Economic Development Committee Final Minutes 11-15-2022

Economic Development Committee Meeting Minutes November 15, 2022 – 4:00pm The Economic Development Committee Meeting was held in person and by video conference on November 15, 2022, at 4:00 p.m. with Councilman Ralph Taylor presiding. Committee Members present in person or via video were City Planner Mary Ellen Gray and Designee of Downtown Dover Partnership Diane Laird. Committee Members that arrived late were Mayor Robin R. Christiansen, Councilman David Anderson, Kim Adams, Clayton Hammond, and City Manager Dave Hugg. Clayton E. Hammond II was not present. Guests present were Councilwoman Trisha Arndt, Susan Love and Jessica Quinn with DNREC and Dr. Dina Vendetti with the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce. WELCOME The meeting will not be called to order at this time due to lack of quorum. There are no action items that require a vote; proceed to presentations. DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL (DNREC) – DELAWARE CLIMATE ACTIVE PLAN – SUSAN LOVE, ADMINISTRATOR Susan Love representing DNREC stated, thank you very much for the opportunity to come speak to you tonight. Hello, I am Susan Love, Administrator of the Climate and Substantiality Program in the Division of Climate Coastal and Energy in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control. Thank you very much for inviting me here tonight. I appreciate the opportunity to come talk to you about climate change in Delaware and opportunities for the City of Dover to lead in climate change activities. I brought with me tonight, Jessica Quinn, who is my principal planner on the climate section, she is also available for follow ups. If there is additional information that any of you would like, Jessica would help me get that information to you or help remind me that you asked for that information so I can get it to you. You have invited me for a reason, and I hope and think that reason is because you see the opportunity to lead by example in the City of Dover and to be a champion for climate change and substantiality initiatives. Also, to reap some economic and employment opportunities from the transition that we are hoping to make here in the State of Delaware to prepare for the future climate and reduce our emissions. I have worked in Dover for a very long time. I have played in Dover, you guys are an incredible town with a vibrant work force, and incredible tree canopy. Which in DNREC we really appreciate and like. Employment opportunities and some of the best festivals in the state. There is always something going on down here in Dover. So, we can build on that, and you can add substantiality to that list.

Economic Development Meeting of November 15, 2022 PAGE 2 Susan Love reviewed the presentation entitled “Delaware Climate Active Plan Presentation” Attachment #1. Councilman Taylor requested for Ms. Love to speak more of preparedness for climate change. Councilman Taylor stated if were dealing with temperatures extending 100 degrees and were having more and more of these days. What are you referring to when you say preparedness? Ms. Love stated there are a lot of different approaches for preparedness for heat impact. They go from some of the emergency response preparedness making sure you have cooling centers for people without air conditioning or you’re doing fan give aways or you have programs where you can check up on elderly neighbors. You guys probably have a pretty good handle on where the housing quality may not be very good, so you might know where people do not have access to air conditioning. There are other things that you can do to prepare that are not incident related. Putting in place things that will help reduce the vulnerability of your population to those impacts. Things like making sure you have a good tree canopy that is shady and identifying areas that don’t have a tree canopy. It can be 10 degrees cooler under a tree than it is outside in a paved area. If you every walked across Walmart parking lot in the middle of summer, you know what I mean. It is hot. Making sure your building codes are up to date. Because when you build new buildings to a higher standard those buildings retain heat and cool better than they would otherwise. So, those are some primary examples of the way we can prepare for that heat. Knowing it’s coming and thinking about the activities we are doing today to prepare for those changing conditions is really important. So, one of the things I do in my job is making sure that people are considering these changing conditions in everything they do. Whether you are a farmer, an emergency manager, water resource engineer, architect, or a bridge designer; that you are thinking about what life will be like next week, in a decade, or in two decades because when we build something and we create things we create them to last for a very long time. When DELDOT builds a new bridge, they