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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023.0425.TCJMFHCC.MinutesTOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE JOINT MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL AND THE FOUNTAIN HILLS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE April 25, 2023 A Joint Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 5:30 p.m. Members Present: Mayor Ginny Dickey: Vice Mayor Peggy McMahon; Councilmember Sharron Grzybowski; Councilmember Brenda J. Kalivianakis; Councilmember Hannah Toth Attended Telephonically: Councilmember Allen Skillicorn Member Absent: Councilmember Gerry Friedel Staff Present: Interim Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Town Attorney Aaron D. Arnson; Town Clerk Linda Mendenhall Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors Present: On Dais: Betsy Lavoie, CEO, and President; Scott Sommer, Chair of the Board; Jeff Stack, Vice Chair of the Board; Kim Widner, Treasurer; Michael Gant, Board Director at Large; Scott Schlossberg, Board Director at Large. Other Board Members Present: Debbie Clason; Debbie Skehen; Suzanne Nann; Christine Colley, and Cherie Koss. Staff Present: Tammy Bell, Vice President of Operation; Kristin Milashoski, Business Development Specialist; Karen Anderson, Communications and Member Events Coordinator. Audience: Approximately two members of the public were present. TA 0:04&- N \ ' Ic o z z n 1-` cc- o� /b 1/, --.....__/ 0•3 that is MU' TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 1 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES Post -Production File Town of Fountain Hills Minutes of the Joint Meeting with the Town of Fountain Hills Town Council and the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce April 25, 2023 Transcription Provided By: eScribers, LLC Transcription is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. Page 1 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 2 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES MAYOR DICKEY: Hello, everyone. I feel like Betsy should be saying, "Good evening everyone. Where's the ribbon?" [LAUGHTER] MAYOR DICKEY: We're going to start out with calling to order, and well please rise for the pledge. ALL: I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. We're going to do a roll call, and then we'll have everyone introduce themselves. MENDENHALL: Mayor Dickey? MAYOR DICKEY: Here. MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor McMahon? MCMAHON: Here. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Toth? TOTH: Here. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Grzybowski? GRZYBOWSKI: Present. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Kalivianakis? KALIVIANAKIS: Here. MENDENHALL: Councilmember Skillicom? SKILLICORN: Here. MENDENHALL: And Councilmember Friedel is -- has an excused absence. MAYOR DICKEY: 1 -- MENDENHALL: Vice Mayor -- MAYOR DICKEY: I'm sorry. MENDENHALL: -- McMahon. MCMAHON: Pardon? MAYOR DICKEY: I think she was taking roll call. MCMAHON: Oh, I said here before. You already called me. MAYOR DICKEY: Okay. Yeah, I thought you already did. Yeah Thanks. Page 2 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 3 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES MCMAHON: I'm here again. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you very much. So, if you wouldn't mind, could we have everyone introduce themselves? And if you want to say a couple words, we could do that. LAVOIE: Thank you so much, Mayor. First, before I introduce our amazing board and staff, I just want to express my sincerest gratitude to our town staff and elected officials. We understand how many meetings you have had recently, and so we truly appreciate the time that you are taking today to spend with your chamber of commerce to partner and collaborate in this way. So just really sincerely, we thank you for your time this evening. I'm thrilled to introduce our staff first. Tammy Bell is our vice president of operations, Kristin Milashoski is our business development specialist, and Karen Anderson is our communications and member events coordinator, and Hannah Toth is our signature events person as well -- coordinator as well. Our board of directors that are not seated up here that are present are Debbie Clason with Clason Communications, Debbie Skehen, Suzanne Nann, Christine Colley, and Cherie Koss. So we're thrilled to have all of you. And then on the dais, we do have Scott Schlossberg, Scott Sommer, Jeff Stack, Kim Widner, and Michael Gant. And so we appreciate all of your time as well. I did want to mention that all of these staff and board directors are set townies, as I call them. We figured out today that they spend over 165 hours per month outside of their regular jobs in service organizations here in Fountain Hills. So I thought that was worthy of mentioning. So thank you all for being here. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. And so if you would like, we could go right into our discussions. One of the things that I love about this is that it's informal, and we're not making any decisions. We're just talking about some of the projects and partnerships that we've had for so many years and looking to the future. So our first item is our current partnerships and collaboration, of which there are many, and I'm going to ask Betsy to take over, if you'd like. LAVOIE: Awesome. Thank you, Mayor. So we did want you all to hear from our board of directors, and so we did split up Page 3 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 4 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES each of these pieces so that they could share. And first we have Kim Widncr to spcak to our current collaboration and partnerships, that first couple of items. WIDNER: Thank you. Hello, everyone. I am going to address some of the newer partnerships that the town and the chamber have done together. The town and the chamber have collaborated on eight ads in the Fountain Hills Times this summer, just focusing on local businesses in different categories. And 1 have some examples here if you want to see them afterwards, but health and welfare, shopping, travel. So together they've, you know, put out these ads, eight during the summer. There's also a new program called the Business Retention and Expansion Program. And what that is, is they conduct site visits. It would be one elected official, Betsy and Amanda Jacobs from the town. And they get together, they go to a site of a local business just to discuss what that business -- things they want changed, things that they see doing well. They just kind of get feedback from local businesses to take that and address it. They try to do that 2 to 8 times a month, and they have had approximately 20 of those meetings so far, and this program just started last summer. Also, the town and the chamber are working together to create a new welcome -- a new business welcome packet, and that is currently in process. And then there are four industry stakeholder groups at the chamber, and Amanda Jacobs has become a member of each one of them. We have the Avenue Merchants Association, a group for finance and insurance businesses, a group for health services, and restaurant and retail. And those are going very well. LAVOIE: Thank you so much, Kim. And we have Michael Gant to speak to the collaborative efforts for our events. MAYOR DICKEY: I'll just pop in and say if anybody has any questions while anybody is saying anything, feel free to do that. GANT: I appreciate you saying that before I speak, so you know, I'll be the one that gets hit with them. So thank you. [LAUGHTER] GANT: Thank you for having us tonight. So some of the partnerships collaboration we've done with the town, we've done two fairs, and that has been a $15,000 sponsorship for each fair. And in -kind, the benefits that have been given back, have been a value of Page 4 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 5 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES $45,000. So that's pretty fantastic. Our stroll, our parade and our Oktoberfest, the town was a Level 2 sponsor. And I'll go through what a Level 2 sponsor is at the end because I would want to know that. Which was a trade-off. There was no money in it. It was a fee waiver. So that's what we gave the town in -kind for that. A Level 2 sponsor, basically you get pre -event recognition; logos included in your weekly newsletter, 2,000-plus recipients; social media sponsorship with an announcement that goes out to 5,000-plus people; logos listed as a sponsor on the Fountain Hills Chamber website. A web banner ad is included on the event website, and then on -site recognition. There's a table or a booth at the event; recognized on sponsorship banner; an ad in the event program and included in sponsorship announcements made by the MC. So it's a pretty cool deal. Pretty amazing thing. LAVOIE: Thank you so much, Michael. And next we have Scott Sommer. SOMMER: Well, fortunately, mine is actually pretty brief. Before I get into it, I just wanted to -- I just wanted to echo what Betsy had said. I really appreciate you guys taking time out of your schedule for this meeting. It's something that I have been asking Betsy to make arrangements for for a while, so it's really -- it's nice to be able to see everyone here sitting together, working towards some common goals. My piece is that 1 just wanted to share with you, we've got -- there's three main publications that we participate in, the first of which is a publication called Business in Focus. And this particular publication is a wonderful, wonderful piece, the reason being is it is distributed to over 250,000 people across the United States and Canada. It does happen to be a Canadian publication. However, nonetheless, we have a pretty prominent advertisement right here, right next to our partners, the Town of Fountain Hills. So this is a key publication that we have chosen to invest in along with the town. Another piece that I wanted to share is, as we all know, the Fountain Hills visitor guide, which those of you who have not picked one of these up and have lived here for a long time, you need to pick one up because this is a wonderful piece and it's a wonderful reminder of all of the incredible services that we are afforded as residents and that we can extend to our visitors that come here and invest in our economy. And again, we have invested in an advertisement, as all of you on the town staff know. So we appreciate this Page 5 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 6 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES opportunity to be able to participate because this is very, very important. And then the last piece that I want to share with