Draft Special Meeting Minutes 05/12/2022
DRAFT SPECIAL MEETING MINUTES
Fortuna City Council
Monday, May 12, 2022 at 9:30 A.M.
621 11th Street, Fortuna
_______________________________________________________________________________________ I. CALL TO ORDER / FLAG SALUTE / ROLL CALL
Mayor Long called the meeting to order at 4:30 p.m., and led the flag salute.
Council Staff
Council Member Mike Johnson City Manager Merritt Perry
Council Member Mike Losey City Clerk, Siana Emmons
Council Member Jeremy Stanfield ABSENT Finance Director, Aaron Felmlee Mayor Pro Tem Tami Trent
Mayor Sue Long
II. ORAL COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC
There being no public comments, Mayor Long closed the public comment section.
III. DISCUSSION ITEMS
A. Fortuna Business Improvement District
City Manager Merritt Perry provided a staff report, which included background information about the Fortuna Business Improvement District (FBID) and presented options for the Council to consider is what will happened with FBID moving forward. Nervous about the insurance Certificates that FBID typically supplied for the Downtown Merchant events not being available to the merchants.
PUBLIC COMMENT:
Marilyn Strehl, Business owner and member of Fortuna Downtown Merchants – spoke in support of the FBID and spoke to how challenging it was to collect monetary contributions from other merchants for events prior to the FBID. Marilyn outlined all of the successful events that the Downtown Merchants used the FBID assessment funds for, including:
Mother’s Day Charm Walk
First Friday – art to businesses, different clientele in your business Citywide Yard Sale
Apple Harvest Festival
Trunk-or-Treat
Christmas Open House, typically partnered with Lighted truck parade Greens’ Grand Opening Celebration
Draft Special Meeting Minutes 05/12/2022
Kaylin Stainbrook, Executive Director FBID - Stated she was disappointed that the special meeting sounded like a determination for FBID. She has many ideas and is passionate about the work and her role. She thinks FBID could have more active outreach to recruit Board Members that could benefit FBID. Business to business matching so home based businesses can actively participate in core member focused events.
Doug Strehl, Business Owner - Commented on the benefit of FBID.
Racheal Henry, Senior Finance Clerk - Explained to the Council the amount of administrative work that goes into collecting the assessment fees from businesses, especially the City Wide members who do not see the direct benefit for their businesses.
Amber Woodward – Fortuna Chamber Board Member - Spoke in support of an Executive Director acting as a liaison between home based businesses and those in the core areas.
Kaylin Stainbrook, Executive Director FBID – For those members that do not feel like their businesses are being supported through the BID, she thinks there should be more events that focus on smaller and home based businesses. She doesn’t think that the Executive Director position can be successful as a part-time position.
Marilyn Strehl – Likes the idea of an FBID packet for new businesses and explained that the Downtown Merchants is a non-profit that successfully functions as a group. She spoke in support of keeping the Executive Director position.
Renee Lindsay – Fortuna Chamber CEO - The Chamber is here to help; they want to see Fortuna successful. She thought the estimated budget presented by staff was close. She really understands the gap that exists between the downtown core merchants. She thinks there needs to be a point of contact for the BID and there is concern that if the BID comes under the City’s umbrella, that point of contact could be lost. The Chamber and the BID are similar, but provide different support.
The Council provided direction to Staff to schedule a workshop to continue the discussion on what will happen regarding the BID moving forward. Council provided direction to staff to amend the regular Council meeting agenda for 05/16/2022 to include an FBID business item.
VI. ADJOURN
Mayor Pro Tem Trent moved, seconded by Council Member Johnson to adjourn the meeting at 11:14 a.m. Motion carried 5/0.
Submitted by,
Siana L. Emmons, City Clerk