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Home My WebLink AboutEconomic Advisory Commission - Minutes - 12/18/2019Economic Advisory Commission Regular Meeting December 18, 2019, 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. Colorado River Room, 1st Floor, 222 Laporte Avenue 12/18/2019 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER Time Started 11:08 a.m. 2. ROLL CALL List of Board Members Present • Denny Otsuga • Linda Stanley • Braulio Rojas • John Parks • Ted Settle • Connor Barry • Renee Walkup • Aric Light List of Board Members Absent • George Grossman List of Staff Members Present • Josh Birks, Economic Health Manager • Erin Zimmermann, Economic Health Admin/Board Support • John Duval, Deputy City Attorney List of Guests • Kevin Jones, Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce • Dale Adamy (r1st.org) 3. AGENDA REVIEW 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION None 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Minutes from the November meeting were approved as presented. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 12/18/2019 – MINUTES Page 2 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Board and Commission Evaluation (Experiment) Update—Ted Settle (Listen/ Clarify) Ted provided an update from the reimagining Boards and Commissions worksession. Given the timeline presented to Council, where improvements would not likely be presented until well into next year, Council felt that it would be appropriate to make sure all boards would have contingents, so they approved an opportunity for interim positions that will fill the gap and will not count to toward terms served. Much of the conversation focused on diversity and board composition. Ted stated that one of the most important questions will be the structure and how to be most effective. CSU’s Center for Public Deliberation will be facilitating some conversations in the first quarter of next year. b. Development Review and Building Permit Fees Memo Linda motioned to approve the memo and send it to Council as revised on the screen. Braulio seconded. Passed unanimously. c. Finalize 2020 Work Plan— (Listen/Clarify/ Discuss) Renee moved to adopt the workplan Aric seconded. Motion passed unanimously. d. Commission Elections— Connor Barry (Listen/ Clarify) Renee shared her interest in serving as Vice Chair. The reason for her decision to run for Vice Chair has to do with her passion for seeing that Fort Collins remains a vibrantly desirable business community. She stated that we live in a special place and she believes that with more work, we can make this City even better. She also highlighted that she brings a valuable perspective as a business owner. Connor expressed his interest in serving as Chair. Following serving a term as Vice Chair, he stated he is interested in continuing to look at how to improve EAC processes. He also brings project management experience and is interested in ensuring thoughtful processes are established and followed so the EAC can serve Council most effectively. He stated that continuing the memo process and ensure we have a final thought document to execute on is the best way for EAC’s voice to be heard. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 12/18/2019 – MINUTES Page 3 Linda motioned to nominate Connor Barry for Chair and Renee Walkup for Vice Chair. Ted seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Chair’s motion to recommend City Council remove Braulio Rojas from EAC – Denny Otsuga, as acting chair shared a prepared statement to be included as public record. (see attached). Discussion: Connor— Stated his support of Denny’s leadership John— Asked for clarification of intention of this motion and asked what impact it may have. Denny— I want to make sure that what was stated in the last meeting Linda— I don’t have problem with this motion. All the statements are true. This has obviously affected you. I don’t have an issue with supporting this motion. Braulio— I personally agree with what the motion said about our Chair’s work, and personality. At the same time, I would avoid trying to link this to specific actions. I would vote in favor of the position but disconnected to what happened. Renee— This was unfortunate. As a member, what I would like to see is for us to move on. Denny made a motion of a vote in confidence for Denny Otsuga. Ted seconded. Motion passed with 7 in favor and Denny abstaining. Denny moved forward with the reviewing his written statement, recounting the Linden Street incident. Denny made a second motion to recognize the facts outlined in prepared statement: “Motion 2: Recognition of facts surrounding memorandum to the Fort Collins’ City Council regarding the Linden Street renovation project.” (see attached). Discussion: Ted— As a point of order, the minutes would show the bold words and include the ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 12/18/2019 – MINUTES Page 4 stated facts? It was clarified that it would be the motion as written in its entirety. Motion not seconded; motion failed. Denny stated his decision to resign from the commission in protest of Mr. Roja’s conduct. EAC members expressed their gratitude and appreciation for his leadership as Chair. Denny left the meeting at 11:57 a.m. b. Metro District Framework– Josh Birks Josh provided a presentation on Metro Districts that included an overview of what metro districts are, their prevalence in Colorado. Metro Districts allow for developers to cover costs of infrastructure differently which removes some of the cost they would otherwise have to carry, so it enhances their financial viability. The City’s role is to approve the service plan, which creates the governmental structure. Enhanced standards can include: Community benefits, increased transparency, debt term maximums, maximum debt amounts, encouraged end user control. Public Benefits: Environmental sustainability, Critical Public Infrastructure, Smart Growth Management, Strategic Priorities System Design Guiding Assumptions: Goals— Set by community strategic plans. Baseline— Current code, which may not always achieve the stated community goals. Dynamic Design— Enable metro district criteria to evolve towards community goals and shift as current code changes. Regular review— Re-evaluate. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 12/18/2019 – MINUTES Page 5 Objective: Develop a simple, sustainable process for evaluating metro districts. Multiple polarities: • Predictability vs flexibility • Adaptive vs standardized Options Option 1: Minimum standards— Established for desired outcome areas Pros: Clarity of outcome, predictability, consistency across projects Cons: May feel pressure to approve, may not achieve as much, lack of flexibility/creativity Option 2: Scorecard— Develop a ranking system for each outcome area (ie…good, better, best). Pros: Clarity of evaluation, flexibility for site conditions, adaptable to changing priorities. Cons: Not all outcomes delivered Option 3: Menu of options— A menu of options is developed for each outcome area. Pros: Priority driven (point values), Adaptable to changing standards, easily maintained; change menu Cons: Potentially less flexible, not all outcomes delivered Option 4: Performance Guided— Specific key metrics identified and all actions measured against these metrics. Pros: Clean and measurable impact, tied to priority outcomes, flexibility of delivery Cons: Technical evaluation needed, some actions may be hard to quantify Option 5: Rollback residential— revert to pre-August Policy Pros: Fewer applications ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 12/18/2019 – MINUTES Page 6 Cons: Lose opportunity to encourage community benefits, lack of clarity to developers. Discussion: Braulio— It seems metro districts have pros and cons. It is going to be good, as long as the City puts enough limits to it. Linda— Red flag words for me are we are “trying” to get them to do something or “encourage” to run. Can we put requirements in? Josh— We can’t force end user to run or get elected. We are continuing to look at that aspect of the service plan. Part of what we are working on doing is more education. We are also working with Realtors on education. In January ask to this group would be to have a few people from here to participate in the working group. Josh will send out presentation with two question prompts to send answers back. c. Recognition of outgoing members– Josh Birks Josh shared his appreciation and gratitude for the outgoing members. Each outgoing member was presented with a card and words of appreciation from the rest of the Economic Advisory Commission. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS None 9. OTHER BUSINESS None 10. ADJOURNMENT Adjourned at 1:10pm UPCOMING TOPICS January:  Industry Cluster Update – SeonAh Kendall ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 12/18/2019 – MINUTES Page 7 Unscheduled:  Harmony Gateway Subarea Plan Update  Affordable Housing Priorities and Affordable Housing Strategic Plan (March Worksession)  Destination Master Plan Update 2019 Priorities:  Talent Development, Economic Dashboard, Business Engagement, & Cluster