The St.

Paul City Council Policy Committee to order.

Roll call, please.

Um, Chair Kim.

Um, Councilmember Cam.

Sorry, here.

Councilmember Young here.

Councilmember Johnson.

Is she excused?

Not that I know of.

Absolutely.

Councilmember Coleman.

Here.

Councilmember Jose.

Here.

Councilmember Bowie?

Here.

Um, all absent except for one is um all present except for one absent.

Six present, one absent.

Good morning, everyone.

We have three topics in front of us.

We have thirty minutes for each.

I'm going to keep us running on pretty tight timeline because each of them is is pretty substantive.

So I'll turn things over for our first item to Vice President Yang.

Thank you, Council President.

I um really excited for our first topic here.

It's about a discussion regarding uh potential change for our council member positions 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 envisioned 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, 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 about and what really brought me into community organizing work in the 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 and refugee communities or um you know who are just from marginalized communities, they experience so much injustices 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 recognize 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.

Yeah, 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, will have even younger people 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, that they can continue to do this work and that they don't have to think about hey, am I how am I gonna be able to 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 and 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 uh 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 Ward 2 office, Ward 5 office, Council President U and Councilmember Kim for being a part of that pod with me.

And recently um we had switched you, council president out for councilmember Johnson to be a part of the pod here.

Uh, thank you, Jay, as well.

Our director, our council director, who's been in these conversations with me and also my staff, pool, legislative aides, and I also want to give a special thanks to Minneapolis Council members Robin Wensley and Jeff's Jason Chavez, along with their staff who have 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 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 am 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 uh 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 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 um for in emergency or uh for bereavement leave, and so I I really appreciate you just willing to take on the role here in doing the presentation.

Thank you, Council President and Council members, Councilmember Yang.

I'm happy to be here and um uh it's a good segue because I do want to acknowledge uh that much of the work reflected in the presentation was developed by by Tim Greenfield who's away this week due to a family loss.

Um but I'm happy to step in and pinch hit 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 Councilmember 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 and includes St.

Paul, Minneapolis, 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 uh 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 special law, city charter, the administrative code, and then discuss the legislative pathways, and then at the at the end have time 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 basis for that is really uh in expectation for the realities of the role.

Um and I think it's important 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 the office.

Council members, as you all know, often prefer work outside of traditional business hours, including community meetings, constituent services, uh emergency uh uh situations, neighborhood events, regional boards, and commissions, you know, many of which you have uh assignments to.

And so the workload can vary significantly from week to week 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 uh by councilmember Yang is in designed to align with the expectations of constituents, a commitment to the role that reflects the realities of the duties, but also incentivize 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 you know, is significant for a city that's a first-class city of this size.

But it really is 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 you know is hard for a role like this to compete with some of the senior professional level roles within government who are often compensated more.

Um so the philosophical difference is you know, uh citizen legislature uh versus you know a professional level compensation that aligns with professional level responsibilities, 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 compet the city budget, including its component units, is over a billion dollars, and um, you know, there's a number of different policy items that come through in terms of complexity and the role of your fiduciary duties 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 uh 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, uh, in terms of representation.

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 307,000, which represents approximately 44,500 uh per ward.

So very similar in population actually to many of our inner ring suburbs.

So if we pull up an additional comparison, we reflect the city of St.

Paul's current salary, which is in fiscal year 26, 79,400, 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, 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 what this change specifically does, and that's the language before you, which includes 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 that 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 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.

And I think there's two things to point out here.

And one of them is oftentimes, 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, absent any analysis or you know uh process designed around it.

It's also one of the reasons why the special law is constructed that way, is to you know uh provide for a future council versus the current sitting council.

So now we'll we'll zero in on some of the legal constraints, and there's three things that we'll talk about here.

And uh the first one is the special law.

Uh this is the 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 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 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 the 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 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% prorated 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 part-time.

So the prorated 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 one other thing to note too, the second thing that I'll note is that it indexes salaries.

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 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 an indexing based on a bargaining unit's 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 distinction, which it allows council members to receive fringe benefits, health care, and other benefits that you know other employees receive within the city.

So again, the three things, it sets the salaries of the elected officials, the mayor, and a 50% proration.

It indexes that increase to a bargaining unit, and then it makes the council benefits eligible.

