclair: Councilmember pool? >> Pool: Councilmember Houston, was this heard yet in the health and human services committee? Could you maybe get us up to speed on what -- I hope I'm not putting you on the spot. >> Houston: Well, last month we had a hearing and we had representatives of the barbecue industry and the restaurant industry there that spoke to the issue, similar to what we're hearing tonight. There were no people there [3:37:18 PM] speaking for scrubbers or any other kind of mitigation. And so we'll talk about it again the first week in June. And we'll make a recommendation at that point. >> Pool: Thank you. It does seem like case by case basis is at this point a more direct way to deal with the issues since any other approach would -- if passed, would require a lot of time and effort to install. I mean, even if -- the logistics simply of retrofitting or something like the -- the hood, the ventilation hood, the amount of time it would take to order it and fit it and install it and make sure it works, if we could work on a individual basis with the businesses that are creating the issue, we may get a more appropriate response and not put an undue burden on the rest of the industry that are not in fact creating an issue. >> Houston: And one -- >> Houston: Councilmember Houston one more thing, councilmember pool, is that there was a concern in some established neighborhoods about the fact that the restaurants -- the establishments were there before some of the people moved in. That's exactly opposite of what's happening that brought this to our attention. The people had been there and then a new restaurant came. And so we have to be really careful about negative impact on long-term restaurants and establishments that we don't use this to force them out of business. >> Pool: Absolutely agree. >> Troxclair: Well, thank you for providing the information about the actual cost. [3:39:19 PM] I know it's something that we've, you know -- I guess hypothetical sized about how much it would cost but it's nice to have the actual estimate so thank you for providing that. >> Thank you for your time. >> Troxclair: Our next speaker is Richard franklin. Sorry? Not on this issue? Okay. Do you know which issue you want to speak on? >> Troxclair: [Off mic] >> Troxclair: Oh, okay. I think that that's issue number 8 so I will add you to that list. Sorry about that. Hoover Alexander. >> Houston: That's one of those establishments I was talking about. >> Thank you, councilmembers. You guys really have the gist of it after listening to us last week. And also hearing skeeter and the statistics. I just want to take my brief minute to thank y'all for the consideration of economic impact because as I mentioned last week there are a lot of small restaurants that would absolutely go under, you know, if they would have to spend $5 or $15,000, let alone possibly $60,000. What you guys are doing, paying attention, listening to the little guys that don't have the time to come out and voice a concern, I just want to reiterate, you know, the impact, the economic impact on a larger swath in our community. Thank you all for considering that as you go forward and realize one size solution won't, you know, fit the problems we're trying to address. So thank you all. >> Troxclair: Thank you. Thank you for being a good neighbor. >> Thank you, thank you. >> Troxclair: Okay. Our last speaker on this issue is David king. Is David here? [3:41:25 PM] >> Thank you. My name is David king. I live in the zilker neighborhood and I'm very, I guess, fortunate to live by so many good food establishments, barbecue joints, and I happen to like the way they smell, but I wouldn't want one right in my backyard or, you know, next door to me and having to deal with that, as we've heard some other speakers speak on this issue. So I do think that there needs to be something done to help those neighbors directly impact sod I appreciate you discussing this and trying to figure out a way to help them. But I would also say that in terms of an economic impact, I think those businesses that are doing right by their neighbors can considerate, I think it could be beneficial for those restaurants contributing if they would be proactive and help out and deal with this problem and that they could actually benefit economically positivively from taking action themselves. So thank you for considering this matter. >> Troxclair: Councilmember pool. >> Pool: Mr. King? Well, I shouldn't call you back up, I don't know so much, it's more of a comment on what you've said. I agree that the -- if the establishment that's creating the problem is proactive in addressing it and then that would save the governmental entity from having to put a regulation out there and sort of by definition when we do that it's hard for us to bracket to, you know, very narrowly address something because that can then sometimes turn out to be unfair. So I really appreciate your comments about the proactive nature of the resolution, and I guess maybe shining the light on the issue the way it has kind of turned out has hopefully been helpful in that way. So thank you. >> Troxclair: Okay. That was our last speaker. Do we have a brief presentation by city staff on this issue? [3:43:28 PM] Yes, okay. >> Good afternoon, councilmembers. Madam, chair. I'm Vince Delisi, health and human services, assistant division manager of environmental health and I'd like to preface this brief presentation by saying that this is an update on some information that was -- that we were requested to gather and it does not answer all questions. It's simply an update on where we are right now as far as a survey that was conducted to gather some information based on this issue. >> Troxclair: I know you didn't have a whole lot of advanced notice so I really appreciate you putting this together and giving us the information that you do have. I know that we did have a presentation in front of health and human services a couple weeks ago, but I honestly thought a lot of the information was also relevant to economic development topics. >> Yes. >> Troxclair: So I appreciate you -- >> This may be the same presentation. I've added a couple of items to it brought up at that meeting. >> Troxclair: Okay. I appreciate you making yourself available and being able to speak to the economic development aspect of this item. >> I apologize. I sent the powerpoint ahead of time last weaning. Apparently we don't have it available for the -- for the screen. But you might have handouts in front of you there. Okay. On the first page there, I just want to mention that the health and human services was asked to provide some survey information of barbecue establishments in Austin. And just to let you know there have been a couple questions asked about how we came up with the sustainments on our list -- came up with the establishments on our list. As you know we have quite a few establishments in Austin, food service establishments, food products establishments that manufacture food and so forth, number be over 5200 brick and [3:45:28 PM] motor establishments in Austin and Travis county that we inspect. In order -- and we do not currently have those types of establishments separated or categorized by the types of food they serve. We were looking primarily for establishments that serve barbecue or might have a smoker or a pit barbecue-type facility so we searched our database for establishments that had barbecue and any iteration in their name. And we came up with a total of 85 -- 86 establishments on the list. Of course it doesn't include everything out there probably that might -- that might be identified, and we're in these establishments all the time, but this was our best way in a short period of time to try to come up with a list that we could contact for -- to answer these questions. We contacted 73 of the 86 establishments, 85%. So we had a pretty good contact rate, and we were able to ask some questions. We were looking for the list. We were asking for the hours of operation and the hours that the smokers were in operation so we could find out if the smokers or the pit barbecues were in operation during the day or late in the evening, so forth, did they have smoke scrubbers installed, and we also were looking for a list of complaints that our environmental health services division or 311 would have received regarding a mission -- emotions of barbecue smoke. We also contacted other municipals regarding smoke regulations. The number of barbecue establishments that were found with smokers was 54 of 86, which is 63%. I believe if we had looked at a broader range of -- we would have had a lower percentage of smokers. The barbecue fixed food establishments was 51 and we had 35 mobile establishments on that [3:47:30 PM] list. None of those establishments currently use any type of air scrubber. Our division, environmental health services has received a total of ten complaints regarding excessive smoke since January of 2007. At the last presentation I explained that we had received one complaint in the last 12 months. I went ahead on this revision and collided the ones that were -- collided the ones previous to that, going back to 2007 we've had ten complaints. There's different complaints that we receive. Some were for infiltration into another building, some were at -- one in include was a bus stop being inundated with barbecue smoke, not a residence, but we went ahead and included those on there. Austin 311 was -- yes, ma'am. >> Troxclair: Quick question. Of the ten complaints that you've received in the past eight years or so, was there -- do you know if they were resolved or if so how they were resolved? >> If they were specific to an air quality issue, they would have been referred to the Texas commission on environmental