Economic Development and Housing Subcommittee Meeting - September 11, 2024
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Economic Development and Housing Subcommittee Meeting - September 11, 2024
The Economic Development and Housing Subcommittee of the Phoenix City Council met on September 11, 2024, to discuss and take action on several items including a Head Start orientation, an update on the Mobile Career Unit, a trade office report, a venture cafe sponsorship renewal, and a bioscience strategic initiative. The meeting began with a moment of silence honoring the 23rd anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks. All actions were approved unanimously.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of minutes from the previous meeting.
- Consent actions items 2 through 8, approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Missy Pruitt, founder of Arizona's first cat cafe, addressed the subcommittee regarding the cat overpopulation crisis in Maricopa County. She stated that over 500,000 cats roam the streets and called for community education and government support. She referenced a hoarding situation from the previous year and expressed her intention to attend meetings regularly to advocate for change.
Discussion Items
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Head Start Governing Board Orientation: Presented by Deputy City Manager Gina Montez, Human Services Director Jacqueline Edwards, and Deputy Human Services Director Patricia Kirkland. The Human Services Department receives over $43 million annually to serve 2,209 children through eight educational service providers. Eligibility criteria include income at or below 100% of the federal poverty level (e.g., $31,200 per year for a family of four), as well as automatic eligibility for families experiencing homelessness, children in foster care, and families receiving public assistance like SNAP. The program operates on a five-year grant cycle beginning fiscal year 2025. Subcommittee members expressed gratitude and inquired about the waiting list; the department confirmed that a waiting list is required and changes daily, but the exact number was not provided.
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Mobile Career Unit Update: Presented by Chris Mackey, Director of Community and Economic Development, and Deb Furlong, Business and Workforce Program Manager. The unit was created through a Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayor's Global Challenge award in 2021, with Phoenix being one of 15 winners globally (only four in the U.S.). The unit hosts hiring events that connect employers with qualified candidates, offering on-the-spot contingent offers. Results to date: 701 job seekers, 439 interviews, and over 260 contingent job offers. The original goal of 207 hires by June 2025 was exceeded in June 2024 with 233 hires, prompting a new goal of 425 hires by June 2025. A new RV unit will arrive on September 18, with a ribbon cutting on October 24. Success stories were shared, including a new immigrant who secured a job at the airport with childcare support and a young mother who got a job at Starbucks with tuition assistance. Councilmembers asked about data tracking and industry success; the team noted that early adopters were in the service sector but are now expanding to advanced manufacturing and other high-wage industries. The city's mapping tool (Arc GIS) is being used to target marketing based on census data such as poverty, veterans, and internet access.
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Phoenix Hermosillo Trade Office Results and Funding Authorization: Presented by Chris Mackey and Juan Batres. Mexico is Arizona's top trading partner with $19.8 billion in trade in 2023, representing 27.6% of Arizona's total trade. The trade office in Hermosillo has been operating since 2017, with a current contract awarded to Scuba Phoenix and Arizona LLC. In FY23-24, the office assisted 294 new companies (a 60% increase from the prior year), of which 90% were looking to develop business in Phoenix. Five companies incorporated in Arizona, and four physically located operations in Phoenix. The office also launched a Supply Chain Sourcing North America Services program. The subcommittee approved a motion to replace three one-year extensions with a single three-year contract extension totaling $510,000 (an increase from $140,000/year to $170,000/year) to fund additional staffing and expanded activities across Mexico. The motion passed unanimously.
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Venture Cafe Events Programming Sponsorship: Presented by Chris Mackey and Claudia Whitehead. Venture Cafe Phoenix launched in 2022 with city sponsorship and has become the fastest-growing venture cafe in the global network. To date, there have been 111 Thursday gatherings with over 14,000 attendees, 807 sessions, and more than 400 speakers. The program is free to the public. The subcommittee approved a three-year sponsorship renewal of $50,000 per year (total $150,000), funded from the genomics fund (rent from tenants on the Phoenix Bioscience Core campus). The motion passed unanimously.
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Bioscience Healthcare Strategic Initiative: Presented by Claudia Whitehead and Chris Mackey. Since the initiative's launch in 2019, Phoenix has seen over $4.2 billion in new capital investment, 6.2 million square feet of new primary facilities, and more than 11,000 new jobs. The average wage in bioscience R&D exceeds $90,000. Phoenix is ranked top five in the U.S. for emerging life science markets and number one in life science job growth (8.5% growth rate). At Bio International 2024 in San Diego, Phoenix had its largest delegation with 60 delegates, over 400 meetings, and 160+ partnership opportunities. The subcommittee approved $110,000 in funding ($95,000 for the Bio International pavilion sponsorship and $15,000 for AZ Bio membership), again from the genomics fund with no general fund impact. The motion passed unanimously.
Key Outcomes
- Unanimous approval of minutes and consent items.
- Unanimous approval of the three-year contract extension for the Phoenix Hermosillo Trade Office ($510,000 total).
- Unanimous approval of the three-year Venture Cafe sponsorship ($150,000 total).
- Unanimous approval of the Bioscience Healthcare Strategic Initiative funding ($110,000).
- Public comment received; no formal action taken.
Meeting Transcript
Good morning and welcome to the economic and develop economic development and housing subcommittee. I'd like to call to order the meeting on Wednesday, September 11th, 2024. And before we begin our normal um subcommittee business, I would like us all to take a moment of silence and remembrance of the terrible tragedy that struck the United States twenty-three years ago. If you'd please join me. Thank you so much, sir. And now we will um allow our interpreter, Elsie Duarte, to introduce herself. Thank you, Madam Chair. Hello, my name is Elsie Duarte, and I will be servicing as Spanish interpreter for today's economic development and housing subcommittee session. I will now take a moment to introduce myself to our Spanish speaking audience and review some guidelines. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you so much. And our first order of business will be a call to public. If you were to say sell a parking pass, that would allow you to park however often you want downtown for say maybe a thousand dollars a piece, and you sold 500 or a thousand of them. It's just a drop in the bucket of you know, city bills, but um, you know, it would be something. And then uh given the day, I would just like to uh thank all our first responders. Um I'd like to point out that when uh two planes cross into the World Trade Center. Um I don't think anybody was complaining about how much the city was paying them because that's not why they show up to work. Thank you. Thank you for your comments and your suggestion. Our next order of business is the approval of minutes. Do I have a motion? I move to approve and a second. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion passes unanimously. The next items are for um consent actions items two through eight. Do you have a motion? I move to approve consent. And a second. Second. All those in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Hearing none, the motion passes unanimously. So we will um item nine is for information only. Does anybody need any additional information? Okay. Then item 10 is our head start governing board orientation item. And for that, we will hear from Jean Deputy City Manager Gina Montez, uh, Human Services Director Jacqueline Edwards, and Deputy Human Services Director, Patricia Kirkland. Thank you for joining us this morning. Thank you, Madam Chair, and members of the subcommittee. As a Head Start grantee, we are required to provide an annual orientation to our governing board. The City Council has designated the economic development and housing subcommittee as the city's Head Start Governing Board due to the detailed responsibilities and requirements, which will we will be reviewing today.
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