you you good evening I'm calling the Wednesday July 8th 2020 Economic Development Commission meeting to order at 6:30 p.m. tonight's Economic Development Commission meeting will be held both in person and virtually using zoom as vice-chair I'll be leading the EDC meeting and the public is welcome to participate when invited throughout the meeting if attendees experience audio problems we suggest you leave the meeting and then rejoin this has fixed the issue in the past additional instructions on how to participate are posted online at Burnsville MN gov in the public meeting calendar as usual tonight's meeting will be available for viewing on BC TV and the city's website if you're unable to participate this evening and would like to submit public testimony I encourage you to email your comments to city staff or mail your comments directly to City Hall you may participate in the meeting tonight online by going to zoomed us /join and typing in meeting ID 9 7 6 6 2 6 8 8 3 7 8 once you're logged into the meeting please use the chat feature to tell the moderator which item you'd like to speak to you may also call into the meeting at 6 5 1 3 7 - 8 - 9 9 please note there may be a slight delay due to differences in technology if speaking by phone please mute your computer since there will be a delay first item for business tonight is the adoption of the agenda dev we receive a copy of the agenda can I get a motion for the adoption of tonight's agenda so moved second all right there's a motion in a second tonight slight differences is we will Regina Dean will call the roll for each one of the motions Fulks Ted hi commissioner cup-like yes Commissioner Anderson yes commissioner liver yes commissioner Schmitz Commissioner LaFave eye Commissioner fetch a alright very good motion passes next it's been a little while but we have the approval of the minutes from our last meeting which was March 11 2020 do we have any corrections to the minutes seeing none is there a motion to approve the minutes from the March 11th 2028 EC meeting motion to approve the second all right Commissioner coupling yes Commissioner Anderson yes Commissioner levator yes Commissioner Schmitz Commissioner left LaFave aver as an ask me a favor aye Commissioner fidget excellent motion passes and the minutes were approved next we have a new member on the Economic Development Commission recently appointed and I'd invite assistant Community Development Director Dean to administer the oath of office to our newest Commissioner Laura Schmitz hi Laura I'm gonna ask you to repeat after me typically we have you raise your right hand and then I will send you I will send you the document after so that you can either mail back or drop off in person the cameras okay i Laura Schmitz do solemnly swear I'm Laura Schmitz do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the state of Minnesota and the state of Minnesota and faithfully will discharge the duties as a member of the Burnsville Economic Development Commission and faithfully discharge the duties as a member of the Burnsville Economic Development Commission of the city of Burnsville of the city of Burnsville in the county of Dakota and state of Minnesota in the county of Dakota and state of Minnesota to the best of my judgment and ability to the best of my judgment and ability welcome Laura excellent next I believe we have city manager Melanie Massey only to discuss the item number four on the agenda the cares Act business grant concept good evening commissioners thank you for having me here tonight I'm gonna I guess I get to drive this now all right so tonight we have before the Commission discussion and feedback on a grant program a little bit of background information is that there is a federal act called the carers act for which money was allocated to states and communities over $500,000 in response to the Cova 19 pandemic within the state of Minnesota Ramsey County in Hennepin County received direct allocations and then the state of Minnesota received about 814 million that was to be dispersed as the state determined two cities counties and townships under 500 thousand the legislature recently made decision on how those funds were going to be allocated for the city of Burnsville our portion was about four point seven million dollars now those funds have been certified and we have received them and we have until November 15th to expend those funds for eligible uses there is some flexibility in how those funds can be can be allocated from the grant program perspective there is little guidance at this point so we are looking for kinda broad guidance from some of our state partners a bit but at this time we're looking for feedback from our commission on some parameters for a grant program the state received cares AK dollars they're allocating about sixty million dollars for a small business grant program that application period closed last week Dakota County is considering a small business grant program they discussed the parameters yesterday at their meeting and their CBA will be discussing it again at next week's meeting and our City Council reviewed some parameters last night we got their feedback but we also are looking for the Commission's feedback within that four point seven million dollars we can use it for a number of number of uses including paying for direct Colvin 19 related costs so the whole the grant program would not be the entire four point seven million the council has not given direction on what dollar amount they might be looking for but at this point they're thinking about ten thousand dollars per business is the range that we're typically seeing with other programs we also at this point don't know this the amount of interests with these programs because of there are a number of different similar programs many of these grant parameters are being structured so that if you receive County grant dollars you would be eligible to receive city grant dollars that being said I we were able to find some information about some of our business businesses from deed we received this earlier today so within burns well if we look at the zip codes of five five three three seven and five five 306 about fifty five percent of our businesses are between one and four employees if we add from from one to nine employees that increases to about 75 percent of our businesses up to twenty excuse me up to nineteen employees that's about 88 percent of our businesses and if we move up to 50 employees that captures about ninety five percent of our businesses now from a point of context the state deed program has a threshold of no more than 50 employees to be eligible for this program the county's program has a threshold of no more than 20 employees to be eligible for this program so you can see that even with those thresholds it gets to a vast majority of our businesses some of the basic qualifications for this program as we look at other programs that have kind of been framed out at this point and that we're asking for consideration it would be locally owned and operated so Burnsville based brick and mortar and Burnsville demonstrate that the business has been adversely affected by Colvin 19 hasn't received stage or County cares grants and still be in business so now we have noted that nonprofits can received a direct allocation or be a part of the program that is an allowable expense what we understand is Dakota County is looking to develop a program that would take some of their allocation and provide it to nonprofits throughout the county again they're still working on the parameters of their business program and their nonprofit program so with that as background and a little and I'm happy to answer questions at any point we laid out some discussion questions for the council I'm just gonna walk through them real quickly whether home-based businesses would be allowed whether the the Commissioner would want to consider types of business such as customer facing thinking about maximum or minimum number employees I talked about the Lille a little earlier that the state and county programs do have a maximum number of employee standard is there a desire to consider a maximum income or priority for minority women veteran owned or operated businesses within the state program they have their 60 million dollars allocated within those that sixty million dollars they have subcategories of preference so half