All right, I'd like to call to order the Richfield Economic and Development Authority meeting of March 16th, 2026. Our first item of business tonight is to welcome new member Brett Sterssa and I believe you'll be uh administering the oath of office. >> [clears throat] >> Welcome and we welcome you to the Economic Development Authority. Thank you. All right, our next item of business is election of officers for the Richfield Economic and Development Authority. Uh tonight we'll be electing the the president, the vice president, and the secretary. Um so I will open nominations for president. I'll I'll nominate Gordon Hanson for president. Second. Are there any other nominations? Okay, all in favor of Gordon Hanson for president, say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? All right, I will open nominations for vice president. I'll nominate Sean Hayford O'Leary for vice president. Second. All right, any other nominations? All right. Um all in favor of Sean Hayford O'Leary for vice president, say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? And I will open nominations for secretary. I'll nominate Michelle Frederick. Second. Okay, any other nominations? I All in favor of Michelle Frederick for secretary, say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? All right. And uh also treasurer, I will open nominations for treasurer. I'll nominate John Young. Second. Uh any other nominations? All in favor of John Young for treasurer, say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? Okay, and nominations for uh assistant treasurer. I'll nominate Mary Bogie. Second. Any other nominations? All in favor of Mary Bogie for treasurer assistant treasurer, say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? Okay. Well, that completes our slate, I believe, of officers. Okay. Uh we will um roll call. I would note attendance or Okay. Moves us on to the open forum. Participants can share their comments in person, by voicemail, or email, and may also request to participate virtually. Uh is there anyone here tonight that would like to address the Economic Development Authority? Did anyone contact us by any other means? We received no other communication. Okay, thank you. That moves us on to approval of tonight's agenda. Is there a motion? I move approval of the agenda. Second. All right, a motion has been made and seconded to approve tonight's agenda. All in favor, say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? And that uh next will be approval of the minutes. Approval of the minutes of the regular Economic Development Authority meeting of February 17th, 2026. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Second. Okay, a motion has been made and seconded to approve the minutes. Uh all in favor, say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? Okay. Uh we have a presentation tonight for the overview of the uh Elevate Hennepin initiative. I'll turn it over to staff report. And I'm going to ask Economic Development Manager Jan Youngquist to introduce our presenter. Good evening. Thank you, President Hanson and EDA members. Um the city of Richfield, we've enjoyed um a strong partnership with Hennepin County for the last 5 years on the Elevate Hennepin initiative. Um since we do have a new EDA commissioner and Hennepin County has released information for 2025, we thought it would be great to invite Hennepin County here to do a presentation on Elevate Hennepin. So I'd like to welcome Lily Shaw. She is the Economic Development Manager for Hennepin County and she'll be providing an overview of Elevate Hennepin. Thank you, Jan. President, commissioners, congratulations, commissioner. Um my name is Lily Shaw. I'm the Economic Development Manager at Hennepin County and I look forward to sharing with you sort of the journey of Elevate Hennepin and what it offers to your small businesses. So the first thing I have to mention is that it is hard to underestimate the importance of small businesses in our community. They are the lifeblood of our community, of our economic development. In Hennepin County alone, we have over 40,000 unique establishments. Of those establishments, 90% of them have under 100 employees and 70% of them have under 10 employees. And because of that is the birth of Elevate Hennepin. Elevate Hennepin was first started in 2020, birthed out of the pandemic and out of civil unrest. And we were really fortunate enough that our board convened a diverse group of business owners to really look at what was needed by our businesses at that time and ongoing. This was a volunteer board and we were so lucky to have them. And they they came together and they had a resounding voice and said that there were three things that was needed more than anything. Businesses needed one place to be able to go for resources. They needed one-on-one advising and consulting. And they needed peer-to-peer gathering and learning. And then they went on to say and they needed with no barriers to entry and they needed at no cost. And through an investment from our board and through other county partners, we have been able to deliver that and more. We not only have offered those three things, which I'm going to talk to you about tonight, but we've also listened more and found that businesses needed somebody to help get down to what they actually needed, business navigators to clear through the clutter, and businesses also needed financial support. So what I'm going to share with you today is that we couldn't do this alone. We needed not only our board to invest in that, but also city partners. I am pleased that we have 19 city partners, including Richfield, and I have the pleasure of working with Jan quite often on delivering some of these programs that I'm going to tell you about tonight. We greatly thank you for your valued partnership. So the first thing that I mentioned that we needed was a curated hub. In developing our signature brand of Elevate Hennepin and the website you see pictured here, we wanted a vibrant and welcoming location to get information quick and resources and support and stories out there. We listened to our business leaders who told us that they needed that single online source for resources instead of wasting valuable time