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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Board - Minutes - 01/18/2023 ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR January 18, 2023 4:00 – 6:00 pm Via Zoom 1 2 /21/2 2 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER 4:00pm 2. ROLL CALL • List of Board Members Present o Renee Walkup o John Parks o Denny Coleman o Thierry Dossou o Mistene Nugent o Braulio Rojas o Mike Colwell o Erin Gray o Richard Waal • List of Board Members Absent – Excused or Unexcused, if no contact with Chair has been made. • List of Staff Members Present o Jillian Fresa, Staff Liaison, Economic Sustainability o Katie Geiger, Business Connector o Tommy Meritt, Business Connector o Ashley Kailburn, Senior Specialist o Shannon Hein, Manager Economic Sustainability o SeonAh Kendall, Director Economic Sustainability 3. AGENDA REVIEW • No changes 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 2 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES • The December minutes were approved by the Board. 6. UNFISNISHED BUSINESS • Introduction of New members − Mike Colwell, Erin Gray, and Richard Waal are new members to the Board. The entire Board went around and did introductions. • Land Development Code Recommendation Memo to City Council − John provided background information to the Board about the Land Development Code and the memo which they created. Jillian gave an update stating Council met last night to determine the options on how to proceed and voted to repeal the Land Development Code to bring it back for other considerations after doing further engagement. • 2022 Annual Report − Blake who was a previous member of the Board is finishing up the 2022 Annual Report and will get it to John. Jillian asked for it by the end of next week as it is due at the end of January. Renee explained the end of the year report to the new members and explained how timing is important with sending in memos to Council. 7. NEW BUSINESS • Multicultural Business & Entrepreneur Center (MBEC) Report − Katie Geiger and Tommy Meritt updated the Board on the Multicultural Business & Entrepreneur Center (MBEC) Report. − The MBEC includes three Business Connectors, Katie Geiger, Tommy Meritt (Spanish bilingual), and Edgar Ramos (Spanish bilingual). It is a free business support that is currently available in English and Spanish, but they are working on adding other languages through translation. There is no limit on the number of appointments. It is funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) though 2024 and aligns with the Economic Health Office strategy. It exists because there was a lack of consistent engagement specialist in the community who could speak Spanish or work with diverse communities, prepare and create sustainable businesses, and create a path to general wealth. − Some partners include, Poudre River Public Library District, Colorado Larimer Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and Fort Collins Area ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 3 Chamber of Commerce, who they also collaborate with on business workshops and community events. They also work with The Interfaith Solidarity & Accompaniment Coalition (ISAAC), Colorado State University (CSU), Front Range Community College, Larimer County, and the Internal DEI Office. The MBEC is different from SBDC because MBEC has consistent Spanish language business support and general business guidance. The SBDC has specialized consultants in all areas and focuses on growth and expansion. − Katie and Tommy explained some of their success stories including the launch of the food truck Las Catrinas who is now a leader within the Latino Northern Colorado. They assisted established businesses with small business recovery grants, signage and zoning, and social media features for appreciation and awareness. They also helped the Steering Committee members and owners of Clean House Co by utilizing a variety of resources multiple times and they referred the MBEC to others in the community. − Some program highlights include process improvement, grant support and digital empowerment. Process improvement included FC Lean and supporting intake, customer journey, survey process, finalizing action items and infrastructure. Grant support included scheduling 40 grant support appointments and supporting 21 businesses in applying, which resulted in the award for the Small Business Recovery Grant. Digital empowerment included a partnership with Larimer SBDC where they distributed 14 free Chromebooks that included a technology and finance course. From April – December of 2022 they had a total of 177 appointments, 102 of which were unique appointments and helped establish 27 businesses. 38 of 58 individuals surveyed utilized Spanish services, 32 identified as women and 48 identified as Hispanic or Latinx. − Some next steps include workshops with local industry experts and partners, Spanish workshops in Jan, Feb, and March with Larimer SBDC and Latino Chamber, Technical assistance grants, and identifying funding and partnerships after 2024. Some challenges are they are still working to earn trust of the community and broaden the groups they are working with as well as building infrastructure and systems. − Comment (Mike) I have a long background with this kind of work. I am hoping you will send us these slides so we have contact information. I would be happy to get with you offline to talk through some of the things we have done in the past. It might be able to help you with some of the sources and some of the structure. − Q (Richard) Can you go into a little bit more detail about the challenges you ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 4 are having with the community that was mentioned on the slide? − A (Katie) A lot of it is we are still new enough that we are still trying to figure out what groups we are working with, find these partnerships, dive into them, and create new partnerships. If