HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Commission - Minutes - 09/20/20171 | Page
MINUTES
CITY OF FORT COLLINS
ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION
Date: Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Location: Colorado River Room, 222 Laporte Ave.
Time: 10:00am–1:00pm
For Reference
Wade Troxell, Mayor & Council Liaison
Josh Birks, Staff Liaison 221-6324
Rebecca Hicklin, Minutes 416-4349
Commission Members Present Commission Members Absent
Sam Solt, Chair Craig Mueller
Denny Otsuga Alan Curtis
Ted Settle
Connor Barry
John Parks
Ann Hutchison
Linda Stanley
Staff Present
Rebecca Hicklin, Admin/Board Support
Josh Birks, Economic Health Director
Guests
Dale Adamy, citizen
DATE: Wednesday, September 20, 2017
LOCATION: Colorado River Room, 1
st
Floor, 222 Laporte Avenue
TIME: 10:00am–1:00 pm
Meeting called to order at 10:04am
Public Comment—None
Review and Approval of Minutes:
August minutes approved as presented.
Agenda Review—No changes.
Commission Member/Staff Updates—None
• Mayor would like to schedule a meeting with Sean and Josh regarding CAP.
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AGENDA ITEM 1—City Plan Update
• As of 7 days ago, we have signed contracts with the providers. One of the big topics will be
evaluating supply of industrial land. Is it sufficient from an applicability and suitability
perspective?
• Is it ready to meet their needs? Will we need to adjust the zoning? One of FC’s assets—many
who live here work here. We need a data-driven way to respond to these questions. Example:
Location behind Target/Lowes—was zoned as an employment area, now changed to a senior
living zoning area. We need a more systematic approach to zoning and making changes. Can we
get a scope going on what our involvement needs to look like?
AGENDA ITEM 2— Discuss Periodic Review with Council Liaison – Board & Mayor Troxell
• Sam-- Growth and development is happening right before us. Charter was a group effort. One of
the themes.
• Mayor--Growth isn’t the “economy necessarily”.
• Sam--It’s hard to separate growth.
• Mayor—He doesn’t feel the economic vitality doesn’t necessarily lead to growth. There is
opportunity here. There is part of our economy that isn’t built into private sector growth. There
is public sector growth. What is fundamental to a strong economy???
• Sam—balance in the TBL is critical to us. Maybe we can do a deeper dive on those items that are
fundamentally economic. We want to support environmental and social.
• Mayor—driving the boards and commissions focus on TBL is a great idea. We want the best of
the best and drive it together. We want a regenerative society—it maintains in its vibrancy.
• Sam—There are many different segments of primary employers in our town.
• Mayor—Our economy is just not FC, low interest rates contribute. There hasn’t been the wage
growth to keep up with some other costs. FC has always been able to sustain our community in
a positive fashion. We don’t want to end up like Detroit.
• Sam—2008-2009, we were flat in growth.
• Linda—are we going to be going through Periodic Review? I’m sure that Mayor has comments
on that.
• Mayor—takeaway is to align the Boards & Commissions around TBL. We have had the
“Superboards” which were mostly based on a topic.
• Josh--How do we go about delivering on TBL with all groups?
• Mayor—I read that what goes to Council may not be what you speak about. He believes that he
understands that EAC doesn’t believe that its contributions are being heard. This is where the
points on a TBL topic come into play.
• Sam—With our differences, it may be nice to have some direction from Council on what we
should focus on. We should be tied to the 6 month calendar.
• Linda—believes that has improved.
• Mayor—He knows that you are working with some “meaty” stuff. Having a TBL lens on items—
i.e.: transportation, affordable housing, fees, etc.
• Josh—Aware that Sam, Ted and Mayor have had some deeper conversations about what
direction EAC should go.
• Ted—We were blindsided when we met with Mayor. We would like to pick an issue, meet on
the issue, invite a speaker in to talk about. Maybe experiment with this new idea? The concept
would need to be “road-tested” with other boards/commissions.
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• Josh—Sustainability supports 6 different boards/commissions. We may be able to test these
ideas out with those. We all have to represent our areas and get to an optimized, integrated
solution. Everyone has to be fully committed. How do we get to the process that we are
synergistic?
