THE BROOKLYN PARK ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN PARK NOVEMBER 16, 2015 MEETING MINUTES

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1 THE BROOKLYN PARK ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN PARK NOVEMBER 16, 2015 MEETING MINUTES I. ORGANIZATIONAL BUSINESS: 1. CALL TO ORDER: President Jeffrey Lunde (7:00 p.m.) ROLL CALL PRESENT: President Jeffrey Lunde, Vice President Peter Crema & Treasurer Terry Parks, Commissioners John Jordan, Bob Mata and Michael Trepanier, Executive Director Kim Berggren and EDA Secretary Theresa Freund. ABSENT/EXCUSED: Rich Gates. 2. PUBLIC COMMENT AND RESPONSE: 2.A Response to Prior Public Comment: None. 2.B Public Comment: None. 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA MOTION CREMA, SECOND TREPANIER APPROVING THE AGENDA. PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. MOTION II. STATUTORY BUSINESS: 4. CONSENT: 4.1 Consider Approving the EDA Meeting Minutes. MOTION CREMA, SECOND TREPANIER TO APPROVE THE SEPTEMBER 21, 2015 EDA MEETING MINUTES. UPON A CALL OF THE ROLL THE VOTE WAS AS FOLLOWS: YES: CREMA, JORDAN, LUNDE, MATA, PARKS AND TREPANIER. NO: NONE. ABSENT: GATES. MOTION CARRIES. 4.2 Consider Continuing Legal Counsel with Kennedy & Graven Through Year End PUBLIC HEARINGS: 5.1 None. MOTION CREMA, SECOND TREPANIER, CONTINUING LEGAL COUNSEL WITH KENNEDY & GRAVEN THROUGH YEAR END MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY.

2 Page 2 6. GENERAL ACTION ITEMS: 6.1 Consider Accepting Imaginality Designs Wayfinding/Signage Plan for Edinburgh USA Clubhouse. Mryna Orensten, Imaginality Designs presented the Wayfinding Plan to commissioners and answered questions. MOTION LUNDE, SECOND PARKS, TO ACCEPT IMAGINALITY DESIGN S WAYFINDING/SIGNAGE PLAN FOR EDINBURGH USA CLUBHOUSE. MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. 6.2 Consider Approving the 2016 Economic Development Authority Budget MOTION TREPANIER, SECOND CREMA TO WAIVE THE READING AND ADOPT RESOLUTION APPROVING THE 2016 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY BUDGET. MOTION PASSED UNANIMOUSLY. III. DISCUSSION: 7. DISCUSSION ITEMS: 7.1 BrookLynk Update Rebecca Giligan, Executive Director for the Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth. Ms. Giligan reported that the mission of the Alliance is to coordinate out of school opportunities that lead to three impacts: high school graduation, increasing pathways to college and career and decreasing young people s experience to violence. All of our partners operate youth programs. We really focus on the behind the scenes work of developing resources, increasing access and participation, improving the quality of youth programs and also coordinating initiatives across our two communities (Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park). We operate several initiatives. Ms. Giligan stated that tonight we are going to talk about BrookLynk and the results of this program in our first year. In 2014 before we started this program, we knew that 61% of young people in the Brooklyns were not participating in any formal programing over the summer time. That is an extremely high percentage of our young people who are not actively engaged in any high quality programming. Of the young people that were not participating, 54% of them said they were interested in job skills and workforce development. We did a quick scan at the existing youth employment programs in the community and there weren t really any major coordinated efforts that employed a sizeable number of young people.

3 Page 3 Ms. Giligan reported that we also knew from our partners in Minneapolis that in our region we are looking at a major workforce gap over the next ten, twenty and thirty years, an estimated 74,000 deficit in BrookLynk is in a fantastic position to fill that gap. We know we need two things to do that. That when young people are ready at age fourteen, as soon as they are eligible to go enter the workforce they need to have the skills to get them there. We have heard from lots of young people in our community that they are not prepared. The other thing that is needed to close this workforce gap is employers need connections to this new workforce that is coming up. Tonight we want to tell you about BrookLynk and some of the major employers that have been partners with us this last year and the amazing work that has happened. Ms. Giligan introduced Luis Salado Herrera, Youth Employment Coordinator. He is a full time student at St. Thomas Business School and he has been an amazing recruiter of businesses in our community and young people as well. Luis Salado Herrera thanked commissioners for the support from the City. Before Brooklynk there were no youth employment programs in the community that coordinated paid internships with private sector employers. This is the first program to do that on such a large scale in our community and it has been evident that this is filling a huge gap not just for a young people but also for our employers. My main job with Brooklynk is to coordinate the needs of our employers and also the talents and the experiences of our young people and to help develop a strong workforce going forward. Based on the data Ms. Giligan shared earlier, we were able to create a shared vision with our board of directors to: Customize the Step Up model from Minneapolis, a very successful model that serves over thousands of youth and has been in place for over eleven years now. We were able to get technical assistance from Step Up and build our program and tailor it based off what they have seen as successful with their community. Learn the costs and benefits of implementing this program. Build resources and city capacity to operate to 2017.

