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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Board - Minutes - 09/21/2022 ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR September 21, 2022 4:00 – 6:00 pm Via Zoom 0 9 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER 4:00 pm 2. ROLL CALL • List of Board Members Present o Renee Walkup o Blake Naughton o Thierry Dossou o Denny Coleman o Jeff Havens o Brauilo Rajoas o Aric Light o John Parks • List of Board Members Absent – Excused or Unexcused, if no contact with Chair has been made. o Mistene Nugent • List of Staff Members Present o Jillian Fresa, Staff Liaison, Economic Sustainability o Honore Depew, Sr Manager, Environmental Services o Molly Saylor, Lead Specialist, Environmental Services Sustainability o Ashley Gutierrez, Business Support III, Economic Sustainability 3. AGENDA REVIEW • No changes 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION • N/A 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 2 • No changes-minutes approved 6. UNFISNISHED BUSINESS • City Council Work Session Debrief − Jillian shared the recording from the Council work session with the Board where they discussed minimum wage. No decision was made but, they are looking at different scenarios like a $18 or $19/hr. minimum wage and phasing it over three to five years. Staff is evaluating their suggestions. There is a strong support to determine a number. − Q (Aric) Was the takeaway yes, they are going to go through with a minimum wage but just need to decide on an amount? − A (Jillian) Yes and that is what they have been sharing for a while. It is more about what number they may need to go with rather than if they are. They will most likely determine a number in November. − Q (Renee) So they are looking at phasing that over three years? − A (Jillian) Yes, three to five years. Those are the different scenarios they are looking at right now. − Comment (Thierry) I think that is great. Its not a question of if but what. 7. NEW BUSINESS • Our Climate Future Implementation − Presentation from Honore Depew, Senior Manager with Environmental Services and Molly Saylor, Lead Specialist with Environmental Services. − City Council asked them to come back with a road map to help understand where key decision points may be going forward with Our Climate Future (OCF) as well as a resolution to establish an interim greenhouse gas reduction target between now and 2030. They will be taking the roadmap back to Council on October 11th and the resolution on October 25th. − OCF was a joint update of the Energy Policy, Road to Zero Waste Plan, and Climate Action Plan. The goals are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% below 2005 baseline levels by 2030, be carbon neutral by 2050, provide 100% renewable electricity by 2030 with grid and local sources, and achieve zero waste or 100% landfill diversion by 2030. The goals are aligned with strategic objectives, speaks to many plans throughout the city, and are centered in equity and improving community resilience. − Reaching the goals is not technical or a math problem, it is a question of how ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 3 we all come together to work on these issues. They created Big Moves based on what the community told them they wanted for a sustainable future. The Big Moves are: − Better Together: shared leadership and community partnership; zero waste neighborhoods; and climate resilient community. − Live Better: convenient transportation choices; live, work, and play nearby; efficient emissions free buildings; healthy affordable housing; and local, affordable, and healthy food. − Resource Better: healthy, local economy and jobs; and zero waste economy − Breathe Better: healthy natural spaces; 100% renewable electricity; and electric cars and fleets. − Council has had a long history of championing climate action. There is a busy and impactful decade ahead. Much of Council’s current work and priorities align with OCF Big Moves. − It is important to acknowledge outside influences such as costs, inflation, state regulations, and relationships like with Platte River Power Authority (PRPA). There is a cost for action but also a cost for inaction. − Although this focuses on Council roles, the community has leadership responsibilities as well. Council has tools at their disposal such as levelers they can pull to incentivize and regulate around infrastructure, investments, etc. As they present, they will try to set Council up for success so they can think about what lever they would like to use to advance the strategy. The City’s role can be direct and influential. − The pathways are grouped into buildings, electricity, land use, supply chain, transportation, and waste. Within each pathway are heavy hitters. For example, under waste they know that diversion of organic material will be one of the heavy hitters. There are other things they can do and should do but the pathways focus on those key items. − They will be presenting a graph that will build out each of the pathways, show their relative impact, and any key dates. It will allow them to step Council through each of the pathways and show the impact of the strategies. It is still in its early stages and more will get added to the graph. This will show them 2022-2026 and then they will show them a more long-term concept to get the full view. This will show them where we are, where we could be after taking these actions, and then we will bring that conversation back around to the goal question. They have done some thinking about interim goals, but this will ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 4 allow them to come back for next steps. − Q (Aric) To clarify, this is intended to be a roadmap for the consideration of future specific policies. For example, you are going to detail electrification is one pathway to reducing our greenhouse target. Council should consider charging stations. Is the road map intended