R thirty three quarter two Pasco EDC metric report

1:40:08I would I wouldn't mind seeing if we can do a little comparison. Let's go see what the percentage of uh properties in other cities around the state. you know, what they actually total to as far as how many of them what percentage are they played? Are they ten percent, fifteen percent, whatever the numbers are? We just pick a few different ones randomly and just kinda get a feel for what Um Others are doing boot with the C R A's as well. Okay.

1:40:34Okay, so we're gonna go to R thirty three, Bill Cronin.

1:40:43Good morning everyone and happy Tuesday. It's a great day in Pasco County. You all have had great mornings so far. Hard to follow some of those resolutions. Um gonna bring my Kleenex with me next time because some of them were pretty moving. Uh permission to present um uh our metric packet to the

1:41:01receive. Okay. Second. All in favor say aye. Aye.

1:41:10We're now including those in person rather than putting them in your packet ahead of time, uh just like the other pr presentations that you get. Uh as she's putting those out, you'll notice that we are getting ready to report on quarter two, which was another robust quarter for the Pasco EDC in Pasco County. Uh I'll remind you that this is the second of those presentations where we reported uh a consolidated. Uh report because now everything is funded through

1:41:40the penny and not through general funds. So it's under one agreement. And then secondly, we changed the ordering to reflect our start, move, grow uh in that order. So you're going to hear about our startups and smart start, uh, our recruitment efforts, and then our expansion efforts to help companies grow. And then secondly, the impact that those metrics are. Create. So there's activities that we do, and then there's the impact. And the impact is usually the things that we love to brag about. By the way, you're talking

1:42:10about cultural items. Pretty soon we're gonna have a uh a ribbon cutting for Bauduco over in Zephyrhills, which will be June 26. I was just visiting with the company in Brazil, and I can tell you it smells great. I mean that that whole community is gonna smell really, really good. But they are extremely thankful uh for how things are going here and they send their best regards to you today.

1:42:35I'm sorry Bill, I just had some of their snacks over the weekend. We had a Sports Coast event and the snacks are delicious.

1:42:41Yes, yes. So I think our gym membership should also go up collectively as well too. But that is a culture and Bauduco really has been teaching uh uh North Americans how to eat panatonies. I mean before that uh nobody knew what a panatoni is. Now around Christmas time If you say yellow square box at Publix, everybody knows exactly what you're talking about. So uh looking forward to that. Our first quarter this year, we had uh several new loan

1:43:11applicants. We actually closed uh three loans uh on the microloan committee. And again, this is one of our most beneficial programs because these are companies that can't get financing from traditional financing in banks. Um, they're past that friends and family stage, and this gives them the opportunity uh to become So we we love this program. Uh it's re the Um We're we're hit we hit the road running uh to help these companies and they're extremely loyal in

1:43:42doing that. Uh coming up, we've got six hundred and thirty-one participants so far uh in our different events throughout the year. Our goal is 650, so we're trending really well in our smart start categories. And then also the uh uh attendees to to go out and make presentations to the community, we're keeping up to speed there. So what does that mean in terms of impact? So this last quarter uh we've had eighteen companies launch out of

1:44:12the Smart Start program. Uh to date this year, and that's just two two quarters, thirty-four companies launched. And from that, three of them came from the West Pass Center and holiday, uh co-located with Amskills, one from the Grove and 14 from East Pasco, and that's the kitchen. There's something about food again here uh that we're doing really well with our local small businesses and food.

1:44:40As it relates to business recruitment and and recruit uh development This is one of the areas that I think most people still know us for because of the groundbreakings and ribbon cuttings and things like that. Um but it's honestly it's not where we spend the most of our time. Most of our time still working with existing businesses. Um but year to date, we've had 34 meetings uh and hosted organizations to present our business uh Opportunities for people to come and invest in Pasco County. We've had uh

1:45:10a couple of new sites submitted for our Ready Sites program. We need to get two new candidate sites for this year. Uh and again it's all about making sure that we have enough product for these companies to come When they locate and then promoting the benefit of locating And expanding, that's when we go talk to site selectors. And the site selectors are those consultants that bring us projects that sometimes we don't know the name of them. and we need to make sure that they know everything that we have because they might have

1:45:40not just that project but another project in the future. So that's one of our multipliers and getting in front of them is extremely valuable. So, what does that do for an impact? Well, 13 new leads. This year so far, we've had 21 new leads, and that's not including projects that we were already working or leads that we already had. 16 new projects just in the quarter, 34 new projects for the year, and eight RFPs submitted this quarter, 22 so far in

