Economic plan for city due in late September

<p>The city's highly anticipated economic development strategy should be released in late September after the study was set back earlier this year when city leaders asked the consultant doing the work to submit a more detailed and actionable plan.</p><p>The study will be used by the City Council and city staff to determine strategies for economic development and areas to improve on in the local economy. The council voted unanimously to commission the study last November and the city will pay Applied Development Economics, a Walnut Creek firm, $139,000 for the work.</p><p>The report was due to be released in April, but was pushed back to May to allow more public focus group meetings. More recently, City Manager John Brown asked the company to go back to clarify aspects of the report it submitted. It is now planned to be released in about one month.</p><p>“We have to make sure that the scope of the work in the contract was fully met,” said Brown.</p><p>More detail was needed on actionable steps that “you could take and follow” to improve the local economy, said Brown. He requested more concrete conclusions from the data gathered and said he wanted to be sure that readers would see the relationship between the analyses and the data and appendixes.</p><p>After the report is released for public review, an advisory meeting will be scheduled to review and discuss the findings.</p><p>Since the report was commissioned, the company has held a number of public focus group meetings and met with 40 local informants and business leaders. They included council members, city staff and representatives of various industries, including green businesses, arts and small businesses. Representatives from the company declined to comment on the study.</p><p>A partial report by the company indicated that enacting the city's General Plan is a strong method for economic development, and points the city in the right direction to address, among other things, tourism offerings, office space vacancies and retail leakage.</p><p>Part of the economic plan recommends that the city hire an economic development manager to attract and manage business opportunities. The council unanimously agreed in June to create the position, and budgeted $140,000 annually for the new hire. The city has not advertised or interviewed for the position yet, but plans to hire some time after the economic plan is released.</p><p>The position will be closely tied to the economic plan, and will partly serve as an intermediary between the business community and the city. Other roles may be networking to publicize business opportunities, packaging real estate deals, and other tasks. It will be largely be a “multitasking” position, said Brown. </p><p>Similar positions exist in several other cities, and Brown said he does not expect trouble in finding good candidates for the position. The city has considered hiring the manager as either a private consultant or a city staff position.</p><p>(Contact Philip Riley at philip.riley@arguscourier.com)</p>