Speaker 0: And we're going to take a few minutes here, but people are exiting the room. Well, we're going to take a short recess. Okay. There she is. All right, so now we're done.
Speaker 7: Okay, here we go.
Speaker 0: We are going to resume with six C. Everyone could please take your seats. We're about to resume. Appreciate it. Thank you, Miss Potter.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Good evening. I'm Debbie Potter. I'm the city's community development director. And the Community Development Department consists of three divisions building, planning and economic development. And we began an active rebuilding effort regarding our economic development division about 18 months ago. And key to that effort was hiring an economic development division manager to develop and guide programs and policies that focus on business attraction, expansion and retention efforts that grow our city's employment and tax bases. And we were very fortunate to hire Daryl Doan as the new economic development manager. And fittingly, today is Darrell's one year anniversary. He started with the city of Alameda on April 7th of 2014, and he's going to be presenting an overview of the economic development division, its work, its accomplishments and our proposed initiatives going forward. And this presentation is being presented in part to help inform the City Council's discussion of Vice Mayor Matt Orestes referral regarding reconstituting the Economic Development Commission and best practices for engaging the business community in our economic development initiatives. So with that brief introduction, I'd like to have Daryl come up and make his presentation about the Economic Development Division and its activities. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. You're done. I. Happy anniversary.
Speaker 2: Thank you. But good evening, Madam Mayor.
Speaker 8: And members of the Council. I feel somewhat special because I got my own little action.
Speaker 4: So.
Speaker 8: As Debbie said, yes, it's my one year anniversary. And that's completely coincidence. Honestly is. But. So let me start this way. So, as Debbie said, I oversee the city's economic development division. We were in the process of preparing a sort of overview, high level presentation for you, owing to the fact that you were a new council and I'm a new employee and it's a new division. And so we thought it was probably time to check in. And then in the midst of doing that and working to get that agenda rise, which took a little longer than we thought, there was a council referral on reestablishing the Economic Development Commission at the March 17th Council meeting , Council was reminded that we would be bringing forward a presentation and then specifically asked that we bring back two additional items as part of that presentation. One was an update on where we stand with the city's economic development strategy document. And two was a recommendation from staff as to what we how we think, whether or not the EDC should be reached out. So that's what we're doing today. So I'm going to go quickly through a PowerPoint presentation. I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with area right and left. Okay, I got it. I'm going to go quickly through this PowerPoint presentation and cover the sort of high level overview of how we spend our day in our newish economic development division. I want to point out, however, that this is this is what's the slides that you will see in the public will see are not an adopted strategy at all. It is simply our work program that we are implementing at the staff level and it is different than the actually adopted economic development strategy. I didn't want there to be any confusion over that. So economic development in Alameda one year in. We have a mission. And our mission is and this is a this is a mission statement for convenience. But it's our sort of guiding principle. Our mission is is quite simple. It's to grow the city's tax and employment bases through the diligent pursuit of business retention, expansion and attraction projects. In that order, I would add related real property development because most businesses need a roof over their head to be successful and workforce development. So those are our three sort of focus areas. Actually, we have seven focus areas as the slide shows. So we organize those three goals more properly called around seven strategic focus areas. And they are, as you can see, they're marketing cluster and sector development, commercial development, retail and small business development, workforce development, external relations and then data and benchmarking. And there's no magic to these. It's how many cities organize the fourth city. I've worked for doing economic development. It's just sort of how economic development is organized in these sort of focus areas. Some cities have different ones, they have more, they have less. But but these are what I think are appropriate for where we are with Alameda right now. So I'm going to run through these really quickly and just touch on them in a little bit of detail. So one is marketing any city that is doing quality economic development needs to needs to build a brand and a compelling story around what are its business fundamentals. Then you need to go spread that brand around city, region to state and nationally to an extent that you can. And so that's what we're doing. And how do we do that? We do that in a number of ways. We do it through traditional and web based advertising quality collateral materials. The printed word is still important robust web and social media presence, attendance at regional and national trade and industry associations. All of those are avenues by which we do this. What you see on the screen there is just. Very simple advertising. We do more sophisticated advertising, but these are just very simple advertising showing our primary advantage, which is frankly locational. So number two. Cluster and sector development. So the way to think about a local economy is to divide it into sectors. Right. So we're talking broad categories, nonprofit businesses, biotech, high tech, maritime industry. In the case of Alameda, there are ten or so that we have identified. And a year into this process now that we think are either thriving and successful might be showing some weakness and we need to preserve them or our areas that we can grow . And that's kind of how you do it. You identify the weak sectors. You make a qualitative and quantitative decision about whether that sector is still viable. And you identify the strong ones and you try to grow them and you try to tailor programs and incentives around those sectors. So that's cluster. Cluster and sector gets confused. Sector is a group of like type of businesses. Cluster is a group of businesses in one geographic location such as Spirits. Alley is a cluster. Maritime is a sector sometimes a sector is a cluster, but not all. So number three, commercial development. So I'll get to retail in a minute and that's critical. But commercial development basically means any commercial activity that is not retail. So we're talking office industrial, advanced manufacturing, high tech, some of the sectors I just identified. The great thing about Alameda is that it's an island. It's also one of our weaknesses from an economic perspective, but it's also a strength in that we have a very confined geographic area and it's easy to manage conceptually. Where are our businesses from a commercial standpoint? Are businesses are primarily in two areas. They're in two business parks, which you're aware of Harbor Bay, Business Park and Marina Village Business Park, the opportunity and there's some in the neighborhoods and some on Park and Webster, you know, in the form of like above retail, small lawyers and dentists and things like that, and in some cases on the first floor. But the business parks are primarily commercial opportunities of existing real estate. We have new opportunities, which are primarily Alameda Point and Alameda Landing Phase two and maybe a few infill sites. So we're an island. We have limited real estate opportunities. We've got to make the most of those. When we're looking at commercial development and, you know, we're in the process of doing it. So how do we do that? We coordinate with brokers, owners and tenants and our business associations to do business recruitment and facilitate expansion. I touched on retention, retention, expansion and recruitment, and I said, that's the proper order. And what I mean by that is and it's germane to commercial development, is that a city, a city always needs to be recruiting, but anybody in sales will tell you, don't lose your existing customer base while you're, you know, while you're in the process of focusing on drawing in new customers. So the simplest thing that a city like Alameda can do is make sure that our existing commercial and retail businesses are being taken care