Partnership for Regional Opportunity
12:30pm-2:30pm on April 30, 2014
McKnight Foundation – Board Room
Meeting Notes
Present:
Lee Sheehy, McKnight Foundation; Susan Haigh, Metropolitan Council; Mary Tingerthal, MN Housing;
Ann Mulholland, St. Paul Foundation; Mihailo “Mike” Temali, Neighborhood Development Center;
Chris Ferguson, Business Resource Collaborative; Peter McLaughlin. Hennepin County; Repa Mekha,
Nexus Community Partners; Laurie McGinnis, U of M - Center for Transportation Studies; Jay Cowles,
Itasca Project; Paul Williams, PPL; Elizabeth Ryan, Family Housing Fund; Mayor Debbie Goettel, City
of Richfield, Jim Roth, Metropolitan Consortium of Community Developers; Louis King, Summit
Academy OIC; Mayor Hamann-Roland, Apple Valley; Cathy Bennett, ULI (for Caren Dewar); John
Stiles, Chief of Staff Minneapolis (for Betsy Hodges-Mayor of Minneapolis); Jan Jordet for (Yvonne
Chueng Ho-President & CEO of MEDA); Shelley Poticha, NRDC; Andriana Abariotes, Twin Cities
LISC; Brian Lamb, Metro Transit
Absent:
Charlie Zelle, MNDOT; Colleen Carey, The Cornerstone Group; Commissioner Katie Clark SiebenDEED, Michael Langley, Greater-MSP; Jim McDonough-Ramsey County; Caren Dewar, Urban Land
Institute/Regional Council of Mayors, Jonathan Sage-Martinson, Central Corridor Funders Collaborative,
Sandra Oakes, Twin Cities Community Land Bank;
Also Present:
Cecil Bedor, City of Saint Paul; Susan Schmidt, The Trust for Public Land; Todd Graham, Met Council;
Ellen Shelton, Wilder Research; Karen Lyons, Met Council; Mark VanderSchaaf, Met Council; Guy
Peterson, Met Council; Pat Born, Met Council; Beth Reetz, Met Council; Carrie Jo Short, The Saint Paul
Foundation; Catherine Cox Blair, NRDC; Allison Bell, Met Council; Harry Melander, Met Council;
D’Angelos Svenkeson, Met Council; Tawanna Black, Northside Funders Group; Jessica Paquin, Ramsey
County; Michelle Fure, Met Council; Lucy Galbraith, Metro Transit; Tony Tian, Ramsey County; Kathy
Bodmer, City of Apple Valley; John Dolphin, TCC Land Bank; Aasim Shabazz; Gary Leavitt, City of St.
Paul TOD Manager; Janet Guthrie, Ramsey County; Kathryn Hansen, Metro Transit; LaShella, Micah;
Nancy Homans, City of St. Paul; Shawntera Hardy, Fresh Energy; Tim Thompson, Housing Preservation
Project; William Schroeer, East Metro Strong; Julia Silvas, Itasca; Russ Adams, AMS; Ned Moore,
MCNO; Lynne Bly, MNDOT-Metro Dist.;
Call to Order:
Chair Sheehy called the meeting of the Partnership for Regional Opportunity (PRO) to order at 12:37p.m.
What’s next for US metros and Minneapolis-Saint Paul – reflections from the Federal Livability
Partnership and moving forward - Shelley Poticha, Director, Urban Solutions Program, Natural
Resources Defense Council (and former director of the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities
at the Department of Housing and Urban Development)
Poticha discussed the new program set up for sustainable communities and noted that it was harder to get
a Sustainable Communities Grant than it is to get into Harvard University. She stated they were able to
invest in 145 places in the US and when the numbers were tallied it touched one in three Americans.
Poticha discussed the reason that she is here. She noted this was an opportunity to bring together the
environmental movement and community development world into a course for cities. She stated that she’s
been asked set up a new program called Urban Solutions which is intended to be helpful for communities
like this region bringing technical assistance, transit oriented development, equitable development, and
environmentally responsible development.
Poticha stated they’ve been asked by a series of foundations to help sister organizations with
Reconnecting America and merge them with NRDC to help them develop tools to achieve plans of HUD
grant recipients. She stated they are here to assess how they can be most helpful. They have the ability to
engage and support if it’s useful.
Poticha discussed the Federal Livability Partnership and the HUD Sustainability Program as people have
asked their status. She stated her successor will be moving forward and continuing this work. She noted
that the work needs to be done in a very creative way as they will not see the appropriations like we’ve
seen in the past. She stated they are renaming the office: Office of Economic Resilience.
Sheehy asked Poticha to comment on the Map 21 New Starts policy. She discussed concerns raised about
new start guidelines in place previously that left out economic development. An inter-agency group
formed to write new New Starts policies. She noted that it is not perfect – still need to find ways to help
transit community partner with other agencies to look beyond transit implications.