have an eighty-year life span. Councilman Taylor asked a question regarding prevention portion. Have you guys examined working with the municipalities on the impervious service coverages. There are a lot of places where there is just concrete or asphalt; there is nothing there and nothing has been there for a while. Nothing is planned. Do you guys have some kind of program that would come in and assist us or at least with the cost of removing some of that concrete? I believe that would also be a huge help when it comes to water being absorbed into the earth versus running into a drainage ditch that is already strained from the very beginning. Do you have a program like that already in place? Susan Love responded with yes and no. Often times there are funding mechanisms, and because of recent federal activities through the bi-partisan info structure bill and the inflation reduction act, there are billions and billions of federal dollars seeking a home to do things just like that. DNREC worked with the town of Bowers Beach recently. If you have been to Bowers Beach, they have a ridiculous large parking area that used to be full on weekends when there was more recreational fishing happening at Bowers Beach. That sort of dried up. Now, they just have a huge impervious parking lot not being utilized by anyone, and flooding concerns. They worked with DNREC and got money through DNREC to take out some of that pavement and turned that into a park. So, we can do things like that, but what we need municipalities to do is identify where they want to work. And we can help with resiliency planning and sustainability planning to help you identify where those opportunities are. Once you identify where those

Economic Development Meeting of November 15, 2022 PAGE 3 opportunities are and where you want to work, we can also help identify funding mechanisms for those things, so that opportunities out there for sure. As your having ideas there is definitely people and programs, we can hook you up with for that. I can certainly think of some large parking lots in Dover that are not utilized for cars very much. Councilman Ralph Taylor asked about the Energize Delaware Empowerment Program Grants. We talk about solar. Does that tie right into with the solar program you currently have, or do we have to apply as a city to be able to be a part of this fund? Susan Love responded that one of the benefits of going through the Energize Delaware Empowerment Grant Program is that they will help identify all the pots of money for you that are available to do these things. So, if you wanted to add solar to your roof here that would be through the Energize Delaware Program if they have money for that. If you wanted to help set up a community solar program, I don’t think we have one in the state yet. That is a brand-new emerging opportunity. If you wanted to do improvements on this building here, the entry point is Energized Delaware and they will send out energy auditors to access the building for opportunities and once they have that assessment done, they will help fund those opportunities. They might say you have a bunch of leaky windows, and we will help you pay to seal those windows up. Or you don’t have adequate insulation in the attic area, and we will help insulate that and that will save the municipality money. I can help hook you up with that program. Councilman Ralph Taylor asked City Manager David Hugg, with a program like this would we be able to connect with it directly through the city either through services or a special organization? Would a program like this be allowed to fit into utilities? Would it be allowed to be a part of our electric bill? Dave Hugg responded; I think so. We are already pursuing the electric vehicle side of this pot of money. We have two small solar installations that are on city property one at the electric plant. My understanding is we are eligible for and can take advantage of all these program opportunities. Councilman Ralph Tayler asked if we need to go to Leg & Fin first or have we already started the process? Dave Hugg responded a little bit of both. On the electric vehicle side, we already have a committee working on in it. In fact, we will be meeting with City Council by the end of the year with a proposal. Part of our energy plan we are updating, the Integrated Resource Plan, which is the national plan for you will for energy service for the city. Which is the nation’s plan for energy service for the city. Solar is a major component of that mix of utility resource. I expect we will see some opportunity to actually invest in solar other than being just a purchaser. Councilman Ralph Taylor stated that is what I am looking at. Where there is a 25 or 27 percent increase in cost of the electricity utility, we can have a city- wide program put in place. Perhaps we can tie homeowners, that are already stressed, into the program and they move into it organically