City outlines economic development implementation plan; council to prioritize activation items with subcommittee

Wayne Olsen, the city s chief economic development officer, presented the adopted economic development strategic framework and proposed next steps for implementation during the Feb. 25 council meeting.

The framework, adopted in November 2025, sets five guiding principles and identifies target pillars including hospitality and tourism, arts and culture, technology, clean energy and workforce development. Olsen described four activation priorities for the first one to two years: creating a digital economic hub to consolidate business data; scaling business-district programs; conducting a municipal-code and regulatory review to reduce barriers; and designing a fiscal toolkit of incentives and funding guidelines.

Olsen provided a fiscal overview of FY26 discretionary spending related to economic development and called for the council s economic development subcommittee to shepherd implementation. He told council that some early-budget items (for example, convention center support) are large and that the department has a relatively small staff.

Council members broadly supported using the economic development subcommittee to prioritize action items and work with community stakeholders. Several members urged that the subcommittee emphasize measurable metrics and guard discretionary funds for high-impact priorities; others suggested leveraging stakeholder working groups already active around the convention center, arts and tech to carry much of the workload.

Olsen asked that the subcommittee schedule a meeting before returning a final implementation proposal to council. Staff said they would coordinate a subcommittee meeting and follow up on the timeline for bringing a more detailed implementation plan back to the full council.