So in terms of the legal governance that we're within, the three important, you know, of those three, you know, pieces, the one, the two that are really doing the heavy lifting are 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 pathway, several different pathways for a charter change.

Uh, there's a legislat uh 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 a required public hearing, increases the percentage difference between mayor and council member salaries from 50% to 70%, authorizes the council to include supplemental pay for council president and vice president, and then before fix an annual fixing of the salary, the council must conduct and receive a comparative compensation analysis that measures elected official compensation across comparable jurisdictions.

So essentially creating a basis for which to have a conversation about compensation.

So what that would look like, 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 10 uh 12,000, the council vice president 113,000, and the council vice president 116,000.

So the effective date of the change as reflecting 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 uh discussion of 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 on the same subject.

Essentially, there are general laws uh passed by the state applicable to many governments, there's special law uh which is unique to a specific government 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 it 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, uh calling uh 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 2.0101 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 host 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.

Welms.

Um, 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 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 bullet point around uh 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 in nowhere in their code at all do they define their roles as part-time or full-time.

However, recognizing that um they're they have uh uh 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 uh 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 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 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 I am 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 uh 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.

So I wasn't here when the many changes took place um a long time ago for this posit for this position as St.

Paul council member to even go part-time.

Um it used to be a full-time position that 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 a government has been reduced and power from the council here has been stripped.

And so I would be very invested in restoring that because this is important that work that we do in partnership with 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 their those roles, they are obligated to take on even more uh 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 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 behind the scenes work that you just don't realize happens.

And so from um, you know, being a part of uh being a part of mediation uh 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 their values, our shared values, 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 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 uh a really exciting thrill ride for me and also a huge learning curve, also a journey that I have been just very appreciative of and has allowed for me to grow personally, and so um I again uh feel very strongly about that piece, and it's not to me like not political at all when I think about other workplaces.

Folks in in leadership roles, there tends to be um, you know, um, in terms of like pay, uh supplement 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 serve in chair roles, whether it's co-chair uh whether it's the chair role itself or the vice chair roles and even uh sort of on committees as well.

Um however, I just wanted to recognize the difference and 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 uh 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.

Thank you so much, vice president.

Um we have less than a minute left.

I knew this was gonna 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 and bringing it forward.

Um, 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 gonna transition to uh actually item three is gonna come first, and we'll do item two last.

Um, and I'm gonna turn things over to Council Member Bowie to TSA.

Wonderful.

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you so much.

I just want to say um thank you to council president Rebecca Naker for allowing for this agenda item and your office with um organizing um our phenomenal speaker, um Lynn Pingo, um, who's going to be coming up and presenting on the cogs road 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 work with um Lynn.

She uh has her footprint and a lot of not only neighborhood studies, but also with a partner with Reconnect Rondo, so have a uh 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 or 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 and before the council members.

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 Lynn Pinkle.

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 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 cities resources because there's a real gap in there being able to connect, and given what the resources that were available.

Um as a result of that um recommendation.

We were we secured a grant from the Gateways Growth Association for um in our gateways for growth initiative for fifteen thousand dollars, which the city attorney's office matched, and then we uh engaged Lynn to do the study on the cultural destination areas because we needed to understand where we were at, uh the cultural destination areas have been a concept that has been uh dealt with and worked on by the city uh since Dr.

Corey was uh director of PED, um, and then there was a global initiative uh cities initiative that was uh kind of put on the shelf uh because of COVID.

Um so we want 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 engaged looked uh and engaged did engagement with the the leadership of the cultural destination areas, um the various uh uh chambers and and visitor bureaus uh but it also envisions doing a second phase of the study.

Um that second phase would engage the uh the people who actually work in and have businesses 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 what we're not we're not there yet.

So just a quick so with that I'll turn it over to Lynn and talk about the report.

Okay, thank you.

Welcome.

All right, um good morning, council members, president and vice president.

So my name is Lynn Pingle, as most of you know me.

I'm the CEO of Mackie Company, and um here I am again presenting another study, and 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 for the cultural destination area cities.

Really, what we wanted to do was kind of level set since Dr.

Corey's departure from PED, 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 PED 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, uh basically did a SWOT 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 the 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 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 Director Lloyd as well as Tony in terms of what did we need to do, and so on.

So we started this study back in September of 2023, concluded about 18 months, almost two years later, because of a lot of things happening in our city.

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, which is what we're presenting today.