1:46:10the year, and those RFPs are used. usually from those same site consultants that I mentioned before where they're looking for our best package and we're getting uh narrowed down in the process to hopefully be a finalist and duke it out with some other location. Our ready sites program, we've got uh 13 that were submitted this year in those same packages. So when somebody's looking for a place to go, our ready sites are still some of our best things to put forward because they know exactly

1:46:40when they're gonna be ready. They know uh that they've been vetted, they've been assessed, and they've been evaluated. Uh engagement sessions, nine this quarter, and that's actually working with somebody on a confidential project that that uh um that's gonna grow into something later, hopefully a win. We have eighteen year to date. And then on to the grow, and that's uh where I mentioned uh most of our time spent with our existing business. So working with existing business,

1:47:11company meetings, uh 33 to date, and um our goal for s is 60 for the year, so we're halfway there, we're trending well. and uh I'll talk a little bit later about what those uh meetings entail and what the companies are talking to us about locally so you know as well. one on one counseling sessions, eight to date, and this is for exporting. And uh that's low number for for us. That's a number that what we're learning is people

1:47:41are are less reliant on international markets or they're less reliant on Using other resources and they're doing it on their own. Now, with tools at their fingertips, they can do a lot of these things on their own, and a lot of that's thanks to COVID. They don't necessarily have to go overseas anymore to make that connection. Sometimes they're doing it through Zoom and Teams and things like that, and they're getting deals done. So becoming more efficient, we may actually look at different ways to provide counsel. and

1:48:11services for companies since there's less people actually traveling than previous. And then uh one event for convening businesses and that's for our local existing businesses, uh 45 attendees for that event, and that was with the Sheriff's Office, uh talking about security and economic security, uh business intelligence. And then what did that impact? Well, we had 17 visits I mentioned earlier this last quarter, 24 different

1:48:42issues that they wanted to talk about. And I think that's one of the things that is most important for all of us to know is what kind of things, what kind of issues or obstacles are our companies still dealing with here, or uh things that we might be able to programmatically address. The number one This last quarter was technical assistance. And that's not surprising when you've got a lot of new things coming about, like AI and things like that. Um, that companies are looking for ways to improve their process. Uh, second, though,

1:49:12was was still the same as um workforce assistance, and that is uh always gonna be the case of making sure that they get the right talent for those two. Jobs. Incidentally, last week at the Bauduco job fair. We had 650 applicants waiting at the door at eight o'clock before they even opened. And uh they got the the video footage all the way down in Brazil talking about how we can deliver for for jobs. So um we're

1:49:42we're getting a really good reputation of being able to provide the workforce that people need when they come here. You remember Gary Plastics, we had the same thing where they were lined up around the block. The difference is of course Bauduco had snacks to give them while they were waiting in line. Uh and then also permitting and uh if

1:49:59I could just just to touch on that real quick. I just was meeting with a veterans group this morning that's helping us with some of the small rebuilding. There's some new programs coming from the feds for work assistance. So

1:50:12that's again still our most important thing we have is people. I mean we've got we've got land, we've got uh great political leadership, that's a talent at the end of the day. And so many of them transitioned out of uh McDill, SOCOM, CENTCOM. Uh one of the things that we don't want to be a secret, and I'll put this sound bite out for you guys too, is our region Has the most uh second highest number of top secret clearances in the United States second only to Washington DC Virginia area.

1:50:43Well that's gonna be big that in a couple weeks.

1:50:45Yes. So when we go to Soft Week and we we we try to recruit those companies that are doing business with SOCOM, on average it cost about a

1:50:53big sign.

1:50:58So if you've got people who already have that here, that's a huge savings uh for companies.

1:51:04I've done allowed to say that.

1:51:06You're not allowed to apply. I think you're you're busy here. Um the other thing of course is is permitting and a lot of that is um a lot of changes. You know that people need still need help to who to call. We're still a great um uh entryway into working with the county staff. And um throughout that we also had an expansion already uh this quarter. So twelve existing businesses expanded last quarter, another one I'm sorry, two the first quarter, another one this

1:51:36last quarter, uh we're hoping for twenty one I'm sorry, twenty one year to date that we've had so far that have expanded.

1:51:44And then bigger overall development, you remember I used to lead with this impact is our pipeline and where we're at with this. I think uh right now we're we're at about 160 projects uh in the pipeline, and that's active projects. That's not leads, that's people who actually are gonna build something somewhere. um or lease something somewhere and we're competing with those other communities around the United States. Um of those that came in in the

1:52:15last quarter, uh international still pretty darn high. A lot of companies and again other people's money coming into our communities always better than just recirculating our own. Domestic recruitment still also pretty high. And retention and expansion uh great testimony to how our businesses do here. Um all of those numbers I'm I'm proud of. The wins right now, eight wins so far. Um And of that, you'll see that five of those were retention expansion.

