All of the council members in chamber today.

Thank you, Councilmember Alcorn for being here, Councilmember Martinez, Councilmember Ramirez, Councilmember Huffman, Councilmember Flickinger, and staff from Councilmember Cayman's office and staff also from Councilmember Thomas's office.

Thank you all for being here.

No, ma'am.

Thank you, Councilmember Castillo for joining us as well.

And on line, we have staff from Councilmember Carolyn Evans Shabazz's office.

Okay.

So this meeting is open to the public.

It's being held in person and virtually.

We are broadcasting live on HTV as well.

Our first presentation today will be Assistant Director Jennifer Curley with the Mayor's Office of Economic Development, and she's going to present on the tax increment reinvestment zone budget overview and the schedule.

We get a lot of questions about our TURS budgets and when and where.

So very excited to have you here today.

So when you are ready, we're ready to hear from you.

Good afternoon, Council members.

I will be presenting the proposed 2026 TURS budget schedule.

First, I'm going to hit TURS program highlights, then I'll go over the project development process, followed by how the project budgets will be allocated for fiscal year 2026.

Lastly, a proposed TURS budget schedule will be presented.

Next slide, please.

Tax increment reinvestment zones are authorized by Chapter 311 of the Texas Tax Code.

TERS were created by the city to encourage the redevelopment of underdeveloped, undeveloped commercial areas, or as allowed by state statute.

27 TURS are active.

In addition to city increment, the TURS program has financial partnerships with Harris County, Houston Independent School District, Spring ISD, Aldean ISD, Houston Community College, and Lone Star College.

Recently, Harris County began their participation in St.

St.

George Place, also known as Lamar Terrace, Uptown and Southwest Houston, TURS.

Harris County currently participates in downtown, East Downtown, and the Greater Houston TURS.

The interlocal agreement between the city, Harris County, and the town, the downtown TURS ends this year, December 31st, 2025.

Harris County has renewed the interloco with downtown TURS through 2043.

Harris County has also partnered with Sunnyside and Montrose on specific projects.

Next slide, please.

The project plan and reinvestment zone financing plan that City Council approves guides the direction of the TURS projects.

The project, the project cost categories that are in the project plan are distilled down to specific projects.

The TERS team will look at studies that have been done in the area, engage HPD, um Houston Public Works or Parks, and create a capital plan draft for the TURS board.

The board approves the budget and submits it to City Council for approval.

Before the budget is submitted to council, economic development sets up meetings with the mayor's assistant, chief policy officer, and HPW to look at the specifics of the projects.

So what that looks like is we meet with that group, um economic development and the TURS Consultants, and we look at turning lanes, we look at Sidewalk with and um the continuation of sidewalks into other projects.

Also, we're coordinating with public works on any other projects that they may be doing in the area to make sure that where maybe the TURS project starts or stops.

We know where the city's project or Metro's project or Keras County's project will be also in that particular area.

After this review, economic development schedules meetings or before if after this review, economic development schedules meetings with the district council members to discuss the TURS budgets that are included in their area.

Generally speaking, most of the projects are approved by public works and the mayor's assistant chief policy officer.

There may be changes to those particular projects, but the project itself may still remain in the budget.

It's just there was a change, maybe sidewalk lip uh sidewalk with changed, or maybe a turning lane was taken out.

It's been rare that an actual whole project has been taken out.

There have been projects taken out of budgets, but generally once that review is happened and we've gotten the go-ahead, then we meet with city council offices over the budgets.

So historically, we have only scheduled meetings with district council members due to their proximity to the direct impact these projects have to their communities.

This year we will offer meetings to the at-large council members.

Once the budgets are put into the put on the agenda and city council approves the budget, the TERS teams can begin the process of implementing their projects.

This starts with HBD's HEW's design concept report, which is you might hear someone call it a DCR.

That stands for design concept report review.

Then HPD, they this is where they have a session with the TURS, they talk about the specific projects in their 30% plan, offer suggestions to that particular plan, these are specific engineering type feedback, then as it goes when the consultant, when the engineering consultant gets to 30%, they schedule another meeting with public works, receive additional comments, then they go forward on their 60% and 90%.

Once they get to a hundred percent design plan, then they are a they're able to bid that project out.

And so the project is bid, um, it's advertised, the they get the bids back, then the board awards the the contract, and then construction will begin.

Typically, construction is about a two-year process.

Once the construction has been completed, the project is removed from the budget, the finished project project is conveyed to the city and becomes a city asset.

Next slide, please.

So the proposed um budget submitted to the city for fiscal year 26 so far, totaled 205 million.

That's for the fiscal year 2026.

That does not include the entire five-year plan.

Um the the allocation of the funding is nine um 96.5 million on street projects, 44.6 million in flood remediation projects, 22.6 million in pedestrian infrastructure projects, parks and green space, the allocation is almost 21 million in parks and green space related projects.

Total projects, if you add all of the projects over five-year period, um, they will total 936.3 million dollars.

Next slide, please.

So on this particular page, we are presenting the order that we're taking the proposed order that we are taking the budgets to city council.

What may change this order is if there's a change in something in the CIP.

We haven't had the meetings with public works yet, so if there's a change in a project, then that might change up the order a little bit.

I looked at I looked at the submitted 2026 budgets and compare them to 2025.

Many of them did not change year over year.

So my expectation is that the ones that did not change year over year can go forward.

The few that have new projects, those will have to go through a review with public works and the assistant um chief policy officer.

And so any time you see a change, generally that's what it is.

There is a like, hold up, let's take a look at something in a CIP project in the budget, and then we'll have to maybe move that one toward a later date.

But for right now, this is the proposed order that we're taking the budgets to City Council.

Does anyone have any questions?

I do.

First, let me say, but for TERS, we wouldn't have any projects in district K.

I never get tired of uh saying how important I think these these projects are to our community.

Um the only concern that I really have is is there any way to streamline the process?

Um I know that we go through all of these steps, um, but have we looked at um I I feel like it gets to one space and then we need to remind everybody, okay, let's let's keep it moving.

Um I I want to see if there's any way we can streamline the project to get to the project faster.

Because we have some projects I know that um the purchase of right-away takes a long time when we're doing intersection projects, and then we have to buy property from three of the corners to improve the intersection.

I just feel like the projects take a long time.

They do.

When you have to acquire that property for projects, um it does take a it's not that's not unusual for other churches as well.

Um Lake Houston had that issue when they were requiring um clips for their North Park um drive project, so it's not unusual to have that delay.

