[0:15] okay [Music] good well good morning everybody it is

[0:23] Thursday April 10 2025 7:32 a.m and this is the meeting of the Adana Housing and

[0:29] Redevelopment Authority uh we have a somewhat shorter agenda than normal but

[0:35] uh some important work to be done this morning uh as director Benerat I think

[0:40] mentioned earlier uh that these meetings are being done on a hybrid sort of basis what that means is that people can both

[0:46] appear in the chambers or they can listen online uh in a variety of different ways and uh there'll be one

[0:53] opportunity this morning to call in uh if they have a matter of concern to them they can call in on community comment

[0:59] the information is on the screen as to the uh sequence for calling and uh if

[1:05] you have something that you want to talk to the HR about that's not on the agenda today or scheduled for a future public

[1:10] hearing uh those are the only two exceptions to your comments otherwise we welcome the comments um having provided

[1:17] that information let's call the meeting to order and um Scott Neil our executive director and city manager will call the

[1:24] role commissioner Risser here commissioner Jackson here commissioner Pierce here commissioner Agnu is absent

[1:30] chair Hland here uh next is the pledge of allegiance

[1:37] algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic

[1:42] for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for

[1:49] all thank you for that and

[1:54] um we've got a meeting agenda that was published uh both to the members of the

[1:59] HR and the general public is there anyone on the on the H that wishes to modify the agenda any form or fashion or

[2:05] from a staff standpoint is there a motion to approve the meeting agenda as published so moved second commissioner

[2:11] Jackson moves commissioner Pierce seconds the adoption of the meeting agenda is published any further discussion all those in favor of

[2:17] adoption of the meeting agenda is published say I i i opposed carried uh the meeting agenda is adopted and now we

[2:24] are at community comment um and I don't see anyone in the

[2:30] audience we've got one matter here that the folks in the audience are here on and uh do we have anybody online

[2:38] do not yet have anyone on the line because there is a short delay in the broadcast i would recommend we wait one

[2:44] minute before moving forward with the meeting my clock shows it at 7:33 i'll come back to you at 7:34 or or when I

[2:52] have a caller whichever is first all right very good

[3:58] it's now been a minute and I still don't have a caller so I think it's safe for you to move forward with the agenda all right thank you Director Benerok

[4:05] um our practice is that uh when we do have community comment the following

[4:11] meeting the executive director responds to those community comments i don't know if there were any to respond to or We didn't have any at our last H meeting

[4:17] thank you uh next is the adoption of the consent agenda there's a couple of items on the consent agenda is anyone wish to

[4:24] move the adoption of the items on the consent agenda or remove an item from the consent agenda i will move the consent agenda

[4:31] uh is there a second to that motion to adopt the items on the consent agenda in a single motion so moved all right

[4:37] commissioner Jackson moves Commissioner Pierce the adoption of the items on the consent agenda in a single motion uh any

[4:44] further discussion all those in favor of adoption of the items on the consent agenda a single motion say I i i opposed

[4:50] carried those items on the consent agenda are adopted and um we're going to

[4:57] the heart of the meeting now this morning which is in the reports and recommendations portion of the meeting and that has to do with a singular item

[5:04] we have to address this morning and that is a potential uh agreement to amend the loan agreement with the Adina Chamber of

[5:10] Commerce uh that was made during the uh COVID era and our executive our economic

[5:16] development director uh not our executive director our economic development director has this matter

[5:21] this morning Bill Newondorf bill welcome yes good morning thank you uh as you

[5:27] noted this uh proposal proposal does date back to a project that was first uh started in the discussion phase during

[5:33] the pandemic years um so the uh recommendation this morning uh is to

[5:38] approve an amendment to the loan agreement with the Adina Chamber of Commerce this loan was first uh issued

[5:46] back in uh 2022 with the intention of remodeling uh a vacant commercial space to better

[5:53] serve the needs of the business community

[5:59] oh BU was Yeah BU was on the consent okay okay sorry that's right sorry that's right

[6:05] um so I I was mentioning that this loan was first issued back in 2022 with the