of. Right, that they are thriving, that their needs are being met, that when they call City Hall, somebody answers the phone when the trash can in front of the barbershop is overflowing. We take that call and we act as an ombudsman and we get that problem resolved all the way up to a large user employing six or 700 people who may have a lease coming up and they may be thinking of leaving. We build strong relationships. We'll know that. They'll tell us that. And we can act to forestall, you know, any kind of a relocation threat. The goal is to do retention so that you never have to deal with a relocation threat. We'll always meet that goal, but that is the goal. And then, of course, you know, recruitment, we all know what that is. Recruitment. It's we go out and spread that gospel and work with these owners, brokers and tenants to bring in businesses that have high value in terms of employment and growing our tax base. Paying, paying taxes. Number four, retail and small business development. So we separate. This is part of commercial, but we separated it out because I find in talking to community members and even some council members that when people think of what is economic development, they think of this, they think of Main Street and they think of shopping centers. That is an important part of economic development, but it is one of many sectors. It is one of those ten sectors. That's how I look at it. It is arguably, though, from a tax perspective, the most critical sector, because unless the numbers have changed, I'm not aware of it. Sales tax is our fourth largest source of general fund revenues. For many cities, it is their first source of general fund revenue that is driven largely by the large ticket items. Cities are size that have automobiles. They have, you know, 110,000 plus square foot, big box type of retailers. They have high value ticket sales in things like electronics, appliances and furniture. We that's where we fall. That's where we are weak is in those sort of high ticket sales. Where we are strong is on great. You know, we have two great, very successful sort of main street level commercial districts with great business owners. And in the aggregate, you know, individually, the ice cream shop doesn't generate a whole lot of sales tax, but in the aggregate, they generate a lot of sales tax, especially when you think of our main street districts have shopping centers in and of themselves. That's really what they are. Again, we're an island, limited geography. We know exactly where our retail is. It's in it's in eight or so shopping centers and it's in two commercial districts. And we know where it can go. It can go to Alameda Point, it can go to Alameda planning phase two and a few other areas. Five workforce development. What is it? So basically, you know, a city like Alameda has a jobs housing imbalance, right? We need additional jobs at density. And so that's why when we're focusing on commercial development, we're focusing on taxes. Yes. But arguably, more importantly, generating jobs in good paying jobs, because if we're going to solve that jobs, housing imbalance and the attendant traffic issues that come with it, in my opinion, the answer is not no more growth. It's about bringing in growth that generates the kinds of jobs that will allow people who are currently commuting off the island to quit their job in Walnut Creek or Oakland or San Francisco because there's a there's a there's a good replacement job here. So I am very focused on not just jobs, but quality jobs. And you need jobs all across the spectrum. You need service jobs. Because for some people, that's their job. But we need we've got a lot of that. We need higher quality, better paying jobs in a range of industries. And that's the focus. When we when we have companies that are already here, though, they have they have workforce needs. They need to hire new people because they're scaling up their production. They need to hire 150 people in a short amount of time. We help with that. We build through our relationships. We know about those scale up opportunities or new companies that have come to the island to lost some of their workforce because of relocation and need to hire up. We can't control where those companies choose to draw from, but we can work with them to make sure to the to the greatest extent possible. Those new hires are Alameda residents. I don't care about people outside of Alameda coming to work for Alameda companies. Well, I do in the sense that they need to have employees to be successful. What I really care about making sure that Alameda residents get hired for those jobs, and that's critical. And we do that by assisting those employers. We assist employers and we assist employees. We have programs for both. We want to help Alameda residents find jobs with our employers. We want to help those employers hire Alameda residents. We host job fairs, we partner with workforce development agencies, etc., etc.. And that's how we do that. Number six is external relations. This is real simple. We we are out there. We are out there regionally. We are out there locally and we are out there statewide. I go to conferences, I go to trade shows, will be doing even more of that. You know, some sometimes the public scoffs at that. Why are these bureaucrats going to these fancy trade shows in Las Vegas? It's not because we're partying. We need to be there. We need to have a presence. That's how we grow our brand. Number seven and finally is data and benchmarking. I'm a big believer in this and we've spent a lot of time over my first 12 months here trying to get a handle on, you know, economics, by definition is about numbers. We need to know our numbers. We need good quantitative data so we can make good qualitative decisions. We've been looking at all of this. Some of that groundwork was already laid before I got here. I'm trying to take it to the next level. Actually, in your consent agenda tonight, you approved a contract whereby we'll be buying employment data from the State Department of Employment Development. Seems like a simple thing, but when I got here, we didn't really know who are top employers are. We knew anecdotally, but we didn't have the hard numbers and we need hard numbers. So we'll be doing more of that and you'll see more things coming to you where we're going to, you know, frankly have to buy third party data. Some of it we gather ourselves and some of it is original work. So those are our seven strategic focus areas. So just quickly, key programs and initiatives, this is not everything, but I just wanted to get you a sense of some of the things that we do in our programs. We run a formal business visitation program. We target the top 75 aggregate tax generating and largest employee businesses because with limited resources, those are the companies that we need to make sure first and foremost to be taken care of. It's those who employ the most people and generate the most revenue. So we have Alameda Service, which is our new permit expediting program, which has been extremely successful. There have only been one or two issues that we haven't been able to resolve. And this this has allowed us to move. We've never had a higher volume of permit or planning applications. And conversely, they never move faster than they are right now. And that's a testament to the building planning and my division. We are absolutely committed to improving our reputation, real or perceived. On that point. We have a new business welcome program where the mayor sends out a letter to anybody who pulls a business license, whether you physically locate in Alameda or just doing business here. We've started business meet and greets and some of you participated in that. And I appreciate that. We have a we have a burgeoning, I would call it Startup Assistance Program, where we work with prospective new small business owners to start their business. It's not yet an area of expertize for us, but we're going to grow that. We're partnering with the Small Business Development Center, who's been very helpful with us on that. I talked about workforce development. We actually have a on May 7th, we are hosting in partnership with Alameda Unified School District at Encino High School. We are hosting a youth job fair. That's an example of something that we do. There'll be more information about that coming around. But, you know, it's an internship program for high school students to find jobs if they maybe aren't on a college track and they need a skill when they graduate. So just an example. We have an annual broker event that we've done two years in a row. We have another one coming up right also on May seven. And you all will be getting invitations for that tomorrow. We have a print advertising program. We publish a monthly business newsletter. It's actually ten times a year where we try to sort of get the word out about all of the good, positive things you all should be receiving that.
