HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Commission - Minutes - 08/19/2020
ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION
TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR
August 19, 2020 4:00 - 6:00 pm
Via Zoom
8/19/20 – MINUTES Page 1
1. CALL TO ORDER
5:30pm
2. ROLL CALL
List of Board Members Present
Connor Barry - Chair
Braulio Rojas
Cole Langford
George Grossman
John Parks
List of Board Members Absent – Excused or Unexcused; if no contact with Chair
has been made
Ted Settle
Aric Light
Renee Walkup
List of Staff Members Present
Josh Birks, Director, Economic Sustainability
Shannon Hein , Sr. Specialist, Economic Sustainability
Travis Storin, Interim Chief Finance Officer
List of Guests - none
3. AGENDA REVIEW
4. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
.July minutes were approved as presented
6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
a. Update on Re-imagining Boards and Commissions - Josh Birks
ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION
TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR
8/19/20 – MINUTES Page 2
City Council previously reviewed this topic and, because of COVID
interruptions, will reengage later this fall.
3 tiers of changes were made:
Tier 1 - Process improvements;
Tier 2 - Administrative clean up including renaming quasi-judicial boards
to be "commissions" and advisory boards will be called "boards", allowing
virtual meetings to be a permanent change
Tier 3 - Larger board issues
- Having fewer, but larger boards, with similar interests with smaller
ad hoc groups focusing on one item
- Reserving seats on the boards for people with "lived experience"
and experience with certain subject matter, with an eye to
diversifying the boards
- Increasing the communications expectations and interactions with
Council liaisons
- Allocating resources for interpretation and translation services,
transportation and childcare and holding multiple boards in the
same building on the same night so childcare and transportation
could be combined.
- Providing monetary or non-monetary incentives to board members
to increase participation, such as city-provided computer and
internet access to virtual meetings.
- Reducing meeting frequency
Council will have to create city code on some of these items.
b. Supporting #ForFortCollins & Recovery - Shannon Hein
There was discussion on shifting focus from being city ambassadors to having
board members actually reach out to some businesses that might need support
using a site visit manual and training from the Economic Health staff.
Discussion
- Approved of having site visits that bring attention to various
associations and social media to encourage the community to
spend locally.
- There is some precedent through the Chamber regarding site visits
to see what challenges they face and bring them tools they can get
ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION
TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR
8/19/20 – MINUTES Page 3
engaged with.
- Braulio volunteered to help get in touch with Hispanic businesses
- Each board member can also reach out through their own business
networks to help staff reach out to the thousands of businesses in
Fort Collins.
- Question: Are there are specific underserved areas staff has not
been able to reach out to. Answer: Hispanic businesses,
businesses that aren't associated with a business association,
Harmony Corridor, north College, women-owned businesses,
manufacturing, mid-sized and growing consulting and tech
companies
Action item:
- Braulio, George and Conner will reach out and work with staff to
make a target list of businesses. Anyone else on the board is
invited to contact staff if they want to also participate .
7. NEW BUSINESS
a. Business COVID Recovery - Josh Birks &/or Shannon Hein
Open group reflection:
Braulio - This is a very complex situation for city to assist with economic
activity until an unknown final solution. It might be a helpful exercise to
identify City activities that could help businesses, especially the restaurant
industry, re-allocate employees to other locations, like food trucks to keep
them employed and revenue coming in. Suggest having the City focus on
helping to increase business revenue from now until end of year.
Cole - Has been reading about the impact of Covid on university towns and
the unknown impact to them by students. He has been reaching out to
local small business owners who are trying to develop a plan for an
unknown future and wonders how the City can help them.
George - He read that e-commerce may become the future where on-line is
actually the "store front" and the brick and mortar locations are the backup.
He is also concerned that landlords aren't getting relief from their banks and
therefore not able to give any rent adjustments to their renters and,
because of that, anticipates more vacancies in the future. He reopened
Happy Lucky Teahouse location in Front Range Village. Happy Lucky's
has also volunteered to be a City ambassador.
John - Concerned with future of public education on-line learning and its
ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION
TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR
8/19/20 – MINUTES Page 4
economic impacts if CSU students leave. Regarding solar power, the
industry is still growing and glad the City is supportive of the industry.
Concerned there is a bottleneck with permitting. Glad the library is open
again.
Connor - Concerned that good testing and contact tracing may not be in
place as CSU students come in. Curious how restaurants will adjust in
colder months not being able to have outdoor dining. His company is
seeing slowing sales and investigating how to diversify offerings.
Uncertainty today is slowing investments and people are hoarding cash.
Agrees we need to encourage people to shop local businesses. Anticipating
what the City's 2021 budget will be and what services may no longer be
offered. Is worried about businesses not being able to pay County property
taxes and what impact that will have on County services.