after we are able to get it going. I think it would be a fantastic idea and it will be the vehicle portion of it is needed, but if I am looking at the biggest need right now it is some kind of decrease in our cost of energy. I believe this would be a great segue into it if we were able to do that. City Manager, David Hugg, responded that right now the cost of solar is not that much more of an advantage to us then what we are able to buy in the open market. Susan Love stated that she would like to mention there are a lot of programs specifically for residents or homeowners that they can access directly. And Mary Ellen, Planning Director, has been talking to the DNREC weatherization assistance team. The weatherization program provides free weatherization to low-income residents who qualify. All homeowners or renters can also, through Energized Delaware, have an energy audit of their own home. And have

Economic Development Meeting of November 15, 2022 PAGE 4 some measures taken in their own home where they can save money. We can certainly help with getting information, education, and outreach materials to city residents for those programs. Councilman Ralph Taylor responded, I am trying to share my vision and I am trying my best to tell you as best as I can. I am just not looking at something for low or moderate income; I believe there is a lot of people out here that can use this relief. Whether or not they are deemed low or moderate income. They work every day, they have bills, the bills that come to their home have their name on them. So, if we can do our part to assist and that’s what I am after. Even if Mrs. Love I need for you to come to another committee meeting, if need be, where I give you plenty of time in front of all our colleagues where you are going to be bombarded with questions, and we will go from there. Dave Hugg, City Manager, stated we have a number of programs that we have been looking at for various ways to increase the availability of nontraditional energy to the city. We have been looking at electric vehicles in part because one of our huge costs in providing services to the city is the cost of fuel for these vehicles and in at least in one of the programs there is an opportunity to get the vehicles themselves for free. So, we need to get some charging stations that would not only serve our fleet but that could be available as an Economic Development incentive. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a couple chargers out back here where people that are coming downtown could take advantage? What I was going to call to your attention is that you all are probably familiar with Del Tech Terry Campus, and they have that large solar array over their parking lot. There are a number of municipalities that have done the same thing. There is an opportunity there for us that we never really ever explored but I think there is funding available to do that kind of project if I remember correctly. Susan Love responded that I think we can figure that out. We are looking at all our programs. We are looking for funds that are available from the federal government and trying to figure out where there are gaps and where we can go after funds as a state. Capacity is always an issue as it always is at a local level. If there is something you want to do; let’s talk about it. I have a lot of information but a lot of the programs I have mentioned here are not run by my shop. Tony DePrima who I understand used to have a role in Dover government. So, I am sure he has a special place in his heart for helping Dover. Rob Underwood who runs our energy office; and several others I think would be useful to have us all together. I know just enough about some of those programs to be dangerous, and I’ll try not to get out any misinformation about them. Councilman Ralph Taylor stated that cost and the need are there, but availability is not. For example, our lighting project that we have, the lights are not available. It is a great program, and it is a needed program. The cost is right, but the availability of product. So, if guys are going to make us a promise; please, please, please have the supplies and everything available to us so we can hit the ground running. Susan Love responded that there are definitely supply chains shortages happening all over, from charging stations to transformers to electric vehicles to electric school buses. So, there are some wait times. I haven’t heard about lighting; I did not know there were any supply chain issues on lights, but that very much could be. Getting in line is important so you can get them ordered and to deploy them when they finally come in, and that is what we are doing for a lot of things. Councilman Ralph Taylor stated is there anything else you would like to leave us with? Susan Love responded with, thank you, and I appreciate the opportunity and I expect we will have some ongoing conversations and I welcome them.