of the money is intended for Greater Minnesota half the money is that sixty million is intended for metro within those it's carved out for certain priorities for minority women veteran owned or operated businesses some other considerations are whether national or corporate chains would be ineligible and that is really what we're seeing is common those national or corporate chains are up chains there are other mechanisms for economic relief this would not exclude locally owned franchises if somebody owned in Burchill owns the McDonald's they could apply as that yes commissioner indeed yes but it live as I've corporately owned McDonald's that wouldn't fall under the proton generally these small business grant programs is there any interest in excluding certain types of businesses such as gambling tobacco vaping adult uses guns is there a desire to exclude passive businesses such as real estate lobbying business-to-business again these are what we're seeing are included in some programs as being excluded business types I mentioned brick-and-mortar and a desire for it to be in business a minimum amount of time what we are seeing is that the business should have been operational by a certain date right no later need to be in operation by December 30th 2019 or by you know February 1st 2020 those kinds of standards so with that I will share with you some of the feedback we heard from the council and then certainly welcome any questions or feedback he may have for me the council talked about this last night as I mentioned one of the items that they indicated some conceptual support was for was home-based businesses and so that's something that we'll be taking back but I also want welcome your feedback they also asked for us to look into whether educational resiliency funding could be an eligible expense meaning if a business has to change their business model to remain vibrant for me and vital in light of the challenges that Cova 19 pandemic have like laid upon us is there a business model is there a grant program that we can put in place help support that we're looking into seeing if that is even an eligible cost another part of that kind of a two-pronged approach is would we be able to provide a business with a a business coach or a consultant to help them with some of that modeling or business resiliency going forward so that those are some of the things a question some excuse me those are some of the things the council asked us to look into and so we are gonna be reporting back on that with that I'm gonna stop and see what questions or comments or feedback you may have for me Commissioner I understand when you talk about home-based business is there a requirement that that that they be licensed in the city forget about Koba 19 but do they have to be licensed legitimate home business one of the parameters that we had discussed was it would need to be in good standing so regulatory good standing if it's required to be licensed I would imagine that would be something to consider we did not get to that level of specificity however to me somebody could create while I was in business at home you know at this point in time and there could be a lot of fuzziness to some of that business so something that they could prove it they were legitimately operating yeah I think some of the other programs that I've seen out there is they they really go back to when the company received a tax ID number from the IRS cuz that communication for the IRS has a date on it as well as when they filed with the Minnesota Secretary of State's office that would also have a date on it some of the other ways to prove if they're operating are a little fuzzier but at least if they took those steps it there are in the state size they are operating as a business at that point in time I think commissioner folks that I have seen that in other models so yes yep mail reservation they had a lot of Schedule C businesses operate under their own social security number so they don't get don't get a tax ID number it's not necessary correct it's not necessary oftentimes though if they are operating as a business they'd have some sort of maybe an assumed name with the Secretary of State's office and or they could be a single member LLC that would be filed as well we should kavita the this whole ten discussion items list there's a lot of things I've notes in here but instead of going to this whole thing I'm gonna try to focus on the solution then I liked best was the above the consultants and I know that's hinging on the idea of if we can use the money for the consultants but if we get consultants in there a lot of these discussions we're gonna have about it does this work is what about this what about that the consultants sit down the first rule is you have to be willing to meet with the consultant in L or eligible with money what's a consultant signs off on you and says you have a viable business plan you will work and X amount of dollars should get you there now we have an understanding of how much money they need and if it's gonna work from an expert that takes a lot of these other questions it seems to takes a lot out of the equation just checking in do we have any questions from the commissioners fee assume at all as of now there are not sounds good have we do have commissioners forchette so now we're to our breakout session what what this the information that probably is a bit counterintuitive as well as a mystery to us to really think about what specific ways which use to mr. food Chet are you able to mute any other audio that may be going on on the yes sniffing better yes thank you this is set aside to created the business this is money that for business who's been an operational with his trimming change in order to remain I just wanted to make that clarification because it's something that it sounded like they were talking about money to use for a new business to open you think there's a business and then changing to remain viable right I think this was I think the discussion has been around existing businesses and possibly using a consultant for business model changes but right I think I think there's general consensus that it's for existing business use from the Commission so that's definitely one thing is as I look as I look at this in particular I I guess making a consultant available as a resource may be a good idea if that's something that we can wrangle making it a requirement might be difficult just based on some of the things I've been seeing speed is likely more important in these grants than likely anything else and the ability to harness enough consultants in a in a fashion that would be helpful might be difficult especially with the need to move the money quickly into the local economy here one problem with having if we go around the consulting we run into a lot of rules structures that are coming to come about and some of these will get adopted from our this 10 list proposal I assume someone will get adopted one thing we could run into is say we say billboards are you're not allowed to apply for your billboard we could run into a fairness issue a legal issue with fairness and we could be seeing a day in court over it it is there's fairness practice laws that would yeah there is I guess my thought is is if we have a consultant and they are the arbiter of if somebody gets a grant or not then we then we run into the same it's an equal platform for everybody to talk and get their proposal out there and then decide a case by case basis so it can't look like a general blanket of discrimination to a certain business type yeah I you can't discriminate it I would say that's one way to alleviate from any kind of ideas of that we're discriminating its commissioner Schmitz would like to add to the discussion okay commissioner Schmitz welcome yes thank you um I wanted to add just some additional thoughts a bit beyond the idea of whether we try to coordinate or suggest working with a consultant or working toward viable business plans some of the things on this list that concerned me or really popped to me was definitely that there are more home-based businesses in the current economy than ever before and so yes we do think about maybe if they are brick-and-mortar places that we drive by but there are a hundred businesses that you drove by as you drove through your neighborhood that really are significant viable businesses in other non