Session 08-09, a Regular Meeting of the Economic Development Advisory Commission was called to order at 6 p.m. by Chair Hogan on December 9, 2008 at the City Hall Cowles Council Chambers located at 491 E. Pioneer Avenue, Homer, Alaska.

PRESENT: COMMISSIONERS ERICKSON, HOGAN, NEECE, RAVIN

ABSENT: COMMISSIONER SCARPITTA, YAKUNIN

STAFF: DEPUTY CITY CLERK JACOBSEN

CITY PLANNER ABBOUD

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

The agenda was approved by consensus of the Commission.

PUBLIC COMMENTS REGARDING ITEMS ON THE AGENDA

There were no public comments.

RECONSIDERATION

There were no items for reconsideration.

APPROVAL OF MINUTES

A. Regular meeting minutes of November 12, 2008

Ravin/Erickson moved to approve the minutes as written.

There was no discussion.

VOTE: NON OBJECTION: UNANIMOUS CONSENT

Motion carried.

VISITORS

A. Tina Day, Homer Chamber of Commerce

Tina Day, Executive Director of Homer Chamber of Commerce, gave a brief year end review of the Chamber Economic Development Committee. She provided a laydown for the record that outlined her comments. She thanked the Commission for their help in getting funding from the City. She reported that the Chamber membership is stable at this time, about 560 members. Homer has the largest membership of small communities in Alaska. Mrs. Day told the Commission that she is submitting a proposal to host the 2009 Alaska Chamber of Commerce Annual Conference in Homer. She commented on the challenges of finding space to accommodate the needs of a large group but thinks she will be able to bring it together at Lands End by including options like utilizing the space at the hockey rink, or putting up a circus tent.

B. Phil Slabaugh, Local Contractor

Mr. Slabaugh did not attend the meeting.

STAFF REPORT & COUNCIL REPORT

Special Projects Coordinator Holen reported that she will provide a suggested schedule for Commissioners to attend 2009 City Council meetings. She also said that the City Manager wants to discuss the suggestion about a Commission blog with the City Attorney before they move forward with it.

Councilmember Wythe gave an overview of the last Council meeting.

PUBLIC HEARING

There were no public hearings scheduled.

PENDING BUSINESS

A. Lease Policies- Committee meeting notes

Commissioner Erickson reviewed the Review Committee meeting summary. A synopsis was included for the record. The suggested amendments included:

· The Lease Committee being comprised of three people, an EDC Commissioner, a Port and Harbor Commission, and a Council member who will chair the Committee. (Chapter 2)

· Have a property manager administer and negotiate the leases, with Council still having final approval. (Chapter 2)

· Establish a fair basis for pricing on rental of raw land. (Chapter 7)

· Amend Code regarding lessee responsibility for assessments when they occur. It should be more fair and equitable to the lessee as they shouldn’t have to be responsible for the entire assessment once their lease expires. (Chapter 10)

· When a lease expires on a property that the lessee has improved, have the City reimburse the improvements at fair market value and RFP the property as a whole business package. (Chapter 10)

· Have the option for automatic renewals if on viable businesses. (Chapter 10)

· Have industry standards determine significant risks and set the amount of environmental insurance requirements based on the need for the risk, as all businesses are not the same. (Chapter 15)

There was discussion that they are not ready to forward recommendations and want to have a couple more worksessions to discuss. They agreed to schedule a worksession later in the meeting.

B. “Homer: Open for Business: - 11/19/08 Committee Meeting Notes

Commissioner Ravin reported that the Committee discussed the Planning Department and the business philosophy for the City of Homer for a way of doing business with customers.

· Being welcoming, friendly, courteous, fair, helpful, impartial, and communicating in a clear manner.

· Treating contractors and builders equally and equitably and furnish streamlined and all inclusive steps necessary to complete the process.

· Use Seward’s verbiage in their open for business statement.

· Issue Zoning Permits within 48 hours of receipt of all completed documents.

Other concerns with City of Homer Personnel included:

· Storm water and steep slope development issues. Commissioner Ravin said we have had complaints from property owners who have had trouble developing properties that were sold to them that were later on determined to be steep slope but there is no engineering department in the City to help them.

