HomeMy WebLinkAbout1991/07/24 - Minutes - Joint (Chamber of Commerce) July 24, 1991
CITY OF RANCHO CUCAMONGA
CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
Joint Meetinq of the Citv Council
and the Chamber of Commerce
A. CALL TO ORDER
An adjourned joint meeting of the City Council of the City of Rancho Cucamonga
and the Rancho Cucamonga Chamber of Commerce was held on Wednesday, July 24,
1991, in the Rains Conference Room of the Civic Center, located at 10500 Civic
Center Drive, Rancho Cucamonga, California. The meeting was called to order at
7:30 p.m. by Mayor Dennis L. Stout.
Present were Councilmembers: William J. Alexander, Charles J. Buquet II, Pamela
J. Wright, and Mayor Dennis L. Stout.
Absent was Councilmember: Diane Willjams.
Present from the Chamber of Commerce were: Danielle Watson, Executive Director;
Jackie Amsler, President; Bob Dutton; Rance Clouse; William Stevenson; Gary
Christian; Duane Huennekens; and Vince Elefante.
Also present were: Jack Lam, City Manager; Linda D. Daniels, Deputy City
Manager; Rick Gomez, Community Development Director; Susan Mickey, Management
Analyst I; and Jan Sutton, Deputy City Clerk.
B. ITEMS OF DISCUSSION
B1. DISCUSSION OF JOINT CITY/CHAMBER ACTIVITIES FOR VISITING DELEGATION FROM
CHINA (1180-02 CHAMBER)
Danielle Watson, Chamber, stated they were contacted by a gentleman who was in
contact with some businessmen from China, and was interested in bringing them to
the Rancho Cucamonga area because he sees some potential for some mutual business
transactions. She stated they were interested in finding out the City's feelings
on how far they wanted to get involved with it, because they were not sure at
this time if he was using this opportunity to just promote his business. She
stated the gentleman also raised the question of a sister city, which they also
wanted to discuss with the City, and it did not necessarily have to be a city in
China.
City Council/Chamber of Commerce
Joint Meeting Minutes
July 24, 1991
Page 2
Councilmembers Buquet and Wright stated they would be interested in having a
sister city in Australia.
Jack Lam, City Manager, stated in 1981 the Council discussed having a sister city
in either Australia or New Zealand, but it was never followed through with at the
time. He presented information on the Sister City International organization,
which is a non-profit organization, and how a sister city was usually set up.
Bob Dutton, Chamber, stated they could ask the Rancho Cucamonga Community
Foundation if they would be interested in participating as a basis for a cultural
exchange program.
Councilmember Wright stated she would like to have a joint project with the
Chamber, which would help the overall connection between the City and the
Chamber.'
Bob Dutton, Chamber, stated usually the City provides credibility by their
involvement with the program, and the Chamber would provide the financial
support.
Councilmember Buquet stated he would be in favor of having a sister city.
asked what type of business were the Chinese delegates in.
He
Danielle Watson, Chamber, stated they were only given a brief synopsis of the
city the Chinese were from, that there was approximately a population of 125,000,
and it was mostly industrial. She stated they were supposed to be receiving
further information, but at this time they were not sure if there were any hidden
agendas involved.
Councilmember Alexander stated he was also interested in the sister city idea,
but would like to approach it more from the standpoint of helping a community
that was not as well off as Rancho Cucamonga, such as one in Mexico, and have the
whole community involved in helping out their sister city. He felt this would
increase that country's awareness of Rancho Cucamonga by their humanitarian
efforts.
JackieAmsler, Chamber, felt this idea has been around for a long time, and that
various groups are interested in this, and felt the Chamber needed to decide what
would be the purpose and parameters under which they would want to operate a
sister city program. Or if the City wanted to be involved, what would be their
criteria.
Councilmember Buquet stated he saw a sister city program as being more of a
cultural exchange, as well as an economic exchange, that he envisioned it being
with a city that was almost comparable to Rancho Cucamonga.
Gary Christian, Chamber, stated they would need to look for ways to make it a two
way exchange.
City Council/Chamber of Commerce
Joint Meeting Minutes
July 24, 1991
Page 3
Councilmember Alexander felt that his approach did involve a two way exchange,
in the good will and name recognition they would be receiving for their efforts,
as opposed to the financial exchanges.
Gary Christian, Chamber, felt they needed to be careful about considering having
a sister city in China due to the current situation.
Mayor Stout stated if the City was interested in economic benefit, they might
want to consider a city in Japan, Korea or Taiwan. He stated he understood the
charitable side as expressed by Councilmember Alexander, but felt that would be
more of a community effort instead of a focus by the City. He stated the
immediate problem was what to do in September when the Chinese delegation
arrived.