Economic Development Meeting of November 15, 2022 PAGE 5 CENTRAL DELAWARE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (CDCC) UPDATE – DINA VENDETTI, PRESIDENT Dina Vendetti stated good afternoon everybody. Thank you so much for this opportunity to be here with you and talk about all things Chamber. I feel like I am preaching to the choir here. You could tell the story as well as I could tell the story. Because looking around at all the people that are already involved with the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce. But I always appreciate the idea to come and talk a little bit. The mayor asked that I come talk about our partnerships and I am happy to do that. The agenda says give an update and I am happy to do that because there are always things to give an update about. But before I do any of that I’d like to give you some high spots in case these are the chamber trivia topics that maybe you don’t know. The Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce was established in 1919. We look pretty good for over a 100. We were established as the Greater Dover Chamber of Commerce. The office was right over here in Treadway Towers. That was long before I was around, or in Dover. Eventually, we were incorporated in 1959 as a nonprofit. We are a 501(c)(6) not a 501(c)(3) because we lobby. The vision of the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce is to be the essential resource for the development of businesses in central Delaware. That is a pretty bold statement, don’t you think? To be the essential resource. So, for our members we are a member’s organization right now we have about 780 business members. For our members we want to be top of mind. Whether they are going through something that’s wonderful or whether they are going through something that is challenging, we want them to be in touch with us. And when something comes up, we want them to think of us. Not because we have all the answers, we don’t. We have a lot of the answers. But for the things we don’t have the answer for, we know the people that do. So, the job of the chambers is to connect businesses. We connect business in 4 big areas; education, so we connect businesspeople with ways to learn and opportunities for learning. It might be learning about a new business strategy. It might be learning about a new trend that is coming along, it might be a learning a new situation in their area. The premiere educational experience of the chamber is the Leadership Central Delaware program. Where we connect people with ways to develop their leadership skills and talents and give them a look behind the curtain to see what makes Kent County tick. In that program they have the opportunity to meet the people who are the movers and shakers here in Central Delaware and learn from them how they do leadership, what their strategies are, and the skills that are needed to do the things that they do. So, that is education. We connect people with legislators and with legislation. In terms of legislation, we are honored to be the voice of the business community here in Central Delaware. Our job as that voice is to monitor what goes on at the general assembly to make sure that the legislation that is passed is friendly to our business owners. In terms of are we getting ready to pass something that will cost an inordinate amount of money from the businesses, or is it gone to take an inordinate amount of time they don’t have or are there things that are happening that will require more workforce than what they can get their hands on. If that is the case, we get in the middle of it and we do some education, and some influencing, and a lot of negotiation to try to create something, that not necessary to take those pieces of legislation and those ideas and throw them out but instead be of help in making them something that is gone to be useful and helpful to our business community. Because we know that small business is the backbone of the economy here in Central Delaware. That is really important stuff. We have two lobbyist that are a part of the Chamber, and their services are used every day that the general assembly is in session. The third area is marketing. We connect people with ways to tell their stories, and that is something we

Economic Development Meeting of November 15, 2022 PAGE 6 love, love, love to do. So, the more we know about our members the more we can talk about our members. The more we can let people know what they are doing. The more we can put them in front of people so they can share on what it is they are doing that is helping the community at large. The last area is probably the most fun and that is connecting people with each other which we call that networking in the business world. So, we do all kinds of events and activities. Actually, we do 75 or 76 events and activities every single year. And so that is kind of the skinny on what the Central Delaware Chamber of Commerce is all about. I would be amidst if I didn’t remind you, we are a credited chamber. In fact, we are the only accredited chamber in the State of Delaware. And what that means for us is not just a pat on the back and a nice certificate on the wall, but it means is that our members can be assured that what they are getting is something of high quality. We are credited by the United States Chambers of Commerce. They come in every five years and do what we call a “look under the hood”, to make sure we are doing things that Chambers are supposed to be doing. But more than that, are we doing what we say we do? That is very important because you can say you do anything. We are doing what we say we are doing. And according to the United States Chambers of Commerce, indeed we are. More than that we are a second time five-star credited chamber. What that means is that the United Chamber of Commerce when they come in and examine what we are doing, they compare us to the very best chambers all across the country. And there is a rating system, and they score us compared to the very best chambers across the country. And if we rate high enough then we can