date: april 10th to: mayor & council members from:...
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MEMORANDUM DATE: APRIL 10th, 2015 TO: MAYOR & COUNCIL MEMBERS FROM: DANNY LENZ, CITY MANAGER SUBJECT: CITY MANAGER’S REPORT COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR POSITION POSTED The Community Development Director position will be posted to the City’s website on Monday, April 13th. This position will become vacant on May 22nd, the last day for the City’s current director Kim Johnson. The City will place an ad with the Waseca County News, as well as place the position on the League of Minnesota Cities website. The position will remain open until filled, with the initial review of applications to being on April 24th. The position announcement is attached. URBAN POLICY INTERN SELECTED The City has selected Mathew Malvin as its Urban Policy intern. Mathew managed franchise restaurants for 8-years before returning to school, where he oversaw quality assurance, marketing analysis, customer retention, inventory management, employee training and supervision and banking and cash management. He has a Bachelor of Science in Economics and currently provides tutoring in economics, business and math and statistics courses at Minnesota State University, Mankato, where he is pursuing a degree in Urban Policy. The internship is being funded through a grant from the South Central Service Collaborative, which will cover up to 400 hours for Mathew’s internship with the City. 2014 LOCAL ROAD IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (LRIP) GRANT APPLICATION The City was notified this week that we were not selected to receive funding for 2014 from the Local Road Improvement Program. The City had applied for $750,000 in funding to help off-set the unanticipated road construction costs for the rebuild of Old Trunk Highway 14. The City was informed early on in the process that we would be a long-shot to receive this funding. Our application will stay active through the end of the 2015 legislative session in case additional funding becomes available. ADDITIONAL ATTACHMENTS
• Updated April Calendar • May Calendar • CGMC in Brief – 4/9/15 • Greater Minnesota Partnership’s Economic Advantage – 4/7/15
The City of Waseca, MN is seeking an experienced planning professional to leads it Community Development Department. Waseca Minnesota, population 9,737, is a full service community located in Waseca County, approximately 75 miles south of the Twin Cities and off of Highway 14 between the regional centers of Mankato and Rochester. Candidates must possess a bachelor’s degree in Urban Planning or related field and at least two (2) years of professional planning experience; master’s degree and four (4) years professional planning experience and certification by the American Institute of Certified Planners preferred. A complete position description and application is available at www.ci.waseca.mn.us. Salary range: $58,541 - $73,176. Please send application, resume, cover letter and answers to supplemental questions to City of Waseca, Attn: Human Resources, 508 S. State Street, Waseca, MN 56093, or electronically to [email protected]. Position is open until filled; review of applications begins April 24th.
CGMC in Brief - April 9, 2015 View this email in your browser
Newsletter for the Week of April 9, 2015
House eliminates funding for broadband infrastructure program The House Job Growth & Energy Affordability Finance Committee released its
omnibus bill yesterday and we were dismayed to see that it included no funding for
the Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program. This means that the
House GOP is essentially walking away from the program, which the CGMC and
Greater Minnesota Partnership (GMNP) helped to create last year. In addition, the
House has defunded the Office of Broadband Development, which administered
the fund and provided vital support to communities. The CGMC issued a press
release today in response to this glaring omission.
Other CGMC priorities receive some attention under House jobs bill While the House Job Growth & Energy Affordability Finance Committee ignored
broadband in its omnibus bill, it did address some the CGMC and GMNP's other
priorities:
• The Greater Minnesota Business Development Public Infrastructure (BDPI)
grant program would receive a general fund appropriation of $750,000 in
2016 and $1.5 million in 2017. We hope that more funding will be provided if
there is a bonding bill in the House. In a surprise move, the committee also
decided to make BDPI an ongoing budget item instead of a one-time
appropriation, starting in 2018 with $2 million per year.
• The CGMC/GMNP job training grant program would receive $500,000 a
year in 2016 and 2017. However, the House is expected to fund the tax
credit portion of our plan in the Tax Committee.
• The omnibus bill adopts the League of Minnesota Cities' workforce housing
proposal and funds it at $2.5 million in each of the next two years. It also
provides funding for workforce housing through the Minnesota Housing
Finance Agency, but given the agency's track record we don't have much
confidence that the money will be spent on workforce housing Greater
Minnesota. We are hopeful that the CGMC/GMNP workforce housing
proposal will be funded in the Tax Committee.
House unveils comprehensive transportation plan At long last, the House has presented a comprehensive transportation funding plan
that pledges more than $7 billion to transportation for the next 10 years, primarily
focusing on roads and bridges. This plan does not raise any taxes or fees and
relies solely on existing general fund money and budget shifts. The cost to the
general fund appears to be around $320 million per year. The bill, HF 4 (authored
by Rep. Tim Kelly, R-Red Wing), relies on dramatic changes to metro transit to
limit the impact on the general fund.
The CGMC has three primary goals for any comprehensive transportation
package: funding for Corridors of Commerce, street repair/replacement money for
cities over 5,000 beyond Municipal Street Aid (MSA), and street repair/replacement
money for cities under 5,000.
