Consider Re-establishing an Economic Development Commission for the City of Alameda.  (Vice Mayor Matarrese)
Nine is considering establishing the Economic Development Commission for the City of Alameda. This item was placed on the agenda at the request of Councilmember Mandarin. So would you like to start? Vice Mayor Thank you very much. This is the continuation of the referral or the the resubmission of the referral that was provided on January 20th at the meeting. And it remains that I'm requesting that this Council consider directing the city manager and the city attorney to take steps to reestablish the Economic Development Commission for the city of Alameda for the purposes of recommending policies and plans, particularly for bringing businesses to Alameda and or replacing jobs that were lost when the Navy left, Alameda point to work with current businesses and business associations to attract and retain businesses here in Alameda. Also to provide ways to coordinate with regional efforts to grow our local economy here and our. Commercial tax base as opposed to our residential tax base and to perform other economic development activities at the direction of the city council. And just because I know there were some criticism as put before the Economic Development Commission was disbanded that it wasn't doing anything. I think the City Council has the opportunity to give it direction in updating our strategic plan for economic development, which I think is even more important with the demise of of redevelopment, a tool that the city had and also to capture the successor. I think there's a couple of bills that the governor signed in October. AB 229 and. It's something Senate Bill 658 both had infrastructure bond funding mechanisms that could be used to spur economic development. But the review, the sifting and the analysis of those, I think would get a public hearing as well as another view before those things or our recommendations come to the city council. And also there are regional efforts, and I know there were regional efforts, a green corridor, for example, that was back in 2009, ten of the cities along 8880. Looking out, how do we take advantage of new technologies and cluster them around this particular corridor? And I think those were tests that an economic development commission could carry some weight for the city and bring a recommendation to the council. Also give a a system that is answerable to this council, and it's a system that provides a public input into the formation of recommendations that will eventually come to us for policy. Member. Ashcroft Thank you, Mayor Spencer. So I read this over for the last time it was on this agenda. And the couple notes and I made is that with regard to these tasks and objectives, I think we as a council need to ask which of these tasks and objectives staff is already pursuing and can they be accomplished through city council direction to staff rather than creation of a commission that a previous council decided to eliminate in an effort to streamline due to staff reductions? And I'm not saying I really haven't made up my mind. I want to hear my colleagues, but I do think we don't want to be redundant. We don't want to reinvent the wheel. And I remember, you know, when we drastically cut staff. Bear in mind, because he's now announced it. Our other assistant city manager, Alex Nguyen, is also leaving at the end of April. And Mr. Nguyen now is the staff liaison to many of our boards and commissions. So timing wise, might we want to think about if we were to go forward with this proposal, to wait until we at least have somebody, at least in the interim, filling that position or maybe have been hired to fill that position permanently. That's just a logistical consideration. I think that we also need to look at what sectors of our business community do we need to emphasize more and would we like to grow more? Because, you know, from Alameda Point to the Harbor Bay Business Parkway and and, you know, Marina Village Business Park in between, we have a lot of different kinds of companies. Maybe we do have some imbalance somewhere. Is it the Economic Development Commission or would it be staff? Were the two entities working together who might determine what we want to what sectors we want to pursue more? I know we have attracted a lot of new businesses here just by word of mouth. Recently, actually, the mayor and I attended a sit down, kind of meet and greet with the folks at Sila Nanotechnology, which is part of Alameda landing there on the Mariners Square Loop and just kind of behind the the tube almost. And they're thrilled, by the way, that there's Safeway and Target and all that there. But these are all these young, bright Stanford grads who actually were back in Atlanta, Georgia, and then they wanted to come back to the Silicon Valley, but they found they couldn't afford it. And besides which they didn't find there, the folks they had in Georgia didn't find the Silicon Valley as welcoming as they were used to in Atlanta. So they started a search. They were using a broker, but they actually told us that they referred to Alameda as the Zappos of cities. And if any of you have done your online ordering from Zappos, you know, they're just they're known for their stellar customer service and, you know, prompt delivery and all. And they said they gave us the example that their broker contacted a number of cities. Gerald Dunn got that call and he immediately said, I've got a meeting or I've got five people we need to talk to. And it was like all the relevant department heads. And they said, as compared to these other cities where the first meeting there was one person there and the second there was two. By the third meeting, maybe they were talking to everybody they needed to talk to. But Alameda did it all at one time and they said that's where we want to be. A good percentage of their people use me these young techies and so this