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HomeMy WebLinkAboutweekly newsletter Date: November 30, 2012 To: Mayor & City Council From: Mark A. Rohloff, City Manager WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Subject: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STUDY FOLLOW-UP 1.: I appreciate Council’s ability to make themselves available to the Prager Team as they were in town on Tuesday afternoon. For those Council Members who were unable to meet with Mr. Prager individually, please contact me so that I may arrange a time where you speak with Mr. Prager via telephone. I’m still working with Mr. Prager about scheduling a time at which he can come back and address the entire Council to answer any questions that you may have regarding the study. The biggest question I seem to get as a result of the report is, “What’s next?”. Because the study makes recommendations about a wholly new public/private partnership, such a partnership cannot simply be created by any one person or entity. I will be following up with our economic development stakeholders in the coming weeks to get their thoughts on the recommendations from the study, and how we may all move forward collectively on the recommendations. Any transition to a new organization such as this will involve a great deal of transition plans, particularly for our current economic development partners whom we fund, namely Chamco and OAEDC. Our contracts for marketing our respective industrial and business parks expire on January 31, 2013. Additionally, the funding that the city provides to Chamco, as well as the funding that the city receives from Winnebago County to perform economic development activities, need to be clarified for both the short term and long term period. It may be necessary for us to work out an interim agreement with Chamco so that we may still support their efforts until such time that we begin to implement the changes in this study. If you have any thoughts on how we proceed with our partners, I welcome your feedback. LOCATION OF GLATZ CREEK WATERSHED CLARIFIED 2.: Council Members may have rd received an e-mail from Mr. Nick Schneider on 23 Avenue regarding a statement I made at rd Tuesday’s Council Meeting regarding the location of 23 Avenue within the Glatz Creek watershed. It was pointed out to me by both staff and Mr. Schneider that this statement was incorrect, and I wanted to clarify that with Council. As the enclosed letter indicates, Glatz Creek has very few public streets within its watershed, particularly east-west streets that go directly to Lake Winnebago. As I explained to Mr. Schneider in the enclosed letter, this fact does not change the underlying principle that the city, as a whole, bears responsibility to address storm water issues. While I limited that discussion to the Glatz Creek watershed, the fact remains that as areas become urbanized, the boundaries of previously naturally identified watersheds become less certain, and we still need to identify the appropriate conveyance of water to the Fox River or Lake Winnebago. I apologized to Mr. Schneider and Mr. Rothe in my letter and continue with my point that storm water is a shared responsibility for us to address. If you have any questions regarding this project and how we address storm water issues in general, please contact me or Public Works Director David Patek. Weekly Newsletter November 30, 2012 Page 2 OPPORTUNITY OSHKOSH 3.: As Council may be aware, the collaborative marketing group that was assembled by representatives of area local governments and other economic development partners unveiled the Opportunity Oshkosh (O2) brand at the Convention Center yesterday. The purpose of this effort is to market the Oshkosh area to prospective businesses to create more jobs and a larger tax base in our community. The Opportunity Oshkosh effort includes an internal marketing effort to make the public more aware of the positive features of our community, as well as an external marketing effort to make the public outside of Oshkosh aware of the advantages and opportunities available in Oshkosh. As I mentioned in my closing remarks yesterday, I think that the Opportunity Oshkosh initiative is consistent with the recommendations of our Economic Development Study that called for increased collaboration and coordination of our economic development efforts. The Opportunity Oshkosh website will be launched beginning Monday, rd December 3. If you have any questions regarding this program and the city’s participation in it, please contact Community Development Director Allen Davis. CVB CONTRACT RENEWAL 4.: Staff brought to my attention this week that the city’s current agreement with the Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) to be the city’s official recipient of room tax dollars had expired back in May of this year. State law requires that room tax dollars be designated to a specific tourism entity in the community. In our case, it’s pretty well understood that the Oshkosh CVB is the appropriate recipient of City of Oshkosh room tax dollars. Having said that, there was an issue back in 2009 when this agreement was renewed. The agreement states that both parties recognize that the CVB is the designated tourism entity for the area, and the CVB agrees to provide tourism-related services to the community. This is not a performance- based contract, but rather an acknowledgement that the CVB will provide these services to our community. In return, the city has a representative on the CVB Board, which is currently Council Member Herman. In the past, our agreement with the Oshkosh CVB was for a five year period. However, some Council Members back in 2009 questioned whether the CVB would get the room tax dollars, even though state law specifically provides that an entity such as the Oshkosh CVB is the legal recipient of the room tax dollars. As a result of this issue, the Council had only renewed the agreement with the CVB for three years, over staff’s recommendation. As a result, our natural inclination was to review this in 2014 rather than spring, 2012. Staff is currently working with CVB Director Wendy Hielsberg to update our agreement and place it on an upcoming Council Agenda. I see absolutely no controversy in this issue, but wanted to point it out in case there is some concern about why this deadline may have been overlooked. If you have any questions on this issue, please contact City Attorney Lynn Lorenson or me. REGIONAL REVOLVING LOAN FUND 5.: As part of the reorganization of economic development activities at the state level, the state has been looking to consolidate revolving loan funds (RLFs) throughout the state to provide more regional use of RLF dollars. Many smaller communities have received funds over the years to establish an RLF. These funds typically come from Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) dollars that are distributed to communities that are not “entitlement” communities. The City of Oshkosh is considered an entitlement community for CDBG purposes, so we have not ever been a recipient of these types