searching or using Google. Our online resource directory, the button right up there that says resource directory, you can take you to over 140 vetted resources that you can filter by by area of support, by interest, or by language, or by stage. There are no user accounts needed. You don't have to create a password. There's no long intakes to get the support you need. And in parallel with creating this website, we also created a newsletter that goes out twice a month. It now has almost 11,000 followers and a 45% open rate to stories, applications, and information that business owners might need immediately. Our primary program is called one-on-one advising. We contract with up to 30 advisors to help us deliver our advising and consulting support. Business owners can access up to 25 hours per advisor for no cost in over 10 areas of support. We created intake forms located on the website that take only 3 to 5 minutes to complete and they notify an advisor of their interest. Then within two business days, an advisor reaches out and starts discussing the project or the scope of work that this business owner needs. Easy, minimal time, and no barriers to entry. Our advisors are local, diverse, and experts in the area they support. Each advisor works uniquely with the business owner to create the scope of work to support that entrepreneur with seamless tactics and challenges to get them to their next step. Our 10 areas of support are access to capital, so we're working through those challenging paperworks to get your grant or your or your loan, accounting, business strategy, certification, financial management, human resources, idea stage, legal support, marketing, and technology. Various advisors under each of those areas. For example, under marketing, I have 11 different advisors and under business strategy, I have 12. We know that's a lot to remember. To sift through all of those 140 resources, to sift through all those advisors, and that's why we provide Hennepin County staff, this is Ashell McKinney and Maypa Yang, my two business navigators that will actually meet with businesses. All you have to do is schedule a quick time on the calendar, 15 to 20 minutes, Monday through Friday, 9:00 to 3:00, and they will help you sift through the advisors, give you recommendations, listen to what your pain point is, and get you to your next step. We have done over 1,900 business navigation sessions since we started business navigation in 2023. Now, I'd like to move forward and share information about our cohorts or peer-to-peer learning, which was another request that we heard businesses need. Over the past several years, we have created a suite of programs that entrepreneurs at varying stages can participate in at no cost. We work with the strongest curriculum we can find and train local facilitators to move participants forward. Our programs go from 2 days to 8 months and depending on the type of program, serves anywhere from 14 to 24 businesses per cohort. We go from idea stage in boot camp all the way up to second stage in our CEO next, helping businesses that just have an idea all the way up to businesses with over 10 employees and up to $5 million. These These um cohorts are again at no cost to a business owner, only their time and investment in learning. And they can walk out with a three to five-year strategy or plan or a three-year plan for uh for retention and attraction to incru to build their businesses and bring on new employees. In addition to our suite of programs, we continue to listen to our business owners' needs and have added the following offerings. We have an online membership with the Coven, which I hear you're getting a new Coven here in your location. So, this is the digital library of entrepreneurial curriculum and network connectivity for no cost. In addition, we have started our own digital library of short um a fast-growing list of short topical videos from our expert advisors. We have a monthly virtual 90-minute get-started program for people with just an idea that they want to test out. And we also have 90-minute master classes with a certified action access academy that focuses on certification best steps and next steps. And we also have our small business capital fund that we launched last year with our selected advisor next stage. This is to distribute small business loans and commercial ownership loans with $4.22 million investment from Hennepin County. This is with a specific focus and emphasis on low barrier financing for startups and established businesses. And most recently, our board also approved a $2 million recovery fund for Hennepin County businesses affected by Operation Metro Surge. And that application actually opens up this coming Wednesday and runs for 1 week. Through all the items I have shared, from one-on-one advising to the cohort programs and everything in between, I'd like to report that these strategies are working and we see real impacts in the business community. To date, Elevate Hennepin has served over 4,600 unique businesses, over 3,900 in one-on-one advising alone with over 61,000 hours of support. And our cohorts, led by our excellent facilitators, have graduated over 480 businesses. With the expertise of our advisors, we have facilitated the financing of $53 million, adding an estimated 1,582 jobs. In addition, we have supported the launch of over 340 businesses. In order to understand who we are serving, we review our demographics to make sure there is access for all and growth in how businesses are moving through our programs. And now to bring it a little more local, our newly created dashboard allows us to share with city partners the exact reach in their area and a list of businesses supported. A few you've actually already seen in the PowerPoint, from Happy Jolly Llamas to Open Hair Space, located here in Richfield. Elevate Hennepin advisors have supported here in Richfield over 110 businesses and over with over 1,800 hours of service. And our facilitators have generated graduated over 11 businesses from our cohort programs. In addition, advisors have facilitated the financing of over 500,000 to Richfield businesses, resulting in an estimated 71 jobs and the launch of 11 businesses. Local demographics also