you, which is a new edition, and 1 suppose full disclosure, this was the first time I've actually seen these up close. And I'm sorry, but honesty is the best policy. These are absolutely incredible, and I absolutely love that all of the town events are listed in these pieces, but all the events that are put on or organized by the chamber are right here side by side. So this is a very, very valuable piece, and I'm looking forward to the circulation of both of these documents making it through the town even more. So that's my piece. LAVOIE: Awesome. MAYOR DICKEY: Well, your piece reminds me of a conversation with Betsy that we talked about how there are so many wonderful events here, and between the school district, you know, the homecoming, stuff that you guys do, the stuff that we do, the stuff that everybody does together, the people that are attending them aren't really worried about who's doing them. SOMMER: That's right. MAYOR DICKEY: So I think that the idea of everybody being successful, everybody having a part of it is what this is all about, this collaboration. And we all -- and the Realtors, all of them are partners, the school district„ to have everything seem so successful. And again, not like who did this, what? You know, if someone needs something, you ask, you get it. You're not worried about who's getting credit for whatever, and we really appreciate that. SOMMER: I absolutely could not agree with you more. It truly is, it's a group effort and the entire town benefits from all of our efforts. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. SOMMER: You bet. LAVOIE: And I failed to mention that Scott is our current chair of the board. Jeff Stack is our vice chair, so he will take over as chair on July 1. And then on July 1 Michael Gant will be our vice chair. So you have your current leadership and your future leadership for our chamber board of directors as well. And next, we will have Jeff Stack. STACK: Thank you. Mayor Dickey, it's interesting that you mention that when we Page 6 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 7 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES normally get together at about this time, it's normally for a ribbon cutting, and the ribbon cutting is one of the key functions of the ambassadors. And John Perez is a member of the town, works with Amanda, and he is an ambassador as well. And I want to share with you some thoughts about ribbon cuttings and the ambassador program, if 1 could. And that is, it's a very important day for those businesses that are cutting their ribbons. And on those days, they are being supported not only by chamber members, friends, family, but town council as well. Everybody on this dais, I believe, has attended a ribbon cutting. And that is a big deal for a new business in town. 1 remember on March 7th, 2019, a small boy -- no. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR DICKEY: From Long Island. STACK: Yeah, from Long Island. 1 launched Home Watch Neighbor on the steps of the Chamber of Commerce, and I remember the feeling that I had that day while being surrounded by all these people -- friends, family, council members -- how important it was. And for that one day, I was a rock star, I was a celebrity. So you guys should know that it's very important to have businesses that are being welcomed not only to the chamber, but to the town, and it's a very important thing for our community to have support from the town as well as the chamber, the ambassadors, the board members, as well as the staff of the Chamber of Commerce. So thank you for all you guys do. Most recently, Thursday we attended one, and 1 was thinking about it after the fact. Rick was the fellow's name from Blue Monkey Lockout. I was there later to meet with Betsy about something else, but he stayed two hours after the ribbon cutting just basking in the glow of his ribbon cutting. So I just want to share with you the importance of those ribbon cuttings and what it means to the individuals and how important it is obviously to the town that those people have chosen Fountain Hills as their home for their business. So thank you for all you do. Changing the page a little bit, on a monthly basis Amanda and Betsy meet on a monthly basis, is it not? To -- LAVOIE: Uh-huh. Page 7 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 8 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES JACOBS: Jeff, usually, it's more often. [LAUGHTER] STACK: They probably chat more often than that, but officially meet once per month. And then 1 want to touch base just briefly on the new app that was launched and the collaborative effort in bringing together the activities of both the Chamber as well as the town, and just to highlight a few of the things that appear on that app. First is the live EarthCam. It's a pretty cool thing to be able to just click on your phone, click on a couple of buttons and away you go, and you're visiting Fountain Hills Park from your phone. Pretty special. In that app there's also links to every park in town. In that app there's links to every trailhead in town. In that park -- in that park. In that app there is links to every calendar that's available in town, including Experience Fountain Hills. We also added fun facts of Fountain Hills. So anybody using the app can go to the fun facts of Fountain Hills and find out when the fountain goes up, how high the fountain goes, how many gallons of water gets pumped through the fountains and things like that. There are -- there is a feature where the public artwork can be accessed and the trail to the public art can be accessed. Everything there is easy, at your fingertips, and should be on your homepage of your telephone. And there it is. [LAUGHTER] STACK: Go do the EarthCam, see if we're -- see if the fountain's up. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Not yet. MAYOR DICKEY: Fifteen minutes. STACK: Okay. So with all that, we view this as, obviously, a valuable partnership, and 1 think we share with you how we treat the town and how we incorporated all those elements of the app in the app that was developed. So thank you very much for that. LA V OIE: Awesome. Thank you, Jeff. And then next, if there aren't any questions, because l know that's brand new, Scott Schlossberg is going to speak to the next point, if that's okay, Mayor? The next point being future partnerships and collaborative opportunities. SCHLOSSBERG: Okay. A I'm not short-winded, and I wrote a bunch of this down, and I hate to read ,but I'm going to read it anyway because there's too much for me to Page 8 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 9 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES remember from my notes. But -- so when I said -- and to start, I said for the record the first thing I did when opening my business was to join the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce. And 1 said I did this even before I was actually a resident of the town, and 1 knew the importance of being involved with the chamber and wanted to be a part of the business community immediately. So I'll Icad off with that. But I wanted to talk about four different events in town, and the first one is Fountain Hills Day. And for those who may not remember, the event used to be called the Business Expo and was held in the Community Center. It happened to be the first event which I participated after joining the chamber in 2015, and it was held in the Community Center. It was held on a weekday in the late afternoon and the early evening, and it drew a decent crowd, but it was -- honestly, it was mostly retirees, and the majority of the attendees were there not to be there to support the local businesses; they were there to get the free swag. And it was -- for those of you that ever participated, it was memorable for sure. And I believe at the time the town did not have a presence at that event. I may be wrong on that, but I think so. So now we're going to fast forward eight years, and Fountain Hills Day is an amazingly well -organized event held on the Avenue of the Fountains now, and this year 100 local businesses participated in the four-hour long event. The town was offered a booth free of charge and declined to participate. I know there were some issues there, but this would have been an outstanding opportunity for the Town to join forces with the Chamber and show our community how well we work together to support our local businesses. How awesome would it have been for the Town of Fountain Hills to feature community services, showcasing all the available programming, and featuring senior services, showcasing all of the offerings. And I think that was just a miss on the Town there, but something that definitely could be addressed moving forward. So on to Oktoberfest. One of my favorite events and also the first event outside of the Business Expo, which I participated by setting up my tent, which I've done every year, I believe, since we've had the -- since 1 lived in town, with the exception of the pandemic. Page 9 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 10 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES And at the event -- at the time the event was hosted by Fountain Events, and since Fountain Events has transferred the ownership of the event to the Chamber, and were now going to do the even -- even years? LAVOIE: Even years, yes. SCHLOSSBERG: Even years, okay. So -- and again, this is another one of these events -- so outside of, obviously, the Mayor taps the inaugural keg, but outside of that, the participation as far as the town goes, there really -- there isn't much there. I mean, I think it would be awesome to set up a tent there and just do as we do. And 1 said in my notes here and like Fountain Hills Day, this event draws attendees from all over the valley and beyond, and what better opportunity to market our town to those who we are trying to market our town to. With Oktoberfest we have a captive audience of several thousand each evening making the trek to Fountain Hills. So I think that is a great opportunity to collaborate with the Town there. And now, we'll move on to the Thanksgiving Day parade. And 1 know that on Thanksgiving Day, there's another event that the Town does host, which is the Turkey Trot, which I may have run in a few times; maybe have placed a time or two. I don't know. But my notes here, the race is a source of revenue, but isn't necessarily a great opportunity to market the town. The parade, which takes place a couple hours after the completion of the race, is a one -of -a -kind event, literally. Whether we are really the only Thanksgiving parade west of the Mississippi or not, the parade is truly something special and deserves to be showcased. 