quality for investigation. But if they were, like, infiltration of another building, we would consider that an indoor air quality issue. That would have been referred to the code compliance department to enforce as part of the international property maintain code. >> Troxclair: Okay. >> So not necessarily a nuisance condition. Could be. Could be if it was determined to be that. I do not have current information on those. But I can provide you the update -- an update on those complaints that we investigated. >> Troxclair: No. I think that answer was generally helpful. >> Okay. >> Troxclair: So if it was an interior complaint than there's city code that outlines that. If it's open air exterior complaint than tceq has regulations and guidelines? >> That's correct. [3:49:30 PM] >> Troxclair: Thank you. >> We can -- councilmember Houston. >> Yes, ma'am? >> Houston: Before we leave the Texas commission on environmental quality if someone calls in 311 with a complaint, do we give them the name and the phone number of the person to contact at the state agency some. >> Yes, ma'am. There is a number that 311 is aware of. That's current. I mean, excuse me, that's more recent. In the past they would have referred that complaint to our department. >> Houston: Okay. >> It would have bounced, unfortunately, from 311 to the health department and then been referred to the commission. >> Houston: Okay. Thank you. >> Mm-hmm. I just wanted to lastly say that 311 was unable to find any particular service requests that were specific to excessive smoke. They have kind of the same problem we have with their database being able to search out specific words and try to find complaints to that degree of specificity. We did inquire with ten municipalities regarding smoke regulations. Seven municipalities responded and none of those requires the installation of smoke scrubbers. And then the next slide does talk a little about the Texas commission on environmental quality. Just as a point of clarification, give a little more information here, it is the Texas administrative code chapter 30 that they enforce, excuse me, it's 30 Texas administrative code chapter 106, I apologize for that. The food establishments are what they called permitted by rule. In other words, they're allowed. The Texas administrative code is the set of regulations that are enforced by the various state agencies such as the department of state health services or in this case the Texas commission on environmental quality, and the food establishment emissions, if they are part of a [3:51:30 PM] food preparation process, are allowed by rule. Now, that does not mean they can create a nuisance. So if they are creating what's considered a nuisance, then the commission will investigate. The next slide -- next page talks a little bit about nuisance condition. Injures because this was brought up at the last meeting I wanted to give you a little bit of information here. Our division investigates and enforces violations of the health and safety code, which is a state statute and there's a nuisance definition there which refers more to disease transmission and the city code does currently have a definition of nuisance in chapter 15.12.213 this is part of what's called the international maintain code amendment to the city source code it is enforced by the Austin code department. While the definition does mention air, it does in this case it's referring more to indoor air quality, such as mold conditions in building is what's that generally in reference to. Doesn't mean it couldn't apply to outside air, but the Austin -- city of Austin does not currently have an outdoor air quality program. The next slide talks about the nuisance condition as defined by 30 -- Texas administrative code chapter 101 and this is the Texas commission on environmental quality's definition of a nuisance that you see there. This clearly explains how you can see that the commission is responsible for investigating these types of complaints of outdoor air quality that -- or air emissions that would create this type of a nuisance condition. I'm happy to answer any questions related to the survey or, however, else I may help you. [3:53:32 PM] >> Troxclair: Committee members, any questions? So I understand that you -- when you were talking about the nuance ordinance with tceq you said it mostly applies to indoor air? >> The nuisance definition that is in the city code is part of the international property and maintenance code amendment to the city code, and that definition is enforced by Austin code department and generally their enforcement is for indoor air quality issues. >> Troxclair: Right. >> Commercial buildings. >> Troxclair: I'm sorry. I heard you wrong. Because tceq already has regulations that deal with outdoor air quality, I'm curious, I'm trying to remember if that was discussed at the full council meeting with the neighborhoods that have existing problems, if they had tried to pursue a resolution through the tceq or I remember one of the -- the neighborhood that is involved in legal action, one of the residents is an attorney so they may have -- that may have been an easier option than trying to pursue tceq. Do you know if there have been any instance where's a neighborhood went through tceq to try to pursue an air nuisance because of barbecue smoke? >> I would have to say no, I'm not aware of any particular neighborhood association that went directly to the commission. >> Troxclair: But based on the code or the information that you see, that would be -- that is already an option that would be available? >> That's correct. >> Troxclair: To them? >> That's correct. And any complaint we receive we would refer there as well. There -- I had a long discussion with a member of the commission who was able to give me, you know, considerable good information on how they conduct these investigations, and it's a little bit technical. So I think that they -- they know what they're doing. They -- they're able to come out and make these investigations and they're ready to go. [3:55:32 PM] He said that they've -- they have investigated some instances in Austin before and that they -- so -- it's within the region, it's their purview sew was ready to receive any complaints we had. >> Troxclair: Okay. No, but that is very good to know, that they do come out and do investigations and that there is that avenue to pursue some kind of resolution or relief for the neighborhoods that are negatively impacted or directly impacted by severe smoke because I know -- you know, I'm trying to understand. There has been some talk of, well, if we don't do a city-wide ordinance that requires scrubbers or smokestacks or, you know, et cetera, then another option would be pursuing a nuisance, you know, making -- I guess beefing up the city's nuisance policies to also apply to outdoor air but I'm hesitant to go down a path if really a tool for that already exists at a much more established level at the state, at the state level. So -- >> I would agree. It seems like it's a fairly technical procedure for establishing a nuisance of air quality and measuring the particulates and chemicals in the air and, oh pacety and so forth and there's quite a bit of training involved in this outdoor officer quality program that's sustained at the state level. >> Troxclair: I would think that it probably utilizes -- I'm no expert but I would think that in addition to being very specialized and needing really an expert to understand all the particulates that there may also be tools involved to measure the particulates in the compare things like that that D air and things like that that the city as an entity does not currently regulate air quality in that way would not have. >> That's correct. I mean, there are different types of air monitoring equipment that are specific for indoor air quality and others for outdoor air quality, and [3:57:35 PM] there's measure be devices that are looked at for certain type of particles or chemicals. So there's a wide range of types of equipment that are used, and our division does not have this equipment currently and I'm nothing like that sure that the city does as a whole for outdoor air qualit monitoring. >> Troxclair: Okay. Councilmember Houston? >> Houston: I'd like to make a motion, if a motion is in order. >> Troxclair: Okay, sure. >> Houston: That we refer this issue back to the full council with the recommendation not to pursue a ordinance, city-wide ordinance, but to look at concerns on a case by case basis in conjunction with the code department and the commission environmental quality control or whatever that word is. >> Pool: I'll second it. >> Troxclair: There's been a motion by councilmember Houston and seconded by councilmember pool. [Laughter] >> Troxclair: Just for my own clarifications, I do -- I would support that motion, and so would -- are you speaking to regulations when it comes to installing additional smoke scrubbers but also a city-wide nuisance ordinance that would get us into the -- into nuisance area that seems to be already regulated by tceq? >> Houston: Correct. >> Troxclair: Okay. So both of them. >> Houston: Both of those off the table. >> Troxclair: Okay. >> Casar: Just one question for clarification on this motion. Do we have to refer it to the full council if the recommendation is not for the full council not to take action, therefore, can we just list that as our formal recommendation but it's not like we're sending something to a vote of the council if the recommendation is for us to not -- [3:59:36 PM] >> Troxclair: Good question. >> Casar: We don't have to vote to -- >> Troxclair: Well, that's true. I guess we may need some guidance from staff, then. Because I same -- because there's also the stakeholder group that I understand