I attended most of all three economic development plan “listening” sessions yesterday, against my better judgment. While it took 7.5 hours of time I really didn’t have and where I should have been working, it actually was probably worth it. I’m not sure I”ve sorted out exactly where we are, but after listening for hours here’s a few initial observations.
1. I’m not sure what this plan is going to change, if anything.
The report is really kind of “duh”. Even the consultant says it is about the basics. It basically boils down to
- build relationships and listen to business leaders in informal settings
- do what you are doing (zoning code re-write, one-stop shop, changing TIF policies, 311)
- be more thoughtful and methodical about what you do
- use technology
- communicate better
- set priorities and don’t be afraid to spend money
That might be a little unfair, but the plan doesn’t have any shockers in it and most people won’t see any dramatic changes. In fact, that’s the meat of the plan: Quietly have coffee and meet “informally” with lots of people and listen.
2. This discussion and process may have been more valuable than the end result.
While I was hopeful that we would end up with an economic development plan that everyone could support and give us clear direction for moving forward, a checklist of things to do, its clear that won’t happen. However, the discussion has been valuable in that it has shed light on a few things
- As a city we’re not in crisis and are doing relatively well, and that’s part of our lack of urgency.
- The city is doing things well, but doesn’t take enough credit for the things we do so we need to communicate that better.
- There is room for improvement, but it won’t take dramatic and sweeping changes.
- We need more staff and better training opportunities for them.
We didn’t uncover any major problems or catastrophes. (Well, except our poverty rate which is higher than the national average.)
3. Public/private partnerships and the struggle for transparency and local government.
I’m a little glib about having coffee, but the heart of the plan is building relationships quietly behind the scenes and having the mayor and key staff being in a high powered informal coffee club to communicate with the top dogs in the business/employer community. While I understand the value of this type of relationship building and spend a fair amount of time in coffee shops myself – it strikes me as odd that any push back about the transparency and exclusivity of that strategy is met with such vehement protestations. Open meetings and open records are important to this community at its heart and I do think that we need to be careful here. As one participant put it, all is not lost and we can do public/private partnerships in a Madison-unique kind of way that honors transparency and I’d like to see that happen. However, others said that business people won’t show up to public meetings, so I’m not sure where we are on this issue. Additionally, if we just meet with the usual suspects it leaves out large segments of the community that likely have much to contribute. If we want to “grow our own” when it comes to business we have to know who those folks are that have something to offer and the above strategy doesn’t allow for that.
4. Our “toolbox” is weak.
We can’t give tax breaks, so we are left with TIF, taking CDBG funds from other community uses, using our CDA more (I’m not going there today.), creating more BIDS, writing more grants or capital borrowing. No surprises here either. We’re using these tools but the consultant says we have to be more strategic about it. He wins big points with me there especially when it comes to TIF. The City has to set the priorities and have the business community respond with proposals about how to address City needs instead of us reacting to projects that are brought forward by the development community that may or may not meet our undefined priorities. If we could do this we would be much more predictable to deal with and we could focus on growing our community in ways that benefit us more.
5. Leadership?
So, will the plan sit on the shelf or will something happen? As the consultant said several times yesterday, his work is done here and the rest is up to us.
Unfortunately, I don’t think this plan will pass the council. Why? Well, the council passed a list of objectives of what we wanted to get out of the plan. The next thing we hear, the plan focuses mostly on our current large businesses and basic sector jobs. We weren’t part of that decision making and I don’t think people agree that this is where we should focus. When I hear complaints about the plan from Judy Compton and Marsha Rummel, Joe Clausius and Julia Kerr, Zach Brandon and myself, it just doesn’t look very promising.
Can this be fixed? Probably. Will someone step up and be a leader and make it happen? Probably not. I think this is a HUGE missed opportunity. We could have a real discussion about what we all think about economic development and what we should do – or we could “receive” the report and put it on a shelf and continue to grumble about economic development.
Note: The only alders to show up to the meetings yesterday were myself and Mark Clear.
6. Do we really need consultants and what value do they bring?
I’d hate to be a consultant coming in to the City of Madison. It can’t be easy. I think we as a community hire consultants when we are looking for an answer we can’t find ourselves and then we are disappointed when the consultants don’t turn out to be any smarter than the rest of us. If they give us a “duh” report, we wonder why we spent the money to hear what we already know.
And then, there’s the unfortunate problem of them not knowing and understanding the community and making mis-steps based on assumptions they make about us based on a few conversations they have had with various individuals.
So, after sitting through all those “listening” sessions yesterday, I think I’ve come to the conclusion that this report being uneventful is in some ways a compliment to our community. In other ways, a HUGE missed opportunity in that we aren’t moving forward as a community in agreement and I don’t think we’re going to get there. I’d like to see us do better, this is important.