probably means I'm talking to much of our living in Alameda and they're also I got a nice email to thank the present CEO for hosting us. And he emailed back and said, Oh, we're thrilled to be here. And we're telling all of our colleagues and friends to to come here, too. So we definitely want to capitalize on that. But I'd say, you know, economic development, community development is doing a good job already. Could we help them do better? Perhaps timing is somewhat of a concern. And I did want to ask vice mayor on page one of your your council referral, there is this reference that to consider reestablishing the Economic Development Commission in order to and then there's some subparagraphs. So under subparagraph C research and provide recommendations to the City Council on funding city sponsored redevelopment projects. Can you help us understand what. That means. And I was referring to the two Senate bills and a vehicle for that. This recent letter and our equity, our ability to raise equity in land is now ours point. As infrastructure goes, it is one of the things that occurred to me is we have a brand new water main courtesy of Witter that's going to run from the Wheeler facility to Pacific. So to me that means there's opportunity there. We could put other utilities if we stretch a little bit, see if we can put the other utilities in the ground at the same time there. And suddenly the properties and that's right through site B, suddenly the properties don't have the the burden of not having reliable water. And if we put same time to earth, we put at the same time from whatever capital reserves, aluminum, municipal powerhouse, we put new power there. Then those pads, those commercial pads then are worth more than they're worth now. And we own the land that will be industrial. And that's the kind of activity that I think an economic development commission could look and analyze. At these different pieces that are coming at us as part of a strategic plan. We have a strategic plan somewhere. It's on the shelf. I know if it's ever been renewed. But I want to remind people that strategic plan was put in place in 2000 and we actually executed quite a bit of it, not the least being the theater in the parking garage on Park Street, because that was in the original strategic plan document. So I think that's the kind of of practice that I'd like to be able to. To emulate. Using whatever tools we have today. And right now, we've got land that has a level of value that's pretty low. But each time we well, with this wheat project, there's going to be an increase in value around it. And we need to figure out how to capitalize that from an economic development standpoint. And Brody. You met a married man. I can ask maybe the vice mayor through the. Chair. Beside grants used to be part of Economic Development Commission. That's absolutely right. And how was that done now? Do we have that program still or. Which grant. Assignments? Somebody asked me about this earlier this week. So. So a good evening. A nice tie in between the budget discussion and the facade improvement program. The department will actually be coming back as part of the budget process, proposing that we relaunch the facade improvement program in the next fiscal the next two year budget cycle. So that is a program that did go away with the demise of redevelopment. And we would like to access some of the boomerang funds to to bring back that program. And the question through the chair to the vice mayor, I mean, is that is that something that you think that this new reconstituted EDC would be responsible for. Or Park and Webster Street? It was part of the charge of the Economic Development Commission to provide input in that. And it was one of the most successful programs that we had on the streets. I think those small programs as well as the larger programs. And B can be put on the table of this commission. There, Mr. Doan apparently is hired for economic development. So I think there's a there's a synergy there with staff and and a body that can and help do some of the work that's intermediate between staff people and and the city council. And a lot of it depends on city council giving good direction. And for example, we decided we wanted to pursue a fiber loop. At the point. It just kind of a. Big ticket idea. But is that something that, you know, through your your suggestions about the infrastructure development? And is that something. I see that as a key economic development question because again, it raises value to land that we own. Just as my comment I when we brought this up the first time, I was very supportive of it and the Council had asked the Vice Mayor to go back and come up with specific tasks that the new reconstituted EDC could do. And, you know, I'm pretty impressed by the list that that he put together. That's even more than I expected when we first discussed this. So I think this merits. I think this merits moving on this moving it. Four days ago. A thank you. That crosses my mind is months ago or so we had established what we call the Mayors Economic Development Committee and. I'm not sure if we've given it time to do it. Do what it needs. Do its tasks. That's really the thought that crossed my mind. I think there is a lot of attention in the media in terms of business interaction, working with city staff, doing the legwork and then bringing in the ask force as a kind of a closer of sorts. And frankly, I think the story of. Oh. We. All right. Right, right. Speed, in a way, is emblematic of that, given that the owner of that business bumped into an alum even when he was at a at a conference or workshop in Healdsburg. I remember this story to me. That's kind of what all of the task forces used. Person. Human contacts that they have. Recognizing that, you know, task force is going to do legwork. That's that's going to fall on staff. So that was something that we. Um, certainly I think best in 2014, and I'm not sure that it's been given. 