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Community & Economic Development Committee

August 12, 2026 ·5:30 PM Final

324 S.Saginaw St., Bryant "BB" Nolden Auditorium

Agenda PDF Official record ↗

Agenda — 34 items

  1. I. CALL TO ORDER
  2. II. ROLL CALL
  3. 3 Commissioner Shumaker called the meeting to order at 5:31 PM.
  4. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
  5. 5 Approval of Meeting Minutes - July 15, 2026 RES-2026-1053 approved Pass
  6. IV. PUBLIC COMMENT TO COMMITTEE
  7. V. COMMUNICATIONS
  8. 8 DIRECTOR OF ADMINISTRATION
  9. VI. OLD BUSINESS
  10. VII. NEW BUSINESS
  11. 1. Approval of an agreement between Genesee County and Neighborly Software, in an amount not to exceed $31,980.00, for the period from June 30, 2026 to June 29, 2027, to provide for tracking of federal funding at Genesee County's Planning Department RES-2026-0856 referred Pass
  12. 2. Approval of an agreement between Genesee County and Destination by Design, in an amount not to exceed $175,000.00, to provide marketing and branding consultation for the Genesee County Legacy Trails; the cost of this agreement is fully grant funded RES-2026-1039 referred Pass
  13. VIII. OTHER BUSINESS
  14. 13 Commissioner Flewelling left the meeting.
  15. IX. ADJOURNMENT
  16. 16 Commissioner Shumaker provided a brief overview of Commissioner Brown's report in her absence regarding the Sports Commission, the Broadband Initiative, and the Strategic Growth Officer position.
  17. 17 SPORTS COMMISSION
  18. 18 1. Yesterday three of the four commissioners tasked with leading the development of the Sports Commission met with our consultant, Mr. Wayman Britt. The first phase of the work, also known as the discovery phase, has begun. During this phase, he has met with representatives from the CVB, foundations, museums, municipalities, CRIM and Canusa organizations, and others. He has also toured some facilities to determine the assets that exist in our community.
  19. 19 2. Some discussion took place around setting up a Sports and Entertainment Authority versus a Commission. A legal assessment needs to be done to establish the limitations and abilities of both formats as we also consider a 501©3 structure or a 501© 6 structure. Whatever structure is decided upon, collaboration will be a theme.
  20. 20 3. As the board helps to shape the Sports Commission, more reflection is needed on how and who can help this public/private partnership flourish. To that end, we are asking our fellow commissioners to provide Mr. Care with names and contact details for those champions who can potentially add value to the process. Please provide those names to Jon Care by the end of this month. During this discovery phase, it is important that we be intentional about engaging key players early on. We don't want to leave anyone out as we work to include the voices who can speak to the potential success of this effort for the entire county.
  21. 21 4. A more complete report will be delivered to the entire board at the 6-month point based on the deliverables outlined in the contract. I want to thank my fellow commissioners Goetzinger, Shumaker and Avery for their active engagement with this process.
  22. 22 BROADBAND UPDATE
  23. 23 1. Last week the Broadband Strategy Group was joined by three commissioners to listen to presentations from two vendors who were finalists during our spring RFP process. The structured presentations were timed and each vendor addressed specific questions posed by the subject matter experts in our Strategy Group.
  24. 24 2. Over the next few days, both presentations will be evaluated based on aggregate point scores among 5 categories: a. Alignment with county goals b. Qualifications, certifications, and experience of the organization c. Collaboration Potential/Executive Alignment d. Breadth of Services e. Value of the Proposal
  25. 25 3. The recommended vendor will be uploaded to the system for your review by Aug. 24. If you missed the presentations, they were recorded for your convenience. Please check your email for a link to the recordings
  26. 26 4. I want to remind the board that this has been a 2.5 year process that began with conversations from the state about broadband expansion as an economic development strategy. This was followed by this board setting aside seed capital to fund a broadband initiative. We partnered with Merit who helped us navigate the broadband landscape locally. We secured a research study on broadband by an MSU professor that yielded more than 2,000 responses. We brought in subject matter experts to educate us about broadband during our Impact Genesee Summit in June of 2025 where the formal broadband research was shared about Genesee County, and we had a national expert speak to us virtually about the cost of doing nothing to advance broadband infrastructure. We were encouraged to follow the existing process of issuing an RFP to help identify a partner to help us address the deficiencies in our local broadband structure. We followed that recommendation and we are closing in on making a critical decision. So I respectfully ask that you put this topic on your radar for the net 30-60 days. Please feel free to ask questions of me or Mike Dawisha during that time.
  27. 27 5. I want to publicly thank the GC IT staff and our Purchasing Director for their work on this complex project, our legal team for their consultation, and especially the outside volunteers who have served as subject matter experts on this journey. And I must thank our board chair, Mr. Weighill, our vice chair, Mr. Goetzinger and the Vice Chair of Community and Economic Development, Mr. Shumaker for their roles in listening to vendors and/or their references.
  28. 28 STRATEGIC GROWTH OFFICER
  29. 29 1. Earlier this year this board authorized the establishment of this new position. It was posted and we only got a handful of applicants. So the decision was made to hire a professional search firm to do a national search. That search yielded more than 80 applicants with fewer than a dozen top notch candidates.
  30. 30 2. If feasible, we may want to consider a 2-person office for strategic growth given the enormous volume of economic development potential at our doorsteps (e.g., sports commission, housing initiatives, broadband deployment and manufacturing expansion). I ask you to please reflect on this concept over the next few weeks.
  31. 31 3. As members of the C/ED committee, you will be invited to participate in the upcoming interviews with finalists after they are further vetted by the search firm. In short, we hope to have a highly qualified professional (or possibly two economic development professionals) on board before the end of the year.
  32. 32 4. I want to thank our Human Resources staff for coordinating this hiring process as well as our Director of Administration and Board Chair for keeping this at the forefront of our 2026 agenda
  33. 33 That concludes my communications report as Chair of Community and Economic Development.
  34. 35 The meeting was adjourned at 6:02 PM.