Reinventing Government Committee

123 Madison Street Village of Oak Park Oak Park, Illinois 60302 www.oak-park.us Meeting Minutes Reinventing Government Committee Thursday, August 13, 2015 7:00 PM Room 130 1. Call To Order The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. in room 130. Present: President Abu-Taleb, Trustee Brewer, Trustee Lueck and Trustee Tucker. Also in attendance: Cara Pavlicek, Village Manager, Lisa Shelley, Deputy Village Manager, Tammie Grossman, Director of Development Customer Service and Paul Stephanides, Village Attorney. Laura Thompson, Chairman of Advisory Council for Pleasant Home Foundation, Sara Barnett, President and CEO of Visit Oak Park were also in attendance. 2. Roll Call 3. Public Comment There were no public comments 4. Approval of Minutes A. ID 15-260 Minutes from the July 7, 2015 Meeting of the Reinventing Government Committee of the Village Board. Trustee Tucker made a motion to approve the minutes of July 7, 2015. Seconded by Trustee Brewer. Ayes: all. Nays: none. 5. New Business 6. Old Business B. ID 15-261 Review of General Revenue Funding Request for Visit Oak Park Cara introduced the history and background related to Visit Oak Park and the contract for services. The Committee discussed the impact of the Village’s allocation of funding to Visit Oak Park. Trustee Tucker thanked Visit Oak Park Chairperson Ms. Thompson and sees this coming year as an opportunity to review Visit Oak Park. The Committee asked, how is the overall marketing plan with Visit Oak Park Village of Oak Park Page 1 Printed on 11/13/2015 Reinventing Government Meeting Minutes August 13, 2015 Committee coordinated with the Housing Center and EDC? The Committee asked about the funding, if any, from other communities. Is Oak Park still the only contributor? The largest marketing grant from the State is for marketing communities outside of a 50 mile radius, however Oak Park is the only direct contributor outside of the State. Mayor Abu-Taleb is still concerned that other municipalities do not participate. In addition it is a concern that everyone is marketing (ie. Chamber markets and does not get paid anything from the Village to do it). Everyone doing their own thing does not make good business sense. Given that Oak park is the only contributor and other Oak Park organizations do similar marketing, Mayor Abu-Taleb is not certain about the value of the State grant money and wants specific Oak Park deliverables. Visit Oak Park Chairman Thompson said their marketing is to the tourists, however; Mayor Abu-Taleb says he doesn’t notice any visitors. Thompson says there are 50,000 visitors annually to the Oak Park Visitor Center and she hopes to track them. Mayor Abu-Taleb stated he would like specific deliverables in their partner agreement. Trustee Tucker wants to see what can be delivered and articulate clearly what the Village Board wants in the documents Trustee Lueck stated this is a very nice piece of work by Visit Oak Park and it is a reasonable plan. We should attract people from outside the community to come here and spend money. Trustee Brewer is very close to Mayor Abu-Taleb’s position. Is right sizing and chasing State dollars the right thing? President Abu-Taleb and Trusted Brewer asked of the Reinventing Government Committee the option to get rid of the State dollars and just give $150,000 EDC and put it all under one roof. Trustee Lueck stated she would not let State dollars go lightly. There was consensus of the Trustee to proceed with funding Visit Oak Park for the remainder of the year. 7. Adjournment There was a motion to adjourn the meeting by Trustee Tucker at 8:30p.m. Seconded by Trustee Brewer. Ayes: all. Nays: none. Motion carried. Village of Oak Park Page 2 Printed on 11/13/2015 Reinventing Government Meeting Minutes August 13, 2015 Committee Village of Oak Park Page 3 Printed on 11/13/2015