[6:11] intention of remodeling a vacant commercial space to better serve the needs of the business community um uh uh

[6:18] in short uh unfortunately that pro that project was uh while it was built it was

[6:23] not able to secure sustainable funding to keep operations ongoing and the

[6:29] business innovation lab uh which was the subject of the loan primarily uh did

[6:34] close earlier this year uh we discussed that in at an earlier meeting um despite

[6:40] this setback the Chamber of Commerce does have the full intention to repay the outstanding loan balance however

[6:46] they are seeking a modific modification of the repayment terms um to avoid undue

[6:51] hardship to their ongoing operations

[6:57] i mentioned that this idea date dated back to 2020 2021 and then finally an

[7:02] agreement in 2022 um there were a number of meetings that were held uh uh to

[7:08] discuss this initial concept um as per our our typical process with these types

[7:14] of arrangements we had some early discussions um staff put together a term sheet um to see what might work for the

[7:23] chamber and what might might work for the for the HR and eventually that led to a loan

[7:28] agreement um the lab and the remodel was finished in 2023 uh and the operations

[7:36] did of the lab did begin at that point um and the the chamber still does occupy

[7:41] the space so the um uh just to make sure

[7:46] that we get that on the record um ultimately a loan of approximately

[7:51] $650,000 was issued uh repayment of that loan started in early 2024 and the

[7:58] current loan balance is $469,000 approximately

[8:04] you want to mention also the source of funds on the original loan sure the initial uh source of funds was the Adina

[8:11] Spark program which was a special program that was passed during those pandemic years whereby there was state

[8:18] legislative authority given to cities to use unallocated tiff monies that had

[8:23] already been paid by the businesses and already collected um but it was in a holding uh uh container essentially and

[8:31] that special legislation gave gave the H the authority to use those fun those

[8:36] monies to achieve two things to create jobs and to remodel or build new spaces

[8:42] so we wanted to make sure that we abided by those terms of the state

[8:47] law the um uh as we modified the loan agreement

[8:52] we we've been discussing um uh this with the chamber for several months you

[8:58] you'll recall we were here in December to get this on on your radar um the

[9:03] amendment is of course in your packet and as we negotiated that um we we tried to keep it simple to make to achieve two

[9:10] goals to make sure the loan could be repaid and to make sure that that repayment did not uh unduly hinder the

[9:19] ongoing operations and success of the chamber um so the the loan agreement um

[9:26] has eight key points in it uh number one is to make sure the loan is repaid in full um we will increase the balance due

[9:34] by about $5,000 to cover our internal legal expenses of preparing these

[9:39] agreements uh there's no change in the interest rate it's at 2% the biggest

[9:44] change is the extension of the term of the loan from 7 years to 15

[9:51] there will still be two payments each year we've jockeyed the dates of those to better align with the cash flow of

[9:58] the of the Chamber of Commerce so payments will be due in July and December the chamber still of course is

[10:05] agreeable to work in partnership with other groups and agencies to continue to promote entrepreneurship and business

[10:11] development in Adina uh since the lo loan is extended uh

[10:16] there will be a new requirement for annual reports issued to the HA so that we can track uh loan payments programs

[10:23] of the chamber etc and in case of of default of the loan the original terms still stand

[10:30] where the HA has the rights if we choose to potentially subleasase the space or

[10:36] to take a controlling interest in the space and the and the facility our legal council at DOR and

[10:43] Whitney dorsey and Whitney prepared the loan amendment and um I certainly

[10:49] recommend that the loan amendment be approved this morning we're joined by three reps from the Chamber of Commerce

[10:55] um Shelley Loberg uh the president uh Paul Moody and Mark Jessen uh past

[11:02] president and current president or past chair and current chair uh are here as well all three of those folks have uh

[11:09] are very familiar with the operations uh they were some of the strongest advocates and cheerleaders when we put

[11:16] this idea forth back in 2022 so here they're here this morning to answer any questions you may have and with that Mr

[11:22] chair I'll turn it back to you right thank you i don't know if anyone from the chamber u Miss Lberg or Mr moody or