Um we look at trying to for especially through our processes, whatever we have our hands on, move it as quickly as we possibly can, but we can always take a look and see if there are um things that we can do.

I know that we've coached um engineers on how to kind of work with public works on getting things to to move um faster through that process.

So um we're when we are aware of it, because sometimes we aren't aware that they're having trouble, but once we find that they're having troubles getting trouble getting projects moved along, we will you know coach and and try to provide resolutions.

I know that we've gotten on phone calls with with people in public works to help get something moved moved along faster.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you for the presentation, Jennifer.

I got a few questions for you.

Uh one of which I noticed from looking at the proposed budget schedule.

Um some of these come close to four months or more after the fiscal year begins.

Can you tell us why uh well into the fiscal year we get well into the fiscal year before we start looking at these budgets?

Well, we're trying to juggle against the city's budget being um approved by council, and then um the city CIP.

So typically the schedule has been that TURS budgets come in after the city CIP's process.

So that's one um issue trying to let all of the other city items go by first before we start putting on CERS budgets.

Then of course, we have the meetings that we need to have with public works and the mayor's assistant policy policy chief.

We've got to make sure that we have those meetings because we want to make sure that the oversight is there.

That's one of the things in previous councils that they were concerned about.

So we want to make sure that we have the oversight, we have the buy-in with regard to what's in the the budgets and that it is complementary and consistent with what the city is doing.

So that kind of that also includes um part of the delay in getting those budgets to you.

We um lastly I would say to you that it it'll be much quicker as we um grow into the new administration because first year is always really you know, we have to get in and new council members as well because we have to get you guys up to speed about what we're actually doing, and that takes time as well.

And those that time pushes back our time with regard to putting those items on the agenda.

All right, I appreciate that, and I appreciate you all being willing to allow the at-larges to participate in that that meeting with that's formally been held just with the district council member.

I had a question about uh step one and step six.

So step six is and this is on slide three, uh, is the council vote on the on the TURS budget.

Uh one is uh project plan and reinvestment zone financing plan approved by council.

Where where is the uh step one in all of this?

So that's at the very beginning.

TURS is cannot spend on spend money on projects that are not in their project plan.

So for example, um one of the public facilities is one.

If you do not have public, if a TURS does not have public facilities in their project plan, they can't, for example, contribute to any fire station or police station, um, any library, um, any infrastructure um project dealing with a public building if it is not in their project plan.

So the first step is um the project plan affordable housing is another one.

If you if a tourist does not have affordable housing in its project plan, it cannot contribute to affordable housing.

Um it cannot contribute any dollars to affordable housing, it can't build affordable housing.

So the first step is the project plan that is guiding the projects that the TURS is will focus on in their future.

Okay.

Uh thank I appreciate that.

So step one, where does that come in relation to council voting on the overall budget which we do in in June?

Because the TURS the council vote votes on the project plan and reinvestment zone financing plan.

Has to.

The TURS is cannot do anything until council approves the project plan and uh re-invent reinvestment zone financing plan.

Okay, but if I could just tie the knot on this.

So does step one come after council approves the overall city budget or before that?

Oh, it that does the project plan is just a document that could come to council at any time.

So we typically take those items in the fall.

Um the one that council most recently saw.

I'm forgetting which one you just recently saw.

You just you just saw one last fall, and you'll see some in you may see some in in the coming months.

But we can amend those or bring in a new project plan and reinvestment zone financing plan at any time.

What that looks like is kind of an overall project plan that incumbents that that covers a 30-year term of uh of a TERS, and it's basically saying, you know, these are the areas that um need to be looked at to be developed or redeveloped in order to improve economic development in a particular area, thus also improving the tax um base in that particular area and um transportation mobility issues in that area and quality of life.

So summarizing generally what the project plans say, um they talk about what improvements need to be made, whether it's mobility, affordable housing, um parks and quality of life type of things, and it assesses what it's it plans to pursue and the goals that it has, and then it'll provide it generally provides a financing schedule on all of these things.

Um the project plan is required by chapter 311.

So you can't spend money until you have the other things in place first.

And so you have to set up the create council has to create the TURS, and the statute chapter 311 requires a project plan and zone uh reinvestment zone financing plan, and then after all of those things are set up, then a budget comes.

All right, I'll go back in the queue.

Thank you.

Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you, Chair.

Um Jennifer, I just want to say, I just want to say thank you for all your work.

I've had the privilege of being able to work with you on several of these tours, even creating some tripartite agreements to finally see a project plan and see projects come to fruition.

Um I I uh agree with Mayor Pro Tem Chair Chairwoman that uh without these tours, um honestly, I would say 10 years that I was on staff, um, we probably probably saw little to no CIP projects.

Um and so, but for these tours, uh, are we able to see infrastructure whether it's drainage, uh pavement conditions, sidewalks, even park and green space, uh excited about stuff that's happening with the Harrisburg tours specifically with telephone road project, but also Mason Park and and so on.

Um these tours are able to uh to accomplish these these uh these projects through uh being able to get uh create some bond capacity.

Um how often how often are are the tours coming for uh a renewal or to be able to uh increase their bonding or be able to have projects with some of the bonding to for these larger projects because I know that they have their annual increment, but to be able to take on a huge project like Mason Park, where it's fifteen million dollars, sixty million dollars that they're pushing for Eastwood Park for that same tours.

How often are are you are you receiving uh requests for bond capacity?

It depends on the projects.

I'll have to get back with you because I think I thought Harrisburg brought a bonding capacity a few years ago.

I don't know if they've they've spent it all.

Not it's we it's in the project plan and we have we're having it, I think we have like two or three more years left to spend those dollars.

But uh can they when can they come back for another another so bonding?

Usually when we evaluate um bonding capacity, we're looking at their spend.

And so the question we would ask to TURS is what are you spending the money on?

And so they have to give us a list of projects that they're planning to spend that funding on.

If they still have capacity, we will we will not give them additional bonding until they use up that capacity or get close to using up that capacity.

Ultimately, though, we want to see projects that will cover their current capacity if they still have it, and if they're saying, Oh, I need extra money, then we need them to show what projects they're gonna be doing and to justify those projects.

Because ultimately, we don't want them holding on to um funds.

Um they need to be putting the projects in the ground.

Um also, you know, coming back to you to council, we want to make sure that when we say, Oh, we're giving 60 million in bonding capacity, and these are the projects that they're gonna be doing.

We want them to do those projects before we come back to you guys and say, hey, we need another 50 million.

Okay.

