Economic Opportunity Committee Meeting Transcript – 4/11/2016 Title: ATXN 24/7 Recording Channel: 6 - ATXN Recorded On: 4/11/2016 6:00:00 AM Original Air Date: 4/11/2016 Transcript Generated by SnapStream ================================== [2:10:18 PM] >> Troxclair: Hello, I am Ellen troxclair, welcome to the economic opportunity meeting, I'm joined by councilmember Houston and councilmember pool and we're going to go ahead and get started. First item on our agenda is the approval of the minutes from the February 8th meeting. Is there a motion? >> So move. >> Second. >> Troxclair: Okay a motion and a second, all right, passes unanimously, item no. 10, citizens communication, I don't think that I have any citizens signed up to speak, but please let me know if I have overlooked you. If not, I will move on to item no. 3, which is a briefing by the French consulate regarding activities of the Austin international school to build collaborative and multi-cultural learning through trilingual immersion as part of educating new generations of global citizens. >> That was a lot captured in one sentence, good job doing that. Good afternoon, I'm Liz Wylie, I wear many hats, I'm [2:12:20 PM] an attorney here in Austin of technology, help foreign entrepreneurs get set up in Austin and Texas in general. I am also the honorary consul of France in Austin, I will partially have that hat on today, that's the French consulate connection andments chair of the French American business council in Austin but the greatest pleasure that I have right now is being chairman of the board of the Austin international school. And so why here today? We'll see in my technology, even though I'm a technology attorney, I don't do so great with technology sometimes. Austin is growing, no surprise. A big growth area for Austin is international. I see this all the time. I've been retained by the French government, the French economic development agencies, to assist their start-ups when they come for south-by-southwest. I see the international department, they are doing an amazing work here in Austin, but Austin is getting reached out to all the time, for people wanting to be here, do businesses, be part of the good energy, secret sauce that is going on here. What do we have in the way of services and how Austin is becoming getting more known international, attracting more international companies and ex-pats. One of the great hidden gems, I think in Austin, is Austin international school. So what are we doing there, who are we and why are we there? We've been around since 2001, it was established by the scene demand, even back then in 2001, for more educational options for a lot of French ex-pats that were coming into Austin back then. Actually it was schlumberjay, that was their campus, in the dark ages it seems like now. There was a huge investment in Austin for that tech company back then and they wanted to make sure when their employees come over [2:14:21 PM] from France they could say within the French curriculum system, meaning that that's what we call the portability of the French education. For example, there are French American schools all over the world and all over the United States and this was the 43rd in the united States and the third for the state of Texas. The other two being in Dallas and Houston, Audi international school perhaps you have heard of that in Houston, a huge, huge international school there. So that's just a little bit about the history. And though we're called a French, we are aligned with the French curriculum, we teach the French curriculum, we do that with an overlay of Spanish and English and we'll talk about why that's important and the amazing thing this does for kids' brains. But the model that you will see at the top of the header here of Austin international school, expanding minds, broadening perspectives. If you look at our mission statement, what I would like to focus on is the life-long social skills, positive forward-thinking outlook. What this comes down to is that you will see there's nothing about language in here. Even though we are teaching kids in French, Spanish, and English and in a seamless curriculum, we'll talk more about what that means, through language they are learning critical thinking skills, the French curriculum is highly conceptual and analytical. And through moving through different classrooms and different interpreters teaching in different languages from different cultures, little by little appear amazing thing happens, I don't even have a child at my school, this takes a lot of my time, but I'm so passionate about seeing what happens to these kids, exposed to three different languages every single day. Kids from all over the world. A community of parents that's passionate about what happens there. We have 33 different countries represented in the student body. And for the teachers and the parents and the students this creates a remarkable, I [2:16:21 PM] will say becomes parts of their DNA how to deal with the other and otherness in society today, which is an incredibly important social and business skill in the future, I think, and we see how dealing with otherness, other cultures, other ways of thinking is an important part -- this leads to socio-economic crisis and political crises from we don't have the engagement of citizens that we are going to be sending out into the world here. A lot of words on there, you can look at that later. And I've just drawn -- trying to hit the high points here. Be cognizant of your time. Even though, we get this question a lot from parents. Why so much French, why French, why French first, why not more Spanish? There's some interesting pedagogycal reasons for that. So French is a not very transparent language. It's the pedagogical term for that. Spanish more transparent, a lot more. You can see it, deal with it, engage with it a little more easily than French. The pedagogical study says that we have kids in what we call [indiscernible] Adorable little children speaking three languages, that wires the brain, makes it more easy to overlay that second or third language. So by fifth grade, the school goes only up to fifth grade for the moment, we'll get to the happy great news of opening the middle school. The business model because French is so important, can only accept new students going into kindergarten, unless they are coming over from France, obviously. By the time -- American students, you know, kids from Austin, are -- can do the three languages. They are talking at a high [2:18:22 PM] school level with native speakers for high school. Once they are in fifth grade as they go into middle school. Spanish is a high level of proficiency, we don't like to say that it's fluent. It's an extremely high level of proficiency, that's a big part of extending our mission into the middle school. Just a couple more years and they're going to be entirely fluent. We're talking obviously not the families from huge Latin America contingent that we have. And we all know like again the neurological, how the brain gets rewired, that's how I've heard parents talk about it. Like you just see the way kids think through problems and issues differently through the trilingual immersion in the classroom. Highly analytical like I was mentioning. This allows for really interesting things to happen. As I mentioned it's expanding minds, broadening perspectives, how do you deal with other? The -- the idea that is implicit and implied that comes across through this exposure to the other languages, the teachers, the students from all over the world. There's not one best way. Let's look at your other way. How do you do it in your classroom? How do you do it in your culture? So to -- how that happens with the seamless curriculum is that the teachers have an incredibly intense collaborative process that they have to go through to -- in order to -- for example, they may have started the day with social studies, you know, in French. Then it's not like they're going to hear that same lesson in Spanish the next day and the same lesson in English. It's going to continue seamlessly, all of the class, all of the subject matter with backup in all of the different languages. You are not losing animent tie, but at the same time you can imagine because you are having some intense exposure through the other languages in the classes, you also can't add on a whole bunch of different languages and things, but we have a pretty robust after school program as well. A lot of people talk about [2:20:25 PM] why not mandarin? Well, we offer it after school, but because of the language, we want to make sure that they are fluent, engaged in the language and the culture, that's not part of the curriculum right now. It's only after school. So we're about 215 students. And I can talk about where we are. We are off on -- started out in a tiny little building on burnet road, moved into a not as tiny building on oak knoll and 183. And in 2012 moved into a beautiful space off of Parmer and mopac, so with the big tech corridor, you have IBM, [indiscernible], a big high tech French company out there in great hills, we start capturing a lot of that. Real quick, for another time, it's kind of interesting. We get a lot of frustration, a lot of American parents, can't we just call it first grade, second grade, third grade. So we do both. We're not so tied to the French curriculum that we're all -- that we all have to talk in this code, when I became part of the board of directors, I had no idea what they were talking about. But it's just kind of fun to know what that's about. Again, like I said, the thing that we are most proud of is here are the different countries represented of the parents who value this type of education. 40, 50% of the parents and student population are from Austin or grew up in the United States. And some of them have never lived abroad, but they still want this type of -- this type of education for their kids. What about that ... Very engaged in the tech sector in the communities. That's part of being a technology lawyer. Working with France, working for tech companies. It's important to me, also, one, I just want, you know, city council and for you to know that we have this great asset here. When you are out doing the work that you do with your constituents and representing Austin, that this exists. And our parent community comes from all over. Those are just a few of the examples there. We are a private school. [2:22:27 PM] I'll put that out there. So we do offer financial aid, we do have support from the French government in terms did of some scholarships. And that's been really important to us to make sure that we keep the -- we're not a saint Andrews, not a saint Stephens, we like the diversity of our student population. I think that adds to the richness of our communities and the learning experience. So a few success stories that we're having I'll mention. As our kids evolve out of this amazing immersive experience, surrounded by people from all over the world, we have heard for example saint Stephens is a lot of school that kids go to, kealing another school. Especially saint Stephen's because they have a pretty significant international population there. They love the ais kids coming in there. They call them bridge kids. They are connectors of people. Isolation is not an option at ais. They are the kids saint Stephens loves to see to make those connections. They are not intimidated at all by, again, other kids from other culturals, that's just what they lived every day for several years. That's what we hear about the kids there. Another great success story that I love to brag about is these kids just -- grow up a great sense of self and confidence because their parents a lot of times can't help them with homework, they have to figure this out on their own, right? I was hosting a conference at U.T., the fifth graders had done a project to analyze in terms of, you know, climate change, doing some eco friendly things, analyzing pitch of the roof, rain retention, psyching issues, they could do -- recycling issues they could do with the rainwater at the school. When they came to the conference, French tech companies doing an exchange on how to work with clean tech, some smart city [2:24:27 PM] technologies, they had no problem with getting up and addressing the panel. We had speakers from France, civic sector, private sector. They had no problem getting up there and posing their question, what do you think about this idea? How the rainwater is coming off this way. Very self assured impressive kids. So we're there, Austin keeps growing internationally. Keep us in mind. Welcome you to come out there and visit us. I would be happy to give you a tour. Like I said we are opening the middle school in the fall, 2017, as we keep growing that keeps validating what we are doing. Very well received, very excited about that. Also transitioning to a new head of school, Jacques Webber, as you can imagine, it takes a really unique person are you going to prepare our kids? You know, in the future, we're all about -- all about language culture but working together, opening minds and -- and I knew that we were going to love him because his first thing was, yeah, I'm already doing this research project with my kids that I taught in Bombay doing a joint research project. We compare and contrast and then afterwards we talk about what was different about that experience? Did they approach it differently, you know? How did that feel for you? What can we take away from this? Which for me as a technology lawyer working in technology commercialization, it's perfect because that's what the future is like, right? This is what we see from academics, researchers, tech companies all over the world, how do you embrace teams all over the world and how do you work together? Pretty vital skill set there. I will stop there. You have a busy agenda today, but thank you very much. Open to questions and if I don't know the answers I'm happy to follow-up with more information later. Anything else? >> Troxclair: Thank you so [2:26:28 PM] much for that introduction, councilmember pool? >> Pool: I just wanted to congratulate you. There was a piece on -- on having the foresight to have a school that teaches children multiple languages. I wish that I had grown up with the ability to speak I have had some instruction in at least three plus English, obviously, but didn't have the opportunity really to be immersed in it. And I understand from some study that I have done and some research that I have heard and read about, that the -- the synapses, the brain synapses in the little kiddos, the neurological development of a child is aided by the ability to learn multiple languages, the younger that you are the easier it is to acquire them. Somehow they always manage to keep them separate as well. It also develops a finer, maybe a deeper appreciation of other cultures, the way people think and empathy, which I think is a -- a value that we are in sore need of internationally. Empathy for people from other cultures who are also trying to make their way in the world. And so it seems to me that the work that you all are doing at ais is really foundational in this process to raise up a new generation of kids who understand other cultures at a level that I missed and wish that I hadn't. So I -- >> Well said, yes, thank you, that's exactly right, yeah, yeah, thank you. That's exactly what's going integrate kids later on in the program as well. If you don't have that French component as well. So we can keep open up that model to more students in Austin who are coming in. We're going to keep working on that. So like I say, I welcome you to come. It is amazing to watch, you are exactly right on how that works. That's what convinced me. I saw the kids doing a a [2:28:30 PM] play in three different languages, I was like this is unbelievable. I didn't have it either, I wish that I did. >> Pool: One of the things that I really wish our public schools were able to do, but for financial reasons they just can't. But to ensure that two or three languages are taught to our kids up through 12th grade. I think it's really important. I'm glad that opportunity is here in Austin for the kids who are able to go to the international school. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Troxclair: I would be curious to know or maybe a better question for the city demographer what percentage of people who are moving to Austin come from out of the country. Do you has 7 to know? >> -- Do you happen to know? I see David back there. I don't know. I mean, I probably -- I'm in a bubble because that's all that I see pretty much because that's all I work in. In fact I just met with a client today, his whole family is moving over. They decided to launch their U.S. Operations out of Austin. That's growing out of the Austin enje, a huge power house in Europe, coming to Austin thanks to the great work of the austin-enje relationship. But I don't know. I would be really curious about that, too. It makes it interesting too for the business model. Ex-pats are here for three or four years. Even though kids are just, you know, second or third graders, how can we give a platform for them to keep up with those friends that they have met and keep coming and going because of that communities. Yeah, that's a good question. I have to drill down on that a little bit. >> Councilmember pool? >> Pool: I know that the Austin school district has the international baccalaureate program that's modeled after the state department curriculum. So that I think the intention there is that no matter where you happen to be -- to be assigned, no matter what country you're in, the schooling available to your family, to your children is at a -- at a standardized and very high level and so it sounds - - [2:30:32 PM] that curriculum is a really good one and very challenging as well. I guess at some point you may be -- if you get your classes up to that far up, I think ib goes down to ninth grade now with aid. >> Yeah, exactly. It's something to be mindful of. We're looking at. The new head of school we're getting in fact does training over the world very immersed in ib. There's different educational paradigms, the British system, a school in Austin that does that, French, ib. It's a very flexible paradigm that you can put in a lot of things, but it is very unique and special. We haven't made that decision future what does it look like, we want to make sure that we stay distinct and keep that which is super unique about us right now, while noticing was going on in the market. So down the road, but yes same idea. The portability of a great education. >> Pool: Thanks. >> Houston: May I ask a question? >> Troxclair: Sure, councilmember Houston? >> Houston: Thank you so much for sharing this information with us. You indicated that the school is a private school. What are the costs? >> I knew that you were going to ask me that question, so I wrote that down here somewhere. It's -- we just raised it, upper classes it's at 13,000. 13,000 starting at first grade. >> Houston: When you say upper class. >> We have the babies in the maternallle section. Fifth through fifth at around 13,000. A little bit lower than the -- some of the other private schools and we offer discounts to teachers because a great part of having that diversity is, one, to have the teachers to have their kids in the school. We have multi-use student discounts for that as well and some -- scholarships. We would like to do more. We want more scholarships, the teachers to have more professional development and really become a great [2:32:32 PM] learning community for international education in Austin. >> Troxclair: Thanks so much for being here. >> Thank you. >> Troxclair: Okay. I didn't see any public speakers signed up for that item. We will move on to item no. 4, a presentation by parks and recreation department on the draft report for the Travis county commissioners court expo center market study regarding potential future uses and facility improvement recommendations for the Travis county expo center. Hello. >> Good afternoon, chair and vice chair and councilmember pool. Bryan block with the parks and recreation department and pleased to be here to be able to present a briefing on the Travis county expo center market study. And what -- I - - what I wanted to do first was just overview what I'm going to cover. And start with how and why the market study came to be. And then take a step back and look at where the Travis county expo center facility is at Walter E. Long park. What facilities are there, how is it managed and operated and then take you through the scope of the study, what we had hoped to accomplish and follow that with where we are today, give you the high points of the draft report, which is where we are, and then talk about next steps. So -- so starting with how and why the market study came to be, I'll go into more detail but the Travis county expo center sits on a city of Austin parkland. It's managed and operated by Travis county. One of the major current tenants is rodeo Austin and [2:34:35 PM] the facilities are aging. They are becoming obsolete. The partners came together and asked "What if" questions. Could this -- in looking at how the facility might be renovated or how it might be improved and "What if" questions. Could the facility -- a lot has changed since 1983 when it was built. Could the facility serve a broader market need today? Could it not only serve what's there today but is there a broader market need that's not being served? And that was the kind of motivation and starting point for the market study. Do a study specifically aimed at what is the market need and is there a gap? And look at if this facility could help resolve that gap. Um ... I think important to point out, the study is a partnership between the city of Austin and Travis county. And it does have a funding contribution from rodeo Austin as well. And another thing to point out before I really dig in, the market study is just that. It is not intended to be a master plan. Or implementation plan. It's really focused on data and analysis and providing that information to policy makers to use for long-term decision making and policy decisions and look as -- as northeast Austin economic development has looked at -- have it as a tool as Walter E long park is master planned, similar have that tool and for broader economic development throughout the city. So it is intended as data [2:36:37 PM] and as a tool for policy makers. And with all of that, I will kind of jump now into the presentation. As I had mentioned, hitting first overview. The Travis county expo center is -- sits at Walter E long park which is owned by the city of Austin. It's 1872 acres, which is by far the largest park in the Austin park system. For comparison, zilker park is 350 acres. That doesn't count the two nature preserves, which is another 650 acres. It's a a very large park. A very large space. It is for the most part undeveloped, about 17% is undeveloped. The primary use is the Travis county expo center, it sits at the southwest corner. There is - - most of the recreational development is at the south side of the park where there are boat ramps, fishing, canoeing, kayaking and picnicking. Up at the northwest part of the park, there is aeromodelling, trap and skeet shooting. For the most part, much of the park is undeveloped. Zing in on the Travis county expo center, you can see on this slide where it sits at the southwest portion of the park, it's on 128 acres there. And thenzying in even further, this is the facilities that make up the Travis county expo center and I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the background and how the facility came to be there. It was built in 1983. It's on the 128-acre site. [2:38:38 PM] It is through a 50-year lease through 2033. Initially, that lease was to austin/travis county livestock show and they managed the facility for the first four or five or six years. The austin/travis county livestock show later became rodeo Austin. They were only using the facility for two weeks each year and I think it became apparent that managing it on a year-round basis would be better served by another entity and the lease was assigned to Travis county in 1989. That's who has the current lease. Again, that goes through 2033. Important to point out that leases of city parkland do require -- have to be authorized by the voters, by the city charter. City council doesn't have authority to lease or sell or convey city parkland, that has to be done by the voters. That was done in 1982 for this lease. It's a 50 year lease, again goes through 2033. Any continuation of the current lease or any -- any other uses beyond that term would have to be authorized by the voters because it was a very specific term that the voters approved in that election. >> Troxclair: Can I ask a quick question about that? >> Sure. >> Troxclair: So the length or the purpose of the lease was maybe what was on the ballot but not the entity it was being leased to? It wasn't an issue to transfer the lease? >> The entity was included plus the uses and it did [2:40:40 PM] allow for assignment. >> Troxclair: Okay. So it didn't have to go back to the voters when the lease changed hands? >> Right. >> Troxclair: Okay. Thanks. >> Just continuing on, you can see on this slide the four facilities, the four buildings that make up the expo center. An arena, a 210,000 square foot show barn with a dirt floor really geared towards livestock and animals, a banquet hall and also a skyline club that's part of the arena. The facilities are -- the facilities are aging. They are becoming obsolete. Travis county has done a remarkable job maintaining it without any additional funding. It's maintained by Travis county as an enterprise. And the only funding that they have to reinvest in the property is -- is revenue over expenses. And they have maintained it the best they could in that format. But it is an aging facility. It is becoming obsolete. It is not in the greatest of condition. The current -- largest current use is rodeo Austin. They use it about two weeks a year, 30 days total with load-in and load-out. There are other events that take place there, the republic of Texas biker rally, livestock, auto and craft shows and races and triathlons, that's kind of an overview of the facility as it stands today. Now the scope of the study, I wanted to take you through this. This is what we asked the consultant to do. And we asked them to review the facility condition. [2:42:40 PM] The site location, the regional context, any long-range plans for the area. We asked them to conduct stakeholder meetings and gather input, did a lot of this when they kicked on of in late may and they reached out to all of the council offices in either -- either met with you all or followed up with a conference call to talk to you about your feedback as they conduct the study. Digging into the real heart of it, we asked them to do a market analysis, look at industry trends look at comparable facilities and competing facilities. What do other cities have? And take a look at the market demand in our market and look for market gaps. Are there market gaps here that need to be filled? Based on those market gaps, we asked them to mall facility recommendations at this site that could meet or fill those market gaps. We then asked them with those facility recommendations, tell us what would the capital construction costs be for those facilities? So tell us the cost analysis. Financial performance projections, so tell us how would this new facility that you are recommending be used? How much would it be used and what would its financial performance be? In terms of revenue and expenses. We asked them to do a financial needs analysis and that just included really the annual payment needed to finance what they're recommending. I think it's important to point out that -- that the scope did not include a financing plan. Which means they did not look at how you would [2:44:41 PM] actually pay for -- for doing this. It was really focused on the market, what is demanded and what would the financial performance be. They did not look at a financing plan and we did ask them to look at an economic impact analysis. If you did build what they are recommending, what would that lead to in terms of new spending, new taxes, new jobs in the area. >> Councilmember pool? >> Pool: Can you explain what was the thinking behind not including that particular scope. I know it was a previous council that set this up. >> That's right. The thinking was, again, to really use this as data and analysis and a starting point to see what was possible and then future investigation, future study, future work. If there was a decision that this was something promising to move forward with those steps would follow. >> Pool: So the items that maybe the community wanted to continue within, then we would price those out and it might actually -- the pricing out might be more relevant because -- closer, more proximate in time to when they might be voted on, for example? >> I think looking at what this would cost, looking at what might move forward, with some of it, none of it, some of it, all of it, would it move forward and then that could lead to an pledges plan. But really I -- to an implementation plan. But really I think the focus was gathering that data, gathering who could be possible and then zero in on, okay, we know what could be possible. Now let's look at what we want to do here. >> Pool: In case there was any sticker shock. >> Which we'll go through, you will see that the price tag is -- is significant. [2:46:49 PM] I'll try to get through the rest quickly so we can move on to questions and answers that you have. Current situation where we are today is the draft report has been completed by the consultant team. The reports being reviewed by multiple city departments, by Travis the report is being looked at by council offices as we've sent the memo and the link to the draft report to all of you. We are currently in April, making presentations to boards and council committees, this is the first one. Presentation to parks board later this month and we've proposed a very similar presentation to open space environment and sustainability committee. And the purpose of these presentations, while the study is in a draft stage, our thinking is the report is under review, provide information to the committees, again, on what we're doing today, how and why did the report come to be, what does it entail? What is the facility? What are the highlights of what the report says, which I will get into here in just one second, and give you a chance to -- to give some feedback that we could give back to the consultant before they finalize the report and, also, what we're suggesting is maybe queue up a longer presentation, where we bring the consultant team in and do a presentation to the full council, have our technical subject matter expert here and so that's one of the things that we'll suggest and maybe for your consideration at the end is [2:48:52 PM] that -- is that maybe in early June we look at a -- we look at a full presentation with the -- with the consultant here to the full council. So ... Key next steps, again, are submit feedback, back to the consultant. They will work towards a final report and then hopefully a final report presentation, if that's desired. Before we finish, I definitely want to hit on the highlights of what's in the draft report. A full presentation could drill down a lot more. And have our subject matter experts here. But we wanted to hit the high points. And based on the market and the facilities current condition, the study is recommending replacement of all of the existing facilities. The study points out that the current market, it point out that the existing facilities are obsolete and too small for what's currently demanded and required. There's a limited supply and expanding demand in Austin and as Austin continues to grow, the report anticipates that continuing. The report talks about that there's nothing in the current market to serve the middle and upper middle rated events and needs. The higher end events are being addressed downtown, downtown is running out of space, though. And currently this type of expo facility could server that kind of middle, upper middle need, but it's in -- not the condition to do that, so it's serverring the lower end -- serving the lower end, what the report is saying, there's nothing to serve that middle that might be further out of town, have surface parking, be different than what's [2:50:54 PM] downtown. More on what the market needs. The report is saying that the market needs high quality exhibit and expo space, that it needs support spaces like flex hall and ballroom and meeting rooms, a mid to large-sized arena and that Austin's market can support a multi-purpose entertainment sports and expo facility. The report does point out that the exhibit and expo needs and market are different than the Austin convention center. So this does not address the Austin convention center needs. What they suggested is it could help take some pressure off of the convention center and it goes on to recommend that expo -- an expo component, if it were to be built, be either co-managed or in a very close partnership, so all of the expo-type facilities in the area could be promoted, marketed, the best kind of MIX utilized among those facilities. So their recommendations, the proposed complex addresses what they see as the market needs. So what did they recommend? A modern arena, expo halls, ballroom, meeting rooms, rodeo and equestrian facilities. Getting down to some of the details, we asked them for the costs. What are your recommendations, what's the cost of them? In $2,015, phase 1 and 2 and 3, phase 1, 470 million that covers the arena and the primary expo, ballroomnd meeting rooms. The arena they are recommending a 15,000 seat modern arena. The primary expo, ballroom and meeting room, 200,000 square foot of exposition [2:52:56 PM] space plus ballroom and meeting room, those break out to 320 million and 150 million respectively. In a phase 2 and 3, they are recommending additional expo and equestrian facilities. This is where the dedicated equestrian and expo -- I mean equestrian and rodeo facility would be, another 150 million for that. Totaling 630 million combined. They took a deeper look at phase 1, really focusing on phase 1, what would the estimated annual payment for phase 1 over 30 years be and they have come to 25.4 million. They have gotten some feedback already from some of the reviewers and that number may need to bump up as they look at higher interest rates. But roughly 25.4 million per year would be the annual cost to service debt for the 470 million-dollar construction. They looked at the estimated net operating income that those recommended facilities would bring in, starting in year one they are suggesting the net income could be 2.9 million, rising to 5.3 million in year 10. And they took a deeper look at the estimated economic impact, 3.3 billion in spending over 30 years, that's new spending. 110 million in new taxes from that spending over the 30 years. 1200 new and ongoing full-time job equivalents, full-time equivalent jobs and 5,205 temporary job-years due to the construction impact itself. This gives you a kind of [2:54:59 PM] overview, diagram, of -- of what they are proposing and how it could be laid out. You see at the top right is the 15,000 seat arena, which would be phase 1 as recommended. Going down to the bottom right, is the -- is the -- is the primary expo space meeting rooms, ballroom and then moving to the left in your bottom left of the image is the additional expo and the rodeo and equestrian facilities. And, finally, concluding with kind of our schedule, where we've been and where we're going. We started back in may of 2014 initiating this partnership between the city and Travis county. An interlocal was created between the city and county, rodeo Austin contributed funding to the study. A lot of community engagement has happened, both before the consultant was brought on and during, that's all kind of listed here in the timeline. That includes all of the current users, all of the neighbors from around the facility, all of the zip codes around it. The market study kicked off in may and we're here now about 11 months later with a draft report and making these briefings, presentations, and we hope to be back with a final presentation potentially early June, if that is something that is desired to either a work session or full council meeting. And that concludes the presentation. But, of course, I'll -- I'll try to answer any questions you have. And take feedback and bring that back to our consultant and if they do come back, [2:57:01 PM] make sure they are able to kind of know what your questions are and be prepared to -- to answer them. >> Troxclair: Thank you for that presentation, councilmember Houston? >> Houston: Thank you so much. Can you help me, it's been a while since I've read through the whole packet. But is it still the intent to phase the buildings in so that the current rodeo and the current events can keep operating in creating some additional revenue while we're building phase 1 and 2? >> That's what's anticipate understand the recommendations. Why you -- anticipated in the recommendations, why you start with the phase 1 of the arena where it is positioned so that the current facilities can stay up and operational. >> Houston: So that siting is done in the slide 9 that you showed us? >> That's right. That is why they are suggesting the locations they are. The arena there is away from the current arena and the show barn. >> Houston: Okay. Can you show me where the rodeo Austin's property is on that diagram? If you could put it back up on the screen so everybody can see. I'm looking at page 9. >> The rodeo Austin property is just to the south of -- of basically the south of what says terraced plaza space at the bottom right. So this -- this covers the whole 128 acres. Just to the south of what's shown here is -- is owned by rodeo Austin. The -- on -- as you moved left, is there -- there's for pointer. [2:59:04 PM] -- There's no pointer. There's private property there to the south, so ... Does that make sense? Just to the south of -- >> Houston: So if you would help me because I think that I know the area but I'm getting confused. Can he point to it on there? >> You are pointing. Right there where the hand is, is owned by the rodeo Austin. Moving to the left, further left, that's private property there. >> Houston: Okay. So closer to decker lane? >> Right. >> Houston: That's the private property? >> That's private property where the hand is moving right there on the screen, or the cursor. >> Houston: Okay. All right. >> Is that visible? >> Houston: Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. And then I had one other question, and this is for councilmember pool about where are we on the parkland events task force, and when do we expect something ... >> Pool: We gave them an extension in time, and I think they are reporting to us at the end of August, I think is when that is. They took a while to get everybody appointed, so -- originally they were going to report to us in June, and they have a couple of additional months. >> Houston: Okay. Thank you. >> You might want to double-check that. >> I was at the open space committee where it was discussed last time, and I thought they mentioned request to go to August. >> Troxclair: So you -- I think that you said that the expo area was like 200,000 square feet? Is that the expo space? >> The expo space where the meeting rooms and ballroom, at the bottom right of the screen, [3:01:05 PM] that's 200,000 square feet, proposed. >> Troxclair: Okay. >> And a further possible additional 200,000 as you move to the left where it says dress arena, arena, and expo space. >> Troxclair: So is the -- is that one -- is the second one part of a later phase? >> That's right. >> Troxclair: Okay. >> The study recommends that as a later phase. >> Troxclair: So how does that square footage compare to the convention center? >> The convention center currently has 240,000 square feet of exhibit space, I believe. Problems so it would be almost as big as the existing convention center -- well, just one building, then if you did both buildings, it would be almost twice as big. >> Right. >> Troxclair: Okay. >> And I think the consultant can go into more detail, but what they envision out here is a lot of very large spaces that could accommodate large consumer shows, large trade shows, having large spaces where, would you say poles, that could bring in very large consumer and trade shows that need a lot of parking that that are one-day shows, so very different type of market and need than what's at a downtown convention center. >> Troxclair: I guess I'm trying to envision what the differences in those events would be because the convention center is also hoping for an expansion as well, to significantly increase their exposition space. So how -- so can you give me some examples of what kind of event would be appropriate for [3:03:06 PM] the downtown convention center and what kind of event would be attracted to this? >> I think I can try to give you the initial overview, and then I think these are perfect questions that we maybe bring our subject matter, expert, our consultant who's an expert in the field. >> Troxclair: Uh-huh. >> Bring them back, make sure they know these are the kinds of things we want addressed, and have them, you know, speak to it. But I can give you -- I've spent the last year kind of learning, being a good student of what they're doing, and so I think I can give you a good overview. And I think what I've heard and learned is that downtown convention centers, you know, primarily but not exclusively, focus on multinight conventions with exhibits. When you come further out of town and you need larger spaces, you need lots of surface parking area. You're getting your more single-day or maybe one night, large trade show, large consumer shows, boat shows, car shows, those types of things. I think you'd benefit from having our consultant team here to really drill down, and maybe we could give them, you know, a significant amount of time, 30 or 40 minutes, to really hit on everything. >> Troxclair: Okay. And -- yeah, that would be helpful. I just need to understand, especially in the context of the conversations that we've been having about the existing convention center expansion. Of course -- of course, I understand events like the rodeo would utilize the arena and the expo space in a particular way. I want to -- I want to also understand what kind of other events we would be hoping to attract there, in such a [3:05:07 PM] significant -- for such a significant investment. >> Right. >> Troxclair: I guess -- and I wanted to clarify on the next slide that talks -- I don't know which slide it is, maybe -- the previous slide, where it talks about the economic impact. 