[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] I [music] [music] feel [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> the St. Paul City Council Policy Committee to order. Roll call, please. >> Sorry. Um here um chair Kim or sorry um council member Kim >> sorry here. >> Council member Yang >> here. >> Council member Johnson [clears throat] is she excused? >> Not that I know of. >> Absent. Okay. Council member Coleman >> here. >> Council member Jo >> here. >> Council member Buouie >> here. Um, all absent except for one is um, all all present except for one absent. Six present, one absent. Thank you. Good morning everyone. We have three topics in front of us. We have 30 minutes for each. I'm going to keep us running on a pretty tight timeline because each of them is is pretty substantive. So, um, I'll turn things over for our first item to Vice President Yang. >> Thank you, Council President. I, um, am really excited for our first topic here. It's about um a discussion regarding a potential change for our council member positions to um to go full-time and also um have a salary adjustment too, which I believe are items that are long overdue. Um I do want to say thank you to my colleagues on the council here for your willingness to just engage in the conversation here for your support really for the changes that we envision for this body as a whole. This is a conversation that I've been having not only with you all but even my former colleagues and it started five years ago um really close to when I came onto the council here and I just wanted to share a bit of context that prior to me being on the council I was a former union steward when I worked at take action Minnesota did a lot of community organizing especially in fighting for labor rights for workers rights and really to improve the economic status and just conditions for workers overall that's something I care deeply about and what really brought me into community organizing work in the f first place. Knowing that even my own parents and people who look like me, who are immigrants um you know, people who are from immigrant um and refugee communities or um you know, who are just from marginalized communities, they experience so much injustices um when it comes to the workplace. And so that really spurred this interest that I had um you know over almost 10 years ago to to begin this work. And when I came into the council here, I knew that it was really important for me to to carry that spirit with me and keep fighting for our work, all workers across our city. And then I also recognized too that it was really important for us, you know, for me as a council member to be an advocate for myself, knowing that we don't have anybody who would actually have conversations about our salaries, about whether our part-time officially part-time position here, which we know is not part-time at all. and um it really would be a full-time position. Um how how important it is for us to be pushing for that and having conversations to make sure that not just our current body here but future councils who I believe will continue to be even more diverse. We'll have even younger people um serving on it and people who are growing their families similar to me too. That's the stage that I'm in in my life. um that they can continue to do this work and that they don't have to think about, hey, am I how am I going to be able to to um have bring in more income into my household if I ever get married, have more kids, how do I make sure that I do just this job alone? I can really focus on this rather than having to think about how I can get a part-time position or even some side gigs as well. Um and so to me, those are um many these are the many reasons why I started having this conversation five years ago with my colleagues at the time. Um, and I just wanted to really say thank you to um, our chief policy officer Tim who has been working really hard with my office on this. In terms of our council pod who led in the conversations here, I want to extend a my gratitude to the war two office, w five office, council president, you and council member Kim for being a part of that pod with me and recently um, we had switched you council president out for council member Johnson to be a part of the pod here. Thank you Jay as well our director our council director who's been in these conversations with me and also my staff pl legislative aids and I also want to give a special thanks to Minneapolis council members Robin Wsley and Jason Jason Chavez along with their staff who've been very instrumental in being you know being partners and just sharing with us what are they doing in Minneapolis that is much much more sustainable than us here in St. Paul. And so I really look to them as a model because I believe that they are many, many steps ahead when it comes to actually having a structure in place um and institutionalizing practices within their city government to make sure that they're having conversations and and just systems in place that allow for them to get comparable pay to city government similar to their city. And also um making sure that those adjustments are routine as well. um so that they don't have to have this conversation 20 years down the road, 15 years down the road. And so those are the things that I want to uh accomplish with this. And um I I'm the council member who's bringing this forward and and taking lead on this in partnership with um of our colleagues. And I just wanted to name like how important this is to me. Um and so I will I will save some of my comments for the very end. And there are just really really great um it's there's really great information in the presentation here. a lot of it that we again have learned um and taken in as inspiration from Minneapolis. And so uh Jay, I want to say thank you for for doing the presentation today. I know that Tim had to be out and and um for an emergency or for bereavement leave and so I I really appreciate you just willing to take on the role here doing the presentation. >> Thank you, Council President and Council members, Council Member Yang. I'm happy to be here and um it's a good segue because I do want to acknowledge uh that much of the work reflected in the presentation um was developed by by Tim Greenfield who's away this week due due to a family loss. Um but I'm happy to step in and and pinch hit for for him. Again, my name is Jay Wilms. I'm the director of council operations. Uh so the goal of today's presentation is to discuss uh three things and that's the reason for the proposed change, the status quo and legal constraints uh and then the pathway or pathways forward. And before I begin, I want to um highlight two important attachments within uh the agenda packet today. And and that's the presentation uh that we have, but also the draft legislation uh council member Yang's proposal uh that was uh prepared in coordination with our chief policy officer Tim Greenfield. And then uh the third attachment is actually an analysis which was paid for by the city of Minneapolis which evaluates the compensation of council members in peer cities um and includes St. Paul, Minneapolis and and many others. Um, and then before I begin, I'll also, you know, uh, discuss and and just make a note about my role in the process and about Tim's role in the process. And that's, you know, as staff, our role is to provide analysis, implementation considerations, and professional recommendations. Uh, we do not advocate for or against policy choices, which are ultimately the decisions of elected officials through the legislative process. Um so as you can see here uh we have uh you know discussion of of why the change is being proposed uh the legal constraints. So we'll briefly touch on state law uh a special law city charter the administrative code and then discuss the legislative pathways and then at the at the end have time for for any questions. Um so why the change? So this was identified earlier this year uh as a top priority elevated out of the policy retreat. Uh the um you know the the the basis for that is really uh an in expectation for the realities of the role. Um and I think it's important to to make one important distinction here is that council members are not uh uh you know employees in the traditional sense. Employees typically have defined work schedules, timekeeping requirements, certain assigned duties and elected officials are really accountable in a different way. They're accountable to the public uh you know through elections uh and through their their performance of their official duties. Um so the question you know really becomes not whether a council member works 20 40 60 hours a week. We we can see the gamut there. The question is whether the compensation uh established by the charter or the council is appropriate for the responsibilities of of the office. Council members, as you all know, often prefer work outside of traditional business hours, including community meetings, constituent services, uh emergency uh situations, neighborhood events, regional boards, and commissions. Um you know, many of which you have uh assignments to. And so the workload can vary significantly from week to week um and from month to month and from one council member to another. So uh for that reason many jurisdictions actually do not define the hours uh but essentially treat it as you know an elected official role with a compensation level attached to it. But I think one important distinction is that you know assigning the hours establishes an expectation. And so I think that's a key uh flag for for everyone. Um so uh the the change proposed today uh by council member Yang al uh is in designed to uh align with the expectations of constituents a commitment to the role that reflects the realities of the duties but also incentifies uh you know leadership and certain other uh additional individuals to serve. So um you know one of the the things that you all have expressed is that the workload um you know of the many assignments it it you know is significant for a city that's a first class city of this size. Um but it really is a a philosophical difference in how compensation is assigned. Uh typically, you know, we've had citizen legislatures and um you know, one view of it is that individuals should remain connected to the workforce, serve in other jobs and the community they're in and serve simply in the spirit of public service. Um the trade-off here and and I think uh you know this has also been discussed at the state legislature level is that it unintentionally narrows uh the pool of who can serve and it often you know if it is too low it it can limit uh you know who can serve to people with flexible