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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-16-10 Economic Development Council Minutes. Economic Development Council Minutes for September 16, 2010 City of Bozeman Economic Development Council (EDC) Meeting Minutes September 16, 2010 10:30 am – 12:00 pm Bozeman City Hall Yellowstone Conference Room Members Attending: Daryl Schliem (Bozeman Chamber of Commerce), Cheryl Ridgely (Bozeman Deaconess Hospital), Tracy Menuez (Human Resource Development Council), Stuart Leidner (Prospera Business Network), Gary Bloomer (Montana State University’s Tech Ranch), Chris Mehl (City Commission) Members Absent: Eugen Graf (Graf Construction/Real Estate), Chris Westlake (Midwest Welding and Machine) Staff Present: Chris Kukulski (City Manager), Brit Fontenot (Asst. to the City Manager), Aimee Kissel (Deputy City Clerk – taking minutes) NOTE: These minutes are not word for word and should be considered in addition to the audio recording of the meeting. A. Call to Order – Vice Chair Daryl Schliem Daryl Schliem called the meeting to order at 10:30 a.m. B. Public Comment – No public present. C. Non-Action Items 1. Brief overview of EDC action and direction from the September 2, 2010 EDC Meeting. 1 of 7 Economic Development Council Minutes for September 16, 2010  Mr. Schliem suggested that the Council clarify the economic development draft priorities and decide which the Council will recommend to the City Commission.  Mr. Fontenot reviewed that a decision was made at the last meeting to assign each member a priority to provide a paragraph or so of additional detail for the priority. This was received from Tracy Menuez and Gary Bloomer. Mr. Fontenot asked the remaining members to supply those materials to him prior to the next EDC meeting. D. Action Items 1. Refine and finalize EDC Priorities. (See attached EDC Draft Priorities 9-2-10) Priority 1  Commissioner Chris Mehl referred to priority 1 – spoke with other 3 Commissioners and they said their financial commitment to economic development will be ongoing. Suggested that is written into recommendation to Commission, so the Commision may formalize as a vote.  Chris Kukulski – anything more that is included in financial commitments besides position?  Cr. Mehl – Possibly an annual conference?  Mr. Fontenot said he would write this up.  Cr. Mehl suggested creativity with this – 3 or 4 items? Priority 10  Mr. Leidner began a discussion regarding who we are recommending this item to.  Should as a community come together and discuss this. Recommendation to the economic community rather than Commission.  Ms. Ridgely – word smith? Explore feasibility of… Priority 2  Ongoing effort.  Mr. Kukulski suggested using wording from Commission goals #2: “reform development review process without decreasing quality.” Discussion regarding process of looking at the priorities  Narrow focus of priorities?  Clarify priorities?  Line with bullet points underneath. Ex: Priority 1 o Continue funding economic development position. Fund economic development summit. 2 of 7 Economic Development Council Minutes for September 16, 2010 Publication costs. Roundtables regarding clustering? Discussion regarding clustering  Mr. Leidner - at a recent Economic Development Association meeting, clustering as a state wide initiative. Regional perspective rather than just city. Park and Gallatin County. EDA will have a spring conference in Bozeman in April, right after the legislative session ends.  Mr. Fontenot – regionality idea of a summit is consistent with the Yellowstone Business Partnership. Priority 3  Mr. Schliem feels this should definitely be a recommendation to the Commission.  Ms. Menuez spoke regarding two part process – streamlining but also then how to create a culture as a more business friendly environment.  Mr. Fontenot – resource guide, resources and knowledge to the businesses – what’s available where? Priority 4  Ms. Ridgely – website revisions to showcase economic development.  Mr. Schliem – pull link out of planning dept. and have own icon on home page.  Mr. Fontenot – working with IT on this. Priority 5 and 15  Mr. Fontenot was unclear on whether these should be combined?  Mr. Kukulski felt five was dealing with reality that incubator not stable.  Mr. Bloomer – 5 and 15 not meant to be combined.  Mr. Kukulski – everyone says this is valuable, but need to be direct regarding what needs to happen or what the problem is. Priority organization  Discussion took place regarding the timing urgency to address stabilizing incubator services (with TechRanch) and the idea of renumbering the priority list and focusing on the top ten or so.  Identifying time frames for priorities?  Mr. Schliem began discussion regarding whether the EDC priorities match up with the Commission’s work plan priorities, with agreement that items 1 and 2 is closely aligned with a commission top priority.  Cr. Mehl – 1 and 2 should definitely stay within the top 5 priorities. 3 of 7 Economic Development Council Minutes for September 16, 2010  Mr. Kukulski – Item 7 is a fairly important priority and other priority items might better fit as bullet points for 7. Goals vs. tactics.  Discussion regarding 3, 4 and 6 as the action for priority 2 and 7. (2. a. b. c.)  Discussion regarding what item 11 means.  Ms. Menuez spoke regarding 15 as an overriding goal statement. 9, 10 and 11 as subsets?  A decision was made to have Mr. Fontenot wrap some of the priorities together, revising the spreadsheet per directions in this council meeting. Priority 5:  Gary Bloomer explained TechRanch’s position on item 5 and reviewed materials he provided to the members for this item. (See attached email from Mr. Bloomer)  Three legged stool for financial needs being MSU, the City and the private sector (grants).  Discussion took place regarding overhead for the TechRanch Bozeman Commission.  Discussion took place regarding the need for a cheap space and the possibility of narrowing TechRanch’s services to just the Bozeman area and how that would affect funding. Mr. Bloomer feels it would not affect funding much, as they now receive very little federal money.  Mr. Bloomer – Population not large enough to fully support an incubator?  Mr. Bloomer – Venture Conference and Venture Capital Fund together, etc. for revenue?  Discussion took place regarding population size vs. incubator success.  Mr. Bloomer – explained the benefits of an incubator.  Discussion took place regarding the needs of an incubator. TechRanch needs a cheap place with about 5,000 squ. Ft.  Ms. Menuez – Began discussion about what Bozeman would lose if the EDC does not come up with a plan to save TechRanch.  Continued discussion regarding population size, trends for incubator success.  Continued discussion about the importance of a program like TechRanch to the economic success of the area.  Discussion took place regarding the barriers TechRanch is facing and ideas were discussed to deal with the space barrier. TechRanch located downtown and emphasize the town to gown relationship o with MSU as well. Co-locating economic development companies? o Mr. Schliem – possible space on second floor of Chamber? o Mr. Bloomer – prefers downtown as a more creative space. o  Cr. Mehl began a discussion regarding metrics moving forward. How will the investment of tax dollars be measured? Mr. Bloomer – Current TechRanch metrics based on graduating three o companies each year – cash flow positive or having financing to last them 9 months when graduating the incubator. 4 of 7 Economic Development Council Minutes for September 16, 2010 Cr. Mehl – emphasized need for metrics throughout EDC actions/priorities. o  Cr. Mehl began discussion regarding the (permanent?) nature of needing funding from the city and the financial status of TechRanch.  Mr. Bloomer – need about 5,000 square feet. (4,600 in space right now.)  Discussion took place regarding the possibilities of using City owned building space.  Stuart Leidner – Spoke regarding the advantages of creating an economic development district including the possibility of leveraging Economic Development Association (EDA) dollars. The main barriers being the need for a yearly $50,000 cash match, and setting up a separate entity. Prospera will explore, but so far not penciling out. Further discussion took place regarding advantages, hurdles and solutions. Possible long term solution?  Mr. Bloomer queried Cr. Mehl regarding whether the Commission and Mayor would be willing to place a $100,000 a year towards technology entrepreneurship in Bozeman.  Cr. Mehl responded that the Mayor and Commissioners are supportive of economic development, but would need supporting documentation such as anecdotes of what has worked, synergy? 2 mills as dedicated stream? Would be considered very seriously.  Possibly of Prospera and Techranch co-locating together? Would fit nicely together.  Mr. Bloomer – City as one of the main beneficiaries of what TechRanch does – need financial backing.  Stuart Leidner – Began discussion regarding talking with First Security Bank about the possibility of using some space on the second and third floors in the Baltimore Building.  Mr. Kukulski – Easier to get local resources if we sell the regional economy not state economy - prompting a discussion regarding a strong resonance for regionalism because of a higher level of feasibility.  Brit Fontenot – will contact Baltimore Building owners. Other members and Mr. Kukulski likely to attend meeting.  Mr. Schliem – Offer stands for possibility of a temporary solution for space in the Chamber. E. FYI/Discussion Next steps/agenda items for the October 7, 2010 EDC meeting st  October 1 as deadline for all members to provide Mr. Fontenot with paragraphs or bullet th. points on their assigned priority item. Mr. Fontenot to compile for the meeting on the 7  United front of several members to meet with Baltimore Building owners. rd Human Resource Development Council 3 Annual Commitment to Community Event  Ms. Menuez invited everyone to the HRDC third annual commitment to community event th on October 27 at noon. F. Adjournment 5 of 7 Economic Development Council Minutes for September 16, 2010 Daryl Schliem adjourned the meeting at 12:10 p.m. *NOTE – Full audio of all EDC meetings is available at: http://www.bozeman.net/WebLink8/Browse.aspx?startid=41508&row=1&dbid=0 ____________________________________ Daryl Schliem, Vice Chair ATTEST: ____________________________________ Brit Fontenot, Assistant to the City Manager PREPARED BY: ____________________________________ Aimee Kissel, Deputy City Clerk Approved on:_______________________ 6 of 7