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Toledo Talk   (musing about Lake Erie West and beyond)
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Lake Erie West 2008 Report Card1

Elementary Principles - Economic Development 101

Existing Local Businesses

What are we doing to help?

Are We Doing Enough?

Pooling of Effort

Are We Facilitating Conversation?

New 'Sales' Activity/Recruitment

Weekly Plans

Outcomes

Next Steps

TCP Plan

Toledo City Paper has come up with a proposed grade card for evaluating just how we are doing in this economic development area, by monitoring the activity of any claimed economic development entity in our area. This might hold up a mirror to view the entity and allow it to make a difference.

What are we actually selling? What is this Lake Erie West region and what does Northwest Ohio/Southeast Michigan and perhaps even Northeastern Indiana have to offer? Plentiful water. Convenient affordable transportation. Adjacent population mass. An educated work force. Emergent technologies (hey, Newsweek has circled Northwest Ohio as a great leap forward in solar panel technology). Research through educational institutions coupled with government collaboration. Great recreation opportunities and affordable housing.

It’s all here. The question is — will our economic development agencies hold themselves accountable.

First, let’s agree that the only way to enhance and move forward economic development or any other type of sales initiative – after all we are selling this region, Lake Erie West – is by constructing a plan. The need for a plan is twofold. First, it is reviewable by those to whom you might be accountable in terms of the viability of the plan. Are we reaching for enough or could we be more ambitious? Are we contacting enough sure things? That is, entities that already exist in our community, are we doing enough to retain them here?

This brings us to another idea for planning. Why not contact all of the businesses currently within our region and talk to them, directly asking them “How can we help you?” Can we cooperatively work on things such as procurement, the pooling of Workers Compensation costs, the handling of personnel issues including benefits and other reporting on governmental requirements?

These “salespeople” for our region also become “experts” and gather additional information by talking to the businesses in our area. Sector discussions where we highlight all businesses within a certain type and get their feedback, not just the feedback of your competitors.

After the plan is mapped out and reviewed it is important for there to be a mechanism for follow-up evaluation. Is the plan being executed? What is the activity level on pursuing the plan? In short, who did we talk to and what happened as a result of that conversation or communication?

When looking at how these entities are paid, why not pay economic development based upon incentives. After all, most sales organizations work on commission. Certainly there could be some kind of a guaranteed draw, but let’s tie the dollars paid to the benefits received. Community recognition of these benefits and achieving these goals should be highlighted and money should flow to those entities and individuals who are achieving the goals.

Lucas County Organizations

Toledo City Paper interview with Ben Konop1 :

TCP: Do you think the concept of an economic development agency created to drive the economy forward is outdated? Assuming that’s the problem, what’s the solution?

BK: The problem is there are nine economic development entities in Lucas County, most of which have some public funding component, though the Regional Growth Partnership and Chamber of Commerce are private. But to have nine separate economic development entities is redundant and makes a confusing web of bureaucracy for someone who wants to use the system.

TCP counted the them for you: In Lucas County, there are between 9 - 10 development organizations:

TCP: What do other cities do? How does their approach to economic development differ from our region?

BK: I compared Toledo to five other midwestern cities — Akron, Columbus, Indianapolis, Grand Rapids, and Allentown, Pennsylvania. None of them have anything close to an LCIC, which is a 20+ member board. They have a county staff that works under the commissioners. There’s a lot less municipal entities. And they’ll all doing significantly better than us. Forbes did the 100 top places to create jobs. Toledo was 91. Indianapolis was 6. I’m don’t believe that cities are doing better than us strictly because of the LCIC — there are lots of national and global economic factors affecting us. But no one else has anything like the LCIC and yet, they’re all doing better than us.

Regionalism

Toledo City Paper interview with Ben Konop1 :

TCP: Our publication is a strong supporter of regionalism and the Lake Erie West concept. To adopt a regionalist approach, it seems you have to get rid of political boundaries, because otherwise everyone has “turf.” If you strip away “turf” and you have a group of local leaders, doesn’t it at least get everyone in one place (at LCIC meetings)? How can that be a bad thing?

BK: I’m all for getting everyone in one place to sit down and discuss it. But that never happens. Literally, in every meeting, there’s never been any discussion of substance among these elected officials. Everyone says “everything’s great”.

(December 2007 Toledo Talk posting about a November 30 meeting of local organizations : Meta-Plan workshop spotlights regionalism.)

TCP: So you feel that the LCIC is a group of people that could be productive, but they’re just not doing it right?

BK: We could continue having these meetings, yes, but as far as regionalism is concerned, the LCIC isn’t true regionalism. It only focuses on Lucas County and we have to look much farther out than that. Plus, no one’s funding it except the county. Ninety-five percent of the funds this year are from the county. Townships who are sitting around enjoying this process have put in 3000 bucks total. The RGP is regionalism, NORED is regionalism. But the LCIC isn’t regionalism — it’s a bunch of Lucas County politicians patting themselves on the back. The concept is “let’s talk about economic development,” but there’s no action.

TCP: Do you scrap the entire concept or do you sculpt and mold it into something else? It’s easy to say “tear it apart, it’s not working.” But what do you think we should do?

BK: I think we should model our efforts on other efforts that have worked. When you look at Indianapolis, Allentown and other cities, they all have a very streamlined government. I proposed a economic development staff of three — it would save about $350,000 to $400,000 a year. All these other cities that are doing better than us, have a privately led and funded agency similar to the RGP, which is more structurally sound than the LCIC and embraces true regionalism. It’s led by the private sector. What I’m proposing is to bring in one strong national economic development visionary working with the county with a staff of two. So instead of having all these people and different bodies, you have that person go and meet with the Chamber, the RGP, etc. The centralized role that the LCIC is trying to play isn’t working. The full board only meets every other month. It’s a big, lumbering organization.

TCP: You’re not opposed to relying on the “jobs created” figure, are you? Is it just that you think other factors must also be considered when weighing economic growth?

BK: That (jobs created) number can be so manipulated in so many ways. The general focus for economic development scholars is to look at the more macro numbers and also numbers related to output — how many businesses have you visited this month? How many letters have you sent out? How many calls have you made?

TCP: You want to disband the LCIC or at least marginalize it. You’re advocating that we hire a national level leader for us to follow. What are you hearing from business leaders or politicians about these ideas?

BK: Business leaders recognize that government shouldn’t be the driver of economic development. It doesn’t work other places. I think from a business perspective it’s an ineffective use of resources. In the political sector, Commissioner Gerken started the LCIC and he has a lot of political capital invested in it.

References

1 Mar 5, 2008 Toledo City Paper article.

created by jr on Mar 19, 2008 at 09:03:37 am
updated by jr on Mar 19, 2008 at 10:04:58 am     Comments: 0

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tags: lakeeriewest