So that's kind of how it works.

We have them, you know, someone calls and says we wanted this.

We need a um, we need their financial advisor to provide um an analysis of their increment through their life to support because they have to pay for support the the the sh they don't come.

A lot of these tours don't come often.

No, it's it's yeah, it's it's maybe one or two a year, but it's different tours.

Yeah.

And it's in an yeah, it's it's maybe one uh one a year, maybe one, two, maybe one or two come a year, and maybe we approve one.

Two two more quick questions uh on expansion.

How how often can I know we look at uh and usually it's right of way for the most part, it's hard to bring in property uh because we we have the rev cap, but how often um are you seeing any more expansions or renewals of uh of life?

I know we've been talking about East Side Tours, which is Chavez High School.

Um it's probably coming to the end of its life, and it'd be great enough to talk to my colleague uh Councilmember Flickinger about it even seeing some some support out in that that uh kind of Gulf um Metal Creek area to support some infrastructure possibly, but how often can we start looking at um expansion or renewal of of tours, the life of the tours?

So, what I would do in that you can uh we get submissions.

We don't necessarily take all of our submissions, the city council.

Okay.

So I would start as early as possible, having that discussion with our office with regard to east side.

I would start getting the project list together because right now that particular tours only services the debt service for shopping.

The high school.

So once that finishes off in 2027, um, we'll still have that we won't have the ISD increment portion, but we will have the city increment portion.

So the question would be how do you want to spend the money?

What are the projects?

So we need to make sure that we get with the administration on the projects that you would want to see in that particular area.

And then the last one, so that's something that we can start working on.

Last one if I can just squeeze it in.

Um not every uh tours get their affordable affordable housing dollars goes to their TURS.

That's correct.

For example, Gulfgate, they give dollars, but it isn't go to Gulfgate, and we definitely need affordable housing in the Gulfgate area.

Um how how can we is it something at the state level or something policy within our at the city that we can change to make sure that those housing dollars can stay there?

So only petitioned tours are required to um set aside a third of their um increment for affordable housing.

There's only two TURS, and that's Hardy and Fifth Ward, that by agreement with the city that they set aside one-third of their their increment for affordable housing.

You can do it that way.

You can um Gulfgate can enter into an agreement with the city to set aside one third of their increment for affordable housing and then ask the city to direct that funding to the TURS for to build affordable housing.

One of the things that you the TURS may also do is reach out to the county for the see if the county is interested in doing some sort of participation.

I can't think of the precinct out there.

Precinct two.

Is two?

Okay.

So you might want to have discussions with precinct too, because the county wants to build affordable housing and see what their appetite is for that particular area.

And then the joint, you know, whatever we can contribute on the city side and whatever can be contributed on the county side can go towards can go toward um affordable housing in the area.

So that's another thing, that's another source um that you can tap into is the county.

Perfect.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Councilmember Alcorn.

Thank you, Chair.

Jennifer, have you been involved in the Earnston Young review, the spending and um analysis, and then the deeper dive that they were doing on specific TURS?

Um not um directly.

Gwen's asked me some questions about it, so I haven't um been totally involved in that process just yet.

Because I'm looking at the scope of that, and then colleagues, if you'll remember, that was about a 770,000 dollar spend, and and the first phase, just the the spend analysis was to be about five weeks, and that was that's it's been way longer than five weeks.

So I would hope I know the longer, the deeper dive involves a lot more, and that was kind of open-ended um on how long that was going to take.

But on the spend analysis and looking for efficiencies and all of the things that were uh that are in the scope of work for that phase one.

I mean, I would certainly um it would be my request that we see uh some of that before we start approving budgets here in September.

And that that that's I I think lies with the finance department.

But I just wondered if you had been since you're kind of in the TERS if Ernst and Young is kind of working with you as they go through all the the budgets.

So um I I hear what you're saying.

I I would also let you know that you know each TURS has their own independent audit.

Right.

Auditor, and in the there's a schedule that's in the audit that the city requested well before my time that provides the detailed spend by um vendor by project.

Um I forget what the name is, it's like in the in the 50s, 40s, 50s, it's like in the back of the TURS um audit.

And so it it tells us how much they're spending um on in various categories.

So that might be um something that you reference and resource as you look to look at these budget.

Sure, and and we'll we'll certainly spend some time looking at those audits, but specifically on the the one that we engaged Ernst and Young on.

I can talk to finance about this.

I think um, you know, if if there's still if phase two depends on things, I mean there might be some things I don't know about that it why it's not that part isn't out yet, because that when when it was first uh kind of pitched to us, it was a five-week engagement on the kind of four weeks for discovery and one week for a report, and and I just um as we as we are about to start in September looking at at uh approving TURS budgets.

I I just am I'm hoping we can get some more information on what Ernst and Young has done on that.

Um that's all I have.

Thanks.

Thank you.

And I'll follow up with the administration and see if we can get an update on that as well.

Councilmember Flickinger.

Yes, just uh follow up on Councilman Martinez's as far as um the uh expansion or annexation uh of the zones, the the cap is at 25 percent, is that correct?

That's correct.

It where are we at today?

I'll have to take a look at that.

I believe when we did this presentation for you last year, we're at about 24 percent, 23 percent on the um before we hit the cap.

But when you look at it from a percentage perspective, it looks really like closed, but when you're looking at it by value, you got some room in there.

The issue um is generally the priorities and whether or not um an extension and or an annexation is needed.

And just like the um the the that authorization request, when we are asked to annex area, uh we look at two things.

Number one, is it right of way?

Because generally speaking, when people are asking to annex right of way, that's because they're gonna do a project in the right-of-way.

But if they're asking for um additional increment, then we're saying, okay, well, what are you using those increment dollars for?

What projects essentially, right?

Which projects are you pursuing in order to do this annexation?

And does it make sense given the other priorities that other TERSIS are turning in with regard to their annexation?

Because we still even though it gives us a lot from a it gives us a lot of capacity from a taxable value perspective, we still get um a number of requests.

So then we're looking at a priority thing.

Once we once we get the request in and they have the list of projects, then we're looking at okay, which of these projects are more have bigger priority than the other projects.

Now the extension doesn't affect the percentage, except it's kind of a constraint in the future, correct?

Right, but what it's doing is it's ex it's it's providing more increment over the long term.

So it's again it's saying, okay, why do you need this extension?

And what we're looking at, so for example, if you already have a 50-year life and you have 20 years to go, it's saying, well, why do you need the extension?

What are you gonna do in the next um 20 plus years?

