All right.

Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Ransom County Board Workshop.

Today's workshop will be a presentation on driving economic growth and strengthening the tax base.

Courtesy reminded that this board workshop is recorded and it is live streamed on Zoom webinar.

There will be no votes taken during this workshop.

So why don't we open up and start with introductions of commissioners and presenters around the table and then the rest of the room.

So I'm Rena Moran, Ramsey County Commissioner, District Four.

Tara Jebin Singh, Ramsey County Commissioner, District One.

Ralph Village County Commission District Five.

Kelly Miller, Commissioner District 7.

I don't know, I think some public works.

Josh Olson, director of community economic development.

That's all right.

And I'll go Mary Jill Maguire, Commissioner District 2.

I don't hear that she's works out.

Okay.

Very well.

All right.

Veronica Baxter, where are you from Paul Bacquaiter?

Dave Wanky from Survives.

Okay.

County Manager, Community Services and Supports.

Right here in front.

Oh, Claudia Queenhammer Community and Economic Development.

Elevator Community and Economic Development.

Flavia Denario, say from the team.

Why is it the bottom thing?

Our ready meeting and economic growth.

And Jeanette Boy's cleaning up by now.

All right.

Welcome and thank you all for being here.

So today's workshop builds upon last week's workshop in highlighting Ramsey County fiscal health as well as this morning workshop discussing county tools and a pathway that catalyzes economic growth.

During this afternoon workshop, we were here about a county strategy to that creates a moment to build stronger together.

The county manager in economic development staff will walk through an economic growth strategy that's sent towards downtown and county assess to address property tax pressures.

I would now hand it off to the presenters to kick off the workshop.

And so we'll I'll kick it off again.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Once again, we have our uh DCM from Economic Growth and Community Investment, our CED director, and now we have our public works director too, who's gonna participate in the conversation.

Um and so today we're gonna um this morning, well, I guess even a week ago, heard um the momentum around you know and better understanding our fiscal health when it comes to our land use.

And then uh this morning, you heard a little bit more about just some of the real specifics of the housing price for Ramsey County and sort of our opportunity before us, um, not so much our uh challenges, but our opportunities.

So I appreciated that.

And then um, so now we're gonna really talk about this uh moment of building stronger together and activating the strategy and having a discussion.

So if we can go to the next slide here.

Um, you know, I mentioned um this morning that you know we've been uh kind of combating and looking forward to some additional property tax pressures, but really um on a more optimistic note, I think we can be really proud that Ramsey County has consistently risen to meet major challenges over the past you know five, six years, whether it was the pandemic, um more recently in the last you know, two years, some of the federal executive orders, the shutdown, and then most recently Operation Metro Surge.

Um, today I you know, we are gonna kind of turn a new chapter rather than just meeting the moment of what's coming at us.

We are um gonna take our position, you know, as a lead and create a new moment for our community.

So it's an opportunity for us to build momentum momentum uh to shape a shared future while we are still, you know, obviously navigating this unprecedented pressure of property tax that kind of undergirths some of it as we you know move forward.

So a future where dynamic economic growth, you know, is something that is part of all our our entirety of our community.

And so today is the first step in this uh new effort, um, a comprehensive economic development strategy, um, building stronger together.

So with that, I'm gonna turn it over to our team.

Thank you, madam chair.

Uh uh Kind Manager Becker.

Uh I I think we're excited.

Um, thank you for the opportunity to kind of bring this forward, but also to acknowledge that I have a good and amazing CD staff that's with me today.

Um, they wanted to be here because this is a big exciting thing, and many of them have been working really hard to help um pull a lot of these uh pieces together.

So just want to acknowledge um they're still working behind the scenes today while I'm talking, even though most of them are here.

Um so wanted to kind of speak towards this exciting moment that we have where building stronger together, as uh Commissioner Moran spoke to about centering downtown as well as um uh selling county-owned land.

These are our two primary core areas, um, and we're gonna walk through uh these two parts and their strategic efforts that fall underneath it.

Um so as we get through these slides, I'll we'll give you more details underneath it, but it's a an exciting two-pronged approach.

So, as we over the last week and further reinforce this morning, um, we walked through data that clearly shows how downtown uh St.