Competitiveness study offers ideas for change for Region

Chamber survey recommends improved attitude, customer service among public entities

By Addy Hatch Spokane Journal of Business

City and county government and the media could do more to help Spokane compete against other regions to attract businesses, says a new study that examines the region’s competitiveness.

The study was performed by the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce, and involved industry-specific focus groups, telephone interviews, and e-mail questionnaires to chamber members and others. About 250 people provided input in one form or another, says Bill Savitz, CEO of Garco Building Systems here, who co-chaired the study with Judy Cole, director of business and public affairs at Avista Corp.

The purpose of the effort was to review city and county government operations to determine what they could do to make the region more “business friendly,” the study says.

Currently, “there really seems to be a disconnect in the minds of elected officials relative to their role in growing the economy,” Savitz contends.

Among the study’s findings:

•Elected officials need to maintain civil dialog with each other, and achieve greater cooperation between governments and throughout the region.

•A combined city/county permit center needs to be established for “one-stop” permitting of projects.

•Customer-service training should be provided to city and county staff members who interact with the public.

•Elected officials should be designated as “ambassadors” to state agencies to communicate priorities for this region’s businesses.

•Businesses, government entities, and civic organizations should establish shared goals for economic development, infrastructure improvements, and permit processes, and establish measurements to see that those goals are being met.

•City and county governments, along with businesses, should agree to identify and communicate five positive messages a month.

•A commitment should be sought from local media to communicate positive messages.

Chamber CEO Rich Hadley says he already has presented the findings of the study to several elected officials and government representatives, and that they’ve been “very supportive” of them.

Tom Reese, Spokane’s economic development adviser, says he’s seen the study and thinks, “We need to listen to it and consider it and try to implement as many (of the proposals) as we can.”

Some of those proposals, such as a joint city-county permit center, might be more difficult to achieve than others, sources say.

The aim of the competitiveness study, however, was not to make specific recommendations, but to recommend specific issues that businesses believe are important to the growth of the region, and to work with government agencies cooperatively to address those issues, Savitz says.

Therefore, the goal of creating a joint permit center might be achieved simply by aligning more closely the permitting processes followed by various government agencies so that they’re “more compatible and less redundant,” Reese says.

Hadley says the study represents a more assertive attitude on the part of the chamber, but that its stance is necessary to compete with other regions—especially when the state of Washington is considered to have a somewhat inhospitable business environment.

Says Cole, who co-chaired the study, “Our region is competing in a national and a global market. To compete effectively, we have to first play to our strengths, and second, we have to be best in class. We have the potential in our governmental areas to be best in class.”

http://spokanejournal.com/spokane_id=article&sub=1739