Adaptation Efforts (Restaurants, others) - Josh Birks
- Regarding supporting restaurants, the City will be extending outdoor
seating until November 6 when CSU winter break happens, and is
considering extending it longer with tents and space heaters. Some
issues need to be resolved with this extension, such as liquor licenses,
reduced parking issue during the holiday seasons, to-go liquor, and
whether customers will still come in harsh weather.
- Reviewing how to create added restaurant seating in closed buildings.
- CSU has an action plan to stay on top of health issues and request
every staff and student fill out wellness report daily. CSU, City, State
and County looking to invest CARES money to decrease turn-around
time of testing.
- PSD went to on-line learning because testing is not adequate to keep
on top of controlling Covid in the classrooms. Some schools are
working with YMCA, Boys and Girls clubs and other resources to have
small, safe at-school childcare and provide other social services usually
provided by schools.
- Reduced sales tax revenue does not affect solar rebates because they
are funded only by Utilities rates.
Update on CARES Funding for Economic Recovery
City and county Cares monies will be used for:
- Business Assistance Fund
Has eligibility requirements and selection criteria for Fort
Collins businesses in good standing
ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION
TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR
8/19/20 – MINUTES Page 5
- Main Street loan program
Restarting this $200k program as a recovery tool
- County-wide loan fund
- Regional Economic Plan
- Retaining, reskilling, upskilling dislocated workers
- Small business pivot program
- Other business support:
De-escalation training
Cultural broker - to reach out to underserved
populations
Ongoing support for ForFortCollins and NoCo Recovers
Disadvantaged Business engagement staff
-
Update on spill-over effects on Real Estate, Business Closures
So far there are no major business vacancies and personal state
income is up due to financial support from the federal government, but
if they do not offer more support, the last quarter of the year could give
an accurate indication of the Covid impact on our local economy.
b. 2021 Budget Overview & Update (Themes) - Travis Storin, Interim CFO
2021 Budget Process
Normal budget process timeline:
- The City's budgeting process launches in March
- 7 teams of staff and citizens review offers from staff in a buyers
and sellers environment in April, May and June
- City's executive team evaluates this work in July and August
and submits the City Manager's recommended budget to City
Council by Labor Day.
- Council discussion and public hearings take place in September
and October
- Final budget is adopted by end of November.
Because of reduced revenue from Covid, the 2020 budget was
rebalanced and the 2021-2022 BFO cycle was changed to a one year
ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION
TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR
8/19/20 – MINUTES Page 6
cycle for 2021using an executive process to focus on the core values
of continuity of service to the community, stewardship of resources,
Council priorities, and workforce experience.
- Other considerations included maximizing federal dollars,
minimize reduced service impacts, and redeploying budget
dollars, including reserves.
2021 Financial Landscape
Overall, the city has had relatively flat revenue since 2017 and the
current budget had planned accordingly.
Cost assumptions to hold expenses as flat as possible:
- Fort Collins average utility rates are comparable with the region,
however, a light and power utility rate increase is proposed in
2021.
- Other cost assumptions include general inflation, salary
adjustments, medical and dental costs, fuel prices, retirement
benefits
2021 proposed budget cost reductions = $13.2M, which includes a
$3M hiring and pay freeze
Taking a higher than normal draw from reserves for utility investments,
ongoing expenditures, capital expenditures. Josh noted the Economic
Health office fared well in these cuts with most programs funded.
If economic picture remains as is for another year, the city would need
to have another cut budget cycle.
Major themes of the proposed 2021 budget
Minimizing impacts to service delivery
Strategic service enhancements and redeploys
Focus on council priorities and support equity advancement
Capital project investment current and future
Difficult trade-off reductions
Maintain focus on our work force with no additional furloughs or pay
decreases
Council priorities and support for equity advancement
Community Engagement
ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION
TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR
8/19/20 – MINUTES Page 7
There are many opportunities to review and give input on 2021 budget
including online input, Council meetings, and work sessions, between
September 8 and October 13.
All boards and commissions will be receiving outreach from the city
about the budget encouraging them to provide written comments.
Individual board members can also communicate to their personal
council members.
Group discussion:
Conner - After using reserves for this budget, what will city be left with
going forward. Answer: There are TABOR statues that require the city to
keep 60-day emergency reserves at all time. However, if the economy does
not improve from today's level by 2023, there will be serious impact to the
city's reserves.
George - Regarding how to project city revenues, the monthly published
sales and use tax report indicates a continual drop off starting in April and it
is premature to predict when it will go back up. The revenue will follow the
virus.
Braulio - Suggested the City expand on the worst case scenario and project
what cuts would have to be made not using reserves. Travis - Council has
asked staff to do a similar projection as suggested.
Josh - what is the forecasted year after year sales tax revenue loss? Travis
shared a modeling projection using 4 scenarios of revenue shortfalls.
8. BOARD MEMBER AND STAFF REPORTS
9. OTHER BUSINESS
10. ADJOURN 7:30