[11:30] uh Mr justin was to comment at this point in time um with regard to the the

[11:36] the discussion that the chamber board or the vote that was taken in terms of approving okay just stand stand for

[11:43] questions if there are any yeah of course okay all right very good uh I'll then turn to my fellow commissioners to

[11:49] see if anybody has any questions about this uh Commissioner uh Risser

[11:54] um back in December when this first came before us the innovation lab was still

[12:01] part of the picture and it is no longer part of the picture and at that meeting

[12:06] it was also made very clear that Explore Dino was going to be part of the

[12:11] solution and be a an entity that contributed to paying back the loan um I

[12:19] have spent a lot of time going over information uh that I've been able to find online

[12:24] and that has been posted and I'm struck by a couple of things throughout this

[12:30] entire process um going back to 2022 um Explore Dina has not appeared to be a

[12:39] voice in this and I keep wondering why would you move your um tourism bureau

[12:44] your convention bureau from Edinburghough Park to a very expensive office space on

[12:52] Metro Boulevard it makes no sense to me um and so today as I sit here the ask on

[12:59] one hand seems very reasonable and very simple simply extend the terms however

[13:05] what I get hung up on is the statement you know the chamber intends to pay it

[13:11] back who's paying it back um how much is coming from Explore Dina um and that

[13:19] space is huge how much of the rent is Explore Dina shouldering now that um the

[13:25] innovation lab is gone so if I could get some information I think yeah I saw I I

[13:31] heard two questions in there was why the move from Edinburgh and then also the role of Adina Explore Edina in the in

[13:38] the payment of rent and the repayment of the loan so yeah Miss Loberg yeah I'm happy to comment on that um council

[13:45] member Risser um what we have done after some extended discussion with um manager

[13:52] Neil and and Bill is that um we're not actually able to directly use lodging

[13:58] tax funding in the repayment of the loan in terms of um the money coming from the

[14:05] account to you um in the in the repayment terms so um what we have done

[14:11] internally is made a very slight shift in resources um and that is covering you

[14:17] know our two main expenses that are the largest are of course rent and salaries and so because we do um have a more

[14:26] abundant um budget in lodging tax we have decided to make a shift of spending 60% of staff

[14:33] time and resources on explore edina marketing campaigns and visibility in

[14:39] the community and therefore explore edina is paying 60% of rent and salaries

[14:46] um that does allow the chamber to create

[14:52] a fund for paying the loan twice annually when I look at the original

[15:00] term sheet for back in 2022 it's stated very clearly for rent and back then it

[15:06] was $11,225 per month so that's a chunk it's probably gone up it is yeah it's more

[15:13] like 116 now okay and it stated very clearly that the lab was going to cover

[15:19] 50% of that and that the remaining 50% would be split between Explore Dina and

[15:25] so now Explore Dina is going to be shouldering not 25% and it sounds like

[15:30] it's been shouldering 50% for quite a while um that's correct the lab did not

[15:36] generate revenue to contribute to the rent payments okay and my concern is it

[15:42] is not the role of our tourism bureau to be financially supporting an enterprise

[15:50] like the Edina Innovation Lab my understanding is that

[15:55] 95% of the proceeds that come from the lodging tax have to be used for

[16:01] promoting the city as a tourist or convention center that is accurate okay

[16:07] so I'm having a really hard time with this because it sounds like those

[16:13] revenues have been and will continue to be used um for something that really how

[16:21] you how does Explore Dina benefit from having this space does it it doesn't

[16:28] really need it well first of all Explore Dina for the last decade has operated as

[16:35] a program of the Chamber of Commerce so to say that it's not part of our daily

[16:40] operations is inaccurate um it always has been for since I was hired um I was

[16:46] originally hired to launch the visitors bureau in 2014 um and at that time in

[16:52] our old space Explore Dina was also paying for half of the rent and salaries

[16:59] and maybe other people who were on the board at that time can affirm that statement but that that is not a new

[17:06] concept the visitor bureau has always paid for that portion of staff salaries

