HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Commission - Minutes - 02/21/20181 | P a g e
MINUTES
CITY OF FORT COLLINS
ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION
Date: Wednesday, February 21, 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 Craig Mueller
Connor Barry Ted Settle
Ann Hutchison
Aric Light
Denny Otsuga
John Parks
Linda Stanley
Staff Present
Erin Zimmermann, Admin/Board Support
Josh Birks, Economic Health Director
Christine Macrina, Board and Commissions Coordinator
Guests
Dale Adamy, Citizen
Mark Van Ark, Citizen
Meeting called to order at 11:03 am
Public Comment— No public comments
Review and Approval of Minutes:
January minutes approved as corrected.
Agenda Review— Members prefer summarized minutes as opposed to recording every remark verbatim.
Agenda was modified to postpone National Business Survey Results to March. Results will be shared
electronically prior to the March meeting with time for Q&A, instead of a formal presentation. Results
will also be shared through a press release, highlighted in the Sustainability Newsletter, and shared during
stakeholder visits. A more specific survey for small and medium businesses will be conducted later this
year.
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Request was made to share the schedule of those presentations.
Sam: Would like to see metrics that we report on monthly, from an economic health point of view.
Interest in getting to the point where we have one agenda item where we listen and act in the same
meeting, when it makes sense.
Commission Member/Staff Updates—
• John: Cluster Review—quick 72-hour turnaround. Stepped in because Craig was out. About
$270,000 in requests and about $150,000 available. A dozen organizations applied. All but
received grants last year.
Josh: Cluster Grant Process Overview—Group provides recommendations, present those to
Jackie Kozak-Thiel and I, then conversation that takes place with the recipients for scope
alignment. Then depending on reaction to the final scope of assignments, grants are awarded.
Historically, we defer to the group’s recommendations.
• John: Went down to The Elizabeth and The Cache and they are really raising the bar. Also
noticed the city has increased police presence. I have noticed horrible driving habits and it’s nice
to see more police on the road. The city is doing a great job keeping sidewalks clear from snow.
• Denny: Next week is Startup Week. This is the first year we are teaming up with the Arts.
Numerous events planned. One session with the two founders of Techstars, headquartered in
Boulder. Startup Week is the national event. Encourage you to look at the seminar content and
participate. Can get the full schedule: https://fortcollinsstartupweek2018.sched.com
Josh: The Economic Health Office will host a session called “Ask Me Anything on Thursday,
March 1st, from 1-2:30 p.m. at The Community Creative Center: Basecamp
AGENDA ITEM 1— City Plan Update
Last Monday was the City Plan kick-off event. Additional focus groups are scheduled.
In March EAC will have a presentation on The Economic and Planning Systems (EPS) technical report
findings in March. This is a complementary report to the Trends and Forces Report. The presentation will
be paired with an example of a project that is looking at going through rezoning that is currently owned
by InBev. The meeting will have a thematic conversation with technical data in first half and a case study
for the second half.
Josh reported that when the city did the Downtown Plan, groups came together that were a mix of key
stakeholders and staff and they city is wanting to do that again. There will be Economy and Housing
group and representation from this Commission was requested.
Sam: Ted and I are involved in the greater board and commission restructuring.
This new group would meet about every 6 weeks on average. Time commitment would include 90-minute
meetings and an hour or two of reading/processing outside, so an average of 1-2 hours a month.
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Connor expressed interest in serving on that team. Ann will be there with a different hat, representing the
Chamber, but can also assist with sharing back to EAC.
Linda offered to be a backup. Applied as a plan ambassador, which includes training and then serve as
facilitators in conversations around the city plan.
EAC will keep The City Plan update as a standing item on the agenda.
Ann moved to nominate Connor, voted unanimously to approve the nomination. Connor will be the
designated representative and share observations back to EAC. Josh and Jensen will be EHO staff
representatives.
AGENDA ITEM 2—Experiment Update
Sam reported that there is an idea for more cross-pollination of ideas between boards and commissions.
The experiment was to bring together the boards that have influence on sustainability two or three times a
year to talk about specific topics in depth and provide an opinion to be shared across all 5 boards and
commissions.
Talked with each board individually and received a lot of interest. It was then decided that this should be
presented to the Futures Committee in May and will then know more regarding goals and outcomes at
that point. The question is whether or not it makes sense to do the experiment confined to Sustainability
Services or if it might be broadened in scope.
Josh reported that originally the idea was to start with one department. It did bring up broader
conversations that have come and gone to Council over the years. Translated to greater interest. As a
result, Ginny Sawyer tasked with leading a broader evaluation of Boards and Commissions.
Josh: It raised the question if a larger change is necessary. Ted and Sam still see merit in doing something
small and focused that generates useful information. If we want to entertain a larger policy change, how
do you go about it? The suggestion from this group was to test in smaller, isolated space.
Sam: We met with Air Quality, Community Development Block Grant, Affordable Housing, EAC, and
Natural Resources Advisory Board. All the people we met with were eager to see a change. And they will
join us with the meeting with the futures committee.
Ann: I appreciate the optimism, but am disappointed it is going to Futures, which is ideally supposed to
be about long-term vision and items not on the council’s agenda. It doesn’t provide an opportunity for the
conversation to accelerate quickly.
Josh: Desired objective in May is to define the scope for the project. It will help us determine direction
and next steps.
LUNCH BREAK
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AGENDA ITEM 3—Triple Bottom Line-Scan Follow-up, Board,
The EAC has been working to determine criteria to evaluate business assistance packages to ensure the
EHO is making sound investments. Following the presentation on the Triple Bottom Line-Scan in
January, the question was raised if the group should pivot and reexamine the alignment. Discussion was
focused on whether TBLS would be comprehensive enough to be used as criteria for evaluating business
assistance packages.
The group liked the procedure of TBLS. The TBLS framework will be used for council and city
decisions, but could be applied to other situations such as fees, as it is broad.
Connor: Not sure it will give us enough info.
Josh: TBLS is meant to be used at the beginning and end of a project. Should led you to additional
resources and tools to evaluated further. On the front side, it gives a baseline. On the back side, it
provides post analysis and post mitigation. Also process for thinking through project to have more
optimized outcomes.
Linda: Is there a plan to go back and look at the data two years later?
Ann: Concern was that in the past there were stronger metrics that should be used in the analysis.
Previously, the metrics used didn’t tell a strong enough story.
Aric: Is there benchmarking for the tool? Are there standards? Is there a uniformed standard applied to all
businesses or are you looking to an industry standard as it relates to an individual business? That may be
something we need to be mindful of for Business Assistance Packages or something that needs to be
added in.
Linda: It makes you think about the triple bottom line systematically. You all have to make a case based
on the same criteria. Over time, you will see benchmarking. I was impressed with it.
Consensus was that the TBLS tool is a great start but might not be deep enough for Business Assistance
Packages. More clarity on the current process and criteria was also requested.
ACTION ITEM: Homework— Members will work through an example, using the TBLS tool. Josh will
send a background summary of a proposed Comcast deal, along with the TBLs tool, and the companion
document that helps explain the ranking and definitions. The goal is to evaluate the tool and see if it goes
in depth enough, and to identify if there are questions or topics missing. Members will send their results
to Erin at ezimmermann@fcgov.com to be compiled and revisited in April.
Discussion/Q & A:
Will share roadshow, executive summary, on survey.
Meeting Adjourned: 12:53 pm
Next Meeting: March 21, 2018