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HomeMy WebLinkAboutEconomic Advisory Commission - Minutes - 01/16/2019Economic Advisory Commission Regular Meeting January 16, 2019, 11 a.m.- 1 p.m. CIC Conference Room, 300 Laporte Avenue 1/16/2019 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER Time Started 11:07 a.m. 2. ROLL CALL List of Board Members Present • Connor Barry • George Grossman • Aric Light • Denny Otsuga • John Parks • Braulio Rojas • Linda Stanley • Renee Walkup List of Board Members Absent • Ted Settle List of Staff Members Present • Josh Birks, Economic Health & Redevelopment Director • Erin Zimmermann, Economic Health Admin/Board Support • Ryan Mounce, City Planner • Shannon Hein, Business Specialist List of Guests • Dale Adamy (r1st.org) • Ann Hutchison 3. AGENDA REVIEW • Started with introductions and welcomed new commission members. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 1/16/2019 – MINUTES Page 2 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION • Dale Adamy—I just want to introduce myself because I have been coming as a citizen to give public comment longer than many members here. Welcome new members! 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The December 19, 2018 meeting minutes approved as presented. 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS. a. City Plan Update (Listen/ Clarify) Connor— No meetings since the last time, so no update currently. b. City Plan Engagement Ryan Mounce (Discuss/Act) Ryan Mounce provided an update on the City Plan process. He presented the main ideas of the City Plan Economic Health Principles section. A lot will be carried forward from the previous plan and is not necessarily brand new. These are drafts and not final. Key Principles: 1. Foster a vibrant, resilient, and inclusive economy • Support job creation • Improve business engagement • Sales tax revenue • Strategic economic investments 2. Support entrepreneurship and innovation • Innovation economy • Assts to support entrepreneurship • Climate economy • Northern Colorado innovation hub 3. Support local, unique, and creative businesses • Business Programs ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 1/16/2019 – MINUTES Page 3 • Local and creative entrepreneurship • Strengthen unique and local industry 4. Ensure an adequate and competitive supply of space and/or land is available to support the needs of businesses and employers of all sizes • Targeted employment and mixed use areas • Infill and redevelopment barriers in mixed-use employment districts • Essential Infrastructure/ capital facilities • Future employment areas 5. Engage and lead regional economic development efforts • Economic partnerships • Unified vision • Fort Collins/Loveland Airport • Regional Infrastructure 6. Support the development of a skilled and qualified workforce that is well- connected to employment opportunities in the City and region • Balanced growth • Career pathways • Youth engagement Ryan then provided further context on the employment zoning. Adjust proportion of uses in employment zoning; allow greater flexibility for secondary uses. Question for discussion: Should City Plan recommend more land use? Next steps: Were originally targeting April for adoption, but have been asked to move that up to March 2019. If EAC wants to take formal action, would need to do that at the next meeting. Comments: Linda— shared that she has concerns on the recruitment aspect under Principle 1 ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 1/16/2019 – MINUTES Page 4 because of the need to consider the other impacts that come with recruitment, for example housing. What are the unintended consequences? How do we make sure we consider those? Job creation sounds great, but is it a good thing for Fort Collins right now. Connor— Specific language around the targeted industry clusters. What are those? Josh— Shared the 5 Clusters: Clean energy, software/hardware, water innovation, bioscience, uniquely Fort Collins, Part of our workplan for 2019 is to understand are those the right 5 and where do we need to focus? We want to reevaluate what the role of government should be and how should we make strategic investments. Also want to look at it from a regional perspective. Josh— My perspective is we don’t ever create a job. I think we look at how we shape the economy at a jobs level through policies, tools etc…The amount of time we spend in recruitment is negligible. The majority of recruitment efforts are about providing customer service to companies who are already looking to come to Fort Collins. Denny— Under principle 2 raised issue of lack of capital. Aric— Under Principle 3- Federal opportunity zones, how are we increasing awareness of these opportunities as well? Josh— Calling that out as a potential tool is not a bad idea. George— Our biggest competitor is online shopping. In my mind, a local campaign that spans all industries would be great. How does a principle get down to an action item that is more concrete and then how can we provide feedback? Connor— Asked about the airport and if that is a carryforward from the precious plan and should it be adjusted? Denny— I feel like there are some main threads like capital inflow and capital availability, that cross and connect many of these principles. Then, that needs to overlay with the Triple Bottom Line mindset. It feels very vertical, bullet-point. Ryan— That has been a challenge as far as thinking about layout. The plan itself is organized by these outcome areas. If there are ideas that cross these outcome areas, maybe we leverage the specific category of high performing community. Ryan— Are there any big ideas missing? Braulio— It is important to consider where you work, where you live, where you spend your money. In my opinion, we want priorities like having people engaged. If you don’t have that solid relationship, you will have a weak population that won’t necessarily stay, if there are economic downturns. What are the values for people? ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 1/16/2019 – MINUTES Page 5 What is unique for Fort Collins that can’t be found anywhere else? George— As I look at all six of these principles, if there was more access to capital in our community would many of these principles be more supported? If you think about the community changing, where is the money coming to support it? Mall example- outside money that came in. I don’t know how capital fits, but I agree with what Denny is saying. Josh— I think for me some overarching thought is recognizing whether its managing capital from within or attracting it from outside, our role is to shape it so we get the best kind of community possible. John— I wonder if you consider the Venn diagram of triple bottom line as a format for presenting that information. Josh— I propose we dedicate most of February’s meeting to City Plan and Ryan and I can talk about if there is an opportunity for some homework assignments. c. Board and Commission Evaluation (Experiment) Update—Ted Settle (Listen/ Clarify) Josh on behalf of Ted— We will focus on testing the TLS tool and have the date set for the meeting. More information to come. 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Chair and Vice Chair Elections— Board (Discuss/Act) EAC held Chair and Vice Chair elections. Historically, the Chair and Vice Chair manage the agenda and the Chair runs the meetings. Josh Birks meets with the Chair and Vice Chair two weeks prior to the meeting. The other duty is to interface with the Council liaison. ACTION: Linda motioned to nominate Denny as chair and Connor as vice chair. George seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously. b. Business Engagement Action Plan Update— Shannon Hein (Listen/Clarify/ Discuss) Shannon Hein presented on the Business Engagement Action Plan. This came out of the Baldrige feedback as an opportunity for improvement around having a systematic approach to identify business customer segments, listening to businesses, asses satisfaction and engagement, and collect and evaluate information to improve services. ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 1/16/2019 – MINUTES Page 6 Vision is around customer satisfaction and how we are enhancing relationship between the City and the business community. Involves both internal and external strategies. BEAP Team- Economic Health is the lead with representation from planning and development and transportation, Social Sustainability, Police Services, Environmental Services, Utilities Customer Accounts, Communication and Public Information Office, Sales Tax and City Manager’s Office. 2018 Wins: • Hosted four business listening sessions • Deployed the first small business needs assessment and second national business survey • Created option to identify as a business, not just a citizen in access Fort Collins. • Launched a construction tool kit 2019 priorities: • Business Engagement Spectrum • Customer Service Training • Service Area Plans • Construction Toolkit implementation • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Tool Business Engagement: The goal is to be more accessible and to then have more consistency in service across the City. Connect with business-> Utilize Feedback-> Evaluate and Respond ->Adjust Service Delivery Questions: ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 1/16/2019 – MINUTES Page 7 1. Are we addressing what you’re hearing from the business community? 2. Does the Business Engagement Action Plan support and complement business priorities? Comments: Linda— How do you reach different businesses? How do you target your efforts? Shannon— We also do site visits with individual businesses. We focus listening sessions based on what we are hearing in the community and are trying to be more engaged with women-owned and minority businesses. Josh— Trying to be conscious about moving coffee listening sessions around the town, as well as being more thematically-focused. Josh— We partner with the Chamber SBDC and Innosphere and others as well, so we have more bandwidth. We are trying to increase the number of businesses we connect with. George— The listening sessions are incredibly valuable. It sends the message that City leadership is listening. I encourage you to do more of them, and continue to consider themes for grouping. Denny— Concern about CRM that those tools are only as effective as how often and well they are used. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS None 9. OTHER BUSINESS None 10. ADJOURNMENT Adjourns 1:09 p.m. UPCOMING TOPICS February:  FoCoCreates Arts & Culture Master Plan – Jim McDonald (Listen/Clarify) ECONOMIC ADVISORY COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING 1/16/2019 – MINUTES Page 8  City Plan Unscheduled:  Update on Industry Cluster Approach – TBD (Listen/Clarify) 2019 Priorities:  Talent Development, Economic Dashboard, Business Engagement, & Clusters