you have any ideas, we would love to hear them to start connecting with those groups. That is really the main challenge right now, finding the groups and connecting with them. − Comment (Tommy) Some of the steps we have taken to connect with more members of the community is connect with CSU and their student resources like the Native American American Nation and work together in workshops or present ourselves to teach our community about our resource. − Q (Richard) As part of your services do you offer helping to build relationships with financial institutions like banks? − A (Katie) What we have done in the past and what we are doing currently is providing the businesses with a list of local lending opportunities, loan companies, and different banks. We will work with them if needed to connect with them, but it is at that point in the businesses hands or we will refer them over to the SBDC so they can get specialized assistance with that as well. − Comment (Erin) Thank you for that presentation. It was well done and easy to understand. It is exciting to see this exist in Fort Collins. I have two comments for you guys. First is on funding. I think there are some interesting funding options coming out for partnerships in general and that might be more of how your entity might partner with an NGO to help drive financing to these small businesses. I would be happy to share some links. I am not sure if you have partnered with an NGO that is tied into unserved communities, but I do think there is a lot of interesting funding options out there and they frequently work to help smaller businesses get over that early stage and those business challenges in financing. Some of them are tied to some kind of mission with inclusivity or different sustainable development goal but I think there could be something you could explore there. Second, since I do a bit of work on economic goals and I love data and monitoring I think it is really important to understand how cities are progressing toward economic health. I thought your comment on generational wealth was really interesting and a really great thing for you guys to tie into. When I looked at the Community Performance Measurement Dashboard, which is really great that Fort Collins does that, I am not sure if its only way of displaying economic health, but I don’t see anything on generational wealth. I would love to explore that. It ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 5 could be some really interesting metrics for you guys to try to tie into for say jobs for underserved communities or equity measurements for how you are creating generational wealth. That might increase recognition and awareness. It would be interesting if you do have challenges on raising awareness just say within the Hispanic community or other unserved communities. I know that it seems to be the largest minority community in Fort Collins or challenges with raising awareness with other government entities in the City. − Comment (Shannon) I work with Katie and Tommy on this program, and I love that comment. I would be interested in your thoughts there. I would say one of the closer pieces or connections there is the Equity Indicator Report. I don’t know if you have seen that yet but one of the pieces there is business representation. We are also trying to create some alignment and make some moves there with this program and with what the Equity Office is doing there too. I love your thoughts and would love to chat more. − Comment (SeonAh) There are quite a few dashboards that we utilize from the City. There is the Community Dashboard that is used a lot for the budgeting process. There is the Equity Indicator Dashboard that we as Economic Health have a little bit more say in what we are being measured against. That is the one that Shannon was discussing. That is included in here as well, so I just wanted to point out we do utilize quite a bit of different dashboards. As Shannon mentioned this is the one we have been really looking at and I think this was the one we were able to influence a little differently to say hey if we really are creating a true economic health that includes generational wealth this is the way to do it, homeownership, and business ownership. − Comment (Mike) A couple of things that come to mind are credit unions across the country and especially where I was recently, are really focused on minority business segment. There is a Credit Union in Des Moines, Iowa that I worked with that speaks 41 languages at their branches. They also have foundations that gift money. I think you should look at them. I am glad you work with the SBDC but banks traditionally very difficult first-time lenders with a limited credit history whether it is good or bad. It is not intentional, just the way they are run. Credit unions are desperately trying to serve with markets. It is one of their biggest targets so they definitely would look at them as a funding source to their foundations. I would also look at them as helping you with events. They love to spend money on events, and they love to network. They will do it all together. A lot of times you can get them all in the same room. They are not hyper competitive as some others. I really would look at ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 6 that. The other thing I would do is we just started a similar group in Iowa where I was just working. I would tell you to go look and I could help you with this but look out for other groups that are doing the same thing you are doing in other communities, especially away from Colorado. Look for a chance to network and build ideas. I will have to introduce you to the one in Iowa. As far as connections one of the more successful points we could connect with some of the very nontraditional entrepreneurs is through churches. Find out where they are worshiping, churches, temples or whatever form that takes for them. It is a wonderful place because a lot of those people start talking to