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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES Family Advisory Board 2019-07-17Town of Estes Park, Larimer County, Colorado, July 17, 2019 Minutes of a special meeting of the Family Advisory Board of the Town of Estes Park, Larimer County, Colorado. Meeting held in the Room 203 of the Estes Park Town Hall, on the 17th day of July, 2019. Present: Laurie Dale Marshall Michael Moon Rachel Balduzzi Jodi Roman Also Present: Ron Norris, Town Board Liaison Travis Machalek, Assistant Town Administrator Suzanna Simpson, Recording Secretary Absent: Karen Randinitis Nancy Almond John Bryant Guests: Jon Nicholas, Estes Park Economic Development Corporation Chair Dale Marshall called the meeting to order at 3:07 p.m. PUBLIC COMMENTS: None TRUSTEE LIAISON REPORT: The Town Board has approved the 2020 Strategic Plan. This can be viewed on the Town’s website and public comment can be received through July 31, 2019. Two Family Advisory Board members will be appointed at the next Town Board meeting, Tuesday, July 23. GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS: Member Moon announced that ECE has been declared a public charity by the United States Internal Revenue Service as of Monday, July 15. Assistant Town Administrator Machalek provided an update on the Town Administrator and Assistant Town Administrator positions. He has finished negotiations with the Town Board for his promotion to Town Administrator and the Town Board will vote on the contract at the July 23 meeting. Following the pending approval of his contract, the Family Advisory Board – July 17, 2019 – Page 2 Assistant Town Administrator position will be advertised. That position will be the liaison for the Family Advisory Board and Assistant Town Administrator Machalek will remain the liaison until that time. Member Roman recently learned about the “Double Up Food Bucks” program, which doubles the value of federal nutrition assistance such as SNAP or food stamps. The program is available locally through Miller Farms at the Estes Valley Farmers Market, the Longmont, Fort Collins, Berthoud, and Boulder Farmers Markets. More local vendors can be found at www.doubleupcolorado.org. APPROVAL OF MAY MINUTES: It was moved and seconded (Roman/Moon) to approve the May meeting minutes and the motion passes unanimously. CHILDCARE AND HOUSING TASK FORCE UPDATE: Assistant Town Administrator Machalek provided an update on the Childcare and Housing Task Force. He previously sent a draft of the report that was submitted to the Town Board. Included in the report is a full page of single line recommendations to the Town Board. All of these recommendations have been incorporated in one form or another into the 2020 Strategic Plan. The Town is exploring what it would look like to create a self-replenishing fund balance reserve to fund childcare. ECE and EVICS are working together moving forward so that when the Town invests, they are doing so in an environment where there is alignment and collaboration. There will also be workforce housing guidelines created, which will detail what the Town is focused on when investments are made in workforce housing through land, code changes, or funds. The childcare funding policy is the document that will guide the use of fund balance reserves into childcare facilities. The Assistant Town Administrator position will be the responsible party for coordinating the Town’s participation in workforce housing and childcare. Most of the Family Advisory Board recommendations were incorporated into the recommendations of the task force and thereby into the strategic plan. Assistant Town Administrator Machalek offered congratulations to the Family Advisory Board for the defined deliverables they instigated. Additional discussion took place on the recommendation for the Town to catalyze conversations between EVICS/ECE and other providers to make sure that all who are working on childcare efforts are communicating with each other in a more formalized way to ensure alignment for potential funding. Member Moon added that the conversations have been productive and that he and EVICS have agreed on three basic things: organic growth of childcare base, protection of current spots, and ECE exploring new capacity. Family Advisory Board – July 17, 2019 – Page 3 Trustee Norris recommends that the Family Advisory Board add an agenda item in the fall to follow up on funding for any of these items. WORKING MEETING PORTION: Executive Assistant Simpson provided a brief update on how this portion of the meeting will be recorded. The entire exercise will not be transcribed, only action items and salient points will be recorded. The goal of the exercise is to develop an organized strategy for raising awareness of the barriers to family success. Through the exercise, the group will identify their top three issues/concerns/topics that will help shape the family portraits. Primary issues identified were quality of community, affordable housing, childcare, living wages, food availability and diversity. Next the group discussed the primary targets for communication of the family portraits, such as those who do not believe there are housing or childcare issues and major employers in town. Finally, the group worked to identify the families which will be highlighted in the family portraits - fire/police/ems, teacher, senior citizen, nurse, park employee, hotel, restaurant, administrative professionals, etc. Katherine Chu from Larimer County will help create economic graphs that will be used in the portraits. Messages to weave into the portraits include quality of life, character and culture of community, the need to thrive not just survive, toxic stress and negativity. Chair Dale Marshall and Vice Chair Balduzzi will organize the list and create a draft of those questions to take to potential interviewees. OTHER BUSINESS: Seeing no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:02 p.m. NEXT MEETING The next meeting of the Family Advisory Board will take place Thursday, Aug. 1 at 3:30 p.m. in room 203 at Town Hall.