Poticha discussed data to understand who is living near transit when proposals are made and noted that
now there are a different set of data requirements when applications are made. She feels this region is
very well positioned because we’ve been talking about this for so long. An investment in transit is an
investment in the community – this is key.
McLaughlin asked if there has been work on business development both for community businesses but
also for larger business. Poticha stated there are many more places in the country that focus on this. There
are metrics in the research criteria that connect transit to jobs. McLaughlin asked for examples of who is
doing this. Poticha named a few including Washington DC and Denver.
Ryan asked about measuring housing plus transportation being affordability. Poticha discussed a tool
used when she was at HUD that was a federally sponsored housing/transportation data base. Ryan asked
if she had seen regions/cities apply this as a measure to drive policy. Poticha gave examples of the Bay
area, Seattle (part of the Transportation Policy Plan) also a priority tool for sighting housing. She noted
that Atlanta is looking at it and Boston has used it.
Partnership for Regional Opportunity – work group updates and discussion:
- Regional Equity and Community Engagement – Repa Mekha, Nexus Community Partners
Mekha gave an update on work – looking for a crisp definition of equity. Efforts are to balance the work
that is already being done. Guiding principles for 2014 include: 1) being focused, 2) enhance ongoing
work within the region, 3) create a workplan that delivers short and long-term wins.
Mekha discussed the Equity Tool Kit (outlined in materials provided) that is practical and can be easily
used. He discussed resources used and goals established that look at best practices. Priority is to respond
to local demands and gather good local examples of work in play.
Mekha discussed two groups that are engaging public/private sectors around equity. He discussed the next
stages of work – what would motivate/engage private sector more; and how to connect to private sectors.
Williams discussed Itasca’s work around disparities and stated they would be great to work with.
Haigh – there is a lot of good private sector work being done concurrently on this path. She asked about
the equity guide book stage of the discussion – how do you apply criteria and have discussions at a policy
making level. She would like the workgroup to give more thought to this.
Mekha discussed the challenge of having access to good information and best practices to application and
then how do you put them into play. Also discussed the question of who/how will it be
housed/maintained? He acknowledged that the key part of the work will be with private sector and we
connect with that group.
Haman-Roland suggested looking at the work done with Green Steps Cities with the League of MN
Cities.
Ferguson discussed the cost of avoiding developing great equity policies. It ultimately comes down to
price/cost.
Temali – discussed new customers are emerging markets. He discussed business perspective of emerging
markets with products, customer service and equitable work force hiring policy.
King questioned the definition of equity. Mekha stated that there are multiple definitions and agreed that
it needs to be more concise.
King discussed the Wikipedia definition and stated it’s about money. Everybody is talking about tool kits,
definitions, etc. He stated that we have to push and lead by example. The largest employer in MN is the
State of MN. When are we going to talk about money?
Mekha stated the clearer we are about equity, the easier it will be to do it. The challenge is to provide
tools to show them how to do it. He stated that at some point we want to be able to ask – “s it happening
here?” The challenge is, as a subcommittee, it’s a one year commitment.
Michele Fure, Met Council Staff – discussed the Choice, Place and Opportunity Report and a two part
approach. First we need to identify what investments might be in play to reduce disparity in the region.
Next she discussed creating a place for partners to talk about how to work together and create a plan of
action. She noted they are still talking about who those partners may be – in different parts of the region.
Fure stated the ultimate goal is to reduce disparity but also to help build wealth where it has not existed
before. Finally she discussed the next steps including creating the plan that will have all of the right
partners in the right places of the region (will happen soon) and then to established what the timeline will
look like.
King commended Fure on this work. He gave examples of how this can be done and talked about
mentoring folks. He discussed the need for more really effective things and not just the “good things.”
Tingerthal asked about timing – the last draft was circulated a while ago. Fure stated the idea is to bring in
the right partners (this year) to discuss this. The goal will then be set after discussions then we’ll see
where the discussion takes us. Fure discussed investments made and their expectations.
Haigh asked of the status of the report. Beth Reetz, Director Livable Communities stated that the Choice,
Place and Opportunity Report has been adopted by the Council and sent to HUD.
Tingerthal asked where we have dialogue on where investments should go. She noted that opinions vary.
King stated that you have to have those discussions everywhere at once.
Haman-Roland commented - don’t believe that wealthy neighborhoods don’t have a huge concentration
of poverty.
Haigh agreed with King and discussed the first step is following Choice Place and Opportunity.