Speaker 2: Um.
Speaker 8: And we will be continuing that program. We have a burgeoning social media program. We are tweeting. We are on LinkedIn. You know, you have to be doing that. It's not yet eclipsed the Internet as the primary source of information, but it probably will soon. We have an Alameda Island shopper campaign, which is one of our small business programs where we you know, we essentially guilt trip residents into shopping locally as opposed to taking that money out of town. We'd like to move that from a guilt trip to a real incentive, and we'll be working on that. Your trip is a good thing sometimes, right? Why should residents take their money to other communities when they can spend it here and keep their dollars right here in this community? And then as you voted on tonight, we manage the city's two business improvement areas in partnership with our Business Improvement Association. Quickly. 20 1415 Key accomplishments. So we created the division. That's a big step forward. We hired a division manager. That's a big step forward. We are still transitioning from doing economic development through redevelopment. To doing traditional economic development activities in the absence of that funding source. That is a tricky transition. Many cities in the state are going through that. We are no different. We don't have that pot of money anymore. So we have to rely on other things like our charm, like our guile, like our willingness to pick up the phone and our tenaciousness when we are going after businesses. We have engaged the business community. I don't know if this is a high number or a low number. I think it's high approximately well, exactly 289 separate times through March 30th. Those are distinct meetings with businesses might be the same business multiple times. If you drilled down two distinct businesses, it's probably half that number. But that's a pretty tremendous outfit. Mind you, the economic development division has two and a half FTE. There's a couple other people like our base reuse department and our leasing team that dabble in economic development. But only two and a half of us that are doing this on a full time basis. We've met with almost 300 businesses in the last calendar year. We've we've had a number of attraction successes. We've have a number of expansion successes. We've placed 21 separate advertisements in local, regional and national publications. We've done that brokers event two times. We're doing it a third. We've gone to ICAC in Las Vegas, San Diego and Monterey. We had three very you know, we had three East Bay EDA Innovation Award finalist and two winners and nobody else had that. And we were named by Sunset Magazine or Sunset magazines as a finalist or Best Municipal Makeover, which is, you know, great.
Speaker 0: And before we continue, I made a motion to continue past 11.
Speaker 5: So moved.
Speaker 0: Have a second. And we need at least three votes to continue. All those in favor by passes unanimously. Thank you.
Speaker 8: I'm actually almost done, so bear with me future programs and initiatives that you will see coming through our budget process or through the budget process. We're going to talk about this in a minute. The mayor and cities the mayor and I've added and city council's economic development advisory panel. We're going to be reinstituting the facade improvement grant program contingent upon your approval of our budget request. We are starting what we call sector focus groups and we have the first one with the maritime sector coming up on April 30th where we will sit down and have a one on one with the leaders of that sector to get their perspective and understand how the city can help them succeed. We are going to be redesigning our business website and creating micro breakout sites for both commercial recruitment and local shopping, something that doesn't exist right now. We're going to be instituting a formal commercial recruitment marketing campaign, and we're going to we're going to do a better job of reporting back to the council through a series of quarterly reports, which I think will be helpful for you and it will be helpful to the public. Okay. So let's get to the councilmember referral. So just quickly, the two things that we were asked to cover were strategic plan and reestablishing the economic development. So we have a strategic plan. It was adopted by council in July of 2000. The former economic commission actually instituted a review of that plan in 2005. And I know some of you sat on that and went through that process. The EDC did that by establishing a subcommittee to guide that review process with extensive community engagement. The revised plan was adopted by Council in 2008. We are putting a budget request through the budget process in front of you for monies to update that again, because it's time we've come out of the dark winter of the Great Recession and we're booming and we need to redo that plan and make sure it's keeping up with market realities. So we would hope to have that funding and be able to go through that process with you again, because it is definitely coming this quickly. The 2008 plan has these seven broad strategy imperatives in it. Some of these are still relevant. Some of these perhaps are less relevant. We need to go through that process of updating what these strategies are and of course, their implementation their implementation steps associated with all seven of these. But I didn't list them here. So that's the current status of the 2008 Economic Development Strategic Plan. We hope to start that update process in the new fiscal year and call it very soon the 2000 1516 ish feature plan as to the Economic Development Commission. So some of you have the history of this and I wasn't here. So I'm working from the record from from our files and sort of recreating what this has been and where it came from. But it was created in 1990, if I've got my date right. Around in 2012, the membership was reduced from nine members to seven members. I don't presume to understand why specifically, but more importantly, in October of 2013 at Stat's recommendation, the Council at that time disbanded the Economic Development Commission. Not because we didn't think that they were useful or had been doing their job, but because the agenda had been dwindling. Redevelopment was disbanded itself, and much of what I'm told, much of what the commission was doing was considering disposition of development agreements, owner participation agreements and A's that were tied to redevelopment as a funding source. Among other things, some policy activities such as the aforementioned strategic plan. And so staff recommended that we disband that program 19 months ago, or that commission 19 months ago. And in its place, we asked council to adopt these three objective driven. That's what they were called objective driven policies that would take the place of that EDC. And they were the use of ad hoc committees and tax task forces. We had been doing that prior to that October 2013 disbanding action and we will be doing it going forward. I think I've been told that the two best examples were an America's Cup ad hoc subcommittee and a fiscal sustainability committee that went back to 2008. I could envision the Council using that ad hoc committee process to guide staff in updating the Economic Development Strategic Plan. And in fact, when we come back to you with a formal recommendation, that's probably what we would recommend. As the vehicle to do that. Number two is is just enhanced coordination and information, information sharing among businesses and associations. This is ongoing. We have really picked up our game in that since I came on board. And that sounds self-serving, but it's not. I mean, we have to be engaged with our chamber, our three business associations, owners, brokers, tenants. We have to have our ear to the ground to get good information. And we've been doing that. And some of those partners are here tonight, and I think they would attest to that. And it's been very successful. Debbie sits on the board of the chamber. I sit on one of their committees. We're very engaged with Waba and Pizzi, and GABA is going through its own resurgence and growth phase. And we've been very supportive that in fact I just presented to ABA last week at one of their monthly mixers. Number three on that list was create something called a Mayor's Economic Development Advisory Panel. So I want to touch on that for a minute. This is one of the three objective driven approaches to replacing the EDC that we have not done yet. It is. It is. It