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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2-25-26 EDC Minutes CITY OF ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION FEBRUARY 25, 2026 7:30 A.M. – ARDEN HILLS COMMUNITY ROOM CALL TO ORDER/ROLL CALL Present: Chair Jud Murchie, Commissioners Kristine Poelzer, Bobbie Bonine, Ted Brausen, and Youth Commissioners Ihsan Isik and Kayleigh Shrom Absent: Commissioners Kyle Sorenson and Jess Daniels Also Present: Senior Planner Elena Fransen, Community Development Director Jake Reilly and Council Liaison Emily Rousseau 1. APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA Chair Murchie called the meeting to order at 7:37 am. A motion was made by Commissioner Brausen and seconded by Commissioner Poelzer to approve the agenda, as amended. Motion passed unanimously. Commission Member Poelzer previously suggested changing the line in the newsletter header that reads “The Official City Newsletter for Arden Hills Residents.” to include “Arden Hills Residents and Businesses”. She hasn’t seen the change made yet and she would like to discuss that. Senior Planner Fransen said she brought that suggestion to Senior Communications Coordinator Michlig. There wasn’t any issue with changing that. She thought there is a template that is used that didn’t get updated. There was support from the EDC to make that change. She will follow up with Staff on this. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. January 28, 2026 A motion was made by Commissioner Brausen and seconded by Commissioner Bonine to approve the minutes, as amended. Motion passed unanimously. Page 3, third paragraph Poelzer sentence should be “metro area” not “area”. Page 4 Daniels said dining services are open to anyone. Senior Planner Fransen will ask Commissioner Daniels to clarify. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION – FEBRUARY 25, 2026 2 3. COMMENTS AND REPORTS A. Report from City Council Council Liaison Rousseau said the second City Council meeting in the first three months of the year are typically cancelled, so updates are light. Council Liaison Rousseau said Council approved adding two members to the Economic Development Authority (EDA). Commissioner Brausen and Commissioner Sorenson will join the authority this year. It is a 6-year term. The EDA hasn’t been very active outside of the one required meeting a year. She is excited to see this grow with the expanded membership. Council Liaison Rousseau said one of the EDC Youth Commission Members will be graduating and she noted the same is true for the Youth Committee Member on the PTRC. She encouraged the current youth members to discuss it with their friends and invite them to join. B. Economic Development Commission Comments Commissioner Poelzer wanted the record to reflect that Youth Commissioner Isik’s father recently relocated his business to Arden Hills. She asked him if he would talk about that. Commissioner Isik said his father moved into a business space off Pine Tree Drive in Arden Hills. He works in the digital world. Trimax Secure is an IT company that helps customers fix issues with coding and builds websites for rising professionals. 4. UNFINISHED AND NEW BUSINESS A. EDC Vice Chair Chair Murchie said the vice chair position is the backup for the chair. If the chair is unable to attend a meeting, the vice chair would facilitate the EDC meeting. He noted at the last meeting Commissioner Poelzer offered to take the role but thought the EDC members who are business owners should be given the opportunity. Since no business owners volunteered, Commissioner Poelzer will be appointed. A motion was made by Chair Murchie and seconded by Commissioner Bonine to approve appointing Commissioner Poelzer as Vice Chair. Motion passed unanimously. B. EDC Work Plan Senior Planner Fransen noted there has been discussion about the EDC being the bridge between the City and Arden Hills businesses. How do we leverage the work the City has already established, to grow those connections? She provided the City of Arden Hills Strategic Planning Summary from the strategic planning sessions Council participated in to establish a plan for the next several years. It’s centered on the City’s mission, core values and a vision for our future. Part of that is enhancing our identity and strengthening our partnerships. Part of that is establishing clear city boundaries, increased business participation and improved communication reach. She thinks business participation and improved communication reach should be the focus. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION – FEBRUARY 25, 2026 3 Senior Planner Fransen provided a handout that outlines the EDC objective of being the bridge between Arden Hills businesses and the City of Arden Hills. She called out goals that will help us achieve this objective. Senior Planner Fransen said the first one is the EDC connects with businesses to understand their needs. The second is the EDC leverages the City’s operations such as website, newsletter and the business licensing process, to support Arden Hills businesses with their needs. Senior Planner Fransen outlined some strategies related to the goal of connection and communication. Conversation has been had regarding a quarterly business meeting. The Twin Cities North Chamber of Commerce does quarterly meetings that EDC can connect with. That is an opportunity for EDC to be promoting unique things in Arden Hills. Other initiatives include sponsorships, State of the City and The 75th Anniversary Celebration. With any initiative we need to ask what the EDC’s role is and look for ways the EDC can leverage the processes that already exist to enhance communication with businesses. The draft plan does not establish a quarterly event, but that can be added, if we move forward with that. Senior Planner Fransen outlined next steps to discuss what revisions or priorities the EDC would like to see. Chair Murchie likes the objectives being laid out so we can agree to those. As we move into the activities, we can talk about how to prioritize them. Commissioner Bonine said the first section regarding connection and community, has four suggested topics. They are all opportunities for businesses to engage with the City and promote themselves. He thinks it’s a smart way to engage. It’s measurable and meaningful. He thinks piggy backing on the Chamber is a good alignment. Commissioner Poelzer said she leans on the business members in the EDC for their thoughts and opinions on how EDC can be the bridge between the City and Arden Hills businesses. She can help as a resident member, but she doesn’t have the business owners’ perspective. She thinks the business owners’ input will be important for this Work Plan. Commissioner Bonine said the topics are great. The challenge is how to communicate it. He said the website and the newsletter are a good place to start. Chair Murchie likes how it’s laid out. The overall objectives make a lot of sense. He said we can refine it in the future, if needed. Commissioner Bonine said there is value in these objectives. We need to have a mechanism to get that info. Council Liaison Rousseau said the Chamber meetings sometimes conflict with EDC meetings. She said we would want to be aware of that. Senior Planner Fransen did plug the Chamber events into the EDC calendar. Staff will make sure that the meetings don’t conflict. Community Development Director Reilly said we can discuss replacing this meeting for that one, on certain months. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION – FEBRUARY 25, 2026 4 Senior Planner Fransen said there is a June Business Connect in Arden Hills. That may be an opportunity to combine those meetings. Chair Murchie said engagement and communication are appropriate as the objectives. For the activities, he is hearing we need to prioritize what can be accomplished. He thinks the section one, objective one is about external engagement with businesses and the other objective is meeting with Staff on how we can better engage businesses. He asked if that is how we should practically be thinking about these objectives. Senior Planner Fransen said the connection and communication is the interpersonal connection. The intent with the City engagement piece, is more deciding what information to provide once the connection is made. Part of the Business License process includes renewal at the end of the year. Maybe a strategy can be to connect with businesses before that renewal process begins. That gives businesses the ear of the EDC who can support them as they go through that process. The EDC has identified the need to have the communication with the business community before knowing what to communicate to them. The business representation among EDC members leads to great conversations and feedback. We can expand the effectiveness with more feedback and more voices. Commissioner Bonine said there has been healthy debate around how we find the businesses. He thought a lot more businesses are on Instagram and LinkedIn vs. Facebook. He wondered where the Youth Commissioners consume their information. Commissioner Shrom said young people mostly use Instagram. She isn’t sure how businesses stay connected but she thinks an Instagram account for the City would be a good idea. Commissioner Isik agreed. There are a lot of businesses who engage with younger audiences through Instagram. Chair Murchie thought the activities that outline the City website could be expanded to include social media. Commissioner Bonine thinks social media should be its own objective. There could be some promotion of businesses that may tie into the sponsorship piece. It could be a place to spotlight businesses who are giving back to the community through those sponsorships. It can be a better way to attract business promotion, rather than just boots on the ground. Commissioner Shrom thinks a lot of businesses are on Instagram. It can be used to promote the Business Connect Events, as well. If the City created a post regarding an event, it can be reposted on other stories to let more people know about the events. Commissioner Isik agreed. Reposting it can help reach a much wider audience than just an email invite. He thinks it would be smart to have a digital presence on Instagram. Senior Planner Fransen said we can expand this section a bit. She said the City has a larger communication strategy established. Recommendations can be made. If those recommendations fit within the defined strategy it could be implemented. If there are recommendations on types of content, we should share those. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION – FEBRUARY 25, 2026 5 Community Development Director Reilly said we have a Facebook page that isn’t used as well as he thinks it could be. Any posts on Facebook can be shared on Instagram. It might be helpful, in the broader communication strategy, if the EDC made a strong statement recommending investigating our use of social media. The EDC can seek to learn how we can better leverage social media, and on what platforms. Part of the strategic plan talks about defining community identity. He is hearing we need a stronger social media presence. He thinks it would be helpful for staff to hear that. Commissioner Isik thinks social media allows us to frame the EDC narrative regarding upcoming activities. Instagram can be exported to other platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn. Commissioner Bonine said the youth commissioners engaging in this is important. He thinks adding a digital footprint section under the City engagement part should be added to the work plan. It can be a way to keep costs down and still have a far reach. He thought it could be an Arden Hills EDC handle, separate from the current Arden Hills socials. He said the PTRC could do something similar. Chair Murchie said there are two components to the work plan. First, we have to ask if we are strategically aligned. We want to engage businesses and support staff with outreach and communication. The tactics are where the conversations will stem from. We can approve the work plan knowing it may be changed or amended. He thinks adding a section for the digital presence is appropriate. He is comfortable with the rest of the plan, as it’s laid out. We’re in a good place to move forward. Commissioner Shrom thinks the only way it can be effective is if the EDC had its own Instagram page. Getting content approved could be difficult and take time. She thought Council can have input but we wouldn’t need approval for each post. Senior Planner Fransen said there will have to be some internal conversations about a process for how EDC can support the digital presence. If it is a separate account then we need to know who manages it and what the content is. Commissioner Poelzer has worked with government for a long time. If we have a work plan and anything put out on social media is within our approved work plan, we would have a greater opportunity to post things quicker. The importance comes down to boots on the ground and knowing what we’re going to do. She thinks the draft outline is good. She hopes the EDC web page can be improved. This outline is much more informative than what is on the website. She would like to see this information incorporated on the website. She wants it to be easier for business owners to understand what the EDC does. Chair Murchie agreed the EDC can offer ideas on how the information can be digitally presented. Commissioner Poelzer said the web page should outline what we do but more importantly, it should say why we do it. Senior Planner Fransen said the draft plan will be tweaked, now that she has overall consensus on our objectives, goals and strategies. She will put together some prioritization. She will bring this back for EDC consideration, including the items discussed today. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION – FEBRUARY 25, 2026 6 Commissioner Bonine said we have had good conversation and he wouldn’t want to revisit the same things. He asked if we will be able to approve the plan. Senior Planner Fransen said she will call out what is changed and leave the rest. If the group wants to recommend the draft, with the discussed amendments, for approval, that would be appropriate. A motion was made by Commissioner Bonine and seconded by Commissioner Poelzer to adopt the Work Plan, with the discussed amendments for final approval at the next meeting. Motion passed unanimously. Commissioner Poelzer said the PTRC work plan slide deck was really good when they presented to Council. Council was impressed. She said we should consider what photos can be used for that presentation. Photos with captions leave a bigger impression than just text. Commissioners should consider what photos can be used for the presentation. She suggested one slide could be a list of established businesses and another could introduce new businesses. Senior Planner Fransen said this will be presented to City Council. Staff will look at the slide deck that was used by PTRC. This is also an opportunity for the visually creative and digitally minded members to help. Commissioner Isik said he can volunteer to manage an Instagram page or help with social media presence. He’s done that kind of work for school organizations. Council Liaison Rousseau said when the presentation is made to Council, if there is a process difference, ask for clarification there. Ask specific clarifying questions. C. 75th Anniversary Update Senior Planner Fransen outlined the previous discussions. She said the 75th Anniversary Committee met last week. They discussed how EDC can partner to help solicit sponsorships for the event. Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Julie Hanson joined the meeting. She said the committee is excited to have the EDC help with sponsorships. She said the committee is small and they are looking for help to get the word out about sponsorships. They will rely on Councilmembers to talk with the bigger businesses in town. They are hoping the EDC will help reach the greater business area of the smaller businesses to see if they are interested in sponsoring any level of the event. This needs to be done soon because we need to know what we have for budget. Senior Planner Fransen said the committee is looking for EDC to primarily do the outreach in March. There will be an initial email and then members could go door knocking as a follow up. We can update on the progress at the next meeting. She is seeking interested individuals to help with this initiative. We will have lists so no one business gets multiple visits/requests. Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hansen said Parks and Recreation Manager Skalicky is the main point of contact for sponsorships. She said the newsletter is going out and it features this on the front page. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION – FEBRUARY 25, 2026 7 Commissioner Bonine wondered if it was limited to Arden Hills businesses. He said the Twin City Chamber of Commerce meeting in March would be a good place to distribute communications. They may be able to do some cross promotions. Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hansen said we can reach out to consultants and other partners outside the city boundaries. We have Twin City Gateway grant money that is specifically earmarked for advertising and initiatives that will bring people into the city. We want to reach beyond our city borders. Commissioner Poelzer said Rotary, Chamber and Lions are all good sources. She thinks Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are interested in events that can advance themselves as youth groups, and may be willing to offer volunteer assistance. She said she reached out to the Twin Cities Bicycling Club and arranged for a bike ride to make a stop at the 75th Anniversary. It would be announced in their newsletter so that is free advertising with distribution to 1,000 people. She will copy/paste the newsletter information and send it to them to include in their own documents. Assistant to the City Administrator/City Clerk Hansen said our newsletter is a public document so there is no issue with sharing that information. She said touching base with Staff on the advertising and marketing would be helpful in tracking what our outreach is. Commissioner Poelzer asked if EDC can have a hard copy of the sponsorship information. Staff confirmed. Senior Planner Fransen asked which EDC members would be interested. She would make the information available and create a plan. Commissioners Poelzer and Bonine volunteered. Commissioner Shrom said the Mounds View National Honor Society (NHS) may already have a booth, but if not, they should be invited. They would be a good source of volunteers for face painting or other activities. Council Liaison Rousseau said John Connolly is no longer with the Chamber. Mike Dvorak is the new contact for the Chamber. Liz Johnson is a PTRC member who is also the contact for the Rotary and the Lions. Lacy Loosbrock is a PTRC member who coordinates volunteer initiatives. Council Liaison Rousseau said connections can be shared with them. Commissioner Poelzer said she thinks people will want to know how many booths are available and how many are already taken. It creates interest and urgency. She looks forward to helping however she can. Senior Planner Fransen will work on the lists and will include information on the business visits soliciting sponsors, as well as the upcoming Business Connect event. 5. ADJOURNMENT Chair Murchie adjourned the meeting at 8:51 a.m.