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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-09-09 ACE MINUTES• • ALLIANCE FOR COMME RCE IN ENGLEWOOD September 9, 2010 I. CALL TO ORDER ltl1 The regular meeting of the Alliance for Commerce in Englewood (ACE) was called to order at 11 :39 a.m. in the City Council Conference Room of the Englewood Civic Center, Chair Lonborg presiding. Present: Lonborg, Vasilas, Schalk, Sarconi, Champion, Calonder Knoth (Alternate ) Absent: None Also present: Joe Jefferson , City Council Liaison (exited the meeting at 12:00) Jim Woodward, Mayor Colleen Mello, Englewood Chamber of Commerce Liaison Staff present: Alan White, Community Development Director (entered 11 :56) Darren Hollingsworth, Economic Development Coordinator APPROVAL OF MINUTES July 81 2010 Chair Lonborg stated that the Minutes of July 81 2010 were to be considered for approval. It was determined there was a quorum . Chair Lonborg asked if there were any changes or adjustments to the Minutes. There were none. Vasilas moved: Sarconi seconded: THE MINUTES OF JULY 81 2010 BE APPROVED AS WRITIEN. The motion carried unanimously. ~ Chair Lonborg announced that Margaret McDermott tendered her resignation to ACE effective immediately due to personal reasons. II. ACE BUSINESS ~ EXPANDED MEMBERSHIP FOR ACE Mr. Jefferson said he felt it would be a good idea to expand the ACE membership from seven members to nine members. Historically, ACE has been one of the more difficult boards to get on as there is not a huge amount of turnover. He said he feels it would be • nice to have more input and more businesses feel like they have a seat around the table. 1 • • • Mayor Woodward said if ACE is going to expand, we may want to set up districts so not all m embers are coming out of one area . Englewood has roughly 46 % of industrial space in Arapahoe County, yet that group does not have a representative on ACE. The Belleview and Federal area is another area that does not have representation. He stated his recommendation, if new members are added, would be that the new members would come from other areas as opposed to the downtown area. Mr. Knoth asked if the current ACE members would have to actively go out to find people from those areas . Mayor Woodward said that is a matter of staff and City Council to get that information out to those people, but certainly ACE members could do that too. Information on openings is included in the Citizen, which goes out to all addresses in the City. Ch air Lonborg asked if an y of the m embers had any concerns regarding increasing the membership . There were no concerns. Mr. Vasilas asked who decides how many members ACE has . Mr. Jefferson said it is set by City Council. The Ordinance would need to be changed. Vasilas moved: Schalk seconded : TO REQUEST CITY COUNCIL EXPAND THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE ALLIANCE FOR COMMERCE ADVISORY GROUP FROM SEVEN MEMBERS TO NINE MEMBERS . The motion carried unanimously . Mr. Knoth was asked if he would be interested in moving up from the alternate position to fill the remainder of Ms. McDermott's t erm , which ends on July 1, 2011 . He stated he would be. Mr. Hollingsworth noted vacancies ar e fill ed b y City Council on a semi -annual basis ; in Januar y and July. Chair Lonbor g asked how Mr. Knoth could move up without waiting until January. Mayor Woodward said ACE could mak e a recommendation that City Council appoint Mr. Knoth to fill the v acancy at this time instead of waiting until Januar y . Sarconi moved: Vasilas seconded: THE ALLIANCE FOR COMMERCE ADVISORY GROUP REQUESTS THAT CITY COUNCIL IMMEDIATELY APPOINT CHAD KNOTH TO FILL THE VACANCY CREATED BY MARGARET MCDERMOTI'S RESIGNATION . The motion carried unanimously . 2 • • • Mr. Jefferson suggested ACE wait until January to fill the alternate position and two additional member vacancies, if approved. Chair Lonborg asked all members to help identify industries and candidates to fill the vacant position, and if approved, the two additional positions. Chair Lonborg asked staff if they can put together a key list of people from the industrial sector. Mr. Hollingsworth stated staff could pull together a list of industrial businesses . He noted several have been approached over the years with a request to participate on ACE. Mr. Vasilas said he would volunteer to contact people on the list. Ms. Sarconi said she would also help in contacting prospective members. Chair Lonborg asked if there were other segments missing. Mr. Vasilas said the Belleview and Broadway area . Mayor Woodward suggested the South Santa Fe area. Chair Lonborg thanked Mr. Jefferson for suggesting the ACE membership be expanded. CITY FINANCIAL UPDATE Chair Lonborg said she requested this item be included in the ACE Agenda for two reasons: 1. The City has gotten some press regarding the furlough days, and 2. The City has approached Swedish, and she said she assumed others, to assist in the funding of some things that traditionally the City has funded in the past, such as the Art Bus. If this is going on, the business community and the City needs to know what the City's financial situation is, what