Because if you're at 50 already, you have 20 you you already got 20 something years and you're asking for another 15, so that's 35.

What are you gonna what's the project you're gonna do in the in the next 35 years in order to justify the extension?

Okay.

Thank you, ma'am.

Councilmember Castilla.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Jennifer, for the presentation.

You mentioned uh the affordable housing fund that petition TERS is paying to and a couple of others.

What was the mechanism that established that fund?

Um it was established by ordinance.

The the 2409 is the fund.

So the city established it and made the requirement that petition Turs would contribute to it.

So the chapter 311 is the requirement of the one-third set aside.

Um the city receives one-third asset aside into for affordable housing, it goes into fund 2409.

So generally speaking, the TERS most of them wanted to send their money back to the city because they didn't want to actually manage their own affordable housing program, and so that funding comes back to the city.

Um two TURS um, three TURs, South Coast Oak, Midtown South Coast Oak, and um fourth ward retain some of their one-third set aside for their own affordable housing projects in their own zones.

Okay.

That answer your question.

Yes.

Okay.

So would there be something to prevent the city from setting up a fund for parks in the same vein with TURS contributing to that and then it be used to enhance parks as opposed to housing?

Um it would have to be by agreement.

I'd have to look into how that would be set up.

Um because it if I'm thinking about your your question, if you're going to maintenance, it um TURS can't spend money on maintenance.

Right.

Yeah, they can build trails and and build parks, but they can't spend money on maintenance.

So if the question is whether or not they can spend money on maintenance, they cannot.

If we're talking about an infrastructure contributing to a fund um for infrastructure, that's a different um that's a different issue.

But if there was a management district there, the management district could take on the maintenance.

Yes.

So the TURS can build it and the management district can take on the maintenance.

Got it.

Okay.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ramirez, we're back to you.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Um, Jennifer, just a couple more areas.

Um last fall, when we considered the fifth ward TURS budget, there were concerns expressed about the composition of the board.

Have any changes been made in that board since then?

I have to get back to you on that.

I need to look and see what if there are any additional changes.

I know um Erica Lee is no longer on the board.

Um I want to see if she wanted to stay on the board, she was serving at that time as a um member of Congress, so that's why she had to resign from the board.

But then she said that she did want to come back after that period of time was over.

I don't know if she rejoined the board or not, because I haven't been keeping track of that part of it.

Um I'll have to um check and make sure to see if there's any changes to the actual board.

Okay, and generally uh when the TURS CIP plan is being considered.

What is what is the role of the mayor's staff and your economic development team?

What what role do they play in that process?

So, you know, when we um our role is to kind of keep the TURS on track and look at projects that are going to be um consistent to policy.

There are projects um, as you can imagine, that someone may talk about, and and we're saying no, that we're not gonna get approval for that.

So we need to kind of um guide you into this particular direction with regard to the projects because we're not gonna get approval on what you're suggesting or talking about in the meetings.

So that's one way that we're looking at the projects.

Um I know that I sit through a lot of sessions with regarding you did too.

You came over to the Montrose Um Town Hall about the West Alabama project.

And so that's typical, right?

So they came in and they looked at a long time ago doing the project on West Alabama, and so they kind of have a high level concept of that project, and then they present that to the to the committee, the the community to look at you know, have the community make some recommendations.

And so, in that type of project, you know, what I'm saying to them is not likely we're gonna have 10 foot sidewalks here, so we can't include 10 foot sidewalks.

If that's what you're wanting to do, we're gonna have to sit down with the team and see if there isn't any exception.

So I'm coordinating the meeting um early on, even before this budget process, during the budget process before, but before budgets are due to the city to see if there's any exceptions that are allowed, and not in there will, or I'm just talking directly to public works or the um the mayor's policy um assistant policy to saying, hey, is this something that you guys would consider?

And she will tell me yes or no, and then I'll go back to the board the TURS um consultants on the board and say no, we're not we can't do any of these.

You'll have to come up with something else.

So um, usually our you know, coordinating those projects, guiding the ones that we believe that will be palatable not only to the administration but also to city council.

Okay, thank you.

If no further questions, um assistant director curly, we appreciate your time today, and we will stay in touch uh with that timeline and um follow up with um councilmember Alcorn's questions with the administration.

Thank you very much for being here.

Oh, thank you so much.

Thanks.

Next, we will hear from Director Celynthia Hoard from the Office of Business Opportunity, and she is here to present on the MWSBE policy update.

Uh Director Hord, I know you've been on a citywide tour.

Um, you have hosted meetings across the city.

Um we've we've had such great um feedback from the meetings that you've had and uh from and as a matter of fact, today at council, we had council members that were um talking about some of the meetings that you had across the city.

So we thank you for making sure Houstonians were engaged in the process and for sharing the information and the opportunity for people to provide their feedback.

So we are ready to hear from you when you are ready.

Okay, thank you so much for having me.

Um esteemed council members and staff.

Um, today we were um charged with going back and bringing back recommendations on the policy of how we would move forward um with the uh results of the disparity study by looking at the inclusion and availability of our um ethnic groups here in the city of Houston.

So what you have before you, I think you have a PowerPoint.

I'm just gonna go through this.

This is the same PowerPoint that we have been um sharing out in the community, so you'll get to hear um what the community is hearing.

Um so the first slide that you should see as usual is our mission and vision with you, which you all are very very familiar with.

So I'm gonna go through um to the agenda.

Um today I would like to discuss kind of a little background.

We'll talk about the disparity study and those results.

Uh we'll look at market availability and how we came up with the participation that we'll use going forward.

Um I'll discuss some of the new programs that we're gonna implement to support our small business community and then our community education and timelines for educating our departments and the and the community as large.

So the next slide opens up our background on the disparity study.

So the first slide you see should be the certificate, the certification by numbers.

We all on the same page because I'm not looking at the screen.

Okay.

Certification by numbers.

What you'll find is that we have uh three 3,644 MBE firms currently certified in the directory, 2,145 WBE firms, we have 142 PDBE firms, and then we have 71 LGBT BE firms.

Thus, our current certification.

We actually got up above 6,000 in the fiscal year FY25.

We've dropped back down to about 5100 due to us making sure that we're cleaning our directory, uh, renewals that are coming in, ensuring that the firms that we have listed in directory are actually active firms that are willing and able.

So we've been doing a little cleanup.

So you see that number dropped down a little bit, um, but it is also inching back up.

Next slide.

Based on the study's results, the study was conducted as you're aware by MGT Consulting.

