Lessons learned from the failed recruitment of Hydro Fitting to Twin Falls, ID

After a deal to bring California-based Hydro Fitting Manufacturing Corp. to town fell through in May, a committee of Southern Idaho Economic Development Organization board members met June 10 to discuss what lessons could be learned from the failed venture.

Board member Lee Wagner reported the committee’s results at SIEDO’s meeting Thursday.

By Megan Hinds
Times-News writer

http://www.magicvalley.com/news/business/index.asp?StoryID=5636

"It was an opportunity to examine what went wrong and what could have been done differently," Wagner said.

In the future, Wagner said, there needs to be "a clear delineation" made between the various players in the regional economic development game and a clearer explanation of the roles those respective players hold.

Companies being recruited to come to southern Idaho should know the difference between the agencies that are promising incentives and the organizations designed to market the region to employers, he said.

Companies should also be required to make a "good faith" commitment on the front side of the proposed deal, Wagner said. Likewise, economic development agencies and organizations need to avoid "premature assurance of funding" to recruited companies, he said.

In the case of Hydro Fitting, "we were writing checks before we had things in a row," Wagner said. "We need to make sure (companies) have the economic strength to pull it off before it gets too far down the road."

Curtis Eaton, a SIEDO board member and the College of Southern Idaho’s vice president of planning and development, suggested communication skills between various economic development organizations and agencies be improved.

"I think there was information available that was not communicated that would have been helpful to have known," Eaton said.

The suggestions will be main topics of discussion at a regional economic development conference set for Sept. 16 at CSI. The conference was originally scheduled July 12.

The conference will bring together SIEDO’s board members, area chamber of commerce executives, Region IV Development officials and members of the Business Plus III job-creation campaign. Several officials from the Idaho Department of Commerce and Labor are scheduled to be present, as well.