COUNCIL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES – January 26, 2023
CALL TO ORDER: The Regular meeting was called to order at 5:06 p.m.
ATTENDANCE (September 2022-July 2023):
Committee Member
Present
1/26/2023
All Meetings
Year to Date
Meetings Mandated
By Resolution
Present
Absent
Present
Absent
Mayor Salinas
Π
1 0
1 0
Council Member Andrews
Π
1 0
1 0
Council Member Zermeño
0 1
0 1
OTHERS IN ATTENDANCE:
Regina Youngblood, Assistant City Manager; Paul Nguyen, Economic Development Manager; Catherine Ralston, Economic Development Specialist; Daniel Mao, Economic Development Specialist; Suzanne Philis, Senior Secretary; Nancy Mangold, Ivan Fedorenko and Bryce Root with CSUEB, Paul Hodges.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
There were none.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING SEPTEMBER 22, 2022 A motion to approve the minutes from the September 22, 2022 Regular Meeting was made by Council Member Andrews and seconded by Mayor Salinas. The minutes were approved with Council Member Zermeño absent.
HAYWARD UPWARD ECONOMIC RECOVERY PLAN UPDATE: HAYWARD OPEN FOR BUSINESS MARKETING CAMPAIGN Economic Development Manager Paul Nguyen introduced the item noting a needs assessment found that local businesses desired marketing assistance to encourage patrons to return to brick-and-mortar shops and restaurants. Staff issued a request for proposals, he said, and selected CSU East Bay College of Business and Economics MBA students to create a series of 12 videos highlighting local brick-and-mortar businesses that suffered economic hardship but persevered through the COVID-19 pandemic. He then introduced Dr. Nancy Mangold, program lead and professor at CSUEB and Executive Director of the East Bay Small Business Development Center who gave the presentation.
Council Member Andrews said she loved that students were involved in the project and thanked staff for thinking outside the box. She asked if any other city was engaging students and encouraged staff to claim they were the first when Manager Nguyen said he didn’t know of any.
Council Member Andrews said she liked the series trailer and found it dynamic but she wondered why it had to mention how many businesses closed during the pandemic. Manager Nguyen explained that giving that number provided context for the series and how important it was for patrons to support local businesses. He noted that the individual business videos did not include any “doom and gloom” messaging.
Council Member Andrews mentioned that Tennyson Road business owners wanted property owners to start improving buildings there and she asked if there was an ad hoc committee of business owners to do the same thing for B Street. She said a pleasant shopping experience was needed and she asked what staff could do to create that starting on B Street and if any existing models would work if there were no chain stores.
Manager Nguyen said as noted on Future Meeting Topics, staff was developing a suite of programs aimed at activating downtown public spaces. He said he thought she would be pleased with their recommendations.
Manager Nguyen also noted that staff was working with a retail consultant to facilitate a tour of downtown that included a discussion of City policies that impact development. He mentioned that the same consultant was working with San Francisco on their post-pandemic downtown plan.
Council Member Andrews asked what this video series would do to activate B Street. Manager Nguyen explained that the Hayward Open for Business project represented different types of businesses from all over Hayward and not just B Street businesses. He reassured her that staff would continue to drill down on issues impacting the downtown.
CSUEB Marketing Professor Dr. Ivan Fedorenko noted that two downtown Hayward businesses, The Dirty Bird and El Gordo Tacos, were featured in the video series. He said his team was very happy to have the opportunity to work with them.
Council Member Andrews asked if the video series would address the need for public art in Hayward. Manager Nguyen said no and explained that the needs assessment given to local businesses did not include questions related to public art, but he noted that art would be targeted in other programs.
Dr. Mangold mentioned that the Downtown Hayward Improvement Association had contacted CSUEB about wrapping downtown garbage cans with artwork.
Council Member Andrews suggested students look at Miami’s downtown district for ideas and said she would love to see some data on how some of those ideas could work in Hayward.
Council Member Andrews commented that the videos would help the businesses featured, but said downtown was really hurting and needed more help. Manager Nguyen said the downtown activation programs should help.
Bryce Root, CSUEB Marketing Strategist, Small Business Advocate and SBDC Advisor, said he was really impressed with the murals in downtown Hayward, noting they added so much.
Council Member Andrews noted she’d been saying for years that artwork needed to be “Instagrammable” so people come to take a picture and then stay for a cup of coffee. She said she didn’t want to pour money into temporary solutions but preferred something that would keep people coming back.
Mayor Salinas said the videos were great and that he was exceptionally pleased that CSUEB was engaged with City staff to produce them. He thanked representatives and said he also appreciated that they were looking for grant funding for future projects. The trailer was high quality and professional, he said, and set a standard moving forward.