In terms of research and outreach, here's what we did.

We had eight different conversations.

We had 90-minute conversations with 16 different um organizations and associations, and then we sent those same organizations clarifying surveys to really, really get uh honed in on what was this joint effort and what did it really look like 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 necessary was to define what kind of cultural area are you, right?

And so in different aspects all over the world, we looked at nodes, corridors, districts, and specific destination areas.

And then we actually requested all of our area, 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, and so on.

We provided examples of what these areas look like so that 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 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 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.

Corey 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 the businesses within these commercial corridors.

Um when you look at the community leaders and the infrastructure that they have built within these areas, it it already exists, right?

And so when we look at what does the neighborhood look like, bless you.

Um what what can we do to improve quality of life for our commercial areas as well as 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 met the criteria of what was deemed to be successful.

And so I do want to point out the the areas in which we studied, right?

District del Sol, Downtown, Eastside St.

Paul, Little Africa, Little Mekong, Rondo, West Seventh Street, and Shepherd, and then Westside St.

Paul.

Sorry, I meant to mention that earlier.

And so 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 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 SWOT analysis was really quite quite interesting because there's some in these conversations that I've I've 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 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?

And then the limited marketing that's available as a corridor or as a node 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 growth that could happen if we do some digital marketing and some cross collaborations, not just within city departments, but also within community and such.

And then obviously, over tourism was something that was concerned.

Hey, if we're gonna 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 over tourist.

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 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 Lanai and go to Keyhead.

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 nodes.

So we've got the makings of that.

Okay, um, cultural boundary perspective, but 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 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, different ethnicities that exist in our city.

So the key challenges that we're faced and identified by our uh our CDA leaders.

Funding gaps, always, always, always in small businesses.

In a study I did yesterday, funding gap is always in existence.

Business development, that signage by area, once again came up.

Wayfinding 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 we 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 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 very much needed.

So, before I jump into um the recommendations, I wanted to make sure that 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 stability across the city of St.

Paul.

We just have to do a few things to garner economic growth 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 want to make sure that we're cognizant of that.

Because here are some of the city initiatives that we can actually do, right?

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 put together strategies of approach that is community-led.

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 presidence and recognition in at least the seven 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 liaison or an arts uh director or something of that nature.

Why?

Because then they're 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 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?

And 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?

Buy 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 is another thing that we can do.

So I'm gonna 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 propose.

Now, you guys are in budget mode and and such, and this sort of identifies and outlines how we actualize this.

My conversation um with the city was really don't just give us a vision, give us 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 play by 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 uplift 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.

Paul 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 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 of 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, and such.

So 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 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 so much for the presentation and uh your enthusiasm is contagious, so it's always wonderful to have you here.

Um, Ms.

Bowie, 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 uh direction for us in terms of like how much it's going to cost.

Um I won't even say the cost, what the investment looks like, and this is much needed investment when I think about um, especially as we're looking at a 26 million dollar budget deficit, we have to think really differently in terms of how we're going to not only generate revenue but like make St.

Paul the cultural attraction of the state and also the Midwest and um potentially you know ambitiously um the country.

So I'm just thinking, uh 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, you know, giving some background, because I would think that this really um lives uh in the department of PED, but can you speak a little bit more around you know what other departments and what other areas um should be integrated into 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 expansion?

Yeah, and so um, I brought it mudo 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 lives in planning and economic development, but because we have such a huge immigrant population, and Edmundo leads that for the city attorney's office, there has to be some linkage and collaboration.

Maybe the actual work happens through PED, but I think the city attorney Edmundo's department with with the immigration and um and such, it 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.

We if we can just start there, we can bring DSI 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 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 Management can also also do.

Parks and rec, 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 engage in continuing this conversation when it is related to cultural commercial corridors.

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 our our immigrant entrepreneurs don't know for our 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 use that to develop these cultural destination areas.

So I think a lot of this may already be in place.

Absolutely.

Any other questions?

Thank you.

Other questions or discussion.

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 CEZ wasn't included in some of the subsequent evaluations.

Is that or can 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?

Yeah.

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 the recommendations by PED.

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, what was that?

I think this one.

Um, 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 there?

I can't recall which one's there.

North End.

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.

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's a few others, and and of course, as as you know, from from the state of study to where we are today, there's others um that we just need to engage, right?