is, in our opinion. Time to do that now. The purpose of that mayor's economic government advisory panel, which I've been calling midcap, because everything needs a good actor government. But that's not official. Is to enhance the business climate of Alamitos, business parks and commercial districts and support the growth of Almeida's identified commercial and industrial clusters and sectors. I've added by providing both strategic policy and tactical business attraction and retention advice to the council and staff. So that came right out of the October 2013 staff report that whereby the Council created this concept, the intent was for it to be flexible, focused and ambassadorial. So in the absence of real sort of projects for an EDC to approve because you know, they already signed off on Alameda Point, they already signed off on Alameda landing. Those things are happening and we don't see any major new projects to come forward from. From a transactional standpoint, I'm speaking in the absence of that and shifting from a redevelopment focus to a more traditional economic development focus, we need this panel to help us close deals, reach out to prospective businesses, to help us with our recruitment. Nothing helps us to recruit a biotech company like asking a guy like Adam Elsasser, who runs a very successful biotech company in town to make a phone call, to have a lunch with a prospective business that is incredibly valuable and really can't be measured. And so we want this to serve an ambassadorial purpose. We want it to be focused so that if the council or staff feels that we need a third party to evaluate an issue or to give us advice on a program or to review a program that we might be proposing to give us that comfort level, to know that it was properly vetted because not everything we do makes it to the council. Right? We would use it for that purpose and we want it to be flexible. The intent when this was set up was to not be a standing commission in the way that a formal commission is to meet perhaps formally once or twice a year. And then for this panel to be available to the mayor, to the council and to staff to call upon when we have specific issues that we want to address. These are some of the activities that were envisioned in October 2013 and that I envision using this for now if the council wants to move this forward. There was a recommended structure in that staff report. I think formal has been adopted, but we would envision seven or so members, you know, nominated by the mayor or perhaps confirmed by the council two year terms. The intent was for it to be composed of high level business executives, CEO types of some of our largest companies and some of our important smaller companies, a good cross-section of sectors and CEOs. These are the ten sectors or so that we've identified as being meaningful right now. You can read them. Certainly, that's a very debatable list about what are Iraqi sectors that are. Reasonable minds can differ on that. We think that's a pretty good list for now. So. That's a presumptive slide. Next steps before a recommendation. So I'm going to do this backwards. So what we are recommending specifically in response to the EDC referral is that staff is recommending not to reestablish the Economic Development Commission and instead do two things. One is continue to use the ad hoc subcommittees, continue to use our outreach, extensive outreach to the business community as to tools that we will continue to use and will do that in an ongoing fashion. And then we think it's time to sort of flip the switch and turn on this panel that exists that was created but has never been impaneled. And we would recommend that in lieu of bringing back the Economic Development Commission. And largely because in just as a sort of a final word for me, the reasons that the Economic Development Commission were disbanded only 19 months ago. If you go back and read that staff report, we think they're all still valid. We don't think anything's changed. Reasonable minds can disagree on that. So we're going to stick by our recommendation. We don't see any reason to change it and and suggest this to you. And so now go backwards if you agree with this. And that's totally your prerogative. Obviously, we would think that next steps for creating or for paneling this panel because remember, it already exists is to develop we would develop a representative list of CEOs and business leaders from a set of economic sectors, maybe the ten I showed you , maybe some different ones. We would work with the mayor to identify and recruit seven or so advisory panel members. I presumably for counsel consideration, although I don't want to be presumptive about that. Exactly what the process would be is up to you to just start recommending. That would come to you for consideration as well as sort of a formal staff report and recommendation on how this should be set up, what the terms are, who the people are, how many times they should meet. And then we would convene that inaugural advisory panel meeting sometime in the summer of 2015. And that's our recommendation. Belleville answered questions.
Speaker 0: We have two speakers that. Counsel Did you want to ask any questions at this point or. I call the speakers. All right. First would be Michael McDonough and then Rob Rado. And any other slips on this one.
Speaker 7: Good evening, Mayor and Vice Mayor, council members and staff. I'm Michael McDonald, president of the Alameda Chamber of Commerce. And I just wanted to come here tonight to show the chamber's support for the city staff's efforts in the economic department, specifically for all the work they've been doing to develop the strategy and the development. So far that's been really moving Alameda forward in the last couple of years. We really have worked well with Darrell and of course, Debbie, and we really appreciate the efforts they're putting out. And it's really interesting because as Darrell began with his mission, the chamber's mission parallels that very closely. We really do want to support the existing businesses to retain them. We want to make sure that they get the opportunity to expand in a in a business friendly environment and, of course, to attract new help attract new businesses to town. In fact, we have worked with the city on many of the key programs that they describe there, including the new business welcome the new business meet and greets. We've done a number of times we were at the and helped with the annual broker event. We've really promoted the Island Shopper campaign and we're currently working on the job fair that on the Committee for the Job Fair that Darrell mentioned. So we really have worked in conjunction with the city and a lot of these economic developments. So we really enjoy that and have had a great relationship. And it's very true that that they have reached out to us in the last, I don't know, a year and a half. We have had a very good working relationship and we too have reached out to the other business associations to try to form a better bond so that you guys can hear the voice of the business community, not just from the chamber, but from all the business associations. So I believe that the city's goals and the chamber's goals, we're working in conjunction in the same direction. It's been very rewarding for both parties, I think. And regarding the second part of Darrell's presentation regarding the Economic Development Commission, you know, when that when that in 2013 was disbanded, they did come to the chamber and we worked closely with them to think about what it would look like if that wasn't here. And we understand why, you know, it had I wouldn't say lost its purpose, but but it changed with the lack of redevelopment funds. And I think the the recommendation at that time for the advisory panel was a good one and we supported that. And we look forward to working with maybe the advisory panel. And if you decide to do the economic commission, we look forward to working with that as well. But we do support staff's recommendation to move forward with the advisory panel and even to the point where we would look forward to to directly participating on the advisory panel , if so, chosen. So the main thing I wanted to say here tonight is we really appreciate the staff's efforts and the economic development strategy that they've been enacting over the last several months, if not years, and want to support them in their recommendations to you tonight. Thank you. You.
Speaker 0: Erato and then Karen Bass.
Speaker 6: You're back to your post 11 p.m. time slot.