Um we looked at FY through FY18 through FY22 data.

Um we covered construction procurement, professional services procurement, goods and services procurement for our local program, and we also looked at the ACDBE and our DBE programs.

Based on the procurement data and availability, we looked at, we found that we are serving and we are um have participation from a nine-county region, so that defines our region and our local program.

The local program is defined by those companies that procure with the city and which counties they reside in.

So the majority of companies that procure with us are in nine counties surrounding Harris County.

Um we were at 10, so they actually took us down one county.

Um we also included in the study, of course, qualitative and quantitative data.

Next slide.

So here you see what we learned.

So this was this is the feedback that we received from those community meetings, the public sessions.

Um we actually went through and recorded the feedback and um have some things that we want to offer up.

Um so we learned first of all that we have really grown as a program, been around 40 years, starting with zero minorities and women on contracts, and now we're at over uh 5,000 certified firms.

That's an incredible growth.

And we we noted that our MWSBEs as well as our DBs and ACDBs have been extremely successful.

In FY25, the city awarded over 500 million dollars to our minority firms and our women firms here in Houston.

So I think that that speaks volumes to our for our departments as well as OBO and ensuring that we have small businesses represented on the contracts here with the city.

Um we still find that non-minority firms do dominate city contracting, and this is why there is quite a disparity in a lot of the areas.

Um we also noted that the city's been committed over the years to economic development and economic opportunity.

So we will also be committed to narrowly tailoring our MWSB program, thus the disparity study.

Next slide.

The key findings from the study, as you are aware, uh 72 of our spend went to unclassified, which are non-minority non-women firms.

Uh 29% approximately went to our MWBE firms across all of the CAP purchasing categories.

What we found is that there was disparity when you lump all the categories together.

But as with disparity studies, you are tasked with pulling that out and looking at the groups as well as the spending by the categories.

Um what was what came out of these findings are three things.

One is that Hispanics and construction and professional services did not show a disparity.

Agents and professional services did not show a disparity, um, non-minority women and goods did not show a disparity.

Next slide.

This is the chart that we shared all along.

It just highlights those areas so that it kind of points out where those areas of no disparity are.

Next slide.

What we heard from the community during our meetings were many things, and so we've kind of captured them here.

One is that the community says that we need to improve our outreach between city departments with target markets for participation.

Programs that need to be established should have partnerships to access financing and larger contracting opportunities.

We should be actively graduating firms.

Bidding in tiers was something that was uh we heard a lot.

Specific outreach according to the scopes of work, meetup opportunities between primes and subs, highlighting payments to subs during our progress meetings or the progress of the contract, rejecting pay apps without subcontractor payments and low availability notifications.

So these were some of the comments that we heard over and over more than once, and so some of the things that we've attempted to do to address those is to come up with some policies that address them and some programs that address them.

So I'll start at the top, um, increasing outreach between city departments with target markets for participation.

Um we are looking to work with our city departments and um have already started with the first, which will be HPW to work with them around outreach to our subcontracting community where they see gaps.

Um they're aware of where they constantly have uh low participation.

We're also aware where we do a lot of waivers because we don't have the number of firms, and so we'll do an active outreach in October with the Houston Public Works around a few of their projects that'll come out in the um in the spring, and this will give the subcontractors hopefully opportunity to actually meet some of the subcontractors and and the primes as well, so that we can get them vetted prior to, and they'll have opportunity to gear up for that.

Um, the other is programs that establish partnership for accessing financing.

We're working on really diligently actually with councilmember Davis around looking at a financing expo which will allow small firms, primes, or anyone to come out and understand their financial opportunities in the community.

So this will be a financial expo that includes large banking entities as well as the CDFIs, um, our community banks, um, some of the lenders that are non-traditional.

Uh, we also hopefully have our bonding community there so that they can understand bonding, get to know them.

A lot of it is relationships, but um, as you may or may not be aware, every bank does not lend everything.

And so, understanding what this bank's uh products are and making those relationships.

We'll also have some uh workshops at that time on credit, um, how to leverage your finances with accountants on what your balance sheet should look like.

Um, a lot of times our small business owners they're they're not accountants, they're plumbers or or they do cement or something.

So this is not familiar to them, so we hope that this will be helpful and one of many.

So this will be our first one.

Um we also heard about actively graduating firms.

Um, and so this I think is more of an education piece.

Uh we graduate firms um from their NASE code and not for their total revenues, and so we don't uh graduate you because you're making 500 million, but if you're making 500 million in that NASCO, then you do graduate.

And so one of the suggestions that I actually heard at the council members' meeting last night that I think we'll put forth is to um have that listed on our website so that people know we graduate all year long.

I've done a few already this year.

Um it happens, and sometimes they come back in.

Just depends on if they expand their business and decide to do something different.

It's not um we're not averse to that.

Um, and so we will um probably add that to our webpage so that people can see that there are graduations going on all along.

Um, enhanced data tracking and transparency.

We're currently working with IT and consultants to um have a dashboard added to our website so that um if we get along five years from now, we're not surprised at all the numbers around the disparity stated, but we will see the spend ongoing, um, and that way people can see where those dollars are being awarded.

We do put out um an awards report, so you all should have coming to you this week the annual report, and uh MWBE annual report.

Um, it goes out every quarter and at the end of the year.

We actually post that it'll give you information on all the awards by category, by industry, um, by ethnic group, it also shows you the uh participation of departments and how much was awarded per department.

So be on the lookout for the awards, the final awards report for FY25.

Um, focus outreach towards data that goes back to working with our departments, but also looking at our own data to see when we're setting participation goals, where there's low participation, and doing some outreach.

Uh, presentations and training on bidding.

If you've been to any of the council and district presentations that we've been doing lately, we have SPD in tow, and so a lot of the questions that OBO receives is around bidding, and we don't do bidding, and so we try to have them present currently, and we're working on some guides to put together collaboratively so that we can present as well.

The other one is bidding in tiers.

So we won't be bidding in tiers, but there are a couple of programs that I'll highlight later that may address some of that.

Specific outreach according to scopes.

Outreach will continue to continue to be done around projects and industries, and not so much around scopes because as you're aware, there are so many scopes of work in our contracts.

And so that is we don't have the capacity for that, but we can do uh concerted outreach around industries.

Um meetup opportunities with primes and subs.

This is something that we're working toward to push out in the fall.

We have one coming up, I think with uh council member Martinez will be our first pilot with that, and that would be coffee and contracts with our small businesses to bring in prime contractors who actually want to meet subs and subs who want to meet them.