is meeting, and so I would think that at some point there might also be a recommendation that comes back to council from that stakeholder group, and at that time it would be helpful to have a recommendation -- have our -- the recommendation from the economic opportunity included in any kind of conversation. >> Casar: That's why I think what might be appropriate is just for us to vote for a recommendation and the council doesn't need to take any further action at this time, which means we don't put anything on a council agenda. Exact same motion just striking those few words right out of your mouth so all we ever do is make a recommendation that we not. >> I'll accept that friendly amendment. >> It was not very friendly. >> In favor of the motion not to pursue a citywide ordinance when it comes to regulating insulation of smoke mitigating appliances or pursuing a citywide nuisance-related ordinance or rather addressing each on a case-by-case basis. All right, so it passes unanimously. All right, so thank y'all for being here and for providing that insight and I think we put the lid on that issue. >> Okay. >> You be you. [4:01:39 PM] >> That brings us to the item for committee consideration and that is item number eight, review and consider a license agreement with LLC to provide funding, design, management at the golf course at Walter E. Long metropolitan park. We do have several speakers signed up. So is Barbara Metzger. >> Ask people if to identify that they're speaking on behalf of themselves or like a business. >> Troxclair: Before you start, I want to say a couple of things. First of all, if you don't mind identifying yourself and say if you're speaking on behalf of another entity, that would be great. This goes for all of the speakers. And I just kind of want to recap there's been a lot of discussion on this topic and it's referred to many different committees and each committee is reviewing the issue from a different perspective. In this committee, our charge is to talk about the economic development side of this proposal. And so if you can keep your comments, there's an opportunity to discuss the water issue and public utilities and an opportunity to discuss parkland and related -- environmental related issues in the parks and open spaces committee. And so I look forward to our discussion on economic development topics here. >> Thank you. I'm Barbara Metzger. I lived for the last 18 years in Harris branch. And I'm not sure -- I know it's the economic concern that I have the comments on. Is it during the 18 years is that my home has increased in [4:03:41 PM] value in at less than 15% because so much that has been approved and is seems to be fine for east Austin has very detrimental effects on home values. And I look at this and go, finally, there's something that is going to have a positive impact or has that possibility of a positive impact on home evaluations and helping us to gain from our investment. And the -- and so I support it for that reason. Because I think that it is time for east Austin to get more than waste facilities. Thank you. >> Troxclair: Our next speaker is David king. >> Thank you, I'm David king. I live in the zilker neighborhood. I'm representing myself today. And I think everyone here today is very supportive of economic development for east Austin in the whole city. It's about time we're talking about economic developments for east Austin. And this project had to bring that up. And present and make this issue apparent to folks who have just not known about it or not really cared to think about it. But it's about time that we talked about economic development for east Austin. I just happen to think that this particular project is not going to get us where we want to go. I have concerns about the riskiness of this project or the economic analysis or lack there [4:05:43 PM] of of this project. And for what? To give up half of our parkland? So I think we should look at other alternatives that will have a better chance of creating economic development in east Austin. You know, the previous speaker's point is right on the mark. East Austin has been used for things that the rest of the city doesn't want. So they have borne the brunt of decker lake and the power plants there in east Austin. Why don't we take 5% or more of the excess revenue that Austin energy generates every year and put it back to east Austin. 5% of last year is $155 million of excess revenues. 5% of that is almost $8 million. Why don't we just take that? I think more is necessary. But why don't we start there and invest that in to the park itself. And invest that in to economic development in east Austin. That's much less risky than this proposal that we had before us. It does have to give up half of the parkland. Once we get economic development going in east Austin the way it should be, then there will be more folks living there to enjoy that. They will need a park. They will need what we have there today. So let's keep that for the future generations. Let's not give that up in the name of, in my opinion, a risky economic development plan. It's not worth the tradeoffs. And the other thing is that this is parkland we're talking about. This is bypassing a vote to give up parkland essentially. Let's put this before the voters since this is involving parkland. Let's not try to side step the intent of the law here. So that might not be in the economic development issue. But for me, it's a core issue because this is parkland. [4:07:44 PM] We need every inch that we have here today. So I hope that you consider my comments and thank you very much for your time and service. Happy mother's day again to y'all. >> Troxclair: Thank you. Our next speaker is Barbara Scott. And have Barbara, we'll have Jeffrey shriver. >> I'm Barbara Scott, the president of the colony park neighborhood association and a member of the colony park edc, a newly formed CDC that we have. I appreciate everyone's concern about everybody in the area. But I live there. It's said we need more houses and roof tops, if roof tops were to generate economics in our area, we would be the richest community that you have here in Austin. We have more than enough roof tops. What we don't have is economics. And so far, this has been the only plan that has been presented to us that makes sense where we will have some kind of economics off of this plan. It is not stealing the parkland. Councilmember Casar was out Saturday and rode with myself and miss Miller and saw what the neighborhood looks like. You can do the same thing. You can look through the neighborhood through our eyes and see what we see on a daily basis. What we see is no economics. We see no positive development in our area. We see no police presence in our area. We see no code enforcement presence in our area. Not on a regular basis. We have failing schools. [4:09:45 PM] We have one of the best-known schools in the country. And our district. But it is segregated by the have and the have-notes with lots of -- in the regular lbj students. What we need is economics that's going to bring things in our neighborhoods such as a medical facility. We don't have one. We don't have a grocery store. We don't have -- you're talking about public arts and public place, we don't have it. There's no place to put it. And we need this development to bring economics to us that we do not have. It's not only for our area. It's for the entire city of Austin. Because I can guarantee you if it's built and once it is built then everybody in the -- from the city of Austin will be out in our area to enjoy it, which will bring economics back to us. We are seeing $60 million a year from my community. It's going to everybody else's community. It's not staying in our area. That's not fair for us to pay taxes, the same taxes that everybody else pays, and none of that tax money is benefitting us. This is the only plan on the table. The mayor charged the open space committee for finding something else for this piece of property. So far, I have not heard of anything yet. [ Buzzer ] It's beffudling to me that you will turn down money that's been given to the city, not taken away. It's being given to the city. I ask you to consider this plan that's for the best and the good of a our neighborhood. Thank you. >> Troxclair: Thank you. All right, Jeffrey shriver. >> Thank you, madam chair, [4:11:48 PM] councilmembers. Jeffrey shriver. You asked an appropriate question in the last meeting, you said it in the last several meetings how much is the man is worth? You want to know we're getting a good deal as a public. That's an appropriate thing to ask. Any farmer in the area can tell you, the ones across the street, that land is worth $7 per acre per year. That's the going rate for land lease for agricultural uses or other, there's raw land, unimproved land, if you don't have pipes in the ground or pools down the road. There's an abundance of that kind of land there. If it was clear or plowable or had grazing and a little bit of water you might get $10. So let's look at that deal. This is ridiculous. I want to give you an example to give you a feel for what the economics of the land is in that area. If you did the math and say it's all 700 acres and it's $10 an acre a year, $7,000. So the proposal that's in front of you is several hundred times more than that. Now I encourage you to negotiate an even better rate than that. But it gives us a perspective about the land, how it's used today, and the value of it. No matter what, these are not commercial leases that we're talking about. This is raw farmland. And parkland. It shouldn't be sold. I think you're asking the right question. 