City Manager Enrico Villegas told the Hutchinson City Council on July 1 he and chamber leaders propose sharing an economic‑development position that would live at the Chamber of Commerce and be cost‑shared with the city; Villegas said the role would support business recruitment, incentive analysis and regional outreach.

Villegas described the position as intended to fill a gap in evaluating incentive packages and conducting “but‑for” and cost‑benefit analyses for potential city investments. “There’s definitely a gap, if you will, in some of the services that we provide on the economic development side of the house,” Villegas said, and he noted the city and chamber have been “bouncing back and forth and trying to properly right size the services” including Market Hutch and downtown staffing.

Why it matters: Both chamber and city officials said the shared role would allow more travel and employer outreach while giving city staff a consistent review of incentive requests; the downtown position and Market Hutch tasks will be returned to city oversight. The downtown development role would be a city employee housed in city offices; the proposed shared economic‑development specialist would be a chamber employee with shared oversight and likely participate in chamber travel and trade events.

Council discussion and election timing: Councilmembers asked about start dates, benefits packages, and whether the shared staffer could serve ex officio on the Chamber board; councilors supported building the role into a job description and suggested January as a potential start date. Villegas and staff also discussed a longer budget conversation over possible city sales tax funding for capital projects; staff said a special election to place a sales tax on the ballot carries a cost (a stand‑alone special election costs roughly $27,400 for in‑person voting; a mail ballot option was quoted at $64,400), while placing the question on a regularly scheduled countywide November election would cost the city nothing extra.

Grocery exemption and countywide concerns: Council members discussed whether to exempt groceries from a potential city sales tax. Staff said the city can propose an exclusion and that many municipalities elsewhere consider grocery exemptions. Villegas also noted a countywide sales tax could shift revenue from Hutchinson residents to other jurisdictions and that a city ballot measure would let Hutchinson voters decide local priorities.

Next steps: Council members generally supported moving forward with drafting job descriptions and reviewing the details with the Chamber of Commerce; staff will return with specifics on salary, benefits and implementation. On sales tax timing, staff advised that the earliest low‑cost option for a city ballot question would be the November 2026 general election if the council wants zero additional election cost.

Ending: The council signaled support for the shared economic‑development position concept and asked staff to return with job descriptions and cost details; it also asked staff to refine options and costs for a possible sales‑tax ballot measure and to model the effects of a grocery exemption.