Danielle Watson, Chamber, stated they were looking for some direction from the
City on how far they would like the Chamber to be involved in this, or if they
not want to be involved at all.
Mayor Stout stated from the way it was described, he felt they needed more
information before taking a position.
Jackie Amsler, Chamber, stated they would keep the Council apprised of any
further information they received on the Chinese delegation.
Mayor Stout stated they could give that information to Jack Lam, City Manager,
and he could distribute it to the Council.
B2. DISCUSSION OF JOINT CITY/CHAMBER PUBLICATION ON DEMOGRAPHICS AND STATISTICS
(1180-02 CHAMBER)
Danielle Watson, Chamber, stated she and Rance Clouse had met with Jack Lam, and
apparently several City departments were thinking of doing an informational
booklet on Rancho Cucamonga, and since they were also thinking of producing a
statistical booklet on the City, it seemed the next step would be to have one
publication that was produced jointly to be used by both groups. They spoke
about a variety of ways to fund printing the booklet, such as having low key ads
in it.
Mayor Stout felt the problem with doing a printed booklet was that the
information changes so fast it was outdated before it could be printed and
distributed. He would like to see a computer with desktop publishing
capabilities utilized with the demographic information so that the booklet could
be updated monthly and would always be current.
Rance Clouse, Chamber, stated they have been trying to get an economic database
off the ground in the Chamber, along with the general type of information the
City has available, and combine that with specific information that the business
community needs to know in making a decision on whether to locate to Rancho
Cucamonga or not. This would include average wage scales, building permits
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City Council/Chamber of Commerce
Joint Meeting Minutes
July 24, 1991
Page 4
issued, business licenses by categories, the labor pool statistics, and
educational statistics that are not the typical community profile type of
information. He felt they would want to update that on a regular basis so the
use of a computer would probably be the most appropriate way to do that. He
stated they might know where to identify the data they need, and could work with
the City on bringing it together in a comprehensive manner. He stated the IECC
has something similar, and they have talked about coordinating with that.
Mayor Stout felt they could do several things to put out a quality package, but
felt the thing that would impress business people the most would be having
current information.
William Stevenson, Chamber, stated that the majority of information they need was
produced by the sources monthly, or at the most quarterly.
JackieAmsler, Chamber, stated Chaffey College has also been discussing the need
for an economic database for the area in conjunction with their Center for
Economic Development. She felt there were several groups that were interested
in putting out information like this, and the Chamber should be coordinating it
so that it could be used by everyone.
William Stevenson, Chamber, felt some other city has probably already developed
the type of publication they were talking about, and that they should try to get
samples so that they did not have to start from scratch.
Mayor Stout stated what they could do was have certain canned parts of the
presentation, such as an introduction, a good cover, etc., and then the
demographic information would be interspersed inbetween. With a desktop
publishing system you could print out the updated demographic information at any
time, and then collate the booklets as needed.
JackieAmsler, Chamber, stated they wanted to let the Council know that they have
a committee formed that was looking into this, and were finding out who else was
trying to create a similar document, as well as work on funding mechanisms for
it.
Councilmember Wright asked if when they go to Chamber of Commerce conventions,
was there information available from other cities that could be shared.
Danielle Watson, Chamber, stated they could always contact the U.S. Chamber and
tell them what they needed, then they will contact cities that have that
information and have it sent out.
Mayor Stout stated he would like to see the City take a more aggressive approach
with this in conjunction with the Chamber.
Jack Lam, City Manager, stated the Chamber committee could meet with Rick Gomez,
Community Development Director, and his staff and decide who should work with
what resources and decide how to put the information together.
City Council/Chamber of Commerce
Joint Meeting Minutes
July 24, 1991
Page 5
B3. DISCUSSION OF ITEMS OF MUTUAL CONCERN (1180-02 CHAMBER)
Jackie Amsler, Chamber, stated they were interested in speaking about the Crime
Stoppers program.
Mayor Stout stated this was touched upon at their retreat, and felt it would be
a way for the Chamber of Commerce to gain some credibility in the community in
the area of law enforcement/public safety. He stated local communities have this
program so it would be easy to copy. He stated it did not require a lot of work,
that it involved having the local radio station read public service announcements
prepared by the police department on crimes they were investigating, and having
the newspaper print up small ads with the same information.
Bob Dutton, Chamber, felt the Chamber would be interested in participating, and
that they could assist in initiating the program, because they have found in
other communities that once this program was begun it became an entity of itself.
Mayor Stout stated the Chamber could take a poll of their membership to see who
would be interested in servicing on the board and working on fund raising.
