
{"id":14732,"date":"2010-12-23T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2010-12-23T15:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=14732"},"modified":"2010-12-27T10:07:15","modified_gmt":"2010-12-27T15:07:15","slug":"changing-strategies-leadership-presents-challenges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2010\/12\/23\/changing-strategies-leadership-presents-challenges\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing strategies, leadership presents challenges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Kirk Ross<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Staff Writer<br \/>\n<\/em><br \/>\n<em>This is the third in a series on new economic development in Orange County. You can read the rest of the stories at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/ecdev\/\">carrborocitizen.com\/main\/ecdev<\/a><\/em><br \/>\nTiming is everything. And with a transition in personnel, continued  slow growth and the need to regroup after the sales-tax loss at the polls, proponents and skeptics of a new look at economic development say this time something is likely to happen.<br \/>\nOrange County Manager Frank Clifton said his staff has been working with researchers at the UNC School of Government to get an idea of options ahead of a report in mid-February. Carrboro and Chapel Hill elected officials will hold discussions about economic development soon as well. Meanwhile, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce is planning a meeting with elected officials and business leaders about a new structure.<br \/>\nClifton said the Orange County Board of Commissioners will take up the new ideas at their retreat Feb. 11-12. With the recent resignation of Brad Broadwell, the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s economic-development director, Clifton said the time is right to look at the structure, the direction of the county and how to work better with other local governments.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the very early stages of looking at that,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. Whatever comes out of it, Clifton said, it has to be different.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just wave a new banner and say \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcwe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re open for business,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You have to have something behind the banner.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\n<em><strong>Commissioner Barry Jacobs said anything the county does has to represent a real change, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153not just a fad.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nJacobs said the new collaboration would be based on commonly held principles. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s boiled them down into the acronym SAGE, for sound economic principles like fair wage and work environment, assertive marketing, green and locally grown and engagement of the business community as well as the public sector.<br \/>\nCarrboro entrepreneur Brian Russell said he sees a lot of overlap in the areas various officials are discussing.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I feel positive about the next five to 10 years,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. There seems to be an effort building aimed at green and socially responsible businesses. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re well poised to take advantage of that.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nRussell, who serves on the Orange County Economic Development Commission, said he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not convinced an all-out merger of all economic-development activities is necessary or even possible, but that a change in strategy and in leadership will be important.<br \/>\nHe said he would especially like to see the county be more supportive of smaller businesses and a wider variety of enterprises.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The fact is that there are 100 technology workers in downtown Carrboro right now,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<br \/>\nCarrboro Mayor Mark Chilton said he anticipates a challenge in making sure local and smaller businesses don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just get lip service.<br \/>\nHe cites Figure 8 films, which produces shows for the Discovery Channel, and technology firms like the Newfangled Web Factory as small companies that are relocating because of the quality of life downtown.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re bringing in top-notch talent to work for them, and part of their pitch is \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcyou get to work in downtown Carrboro,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Chilton said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an asset [for economic development]. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s use it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nChilton said his worry is that when all is said and done, economic development will still mean recruiting large out-of-state companies and that those pushing the local economy and boosting small businesses will take a backseat.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153To me, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very frustrating, since that sort of thing ought to be the primary focus,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<br \/>\nLike the county, Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leaders are going into the new year contemplating a change in economic-development efforts, with the retirement on Feb. 1 of the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s economic- and community-development director James Harris.<br \/>\nChilton said discussions at the board\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s upcoming retreat at the end of January, as well as a hard look at the recommendations of the town\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent Local Living Economy Task Force, will play a role in shaping Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interactions with any new economic-development entity.<br \/>\nClifton said he thinks efforts to help local businesses expand and retain employees will be a part of the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s thrust. He said it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to recognize that while there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a general consensus things have to change, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not likely to be a unanimous approach to how to move forward on economic development.<br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There may still end up being individual efforts,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Clifton said. But the goal, he said, has to be to find a way to better work together. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the important thing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is the third in a series on new economic development in Orange County. You can read the rest of the stories at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/ecdev\/\">carrborocitizen.com\/main\/ecdev<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14732"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14732\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14855,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14732\/revisions\/14855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}