3.3 billion and spending over 30 years, is that -- I mean, you were just saying that's what it would cost. Or are you saying -- I mean, where -- what is that 3.3 billion number? >> That's the result of new spending that comes from building, operating these facilities, everything from ticket sales to rental cars and restaurants, all new spending that would come from having this type of facility, that would lead to, you know, new sales taxes, that comes to spending on construction, jobs, spending for the ongoing, operating, ongoing use of -- you know, as events come there, there would be spending associated with it. >> Troxclair: So that's -- this is not -- the city would spend 3.3 billion over 30 years, you're saying that would be the income -- the revenue from events that are held at the space. >> It really would just be spending, spending that's a result of putting these facilities here and operating them. >> Troxclair: Okay. >> Not revenue. The 110 million would be -- >> Troxclair: Okay. >> -- New taxes, primarily sales taxes. >> Troxclair: And is that $110 million, is that just to -- is that among all entities, or where -- that would be total. That's not just the city workings. Portion. >> That's total, and a lot of the city workings. [3:07:11 PM] City portion. But you're right, the state -- does that include the state portion of the sales tax? What does that include. >> Troxclair: Thank you for that clarification. It seems like just based on -- I'll wait till we have our more detailed discussions, I think, to ask my other questions with that. I know that they have not looked into the funding mechanisms, so premature for me to suggest this, but do you know if this is something that could -- that thathotel occupancy taxes to be used to fund? >> We don't. We think that would be for the law department to really take a close look at. When you get into all the rules and regulations with the hotel occupancy tax and the fact that this still is municipal parkland, we think that would take -- need a really close look by the law department to see how and if that could be done. >> Troxclair: Okay. Councilmember Houston. >> Houston: Thank you. I have a couple more questions. I think it's grade to have a middle ground between the convention center and palmer. I'm not sure exactly, and I've asked for some clarification, but how often does Parmer event center host events? What is the thing they do every year down there? Some kind of shop, where you go and shop. >> Troxclair: Oh, like the settlement home? >> Houston: No, they do the settlement home, but there's something else they do. I'm trying to get an idea of how often the Parmer event center is used, what kinds of events are being used there, just like we were able to capture how many days the expo center is being used, how many days does the Parmer events -- is it being used to do the kinds of -- kinds [3:09:14 PM] of events that they do, and how is that different? I think one of the great things about this particular expansion is that it takes some of that traffic out of downtown. I mean, the expo center is right at toll road 130, 290, 183, which is going to be a toll road in -- maybe not in my lifetime, but they say it'll get through in a little while. It's like mopac, it may take a while, but we're hoping they'll have a better opportunity to get that finished, but it's right there in like a triangle where people can get there and get in understand a out. So I'm just trying to see what Parmer auditorium is doing, again different from the convention center. I see them more as walk-in people who are having those kinds of strategic meetings before whatever people are meeting about, but I'm not sure what Parmer events does, how often they do it, what kind of revenue does the city get there, is that -- are they part of the convention center? >> They are. And we could -- we've had good communication with the convention center department. We could reach back out and either they could follow up with you on that, it could be something that comes back when you get the fuller presentation, whatever you prefer, it could come back fairly quickly. >> Houston: Okay. I think that's helpful to know because there's a missing middle, like we were talking about in housing, there's also that missing middle in event space. One seems to be more high level, classy. One maybe is not as classy, and then we're missing that middle part that's kind of in between. You know, I could see rv shows out there. I could actually see -- this is something that I think rodeo Austin has talked about, a female professional basketball team being housed there; UT [3:11:16 PM] using some parts of it. I mean, so there are a lot of creative things that could happen in that area. It's just how do we piece it all together, and then go before the voters and ask them to provide another lease for another period of time so that we can see this be realized. This is in district 1. I've been excited about the possibilities for this for a long time. It's a lot of money. And so we need to really look carefully at how it can be funded. And so, as you suggested. We'll have those conversations with legal about use of the hotel occupancy tax. But I was very pleased with the report from the consultant. I think, unlike what we -- what I usually see when a consultant gives us a result -- a report back, this one had some really interesting ideas, and thinking outside of the box, so I really appreciated that. >> Troxclair: And to follow up on the hotel occupancy tax discussion, we are going to plan to have a more in-depth discussion of hotel occupancy taxes in general at our next economic opportunity meeting. I think it's important for us to understand what the possibilities with that are, again are the convention center expansion, I think that a portion of that was planned to be funded with hotel occupancy taxes, which, of course, is a -- is a tax that people coming to visit Austin to attend these kinds of events pay when they're renting hotel rooms, and it minimizes or completely eliminates the need for us to fund project -- tourist- based projects, like this, or like the convention center out of property tax increase. And so I think that that there are some differences in the legal interpretation and the way that Austin uses their hotel occupancy taxes and other [3:13:19 PM] cities -- other cities have found more flexibility in the way that they're able to use that. And I know that was one of my main questions in our -- in our convention center discussion, was what -- if -- if we didn't move forward with the convention center discussion or -- expansion, or even if we did move forward, what other uses are possible for that money? I just think it's important for me to have that context in order to make a decision of what is the best use of that money. And I'm not -- I see our convention center staff in the audience, so I want to say I'm not -- I understand the need for the expansion of the existing convention center as well. I just think that the financial limitations are going to be a really important part of this discussion, and I want to know all of the options before -- before we really make any decision. So I hope to get a better understanding of that over the next few months and hopefully before -- before we get to a point where we do need to make -- make those decisions. So -- but I -- yeah, this is a great overview. Thanks for bringing us into the loop, in kind of the draft stages, that's great, so when we're presented with something final, we can have a better understanding of it and we're not asking how we got to that place, so I appreciate it. >> Perfect. >> Troxclair: Do you have anything? I know there are a lot of people in the audience who are interested in this topic, but I don't think I saw anybody signed up to speak. Was there anybody who did want to speak now that you've heard the presentation? Oh, okay. Hi, Becky, how are you? Come on up. And I didn't mean to cut you off. Did you have anything else to add? >> I was just going to ask you -- we were suggesting bringing back the consultant for the full presentation. Is that something you'd be supportive of? We could do that in early June. We checked some dates with them, and they thought that June 7th or 9th would work, if it was [3:15:19 PM] desired. If you needed more time. >> Troxclair: I think we're all definitely interested in hearing the expanded conversation from the consultant but my thought is, it's better to do it in front of the full council. I love for us to be involved at this point, but at some point the rest of the council is going to want to have questions and feel like they're involved, and I don't want to get to a point where we all feel familiar, but we have -- but other councilmembers feel like they're kind of caught off guard or they haven't had enough time to think about it. So what would be -- so is June the appropriate time to maybe come to a work session instead of to the committee? >> That's what we were suggesting. >> Troxclair: Okay. >> Potentially coming on June 7th to the work session. >> Troxclair: Okay. Good. >> They could do a briefing. It could be longer if you had the time. They could probably do a 30, 40-minute briefing, or as short as you like, and be there for the whole council to answer questions. >> Troxclair: That sounds good. Do you need any action from us in order to do that? >> I don't -- it might be you putting it on, maybe we -- or we putting it on -- >> Troxclair: Okay. We'll do -- is there a motion to recommend that we have a presentation from the consultant in front of the full council in June? >> Pool: I'll do that. >> Troxclair: Okay. Motion and second, all in favor? All right. Now you have an official -- official recommendation. >> Pool: And what I would say is, depending on what else is big on the agenda would kind of drive how much time is going to be available at the work session. And then you're going to come to open space and make a presentation there, too? >> Right. We anticipated this very same presentation, if you're desiring it at open space. >> Pool: We'd love that, although we probably could have killed two birds with one stone by having a joint committee meeting so you would only have had to do it once. >> Right. >> Pool: So think about whether there are any other committees that you want it to come in front of. >> That was what we thought. [3:17:20 PM] We thought that, of course, it had an economic development component so it should come here, but it is on city of Austin parkland. We do have the master plan coming for Walter E. Long park. We thought open space as well. >> Pool: Yeah. So being mindful of everybody's time, we could do joint committee meetings -- >> Right. >> Pool: -- For these presentations. Too. So let's -- you can talk with the staff to see what we have on the agenda for the may meeting to try to slide that in, if we need to do that before the June 7 presentation to the entire council. It may be that that's sufficient. >> Sounds great. Yeah, we should have thought to ask for a joint committee. >> Pool: That's okay. That's okay. Thanks. >> Troxclair: Thanks much. >> Hi. >> Good afternoon, chair patrol troxclair, vice chair Houston, and Ms. Pool. I'm buckie lamb with rodeo Austin. I'd like to introduce our president Brian Laney, select members of our board of directors, our committee chair, and our staff that took time out to come hear this presentation. Rodeo Austin is very, very proud to call Austin and Travis county home, and we've been proud to do so for over 75 years now. In fact, as it was stated, it was our organization that actually constructed the Travis county expo center originally, and we've called the expo center home for over 33 years. So we were very proud to partner with the city and with Travis county to jointly fund this study that you were just reported on, and I'd like to say that we're also happy to report to you that rodeo Austin, our organization, that's experienced tremendous growth in recent years, as you've heard. Today, we are one of America's [3:19:20 PM] top ten professional rodeos, and we attracted over 235,000 people to our fairgrounds during the month of March. And as we know, we are quickly outgrowing, as you heard there, the Travis county expo center, and we look forward to working with city and county leaders to find a long-term solution so that we may continue to grow and continue to serve the youth of Texas. As we began reviewing the draft report, and I printed it out and brought it with me, it's about 300 pages long or so, and we were trying to digest their findings. I think they did a tremendous job with the report. We're encouraged by their findings, and we are excited about their recommendations. We believe that hunden strategic partners have demonstrated a strong market demand and a need for a new state of the art arena and multiuse facility. So let me stress, hunden partners is not recommending the construction of a rodeo arena. What they are recommending is a construction of a multiuse facility that could serve a very wide array of clients. Rodeo Austin would be one of many potential users. -- As Austin is one of the largest metropolitan areas in our nation, without a large civic arena, we believe that their findings are very much warranted. There is growing demand for a world class facility to host live music concerts, sporting events, and other entertainment events, and we think hunden partners have done a great job outlining in their report some of these different points, that Austin is losing out on a number of conventions, as you've heard, trade shows, and I can assure you equestrian events from all across the state of Texas. [Buzzer sounding] Many of these events -- I'll [3:21:21 PM] wrap it up pretty quick. Many of these events are ending up in