Agenda Packets - 1994/05/02 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Memorandum To: Samantha Orduno,City Administrator From: Cathy Bennett,Economic Development Coordinator Date: April 27, 1994 Subject: Community Partners Program In researching retention programs for the City of Mounds View, Sarah Nelson,Executive Manager of North Metro Mayors Association and Vice President of Community Resource Partnership,presented a proposal for a comprehensive business retention program entitled"Community Partners Program". This program is part of the North Metro Business Retention and Development Commission which is made up of the following cities:New Hope,Brooklyn Park,Blaine_and Brooklyn_Center.- The Program process includes four basic components: • Data Collection: Survey of Mounds Views businesses which will provide in-depth industry data and a chance to meet with the executives to discuss, one-on-one,potential business problems,expansion needs,and resources available for business development. • Data Analysis: As part of the program,analysis on the collected data can be used by the City to identify local business needs and concerns. • Strategic Recommendations: In analyzing the data and with their experience with other north metro cities, Community Resource Partnership staff will make specific recommendations to the City to enhance the prosperity of the local business community. • Resource Utilization: Referrals to and from appropriate local,regional,state and federal programs can be made as businesses circumstances dictate. The benefits of the program are immense. Given my prior experience with retention programs,the Community Partners Program is a very complete and professional program. With my coordination,I believe the City will gain substantial credibility and positive feedback from the business community. In addition,the program costs are reasonable for the amount of time and energy a successful retention program can take. To put this in perspective,in San Diego there was a full time retention specialist whose goal was to meeting with 100 companies in one year. The retention specialist was only able,due to increased demand,to meet with 80 companies. This is due to the fact that once you begin to meet with companies,problems and opportunities are identified which goes beyond the scope of the survey process. I hope to be the critical element in the process to address the problems and capitalize on the opportunities that are identified through the program. I have attached the proposal for your review with the recommendation to implement immediately. In addition, Sarah Nelson;Earl Netwal,Project Coordinator;and Joseph Strauss,President will be available to make a presentation regarding the specifics of the program to council at the May 2, 1994 work session.