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Chairperson Steffen asked what the prospects for this type of use looked like. <br />Economic Dev. Mgr/Assistant City Administrator Brama stated the majority of prospects they <br />have worked with have been Ramsey businesses or neighboring community businesses. He <br />stated they have not landed one in the new business park but they have some prospects seriously <br />looking at the business park. <br />Chairperson Steffen asked what kind of direction staff is looking for from the City Council. <br />Economic Dev. Mgr/Assistant City Administrator Brama stated they are not looking for any <br />direction other than feedback from the City Council at this time. <br />4.02: Review Draft EDA Workplan <br />Economic Dev. Mgr/Assistant City Administrator Brama presented the staff report. <br />Chairperson Steffen asked in regard to business retention and expansion, how many of the visits <br />were made in 2015. <br />Economic Dev. Mgr/Assistant City Administrator Brama stated in 2012/2013 the business <br />retention program had twenty-six visits by staff. He stated they had some turn over in staff and <br />this last year the number of visits completed were thirteen and only three were formal visits. He <br />stated ten were reactive visits and were not necessarily staff driven, they were issue or project <br />driven. He stated would like to do 24 visits in the coming year but is contingent on customer <br />service as well as the workloads of existing staff. <br />Chairperson Steffen thought because this was on the top of the report he thought the 24 visits <br />should be identified. He noted he would be willing to go on some visits if he knew which <br />businesses they were planning on visiting. <br />Member Burandt asked what the agenda was and did staff follow the Minnesota survey questions <br />from the Chamber website. <br />Economic Dev. Mgr/Assistant City Administrator Brama stated Ramsey' s survey was modeled <br />after the State' s survey. He stated from a technical aspect they do base a number of questions off <br />of the survey and on top of that they go to the Greater MSP sales force. <br />Member Williams stated because this is a number one priority, it is something the Board should <br />be personally responsible for. She thought they should consider their own goals of how many <br />each member attends either with or without staff and they should be more proactive to reach out <br />to those businesses. <br />Chairperson Steffen thought that was a good idea but should identify the 24 businesses first. <br />Member Williams thought they should be their own ambassadors of the EDA as well and if there <br />is a struggle to balance the resources the Board Members should help out. <br />Economic Development Authority/January 7, 2016 <br />Page 3 of 5 <br />