Abilene and Amarillo and Belton and Waco, and the list goes on. Austin deserves a place to hold large entertainment events, and we think this could help definitely make that happen. Imagine what we could do with the right facilities. Walter long park is the largest park in Austin. It holds tremendous potential. Imagine the construction of soccer fields, equestrian trails and more. Imagine parkland developed to help outdoor music festivals and takes tremendous pressure off of downtown. Together, with a public-private partnership, we believe we could spur economic growth, and we believe a new arena and a new multiuse center could spur and help us be a catalyst for positive change in east Austin, which is an area that has definitely been historically underserved. Austin's always been a leader. We pride ourself on being the live music capital of the world, and we believe that hunden partners' findings and recommendations point to the need to build a world class entertainment venue. It's time to spur economic development, and it's time to take action. We hope that you will support hunden strategic partners' recommendations, a bold new vision for the Travis county expo center and Walter long metropolitan park. Thank you for your consideration. >> Troxclair: Thank you, and thank you for all that you do for local youth and the events that you put on for the community. I have been out there several times, and I really enjoy attending the rodeo, and it's quite obvious that the infrastructure is old and insufficient for having the kind of event that y'all put on. And I know that -- I do know that having expanded infrastructure there would certainly not only help to improve the Austin rodeo and [3:23:21 PM] expand it, but also provide other opportunities for other events to be held there. So thank you. Thank you for being here and being a partner with the city on this. >> You bet. We appreciate the full city council support. Thank you. >> Troxclair: We did have one more speaker sign up. David king? I don't see him here. Okay. And I see our convention center staff in the audience. Want to add to anything? No? Okay. Okay. Well, I guess that will conclude our discussions on this item. I appreciate all of you who came to hear our discussion today, and please reach out to our offices individually if there's anything else that you want to add. >> Houston: That's June 7th; right? >> Troxclair: Yeah, sounds like June 7th will be the next time that we discuss this at work session, which is normally at 9:00 A.M. In the morning. So thanks. Okay. We'll move on to item number 5, which is a briefing by the greater Austin restaurant association regarding efforts to support small business -- to support small restaurant businesses. Hello. >> Madam chair, and honorable councilmembers. We do appreciate the opportunity to come before you today and kind of talk about our industry and some of the things that we face in the future. My name is skeeter Miller. I've been president of the greater Austin restaurant association for four years. We've done a lot of work down here at the city, and we feel like we've worked really well with you all to pass some things that were really helpful to not only the city but our industry. I have owned the county line restaurants for 40 years, and we have eight restaurants in two states. We've been around and we've seen the ups and downs of things that have happened in this city and in other cities. I felt like one of the things that could help understand, you know, how our industry works and how, [3:25:24 PM] financially, or business works, was to show you some restaurants by Numbers. This is one of my restaurants in Austin. This is a financial statement. I wanted to go over it with you all. I'm showing you the Numbers that we have to just kind of show you how our industry is affected. As you can see here, our revenues at this restaurant were $257,000. The cost of goods, proteins in our business have gone up substantially. You can see the cost there, $78,000, about 34% food cost, which is extreme in our business. As we move down, you know, the cost of goods sold was 86,000. Our gross profit was 170,000. When you look down at our manager controllables, the labor cost alone is $90,000. Credit card fees, which really bothers me, but I won't go on about that, $6,000 a month to pay credit card fees is astronomical. Public relations, that's advertising, a lot of charitable things that we do in this city go into that category. Utilities, obviously, are high. Total manager controllables are $138,000. Occupancy costs are 37. And I had a negative net cash flow of $5,000 in that month. There's a lot of things that happen each month, you know, that -- buildings get older. There's repairs that are made. But I mean, there's a lot of operators in this city that go through the same things, and so I just -- I felt like this was a good look at a financial statement to see what we -- you know, what we go through. >> Troxclair: Hold on one second. I think there's a question. Councilmember Houston? >> Houston: Mr. Miller, can you explain to me since I'm not in the restaurant business, occupancy and other, the 37,000, what does that cover? >> Okay. I knew you were going to ask that question. That is composed of our rent. Okay? And our property taxes, and permits and licenses. [3:27:28 PM] >> Houston: Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. I wanted to show you a little bit about in our state, it was kind of -- it was quite a bit of work to try to get to the Numbers on what our industry -- you know, what our industry brings in, not only in Texas but also locally, which is what you wanted to hear. In the -- the number of food establishments -- and these Numbers are from 2014, and Texas was 42,000 establishments, restaurant establishments. The sales was 52.4 billion and we employed over 1.2 million employees, which is huge, and those Numbers have gone up substantially since 2014. Dining establishments in the Austin metro area, I just got these Numbers from the Travis county health and human services department, 6,602 restaurants, which is huge. I think it's a great thing. I mean, we have a lot of great restaurants. It's a big reason why people want to come to this city. We have a lot to offer. I wanted to show you employment, the number of people that we employ in this city. As you can see here, these Numbers -- and I've got a graph for you on the next slide, but these Numbers from 2004, we employed 51,000 people in our industry. And by 2014, we have employed 83,000 folks in this city. That's a 64% growth, which is substantial, in providing employment for folks. This is the graph that basically shows -- it shows the same thing. One of the big problems that we have in our industry and I know in other -- other folks' businesses, is just getting employees. It is so hard right now to have employees. We have so many restaurants, and, you know, we -- you know, at my restaurant alone, our average management tenure is 27 [3:29:30 PM] years, and I've heard one manager outside the company, and that was 20 years ago. So we feel like that we treat our employees extremely well, it's just there are not enough employees to go around. And there are -- there are some with this younger generation that -- that they want a trophy if they show up for work, you know. So we really -- we're dealing with that. >> Houston: Mr. Miller? >> Yes. >> Houston: Councilmember pool has a question. >> Pool: I have a question, skeeter. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Pool: That previous slide, the two slides on the jobs, that includes -- that's a net; right? Of comings and goings of restaurants that have opened and closed, so that this shows -- >> Yes. >> Pool: Okay. >> Okay? >> Pool: Because I do see where it did plateau out during the great recession, which -- that's what I was looking for, to see how that affected our city. We still were able to open some new restaurants during an economic -- pretty serious economic down turn. And then it looks like it's really jumped up in the previous slide, where you have -- can you go back one? >> Which -- yes. Please. >> Pool: That one there, coming out of the recession, it has just climbed really steadily. It's amazing. Pretty amazing. >> Oh, it's amazing. In some cases, you know, we're opening five new restaurants a week in this city. >> Pool: And when you talk about small restaurants, do you have a sizing? What is -- what's considered a small restaurant? >> Well, for county lines, we're anywhere from 6 to 8,000 square feet. We just opened a new quick service restaurant over on east 7th street called fly right chicken, that is about 2 -- 2300 square feet. So, you know, a small restaurant, anywhere from 2300 square feet to maybe 6,000 square feet. >> Pool: Is that how the Texas restaurant association also measures them? >> I can only measure by how [3:31:30 PM] it affects me, and I'm not really sure if they have a number but I can check that and get that for you. >> Pool: Okay. So this is your terminology? >> Yes, it is. >> Pool: Okay. >> Now, these Numbers I'm getting are Numbers I pulled not from my terminology -- >> Pool: But we don't know if these are small restaurants or large restaurants or franchises -- >> It's just restaurants in general. >> Pool: Okay. Thanks. >> Houston: I think it would be helpful to know what the definition of a small restaurant is. >> Okay. On that issue, from small, would you want to know the Numbers that they employ, compared to a larger number that they employ? I mean, is it employment, or you just want to know sizing >> Houston: Sizing. When we say a small restaurant, what are we talking about? Are we talking about yours at county line, or are we talking about east side cafe on manor road, or Hoover's on manor road? How do you define small, medium, or large? >> Okay. I will be happy to get those Numbers for you. >> Pool: And further to the point, what's a restaurant? Is a coffee shop a restaurant, for example? >> Okay. All right. I can do that. Okay? >> Pool: Because I think your briefing is to talk to us about support for small restaurant businesses. >> Well, yes, in a way it is for small restaurants. I mean, a lot of these -- in these Numbers are also the trailers that are not brick and mortar, which is an opportunity for them to become brick and mortar. >> Pool: Uh-huh. >> So -- but mine is -- my presentation is geared to not only small restaurants, but large restaurants, because all of these things affect all of us, especially the small restaurateur. >> Pool: Okay. >> Houston: Then one last question, the availability of help, is that because there's no training program specifically as to how to be a wait person, a maitre D', a cook, or is it transportation -- >> Transportation. And I will get to that for [3:33:30 PM] sure. >> Houston: Okay. >> But as far as training goes, I mean, all of our -- all the restaurants in this city, or I can speak for mine and others that I know in the association, they have extensive training programs, and a lot of times they have -- they have areas where, if they're going to an online college or, you know, they -- according to the number of hours that you work, there's a benefit to help you pay for that online college, or there's other ways to benefit that employ, to draw them in and want them to work for you. Flexible hours, that's a really important part to employees. >> Houston: But the transportation seems to be -- >> Transportation is an issue. >> Houston: Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. The next slide, which my controller pulled that up, and I was going to try to show some of the revenues to the city that come from restaurants. This one here is the mixed drink tax. And these Numbers came from the city, the financial report. It shows from the fixed drink tax this year, in 2015, it brought in 10-$3 million, just the mixed drink tax. That's the revenue -- the tax revenue that was brought in. Somehow my slides got messed up here. Anyway, I'll talk to but annual taxable restaurant sales. In 2015, in the Austin metroplex, we brought in 1.9 $1.000000000. The city's annual sales a income was 19 million from that. If you look at the mixed drink tax, 10 million, and 19 million from restaurant sales, that's, I believe, $29 million that came from revenues from restaurants. >> Houston: So -- thank you. So, Mr. Miller, the mixed [3:35:32 PM] drink tax -- are the mixed drinks going up and that's why the tax is so high or -- >> There's just did the. >> Houston: More of it? >> There's just more of it. >> Houston: Okay. And I don't see the -- the other tax that you mentioned, where -- >> The next one was the annual taxable restaurant sales. We pulled these Numbers. We had to kind of back into these Numbers based on what was statewide. We really didn't have any solid Numbers. Restaurants, hotels, bars, kind of blend together, so we were trying to glean out just restaurants to give you a good picture of what the tax revenue was. >> Houston: Okay. Thank you. >> Parking is a challenge. You know, many -- what we see, many patrons will go to restaurants where -- where it's easy for them to park, easy for them to get there, easy for them to park. And what we've found is that it's so different now that people go to your restaurant or go to restaurants in multiple vehicles. They don't just -- you know, four people going to dinner don't come in one car, they're coming in four separate cars. So when you look out at my parking lot at the county line on the lake, I have people tell me all the time, well, you guys are just raking in the dough, you must be really busy. Well I may have a full parking lot but I don't necessarily have a full restaurant. The other thing is, downtown parking is such an issue that the valet parking rates have already gone up substantially, and our association did work with the city on the valet parking rates. They were going to go up originally about 1300%, but we were able to work with the city to stairstep those increases in the valet parking rates so, you know, restaurants could work that into their budget a little easier, which was substantial and very helpful to us. But, unfortunately, you know, when you look at valet parking rates, you go out to lunch, if