Bob Dutton, Chamber, felt it was important to the success of a program like this
to have the support of the elected officials.
Councilmember Buquet stated he would like to know more about the program, and how
it differed from the programs they have in place already, like We-Tip.
Mayor Stout stated We-Tip was set up for citizen generated information, whereas
Crime Stoppers was a request for information by the police department on a
specific crime.
Danielle Watson, Chamber, stated they could get an informational package from the
City of Ontario on the program.
Councilmember Wright stated she would like suggestions on how to improve economic
development in the City, and how they could do that from an RDA point of view.
Bob Dutton, Chamber, stated one of the problems now is since the federal
government was keeping a tight rein on the banks, it was going to remain
difficult for people to get financing, plus companies were looking for incentives
to relocate their businesses, which usually involved financial incentives for
development and moving.
Mayor Stout felt it was important to have members from the financial institutions
involved so that they could understand the community and how it would affect
them, and that there would be positive results for the risk that they take.
William Stevenson, Chamber, stated most banks are comfortable with investing when
they can be put in a primary position, so the RDA could be a very useful tool in
receiving financing for projects.
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City Council/Chamber of Commerce
Joint Meeting Minutes
July 24, 1991
Page 6
Bob Dutton, Chamber, felt another problem was that most banks in the local area
were not large enough to finance large loan amounts for any major project that
might be developed in the community.
Rance Clouse, Chamber, stated that economic development was business driven, that
the government or personal desire could not force it to happen, it has to come
from the business side. So it comes down to how to entice businesses to the
community, and right now that usually involves economic advantages.
Bob Dutton, Chamber, presented information on how the City of Albuquerque, New
Mexico, approached Lockheed about relocating to their community, and suggested
maybe the City and Chamber could work together on a joint project like that.
Mayor Stout stated they have taken a similar approach with the bonding agencies
in New York, and felt they could do the same thing for a major user if necessary.
Bob Dutton, Chamber, stated they were dependent on the brokerage community and
felt the City and Chamber have done a good job in heading off rumors that might
cause problems.
Councilmember Buquet felt there was a real problem with the type of coverage the
City was getting from the local newspaper, that they do not provide positive
coverage. He stated the paper does not have a large enough circulation, and with
the recent reorganization, local coverage suffers. He felt the Chamber could
have a large impact on the newspaper, so possibly they could work together to get
more objective coverage.
Mayor Stout stated that since the newspaper has compressed its format down, it
was hard for the reporters to get their stories in the way they were written,
that the editors revise them to fit a certain space allocation, so oftentimes
that causes the distortion.
Councilmember Wright felt the goal was to lure large corporations to Rancho
Cucamonga, so if they all stayed aware of opportunities, and if the Chamber could
let the City know when there was such an opportunity, they could work together
on that.
Bob Dutton, Chamber, stated it might be worthwhile for the City to host a
function for the brokers from Los Angeles and Orange County, since they would be
the contacts for the large corporations.
Rance Clouse, Chamber, agreed that the major deals would be handled by brokers
from outside the local area.
Councilmember Alexander stated that Rancho Cucamonga was in the process of
changing its image of being a hard City to deal with which would help with future
development.
Councilman Buque~ left the meeting at 8:40 p.m.
City Council/Chamber of Commerce
Joint Meeting Minutes
July 24, 1991
Page 7
Linda Daniels, Deputy City Manager, stated the Redevelopment Agency does an
annual presentation for the Chamber to go over what has occurred in the past year
and what they are looking at for the future, and to go over what the Agency can
do and how the Chamber can assist them. She then discussed the criteria the
Council approved for incentives for incoming businesses.
Jack Lam, City Manager, presented examples of projects they have offered
incentives to, such as the regional mall, the Price Club, and the Sears credit
center. He stated they do not offer incentives to companies that would be coming
to the area anyway, and since each project is looked at on a case by case basis,
you could not really compare their program with that of another city.
Bob Dutton, Chamber, felt there was a problem with doing business in California
overall, and thought the Chamber needed to frequent the legislature in Sacramento
to let them know how things were affecting the Inland Valley. He felt the local
area would help to lead California out of the recession, but they need to decide
what they want to happen, and then go out and get it.
Mayor Stout felt one of the problems American business had in competing with
foreign business was that they do not plan far enough in advance. He felt Rancho
Cucamonga was in an evolution process, and was in a better position when the
region matured to a more economically sophisticated area because they still have
large parcels of land available for development, and they needed to let people
know what the community needs.
Jack Lam, City Manager, stated the two things the City has looked at consistently
in the past is sales tax revenue and large employers that match the City's labor
pool.