130 goes right by the park. What happens usually on ring roads that develop on the edge of the city, truck stops? Travel-related business, fuel dumps. Recently the council fielded a question about ha strip club on fourth and congress. You've done a great thing. I know you'll continue on those lines you. Uh made the right decision there. I want to focus on what the public said about that. This is not yours, this is what the public responses were to the strip club on congress. They said, let's put it in the airport where it belongs. [4:13:53 PM] How do the people of the valley feel about that. How do I feel about it being a resident there. That's what happens when there's no zoning. We're on the outskirts of town. Parks themselves can become seeds of economic opportunity. Parks themselves are not great employers. We know that. Zilker has 11 employees. This project, 35, maybe a few more employees. It's not what happens inside the park that concerns me. It's what happens around it. I believe that parks are seeds around which good businesses can grow. What typically happens on biways like 130, you have weeds. Once they take root, it changes how that area could develop in the future. It retards beneficial economic growth. I want you to consider this could be an economic anchor for that area. [ Buzzer ] I think the decision you make here will set the tone of the 130 corridor. And it can become a destination or it can be a drive-by. And I ask for your consideration of the economic future of that area thank you. >> Troxclair: Thank you. Our -- oh, we have a question from councilmember pool? >> Pool: It's actually for our staff. I think realize did a memo for us that put a value on I think staff put a value on the land out there. I see director Hemsley coming forward. >> I'm the manager for golf. We did ask real estate to do some investigation about the property values in the area. They enlisted ages group, a firm that did evaluate the property of adjacent properties and property values recently sold or [4:15:54 PM] are on the market. I believe we said this to council, there was approximately 19 properties that were compared for comparable land sales. The average that they came up with was in the neighborhood of $14,000 per acre. $14,000 to $22,000 per acre of similar properties. Hard to find comparable of 700 acres of parkland. In Travis county, the purchase of parks in the 136 acres. >> Did I see a figure that was $14 million? >> That would be the component of 10,000 -- 10 million to 16 million would be related to the 14,000 to 22,000 per acre. That was under the assumption that if the city of Austin wanted to go look for 730 acres of parkland, this is what the comparable price would be. >> Pool: Okay. I agree with that. >> Somewhere in that range. >> Pool: All right. >> Which is in line. We bought parkland, the golf course was in that range. >> Pool: Great, I appreciate staff going through the effort to get us a general estimate for what that land is worth. That's a key piece of information. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Troxclair: Next speaker is Matt -- is it fowler? Matt? Is there a Matt here to speak on this item? Okay? Then we will move on to Warren Hayes? Sorry? Oh, okay. >> Would that be okay? >> Troxclair: Sure. Then we are looking at Warren Whaley. [4:17:59 PM] >> Howdy, y'all, good afternoon. My name is Roy Whaley, the conservation chair of the Washington regional group of the Sierra club. I serve as a volunteer. I understand what you said chair troxclaire, bare with me in a brief intro and I will get to the park. The Sierra club staff and volunteers have been working with neighborhood groups and contact routines and groups like poder to work in different zip codes primarily east side of Austin to find education and opportunities to help folks lower their utility bills through weatherization and conservation. This would also be a job for buyer. Austin Sierra club continues and has supported groups like Texas campaign for the environment to block future land fills and reduce the amount of house hold trash that goes into land fills. These land fills are primarily located on the east side. We have been accused of not being present and involved in east Austin issues. The environment is a big place. We can't be everywhere we want to be. That said, the accusation is correct. We have not been. And we have not been as involved as we would like to be. That needs to be corrected. We do need to correct that. I was happy and gratified to have a conversation with some of the neighborhood folks before this meeting to have the opportunity to come out and visit and find out what their perception is on what needs to be done in their neighborhoods. Because the Austin Sierra club stands for east Austin, we stand for the goals, the economic goals. We may have a difference on how [4:20:00 PM] we get there by use of parkland per golf. The reason that Sierra club has opposed the golf at decker lake is that we don't see it as a good use for parkland and we believe that golf will fail. We believe that the Numbers show that golf will fail. We can't guarantee that. No one can know if it will fail or succeed. But if it does fail, what are the neighbors left with? More time to wait, more empty promises. So instead of hitching our wagon to golf, we need to have a citywide plan, a comprehensive plan that the whole city supports to bring in industry. That is wanted and accepted by the neighborhoods. Opportunities, services, that real money be put into this and the glory of the 10-1 system is that all of Austin will benefit. [ Buzzer ] And so we hope that we will have a real economic comprehensive plan and we stand with the neighborhoods in their desire to reach that and I hope that we can continue to have further conversations and come to terms and be able to support each other. Thank you for your time. Thank you for letting me go. >> Troxclair: Councilmember pool? >> Pool: Chair troxclaire, I did find the memo I was looking for. So the rest of the committee, it was the memo may 8 from the director of parks and recs Hemsley to council. Officer real estate services, contact with the group and the range and the value of 735 acres of parkland were from a low of $14,284 an acre which was $10 [4:22:01 PM] million -- shy of $10.5 million to a high of $22,000 per acre which would be a little over $16 million. That is not what they call opinion of value. As was pointed out, it was hard to find the comparables. But it's kind of a marker for us to get a sense of the value of the land. >> Troxclair: Councilmember Houston. >> Houston: I want to remind everybody, listen, we're not selling the land. That's the range, $14 million to $22 million, we're not selling this land. We would have to go for an election to be able to do that. >> Troxclair: Right, and the reason why we had the Numbers estimated is so that we can have a sense of the value of the land in the agreement that was crafted by the economic develop department last year so we can get a sense of the Numbers which were missing from that document. Councilmember Casar? >> Casar: To clarify, why I think it's important to know even ballpark Numbers, even though we're not selling the land in the licensed agreement, we're essentially creating an opportunity for folks to use that land that would have to purchase. It's savings on that end for the developer where the developer, of course, would have to make an investment in turning into golf course. So it's part of the calculation in asking, of course, for $14 million if we're selling it and giving full rate. Somewhere in between. Having that number is is helpful for us to know what we're giving free access to through a license agreement. >> Troxclair: Councilmember Houston. >> Houston: As we talk about it, remember, if the project should [4:24:01 PM] fail, the city gets it back. So we lose nothing as the city of Austin. So the -- the parkland remains parkland. The golf course, if it should fail becomes city park. Land and so now we're talking about something that's already been developed for the community. >> Troxclair: Councilmember pool, just for clarification purposes, that estimate is for all 730 acres which is the entirety of the park. >> Houston: Just the undeveloped part. >> Troxclair: Undeveloped part. Okay. We will move on to the next speaker. That's Lou Mccreary. And after Lou we'll have Richard franklin. >> Good afternoon, I'm an attorney here at Austin. I'm representing myself. I do not represent any party to the proposal whatsoever. Here as a citizen of the city of Austin. I do live off of wall which Tarleton near zilker park. But not in this particular area. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the city manager's proposal to lease or sell 735 acres of beautiful, prime, dedicated public parkland to a private developer to enable the developer to own and operate two world class -- that is to say high-dollar golf courses to enhance his proposed resort hotel. I am pleased that the city manager has given upon the proposed 90-year lease on the proposed license agreement. The residents of Austin, and I quote, give the opportunity to lease or sell the parkland -- and this is the statement of your city manager April 30 reported by Alberta Phillips in [4:26:02 PM] the American statesman last week. So the option of sale is before you by your city manager as of last week. It's alarmed everyone to the nth degree. I will comment in my opinion this land is irreplaceable and it's priceless. You will never have another opportunity to buy this much land anywhere near Austin to do anything with. Just imagine, if New York City said central park, why don't we just sell it and it will make some money. It's certain that the city manager is pushing the deal which is designed for the benefit of the upper class and offer little to no long-term benefit for the working class in the city of Austin who need affordable housing, high-quality long-term jobs, a better road system, and family recreational activities which only city parkland can provide. In short, our city does not need another high-dollar country club for the rich and famous. We don't need another resort hotel which is convenient only for f-1 patrons via helicopter or limousine from the airport. As I understand it, the feeling of this committee sh the economic opportunity, technology, innovative and creative industries committee. This committee and this council can do much better than rely on nebulous promises of economic opportunity based on minimum wage jobs. I have to comment that according to the agreement, the developer is really getting an option to do something under the contract they propose, they can opt out for any reason or no reason at all within three years of signing it. Number two -- the price that you will be paid, the city of Austin -- [4:28:02 PM] [ buzzer ] -- Is $75 a month for the first period of years. That generates $10.20 per acre that you're leasing this land to. Let me comment on the lease and the other part. >> Troxclair: If you can make sure you wrap up your comments. >> Sure, and I'll try to. I have this in language I can give you. >> Troxclair: That would be great. >> Some said let's build in the area that will develop itself. This is a false hope in my opinion. I agree with the previous speakers. This has been badly neglected. No question about it. They deserve better. We're for it. The citizens of Austin are for it. What I'll say is this -- this can be the magnet as the gentleman said for the economic development of this entire area. I call this Austin city east. The new city of Austin to the east. Just ma'ammingen that jewel of a park sitting there in property given up by the city of always tin with all of the things in it, central park and parks in other places, it will be the magnet that will keep those family neighborhoods there. It will attract jobs and include the movie industry, recording industry, and other good clean industries and that's the other part of your charge here. So I'm going to say is it's a -- and I will quote someone who said so in this committee -- those of us who live in that part of town want to keep decker lake pristine because we know as people grow and community grows there's going to be a need for additional parkland. I could not have said it better. This park is for the people forever. >> Troxclair: Okay, thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> May I hand you my written comments, please? >> Troxclair: Sure. >> Thank you. >> Troxclair: Thank you. Richard franklin? >> Good afternoon. Hello. Good afternoon. None of these people set this up for me any better. [4:30:04 PM] I have come up with a plan for entertainment technology studio and amphitheater to go into that area. You've heard there's been no other plan. We're fleshing out this plan right now. You have in front of you -- I can give it to you so you can put it on-line so everybody can see it. The author of the 14 points of management once said it's not enough to work hard, we must first know what to do, then we must work hard. It appears to me that right now is a whole lot of hard work without understanding how to get there. All throughout the country, we have people who are in urbanized areas who have lack of opportunities, lack of understanding, and it is media that is driving that process of looking at us as less than human. Therefore, it's okay to kill me because you don't think of me as a human being. I must create content right now that humanizes people, that makes us understand one another, an opportunity center based upon education and entertainment and technology that creates the content urbanizes the process so that everybody can see it's going to take an investment from the city. The city has never invested properly in those areas. This is a corrective action. This is a $15 initial plan. That's what I'm talking about. So I just heard earlier that we heard it for a day. But you teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime. The problem we have with that conversation is no one talks about the fishing equipment necessary to learn how to go fish. What I'm talking about here is the investment on the city in the fishing equipment. Dell valley, manor and Austin. >> Houston: Manor? >> Manor, del valley and Austin meet in that area. This is a perfect opportunity to take some hope, take the talents [4:32:05 PM] that exist, go out there, create something for themselves so that the community can see it. If you talk about ancillary business, think about motown, motown created a massive amount of support and businesses around there including grocery stores, limousine services, people making clothes and all the other things. Talking about technology and the delivery systems also. These kids understand how to build business plans based on what we're looking at and what we can do in that area. That's very important. I want you to consider this. Allowing kids to go to work. Allowing the community to go to work and teach kids in business plan and business planning and become entrepreneurs themselves will be a huge tax base and be a payback to the city. Right now you have an African-American population because they're consumers, not producers. Even going to golf at a $200 a round golf course still makes them consumers. I don't care if you golf or not. My son golfs, I don't really care. You're spending money, you're not actually making money. So I want you to consider the fact that the lady said earlier, a $15 million investment by the city would attract outside investment dollars. People said the reason they don't come to the east side is black people aren't doing anything. It's difficult to do anything, no access to capital, rep sources, and all of the money is going to the areas we can't get to. So the plans in front of you is something that you could make happen. Appreciate you put it in the budget. Thank you very much. >> Troxclair: Sir, inappreciate inappreciate -- I appreciate you coming up with ideas. I said at our first economic opportunity meeting, that the golf course proposal should not and is not the end of the discussions about economic development in east Austin and we do need new ideas. So I appreciate you putting something on paper and bringing it to us. >> I'll flesh the whole thing here in 3-d. [4:34:06 PM] You can see the whole thing, amphitheater, kids going to the outlook when kids are saying I know how to rap but I don't know how to write a contract. They don't know how to read a contract, those kinds of thins. This thing can be fleshed out, we have an opportunity to talk about it and it could work. >> Troxclair: Do you feel like the golf course proposal was to move forward, that there would still be ample space or opportunity to pursue this idea? >> It -- it could supplement what you have. My issue with the golf course. Let me say this, if you increase the land value. I found it interesting. If you increase the land values, you increase the fact that my taxes went up $16,000 on a $120,000 home. If you increase the taxes that much, you're going to have a situation in that point because that's what happens. So, yes, a great idea but you have to look at what happens to the people who are not moving. I don't plan on moving. I'm going to stay in my neighborhood until I die. So if my land values keep going up, my property values go up, I can't pay the taxes, then what's going to happen to my kids. >> Troxclair: I appreciate that. I was wondering if these two proposals are mutually exclusive. The full council will still have to vote on the -- on the proposal. So regardless of what happens with the decker lake proposal because we're not allocating a portion of city money that could otherwise go to a plan like this -- >> They're not. >> Troxclair: We could pursue this regardless of the future of the golf course. >> Then you have to have jobs where people can go and afford to stay in their homes. That's something to look at. These people -- once you start this process, Anaheim process. People have high enough paying job where is they can stay in their homes. >> Troxclair: Councilmember Houston. >> Houston: I just wanted to say, Mr. Franklin, thank you for bringing the proposal forward. The land has been vacant for 50 years now and we keep talking about it and talking about it. [4:36:08 PM] But thank you for bringing a proposal for it. I see it as a both -- this is an opportunity to have a vision about what other kinds of economic opportunities can occur east of 183. So, again, thank you for that. >> Thank you very much. >> Troxclair: Councilmember pool? >> Pool: Yes, thank you Mr. Franklin. Call it the Marshall plan. >> Yes, we have to be massive. It can't be a sliver at this point in time, it has to be something large we're experiencing large problems. >> Pool: I appreciate the fact that you pulled a term from I guess it was the '50s after World War II, right? >> Yes. Yeah. Actually another plan there. A lot of people are not aware of the plan. That's what it is, it really is. >> Pool: I've been having conversations with my colleagues about how to engage the conversation that will move forward in developing the east side of Austin in a deliberate and sustainable way where a golf course might be a part of it. I don't know if it's a PGA golf course. I don't know if it's a putt putt golf course or a junior golf course. But I hope that we can talk in terms of what sustainable and that the jobs that we bring to east of 183 in particular and the number of roof tops and the grocery stores, fire station, library, pflugerville ISD may need to look there for land to bring an elementary school. We have to look -- this is a unique opportunity to look holistically