become what they call a five-star accredited chamber. And all that is very cool, but what is cooler than that is that when somebody else in the country wants to become a five-credit chamber, guess who they compare them to? That’s pretty cool, right? And so again that is not design just to give us all these wonderful bragging rights. To tell you how good we are and how the United Chamber of Commerce thinks we are great, but it provides credibility for us in terms of what we are doing and also provides a much-needed accountability. We are held accountable to a higher standard. And what that does for us allows our members to understand that what they are getting from their membership with the Chamber is something of the highest quality in our country. In terms of our partnerships, we believe firmly that we can do far more together than any of us can do on our own. That is something we go back to again, again, and again. So, we don’t pretend to be the essential resource for the development of businesses in Central Delaware all by ourselves. Because that is not something we could accomplish. But together we can all be the essential resource for businesses in Central Delaware. So, we are honored to partner with the City of Dover on a variety of projects and activities. We are honored to partner with the Downtown Dover Partnership; I attend their board meetings. And when I can make it happen, I go to the merchant meetings because they are so much fun. And it is really cool to see the new businesses starting up in downtown Dover. We are a part of the board for Kent Economic Partnership. We partner with them in terms of bringing business into the county. Once they get here, what do we do to get them established and get them known? And that is part of the job that we do. So, we are involved in all those different entities and more. The Greater Kent Committee, you know all of that. So, we can work together to make things happen. In terms of updates, I am happy to tell you something that probably you didn’t realize was going on with the Chamber; as of last week, after an eight month wait, we are fully staffed. And that is marvelous. In this era of workforce issues, we felt it too. Now we are back up to full staff and we are excited about that because that enables us to do the things we need to do. We’ve just gone through a big technology update, that’s the good news. The bad news is that we just went through a big technology update, and I think you all what that means. One of our biggest accomplishments in the last year was to be

Economic Development Meeting of November 15, 2022 PAGE 7 able to be a part of the Kent County Small Business Grant. We worked with the County in disturbing ARPA funds through a grant program to our small businesses. And we worked with Kent County Tourism. They took the hospitality side; we took the small business side. On the small business side of things, we were thrilled to be able to give away 2.413 million dollars to small business. It was called the American Rescue Plan Act. And when we gave those checks to the business owners and we saw their reactions that was rescue in every sense of the word. So, that was a big deal. And the lesson that we learned, and I’ll leave you with this unless there are questions. The biggest lesson we learned in the last couple of years is that our businesses need real help in real time. They don’t need something that we are going to think about 6 months to a year, and then think about how to have a committee. When they need help, real help, in real time. So, it is gone to be really important to us to be in touch with them all of the time, so we know what they need, and we continue to do that work of connecting them with the things that they need. That is really super important to us. As we look forward, we are trying to do whatever we can to remain relevant in a world that has changed. And that is something many of us are looking at. We got businesses now that once were brick and mortar and now they have gone to become e-commerce, and their online businesses. Are we still relevant for them in terms of what they need and what we can offer them? If were not, what are we doing to make ourselves relevant? So those are things we are doing as we look ahead. I think that’s all I got for you today. Councilman Anderson asked two questions. First, I want to thank you for coming today, and sharing, it is always good to see you. First question has to do with recovering from the pandemic. How do you feel the small business community, which was hit the hardest by the regulations, with the shutdowns, etc. for an unknown reason because they were probably the safest and they were the most effected? How have recovered now and the members and the others that you have seen how has their recovery been? Dina Vendetti replied that the small business community was hit in a big way. I can tell that over the course of the shutdowns just talking about just Chamber members we had 70 businesses close not to reopen and that was heartbreaking to see that and not being able to do something more to help them. We had another number of businesses that because they were the only ones working, they didn’t have time to use their Chamber membership, so we ended up losing them as well. And that was very difficult because at the time they needed us the most, we did our best to be there regardless of membership for our business community but that was a tough spot as well. In terms of the recovery, I think a lot of businesses are coming back now. We are starting to see businesses that had limited their hours beginning to expand their hours again. The problems with shutdowns and lack of revenue when that part of it was over and they were allowed to reopen again the next problem became not having enough people to work. And that has been just a really big issue with everybody we talk to. We get calls every single day. We want to reopen up, we want to expand our hours, we want to expand our services, but we don’t have the people to do it. I do feel like that is just at the very beginning of starting to ease just a little bit. And I do think from where we sit it looks like that is going to come back it is just taking a long time for reason that none of us really understand. But I think businesses are working hard to come back. The thing we saw during over the course of the pandemic, and I am sure you saw this as well, is that our business community is extremely resilient. And the people in those leadership positions in our businesses are the most creative, the most innovative people on the planet. Because they were able to take a horrible situation and turn into something different. Either provide their product in a different way or provide their service