Mayor Salinas said Hayward had a great track record of being able to bring folks to downtown and the video series would enhance that. He said he didn’t want to minimize the work done on the project but staff still needed to reach out and crack the nut to bring more new businesses to downtown. He said the property owners were part of the problem, but he wanted to know what staff was planning to get more retail downtown. Mayor Salinas said now that one of the copy centers closed at the gateway to B Street, there was a great opportunity to frame up downtown in a way that businesses would know that we wanted them there. He asked what the City was investing in to get aggressively outreach retail businesses.
Mayor Salinas said he agreed with Council Member Andrews that the City needed “Instagrammable” artwork in downtown. He asked staff to imagine having something like the big CSUEB sign downtown. He said the City needed to invest and install public art. He encouraged staff to continue to work with downtown building owners to fill vacancies.
Mayor Salinas thanked CSUEB staff and students for their work and said he would tout the series to the university president.
HAYWARD UPWARD ECONOMIC RECOVERY PLAN UPDATE: TOGETHER FOR HAYWARD E-GIFT CARD PROGRAM Economic Development Manager Nguyen introduced Economic Development Specialist Catherine Ralston who gave the presentation.
Mayor Salinas commented that both topics on the agenda were positive economic development items that clearly demonstrated that when staff focuses on promoting local businesses, especially with a partner, the outcome was successful.
Mayor Salinas continued saying that everyone he spoke to about the gift card program gave great reviews and responses. Not one bad comment, he said. If more money becomes available, Mayor Salinas said he would like to see seasonal promotions throughout the year. He thanked staff for developing the program and asked if the Division had enough staffing to do seasonal gift card promotions.
Manager Nguyen explained that now that the program was up and running, it would be minimal in terms of effort to offer future promotions.
Council Member Andrews said as long as customers didn’t get fatigued, she would like to see future promotions at Mother’s and Father’s Day as well as Valentine’s Day to help restaurants. She said she couldn’t believe how well some stores did. At the Brick by Brick Lego store, she said, customers were coming from all over to use their gift cards. Council Member Andrews said the use of social media to promote the program had a big impact on sales.
Council Member Andrews suggested coupling the program with public art by blowing up a huge gift card and putting it downtown. She said she would love to see Hayward promotions and ads get even bigger. She acknowledged this program was advertised very well.
Manager Nguyen said he heard her loud and clear about incorporating public art and reiterated that from a staffing viewpoint the impact on staff was low. He pointed out, however, that funding had come from the American Rescue Plan so he would have to find a budget to offer gift card matching funds again.
Council Member Andrews suggested outreaching the East Bay Building Alliance or asking big businesses to contribute to a fund to help small businesses. Manager Nguyen said staff could start exploring those options.
Economic Development Manager Nguyen said he wanted to highlight two aspects of the gift card program from an equity point of view. First, he explained that when staff outreached businesses using only email addresses from our business license database, only 35 businesses signed up. But when staff went door to door promoting the program, over 100 signed up; more than any other city running a gift card program. He also noted that a point-of-sale was offered at the same time to businesses that previously were cash only or used an antiquated system. This was a game changer for businesses he said because now they could sell more, faster and it was easier for patrons to tip.
Council Member Andrews imagined the positive impact of having one industrial business give out gift cards to employees and/or customers as thank-you gifts. Manager Nguyen said that angle was a major part of the promotional campaign. Specialist Ralston mentioned several organizations purchased gift cards (and received matching bonus cards) for volunteers because they couldn’t hold parties to thank them because of COVID.
FUTURE MEETING TOPICS AS OF JANUARY 26, 2023
Economic Development Manager Nguyen reviewed upcoming meeting topics.
Mayor Salinas said he would like property owners to be included in the tour of downtown vacant properties. Manager Nguyen said staff would invite them.
Manager Nguyen said in an effort to fill vacant properties in downtown, staff would be providing technical assistance to any future tenants. He also noted that Code Enforcement staff would join the tour. Mayor Salinas said he would reach out after the meeting to discuss how to encourage property owners to participate in the tour.
COMMITTEE MEMBER/STAFF ANNOUNCEMENTS AND REFERRALS
Mayor Salinas asked staff to poll members for a better meeting time for future CEDC meetings. Council Member Andrews agreed that evenings were tough for her.
Council Member Andrews asked what the City could do to get one piece of public art into the downtown. Manager Nguyen said staff would explore and bring it back some options as a staff report.
Economic Development Specialist Daniel Mao provided a Retail Round up of recently opened businesses both downtown and throughout the City. He mentioned the incredible story of Max’s Cakes, which just opened on B Street, was featured on KPIX and a number of printed news outlets Council Member Andrews congratulated Mr. Nguyen for his promotion to Chief Economic Development Officer. Members..
ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 6:26 p.m.
Hayward Council Economic Development Committee
Regular Meeting Minutes
January 26, 2023
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