east of 183, talk to the developers, convene a developer conversation potentially. Because I think it may be a term that councilmember Houston has used in order to find out what their plans are. And try to direct the conversation so we don't walk [4:38:08 PM] away with one thing that may or may not succeed. The city would be paying for whatever the infrastructure would be to maintain it, which I know will be some price. >> Let me say this, I live in dale valley. They promise a whole lot of economic development around it. It's the only thing 245 happened out there we're still suffering the economic downturn from that process. >> Pool: Right. We didn't take advantage of the fact that it was happening to -- folding it to the larger conversation. That's what I'm committed to doing. And I said it a number of times from the dais that I would like to engage in that conversation. And as councilmember Houston pointed out, this is a concrete plan. We do have a lot of activity either development that is under way or planned east of 183. So if we can get our arms around the size of that and where everything might -- then we can have a more complete understanding of what's happening. There may be if we can protect the property taxes, we look at a homestead preservation district for some parts of town so that the property taxes do not increase at a rate that drive people at our homes. We don't want to do that. We don't want to retain and sustain people who live in their homes just on the east side like we do on other parts of town. And I'd be interested in looking at a homestead preservation district that might enable that if we -- that would be a part of a wholistic conversation. I look forward to working with everyone who has the best interest of that part of town. I think we all do. >> I invite you to come by one of our meetings on Saturday morning, last Saturday of each month. >> Troxclair: Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker is victor kind? Reed? [4:40:13 PM] I'm sorry about that -- and then after him I believe our last speaker is Dr. Charleserly. . >> I'm a full magnet. I come here -- my name is victor reed. The ebtty what you call it. The entity what I represent is a community that I grew up in. And I'm here alone. I wish I was here 20 years ago, 25 years ago when Karl Irving was on this council. I wish I could have fought for my people then and talked to him then. But I was a young man and I didn't know anything. But I'm here right now to say that this fwofl course is not going to happen. It won't happen because it's the same way that the government gave the Indians on the trail of tear blankets. And my people are awakening and no one thinks this is what this is. I've got another reference. It's a declaration of war. He called it the Marshall plan. I know exactly what it is. The other side of 183 is our Alamo. It's our last stand as a people in this city. And we're going do whatever it takes for y'all not to put a golf course out there to give us a blanket to die on. Y'all will be accountable for what's been going on in this community for 50 years. Y'all would do right by the economic death that's been happening within our city. [4:42:13 PM] Such a great city. Such great Lakes. Wild basins. But then, the suffering of oppressed people is the greatest in the nation. If I remarked about Baltimore earlier. I would love to be able to put a grandpa lace and just had almost a civil war in the city. We're beyond beauty. And parks. We're at a time in this city where we have to do the prosperity of our people. We're not going have a golf course. My people ain't going to have no golf course. Because we're going to do whatever it takes for that golf course not to happen. We're tired of legislature. That's been killing us for the last 50 years like I repeat once a week. We believe that -- why should we believe you're going to help us. You prove it through observation and experimentation. And your experimentation has not worked. >> Troxclair: Thank you. >> Thank you. And to my people -- we will rise again in this city. >> Troxclair: Thank you. [ Applause ] >> Troxclair: Dr. Charles eardy? You are our last speaker and you have time donated to you [4:44:15 PM] earlier. Warren Hayes, you still here? So he has six minutes. Thank you very much, madam chairperson, madam vice chairperson, other members of the committee. My name is Charles eardy. I'm kind of slow today. I won't need six minutes but it might pass by before I know. Thank you for taking public comment on this issue. It's important. Typically in public hearings you hear all kinds of recommendations. A few weeks ago I was at this greater Austin black chamber of commerce event. And the mayor spoke there. And the mayor mentioned that the week before he had given the state of the city address. And he had referenced two things with regard to the city of Austin. Number one, high-tech city in the country. City of Austin, number one most economically segregated city in the country and perhaps in the world. And the mayor said that unless we did something about that number two issue, the city of Austin could not prosper in to the future. And I agreed with the mayor's words. The problem that I have is that the city of Austin simply is not following those words. And let me just specifically with regard to this issue -- last year as I understand it and reported, the city of Austin bought a golf course, $8 million. Not withstanding the fact that the city has had a plan and a promise or a proposal or whatever you want to call it for over 40 years to build a golf course at lake lawn. Never spent any money on that golf course. And to make things even worse, [4:46:17 PM] there's a proposal where the city can get the golf course built at lake lawn without spending any money. Sounds like a no-brainer if you want to correct that problem that we say we do not want to have. We do not want to be number one on the most economically segregated city list. But each day it seems we continue to do these same kind of things. This is what got us in to this fix in the first place. That kind of reasoning is why we're number one on that list. That is what the city has been doing all of these years. And you heard, and I mentioned, the public hearing the day you heard the same kind of thing that's been going on. Everybody has a plan to do something else, at some point down the road. That's what we heard in this hearing today. But nobody -- I shouldn't say nobody -- people don't want to do what can be done right now. That is the problem. And I'm not sure whether people don't understand the problem or they don't care. But it has to be one or the other. Because that is precisely how this city has been operating for as long as I can remember. There is a proposal to do something in east Austin and we can't do that right now. We're going to do X, Y, Z in the future. The future never comes. What the city has actually done is to spend a lot of money on building power plants, waste water treatment plants, in east Austin. That's what we have done. Not planned to do, not proposed to do. But every time we plan to do one of those things, it gets done. All of the other things there's some reason why we can't do it right now. We've had plans today, get $150 [4:48:19 PM] million from the electric utility and invest that in east Austin. You know? How? Who knows? Maybe 15 years down the road, we'll figure out, well, we can't do that either. But if you really are serious about attacking the problems of the economic development problems specifically with regards to the city of Austin and the disparity that exists, then you have to start somewhere. And if you really are serious about starting, there is never going to be -- simply is never going to be a more -- a better way to start than with this golf course right now. If you're not going to allow something to be built that does not cost you any money, who in the world would believe that down the road you want to spend $100 million to do something. It is not going to happen. Be honest, fair, and open. And if you don't want to do this. And if you see it plainly what this represents, then you don't want to do anything in east Austin. So all of the plans and the promises and all of that will mean the same thing that they've always meant to people in east Austin. They're just promises. Never going to happen. And I think we can do better than that. And I think -- I think you want to do better than that. But you can't do better than that by not doing anything and planning and promising to do something somewhere down the road. Thank you very much. [ Applause ] >> Troxclair: Dr. Eardy? A question? >> Oh? >> Troxclair: Does anyone else have a question? Oh, I really as we tried to understand all of the -- all of the facts and different perspectives that surround this [4:50:21 PM] issue, I appreciate the historical perspective that you are able to provide. I know when I was reading -- you served on the city council? >> Yes. >> Troxclair: And what years was that? >> 1981-'93. >> Troxclair: And I was reading transcripts of meetings of the last time this issue was before city council and it was interesting because a lot of the things that you said at that time you could have said -- I mean, they're the same arguments that are being made today. You made comments about if we - don't do it now, I don't want to be sitting here in another 15 years and having the same discussion. And here we are -- you were a fortune teller. Because here we are. And it is 15 years later and we are having the same discussion. I just really appreciate the historical perspectives that you can bring. So if you have anything else to add about that or I was also really interested when you talked in a different committee about being a resident of the