· Encourage upgrades for property owners and not shut them down and not actively look for problems with their construction. Commissioner Ravin noted an instance where a property owner was trying to upgrade their building and the City was acting arbitrarily to shut the project down. It isn’t in the City’s interest to hassle business owners when they are upgrading their property.

Discussion ensued with City Planner Abboud regarding enforcement of zoning issues. Mr. Abboud commented that the City does have a staff person who deals with Code enforcement issues. He explained they have a general plan and there are some things that just stick out, particularly nuisance items on well traveled streets and ongoing violations that haven’t been solved. The issues that are brought into the office are individually driven. Legitimate health and safety welfare complaints have to be tended to. Regarding abuse of the zoning ordinance and people using it for detriment of development, either the issues fit the zoning ordinance or they don’t. There is a hierarchy of what gets staffs attention. There are a lot of instances of finger pointing, but you can’t use everyone’s violations as an excuse to be inattentive. There is no easy fix. He encourages anyone to stop in his office and talk to him about things that are going on. He noted that in the Planning Office things get examined from all sides as the staff is consistent in bringing up the other side of any issue.

Regarding the Committees comments, City Planner Abboud said he certainly hopes the Planning staff fits the criteria listed above and if not he hopes that specifics will be brought to his attention to be dealt with. He doesn’t see it though. They are working on streamlining information, but you cant have all inclusive and streamlined as there are so many different scenarios and some are more complicated than others. They would like to be able to turn permits around in 48 hours but it really depends on the complexity of the project. There are a lot of circumstances to deal with and while it is what they strive for, realistically it is not always possible. He noted that the Council approved the purchase of new software that will allow better communication between Planning and Public Works regarding permitting and help alleviate some of the shuffling of papers back and forth between City buildings.

City Planner Abboud explained that the Planning Commission is going to be discussing the draft steep slope ordinance at their upcoming meetings and invited the Commissioners to attend. Part of the issue with the storm water plan is that it has to have an engineers stamp and they are looking at other suitable options as there are only a few engineers who can do it.

There was brief discussion of the slogans that were mentioned in the synopsis.

C. Review of Planning Commission Issues: Draft Comprehensive Plan

Commissioner Erickson gave a review of the Comp Plan worksession.

· The City Square be given over to private enterprise to build and the land be leased or bought from the City. The goal is to get away from the City having to do it all, it would create jobs, and there would be ownership for the people of the town.

· The visions statement has issues and should be simplified to “Maintain and grow Homer’s strong economic industries by establishing and maintaining a fair and equitable business climate.” There are many businesses and if you are going to name some, you should name them all. Their goal was something short and concise.

· Remove the political correctness language in the economic vitality statement. Things like carbon footprint and referring to residents as permanent visitors.

· Exempt residential rent from sales tax and offer tax breaks for people who are taking care of the elderly in their home.

· Consider privatization of the ice house/dock and get it into year round business.

· Privatizing other City functions to cut cost and be managed more effectively.

· The number of City Employees has gone up but the number of businesses has gone down. In looking at the numbers presented in what was happening business wise it was shifting more toward the City doing things versus private enterprise.

· Strengthen small business in other areas than what was listed. Actively pursue year round businesses that are low impact, research businesses, support for fishing, oil and gas, technology, and mining, environmental research and resource development.

· Rescind the nuclear free zone and encourage NOAA, Navy, and those kinds of things.

· Local ferry service to the south bay.

· Expand the freight dock.

Special Projects Coordinator Holen questioned the statement in the synopsis that and time a City department is losing money, payroll needs to be cut 10% annually until resolved. Commissioner Ravin responded that he was referring to the enterprise funds, not the police or fire departments.

The Commission scheduled a worksession regarding the Comp Plan for Saturday, January 10, 2009 at 5 p.m. and a worksession to review the lease policy on Monday, January 5, 2009 at 6 p.m. Both meetings will be held in the City Hall Cowles Council Chambers.

NEW BUSINESS

There were no new business items for discussion.