their religious leader or just people they meet there. It is a wonderful place. − Q (Renee) Some great ideas Mike. Thank you for the presentation. What comes to mind is have you partnered at all with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Is that someplace you have pursued talking to? − A (Katie) We have, and Edgar is our liaison with them as well. − Comment (Braulio) Congratulations on the presentation. I really liked it. It was straight forward and easy to understand and digest. Technology is really important to build success with any business especially in the beginning. I think, especially under the Latin or Hispanic community that is a big challenge that you can or have done already. I think that can make a difference to make a long-term success is trying to help them break those barriers. I like the presentation and what you are doing. If I can help at some point, you can reach me out of this environment as well. − Q (Thierry) My question goes along with community members beyond just the Hispanic community since they seem to be the focus. How about the Black community as an example. Do you have any plans to reach out to that community to benefit them in some sort of relationship with that community as well? I know that community is small compared to the Hispanic community but are there any plans to reach out to that community? − A/Q (Tommy) We are currently working with the CSU Student Resource of the African Americans, and we are still organizing that because they do have a similar program that they are helping entrepreneurs establish their businesses. We are connecting with them at the moment. We don’t have anything planned, but we are in the speaking stages. Do you have any suggestions of how we can further connect with that community? − A (Thierry) I would be happy to connect you with a few folks in the community that can help in that regards. − Comment (SeonAh) Shannon or Katie did you want to talk about ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 7 BIPOC Alliance, or we have talked a little bit about the Black Professionals Network as well. Just wanting to point out we have been reaching out to a couple of other organizations too in that space. − Comment (Shannon) Tommy did coordinate opportunities with BIPOC Alliance as well. They were hosting weekly breakfasts and it was kind of these casual drop in where we could chat with the at La Luz over breakfast burritos. That was great to break the ice and get to know each other. We have connected with Jice Johnson; she is out of Denver and runs an organization there. She has done some speaking here at Founded in FOCO and with some other groups. She is running some procurement fairs in Denver but wanted to see how we can make some connections or be an extension for her here in Fort Collins with the work she is doing in Denver, but we could definitely use some help for sure. That would be great. • Economic Health Strategic Plan with Circular Economy − Jillian Fresa shared a presentation on the Economic Health Strategic Plan with Circular Economy that will be shared with City Council. They will be asking for feedback on the overarching strategic plan and thoughts on the proposed focus area the circular economy portion of the planning effort. − The overarching goal is to support business community and regional economy. They developed four different themes including business retention and expansion; small business; talent and workforce; and innovation. They want to highlight that all four themes are interconnected and that this work is grounded in equity and inclusion work. Innovation is where they will bring in circular economy and the triple bottom line. − City Council will also receive a full document on the economic analysis that Hickey Global produced for them. It goes into a cluster analysis, demographics, recession resilience, education, employment growth, community patterns, and quality of life. They engaged with community partner organizations, Chamber of Commerce, education institutions, industry leaders, Economic Advisory Board, and many others. Hickey Global will be providing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis they have identified through engagement. − They identified five peer communities – Austin, Texas; Bozeman, Montana; Boise, Idaho; Boulder, Colorado; and Phoenix, Arizona for some best practices. Hickey Global also worked on a cluster analysis for them. A cluster is a geographic concentration of specific industry as well as community assets that support and foster sectors. Clusters they identified for Fort Collins is manufacturing; professional and scientific services; and information ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 8 technology as well as a sub cluster of distribution and ecommerce which supports other clusters in this area. They dove deeper into the manufacturing cluster and the unique assets we have here that include food and beverage manufacturing; computer and electronic products; machinery; plastics and rubber products; and wood product and furniture manufacturing. They will be focusing on manufacturing for circular economy. − Circular economy is intended to reduce waste and pollution, save costs, improve industrial resource efficiency, and create supply chair resilience. All of that can be established through the circulation of products and materials. Linear economy is take, make, waste where circular economy is take, make, reuse. − Jillian shared a figure that demonstrates various levels of circular economy strategies a company could implement. The top efforts try to prevent or reduce the use of materials and as you move down the figure it is more about repurposing or refurbishing materials. A company could use more than one strategy in their operations but not all will work for each company. She also highlighted some local companies that are already doing this like HP who allows customers to opt out of computer accessories and New Belgium who gives their brewing grain