CC_Minutes_2015_1019 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Regular City Council Meeting Monday, October 19, 2015 Page 26 Mayor Roe suggested adding a category as suggested by CoLincilmember Laliber- te to address "economic development" with added outcomes for development programs. With concurrence by Mayor Roe, Mr. Bilotta suggested that the Twin Lalces Development Program may be found by the City Council to be good for all areas, and serve as an incubator process. Specific to economic development, Councilmember Willmus stated that he felt strongly that the City had been dropping the ball over the last few years in that ar- ea. For that reason, Councilmember Laliberte noted the ir�iportance of adding it to this document to verify that it was important to us and not stop work elsewhere and only address SE Roseville and Twin Lakes. Mayor Roe noted that both were worlcs in progress, and would continue to need public input as the vision was developed, opining that it would take time and con- siderable public input during that process. Councilinember Willmus concurred, opining it needed to be a collaborative effort with neighbors. City Manager Trudgeon expressed his appreciation for where things were heading and the addition of the economic developinent pieces, noting these were things staff had been worlcing on already but this provided further context. As noted by Mayor Roe, City Manager Trudgeon confirmed that infrastructure sustainability was the first step to factor in before economic development in order to support it, and to factor in limitations as applicable. At the request of City Manager Trudgeon, Mr. Bilotta called out the work of HRA Executive Director Kelsey in reporting on staff's work over the last few weeks as part of their due diligence process and adjusting HRA by-laws. Mr. Bilotta ad- vised that last week some initial red flags had been raised through consulting at- torneys from a federal perspective related to the dissolution of the HRA and re- view of living documents in place. Mr. Bilotta advised that earlier today at least one document had been identified, an agreement with Ramsey County for federal Community Development Blocic Grant funds, blocking the ability to directly dis- solve the HRA at this time. While still being investigated, Mr. Bilotta reported that state statute may allow the Economic Development Authority (EDA) process to be established to transfer most things from the HRA to the EDA versus directly from the HRA into a Port Authority (PA} process, which to-date the attorneys in- dicated seemed to provide the easiest way to transfer items and move toward the desired economic developmerit focus concept. However, Mr. Bilotta advised due to the CDBG funds with Rainsey County, it lnay be necessary to retain the HRA shell for the next 25 years and hold an annual meeting siinilar to that done in the past with the HRA for the former land development entity created under the City