While Commissioner Valentino has been bashing the Chamber on WEAR TV, I thought it might be helpful to find out what the Chamber has actually accomplished over the past five years. Here is the spreadsheet on the Chamber’s economic development efforts: economic-development-projects-2004-2008.
From 2004-2008, we’ve had $327 million in capital investments in this community in new facilities or expansions. Total jobs created: 3,974 Combined Annual Payroll: $133.8 million.
What are more specific accomplishments since 2006? Here is a partial list that Charles Wood has provided the IN:
# Launched iTen Wired (regional entrepreneurial initiative covering five counties in two states)
# Created a technology incubator in partnership with PJC (Gulf Coast Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship)
# Created the 5-county NWFL Defense Coalition
# Launched the Defense Aerospace and Technology Committee to build connectivity among our small & large defense contractors (from Hixardt to Lockheed Martin)
# Received a $650,000 grant to connect Lambda Rail to the Navy and key healthcare, educational and economic development entities
# Helped Cogon Systems receive a $2.5 million earmark for the Strategic Health Intelligence initiative
# Hosted the first Strategic Health Intelligence Summit with attendees that included IBM, Intel, Sysco, Microsoft, Northrop Grumman IT and General Dynamics
# Became the fiduciary manager for $1.6 million in Dept. of Homeland Security grant funding to support improvements at the Port of Pensacola
# Helped retain more than 300 jobs paying more than $31,000 annually
# Helped Create more than 1,600 new jobs with average salaries of more than $36,000
# Initiated the Enhanced Use Lease at Saufley Field which will turn an underutilized military asset into an economic engine for the community
# Created an online commercial real estate database to assist companies in site selection in Escambia County
# Received a designation by the Ford Foundation for our workforce training initiatives
# Received $26 million in EPA funding for the cleanup of the Escambia Treating Site
# Provided approximately $4 million in tax exempt bonds for IHMC’s expansion
# Created a federally designated Community Development Entity under PEDC to allow PEDC to seek New Market Tax Credits and other federal funding opportunities
# Formed a partnership with Escarosa to help fund an existing business and workforce manager position
# Designated top Convention & Visitors Bureau in the Southeast
The question is how can we do better and the Chamber has openly admitted that it thinks that better way to pursue future Economic Development is through a new public-private entity called the Greater Pensacola Partnership.
At the September 2008 annual meeting, Mort O’Sullivan gave a speech on his plan to revamp Economic Development:
…Can we do a better job?
Should we reassess how our Economic Development effort is structured? How it is funded?
Do we need to improve our lines of communication with local government, with our members, with Escambia County’s citizens?
I think the answer to all those questions is – yes.
As the face of business in Escambia County, your Chamber should be at the forefront in asking these questions……and in seeking the answers to them. That’s why I’m proposing that we take the lead in a comprehensive, non-political, objective look at our Economic Development program. Its structure. Its funding. What we’re doing well, and where we can improve?
Three years ago, thanks to some Department of Defense funding, an expert team gave us a three-year plan called the TIP Strategies. At the Chamber, we began implementing that strategy. Some of the accomplishments I’ve outlined are the result of that.
Now it’s time once again to look at where we are and where we’re going. As we start our new fiscal year, I will ask our Chamber board to retain an outside expert or experts, someone with impeccable credentials, and give them free rein, and complete access, to every aspect of our community’s Economic Development effort.
We’ll engage a cross-section of our community – business leaders, office holders, academics and citizens, whoever might offer insight, whether individually or in discussions groups. We want to separate the wheat from the chaff, to assess our REAL challenges and understand their solutions.
Some of the questions that should be explored are:
-Locating a dedicated source of funding for Economic Development, perhaps something like the proceeds from an existing franchise tax or business license fees. Significant dollars from a stable funding source can make a marked difference.
-How are we to compete more effectively with Alabama when they’re able to offer more local- and state-backed incentives to attract business? That’s not an excuse, that’s a fact. Are there ways to level the playing field that we haven’t explored?
-If you didn’t know, our County Commission adopted a set of economic incentives, to attract business, that will be helpful as we go forward. Thank you Commissioner Gene Valentino for proposing it and thanks to all the commissioners for adopting it.
-And lastly, the question that’s kind of the elephant in the room, – have we in Escambia County, and at the Chamber, built the best model for attracting business, for building our economy?
-And is the Economic Development vehicle we’re now using housed in the right place?
In tough economic times, the quantity, the volume, the intensity of opinions about these questions grows.
However, we need more than opinions. We need solutions based on facts that give us the confidence we need to move forward as a community, to grow our economy faster, and to bring new jobs and new prosperity to the area we love.
So I propose an elephant hunt, a hunt to find solutions and to identify where we are as an Economic Development entity, where we need to go, how we need to get there, how much it is going to cost, what is our return on investment and how do we need to pay for it.
I know most of you in this room, and I believe I’m speaking for all of us when I say we’re not afraid of the hunt. Our goal is to strengthen and support current companies in retaining and growing jobs. Our goal is to attract and support new companies to create new jobs. Our goal is to retain talent in our area. All of these are vital to improving our quality of life, and increasing the opportunities for our children and grandchildren. In order to do that, we need the best Economic Development vehicle that can be built, so that Pensacola and Escambia County can look to a brighter economic future, and to even greater success.
And finally, as we challenge ourselves to reach higher and higher, I challenge each one of you. Ask yourself if we’re helping build our community into a better team. Are we able to forgive past slights and hurt feelings? Are we looking out for the good of the whole, even sometimes at the expense of our own interest? Do we recognize that our neighbor’s success will ultimately lead to our success? Do we make a conscious decision to be positive? Do we respectfully confront others who need the same reminder?
Remember, our families, our homes, our communities are what we make them to be. Let’s all join together, working as a team, and drive this community to prosperity and happiness. And remember, economic gardening requires a lot of water, most of it the sweat from our brows.