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MINUTES
CITY OF FORT COLLINS
ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION
Date: Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Location: Colorado River Room, 222 Laporte Ave.
Time: 11:00am–1:00pm
For Reference
Wade Troxell, Mayor & Council Liaison
Josh Birks, Staff Liaison 221-6324
Erin Zimmermann, Minutes 221-4349
Commission Members Present: Commission Members Absent:
Sam Solt, Chair John Parks
Ann Hutchison Linda Stanley
Aric Light
Denny Otsuga
Craig Mueller
Ted Settle
Connor Barry
Staff Present:
Erin Zimmermann, Admin/Board Support
Shannon Hein, Business Specialist
SeonAh Kendall, Economic Health Manager
Guests:
George Grossman
Presenters:
Katy McLaren, Lead Specialist Environmental Sustainability
Meeting called to order at 11:06 am
Public Comment— George Grossman, Owner Happy Lucky’s Tea House, shared comments on the sign
code. He just received a notice for a public meeting for a presentation. My question or thoughts are this
whole idea of updating the sign code is coming from Planning and Zoning division, but as a small
business signs are imperative for driving business. What was important to me was eyeline so people could
see my sign to know I was there. The power of our signs to draw customers in is imperative. Are you
familiar with what is happening with the sign code and are you going to make a recommendation back to
Council, voicing your thoughts, concerns, and questions?
Ann- We have not seen that presentation, but we should weigh in. From the Chamber perspective, the
sign codes came up because of a Supreme Court decision on what you can and can’t regulate. That was
the first round of updates. Fortunately, or unfortunately we hired a consultant who recommended looking
at the full sign code. We took on phase two to open it wide open. We have one of the most restrictive
codes in the country, so the thought was to broaden it. I’m anxious about different expectations for
downtown compared to other parts of the City. Sounds like changes will be fairly minimal, to open rather
than restrict the codes. They are releasing the new code at this public meeting and will bring back to
Council in a work session.
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ACTION: Denny requested that EHO send out the new code once released to the EAC and include a staff
summary. Work session is July 10P
th
P for sign code update. Interest in adding this to the June agenda
meeting. It has an economic impact and that is what we advise on.
Review and Approval of Minutes:
Stand as distributed Approved unanimously
Agenda Review—Approved as presented
Commission Member/Staff Updates—
Ann- had Talent Summit. Nocotalent2.com will become our hub. On the website you can download
Talent 2.0, 1 pagers about the community including schools and safety. Free to employers. We have a
resource guide that businesses might want and need. Will be adding more of those. Launched last
Tuesday. Share with others. It’s a standalone presence. Will also look into a LinkedIn page. We have a
steering committee and the Chamber is committed to keeping it vibrate and current for the next five years.
Data think-tank group has also been formed to help align and identify how to tell the story.
Craig- Attended the Board and Commission Super Issue Meeting- They covered the 2018 Strategic Plan
and Budget for Outcomes Updates, the Triple Bottom Line Scan, and Outdoor Residential Wood Burning.
The format was info sharing with Q&A.
AGENDA ITEM 1— City Plan Update
Connor-Ann and I were at the working groups. Still working on visioning exercises. Gathering info from
around the community. One thing they did was took values from previous plan and had people rank them.
People didn’t care about distinctiveness as a value. Concern about affordable housing came up again. One
of the shortfalls was everyone got to define the meaning of the values. The top three themes were
livability, sustainability, and community. They also asked people to look into these more closely and
consider what’s working well, what’s missing, how should things be prioritized. Visioning goes through
early June. There is also a survey online. We also talked about scenario planning. Prioritizing how to start
planning and zoning. There are 10-15 people on our task force. It’s going well, just moving very slowly.
We had some conversations around boundaries, so we don’t plan for something that’s never going to
happen.
Ann- It frightens me that 250 people are setting the vision for the next 20 years. Go online and do the
survey. Scenario planning is a really important step. That’s where they turn a lever. Here’s what it looks
like today, if we turn the lever it could look this way. This is especially important from the triple bottom
line perspective. Clay Frickey is the leader for our team. Each team has a different lead.
AGENDA ITEM 2—Board and Commission Evaluation Update
Ted-Futures Committee met last Monday. The three Council members were very engaged, took notes,
and asked good questions. What should the public engagement process for the City look like? The Board
and Commission structure was the agenda item and included task forces and commissions. How do they
interface? The concept of an experiment was received well. Now look at the whole picture. The Deputy
City Manager took an action item to write a memo to bring to City Council to get approval to move
forward with an experiment. There was conversation about having the Council liaison be actively
engaged. The Women’s Commission sends someone to the Council meetings. At one point Council
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members were very active in the boards and commissions, but there was push back that they were driving
the agenda.
Connor- When we did our review with Wade, he said he would come once a quarter. It has been a
quarter.
