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Sister City 2015/10/26CITY OF ANAHEIM SISTER CITY COMMISSION MINUTES October 26, 2015 COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: GUESTS PRESENT: Anthony Al -Jamie, Pepe Avila, James Dinwiddie, Lori Farrow, Jackie Filbeck, Ann Gallaugher, Debbie Juliani, Laurie Leonard, Mark Lopez, Brian O'Neal, John Nguyen, Anna Piercy and Kyndell Thorson Chris Locke and Jeanne Tran Erin Wahlen, City Manager's Office Maggie Solorio, City Manager's Office David Bracey Agenda Posting: A complete copy of the Anaheim Sister City Commission Agenda was posted on Friday, October 23, 2015 at 4:00 p.m. at Anaheim City Hall. Public Input: Chair Kyndell Thorson explained that members of the public are invited to address the Anaheim Sister City Commission and will be called upon under Agenda Item No. V. Public Comment. I. CALL TO ORDER The meeting of the Anaheim Sister City Commission (ASCC) was called to order at 4:07 p.m. by Chair Kyndell Thorson on Monday, October 26, 2015 at the Anaheim City Manager's Office, City Hall, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd., 7th Floor, Anaheim, California. II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES MOTION: Commissioner Laurie Leonard offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner James Dinwiddie AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 13-0; Absent: Chris Locke and Jeanne Tran) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approve the minutes from the ASCC meeting held on September 28, 2015 as presented. ITEM NO. 01 Anaheim Sister City Commission October 26, 2015 Page 2 III. TREASURER'S REPORT A copy of the Treasurer's Report dated October 21, 2015 was presented at the meeting. Treasurer Laurie Leonard noted there had been no activity since the last meeting and the current balance remained the same at $20,590.74. MOTION: Commissioner James Dinwiddie offered a Motion, seconded by Commissioner Anna Piercy AND MOTION CARRIED (Vote: 13-0; Absent: Chris Locke and Jeanne Tran) that the Anaheim Sister City Commission does hereby approve the Treasurer's Report dated October 21, 2015 as presented. IV. AD HOC SUBCOMMITTEE REVIEW & REPORTS a. Cultural/Government Exchange Subcommittee Commissioner Dinwiddie reported he finalized the Outbound Student application and distributed a hard copy to the Commission. Commissioner Mark Lopez noted that at the last meeting there was discussion about removing the question that asks about family information and he noticed it still appears on the updated application. Chair Kyndell asked what does the Commission use the family occupation for in determining whether or not a student is a candidate. Commissioner Dinwiddie responded this document goes way back, they just made some modifications to it. Chair Kyndell indicated she is not opposed to asking the question, she wants to make sure they have an answer if someone asks, "Why do you want to know what my parents do for a living?" She further felt that if they don't have a valid explanation on how they are using that information, then it may be better to remove it. Commissioner Debbie Juliani questioned whether it's going to be something that may intimidate the students by filling it out and feeling they may not be worthy of the application. The Commission came to a consensus to remove "Occupation" from the Family Information section on page 4 of the application and leave "Relationship" and the "Age" of the siblings. Commissioner Piercy felt that the requirement to ask the students to volunteer for a minimum of 20 hours was a little steep. She would recommend 15-20 hours. Anaheim Sister City Commission October 26, 2015 Page 3 Commissioner Dinwiddie stated the outbound students will be asked to volunteer during the welcome event, the tailgate party and the beach outing. Commissioner Brian O'Neal suggested changing the volunteer hours to a minimum of 10 hours instead of 20 and the Commission agreed. Commissioner Dinwiddie wants to send out the final application by November 1. Commissioner Dinwiddie indicated that although Commissioner Locke requested a video clip be made available as an option instead of an essay, he thinks it's important that an essay gets submitted with their applications because they are going to meet the students in person and they want to make sure the students can write. Commissioner Lopez asked for the length of stay to be added to the foreign countries visited question and the Commission agreed it was a good idea. Commissioner Dinwiddie is going to make the final suggested corrections to the application and email it to the Commission so that it can be distributed to Anaheim students and residents. b. Marketing/Fundraising Subcommittee Commissioner Debbie Juliani hopes to have the fall fundraiser flyer emailed to the Commission shortly with all the details. Commissioner Juliani also reported she spent time earlier that day with Brea's Sister City delegation from Jalisco. Last month, she informed the Commission that Mishal Montgomery had reached out to Visit Anaheim and asked them to partake in some of their activities during their Sister City scheduled visit to Anaheim on October 26. The visit included a tour of Angel Stadium, an ARTIC tour and lunch at the Packing House. Commissioner Juliani had a great dialogue not only with their visitors but also with Brea's Sister City Commission. She feels the Commission should consider opening up to a conversation on economic development. Brea is having some of the same concerns that our Commission is having with economic development. They are structured completely different, and are an entity of their Rotary so they have about 45 members and their sister city is a product of that. They do a lot of sponsorships, so all of their sister city relationship events are all funded by corporate sponsors. She feels that interaction can help the Commission a lot. She also exchanged emails with the person that Anaheim Sister City Commission October 26, 2015 Page 4 they have partnerships from Jalisco, and they are going to send her information on their city and other needs of areas that the Commission may be able to collaborate on if they ever consider a relationship with Jalisco. Chair Thorson thanked Commissioner Julian for representing the Anaheim Sister City Commission. c. Economic Development Subcommittee Chair Thorson reported she and Commissioner Locke met with the Chamber of Commerce and had an opportunity to speak to the Chamber's CEO. Chair Thorson stated the Ad Hoc Economic Development Subcommittee needs to meet with Erin Wahlen and Greg Garcia to get more direction because the chamber asked great questions that they did not have answers for. One of the questions being that when we think of economic development, are we looking primarily at our current sister cities or are we thinking beyond these with the possibility of adding sister cities because of an economic development initiative. Chair Thorson also reported they have had some movement with Pudong. It would be great to have this gateway to China from a visitation standpoint and other lines of business. Erin Wahlen explained the next course of action is for the Sister City Commission to make a formal recommendation to the City Council for Pudong to become Anaheim's next Sister City. That will then get agendized at an upcoming Council Meeting and then it will get signed after Council approves it. Erin has a contact in Pudong and has been in communication with him. Once this formality is taken care of, they can follow through. Erin will make sure this item gets agendized on the November Sister City Commission agenda. V. PUBLIC COMMENT David Bracey reported that on November 14, Sister Cities International, Southern California Chapter is going to be holding their quarterly meeting in Riverside at the Riverside Community College from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and extended the invitation to the Commission to attend. VI. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS None. Anaheim Sister City Commission October 26, 2015 Page 5 VII. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:30 p.m. to Monday, November 23, 2015 at 4:00 p.m. at the Anaheim City Hall, 7th Floor, City Manager's Office Large Conference Room.