careers uh retirement income independent wealth etc. Um and it also um you know is hard for a role like this to compete with some of the senior professional level roles within government who are often uh compensated more. Um so the philosophical difference is you know a citizen legislature uh versus you know a professional level compensation that aligns with professional level responsibilities. um you know similar to senior professional staff but also how compensation is provided in other peer governments. Um you know in terms of the complexity we all know the city com city budget including its component units is is over a billion dollars and um you know there's a number of different policy items that come through in terms of complexity um and the the role of your fiduciary duties um that are significant. In addition, council members as part-time uh elected officials uh with that expectations are also supervisors of full-time professional staff. Um and so this change in particular uh creates you know a transparent process and a way forward. Um so if we if we look at a peer uh city and I think there are two immediate peers that we could look at and one is Ramsey County and another is the city of Minneapolis both in terms of size of population but also size of budget. Um we're zeroing in on Minneapolis in this case in terms of representation. And so estimated population of city Minneapolis about 430,000 the that reduces to approximately 33,000 per ward per uh you know council member constituency. For the city of St. Paul the estimated population is about 120,000 less at 37,000 um which represents approximately 44,500 uh per ward. So very similar in population actually to many of our inner ring suburbs. So um if we pull up an additional comparison um we reflect the city of St. Paul's current salary which is in fiscal year 26 $79,400 uh and then compared to the city of Minneapolis current salary. And then the row below that looks at the mayor's compensation relative to the city of Minneapolis's mayor's compensation. Uh, one thing to note is that, you know, this is salary alone. And oftentimes when we discuss numbers, we're referring to total compensation and total compensation would include fringe benefits. So, um, you know, council members in St. Paul are defined as part-time although they are benefit eligible. So this just focuses on the salary levels. Um and so what this change specifically does and that's the language before you um which in includes uh charter language and then an administrative code change. Uh it formalizes a practice which is used by the city of Minneapolis to use a comparative compensation analysis prior to setting the compensation rate for the subsequent term of mayors and council members. Um that's another important distinction to make is that uh under the current governance framework, anything that is changed would have to be in fact in effect or take effect for the next council. It would not take effect for you all as sitting council members, but would be the next council that would see the increase. Um but it's used by this process is used by Minneapolis after each of the last three municipal elections. And um we'll go into a little bit more detail later um but that is uh you know in reference to the analysis that city of Minneapolis prepared and use that as the basis for setting salary. So this was from the um city of Minneapolis clerk's office staff developed the process of engaging an outside consultant to conduct the comparative analysis of select jurisdictions to set a baseline for what might be considered a reasonable compensation level. Um and I think there's there's two things to point out here. Uh and one of them is oftentimes uh you know it's the analysis or recommendation is provided by a third party. I think that is to provide the expertise the professional level expertise recommendations but it's also to limit you know any sort of uh perception or accusations that you know council members or other elected officials are picking their own salaries uh absent any analysis or um you know uh uh process designed around it. It's also one of the reasons why the special law is constructed that way um is to you know provide for a future council versus the current sitting council. So now we'll we'll zero in on some of the the legal constraints. Um and and there's three things that we'll talk about here and uh the first one is the special law. Uh this is a state special law by uh the state of Minnesota and the special law is important for two reasons. The first one is it allows the council to fix its own salary via the legislative process. So it gives council the authority to set salary uh for the council and the mayor. Um and then secondly, the special law governs because it prohibits that change any changes related to that to take effect during the term of office. So essentially it puts it into the future. Um the and and so that's an important uh legal constraint that you know this conversation exists within. Uh the second one is the uh city charter and uh so importantly um with regard to that the city charter defines council members as being part-time uh which I'll pause here because I think it's important to draw out the distinction that this is really establishing an expectation of part-time. However, this charter language moves independent of salary and compensation. So essentially this the weight that this is carrying is creating the expectation of a part-time council. But actually the salary can be set irrespective of whether you know this language is part-time or full-time. As you'll see in the draft, the draft uh proposes to remove the assignment of a part-time full-time, but treats it more so as an elected official with a compensation attached to it versus an an employee distinction. Um, and so then moving on to the other legal constraint, which is the administrative code. And I think there's three things to call out within the administrative code here. That's section 32.01. The first is that it sets the salaries of the elected officials. So specifically, it defines the mayor's salary and then assigns a 50% pr-rated salary to council members. I think it's consistent also with the, you know, assumption that a mayor is full-time and the council members are are part-time. So the prrated salary is 50%. Um so as you can see here the language is the annual salary of each member of the city council shall be equal to 50 uh 50% of the annual salary of the mayor as increased pursuant to part B above. So um one other thing to note too the second thing that I'll note is that it indexes salary. So as you can tell by the language that's here you know it fixes the annual salary of $60,000. Now, this language is a little bit outdated because that's not the current reality of what the mayor uh makes. Uh this was, you know, put into law, but then indexed over time. So, the current salaries uh aren't necessarily reflected in the text here, but it indexes the salary to a bargaining unit. So the language there is that the salary of the mayor shall increase by the same percentage as the percentage increase approved to the city's supervisory employees organization for the year following that January one. So this creates uh an indexing based on a bargaining units uh employee increases and links it to the supervisory employees organization. And then the third one that's also important and that calls back to that total compensation uh distinction which it allows council members to receive fringe benefits, health care uh and other benefits uh that you know other uh employees receive within the city. So again the three things it it sets the salaries of the officed officials the mayor and a 50% proration. it indexes that increase to a bargaining unit and then it makes the council uh benefits eligible. So in terms of the legal governance that we're within uh the three important you know of those three uh you know pieces the one the two that are really doing the heavy lifting are the the the special law from 1973 and uh the administrative code which which operationalizes the compensation. Um >> Jay, as we move on, I want to do a quick time check. We have a little over 10 minutes for the entire conversation and presentation. >> Okay, thank you for the time check. Um so, uh as far as the legislative pathway there, you know, we all know that there are several different ways for path several different pathways for a charter change. Uh there's a legis council initiated charter amendment process. There's a charter commission initiated amendment and then there is a citizen petition charter amendment. What we're discussing today is a council initiated uh charter amendment process. So uh the administrative code changes suggested by the chief policy officer uh it reflect striking the initial setting of the mayor's salary and percentage increase tied to the supervisory employees organization. Requires adoption of the salary by resolution with required public hearing. Increases the percentage difference between mayor and council member salaries from 50% to 70%. authorizes [clears throat] the council to include supplemental pay for council president and vice president. And then before fix an annual fixing of of the salary, the council must conduct and receive a comparative compensation analysis that measures elected official compensation across comparable jurisdictions. So simply essentially creating a basis for which to have uh a com conversation about compensation. So what that would look like uh you know for the proposed salary for council members this is FY26 even though it would not be effective this year it's for the purposes of discussion um the council members would make approximately uh 12,000 the council vice president 113,000 and the council vice president 116,000. Um so the effective date of the change as reflecting the the um the special law would be January 1st 2029 which uh would be at the start of the new term for the new calendar. It also allows an earlier date if it's authorized by special law and the state grants permission for the city to uh authorize an earlier increase. Um, one alternative pathway and this is the last slide I have is a discussion of um, the state constitution which is that any special law may be modified or superseded by a later home rule, charter or amendment applicable to the same local government unit. But this does not prevent the adoption of a subsequent law in the same subject. Essentially, there are general laws uh, passed by the state applicable to many governments. There's special law uh uh which is unique to a specific government um and not codified and uh but the home rule charter essentially you know can govern uh you know and supersede in certain