BURIEN BUSINESS and ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP
(BEDP)
MEETING MINUTES
Date: February 27 , 2004
Time: 7:00 – 8:30 AM
Members Present: Doug Moreland, Kevin Fitz, David Elliott, Dean Parkins, Mark Minium, Kris Jensen, Nancy Damon, Tom Gehl, Ryan Warnes and Chad Campbell
Absentees: Debra George
Excused Absentees: John Roberts, Bob Ewing, Harvey Aulgur and Gary Long
Staff: Dick Loman, Ecomonic Development Manager and Joline Wright, Economic Development Assistant
Guests: Barbara Blackshear-Haley, Director of Communication and Community Engagement, Highline School District 401; Zev Siegl, Business Development Specialist, SBDC; and Councilmembers Lucy Krakowiak and Joan McGilton
Minutes: Doug Moreland moved to approve the minutes; Mark Minium seconded the motion. Motion passed and minutes were approved.
Chair’s Report:
Dean Parkins introduced guests Barbara Blackshear-Haley, Director of Communication and Community Engagement at Highline School District 401 and Zev Siegl the new Business Development Specialist at the Small Business Development Center located at Highline Community College.
City Manager’s Report:
In Gary Long’s absence Dick Loman gave the City Manager Report. He reported that Wesbild Shopping Centers had purchased and closed on the Redwood Center. The purchase price was $12,000,000. The company is the retail division of Wesbild, Ltd., a privately held real estate investment company, headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Wesbild Shopping Centers owns and manages retail properties in the Pacific Northwest and Western Canada. Among their current US properties is Westwood Village in West Seattle.
Town Square – Everything is moving along, but nothing for public disclosure at this point.
Juanita Apartments – The City and the owners of the Juanita Apartments have agreed to the terms of a preliminary injunction. The injunction prevents re-occupancy of the apartments until all fire and code violations have been corrected. The owners have agreed to allow inspections of all the units.
LID – Dick Loman, Ryan Warnes, Dean Anderson, Mark Clayton and other volunteers have started a telephone campaign. Dick said he is getting positive responses, but some people have reported they didn’t receive a packet, lost their packet, or didn’t know they had to sign. Signatures received of date are Burien Honda; Nissan Dealership and Luv Teriyaki Restaurant.
Chad Campbell asked the question if the Safeway Plaza had signed off on the LID. Dick Loman advised that Powell Development, part-owner of the plaza, was having some concern with left hand turns. Steve Clark is meeting with them to resolve the concern.
Discover Burien Report – Debra George
Debra did not attend the meeting so Dean gave the names of the award winners announced at the dinner on February 25. They were: Emili McNett (Environmental Leader); Barbara and Darrell Williams (Educational Activist); Dean Parkins (Business Leader); Reverend Charles Kothe (Community Activist).
Barbara Blackshear-Haley, Director of Communications and Community Engagement, Highline School District
Barbara thanked the Partnership for inviting her and said she looked forward to attending these meetings as a guest and involving others from the school district as necessary.
Doug Moreland said that one of the strategies on the Economic Element is to continue improving educational opportunities and public education. We need to create a good relationship with the school district for this to happen. He said it is vital to the community that the school district and the community help each other and have a working partnership.
Zev Siegl, Business Development Specialist, Small Business Development Center –
Zev Siegl is the new specialist replacing Jennifer Shelton. Mr. Siegl brings significant business experience and a high degree of commitment to the award-winning SBDC program. His office is located at the Omni Executive Building, 23830 Pacific Highway South, phone number (206) 878-3710, ext. 5151 and his e-mail address is zsiegl@highline.edu.
BEDP Work Program Priorities – Dean Parkins
Members reviewed the 10 items on the Work Program Goals and Priorities. No. 5 – Marketing Burien was discussed and the topic of publicity was carried over from the last meeting. It was confirmed that Jan Roegner, Community Relations and Susan Wineke, Public Information Officer, for the City would be attending the BEDP March 26th meeting. David Elliott reported he had been learning a lot on Branding. Dean asked him to give a presentation at the next BEDP meeting on this subject.
Round the Table:
Doug Moreland –On the publicity topic Doug thought maybe it would be a good idea to have someone involved in the publicity field attend the BEDP and present some information. Couple of questions are how to improve Burien’s image and what can we do to communicate the changes in Burien.
Mark Minium – Mark said he would like to setup a meeting with Gary Long, Henry McLauchlan and Butch Whitehead, Nissan Dealership. Mr. Whitehead is having some problems with false alarms and getting upset about it. Mark would like to get this worked out since Mr. Whitehead plans on doing more than $1 million in remodeling.
Mark added that 17 years ago he came to Burien because of the school district, probably wouldn’t do that today so lots of work is needed to improve the situation and he was glad to see Barbara in attendance.
Ryan Warnes – Ryan commented on the last two award dinners. He thought the one held last week was very well organized and turned out very well.
Chad Campbell – Two press items in the last couple of weeks shows Burien with sub-standard housing and prostitution. We need to try to prevent this before this happens or how do we filter out before they get it to the press?
Kris Jensen – Kris said he was glad that Barbara Blackshear-Haley would be attending the meetings and agreed that there needs to more connection with BEDP and the school district.
Tom Gehl – Tom said image is very important. He thought maybe the City could put something in the Seattle Times with information on Town Square and now the sale of the Redwood Center.
Nancy Damon – Marketing style and logo are very important and that branding is very important. They are also very carefully about publications.
Next Meeting: March 12, 2004, 7:00 a.m.
Adjourned: 8:30 am.