coronavirus times and so I would hope that as a commission and as a city we don't lose sight of them just because they're not in the heart of the city or near Burnsville Center and the other piece I wanted to focus on or bring some attention to is not to sleep on those business-to-business entities because if the restaurants are failing then they can't hire their marketers and they can't pay their accountants and they can't keep paying their business consultants or or advisers or their copywriters for material and so even though the failure of the restaurant feels really important and we want to preserve that there are a dozen other reliant entities and all of those employees that are relying on that too and and so I hope we won't forget about those business-to-business people in our community thank you one other thing oh I'm sorry I understand go ahead oh wait okay one other thing is they're looking just a general two two things actually the employee cap I think the employee cap if we look at something like the county at 20 is likely pretty small for some of these businesses that are most affected restaurants seem to have a lot of employees really easily with servers and various staff in in in back of house that we don't necessarily see so maybe 50 or even 100 might be good and then is there a way that we can allow somebody to receive this grant and if if deemed worthy by the county receive the county grant and the state grant it's been my experience with the different cares Act programs that as long as they're not requesting funds for the same exact use I payroll for the month of June that they can layer the different grant programs and I would encourage us to take a look at writing it in a way that they could do the same thing with the Burnsville program we sure Anderson when we talk about the consultant I think there may be a in-between area where the consultant could help develop a questionnaire that each business could fill out and you know pointing out the the aspects of their business and what what's their kovat 19 costs are so that the consultant might not have to meet with each business but could lay out a parameter that would help us judge all businesses and then if there was a need to meet with you know same in the smaller organizations then the consult might be helpful there too but to meet with everybody might be difficult before before anything else Peaks we have two commissioners online that would like planner Lefevre and commissioners Commission Commissioner a favor thank you so I want to just comment first of all I do agree that many restaurants have more than ten employees however we're talking about grants of $10,000 here which really applies mostly to these small businesses tend to you know for a company and that has 50 employees or 30 employees 10,000 doesn't go pretty far and I think the other thing too is that though that received a pee-pee loan we talked about our are ineligible I believe but also if they or maybe they're eligible but those that received an e IDL loan should be uh nella jabal because they've been able to access additional funding on top of the PPP so just food for thought on that very good and Commissioner for Chet I believe you had your hand up as well that was presented earlier and I just wanted to make a comment about businesses who are not order businesses I think the direction is that our economy is going now where people are finding out that they're able to do they're able to have a viable business from home that's instead of what we've done in yesteryear where it has to be a brick-and-mortar I think considering what that home business center there can be many services that can be offered out of the home and if we're talking about up to 20 employees that might not be a business that were excellent otherwise spend money on a pretty mortar for lease or mortgage so I just wanted to comment on that because I didn't know how the rest of the commissionaire stoked about that but simple to really strongly consider now that home at 19 is hit and you can find out more from home a lot better yeah there may be an evolving trend towards home-based or a non brick-and-mortar and what does that look like for some of these for sure definitely commissioner kavita back to your point about doubling down on these loans I do like the idea because it could help people definitely immensely I would just like to see it added a note there than if you've already received a loan you go to the back of the line people have not received any kind of assistance would be prioritized in that scenario commissioner cup lick I'm gonna take a different angle on the grants and the loans I think we should leave it wide open the reason being that that most of PPE loans if they got in line already they've spent that money the this is kind of the second tranche the way I look at it because the the first federal line even the yeah ii i dl loans which are is a grant technically ten thousand dollars for these small businesses they've spent that to by the time we get this thing rolled out it might be August to get it all figured out and everything so and I definitely wouldn't put Bo up in the back of the line because they're not available so a couple other things home business definitely transitional costs to contemporize your business model totally in favor of consultant I'd make it optional not mandatory because I've worked a lot of consultants and some are good and some are not so good and I don't want to put that that control feature in place minority I I think it'd be nice to earmark some degree of value that's why I've seen a lot of these grants is they'll say 20 percent designate for minority businesses so it's earmarked and if that's not used then it's allowed to be used by everyone else and last thing is liquor businesses I think they should be in I saw the list of all let's stay away from and it's illegal and they they're struggling so those are some my comments yeah for sure Commissioner Anderson the only thing that I would look at in that list of you know adult-baby is that they have a viable business like the vape shops might not have a viable business any more now and not because of culverts but because of other regulations that have come about so I think that's that's what you have to make sure the business is viable so that they can continue mr. Cokely response and viability that's a very complicated issue if you're gonna orchestrate somebody how you prove your viable that will really slow down the process or slow down like how you're going to structure it so yeah I'd be caution um I'm disability I'm just suggesting up a bit of caution if you put too many rules and circumstances around these I think one of the things as we talked about you know discrimination those types of things different types of businesses viability of certain businesses the first cares Act bill outlined use of some of the different government programs and they referenced back to the Small Business Administration has a list of eligible and ineligible businesses that was modified slightly with the cares Act as it was passed I would encourage us to take a look at that if federal law is deeming certain businesses ineligible for certain types of funding I think that would be a good thing to possibly mirror and it would also streamline the process for those looking to apply if they were eligible for certain other programs they'd also be eligible to apply for this one that might make things a little easier an administration a little easier fisherfolks Ted um Commissioner a favor has additional items to add Commissioner the favor so I had a couple of things first of all I believe under the federal guidelines if you've received an e IDL loan it's not a grant it is a loan when it's a low-interest loan the PPP is potentially a grant you have to be fully determined but I think that if you've had an e IDL loan you are disqualified from these programs that is my understanding the other thing I was going to say is that in the packet that was provided to us information there were a number of different stances people have taken on what's acceptable for funding what is not and as you look at that I really like the deed guidelines there have been many people that have had the same conversations that we have had are having again and rather than reinventing the will in my opinion because speed is so important right now for these