instances state law um through the charter amendment process. this, you know, prioritizes the emphasis on local control within the state of Minnesota for these home rule charter cities relative to statutory cities. Um, so again, this is not a legal opinion, but it's based on a review of case law and a reading of the relevant provision. Um, again, you know, calling calling out Tim Greenfield for uh his work on this. Um, and he, you know, provided some of the research that that went into this. Um so related to this proposed charter inclusion um pursuant to the authority of the Minnesota Constitution, that's the phrase that calls out the ability. Uh it's the same uh pathway uh that applies uh for this inclusion as the repeal of of 2.01 or 2.01.1. Um and then the rest of the administrative code provisions would follow the same mechanics as above. So, um I know that was a lot to take in. Uh I can pull open the guide house study if you want to look at that comparison. It's attached to your packets and also um the charter language. >> Great. Thanks so much, Mr. Wilms. Um Vice President, do you want to frame up the conversation? >> Yeah, I will just thank you, Council President. I'll just add a few more comments to what I shared earlier. I first want to say thank you, Director Wilms, for doing such a great job walking us through the presentation. Um I wanted to highlight a few things. Uh the I I just am am really um supportive and blown away by the work that our chief policy officer Tim did do on the draft language. Wanted to share with folks that in terms of the um the the bullet point around in the future if we were to make changes a recommendation to not actually define our roles as either part-time or full-time really comes from Minneapolis and and nowhere in their code at all do they define their roles as parttime or full-time. However, recognizing that um they're they have a a a salary that is higher in range and just um you know recognizing that there's this expectation that Minneapolis council members are doing their job full-time and they are. Um and they've also shared how I mean the folks I've talked to, they're just very surprised and even constituents are very surprised to know that we are not um full-time council members either. And I know that there is um definitely a lot of enthusiasm and support for us to do that. I overall I just believe that one not only does it match the type of work that we're putting into our roles already, it does also allow for us to continue doing even more to continue serving our constituents. You all know um you know those of us in public service, we do not clock in or clock out at all. this is really a a job that we do all around the clock. And um and so um you know I believe that we are an important bridge when it comes to really making sure that we can build the type of city that we want and and ensure that we are improving the quality of life for all our residents and businesses. And so again, this is very important to me. In terms of the language, I did want to let you all know um to my knowledge, it's still in our city attorney's office for review. And so I hope we can hear back from them about it. Um, and I am very interested in making sure that that changes to um, you know, our positions, our salary. It doesn't that we don't wait till a new term for that to happen. I would really like for it to apply to this body here. You heard a bit about the special law from Director Wilms. And um, to me there's just so many ways in which St. Paul gets targeted and there are special laws that prohibit us from doing certain things that don't actually apply to other cities and this is one of them. And so I wasn't here when the many changes took place um a long time ago for this pos for this position as St. Paul council member to even go part-time. Um it used to be a full-time position. We had more legislative aids working for us as well. And so again I believe that the there are harmful ways um and well there are just very harmful ways that government has been reduced um and power from the council here has been stripped. So I would be very invested in restoring that because this is important that work that we do in partnership with um many other government bodies even the mayor too. And so um another thing I wanted to mention too is that for me the supplemental pay part is very important. At one point um in the future it won't be any of us sitting here anymore. However to me I believe in the value of rewarding folks and creating incentives for people to step into leadership roles. and they are folks who um when they take on those roles, they are obligated to take on even more additional responsibilities on top of what they're already doing for their current ward. Um and so uh to me, this part is very important. Even when I stepped into my council vice president role, there were many things that um I learned [clears throat] on the back end that I do and I and when you aren't in a position that um isn't this one or the council presidents, there's a lot of be behind the scenes work that you just don't realize happens. And so from um you know being a part of um being a part of mediation u for lawsuits and even um figuring out how we problem solve issues uh within the workplace um and also make sure that the council is moving in a direction that is aligned with our values, our shared values. um and uh finding ways to really put our work out there into the public and even more like these are additional things that we talk about um that often you know um I think folks not in the positions don't realize and again I was one of them. So, it's really been a a really exciting thrill ride for me and also a huge learning curve also um a journey that I have been just very appreciative of and has allowed for me to grow personally and so um I again um feel very strongly about that piece and it's not to me like not political at all when I think about about other workplaces folks in in leadership roles there tends to be um you know um in terms of like pay supple a supplemental pay for them or just overall they have a higher salary compared to folks who aren't in leadership positions. And I want to recognize that all of us are in leadership positions. We all, you know, um at some point servant chair roles, whether it's co-chair, whether it's the chair role itself or the vice chair roles and even serve on committees as well. Um however, I just wanted to recognize the difference in that council vice president, the council president role there. Um, and also like the in um in Minneapolis, you'll see here that they don't have supplemental pay for their council president or council vice president. Um, what I learned through my studies and just um figuring out what do other bodies of of government do when it comes to pay in Ramsey County, they do have supplemental pay for their chair. Um, and uh I would encourage for all bodies really to even consider doing supplemental pay for folks who do have those leadership roles. and I believe that we can be a model for that. >> Thanks so much, Vice President. >> Um, we have less than a minute left. I knew this was going to be really tight. I think we don't have enough time for substantive conversation about this. I think what I would say is let's invite our next speaker up to transition the slides and I would encourage folks to vice president direct their questions, comments to you afterwards as we um continue to explore this subject. And I want to thank you for your leadership in bringing it forward. Um, and I'm making a mental note that we probably should only have two topics of policy committee from now on because these are all so good and I hate to not be able to have conversation, but I want to be respectful of our other two topics. Um, so with that, we're going to transition to uh actually item three is going to come first and we'll do item two last. Um, and I'm going to turn things over to Council Member Buouie to te up. Wonderful. Good morning everyone. Thank you so much. I just want to say um thank you to Council President Rebecca Nre for allowing for this agenda item and your office with um organizing um our phenomenal speaker um Lynn Pingo um who is going to be coming up and presenting on the cultural destination area study study, excuse me. But um I could just give a little bit of some background here. Um I um had the pleasure to to work with um Lynn. she uh has her footprint in a lot of not only neighborhood studies but also with a partner with Reconnect Rond. So have a opportunity to really talk in depth around our policy and really um learn more about what the city was really good at and what we could be doing better. uh and even as a public servant like I really truly believe that investing in our cultural institutions and really thinking more so about like the pressing needs of the overall well-being of our commercial corridors but really thinking about them as more so like cultural destinations and how we can really expand on making St. Paul like the place where people come to visit to work and to live. So, I won't take too much of the time because this study is very um enriching with data and recommendations. I just truly just believe that, you know, when we invest in studies that they shouldn't just sit on a shelf, they should come alive and be presented into before the council member. So, that's why we have this uh presentation and I'll just pass it over. I see we have um Edmundo as well as Len Pigo. >> Good morning. Good morning, council member. Council uh council president. Um Lynn asked me to do a very quick uh background on how we came to this report. Uh given it was a uh city attorney uh initiated uh report. Um this this report uh was came as a result of the gateways for growth initiative which uh where we developed the journey to belonging in the twin cities um uh inclusion plan that I know you're familiar with. we've talked about many times in the past. And um from that um uh one of the recommendations from the journey to belonging was to look at our cultural destination areas and see how we might be able to develop them as drivers of economic development in the city of St. Paul and also how we might be able to help uh many of our immigrant and uh refugee entrepreneurs and small businesses uh in the in the city to be able to connect with re city resources because there's a real gap in their being able to connect and and given what the resources that were available. Um as as a result of that um recommendation, we we secured a grant from the Gateways for Growth Association for um in our Gateways for Growth initiative for $15,000 which the city attorney's office matched and then we uh engaged Lynn to do the study on