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01/03/2024 - Meeting Minutes MINUTES FOR THE Sister Cities ADVISORY BOARD Date:January 3rd, 2024 Time: 5:OOPM-6:30PM Roll Call The following members of the Sister Cities Advisory Board were present: • Olga Efimova • Ricardo Becerra • Annie Quan • Ross Chambless • Matilyn Mortensen • Ahimara Suarez • John Wilson The following members of the Sister Cities Advisory Board were absent: • Sheri Sorenson • Joe Zeidner • Nicole Pessetto Also Present: • Steven Lemmon Approval of the Minutes Quan motions to approve 12/6/23 minutes. Pessetto seconds. All are in favor of approval of minutes. Minutes are approved. Public Comment: Steven Lemmon's initial comment went over the 1 minute limit put in place by Chair Chambless at the beginning of the meeting. Chambless asks that Lemmon send his full comment in writing to staff and then staff can share with the board. Staff Report: • Matheson gives updates. Matheson shares that Bylaws and Annual Report will be voted on during the meeting. Membership discussion will happen during the Business section. Briefings by the Staff a. Updates on Sister Cities: i. Chernivtsi, Ukraine: 1. Sorenson and Wilson are not present. Matheson is planning to reach out to Oksana Omel and get an update on the refugee driver license situation. ii. Izhevsk, Russia: 1. Olga has not had any updates. She doesn't want to communicate with community members in Izhevsk at this time and put them in trouble with their federal government. iii. Keelung, Taiwan: 1. Quan has no current updates. 2. Mortensen has no updates. 3. Matheson shares that a meeting with Chief Brown has been scheduled to discuss our Sister City relationship with Keelung. Matheson will add Mortensen and Quan to the meeting. iv. Matsumoto,Japan: 1. Chambless shares the student exchange taking place between Matsumoto and Salt Lake City. Matheson shares that the event is taking place on January 20th and will share information and photos with the board. 2. Matheson also shares that she sent a message to Matsumoto staff after the recent earthquake that took place in Japan. 3. The Mayor's team is currently planning a trip to Matsumoto in fa I I of 2024. V. Torino, Italy: 1. Pessetto absent. Wilson has no updates. Matheson shares that she reached out to Torino staff again and is hoping to reconnect with their team in the near future. vi. Trujillo, Peru: 1. Becerra and community members will be meeting with the new Peruvian consul general soon. 2. Becerra wants to remind the board and staff that the SLC firefighters will be working with private companies in Peru. Airport firefighters are not run by the local government. 3. Becerra had reviewed the annual report and shared that there are universities in Trujillo that we could connect with to create educational exchange programs. 4. Matheson shares that Salt Lake City is going to be welcoming a consulate from Peru. Members of the Business Development team are working to find a location in Salt Lake City for the consulate that fits their needs. S. The consul general of Peru has requested to meet with city staff, as well as community members, and Becerra. A meeting is hoping to be planned for the week of January 15th. 6. Matheson shares that the firefighter training communication has started back up since staff has received a letter from Peru's Congress. Business b. Bylaws i. Review of Bylaws. Mortensen motions to adopt. Becerra seconds. All members approved and Bylaws are adopted. c. Annual Report i. Mathesons lets the board know grammatical edits, and additions of department logo and language were added after the draft was sent to board. ii. Draft is ready to be approved to be sent to the Mayor's staff by January 30th. Matheson is working out details on how it will be sent to them. iii. Matheson shares once reviewed by the Mayor's staff, the report may be sent to the City Council. The board is not required to send it to Council. In the past, Council staff have asked for updates from staff on the Sister City program. Matheson thinks it would be a great opportunity to present to City Council Members. Board members would be invited. iv. Matheson, Chambless, and Wilson plan to use this content to start building a written plan for Salt Lake City's Sister City program. V. Olga has an update under Current Programming Status. Paluh makes changes on the report. vi. Wilson motions to adopt Annual Report. Mortensen seconds. All members are in favor of motioning to approve. Annual Report is approved. d. Matheson shares that the State Department has established a division for subnational diplomacy. i. Matheson has reached out to them to ask to meet and see what training/support they have available for programs like the Sister Cities. e. Quan shares new board member applicants i. Quan reshares that Missy Greis had resigned from the board. ii. For District 2, CM Alejandro Puy recommended a person who works as a consultant for Salt Lake City on urban planning and development. She has applied through our application portal. Quan feels she is a good fit because of her environmental background as well. iii. For District 7, CM Sarah Young recommended someone that has a background in education. She was an elementary school teacher. They will apply through the portal as well. iv. For District 4,Jane Kim was recommended to replace Missy Greis by Greis and the Mayor's Office. She has a business development background. V. Matheson will let the board know about the process once she speaks with city staff. Adjournment Mortensen motions to adjourn. Wilson seconds. All are in favor of adjourning. There being no further business, the meeting w d7 Ross Chambless, Chairperson This document and the recording constitute the official minutes of the Economic Development Sister Cities Advisory Board meeting held on January 3rd, 2024.