02-14-2024 Workshop Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

MINUTES OF THE WORKSHOP MEETING CITY COUNCIL LITTLE CANADA, MINNESOTA FEBRUARY 14, 2024 Pursuant to due call and notice thereof a Workshop meeting of the City Council of Little Canada, Minnesota was convened on the 14th day of February, 2024 in the Conference Room of the City Center located at 515 Little Canada Road in said City. Mayor Tom Fischer called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m. and the following members of the City Council were present at roll call: ROLL CALL: In attendance were Mayor Fischer, City Council Members T. Miller, Gutierrez, Kwapick and D. Miller. Absent: None. ALSO PRESENT: City Administrator Chris Heineman, Community Relations Manager Laura Linehan and City Clerk/HR Manager Heidi Heller. EDA 101 The City Administrator explained that during the 2022 Strategic Plan update process, there was much discussion related to economic development under the strategic initiative of Maximizing our Assets to Catalyze Development. He stated one of the proposed action items was to review and redefine the scope of the Economic Development Authority (EDA) in order to maximize our existing assets and catalyze development, so tonight he will do an overview of what an EDA is and how Little Canada could choose to change it. He noted that currently in Little Canada, the full City Council also acts as the EDA. The City Administrator reviewed the primary powers of what an EDA can do, such as acquire property, receive public property, make loans, contracts, levy taxes, issue bonds, and use eminent domain. Fischer asked what restructuring or refocusing the EDA could do different that what is currently being done. The City Administrator explained that there are currently very few economic development efforts identified in the Strategic Plan, but the Council could choose to put more efforts and resources into economic development and get bigger projects done. He noted that the Council may not have the capacity to do more without some sort of additional help. The City Administrator explained that the EDA can use various funding sources to provide incentives for development projects. He stated that the Council can choose to be proactive or reactive with economic development. He anticipates an additional EDA discussion to further discuss what, if any, changes the Council may want to consider. DISCUSS LIQUOR LICENSE FEE INCREASES The City Clerk/HR Manager explained that in April 2023, the City Council had the annual discussion of increasing on -sale liquor license fees. She stated that the Council decided to hold off on any increase for another year, but requested a discussion to decide on a long-term plan for liquor license fee increases since the previous plan of using the levy percentage was no longer a good option as the levies have increased over last few years. She explained that the businesses have indicated they would rather have small increases every year rather than a random unexpected large increase.