1 think the Town could go a long way in collaborating with the Chamber to publicize the parade and maybe even televising it on chapter -- chapter? Chapter 11. Channel 11. [LAUGHTER] SCHLOSSBERG: I think if we keep doing it, we may -- And then finally Stroll in the Glow. And I said this past year was an anomaly, and although I participate and everything, I couldn't convince my kids to go out in 48- degree weather with rain to the stroll. But that said, the Town sponsored portion of that, which was the Roll in the Glow. There was some confusion with the Roll in the Glow -- I can't even say it -- with the Roll in the Glow and the Stroll in the Glow, and then when Page 10 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 11 a117 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES the Roll in the Glow was postponed, people thought the Stroll in the Glow was postponed, even though the Stroll in the Glow was rain or shine. So I don't know if the Roll in the Glow has been discontinued, but if it hasn't, maybe they could be combined into one, and then that would be another collaborative event moving forward. But I also made a couple final notes here that I thought were important. I said, I love this town. 1 love this chamber of commerce. And I said regarding the Chamber, what an amazing time in our history, with a CEO in Betsy, who truly cares about the local community and cares about the businesses that make it thrive. I hate to put Betsy up on a pedestal, but to be quite honest, I've never seen anyone so passionate about the town. She is extremely intelligent, very energetic and has built a staff that is world class. Let's work together to create something this town has never seen before, that is, a town that supports its local chamber of commerce and a chamber of commerce that supports its town. And that's it. LAVOIE: Thank you. You're going to make be blush and match my suit. Thank you, Scott. And just to speak to Fountain Hills Day real quick, the Town had other events for this past one, but we are working towards either selecting a new date or something that we can coordinate together so that we can join forces on Fountain Hills Day moving forward. And I want to share the upcoming theme that Amanda and I and the elected officials are seeing from the Business Retention and Expansion Program because 1 do believe that's one of the most important initiatives that we're doing collaboratively, is really hearing from our businesses. And so the first one -- it's probably not a surprise -- is workforce. Our businesses have workforce issues. Our nation's businesses have workforce issues. I understand that. Our town is a little bit more unique in that. The Town of Fountain Hills put together a survey for our community, and in that survey .02 percent of residents are looking for employment. Not 2 percent, .02 percent. That means no one is looking for employment. So that does really aid in the fact that we don't have a workforce here. So that is something that we are hearing. It is hard to fix that for our businesses. Page 11 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 12 of17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES We are thankful that we have recently heard from the economic forum that the Town just did, and from a recent school board meeting, two recent initiatives for workforce housing that might help this in the future. So hopefully, 1 don't know anything more about those other than those concepts were shared. A lot of digging deeper is going to be needed, but to have workforce type housing as an opportunity for our businesses to then have workforce would be really -- would be really great. And it also is difficult for nonresidents to want to travel to Fountain Hills for work because you could throw a rock in any other city and find work. So why would you travel to the most beautiful town in Arizona, to Fountain Hills, with the gas prices and if you could find employment elsewhere? So that is something we are actively trying to seek assistance for our businesses is the workforce issue. Signage, what I'm hearing from -- so there's only three main themes, and it's the workforce, signage, and events. Signage, what I'm hearing from businesses, what we are hearing from businesses is they're just still struggling to know what is and what is not allowed in the sign ordinance. So perhaps a future thing that we can have control over is educating our businesses in what is and is not allowable on the sign ordinance. And then as 1 think Mayor said and Scott both talked about the events, our businesses are -- they don't care if it's the Town or the Chamber hosting the event or putting the event on; they just want to know the event is happening, so they can provide specials, so they can up their workforce, and so that they can be prepared for those events. So just stronger communication regarding all of the events, not just you know ours or yours. And that's how the holiday and spring event guide came about. It was from the Business Retention and Expansion Program, from that feedback that we heard ,that the Town put those guides together. So we did have that initiative. We're not quite there yet, it's not all inclusive yet, but it's a great start, and we're thrilled with it. And then the only other item that we wanted to share is that most -- and a lot of people don't realize this, a lot of residents don't realize that, most chambers of commerce and their