1:52:45That's uh demonstrates our soil conditions here, one foreign direct investment, and three domestic recruitments. 167 leads uh right now as well behind those projects. So we're trying to make those leads into projects to see that pipeline even grow higher. Of those nine wins, you see the project successes, advanced manufacturing, logistics and distribution, and high-tech. are the winners uh this last quarter as far as the most

1:53:15activity that we've had. 260 new jobs, $57.9 million in new capital investment to Pasco County.

1:53:27And then marketing, this is one of the things that is always difficult to measure. So we look at things like clicks and things like that. But overall our earned media value, we're at um uh $2.9 million. That's when somebody other than us tells our story. So it's always better if somebody else is telling our story as long as that they're repeating what we want them to say, not making up their own stuff. But this is earned media value that uh we can't necessarily cash it and put it in our pocket, uh, but it multiplies

1:53:57our efforts in what you pay us to do as a marketing agency for the business community. Uh and then year-to-date 617 uh new social media followers. Our goal is to increase year over year in those types of scenarios. We don't have canines like the Sheriff's Office does, so social media is a little bit different than our users, but we do get a number of hits from our local businesses that want to learn more about how to grow their business. And then we

1:54:27had one paid advertising campaign, and that was a Florida trend. uh Pasco edition which came out uh last month as well, which is a really nice way to be able to see a lot of different things about Pasco in the different sectors and also the movers and shakers in our community and that goes out internationally to the Florida offices abroad. Top landing pages still, home page, Ropasco, Smart Start, no surprise there. Bauduco Foods press release jumped up 24,000

1:54:58uh website users and the top locations by state, uh Florida, California, Virginia, Georgia, New York. California has slowly been sneaking up there. I just as I was driving here saw a convertible with California plates on it. I was really tempted to say don't California are Pasco, but uh they looked like they were enjoying their themselves here. And then lastly, our private funding and our private partnerships. 91 current investors that we

1:55:28have on the private side. and uh forty seven policy council members And then um uh seven new ones year to date. So we're up to $388,000 on our private sector contributions that includes donations from those companies. CRA funds from banks, for example, because we are an easy way to check that box for CRAs. CRAs aren't just buildings. They're also job creation and activity like

1:55:58that. Uh and then our events too also count towards that private contribution. Speaking of events, we've got the um annual awards coming up this year, which is going to be October 1st, a little bit later uh than historic, so that hopefully it can be a little cooler, hopefully be past any um seasonal storms, and we'll be at the IPAC again this year. Uh you remember last year we were at Saddlebrook. Going back to IPAC, we felt it was uh a much much um more concise

1:56:28program, easier for people to get in and out, and uh qu again a quality location as well too. Um with that I'll stop and uh ask if you have any questions.

1:56:39Any questions? Mr.

1:56:40Weightman. Thank you, Chair.

1:56:43So Something I think we need to There's always emphasis on this, but I think we need to renew emphasis. So Florida's unemployment rate is up four point six percent. And unemployment has increased a point year over year from February uh twenty-five to February twenty-six. Particularly as it pertains to Pasco. Uh the rooftops are here. There's no question about

1:57:08that.

1:57:09Um

1:57:13What? Can we do within our role of government and working in a public-private partnership? to re-emphasize to folks to capture their job and their obligation, the existing obligations, Connecticut City. Jobs that were committed there. Moffitt jobs that were committed from it. Do we need to go back in and and and recalibrate or have a a conversation with the stakeholders that have committed X amount of jobs based on the evolution of AI? That

1:57:43way we understand what is what was committed and what's actual based on today's market. Um that way we know okay what we might be losing today today. I mean Amazon's close to opening. Um I suspect that they'll probably Probably be more digital than what they probably initially committed, uh, and so on and so forth. So I I think it's important that we if if a business that we've we've uh incentivized to come here that we just touch

1:58:14base with them and say, hey, what what are your actuals? What's your plan? You're not in trouble if you're going to AI or whatever, you know. on an incident, I think we should recalibrate that. Otherwise they need to fulfil their obligation. Um I'm I'm concerned that technology is going it is going to put a lot of people out of work. Mm and idle hands uh could lead to an even uh more challenges in an over capacity jail, which we don't want to see, right? Particularly

1:58:45in certain segments of the population. We have a large population here. So I think it's important that we we uh spark our new interest in in jobs, jobs, jobs back in the Senator Scott

1:58:57days.