Uh, and such.

So, but thank you.

Cool.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Other questions or discussion?

Um Ms.

Bowie.

Thank you, Council President.

Um, 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 quantify in terms of if an area or if uh, yeah, like a corridor, you know, uh, constituted a festival.

Yeah, yeah.

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 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 we're 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 this table.

The five specific areas, festivals, murors, 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 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 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 commun and in um communities of color in cultural areas is a big thing and such.

And so, yeah, this is this is just that analysis there.

Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for the presentation.

You got uh covered a ton of ground in a short time.

Ms.

Bowie, thank you again for your leadership in bringing this forward.

Um, couple pieces of good news that I see.

One is that this segues 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 Ms.

Bowie 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 events security credit comes to mind, the commercial corridors program, which you already mentioned 1.4 million dollars 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 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 to Ms.

Bowie.

Thank you.

Appreciate you.

And we will try to transition, not try, we will transition to our virtual speaker, who I hope is with us.

Does there have to be, do we have to cue her up?

Do you want to start, Ms.

Bowie?

Like, just while we do have time.

Uh, absolutely.

So our next speaker is on Robin Robinson, who is a national, um, 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 Fox Nine News.

She has always just been an icon from growing up and just seeing her not only um uh 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 alliance CEO, was the former arts and culture director and had held that role for about 12 years, he will be um presenting during the policy committee in the upcoming week.

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 uh 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 the 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 Ms.

Robinson 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.

Ms.

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 Ms.

Bowie, we're ready to turn things over to you.

Absolutely.

The floor is yours.

Well, thank you.

Um it's uh really great 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 Councilperson Bowie over the last couple of 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 the land bridge and with uh Councilperson 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 the Twin Cities has really taken uh multiple uh lanes, but has uh always come back to uh the heart of the community.

So I'd like to just share a little bit of background and hopefully I can uh make this happen.

I'm not really good with meets, but I I try very hard.

Uh see, I don't want to share my screen.

So a little, I don't know, can you see the screen?

Just make it full screen and we should be and in presentation mode, maybe, and but we're seeing it.

Okay.

Let's see if I am doing that.

Yep.

Perfect.

Okay.

I 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 majority of my uh time in the Twin Cities was spent uh at Fox Nine News, uh, where I came in as a weekend reporter, but really saw the importance of these uh the community uh and how it could play a really vital role uh in in shaping uh Fox Nine'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 of the Twin Cities, and I I sought to make sure that we had a a strong part in it.

The other thing that was interesting about uh Fox Nine and not having any affiliation at the time, and 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 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 Nine.

But we created the Buzz with the focus completely on the Twin Cities and what 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 a thousand dollars uh and and from there we were able to uh create relationships with many of the arts organizations, whether it was the Hennepin 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 uh a rich background of who we were and who we are as artists in the community.

It turned out to be such that uh many of the organizations in town, when uh major artists came to town to perform, they had to talk to Fox Nine first and the buzz before they even hit the stage.

So we developed a great deal of uh uh media political strength, as you might call it, uh in the community, and we're 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, uh 30 seconds segment uh to six minutes, which is more than weather or sports got uh because of the power 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 Perner uh to Lizzo.

What also 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, Juxtaposition Art, Juxtapose Arts, uh, and really launched the career of several artists that are uh doing well nationally, uh, from Edith Garcia to Kai Arnes, uh uh Coomba Aiken was one of our first uh gallery uh uh artists, as well as Luis Fitch and Say Two Jones.

Uh we really celebrated uh the local arts community and and not doing what uh is in 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 and the creation of programs like Art of World because we we really believed in the strength of the local arts community 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.

Ms.

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'll be on time.

Uh just after leaving Channel 9, uh I did a quick turn in politics with Matt uh and Tenza uh running on a hip hop ticket and also arts education, and and following up with that uh 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 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 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 gonna do uh Rock the Garden, we're gonna go to the St.

Paul Jazz Festival, 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 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 Two uh 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 left-hand corner of the four square, uh the flying dirgibles 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 five million dollars 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 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 galleries, a 6,000 square foot gallery, as well as the signature sculpture uh uh that everybody really loves that uh was done uh uh over a couple of years because of COVID uh from 2000 uh 20 to 2022.

Uh, very glad to have 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 receiving that award uh from travel writers uh uh in about 20 uh 2018.