municipalities have what's called an operating agreement. And were proud that we have this sort of collaboration and this sort of partnership without one, because we don't have one. We're independent, nonprofit, and don't receive municipal funds through Page 12 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 13 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES an operating agreement. And I think that's something that's worthy to mention. So we do have a user agreement, and that's for those legacy -- they're not called legacy events. Those -- GOODWIN: Formerly known as legacy events. LAVOIE: Formally known as legacy events the chamber hosts that attract -- we call them community events, that attract our community and outside community that will hopefully consider our town to be their future community. And our intention is to really celebrate our current partnerships, work towards our future partnerships, and just strengthen every area so that we have full participation from our amazing staff, our amazing board. We're truly blessed. We have the best board and staff around; to truly work together as a chamber and as a town staff and elected officials so that it's obvious to the world that we are all a force to be reckoned with collaboratively in partnership. And so that's all we have. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Does anybody have any questions or comments that they'd like to add at this time? KALIVIANAKIS: I would -- MAYOR DICKEY: You didn't show up on my thingy here. KALIVIANAKIS: Yeah, I know. The system's not right for some reason. MAYOR DICKEY: Councilwoman. KALIVIANAKIS: Thank you. Yeah, thank you everyone for coming by tonight. I've really been looking forward to this evening to get to know you. The few comments 1 just did want to make was the Thanksgiving Day parade, Scott, I think that's a wonderful idea to put that on Cox Channel 11. There's so many people in our town that are older, and they don't get around very good. And that's such a special event, and if we could -- Mayor. if we could televise that, I think it would be great. And so I just wanted to comment on that. I also wanted to comment on the business retention program, which I've had the honor to participate in, and we did -- 1 did Fountain Hills Medical, Sipps, and Comfort Inn. And I thought we really did a lot of good with Amanda and with you, Betsy, and we -- there's just so many things that we could help them with, and they didn't know about, especially things that the Chamber offers businesses. I think it was eye-opening Page 13 of17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 14 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES for them, and so I think that's just a wonderful program. And then the last thing I would just like to mention is on the workforce housing, I think there's a misperception out there that workforce housing is like Section 8 or affordable housing, and 1 would just like to dispel that. I think workforce housing is something that's -- it's the future. It's post-COVID, how we can get people to work in our businesses by offering them incentives and possibly get some funding from even the govemment to see if we can get people that can work here and live here. So I think, you know, I would be a big advocate for that. and 1 think it's a great idea. Thanks for bringing it up. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you, Councilwoman. Allen, did you have anything? Or anybody else up here have any comments or questions? I would like to, first of all, mention, Scott, that Betsy and I were there in that 48 degrees with our raincoats on -- [LAUGHTER] MAYOR DICKEY: -- announcing the lights. And part of that, obviously, it just happens at the moment, so you don't know if you're going to go through with it. Are we? But we both went then. 1 think part of that, too, was because we didn't want to wait a week for the lights to be on for everybody because I know people come that week to see them, so we wanted to make sure they were on. But we definitely couldn't do the rolling thing, the bicycles. That was not the night for that. But there was some good chili there, too, so -- and it was fun in its own way. The Oktoberfest, the other thing we talked about, you know, skipping one year to the other, but also maybe doing one night instead of two and seeing how that might work out. Because sometimes it's a little hard on the Friday nights for people to get there anyway, plus the weather's always a little iffy. So maybe that would make it less risky, and you know, we could collaborate on that some more. You talked about the EarthCam, which, a little story. So, you know, Fountain Hills is known, obviously, locally, regionally. Everywhere I go, everybody talks about us being so vibrant and gorgeous. But also statewide and nationally. And now I would say internationally. We went to Ireland, and that Temple Bar is on EarthCam. Angela told me about that. Page 14 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 15 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES And so we were at Temple Bar, and they didn't know they were on EarthCam. And they have an interior EarthCam there, too, so not only just the red bar, but the people inside. So we were like, did you see you? So then we were able to put ours up and show them. So they saw the fountain in Dublin. So that was very cool. I also wanted to