help us understand the communities we are reaching and the results that we are having here in your local community. We have also reached out to our business owners that we serve to make sure that the data isn't the only thing telling us how we're doing. We do two surveys per year and to ensure that our advisor are actually supplying useful and critical help to our small businesses. In our 2025 survey, we received 95% that said that they would recommend Elevate Hennepin to other entrepreneurs and 93% actually felt more confident in their business to move forward. We hear every day from our small businesses the impact Elevate Hennepin is having on the local community. And we try to go beyond the numbers and tell the stories to ensure they continue to thrive and grow. I want to encourage you to explore elevatehennepin.org or sign up for our Elevate Hennepin newsletter or read some of the stories about some of the businesses we have touched, such as Happy Jolly Llamas or Sikado with Open Hair Space. Thank you so much for your time today and I'm happy to answer any questions. Uh Commissioner Sipple. First of all, thank you. This is a very exciting um program that you have. I've I've really enjoyed hearing about it. Um can you tell us more about the impact fund? You said it was opening Wednesday and how people would go about accessing that money or applying? >> Yes. Yes, so we have uh last Tuesday was approved $2 million to support businesses that have been affected by Operation Metro Surge. That application will be open this coming Wednesday the 18th at 4:00 p.m. and will remain open until the 25th at 4:00 p.m. The application is online at elevatehennepin.org and also at Hennepin County uh economic development programs. I'll be sure to share that uh with Jan so that she can share it on. Um that is for it is specifically focused towards um businesses that have a location uh and have had income uh prior to December 1st, 2025. All of the eligibility is currently posted on our website along with um the amounts that they can get. So, it's anywhere in between $3,000 predominantly used for rent. So, you don't have to have been associated with Elevate Hennepin before. It's open for anyone? >> It's open to the entire Hennepin County. Predominately brick and mortar organizations. You don't have to own it. You can also lease the brick and mortar. Thank you. I think that'll be well appreciated. Good. All right, then any other comments or questions? Well, I guess you know, I would say that this is exciting what you're doing. I I agree with you. I small business is the lifeblood of kind of like driving our economic vitality. And I just can't help but think there's probably a lot of budding entrepreneurs out there where they've got an idea, but there's just like that certain level of expertise and you know, in the many different areas of running a business that's kind of holding them back. So, I think this program just kind of fills those gaps and I think you're serving a a really really vital need. Thank you very much. All right, any final thoughts? Well, great. Well, thank you for your presentation tonight. Thank you so much for your time. Well, that moves us to the consent calendar tonight. Um and for that I will turn it over to our staff for the report. Thank you President Hanson and members of the EDA. Tonight's consent calendar contains several separate items which are acted upon by the EDA in one motion. Once the consent calendar has been approved, the individual items and recommended actions have also been approved and no further EDA action on these items is necessary. However, any EDA Commissioner may request that an item be removed from the consent calendar and placed on the regular agenda for discussion and action. Tonight's consent calendar includes two items. One, consideration of the adoption of a resolution amending the bylaws of the EDA to adjust the order of operations. And two, consideration of resolutions designating official depositories for the Economic Development Authority for 2026 including the approval of collateral. All items listed on the consent calendar are recommended for approval. All right, is there a motion for approval of the consent calendar? I'll move approval of the consent calendar. Is there a second? Second. Okay. Motion has been made and seconded for approval of tonight's consent calendar. All in favor, say aye. Aye. >> Aye. Any opposed? We we don't have any public hearings or resolutions tonight for the meeting, but we do have an item under other business. Consider the creation of a small business resiliency program and for that I will ask for the staff report. And I will ask Economic Development Manager Jan Youngquist to present the staff report. Thank you President Hanson and EDA members. The recent federal immigration enforcement actions as part of Operation Metro Surge have resulted in serious economic impacts on local small businesses including workforce shortages, reduced foot traffic, and significant revenue loss. The impacts are particularly severe for businesses that provide goods and services to the public and are owned by or that employ immigrants or people of color. The economic disruption has ripple effects that could threaten jobs, commercial vacancy rates, and the livelihood of business owners and community members. In response, staff is proposing that the EDA establish the Small Business Resiliency Program, an emergency business assistance program to support eligible businesses that have experienced economic disruptions related to the recent federal immigration enforcement actions. The [clears throat] program is proposed to be funded with $150,000 from the EDA and would provide one-time forgivable loans equal to two months commercial rent or mortgage payments up to $10,000. Eligible businesses must have 50 or fewer FTE employees, annual revenue of 4 million or less, operate in a brick and mortar location that makes direct sales or provides services to the public, and demonstrate significant revenue loss from December 1st of 2025 to March 30th, 2026. The EDA would partner with Next Stage, a local non-profit community-based lender, to administer the program. Next Stage has experience with direct lending to small businesses and