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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-03-11 Economic Development Council minutes, draft/ City of Bozeman Economic Development Council (EDC) Meeting Minutes November 3, 2011 10:30 am – 12:00 pm Madison room, City Hall, 121 N. Rouse Members Attending: Daryl Schliem (Bozeman Chamber of Commerce), Tracy Menuez (Human Resource Development Council), Cheryl Ridgely (Bozeman Deaconess Hospital), Anders Lewendal (Contractor), Chris Mehl (City Commission), Wendy Bay Lewis (Career Coach/Corp. Trainer), Stuart Leidner (Prospera Business Network) Members Absent: Chris Westlake (Midwest Welding and Machine) Staff Present: Chris Kukulski (City Manager), Brit Fontenot (Director of Economic Development and Community Relations), Aimee Kissel (Deputy City Clerk – taking minutes) Guests / Public Present: Warren Vaughan (County Planning and Economic Development), Jason Bucij (Bozeman Daily Chronicle), Dennis Carlson (Gallatin Association of Realtors), Josh Hill (Blue Ocean Innovation Center) 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 10:38 a.m. B. Minutes – October 6, 2011 Motion and Vote to approve the minutes of October 6, 2011. It was moved by Anders Lewendal, seconded by Cheryl Ridgely to approve the minutes of October 6, 2011. The motion passed unanimously. C. Public Comment Warren Vaughan, County Planning and Economic Development, reminded Council members of an upcoming Broadband meeting the State is hosting on November 10th from 1-5 p.m. Brit Fontenot explained that information technology personnel will be attending this meeting as Broadband is critical in getting and keeping companies. Seeing no further public comment, Daryl Schliem closed public comment. D. Non-Action Items 1. Discuss the role of the Economic Development Council in carrying out the mandate of the Bozeman City Commission to ‘advise the City Commission on economic development issues and to review the implementation of specific economic development initiatives’ and review of the 2008 Economic Development Plan and the Economic Development Council’s priorities and recommendations implementation matrices. Brit Fontenot introduced this topic. Mr. Fontenot feels the discussion today should begin with, “How does the EDC see itself being involved in what it decided was its priorities and what does that look like to members of the Council?” Daryl Schliem spoke regarding the matrix distributed by Mr. Fontenot that shows what is ongoing and what has been completed. Mr. Schliem commended the City and Mr. Fontenot. He spoke regarding the extensive list of tasks the Council has asked Mr. Fontenot to complete and said that maybe some of those tasks should have been taken on by Council members. Daryl Schliem asked what other major items Mr. Fontenot has taken on within the city that has enhanced or hampered him to complete what the EDC has identified. Mr. Fontenot said one project he has not been able to move forward on is the metric regarding how the council measures success. That is mostly a resource issue and the time he has available. He felt it important to note that other organizations are handling many of the ongoing ED tasks through partnerships and those tasks are ongoing. For example, the Montana Business and Expansion, Retention (BER) met this morning. They are just ramping up and are looking for ways to measure success of their program. All these partnerships lead to good outcomes that the EDC does not need to ‘ride herd’ on. It is really a community effort to work on the goals of the EDC. Stuart Leidner spoke regarding the challenges with establishing metrics. Unless we identify meaningful metrics that can be consistently updated, it is hard for us to measure some things. Public outreach and talking about successes with permission of companies are important stories to get out. Mr. Leidner spoke about the resources needed to constantly update metrics. The EDC should be careful to make sure it is producing information that is useful on the ground. Cheryl Ridgely spoke regarding the discussions the EDC previously had regarding metrics. The Council had previously decided to move forward with projects. Now may be the time to start looking at metrics again. There are statistics that can be collected that could help. Metrics that other people are measuring can be used. What are the important things we should be tracking? The EDC recognized early on that some metrics could be very resource intensive. Anders Lewendal said there have been a lot of accomplishments and a lot of goals and Mr. Fontenot cannot accomplish all these tasks. Mr. Lewendal asked whether EDC members should be assisting. How do we measure ‘the most business friendly community’? Who is Bozeman’s competition? Need metrics comparing other cities such as Helena, Kalispell, etc. and have each person on the Council assigned a city to compare Bozeman with. Mr. Leidner referred to this idea as a competitive analysis – where’s our competitive niche? This type of comparison would be difficult. Chris Mehl spoke regarding how the Economic Development Plan already does compare other communities. Mr. Leidner said we certainly compete with Missoula which does have an aggressive program to attract businesses. Mr. Leidner spoke about helping existing businesses expand. He is very much looking forward to the workforce study coming out of the college. Mr. Fontenot spoke saying Bozeman as the ‘most friendly business community’ is more of an ideal and is more of an attitude or mindset rather than a measurable, final goal. Ms. Ridgely said we are really striving for a cultural change. Members are starting to hear stories that a cultural change is starting to take place. Mr. Kukulski spoke regarding the importance of shifting the culture internally and within the community. Mr. Fontenot’s work with the partnerships, etc. is more important than spending a lot of time writing down what is being done. Journey is far from over, but we are on a strong path. Cr. Mehl said the challenge from the Commission to the Council and staff is to ask, ‘Do you still believe in the same priorities and timelines that