you're going to pay more to park your car [3:37:35 PM] valet than possibly it costs to eat lunch, are you going to go there to eat? You're not going to go there to eat. On the next slide, public transportation ... Part of the problem is, a lot of public transportation doesn't go out far enough to where our workers are, and then sometimes doesn't it take the workers that can take public transportation far enough to get to our location. So we have a real issue with that. I know I do, personally, with the county lines. I mean, I just -- when we closed kanoly Joe's, personally took employees out to find jobs, and we were able to get most of them employment. I wanted them to come work for me out at the county line, but there was no way for them to get there, which is unfortunate. And parking is expensive. It's very expensive for folks to park, especially -- and I'm gearing that towards our employees. If it's expensive for them to park, you need them to be there, you need them to come to work, well, then the employer bears that expense. And I can give you an example in one of the cities that I'm in, I spend over $1,500 a month to pay for parking for my employees so I can make sure that I can get them to work. Rising property taxes. And I know that you guys hear this, but it's -- the increases in property taxes through increased valuations -- you know, if you own your property, you've got to pay your taxes. If you lease your property, that's always passed down, triple net lease to the tenant. So I wanted to give you an example. This example is of one of my county line restaurants. The appraised 2014 was [3:39:41 PM] 1,494,000. Then there was an increase of $58,000 which was 23%. The taxes went from $35,000 that year to 42,000, which is a $6,900 increase, which was 19%. But I wanted to put that increase into perspective. I need to do 1500 more customers to pay for that, just to pay for that $6,900. And to put that into dollars, I need to do an additional $20,000 in sales to pay for that, which is substantial for us. Really substantial. So I hope that puts that into perspective. $6,900 may or may not, after seeing the money we were talking about earlier, that doesn't seem like a lot, but a lot to an operator, especially a small operator. >> Troxclair: And this is just one year. >> Yes, it is. >> Troxclair: I assume the years before that have seen substantial -- you've seen substantial increases as well. >> Yes. Yes, we have. Permitting and regulation, I know that y'all hear a lot about this, too, but it's -- often the best-intended plans have adverse consequences. To come to this city today and try to open a county line restaurant would be virtually impossible. When we first started, we started with $69,000 in our pocket. And, you know, there were times when we were collecting coke bottles back in the day when you could collect them and get a nickel for them, just to try to make the rent. I know it sounds silly, but it is really true. You know, the review process is extremely lengthy. You've got the health plan review, industrial waste review, you've got code review, building, electrical, plumbing, and we know that the digital plan review is on its way, but at some points, it -- weeks and weeks and weeks that go by, [3:41:41 PM] and months, is for somebody that's just starting out, they have investors, they -- their cash that they have that's laid out to open up can be washed away just because of the length of time that it takes to open up an operation. So I guess what I'm -- what I hope that we can accomplish is, is that, you know, always -- we always want to be at the table, you know. We know that we can't -- we don't want to come in here and always be, we can't do this, we can't do this. The I think, you know, we worked with the city on the single-use bag ban. We worked on the valet parking. We worked on the composting -- recycling compost ordinance. The smoke scrubbers, you guys were definitely there to listen to us for that. So the main thing for us is that we just want to -- we want to be at the table because, you know, our industry is volatile. You never reach a pinnacle in our business to where, oh, this is on the -- this is the fast track; we don't really have to work anymore. It's just never that way. It's always ongoing, and so it's just helpful if we're always at the table. And the last slide, and I always have to do a shameless plug, okay, for the county line and fly right chicken. So did somebody say cocktails and barbecue? I mean -- so had thank you guys very much. If you have any further questions for me, I'm happy to answer them. >> Troxclair: Thank you so much for that overview. How can -- I know that you've kind of laid out the challenges. Are there specific -- yeah, are there specific solutions? I mean, I know -- I know some of them are really difficult. Obviously, the permitting process is something that the city is working on, on addressing, property taxes is something that -- is a specific issue that we [3:43:41 PM] decide every year in the budget, but -- >> Right. >> Troxclair: Are there other smaller -- not smaller, but other pieces that you can say, you know, councilmember, you can really help us by addressing this one Peed -- this one piece of code or this particular item in regards to the city, or is it just -- >> I guess all I'm saying, we're here to help if we can just have the opportunity to sit down with you and discuss it, and let you see our side, and from small business, and there's a couple other restaurateurs here that can speak to it. I don't know that there's a silver bullet here, I just know that I just wanted to show you some of the things that we face in our industry. I just -- so you know, in the 40 years I've done this, I've closed 15 county line restaurants. So -- and it all had to do with economics, financial feasibility, and those aren't places that we want to go. And I just want to make sure that other smaller operators have an opportunity to come in and start their business. At the same time we all want to be at the table and just kind of let you know how it affects our business. >> Troxclair: Well, I hope that you will -- that thank you for the advocacy and bringing these to our attention. I want you to be vocal, especially when we're setting the property tax rates, a lot of times the main focus is on our residential constituents who are, of course, very important, and who are struggling with the cost of living. But sometimes not as much -- not as much consideration is giving -- is given to businesses and the cost that they're going to accrue because of rising property taxes. And I think that when we talk about businesses, some people maybe have, you know, a giant corporation in their mind that they think can always stomach giving more to the government. >> Right. >> Troxclair: But it's really not true when it comes to our local small businesses. [3:45:42 PM] So I think that is an important voice that could be louder during the budget discussions. >> Okay. All right. Well, I will make sure that we are at the table. >> Troxclair: Councilmember Houston? >> Houston: And I just passed by your new restaurant, fly right chicken, just day before yesterday, and I thought, wonder what that is. >> Well, now, you have to stop and eat for me to be able to pay the bills. >> Houston: Well, I didn't have time to stop and eat, but -- >> I know. It's a new -- it's a new chicken concept where it's all clean chicken, antibiotic free, no gmos, it's all chicken breasts. We also have vegetarian spring rolls. We have local products. >> Houston: That's okay. You're making me very hungry. [Laughter] >> Houston: I had soup for lunch, so -- >> Well, stop by and see -- stop by. >> Houston: But the thing is, I think what you're saying is that even though the city is prospering and the economy is good, that you, as a -- representing small businesses, are having some difficulties as well with the cost of living in Austin. >> Yes. >> Houston: And cost of doing business. >> That's true. >> Troxclair: And even though you are a small business, even, as you said, it would be virtually impossible for you to open a county line today, so there are even smaller businesses who are truly just in their infancy, struggling with this is issues and greatly impacted by their ability to get off the ground and be profitable. >> That's - - that's very true. >> Houston: One last thing. One last thing that I would like for you to be a little bit more vocal on is the transit issue. >> Okay. >> Houston: I've been talking about the fact that the buses have routes that don't get people who work up -- they don't get them to that place of work. There are places where people can get jobs but can't ride a bicycle there. They are cars, but the cars [3:47:43 PM] are, you know, old and emit a lot of fumes and causes more congestion. So it's how do we put together a transit system so that somebody who may live in district 1 can get down to where the fly right chicken is without going -- taking an hour to get there. Those are the kinds of things, with transit, that we've got to be a little bit more attentive to, is how do we get people to a hub that gets them to where they need to go, rather than a secure route to get them someplace. So it would be helpful if you have examples of that, next time you come -- >> Okay. Absolutely. >> Houston: -- To be able to talk about transit and how transit could be more effective in getting you the kind of employees you need to work. >> Okay. I'm hoping this is just the first part of us being at the table, to come and bring more information to you as you need it. >> Troxclair: Yes. You're welcome anytime. >> Thank you. >> Troxclair: And all this advocacy of course, is in your spare time, that you have in not running your business. And I'm sure you have a lot of spare time. >> Right. >> Troxclair: So thanks for being involved. We do have a couple other speakers so I'll go ahead and call them up. Darrell whittle? >> This is my first time before the current members of this committee, so I appreciate you giving us a chance to speak. My name is Darrell whittle. I'm past president of the greater Austin restaurant association and a past member of the state board of the Texas restaurant association. I've also been a past advisory board member of the Austin hotel and lodging association. I want to be real clear. When we come here to speak for the restaurant association, we're advocating for everybody. And to be honest with you, most of the restaurants are small restaurants. [3:49:44 PM] Now, I'm the new GM at bob's across the street. I've been on the job two weeks. We've got 11,000- square-foot restaurant. I don't think that's what you're talking about, what you're looking at, but the reality is that the restaurants of that size are pretty limited. When we come here, though, we're speaking for everybody. In the past, I've worked with Fleming steakhouse, Gilligan's, foot hills at the Hyatt regency, Austin opennery house, bagels, and shadows, going all the way back to 1980. 1979, although arguably considered somewhat iconic, six out of eight of those businesses no longer exist. The point is, the restaurant business, for both small and large businesses, is difficult and very risky. I have a degree in economics from UT, and I'm very interested in public policy. I've previously been involved in numerous issues related to our industry before the council. I encourage you to use me and the restaurant association as a resource. When I joined the restaurant association, our relationship with the city was teetherring between acrimony, obstruction, and indifference in both directions. My number one priority was to change that adversarial relationship to one of partnership and collaboration, which I believe we did. My successor, skeeter Miller, has taken that cooperation to a new level, and I sincerely believe that our incoming president, Hoover Alexander, who's sitting out here, will continue in that trajectory. There was a timely article in the statesman on Sunday -- did anybody see this? It's the Austin 360. I read the same paper I take -- I read the paper the same way that I take inventory, front to back, top to bottom, left to right. The article related how Austin of the '70s sets the stage for Austin of the 2010s. [3:51:44 PM] It talked about the growth of the city on a number of levels, including music and night life, restaurants, tourism, and special events. It mentioned gentrification and redevelopment of the cbd, and surrounding areas. It examined evolving public policies regarding diversity and racial integration, gay rights, drugs, and environmentalism. It applauded the entrepreneurial spirit of the small business community. I'm here to remind you that the restaurant industry has been to the forefront of every one -- [buzzer sounding] -- Of every one of these initiatives. Real quickly, if there's one thing that I can suggest before I finish, it's to encourage you to work to improve nighttime bus service for the thousands of people working in restaurants, bars, and hotels in Austin. Not just downtown but all over the city. This includes expanding late night and early morning roots, and decreasing distances between bus stops during that time. If you want to be true to the name of your committee, I cannot think of anything more critical regarding our ask industry than late night bus service as it relates to traffic and parking, and ultimately economic opportunity. Questions? >> Troxclair: Thanks so much. Members, any questions? >> Okay. >> Troxclair: Appreciate it. And I think that you're right, that late night bus service is a really important part of mobility and keeping Austin safe -- Austin safe and making sure that people can get home from their work. >> What I'm seeing is that there's a growing trend, more and more people -- it's particularly young people, it seems to be, don't have cars. And I think there's a number of reasons. I think if they're in school, probably the increasing cost of tuition, reluctance to take on debt, and I think it's just a lifestyle thing probably related to be Uber and Lyft. [3:53:45 PM] These people have trouble getting to work and in some cases it's impossible getting home from work. And I think that's some things you could