• Mayor—You get the different ideas and it helps to be synergistic.
• Sam—much of the discourse that comes out of “Superboard” meetings gets off track.
• Mayor—Maybe something quarterly focused on a topic area??
• Josh—We try to get some integration going over the next 6+ months. More to come and more
thinking. We have cross-cutting topics, how do we get those reviews and help groups work
together.
• Mayor—on Women’s board. Helped to get groups together for the integration of ideas from
many individuals.
• Mayor-Feels that Council has little or no interest in our work. Linda doesn’t feel that way. Mayor
commits to attending quarterly, maybe for an hour or so, not the whole session.
• Sam—I do attend Council meetings and listen to them. So I have a different perspective.
• Linda—Josh has been working on some different methods.
• Josh—We are looking at specific evaluation criteria in looking at businesses. We are looking at a
more process oriented way to get involved in. We would like for the work of EAC to be more
meaningful.
• Linda—Thinks that Ted and Sam have helped EAC find more meaningful work.
• Mayor—our incentive is having a wonderful community. With the Amazon proposal—we want
to create a community that we invest in. We invest in open space, and other things. Not all
investments are monetary. The community finds balanced perspectives that sustain time.
• Josh—We have provided rebates less than 10 times in the last 9 years. We have been judicious
in the way we have applied them.
• Sam—Are there segments of the economy that need attention?
• Mayor-Thinking about assets in FC—What about the airport? It limps along, and there are
commitments from each city. What about LV/FC being the airport that supports Amazon.
• Sam—Will we be the first virtual tower?
• Mayor—Safer, now there is more unmanned vehicles in the air than manned. How does it fit
into our strategies and our picture? We need a breakdown of public vs. private sector
contributions.
• Ted—your comment, Mayor, “We choose to invest in the City to make it attractive to other
businesses.”
• Mayor—I know that a lot of employers are here because they like the town, etc. and that’s what
draws them here. This is like workforce 2.0.
• Josh—Talent is picking on place, value and culture. A lot of communities have created places
where “talent” wants to live. We are beginning to see people thinking about “Carbon Neutral”
by 2050.
• Mayor—development is around “sense of place.” I think of Jessup Farm—many elements that
bring all these things together. There is a different nuance to breweries here—centered on
enjoying beer and the area both.
• Connor—I like the breweries, living here, but it doesn’t work if we can’t afford to live here.
• Mayor—I worked at Kodak—used to be the beginning of the end, now it’s gone. We talk a lot,
but do we do a lot with startups. The Climate Economy is creating future opportunities for us.
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• Josh—We used to be pretty narrow and deep (HP), we have now gotten kind of shallow and
wide. A lot of young people don’t see options to begin a career here. The entrepreneurial
development helps with some of that, but doesn’t help with training.
• Mayor—at my day job (CSU)—employers don’t understand the workforce and how it’s changed.
In 2007 I met with some of the Utilities as they were trying to fill an apprentice job. They didn’t
recognize how the industry was fundamentally shifting. They had to bring in some other things
to make it work.
• Josh—Higher Ed can’t be as slow as it to sometimes adapting to the changes. Younger people
can choose the places where they want to go and work.
• Conor—We have to tackle affordability and transportation. The (public) transportation here is
mostly for CSU students on the grid.
• Ted—This illustrates the TBL, attracting employees by paying them more.
• Between Sam and Ted—Competitive Sector here, sometimes 100’s of applicants apply for jobs
at Fort Collins companies.
• Mayor—We (Fort Collins) are identified as one of the 6 University Cities that has the ability to
have an “evergreen” environment. This plays into the talent and that we have some places
where students can stay. There is more opportunity here, more so than in the past.
• Mayor—“I appreciate the way you consciously and earnestly wrestle with issues.
AGENDA ITEM 3—Climate Economy Action Plan Update-Sean Carpenter
• Sean Carpenter –Climate Economy Advisor
• Help City identify Public/Private partnerships to help reach it’s CAP goals
• Outreach and identify opportunities to improve processes
• Why? Estimates for private sector that needs to be made for energy efficiency—New
construction, renovating, estimate is $265 million dollars. Identify tools to help private
sectors to do this.
