By Gregg Foster, RREDC Executive Director
Published by the Times-Standard, February 2, 2003
One of the benefits of my job is that I often get to talk to candidates for local office. They generally want to learn as much as they can about local efforts and issues in economic development. In these conversations one of the frequent topics is the peculiar notion that only governments pay attention to political boundaries. Fish, birds, and John and Jane Doe really don’t care if they are in the jurisdiction of Eureka, Fortuna or the unincorporated parts of Humboldt County. Rivers and creeks flow from County to County with little attention to their address.
The same can be said for our economy. Dollars flow to and from markets, people commute across political boundaries, and businesses start in or move to areas not because of a desire to have a certain address, but because that address, community, or region offers a competitive advantage for the business or personal benefit to its owner.
This suggests, then, that economic development efforts must involve and encompass as large an area as the “market” dictates. Further, in an area with relatively small communities, businesses and organizations, it takes cooperation to bring to bear sufficient resources to produce results.
How does this translate to action? Here are three local examples.
RREDC has been facilitating an ongoing effort amongst City and County staff to integrate local economic development activities into the regional economic development strategy. The first product of this is a regional ranking of public projects that support economic development. This ranking will be adopted by each City and will be included in the Countywide Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS).
Why is this important? First, the CEDS provides government officials, business leaders and the general public with a simple summary of the planned projects and their timelines. Second, regional support increases our ability to attract funding for these projects.
Another example is a project being spearheaded by my colleague Jacqueline Debets from the County of Humboldt. She has been facilitating meeting of leaders of industry “clusters.” Clusters in this case means businesses that are interconnected around an activity, such as dairy products, tourism, manufacturing, etc.
The purpose of these meetings is two-fold. The first is creating specific work plans aimed at improving the business climate and competitive edge for their particular industry. The second is the strengthening of ties between these businesses to increase their competitiveness through the sharing of knowledge and resources.
A final example is the cooperation between agencies delivering business services to Humboldt County. In the past, there was a fair amount of competition between these organizations. Over the last few years, largely at the prodding of private sector, these agencies have worked diligently to integrate their services.
Organized under the moniker, “Prosperity Network,” these organizations team to share resources and address issues faced by our community. The sharing of resources enhanced the breadth and depth of our services. The Redwood Region Economic Development Commission teamed together with the Small Business Development Center to bring local dial-up access to Orick. When a dairy in Ferndale wanted to convert to produce organic milk, the SBDC provided assistance with their business plan and the County of Humboldt and RREDC provided financing.
The commission and the Arcata Economic Development Commission work together with local jurisdictions to leverage loan dollars and provide underwriting expertise. The City of Eureka and the commission work together to finance new local businesses. The commission helped Rio Dell with a community development grant that, among other accomplishments, resulted in the formation of their Farmer’s Market among other accomplishments. College of the Redwoods provides classes in Eureka and Arcata in collaboration with RREDC and the City of Arcata. In short, it’s happening in a myriad of ways throughout the County.
Research and local experience shows that facilitation is the most effective role of government and other organizations in economic development. It is bringing together political entities to undertake new projects, providing financial incentives that result in a public good, working with local and state agencies to identify and remove conflicting regulations, bringing together divergent interests to identify common ground, and cooperating to improve the delivery of services to our local businesses.
The bottom line is good things happen when differences are set aside and people work together toward a shared goal. Its not rocket science, but it’s a hard concept for some to understand. Are you listening CalTrans and SBC? If we can do it in Humboldt County, you can do it too. All it takes is a bit of creativity, some courage, and a commitment to doing things better.