were set up? Which ones does Mr. Fontenot do exclusively, which ones do you share and deciding as a Council who should be the main driver of these items? Who will handle development of a metrics that can be reviewed annually? How much will council members take on? What is the balance between activity and oversight? Cr. Mehl feels the EDC may be moving into an oversight mode and wonders if this is what Council wants. Ms. Menuez said she wonders if a small task force would be appropriate to explore the metrics and dashboard. As we are putting it together, there are points of information the EDC will need to collect, but other useful data can be provided from other organizations. She provided the example of looking at the number of people using the food bank as a data point that could be brought in from another source that really captures the health of the community. Mr. Schliem spoke of looking at the metric as a 2012 priority. Mr. Kukulski said he does like the idea of taking statistics that someone else is already putting together and utilizing the relationships and partnerships being established. Ms. Ridgely spoke to how these statistics will show slow change, but over time you will see the difference. It is nice to have everyone feed information to this group. Mr. Kukulski spoke regarding continually building on a positive, cultural shift. Cr. Mehl said they are looking for a report that will last over time and be measurable, concrete and unique to Bozeman but also can be somewhat comparable to other cities. The Commission is looking for a combination that includes antidotal. Our success will be measured both in immediate response and long term. The Commission is relying on the EDC to form the metric. Ms. Ridgely spoke about how long term sustainability is important. Despite changes in personnel, things still move forward. Mr. Fontenot said this could be managed similar to the GBRN site by having the provider who has the statistics input the information on a form to be populated on a website. The EDC does not constantly have to monitor because statistics would be added by a particular group, and would be dynamic, and constantly updated by providers. This would take some of the burden of any one group and spread it out. Mr. Kukulski suggested that three people be assigned to this task force. Ms. Ridgely spoke regarding the task force examining what are key things that are important to get this started. Mr. Lewendal spoke regarding the goal already determined to complete a yearly report card. Stuart Leidner said he would chair the task force. Mr. Lewendal and Tracy Menuez also volunteered. Ms. Ridgely spoke regarding using the remainder of the group as a sounding board for ideas. Ms. Menuez asked that Council members email ideas to the task force. The Council spoke regarding rules around public meetings. Mr. Leidner said as the subcommittee looks at this, several things on the matrix have run their course and the subcommittee can come back and report that. Cr. Mehl said the Commission would be highly interested in an annual report and reports as needed. E. FYI / Discussion 1. December 1, 2011 agenda items; 2. Guest speaker at Gallatin Association of Realtors annual meeting; Last week Tim McHarg and Mr. Fontenot attended the Gallatin Association of Realtors meeting. It went very well. They provided a lot of information that may not have been known to that group. They tried to lay out our and our partner’s strategies for economic development and how the realtors association can help with that effort in the long term. Dennis Carlson with the Association of Realtors said they did a great job. 3. Guest presenter (GBRN) at the Bozeman Area Chamber of Commerce Business Expo Mr. Fontenot reported he and Joe Delay presented the GBRN website to the Chamber. They are still looking for a permanent way to manage that site. 4. Update on the Northern Rocky Mountain Economic Development District Mr. Fontenot reported this group is up and running. Mr. Fontenot has been appointed to this board and Warren Vaughan is the staff liaison. Mr. Fontenot is most interested in the EPA’s Brownfield assessment team as there is money available to assess Brownfield sites and the team will look in our area to see if we can make use of that program. 5. Update on town-gown efforts Mr. Fontenot reported the town-gown efforts are going well and Mr. Kukulski and Mr. Fontenot are meeting monthly with Tom McCoy and some of their staff depending on the project Right now they have interest in a research park and have hired a director to re-establish that. 6. Planning for the Entrepreneurs’ Roundtable Event Mr. Fontenot reported the County, City and Prospera are organizing this event for Dec. 1st at the Baxter Hotel from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. Warren Vaughan said the idea is to bring folks together to talk about entrepreneurial issues such as what works for you. This is a pilot meeting. Mr. Leidner said this is the third tier of economic gardening; networking and peer groups. Ms. Ridgely said it is important to continue to brand these events. 7. Update on Economic Development Team Mr. Fontenot reported this team has sat in on three projects over the last month or so; a hotel, brewery and a restaurant. The feedback has been good. 8. Update on the work of the Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) Mr. Fontenot reported a new survey and new spreadsheet with variables to see if FTZ would be good for your company. This will go out in the next few weeks. They plan to meet and pull interested manufacturers together to meet with representatives of the Port of Montana to talk about the mechanics of establishing a trade zone. 9. Update on the Bozeman Site Selector contract and MOU Mr. Fontenot reported this contract is complete and very worthwhile. This is an important partnership. The more partners, the broader the reach and the less that each organization has to pay to buy in. Mr. Leidner presented last night to the MSU Park County extension at a business roundtable group. There was a lot of interest. There was at least one state representative and a state senator there. The tool is being seen as useful. The challenge with Park County is trying to work with commercial brokers in that area. Mr. Leidner provided thanks to the GIS team and Erica from Park County and the City of Livingston. He thanked the city of Bozeman for GIS support. 