Remarks by John Strand
76 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 4
“Mayor, one, and I'm really glad we're having this discussion. It's a few years since we have, and in my mind, it's really critical. We're driven by policy. And that policy is where we land. So this evolution and making of policy is really, really critical. One thing I would like to know as we go forward is what do others do? What does the state have? What do statutes call for? What do our neighbors offer? And how do we fit into that lay of the land with others? Just so I have a sense of do we or do they or do we all or do we not while they do offer incentives? That to me is a really important…”
“Thank you. And as long as we're just for the moment brainstorming, I think I've noticed, for example, downtown, and I'm listening to our downtown businesses and their leaders and the challenges and the needs downtown, and they're pretty quantifiable with a growing, expanding downtown. But what occurred to me when we're in this process is, yes, we have this project that we filled it with all these people, and we have this project, and we filled it with all these people, and we have this project where we emptied out people and filled it with all these people. We have a 5, 10, 15, 20, sometimes…”
“Thank you. One of the topics that I've been wanting us to explore for years, actually, is inclusionary housing. And hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of cities across the country do this approach where if you're... There's two approaches. If you're incenting or if you're not incenting, if you're building apartments, especially if you're incenting it, that a certain percentage of them, 10%, 15%, 20%, are set aside as affordable housing. Now, we all know this is a huge need. And there's examples out there of what others do. And I think we can learn from them. I want to say there's 600 and…”
“Just a little history from my perspective, which is just mine. When I landed here 10 years ago and I approached our economic committee about incentives, especially with regards to creating new jobs, one of the recommendations I had, well, if you're going to create new jobs, don't be starting at $7 an hour. The criteria we were using up until that point was $7 to $9, $9 to $11, and $11 to $13. I go, if you're not going to do a living wage, we shouldn't be incenting people. We don't need to incent people to put employees into poverty. So I think that needs to be an ongoing, evolving level that…”
“And what would the, I don't know, what would be considered a living wage here right now? I'd like to compare that. Because it should be a living wage.”
“Thank you. And I believe one of, in my opinion, again, one criteria that we should all aspire to is applicants need to have met their previous application criteria. If anybody has been before us before and gotten previous incentives, did they do what they said they were going to do? And I think that's a starting point. If they didn't, why are we going down this rabbit hole further? And I'll be literal, and Commissioner Turnberg, you alluded to it, but in this incentives development commercial project, the public seems to think it's about the ROARS project on 45th. You know, the former driving…”
“Thank you I'm curious with the EDIC committee with this commercial redevelopment policy that was advanced to us a couple times now. I A couple thoughts. Has that been modeled? Have we modeled that after what others are? I'll say this, I'll back up. Nationally, a lot of people are talking about commercial challenges, commercial space vacancies, and how do you convert commercial to housing? That's an ongoing. But is this model that came to us? And a second question. Was this modeled after any of them, or did we learn from others, or did we pick and... Mirror what others have successfully done…”
“And I might continue. I think we can learn from the National League of Cities and their member partners, partner members, whatever. But we're not reinventing the wheel here. Another elephant in the living room, sorry, but is we all received this letter from the county. And I think we need to have a conversation about that at some point, understand the implications of that. Why are they saying what they're saying? What are their concerns rather than just file it? That really got my attention, that letter from Tony Grinberg and the county.”
“Anything else before we go to the order? Commissioner Strand. Will that be on our next agenda?”
“I am, but I would like us to have that conversation before we're putting it on an agenda to approve the policy we just got to. I'm not sure the policy is where I need it to be yet, but I don't know. In my mind, we need to be policy-driven and dot our I's and cross our T's and not have any holes in that. I'm not sure I'm there yet to be able to vote on, because it's convoluted with the project we think it's about, and it's more than that.”
“Thank you, Mayor. I'm wondering, Angie, if In the last few years, and then going into this next budget cycle, we have some pretty substantial modifications in our utilities rates and billings and so on. Do we have any idea of, would you know, is this number growing? Is it reflective of, are more people challenged making their bills? I'm just wondering how that's looking as trends go.”
“Thank you. Commissioner Strand. I'm just wondering, is there any hardship declaration people can declare or apply for assistance?”
“Thank you. I'd just also like to acknowledge it's important and it's good to see us blacking out personal data about people, their driver's license numbers, and some of their contact information. I'm appreciating that.”