Speaker 7: Well, I have the over and under at 1030, so I win. Rob Reiner, executive director of Park Street Business Association, soon to be the downtown Alameda Business Association. Don't worry, you'll get the invitations. We're in concurrence with the staff report. We were sorry to see the economic. Development Commission go under. But at when it did go under, it had kind of petered out and run its course. This sounds like a wonderful plan. Hopefully it will work. Hopefully. Mr. Madden Rossi came to our board meeting a month ago, and we kind of talked about this a little bit . And we would concur with him that one of the things that absolutely has to happen with this panel is that the council needs to give this panel and staff some direction. I think that was one of the things that was absolutely we agree with Mr. Rossi that that was one of the things missing. Toward the end of the EDC. And we hope to see that. The other thing I got to tell you that I'm just thrilled to death to see up there. And boy, are you going to be hearing from me for the next couple of council meetings. The best thing that can come out of this. Is the reestablishment of the facade grant program. Oh, I'm so happy to see you all go like this. That was the best damn business program for small businesses this city ever had. And we were sorry to see it go. So if you folks can do whatever you need to do and staff can do whatever they need to do to make that happen. We are happy to participate in it again. And, you know, you give me a call, I'll walk you up and down the street and I'll show you every business that's got a facade grant program and every business that got one, it only improved the look of the street. So we hopefully you'll pass this this evening. We look forward to working with everyone, and I'll go ahead and take my shot. We'd love a spot on that little advisory committee. I'll talk to you later, but.
Speaker 0: Karen B. And then she's our last speaker on this item.
Speaker 9: Good evening, Mayor Spencer, members of the City Council and staff. My name is Karen Bay and I'm here tonight. First of all, I want to say thank you, Daryl and Debbie, for a great presentation. Whatever you decide tonight, I'm here to ask that you consider adding one more strategic focus, and that is tourism. Alameda point will become a regional destination if we get that approved and we can use this development to attract tourists to other areas of Alameda Park Street. Webster Street. There are other areas that have great potential for development. We were once a resort community and the development of Alameda Point and the Northern Waterfront can help us create this new industry. San Francisco tourists spent $9.4 billion in 2013, up from 8.9 billion in 2012. As a result, they collected over 600 million and sales tax revenue. We just talked about sales tax revenue being a huge component of the revenue. So I think this is a potential industry that could help us solve a lot of problems. We can attract some of those visitors from San Francisco by creating a theme a day in Alameda. I also want to mention that we were the finalist and Sunset Travel Awards this year, and I think we need to build on that. This is kind of an easy it's an it's an easy solution here. So if we use the Oakland model, Oakland has a full time person in their economic development department working on nothing else but increasing tourism in Oakland. The campaign is called Visit Oakland. She was previously a senior vice president of business development of the Santa monica Convention and Visitors Bureau and a sales manager at Tourism Whistler. That's the kind of talent that we need. All right. If we want to focus our attention on increasing tourism, we need that kind of talent as a result. Well, Oakland as a result increased 300 new restaurants. And Alameda in Oakland in the last two years, 110 new restaurants in the last six months. All right. As a result, Jack, London Square just landed an upscale food market which will be developed by Napa Valley developer. His name is Steve Cullen. So 5 minutes away from us, they're focusing on tourism. San Francisco is focusing on tourism. We need to add that. Please consider adding that to the seven strategic focuses. Just real quickly, some of the steps that we can we can ask our visit Alameda team to do is hire a marketing director, a CEO, a sales director to focus on rebranding Alameda as a tourist destination and create a goal. Bring 50 restaurants to Alameda and create art and culture and entertainment in Alameda, create a bicycle tourism plan and consider developing a hotel convention center at Alameda Point. We'll need to work with all of the what the Alameda Point developers and the Northern Waterfront developers to try to meet our goals. I urge you to consider this. I think this is a wonderful opportunity and it would increase our sales tax revenue. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Is our last speaker on the item council member. Actually, as vice mayor, this is your referral.
Speaker 2: Thank you. I've actually heard a lot of things that were on the plate of the Economic Development Commission in 1996, which resulted in the 2000 strategic plan. Among the activities that that commission took up was the downtown plan, which eventually was implemented, and that's the theater in the parking structure that you see. It is jump started Park Street. I do think that economic development is not an ad hoc. Um, activity. And I think that we need it now more than ever, that redevelopment is not in place and that we're still waiting for the successor to redevelopment funding. I think it's valid to. Look at a commission. Because the commission has all the trappings that are necessary to make sure that policies reflect. The entire nature of the city input from the residents. And those recommendations are formed in a agenda as measured. And a collaborative approach with. Public forums that the Commission meetings provide. It sounded like in this presentation that this mayor's economic development advisory panel. Is tracking along that. But I. I would prefer a commission that. Both through our regular Border Commission process for appointment and and confirmation. It goes through the regular process of having meeting minutes, agendas and reports to council, and I think most importantly gets direction from the council on what its tasks are. I think this council referral is still valid and I'd like to hear what my colleagues think. And I'd like to be able to make a decision on it tonight and delayed a couple of. Maybe three times because of long agendas and other things out of our control. But I think it's on the plate now.
Speaker 0: All right. Any counseling? Okay. Ashcroft.