Rance Clouse, Chamber, explained the three cycles of a city's growth, the first
being affordable housing and creating the labor base, that were typically
distribution types of facilities and construction industry, which creates your
basic shopping needs and local centers. The second cycle was executive housing,
higher end housing, a more educated labor pool, which should lead to the next
level of manufacturing base, the advanced technology industry, electronics and
medical industries, which then leads to a higher level of shopping interest.
Then you advance to the cultural side of the community. He stated the City needs
to decided publicly what it is they are after and give some specifics to the
brokerage community to work with.
Councilmember Wright stated they are going to be getting a report back soon on
the City's economic development, and felt that would be the perfect opportunity
to target their philosophy and state what their intentions are.
Jack Lam, City Manager, stated a general rule of thumb is that no matter how much
money was available for incentives, they had to look at how could they best
invest that money to receive the greatest return.
City Council/Chamber of Commerce
Joint Meeting Minutes
July 24, 1991
Page 8
Councilmember Wright stated the Chamber used to have an education committee, and
asked if they would consider reinstating that committee. At the National League
of Cities convention the main topic was schools, and how cities and businesses
fit in with schools, and if they look at what makes a quality community, schools
play a key part in that. She stated the school community was saying the Chamber
was not involved in that any more, and they feel that void. She stated they
should keep in mind there are three new superintendents in the City.
Bob Dutton, Chamber, stated that when Floyd Stork was put in charge of the
education committee, it transitioned into a school facilities focus, and there
was no one at that time who really knew what to do with it.
Jackie Amsler, Chamber, stated they have discussed it and she felt that every
committee in the Chamber had a responsibility for monitoring education, instead
of just having one committee on education. She stated they have not had any
specific requests from the schools for assistance.
Danielle Watson, Chamber, stated the requests they have received from the schools
lately have been only for funding.
Gary Christian, Chamber, stated that the schools have asked the Chamber for
support in legislative matters on several occasions, but have not been willing
to give that support back to the Chamber.
Councilmember Wright stated the President's mandate on businesses was filtering
down, and schools were starting to turn around and reach out to the business
community. She stated she has received a packet of information on business
partnerships which tells what schools are supposed to be doing for the
businesses, where the business gets to promote itself by it association with the
school. She felt the Chamber needed to invite the superintendents to participate
with the Chamber, and to start up a program again and get both parties working
on it.
Jackie Amsler, Chamber, felt a separate education committee gets too narrow in
its scope and the other committees do not get involved, so this way each
committee stays aware and helps to monitor the education process in the
community. She agreed that they needed to send an invitation to the
superintendents along with an outline of the separate committees they could work
with.
Councilmember Wright felt the superintendents were interested but felt the
Chamber was not, so if they heard the Chamber was interested that could be the
door they were looking for. She felt if the superintendents were interested in
doing something, then they should pursue that.
Vince Elefante, Chamber, stated the interest for the business community would be
that the students now will be the labor force of the future.
Duane Huennekens, Chamber, stated there was also the Junior Achievement program
but did not know if that program was offered in this community.
City Council/Chamber of Commerce
Joint Meeting Minutes
July 24, 1991
Page 9
Gary Christian, Chamber, stated there was a regional government subcommittee
meeting tomorrow morning, and they would like the City's opinion about the
direction of a regional government. He stated there were four bills going
through the legislature, and Willie Brown's bill, AB 1, just went through the
Assembly and was on its way to the Senate. He stated the Governor has asked the
authors of all the bills to hold off until the inter-agency council conducts
hearings through the end of the year and presents something to the Governor
January 1, 1992, but Willie Brown was pushing his through anyway. He stated it
was likely the Governor would veto that bill if it passed the Senate, but it was
a hot topic they were trying to stay on top of.
Bob Dutton, Chamber, stated the Executive Committee approved a position paper
opposing AB 3 and supporting Marian Bergeson's bill which calls for voluntary
cooperation between local governments.
Gary Christian, Chamber, stated he just wanted to make sure the City stayed
involved with it because they felt local government was the most effective method
and wanted to make sure that legislation did not get passed that tied the hands
of the local elected officials.
C. COMMIFNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC
No communications were made by the public.
D. ADJOURNMENT
MOTION: Moved by Alexander, seconded by Wright to adjourn to July 25, 1991 at
7:00 p.m. for a joint meeting with the Public Safety Commission, in the Tri-
Communities Conference Room of the Civic Center, to discuss the Law Enforcement
Study. Motion carried unanimously, 3-0-2 (Buquet, Williams absent). The meeting
adjourned at 9:20 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Jan Sutton
Deputy City Clerk
Approved: August 7, 1991