4 Page 4 BrookLynk was launched in February 2015 and provides youth ages 14 to 19, who live or attend school in Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park, the opportunity to start developing their personal pathways to college and career. We ensure that these pathways are developed by providing a very comprehensive work readiness training that covers 21 st century work skills, career navigation skills and essential job skills. There is an eight hour comprehensive training the youth go through and the second piece of this program is being able to coordinate those internships with our local employers. This was extremely successful for our first year. Step Up BrookLynk has three tiers and the reason we have three tiers is to be able to the meet the needs of our young people to ensure that they are well prepared going forward and when they enter the workforce they are entering at the right level. So helping young people really develop their skills throughout the program. A glimpse of who participated this past summer: We had 131 out of 234 youth that applied for the program come from Brooklyn Park. 80 youth completed the work readiness training, of that 48 came from Brooklyn Park. In our first year we had 29 youth matched to internship opportunities with our local employers. Fourteen of them were from Brooklyn Park and 12 successfully completed the program Our interns were a true reflection of our changing community and our diverse workforce that is going to be coming forward. In our first year we had nine different employers with 32 internship opportunities. The City of Brooklyn Park had students working in the Recreation and Parks Department and also in the Brooklyn Park Community Engagement Initiative. BrookLynk had employers ranging from a large set of career fields. We asked employers why they participated and they said. 1. They wanted to create talent pipelines going forward. 2. They wanted to invest and diversify their workforce. 3. They understood that the community was changing and the workforce was changing with it. 4. They want to ensure that the future workforce is prepared. 5. Also by their participation they want to remain competitive in the future.

5 Page 5 We had a wide range of internships and career fields young people were exposed to from: manufacturing, education, business administration, health science technology, law, human services, government and public administration, information technology; and public safety. Our 2016 employment outreach is going strong. We have five key partners that we are in discussions with: Boston Scientific (they were an employer this past summer), Cummins Power Generations, TopLine Federal Credit Union, Osseo Area Schools and Three Rivers Park District... These employers will bring opportunities in career fields not provided last summer. We are aiming to expand opportunities in healthcare, STEM, finance, education and parks and recreation. Ms. Giligan stated the Alliance is coordinating BrookLynk and through a grant by United Way we had a full comprehensive evaluation. Here are the highlights: 100% of our supervisors would like to participate again. 92% of supervisors had never had a high school intern before. 90% of supervisors reported that their interns met or exceeded their expectations of job responsibilities and workload. 76% of supervisors said their intern was prepared to enter the workforce. 100% of interns would recommend BrookLynk to a friend. 86% completion rate (four had to drop out due to extreme circumstances). Based off first year results and recommendations, we have identified key goals for 2016: Expand employer and youth outreach. Align local resources and build partnerships. Develop a transition plan for Status Update Kim Berggren highlighted the following: The fourth Annual Business Forward Forum was held and hosted by the Business Forward Advisory group. This year s guest speaker was Metropolitan Council Chair Adam Duininck. Staff received good feedback form the business community on the event. A CDBG ad was placed in the SunPost for a meeting this Thursday, November 12 th at 10:00 am. This is for people to come and learn about the program and how they can apply.

6 Page 6 Brooklyn Park has been officially selected for the Resilient Communities Project. The University of Minnesota will be partnering with Brooklyn Park in around 20 projects that the city will initiate in partnership with the community. Staff has been having conversations with various commissions to get input on the preferred projects and over the next couple of months will be flushing those projects out and bringing forward a revised project list that is based on the needs of today. Staff will be looking for input from the EDA on that at a future meeting. 7.3 Foreclosure Recovery Update Emily Carr highlighted the following: 5 homes currently are being rehabilitated through the program. 1 home is listed for resale. Included in your update is a summary of the most recent foreclosure and vacant numbers in the community. If the current trend continues, the city will have 163 foreclosures this year, a 12% decline from last year. The number of known vacant properties is down slightly to about 261 properties. 7.3 Metro Blue Line (Bottineau LRT) Update Emily Carr: Station Area Planning: o Wrap up Community Meeting was held November 4 th. Over 100 community members participated in the meeting and provided feedback. A copy of the presentation from the meeting was attached to the agenda packets. o The Station Area Planning Report will be completed in early 2016 by the consultants. LRT Preliminary Design: o In terms of the light rail design and engineering, the Metropolitan Council hosted a LRT open house about environmental issues on October 20 th at Hennepin Technical College. Twenty community members attended. o The Corridor Management Committee has met several times over the last month to review the revised cost estimate and revised project scope information that was recently released by the Metropolitan Council s Bottineau Project Office. o The Community Advisory Committee and the Business Advisory Committee also met several times over the last month to review that same information. A copy of the presentation was attached to the agenda packet.

7 Page 7 President Lunde announced following the EDA meeting the Council was going into the Steve Lampi Conference Room for a Council Work Session to discuss West Broadway roadway design. IV. ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned at 8:25 p.m. Respectfully Submitted EDA Secretary Theresa Freund