to give us something to refer back to? − A (Honore) There are specific strategies like electrification of our transportation system and those might just go forward. There might be a spot where Council needs to consider how to accelerate that. The road map is intended to put the pins on the timeline of those various Strategies. There might be some tough conversations or important policies for considering. I think it will be clearer with the visuals. − Q (Jeff) I think the idea you have is a solid one based on the graph, what I picture coming off it, and how are you going to turn that into explanations of what you should do when or at least conversations about it. It seems clear and strong. Molly was distinguishing between what she was calling the heavy hitters and the other strategies. If you were to show just the heavy hitters, ignore any other strategy, and extend that graph out to 2030, how close are we to that 80% reduction target? − A (Molly) I can’t tell you exactly, but with OCF there is the City’s role and with in that, our City Council plays an important piece, but then there is the community leadership and community action. That could be things like our business community and industries working on circular economy. The City may support that work, but we may not be in the lead positions. Those are the things that are harder to calculate, that we know are going to have to happen. Once the heavy hitters have been identified we start to have to ask ourselves, is it better to continue to find more things for the City to lead on or is it important to build capacity for community leadership. I think we will show that there is almost a wedge of its own where community leadership and community action gets us an additional chunk of that. That is going to be something new where in the past we might have had that more as a gap, where now we are recognizing it is not necessarily a gap, its just not us doing it. − Comment (Jeff) I like that. I don’t know exactly what you are going to be showing but I have an idea. My only concern had been if you are going to tell people these six things are going to accomplish “X” percent but if you want to accomplish it there are going to be these other 23 smaller things. The City might feel this is sort of an ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 5 overwhelming impossible task. You almost give people a surrender before they even try. Where you have the City responsible for the big obvious things and community members who get built into the conversation who are responsible for some other pieces, that seems a lot more manageable from City Council and what their role is/what they can accomplish standpoint. That approach to your communication seems very solid. − Comment (Molly) I will add that it isn’t as black and white as just those two categories; there are other strategies that reflect ongoing programs. It does make a meaningful contribution, but it is something that is already going on. I think because those things are already in process, we want to shine the bigger light on the heavy hitters that Council can work on and the things we need to be seeing in the community. − Q (Blake) In your pathways are you showing to Council one pathway with these chunks or is it a series of policy options? For example, are you giving option of here is a regulatory solution that would make businesses do “XYZ” versus an incentive solution and here is the band of what the response is. Is that what might be to predict how big of a wedge it results in to add it all up. − A (Honore) I think you are right on the money. While we won’t be getting into the detailed nuance of which policy tool at this work session, that is exactly what this framework sets Council up for to be able to think of it at a systems level when they go into certain discussions. They can get into those details of how we implement this and what is the right mixture of those levers Council has to pull. They can think of it in both that specific strategic context of the policy they are helping develop as well as how it fits into the larger network/system. − Comment (Blake) That is helpful and I would like to offer a suggestion. I like your year by year for Council action. I think there would be other Boards, like this one, as it intersects with those conversations to help us see how and when we can be helpful to your efforts as we plan our agenda. − Comment (Honore) It is not just our team, it is staff from across the organization who are implementing Council’s vision and progressing on their work plan. However, your point was well taken. I love the idea of being able to set up a clear protocol for involving Boards and Commissions and helping them understand where advising is most needed. ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 6 − Q (John) I appreciate what you are saying about how there are some things not under the City’s jurisdiction that changes something or not. You mentioned electricity markets and thank you for mentioning the PRPA presentation. I didn’t get to see that, but I would like to see it because I know PRPA recently announced their plan to join the Southwest Colorado pool in 2025. Today they have 65% fossil generation, and it will put things out of PRPAs hands to an extent for them to try to attain the 100% carbon free electricity goal by 2030. I would like to have further conversations about that. On another note, I was thinking about the interim goals that are going to be proposed at the October 25th meeting. I am curious on your department’s thoughts about those interim goals. I understand you might not be able to take a position until Council decides but if there were interim goals would it be helpful for you or is it too much of a fire? − A (Honore) Just backing up to the PRPA, you will see in the presentation is based on some of the factors of their resource diversification. With the agreement you mentioned, they are now projecting to be able to only reach 