1:58:57Uh and then go go talk to our partners uh that we've helped come here and say, Hey, what what's your plan? What are you doing? What are you seeing and what's your hiring? That way we know What we're working on.

1:59:10Yeah, so so to answer and two two parts to this uh to address. One is unemployment uh but the other in general and then the other is those those companies that we've recruited over the years that have agreements. If they have agreements, there is a compliance piece to it. And OEG works with them on compliance where they're putting their uh W twos and um actually counting that towards the job creation because those incentives are paid um Up after they've met their goal. So

1:59:40they're not paid in advance. They're they have to actually meet their goal before they get those incentives. So there's a good check and balance with that. And usually if they're not gonna hit the numbers, they're gonna tell us well in advance. And if they're laying off anybody, they have to tell us in advance. Um the the point about how do we lower unemployment though in general, and I think That there's several different ways that people measure it. And one of the things that we're still seeing is a lot of of uh following

2:00:11spouses that are coming along with the people that may be moving here for a job. So we're still getting w pretty close to a thousand people a day into the state of Florida. Not every one of them had a job with them when they came here, and a lot of them are spouses that are coming. But they're choosing Pasco to set up shop, and then they're gonna find a uh something for their their spouse once they get here. The other is the way they count unemployment. You have to actually be out seeking and looking for a job to be in those numbers. It's kind of a slippery

2:00:41slope. So I think the bigger number for us to focus on might be something that some of our partners are interested in, and that's that Alice reporting that. we hear about so often and that's uh asset limited, income constrained, and employed, meaning underemployed people. We have a uh uh almost forty-six percent of our county has fall falls into that area and it's been like that for about 10 years. And that means they have a job. But it's not as good a job as they should have. If they miss one paycheck,

2:01:12they fall off and become a bigger burden to society and taxpayers because now they've got a family that used to be getting uh a check and they no longer are getting a check. That's probably our most vulnerable population, rather than just the unemployed that's out there, is that what I like to call underemployed, but it's it's what United. Way calls the Alice reporting. And I think that's probably where our biggest work is, is helping incrementally grow the the the salaries of

2:01:41the people who are already here and making sure that they're getting a good job, not just a job to get by or two jobs. Great question.

2:01:52Um a couple of questions and maybe one's a comment. Um you know we have uh opportunity with opportunity zones coming up. And last time we totally missed the mark because we we got Our input was totally discounted by the governor.

2:02:07Yeah.

2:02:07And so we didn't get one project in Pasco County that I know of. Um and uh so I'm hopeful we're doing a better job this time and Uh we need all the support we can get to make sure the ones that we know will lead to good outcomes are are are selected. So all hands on deck on that one.

2:02:29And and today today we're actually all hands on deck. So at twelve thirty um we have a workshop together with Ben Latham from Commerce. Yes. Uh the Greater Pasco Chamber and Pasco County Government. Derek uh will be there talking about the sites we've all submitted collectively, but also talking to potential investors too about what kind of things they're looking for for those long term investment opportunities. But you're absolutely right. We did not get any of the ones that we

2:02:59had promoted last time around. Uh so it's really important that we continue to put pressure on them and and Tallahassee to get the right ones.

2:03:07Um one of our goals, you know, in in getting all these companies here is to stop the mass exodus daily to Hillsborough and Penellas. Are we tracking if That number is coming down.

2:03:20It's it went down until um until af right after COVID and when everybody moved here again. So we ended up we were making

2:03:29we're still staying the same.

2:03:31Uh we're still we've still got a majority of the people leaving each day for other jobs. So yeah, I need your help to get more companies here to create more jobs so they stay here. Um you can look at the roads each day, it's a good barometer if you go out at rush hour to see if it's going both directions. And you are seeing that, especially on our main arteries out there. It's r really reflective of that. But the main thing is, especially like in the MPUD. If there's an employment center in that MPUD, really push for the developers to get that employment

2:04:01center used maybe even first if they can. um to get the jobs in there because once the residential and the other things are in there, it's hard to get the employment center in it. The price has gone up, there might be protesters. So having those jobs go in first helps us to make sure the MPUD has the employment center. and that people aren't just driving from yet a new MPUD to Hillsborough or to Penales. Cause I think we're seeing a lot of that right now where you've got a lot of new developments and the employment center

2:04:31piece isn't there yet.

2:04:32And on on South Week I know Amskills wants to be in you guys have a Booth or a table or something.

2:04:39Yeah, we had to we we we got a booth through the lottery system at Soft Week. We've been attending uh for about four years now, and this is the first year we're exhibiting.

