12-13-2011 CC RPT 01 - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council Memorandum TO: HONORABLE MAYOR AND CITY COUNCILDATE: December 13, 2011 FROM: CITY MANAGER’S OFFICE ITEM NO: WARDS: ALL SUBJECT: AUSTIN, TEXAS’ “BEST PRACTICES” TRIP RECOMMENDATIONS UPDATE ISSUE: The issue before the City Council is to conduct a workshop to review the findings of the City Manager and others as directed by the City Council on October 4, 2011 (Staff Report – Exhibit A). RECOMMENDATIONS: That the City Council review the findings and direct the City Manager to implement the next steps as described. BACKGROUND: In response to a report presented by the Mayor on October 4, 2011 after a best-practices visit to Austin, TX, the City Council directed staff to report back before the end of the year on the progress and status of the following approved recommendations. 1. Ask the City Manager to evaluate our economic development efforts and our need for more staff. If economic development is our highest priority, we should match our call with effective staffing. The City Manager, Assistant City Manager and Development Director have Update: reviewed the economic development assignments and the staffing that currently is primarily focused on economic development. Based on the projects and funding available, it was determined that the addition of paid interns would provide relief to key economic development staff of basic coordination, outreach and research assignments that consumes much of their time so that they could focus on the higher- level priority assignments. Hiring is in process for these positions. A more extensive review of economic development staffing is underway. There are a number of staff outside of the economic development division who play a role in economic development, including Riverside Public Utilities business managers, Development Department marketing and redevelopment staff, and Community Development Department counter staff and plan checkers, among others. A key factor impacting the structure of our economic development programs is whether redevelopment will continue; the California Supreme Court has indicated that they will