to livestock as feed. Molly mapped out the City’s existing programs that already support circular economy and found that manufactures is where the gap is for the need and support. They have also heard from manufacturers that they have interest and desire to work in a circular economy but are facing barriers to get them to that point. − Q (Mike) Does the City itself participate in this type of circular work already like all the departments that have waste output whether it is streets or recreation? How do they communicate what they have to provide, give up, or use? − A (Jillian) I think there is definitely the desire to do that eventually. I am not sure if we currently have any work being done right now. − Q (Mike) How is this communicated? Is part of your strategy to be the hub or provide communication? If I am a manufacturer and I have some kind of scrap waste that someone might be able to use, how do I communicate that to the people I don’t know? It is easy to call the guys and gals I know but what about the people I don’t know? − A (Jillian) Great question. I think that is one of the barriers we have identified. We are doing specific engagement with manufacturers right now. We are still waiting on those results to come back but we are hearing that is a barrier. Just having the network and being able to communicate and collaborate with others locally. ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 9 − Comment (SeonAh) We did have a municipal sustainability program where we traced how much waste we were putting out. That one really looked at what are we doing internally. We also used to have a program called ClimateWise that did similar work. It was very specific for construction, but they would post when they were doing the deconstruction of a site so others could come by and collect mirrors, sinks, or other construction waste. We have put a pause on ClimateWise however, there is a program that is being developed and going to the quest for proposals through the Sustainable Living Association called the Sustainable Business Program. We will see that this fall. We are hoping that some of these programs that were highly successful with ClimateWise come back through that program but again I think that is where we as government get out of the way so that private industry can really support in that space. I just wanted to share the programs we have had or are existing today. − Comment (Mike) Manufacturing associations or procurement associations are both good ways because they are always looking at how to add more value to their association, no different to what a chamber does. If you are targeting manufacturing there are probably state, or even regional and local associations. − Comment (SeonAh) We have a robust one called NOCO Manufacturing Partnership that has over 400 manufactures. It is looking at not only workforce challenges, which Jillian has been very involved in but they are also looking at building your own network and knowing who is in your communities. We have been founding members of that group for the last 11 years so leveraging that group as well has been an important piece. − Comment (John) Thank you for your work on this especially on circular economy. There is so much work that can be done there. I know in Colorado we are well below the national average in terms of recycling and it is really neat to think about reduce, reuse, recycle and how you have added so many more “re” words in there and how recycling is at the very bottom. Hopefully if and when the City moves to having one residential trash and recycling pick up, that will have some sort of positive impact in terms of increasing the amount of recycling. Something that is so needed is just the education around this and that is something the other folks have been mentioning is just how to get he word out about these things that it just can’t be thrown away. We are doing a renovation of our basement and we had some extra appliances and doors that we didn’t really want to see but wanted to get rid of so we just posted them for free and they disappeared. I also know there is ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 10 the House Bill 13.55 from this past year which is the producer responsibility program for recycling, and I know they are just getting going on creating a non-profit this summer. They will have a report next January so it will be interesting to see what programs come out of that from the State and know ways that the program that you are developing here can possibly be a model for what the State is trying to do as well. Thank you for your work on this. − Comment (Braulio) Thank you for your presentation and I know there is a lot of information that you have that I don’t, but I don’t see CSU in the picture. When you think about the City, I know CSU is their own entity and government, but I don’t know if it might be good to frame them. I know the ask is there. The other thing is make sure you have some indexes to measure progress during it. So, see it as a general picture, if the general intention is to reuse more and reduce the amount of waste, waste total and waste per capita have an indicator to help us over time see if it is working or not. It might be a good additive but if you don’t have it that is okay. − Comment (Jillian) Thank you, that is great feedback. This is going to be tied to the existing Our Climate Future (OCF) Plan and one of their larger goals is to be zero waste by 2030. We would like to tie in metrics with this project with OCF as well. − Q (Erin) Thank you for the presentation. It is interesting and exciting to know there are some circular economy efforts. I think I might have missed something on the process. I know you are asking what we should ask Council, but can you maybe just repeat the objective. Is it to get their buy in on focusing on the manufacturing sector? Is the strategic plan being updated this year? How does it all fit together? − A (Jillian) You are correct. We are looking