[17:12] and rent and other operational expenses in the office like our printer and our

[17:18] telephone and our internet okay and I did not intend to say that it wasn't

[17:24] part of your program just to be clear on that however um my understanding and

[17:29] going back looking at the documents when Explore Dino was founded it was very

[17:35] clear that it needed to have a board and that that board needed to be filled with

[17:42] people who were from the hospitality industry the chamber had presence and

[17:47] the city had presence and um is there represent and then at some point and

[17:53] here I have not found the document or who the body was or the individual who

[17:58] made the call that we're going to merge these boards and create one board right

[18:04] we're going to create we're only going to have one 50

[18:09] 3C6 or 501 I'm probably saying it wrong 501c We're going to have only those

[18:15] right and so um that how many members of the board

[18:21] are now from the hospitality or represent the hospitality industry currently one one and how many board

[18:28] members do you have we have 12 board members okay my biggest concern is I

[18:34] feel like and were there any members on the board representing the hospitality industry when this grant and this plan

[18:42] to move from Edinburgh was made i'm sorry that's kind of a Yeah yeah i'm

[18:49] just I want to be a little careful because I was not in the leadership position at the time that that decision

[18:54] was made um but as far as I can recall um the the chamber board and the

[19:01] explorer board were merged thoughtfully and carefully um however the main

[19:08] stakeholder if you will from the hospitality industry that has remained on the board the whole time was um a

[19:15] representative from the management company of the Weston um previously

[19:20] there were I know we had at one time the GM of Galleria on our board um we had

[19:27] some restaurant we had someone from Paris sole that was on the board um other than that it really was mainly

[19:33] business people and my impression as an employee was that that was always the

[19:38] intent was not just to flood the boards or board with hospitality

[19:45] representatives but that it still be in the interest of the entire business community um which which obviously

[19:52] includes you know retail and hospitality um and that's part of why we developed

[19:59] the Style Adina event is to really cater to the the retail community um and to

[20:06] make sure that that they continue to have um exuberant promotion throughout the year i don't have any more questions

[20:13] okay i think another thing that could be helpful in this discussion because of the concerns raised by Commissioner

[20:19] Risser would be just kind of a a backgrounding um when you think about places like Bloomington that have a

[20:26] chamber uh membership they had their own chamber for decades probably before they were

[20:32] subsumed in the regional chamber but they've always had a standalone organization the visitor and convention

[20:39] bureau uh that uh had its own independent budget and operated solely

[20:44] within the confines of the statute that dealt with this hospitality tax

[20:50] um our decision was to to blend those two to keep the cost down and to make us

[20:56] more efficient as I recall um and that was

[21:02] uh a decision made at the time we were uh forming it or you know I guess sub

[21:08] shortly thereafter uh that we entered into that industry um and then we

[21:16] thought about the lab uh being added to the picture and and I don't remember exactly what the reasons were that we

[21:22] moved from or that it was moved from Edinburgh to um the present location but

[21:29] uh we needed we need again I was not part of that decision either um I did not choose the space i did not manage

[21:36] the buildout um my promotion to this current position was done in August of

[21:42] 2023 so um it's a little bit difficult for me um and maybe some of the other

[21:49] board members can comment on other questions that that deal with the choosing of the space the management of

[21:55] the buildout because I actually was had no active participation in that the other thing over the years is that we've

[22:01] had a lot of requests uh maybe that's a broad expression but several requests

[22:08] for use of explore funds for purposes that those folks thought were

[22:14] community building in nature and it met the definitions of use of those funds

[22:19] under the statute yeah but this has been something that I think we've carefully scrutinized over the years and have

[22:25] determined the appropriate use of those funds and the way they're being used has been viewed carefully by I think our

[22:31] executive director our city manager our attorneys every time we get a request from somebody saying "How about using

[22:37] some of those explored carefully before any decision

[22:42] is made?" Yeah and I do consider that a personal expertise of mine because I've been in that particular industry around

[22:49] other colleagues and communities for over 15 years

[22:57] other questions miss Lberg yes Commissioner Jackson so Manager Newandorf said one of