10. Update on the Carnegie parcels request for proposal Mr. Fontenot reported this has been postponed until January by the City Commission. 11. Mandeville Farm – Grant Received Mr. Fontenot reported that the city and DNRC received a CVBG Planning Grant. This will allow us to think of the Mandeville property in a different way. Part of the process will be to look at how we can work together with the state over both pieces of property. He is working with the planning director on this. 12. Downtown Hotel RFP update Chris Mehl said the city staff did a great job on the RFP and the downtown plan makes it clear that a downtown hotel is wanted. There may be possibilities of building on private lots. The RFP should go out at the end of January. 13. Impact Fee update Cr. Mehl provided an update to the EDC regarding Commission decisions about Impact fees. The Commission made the decision to wait to determine if street impact fees should be reduced until the impact fee study is released. The Impact Fee Committee is meeting twice a month. Later in the meeting… Cr. Mehl explained further regarding what the impact study and committee will be looking at. 14. Capital Improvement Plan update Cr. Mehl reported that beginning December 7th the Commission will be presented the Capital Improvement Plans. At the next EDC meeting on the 1st it may be good for staff to preview the CIP for the EDC to review and then Cr. Mehl can forward recommendations to the Commission. Mr. Kukulski reviewed the CIP process that will take place. Mr. Fontenot had suggested to the Finance Director and Impact Fee Committee that they tweak there criteria to include further economic development criteria. They made adjustments to that language. Mr. Fontenot provided an example of an intersection light project that could have been used to help develop a manufacturing business. Mr. Fontenot will be a conduit to get those projects on the CIP. 15. Affordable Housing update Ms. Menuez reported the Community Affordable Housing Board is moving forward with the housing needs assessment. The contract will hopefully be signed next week. Public input will take place in January. The consultant will be working extensively with GAR. 16. Story Mill update Mr. Lewendal spoke and asked questions regarding the Story Mill site. The law suit has been settled. Cr. Mehl said the current Mayor is interested in affordable housing for the site, but it has not been rezoned back to mobile home zoning. (See Impact Fee Update for a note about discussion had here regarding the impact fee update.) Mr. Vaughan referred to the Brownfield project referred to by Mr. Fontenot earlier in the meeting. He said the Economic Development District has Story Mill as their number one priority. It is a partnership between the Economic Development District, Snowy Mountain Development Corporation, Montana Business Assistance Connection in Helena and the City of Bozeman. It is a 10 or 11 County cooperative project with all targeting Story Mill as the initial project. They would get money from EPA to hire EPA’s engineers who would do a phase 1 and phase 2 Brownfield Assessment on that property. This will become a public document to have on file that developers can examine. 17. Oracle Mr. Kukulski spoke regarding Oracle (purchasing Right Now Technologies) and said the premise he and Mr. Fontenot are working on is to make no assumptions. They have had some opportunities to utilize relationships that we have to understand everything we can about their situation. Right Now being sold may directly affect MSU and their computer science program, as Right Now funds positions and programs inside MSU. He also spoke regarding how critical the airport is with this move to Oracle. He asked that members concentrate on brainstorming and filtering information through Mr. Fontenot to develop this opportunity to meet with Oracle and learn what the right timing is to approach them. Discussion took place regarding Oracle and the importance of selling to them that this is a smart place for them to expand into and what other smaller type businesses surrounding Oracle may be interested in relocating here. Oracle has met with certain divisions locally and wanted to know what they needed to ramp up. 18. Misinformation regarding Black Hawk Mr. Kukulski said there has been a lot of bad information about this move that we can learn from. Glad that this business went from the County to Manhattan instead of some other state. Cr. Mehl reiterated that while we look to promote the City first, we always want to support the County as well. He spoke to the successful track record of the city regarding growth. 19. Flights to New York Mr. Schliem said Bozeman is $20,000 short to land New York Flights as early as next May. The partnership with Yellowstone brought $400,000, Big Sky brought $178,000, but Bozeman needs a check for $125,000 in the bank to match the grant from Federal Aviation or the deal will fall apart. A significant 25,000 was made on behalf of the new company buying Right Now to put toward that. Mr. Schliem asked for the help of Council members to help him find the $20,000 shortage. He said the goal was to have the funding by October 31st. They have a call coming on November 10th for questions back on the request for proposal. The RFP’s have to be back by December 20th. F. Adjournment Daryl Schliem adjourned the meeting at 12:02 p.m. *NOTE – Full audio of this EDC meeting is available at: http://weblink.bozeman.net/WebLink8/0/doc/45380/Electronic.aspx ____________________________________ Daryl Schliem, Vice Chairperson PREPARED BY: ____________________ ________________ Aimee Kissel, Deputy City Clerk Approved on: Economic Development Council meetings are open to all members of the public. If you have a disability that requires assistance, please contact our ADA Coordinator James Goehrung, at 582-3232 (TDD 582-2301).