very land that we're talking about, many decades ago and I guess the promises that were made to you by the city. And so if you can just expand on that, I would appreciate it. >> Let me say number one -- see, that was a concern that someone raised which sounds like a legitimate kind of concern. We don't really want to use parkland for a golf course. But this particular parkland was made parkland -- dedicated as parkland so it could be a golf course. That's why the city made it parkland in the first place. That's the only reason. The city made that promise that this is going to be a golf course. And in order to ensure that, they said we dedicate it as parkland. >> Troxclair: And you -- >> It's parkland. >> Troxclair: And you had a [4:52:21 PM] house in city of Austin. >> Sitting at lake long, owned property that the city took by eminent domain, with all of the promises I'm talking about. This is not hearsay. This is what the folks in the city sat down with us and promised at that time, me included. And then the city, they built a lake -- and that was the end of it. All of the -- and there's a lot of land -- the land around the lake that's supposed to have been parkland, that land was not the land we were talking about for the golf course. That land is on the south side of the lake. The parkland that the city -- someone said they could develop it, they could. They promised to do that. They haven't done that yet either. The parkland on the south side of the lake -- there's lots of land. You know? And on the north side where the golf course is proposed, the city never has done anything but put a fence around there because it's not appropriate for anything other than something like a golf course. And some other conceptions they lease the land out for like a shooting range, you know? But what that -- this is not -- this is not a trivial issue. It sounds like they are -- it sounds like perhaps so long ago. But it's a serious consideration on the part of the city. The city understood what they were doing. They were taking an area where east Austin, primarily African- American, east Austin, planning on expanding residential areas. And then with -- and plopped down a power plant right in the middle of that land. That was no secret that that was going to destroy the possibility of being future development for residential. They understood that. Building a lake. So the city said, okay, we understand that. But here's what we're going to do. That was a promise that they made and this is to the folks [4:54:23 PM] like me who've been around here for a long time, this is a serious promise. Everywhere down the road, every time you look around, they're always alternate plans. We're going to do better. We can do better. We have to the a comprehensive plan. We've got to do everything. And then nothing happens. That's the way it's been going for all of my life. So you know, I said, look, if you want to change the way the city of Austin has developed, then you have to change how you do business. We got here by doing what we've been doing. And what we're talk about now, what a lot of people are talking about, is the same thing that we've been doing for all of these years. It's not going to get us out of the hole. The same old story, if you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. This is digging a deeper hole. If you can't really do a project like this, if you're serious about economic development in east Austin and you can't find a way to do a project like this, nothing is going to ever happen, I'm telling you. Been there, done that. It's simply not. You got to break out of the box and do something in order to get started. >> Troxclair: Thank you. >> This city used to be so easy. >> Troxclair: Thank you. I appreciate your perspective and I appreciate you being here. >> Thank you very much. Appreciate it. [ Applause ] >> Troxclair: Oh the Kay, that gets us to the end of our public comments for this item. And last committee meeting, I said that we did plan to take a vote at this meeting and we are past time that we had originally said that we would have something back to the full [4:56:25 PM] council for consideration. So I want to urge discussion among the councilmembers and come up with some kind of recommendation to pass back to the full council for consideration. So I have appreciated the time that I feel like we didn't need all of the time that we took in this committee to fully understand the background of this issue all of the really complicated facts and the different perspectives. As well as then kind of look forward to see what we can do to make sure that this -- we are capitalizing on the economic development opportunity that is in front of us and giving good advice when it comes to that aspect of this. So I -- honestly, this is something that I personally have struggled with, because I do understand why it is such a contentious issue. I do think that there are many sides and that there have all been well represented and there's a lot seen as proven by how many committees this was referred to and how much different testimony we took in all of the different committees. Its's not an easy thing for us as an economic committee to make a recommendation for or against the proposal as a whole. I think what is incumbent upon us is to look at the economics specifically, the economic development aspect. And try to put forward the best recommendation that we can regardless of the final outcome of the golf proposal. So I -- I went back and after I felt like I did finally have all of the facts and figures and understanding and talking about [4:58:26 PM] beyond -- beyond the specific number of people that the golf course -- behind the 35 employees or the wages of those employees or the potential future development that might come from this golf course specifically is there something that we can do that would not only impact -- not only have specifically to do with the golf course, but also assist us in building a future for east Austin and investing in the kind of economic development that we talk about as a whole for that part of town. And so I do -- I did talk with all of the committee members and I do have proposal here that is a little outside of the box. But I hope y'all will bear with me while I -- while I explain it. My goal is to come one a creative solution with how to address this issue. So my proposal is that -- and it doesn't have to be this specific proposal that we recommend. I wanted to put something together to have something tangible in front of us to consider. So my goal is to create an economic goal of sorts. As y'all know, the revenue that comes from the golf course is clearly outlined in the contract. But I think by adding two new sources of revenue, we can set aside money for the future economic development of east Austin. So I'm going to go through the potential funding sources. Just so you have an idea of what I'm talking about, this fund and the revenue that would be include in this fund would basically be set aside as a separate account -- separate from everything -- separate from all of the other programs that the economic development program administers and the first and [5:00:27 PM] only account that would be specifically -- that is specifically dedicated to east Austin. So whether that economic development means skills training and workforce development, whether it means incentiveizing and attracting health clinics, whether it means improving amenities, the idea is that we would have money set aside so that in the future, in another 15 years when we're having a discussion of something to do with east Austin and we say, well, it would be great if the money -- if the city had some money to invest in it, we would have this fund to turn to and say, well, we do. And let's put it to its intended purpose and invest in this part of the community. So basically my thought is that we could add an additional 1% to the tiered structure that is outlined in the existing contract. So the first tier is 3% up to a certain amount of revenue. The secondary, the city gets 5% up into that amount of revenue, 7% and so on. I believe all the way up to 11%. So my thinking is that we could add an additional 1% to all of those tiers. So it would be 3% would become 4%, 5% would become 6% and so on. By doing that according to the projections that are outlined in the proposal, an additional 1% would mean over $30,000 in year one. Over $105,000 in year five. And over $162,000 in year 10 for a total of over ten years of almost $1 million. So the second source of revenue could be a $5 charge for each ticket for the event that's held at the golf course. Again, if and when the golf course is built. So this would exclude any [5:02:28 PM] charity events or individual play. But would apply to not only the potential PGA tour, but all other private events that were held at the golf course. The city has somewhat of a similar structure for events that are held in zilker park like acl where the city takes a per ticket fee for those kinds of events. So if we took 5 -- if the city got 5% in fees over that same amount of time, based on -- it's hard to know exactly, of course, how many tickets would be sold -- what events would be held there and how many tickets would be sold. But thinking from the perspective that the PGA match play that's supposed to be held in the Austin country club next year, they're planning on selling 40,000 tickets to that event. So using that same 40,000-ticket number and applying it to this golf course, that would be $200,000 in year one and assuming a 5% -- well, first of all, the expectation I think that a PGA event at this potential golf course would be able to accommodate many more than 40,000. I wanted to be as conservative as possible in my estimate. So that would