[23:03] the eight points of the discussions was to promote entrepreneurship in our city

[23:08] and we're all very sad to lose innovation lab can you tell us what kind of things you're looking at and and what

[23:14] how we're going to welcome entrepreneurs into our community so um the chamber will continue to look at how we can

[23:21] share resources for businesses and part of that partnership could involve um the

[23:27] Henipin County program called Elevate which Mr newondorf is involved in and so

[23:32] um I guess from my personal point of view everything we do at the chamber elevates small businesses so we are

[23:38] already doing that um but I think what we need to do you know the intention in

[23:43] the creation of the innovation lab was to provide education um for established

[23:50] business to grow their operations and sort of reimagine how they might do them

[23:55] more efficiently um and so I think we just need to be careful that we continue

[24:01] to look at resources that are free for the business community that they may not

[24:06] be aware of and offhand I would say those two things are score and elevate um and I'm in active discussions with

[24:13] leaders in both of those organizations so that we can create abundant resources

[24:18] for businesses um and as a chamber member they'll be more aware of those so

[24:23] you know we'll be doing some outreach to try to make our membership more robust as well and are you working with any of

[24:31] the new developments coming into town we've got a commercial building coming at 7250 France and a commercial building

[24:38] coming at the former Macy's site um and over here um the developer I can't think

[24:45] of the name of them the building on Stilts Opus Opus is coming to town and that's

[24:52] going to be a commercial building as well so I I if you're not already in talks with the developers it would be

[24:57] great to have a a welcome to the businesses that are coming in those three new buildings yes absolutely so

[25:02] great okay thank you so much yeah my pleasure mr pierce thanks Mr chair um so

[25:09] I've got a handful of questions um and probably for both you and Manager Neworf

[25:16] um just to be crystal clear on where we are so the first one Mr the Newandorf if

[25:25] we don't approve the amendment then are we looking at just a default on the

[25:31] original loan those funds uh if we don't approve the amendment the

[25:38] existing loan agreement would stand um so they're not I guess we could do

[25:46] default but um under the terms of the original loan agreement they are uh pass

[25:52] due on their January payment um so that could be would need to be rectified and then also the old

[25:59] amendment mandates that they do the operations of the business lab and since

[26:05] that has been terminated that would be we'd have to remedy that um and so both

[26:11] of those could be considered defaults if we chose okay um and in my question I'm

[26:18] what I have heard so far this morning kind of talks about two things one is

[26:26] um the original structure and the agreement between explorina and the

[26:34] chamber um and so I'm really asking the question I use the term default but

[26:40] there would be some other option that um would not be advantageous for uh the HA

[26:48] or the city is what I'm really trying to get at there um and so I think you're saying yes you've looked at all of that

[26:55] and this amendment is uh one of if not what you believe to be the best option

[27:04] i recommend that this amendment move forward yes I I think it achieves the goals of both entities okay

[27:12] um and then another one for you in the um in the amendment there's the

[27:20] amortization going from 7 to 15 years why the 7 to

[27:26] 15 that's really the core um the core aspect of this amendment

[27:33] uh we've been talking with the chamber for over a year as we saw some hiccups

[27:38] happening um some things uh uh some of the revenue that we expected to come in

[27:44] was not coming in uh and we came we soon came to the realization that the the

[27:51] original loan repayment amount in such a short abbreviated time

[27:57] um could potentially endanger the s sustainability of the entire organization um the original loan

[28:04] assumed payments of about $42,000 in January and then in July and

[28:10] that was assuming that there was a revenue stream coming from the business innovation lab and that revenue stream

[28:15] was not recognized um and so in order to lessen the burden on the chamber so they

[28:22] can continue their ongoing operations the simplest way to do that it was to extend the term of repayment so under

[28:28] the new amendment the repayment amount is approximately 18,000 uh in July and

[28:34] December so it cuts their annual payments in half which allows them to still keep their ongoing operations okay

[28:42] thank you and then this last question

[28:48] um really takes into account comments from Commissioner Risser and

[28:53] Commissioner Jackson so the what we're saying is the original

[29:00] loan agreement um we need to restructure that so that it's both I think better

