Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Commission - Minutes - 07/18/2018Economic Advisory Commission Regular Meeting July 18, 2018, 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. Colorado River Room, 1st Floor, 222, Laporte Avenue 07/18/2018 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER Time Started 11:09 a.m. 2. ROLL CALL List of Board Members Present • Sam Solt, Chair • John Parks • Craig Mueller • Connor Barry • Ann Hutchison • Ted Settle List of Board Members Absent • Aric Light • Linda Stanley • Denny Otsuga List of Staff Members Present • Josh Birks, Economic Health & Redevelopment Director • Erin Zimmermann, Admin/Board Support • Ginny Sawyer, Project and Policy Manager List of Guests • Dale Adamy (r1st.org) 3. AGENDA REVIEW • No changes 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION • Dale Adamy— Shared comments regarding two topics: 1. The fund balance presentation that was presented to Council Finance and 2. Wasteshed. Suggested Economic Advisory Commission REGULAR MEETING 07/18/2018 – MINUTES Page 2 that both these items be things that the Economic Advisory Commission should be following. 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The June 20, 2018 minutes as were approved as presented 6-0. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Review Sign Code Memo (Discuss/Act) Members reviewed the EAC Sign Code Recommendation memo. They discussed the electronic sign component and Billboard component. They incorporated changes from Denny and made some additional minor adjustments to format. Connor moved to approve the draft memo as amended, Anne seconded it. Motion passed 6-0. b. City Plan Update (Listen/ Clarify) Connor Barry provided a committee update. The committee hasn’t met since April. It will be another 4-6 weeks before they are ready to dive into the scenarios. EAC will likely have an update at the September meeting. Anne Hutchison— Switching hats, the Chamber held a focus group through the Ambassador program and will feed that input into the process. It went well, was well received, and generated lots of good discussion. c. Board and Commission Evaluation Update (Listen/ Clarify) Ted Settle provided an update on the Board and Commission Evaluation project (The Experiment). The resolution was presented to Council. It was on the consent agenda. People were very supportive, and it went well. Next steps will be to talk through how to move forward. Now that the Women’s Commission is within Sustainability, Ted will talk with them to include them as well. This is something to celebrate. There is an internal staff working group to help answer questions, including what logistics would look like. Action Item: It would be helpful for Jackie to send an email to Economic Advisory Commission REGULAR MEETING 07/18/2018 – MINUTES Page 3 all of the liaisons with the latest update. May consider swapping a monthly meeting for a joint meeting. May consider meeting in a month when there is a fifth week. Council mentioned homelessness and housing as potential topics for the full group to consider. 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Art in Public Places/ Broadband & Underground Project Update— Ginny Sawyer (Listen/Clarify/ Discuss) Ginny Sawyer provided an overview presentation on the Art in Public Places/ Broadband & Underground Project Update and facilitated a discussion for feedback. Ginny Sawyer— The Art in Public Places program traditionally gets 1 percent of capital costs of City-related capital projects. With Broadband, I was tasked with having conversations about how this should be applied to the Broadband project and other underground projects. In 2012 an amendment was added to cap Utility contributions and exclude “equipment not affixed to public property.” This plays into Broadband because there will be infrastructure put into private property. APP enriches the public environment for both residents and visitors through the visual arts. Examples: Transformer Murals, Flood Markers. Hope to have a variety of options to give to Council for consideration. Broadband: Delay payment? Stagger payment? Reduce/Eliminate payment? Iconic Art (for Example Chicago- The Bean)? Other? Underground: Keep as is? Reduce Contribution? Exempt from AAP, Other? Ted Settle— Staggering makes sense in my mind. Connor Barry— I would agree that staggering might make sense, as opposed to one Iconic Art piece. Economic Advisory Commission REGULAR MEETING 07/18/2018 – MINUTES Page 4 Ginny Sawyer— Current code does attempt to connect the art to the project from which it came from, but this may be something to consider when it comes to Broadband. Certainly, there will be things like cabinets and flowerpots, and boxes or is it some fiber art installation because its fiber related. I am sure there are endless ideas out there. We do get local artists bids, but we also get national artists as well. Josh Birks— I’m hearing that the Art Community is interested in having it applied as broadly as possible, so there is as much funds available as possible. Anne Hutchison— There was no line for APP in