be $200,000 in year one assuming a 5% increase over ten years as the -- as events happen at the golf course, we would accumulate $240,000 in year five and $300,000 in year ten. So the total over ten years would be in excess of $2.5 million. So put together the total -- the total revenue stream from both the -- the additional 1% fee and the $5 ticket fee would be equivalent to about $3.5 million in ten years. [5:04:31 PM] So, I want to get the other councilmembers thoughts on this. And I -- I hope that this is an example of how this committee and the council as a whole can kind of take a new approach to economic development going forward and although there is kind of the outline that we normally do when we were presented in the contract that was already outlined for us, I think there are other opportunities out there if we're able to think creatively and this, I'm going to reiterate again, I -- I don't know -- I don't think that this committee can take a stance unless it's the will of the other committee members. I don't think we can take a stance of -- yes, support the golf course or no, don't support the golf course or yes, lease the golf course or a license agreement because those things have so many other factors come in to play. I think we can't fully consider it until we have the information from the other committees like the parks and open space committee and the public utilities committee and then it will be at that time that the council will be able to make a decision going forward. But I wanted to make sure that if we do decide to go forward, we truly have a proposal that could benefit -- that would benefit the entire community as a whole and really set up some of the ideas that we heard today like building innovative new communities in east Austin or improving facilities in east Austin or improving the parks in east Austin that we would set up a way to truly have the city be dedicated to seeing some of those priorities through. So that's kind of the outline of my -- of my proposal. And, again, this is just one option. But I would love for this committee to be able to say to [5:06:31 PM] the full council, here are some thoughts about how we could address this from a bigger picture perspective moving forward. Councilmember Casar? >> Casar: Thank you for letting me get some comments in. I had a really hard stop at 5:00. I'll have to escape here in a moment. But I think that I appreciate the time that you put in to thinking through this. And I also appreciate the city manager taking some time to think through different ways that we could contemplate the proposal. I -- in getting the figures from real estate on more or less how many chips we have on our side, I think it does make sense to take a look at, you know, what we can really ask for in return if we were to move forward on this deal and I think creating a place where we can push back against market pressures and incentivize the type of work that's naturally already happening in east Austin. So I think without recommending which way to go yet on the license agreement, including something that creates this sort of fund, I think, makes a lot of sense, whether it's in this deal or in others because in my district, for my constituents, I hear so often that major events or major development projects that occur in Austin even though we're crafting the budget, for example, city councilmembers oftentimes see the benefit of increased sales taxes or property tax revenues oftentimes constituents in my district where fewer parks in my part of the city don't immediately see that. More clearly being able to show what the benefit to citizens of citizens of Austin, regardless of whether it's this deal or others existing in a fund that has specific work I think -- I think it's really smart. And so I would be open to -- very open to recommending from this committee that regardless of how the council chooses to vote on this particular deal, the economic development deal in [5:08:34 PM] general that we create funds that do things that put people to work or attracting industries that invest in people and increase their incomes. So thanks for having thought this through. And, of course, we'll have to play around with the Numbers because it's going be a two-sided license agreement. And you know $3.5 million over the course of 10 years is a significant fund. But ultimately in the city's budget in what we want to do with economic development may not be enough for this one piece, you know, this one deal is not the end all be all of all deals. Also, before I leave, I did want to mention that obviously our time here with the economic -- the economic opportunity committee was short. I wanted to bring two items to the committee that I will be bringing to the full council that hopefully deal in the same issues we were seeing in the crescent. One, around wages here in the city as we examine the minimum wage rate for the city of Austin employees. And the second around what's called fair chance and moving the box around criminal history, not just at city of Austin employees, but for companies that do business with the city of Austin or do business inside of Austin city limits because there's so many people in the communities that have their applications thrown in the trash because of the box on the front page of the application asks if you have a criminal history or not. I think that's some of the very work we can be doing in conjunction with the economic development fund is also looking at the kinds of wages that we pay and the kind of regulations we have on industry that create an opportunity for people. So I'll be bringing those forth hopefully pretty soon to the full council and we'll hopefully see the ordinance language come back here. So knowing ultimately that in my view this is possibly one part of the puzzle, but there's so much other work we have to do if we want to help those communities. >> Troxclair: Thank you for those reflections. We also had a hard stop at 5:00. [5:10:36 PM] We had another, I guess commission that starts at 5:30. So I know you need to leave. But I would love for you to get a chance to vote on a recommendation if we're going to take a vote. Do you have an extra five minutes if we can wra this up? Councilmember Houston? >> Houston: Thank you, chair. I will forego any comments and make a motion. But I have to say that I really appreciate the creative thinking that you did coming up with something that is -- that is about the golf course but is larger than the golf course. Economic development in this city for people who are impoverished and have no hope is something that we have not paid a whole lot of attention to. And so by being creative in your thinking and coming one an economic development strike fund using a $5 surcharge on ticket fees, that is genius and I really appreciate you doing that. >> Troxclair: Genius. I'm going to record this -- get the recording of this meeting. >> Houston: Yeah, and so I think the economic piece of this is that it is one piece of a larger conversation. And so we cannot delay that conversation nor can we continue to delay action. So with that said and knowing that we've got a hard stop, I would like to move that we move this recommended proposal from economic development to the full council for action. >> Troxclair: Okay. Councilmember pool, do you want the opportunity to weigh in? >> Pool: Yeah. Thanks. Chair troxclaire, I would be willing to second councilmember Houston's proposal if I could maybe ask for some language amendment that this be the starting place for conversation about negotiating the strike fund percentages in the larger agreement if, indeed, the council decides, which we haven't made any decisions. [5:12:38 PM] We still have that contingency out there. I like -- and I will second it if councilmember Houston would take that as a friendly amendment and I would speak to that. >> Houston: A starting point for negotiations, I will take that. >> Troxclair: Great. >> Pool: Okay. Great. I think that the 1% is probably too low at $31,000 in year one. I have some significant concerns about the -- the contract that was negotiated any way, the concession terms were very low for the city in the front years. So with that in mind, in looking at this approach, maybe we can work -- work this in to the larger proposal at a -- at a greater share for the city so that it would be a larger benefit specifically for economic development on the east side and then looking at the park as the city's cultural asset that is city wide. >> Troxclair: Okay. >> Houston: Before we take a vote, I want to say that the broader policy issue is that when do we have any -- any funds coming back to the city for any of the uses of parkland. Because I have list after list after list where parkland has been given over to a nonprofit for 73 years. This is only for 50-year lease. Not a 99 as I heard someone say or a 90. And the instances where we had entities using parkland giving no money back and here we have one willing to give back. I don't want to get hung up on the percentage. There's some that don't give any back. That's okay. Here we want to nickel and dime it. I think it's a starting point. But I want to be clear it's one [5:14:39 PM] part of a larger economic development strategy that you have to have some funding to implement. >> Troxclair: All in favor of forwarding the recommendation to full council, raise your hand. Passes unanimously. Thank you. That is going to conclude our -- let's see, our economic opportunity meeting. And if I can find my closing remarks, I will close the meeting out. Our next regularly scheduled meeting will be June 8 from 2:00 to 5:00 P.M. Please show for the record -- please let the record show that the committee on economic opportunity adjourns at 5:15. Thank