HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Futures Committee - 06/10/2024 -1
CITY OF FORT COLLINS
FUTURES COMMITTEE MEETING
Date: June 10, 2024
Location: Zoom
Time: 4:30pm-6:00pm
Committee Members present:
Councilmember Melanie Potyondy
Councilmember Julie Pignataro
Councilmember Susan Gutowsky
Additional Council members present:
City Staff:
Caryn Champine
Additional Staff present:
Kelly DiMartino, City Manager
Theresa Roche, Human Resources Director
Shannon Hein, Economic Health Department
SeonAh Kendall, Economic Health Department
Melina Dempsey, FC Moves
Meeting called to order at 4:30pm
Approval of Minutes:
Councilmember Pignataro moved to approve the April 2024 minutes. Councilmember Gutowsky
seconded. Motion passed 3-0.
Chairperson Comments:
N/A
The Future of Economic Health and Community Wealth Building, Neil McInroy, Global Lead for
Community Wealth Building at The Democracy Collaborative
Topic Overview: Community Wealth Building (CWB) is an economic development model that transforms
local economies based on communities having direct ownership and control of their assets. It challenges
the failing approaches that have been widely accepted in American economic development and addresses
wealth inequality at its core. First articulated by The Democracy Collaborative (TDC) in 2005, CWB
takes progressive elements like community land trusts, worker cooperatives, public banking, and more –
elements that have previously only existed as one-offs – and supercharges their power, systemically
connecting and scaling them to change peoples’ lives and the economic future of our communities. It
does so in coordination with local governments, economic development teams, anchor institutions, and
community leaders and organizations: helping them to work in harmony, identify what elements are
needed, and see the big picture as they replicate successful new tactics.
Chair Potyondy introduced Neil McInroy and discussed his work.
Community Wealth Building Overview
McInroy stated Community Wealth Building is an economic development model that transforms local
economies based on communities having more direct ownership and control of their assets. Its long-term
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goals are economic transformation to produce broadly shared economic prosperity, racial equity, and
ecological sustainability.
• System change but practical
• Deals with the big questions of our time – climate, economic, racial, and democratic
• Through small things and issues – local supply chains, housing affordability, poverty,
gentrification, cost of living, better wages, etc.
• Wealth is a defining feature of all economies
• Wealth distribution is incredibly inequitable and concentrated
• Money flows – to whom and how is it captured?
• Ownership matters: who owns, controls, and benefits from wealth. The goal is to create an
economy where wealth is broadly held and locally rooted so financial resources are effectively
recirculated
The Five Pillars of Community Wealth Building
1. Fair Work: local employee strategy, diversity, equity, belonging, inclusion, guaranteed income,
progressive recruitment, universal basic income, union labor hiring
2. Locally Rooted Finance: credit unions, green banks, community investment vehicles,
participatory budgeting, public equity, sovereign wealth funds, public funding for cooperative
development, pension fund investment/divestment
3. Just Use of Land and Property: community land trusts, land banks, municipal development
vehicles, community-owned housing, community benefit agreements placed on developers
4. Progressive Procurement: social/ecological value frameworks/requirements, insourcing of public
services, community benefit wish lists, developing democratic ownership/supply, matchmaking
services, support for local/democratically owned suppliers
5. Inclusive and Democratic Enterprise: cooperatives, worker-owned cooperatives, conversion to
employee ownership of enterprises, social enterprises
• Anchor Institutions: buy things, employ people, have financial assets, have land and property
assets – important for the CWB journey
Case Studies
• Cleveland, Ohio: local purchasing: hospital laundry, market garden, fund to support cooperatives
• Meadville, Pennsylvania: employee ownership
• Chicago, Illinois: housing, food, and manufacturing cooperatives
• Preston, England: increasing anchor institution spending through progressive procurement and
animating local suppliers to better influence contracts
• Scotland: community-owned wind farm, progressive procurement across all anchor institutions
• Sydney, Australia: rampant gentrification, looking at different forms of ownership and
procurement, community land trust
Advancing Community Wealth Building in Your Place
• Start with an audit of work across the five pillars
• Look at issues and determine where CWB can contribute
• Think about how to accelerate positive areas
• Action Planning: discover, dream, design, deploy
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Discussion
• Councilmember Potyondy noted Fort Collins has a shop local incentive program throughout the
holidays – how to expand to year-round? Better local procurement for the City organization?
• Councilmember Potyondy asked what strategies have been successful in other communities
around building the sense of intimacy that lends itself to people investing more in their
communities – particularly in combating things like online shopping. McInroy replied that comes
down to the sense of community. Shopping local can be less about the individual consumer and
more about the anchor institutions which are larger levers.
• Councilmember Gutowsky commented on the importance of shopping locally and on the growing
trend of employees purchasing their companies. Additionally, she commented on the challenge
of keeping the people who work in the community housed in the community and on the
immigrant population sending wages back to home countries. McInroy commented on examples
wherein a certain percentage of wages must be spent locally.
• Councilmember Potyondy asked if the City organization’s bidding process prioritizes local labor
and/or goods. City Manager DiMartino replied there is not currently a local preference in the
City’s purchasing policies, though it has been discussed. Kendall stated staff is looking at
purchasing power and at defining what is local in terms of franchise owners. There is an intern
working with the City and Larimer County Workforce office to do an asset mapping of where
spending is happening.
• Kendall stated the City is part of New Growth Innovation Network which is where staff learned
about McInroy and his work.
• Hein stated work is being done to empower staff to make purchasing decisions to support local
while remaining within budget and procurement policies.
• Councilmember Potyondy asked if there are any policy options that may be worth exploring in
the City’s economic journey, or if there are policy obstacles that are interfering with community
wealth building. Kendall replied staff would like to first do a careful analysis or barriers and
challenges before making any recommendations in that space.
• Councilmember Potyondy commented on the expense of living in Fort Collins and noted there is
a work session tomorrow on the second phase of Land Use Code changes related to commercial
uses. She asked if there are critical points that may be highlighted around that conversation.
McInroy replied it is important to slow gentrification with things like community land trusts,
shared ownership across commercial property, and using a development strategy that is more
patient and slower. It is important that community wealth building and things like procurement
are seen as economic development and health agendas.
• Roche’s review of the Community Wealth Building Action Guide – thinking about considering
the regional ecosystem. McInroy stated one needs to think about the regional dimension in terms
of shared purchasing opportunities. Additionally, community wealth building is not anti-
competition, it is pro-competition among local entities.
• Councilmember Potyondy commented on the City’s use of in-house workers as well as
contractors and asked what conditions would be helpful for a cooperative example to be
successful. McInroy replied empowerment and employee ownership is important for a sense of
worth.
• Councilmember Gutowsky stated it seems Fort Collins is part of the game and thanked McInroy
for the presentation. McInroy commented on the importance of future resilience.
Additional Items
• Councilmember Potyondy discussed the themes for the year: civic engagement and future and
resilience of the local workforce.
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Councilmember Gutwosky made a motion, seconded by Councilmember Potyondy, to adjourn the
meeting. Yeas: Potyondy and Gutowsky. Nays: none.
THE MOTION CARRIED.
Meeting adjourned at 5:45 pm
MINUTES APPROVED AT THE SEPTEMBER 9, 2024 COUNCIL FUTURES COMMITTEE
MEETING