PRESENTER: Presenter
Jeff Jewell, Economic and Community Development Director
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SUBJECT: Title
Presentation, discussion, and possible action approving a proposed professional services agreement with the City of New Braunfels
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DEPARTMENT: Economic and Community Development
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The New Braunfels Economic Development Corporation (NBEDC) maintains a contract with the City of New Braunfels for administrative and professional services in support of the NBEDC’s mission at an annual cost of $290,000. Specifically, the contract requires the City to perform administrative and professional services tasks such as contract development and management, pay applications, company and incentive auditing services, fiscal impact analysis, and record keeping. Additionally, $100,000 of this amount is an allowance for the City’s contract with its workforce housing consultant, which was contracted in May 2023.
The City provides staff in support of the above services but also assists with implementation of the Economic Development Strategic Plan with many initiatives and duties not explicitly defined above. In partnership with the Greater New Braunfels Chamber of Commerce, City staff identify projects for feasibility, planning, development, and eventual construction/implementation. The 2.75 FTEs currently dedicated to supporting the Economic and Community Development (ECD) department administer the EDC’s normal business, as well as advance strategic capital projects such as the South Castell Preliminary Design, support airport planning and development, and act as lead staff for the Union Pacific Railroad property acquisition. In addition, the City’s ECD staff oversee and are liaison to five community boards: NBEDC, Workforce Housing Advisory Committee, Downtown Board, Central Texas Technology Center Advisory Board, and the TIRZ 3 Downtown Board.
There are two service expansions proposed for the 2023-2024 services agreement between the NBEDC and City of New Braunfels. The full funding of an Assistant Project Manager in the Transportation and Capital Improvements (TCI) Department and the additional cost of moving the ECD’s Administrative Assistant from part-time to full-time status would increase the contract by $115,413 to a total amount of $405,386.
At the last NBEDC meeting, a question was asked to statutory limits around administrative expenses for economic development corporations. State law caps marketing and promotional expenses by Type B Corporations at 10 percent of annual revenues, except under certain circumstances.
Assistant Project Manager
More than twenty percent (20%) of the TCI department’s project workload are from NBEDC supported projects. During the summer of 2022, the NBEDC worked to prioritize and adopt a list of capital projects to financially support as funds were available.
These project expenditures represent more than $22M in potential community wide investment. During that discussion, the NBEDC expressed its desire to see capital projects go to the construction phase more quickly. To achieve this outcome, staff recommended the final design process commence for a variety of projects. This helps ensure that projects are ready to move to construction once the funding is identified. Since then, TCI and ECD staff have developed final design and engineering contracts for consideration and approval by the NBEDC. To date, more than $1.7M in contracts have been approved with the design processes commencing on five different projects. Over the next two months, staff anticipates the total approved contracts to increase to more than $3.5M with the NBEDC acting on the Kohlenberg Road final design and Dry Comal Creek Trail feasibility and conceptual designs:
The nine projects and final design efforts above demand a significant amount of TCI staff resources and time commitments not available for other projects. This is in addition to the Sports Complex Project in the 2019 bond program that is expected to be under construction this fall through 2024. With the NBEDC capital projects and the 2023 bond program now underway, there is a need for an Assistant Project Manager (APM) to augment TCI staff currently managing NBEDC and City bond projects. This APM would support the primary Project Managers to create and update project schedules, collect, and resolve consultant design submittals and changes, draft meeting minutes, coordinate extensively with utility companies, perform site visits and complete daily reports. The staff augmentation for project management is needed given the scale of the 2023 bond program and the expanded work program TCI is undertaking with NBEDC funded projects. Ideally, as the designs are completed during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, the APM would transition into a more active construction and project management role as the projects move into the construction administration phase.
The estimated total cost - salary and benefits - for the APM is $92,413 annually. This full amount is reflected in the proposed contract amount and represents .4% of the estimated project budget for all the nine NBEDC funded projects.
Full Time Administrative Assistant
The addition of a dedicated Administrative Assistant has augmented and improved the ECD department’s capabilities in board communication and administration, record keeping and contract management. Additionally, the position supports the five different committees ECD currently interfaces with monthly, producing draft minutes, scheduling meeting rooms, conducting research and a variety of supportive activities as needed. The position also coordinates and works with internal departments to ensure payments and incentives are paid on a timely basis.
However, the position is limited to part-time regular status and currently works less than 29.5 hours per week. The City proposes taking the position to full-time status and increasing the services contract by the marginal cost to go full time, which is $23,000.
ISSUE:
The City is proposing the 2023-2024 contract be increased by $115,413 to better reflect the City’s expanded service and project delivery. The increase will compensate the City appropriately for its costs in administering NBEDC activities, providing the appropriate level of professional services to the corporation, and managing the expanded capital improvements program assumed by the corporation. The revised professional services agreement and project expenditure for the NBEDC’s consideration is for a total amount of $405,386.