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04/03/2024 - Meeting Minutes MINUTES FOR THE Sister Cities ADVISORY BOARD Date: April 3rd, 2024 Time: 5:OOPM-6:30PM Roll Call: The following members of the Sister Cities Advisory Board were present: • Ross Chambless • Ricardo Becerra • Matilyn Mortensen • Annie Quan • Ahimara Suarez • Nicole Pessetto Also Present: • Katherine Matheson (Staff) • Joshua Paluh (Staff) • Lorena Riffo Jenson (Staff) • Christopher Wade (Public) The following members of the Sister Cities Advisory Board were absent: • Joe Zeidner • Olga Efimova • John Wilson • Sheri Sorenson Due to safety concerns, Chair Chambless closed the anchor location at 451 So. State Street, Room 128 Salt Lake City, Utah 84111 at the start of the board meeting. The board meeting could still be attended by the public via the zoom link given on Public Notice. Approval of the Minutes: Quan motions to approve 3/6/24 minutes. Mortensen seconds. All are in favor of approval of minutes. Minutes are approved for March 6th, 2024 Public Comment: No Public Comment Staff Report: 1. Matheson introduces Department of Economic Development Director Lorena Riffo Jenson to the board. a. Riffo Jenson thanks the board for their support and thanks Matheson and Paluh for their work as staff. 2. Update on Council presentation a. Matheson, Chambless, and Department of Economic Development Director Lorena Riffo Jenson gave an Annual Report presentat my ion to the City Council. b. Matheson felt the presentation went very well. c. The City Council was appreciative of the board's work over the past year and impressed with their efforts. 3. State Department Meeting a. Matheson, Mayor Mendenhall, and Department of Economic Development Director Lorena Riffo Jenson were able to meet with members of the State Department's subnational diplomacy division. b. Community leaders from Salt Lake City were able to meet with state department employees during this visit as well. i. The State Department, and the Export - Import Bank, connected small Salt Lake City businesses with resources to engage in the global market, and local businesses were able to share their expertise with the Federal Government. 4. Human Rights Commission presentation a. The Sister City board was invited to present to the Human Rights Commission about our program. Chambless, Wilson, and Matheson will be presenting. There is overlap between the boards and they would like to work together. 5. New board members a. Board recommendations have been sent to the Mayor's office. Recommendations are in the approval process and once the Mayor approves they will be sent to City Council for final approval. i. Quan asks Matheson how often the City Council meets. Matheson shares that they meet weekly and she thinks the board will hear back soon. 6. New sister city request a. Matheson shares that there are no new sister city requests, but the previous ones that have applied are still pending b. Matheson shares that one of the questions they were asked by Council during the Annual Report presentation was when will the board start accepting new applications. i. Matheson shared with them that there is a bandwidth issue and that the board should discuss this point during the business section of today's meeting. Briefings by the Staff: a. Updates on Sister Cities: i. Chernivtsi, Ukraine: 1. Sorensen was not present but she gave Matheson an update to share. a. Sorensen worked with a Ukrainian relief program that works with refugees in Salt Lake City. i. This past Saturday they held an easter egg hunt and also had a booth to share information about applying for grants, business related questions. ii. 30 families attended ii. Izhevsk, Russia: 1. No Updates iii. Keelung, Taiwan: 1. Quan went to lunch with Mrs. Yee and received historical photo albums. a. Quan and Mortensen will get together and scan books. 2. Mrs. Yee showed interest in being an advisor for the board. 3. Mortensen asks if the city has a thumb drive they can use for giving archived photos to the city. a. Matheson said she will work with Mortensen to get her one. 4. Matheson shares that she spoke with KC Laio, a community member that wants to be connected to the board. He would like to be on the advisory board as well. a. KC Laio encouraged the board to use a translator when contacting Keelung contacts. 5. Quan shares that an earthquake took place in Taiwan. Matheson and Quan would like to connect and find a way to reach out to Keelung local officials to check in. iv. Matsumoto,Japan: 1. Chambless is in contact with the Sister City committee in Matsumoto and as mentioned in previous board meetings, they are interested in sending students to Salt Lake City. The committee calls this group the International Life School. a. This would be a 10 day trip in July. The last trip took place in 2018. b. Chambless has been working with them to see if it is economically feasible. Chambless created a budget for the trip. c. The committee has started to promote the trip to Matsumoto. It would cost each student roughly $4800. d. If the committee in Matsumoto doesn't reach at least 10 students it will likely not take this year. 2. Chambless shares that there was a project through Sister Cities International looking at the origins of city relationships. a. Chambless and Matheson submitted an entry regarding the relationship between Matsumoto and Salt Lake City. 3. Mayor's team is still working on trip Chambless answers a question in the Zoom chat from a member of the public: Christopher Wade. Wade asked "Are we actively promoting business with Russia?" Chambless responded "No." Chambless then asked that Wade ask questions during the public comment time period of the meeting only. V. Torino, Italy: 1. Pessetto made contact with the Torino mayor's team and is working to find a time and date for Torino and Salt Lake City's mayors to meet. 2. Pessetto shares that the Torino staff shared interest in meeting Salt Lake City staff in Paris during the Olympics. 3. Matheson is still waiting on email response from Torino staff. 4. Pessetto and Matheson are glad that communication has started once again with Torino staff. vi. Trujillo, Peru: 1. Becerra does not have updates 2. Matheson shares that staff has printed out a certificate of thanks for David Utrilla who served as the Honorary Consul for many years in Salt Lake City. 3. The plan was to meet with the new Consul General with the mayor and Utrilla. a. Matheson shares that a city staff member found out that due to the political unrest in Peru, the meeting and further engagements have been put on pause. b. Matheson thinks this will take at least a month for the situation to be resolved and continue our communications. Business• 1. Subcommittee meetings for individual cities a. Chambless asks if the board wants to meet as subcommittees instead of meeting as a whole next May. i. Meetings would be a way to decide next steps for each city. ii. Meetings will have to take place between this meeting and the June meeting. iii. Pessetto and Mortensen are in favor of doing this subcommittee iv. Subcommittee plan for May is adopted 2. Subcommittee for new Sister City process a. Chambless asks the board their thoughts on a subcommittee that would be created to work out a process for accepting new Sister Cities. b. Matheson gives more details on this subcommittee i. 3-5 board members ii. Chair Vice Chair Staff and any other board members would like to volunteer. Quan and Mortensen express interest. Staff will follow up later to set up time and when to hold the meeting. c. Matheson states that city leadership has still not decided if they want to bring on new sister cities. d. Matheson also shares the idea of convening the Advisory Committee. i. The Advisory Committee is a group of community members that have shown interest in supporting the board with their own knowledge and connections with Salt Lake's Sister Cities. City staff have collected contacts that the board now has in case they want to reach out to them for insight. ii. Matheson proposes that the board think about having an informal gathering between the Sister City Board and Advisory Committee to share ideas and insight 1. This would take place during a future board meeting. a. Chambless suggests that this meeting be held in person. b. Matheson shares that the Cannon Room is now available again if the board wants to start doing meetings in person. c. Chambless proposes that we start meetings back in the Cannon Room with the advisory informal gathering in June. Board agrees to do so. 2. Chambless asks how many are on the Advisory Committee. Matheson says there are around 6 community members. Quan asks if Matheson will send out invites for these meetings. Matheson says yes. Adjournment: Quan motions to adjourn. Pessetto seconds. All are in favor of adjourning. There being no further business, the meeting 7 adjourn jv Ross Chambless, Chairperson This document and the recording constitute the official minutes of the Economic Development Sister Cities Advisory Board meeting held on April 3rd, 2024.