What we hear constantly is you know, we don't know those subs and the subs say we can't get with the prime, so we'll have opportunities where they can have smaller venues where they can meet.

We also have meet the buyer, but that is really a large event, and sometimes people feel you know they kind of move around and give their information and nobody's paying attention, so hopefully, this smaller venue will allow for that.

Um we'll also have highlighting our payments during subcon our progress meetings.

We currently do that.

Um, we think that that helps with ensuring there is payment to subs.

Of course, there are things that are missed, um, but we are doing that all of you know along the way.

Uh rejecting pay apps without subcontractor payments is um outside of my purview, but we do, I think that in working with our project managers during this the progress meetings does address some of that.

And then low availability notifications.

This was a request specifically from the management districts and from the chambers of commerce to communicate with their constituents, and so we will work toward notifying them.

Um we have some sometimes there are bids where we get no bidders.

Um, sometimes we have bids where they cannot find uh the subcontractors, and so when they close those and they say they're gonna reopen them, have an opportunity to push that out to uh the community through the management districts would be helpful.

Next slide.

Just want to touch again on the legal context.

I know you guys are gonna ask.

So legally, um, we are uh required to have statistical evidence for this program, and we talked about this during the disparity study.

Um we rely heavily on the Crowson and Cosman cases from 1989 and 2016 respectively, um, and that sets up the statistical uh standpoint for the program and makes us defensible.

Um in 2023, the city um got involved in litigation and challenging our MBE program and whether it was constitutional by having adopted the disparity study, it allows us to have current defensible data, um, to have statistical information for the the court case.

And so we are um very happy to have that.

And right now we are awaiting our court date.

So all court date.

Yes.

Um next will be market availability.

Next slide, next two slides.

We're gonna go to the participation.

So um in going back and looking at the program and how we could be inclusive.

Uh we looked at um a couple of municipalities, the consultants came back and gave us um this is an option.

Federal president allows for jurisdictions to establish what's called aspirational goals, even when there is no disparity, um, provided that those goals reflect market availability, promote inclusion, and do not constitute quotas.

This is based on Cross in 1989 and engineering contractors case in 1997.

The methodology used in this justification follows the studies disparity index and a significance testing framework, but it allows us to pivot toward availability based on aspirational goal setting, which is an accepted practice under narrowly tailoring principles and relevant judicial guidance.

And so as with everything with this program, um, I think it's important to be aware that just as any other industry has standards, there's a certain standard that all of the consultants use when they're conducting disparity studies.

They're not just choosing to include what they want to include.

It has to be based off of case law and the industry standard of what they're going to include.

Um in this graph, what you'll see is the availability based on what is in the study.

And we are choosing to place that as a placeholder to cap the participation in those categories.

And so for example, we look at construction for Hispanic Americans, the cap is 16%.

And that is based on the market availability that was captured in the study.

It allows participation in the MBE program, but it's capped according to availability based on the precedent that has been set.

For professional services, the cap for Asian Americans is 6%, the cap for Hispanics is 7%.

All groups that had no had that had disparity and show significant disparity have full participation in those categories.

And so for instance, you have a construction goal and you have 23%, 20% that is MBE and 10% WBE and 5% SBE.

If I have all of those certifications, I can be considered for any of those, the MBE, the WB, or the SBE.

If I have the MB certification only, and I'm Hispanic, I'm considered for 15% of the MBE portion of the participation goal.

Next slide.

And next slide.

So new programs to support some of this.

Some of the concerns, and one of the reasons why they utilize this aspirational availability, aspirational goal based on availability, is that it reduces the amount of slide back into disparity, right?

So that was one of the concerns of the group was you know, will we slide back in disparity?

So allowing some participation.

So we looked at some new programs to institute to kind of guard against that slide and to better assist the small businesses.

So we'll start off with the veteran and disabled veteran on small business.

You guys expanded that as a part of the ordinance.

So we're working on policies around that program.

That will be a new certification.

Certificate, we will not process that certification.

It will be based upon their SBA certification.

They'll just need to present that to us and prove their local presence because this is a local program.

If they have local presence and they have the SBA certification, we will list them in our directory to be utilized.

But we thought that was a good measure to keep larger firms with more resources from capitalizing on the local program.

So we do now have a personal network cap on the local program.

Certification flexibility for disabled persons and business owners.

This was as a result of a couple of our certification applicants who were unable to be certified based on our other requirements because they had the licensing, but they didn't have the they are disabled for some reason and they couldn't do the work, so it's not reflected in their work, and so we had to deny them.

But we have removed that now, and so we have more flexibility with people with disabilities.

If a firm is an MBE or WBE, they were automatically migrated and received an additional certification, so they are now SBE in the system, and they will be able to be counted starting January 1st in all the procurement categories.

A mentor protege program, which the city had years ago, and we do have an interagency mentor protege program, but we are working with a partner to come up with a private public mentor protege program.

It is important that our businesses don't just rely on the city.

Next slide.

We currently have this program with HPW.

But we're rolling this out across the city.

And what this are contracts that are recurring or jobs that are recurring, not like the work orders, but we know that there are certain legal cases that come up or certain ways that legal uses legal firms.

There are certain IT things that come up on a rotational basis.

This we think will create more of a cash flow for our small business owners, assign them smaller work orders, improve their bonding capabilities if they're have never done bonding or they have low bonding capabilities.

Help them become prime contractors.

One of the questions that you're evaluated on when you want to be a prime is have you ever been a prime?

And so if you're constantly answering no, you don't get any points there.

So we're hoping this will help them to step up and become primes.

It helps them attain a reputable performance and credit history and establish relationships with the surety companies, the bonding companies, and with the department.

Next slide.

The small business reserve is one that we're really excited about.

Procurement and I will be meeting about this a lot.

And so what we're introducing is a small business reserve program that will offer opportunities for our mid-sized business firms to compete for prime contracts.

This program will establish a neat unique marketplace where our small businesses only compete against other small businesses and certified firms instead of the larger, more established firms.

The SBR program will allow departments to choose up to 20% of their procurement expenditures to go to certified firms.

Right now we are toy, we're toying with the total dollar value of between 100,000 to 500,000 that they can compete for, but we think this is going to really move the needle and change the market for mid-sized firms that want to be primes with the city.

Next slide.

New program benefits.

We definitely think that these retain our certification helps everyone to remain in the program.

And it lends itself to reciprocity with our other sister agencies here in the city and county.