[29:08] for it's a better agreement for the city and the chamber and so we've looked at

[29:15] that to address those issues um the 7 to 15 years is one of the key things that

[29:21] allows us from a cash flow perspective to structure things differently um again

[29:27] more advantageous for the city and the chamber and so then my third

[29:34] question how can we ensure uh repayment and so I really like the

[29:40] questions that Commissioner Jackson asked um but I'd like to hear um what

[29:48] our plan is to increase revenue so that

[29:53] we can either accelerate repayment or ensure that we could we could meet the the new schedule

[30:00] so the shift in use of budget and resources is the key amendment for us as

[30:07] an organization uh we are a small organization it is myself and two other

[30:12] full-time um employees um at this time without additional employees I would not

[30:19] be able to add programming per se we are operating at absolute maximum capacity

[30:26] so um we will be trying to rent the Well first of all we are um housing the Adina

[30:33] Community Foundation and they are a renter and so part of our vision is to

[30:39] continue to turn our space into a community space and that means we will

[30:45] be allowing community organizations to use the space so that it's not sitting

[30:50] idle um and also we will be doing some outreach to um fill that fifth office

[30:58] with a renter that will hopefully create some income and then you know we have

[31:03] made some other I would say minor shifts which within expenses we have cut

[31:09] expenses we are looking at you know um cutting accounting expenses that was one

[31:15] that was pretty significant so as an organization we're just looking at ways to be more efficient that's really just

[31:21] basic you know cost cutting and you know some additional revenue retention okay

[31:29] thank you couple couple of additional things

[31:34] um make it clear the the lab was never a borrower it was always the chamber that

[31:40] is correct and then I think with respect to the

[31:45] conversation we've had up here today uh maybe uh you for sure and possibly board

[31:52] members as well past chairs uh existing chairs expressing a level of confidence on the repayment based upon the

[31:59] restructuring of the loan comment on that

[32:06] thank you i um Paul Moody um I was uh been on the board as board chair a

[32:13] couple years ago uh and was very involved and Shelley and I worked uh closely uh on on the budget going

[32:19] through this and doing a real analysis to see what would realistically work that's how we came up with the request

[32:25] to change this to from 7 to 15 years and we strongly believe that the the budget

[32:31] we have is achievable and that we can pay this back it is our absolute

[32:36] intention to pay this debt back and that we you know creating we don't want to come back here again we want to present

[32:42] something here i mean we we wish the lab had worked it didn't we're we've we've

[32:47] changed course here and we have a plan to to to pay this back and based on everything that we worked on and it was

[32:54] a fair amount of work and analysis it wasn't a quick back of the napkin analysis here so uh I strongly believe

[33:00] that it it can and will be paid back am I am I addressing your question

[33:06] yeah you are thank you Mr moody thank you i think that's helpful to everybody

[33:14] okay other questions all right thank you uh our current chair is

[33:22] coming up current board chair oh would you talk about the vote at the um board level too i mean pardon me talk about

[33:28] the the vote at the board level we had a meeting on Tuesday morning and we uh the

[33:34] board unanimous unanimously passed uh the support of this amended loan and so

[33:42] um everybody was in agreement and uh supported the work that Paul and Shelley

[33:47] had done uh with Bill to uh put this agreement together and so we're all on

[33:53] board but I did want to comment on Commissioner Risser's question about how

[33:59] we landed at the E because I was on the board when we were looking and we looked

[34:05] at three spots we looked at Pentagon Park we looked at a frown shoe property

[34:12] on uh 76th in France and um which wasn't too far from

[34:20] where we had already been it was like just across the street and then we looked at the E and when we looked at

[34:27] the three of them there were pluses and minuses with all three of them but I

[34:34] think there was a a a belief at that time that in order to attract

[34:39] uh people to the innovation lab um potential customers of the innovation

[34:45] lab we needed something a little more um

[34:50] techn technologically based and the E was really big on uh on technology and so

[34:58] data was what we were thinking about technology also linking that side of