the cultural destination areas cuz we needed to understand where we were at. uh the cultural destination areas have been a concept that have has been uh dealt with and worked on by the city uh since Dr. Corey was uh director of peed. Um and then there was a global initiative uh city's initiative that was uh kind of put on the shelf uh because of COVID. Um so we wanted to go back and look at what where the cultural destination areas were and get a get an idea of where we were starting. Uh we engaged Lynn and Lynn did that study. Um she's here to present uh on that study. Uh that study enga looked uh and engaged did engagement with the the leadership of the cultural destination areas um the various [clears throat] uh uh chambers and and and visitor bureaus. Uh but it also envisions doing a second phase of the study. Um that second phase would engage the the people who actually work and and have businesses in in the in the in the areas. Um we uh have are in discussions with the mayor's office about possibly uh funding that second phase uh in next year's budget. Um but we we're not we're not there yet. So just a qu So with that I'll turn it over to Lynn and and talk about the report. >> Thank you. Welcome. All right. Um, good morning council members, president and vice president. So, my name is Lyn Pingle. As most of you know me, I'm the CEO of Mackie Company and um, here I am again presenting another study that I'm excited to um, share with the council. So, I just kind of want to give a quick overview. I know you guys have the presentation as to what we were trying to achieve um, for the cultural destination area cities. Really what we wanted to do was kind of level set since Dr. of course departure from peed um it kind of got put on the shelf and we wanted to bring it back to have an understanding of what did cultural destination area mean and in meeting with the city peed um director Jimmy Lloyd and Tony Johnson um we we learned that there was some level setting that needed to happen with regards to definitions with regards to borders. So the study really um set the ground rules in terms of what does a cultural destination area truly mean and then we went ahead and identified um areas of improvement, areas of successes and basically did a SWAT analysis in terms of what the areas were experiencing and what they needed to do to move uh the needle forward. And so these are the stakeholders that we engaged with uh related to this study. chamber associations, um, tourist agencies like Visit St. Paul and Explore Minnesota. We talked to the St. Paul departments, and most importantly, we talked to the cultural destination leaders, uh, and and obviously they're listed here. And, um, just to get an in-depth understanding of what what did that truly mean. Um there was four of us who really focused on the study um mostly in Bundo and I in terms of the groundwork that happened in terms of the interviews that happened and then we went back and reverted with the with uh director Lloyd as well as Tony in terms of what did we need to do um and and so on. So we started this study back in um September of 2023 concluded about 18 months um almost two years later uh because of a lot of h things happening in in in our city. Um we looked at assessing you know what the global city initiative truly meant what the strategic plan was as it related to cultural destination areas. Then we did interviews, focus groups and analysis and then produced this report uh which is what we're presenting today. In terms of research and outreach, here's what we did. We we had eight different conversations. We had 90-minute conversations with 16 different um uh organizations and associations. And then we sent those same organizations clarifying surveys to really really get honed in on what was this joint effort and what did it really look like um in terms of definitions and and work that needs to be done. So cultural destination areas aren't new, right? They've they've existed everywhere. But what was really really um necessary was to define what kind of cultural area are you, right? And so in different um aspects all over the world, we looked at nodes, corridors, districts, and specific destination areas. And then we actually requested all of our um our cultural destination area leaders to define, hey, how do you relate now that we're grounded in the definition of what a node is, what a corridor is, uh and so on. We provided examples of what these areas look like so that um our participants uh of our survey understood exactly what it meant to be a node, a corridor and and such. We also on that last slide and let me go back. Um, we also talked about impact of of of these commercial corridors in cultural areas as it related to tourism. And you'll find that there is actually a connectivity as it relates to what we can do in these commercial corridors and tying it to the tourism aspect of it. So, um, going back to what Edmundo said with regards to Dr. Corey's work, uh, and the articles on cultural districts, these were the these were the principles, the four pillars that Dr. Cory had identified way back when, right? Catalyst of economic growth. Um what was what looked to be successful and then what are the research perspectives and support collaboration in order to elevate these cultural destination areas. And again, I won't won't dive into this. Don't know if you guys have seen the global city initiative, but it's really about the art uh the supporting artists and businesses within these commercial corridors. Um when you look at the community leaders and the infrastructure that they have built within these um areas, it it it already exists, right? And so when we look at what does the [clears throat] neighborhood look like, bless you. Um what what can we do to improve quality of life for our commercial areas as well as our our um residents? It's all in this global city initiative. So we're not reinventing the wheel. We're really just looking to see what truly existed and um what was there. So through our analysis, we identified what was successful, festivals, murals, business development, technical assistance, and cooperatives. And not all of our districts identified here um met the criteria of of what was deemed to be successful. And so I do want to point out the the areas in which we studied, right? District deloul, downtown, east side, St. Paul, Little Africa, Little Meong, Rondo, West 7th Street, and Shepard and then Westside St. Paul. Sorry, I meant to mention that earlier. And so, um, all of the areas thrive based on those five key factors, right? And when they're looking at how to celebrate diversity, how to celebrate these urban spaces, there are um a huge amount of community pride in these particular areas, in these particular commercial corridors, and we're really, really excited about what they can potentially bring because the opportunity is vast and great. So the SWAT analysis was really quite quite interesting because there's some in these conversations that I I presented to the council including wayfinding right we were just here I think a month or two ago talking about signage well in the cultural destination areas and in commercial corridors that is also emerging right so I'll hit this the the weaknesses first since I started there the cultural division there's a lack of cooperation between the different areas the seasonal fluctuation which makes it challenging for tourism to occur of course our weather doesn't help, right? Um and then the limited marketing that's available as a corridor or as a node um for these particular areas. And so when we look at countering that in our strength, we look at the heritage, the diversity, the strong community engagement, it already exists. So how do we elevate and how do we blow that up? because the opportunities clearly shows that tourism is a point of of of growth that could happen if we do some digital marketing and some cross collaborations not just within city departments but also within community uh and and such and then obviously over tourism was something that was concerned. Hey, if we're going to get massive tourism uh into these cultural areas, could that actually be bad? Well, right now because of our economy, we kind of want that, right? But we also want to put um uh barriers to make sure that it doesn't get um over tourists. Um obviously with our current political and economic climate that is definitely a threat that we need to pay attention to uh and and such. So here we are in the middle of the study and we're asking our CDA leaders, hey, how do you view yourself based on the definition set forth, right? And as you can see, there's two areas that clearly identify themselves as a district, and that is downtown and Rondo. Rondo has always been, it will continue to be, it's been there for 75 years before it was destroyed by the freeway, and it ought to continue to be a district, right? And and such. Most of the CDA leaders did identify themselves as a corridor because there is a beginning and an end to where their presence and their activities truly exist. Others they're still emerging. That's why they've referred to themselves as a node. And that's just corners of of of uh pockets and areas. Can't really call it as an area because a destination area, if you guys think about destination weddings and things like that provides a plethora of different districts that you can visit, right? When you go to Maui for instance, you can go up the mountain and go to Lai and go to Kihei. There's different areas, right? And that whole island is practically a destination. So guess what council members, the city of St. Paul can actually be a cultural destination area. Why? Because we've got districts, we've got corridors, and we've got notes. So we've got the makings of that. Okay. Um cultural boundary perspective. We won't live in this too much. This was a big topic of conversation primarily because nobody really wanted to define borders, but it's important to note that it's necessary because that's the definition of how we're we can potentially fund, right? funding sources support what does that look like depending on the district area node and size so that was a topic of conversations that for the most part the responses said hey survey the population and determine it that way that's kind of tough in St. Paul because we're 54% you know um different ethnicities that exist in our city. So key challenges that we're faced and identified by our uh com our our CDA leaders funding gaps always always always in small businesses in a study I did yesterday funding gap is always in existent business development that signage barrier once again came up wayinding issues as you guys know I'm the