for feedback on what and how the circular economy will be implemented for the City. We are recommending the manufacturing support piece as the primary focus, not the sole focus but where we can really see impact based on current conditions. That is the ask of Council on the 14th: how do you feel about what we are proposing and where we have taken the Economic Strategic Plan. − Q (Erin) Okay, so something I thought would be helpful because I think it is nice you have done a gap analysis with what current programs are coving but also just understanding kind of in terms of intensity or how much each sector is producing or its potential to reduce. Do you have anything like that or other criteria you used? I think that would be really interesting to see. − A (Jillian) Molly in Environmental Services has access to see what industrial waste vs other industries is. I think that should be a good ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 11 inclusion in our presentation, so thank you for that. − Q (Renee) Interesting presentation. Since all of us were somewhat involved with Hickey Global. Thank you for including us. I think that was really beneficial for everyone on EAB. I know a few people have left but we still had input so that was great. When you give the presentation, it sounds like it will be a brief presentation but will be getting a large amount of information is that how I am interpreting this? − A (Jillian) We will be sharing the economic analysis as well as the stakeholder document. We could provide that to the Board as well once that is published. We are really trying to give an overview because we are limited to 15-20 minutes for this presentation. Any feedback on that economic analysis ahead of time would be preferred for Council. − Q (Renee) I guess it will be in their documents but when you talk about some of the manufacturing factors, I am looking at these and thinking whoa, we have plastics here? I mean I was not aware of that so will there be information about the companies, or a list of companies included in the material that Council gets because I can see those questions coming up. − A (Jillian) Yes that will be included and that is a great point. We could include that in our presentation as well to demonstrate those top employers that represent those segments of the manufacturing industry. − Comment (Renee) I think that will come up if that is not in their supporting documents which can be a time waster too. − Q (Richard) On your cluster SWOT analysis, I didn’t notice any companies or any industries that were highlighted in that. Is that something you are going to add to the slide deck or do you have that information? − A (Jillian) I can add that to the slide if that is helpful. What Hickey Global identified was the manufacturing cluster; professional and scientific services so really focusing on STEM and life sciences; information technology because we have a strong software development presence here; and distribution and ecommerce. I can include that on the presentation as well. − Comment (Richard) I think that would be helpful and even examples of companies within there. I know I didn’t tell everyone but my background is in the computer consulting world. I would break out when you say IT and would probably say software development so ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 12 people are not thinking of HP. I used to work at HP and everyone thought I sold printers but HP is a large company so the more defined you could be would be great. − Q (Mistene) I am wondering if the targeted manufacturing groups have been engaged up to this point and what kind of feedback you have from them. − A (Jillian) We did reach out and to what SeonAh was referring to as the NOCO Manufacturing Partnership. We had two different stakeholder engagements. One for the overarching strategic plan and then one specifically looking at circular economy. Both included manufacturing sectors. − Q (Mistene) I was curious about the circular economy piece and the initial feedback you have gotten. − A (Jillian) The survey closes today so we don’t have that official feedback but just speaking to manufacturers, we have heard interest like the HP example I went through of really growing and fostering that initiative. Up to this point that is how we have been engaging with our local manufacturers. − Q (Mistene) So the expectation looking down the road at possible adoption to this there will be openness to participating. − A (Jillian) Yes. − Comment (Mistene) It is really great to see a presentation that does not mention Covid so that is encouraging. − Comment (Mike) One other add I would throw in there is if you have any examples that you can list out of low hanging fruit or other things that have already been done in the community on businesses behalf that give them an idea of what we are talking about. If there is something about a glass company is there anyway to find out how many pounds of glass they have recycled in the last year or something that brings it home so this isn’t just a little bit of something. They might have used 300,000 pounds of glass and I have no idea but especially if it is coming from local/getting this locally I think that is so much of these circular economy arguments. You get the circle as small as you can from a logistics and geographic standpoint because then you cut the carbon load. − Comment (Braulio) Another element that came to mind that might be important to your presentation would be the incentive for the producers to follow that. You know in general humans and companies are driven by what am I going to gain. It might be good to present a general picture of you are ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 13 doing this but then you are going to gain this. I think that is another important element. − Q (Denny) I think it was an excellent presentation. I made a note to tell you guys on the entrepreneurship angle as far as financing I thought some of the