Approved Minutes — original pdf

Approved Minutes

ECONOMIC PROSPERITY COMMISSION REGULAR CALLED MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, May 15, 2024 The Economic Prosperity Commission convened in a REGULAR CALLED meeting on Wednesday, May 15, 2024, at 301 W. 2nd Street, Room 1101, Austin, Texas. Chair Michael Nahas called the Economic Prosperity Commission Meeting to order at 6:38 p.m. • Board Members/Commissioners in Attendance in Person: Luis Osta Lugo (8), Rodrigo Cantu (5), Michael Nahas (4), Aaron Gonzales (9), Raquel Valdez Sanchez (3) • Board Members/Commissioners in Attendance Remotely: Christiana Ponder (1) • Absent: Benjamin Salazar (2), Laura Dixon (Mayor), Amy Noel (7), Kelsey Hitchingham (10) • Vacancy: District 6 PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: GENERAL None present. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Approve the minutes of the Economic Prosperity Commission Regular Meeting on April 17, 2024. The minutes from the meeting of April 17, 2024, were approved on Commissioner Valdez Sanchez’s motion, Vice Chair Osta Lugo’s second on a 6-0 vote. Commissioners Salazar, Dixon, Noel and Hitchingham were absent. DISCUSSION ITEMS 2. Presentation by Global Business Expansion Division staff, City of Austin Economic Development Department, regarding the guidelines for the City’s Business Expansion Program authorized under Chapter 380 of the Texas Local Government Code. EDD Deputy Director Anthony Segura and Division Manager Sabine Romero introduced Arnie Jacob and Donald Jackson who shared information about the Chapter 380 program update process. 1 1. 3. 4. 6. Discuss commission’s plan for the next year, 2024-2025, in alignment with the new Chair’s term of office, including: expectations of work by Chair, Vice Chair, and Commissioners; goals and priorities for the commission; and how to fill vacancies and what attributes to seek in new Commissioners. Chair Nahas led wide-ranging discussion on ways to setup the commission to succeed; expectations of each member including: a minimum of 5 hours of business-related work per month per commissioner, taking turns inviting speakers to future meetings, making one Council recommendation per year, and helping recruit for board vacancies. Potential commission goal for the year: rotate through monthly meeting topics such as artificial intelligence, pensions, happiness index, Austin economic report, affordable housing, job creation, City economic programs, and other topics. Discuss monthly meeting logistics: communicating via Microsoft Outlook on the City of Austin network and how commissioners may invite speakers to future meetings. Commissioners were reminded to send business-related communication via their City of Austin email and each commissioner was invited to contact the Chair with a request to add a certain speaker on an upcoming agenda. DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS 5. Discuss and vote on a June 2024 makeup meeting: either a special called business meeting, or a community interest meeting in a public setting where a quorum may be present but no business will take place. The commission’s usual regular meeting falls on the City’s Juneteenth Holiday, June 19, 2024. The motion to approve having a special called meeting on Monday, June 24, 2024 at 12:00pm was approved on Chair Nahas’ motion, Vice Chair Osta Lugo’s second on a 6- 0 vote. Commissioners Salazar, Dixon, Noel and Hitchingham were absent. Discuss and vote on the number of working groups and the focus of each group for 2024- 2025. Per Article 8 in the by-laws: the number of board members in a working group must be less than a quorum of the board, or less than 6 members. The most recent working groups and members were: Jobs (Nahas, Salazar, Valdez Sanchez); Procurement (Hitchingham, Noel, Ponder); Infrastructure (Nahas, Hitchingham, Osta Lugo). The motion to table this item until the next meeting was approved on Vice Chair Osta Lugo’s motion, Chair Nahas’ second on a 6-0 vote. Commissioners Salazar, Dixon, Noel and Hitchingham were absent. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS • None Chair Nahas adjourned the meeting at 8:29 p.m. without objection. ********** These minutes were approved at the June 24, 2024 meeting on Vice Chair Osta Lugo’s motion, Commissioner Valdez Sanchez’ second on an 8-0 vote. Commissioner Dixon was absent. 2