chair of the BRC and we have a committee called where's the donut shop and that is to truly identify how do we find all of these businesses in these pockets right tourism economics how can me connect this. They're willing to connect it to tourism. So, how can the city support in doing that? And obviously, sustainable practices, that's always a key thing. Support for immigrant-owned businesses was a resounding um message in this study, right? And we pulled this statistic here. One in three businesses in St. Paul is owned by an immigrant. That's huge. We know this, right? Uh and such, but what is the the support that the city is doing? And then the majority of these businesses do exist in these cultural commercial corridors. So the focus thing here is how can we elevate the commercial corridors in these cultural areas so that we can grow right because it it's it's very much needed. So before I jump into um the recommendations, I wanted to make sure that um the key theme I kind of alluded to it already is that the commercial corridors in these cultural destination areas is an economic driver. it can actually push economic um stability across the city of St. Paul. Uh we just have to do a few things to to garner economic growth uh and and such. And when we look at the goals and benefits of actually investing in our commercial corridors within these areas, it leads straight into the city's economic development strategy leading up to 2040. Right? So, I I want to make sure that we're cognizant of that because here are some of the city initiatives that we can actually do, right? Um an outreach. We need to put together an uh engagement sessions which is that phase two that uh Edmundo alluded to so that we can sort of organize and and and put together strategies of approach that is communityled. The CDA leaders need to lead this, right? We also need to look at codifying cultural destination areas. Why is that important? Because it puts precedence and recognition in at least the seven uh cultural destination areas that we have identified. And it's needed, right? It's needed in East St. Paul. It's needed in downtown. It's needed in Rondo. So, it it but in order for us to act as a city, we got to have these rules and ordinances in place. And so, we recommend um code the codification of cultural destination areas. The other thing that we ought to do, I know Minneapolis does it, um, Denver does it, there's several different cities that does it. We ought to have a cultural area um, liaison or an arts uh, director or something of that nature. Why? Because then they are the ones that's gathering all of this information and raising the arts and creatives, raising these cultural destination areas and and connecting them to tourism and economic strategies. And then last but not least, funding. That's it. That's all there is to say about that one because everybody knows it's all about the funding. So, um, another thing in terms of the cultural area initiatives, right? How about we create a wayfinding system, right? You guys have traveled all over the world, I'm sure, and you guys see kiosk. You press the button and it tells you where to go. You can see it at a mall. We don't have that in St. Paul, right? My conversation with Joe Spencer and um Jamie at Visit St. Paul, wouldn't it be great if everything was centered around downtown and you all directed, right? Because most downtowns redirect. That's what they do in tourism. So, why not do that, right? By local St. Paul business review council championing this. I told Assistant Mayor Nick that we need to have a by St. Paul program and we can start this in commercial corridors. We really, really can because we've got the infrastructure already in place, but they need the support. Walking tours, awesome, right? that that is another um thing that we can do. So, I'm going to close out with these two things because um I see we have like 12 minutes left, which is awesome. Um this is the budget that we proposed. Now, you guys are in budget mode and and such. And this sort of identifies and outlines how we um actualize this. My conversation um with the city was really don't just give us a vision, give us a a framework that we can actually follow, an action plan, and how much does that cost? As you guys know, I'm a strategic consultant. You can't ask a strategic consultant not come up not to come up with an action plan. So this basically gives you a playby-play in terms of how much would it cost, what should you budget as a city to sort of execute this and who should be the responsible department within the city to execute this. And so again using that strategic consultant mindset that I have, this is sort of how we framed it, right? And such. And so what is this final ask? Oh, let me go back. So it talks about codifying that costs nothing, right? It talks about streamlining the business processes and commercial corridors. You guys have already invested in commercial corridors. What if we invest in the majority of those dollars into these commercial corridors and uplifts eight different communities all at the same time, right? Creative wayfinding, that's signage. And with that, you guys know there's some policies and ordinances that needs to be changed, right? By local St. Paul program, y'all. This is this can start with a sticker program that we give to every single St. all business and we just put that on every single item that they sell. We did this in Europe, we did this in Norway, we did this in Sweden, we've done it all over, right? So, this is like the simplest baseline um that we can do and obviously funding resources is a big thing. Last thing, the city just launched their new website, right? and and everything and we have a possibility a connection that we can do a virtual marketplace for all the small businesses and we can start in our commercial corridors of our cultural destination area city uh and such. So um ticket item 756,000 that's not bad. I didn't even hit a million. So what could you guys do to influence and and and ensure that some of this investment you guys have already done the commercial corridor investment. So, what can we do to uplift and direct those resources to these cultural corridors? So, with that said, I'll open the floor to questions. >> Thank you. >> Thank you so much for the presentation and uh your enthusiasm is contagious, so it's always wonderful to have you here. Miss Buie, do you want to just open it up to questions and discussion? >> Yeah, certainly. I Well, first I just want to say I really really appreciate having a proposed budget, especially, you know, as we're always actively talking about um the budget. This really gives some tangible um u direction for us in terms of like how much it's going to cost. Um I wouldn't even say the cost, what the investment looks like. Um this is much needed investment. When I think about um especially as we're looking at a $26 million budget deficit, we have to think really differently in terms of how we're going to not only generate revenue, but like make St. call the cultural attraction of this state and also the Midwest and um um potentially, you know, ambitiously um the country. So, I'm just thinking I just want to say I appreciate this really um you know, comprehensive scope and how you also tied in what St. Paul is doing. Well, I love the walking tours. I love the virtual marketplace and also just the campaign about it. Um I wanted to just um tie in a question I had earlier with Edmundo um you know giving some background um because I would think that this really um lives uh in the department of peed but can you speak a little bit more around you know what other departments and what other areas um should be integrated into um not only just a cultural destination you know implementation but how like the city of St. Paul should be thinking differently around like restructuring of our existing infrastructure and there's no possibility for for expansion. >> Yeah. And so um I I brought in Mundo here because there's there's that element of the codification, right? And I want to make sure that he leans on that. Um when so BRC hat comes in and I sit here and go who in my room in terms of department heads should be engaged in this. You're right. It it it it lives in planning and economic development, but because we have such a huge immigrant population and and Mundo leads that for the city attorney's office, there has to be some linkage and collaboration. Maybe the actual work happens through peed, but I think the city attorney well at Mundo's department with with immigration and um and such is somewhat somewhere tied into it. At least it needs to be influencing that. The other side of this is DSI, right? We have ordinances in our signage. If we can just start there, we can bring DSI into into the room, right? I mean, I also think about Office and Finance and Budget. They keep the money, right? So, how can we bring in them into the room to convince them that this is an important line item? Again, your council has already um influenced and and put forth money for commercial corridors. So, how can we uplift those commercial corridor dollars and allocate it across the board? And that might be something that Office of Finance um management can also also do. Parks and Wreck, I mean, that's where your arts live, right? That's where all of our greenery and sustainability kind of come in. So, I to me those are the four different departments that I think we need to um engage in continuing this conversation when it is related to cultural commercial corridors. I I think in addition to the engagement in the second phase, I think we really need to look at the resources within the city because I think some of the things that are recommended are already in place and it's just a question of are our immigrant entrepreneurs don't know or aren't accessing those resources. So the question is why and figuring out how how we can connect these resources with the people who need them and and use that to to develop these these cultural destination areas. So I think a lot of this may already be in place. It's so I think that and it's across the board. I think office of financial empowerment DSI uh peed uh parks. I think I think there's there's a lot of different departments that have act resources and and programming that can be kind of brought in and kind of pulled together. So I think that's part of the phase two study that needs to be done. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you. >> Other questions or discussion? Miss Coleman, >> thank you. I really appreciate this presentation. It's really exciting. I just have a quick question about inclusion in the study. So, I noticed that on slide five with the graphic of the cultural destination areas, uh, the creative enterprise zone was included, but then it looks like the CZ wasn't included in some of the subsequent evaluations. Is that or kind of when we went through and looked at each of the cultural destinations and what what they have and don't have. >> Are we talking about this slide here, the stakeholders? And so, repeat my question again. >> Yeah, I'm just wondering about the creative enterprise zone specifically listed as cultural destination area, but then not mentioned in the rest. Yeah, and you know, we actually had a conversation post um the study because it wasn't identified in the original um recommendations by peed. And so I did talk to them afterwards to say, "Hey, that is probably something we need to drill down in our phase two because we there were already existing cultural destination of area studies that uh areas that were already identified. So we need to start at that baseline. There are others that are emerging, one being creative enterprise zone that that was not identified prior. So that's there's there's a few others that we we know are are coming. And I think um where was that? I think this one um no, this one did not have it. Um the original slide of the St. Paul Global City Initiative actually identified the emerging ones too. Uh and do you remember which ones they are? I can't recall which ones they are. >> North End. And then uh there's that little node down on at the end of West 7th Street before you go to the bridge over to the airport kind there's a couple of different restaurants and different um and I I think Little Africa kind of sees that as one of their nodes. >> Yeah. Yeah. So there there's a few others and and of course as as you know from from the state of study to where we are today there there's others um that we just need to engage right uh and such. But thank you. >> Cool. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions or discussion? >> Um, Miss Buy. >> Thank you, Council President. Um, Lind, I have another question, too. I believe this is slide 11 um for the success of St. Paul's cultural areas. Um, do you see, you know, especially understanding that this study was done um in the midst of the pandemic and now we're also um in this era where we have seen more festivals come back. Like I just um recognize that downtown doesn't have a dot for the festivals. I'm just wondering if you know what what type of like measurement we're using to actually um to to quantify in terms of if a area or if a Yeah. like a corridor, you know, uh you know >> constituted a festival. >> Yeah. Exactly. I was trying to find the word for it. >> Yeah. So this the statistics here is what current areas are doing, right? So downtown doesn't necessarily have a festival um when we sat down with them and things like that. Is that something that they want to do? Absolutely. So when we looked at this is who was doing all of it, right? Who who what areas were doing festivals, what areas were doing murals? And they voluntarily said, "Hey, we do this, this, this, and this." Uh and that's the result of of um uh of of this table. The five specific areas, festivals, murals, business development, technical assistance, and cooperatives exist nationally and internationally. And that's what's been graded or what the bar is in terms of what constitute a successful cultural area. And so when we brought these to our cultural areas here in St. Paul, they were like, "Oh yeah, we do this, this, and this." But none of them did it all the way across the board. Some got close, but not all the way across the board. So the the and this is when I look at this and when I hear the stories and reflect on the interviews, this is where I see our biggest opportunity and missed chances that we we really need to invest in because festivals, I don't want to say it's an easy thing to do because we have all the costs associated with it, but we already have a cultural grant or star grant cultural grant, right? That that that puts money into our festivals. So that seems to be like, hey, how could we get that going? business development. We're investing it in that in our commercial corridors, right? Cooperatives not so strong, but cooperatives and in um communities of color in cultural areas is a big thing um and such. And so, yeah, this is this is just that analysis there. >> Yeah. >> Well, thank you so much for the presentation. You got covered a ton of ground in a short time. Miss Buoie, thank you again for your leadership and bringing this forward. Um couple pieces of good news that I see. One is that this segus really nicely into our next presentation. So, I think we'll be able to continue the conversation in that topic. And also that since this study came out, um, as Miss Buoie eloquently said, we don't want things to gather dust. And I think intentionally or unintentionally, we actually took some very specific steps forward on your recommendations. Um, the festivals and event security credit comes to mind. The commercial corridors program, which you already mentioned, $1.4 million to hopefully advance some of these ideas directed by these organizations comes to mind. Um, and then the uh overhaul of our sign code, which would relate to both the wayfinding and the signage that we've talked about recently. So, lots of work to do, but I'm hopeful that we're taking some really positive steps. So, um, so thank you for being here and to my colleagues, I know once again we are wrapping up this one, but I hope people can direct further conversation. Miss Buoie, >> thank you again. >> Appreciate you. >> And we will try to transition, not try, we will transition to our virtual speaker who I hope is is with us. >> Does there have to be do we have to queue up? >> Do you want to start, Miss Buoie? Sure. I can start while we have time. Um, absolutely. So, our next speaker is um Robin Robinson who is a national and also locally based uh arts consultant. Uh many of you may know her. I don't want to take away from her introduction but know her from um Fox9 News. She has always just been an icon from growing up and just seeing her not only um um um in journalism but also just actively in the community creating a platform and putting a spotlight specifically on our artists and really like telling the story of like the people not only in St. Paul but throughout the Twin Cities who you know contribute to um not only our our arts and our culture but really our creative economy. So, I had invited her to give a kind of like a policy proposal and make the strong case on why St. Paul should reinstate the arts and culture director. Many of you are aware that Joe Spencer, who's the current downtown um alliance CEO, was a former arts and culture director and had held that role for about 12 years. Um he will be um presenting during the policy committee in the upcoming weeks. So, this is part one of a two-part um series of, you know, of the policy, excuse me, of the um Is she up? Okay. um two-part series of the um of um designing not only the the director role but some of the strategic plans and her giving examples particularly of how the city how she have worked with cities and um invested in like a public private partnership to really maximize some of public art programs and also some of our um you know revitalization plans as well. But I'll just take a pause here just to see. >> Sure. Uh, council president and council members. So, Miss Robinson is is here on the uh live meeting link. The control room is uh is in the process of putting her on the screen and then we can ask if she can hear us and and we can hear her. So, we'll do the sound check then. Um, but she is uh available as we can see on the screen um now. So, we can we can ask her if she can hear us. >> Great. Miss Robinson, welcome. Can you hear us? Yes. Good morning everyone. Thank you for uh letting me speak with you this morning. >> Good morning. Thanks so much for being here. Um I think Miss Buoy, you're ready to turn things over to you. >> Absolutely. >> The floor is yours. >> Well, thank you. Um it it's uh really great to to really be able to speak to you this morning and uh talk about the the fact that I've been working with Lynn and Council Person Boy over the last couple years on projects that have affected St. Paul and the St. Paul community uh with Lynn. I've been working uh with them on uh just developing the ideas for reconnecting Rondo and involving the arts community in uh the planning for uh the redevelopment of the community uh uh land bridge and with uh council person Bowie for uh the sixth and seventh world conferences on remedies to racism and uh ethnic economic uh inequalities. And so during those conversations uh uh we've always talked about uh the importance of the arts in St. Paul, the importance of arts in the Twin Cities community. Uh my work over the past 20 plus years in in the Twin Cities has really taken uh multiple uh lanes, but has uh always come back to uh the heart of the community. And so I'd like to just share a little bit of background and hopefully I can uh make this happen. And I'm not really good with meats, but I I try very hard. Uh, see, I want to share my screen. So, a little I don't know. Can you see the screen? >> Yep. Just make it full screen and we should be in presentation mode maybe. And but we're seeing it. >> Okay. Let's see if I'm doing that. >> If you just go to Yep. Perfect. >> Okay. Let me see. I want to go back a little bit to the beginning. Uh for those of you who who may not be familiar with my background, because I don't assume that everybody knows, uh the the majority of my uh time in the Twin Cities was spent uh at Fox 9 News uh where I came in as a weekend reporter, but really saw the importance of these the community uh and how it could play a really vital role uh in in shaping uh Fox 9's news program. Uh at the time, we were independent. uh we did not have affiliation and we didn't have much of an audience but I did realize that the arts community was a vital part uh of the Twin Cities and I I sought to make sure that we had a a strong part in it. The the other thing that was interesting about uh Fox 9 and not having an affiliation at the time meant we didn't have a lot of money. So it gave us the opportunity to really create programming and come up with alternative ideas for for making the programming happen when you don't have a budget. Uh the focus of my work uh uh at one point was really creating arts and culture programming and uh we created a program called the buzz uh which has had various incarnations still into this day at Fox 9. But we created the buzz with a focus completely on the Twin Cities and what the the opportunities for uh entertainment