10/26/1987 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ms. Wooten said the strategies in the "Special Events" section of Chapter 3 have the objective of creating events and opportunities for convention and e tourist activity. Ms. Bascom said local events promote the covention and tourism many industries. Referring to the second strategy in the "Business Assistance/Job Retention" section of Chapter 3 (page 17), Mayor Obie said the City should not continue the Business Contact Program under its present basis. He said it did not make sense to pay the Chamber of Commerce to do something it should be doing anyway. He said that if the chamber does not want to do this, the City should assume the responsibility by itself. Mr. Bennett said the money being spent on the Business Contact Program is needed for other things. Mr. Bennett reiterated the point made by Mr. Miller that the draft plan includes almost everything. He sa i d that because the City I S funds are limited, priorities need to be set so that the plan focuses on the activities with the greatest economic development potential. Mr. Holmer agreed, adding, however, that the plan should be more comprehensive at this stage in order to allow the public to comment on all of the possible options; during and after public input, priorities can be established. Mayor Obie said the Business Assistance Team seems to have varied somewhat from its initial course of assisting and being an advocate for businesses in e the permit processing area. Eugene Development Department Director Abe Farkas said this was true. He said the Permit and Information Center (PIC) has grown over the last few years and there are more staff members who can assist in the permit processing area. Mayor Obie said that although he recognizes some of the difficulties it creates within the City bureaucracy, this is the single greatest value of the Business Assistance Team. F. Chapter 4: Into the Future--Eugene as a Regional Center Ms. Ehrman referred to the second strategy in Chapter 4, which called for exploring the possibility of creating a nonprofit economi c development corporation for the purpose of expanding the development assistance available in the community. In response to a question from her, Mr. Farkas said the Metro Partnership is a recruitment entity, not a development entity. He said this strategy envisioned the creation of a true development corporation. He sa i d that in severa 1 cities, such corporations have successfully acquired land, constructed speculative buildings, managed them, and leased the space to tenants. Mr. Bennett said one often hears complaints about not being able to get private developers to do the speculative building and risk taking to create an environment for economic development. He said that if the private sector is not doing this, the risks must be too high. He said that if the public sector enters this business, it needs to be fully aware that it will be taking risks that the private sector has not been willing to take. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 26, 1987 Page 7