[35:04] town um there's a lot of businesses over on that side uh including hospitality that

[35:12] we thought being over on the west side would help bring into the chamber and

[35:19] the hospitality industry connection with explore so I that was the logic that was

[35:26] that kind of took precedence when we were making those decisions about where to land

[35:32] um for right or for wrong that that was what we were thinking so thank you m

[35:38] thank you chairen yes commissioner Jackson yeah so a follow-up question to that the I had been in the offices in

[35:45] Edinburgh Park and they were hard to find and they were very small can you talk a little bit about why you decided to move um it it uh it it was difficult

[35:55] to get to parking was was challenging um it it wasn't it was not uh a place that

[36:05] was again to your point easy and highprofile it was kind of hidden and so

[36:13] we felt like we were tucked away in this corner and not really out and in the

[36:18] comm in the business community or the hospitality industry just kind of felt like we were landlocked in that

[36:24] particular spot and also the thought was with the E it was really convenient off

[36:30] the highway easy to easy access in and out and abundant parking and um and to

[36:37] be honest also there was the idea that we would help with this this new building by being an early tenant with

[36:45] this um renovation of the the former Regis location so we did want to be part

[36:51] of that um as well but yeah it was a it was a challenging spot where we were

[36:56] before thank you yep as I recall uh the chamber office itself was fairly small

[37:02] over there there was an adjacent conference room but that was not the chamer's conference room that was the building's conference room so to have

[37:09] the space that was necessary to even function with both explore and the chamber you you needed more space yeah

[37:17] yep that's that's true it wasn't and with what we were proposing to do with the innovation lab it was not going to

[37:23] work at all so it wasn't really working well for just the chamber and explore it

[37:29] was tight and uh so there was an increase in rent but we also knew we were going to have to take an increase

[37:34] in rent in order to have the right facility for the things that needed to be done because the previous one wasn't

[37:39] working while I've got you up here as chair uh Mr mr nounorf mentioned that you were in

[37:46] a rears on the payment of the January payment of $42,000 with the restructuring done uh will there be a

[37:54] payment made uh to cover the January payment or how do those payments fall

[37:59] uh in this particular year do you know we have budgeted now in while working on

[38:06] the amended loan we worked on our own budget simultaneously so that we're prepared to make the next payment and

[38:13] that would be the first payment would be soon july july what was that july july okay all right

[38:21] thank you yep other questions for Chair Jess okay thank

[38:29] you all right um so the uh Mr newondorf is

[38:36] recommending uh oh first of all let me say that uh Scott Neil and I serve on the board of the chamber in kind of an

[38:43] honorary capacity on Tuesday morning I was at the uh state legislature testifying on our our

[38:50] um bill that we have in place over there asking for relief on sales tax on construction materials equipment and

[38:56] supplies uh on our local option sales tax related projects manager Neil was at

[39:02] the meeting had I been at the meeting I I would have uh abstained on the vote and I think you maybe did that as well i

[39:08] did not yes make that clear so that when we talk about unanimous vote it would have excluded the two of us i was at the

[39:16] meeting i answered some questions u but remain that had that abstension so let's

[39:21] go back to the uh the motion at hand and that is a recommendation former economic development director that we approve the

[39:28] second amendment to the draw down loan agreement with the United Chamber of Commerce is there a motion to uh that

[39:33] effect so moved second commissioner Jackson moves commissioner Pierce seconds the motion to approve the second

[39:40] amendment to the draw down loan agreement with the United Chamber of Commerce any further discussion yes

[39:46] member Risser Commissioner Risser I want to say this is really probably one of the hardest votes for me because on the

[39:52] one hand we have $469,000 and u you know what is the

[39:57] right thing to do we need to get those funds back um however as I listen and I

[40:04] think about the math and I look at that 25% that Explore Dina was supposed to be

[40:12] responsible for and I look at the founding documents and how they're

[40:17] supposed to be representation from the hospitality industry and one out of 12

[40:23] really is not a lot and I also um hear and I understand the logic of saying we

[40:29] can be more efficient if we blend these two organizations but we've got statute