and the arts were available. Uh and we didn't critique it. We just put it out there to folks which really resonated well with a lot of the artists in the community. They really enjoyed uh uh what we were able to present and really opened their doors to us. Uh what resulted in that was because we didn't have a lot of money. Uh we didn't have money for sets, we didn't have money for music, uh we didn't have money for for pretty much anything. So I brought my furniture from my house uh in a van. Uh able to connect with uh folks in Prince's camp. His musical director uh created a score for our programming uh for about $1,000. Uh and and from there we were able to uh create relationships with many of the arts organizations whether it was the Henipin Theater Trust or the Ordway uh to make sure that they knew about our arts programming, what we were able to offer uh in terms of advertising time which was free for them at that point and and really kind of give a a a rich background of who we were and who we are as artists in in the community. It it turned out to to be such that uh many of the organizations in town when u major artists came to town to perform they had to talk to Fox 9 first and the buzz before they even hit the stage. So we developed a great deal of u uh media political strength as you might call it uh in the community and and were able to uh really wield that uh as a strong uh attraction for advertisers as well as for viewers. Uh by the time uh I left Channel 9 uh our uh arts program sign off was uh had better numbers than American Idol. So uh very proud of the fact that we made a lot happen with nothing. And from that we're able to grow uh from a uh 30 minutes 30 second segment uh to 6 minutes which is more than weather or sports got uh because of the power of of what we were able to do and bring in artists. Uh we were the first to actually get an interview with Prince uh second only to Oprah Winfrey. So we we felt very proud of our continued relationship with Prince and Paisley Park uh and as well as the the arts organization nonprofits in the community as well as individual artists from Dave Perer uh to Lizo. What also I I recognize is that you had to be in the community. Just reporting on the community uh doesn't really have the same effect uh I I think in terms of numbers for your station. If people can see uh themselves in what you're producing uh then they will gravitate towards you. One of the things I did was create Flatland Gallery. Flatland uh was a very small uh gallery, but we worked with MCAD uh CBA, College of Visual Arts at the time uh and the Walker, Mia, and all arts organizations to really bring in emerging artists, mid-career artists, uh and work to develop an underground art scene into uh a more professional art scene. Uh we uh were well received by uh National Press, Art News, El Decor, Juxosition Art, Ju Juxapose Arts uh and really launched the career of several artists that are uh doing well nationally. Uh from Edith Garcia to Kai Arn uh uh Tumba Aken was one of our first uh gallery uh uh artists as well as Luis Fitch and Satu Jones. uh we we really celebrated uh the local arts community and and not doing what uh is currently in vogue which is having massive houses dictate what art should be. The St. Paul art scene and the Minneapolis art scenes were exceptional and still are exceptional. Uh and so celebrating our own art scene really drew made people come out. uh we were able to uh help work in the creation of programs like Art World uh because we we really believed in the strength of the local arts community and and and made sure that we had great representation uh in terms of my background in media was was an ample opportunity to make sure that the artists uh got the exposure that they needed and could move on uh to uh working with galleries and major uh museums in our own community. Miss Robinson, I just want to do a quick time check. We have about 20 minutes left for your entire presentation and discussion. >> I think we we'll be on time. Okay. Uh just after leaving Channel 9, uh I did a quick turn in politics with Matt uh Intenza uh running on a hiphop ticket and also arts education and and following up with that of becoming art director at MSP International. Uh what we did again was make sure that everybody knew the strength of the arts community. We didn't want it to just be a uh a stopover for for travelers because it is a business hub. Uh many people either went on to another connection or when they got to the Twin Cities went straight to their destination uh one of the corporations in our community. What we wanted folks to do is understand who we are by the strength of our arts programming uh with arts at MSP and make sure that they saw it in the airport whether it was visual or performing arts. Uh and give them an opportunity for them to come back again and have a fuller experience and spend their money in the Twin Cities and decide when I go back on my next business trip, we want to bring the family. We want to bring my wife. We're going to do uh Rock the Garden. we're going to go to the St. Paul Jazz Festival uh to make sure that uh the artists in our community uh reap the benefits of having an airport that celebrated uh their accomplishments. Uh we worked with nonprofits uh and on many of our uh infrastructure programs like the restrooms uh which are a huge hit. I think even Gail King from CBS News made comments about how beautiful our restrooms were uh as well as the uh improvements at Terminal 2 uh for for artists. Uh we had display cases that we uh gave to uh uh uh nonprofit organizations. Uh any sales went directly to the artists uh giving uh mid-career artists opportunities to expand their uh uh their arts knowledge. Uh the if you see in the on the left hand side in the upper leftand corner of the forest square uh the flying durables were created by a jewelry designer in the Twin Cities. But I knew that his reach was greater and we were able to encourage artists to expand their uh opportunities and their knowledge in their in their field and in areas that they were interested in. Uh again, we raised $5 million for the arts community uh in in creating these programs with uh uh Alliance Architects and the senior architects at MSP airport. And that relationship I think was crucial because as they remodeled we were able to introduce arts programming, uh, art development, work with operational improvements, uh, wayfinding as you heard is always very important and and giving, uh, airports uh, an opportunity to really connect with the public, de-stress, and uh, enjoy and learn a lot more about the community as well as giving opportunities to the people in your own community. Uh the projects that we worked on were the uh C concourse uh uh arts gallery. It's a 6,000 square foot gallery as well as the signature sculpture uh uh that everybody really loves that uh was was done uh uh over a couple of years because of COVID uh from 20 uh uh 20 to 2022. uh was glad very glad to have a a hand in helping to create that uh and and and win awards uh for our airport as uh one of the 12 most beautiful terminals around the world. I was very proud of of of receiving that award uh from travel writers uh uh in about 20 2018. Uh from the airport I started uh public art consulting uh in the Twin Cities. Uh the first major project that we worked on was during the riots is the restoration of the coliseum building and involving local artists and poets uh to uh be a part of that renovation uh of the coliseum building. Uh we uh worked with 3M uh to use vinyl to wrap the building while it was under re construction to give people in the community uh messages of resilience and renaissance and to let them know that we favored uh the community over corporations coming in and changing the fabric of the community. It's a historic area. Most people didn't know that uh Lake Street uh was a corridor for the Dakota Dakota people to go to uh the uh foresting to do trade. Uh and it was also the corridor for uh much labor during World War II and connected uh with St. Paul uh and the Ford plant. Uh so it's always been an activist. It's always been a labor community. It's and I think that it was no surprise that when uh the death of George Floyd culminated in civil rights protest, it happened in in uh the Longfellow community and and so we wanted to make sure that people knew that the neighborhood was coming back and they had a part in it as well. uh and also using historic pieces uh because it is a historic building. We thought uh to to use the the the protest boards uh as a symbol of the ongoing history uh and and as a tourism draw uh to to work to bring people to the Lake Street quarter which has now turned into five miles of of beautiful murals and and creation uh that Ben Johnson with the city of Minneapolis has has been doing. We also 555 also worked on the uh crown our prince mural uh and just recently uh had overwhelming 8,000 people come out for the prince sing along. We feel that many of the projects that we work on involve the community uh and uses administration as a guide uh but allows the community to to really create their own work and to use local arts as a basis to uh strengthen what is there and and make sure that people are attracted there from all over the world. And it is a beacon uh for right now especially because of the civil and uh social justice uh uh issues that um uh the Twin Cities has been at the forefront of. Uh one of the other projects was in Fel Park uh with uh the basketball court that was just a block from uh George Floyd Square. Uh and uh Funky Grits, which is dissolved, but uh we we worked with the owner. And that's another thing I really truly enjoy is working with the owners in the community to work with artists to create something that represents their own community. Uh and uh when Funky Grids closed, we were able to take this mural because it was on uh uh canvas boards and move it to Sebastan Center so the community can still enjoy it and have reflections of itself in the community. Okay. going to and I want to move on to the next uh excuse me so to tell give you a little bit more information about 5x5. Um I ask the question always to people how do you define space and and you have to understand and has to be a place that people truly feel comfortable in uh that they feel that they are have a place that they belong in. It should also be a part that reflects the community spaces that people can go to and enjoy and know that it they're in their community for their enjoyment and their participation. Is it also a safe space? is a place that people feel that they can come and congregate uh and and feel that they uh are protected and that they