• Does not involve regulations—just ordinary course of business, heating/cooling, retrofit,
energy efficient buildings, roof top solar, etc. Also involves transportation, waste.
• We need to gage the private sector so we can meet the goals.
• Ann: Construction has made sizable investments, not really $0 dollars to this point—
since 2013.
• Linda-$0 is the baseline, needs to go up from here. It’s a quarter of a billion dollars.
• Josh--$265 million over the course of 12 years. Needs to be put in context.
• Sean--# does not reflect the ROI.
• We will discuss Colorado Smart Cities Alliance—we have been benchmarking other cities.
• UniverCity—group of community leaders that get together to talk about issues affecting our
towns and the relationship with the University.
• FortZed—no longer in place between City and CSU.
• Tools we are talking about will impact the following areas:
Buildings—50%
Transportation, energy & waste-remainder
• We are in an inflection point in clean energy, jobs and opportunities that have the potential to
set us up for what is going to power our community over next 30-40 years. Our clean energy
initiative is going to be very powerful.
• These opportunities are the underpinnings that drive the economy, it’s happening now.
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• Four times more clean energy jobs than oil and gas in our area. Fastest growing job in State of
CO is solar panel installer.
• We are forming draft observations, tools and strategies right now. We will get feedback from
Council and then finalize.
• City as a Platform (separate/different from CEAP)—Cities can lever new technology, mobile
communication and data to have a more transparent relationship with residents and businesses.
How can we use technologies to streamline processes and reduce barriers and friction to these
processes? How do we enable innovation while not risking our objectives and become more
efficient.
o We don’t buy businesses or entice them to come here; we create an environment in Fort
Collins where businesses want to be here. We have goals, and innovation will be a part of
that. We would like to keep the investments here in our community. (Smart City Alliance—
Internet of things—different than CPTF.)
o We want to balance relationships, but not give away assets to access that may be more
valuable down the road.
• Smart City Alliance—Businesses are trying to test technology and monetize it to make it
happen. Cities are joining to form an alliance. We are the gateway to get you anything you need.
Public launch is next week. Fort Collins will be a founding member of the organization.
Tools:
o CPace, Larimer County is in discussion to approve this financing tool—private sector funded. The
payments are paid through a special property tax assessment. Savings from investments are
designed to pay for the upgrades, loan stays with the buildings. This has been in Colorado for a
while. About $4 Billion in loans to date, but new in Fort Collins.
o Discussions about extending PACE to residential—new to Colorado, but maybe in the
future. Guessing that residential impact would be larger, but I don’t know the exact
split. Open to any bank—any lender can do PACE loans. Commercial first, then possibly
residential. Businesses have learned about it, and there are projects lined up and in the
cue to do this. It can be used for new construction also, it shows up as equity. This acts
and looks like equity capital. This will save businesses money and create jobs.
o Clean Energy Credit Union just got its first charter-will be based in Colorado.
o Green Revolving Fund—billion dollar challenge to lever large endowments to help improve
energy efficiency and lower carbon footprint. Energy savings will repay back to endowment and
will return 8-15%.
o Crowd Funding—we are looking for opportunities to appeal to the crowd and engage
community to participate in it. The “Crowd” portion is most important part. Network effect of
the crowd.
o Denny: Is there any leverage on the money? Shawn: City dollars/resources will not be
used.
o Bloomberg Leadership program—FC invited (smallest city to be invited).
o What Works Cities?
o 2017 Mayor’s Bloomberg challenge. –Climate Economy is the theme we will pursue.
6% chance of winning $100,000 (top 30 cities).
• Environmental Impact Bonds—investors that are willing to reduce capital costs if an investment
meets certain metrics. Fort Collins has a 3 star perfect bond rating. Utility would be using this
• Closed Loop Fund--$100,000 from private sector money. Over next 20 years, they need to
reduce waste stream. Looking at all the ways to reduce waste and save money.
Questions:
• What about City utilities program that you can donate money on the bill? The uptake rate is
fairly modest.
• Is the program under-promoted?