HF 4 funds Corridors of Commerce through trunk highway bonds, pledging $800
million over seven years. For comparison, the Senate funds Corridors of
Commerce at $800 million over four years and the Governor pledges $1.6 billion
over 10 years.
HF 4 does not contain any additional funding for the streets of cities over 5,000
outside the constitutional formula. It does increase municipal street aid, but at a
rate of less than one-half of the Governor’s plan. Cities under 5,000, however, get
generous funding: $25 million/year for the first two years, and approximately $28
million/year in future years. See this run for information on each city.
The distribution formula for cities under 5,000 was devised by non-partisan
research staff. The Senate still has not come forth with solid numbers for its small
city proposal, and the Governor does not pledge any money directly to cities under
5,000 (his plan relies on counties to share their increased funding with small cities).
In addition, Greater Minnesota transit receives increased funding under HF 4.
The committee will hear testimony this week. We will continue to lobby both the
House and Senate to reach a compromise and pass a bipartisan comprehensive
transportation bill this year.
CGMC opposes effort to cut first-class city LGA On Wednesday and Thursday, the House Property Tax and Local Government
Finance Division heard testimony on HF 2034 (authored by Rep. Duane Quam, R-
Byron) which if enacted would reduce LGA for cities of the first class by limiting the
amount of aid they get per capita to the average per capita of all other cities. The
impact on Minneapolis and St. Paul would be a 50% and 54% reduction in aid,
respectively. For CGMC member Duluth, the cut would be a whopping 72%.
Under Rep. Quam’s bill, the dollars saved from the cuts to the first-class cities
would be returned to the state’s General Fund. The total reduction to the LGA
program would be more than $94 million.
CGMC has always opposed arbitrarily targeting cities for cuts based on their status
as first-class cities. The strength of the LGA program is the fact that it is based on
objective need factors and a city’s ability to meet its needs based on its tax base.
Severing the relationship between a city’s LGA and the formula’s evaluation of
need and tax base will ultimately erode confidence that the formula is fair and
objective, thus undermining support for the whole LGA program.
CGMC President Heidi Omerza submitted this letter to the committee and CGMC
lobbyist Bradley Peterson testified against the bill. The League of Minnesota Cities
and the Metro Cities organization also testified against it. The bill was laid over for
possible inclusion in the House Tax Bill.
BDPI left out of Governor's bonding bill Governor Dayton released his proposed $842 million bonding bill on Tuesday and
we were disappointed to see that he neglected to include any funding for the BDPI
program. In addition, he only included funding for two bridges – one in Minneapolis
and one in St. Paul.
The BDPI program helps cities and counties provide grants for infrastructure
needed for private business growth. In the 12 years since the program was
created, 166 cities have received grants leading to the creation of 1,625 jobs in
Greater Minnesota. The CGMC is seeking $20 million for the BDPI program for the
next biennium.
Click here for a complete list of Dayton's proposed projects. A map of the projects
and regional breakdowns is also available here. Look for additional analysis of the
proposal in a future edition of the CGMC in Brief.
City visits generate media attention As part of the city visits during the Legislature’s Easter/Passover break, CGMC
and GMNP staff members visited with several newspapers in Greater Minnesota to
inform editors and reporters about our legislative priorities. We are pleased to
report that the visits have already resulted in several positive editorials and articles:
• Forum News editorial
• Forum News cartoon
• Crookston Times editorial
• Crookston Times article
• Grand Forks Herald editorial
• Marshall Independent article
• Worthington Daily Globe article
Labor & employee relations seminars to be held in Austin, Alexandria The CGMC Labor and Employee Relations Committee will hold labor and
employee relations seminars from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Thursday, June 4 in
Austin and Thursday, June 11 in Alexandria. The seminars will provide practical
and legal solutions for providing services and managing employees in local
government. Seminar topics include:
• Employee and union communications
• Job classification and compensation systems
• Updates on settlements, arbitrations and the Legislature
• Minnesota’s aging workforce
• Mock employer labor contract second proposal
The registration form for both seminars can be found here. Please complete your
registration and return it via email, fax or mail per the instructions on the form.
Registration closes May 30 for the Austin seminar and June 6 for the Alexandria
seminar. We look forward to seeing you there!
Workshops will explore regional designation process for parks & trails The Legislature established the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails
Commission (GMRPTC) to create a system-wide plan for regional parks and trails.
As part of the planning process, the GMRPTC has created an evaluation process
to determine whether parks and trails should be designated as regional. In the
future, this designation will be necessary to be eligible for Legacy Parks and Trails
funds. The GMRPTC will hold Regional Designation application workshops in each
of its six districts in May. The workshops will provide information and training on
the GMRPTC’s new web-based application process. Regional Designation is the
required first step for parks and trails to become a part of the Statewide System
Plan.
Please refer to the GMRPTC’s webpage for more information and workshop dates
and locations. Registration for individual workshops can be found here. Please be
sure that the staff members in charge of parks and trails in your area are aware of
the process and these workshops.