entrepreneurs, provides business advisor and technical assistance services to Richfield businesses through the Elevate Hennepin initiative, and administers funding programs for the state of Minnesota, Hennepin County, Scott County, and the City of Bloomington. Upon approval of the program, staff will work with Next Stage to develop program materials and agreements and work with the EDA attorney to prepare the forgivable loan agreement with the intent of launching the program quickly. With that, I would take any questions you may have. All right, any questions? Commissioner Hayden O'Leary. Is the loan forgiven as soon as everything is verified or is there a time period they have to remain open after receiving it? The intent is to make this easy and quick. We will prepare form that a business owner would need to complete in order for the loan to be forgiven. Okay, but it's expected that would be relatively promptly after Correct. Yep. Any additional questions or comments? Commissioner Supple. Oh, oh, excuse me. Um one question I have if um do you see the program as being administered on kind of like a first come, first served basis? Or if there are more applications than the money could be distributed to would it be a go through an evaluation process? Thank you for the question. So, there will be an application form that a business would fill out. That would be an initial look at eligibility and then within five business days they would need to provide Next Stage with additional detailed financial information. And so, it's really going to be awarded based on how quickly people get their information in. And so, it will be kind of first come, first served they have submitted the the needed information. We thought we would assess to see how this works and you know, potentially come back to you with request for more funds depending on what we see as responses for the program. Okay, thank you. Commissioner Supple. That was what my other question was is would there be a chance if we found a greater need than 150,000 that we could come back for more funds? There there are funds in the EDA budget and so if that's something that the EDA would like to do, we could come back and request additional funding. Thank you. All right, any other Commissioner How will you will you be advertising the program? How will you be letting local businesses know that this is available? Thank you. So, we will be uh sharing information through the Richfield Business Bulletin which is our e-newsletter for businesses. We will be doing kind of boots on the ground handing out of information going to businesses to to share the information. The mayor and the community development director myself have been meeting with local businesses who have been impacted and they seem to have a good network with other business owners in the community. So, we're going to take a number of different tactics to spread the word. Commissioner Supple. As a follow-up to that, when we're spreading the word about our program, are we also going to mention the Elevate Hennepin program since it's kind of happening at the same time? Yes. I was thinking of publicizing Hennepin County's program and I thought I'd wait until after tonight's meeting so I can send out a blast on on both. It'll take us a little bit of time to get agreements and documents in place, but I can let folks know about both programs and then for them to stay tuned for when ours launches. Okay, any additional questions? Okay, I guess hearing none, is there a motion? I'll move to approve the establishment of the Small Business Resiliency Program with an allocation of $150,000 in Economic Development Authority funds and authorize the execution of related agreements and program documents with Next Stage for the administration of the program. Second. All right, any final final comments? I did also want to um thank staff for launching this so quickly and also thank Next Stage. It looks like they're going to do some pro bono staff time which I really appreciate. Any additional comments? Commissioner Young. Thank you for putting this together. I I think our community is really in need after shopping at many of the local establishments and seeing very few customers over the last couple months. You know, a lot of people are hurting, so I think this is going to be a great program. Well, I just wanted to say that, you know, thank you as well for putting this together. It's a, you know, what we've gone through in the past few months has really been unprecedented and there's been a lot of lot of hurt imposed on our small businesses in the community. And I, a comment I heard someone make recently was saying that the something like this is even really more than just altruistic. It's it's really a community benefit because if our if our small businesses struggle and if they don't make it, then we have open storefronts that of course reflects upon our image as a community. Uh eventually it could maybe even lower the the tax base of some of our commercial properties, which then place the greater burden on on residential homes for property taxes. So, um it has many implications which are really important and vital to do and so I'm really pleased to see this moving forward. All right. Um motion has been made and seconded. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Okay. And that uh Okay, so then next we have our executive director's report. Thank you, President Hanson. I do not have a report this evening. Thank you. Okay. Uh EDA discussion items. Any uh any items to discuss? Commissioner Supple. I'm I wanted to thank Senator Wicklund and Representative Howard for meeting with our small business group. And also want to thank Al Tay Habon who hosted the the meeting and all of the business um owners that came to to meet with us. It was a great conversation and it was really good way to share that information with our legislators. Thank you. Okay, any other uh discussion items? I guess seeing none, we'll we'll move for a a motion for approval of claims. So moved. Second. Okay, a motion has been made and seconded for approval of the claims. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? And that does complete tonight's business and so we'll call the meeting adjourned.