Page 101 - Fort Worth City Budget 2019

General Fund

addition to reorganizing the department, great strides have been made regarding messaging, a revised incentive
strategy, and launching a Medical Innovation District.

To support the implementation of the Strategic Plan, the department implemented a customer relations
management system (Salesforce) to effectively track projects and implement a business retention program.
Likewise, the Office of Business Diversity implemented a new Business Diversity Compliance System (B2GNow).

The Local Development Corporation, managed by the Economic Development Department, sold Pinnacle Bank
Place/250 Lancaster, providing additional resources to the City of Fort Worth to support economic development
efforts.

FY2019 DISCUSSION
The FY2019 Adopted Budget includes an increase of 3 APs and 3.00 FTEs from the FY2018 budget due to the
addition of two economic development specialists for 2.00 FTEs and the addition of one business development
coordinator for 1.00 FTE. The FY2019 Adopted Budget increases funding for one senior management analyst for
0.40 FTE, one senior administrative assistant for 0.50 FTE and one administrative technician for 0.60 FTE. These
FTEs were previously funded by grants.

The FY2019 Adopted Budget increases by $482k in salaries and benefits mainly due to increased city funding for
five employees previously funded by grants and a new economic development specialist noted above. The FY2019
Adopted Budget increases by $185K for a transfer from the Fort Worth Local Development Corporation to provide
funding for implementation of the Economic Development Strategic Plan. The FY2019 Adopted Budget increases
by $363k for estimated 380 agreement incentive payouts to businesses with new development in Fort Worth and
cooperative funding for a medical innovation district in Fort Worth.

HORIZON ISSUES

The Economic Development Department will be evaluating the city’s role in entrepreneurial and small business
development in FY2019 and numerous new partners in the ecosystem. A Small Business/Entrepreneurial
Ecosystem Audit will be conducted to further support this effort. There is continued uncertainty related to the
Small Business Initiatives funded entirely through a State grant in partnership with UNTHSC. Additionally, this
impacts funding for IdeaWorks Fort Worth.

The Business Diversity team is manually keying contract payments to thousands of Prime Contractor records due
to inability to extract financial data from BuySpeed Online and upload into B2GNow. Staff has been working with
other city departments to address this problem. This is creating challenges in being fully compliant to the BDE
Ordinance as staff resources are limited. Currently contract compliance specialists handle 300-400 contracts each.
These numbers are expected to increase due to the implementation of the 2018 Bond Program. This does not
allow the Economic Development Department to host and/or attend the workshops and events necessary to
support efforts to build capacity.
In addition to Business Diversity staffing challenges, the Economic Development Department has an increasing
need for a dedicated marketing/public information position, as well as resources to support economic
development marketing and messaging.

The Economic Development Department, through the Office of Business Diversity, is required to complete an
Availability and Disparity Study. This study should begin in FY2019 and be completed in FY2020.

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