of dollars. Our use of CDBG funds has been laid out in our program of work, but has not previously included the creation of an RLF at the local level. With the state and WEDC moving toward consolidating these RLFs on a regional basis, they are open to including previous entitlement communities and other communities that do not currently have a RLF to “buy in” to the regional RLF program. Weekly Newsletter November 30, 2012 Page 3 The buy-in would consist of the city contributing an amount established by WEDC as an appropriate amount that would allow the city to leverage funds out of the regional RLF for potentially large economic development projects. At this time, we are told that the City of Oshkosh’s buy-in amount would be as much as $500,000. This would enable us to leverage up to $2,000,000 or more for individual economic development projects that would benefit the community. Because of the potential to leverage these types of dollars, Community Development staff has been working to identify a potential source of funds that we could contribute to a regional RLF. At a recent meeting of the Long Range Finance Committee, Community Development Director Davis made a presentation to the committee, and suggested that funds from soon-to-be- closed Tax Increment Districts could be used as the city’s contribution to the regional RLF. I am asking staff to develop a formal TIF closure policy so that the Council may look at how all funds from soon-to-be-closed TIFs may be used once the Tax Increment Financing District’s assets have been reallocated. Mr. Davis believes this would be an appropriate use of some of the residual TIF dollars, and I agree that this would be a good use of those dollars, among other uses. I also support the participation in a regional RLF because it will offer us significant opportunities to assist on a larger project that we currently do not have the resources available to fund. The state plans to begin soliciting participation in this regional RLF concept in early 2013. At that time, staff will prepare a formal proposal for the City Council to consider in order to participate in the regional RLF. If you have any questions regarding this program, please contact Community Development Director Davis. REFUSE CART TRADE-IN 6.: I am aware that several Council Members have received inquiries from residents regarding the trade-in of refuse carts. As you may recall, we decided to use the 64 gallon cart as the default size cart because the intent was to encourage people to produce less refuse. In spite of our educational efforts to point out that the 64 gallon cart was the default cart, many people did not respond to that inquiry. With the recent Thanksgiving holiday, many residents now realize that they need to size their cart for more than just regular weekly pickups. Because the carts will be billed to people on the tax roll, we wanted to make sure that we had the initial billings addressed properly before we began the trade-in of carts. Now that this is behind us, we can begin to trade in carts. Field Superintendent Kevin Uhen reports that Sanitation staff are now trading in carts. Most of the requests are to trade in 64 gallon carts for 96 gallon carts. This may result in the city having to purchase additional 96 gallon carts, which will leave us with a surplus inventory of 64 gallon carts. If you become aware of anyone who wants to trade in a cart, please have them contact the Sanitation Division directly and they will take care of the request. SPECIAL GARAGE COLLECTIONS 7.: Residents have converted to the automated collection program quite efficiently. One operational issue that has arisen relates to special garbage collection fees. This issue typically relates to rental properties, but it can also be associated with general home clean-up activities related to moving, family death, etc. The current Sanitation Division fee for this garbage disposal service is $35 ($25 charge + $10 admin fee), plus additional fees for any large items. Our review indicates that this service costs $75 per collection in Appleton, and the service cost varies by waste volume in Fond du Lac ($25 for one cubic yard and $40 for 2-4 cubic yards). The Sanitation Division will be completing additional analysis for possible changes to this fee prior to scheduling an item for Common Council consideration. Weekly Newsletter November 30, 2012 Page 4 TWINKIE SCARE HITS AREA 8.: Please find enclosed a notice from Hostess Brands, warning us that their operation in Oshkosh will be coming to an end. This notice is provided per the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. As you can see, they say that the Company st should know by December 1 whether they will have to begin selling potions of its business and/or wind down its operations and liquidate, which would lead to employment separations within 14 days thereafter. DEPARTMENTAL REPORTS & UPDATES 9.: Other items I’m enclosing with today’s Newsletter include the latest FOCUS newsletter, published by the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance, which discuss the state budget. Insofar as minutes are concerned, I’m enclosing the following: thth The minutes of the November 20 Plan Commission meeting; the minutes of the November 15 th Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee meeting; and the minutes of the November 13 Traffic Review Advisory Board meeting. I am also enclosing the press release announcing the beginning of construction on the James Road detention basin. The last item I’m enclosing is the materials for the Residential Design Standards Workshop scheduled with the Council, Plan Commission and th Landmarks Commission for December 4, at 5:00 p.m. If you have any questions about this information before the Workshop, please feel free to contact Planning Director Darryn Burich. rd UPCOMING MEETINGS 10.: Meetings I have scheduled for the week of December 3 include the following: On Monday, at 10:00 a.m., I am meeting with city, county, Chamco and East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission staff to discuss the next steps for the Aviation Business Park. At 1:30 p.m. on Monday, I am meeting with representatives of Hoffman Corporation regarding parking garage improvements at the City Center Hotel site. On Tuesday, at 9:00 a.m., I am meeting with the Oshkosh Northwestern Editorial Board to discuss the Economic Development Study and other issues of interest. For the remainder of the day, I will be traveling to Madison to meet with DOT Secretary Gottlieb, along with other local officials, regarding the th future of transportation funding. On Thursday, December 6, at 9:00 a.m., I am meeting with a representative of ICMA/RC to discuss the city’s deferred compensation program. On Friday, th December 7, Mayor Tower and I will be attending the New North Summit in Appleton. This will take up a good part of my day, so if there is any Newsletter next week, it will be of a relatively limited nature. If you have any questions regarding my attendance at any of these meetings, please do not hesitate to contact me. MAR/jdc Enclosures