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Commission Minutes—July 27, 2023 5758 <br />said the funding changes are unknown at this time, however, they are expected to be greater than <br />current federal funding. <br />MOTION, passed <br />Mrs. Breitling moved and Mr. Kapitan seconded to approve the 2024 preliminary <br />budget for Metropolitan Council of Governments as presented. On roll call vote, <br />the motion carried unanimously. <br />14. FIRST LINK <br />Jennifer Illich, Director of First Link, was present to review the 2024 budget. The request is $7,000 <br />which reflects no change from 2023. Ms. Illich said First link is the only 24/7 call line in North Dakota <br />and services the 211 information and referral phone support line and 988 suicide and crisis phone <br />line. She said First Link also provides assistance in disaster planning and assisted with setting up <br />the County's sandbagging operation this spring. <br />Mr. Breitling moved and Mr. Kapitan seconded to approve the 2024 preliminary <br />budget for First Link as presented. On roll call vote, the motion carried <br />unanimously. <br />15. FARGO MOORHEAD WEST FARGO CHAMBER <br />Shannon Full, President and CEO of the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber (FMWF Chamber) <br />and Jenna Mueller, Executive Director of the Chamber Foundation were present to discuss the <br />FMWF Chamber 2024 budget request. The request is for $150,000, up from $100,000 in 2023. Ms. <br />Full discussed backgrounds and insights to the region including that workforce has been identified <br />as the region's primary challenge and other secondary challenges such as a low unemployment <br />rate, housing, childcare, skills gap, retention, lack of access to education and training, an aging <br />workforce, difficulty hiring, increased labor costs, and inflation and wage pressure. Ms. Mueller <br />discussed the current FMWF Chamber education programs including the Good Jobs Challenge, <br />Ignite FMWF, Upskill-a-thon, and EDventures. She said interactions on the Ignite FMWF website <br />have significantly increased over the past year. <br />Ms. Full discussed various community involvement programs in place including the community <br />concierge program, Young Professionals Network, Leadership FMWF, Professionals of Color, and <br />Woman Connect. She also gave a legislative update with bills passed during the 2023 legislative <br />session including $26.5 million inflationary cost funding for the Career Workforce Academy. <br />Mr. Peterson said the Chamber's budget request last year included a breakdown of funds that would <br />go to each program. He said he would like to see a breakdown of costs for this year's request. Ms. <br />Full said she would email the Board a cost breakdown. <br />Mrs. Scherling said she struggles to support the $150,000 dollar request as it is a 50% increase in <br />funding from 2023 and the County only began providing funding directly to the Chamber in 2022 for <br />the Ignite initiative. Mr. Grindberg said he would like to wait to act on the Chamber budget until after <br />the Forward Sioux Falls presentation at which time the Board can look at funding economic <br />development initiatives on a larger, cohesive scale. <br />MOTION, passed <br />Kapitan moved and Mr. Peterson seconded to table action on the 2024 <br />preliminary budget request for the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber. On <br />roll call vote, the motion carried unanimously. <br />16. BREAK <br />The Commission took a break at 12:04 PM and reconvened at 12:16 PM. <br />17. FORWARD SIOUX FALLS <br />Mike Lynch, Executive Director of Forward Sioux Falls was present and gave a presentation on <br />Forward Sioux Falls. Forward Sioux Falls is a partnership between the Greater Sioux Falls Chamber <br />of Commerce and the Sioux Falls Development Foundation working toward the development of the