businesses I really recommend that we go along with the guidelines presented by Dean which also includes business to business thank you thank you if we can have this city research for us that cares Act Vail I understand it a little differently than Commissioner the favor as far as I view to be eligible for multiple different cares Act funding as long as you're not asking for the funding for the same purpose so if we can take a look at that that'd be awesome sure that's my understanding as well this is an allocation to this city so the city is using their cures act to develop a grant program so I do believe that the idle and the PPP programs are categorized differently and this business would be eligible for a local grant program I did want to talk really quickly Oh Commissioner club leader has a question and I I do want to talk about a little bit about process so we can talk we can understand what that might look like this is a grant you're right this is a grant develop by the city there business owners are not expecting this are not relying on this to get by we have time we don't need to rush things when we when you rush you make mistakes I also don't think we need to mirror or parrot anybody else because we're smart enough to have the discussion to decide what's best for our local business owners based on what we know their needs are and what some of the feel of the community that we've had for them federal guidelines have no feel of our community I think we need to make our own set of rules and we need to make it very fluid so we don't miss anybody because I feel real terrible for a business owner who has left out and failed simply because we over we had an oversight or we felt they were left out if you're a legal business we should respect that we should not be nitpicking of who we like and don't like we're not here to pick winners and losers we should make it as fluid and open as possible so there's money it's a gift we should we should spread it out as evenly and as fairly as we can Commissioner Anderson you know to that point there's one sentence basically in this presentation that says the funds are to cover expenses rated to kovin 19 and also allow for business assistance as well as rent mortgage and utility assistance for those adversely affected by Kovan 19 and if you take that and just say that's you can apply for a grant if you have those eligible expenses and not worry about anybody else you know whether they got a grant elsewhere you know unless they got a grant for those specific things elsewhere just focus on that and not worry about a bunch of other conditions that might come up and you can be home-based you can be you know another type of business facing retail you know business to business you can be a if you're you know you know for example real estate might be affected in the commercial property area you know with the Colvin 19 because of the value of commercial property has gone down so there may be all kinds of things and if they can bring to us and cite what they'll that meet that criteria then they should be considered commissioners we have a couple of questions from zoom as well all right well we'll move an order I see them on the screen here so Commissioner for Chet and so I just I guess I'm just trying to find out what Burnsville is trying to put together for funding grant funding and carries I are both things close will they be reopened to receive more applicants if we don't have you enough individuals will apply for those grants since if we don't use them we lose perhaps I can speak to that um we do not know so there's there's three different programs there's the deed program which closed last week the county has not rolled out their program yet and we are rolling out our program part of the challenge we have here is we do need there is a sense of urgency with this we have four months for this money to get out the door or it will go back and we want to stay in Burnsville so staffs encouragement is to keep things simple the we laid out criteria to get your feedback to get the Council's feedback and this is incredibly helpful for us from an administrative standpoint the county's CDA is looking to hire somebody who would manage this program on their behalf they have indicated to us that we would be able to fall under their umbrella and have those that administration done with through the county program now that being said whatever dollar amount that the city of Burnsville allocates would stay in Burnsville so we don't have the risk of it ending up at a Lakeville business or an Eagan business for every criteria that we make that is unique to Burnsville we have to have somebody that's going to administer the program for us so we could again hire somebody to do that we that's our recommendation from a staff level is to have somebody manage this program there's planned development or program development criteria there's the marketing of it so our business community knows it's available knows what the criteria is there's the application process and review and it's getting the money out the door so those are all the steps that we need to consider as we think about the framework that we want to put in place and unfortunately November 15th will be here before we know it as format as as as it is today and there's one other thing from an administrative perspective oh and one thing we talked about last night with the council is as we think about this cares dollars these four point seven million dollars I look at it this is a rolling budget for us in a sense that we don't have clear guidance on what some of our expenses are that we can allocate to cares and so as we get further guidance that four point seven will get allocated and the city if the the City Council and the Commission wants to consider a city program that could be separate from the cares funding for which whatever criteria the city would like to consider could be developed so this could be we could have a program that would take us through November 15 2020 but then also consider a future program if that is something that we feel is necessary or important and we have the the funds available for it so there's a couple different things to be thinking about here but any recommendations that the Commission makes today it's still under development with with the additional review that we've been asked to provide as well as council feedback actually I have a question in regards to that but first we'll defer to Commissioner Schmidt say you've had your hand up yes thank you very much I just wanted to quickly echo the sense of urgency people who collected PPP loans especially the earliest phase that bought meant that they needed to have it all spent within eight weeks of receiving it which is long gone from most of the earliest recipients the idle loans funded a little bit later than that and that is quickly running out for most businesses too so in addition to the deadline of use-it-or-lose-it by November we have realistically businesses do need this money in their hands as quickly as possible so as much as we can align to you know fewer restrictions or limits as to who could consider application seems the best to me to start getting it in the hands of birth Burnsville business owners definitely I would agree with that as well one question I had is is we talk about the cares Act funding you talked about different possible in the independent funding is there a possibility that instead of using cares act money for these grants we could just entirely do an independent program thus not have the time constraints commissioner I think that is certainly a possibility what I've shared with the council is again I want to make sure we get the money out the door and with the budget uncertainty that we have going into 2021 if we can have a program that can assist our businesses we want to try to use those funds but certainly we would have the that's why it offered we would have the ability to create our own program it's okay again it's a bit of a rolling budget at this point because there is so much uncertainty on the eligible costs this is one component that could be an eligible cost that we're looking to develop a framework so we could get funds out the door whether it's actually cares dollars out of that bucket or out of a different route fund balance bucket that is we're not prepared to answer that question at this point and if I