[40:38] 469.190 subdivision 3 it says 95% of the gross proceeds from any tax imposed um

[40:46] on the the lodging tax must be used to fund um marketing and promoting the city

[40:54] as a tourist or convention center and so I've really wrestled with this and I really feel for where we are i feel like

[41:00] we're kind of painted into a corner um one thing you know I hope we can learn

[41:06] from this we dedicated $800,000 to renovating space in a rental location

[41:13] and that was something banks wouldn't do and I really hope we never do that kind of loan again um so I I just want to say

[41:22] that this is probably the hardest vote for me um but anyhow I just wanted to get that out

[41:31] yeah thank you Commissioner Jackson so I I don't know um manager Neil whether you can answer this question or not or if it

[41:37] goes to Shelley Loberg but the chamber or the Explory Dina is still

[41:44] legally operating within its constraints on how the funds are used correct this

[41:49] they're not in in violation of the law that's that's correct we the city

[41:54] receives the funds directly from the hotel years we um take our 5% off to

[42:02] cover our admin costs for for the implementation of the tax we remit the rest of it to the chamber when when we

[42:10] have our our monthly board meetings we often discuss what's eligible and what's not eligible in terms of of costs that

[42:17] we can attribute to uh lodging tax revenue um as you might imagine this

[42:22] issue this definition gets pushed really hard all over the state um but there are

[42:28] some accepted norms within uh state government about how we spend that money and one of them is that it is acceptable

[42:34] to spend a an appropriate amount or a prata amount on on overhead costs of

[42:41] providing tourism uh related services so that's where that's where some of their

[42:46] that's how it is justified that the uh explorer Dina can use lodging funds to to share some of the operating costs but

[42:53] not all of the operating costs okay so bottom line they're operating within the

[42:58] the limits of the law yes okay thank you miss Loberg this is your area of

[43:05] expertise any Why don't you come back up here too and and reinforce that notion

[43:10] that Commissioner Jackson yeah as you read the the statute it's obviously very straightforward but the other um the

[43:17] other obvious statement as manager Neil just um eloquently expressed is that any

[43:23] visitor bureau whether it is a standalone bureau or part of another organization whether it's the city or a

[43:29] chamber of commerce um has to have operational costs and so the 95% that we

[43:36] receive is in fact lawfully being spent and annually um you are all given a

[43:43] presentation by me on the percentages of what are operational expenses versus

[43:48] marketing expenses so they are lawful yeah thanks for that supplemental

[43:53] information i think it was helpful um manager Neil any other comments no

[44:00] commissioner Risser any follow on no right all right uh we've got a motion

[44:06] and a second to approve the second amendment to the draw down agreement with the United Chamber of Commerce

[44:11] we've completed the discussions all those in favor of adoption of the motion say I i i opposed name carried the

[44:18] motion is adopted the second amendment to the draw down loan agreement with the United Chamber of Commerce is approved

[44:24] uh thank you uh executive director comments that was our only action item of the day i have no other comments for

[44:30] today all right uh H member comments anything we will be hearing tornado sirens today because it is weather

[44:38] severe weather awareness week so just um the other thing I would just note

[44:43] quickly I think this afternoon from 3:00 to 5:00 is kind of the farewell party for Stacy Stanley um so folks can uh

[44:52] should think about that as well uh anything else commissioner Jackson yes well I got to attend a movie at the

[44:59] Edina or the Minnesota St paul the SPIFF i have to think what is it's Minnesota

[45:05] St paul International Film Festival here in Edina it was super exciting to go over there and there was a greeter at

[45:11] the door and I'm so so thankful that we were able to participate in the film festival and it was a great movie too so

[45:19] thank you all right uh anyone else is there a motion to adjurnn so moved

[45:25] second commissioner Jackson moves that we adjourn and Commissioner Pierce seconds that motion any further

[45:31] discussion all those in favor of adjournment say I i i opposed

[45:36] carried the H for the city of Edina stands adjourned this Thursday April 10 2025 at 8:11 8:17

[45:45] uh a.m