Strategic Initiatives Retreat

Earlier this week, the office of Strategic Initiatives got together to discuss projects for the upcoming year. It was very interesting. We discussed external newsletters, communication, events, social media, and economic development. It was really interesting how everything tied together.

For economic development, I discussed the current state of Marana and future projects to consider. I used Prezi as a tool. Here is the presentation itself (sans vocal explanations):



Economic development is comprised of 3 pillars (as learned in the Economic Development 101 session at the Governor's Statewide Development Conference held this year in Oro Valley). They are: retention and expansion of existing businesses, recruitment of new businesses, and creation of business.

As I discussed in a previous entry, economic development can be measured by the variety of skills in the workplace, number of start ups, local philanthropic endowments, household income, and venture capital opportunities in the area. Of these measurements, Marana has great potential for establishing local philanthropic endowments. When looking at the top employee breakdown, we analyzed industries that were missing; namely higher education, andan art and entertainment community.

In the Downtown discussion, we talked a lot about how we can get buy-in and commitment from businesses by incorporating a virtual downtown. We also discussed event opportunities that will awareness to people of north Marana. An example of this would be the Founders Day event that is thrown every year, and the Holiday Christmas Tree Lighting.

Branding and town identification in the southside of Marana is a constant issue. As the northernmost part of the Town, I think it is important to establish identification there. Not a lot of people know that the shops at Thornydale and Ina are actually in the town of Marana. Same goes for Orange Grove and Thornydale. Because a lot of the buildings existed prior to the annexation, there isn't an established visual identification. It is important to establish relationships with businesses so they develop a loyalty to the town and commit to calling themselves the "Marana location".

The business focus is an interesting concept done by the City of Maricopa. They put on a short production featuring a local business as part of a series of endorsements. It's very beneficial because it keeps businesses in the area, identifies problem areas and growth because of your continuous contact with the private sector, encourages local patronage, and businesses can benefit from the exposure. I brought this idea to the retreat to see if the Town of Marana would like to implement something similar. It would be a great way to maintain positive relationships with existing businesses.

The discussion was structured to encourage the team to mull over issues and brainstorm ideas. It was a 4 hour retreat, but time flew by. I'm excited to see how what we discussed unfolds over the coming year.

Founders Day Festival is taking off!

It's exciting working at the Marana Municipal Complex because I can look out the window and see the carnival workers putting up the rides just across the street. For the purpose of advertising this development on Marana's social networking pages, I was asked to go out there and photograph them.

Redecorating and Renovation Time

The second floor of the Marana Municipal Complex is currently home to Development Services, where people interested in applying for licenses or permits can go and submit applications. Pretty soon, it will encompass a brand new Business Development Center as well, where people can come during anytime of the business start-up process and get assistance. I talked about this before in a previous entry.

The next step has started. I got together with Tim Mattix, Permit Center and Records Manager to discuss how the new physical look of the center will be and what will be required as far as displays and materials go. In an attempt to move away from brochure and magazine displays and stands that are wooden or plastic looking, the Business Development Center will encompass an overall modern design. Metal options were looked at instead, and we were able to narrow it down to a couple designs that we liked.

The existing long counter in the current Development Services front office will be reconstructed to include a corner area designated for Business Development. Construction begins the first week of November.

Founders Day

I had the classic intern experience last week helping out Special Events with handing out Founders Day fliers for Marana's huge Founders Day event at the end of this month. I visited every business on the south side of Ina from Silverbell to Shannon to tell them about the event and give them fliers that they can post for employees and shoppers to see. People seemed to be generally curious and excited about the event.

To find out more about Founders Day, click the image below:

Support the Pink Sox!

 Marana's team, The Pink Sox, will be walking October 30th for breast cancer awareness and I had a chance to take their photo for an advertisement. For more information on how to support them, visit their page.

Higher Education opportunities

Marana currently does not have any higher education institutions located within its borders, but it definitely has strong relationships with two of the biggest schools in the area; the University of Arizona and now hopefully Pima Community College.

Josh and I met with Imelda Cuyugan from Pima Community College. As Assistant Vice Chancellor for government relations, we had a lot to talk about as far as creating a relationship with the institution goes. Marana has a great industry for engineering, and specialties unique to the college (like machining and welding) can benefit from knowing about the available businesses and hopefully creating relationships with them that can lead to employment.

Ideally, it would be wonderful to get another campus up in the downtown Marana area, or even around the Twin Peaks interchange so students would be located close to the larger employers in the area. The Silverbell/Cortaro area would be fantastic as well, as the Crossroads Park is there and it is a great community area.

Establishing a strong relationship with higher education is important for ensuring future economic development. If you provide the means to gain an education, then more people who are able to enter the work force at higher levels will follow. Currently, Marana has played a prominent role in linking some of their prominent employers (Sargent Controls, for example) to the University of Arizona. Next we hope to get Alicat Scientific to take advantage of the great business administration school there for marketing projects. Businesses benefit because they get projects done at a cheaper cost than if they had hired a firm. Students benefit because they gain real-life work experience that they can carry on into their future careers. And who knows, maybe those future careers will be at one of those organizations that they worked with during their education.

Update on Events

 State of the Town of Oro Valley

I did not have the chance to attend Marana's State of the Town event earlier this year held at the Ritz Carlton in Dove Mountain, but I did get a chance to attend Oro Valley's today as part of the first stop on Marana's council retreat tour. I sat with Comcast, one of the sponsors of the event, and listened as Satish Hiremath, Mayor of Oro Valley, spoke his address.

He covered the importance of partnerships and annexation of non-incorporated populations of the county. During his talk on economic development, he spoke of a new gift card coming out for the holidays, a gift card that can only be used at local Oro Valley stores. This is interesting, because it will encourage people to shop within their town.

Office of Strategic Initiatives Retreat

Next week is the retreat for the office of Strategic Initiatives. I will be going along with them to facilitate a discussion on economic development, as I've mentioned earlier in this blog. I have some topics in mind that I plan on finalizing within the next few days. I'm really excited to do this, and get some inspiration from the Chandler area, which is where we will be having the retreat.

Public Policy and Economic Development

The Greater Phoenix Economic Council  put together a task force dedicated to  expand GPEC’s relationships as a proven expert and advisor on economic development public policy issues with key partners in the business community. I got to listen in to a meeting updating members on economic development policy recommendations for the 2012 fiscal year. This included:

• A high-wage tax credit: this would be a $9,000 refundable tax credit for each new qualified job created. Eligible jobs must be maintained for at least 3 years.
• Property reclassification: qualified businesses receive 75% reduction in property taxes for 10 years. Only new investment is reclassified.
• 100% sales factor for service industries: Change statute to allow the option to assign sales of services to state of destination, not the state of production. 

Recommendations are being made with the hopes of bringing up the economy in the state of Arizona. This will no doubt be an interesting ride to follow, and I eagerly anticipate the beginning of the process in 2012 to see where it goes.