address. >> Troxclair: Thanks. Our next speaker is Hoover Alexander. >> Thank y'all for the opportunity to speak to you councilmembers. As you just heard Darrell say, I'm going to be standing on two large shoulders of skeeter and Darrell behind me. I want to be the face, to represent the face of a whole lot of small business folk that are busy trying to stay in business, they don't have the opportunity to come down here, so that's why I'm ultimately grateful to try to represent them. The majority of them, by way, do not belong to our greater Austin restaurant association. I'm grateful, also, to tell you that I'll be in business on manor road 18 years this October. I do not exaggerate when I tell you that year 19 is not guaranteed. Skeeter has -- has spoken in detail. A lot of the battles and reasons and misconceptions why people think full parking lot means, oh, he's banking it. Not true. The biggest take-away I'd like for you guys to hear, skeeter already mentioned, you know, I'm not -- I try to be one of the good guy, and I'm an imperfect one and not putting myself out as an example, but more, the sooner we can be part of conversations that affect our community, our industry, but our community at large, the better. And that really is my request to you folk. I really -- y'all have heard me say before, you know, if we have opportunities to help early on in discussions [3:55:47 PM] to create carrots, fences at the top of the hill, versus reactionary, sometimes gnasring of the teeth, if we can participate, we really do want to invest as representatives of the community and small business folk. Small restaurants mean a lot of things. For me it's not just square feet. It's also those that have few employees and are making -- are just doing few gross sales. Very, very difficult, and more so every, every, every day. So often we become, as a community, you know, victims of small cuts and we plead to death. Every decision you make as a city council affects me, my business, and I'm a resident. I'm a lifelong resident of Austin. We should always keep in mind the little things we want to do, ultimately have a cumulative affect that impacts the viability of small industries like mine. Everything from transportation to rising costs of our -- of -- the tax decisions we make. I, too, had a pass-through increase of, you know, a property tax that I had to adjust my triple net January, and will continue to. We do have an issue of great crisis one for me -- [buzzer sounding] -- Would y'all bear with me a little bit longer in that. I appreciate it. To find and retain employees for a whole lot of reasons. And it really is critical math for me. I do want to try to be an example and encouragement to other folk and let them know, once a dishwasher and restaurant owner, and goals keep getting larger, higher, greater, for us to be viable. Keep in mind decisions you make, all the little things that do add up to, like, my goodness, my employees can't get to work, as we've talked [3:57:47 PM] about, and ironically, of course, they can't afford to live in Austin now. They have to live outside of Austin. That adds to the traffic congestion that, you know -- so we get into this vicious cycle. One of many examples. One other thing and I'll leave you with this is to tell you while I'm in a mode of survival, and to look for the future, because I hope to be in this community for a long -- longer time, the issue of employees. And I know this conversations we've had in our city about liveable wage. That's a perfect example to talk about making sure that we understand, again, carrots versus sticks, that all costs are passed through. And so I look at that, because my roots -- my restaurant that you guys may be familiar with, all the barriers and legacy of how they integrated and pushed from racial desegregation, et cetera, I've always been bugged by coming from the back of the house, the disparate between front and back of the house wages, and front of the house. You guys are probably familiar with some of the conversations recently about no-tip models, and one example are my good friends at hoovers that own Thai fresh and have gone to that. I'm doing more tomorrow, by the way, to talk to the staff about what something like that may mean, as well as to consumers, and are we going to have a blow-back. And I'm not a black and white thinker, but if we do something as simply as embed, say, half of the costs of fair wages for front and back, by menu prices, will that be a blow-back and healthier consumers? I want to be, for example, that carrot to show and demonstrate the theories of fairness of fair wages. But what that looks like in [3:59:48 PM] the real world, from theory. And we'll see how that ends up if, say, I embed half of that in increased menu prices, that will, in turn, allow me to bridge that gap. It's always bugged me, what cooks and those guys that you rarely see -- there's this inequity between the front and back of the house, came to flattening what servers and other folk make, and get them to achieve a little more pride, a little more professionalism, to look at how that may, in fact, help, you know, the issues you've heard skeeter and Darrell talk about as far as employment issues. Just one example. But I think that can speak to a whole lot of things," carrot versus stick, including the true real-world look of what decisions, you know, look like from a business, a man's point of view. We want to do the right things, want to be the good guys. Thank you, and I'll take questions. >> Troxclair: You are such a valuable member of our community. I thank you for leading by example and trying to incorporate things in your business, as well as always being an advocate for the individual business owner to have control over making those decisions instead of being forced to respond to a government mandate that may or may not work in their particular situation. So thank you for your advocacy on that. And I hope that -- I hope that you'll >> We hope so. Again, the take-away because skeeter is right, we want to be part of the solution, as much as the opportunity y'all will give us and as early as potential, we do want to be those great examples and really be a partner in finding solutions with our -- with our city government, so I thank you for the opportunity to speak to that and looking forward to being able to engage with everyone more along all the multiple things, you know, but I don't want to be one of the hollers and yellers and those that respond [4:01:51 PM] reactive and Nash their teeth when thins occur. That's not product, uh. I really want to be on the fence side versus at the bottom of the little and I'm grateful for the opportunity to continue to do that with you, councilmembers. >> Troxclair: Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thanks. >> Troxclair: Our last speaker is Gerald stone. >> Hi, good afternoon. I'm Gerald stone. I'm a partner in the elmer cado tex met restaurants here and I have been a partner with the night hawk restaurants that were in Austin for a long, long time. I appreciate everybody's -- in regard to the restaurant association, I'm a part of that. On the state restaurant association, as well as some of my colleagues back here. And we always get -- our state association meets twice a year. And we always get questions from Houston or Abilene or other cities, other chapters, what's Austin doing about this and that. They're always -- seems to be questions about what is going on in Austin because we seem to be in the forefront of a lot of things. I appreciate everybody's time and everybody's acceptability here at the council. I know it's a learning curve for all of you, and it's been a good experience for us. We appreciate that. The main thing I'll participate in is, from a state point of view, we get a lot of people that ask about why is this so hard in Austin to start? It seems to be arduous and it's permitting and it's -- skeeter went through the plumbing and electrical and the signage. That's if we're looking for an economic situation, that's one thing that could be addressed, and I don't know if I can help very much in that. [4:03:51 PM] I don't want to open another restaurant. I might want to buy one but I don't want to open another one, and we're all in the same boat. We all work hard, and we pay our taxes and we hire locally and buy locally a lot of us. We appreciate what you can do, and we appreciate the acceptability that y'all have given us, and we hope that continues. Any questions? Thanks very much. >> Troxclair: Councilmembers? Thank you so much. Okay. Well, that's our last speaker on that item. Councilmember Casar. >> Casar: Thank you all for coming down. I had some previous commitments in my office but I had Mr. Miller's presentation running on the big screen there in my office and I appreciate you laying out those Numbers for us because it is really helpful to have you as a resource and transparently understand how all the factors that we have some control over on the council could affect you, and I think that this committee has a whole at least knowing y'all that the late-night transportation options and permitting streamlining and reform are things that I think you'll find a lot of agreement with on this dais. And, Mr. Alexander, I appreciate you taking up the leadership man tell. We look forward to working with you. >> Troxclair: Thanks. We'll continue -- please continue to keep us posted as y'all have issues arise, and we'll keep an open line of communication. Okay. I think that leaves us with our last item. Item number 6, which is briefing and update by the Austin technology council regarding the future needs of the technology industry in the city. Thank you for being patient and for waiting through the rest of the presentation glasses I'll tell you it's been fascinating because I'm new to the role, very new to the role, and very -- relatively now Austin so I've been madly in love with Austin for 20 years. When I lived in Seattle this [4:05:52 PM] was the place I'd come several times a year to escape the dreary weather there and I have long wanted to be here but it wasn't until last June when I fell in love with an austinite and moved here. >> Troxclair: Welcome. >> If you would ask me what my perfect job was, my perfect job would look like the opportunity to, in a civic capacity, address the needs of technology companies and the community as it relates to technology companies and talk about tech companies and tech businesses and tech platforms all day long so this is great. So I thank you, chair troxclair and councilmembers, for listening to me and allowing me to introduce myself and give a little bit of an update. I'm going to talk about sort of what's new and in what's new there's a little bit of a scope of work there I think you haven't seen before. What's the same? Kind of a quick history and background which is probably a review for everybody but me, and then we'll talk about sort of the current status and next steps. So what's new? First of all, I am. I joined the organization as their CEO as of March 16. So I'm less than a month into the job. I have an industry background. I spent more than 20 years in technology with senior executive roles at companies Liberia and experian, Microsoft. My background is half product development and half business development strategy and planning and marketing. I've also worked over the last few years with small and early stage businesses, helping them figure out how to overcome growth hurdles. I'm a start-up advisor, board member, investor as well. We have also added an exceptional executive director for the foundation in Molly young, who when you look at her background, we could not have found a better person for the foundation which focuses on stem education and a partnership with aid and another stem providers. You know, she has a great background in educational, economic development, [4:07:53 PM] advising, plus she's also been a middle school teacher so she really covers soup to nuts in terms of that and fills critical knolls our skillsest on the council. So here is the existing Austin technology council team. Myself and Molly. We have a director of operations named quincy cooper, grover biman, is our senior policy advisor. We do have an open sales and marketing position, director level, mostly business development role. Three interns and currently our interns come from UT St. Edwards and university of college of Dublin, which is interesting that, you know -- kind of representative of the fact that Austin's technology community has a global presence. And then we have in our boards and our advisory councils 26 scuffs on the board side and 27 members on our advisory council. You can see the breakdown of women and minority population on our board and advisory councils. We are significantly higher from a women and minority percentage on the board than the technology industry is itself, which is something we're proud of and I think we can do a better job. So here's kind of what we do, and all of you are probably familiar with this and some of this in terms of my vision and strategy for the council moving forward is something that I'm looking forward to spending some one on one time with all of the councilmembers and sort of covering off on that and hearing sort of what your issues and your concerns are. But we -- right now we support Austin's tech and life sciences ecosystem. We try very hard to align what we're doing with community priorities. One of my personal areas of passion is how tech can impact in a positive way the non-tech constituencies in a community and the overall equal of the community itself, having lived in Seattle for many, many [4:09:54 PM] years and seeing how tech positively impacted that city. I think that we can do a much better job of bringing tech to the table collectively, to really impact the city in a very positive sort of way. The foundation -- the atc foundation is certainly one of the ways that you'll see us working in that capacity. You know, another -- you know, another thing that we do that's very important is working with the city to strengthen the market via this Austin technology backup that you're awl familiar with and that includes data collection, market development, stem education, which I mentioned, talent pipeline and really a belief there's an inclusive place for all austinites here. You can see the statistics, we support 280 companies with more than 216 executives and 260 employees, about 15th of the local economy and 25% of all jobs. So here's a little bit of background on the Austin technology partnership and what we're currently in the process of doing. This was established by the previous city council in 2014 as an ongoing research and education initiative. We did bottom line work in the previous fiscal year on market potential and established the direction and execution for moving forward. The work that we're doing in the 2015-2006 cycle leverages the beelines established lats year and stem education is a very important component of each category of work that we're doing about so we've -- we have presented already one fairly significant study on the capital landscape. There will be more studies done and more data collection done on a variety of different areas, and then we will -- you know, then the plan is to report the city to the findings is it stakeholders in a variety of forms. Events will happen around that and we'll do continuing [4:11:54 PM] outreach to our existing regional and national partners to strengthen our position. In doing so, we hope to continue collaborating, as we've done, with other members of the tech ecosystem does do a much better job of collaborating than we perhaps have done in the past in bringing additional partners to the table. So here's sort of the background of funding. As you all know there was a 29 few thousand dollars annual commitment established by council during that 2014 budget cycle, represents 32% of the costs. The remaining 68% of the costs is funded in industry by our member partners and by our sponsors. 