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Josh: Much of the money went into renewable energy products—didn’t end up generating the
value they had originally thought. We are interested in solutions that are self-motivated. We
want solutions that create energy savings for that customer. Building stock—a lot of carbon
reductions: better value, lower costs, and greater comfort for patron. The cost of renewable
energy is dropping. We have a lot of inefficient building stock.
Sean: PRPA—public PRP in August-offering reductions in wind power. In the next few years,
wind will be the cheapest we will have ever seen it.
Final message: Appreciate thoughts about general direction, focus on creating win-win opportunities for
businesses, what areas are we over-looking, opportunities that bear greater investment? This is here
today; we can grow it and be beneficiaries if we want.
Climate Economy—new space within our EHO team and a way to reinforce climate action. We are
moving towards a lower carbon future. Separate from CPTF.
AGENDA ITEM 4—Business Engagement Action Plan Update—Josh Birks
Business Engagement Action Plan (BEAP) Josh—Shannon and I were going to present—family situation
so Blaine is here instead.
• EHO went through an exercise about 9 months ago—9-box exercise. What is Core? What is
aligned? What is beneficial to the economy? What does it look like for community, organization
and team? We want to return to working on our “core.” We got our Baldrige results back—we
have citizens and businesses as customers. Our systems for citizen feedback, appreciation,
satisfaction are good—don’t have a good system for businesses. We don’t have a good way to
segment the customers. We don’t have a way of gathering the data.
• As a team we talked about what satisfaction is—Outcomes: I’ve been heard, I’ve been
respected, it seems fair. It’s about a customer having the ability to be engaged.
• Business—any private sector entity (including non-profits). We are in the midst of a 4 step
process—1) we have done interviews with departments, 2) case studies of projects, 3) We are
creating a business stakeholder group. Moving into phase 2—Design phase. End result will be a
city-wide strategy.
• Ted—Maybe speeds up the process to get businesses engaged.
• Josh—more a scan to talk with departments that engage with businesses.
• Sam—that is a big audience—businesses.
• Josh—We have been asked to move quickly in this process—the quick wins. We have learned—
1) Lack of centralized location for notes and data.
2) No common language
3) Customer service and relationships are built and maintained differently
4) Need a common tool to manage business “touches”
• Employee Survey Results--
1) Large demand for CRM tool
2) Requests for more coordination and communication
3) Consistency
• Survey—will be going out to 4000 businesses. How do our businesses feel in terms of their
relationship with us?
• Quick wins:
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1) Common definition set
2) Business retention and expansion task force
3) Business community participation
4) Employee questionnaire
5) Businesses added to annual survey
6) Department listening session
7) Staff participation in IEDC
8) Business listening session with Darin and Mayor
9) Business Appreciation Breakfast.
10) Ask me anything on the “mall”
The objective is to connect, utilize feedback, evaluate and respond, adjust service delivery.
• Next Steps—
1) Stakeholder convening
2) Strategy development
3) Identify metrics
4) Business engagement spectrum
5) Council engagement opportunities
• We want to get more conscious about the customer. We would like to gather the data on
satisfaction.
• Denny—can we ask a shorter set of questions, and then ask if they want to be followed up with?
Maybe a little bit on the internal change, it can be very difficult to implement.
• Josh—plan is to pilot in EHO and Utilities Public Connections.
• Denny-make sure we let the CRM companies know that we are a non-profit. They may give a
discount?
• Josh—this is going to be an ongoing initiative over the next few years.
Meeting Adjourned: 1:22 pm
Upcoming Topics:
October:
Sustainability Assessment Tool – TBD (Listen/Clarify)
Quality of Place Criteria – Board (Discuss/Act)
Approve for Submittal Periodic Review – Board (Discuss/Act)
November:
Alignment with City Objectives Criteria – Board (Discuss/Act)
Natural Resource Stewardship Criteria – Board (Discuss/Act)
December:
Community Well-Being Criteria – Board (Discuss/Act)
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Review Other Criteria Category/Prepare a Final List – Board (Discuss/Act)
Next meeting time and location: October 18, 2017, 11:00am–1:00 pm, Colorado River Room