suggestions were excellent. I would also add Angel Networks and if not already there could be facilitated Hispanic networks of large companies. Angel investors are successful business people with high net worth who are interested in investing back in the community. It would be equity investments but could turn into mentoring opportunities for small start up businesses. I know there was a very successful one in Boulder years ago but I am not sure if there is one here in Fort Collins. Just one suggestion I would make. I would be interested on the business retention and expansion efforts is how we stay in contact with those key companies particularly the ones we know are in growth modes. Do we contact them individually or is there group meetings? How does that happen? − A (Jillian) Right now we are pretty intentional about engaging with our primary employers especially those that are experiencing growth. Often we don’t do that alone; we bring in the County and utilize our partnerships to really provide the best support for these companies. We also try to bring in City leadership. We are pretty intentional in establishing those relationships with upper leadership in the City with those companies. − Comment (Denny) That is really good because every successful business in our community is on some other community’s attraction list. If we are not in contact with them, we can be assured that someone else is. − Q (Renee) I wanted to ask you about the best practices cities like Austin. I know that some of those cities are similar in size and then there are some disparities like Boulder is smaller but highly successful. Council might ask but are you going to identify why those cities other than the size why those were the best practices chosen. − A (Jillian) It is not necessarily abut the size of the city although we tried to choose more midsized communities. We also looked at their demographics and what industry they currently have within their region. Really trying to look at it from an economic standpoint, not just size. − A (SeonAh) We looked at who we typically compete against when we get site inquiries, demographics, and how we match up in terms of industry sectors and talent is really important component of that. I think ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 14 we went from 15 and then we went down so we looked at different aspects of that and we are happy to share that with EAB and Council. The City also has a peer communities list so we had a list of not only who are our peers in Colorado but outside the state. We started with the larger one but also the ones we compete against. Bozeman is one that we compete against more often than we would like to admit. Those are the aspects we looked at to narrow down with Hickey Global on where we are matching up and what are some creative and innovative things they are doing as well. What are the challenges they might be facing that we almost might be facing so we were looking at that horizon aspect too. − Q (Renee) So when it says best practices is that to say take Bozeman for example, do they have better practices or maybe doing something more innovative and we are taking a look at that. Just curious what we are looking at with these peer cities. − A (Jillian) I wouldn’t say they have better practices, but each city can be excelling in these specific areas. Again what SeonAh was saying, we are trying to learn and really engage with these communities less as competitors but more as peer cities and who we are trying to learn from. I think there is no one community who is doing everything right. − Comment (SeonAh) Thierry knows this but we have been talking with Boise specifically around talent retention and the work they are doing for a sense of belonging because we have been hearing a lot of our businesses say we can attract talent but we cant keep talent. There has been a group that has been working on this since 2021ish because Covid happened. That group has said who are the other communities we should look at, who are doing this maybe not perfect but well, and where maybe we want to take best practices from and Boise came up in that conversation. Jim Nottingham from HP was able to say here is the work we were doing when I was in Boise, here is how it really moved through the needle and so that has been a great collaboration of learning. We have been taking data from workforce and the Chamber has been really active in this space as well as our private industry. It started as tech and then tech said we really need to expand this, it is not just about tech, it is about our community. The hospital systems were involved as well as PSD, CSU, and Front Range. Andrew from Odell is one of our leaders specifically in this space so we are staring to see it create this energy that the City doesn’t have to lead but we might be able to provide data as well as contact information. Jillian and I spent this morning talking to Boise’s ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 15 Economic Development of who should we be talking to and where did you start. − Comment (Denny) Bozeman just attracted my daughter who is a nurse. She moved there from Flagstaff. − Comment (Jillian) They are doing some great things up there for sure. − Q (Denny) Does CSU have any targeted technology areas where they specifically look to commercialize their technologies in certain industries and do those match up with our priorities from a City’s perspective? − A (Jillian) CSU does align a lot with our cluster work so with our professional and scientific services. That was one of the clusters that’s highlighted in that analysis and a lot of what they are focusing on is that life sciences (STEM R&D research). That does align and is really important when you are considering what our targeted industries are, if we have the community assets there to support workforce, and really help that innovative growth in our companies. − Comment (Mike) Ionosphere recently received some money or some