AUGUST 27, 2013 ROTARY IN REVIEW:
An Update from the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce

Club 10 Business Report

President Jim Kosmo brought the meeting to order at 12:31 p.m. on a hot late summer day in the Saintly City.  Jerry Faletti led the assembled Rotarians in singing America the Beautiful accompanied by Doug Hartford on the piano.  Steve Young provided today's invocation based on his recent viewing of the film "The Butler" and its recounting of the Civil Rights Movement of the late 20th century ("...eyes on the prize...").  Vicki Gee-Treft facilitated the introduction of visiting Rotarians and guests.  Today's Greeters were Kay Baker and Jonathan Strickland.  It was great to see President Jim at the rostrum in light of his receiving a heart pacemaker last week!  President Jim reports all has gone well and he highly recommends the procedure to one and all!

Tonight is the Roast for immediate past President Dan McKeown.  Jay Pfaender, new chair of the Program Committee, provided a preview of an exciting series of speakers to be appearing throughout the fall at the Tuesday luncheons, making this a great time to bring prospective Rotary members to visit the Club and have them experience the superior information exchange that the downtown Saint Paul business community receives each Tuesday at Rotary.  Mike Franklin, chair of the Club 10 Public Relations Committee, informed the Club that the cell phone rules at Rotary meetings have been relaxed with the consent of President Jim to the extent that members are encouraged to engage in social media (quietly) during meetings.  It will be just fine to "tweet" or "Facebook" about the goings on as a way to promote the great content of our meetings to personal and professional networks.  In a special "welcome back," NOT new member introduction, Past President and Past District Governor Ken Crabb reintroduced Rotarian Bill Kansas to Club 10.  Welcome back, Bill!  Happy Dollars were collected by Kathy Riley.

Mindee Kastelic introduced today's speaker, her boss, Matt Kramer, President of the Saint Paul Area Chamber of Commerce (SPACC), the state's oldest and largest local chamber of commerce.  Prior to joining the Chamber, Mr. Kramer served with Governor Tim Pawlenty as both his longest serving Chief of Staff and as Commissioner of the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED).  He was previously Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Control Data Systems.  Mr. Kramer has headed SPACC for three years.

SPACC has over 1200 member organizations.  It holds more than 100 events each year.  For the second year in a row, the SPACC office has been voted as a "Best Place to Work" in the Twin Cities.  Mr. Kramer came to update Rotary on community and business developments in Saint Paul and the East Metro.  He cited several key issues: transportation and transit equity; groundwater usage; economic development, especially commercial and industrial development; downtown Saint Paul economic development; an update on the sale of the Macy's building; and, what is changing the downtown landscape.  Regarding commercial and industrial ("C & I") development, Mr. Kramer noted that each dollar of "C & I" tax base uses only about 70 cents of infrastructure services.  Residential tax base utilizes a far greater percentage.  It is, therefore, advantageous to have significant "C & I" investment in the community.  Unfortunately, the way in which Ramsey County grew over the years, more residential than "C & I" developed in the County.  Ramsey County has lots of housing and relatively little industry.  SPACC is working to attract more "C & I" investment to the County.  One of the challenges, though, is a real imbalance in transportation spending in the East Metro.  Mr. Kramer displayed a graphic which clearly showed committed transportation dollars favoring the western half of the Metro, with many miles of transportation also planned in the East Metro, but with far fewer dollars committed to date.  An issue related to the southwestern suburban light rail line, and a proposal to commit large sums of money to development of a tunnel to "hide" the rail line in one suburb, demonstrates the inequity in funds that could be committed to the southwest unless SPACC and others make the compelling case that this would be inequitable.  This inequity is emphasized when the sacrifice of Saint Paul business owners as construction took place right on their doorsteps these past many months is considered.  Mr. Kramer committed to be a strong proponent of a fair distribution of light rail and other transportation funding dollars so the needs of the East Metro are met.

President Jim thanked Mr. Kramer for his remarks and noted that a donation in his name would be made to the Saint Paul Public Library's "Read With Me" program.  He also awarded Mr. Kramer with an official Rotary coin featuring the Four-Way Test ("Is it the Truth?  Is it Fair to all concerned?  Will it build Goodwill and Better Friendships?  Will it be Beneficial to all concerned?").  He then adjourned the meeting at 1:30 p.m.

Chuck Standfuss, Scribe