ask you, you had that magazine about -- and that's from Canada, and I wanted to ask you if you are familiar with the Canadian Arizona Business Council. It's like GPEC in a way, but it's the fact -- it recognizes how many Canadian visitors and part-time residents and full-time residents we have. Have you seen anything like that that you've decided to pursue? Because you said it was definitely something worth doing for us to be in that magazine. SOMMER: Yeah, I -- Madam Mayor, I personally have not. However, we do certainly recognize the amount of Canadian visitors that we have, not only to Phoenix, but specifically Fountain Hills. It's -- actually, it's quite remarkable how many Canadian visitors that we do have here. Betsy, can you speak further on this particular topic? LAVOIE: Yes, absolutely. And 1 do know that the Town had that lovely breakfast for the Canadian visitors, and the Chamber was proud to be a part of that with the Town. And so we definitely recognize we've not looked into the Canadian Business Council any further than that. We just mostly want to support the Town's initiative, so perhaps we can add that to our future collaborative efforts that we make sure to do together. MAYOR DICKEY: I appreciate that. Because I know that it's one of those things where there are so many ideas and so much, and it's not -- it's not my -- you know, where I'm at. You know, I don't know all the ins and outs, and you have so many different businesses that maybe could hone in on some of that. So they meet quarterly, and maybe we can try to get that information, Amanda, out a little bit more. Because I go, and I'm like wow, wow, wow, and then I come home, and you know -- everything kind of catches up with me. So that would be very good. And then Sister Cities is something else that we're very interested in, and we're continuing to have those partnerships. And again, I'm so proud that we all look well past our borders when it comes to all the different things that we can do to help our community succeed, and also. of course, we depend on our residents and our visitors who Page 15 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 16 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES do come here. Was there any other comments or questions or anything anybody would like to add? LAVOIE: I'll just add that Sister Cities is near and dear to our heart, too. Two of our board directors are also on the Sister Cities board, and so we love that that cross -- what's -- I was going to say cross -contamination. That's not the right word. [LAUGHTER] LAVOIE: We really try to participate in as many organizations, and that's one of them that's near and dear to our heart. MAYOR DICKEY: That's -- I love hearing that, and we have more to come on that. And also I wanted to mention, when you talked about some of the ads that wc do and some of the partnerships that we have, we have our tribal neighbors because they also get the Prop 202 money, and then it goes to tourism and business. And so 1 wanted to make sure that we mention them. I think -- I don't know if it was this year or last year, but every time someone got a home run there at Salt River or one of the fields, Fountain Hills came up on there. So those are the kind of things that we can do that we wouldn't be able to do without these grants and these partnerships. Anything else? Anybody want to watch the Suns tonight? [LAUGHTER] MAYOR DICKEY: Well. if there is nothing else, I'll give one more chance here. Otherwise, I could -- SOMMER: I've got one -- MAYOR DICKEY: Yes, sir. Go right ahead. SOMMER: -- one thing if you don't mind. I just -- you know, again, I felt that this time was pretty well spent, and I'm really -- I'm really hoping that this is something that wc can come back to and start doing on somewhat of a regular basis. Because what I'm hearing is that there's a ton of opportunity, and there is an inordinate amount of benefit to any community that has a thriving -- a thriving group of businesses. And this, I hope, is the first of many meetings where we ultimately can work towards this common goal of creating an environment where businesses can thrive. So Page 16 of 17 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Page 17 of 17 APRIL 25, 2023 JOINT TOWN COUNCIL AND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE MEETING MINUTES I'm looking forward to seeing where this takes us. And again, thank you. MAYOR DICKEY: Thank you. Thank you all for coming. Thanks all of you for coming. Please feel free, we will all cross -contaminate each other. [LAUGHTER] MAYOR DICKEY: Call whenever you need anything. And I guess we will be adjoumcd. Thank you so much. Page 17 of 17 Having no further business, Mayor Ginny Dickey adjourned the Joint Meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council with the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce held on April 25, 2023, at 6:03 p.m. 7- ATTEST AND PREPARED BY: Li da G. Mendenhall, Town Clerk TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MayorU CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Joint Meeting held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills with the Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce in the Town Hall Council Chambers on the 25'h day of April 2023. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this 6'h Day of June 2023. Linda G. Mendenhall, Town flerk