Uh from the airport, I started uh public art consulting uh in the twin cities.

Uh the first major projects that we worked on was during the riots is a 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 forestnelling 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 uh and I think that it was no surprise that when uh the death of George Floyd culminated in civil rights protests, it happened in uh the Longfellow community.

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 use the the the protest boards uh as a symbol of the ongoing history uh and and as a tourism draw uh uh to to work to bring people to the Lake street Corridor, which is 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 five by five also worked on the uh Crown Art Prince mural uh and just recently uh had an overwhelming eight thousand people come out for the prince sing along so 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 all and it is a beacon uh for right now especially because of the civil and uh social justice uh uh issues that uh uh the twin cities has been at the forefront of uh one of the other projects was in Felf 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 Sabathany Center so the community can still enjoy it and have reflections of itself in the community okay thank you and I want to move on to the next uh uh excuse me so to tell give you a little bit more information about five by five um I ask the question always to people how do you define space and and you have to understand and it has to be a place that people truly feel comfortable in uh that they feel that they are uh 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 feel that they uh are protected and that they are seen uh that they are not persecuted but 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 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 ideate about how they want to see the future vision for uh their communities engaged creativity is always a wonderful thing uh and uh St.

Paul has a great deal of it uh whether it's in Ronda with the growing uh Ronda 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, Ordway, uh all engage creativity and and go outside the boundaries of 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 Mungfest 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 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 five by five public art consultants: transforming spaces that brand identity, creating 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.

It's very important for us to have partnerships in the arts and culture community.

Again, creating an engaged experience for clients and the community, strengthening regional identity, and being a resource, uh additional resource for the arts community, I'm going to move on from this.

And to finally the conversations that I've had with Lynn and Councilperson Bowie, I think it emphasizes the need for St.

Paul Arts and Culture to have a strong department that really builds on its multicultural and visual identity.

Gives an opportunity to share with the various cultural destination zones and work with those organisms with those communities to identify what their needs are, how they can grow their programs, and how the city can be a liaison to help.

Establishing a mission and goals, which is a member memorandum of uh understanding for uh 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, whether it's planning and zoning, working with parks and recs, uh I think it's it's a unique opportunity to work with artists because artists uh it's been shown what through the McKnight 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 what you have to strengthen uh arts and culture to uh really help its 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, Science Museum, Children's Museum, it can increase uh uh downtown uh uh infrastructure uh through community events and have a dedicated sales tax that uh work with the cultural star program uh and create a legacy amendment as well uh that works with historic groups and cultural groups and uh really gives an opportunity for uh not to 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 would suggest uh making sure that you can create at least a one or 1.5 percent 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 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 projects that will enhance the the infrastructure.

Investing in space redemption and underused space, I think, and creative allyship is something that I I worked on as um uh board chair for the M.

Uh I felt that oftentimes as a small museum, we're 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 what which was was the X or working with the St.

Paul Saints uh to be able to uh promote uh arts ideas, staycations, 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 downtown.

We also uh talk to the Royal Rub quite often uh because the Rotary Club uh while they may not have funds, they they do uh 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 uh 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 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 organizations with other arts organizations that have similar or smaller budgets.

So the 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 also strengthening the partnerships that you already have and utilizing some of the partners uh that are in the community.

Of course, the convention and business bureau is 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 uh and working with the Arts and 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 to the airport every day.

As they get on another plane or they get into a car, they have a five little five-minute of a cliff clavin uh uh 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, 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 uh been mentioned wayfinding and and not learning what uh communities are there, having those communities featured in movies, uh, and working with the upper Midwest Film Offices, and of course, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts.

Um I try to keep it as brief as possible, but that you I think these are are wonderful I ideas to uh contemplate.

Uh uh also suggested uh 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 I I've always found it uh uh a strain to uh 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 breadth uh of uh beauty and diversity uh of St.

Paul, uh, learn about the arts organizations that are there, the artists that can be work with into the uh municipal and for 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, Ms.

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 Bowie for bringing this in for in front of us.

We do have the proposal Ms.

Robinson's referencing in our packets, and I would encourage folks to reach out to Ms.

Bowie afterwards.

Um and I think Ms.

Robinson we have your contact info too to discuss this further.

So thank you so much again.

Um and with that, we are turned.

Thank you, Robin.

Thank you.

Um,