Save the date! Please mark your calendar for upcoming CGMC events and important dates:
• Labor & Employee Relations Seminars: June 4, 2015 in Austin and
June 11, 2015 in Alexandria
• CGMC Summer Conference: July 22-24, 2015 in Duluth
• CGMC Fall Conference: Nov. 12-13, 2015 in Alexandria
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Contact: Bradley Peterson at [email protected] or 651-259-1940
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Greater Minnesota Partnership's Economic Advantage View this email in your browser
Newsletter for the week of April 7, 2015 House jobs committee to unveil omnibus bill The House Job Growth & Energy Affordability Committee has
announced that it will release its omnibus bill tomorrow. It is a
positive sign that two of the GMNP’s bills are scheduled for
hearings leading up the release: HF 579 (authored by Rep.
Mary Franson, R-Alexandria), which would appropriate $10
million into the Business Development Public Infrastructure
(BDPI) grant program, will be heard this evening, while HF
750 (authored by Rep. Deb Kiel, R-Crookston), which would
provide $15 million in job training grants over the next
biennium, will be heard tomorrow morning.
We are cautiously optimistic that the GMNP’s job training and
BDPI proposals will be included in the omnibus bill, but after
visiting with several legislators, we are concerned that
broadband may be underfunded or left out of the bill entirely.
Other GMNP priorities, including transportation, environmental
regulatory reform and tax credits for workforce housing and
job training, fall under the purview of other committees. We
will continue to keep you posted on developments as they
arise.
BDPI left out of Governor's bonding bill Governor Dayton released his proposed $842 million
bonding bill today and we were disappointed to see that he
neglected to include any funding for the Greater Minnesota
Business Development Public Infrastructure (BDPI) grant
program.
The BDPI program helps cities and counties provide grants for
infrastructure needed for private business growth. In the 12
years since the program was created, 166 cities have received
grants leading to the creation of 1,625 jobs in Greater
Minnesota. The GMNP is seeking $20 million for the BDPI
program for the next biennium.
Click here for a complete list of Dayton's proposed
projects. In addition, a map of the projects and regional
breakdowns is available here. To the credit of Gov. Dayton,
the bonding proposal is very transparent and easy to
understand. Look for additional analysis of the proposal in
future editions of the Economic Advantage.
Senate Tax Committee to hear updated
version of workforce housing bill At the request of Senate Tax Committee Chair Sen. Rod
Skoe (DFL-Clearkbrook), Sen. Dan Sparks (DFL-Austin) has
authored SF 1968, an improved variation of the GMNP’s
workforce housing proposal. This updated bill provides a 40
percent tax credit for investing in workforce housing in
Greater Minnesota and an additional 10 percent tax credit if
the investor increases employment by at least 10 new
employees per year for three years after the credit is
received. The GMNP supports this updated version, which
further strengthens the economic development component of
workforce housing by encouraging job growth. The bill is
scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Tax Committee on
Thursday.
GMNP/CGMC staff hit the road to promote Greater Minnesota priorities When the legislature was on its Easter/Passover Break last
week, GMNP and Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities (CGMC)
lobbyists took the opportunity to travel across the state to
meet with city officials, legislators and local media to continue
to drum up support for our top legislative priorities. Cities that
received visits from GMNP and/or CGMC staff included
Virginia, Grand Rapids, Bemidji, Crookston, East Grand Forks,
Thief River Falls, Moorhead, Willmar, Marshall, Worthington,
New Ulm, Owatonna, Rochester, Winona, La Crescent, Albert
Lea and Austin. Thank you to all the business leaders and city
officials who helped arrange meetings!
For more information on the GMNP/CGMC priorities and the
status of the bills related to them, check out this Priorities &
Progress Report handout that was distributed to legislators
and the media during the visits.
GMNP Executive Director Dan Dorman to
speak at Worthington Bio Conference
As we mentioned last week, GMNP Executive Director Dan
Dorman will be one of the featured speakers at the
Worthington Regional Bio Conference on Thursday. Dorman's
presentation titled "Building a Strong Rural Economy --
Workforce Training & Housing" will explore the economic
development needs of rural communities and discuss the work
the GMNP is doing to find solutions to some of the barriers to
growth. You can read more about the issues Dorman will
discuss in his presentation in this Worthington Daily Globe
article.
The Worthington Regional Bio Conference, which will be held
this Thursday and Friday, is an annual gathering of industry
professionals, research scientists and business leaders. It
showcases the region’s health and bio-business sectors
through an array of learning sessions and presentations put
on by top researchers and industry leaders. GMNP members
are welcome to attend. Check out the conference website for
more information, including its cost and how to register.
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The Greater Minnesota Partnership brings together businesses, economic development organizations, local
governments and non-profits to promote and advocate for economic prosperity in Greater Minnesota.
Copyright © 2015 Flaherty & Hood, P.A., All rights reserved. Questions? Contact: Executive Director Dan Dorman Email: [email protected] Phone: 612-245-5204 Our mailing address is: Greater Minnesota Partnership Flaherty & Hood, P.A. 525 Park St., Suite 470 St. Paul, MN 55103 Visit us online at gmnp.org.