Speaker 5: All right. Thank you. So I. I have to give considerable weight to staff's recommendation because it is staff who were tasking with the work of overseeing a commission. If indeed that's what we're to decide to do. When I was reading through this staff report and the the presentation. Nice presentation, Mr. Doane. It did strike me that. What a lot of the vice mayor's objectives and intent seem to be encompassed in many ways in the recommendations that came out of this this. I. This report, it seems that the advantage of an ad hoc committee is and it's laid out in the in the presentation on page 18 is the more flexible structure and approach accessing resources and personal contacts of the business community as and when needed to help close the deal or for other recruitment or development of particular expansion of particular sectors perhaps. And at the same time, I also see that in the. The staff report, there is a process for assembling members to address specific needs. I am mindful that the projects, the two projects that the vice mayor quoted, the theater and the parking structure, both very successful and I think have brought a lot of benefit to our city and to the Park Street area. Did both come about with redevelopment funds? And I heard the reference to, you know, at some point when there is a successor to redevelopment and I know there's been some talk in Sacramento and I know at least there's talk of it happening some time, but we're not there yet. So what I would prefer to see, although I have to say I also agree with the I think it was Rob Prado who and the vice mayor echoed this that. Whatever the iteration is, whatever we decide to do, it needs city council oversight and direction. And for that reason, I'm hesitant and I don't think I could support the recommendation that it be a mayor's committee that the mayor recommends. I would prefer to see an ad hoc committee assembled to address specific needs, and it might be, for instance, the update of the economic strategic plan or the strategic plan of the general plan , because that is a bit outdated, I think. But I'd prefer to see that sort of a committee formed and it can certainly come. I would want it to come to the City Council for approval of the members, but I'd like to hear from staff and our business associations and Chamber of Commerce who I think have the greater overview of what the what resources are out there, who to to tap for maritime or nanotechnology or whatever the sector is that we want to focus on. And I think that it is important to have the council oversight. And I but I'm wondering, is it mutually exclusive? I like the idea of the minutes and the accountability, but I don't know why the the council couldn't direct an ad hoc committee to do to do the same. And and again, because this panel is advising the entire council, I think it's a city economic development advisory panel or city council. But I do think it's important to hear, as Mr. Doane mentioned, at least quarterly, what some of the initiatives are and what progress we've made. I think we don't we don't toot our own horn enough sometimes that the the things that we're doing. So I think I want to see a hybrid kind of an approach, and I do want to see accountability to the council, but I definitely want to hear input for potential panel members from the business community and peers out there in the business community who I think are in a good position to help advise. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Member, Odie.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Madam Mayor. So I'm I'm looking at the the vice mayor's referral, and I see a lot of overlap between the the roles of the Economic Development Commission, as he suggested it, and, and this mayor's advisory committee. So I think we're pretty close in agreement between the staff report and the vice mayor's referral on what it is that we want this group to do. I just think we're kind of a little at odds on what to call it, which I don't really care. You can call it a economic development commission. You could call it the mayor's committee. You could call it the mayor council committee, whatever. Doesn't really matter to me. And then we're also at odds over how much oversight and formality this commission should had. And I. I still. Are for the third time talking about this. I agree with the vice mayor that we need to have some type of, you know, formality and structure to it. You know, I was able to serve on the America's Cup Ad Hoc Committee. And I think what made that work is, you know, we had an event, the America's Cup. We wanted to take advantage of the economic opportunity and the tourism. And the then vice mayor at the time put in a referral to create this this committee. And it was made up, you know, of a few prominent business leaders and mostly maritime, you know, business leaders. So we were able to be focused on a task that was, I would say, very narrow and that is attracting, you know, maritime business. And the committee actually was able to help attract the Swedish team, Artemus, to be here. But I think that the goal of of this new mayor's committee or economic developed commission or whatever you want to call it, it was a little bit more broader, you know, focusing on Alameda Point, you know, being more more diverse in its membership, you know, from from different business sectors. So. I'd like to see if there's a way we can. Again, I don't really care what it's called, but and it sounds like the goals of the council referral and the goals of the the proposed mayor's committee are the same. We can find a way to to marry those together and do it in a way where there's still accountability and structure and compliance with our sense and ordinance and keeping things open and to the public. I mean, that be something I'd be more in favor and just to kind of. Go off topic for just a bit with Karen. Karen Bass. Comment. Last week I had a holiday. Cesar Chavez Day. I went on line, said what? I took the day and went away. And I did a search. Things to do in the bay area on one day and pull up this article in the chronicle and reading through and one day one of the things was a day trip to Alameda. I wasn't going to do that. Sorry. Wanted to get out of town. But you know, there's some merit to the idea that Alameda is now becoming a tourist destination, you know, at least for one day with with Spirits Alley and, you know, all the different family activities that we have. So, you know, I think that's kind of a good thing to add to the to the goals. But, you know, I still I'm not convinced that. I'm still. I still am in favor of the way that the vice mayor is proposing this.
Speaker 0: Every day.
Speaker 3: Thank you. You know, when the matter first arrived to council to review the way the Economic Development Commission was operating and how we might modify and improve that. This was back in 2013 or so. At that time, I concurred with staff's recommendation to look into the approach utilizing an advisory panel, working with the mayor and possibly Knight , working with the mayor or the counsel general. That's a view that I still hold on and I hold it for several reasons. When I look at what we want to achieve through an economic development organization, and let's use that term broadly an economic development organization which could either be a commission or could be an advisory panel along the lines described through the mayor's task force. I really see two key issues. One is about function and the other is about attributes in terms of function. You can break that down into three areas that that an organization might play. It could be in the planning role. It could really be in the monitoring role. And finally, it could be in the implementation role. Those are key functions that an economic development organization can play. I think when I look back on the Economic Development Commission as I knew it and when I look at the panel, that's being a task force that's been suggested. I see the commission's role as having been more in the area of planning and and monitoring. And I see the task force role now being more about implementation. That is, use the phrase that's been used like closing the deal when projects come forward. And I think we're at a point where where we need to move fast. And I think we need to be nimble in this competitive environment. And I see something like the task force as achieving that. So to me, the key the key thing with regard to function is implementation. And I want an economic development staff working closely with council or the mayor working closely with key business leaders in town of which we we have representatives of major, major, major corporations, you know, ready to quickly, if not open doors and at least close deals. It's less big, frankly. Altogether possible. It's altogether possible. That there will be members of the Economic Development Commission. Who are not the right people. Send to a meeting where you have to close a deal. It's altogether possible that. Of the type of issues and concerns that they're most interested in. And it might not be one and might not be to. Are about. A frames. Signage on windows changing ordinances to that end. So to me, in addition to what is the function, I'm also interested in the attributes. Of the economic development organization. And when it comes to opening the doors that you need to be have opened when it comes to perhaps closing the deals that you need to have closed. I think the prospects of an economic development as force, the mayor's task force, or even these ad hoc committees that we've had, like the LA Biennale or maybe the the the America's Cup. I think the attributes are most suited to moving quickly to get things done. Okay. So the question then becomes, okay, well, whatever, whatever happened to the function of planning and monitoring? I think having as a city move forward with the economic development strategy of 1999 2000, having updated that subsequently 2008 and then and then with the prospects of updating it even more, I think that serves the framework for to make sure that whatever task force or whatever ad hoc committees that we have, that they don't operate in a vacuum. And there could be other ways to to ensure that that whatever Ido we come up with, hopefully, is a one that acts nimbly and quickly and closes deals, that there are other ways to make sure that they are not operating in a vacuum. So I'm still I'm still fine with a recommendation from 2013, and I see that mainly as expressed in the staff's recommendation tonight. It's a different way of doing economic development in Alameda and what we've been doing since I'm a mayor with the start of the Economic Development Commission, perhaps in 1990 or 1992, I can't quite remember. And I think we're at a point now where we've got the key players and. I do believe we have to choose one or the other. I don't think we can have both. I don't think we can have the Economic Development Commission along the lines that we had in the 1990 and early 2000 and a task force, because I think that that runs the risk of sort of sending mixed messages. I think that's the last thing you want to do. If I had to make a choice, I'd say it's a new century. We need to act nimbly. And I'm going to go with the staff's recommendation with regard to the mayor's task force and and if necessary, the ad hoc committee approach.
