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02-07-2019 MinutesNortheast Partnership for Economic Development Olympia Hills Golf and Conference Center 12900 Mount Olympus, Universal City, TX 78148 MINUTES OF MEETING Thursday, February 7, 2019 —11:30 a.m. 1. Call to Order and Establish a Quorum —A quorum was present. Mayor Carpenter called the meeting to order at 12:00 p.m. as a quorum was present. 2. Welcome and Introductions Mayor Carpenter welcomed everyone in attendance and those present stood and introduced themselves. 3. Approval of the minutes of the workshop of January 3, 2019 and approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of January 10, 2019 Mayor Carpenter moved from the Chair seconded by Mayor Thompson to approve the minutes of the workshop of January 3, 2019 and approval of the minutes of the regular meeting of January 10, 2019. The vote was unanimous. Motion Passed. 4. Approval of the Current Treasurer's Reports for NEP. Mayor Carpenter moved from the Chair seconded by Mayor Daly to accept the current treasurers report. The vote was unanimous. Motion Passed. 5. Discussion and action regarding election Officers for the Northeast Partnership for Economic Development calendar year 2019 -2020. Mayor Carpenter stated that Mayor Seiler will not be running for Mayor in May and will be stepping down as Treasurer, Mayor Hunt agreed to accept the position of Treasurer. Mayor Seiler thanked everyone for the opportunity of serving as the NEP Treasurer. Mayor Carpenter recognized Mayor Dennis who moved to appoint Mayor Hunt as Treasurer, seconded by Mayor Seiler. The vote was unanimous. Motion Passed. 6. Consideration and /or action approving an agreement with Cartwheel Communications, LLC to update the NEP website design, maintain and host the website for two (2) years. Mayor Carpenter stated that Mayor Carpenter moved from the Chair to approve an agreement with Cartwheel Communications, LLC, seconded by Mayor Seiler. The vote was unanimous. Motion Passed. 7. Presentation regarding QuikTrip New Market Expansion. (JD Dudley and Mike Wooten). J. D. Dudley and Mike Wooton with the QuikTrip organization provided a PowerPoint presentation regarding their new market expansion program answering questions. S. Information Items. A. Report from Tri County Chamber of Commerce. B. Report from The Chamber. C. Report from Randolph Air Power Community Council (RAPCO). D. Report on Bicycle Mobility Advisory Committee. E. Report from Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO). Item A: Mindy from the Tri County Chamber stated on the Chamber next meetings are: • February 12 Monthly lunchen at 11:30 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Live Oak. • February 28ffi Mixer at Orange Theory Fitness, Cibolo 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. • March 5"' Mardi Gras 2019, Bluebonnet Palace 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Item B: Maggie Titterington from The Chamber stated: • The Health & Wholeness Fair held on January 26th was a great success. Over 600 attendees. • February 19, 2019 Monthly Chamber luncheon, Schertz Civic Center 11:30 am., State of the Cities" addresses and hear from the City Managers of Schertz, Cibolo and Selma where they will discuss the past year and upcoming projects within the community. • March 21St Taste of the Town at Retama Park — 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. 45 providers from the area participating. Item C: No representative was present. Item D: Scott Wayman stated: • No meeting this month, but there is a walk & roll event scheduled in San Antonio on the westside. If you are interested in the event give him an email and he will get the information to you. Item E: Kevin Hadas stated it has been a busy month, Scott Wayman and Councilmember Hicks attended for NEP the TxDOT Vision 2035 long range planning. Mr. Hadas stated that it is important that we are showing up and advocating for our cities. It's important because all these groups send people /lobbyists to advocate. There were 10 people there for roads and several for historical that they want more funding for. Nothing major coming up this spring for roads this time but need to start strategizing with the Mayors for next year on what projects you want him to advocate for. Mr. Hadas thanked Dr. Gibson and to Judson into looking into potential funding for busses. 9. Establish a Date and Time of the next NEP Mayor's Workshop — City of Schertz to host. (March 7, 2019) Mayor Carpenter stated the next Mayor's meeting will be on March 7, 2019 hosted by the City of Schertz. 10. Establish a Date and Time of Next Northeast Partnership for Economic Development Meeting — March 14, 2019. Mayor Carpenter stated the next regular meeting will be here at the Olympia Conference Center on March 14, 2019. February Door Prizes — City of Santa Clara March Door Prizes — City of Schertz Door prizes were provided today by City of Santa Clara, door prizes for March will be provided by the City of Schertz. 11. Items of Interest by Members. Mayor Carpenter updated the members regarding our upcoming Legislative Day at the Capital for Thursday February 21St. Meet at 6:00 a.m. Livingway Church, 13285 11135 North, Live Oak park at the north parking lot, bus leaves as 6:30 a.m. All elected officials from the various member cities as well as elected officials from TML region 7 are invited to attend. We have meetings set up with at least three delegates from the area. A representative from the City of Converse announced their March 16, 2019 Green Day event held parking lot at Judson High School. 10:00 a.m.to 2:00 p.m. The Marion Education Foundation will be hosting their annual tamale supper of February 28th. At 5:00 p.m. Mayor John Williams City of Universal City announced their upcoming Snowfest & Carnival, Saturday February 16, 2019 from 3 to 9 p.m. Universal City Park, 305 North Blvd. City Manager Scott Wayman, City of Live Oak announced their upcoming Ikea soft opening, but their Grand Opening event is scheduled for Wednesday, February 13, 2019. Mayor Dennis City of Live Oak reminded everyone to please sign up for the bus trip to Austin. Mayor Daly City of Selma stated that March is the City of Selma to host events: March 5, 2019 Marti Gras with the Tri County Chamber, Bluebonnet Palace. March 21, 2019 The Taste event Retama park, March 215` Grand Opening with Audi, March 25`h Grand Opening with Ben E Keith. Mayor Seiler City of Marion stated that six or seven years ago there was a vision set to put street lights along 78 in Marion, he stated that this has become a reality with the grant they received from GVEC, they will officially turn them