City Council's ideas are to address those situations, and what the back-up plan is if things don't come together exactly as we are hoping. Director White said the picture is not rosy . The financial report that was included in the meeting packet was to the end of July. It gives a summary of the major revenue sources for the City and also a report on expenditures. The members reviewed the information. Also discussed were sustainability, City sponsored events, the Art Shuttle, furlough days for City Employees, employee wage freezes, hiring freeze and stimulus funds. Chair Lonborg asked what the City is doing on the revenue side of the equation. Discussion ensued. Chair Lonborg asked Mr. Schalk if there was a list of programs he was talking about that he would like Englewood to look at. He said yes. Chair Lonborg asked Mr. Schalk to provide ACE with a list at the next meeting. He said he would compile the list. Mr. Knoth asked Staff to provide a list of what the City has applied for, such as grants, even 3 • • • if the City was turned down. Chair Lonborg asked Staff to also include a list of programs that have been looked at but the City was not eligible for. Chair Lonborg asked if the City keeps going at this rate and see no change in the economy, how many years does the City have reserves to cover. Mayor Woodward said the undesignated reserve of approximately $4 million would run the City for 39 days without any revenue . Chair Lonborg said what she was asking was how long that would cover the loss between the revenu es and what it costs to run the City . She said if there is an approximately $2 million difference those reserves will last approximately two years. Mayor Woodward said that is correct. The Mayor discussed ways to increase revenue through economic development. Mr. Schalk asked how the City could take one small event, such as the concert series, and turn it into a sustainable event. Mayor Woodward said the Chamber is working with the City to do just that. Mr. Champion said whatever the event is , there has to be one thing that can draw a lot of people to the City. Mr. Calonder said the City needs to incent in a big way to turn things around. We have to do something very different and very unique to get an outside person to look at our City. If not, they'll go to a neighboring City that is offering something that we are not. Chair Lonborg encouraged ACE to get the out-of-the-box thinkers and area businesses around the table to say "what can we do?" Mr. Schalk said the City needs to retool, which means cutting positions and putting people in that position that is part of the new way . Look at what your departments are doing, are the people in your departments the people you need to have in your departments or can you make some changes and bring some new blood in and get a new direction going? He sa id he does that all the time in his business. Do we continue to apply for grants and do studies or do we figure out incentive programs and try to go create business ? He said he wanted the second option . Mr. Knoth asked if ACE should have a meeting to brainstorm. Mr. Schalk said he would like to do that. Mayor Woodward also said he would like to do it. Mr. Schalk said how about a study on how the City runs as a business and where we could make some changes. Chair Lonborg said she thought ACE was talking about ideas for the City itself, the revenue side of the equation, rather than how th e City operates as a business. She said as a business advisory group she felt more comfortable with Mr. Sc halk's first idea; she was not sure it was ACE's business to tackle how the City runs as a business. She asked Mr. Knoth which one he was suggesting ACE hold a meeting about. He said the first one, of ideas. Chair Lonborg said she'd like to discuss ideas such as solar to see if there are ways that the City can make it easier to do. That's the list of things she would love to brainstorm. She said she would like to see some additional brains around the table if we are going to brainstorm. She asked how the rest of the members felt and did they want to tackle that meeting. She asked if ACE wanted to dedicate the October meeting to that issue. Several said yes. Mr. Vasilas asked for more information regarding stimulus funds and whether any are available to the City a nd/or businesses. 4 • The members discussed other individuals who could attend the brainstorming meeting. • • Mr. Vasilas asked if ACE still wanted the BID board to attend the October meeting to discuss the proposed BID event to be held in 2011 . Without the support of the City the BID cannot put the event together. Chair Lonborg asked if the BID could come at 12 :30 to the October meeting or wait until the November meeting. Mr. Vasilas said the BID could come at 12:30 on October 141 ". Chair Lonborg thanked everyone for their input. The discussion will continue at the October meeting. Ill. PUBLIC COMMENT There was no public present. IV. COMMENTS & EVENTS Due to time constraints these items were not discussed. No further business was brought forth for consideration. The meeting was adjourned at 1 :05 p.m . The next meeting is scheduled for October 14, 2010 . 5