10-19-2011 ECC MIN - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 3 Energy City Commission Minutes Octobez ]9, 2011 The EDA may not be sponsoring this year. Discussion followed regarding the River's Edge group, the prize for the winner, and a potential contest with students. 6. Project Conserve Phase II and III Update The staff memo was discussed. The plan is to follow the Pilot project people for three years to determine whether goals are being met or not. ERMU (Elk River Municipal Utilities) staff is working on that now. 7. City Council Meeting Discussion Discussion of how to incorporate the City's Brand into Energy City started this topic. Comments received: • the City Council is missing the impact of having foreign tours because a LOT of companies would pay many marketing dollars to be able to make that claim, • the foreign tours are priceless with regard to economic development, • two areas needed when moving forward are awareness (even those who support Energy City don't know what we do) and leadership (by commissioners), • can the public be invited to the Commission meetings? (yes) If so, how would a resident know? (meetings are posted on the website, at City Hall, and through Energy City), and • there is a need to quantify things for substantive answers when asked. Mr. Wilfahrt commented that social media needs to be used extensively, especially regarding the tours. Press releases are great tools as well. Commissioner Setterholm stated that the Energy City Commission is a commission BY Elk River, FOR Elk River. He is in a supporting role of Energy City and its vision through Centerpoint Energy. It is up to Elk River to make Energy City a priority. In his opinion, leadership should be coming from Elk River residents. Commissioner Sayler concurred with Commissioner Setterholm, stating that as far as the idea of the utilities contributing $3,500 each toward Energy City, Connexus does not see the value and cannot step into politics. He stressed that his position is an advisory role. Commissioner Setterholm agreed with Commissioner Sayler's comments as well. Further comments were offered that stressed "ownership" of Energy City and that it's not appropriate to ask supporters to pay for a program. The mission and vision need to be articulated. Ways to lower costs and quantify results need to be discussed and developed. Commissioner Sayler left the meeting at 10:32 a.m. Staff time is the biggest part of the budget. A suggestion to link the Energy City Commission more to the Energy Expo was offered. Using the brand 'Powered by Nature' will be important. A request to show where we have come from, regarding a timeline and history was made. Finally, a discussion with a "SWOT" (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, etc) analysis was recommended.