Ann- Going to their meeting doesn’t allow for engagement, which is what we are hungry for. Two
potential follow-ups: Write a letter of support to Council for the pilot and invite the Mayor to come to one
of the next two meetings to talk about issues he sees, things he thinks are important, and then open door
and as a touch base. Would like to have him attend twice a year for at least 30 minutes.
Sam- We need to seriously look at the 6-month Council calendar and make our voices heard.
Ann motioned to send letter to Council. Connor seconded it. Passed unanimously. Ann will write the
draft.
ACTION: Erin will work with Sarah Kane to coordinate schedules and confirm the Mayor’s availability
for a future meeting.
AGENDA ITEM 3— Budget Overview/ Strategic Plan, Offers and NBS data— Shannon Hein
Shannon Hein- Provided quick overview of the strategic objectives that each budget offer is tied to, as
well as the terminology used in the budget process.
Timeline: The public engagement process will start soon to get public feedback leading up to the approval
in November. For this commission, no action is needed at this point. Also highlighted the Council
priorities. City as a Platform was mentioned.
Key offers that were highlighted included the following:
Offer 41.2- Engagement Specialist & Conversion- Increase capacity and enhance engagement. Convert
Policy and Project Manager.
Offer 41.3- Rebates- Rebates to Broadcom. We have allocated the used tax rebated repaying them the
money. Dollars that we already allocated.
Offer 41.4- Talent and Workforce Development- Talent 2.0 Strategy, Response to business survey results.
Offer 41.5- Revolving Loan Fund and SBDC- Send money for an RLF and additional support for SBDC.
Offer 41.6- Buy Local Program- Seed money and staff liaison to act as convener
Ann- Will this exclude our national businesses? To go to $0 in year two may not be the best option, so
you might consider a city investment in year 2 as well. When shop Fort Collins was most successful was
when we were all at the table and kicking in resources.
Offer 41.7- Business Engagement Action Plan support- Business engagement deliverables, customer
service training, National Business Survey.
Offer 41.8- Purchase Consortium- Identify and support local suppliers, convene large employers, and
provide tools.
Offer 41.9- Winter Market Support- Support local food and agricultural industries.
Offer 41.11- Small Business Support Fund- Offset marginal expansion costs, pilot program.
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Offer 41.12- FTE and Conversion- Classified conversion, addition of one FTE to add capacity increase
engagement with entrepreneurial community.
Offer 41.13- City as a Platform and Innovation Funding- Municipal research and development fund,
invest in entrepreneurism and innovation.
Offer 41.15- Metro District Support- Staff capacity in response to City’s adopted policy.
Offer 41.17- Trolley Car Barn Reuse Charette- Facilitate a visionary conversation for its use. Workshop,
stakeholder meetings, conceptual design, feasibility analysis, final report.
Sam- I would like to see a break down of how much is handed out and then expense related. How much
money does the city give away in grants? This is a bigger question than here.
SeonAh- In between round one and two Josh and I will put together an executive summary for each
budget offer with prioritization and then Josh and I will bring it back to this group at an upcoming
meeting.
Denny- In the past we then had homework to review and put our thoughts to it.
Ann- I’m excited about the financial opportunity funds and am super jazzed about the revolving loan
fund. Quick reaction- I like a lot of those.
AGENDA ITEM 4— Innovate Fort Collins— Katy McLaren
First time we did this competition. Innovate Fort Collins provides seed money for pilot projects and
leverages community expertise and passion to assist Climate Action Goals.
Focus on pilots that demonstrate:
-Reduction in GHGs
-Scalability
-Triple Bottom Line benefits
2017 Projects included: PSD testing new food composting tech, FRCC solar Learning project paired with
EV chargers at Harmony Library, CSU Transportation/ Safety Module, Support for new tech and
employees and recycling mattress sets, Proof of concept for food composting using black solider fly
larvae.
Estimate impact $3,700 M Tons COR2Re reduced @$72/MT GHG
2018 competition is open now. Letter of intent is due May 18P
th
P. This year there is a focus on energy,
transportation, waste materials and behavior change.
Challenge statements developed with the public at the Feb. 2012 Innovation Summit. $3K-$75K seed
money.
Timeline:
April 18, 2018- Application website opens
May 18, 2018- Letter of Intent due by 5 p.m.
July 9, 2018- Full Application due by 12 p.m. (by invitation only)
July 27, 2018- Finalists notified
August 30, 2018- Public pitch night
Mid-September 2018- Awardees announced
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Promotional channels included utilizing social media, innovation afterhours, Chamber included it in their
newsletter, word of mouth, emails.
Opportunities for EAC member involvement: and being on the panel for pitch night which will take place
the first couple of weeks in August. Contact Katy if you are interested.
Ann: An opportunity to make it really cool could be by having those who don’t get funded get matched
with Sean to help find their own dollars to help drive their projects forward.
Discussion/Q&A:
Sam: Continue to have budget ad an agenda item.
Meeting Adjourned: 1:05 pm
Next Meeting: June 20, 2018