295 of that was invested in bottom line research and teapots in 2014-15. 70,000 per year was been approved by council through each year throughout 2018. Edd, economic development department, has identified 225,000 as an unmet need -- annual need for next year's budget, and we do have a funding gap of 225,000 for this budget year. And we've been working to continue regardless of the lack of a signed contract and lack of a funding gap. We are making great progress, I think, on that just in the last two or three weeks. So you've seen much of this before, I think. This is a scope of work. You'll see three slides here. We've got activities in green and activities in blue. The activities in green are either in process or have been completed. The activities in blue are on hold until we find the $225,000 for the remainder of this year. So we -- you know, one of our activities around stem is updating the landscape and engaging, doing data gather and some alignment. Coordinating philanthropic activity in the stem ecosystem and connecting industry and [4:13:54 PM] stem education and aligning human capital skills. A lot of that is basically take our industry executives and teaching them in alignment with other key partners in the stem space in middle schools and aid to be great mentors in particularly communities in poverty, where children may not have an opportunity to have either parents who are neighbors in the community or available to them who are in stem fields. So that's a lot of the work there that we're doing currently. So we are also working on sort of capital product planning and capital study. We did a capital landscape assessment. There's more work to do there so what we need to do is complete this regional investor inventory, looking at the capital growth available to central Texas technology companies. We have a lot of early stage angel funders. We do not have a lot of mid to late-stage funders so part of this is going to fuel work that our capital advisory committee is going to be doing around how to attract more dollars into Austin and develop more mid to late stage dollars to Austin. This is a long-term project because it doesn't happen overnight and we should involve and have spoken with partners like the chamber around doing this study collectively and doing this work collectively because it's not just the atc, it's folks like capital factory and the early stage incubators and folks like the chamber because it's a bigger community effort. And then in life sciences technology, and I say specifically life sciences technology because there are a number of players in this space, but specifically what the Austin technology council should be supporting and looking at is the tech that is applicable to life sciences as opposed to bioscience itself, so completing an early ecosystem support assessment of what the needs are there in [4:15:56 PM] order to build out as robust a life sciences community as we have technology community. And then in terms of market development, you know, as -- we are making, you know, significant progress on connecting the high-tech industry. To the city of Austin through the economic development department and its partners. We are still on hold with a tech economic impact study and, I think, one of the most interesting things to me is this final piece of work for this budget cycle that is currently on hold, which is district mapping. And that district mapping as it applies to the technology industry, and it's how does tech look in each district? What is the access to stem education in each district? What is the economic activity around tech? You know, who is spending, where are they going, what are they spending on, what the travel data and traffic data looks like for tech workers in that particular district, and what is the tech entrepreneurial activity look like in that particular district? Because, I think, we have -- we have incubators, accelerates, small clutters of tech in every district we just generally focus on sort of what's happening in silicon hills or what's happening, you know, out sort of -- you know, northwest hills or what's happening downtown or close in east Austin. There's a lot more going on, and you don't always hear about it. So I think that's something that's of particular interest because it's about sort of recognizing the ecosystem and helping the ecosystem that is local by district than input into sort of community development. So where do we go from here? As you know we've been -- I've been we've been stymied in moving forward in large part because there was changeover about my predecessor announced her departure at the end of [4:17:57 PM] fall last year and we proceeded to execute a search for the new CEO and they found me and recently brought me on board and I think collaborative work with the city sort of took a side seat to the atc executing, you know, finding its next leader and it feels to me, especially with Molly on board, that we've had some very product, uh, meetings with the economic development department and that we're moving forward. We have finalized effectively a scope for a $70,000 portion of the work and we are sort of in draft consideration of the scope of work that would be necessary for the remaining 225,000. So as we do that, I will with rover and with Molly be reaching out and contacting all of the various councilmember offices so we have an opportunity to make sure that what we're doing is reflective of the priorities and to make sure that we provide for you whatever information you need to be, you know, sort of effective representatives of this particular conversation. We will also be engaging in sort of a partner ecosystem plan, deepening our relationship with various partners, the chamber, capital factory, tech stars, galvanized, a training and development facility for data science and some other sort of high- level tech industry skills. And I think what we need from you is sort of direction on overcoming the existing gap in execution and funding. And there we go. >> Troxclair: Councilmember pool? >> Pool: I'd be interested after you have your conversations with staff, if you could go back to the next to the last slide -- [4:20:02 PM] >> Sure. >> Pool: The continuing and N deepening the collaboration with partners, including chamber around atp success and then the direction that you may need in overcoming the existing gap in execution and funding. And then it may be that from those conversations then there will be some direction that we can provide in this committee or from the council as a whole. >> Thank you. That would be great. >> Pool: To help with the funding and execution gaps, whenever they may exist. It would be good to know where they might be under the new leadership and the new energy that you have for atc. >> Yes about, you know, I think to respond to that, it's been very apparent to me in the almost one month I've been on board that each of these representative partners in the ecosystem have their own swim lane or their own vertical that they're in, and it's very important for us to work collectively together to create an overall vision for Austin technology, both inward facing, as we think about what does tech mean in the community, how does tech aid economic growth and development, solve in a public-private partnership some of the problems we experience as a civic body here in Austin and the outward facing vision, so what does Austin technology mean and represent for the outside world. And so I think that there are a number of partners, the city being one of them, that did work together collaboratively to establish that vision and then each go out and execute in our particular area of expertise. And there's certainly overlap in where there's overlap we work together as a partnership, but we each have responsibilities for making Austin tech great and making Austin tech great for Austin. >> Troxclair: Councilmember Houston. >> Houston: Thank you so much for that information. I do have a question for staff, though. >> Would you like me to move over or step back? >> Good afternoon. Is this mic on? [4:22:03 PM] Hi, David colagan, economic development. How are you. >> Houston: Thank you. Thank you for being here. I wasn't here during the 2014 budget cycle. Was the prior council's commitment to $295,000 a year for how many years? Through 2018? >> It was for a one-year agreement. The economic development department had $50,000 set aside for Austin technology council on an annual basis so there was a gap of about 200 plus thousand dollars we were able to come up with some additional funds. I think it was around $15,000. And then council provided the rest. So that we could reach that $295,000 level for one year. >> Houston: So where did the $295,000 level come from? >> That came to atc through the budgeting process. >> Houston: Okay. So that was a one-year commitment, not an ongoing commitment? >> Correct. >> Houston: And then in 2015 cycle we approved $70,000? >> Yes. Well, this was the $50,000 that we had remaining in our budget for atc. That was a constant or ongoing amount. We then had the additional 15,000 or so we were able to find for atc and then we, as a department, put in a few extra thousand dollars because we were requesting a data product that we knew would cost more from atc and that was what we had available for being able to come up with a contract for them. >> Houston: So what was -- what was the -- what was their budget for last year? Did they get the $295,000 or was it the 70? >> They did not receive -- well, last year was the $295,000 that they received in the previous budget cycle. >> Houston: And this year? [4:24:04 PM] >> This year we're currently working with the $70,000 amount. >> Houston: So do they understand that the 295 was not an ongoing guaranteed amount? >> Yes, they do. It was spoken on the dais whenever we were going through the budgeting process this would be a one-year amount or one-year contract. >> Houston: Because it looks like they have -- they're talking about their funding gap so it appears as though -- >> And I believe that is because they're asking for the remaining portion to add to the $70,000 to have a sponsorship from the city or to have enrollment from the city in their partnership. >> Correct. >> However, economic development does not have that money available in our budget this year. So we have employed for next year, as part of the unmet need process, if this is of interest to you all, we would need to find those dollars in the budget for economic development. >> Houston: Okay. Thank you. >> Yes. >> And if I may add something to that? I think it was our understanding -- and I wasn't here so you're going to get sort of my, you know, listening to the past CEO and to the board. I think it was anticipated and expected that there would be a full $295,000 funded. In the current budget cycle, as it was proposed in a full work stream back in 2014. So what we're look for is we're look for council to find somewhere in the budget an additional $225,000 for the remainder of this year so that we can continue with the work, acknowledging fully that the economic development department does not currently have that money in their budget, but hoping that there's available funds somewhere else in some other budget. [4:26:04 PM] >> Troxclair: Okay. Well, welcome to Austin. >> Thank you. >> Troxclair: Thank you for being here today. And for the presentation. And any other questions? All right. >> All right. >> Troxclair: Appreciate it. >> Thank you so much. >> Troxclair: I think that wraps up our economic opportunity committee meeting. Does anybody have anything that they want to put on the future agenda? I think we have, like, I said I'm hoping to do more of a deep dive to borrow the mayor's term into the hotel occupancy taxes so we can get a better understanding of the limitations and the options with those going forward. So please let me know if you have any state tax law experts or anybody -- we'll have city staff here of course for them to give us their interpretation and their advice, but I'm also interested in hearing from other experts in the community on that issue. So please let me know if you have anybody that would meet that criteria and otherwise I think that we're also do for a member/webb update so we'll reach out to them and make sure they're on our agenda and just let me know if you have anything else. Thanks. We are adjourned at 4:27 p.m.