85-90% renewable electricity by 2030, which is different than the previous 100% renewable electricity commitment. That is one of the external factors that does have influence and impact. We have been factoring that into our modeling. That transparency is also appreciated so we can figure out together how to close the gap. To your second point, staff has always been supportive of adopting an interim greenhouse gas goal. I think it hasn’t been a top priority considering the more broad and inclusive nature of our climate work (which is now zero waste, renewable electricity, greenhouse gas emissions with a commitment to equity and resilience embedded). We found from our experience as well as best practices across communities that are trying to lead on climate is that continuing to have a very narrowed focus on greenhouse gas emissions at the exclusion of other priorities can take away or undermine the ability to reach those goals long-term. − Comment (Molly) We are learning so much about how our community wants to lead in this space with us and one of the things we learned on this equity journey is that if you are not specifically making sure that everyone is involved, you can pretty much assume they are not. We have missed some leaders in our community in the past, especially from our historically underrepresented communities. As we expand who helps us lead in this or who already is leading in it and really evaluating that leadership, we may find that we have different expectations on pace. To have everyone being able to lead, we may need to adjust to where the community is at. We are new in this so ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 7 without more experience on how fast we should be going to not leave the community behind is to get all the community leadership with us. It is tough to be in this reoriented space where it is not just about a math problem. We have a lot to learn about how fast we can go to make that equity piece really work and I don’t think anyone knows the answer right now. − Comment (Honore) I would just wrap that up by saying there is support for interim goals and they can help drive action, especially the accountably piece. We need to be careful not to make it a conversation about just technical solutions because it leaves people out of the conversation. It is an “and” so we are trying to have a bigger conversation. Council already considered a resolution in August and voted to adjourn and postpone that to October 25th. We are almost certain they will be adopting an interim goal and we will be asking them what number they want us to put in the resolution. − Q (Thierry) How are we compared to other cities like Denver? Are there any lessons we can learn from them? − A (Honore) Yes, we are part of a whole network of cities that are working hard in that space across the state and country. There are different conditions in terms of size, location, etc. but Denver has been a leader especially recently. Their voters approved a dedicated sales tax called the Climate Protection Fund that currently generates $40 million/year. It can only be used in six categories that specifically support climate equity, transportation and different aspects of climate that help accelerate those goals. Boulder has also done a lot as well as many of the smaller mountain communities. − Q (Ashley) When you are talking about your plan and referring to community, do you consider that City of Fort Collins boundaries or Northern Colorado? Just asking if you are addressing/partnering regionally and if you are finding difference of opinion. − A (Honore) Yes and it is a big topic because it is not just one thing; there are different answers in different sectors. I mentioned the North Front Range Metropolitan Planning Organization, which is an organization that helps support regionalism transportation. We talked about the regional waste shed which is helping to hopefully support the development of shared infrastructure and that includes many different communities mainly in Larimer County. Larimer County itself has recently entered phase three of their Climate Smart future ready planning work that we are involved in and trying to align in. There are ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 8 more specific aspects like land development code, that do not have influence outside of our boundaries. However, increasing housing options and the ability for people to live near where they work has impacts on travel patterns and how people arrange themselves throughout the region. − Q (Ashley) Just wondering if you have anything to help Council plug other communities in that are contributing to the air quality issues, or water use. I know we only have control over the City of Fort Collins, but the way I have been viewing it as Northern Colorado. The City of Fort Collins seems to be the most progressive or invested in a Climate Action Plan, so I was just wondering if you have thoughts on ways to invite others to the table to help. − A (Honore) That is probably a much larger conversation than we will plan to get into in this narrow space, but it is a really important point. I know there is a lot of regional and political drama situations that are involved but we will highlight some of those specific things. − Comment (Denny) Climate is such a global issue that any successes, what you do, what you achieve is important to promote. It sounds like you have networks at the state and perhaps national level to do that. I think it is important because despite the evidence being slapped in peoples face about the problem, there is still some of the skeptics out there. I understand we are not at the promotion state yet, but I think promotional services to our broader community is important. − Comment (Honore) That is a great point and we do have a national and international relationships including a sister city in Portugal. Molly has been there, and our mayor is headed over there this fall in an exchange trip. There