2013. 2014. I'm not sure it's been given time to to attempt to reach its potential yet. So that's the thought that crosses my. Amir have spot. Do what I said. Just just a question. My understanding and this is my information is that the task force was never seated and never met. Correct. So the city council in October of 2013 voted to adopt an ordinance disbanding the EDC and voted to look to a different format for undertaking these same kinds of activities that have been outlined by the Vice Mayor via a Mayor's Task Force for Economic Development. And the idea was to really look at a structure that would be more flexible and more nimble than kind of the more traditional economic development commission. A lot of the activities that have been identified about business attraction, retention, expansion are confidential. When they start out, they need to be kept confidential and the ability to work with high level representatives of the business community in a confidential nature and then bring the project forward to the public with. You know, receptions and press conferences and that kind of thing was one of the focuses of of a group that where you could rely on individual members of that committee to help us reach out and kind of leverage our resources with the specialized sectors that we've identified as being important to Alameda and really creating ambassadors who would work with us on a more one on one and more flexible basis. And so that is the structure that we were proposing in 2013, and that is the structure that staff is recommending that we continue to work with and put in place. So I'd like to speak to that. Could I ask a question of your comment? Yes. And so one more thing and one more point just that might help inform the discussion is that we do have scheduled a presentation on April 7th about our economic development division, which incidentally, is the exact one year anniversary of Darryl's hire date. And he we're proposing to present to you what we've been doing with the division over the last 12 months, and that that may give you more information to inform the decision about moving forward with the more traditional commission as it was composed. Prior to 2013 or looking at the more sort of what we think is the more kind of structure that reflects the best practices of undertaking economic development and business recruitment, attraction and retention activities. ASHCROFT? You know, I was going to say, I thought there had been an agenda item, maybe the last meeting or so, that very presentation. And I was just asked I was going to ask if that had been scheduled to come back. So it's our PowerPoint. Is in legislator and going through the internal review process and will be coming coming to a council meeting soon. It's scheduled for April 7th. So that's your next meeting. So I'd like to ask the question in regards to these tasks that the Vice Mayor has laid out. Are some of these how would staff propose? If we if we continue on the path of having the mayor's economic development committee, then how how are these tasks addressed? Well, the issues that have been identified are the initiatives that have been identified, I think are a combination of high level policy issues, for example, the enhanced infrastructure of district financing. That is a high level policy issue where you might want an analysis and input from folks who are familiar with it, with financing and former redevelopment legislation to advise the council. Some issues are more operational about, you know, how we would implement the facade improvement program that is more of an operational issue where we might not you know, we might not come to council, we may, you know, get authorization for the program. And then staff would come up with with the implementation procedures for that. We we would be we are going to be proposing as part of the budget cycle to update the 2008 Economic Development Strategic Plan. That is a key initiative that we would definitely look to reaching out to the business community for input on the strategic plan and coming back to council for input and feedback and ultimately approval of an updated strategic plan. So there are a number of important initiatives that I think you might benefit from hearing from the economic development manager about how we're currently implementing a number of these strategies. We're undertaking focus groups with representatives of some of our key sectors. We're going to be starting with the maritime industry and we're looking at the hospitality industry. So these are focus groups that we're as we as staff are moving forward with now to solicit input and information that can then be used to inform our policy recommendations to the Council. So we would see the economic development panel, the mayors panel, as I like to think of it, as kind of leveraging staff resources and allowing access to some of the key business folks in the city of Alameda, some of our key sectors and experts on some of these key topics like infrastructure financing, how to add value to city owned property. And we could reach out and we we leverage the work of staff that way. So. So in regards to that, for me personally, this is a committee that was started back in 2013, apparently, and of October 2013. It's something that I those this is something I and staff have been working on talking to businesses and I think it is. So I would like to give that a chance because I really appreciate the confidentiality of working with businesses and how important it is that we leverage staff's time as well as we have some amazing businesses in town that may not be there, but they but they would want to discuss may not be appropriate at a commission level here. Sitting up here five people on the dais with staff. And so I would like to give this right, this economic committee, an opportunity to. See how it works, working with staff. And then if in fact, at some point council thinks that we want to try to do the commission and it may be for other tasks, quite honestly, it may be for some other things that staff at this point is thinking that they would be sounds like more appropriate to have presentations actually to council to make decisions. On. Member day. From my vantage point, I mean many cities have economic development commissions and rightfully so. So I understand the place of an economic development commission. But I think to me, the value added when it comes to. What I call what we're calling the mayor's task force. The Committee for Economic Development. What we're talking about is really a group of people who are positioning themselves with regard to economic development implementation. The Commission certainly would have a role when it comes to economic development planning. But by the same token. You could conceivably have the economic develop, the updated economic development strategic plan serving as the goals and objectives and the. And of the setting. Or. The Economic Development Task Force, the mayor's economic development task force, when it comes to doing work. And also when it comes to that, the staff person, economic development manager doing work. You update the economic development strategic plan from 2008 from 2000 to 2008. Now five. Almost ten years later. 2015. And that updated economic development plan says, you know what our goals and what are what are the strategies that we're going to put in place to achieve each of the goals and the implementation and who's going to do what? And a lot of that who because you've got the plan in place with implementation, is the staff person. So the staff person is going to look out for opportunities with regard to businesses in certain industry clusters. Now we're the. Mayor's task force comes into my mind. Is there the closer? At the point in time that that our economic development manager has identified certain opportunities. We're going to wow those opportunities because now they're going to see on. They're going to see this task force with. Very reputable companies. They're going to see them either in person or they're going to see them on the letterhead. They're going to say, hey, this is a city that's geared to acting. So in my mind, all that can happen. Independent Development Commission. And to the extent that it has not yet happened. Me. Argues for giving it a chance to happen. Member Ashcraft. Thank you. So just for clarification, and so the term is mayor's task force, but I believe the actual choice, it's more like a select committee and probably it would be input from the entire council if we were to go that direction. I'm wondering if, given that we're going to have a presentation on the Economic Development Department, what they're proposing in terms of updating the strategic plan, if it might behoove us all to put off. I know we don't like to delay decisions, but I'm wondering whether it might make sense to wait until at least we've had the benefit of hearing that presentation. I do believe we were supposed to have heard it by now, but it was one of those agendas that had to get short because of the hour. I think. I think the vice mayor has proposed some some very interesting ideas. I'm just thinking that we don't know. But there might be overlap with what's already in the in the works with the Economic Development Department and Community Development. So is there a way I don't know whether it's just a report or whether there's an action attached to the the the the report that's coming to us, sorry to make you read back and forth, but is there some sort of action associated with the item coming to us on April 7th? Coming to the council is a PowerPoint presentation that is for information only. It is not structured at this point to include in the action. So could we discuss this item along with that? At that point, would staff be the input that's appropriate regards to the next step? Do we? Yes, we. I think staff could take direction as as an aspect of that presentation. And it's time. To do that before April seven. And we would have time to I mean, I suppose we could change the freeze and. The agenda hasn't gone out right for. The media. So we could add that in a fraction. I swear. So, if I understand correctly, will continue this item. Into a spot right behind that PowerPoint presentation. Oh. If I can help, maybe. I don't know that you need to continue this item if you're actually. The referral process allows for the council to decide whether it wants to come back or not with some staff work and this could be what its coming back as. Yeah. I'd like to actually direct staff to include this idea of economic development commission in the analysis. I mean, is that. Also I would actually so I would like to also include, you know, their discussion of pros and cons. How they would address these issues that are being raised here. But their recommendation is and hear back from our economic devil. So we could we can add a couple of more slides to the PowerPoint presentation to address the the issues that have been raised this evening. And could we make it an actionable item? Yes. That's what it. Is. Yes, we can. I've just got to. I'm not trying to overcommit you, Miss Potter, though, if you don't think you can do that level of analysis. Well, I think what we would do is capture the some of the pros and cons, some of our what stats proposals are about how we might recommend the the the input and advice and sort of strategic help on economic development in the community. We can certainly do the PowerPoint slides, I think, to a to a level that would help inform the discussion by the council and then receive direction from from the council on this issue. Vice Mayor, does that sound good? Yeah. All right. Any other council member comments? So that satisfies this item? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And now we have council communications. Any comments? Yes. Member Desai?