Minutes - Council - 02/22/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Councilmember Specht asked if the EDA budget was $85,000 and if there were other aspects of the EDA budget that the Council sees individually. He stated the Council approves the EDA budget and trusts the EDA will do what they deem best for the economic development of the City. He stated he would be supporting it on that basis. He thought that the cohort could be a factor in businesses coming to Ramsey. He asked how many of the 26 businesses on the email listing have been to a meeting or had interactions in a year. Mr. Turok replied he didn’t have that information in front of him but all of them have been to at least one cohort meeting. Councilmember Howell responded to Councilmember Riley’s concerns about the response of some of the Councilmembers regarding this topic. She reminded him that the Mayor invited people a year ago to disparage councilmembers and also allowed people to disparage people who came up to speak publicly at these meetings and Councilmember Riley hasn’t voiced concerns before. She also pointed out that there are cities who don’t pay $5,000 to the cohort but still participate so paying money isn’t a requirement to benefit because other cities even outside the Anoka Area Chamber are as well. She is not opposed to manufacturing and agreed with Councilmember Musgrove’s suggestions to help manufacturers. She stated there aren’t hard facts about what other ways this is benefiting manufacturers in the City and she was concerned over the lack concern about that. She stated that dollar amount is not what should be the determining factor and questions that have been presented haven’t gotten answers. Councilmember Woestehoff commented that the EDA recommends it, the City spent $5,000 and two Ramsey businesses got $12,000, which to him what a net positive. Councilmember Musgrove replied that the EDA made an uninformed decision because they didn’t have the information that came forward in the last week. She repeated that the City can benefit from being a part of the manufacturing cohort without paying $5,000 and City resources could be used to benefit the manufacturers in ways that are unique. She thought the EDA and Council had wonderful ideas to help the manufacturers and questioned why Ramsey and Anoka are the only ones paying. She suggested it be matched by the other cities. Councilmember Specht asked why other cities don’t pay. Mr. Turok replied some other cities have been asked and they are in the process of asking more cities with the goal of expanding what is already being done. He asked Councilmember Howell to give context to a question that she had said his answer was “I don’t know and I don’t care.” Councilmember Howell replied the question was if Mr. LeTourneau was the sole provider of services to Mr. Turok and he had replied “I don’t know and I don’t care.” She also commented on the question of the EDA being fully informed and felt that was inaccurate because they didn’t have the whole picture. She doubted the EDA would have been supportive of supporting cities that aren’t in the Chamber of Commerce. She expressed concern with that as well as that the pipeline grant was the only hard evidence of effectiveness provided. City Council / February 22, 2022 Page 8 of 34