is some interesting stuff in that community especially around economic development work. − Comment (Molly) We look to them for a lot of interesting work. One of the most interesting things, is they are skilled at attracting resources like funding and technical expertise and then pairing that with community partner for a pilot to eventually transition ownership to the community. One of the areas they have done that in is some of the work they have done in circular economy. For example, they have initiated an incubation space in partnership with a textile manufacturer. They are in the process of handing that off into community ownership. That is a startup space that is physically located in one of the textile manufacturers. It is a government/community partner project that will ultimately live within the communities’ ownership. We are looking to ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 9 them for content related things, but also their processes. They have a whole slew of things that they have successfully done and have been doing for decades. When we talk about needing to first build some capacity and build relationships, we can then say if we do this now, here is what it can look like down the line. They have been asking us how our elected leaders here got so involved and invested in our climate work. They are hoping to see similar investments on their elected leaders, so we have been able to tell more of our history and how that came about. There is a lot of fruitful exchange around that and they way we have moved from climate action being about a math problem to being technical solutions and service of human priorities. That is something that has been part of a transformation across the US, and we are not the first City. We learned from other cities, we’ve shared, and now we are seeing parts of our plan in other cities’ plans. We also speak at and learn from conferences regularly. − Comment (Honore) We are members of some international organizations and have been recognized by C40 Cities internationally for the climate leadership, so it is a international conversation. − Q (Renee) I think everyone is concerned about it as it is a huge issue. When I drive around town, I see a lot of cars spewing out pollution. I know people are coming in from other places, but I know a lot of them also have Colorado Tags. What are we doing to address that? − A (Honore) There is a lot of work being done in the coming years and implementing transportation work plans. Part of the strategic planning is around the concept of travel demand management; helping to support individuals, businesses, and organizations by getting folks out of single occupancy vehicles; reducing vehicle miles traveled through a various number of ways whether it is helping getting people bikes or improving the transit system; and education outreach around combining trips and what kind of cars to buy. When you are specifically talking about the emissions and pollution associated, there are some increasing regulations at the state level coming through around greenhouse gas emissions associated with transportation. There is also very recent development around us being in a severe non-attainment status for air quality. When you go from serious to severe there are some things that will come along with that in terms of forcing the hand of local governments more. − Q (Ashley) Is that the active modes plan? − A (Honore) Active modes plan is one aspect of the whole ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 10 transportation landscape and that will be in front of Council in December. It is really focused on pedestrian, bicycle, and micro mobility. Travel demand regiment is slightly aside but very much related. That will be ramping up next year. − Comment (Renee) I know this is a huge issue. Some people have to drive, and it just seems like the biggest offenders are the largest vehicles. Trucks take off at stoplights and this black smoke spews out. I just find it poor for air quality and it affects people’s health. It’s a concern. I don’t know how much can be done but I think it needs to be addressed. − Comment (Honore) Increasingly we are hoping to link health, air quality, and climate together because health and air quality are more tangible than invisible greenhouse gas. − Comment (Renee) The City does a great job for homeowners in sending out information about saving electricity, when to save, what appliances to turn off, etc. I don’t see much coming out that explains solar and how solar can benefit you. I think people kind of know but the City could do a better job, if those papers are already going out to provide information. You could say if your house went solar, here is how long it would be to pay it off, here is what it would do for the environment, or here is what you would get back. I believe people could use more education. − Comment (Honore) I think it is an all the above strategy sort of approach. − Q (Aric) Have we given any thought consideration to the cost of meeting these targets? There are probably some levers you can pull that are going to have a lot of cost. You mentioned regulation and taxes to build a fund like what Denver has done. What does that look like? Then simultaneously there are benefits. Have we done any sort of math on what the benefits are. − A (Honore) Generally we try to sort and quantify costs on a project-by- project basis or at the strategic level rather than trying to put a big price tag on climate overall. It can be problematic and not genuine to estimate a whole total number. However, there are real costs involved and we need to be clear about that. That is Council’s role to have that conversation to say what are the trade offs we want to consider. Some of that is around increase cost of action but some of that is acknowledging the increase cost of inaction. I know my kids had two afternoons home two weeks ago when all of PSD schools had to shut down because it got too hot, and they