on the 25' February. Mayor Carpenter stated that most of the members were able to see, but if they didn't get to see the actual video, the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the new Speaker of the House and Senator Bettencourt all got together and brought their plan for tax caps for the entire state. That's inclusive with School Districts, basically every single political subdivision of the state having a 2 '/z % tax cap. If you hit that then you have an election — mandatory election regardless how much money that will cost. Understanding that they have a united front on HB 2 and SB 2 are identical. He has never seen this before, it's a first, and while we might have thought that was simply a first pass in the version art of the deal — they have come out unified - it's going to be a difficult fight. A couple of things as we go to Austin or if you talk to any of our local delegates to the state legislature we want to make clear a few things: (1) Do not use the phrase "Local Control ", because we have hammered this in the last session, they now hear that and as a large part as "your one of them ", move away from local control and talk about local management, local choice, local decisions etc. (2) we will have to move a little away from some of our earlier commentary and provide some new objections. One of those, a 2 `/z % tax cap has the potential for having Standard and Poor's and Moody to take another look at our bond rating. It could affect our ability to repay our I& S. Since I &S and M &O and sales tax are all rolled into the calculation of the 2 '' /z% it likely does affect our ability to repay any debt we issue. It could be the case and a fair argument to make to the legislature that if in fact we have 2 '' /z% cap and we must have an election — that our bond ratings could be reduced. If our bond ratings are reduced and we are forced to rely more on borrowing I &S, and it costs more to borrow money because of the reduction bond rating reduction. They are basically implementing a tax, an economic tax that we must pay to borrow money in the future because of an artificial cap that has been placed by the state legislature. That can be handicapping for all of us. He understands the idea that we want to get property taxes under control in the State of Texas. Do doubt he is not thrilled when he opens his tax bill and have to pay. What the Legislature has acknowledged finally, this is the part that is positive, it is their creation. They created the property tax problem by reducing the funding they have provided to our school districts throughout the State and shifting that burden, "funding" to the local taxing authorities. We pay more and more in property taxes which offsets the contribution the state has to make. Looking to go the other direction, hope they will make and do so. What they are saying now is what we also have to include the counties, the cities, the utility districts etc., because it's their belief that any relief that comes from lowering the rates from the school districts, by contributions from the State will be immediately filled by all the greedy local politicians raising their tax rates and eating up all the relief and the individual tax payer will not see relief. This is crazy because they did this back in 2005/2006 timeframe, and we didn't do that. It was in fact the State through their policies caused a shift back to the local tax paying authorities. If they do things that (A) cost us money for no good reason — forcing us to have an election when in fact as a community; we may have already decided this is what we wanted to do — that's an unfunded mandate. If they do put a tax cap on us that the bond rating companies say it's a disadvantage and lowers our bond rating — we have to pay more to borrow money, we can do less than what we would have be able to do before. We need to make these cases to all our Senators Representatives in the House and Legislators to make sure they understand our objection is not just simply a philosophical one but rather a practical one. Dr. Greg Gibson with the SCUCISD agreed with the above. Last session we were not coupled with this but now we are. He stated that just on' e M &O side, right now they do _, commented [sDi]: ------------------ not understand what they got a hold of with the I &S side of the School Districts. There is no way they can afford the debt that this bill will would take on if they say they are going to make us hold. The school district has 30 years of debt calculated at 7% growth and 5% because that is the projection of economic development, so if you do the quick math, they are going to own 75% of our I &S debt, if they are going to make us hold, they haven't thought about that. They can't afford that. Only on the M &O side, forget I &S side of the school, if this bill had been in place ten years ago — between then and now it would have cost the state 40 billion if they kept school districts_ hold. No one is using that big billion number. Mayor Carpenter stated that it is imminently more complicated than the commentary from the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the new Speaker and Senator Bettencourt simply saying we are going to provide property tax relief. They are not thinking in a logical physical manner. We ae going to fight this. Mayor Dennis stated that yesterday there were hearings and local officials were demonized. They said that they don't want to give our residents property tax relief and why were we so against this plan. Its important that we get out and tell our stories that we do what we are elected to do and that's what we want to do, and we should not be told by Austin that we can not build a park because we can't afford it. They don't give us the opportunity — if the residents are telling us that is what they want that's what we were elected to do. It was a horrible day yesterday and a lot of downgrading of local officials. We need to make sure we are participating. Last point, we talk about local decision making, the folks in the state legislature are out there in Austin they cluster together there, we locally go to HEB and run into our residents and are confronted about what we do, frankly if all of us come together and decide we want to do something then by all means we should e about to do this without interference from Austin. We should be able to run our own affairs. Scott Wayman stated that he has created a White Paper that they will be taking to Austin and if those wish to see he can send out. 12. Adjournment. As there was no further business, Mayor Carpenter adjourned theeting at 1:02 p.m. PASSED AND APPROVED on March 14, 2019 Carpenter, NEP -Chair