Expands our SBE goals and improves competition and equity amongst our small businesses and avoids any disruption in contracts.

Next slide.

And next slide.

So community policy meetings.

Those are the meetings we've been currently having.

So we've been out to some of the districts.

We've had meetings at the Houston Permitting Center.

We're presenting at the ION.

We have meetings coming up.

And so we're having these policy meetings all along.

Just to, we rolled out the first one, and they were industry specific because very different industries have different questions, right?

So just to move it along so that they're not a lot of confusion.

I think that went pretty well, having construction together.

They could ask their specific questions, professional services questions.

And so we've had those, and we continue, we'll continue to have those.

Over, you'll see partner education and training.

So this is gonna be really important.

Um over the next six months, we'll be training our sister departments.

Uh, we'll be changing our sister agencies.

So what you have before you is just a partner education training of how those workshops we've scheduled those.

Um are still to be determined location.

We have some uh projected dates.

Uh we have our organizations in here, our chambers of commerce.

You also listed primes and subcontractors.

We really want to require our primes and subs to be a part of this, so this is gonna go a long way for them to understand the program so that um they're clear on how participation is counted and how we will proceed with compliance.

Um the next slide that you see is a program rollout.

This is a schedule internally.

Um, of course, there are a lot of changes that have to happen with contracts with our bid forms with the forms that OBO utilizes and between departments.

So we've started to work on some of those, and so we'll have more presentations coming to you.

We've got um projected in October to update you on how that process is going with legal SPD and the other departments.

Um then we'll have an intensive departmental training with HP starting with HBW, um, then general services, our other departments, the airport, and then our stakeholders.

So we look for the fall to be all the way to probably December that we'll be training and pushing this information out, hosting events, and making sure that we're getting uh ready to roll this out in January is our goal.

Um I think that is the end.

So I'll open up for any questions you guys have.

Thank you for the presentation, and thank you again for all the work that you've been doing.

I think that um as I've been reading all of the articles about the cities that have lost their program or stopped doing their program, especially in this climate.

I think the work that we have done through your leadership and the mayor's um leadership on wanting to make sure that Houston can retain its program has been stellar.

Um I wanted to tell you that, and then also um let you know that so many people have called and said, Well, how are y'all keeping your program?

And it's because of the input from all of our business owners and making sure that it is important to not only the elected leaders and the leadership, but to the people who have businesses in the city of Houston that they can participate in contracting in the city of Houston.

So I appreciate the comprehensive look at what we do in the city and making sure that we continue to fight to keep this program in the city of Houston.

Councilmember Martinez.

Thank you, Chairwoman.

Uh Director, I just want to just echo some of those sentiments as well.

Uh first and foremost, thank you.

Um you have been out in the community.

I think this is probably the most that OBO has really been out in this capacity.

Um I know it's because of what we're we're talking about the policy changes, but to have to have you specifically and then of course your team be out there um being very honest about how we want small businesses to do be successful in Houston.

It it is it is something good good to have.

Um we want to make sure uh that small businesses can you know as as they are the backbone to our our economy that they that they're successful, and so just wanted to say thank you first and foremost.

Um as we're moving forward and looking at the the rollout schedule, knowing that there's could possibly possibly be modified, um the policies that that your your you and your team are continuing to work on.

Um at what point will y'all stop taking feedback?

Well, we don't ever stop taking feedback.

Um we're gonna try to these policies in place uh September uh so that we can train on the meat of the policy.

But if there's something that we need to adjust, um we can adjust it.

You know, the hardest thing is adjusting the ordinance, the policy.

You know, when I roll this out and I was talking to people, the policy is the meat of what we do.

The ordinance kind of gives you the overarching, but the day-to-day is how we roll it out.

And you know, deeper than this, we have a huge book of SOPs in every division.

So there are things, you know, there's feedback as we start to move this along and we see something needs to be adjusted.

Um please bring that to us because we are going down.

Um I think I know just talk to talking to my colleagues in other cities.

Uh, this utilizing this availability approach is the most narrowly tailored that people have seen and makes it so defensible that we're hoping that we can hold on to this a little while longer so we can get more people in.

Yeah, uh no, and and I and I asked the question just because um you have been doing a great job of being out in the community, but there's always folks we should we shared this uh committee meeting with uh slew of emails that are we've been having consistent conversations.

We did get some email feedback, uh, but I'm surprised that there's not a lot of folks here today.

Um, and so if there's another opportunity, whether it's in this committee or if it's gonna be ventured around city council, um, I want to encourage business to know that the conversation, the lines of communication are open, and so we uh we welcome them.

Um and just looking at this rollout schedule, it looks like possibly October will might be solidifying so that way training can happen.

And I'm saying that publicly because I want folks to continue to know that this this uh the time is now to have the conversation as as we start um ensuring that we can keep the MWSBE.

Um, but as uh Mayor Pro Tem mentioned, you know, I think Dallas just got rid of theirs recently for men.

Correct.

And and um and a little bit about the the uh court case and uh in with this um understanding that that there that the uh complaint continue to move forward with uh with the lawsuit.

Um I appreciate expanding the SBE program, uh having that foresight uh to kind of list what does it look like if this were to happen.

Uh because uh then that's where the real work really should be invested because at the end of the day, if it were to happen, we would be set up to make sure that small businesses are still taking care of.

So again, just want to say thank you uh for the engagement, and I want to make sure that community understand that that this is still an opportunity to uh have conversations with with you all and of course this horseshoe.

We are um constantly watching what's happening, um, of course, in other cities and how they're moving, um, understanding that we want to protect what we have, but also being prepared.

So I'm always trying to be prepared and think two steps ahead.

I think expanding the program gives us that.

I think that it also brings credence to the fact that we're flexible in the courts, that we're allowing for the flexibility of equity as well as inclusion and through the availability uh matrix.

So I think that we've added a great portion to that.

Thank you.

Councilmember Davis.

Thank you, Mayor Pro Tem Chair.

Um, thank you.

Great presentation today, and I certainly want to highlight um your work and your staff for putting this together.

This was a very uh thin, you know, type road to kind of come up with a program.

I echo my fellow colleagues about uh our uh investment in what we look for for the MWBE for the record, way before in another lifetime, way before I was ever uh on council, even considered to be on council, the issue of the MWBE, which I echoed to all people doing that process of disparity issue that we want to represent fairness across the board.

We don't want anything in this city.

That's the whole purpose of why MWBE was instituted so that there could be fair play and all of the different communities and our um races would have an opportunity to participate.