INFORMATIONAL MATERIALS

A. EDC Memoranda included in November 23 City Council Packet

Question was raised whether Council considered any of the memoranda that were provided. Councilmember Wythe commented that there is nothing the Council can do regarding the Open Meetings Act as it is State legislation. Commissioner Ravin raised the question to Assembly member Bill Smith in the audience. Mr. Smith said he brought it up at AML but with so much focus on ethics right now, AML isn’t interested in proposing any changes at this time.

The Council didn’t discuss the telephonic participation or the ombudsman. Chair Hogan noted that the Commission spent a lot of time considering the need for an ombudsman in the City to help address issues. Councilmember Wythe noted that at this point to create the position it would have to be added to someone’s existing duties. Point was raised that there might be people in the community willing to volunteer. Chair Hogan said of the three memos the ombudsman position is the one they would like to see Council give some consideration to.

B. Google Groups (blog) Information

Commissioner Ravin questioned what harm could they do and if the website were published who would it exclude. Special Projects Coordinator Holen reiterated that the City Manager wants an opinion from the Attorney first.

C. Alaska Business Monthly Article on Kenai Peninsula Communities

Commissioner Ravin expressed appreciation for the article. He noted they want to do something about the shrinking population and the aging population. Councilmember Wythe commented in looking at the last EDC plan the goals twenty years ago, improving senior services, education, and tourism is like writing destiny. You improve senior service; you grow your senior population, so Homer is an exact image of what they projected it should be. The Commission has the ability to change that.

D. Items from November 23 and December 8 City Meeting Packets

COMMENTS OF THE AUDIENCE

There were no audience comments.

COMMENTS OF THE CITY STAFF

Deputy City Clerk Jacobsen commented regarding an earlier statement about the restrictions of the Open Meetings Act and not being able to email regarding the Agenda. She noted that the issue with that was when the agenda went out on the email a Commissioner would reply all with 3 long paragraphs. It sends out a red flag as it opens up potential for a serial meeting and it is easier to nip it right away. She also commented that she has learned in conflict resolution trainings that it is not always beneficial to speak in absolutes when referring to an issue, for example saying that everyone who comes in has problems with the Planning Department or everyone who comes in has problems with the City. It isn’t like that, and she is pretty sure that they didn’t talk to everyone because she recently got a zoning permit from the City and no asked about her experience. She said she could produce pages from minutes at Planning Commission meetings where people commended staff for their work and how easy they are to deal with, even when they couldn’t get their issues resolved because of zoning or enforcement issues. It isn’t that City staff is always bad, there are rules that the staff has to adhere to.

COMMENTS OF THE COUNCIL MEMBER

There were no Council member comments.

COMMENTS OF THE CHAIR

Chair Hogan thanked the members of the audience for coming. He let the high school students who were in the audience know that there is a spot open on the Commission for a student representative. He explained that Mr. Yakunin who was previously appointed to the Commission has expressed interest but hasn’t shown up and Mr. Scarpitta would like to continue to participate. There was some brief discussion that because Mr. Scarpitta has taken a permanent job out of the area he couldn’t adequately fill the roll as a Commissioner regardless of whether he is maintaining his residency here. Chair Hogan said he would contact Mr. Scarpitta.

COMMENTS OF THE COMMISSION MEMBERS

Commissioner Neece provided a template of a business plan he is doing for a film school and for a workforce development project. He commented that things are finally coming together for this and it could be a reality for Homer. It is something that would bring technology and jobs to Homer.

Commissioner Erickson apologized if she has been offensive and said she recognizes that staff is limited by code. She thanked everyone for their work on the Committees. They have put in a lot of hours and made some progress.

Commissioner Ravin declared his citizenship with the State of Alaska. He takes offense at being referred to as a permanent visitor. He thanked staff for all they do.

ADJOURN

There being no further business to come before the Commission the meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m. The next Regular Meeting is scheduled for January 13, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. in the City Hall Cowles Council Chambers. There is a worksession scheduled on January 5, 2009 at 6 p.m. and January 10, 2009 at 5 p.m.

MELISSA JACOBSEN, CMC, DEPUTY CITY CLERK

Approved: