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1996-01-31 PEARLAND ECONCOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION BOARD PUBLIC HEARING MEETING MINUTESMINUTES OF A PUBLIC HEARING OF THE PEARLAND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION BOARD, OF THE CITY OF PEARLAND, TEXAS, HELD WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1996 AT 6:00 P.M., IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL, 3519 LIBERTY DRIVE, PEARLAND, TEXAS. The hearing was called to order at 6:04 p.m. with the following present: BOARD MEMBERS Chairman Dennis Frauenberger Board Member Stella Roberts Board Member Bob Lewis Board Member Connie Beaumont EX -OFFICIO BOARD MEMBERS Mayor Tom Reid Chamber of Commerce Billye Everett STAFF MEMBERS Executive Director Jim Berry Marketing & Events Coordinator Terrie Morgan Administrative Asst. Perla N. Lehman Others in attendance: Assistant City Manager Richard Burdine, City Attorney Amy Motes McCullough. Absent from Hearing: Board member Bill Berger and Vice President Tricia Holland had prior engagements and secretary Susan Lenamon is ill. NUMBER SIGNING ATTENDANCE ROSTER: 3 PtJRPOSE OF HEARING: To consider a project of providing incentives to businesses for relocation or expansion including grants, loans, infrastructure improvements, rebates of permit fees, assessments and taxes, as deemed appropriate by the PEDC Board of Directors to create and retain jobs in the City of Pearland. At this point and time, Chairman Dennis Frauenberger opened the floor to Executive Director Jim Berry for a presentation on the proposed project. PRESENTATION OF THE PROPOSED PROJECT - Executive Director Jim Berry stated that the Economic Development Corporation's main reason for formation was to stimulate, as the PEDC'S title states, economic development within the community. Mr. Berry went on to explain that in order to do this, PEDC would have to be competitive with others in the same business. Competitive tools would include owning and developing sites and incentives geared to the company's individual needs. Mr. Berry informed the people of an application form recently developed by the PEDC that requests information geared to find companies with the most possible economic impact for the city. PERSONS WISHING TOO SPEAK ON BEHALF OF THE PROPOSED PROJECT 1. Mayor Tom Reid - 2716 Stratford St., stated the PEDC should use all appropriate methods necessary to bring in industry and that the PEDC's vision should be supported by all. He also suggested a menu of all appropriate types of incentives and tools that would help bring appropriate industry to Pearland, be created by PEDC and be presented to the board. He also stated he wholeheartedly supported this project. 2. David Miller - 2706 Shady Creek, stated he agreed with everything Executive Director Jim Berry and Mayor Tom Reid had said and assured the citizens that the reason this project was being done was for the betterment of our community. Mr. Miller said that he has been working on getting tax incentives and industry development in a meaningful more organized manner since 1985. He informed the citizens that this is a zoned city meaning there are areas in this town where certain businesses can go and others cannot. He said if the PEDC is given a set of guidelines of rules and regulations of what can and can't be done, what can be offered in the way of incentives, etc., it will make everyone's job a lot easier to determine the type of business or industry that we want and don't want. He informed the citizens that one job creates approximately seven, meaningful, manufacturing type jobs. Those jobs translate into buying power, buying power translates into sales tax, which again feeds our community. Also, those people that move in here and buy property as residential or business, adds to our tax base. Mr. Miller said that this project would result on us getting a handle on good quality structured growth. 3. Richard Burdine - 5006 Colmsneil, stated he had just paid his tax bill and would like some help and the only way he will get this help is if industry is brought into Pearland. He added he is willing to spend money on a little extra sales tax to help fund this effort 2 because it's a good investment and hopefully it will make money in the future in terms of a tax base resulting in the reduction of the tax burden currently on homeowners. 