Well, I say that because what you and I have discussed over the past weeks was something on my agenda coming into office, and that was to bring financial um avenues to the small business, minority business, women businesses.

Every city, state, and county don't have all of the money.

You're only gonna have so much money.

That's only so much money.

We argue around this horseshoe every week about how much we spend, and you know, we've given here too much.

So that was the whole purpose of us creating, and I'm bringing to working with you and thank you for partnering.

We're going to create this financial symposium.

You know, city have limited money, state have limited money, county have limited money, and we now see federal government gonna have limited money.

But banks got money, and banks have money under the community reinvestment act of 1976-7, which is something that I protest in 1988, which is how a lot of non-for-profit small businesses got seed loans.

But if people check the history and look back over what the fight is, and so when banks were redlining and discriminating against small businesses of all races, the MWBE helped people to get in it by using the vehicle of the city.

So I want to again thank you for this.

I'm looking forward to it.

When we hold the symposium, it's scheduled for October.

Um I'm going to invite all of those, my colleagues and those that will come and be concerned and help others to come, small businesses of all, no matter what your uh race or is, we want to make sure that everybody gets the opportunity to get at the table.

So thank you for your work.

I want to thank your staff for helping us put that together, and I'm looking forward to helping all of our city to come to the table and be benefited by access to to businesses and funds.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ramirez.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Director.

You've had a busy year.

I appreciate you always being available to take my questions.

And I know you put a lot of work into this.

Um I have a few questions for you.

Earlier you mentioned that you do have a list of firms that have graduated from various uh NACE codes.

Can can you share that with the members of council?

Yes, I will.

I can send it.

Great.

Thank you.

Also, um, with regard to slide number 12 where you lay out the uh proposed new caps.

Um we've had a a question and a request for the data, access to the data that confirms these caps, in other words, total certified professional service firms, and then within that uh, for instance, the Hispanic firms and the Asian firms.

Can where where can we find that or can you make it available to us?

Um I can send you which appendices you can find that in.

As a part of the appendices that's on our website, and I can send you which ones, the which appendices and which table that refers to in the uh disparity study report.

That'd be great.

I would provide that.

That'd be great.

We also had some feedback that uh regarding the uh minority women not fitting in the not non-minority women category and feeling that they are penalized because of that.

Um they don't qualify in uh in that.

And so um I'm curious to know has any thought been given to creating just a uh uh a combined minority and non-minority women category or a separate category for minority women?

So the WBE category includes women.

The disparity study looks at non-minority women because when the when uh these programs started, minority women were counted as minorities.

We were all M's first, so I'm an M first, right?

And then non-minority women were added as the WBE.

So the program as WBE wasn't set up for me.

It was set up for non-minority women.

So when they do the disparity study, they want to look at how it's affecting non-minority women, which is why you see it in the disparity study that way.

But the WBE category, I if I want to be certified as a WB, I'm also in that category with them.

But for the purposes of the disparity study, they separated out because I'm also first an M, I'm secondly a W.

And so I know that's a little convoluted, but that's how the program works.

Okay.

How then do we know how minority women are being affected?

We can pull the data out.

It's a part of the awards report.

So the report that you'll get at the end of uh you probably should get it this week.

So our annual report, and it comes out quarterly, actually pulls out how minority women are doing and how minorities are doing.

Um it has it all detailed there.

And so if you want me to send it separately, I can send you the awards report.

That'd be great.

And just a final question, and I'll and I'll be done.

Um are there any entities that have a category for minority women?

Um not minority women, no.

Just so the WBE.

Are there any entities that have a category for minority women?

Oh no, you have minority or you have women.

And so generally, if I'm the 51 percent owner and I'm an MBE, I can get that WBE.

And so people get both.

And so you have the opportunity, so you don't have to choose between the two.

So you can do both.

Some people choose to only have one, um, and so you have that flexibility, but no, there's no say um black B or Hispanic B or minority B.

No.

Okay.

Not for women.

Thank you.

Councilmember Carter.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, I too would be interested in the number of uh, you know, like how many entities with professional services specifically as relates to the Hispanic and Asian.

I think that's slide 13.

There it is.

Um, yeah, so when you send it to uh council member rumors.

Okay.

How many certified, you know, uh organization.

Okay.

Or if you just save it to everybody, or you can send it to everybody either way.

Okay.

We're happy to help.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions?

If not, director, thank you very much.

Uh we appreciate your time today and your staff for being here and for all of the great work they've done on this.

Thank you guys for all your support.

I appreciate it.

We do have one public speaker who was supposed to be online, not online.

We'll call her name anyway, just in case she decided to come to chambers today.

Is Arlene Pochet here?

Arlene Porchet.

Arlene Porchet online, not online.

Okay.

If you uh see this or you still have a question, feel free to reach out to us.

Are there any other members in the chamber that would wish to make comments?

Uh yes, uh Doug's here.

Come on on down, Doug.

All right, Doug, you get a hold two minutes to tell us how you feeling and all the good things you want us to know today.

Glad to see you.

Uh when it deals with tours, uh, you know I have to be here.

Okay.

And that's why I'm here tonight today.

Um there are lots of rumbles uh about possibly instituting a trash fee or doing something about the property tax cap and doing something for uh public safety.

And I would like to suggest that before you go to the citizens to do to you know have to pay any more, you consider doing everything you possibly can to spread the money from the tours around to the whole city, not just to the tourist themselves.

And I'm particularly dealing with the big five, at Memorial City and Uptown, Midtown, Upper Kirby, and downtown.

They all are very prosperous uh tours areas that have lots of money.

And uh I think it would make it a lot easier for citizens to see that hey, we're doing everything we possibly can, and we've done this and we've spread the money around, and we still need your help in doing these things.

Not only the tours, but also I know we've drawn some money from Metro, but I think there's still more money from Metro that could be drawn before once again you come to the citizens.

And hopefully, as you do the tours budgets, you keep that in mind and see if there's a way to spread that money around.

As I've said before, uh it's like the rich get richer and the rest of the city suffers.

And uh hopefully we can do something about that.

And that's all I'm here to say.

Thank you, Doug.

I appreciate those comments.

If there are no other speakers, uh colleagues, before we adjourn, I'd like to let everyone know the next scheduled special joint budget and fiscal affairs and economic development committee meeting will be on Tuesday, August the 26th at 2 p.m.

If you are interested in receiving information about the economic development committee meetings, you can contact the district K office.

The time is 3 23, and our meeting is adjourned.

Thank you all for being here today.