Palmerston North City Council

Minutes of the Economic Development Committee Meeting Part I Public, held in the Council Chamber, First Floor, Civic Administration Building, 32 The Square, Palmerston North on 13 March 2017, commencing at 9.02am

Members Present:	Councillor Adrian Broad (in the Chair), The Mayor (Grant Smith) and Councillors Brent Barrett, Rachel Bowen, Gabrielle Bundy-Cooke, Vaughan Dennison, Lew Findlay QSM, Leonie Hapeta, Jim Jefferies, Lorna Johnson, Duncan McCann, Karen Naylor, Bruno Petrenas, Aleisha Rutherford and Tangi Utikere.
Apologies:	The Mayor (Grant Smith) (early departure) and Councillors Susan Baty and Duncan McCann (early departure).

The Mayor (Grant Smith) left the meeting at 9.51am during consideration of clause 11.  He was not present for clauses 11to 14 inclusive.

Councillor Duncan McCann left the meeting at 9.51am during consideration of clause 11.  He was not present for clauses 11to 14 inclusive

8-17	Apologies
	Moved Adrian Broad, seconded Leonie Hapeta. The COMMITTEE RESOLVED 1.   That the Committee receive the apologies.

9-17

Presentation - Property Brokers Presentation from Mr Tim Mordaunt, Managing Director. Mr Mordaunt provided an overview of Property Brokers which had started in 1986 as a franchise with United Realty and in 1991 the company became Property Brokers.  Currently the organisation had over 500 staff, 5,500 rental properties and dealt with over 40% of the real estate market.  Warmth and water tightness were concerns for rental properties, however the main issue was methamphetamine contaminated properties.  Mr Morduant believed Council’s strategic planning should go beyond 10 years as he and other business owners could see Palmerston North in 30 years’ time but Council’s ten year plan did not align with timeframe.  He believed that elected members needed to work for the good of the community and not personal agendas. Palmerston North had exceptional race relations, schooling was good, as was security and it was a good place to bring up families. A lot of the city’s traditional large businesses had either closed or been sold to national/international organisations and that put more pressure on local businesses to sponsor local groups.  There was not many opportunities for businesses to network and he had initiated Thursday and Friday business networking at new Local café based in the Property Brokers building.

Moved Vaughan Dennison, seconded Leonie Hapeta. The COMMITTEE RESOLVED 1.   That the Economic Development Committee receive the presentation for information.

10-17

Presentation - Sort It Careers Expo Presentation from Linda Stewart, acting Chief Executive and Julia Giles from CEDA. The Sort It Expo was being held on 18 May 2017.  A number of changes for  2017 were taking place, including  a later session from 6.00pm to 8.00pm to enable those that may have recently moved to the region or were looking for a career change or to look at options and a business after 5’s with the Chamber of Commerce was being held at the Arena on the same day.  Currently there were 60 exhibitors registered to attend and over 2,300 secondary school students, with the organisers looking at ways to make it easier for students to attend and for them to access information regarding the expo.

Moved Tangi Utikere, seconded Gabrielle Bundy-Cooke. The COMMITTEE RESOLVED 1.   That the Economic Development Committee receive the presentation for information.

11-17

Presentation - Building Clever Companies Presentation, from Dean Tilyard and Dave Craig. The Mayor (Grant Smith) left the meeting at 9.51am Councillor Duncan McCann left the meeting at 9.51am When Building Clever Companies (BCC) was established in 2005 to develop high growth potential technology start-ups, there were a lot of ideas, but no experience or money, therefore a start-up eco system was developed.  Currently BCC have 300-500 ideas come in each year, with 49 companies incubated in the last three years with 31 of them still trading. BCC run a number of programmes, such as: - In 2014 began running the YES (Young Enterprise Scheme) and in 2017 there are 14 schools with 250 year 12 and 13 students participating.  - SPROUT was National Agritech Accelerator programme that over 20 weeks the start-ups and entreprenuers would receive funding, alongside world class mentorship and training from leaders in technology, research and business growth. - AgTech Hackathon which connects smart farmers with smarter on-farm solutions, had started the week prior with 60 attendants and 15 mentors. Mr Craig noted that 75% of students do not go onto University and we need to assist that group to get a strong network and skills.

Moved Vaughan Dennison, seconded Rachel Bowen. The COMMITTEE RESOLVED 1.   That the Economic Development Committee receive the presentation for information.

12-17

Presentation - Broadway Radiology Presentation from Duncan Scott, General Manager Broadway Radiology is locally owned and operated and when first opened in 1998 they had 20 staff and now in 2017 there are over 60.  The organisation is a supporter of local events and also provide services for their staff. On 30 January 2017 Broadway Radiology opened its purpose built practice in Grey Street, Palmerston North, with a extensive range of services offered.  They now have over 23 million images stored. One of the challenges for the organisation is attracting top radiologists and Mr Scott believed that to attract people to the jobs, there was a need to promote Palmerston North, so that the job could be sold as a way of life, for example, safe, green, it was about selling the package of the wider community.

Moved Rachel Bowen, seconded Bruno Petrenas. The COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS 1.   That the Economic Development Committee receive the presentation for information.

13-17	Confirmation of Minutes
	Moved Leonie Hapeta, seconded Aleisha Rutherford. The COMMITTEE RESOLVED 1.  That the minutes of the Economic Development Committee meeting of 13 February 2017 Part I Public be confirmed as a true and correct record.

14-17	Committee Work Schedule Committee Work Schedule, dated  March 2017.
	Moved Vaughan Dennison, seconded Gabrielle Bundy-Cooke. The COMMITTEE RESOLVED 1.   That the Economic Development Committee receive its Work Schedule dated March 2017.

The public part of the meeting finished at 10.15am

Confirmed 10 April 2017

Chairperson