PORT ANGELES — This week’s $24,000 Economic Development Summit is intended to create a plan for jobs creation in Clallam County and better coordinate the efforts of local governments.
But it won’t address one of the issues that spawned the idea for the symposium: duplication of efforts among all of the various private and public entities focused on improving the area’s economy.
Linda Rotmark, Clallam County Economic Development Council executive director, gave a preview of Thursday’s and Friday’s summit to about 20 people at the Port Angeles Business Association meeting Tuesday.
Public input on economic development will be taken between 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Thursday in a conference room at the Red Lion Hotel, 221 N. Lincoln St., Port Angeles.
The input will be taken by BergerABAM Vice President John White, who has been hired to develop an economic development action plan that will be considered for adoption by the county, port, and cities of Sequim, Port Angeles and Forks.
Nathan West, Port Angeles economic and community development director, said the economic development plan will involve tasks for each public entity to accomplish.
White will interview representatives of those public entities, along with Olympic Medical Center, Clallam County Public Utility District, two school districts, two tribes and six business leaders at the Lincoln Center on Friday.
A draft plan will be presented to those same people May 11 for further input.
During their January retreat, Port Angeles City Council members discussed holding a meeting to find a way to better coordinate the work of the 13-or-so groups that promote business and tourism.
Countywide plan
That, combined with a recommendation that a countywide plan be created, evolved into the summit, which the EDC agreed to organize.
The summit will focus on better coordinating the economic development efforts of the county, cities and Port of Port Angeles, but won’t include private organizations in that discussion as the council originally discussed.
Rotmark said it would cost too much to do it all.
“We started out pretty big and very inclusive and realized that every activity that we were thinking of had a nice [price] tag on it,” she said.
“So, that’s when we had to start trimming it down and it was more based on funding during tight times than anything else.”
The price tag for the summit will be shared equally by the city of Port Angeles, port and county. Most of the $24,000 cost is to pay the consultant’s fee.
Port Angeles Mayor Dan Di Guilio said reducing the amount of duplication among the private economic development organizations — which means there is being enough communication between the groups that are doing the same type of work — is not as much of a priority for him as developing a county-wide plan and improving cooperation among the public entities when it comes to creating jobs.
“I really want to see this community come together,” he said. “Let’s develop a starting plan of some sort that moves us forward.”
Rotmark said the decisions to reduce the scope of the summit wasn’t about trying to keep private organizations, like the EDC, from being criticized.
She said county residents, during the public input portion of the summit, can still recommend what they think private organizations, such as the EDC, chambers of commerce and other business organizations, should do, or not do, to help the economy.
At the Port Angeles Business Association meeting Tuesday, Rotmaâà´rk defended the decision not to give the group a seat at the table during the Friday “stakeholder interviews.”
“It’s very difficult to try to include everybody,” she said.
Rotmark said during an interview that the EDC first looked to its “contracted partners,” such as the local governments, OMC and the PUD, to participate in the stakeholder interviews because of their relationship with the organization and that they can more easily “influence state and federal programs.”
She said the hospital is a big economic driver in Clallam County, and so is the PUD when it comes to infrastructure.
Rotmark said the rest of the positions were filled in with business leaders rather than representatives of such groups as PABA because the EDC wanted people who represent specific segments of the economy.
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