Economic Development Meeting of November 15, 2022 PAGE 8 in a different way so that they can remain relevant during that time and remain open to some extent. We saw people dig deep and come up with things that they never dreamt they could do before. And it works well for them and for some of those businesses they are continuing to do those things even now that they are able to be back open now, so I was thinking it was a showcase of creativity and innovation. Councilman Anderson stated that in today’s world of communication is a lot more challenging because there is such a segmentation of the population, and no one seems to be at one place. Everybody doesn’t watch one of the three tv stations, they don’t listen to the local radio/satellite radio all the time, or people don’t always read the paper. There is a lot of social media platforms. What lessons has the Chamber learned that maybe we can learn from when it comes to trying to communicate to a diverse audience? Dina Vendetti responded; I think the biggest lesson that we can all learn is that there are some situations that allow us to be redundant. So, you say it once then you say it again, then you say it again, then say it again until you get tired of saying it and even then, there is going to be somebody that might miss it, so you say it one more time. Part of the issue is that we are competing for air space. And I mean that kind of in symbolic way. Like you mention, people are getting information from so many places and sometimes all at the same time. Your ears can only hear so many words a minute, and your brain can only process so much in that period of time. And so, everybody who is trying to communicate is competing in that market. That is what is happening. So, the message has to be clear, the message has to be important, has to be seen as relevant, there is that word again, and it has to be repeated. And we have as a chamber really worked to learn to use as many avenues of communication as we can. So, we have the newspaper, we have email publications, we are on social media, we are calling people, it’s all the stuff. We are telling people to tell other people. We’re encouraging people to like and share so that our social medica stuff goes up higher on the google list. All of those things so that we can grab attention and I think those are things we have to keep in mind all the time when we are communicating with the people we are communicating with. MAYOR’S ANNOUNCEMENTS Councilman Ralph Taylor stated that the Mayor is not here so I’d like to do something a little different. Diane, and anyone else, what would you like to see on the next Economic Development meeting on January 10th? Diane what would you like to see? Diane Laird responded that I think we will be ready to present the Master Plan in January for Downtown Dover. Kim Adams stated I don’t have anything on the spot right now. I will get back to you. Councilman Anderson stated I think that the Master Plan is definitely something I would like to see in January and maybe a little afterwards just an update on where we are on some of the Economic Development grants and other avenues. David Hugg stated I really am looking forward seeing the Master Plan and I really want the opportunity to think about it. But I think the sooner we can start identifying some of the key implementation steps that we as a city can do. I know there is some zoning things we can do. I know there are some capital improvement projects that we can start the program. To the extent if we have the time to both listen to the plan and understand what it is, and also ask that question of what can we do pretty much right now? What can we do quickly? I think that would be an important step rather than having another topic on the agenda. Councilman Taylor stated the Master Plan seems to be one of things we need to do. I would like to look at it from a little bit different perspective. Safety obviously is something

Economic Development Meeting of November 15, 2022 PAGE 9 we need to continue to look at. However, I like to see some type of tutorial playing continuously on our website to help potential business owners to get started. I know there is different avenues to take but I like for someone to be able to go on our website or go to our Facebook page and something is looping, something that you can see continuously. There will be different tutorials such as, how to get your permitting, how to get your plan through, and how to get started. I think that is vitally important. I know when I was starting my business years ago, fear is a powerful thing. So, if you are afraid to get started because of the financial reason then you don’t know how to get started so you just don’t get started. So, if we have something there that is constantly telling them how to get things going, I think that would be greatly appreciated. And also, if we can find some experts on hiring. I believe that hiring struggles are real, and everybody is going through them. And a lot of people are sifting through some of the exact same people. So, I believe we start identifying our key core principles of what we are after, and we will and will not accept. And then move forward from there, I like to see that being on one of our future meetings. NEXT MEETING DATE January 10, 2023 at 4:00 PM ADJOURNMANT Councilman Taylor called the meeting adjourned at 5:05 PM. Exhibits Exhibit #1 – Delaware Climate Active Plan (DNREC) Presentation