Williams agreed and felt it’s important to track the numbers. Where are the concentrations of poverty –
how have they changed. This helps us to know how we are doing. He stated that process matters – the fact
that the Met Council now has a different way of practicing outreach on community planning matters. He
also noted that Tingerthal’s approach to asking the north-side community ‘why don’t you use our
programs as much’ is a change in process that matters. He also stated that some of what the committee is
talking about is process change that matters. So we need to track the numbers and at the same time we
need to keep pushing for best practices and investments that in fact that start to drive changes in those
numbers.
Mekha commented on the sensitivity about reports coming out and standing as silo reports on different
parts of work. He emphasized that we could continue to do separate reports. We need to be intentional
about bridging.
Jan Jordet, MEDA Senior Director Consulting and Financing Services stated that process does matter.
She discussed great minds meeting with same elements but no action. She discussed the Met Council’s
recent change in policy on payment. Currently on a three year project the contractor who does good work
with a good product and is done in year one has a retainer that is held for two more years. This is their
profit money. The Met Council is changing the process for future projects that will make the prime carry
the cash flow burden and the contractor can get paid in a timely manner.
- Transportation Funding Update – Ann Mulholland, Minnesota Philanthropy Partners
Mulholland discussed Move MN work this Legislative session. MoveMN has a formal campaign,
advertising spots, and lobbying team along with grass roots organizing and a broad coalition that has been
built to support a comprehensive sustainable transportation package for MN. She noted they are on
Facebook and encouraged all to ‘like’ Move Minnesota. She noted they still need ‘big business’ onboard.
She discussed efficiencies but stated that addressing inefficiencies will not fix the funding situation. She
discussed that this issue is being elevated at the Legislature that this needs to be the top issue in 2015.
Campaign seeking to double resources to work on this next session.
Sheehy complimented Mulholland’s work and those working with her.
Tingerthal asked – do you know how it will play in campaigns in the upcoming election. Mulholland feels
it will play differently in every campaign.
McLaughlin discussed bonding items for transportation and transit that are active now that will help this
along.
TOD Work Group Update: - Brian Lamb, Metropolitan Council
Lamb stated that the TOD Workgroup has met and focused on the work plan. He discussed their focus on
the plan’s transit related improvements and how they overlay with racially concentrated areas of poverty
and where do they represent real opportunities.
Lamb discussed the TOD office which is taking place and introduced Lucy Galbraith the new TOD
Manager.
Shared Prosperity Work Group Update and Discussion – Lee Sheehy, McKnight Foundation
Sheehy reported on Shared Prosperity Workgroup and the regional success measures. He asked the group
for input on what five categories should be measured and passed out a form (also, page 31 of the packet).
He discussed the indicators outlined on pages 29-30 of the packet.
Mekha discussed a test done last Friday to see where categories were identified and other indicators fell
under those top 5 ‘headings’. Tingerthal underscored the importance of this exercise.
Haigh discussed identifying spatial differences in indicators and asked members to think about spatial
areas that need extra attention in addition to the five categories. Mekha agreed and stated this is why he
talked about integration.
Williams encouraged folks to find 2-3 diverse groups to look at this. He asked how it relates to the
Compass effort. Sheehy stated this was not intended to duplicate Compass. He noted that Compass does
show trend lines.
Sheehy stated part of the question is communications – tend to be more singular than as a dashboard. He
discussed the regional set of measurements.
Cowles discussed when Compass was created. Compass was born at a time when we were not prepared to
handle it properly. His take away is to look at how we’ve grown.
Verbal Updates
- Corridor of Opportunity – Final Evaluation Findings - Ellen Shelton, Wilder Research
Shelton discussed the final evaluation findings and reviewed the report summary provided. She
recognized the group that formed the evaluation group and discussed the purpose of the evaluation.
Shelton discussed the data sources and highlights of the development indicators. She noted that there will
be a 70 page report coming out next week. She discussed short-term outcomes including: TOD projects,
small business assistance, a stronger financing system for equitable TOD, integrated planning on
Southwest LRT corridor, community engagement, other project outcomes and leveraged funding.
Shelton discussed systems change and also changes likely to be durable.
Shelton discussed the long-term impact: will low-income people better off in the longer term?
Shelton discussed the learnings – barriers and challenges and factors contributing to positive results. She
reviewed the overall lessons learned and conclusions and recommendations. She ended with implications
for continuing efforts.
McLaughlin discussed tracking indicators – asked what is happening to people who are there – are they
able to stay and also talked about businesses.
Shelton talked about existing data sets – would require additional survey work of individuals affected.
Bennett discussed census data that could be utilized.
Written Updates
Sheehy shared listed articles can be found in the handouts.
Announcements
McGinnis gave update of the upcoming 25th Annual CTS Transportation Research Conference coming up
on May 21-22 at the Saint Paul River Center.
Progress report, at Central Corridor level is coming.
Next Meeting: May 28, 2014: 12:30-2:30 p.m. Metropolitan Council Chambers
Adjourned 2:30 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Sandi Dingle
Program Technical Specialist