Speaker 0: So I appreciate all the comments. And I want to share, first of all, that this started back in 2013 before I was mayor. The prior council disbanded the commission and came up with this approach that staff continues to support. And we have had some amazing businesses come here during that time. I personally would like to give them the opportunity to continue their work. And when you speak, when staff speaks to why they think they need this, they want to be more flexible than a commission. So we're all here tonight. I go to meetings from a lot of commissions regularly. I do not expect business people to come and hang out here and think that that is the same goal that's going to support the business community. Now, I know we do have some businessmen and women that are here this evening, and thank you. But in regards to a commission coming up here and speaking publicly about what vision they may have or policies, I don't think that's what staff is asking for. I think staff is asking for business people that that that they can call on quickly, that they can ask for their expertize and not set a meeting, not go through the sunshine. Now, staff did say that they would formally consider meetings 1 to 2 times a year and maybe it would be a quarterly or something. I'm not sure. And staff is asking to be able to come back and be more clear about really what they're looking for. But I see this as member day, August 9th, who's been part of this much longer than I have. What he. But what the difference really is. And I would like to share that it's now a problem. I started meeting with staff on this in early January, and we do have some business people that are ready to step up and we continue to. Be waiting. And I think that's unfortunate. I think there are deals out there where we could use their expertize now. I think it is important to go ahead with staff's recommendation that they've been asking for apparently actually since 2000, the end of 2013. But but but I think. I would agree also with j soc in regards to member de sog in regards to you can't really have one. You can't have both. But I think staff is speaking about having formal, formal meetings. That's what we heard at least once or twice a year. And they have an idea of what they're looking for. CEO types, high level. I live a high level business people and they have specific things that they want these people to help them with. For instance, closing a deal that's you are not going to close the deal at a commission meeting. We know that that's not going to happen. It's not going to happen up here at a commission meeting. It will happen when staff has the flexibility that they're asking for to call certain people and have them. Assist. And that's what I see this as AM and that's why it needs to be flexible and a staff needs is thinking that they need that type of support to close a deal. I want to be able to support them. I don't want them to have to set a meeting 45 days down or 30 days down and do it publicly. Not going to happen. You're not going to close the deal at a public meeting. Yes.
Speaker 5: It's a clarifying question for staff. Maybe, Mr. Doan, what's to keep you from doing any of the things that are proposed now on your own? Gathering representatives of different sectors to help you or with their specific sector to help you close the deal. On bringing a new business here. Are you waiting for an ad hoc committee to advise you?
Speaker 8: We can we can do that now. And. You know, we have those relationships, right? We have a Rolodex. We have the ability to pick up the phone. I think there's an organizing principle, though, at play with a with an advisory panel that allows us to do that in unison with different sectors. A group of CEOs is sometimes better than one two. It's a quick, efficient way to sort of.
Speaker 7: Get.
Speaker 8: All that function together, you know, get a letter written, have it cosigned by seven or eight different members welcoming a business to town.
Speaker 5: So so who's going to be giving the direction to that group of CEOs to write that welcoming letter?
Speaker 8: Staff would call upon those CEOs. I don't know if it's. Giving direction per say. I mean, I think I think you you through your action, we this is how I would see this happening. We would go back to our offices and we would put together a formal proposal for you, for the council, and you would give up with the recommendation to Empanel said advisory panel, you know, thusly. And we would go and do that. You would give us the direction with our recommendations, hopefully taken into account on the activities that you would see the panel doing and the types of things that we would ask them to do and the mechanism for doing that. And we would take that directory, take that direction and essentially.
Speaker 5: I'm notified the hours getting late. So my brain is probably getting a little fuzzy here. But let me ask it a different way. What is it that you're not able to do now that you think you'd be able to do if you had either an ad hoc committee or an economic development commission?
Speaker 8: I think it's the. I think having the. In some ways, nothing. In some ways, though, there's a lot of value in the formality of an actual panel that's been formed by the council that we can call on quickly and efficiently to do what in some ways staff can do now is just it would take us longer and . You know, having the sort of weight and the punch of an actual advisory panel, as opposed to me just calling a CEO and asking them to pitch in. They will. I think there's a lot of value and weight and having that punch of a formal body.
Speaker 0: Member J soc.
Speaker 5: But I'd like to hear of my colleague.
Speaker 3: Well, I think that the power of a task force would first and foremost come in the form of a letter issue of business or a corporation, perhaps, that we're trying to attract. Mm hmm. And on that letterhead, it said. Don Stevenson from Oakland Raiders. Erika Johnson from East Coffee. Joe Blow from Abbott. Whatever. And then I went from. McCartney's last Google one from Wind River slash intel. I think it's had and then in fact it and with the letter signed frankly by the mayor of Alameda. I think a letter like that, I'm coming from a house. That's what we mean by being able to respond quickly to opportunities and to kind of project that, so to speak, power. In ways that, quite frankly, an economic development commission could never do. So that would be one. That's what we mean by Nimble.
Speaker 8: That's what I envision.
Speaker 0: And I'd like to share. We currently do send out letters that I signed to businesses welcoming them. But it doesn't have the names of CEOs like that. That would be much more impressive. Vice Mayor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's fine. And that when you talk about deal closing, no deal that involves the cities can be closed without coming to the council. First of all.
Speaker 3: I think we meant that.
Speaker 2: And I think we need to be precise here. And what you describe, I think there is a lot of weight by having a a blue ribbon committee or an ad hoc group of CEOs who want to be part of that push. But I'm looking more at the what we're going to do, not how we're going to do it and the what we're going to do. I don't want a committee of just CEOs defining recommendations to come to Council on Economic Development.