targeted industry work as well so you might want to take that into consideration once its appropriate. − Comment (Renee) this is huge for the City and know you all have been working on this for a long time, so thank you. 8. BOARD MEMBER AND STAFF REPORTS • Q (Richard) I think they talked about it in the Council meeting last night regarding what they are trying to do with North College/North of Old Town. That seems to be a great area for small business development. Just trying to catch up with what the issues are/they are running into. I don’t know if this is something you all have already had conversations about. − A (SeonAh) We have a team that is lead by Clay Frickey from our Urban Renewal Authority that works specifically around North College and the tax increment financing but also the business and community development space around there. He would be a great one to maybe put on the agenda for EAB as they have done quite a bit of work around equity and inclusion in the North College area and historic preservation for keeping the sense of community of North College while also developing it. − Comment (Renee) That is a great idea. We have not heard from Clay on some of the plans. I read a little or heard there was quite a long discussion. ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 16 • Q (Mistene) I am wondering what people’s thoughts are on our further engagement, if anything on the Land Use Code discussion. I am meeting with Meaghan Overton tomorrow to get a little more insight from the City and what kind of feedback they have been getting. I am curious what people’s thoughts are on our engagement there. − A (Renee) I think since the City last night decided to repeal the Land Development Code it is going to be up in the air until they engage the public. That was my impression based on last night’s meeting. I don’t know that the Board can do anything about it until they start formulating what the next steps are. − Comment (Jillian) I think we also mentioned when Rebecca presented last month in bringing her back in for the phase two which will be focused on commercial so I could see that being a topic as well. − Comment (Mistene) That would be great and I also think some periodic updates on how that process is going for the redo of the first phase. • Comment (Mike) One thing I might throw out that was on the list that I think was in the 6-month Council plan that was sent out a while back, is minimum wage. I have some friends that are businesspeople in town, and they found out I was going to be on the Board, and they were like I need to talk to you. It was really around the food space where high minimum wage can hurt. We just got done talking about minorities starting new businesses and a lot of those tend to be very labor intensive. I think it is something that might be worthy of a discussion and recommendations or advisement from us. I saw some of the conversation on council about how high minimum wage should be and I am worried that the higher numbers might impact some of the smaller businesses because they are not high margin businesses. − Comment (Renee) Just to bring you up to date, we did send a memo to Council about five to six months ago and maybe we can send that out to all of you so you can see our recommendation. There was a fantastic presentation the City gave and we saw the PowerPoint in that meeting. I don’t know maybe that would be something that is useful too to bring you up to date. Is anyone else interested? It has been a couple of months since we had that conversation. It is my understanding Council decided to increase minimum wage to be phased in. I think there were some exclusions or adaptations if you were in the food sector like servers etc. I don’t have all the numbers. I know there were some state decisions too. It sounds like that information would be helpful. We haven’t voted on it as a City but I think that is coming up in April. − Comment (SeonAh) I was just going to say Council has not voted on the minimum wage yet. They actually asked staff to go back and do additional ECONOMIC ADVISORY BOARD TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR 1 2 /21/22 – MINUTES Page 17 engagement specifically to the lower wage earners. We have reached out to Larimer County workforce in economic development because part of their charter is to help those that are lower wage earners in upskill/reskill opportunities. I think we are meeting with them next week to understand those impacts. One of those conversations was around the cliff effect specifically on benefits. We are discussing it today and there is going to be two conversations. One is going to be the work session on the engagement we find with the lower wage earners and impacts it might have on April 11th and Council is going to consider this on May 16th, which is a fluid date as it could change. They have asked us to do more engagement but specifically with the works and not the businesses. We are trying to encourage both of those to happen. • Q (John) For the work plan there is nothing else that we might have missed? It is a great list we have right now with small business and land use code that Mistene raised. We are waiting until there is further discussion. I know you were involved in that process earlier on and being involved but I am looking forward to the tier two commercial development and minimum wage. It would be helpful for folks that don’t know Renee, Jillian, and myself get together once a month and make the agenda. The point of this is to make sure there are things on the agenda you are interested in and we can make an impact on that are coming up but not too close. Timing is the key. Last thing, Jillian when did you say your presentation is to Council? − A (Jillian) It is scheduled for February 14th. − Comment (Renee) It might be useful for the new Board members to have the work plan John just mentioned. It is sort of our marching orders we have decided on for 2023. 9. OTHER BUSINESS 10. ADJOURN - 6:00 pm