didn’t have air conditioning. The cost on our local economy of all those caregivers having to scramble ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 11 and possibly lose worktime to balance that vs the cost of investing in new air conditioning units across the district. Those are some of the costs of inaction on climate that are probably worth highlighting. − Comment (Molly) In the past this was sort of single investment, single outcome calculating. The benefit to cost ratio was not super straight forward but probably simpler on a project-to-project basis. On this new path, if we have a dollar to spend, we can accomplish something for climate, housing, and food access all at once because we can do it where those things intersect and where people’s priorities really are. That gets more complicated because the benefits are broader but more distributed and not as easy to capture in dollars. In concept we are getting further with each dollar, but it gets harder to do the math. That is where we need to be clear about what outcomes we can achieve without strategies. Right now, there is capacity building in that too, to find what those strategies are, and to align more where people’s priorities are specifically. That is sort of the vision, that we can make each dollar go further, get more done, and make it more meaningful to people and their lives rather than a straightforward calculation. It just makes it harder on the math end. • Small Business Recovery Grants − Presentation by Ashley Gutierrez, Business Support III with Economic Sustainability. − They finished round one which went from August 1st – August 30th and had 187 applications. There are some requirements they are thinking about changing for round two that opens on October 3rd. These grants are recovery grants, but the Multicultural Business and Entrepreneur Center is working on start up grants. − Q (Renee) Is this going to be presented at FOCO Founders? − A (Ashley) Edgar will be speaking, and he is the one that has been working directly with the businesses − Presentation (Ashley) One eligibility guideline they are thinking about changing is increasing the maximum annual gross revenue from 500k to 1 million. They had feedback from businesses that were either right over the 500k or around the 700k mark that are still recovering and had challenges. Other eligibility guidelines include less than 40 full time employees, located/registered in Fort Collins, current business license, and in operation since November 1st, 2019. Solopreneurs like artists are eligible. − Organizations outside of city limits and activities that support a religious ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 12 purpose are not eligible. They are considering changing corporate owned franchises or publicly traded companies, businesses owned or operated by officials or employees of the City of Fort Collins, and nonprofits whose mission is advocacy and do not provide program services to the public. They had quite a few franchises apply that were spas or IV bars. There is a fine line because they want to make sure they are helping those businesses that are reinvesting in the local economy, but they did receive some pushback for that. − Q (Renee) It is my understanding that if it’s a franchise, they are still paying sales tax and other taxes. Are they not considered local business even if they are owned locally? − A (Ashley) I think the concern there is that because they are paying royalties, a percentage automatically goes to their corporate headquarters. Any grant funds we would give them, because it would technically be revenue, they would have to give a percentage to their home office. − Q (Renee) So Coca-Cola would get richer? − A (Ashley) Yes, that is where the big concern is, is they don’t even get to keep the whole grant. − Presentation There are a few City employees that have side businesses like artists, photographers, candy makers, potters and they were ineligible round one because they were employees. She did find out from the City’s attorney’s that they feel like employees don’t have to be excluded but Ashley and her team didn’t want there to be any conflict of interest. That is now up for discussion. They also included non-profits in round one because they were thinking about places like Bas Bleu Theater where they are technically a non- profit but they are still part of the business community. It was a little harder to process their applications because they are not businesses. They got questions about if grants and donations were considered revenue and ended up counting any dollars that were brought in. There are a lot of grants geared toward non-profits through the Sustainability Department in Social Services. They did create rules around double dipping so programs, projects, or organizations already receiving operations funding form the City was excluded. School districts, businesses involved in real estate investment, multilevel marketing, adult entertainment, firearms, and cannabis were also excluded. They also excluded multi-year funding requests and debt related funding. − There are three categories in which businesses could apply for Stabilization; Technical assistance; and Workforce talent and acquisition. Stabilization is ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 13 up to $7,500. The purpose is to help stabilize businesses that have lost at least 15% in revenue from Covid-19 related difficulties. They will be rewriting the requirements and questions on this category to get clearer answers. A combination of revenue loss and expense increase is acceptable to meet the 15%. In the second round they are changing it so businesses can’t completely recover their revenue but say their expense is going up by 15%. With the inflation we are seeing most business expenses have gone up. Although they would love to fund them, they are prioritizing those small businesses that are working towards recovering. − Technical assistance is up to $5,000 to help small businesses to connect with subject matter experts to obtain key business infrastructure or knowledge they need to feel stable and/or resilient. They have seen applications for email marketing, website/social media specialists, accountants, or specialty items like a laser printer to eliminate supply chain issues. − Comment (Denny) I think the contracting a website specialist to improve your SEO, google ads, social media etc., and hiring a photographer to refresh your website and marketing materials are excellent ideas because the differences in website quality is enormous. Being able to fund that for a small company is great. − Comment (Ashley) One of my favorite applications was a longtime Old Town shop. They didn’t update their website during the pandemic, and they are finding they are starting to lose a lot of business because of it. They are ready to make that transition to a more online basis. − Presentation Workforce Talent and Acquisition is up to $2,500 to respond to the current workforce conditions and help fulfill the workforce demands of Fort Collins businesses. Eligible expenses include training, workplace improvements, and bonuses for employees. They goal is to help improve or retain existing employees. The latest data they talked said there is three job postings for every one applicant. There are local job boards that are pay to advertise so they can also use it for that. There have been a lot of requests for training to use their existing workforce and upskill them. There is a clothing shop in Old Town that before these grants, brought in a marketing specialist and trained their retail employees how to do social media. Now when their employees have down time, they make videos of them trying on different outfits and they have increased their online ecommerce reach. That is how they survived the pandemic. − They are going to award up to $10,000. They have had requests all over the board. There will be a panel tomorrow to review the top scoring applications until they use the $400k. It will be a case-by-case scenario because everyone ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 14 applied for different dollar amounts and not everyone applied in every category. − Ashely shared the application questions and pointed out that for the stabilization category they don’t want the documentation to be prohibitive as they know not everyone has an accountant. They just need some information even if it is just a couple paragraphs written out about what is going on. She only had to eliminate one application due to incompleteness as they tried to work with and reach out to their small businesses. − Q (Denny) Do any of the accounting firms here in Fort Collins specialize in small businesses that would fit this category so they could have an adequate number of companies to go to, to try to help them? − A (Ashley) I was pleasantly surprised at how many small business owners have an actual CPA firm or accounting firm submit their federal taxes as they had to verify their revenue. We had few accountants apply on behalf of their clients so they could make sure the financials were correct. − Q (John) You said you rank the applications in order of how well they scored. How do you score them? − A (Ashley) They get points for revenue lost; 1 point for under 20%, 2 points for 20%-40%, and 3 points for over 40%. We also had some businesses that struggled because they were under construction during the pandemic, so we gave them some points for that. The big chunk of it was objective of plugging in a yes or no. For technical assistance and workforce there was a panel of three of us and we scored them 1-5 on how well we thought their plan was throughout and then we averaged the number between the three panelists. The spreadsheet kicks out a score from highest to lowest. The panel tomorrow will start with the highest score. − Q (Denny) Did you have applications where you had to say sorry this didn’t make it. − A (Ashley) Yes. The ones that were questionable in nature generally scored lower but that will be part of the panel discussions tomorrow. There is one business specifically where they shut down completely for a period. They have a low annual revenue so it is worth discussion on if we should be giving them money because they could just shut down again next month and then we are out that money and it went nowhere. − Q (Renee) I have a strong opinion about the non-profits. Because of the tax ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 15 structure of a non-profit and some of them fall into religious organizations or are part of a business I think it is best not to include them. It is a different entity, so I think you are wise to maintain that change. − A (Ashley & Jillian) There is a religious exclusion and there were very few non-profit applications. Most did not fit the parameters and were already supported by the City in some capacity. − Comment (Renee) Just thinking about some of the large businesses in town and they have a non-profit arm. I think if they really need supporting, they can be supported by the business. − Q (Ashley) Did you have any thoughts regarding the revenue cap change because we did get quite a few businesses calling and pushing back wanting us to increase the revenue cap to 1 million. − Comment (Jillian) I think it was the number one reason why businesses were ineligible for the first round. − Q (Blake) I assume they are not eligible for multiple rounds − A (Ashley) Correct − Q (Blake) Have you saturated those who are under 500k already and need to raise it to have a pool? − A (Ashley) That is a good point. I feel good about raising it because a lot of those small businesses got their application in. We had around 100 or so applications not finished but again seeing the wide variety of applications, I am not too worried because not everyone applied for the same thing. There was a wide variety of quality of application too. I held three different training sessions and was available to help coach small businesses because they are generally not used to applying for grants. We tried to do a lot of outreach and help businesses get applications in. − Q (Renee) Are we getting very many from communities that are often disenfranchised? − A (Ashley) I really reached out to women owned and economically disadvantaged businesses. I gave a presentation to the NOCO Latino Chamber of Commerce. We also reached out to the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) Alliance but we haven’t received any response yet. We are hoping to do a workshop there as well. Each one of my Economic Health teammates did a great job of emailing out as much as they could to business owners that might not be as plugged in as a traditional business owner. ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 16 − Comment (Jillian) The application was also in Spanish. Ashely referenced the Multicultural Business and Entrepreneur Center and they wanted to help too. − Comment (Ashley) Edgar helped a lot of Spanish speaking businesses We received four applications in Spanish. − Q (Denny) Do you give them feedback on the areas they scored low in if they asked for it. − A (Ashley) If they asked for it I would. I would have to check with my boss, but I think it is nice to give feedback because it lets them know how they can improve for the future. For the most part if I had concerns that they were incomplete I reached out. I called a lot of businesses personally. − Comment (Blake) Going back to the revenue cap, my first thought was maybe preference to those under 500k. It could be a make or break for them. A $10,000 grant is a much bigger deal to a 300k revenue vs $10,000 for a 900K revenue so you could think about some prioritization there. − Comment (Renee) I have had a variety of conversations with John and Josh. The conversations have essentially been let’s make sure the money is distributed and none of it goes to waste. We want to see the money gets used. I know there have to be certain parameters, but we don’t want money left over that a small business could have used. I know there is also a time of January before the money runs out/expires. − Comment (Ashely) Since we will have identified where the money is going, I just heard from our fiscal recovery manager that the businesses will have until 2024 to spend it. We will have to produce a report saying where the money went by January. I am not worried about the timeframe because if we wanted to get rid of round two, we could. We had $1.6 million in requests. I am not saying every request was good, but even if I said the top 800k gets the money, we could easily hand it out. − John made comment on Blake’s thought about the impact of $10,000 to a 300k vs 900k revenue business and how you could look at it in percentages. − Comment (Ashley) The bigger the business, the less points they got. That is a good point, we may talk bout a percentage. We did have a couple of businesses apply that had 15-30k in revenue. We wouldn’t want to give a 15k business a 10k grant and essentially double their business. Our rule is we can’t grant more than 1/3 of their annual revenue. A business that is over 500k to 1 million is going to rank ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 17 somewhere in the middle anyway. − Comment (Renee) I think part of it is asking what the money is for. I think it must be subjective in a way. Does it make sense for that size of a business to get, for example, new cameras or a new website. − Comment (Ashley) I think that is why the panel is important. They will get to talk and have these kinds of conversations. Asks for the bigger businesses are almost always upgrades. They need another cooler or a new point of sales system. Once that has been decided I would love to get you all that information so you can see which small businesses have been granted. − Comment (Renee) Especially if they are businesses we can help promote or ones we might already be customers of. − Comment (Ashely) I found out about a lot of new businesses through this. − Q (Aric) Is there anyway in the grant process to prioritize something like local sourcing. That may be a way to get a double bang for your buck. If you give a business $7,500 and they spend it at another local business, then you are really helping both. − A (Ashley) We talked about it if we could give extra points to businesses that are sourcing local or sustainably minded but decided not to because the funding is federal and when they looked at our program they created, they wanted the intent to help those businesses that are struggling to stabilize from the pandemic. We had to have a strong emphasis on recovery. Denver has also been sued for stipulations with their small business grant, so we are playing it safe. − Q (John) Did you say this is the last round? − A (Ashley) Yes, we caped the first round at 400k and the second one at 400k because we have a total of 800k. There are/were two rounds total. − Q (John) October 3rd is your final selection? − A (Ashley) Tomorrow, we will fund round one. October 3rd round two opens. It will close November 2nd. 8. UNFINISHED BUSINESS • None ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 0 9 /2 1 /22 – MINUTES Page 18 9. BOARD MEMBER AND STAFF REPORTS 10. OTHER BUSINESS • Q (Denny) Jillian, you mentioned your area of expertise was in workforce development? − A (Jillian) Yes. I am stepping into a new role in our office that is focused on workforce. − Q (Denny) If everyone agrees, would you be willing to do a future presentation on what the City does in workforce. I would find it very interesting. − Comment (John) I was blown away by Ashley’s comment about every 3 openings there is one applicant − Comment (Ashley) That is nationwide. So, three available openings per one person who puts in for a position. Most organizations are currently understaffed. − Interest was expressed in Jillian presenting. 11. ADJOURN - 5:45 pm