Speaker 3: That's not their task.
Speaker 2: And I see that as an economic development commission task. Is that that policy? Is built on what we've done in the past and what we've updated here. And I think to have that done in the in the clear light and sometimes messiness of a of a of a chambers in front of commission is very valuable. And I think we can also answer some tough questions that we may have to look at. The real value of land at Alameda point is one is a question I think we need to challenge whether or not the fiscal neutrality policy that was put in place when the BRAC first started happening is really valid today, I think is another one. I'd like I'd like to see us explore the whole question we dealt with in the past. Big box are no big box here that came out of the Economic Development Commission, hard work that they did in engaging with the community to get a community take on an economic policy. The two bills that came from Sacramento last year, those infrastructure bond bills. Once a Senate bill. Once the Assembly bill. Trying to address closed military bases. Whether or not we should pull the trigger on that as an economic development tool can be studied by a commission. With the assistance of staff, with the research of staff and an a recommendation come council. That's what I'm looking for. And again, I'm looking for accountability. I'm looking for traceability. So we understand when decisions were made, how they were made and what the what the circumstances that led to that recommendation were by virtue of of minutes of these. I think it can be nimble and I think it can be directed if the council takes the lead and gives good direction on what those priorities are and. Those priorities can be informed again by. Say the the updating of strategic plan. That's a perfect, I think, a perfect task for a commission that's made up of a a defined but a broader section of. Of people as, as we've done in other commissions. Yeah, that's, that was my goal in bringing this forward.
Speaker 0: Member data.
Speaker 3: Just to quickly summarize now, my view of the economic development organization in terms of functions. To me, the issues are broadly stated one of planning what are your goals? What are your visions? What are your objectives? When I'm planning, monitoring, are you doing it? And then finally implementation. My feeling is that our emphasis should be on implementation. But to the extent that planning and monitoring and planning mostly is an issue, I mean, one way that you can deal with that separately from all this is I have an economic development task force who helps put together our updated economic development strategy. And then whether that task force, you know, goes on to continue as a commission. I don't know. But there are different ways we can plan and make sure that we're looking at the right vision, the right tasks, that the economic development ask for the mayor's task force or or an ad hoc committee if they're not working in a vacuum.
Speaker 0: Mr. Donat, you want to respond to any of these comments?
Speaker 4: I'm fine. Okay.
Speaker 0: Any other council comments?
Speaker 2: What I believe in this I'm going to move that we direct staff to. Although the parameters of the Council referral that I submitted and reform an economic development commission that includes the elements that were presented in our report and parameters for providing council direction on the tasks.
Speaker 6: I'll second that.
Speaker 0: Any discussion. All those in favor. I oppose.
Speaker 3: I oppose.
Speaker 0: I suppose.
Speaker 5: I abstain?
Speaker 0: So at this point, it doesn't pass it. It fails.
Speaker 3: Well, then. So let's make a motion.
Speaker 0: But to make.
Speaker 3: A motion that I'd like to make is I would like to move staff's recommendation regarding the audit right there on page 22 of 23.
Speaker 0: We have a second. Second. Any discussion. So I'll discussion if. We can continue what we're doing then and have stuff. You're waiting for council to make a decision, which is, you know what? That would be my concern. I would hope that we can support staff so that we can proceed. And and honestly, if it doesn't work, we can always try again. I mean, this is what happened in 2013. The commission was disbanded. The decision was made to proceed with this committee. The committee was not seated. And since I've been mayor, staff has been ready to sit this committee and move forward. But in reality, if it doesn't work out and council always gets to weigh in and I would hope that we can work with staff so that we can start moving. So I would second the motion. I'm yes member Odie.
Speaker 6: I still have concerns on how this commission is composed and. Know how somebody gets on there, whether that's just by appointment, by my staff, putting them on there, by the mayor putting him on there. I mean, the council not having any input in who these the members of this. What do we call this economic advisory.
Speaker 0: Panel member de SAC.
Speaker 3: On page 22 of 23 with a recommendation. If staff concurs, staff will return to council or more recommendation on the membership format of the mayor's economic table.
Speaker 6: But that wasn't in the staff report. That was in the in the presentation. So.
Speaker 0: So did you want staff to address your question?
Speaker 6: Was that part of the is part of the motion to. Clarify that or.
Speaker 3: My motion to it was on page 22 of the M.
Speaker 6: EDT presentation of.
Speaker 3: The.
Speaker 6: I don't need any more clarification. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Or any other member comments.
Speaker 2: The comment I, I don't think this provides the visibility or the, the proper stage for setting policy and tackling some of the. The harder economic questions that are going to come at us.
Speaker 0: All right. I'm going to go ahead and call the question. All those in favor. I.
Speaker 5: And I'm abstaining again. And I'm going to explain why. It's something I rarely do, but I am troubled by aspects of both proposals. I feel that we may just be adding another layer of bureaucracy to what a fairly clean department is already doing. I think there's.
Speaker 0: I'm sorry at this point. That was supposed to happen during discussion. So the question isn't, well, yes, you don't explain your votes afterwards. However, I thought what she was doing was trying to move this ahead because it failed again.
Speaker 6: We started voting on it though.
Speaker 0: I'm sorry we started off, but I heard we had.
Speaker 6: Heard the other.
Speaker 0: One favor. I didn't finish the vote. Oh, okay. I just heard that. But it was 2 to 2 and I'm sorry. No, we haven't finished the vote.
Speaker 5: Well, it is going to be to to to again.
Speaker 0: So let me finish calling the question, please. All those opposed.
Speaker 6: No, no.
Speaker 0: All right. So that was two in favor. One abstention and to oppose. So at this point, I'd like to proceed with the next agenda item. So it's almost. We actually have two more items.
Speaker 2: In a preventive preemptive motion.
Speaker 1: No. 11.
Speaker 5: 11.
Speaker 0: Okay.
Speaker 1: 60 Recommendation to accept an informational report on establishing integrated waste collection ceiling rates and service fees for Alameda County Industries for rate period 14th July 2015 to June 2016.
Presentation on the City’s Economic Development Programs and Initiatives and Status of the Economic Development Strategic Plan; and Recommendation to Establish the Mayor’s Economic Development Advisory Panel In Lieu of Re-Establishing an Economic Development Commission. (Community Development 7010)