2:04:48Yeah, but and this and every other year it's a smaller and this is the big Year, right?

2:04:53This is a big year. Last year was twenty nine thousand people. Yeah,

2:04:55and this small. I plan to go. Yeah. Um, but I know we want to be there and I just texted to see who it is that's coming and what we need to g make sure we know what materials we need. But I think that it'd be really good to have a sign of what you just said with the um

2:05:12it it's on our side. It is with

2:05:14the uh what was the number? That we have the second highest.

2:05:20or second highest percentage of of um top

2:05:23secret

2:05:23top secret clearances in the United States, second only to the Washington DC Metro area.

2:05:27That is huge. Yeah. I that's that's amazing. How do you even get that statistic?

2:05:32Top secret.

2:05:36All right, thank

2:05:36you, George. Um so I'd like to say that uh you know the balance of everything we do is tough. And if you have too much residents coming in without the jobs coming in with it, and I think that we're hearing a lot from our people as well less apartments need more in. Uh and and Commissioner Starkey as you mentioned before, high level executive housing is something we've got to find a way to encourage to get to bring back. Uh those you haven't heard the Planning commission meeting from one up in Hudson was coming in. They're talking

2:06:07about doing larger one acre lots type of thing. That's the type of thing we're gonna need to do. I remember years ago, Bill, that I think it was with the partnership that they said there was like thirty-two thousand jobs out there ready to be filled. Yes. If the people were trained.

2:06:19Yeah.

2:06:20I'm gonna say that I wanna see AM skills not only with the holiday project, but Um The Hudson project with the industrial product, hopefully we're gonna work on retraining there, but also on the east side to get more AM skills out there to get these people trained to get those higher level jobs where people will won't be under underemployed but the growth can happen. And that's that's w that's what it we need to do. I wanna if you can maybe work with David, David Engel and and and Catherine, but I think down at

2:06:50that holiday uh comp uh area down there where they have the the building, there's some land around it. that with D C D R money we should be looking at putting some housing in for people coming out of town that are trying to get trained whether no what they're gonna get trained for. If they got a place to stay while they get trained, they get their foot in the door, so be it. When we do the industrial park we're gonna put looking put affordable housing there as well to create these things where people can learn, train and then get their own place and move on and help these companies, you know, get up and thrive.

2:07:21Mm. Um So hopefully we can keep on working with that. It's a

2:07:26great idea.

2:07:27I'm gonna send you a great uh news uh a piece that was on the news last night on uh skills. Okay.

2:07:35All right. Anything else? Uh speaking of Amskills, I'm not convinced that they're up to the task, so an update from them would be nice. Yes, it's coming. On that final

2:07:47Challenges. We have a meeting set up. Someone to come meet with you.

2:07:53And I'm gonna say I'll just say manufacturing jobs are there. You just need the training. And the more people as you say, when they know we can have workers that are trained, it's gonna instill instill them to come here quicker as opposed to waiting to say we get a program we're gonna help you train.

2:08:07Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, it it resonates with employer if they know that we've we're thinking like them before they get here. That's usually their biggest question. I mean no offense to our builders and construction people. It's the people they're can they're most concerned with.

2:08:22I think years ago when your predecessor was here, we talked about what should the impact fee be on manufacturing, et cetera. And it was a lot easier to sell zero as opposed to a small percentage. So the same thing goes. We have the staff already trained, we're heading the right direction, we're business focused. It sends a big message. So that'll make us mu much more stable. Manatee County, by the way, was not so worried about what the property tax was gonna be. Like we're setting a joint joint meeting with Senator Scott's office and listening to those folks talk, they weren't so

2:08:52worried about because they had so much more manufacturing jobs that that residential cabal was gonna affect us or them the same way it was gonna affect us. It was dramatic.

2:09:01Yeah, we can be upside down very quickly if if if we don't get our percentages right.

2:09:06So greatly appreciate everything you're doing. Thank

2:09:07you. And one of the I know you guys have been up and down all day.

2:09:12What we go we need to take a picture right here.

2:09:13Yeah, we've got Economic Development Week coming up. So y'all have us on uh upcoming resolution, but we want to get the photo so that we can use it for social media ahead of time.

2:09:35We're gonna go.

2:09:41Of course. everybody has that helped. Oh, why

2:09:45is

2:09:45everything on one side? I was gonna say you guys are in base.

2:09:49Yeah, could you just perfect, thank you.

2:10:01Yeah, that's

2:10:01right.

2:10:05All right, ready?

2:10:12Yeah,

2:10:12I guess.

2:10:58Like a schedule or just times.