are seen uh that they are not persecuted that but they are welcomed into the community uh as a vital part of it. It's also a place to create legacy and St. Paul Prit has a lot of that, has a great deal of that. And so many of the communities are already creating legacy or or legacy uh focus and and and so it becomes an opportunity to work with the community to give an idea of who they want to be. I call it emotional equity when people can buy into the community uh and uh say this is where I went to school, this is my grocery store, this is my church. uh when they can see themselves in it, they have more opportunity to create and ideulate about how they want to see the future vision for uh their communities. Engaged creativity is always a a wonderful thing. Uh and uh St. Paul has a great deal of it. uh whether uh it's in Rondo with the growing uh Rondo uh uh festivals that they have and and uh and also uh with the existing programs that they have at its uh major institutions. So uh you see the M you see the St. uh science museum, children's museum, or way uh all engage creativity and and go outside the boundaries of their their their walls uh to really bring the community in and celebrate the community uh with the community who they are uh and and uh special unique uh uh uh programming whether it is uh the winter carnival or uh Monkfest uh or uh Little Africa Fest uh places of engaged creativity uh are ones that are always going to be draws for people to to come and enjoy. Uh we believe in what you leave behind is not in what's engraved in stone monuments, but what's woven into the lives of others. And that's really what the the the the premise of 55 public art consultants. Transforming spaces that brand identity, creating a welcoming atmosphere and landmarks for navigation, opportunities for creating shared experiences, connecting cultures and history, uh creating environmental experiences, again the emotional equity and educating visitors about who we are and the region. Uh we try to make sure that we uh expose our artists and provide income for artists. uh enhance our local reputation nationally uh and refeed the city and state infrastructure. I think it's very important for us to have partnerships uh in the arts and culture community. Again, creating an engaged experience for clients and the community, strengthening regional identity, and being a resource uh a a res additional resource for the arts community. I'm going to move on from this. Okay. And to finally the conversations that I I've had with Lynn and and council person Bowie really I think ex emphasizes a need for St. Paul Arts and Culture to have a strong department that really builds on its multicultural and visual identity. Uh I think uh developing economic zones with the leaison officer gives an opportunity to share with the various cultural destination zones uh and and and work with those organiz with those communities to identify what their needs are, how they can grow their programs and how the city can be a leazison to help uh establishing a mission and goals. It's a memor memorandum of uh understanding for uh e economic development. Uh some of the ways that because uh St. Paul uh does have some economic challenges as well as challenges with downtown uh it a great way is to embed artists uh with municipal agencies. So you have creative solutions that involve arts uh and uh can actually share the wealth of resources uh whether it's planning and zoning working with parks and wrecks. Uh I think it's it's a unique opportunity to work with artists because artists uh it's been shown what through the Mcnite Foundation they work with uh various uh uh communities that are diverse. They think outside the box uh and they come up with unique ideas that that can really blend in with uh uh creating infrastructure that uh solves problems and also gives an artistic bend that gives identity to uh communities. Uh many of the things that you already have are great, but you can build on on what you have to strengthen uh arts and culture to uh really help it and protect and strengthen uh its historic assets uh and and really help uh organizations that come up with deficits uh whether it's the M the Science Museum, Children's Museum, it can increase uh uh downtown uh infrastructure uh through community events and have a dedicated sales tax that work with the cultural star program uh and create a legacy amendment as well. uh that works with historic groups uh and cultural groups and uh really gives an opportunity for uh not have to go and and and ask for outside funds but to utilize the funds that you already have, share the resources and and create and and create uh uh new ways of raising money. uh especially for I I would suggest uh making sure that you can create at least a a 1 or 1.5% public art program with funding through capital improvement budgets uh that that really fund public infrastructure. Uh that way you can do uh the art walks. That way you can uh work on uh uh uh creating art uh public art uh programs that can be established programs in the communities. Uh you can also uh create programs that allow uh unsolicited uh projects from artists in the community. If they have an idea and want to work on a project in a cooperative uh they can bring it to a public art program. uh they can take it to arts and culture board uh have it approved by the city uh and work with the city for for design fabrication and and installation of of projects that will enhance the the infrastructure. Investing in space redemption and underused space I and creative allyship is something that I I worked on as um a board chair for the M. Uh I felt that oftentimes as a small museum we were going to the well uh and going to the state and asking for arts funding more than the other arts organizations. And so I I felt that we needed to look at new ways to create partnerships, alternative resource partnerships, uh whether it was working with uh which was was the X or working with St. Paul Saints uh to be able to uh promote uh arts ideas, stations, programs where people could come in and be curators for a day uh and and really uh bring them back to downtown uh and and make them aware of all the uh arts and entertainment activities that that go on. uh and give them an opportunity to take part in it as uh almost as a player uh in what was being developed in uh uh downtown. We also uh talk to the Rotary Club quite often uh because the Rotary Club uh while they may not have funds, they they do they do have uh opportunities to do barter. Uh for example, uh the M did not have uh opportunities to to transport a lot of the artwork that they had in storage. uh it's very costly to transport artwork. We we connected with some of the business owners said, "Well, if you have a U-Haul company, a U-Haul franchise, we could use your U-Haul trucks to transport our artwork." Uh we also talked to uh the real estate uh association. Uh there are people who are snowbirds in St. Paul. Their house is not being used for six months out of the year. It could be an opportunity to bring artists in so they can have a place to stay while they are creating in the community and share shows that are being created at existing arts organization with other arts organizations that have similar or smaller budgets. So the ex exhibits are being spread throughout the community. The artists have an opportunity to stay in the community and create work. Uh and the person who owns the property gets a tax write off. Uh it also strengthening the the partnerships that you already have and and utilizing some of the partners uh that are in the community. Of course, the convention and visitors bureau is a a great ally to work with the creative enterprise zones so that way people know about them, but also working with arts at MSP again creating programming that and working with the arts at MSP programming that allows people to know what's happening in the community and that they can leave the airport and go there immediately and see what's happening. It's also an education resource. So that way you 30,000 people are going through the airport every day. As they get on another plane or they get into a car, they have a five a little five minute of a a cliff claving uh um u moment where they can turn to somebody and say, "Did you know about this about St. Paul? Did you know about uh this about Minnesota?" So now they have knowledge about the community. They are connected to it. They'll come back and utilize it again and again. Explore Minnesota film uh I think is a great ally especially if they are bringing in uh uh art uh uh funding uh from from uh uh commercial movies and uh independent movies uh that uh some of that can be reinvested in uh using locations and uh as I've been mentioning wayfinding and and no learning what communities are there having those communities featured in movies uh and working with the upper Midwest film home offices and of course Minnesota Citizens for the Arts. Um I tried to keep it as brief as possible, but you I think these are are are wonderful ideas to uh contemplate. Uh also suggested a template for an arts and culture director and arts and culture department. Uh I I think at this juncture it's important to have uh uh I I've always found it uh uh a strain to uh to to not work with a city that does not have an arts and culture department or even arts and culture representative because that is the key to really bringing in uh travel and tourism dollars, making people understand the the breath uh of of beauty and diversity of St. Paul. uh learn about the arts organizations that are there, the artists that can be worked with into the uh municipal infra uh municipal programs that can help improve the infrastructure. Uh and and thinking of new ways of creating allies that can create partnerships without uh a lot of funding, but with resources that are necessary to uh help arts communities and uh to help arts organizations. So, thank you for for letting me take the time to speak with you and just kind of give you some ideas that you can work with as you develop your arts program. >> Thank you so much, Miss Robinson. This was super informative and it does give us a lot of food for thought. Uh, so thank you. Um, we are once again completely at time. Um, so I think I would encourage thank us again to Miss Buoie for bringing this in in front of us. We do have the proposal Miss Robinson is referencing in our packets and I would encourage folks to reach out to Miss Buoie afterwards. Um and I think Miss Robinson we have your contact info too to discuss this further. So thank you so much again. Um and with that >> we are journed. >> Thank you Robin. >> Thank you. Bye everyone. >> Thank you so much.