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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Commission - Minutes - 12/19/20121 Minutes City of Fort Collins Economic Advisory Commission Regular Meeting 300 LaPorte Ave City Hall December 19, 2012 11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. For Reference: Bill Timpson, Chair 493-3673 Council Liaison Wade Troxell Josh Birks, Staff Liaison 416-6324 Wendy Bricher, Minutes 221-6506 Commission members present: Commission members absent: Michael Kulisheck Sam Solt Christophe Febvre Jim Clark Daniel Lenskold Blue Hovatter Channing Arndt Bill Timpson Stu MacMillan Guests: Ann Hutchison, FC Chamber of Commerce Wade Troxell, Councilmember Staff Present: Wendy Bricher, Minutes Jessica Ping-Small, Sales Tax Manager Josh Birks, Economic Health Director SeonAh Kendall, Economic Health Analyst Ginny Sawyer, Neighborhood Administrator Carrie Daggett, Deputy City Attorney Agenda Item 1: Meeting called to order Meeting called to order at 11:07 a.m. Agenda Item 2: Approval of Minutes Unanimous approval of minutes dated 11/21/12 with one update to follow-up discussion regarding Abound Solar. Agenda Item 3: Public Comment None Financial Services 300 LaPorte Ave PO Box 580 Fort Collins, CO 80522 970.221.6505 970.224.6107 - fax fcgov.com 2 Agenda Item 4: Follow-up Discussion Regarding Previous Meetings Bill Timpson prepared a draft motion recommendation for EAC to review regarding Sister Cities and a City his is working with through CSU. He thought it might be a good match to consider. Ginny Sawyer provided background on the City’s status regarding the Sister Cities Program. Currently, there are no formal relationships and City Council is considering more of a Friendship City Program. The requests would include an application process, affiliations, mutual benefits, as well as outlined activities. The application would not make any financial commitments other than assigning a staff point person. The new process will be presented to the Future’s Committee in January with the action of a Resolution should the Council like to move forward. Jim Clark commented that based on his past experiences with Sister Cities, that it has large financial obligations with little to no benefits. Ginny agreed to report back to the EAC in January and provide any updates. The EAC may consider a recommendation to Council once the details are more clear and if it promotes economic value to the City as the program moves forward. The Economic Advisory Commission also followed up on the topic of eminent domain. Christophe Febvre commented that he believes that the city should offer citizens and various boards ample opportunities to review and comment on the possibility of eminent domain regarding the mall property and Midtown. Carrie Daggett provided a background summary of the current URA Midtown Plan that was adopted last September including analysis of the blight found and areas included in the plan. In addition, the plan includes language of eminent domain where conditions in the statute are met and reasonable efforts have been made to acquire the property. In January, the City will be going back through the process and revisiting the plan that was adopted in 2011 giving the public a chance to comment. The EAC continued the discussion and cautioned that eminent domain in this case could be perceived as picking on a certain employer and the City should be concerned with the perceived notion of disincentives to move certain companies out vs. incentives to keep certain businesses around. It was clarified that staff is required to make good faith efforts to ensure state obligations are met prior to any court action. The URA Board would simply be setting the first domino in motion to use eminent domain should all the criteria be met. Blue Hovatter has been elected Chair for 2013 and Sam Solt has been elected Co-Chair for 2013. Agenda Item 5: Member Updates/Future Agenda Items Discussion Jessica Ping-Small, Sales Tax Manager, provided the November and 2012 sales tax update. The summary is below: November Summary: • Net Taxable Subject to Sales Tax – Up 4.9 % • Net Taxable Subject to Use Tax – Up 167.1% • Total Net Taxable Subject to Sales & Use Tax – Up 25.6% 2012: • Net Taxable Subject to Sales Tax – Up 5.8% • Net Taxable Subject to Use Tax – Up 61.4% • Total Net Taxable Subject to Sales & Use Tax – Up 12.9% Agenda Item 6: Revenue Policy Objectives – Jessica Ping-Small Jessica Ping-Small provided information regarding revenue policy, objectives, and diversification. In September 2012, a revenue comparison Analysis was presented to Council (and previously to EAC). Using this information, staff is currently reviewing current policy and drafting objectives to diversify revenue in the future. Staff’s initial draft includes five revenue objectives including 1) Maintain a diverse 3 revenue base; 2) Maintain a stable revenue base; 3) Cultivate revenue sources that are equitable among all economic levels; 4)Generate adequate revenue to maintain core service levels and 5) Maintain healthy reserves. The goal of the five recommended objectives is to provide staff and City Council with the foundation to make sound financial decisions that will provide the citizens of Fort Collins a diverse, stable and fair revenue stream equipped to provide the services necessary to keep Fort Collins great. The five objectives will be presented to Council Finance in January and are designed not to expand our revenue base, but to replace revenue streams that are volatile. Agenda Item 7: Housing Authority Fee Waivers – D Jones and J Brewen Postponed until January, 2013. Agenda Item 8: EHO Incentives Framework Josh Birks, Economic Health Director, provided information regarding business assistance framework. The goal of this framework is to provide a more formal, systematic approach to approving financial assistance for businesses in Fort Collins. Josh provided a summary on intent and vision, current process, benchmarking findings, and the proposed business assistance framework. In addition, he provided the first draft of grading criteria that would determine what package assistance each business might receive and asked the EAC members to assign a point value to each (1 – 100) criteria based on their perceived importance. This information will be used to rank and weight the final evaluation criteria in the framework. With this new framework, the Economic Health Department will be moving from a 3 stage approach to a six step approach including connection, classification/rank, develop the assistance package, seek approval of the City Manager and Council, implementation, and follow-up. Meeting adjourned at 1:35 p.m. The next meeting is scheduled on January 16, 2012 from 11:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. CIC Room, City Hall