the budget for Broadband, which I think is why Council is wanting to get feedback. As a community, we have said this is our vision so in my mind this fits in that bucket. Connor Barry— Have we considered options to invest in our art community to use with this larger some of money? So for example, for training or artist space. We should really think about the possibilities of use. John Parks— This would be a process-oriented approach as opposed to product- oriented approach. Could be a combination. Ted Settle— I would extend our comments to underground as well. Craig Mueller— I would advocate that we continue to keep the 1 percent investment with Underground Projects as well. Ginny Sawyer— Does it make sense to loosen funds from waste water? Anne Hutchison— I would look to the Art in Public Places board for recommendations. Ted Settle— I like the idea of the money flowing into one fund. Anne Hutchison— The program is reaching a level of maturity now. So, it might be Economic Advisory Commission REGULAR MEETING 07/18/2018 – MINUTES Page 5 time for some modification to overall vision relative to how we spend this money. Ginny Sawyer— We are needing to decommission pieces now. Ted Settle— The program may be below the radar screen and might need more visibility. Ginny Sawyer— There’s one program manager and a small board. Next steps are that this will go to Council Aug. 28th . I can report back and then there will be one final meeting after that. Josh Birks— I suggest submitting our minutes to the work session and then when it gets to the point of the options, then we can comment on a specific option. In summary, EAC was in favor of having the 1 percent for Art in Public Places be applied to Broadband and Underground projects with the idea that how the money is spent and on what could be further explored and expanded. b. KFCG Sunset Update— Ginny Sawyer (Listen/Clarify/ Discuss) Ginny Sawyer provided an update on the KFCG sunset. Revenue can be replaced in full or at another amount. Funded through City Sales Tax at .85. Overall, we have seen a 20 percent increase in population. If you look at employee count, we have increased but remain stable in 8.5 range per 1,000. If we opted to generate the $23M annually (current KFCG without Use Tax) with groceries total tax would be 3.75 percent or 3.85 percent without groceries. Currently scheduled: • July 24th Work Session • November 13 Work Session • Last day to Refer Ballot language— February 5, 2019 • Election— April 2, 2019 Economic Advisory Commission REGULAR MEETING 07/18/2018 – MINUTES Page 6 On average, 93 percent of KFCG support on-going operations. KFCG revenue can be replaced in full or at another amount if the desire is to not replace KFCG. Anne Hutchison— As someone who was a participant at the time, I believe it was seen as a band-aid. Give us this 10-year bridge and we will regrow our sales tax to fund what we need to. Others might say they saw it to be more ongoing. I guess questions I see are: Does it make sense for us to increase our base sales tax? Is it time for us to be honest on what does it really cost to maintain and potentially grow? Do we look at general growth and then separate out special projects? Are we spending money just to spend money or are we spending it to make this community the community we want it to be? Josh Birks— Who over time was paying sales tax revenue has also shifted. Looking at the shift of where the money is coming from is just as important. Two things are happening: cost is going up, but fundamentally who is funding them has also shifted. Sam Solt— What bothers me is the title of this: Keep Fort Collins Great, which implies something very different to me. Anne Hutchison— If you do believe that we are going to catch up, are we caught back up? Have we achieved that goal? Do you need as big of a bucket? How much of it was catchup versus an ongoing need? Have we reached a point where we don’t need as much start-up capital? These are the kind of questions I would be interested in. John Parks— It is unfortunate with TABOR that we have to be working on this and voting on this to run necessary City Government Services. Ted Settle— Eventually this will go to the voters. I can’t relate to it as much if I can’t understand what it means to me personally. The messaging will be very important. Josh Birks— Today was an introduction to get you familiar and then this is a topic we will want to revisit a few times as Council continues to have conversation, and then we can hopefully help influence some of the scenarios. Economic Advisory Commission REGULAR MEETING 07/18/2018 – MINUTES Page 7 Sam Solt— We will talk about this more. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS NONE 9. OTHER BUSINESS NONE 10. ADJOURNMENT ADJOURNS 1:03 P.M. UPCOMING TOPICS August:  Metro District Policy Update– Josh (Listen/Clarify)  Work Plan (Discuss/ Act)  100% Renewable Electricity Resolution (Listen/Clarify/ Discuss) September:  Conversation with the Mayor– Mayor Troxell (Discus/Act)  Budget Review Update– Josh Birks (Listen/Clarify)  Open (Potentially Code Named Project)