may add just as part of future discussion with the EDC one of the things on the work plan is to do an inventory of all the resources that we have available at our fingertips right now that we're using from a business and residential standpoint and then see where those gaps are compared to other either market cities and and then you know it would be at that point your opportunity to say Council you know we think it's a good idea to you know come up with some program we will look at the parameters of that you certainly where we have gaps and then you know at that point that that's to come in September and in ongoing discussions with that excellent excellent one other question I had quick is with the discussion that was held locally owned and operated businesses did they talk about what local ownership meant was the business owner have to have there marry residents located within the city of Burnsville and the primary business location also within the city of Burnsville the council did not discuss that level of detail the programs that I've seen Commissioner have been the business is based in Burnsville rather than the business owner right that's I just there was a couple of tags on there so now the city can take part of this money for its expenses to correct for administering the program commissioner no for the its its covert 19 expenses yes so the four that's a good clarifying question the 4.7 million dollars will be used for paying direct expenses related to covin 19 right now when we think about our PPP expenses our additional cleaning some of them really the technology we're at about $500,000 for that there are additional expenses beyond that including payroll so of the four point seven million dollars we're not suggesting that the grant program be four point seven million dollars it would be in the range of the council hasn't decided yet I heard as I heard a hundred thousand and I heard as high as 500,000 so that's that's what we're trying to sort through right now as we go through here just a little bit just a couple of maybe final example are questions occasion the last you said the council's thinking a hundred to five hundred that the city you'd use or the grant would be for a grant program so it's only so they're thinking of like half a million so fifty people at ten thousand each yes that would be that would be the thought is that there's a ten thousand dollar program with a max with a cap because there are city expenses that relate to the Cova nature no no good I have we had four million so I'm glad we clarified that no no no then then I would encourage us to keep it as simple as we can't go 50 businesses only gone and quick that's all the kind of fun I mean that's if they only do a hundred I'll just be thoroughly disappointed I mean that's 10 people I mean that I saw the Hodder II your quota county is looking to allocate 10 million dollars for their programs their parameters are very similar to what we've been talking about tonight with a ten thousand dollar cap good so so there again there are a couple different programs that are being discussed thank you as we wrap this up are there additional thoughts additional questions out there anything else for the good of this discussion yep Commissioner a co-leader how do we plan on getting the word out there to all the businesses you know like there's I mean I don't know we I asked you yesterday if we have a list of all the locally owned businesses in Burnsville Langston director Dean I think had an answer for you perhaps I mean we're certainly open to the ideas that the Commission has tools that we we currently use today are we have a what we call opportunity belongs here newsletter that people subscribe to that we would push out the information to our social media avenues our website and we work closely with the chamber to to help push out information but there's other ways of getting to businesses and and we're certainly open to any ideas you have as well all I'm proposing is that as we discuss how we're going to distribute this money we should also try to keep our minds open to new ideas of how to get the word out there because I you know people get missed all the time and this is very important to a lot of people so we want to make sure they're not just going oh yeah I left out you know so I would check with the Postal Service and see if they've got a some sort of a program where they can send something to every business within the two zip codes I think we just need to do the best we can I really whether somebody gets a postcard in the mail or they see it on Twitter or they get the notification via direct mail would be able to hit every business for sure yeah what do you read your direct mail do you remember if I get it growing up in a business owning home any mail we got that wasn't an obviously like pamphlet of flyer or whatever yeah we read every evil letter from the city came for sure we read it you don't want to miss anything from the city and end up with a huge fine later on because you throw out a piece of mail from the city so commissioners for Chet do we know if the secretary of state is doing anything to reach the business because they have to register everything I'm sorry this I can say do we know what they're doing anything to funds that may be available or even obtaining a list from them commissioners we have not gotten to that level of detail yet I know that the deed program they were working with chambers they were working the business community to get the word out how we would communicate with our local community to Regina's point we would try to take as many avenues as possible indeed excellent good idea commissioner Schmitz thank you I just wanted to add if there's such a distinction between the money that the county is offering and then the money that gets to the city that then the city is offering perhaps one of the best ways to get our business owners their best outcomes would be to focus on some sort of an organized way to reach them and help understand not just the Burnsville program and opportunities that the wider opportunities to so almost like target helping them push the information and consulting with them on rather than a you discussed a lot about a consultant to help make sure their business plan is viable and that they have that they use the money in useful ways that set them up for success instead maybe focusing on trying to help them find that money help the businesses in Burnsville know all the opportunities commissioner we are working closely with the county on the parameters we have a very good relationship with the CDA if they were to be administering it I would imagine that we would continue to have very close coordination whether or not our program exactly mimicked theirs or not we intend to work closely very good any other feedback from the Commission on this particular discussion item all right seeing none thank you very much moving on to item number five on the agenda assistant director Dean is going to talk about business retention and expansion efforts thank you so in your background you have a more detailed report of business retention and expansion and this is more of an update kind of an overview certainly if you have any comments or questions I welcome that so business retention and expansion we have not had a formal program I would say for four years and this is something new that we really want to kick off and that we want to focus on in in our area economic development and I'll be reporting back as time goes on but I want to go over this sort of three-pronged approach that we that were that we've developed so number one is partnering with the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce to do grow Minnesota visits and I'll go into more detail about that how to reach racially and act like ethnically diverse businesses and then something new that's come up because we're trying to go with the times and change and it's Kovach 19 outreach so grow Minnesota this is a program through the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and various chambers I think there's up to 90 that partner with the that partner on programs and sometimes they partner with cities they have this opportunity to basically you meet with businesses within your community you have a minimum obligation to visit with 24 different businesses and a survey is provided which is to capture data on the size