“Thank you. It's no secret that Commissioner Peterson is just such a shy person. I want to acknowledge your contribution, and you're rolling up the sleeves, and you're pushing us, Commissioner Peterson, to really go further. You stirred the hornet's nest many times, but you showed balance. Commissioner Turnberg, I want to acknowledge your steadfastness of expectations that the community also holds for public safety. You helped us hold our feet to the fire for that. Commissioner Gullickson, you're just the epitome of balance and poise and helping us find calm in the storm. So all of you played…”
“Certainly. I'm glad we're going down this path of solidifying incentives, and I'm sure we're all hearing from people that are just anti-every incentive right now. So we have to really dot our I's and cross our T's and get it right if we're going to be doing anything that's diminishing the public receipts of monies. So I have some questions, if you don't mind. And these are in no particular order, but one of the questions, Nicole, is, for example, what if it's determined that the owners of these buildings actually led to and contributed to the blight that then they're coming to get an…”
“So I'll say it differently. If we find and learn that a property that an owner is coming to get an incentive for, if they actually let it go into blight, They didn't improve it, they didn't take care of it, they didn't upkeep it, and then all of a sudden we're facing the need to address the blight. I think that should be a measurement that we consider when somebody's asking for incentives. I'm not so sure I'm ready to vote on this tonight, but some of my questions might maybe stir some more conversations. That's one of them, is we've had those examples of people who let them go into…”
“One thought that occurs to me is I was able to listen in on their meeting and my ears were perking up at several points that were being made, you know, with regards to look backs and claw backs and butt fours. Maybe we should just have a group discussion about this topic and incentives in general before we're approving or not what's in front of us moment present. Because once this is approved, I want to be able to vote for our policies every time. If our policies are clear, then that leads the way to action that's based on policy. I still have some questions I'd like answered about these…”
“Thank you. You know I'm not so certain how many proposals are in the mail but if uh if we could get a few weeks or maybe up to a month for us to all get on the same page i would i would appreciate that i think there's you know there's i have other note wordsmithing notes in this document but but it's not really the time for us to to climb into the weeds and look over this word or that word tonight. Those are conversations I'd like to have us have. Could we have a joint meeting with this Economic Incentives Committee or all of us have a brown bag? Just to have a moment to ask my stupid…”
“Mayor, I move that we table this only for no more than a month, maybe less, and if we could reconvene as a brown bag with our members of the Economic Incentive Committee and others that, department heads or spokespersons that should be involved, let's listen and learn and make sure this is, if we could do that in the next two weeks and be back, I'd be okay with that too. But I'd move a brown bag”
“Thank you. Just a quick word on the budget. In my 11 times voting for a budget, I don't think I've ever seen a unanimous vote. till tonight. So that's really an indicator of our ability to try work together. Only note to make with my liaisons reports is the Board of Health will be meeting here on Friday at noon, October 2nd.”
“Thank you. I'm curious with this discussion point of special assessments for improvements and it being consistent with past practices, Going forward, which elements of this project and development are in the discussion phase for future special policies? And what would change conceivably, if anything?”
“And if I might, with regard to those greenfield discussions about specials for development out to the edge, What's up in the air that could be discussed and changed in the future? So I'm just, you know, we're here right now, but then there's this discussion about what we're doing down the road, especially with regards to specials. What topics will be in the scales and measured that will be up in the air for future policy decisions for EDGE development specials?”
“And might I continue? Yes. You know, this is 140-some lots. We know we need lots, but we also know that we need to address these policies. At least that's my sense that they're front burner to be. And I'm not in favor of... of changing what we offer to the public now, but it's not a secret that these topics are forthcoming and may change policies and protections for the developers in the city in the future and the way we assess. So the sooner we can get to that conversation, the better. As soon as we have exact agreement on where we're at going into future EDGE development, the better.…”
“It's really important to note that a few years ago when this topic surfaced and the conversation came about do we look at social services funds and the arts partnership and the downtown community partnership and Native American Commission, we had a full house. we had a sign-up of people speaking to us, telling us very, very, very, very clearly, do not mess with our arts funding. I was the one who advanced that to get the conversation going. And it was pretty palpably loud and clear what the public asked us to do and told us they wanted. So this is really something tonight to see only one…”
“Help me understand the state of the building right now.”