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Economic Dev. Mgr/Assistant City Administrator Brama presented the staff report. <br />Members Brunt and Burandt arrived at 7:35 a.m. <br />Councilmember LeTourneau and Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce representative Pete Turok <br />made a presentation to the EDA. <br />Councilmember LeTourneau stated the City of Ramsey has been asked to help with providing <br />support to the manufacturing businesses in the City. He asked what would be important to the <br />EDA in order to form a partnership with the Anoka Area Chamber of Commerce. <br />Chairperson Steffen asked for clarification on bringing students into manufacturing businesses. <br />Mr. Turok stated the student will work in the manufacturing businesses for six weeks. <br />Councilmember LeTourneau stated the high school has a responsibility to provide an education <br />and a responsibility to the businesses. He stated the students will get soft training and <br />understand how to show up, present themselves and interview better. <br />Chairperson Steffen asked if the business wants to do this to help the student or to get the work <br />done. He wondered if bringing students in for six weeks, a couple times a week would be <br />enough time to teach and train them before they leave. <br />Councilmember LeTourneau stated he was not sure but they are not going to do this unless it <br />benefits everybody but if the business sees value in this then they are going to go there and try to <br />find that value. <br />Mr. Turok stated to start on that level is ideal and Anoka Tech College puts programming around <br />specific needs of the manufacturer. The goal of the business is to keep them forever. <br />Councilmember LeTourneau stated there is a cultural element attached to this and the perception <br />right now is that manufacturing is not a favorable employment opportunity and that is not the <br />reality. Those jobs are high skilled and have career letters attached to them. They are wonderful <br />opportunities for people to make some changes in their life. <br />Member Riley stated when they discussed this a month ago they did decide this is a good use of <br />economic development for the City and there is a purpose that the City would do. He thought <br />the part where they ran into a question was they were not sure what kind of momentum or buy -in <br />from manufacturers or if this group was actually waning so he wondered if they could talk about <br />the makeup of the group and their momentum. <br />Councilmember LeTourneau stated yearly they do a planning session which involves getting <br />information from the manufacturers. Ultimately, the goal was to get 20 to 25 people in <br />manufacturing to meet as a group and collaborate. They intentionally kept the group small for <br />Economic Development Authority/November 5, 2015 <br />Page 2 of 8 <br />