of the business if they have any revenue or losses if they're seen pressure to to stay in Burnsville or leave in Burnsville and throughout the in the specific community what are those challenges and and after that that you complete all of these visits you receive data from the the the Chamber of Commerce the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce and that data is collected analyzed and ultimately will be reported back to you so we can learn things like why do people want to stay in Burnsville maybe why did a business leave Burnsville we also have the opportunity to ask a couple of city specific questions and we're asking really how we can partner with businesses that's one of the questions that were asking specifically and if there's any other type of business that would help support their existing business so is it their manufacturing business and maybe a supplier they really love to have close by in close proximity you know maybe this is something that we can as a city help attract to move closer to them this is a program that we have not participated in the past so we are partnering with the Chamber of Commerce will be I guess tagging along with the Chamber to 12 of the visits and then 12 will be conducted by the chamber themselves and well we'll see how it goes from here there's some check-in opportunities to see if we're kind of getting what we what we want out of it and and just I think it'll just be a great opportunity for us to get in front of these businesses and learn you know what what needs they have what challenges they have and how we can assist them where you know we'll be out there kind of boots on the ground and be that conduit between the business and you know from a city standpoint you know what can what can we offer and and may and I'm sure we'll find out you know maybe more not I'm I might be there on a visit but they might have a question about a road project or or something that will be that that connection that will help build relationships with the businesses that we have we I've been a part of Grohmann asoto visits in other municipalities is do we have any actionable items that we're hoping to find from these visits that we can bring back or what is what is the the city will should have a couple of goals for these particular things some action items to take care of on the list as well as the chamber and have we thought of what those action items might be yet there so first off we the goal is to start out with some of our top employers just to check in to see how they're doing and we also are developing a list of other employers as well however I mean we really just want to see how really a check-in point we you know we haven't done this in years and years so I think it'll just be good to get out there and have our you know base out there and and you know we we are interested in the specific data that that is provided so that we can learn and and and share that information so that you can we bring that information back to you that you can have some solid data to when you're making your recommendations really really learn from and and this is this will be new to me and you to others within our organization but we're yeah just kind of learning Commissioner clevon clevon er Chris is fine too the is this a subcommittee or will this be funded or staffed by city employees so staff will be attending these these visits with the chamber the on the chamber side they have their Ambassador Program and on the chamber side some ambassador's may be going on some of the visits Anderson questions I would suggest that you try to find two to four businesses in that group that have moved out of Burnsville because that's where you're gonna find out why did they leave what was missing here and if you're just talking to people that are here they probably like what's here I think the particular program the Grove Minnesota program is supposed to target the businesses that are in the municipality at the time so there's a good idea for possibly a different type of program but this particular operates under under that if I understand correctly that's correct any questions from our friends on zoom' so far I'm not seeing any okay actually okay so the next I guess tract in in this BRN e as we call it business retention and expansion program is racially and ethnically diverse business outreach so again something that we haven't necessarily put up I would say extreme focus on in the past and so we we really want to get out there and and and speak with people from you know other cultures other you know races that may not typically engage through maybe social media or the website or via phone sometimes you just have to like physically get out there and talk to people so we're a plan is in the works and on how to do that and what to do and what that looks like but we started out with its called torta flavor you'll hear more about this on our social media but this is kind of our I would say our kickoff for the diverse business outreach so we've got gosh probably about thirty I would say just awesome ethnically diverse cuisines in in Burnsville many of them are just mom-and-pop family-owned type businesses and and just awesome food and we want to showcase these businesses and so so far we've had have had ten of those businesses commit to participating in this program so International Festival which is a great celebration of culture was cancelled due to covet and so in place of that we're we are kicking off what we call torta flavor so we'll be working with whoever wants to participate they'll essentially both will have a map and they'll be encouraged to visit not only the ten businesses that have agreed to participate participate but all of our business and culturally ethnically diverse cuisine type businesses in Burnsville we will do heavier marketing with the ones that agree to participate and you'll find out more about that it just in the next couple of days as far as specific promotion but you know we started out we just give you a little history on on you know how we obtain the ten businesses or initially we sent out some emails and and you know got a couple of responses people saying yes and phone calls people are busy you know setting up for service and really to get like half of those businesses it took boots on the ground like I was yesterday I was out driving around knocking on doors meeting with people and having that face-to-face conversation dropping off information talking with the managers talking with the staff and the you should have seen some of the business owners yes yes just I'm so happy to help thank you for thinking about me thank you for you know for supporting us and especially during these times and and I'm just so appreciative so we hope to do more of this this is just kind of the kickoff of that so again or to come July 18th through the 25th is the actual tour de flavor how do we how do we use maps sorry it will be available for release like two days anticipation is building I'll make sure to send you all a copy and then Cova 19 outreach so we've had to adjust every wedding you know has had to adjust and here's what we've done from an economic development standpoint so we did our economic development staff has done specific business call outreach to tour businesses just to see really a friendly check-in how are you doing what issues are you seeing how can we be of service how can we point if we don't have the resource for you what can we do to point you to that resource so we contacted there are about 30 businesses that we you know had specific phone calls with of course we're a small staff so to kind of squeeze those in and have those meaningful conversations that you know we probably spend a half an hour with each with with each business so that it takes time but we we had some really really great conversations some of that they asked to be confidential but the I think it was just a good touch point for us to have that understanding and then also for for us to point them to resources they were appreciative we also pushed out a survey and it's actually still live kind of going around the same type of questions that we're asking through the business calls what type of issues are you seeing are you seen revenue loss are you in the essential business what type of resources do you need that survey is still live it's it's available I think till July 17th or 18th and I think we've had about 20 responses to that and we've pushed that information out through our opportunity belongs your newsletter as well as the Chamber's pushed out that that as well we can certainly report back that data that we received just so you have a better understanding once we close that survey virtually we've participated jointly with the Chamber of Commerce and listening sessions and they had a series where it was hospitality focus and industry focus and small business focus so the city was at the table just again to have an ear to hear what's going on how people are doing and and just to know what's going on Regina may may add to that part of that was a small business sounding board where Jennifer from the chamber and I helped partner with that and convened that and we have invited our elected officials there so we had some of our local elected officials as well as represented from Angie Craig's office we invited the air state senators and representatives to be simply listening and we had a set of questions that we asked our businesses and it was very interesting to hear their feedback about what worked well some of it was about the idle program or the PPP program which so is helpful to have congresswoman Craig's representative there or congresswoman Craig's representative there but then they were also able to talk a little bit about some of the transitions these small businesses needed to make some of the frustrations they had it was very helpful for us to hear that we've been able to connect businesses with each other for kind of resiliency models and then sharing information but it was also good for us to know some of the challenges that they're facing so we can help kind of navigate and and direct them to some resources so we've conducted two of those and those are broadly open and then we will have another one coming up here in the next couple weeks so we're doing the sessions and then a follow-up survey with our businesses building all the kind of industry specific ones that Regina and her team have been doing Thank You Melanie to share some of these resources we've pushed out information just via our normal channels email social media our website our newsletter as well and then one thing I want to highlight I should have had a picture but this restaurant table program I don't know if any of the commission member has heard about it but this idea actually came from a Reza gave our city staff a call and said he asked a question what are you doing with the the picnic tables that you know can normally be rented through our park system and and can those be used for another purpose can they be used for businesses to expand their outdoor dining service back when the governor's orders well you can only have outdoor dining service and hey that's a great that's a great idea let's let's see what we can do so I think we had about 30 tables available that we were able to spread out throughout the community and I think seven five to seven restaurants took advantage of that program basically they're free for them to use we our city staff Public Works and Parks Department drop them off and they'll be out there till September so Kazuko one of our sushi restaurants what else El Camino taco dally they're using them buzz cafe they were using them fridays and and it's just a great idea spurred by somebody that we said hey let's do something so put that into action again restaurants were just so appreciative to know that we were thinking of them and and that we had this resource available to help them definitely I think the city staff and the council did a great job as far as a lot of flexibility during that time with our restaurants with all kinds of things that the alcohol service and those and those things for outdoor dining and being very flexible so that was that was a great it helped a lot of these businesses instilled us excellent thank you thank you that's all I had for the business retention and expansion three prong approach that we that we have now certainly if there's any questions or comments or ideas I'm happy to take those anyway anybody have any questions any Commission questions on zoom' commissioner a favor there's still a favor mr. chair I just wanted to comment how impressive that sound the active business development efforts that you guys are doing and getting out in the community or so appreciate that and as much needed and I think it's terrific I want to back up to the ethnic restaurant idea I think it's a great idea in our packet and talked about an experience Burnsville being a part of that and tapping into their marketing skills to be able to promote that as much as possible I would encourage us to put to really encourage that and I saw that there was a card where people would get it punched as they go from restaurant to restaurant each day or there's one or two or however you do that I thought that was a great idea I would encourage us to put maybe 500 or 250 for the 500 for first 250 for the second and have a little contest out of it so that it really motivates people to get involved especially the younger generations and increase some fun we need some fun these days and I think it'd be a great idea to to put some bounty on if you will in a positive sense to make that even more fun and get as much turnout for it as we can thank you thank you for the feedback we will have awesome prizes I think is it Burnsville logo where are we gonna get that excellent any other questions on that item otherwise you can move on to the last item on our agenda so this is just a standing item that we've had for the last probably year now and just wanted to give you an update on our top five priorities in our in the economic development strategic planning and we use this really on a daily basis the economic development commission helped develop this some of you were on the Commission at that time and and some it may be new but this is really what drives a lot of the work that we do so number one ensure sustainable sustainability of the Burnsville shopping center County Road 42 I'm gonna highlight the good stuff so MWF development and that is still in the works going through the planning process right now it's familiar to all of you on the economic development commission since you were a recommending body on the elf funding for Dakota County and so that continues to move along kind of on the cusp of the what we call the center village of the Burnsville scenario but on County Road 42 or two new businesses caribou and bubble barn you'll see Beth here beth weber she's in our department with a welcome box so one of the new things that we're doing as part of the you belong here brand is delivering welcome boxes to our new Burnsville businesses really it's a way to showcase and thank people for choosing us and there's some goodies in there small tokens like post-its pens candy jar and also I think you know from our city signed by all of our City Council members and and then there's some new businesses so five below is open now that's at the Burnsville marketplace opening soon is Sierra Trading Company and then TJ Maxx and home goods as will be relocating to that area and they should be open very soon as well so it's kind of fun to see some new life in that shopping center definitely do we have anything to backfill where TJ Maxx home goods is leaving yet or not not yet there's there's some interest okay yeah we'll learn more actually I'll learn more tomorrow oh good speaking of the project and so next up improve the image of ISD 191 in the city so I don't have a whole lot to speak on this area but one of the things that you're working on as a staff and with our partners not only is d 191 but the chamber experienced Burnsville and then also our other school districts since Burnsville has three school districts it's coming up with a new resident packet so if someone were to come to City Hall we don't really have a takeaway for them if they're a new resident how like how do I sign up for cable or water or know my garbage service there's really nothing like to give them as far as an actual like takeaway so the idea is that we'll have some sort of physical packet resources on our website and then something to welcome them so you know is that a pot holder or some sort of swag should we should we include the restaurants who registered for tour to flavor a promotional piece for those restaurants in that packet that we give to new residents just as another thank you for helping us participate in this thing before yeah we're certainly open to ideas as this is in development so I think you know anything that we can add whether it's that as ongoing something that we just worked on we can certainly include and highlight well you might even be able to get from whether it's those restaurants or other restaurants some coupons or something you can put in there that would you know get people familiar with the community absolutely and then we'll so we're the ideas that we'll work with our partners as well to help gather that content the then we want to do something fun so we have these new apartment buildings in Burnsville would be if when the time comes and we can have some sort of outdoor gathering to be nice to you know welcome these new residents or maybe it's just residents as a whole that I we had some ideas as a staff that maybe at fire muster or another type of event that we could have like a special section for new residents that they can come and meet one another and engage and and maybe it's a you know they can have a enjoy hot dog one free hot dog or something somehow to get people to feel like you know they made a good decision choosing birdsville to to live and call home so that's in the works and fun stuff the next item continued development within heart of the city so the transit oriented development ordinance that you were part of developing that was approved by City Council the Maven apartments are now open that was a EDA owned property as some of you may remember and have may have recommended to approval for that's open gallery on the Parkway another apartment building will be open soon and then the orange line bus rapid transit stations we have received the station building plans in so they'll be under construction likely sometime late summer early fall and then the bus rapid transit will be ready to ride in late 2021 enhance and build awareness around commercial programs I think in your background it said that you would have an update today due to some staffing changes we've pushed this to September where you you'll receive a basically in an inventory or matrix of the programs that we have available and I talked a little bit about this earlier and then we'll use that see okay what are other cities do and what where are the gaps and and with hopes that we can have some sort of program and maybe the carers funding is sort of a pilot and then you know it's another idea that we transition to something but more to come on that something that we've been working on behind the scenes continue the city's position as a regional destination and these are just kind of random fun things talk about so placemaking the idea of placemaking means a lot of things to a lot of people like what it was placement is you're probably thinking it can be a piece of art it can be a piece of interactive art it can just be like a cool space where you just want to be and hang out with friends some people will consider the the park and heart of the city as a great place making space because we've got that cool water feature and we have programmed events where people can you listen to music and and just has cool lighting in the atmosphere I wanted to strongly suggest that every place making somewhere we do it right out here at the skate park using the wall for a mural in the existing open area that skate park is a regional destination that goes beyond the state there's people who come from Iowa the Dakotas just for that Park I think that was actually just a little background history the convention bureau actually wanted to do some sort of mural there and I think they were working towards funding and and they're gonna do something for there I think it was like their 20th anniversary and it didn't quite pan out but that's a that's a great idea be careful out there because it could ruin the park if it goes in the wrong artist but placemaking there's going to be some sort of placemaking feature at the fire station and that's what we're working towards right now there will be some sort of feature on the wall and some sort of landscape type feature we're gonna engage with the public I'm sure our Commission's will be asked to be involved in some aspect as well as our that you know all of our Commission's all of our people that are actively engaged and so that's underway we currently have interviewed consultants ultimately will be working on a contract for the consultant that staffs vetted and selected so more to come on that we talked about toward a flavor girl Minnesota visits are underway which we talked about and then this you belong here Song Contest so one of the fun things that we've done is partnered with the garage across the street and ultimately the winner of the song contest entries musicians who ever wanted to enter needed to include the words Burnsville and you belong here any song we receive 9 entries those entries will be narrowed down to three which will be voted on by popular vote so you'll see more on that our normal communication vehicles and the winner will receive $500 and professional recording at the garage and with that contest we've we have the rights to all of the songs so we can use them in different ways and they're they're awesome like when you hear the top 3 you'll be I'm sure you'll if they were just all incredible so be on the lookout for that and share with your friends voting becomes available to the public going back to the fire station for a second don't eliminate putting some of the stuff at the existing fire station over by the Dairy Queen hmm I've walked by there a lot of times and there's lots of space that you could do some work in the front of that listen we have an internal placemaking committee and we're kind of the new buzzword and local governments so we're looking at ideas thinking of ideas and and thank you for sharing because we're we're excited to integrate some of this into the things that we do yeah that's all I have certainly if there's any questions I don't see any right now online the questions Fisher Anderson you would talked about I can't remember if it was our last meeting but you were marketing the land that was once going to be a fire station is there any activity on the any city-owned land so I can speak to that so we currently have that listed as an RFP so developers whoever is interested is asked to submit proposals by July 21st that will ultimately be before you assuming that we receive RFPs we had I think seven to 11 just letters of interest of people initially I'm interested in the property and we have a city policy that says if more than so if one person is interested in the property the city can negotiate a land sale with them and it's based off of an appraisal and they basically pay the appraisal price or if multiple people are interested in the property that you need to go through an RFP process so like I said 7:00 till 11:00 peopIe can't remember the number off the top of my head we're interested in the property they submitted letters of interest so given that we're now going through the RFP process so you will be you will be once we receive those again assuming that we receive actual submittals which there has been strong interest well we'll come to you for a recommendation I just I don't know if anyone has questions at all or these are old any other comments or questions from the Commission as we wrap up here all right seeing none Oh Commissioner for chat question no question just a comment it sounds like there's a lot of fun and exciting things happening in Burnsville I'm really excited to hear that there was some hit we made with going out to the businesses and just checking in with them to see how they're doing with kovat 19 because I wondered how are they really feeling out there so it's good to know that someone was talking to the businesses and getting some feedback about what their needs were so that's all excellent and anybody else all right seeing none is there a motion to adjourn so moved there in a second and we'll do roll call oh all right roll call so uh Commissioner bullets dead i commissioner cup lick yes Commissioner Anderson our Commissioner Clube de commissioner Schmitz High Commissioner Lefevre High Commissioner fitchett aye all right with that the ice habit and we are adjourned at 7:55 thank you very much do you know good evening