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03/06/2024 - Meeting Minutes MINUTES FOR THE Sister Cities ADVISORY BOARD Date: March 6th, 2024 Time: 5:OOPM-6:30PM Roll Call: The following members of the Sister Cities Advisory Board were present: • Sheri Sorenson • Ross Chambless • Ricardo Becerra • John Wilson • Matilyn Mortensen • Annie Quan The following members of the Sister Cities Advisory Board were absent: • Joe Zeidner • Olga Efimova • Ahimara Suarez • Nicole Pessetto Also Present: • Katherine Matheson (Staff) • Joshua Paluh (Staff) Approval of the Minutes: Sorenson motions to approve 2/7/24 minutes. Becerra seconds. All are in favor of approval of minutes. Minutes are approved for February 7th, 2024 Public Comment: No Public Comment Staff Report: Matheson gives updates: • Mayor Mendenhall released her goals for 2024 and Sister Cities are once again on the list. Her team will follow up with city staff to make sure goals are being met throughout the year. Mayor Mendenhall's goals in 2021 are how the Sister Cities Program initially was revitalized. o Goal for 2024: Fortify Sister Cities program to deepen relationships and opportunities to learn from our global community. o Link Given: .https://slcmayorplan.com/2024goals/livability o Matheson thinks this is a great step in furthering the Sister Cities program in the future. • HB404 Bill was passed o Bill dealt with Sister Cities and Procurement ■ The bill would require that any new or any renewed Sister City relationships with any Utah city and a foreign city would first have to affirm that they did not have any businesses that use forced labor within their city boundaries. o This will not affect Salt Lake's current Sister Cities o Staff will work with an attorney to make sure that future Sister Cities application process is correct to follow the bill. • Matheson has been in contact with SLC airport about a Sister City temporary display after their was interest from the board in a San Francisco installation o Communications will continue and Matheson will give updates in the future. • Sister Cities Inquires o No new Sister City inquiries o Process is still on hold and waiting for guidance from city leadership • Annual Report will be shared with City Council Members. o Matheson, Chambless, and Department of Economic Development Director Lorena Riffo Jenson will be giving the presentation. o Board members may attend or listen online but participation is not mandatory. Briefings by the Staff: a. Updates on Sister Cities: i. Chernivtsi, Ukraine: 1. No updates from Sorenson ii. Izhevsk, Russia: 1. No updates from board iii. Keelung, Taiwan: 1. Community member Mrs.Yee has been working on memorial project at Utah State Capitol and Quan and Mortensen will meet with her once her time frees up to discuss scanning historical documents iv. Matsumoto,Japan: 1. Chambless gives update a. Members of the Matsumoto Sister City Committee reached out to Chambless and wanted to explore sending a student group to SLC. i. This trip used to take place with the help of community member Gwen Springmeyer. Springmeyer planned and facilitated the visit. ii. Committee members from Matsumoto were interested in first seeing what the costs would be once again. iii. Activities would potentially include English classes from the University of Utah. iv. Chambless and his partner put together a cost assessment and sent it back to them. V. If this trip is feasible, it will be determined. If it would happen, it would take place in the last week of July. b. Utah Valley University student group has reached out to Chambless about a film project that they are doing a short documentary about the relationship between Matsumoto and Salt Lake City. i. They want to do a few interviews here including one with Chambless. c. Mayor's team is visiting Matsumoto,Japan in October V. Torino, Italy: 1. Matheson got in contact with the Honorary Consul of Italy, Michael Homer. a. Newly elected Council Member, Lopez Chavez connected Matheson with Homer. b. Matheson spoke with Homer and he was unaware that the Sister Cities program had been revitalized in Salt Lake City by Mayor Mendenhall. c. Matheson plans to email Homer and is going to share local community member contacts in Salt Lake City. d. Matheson and Homer will be working together to contact the Consul General for Italy based in San Francisco and with their help, staff can reconnect with Mayor Stefano Lo Russo of Torino. vi. Trujillo, Peru: 1. New Consul General of Peru is now credentialed and will help city staff connect with firefighters in Peru. Staff are hopeful this will help streamline this firefighter project. Business: Board Application Review 1. Matheson gives an overview. Application is received by the membership committee which includes Chambless, Wilson, Quan, Paluh and Matheson. a. Once they are received and reviewed, the committee will send them to the board to be reviewed and approved. b. Once they are approved by the board, they are sent to the Mayor's office for final approval. 2. Quan gives updates. a. Two applicants for voting positions. Rose L. Kjesbo is from District 7 and Stacee Adams is from District 2. i. Adams worked on a Sister City board for the county and is a city consultant. ii. Kjesbo is a teacher and completed her PHD in Education. b. Quan motions for them to be recommended to the Mayor's Office to be approved. Wilson seconds the motion and all are in favor of approval. 3. Wilson asks how long the process is to get them approved by the Mayor's Office a. Matheson shares that staff does not have control over the timeline of approval and cannot give an answer at the moment. 4. Becerra mentions the discussion about a spanish and english student exchange held in previous meetings a. Matheson gives an update. She states that due to staff bandwidth this project will have to wait until the firefighter project is completed. b. Matheson did speak with the Mayor's Education Advisor and she is very interested in a student exchange in the future. 5. Becerra asks if the board will be meeting with the Peruvian Consul General since he is now established in Salt Lake. a. Matheson shares that this could be a possibility i. Becerra would like this to be an in person meeting ii. Chambless is interested as well in this meeting iii. Matheson will start communications and see if this is possible iv. Matheson shares that the board can use city social media to share about this meeting 6. Becerra recommended that the board should be able to engage more with the Consul Generals of countries Salt Lake City has Sister City relationships with. a. Matheson mentions the Consul General of Italy may be interested in visiting Salt Lake and if they meet with the Mayor, she will see if she can connect the board with the Sister Cities Board. 7. Matheson shares that the Salt Lake City Honorary Consul of Ukraine is interested in the work that is being done on the board. Adjournment: Sorenson motions to adjourn. Becerra seconds. All are in favor of adjourning. There being no further business, the meeting rdjournel Ir A7 Ross Chambless, Chairperson This document and the recording constitute the official minutes of the Economic Development Sister Cities Advisory Board meeting held on March 6th, 2024.