4. Billye Everett - President of Pearland/Hobby Chamber of Commerce informed the citizens that Pearland's is only 1% industrialized, therefore the tax base is supported mostly by rooftops. She said that in spite of all the Chamber's efforts over the years, there was only good quality of life and land to offer these businesses, so, most of the businesses the chamber met with went to Fort Bend County because they had an Economic Development with incentives. She urged everyone to support the PEDC in their efforts, take the speakers comments into consideration and help develop the beautiful community that we all have envisioned. PERSONS WISHING TO SPEAK IN OPPOSITION - Anna M. Clark, 2015 Isla Drive, stated she was very much against the proposed project because she was concerned about the condition of her residential area. She does not think we should just give it all away. She suggested that half of the money go to this project and the other half to improve road conditions, drainage, etc. in the old part of Pearland, preferably in her area. She added that she did not want to pay taxes and get nothing in return. At this time, Chairman Dennis Frauenberger opened the floor for any comments from members of the board. COMMENTS BY THE PEDC BOARD 1. Board member Stella Roberts informed citizens of a mandate received from the voters to get some of the tax burden off of the homeowners and said that the only way this could be done was by going forward with this project. She said she hoped the media would try to explain to the public that what we are trying to do is exactly what the public said they wanted to have done. 2. Board member Connie Beaumont stated that although she is in favor of the incentive offers that the PEDC is trying to put together, she is not in favor of giving anything away. She agreed with Stella Roberts that the message should get out that we are not giving the bank away, but an effort has to be made to attract business here. She said we have to compete with surrounding communities and surrounding counties. 3. Board member Bob Lewis stated that we cannot be in a situation where only 1% of Pearland is industry and feels very comfortable supporting this project, but added that in order to project the image we want to project to the prospects, everyone has to realize that the potholes, etc. have to be cleaned up in order for the city to grow like we want it to grow. 4. Executive Director Jim Berry said we need to characterize this as not giving away tax money, but taking tax money and investing it in something that we really need that will help us all. 5. Chairman Dennis Frauenberger stated he too spent time at the chamber and seconded what Billy Everett had stated earlier. He assured everyone that although some things could be given away, we were not going to give away more that what we would be getting back in return on our assets. 3 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS Mayor Tom Reid asked if there was a time limit on these incentives. Executive Director Jim Berry answered yes, that in the way of tax abatement, the county has a policy that they only give them for 7 years and at the end of that time, the incentive is gone and the company pays 100% of the bill. (He stated that we would soon be in the process of looking into our own policy) So, the incentive is designed to get them here and get them into action. Almost anything given will be on a short term basis and after that, the company should continue to grow and all that growth is pure profit. Mayor Tom Reid asked if any taxes would be paid after the ground is occupied by a business? Executive Director Jim Berry answered yes, that there would be plenty of taxes that would get paid including taxes on the company's inventory, property taxes on homes bought by their employees, and sales tax on things bought by those same employees and their families in this community. He said it was important to take a piece of land and make it a contributing piece of property. Unoccupied ground makes no contribution. Board member Stella Roberts informed the citizens that although the city and the county may abate taxes on a piece of property, the school district cannot, therefore, school taxes, being a big part of the tax bill, will still get paid. Chairman Dennis Frauenberger added that it would only be certain increases that the company would not have to pay on for a while, for example, improvements. The company will begin paying back a certain percentage after a couple of years and that percentage will increase each year until they reach 100%. Citizen Anna Clark asked about the financing of grants. Executive Director Jim Berry said that the only way we would use to pay anything off that we borrow, would be the future collections of this 1/2 cent sales tax. This tax is only available for economic development use. So, if a company we'd want badly comes along and since we have only been collecting this tax for 2 months, we might conceivable have to borrow the money from the Texas Leverage Fund or maybe another way, (not necessarily for an incentive) but, this would in no way impact the rest of the tax. Residents would not have to pay any more tax for the service of the bond, etc. . At this point, Chairman Dennis Frauenberger opened the floor to move for an adjournment. 4 ADJOURNMENT Board member Connie Beaumont made the motion to adjourn, and was seconded by board member Stella Roberts. Motion passed: 4 to 0 Adjourned: 6:49 p.m. Minutes approved as submitted and/or corrected this A.D., 1996. ATTEST: Perla N. Lehman, Administrative Assistant Sef- day of uenberger,