George Rebane
The 9aug17 Union’s lead story was ‘Supes question ERC head’. Our local business development agency – renamed Economic Resource Council to assuage the progressive palates – has had a sad history of under achievement, not all of which can be laid at its feet. More than once the county’s sop for inducing economic progress has bitten off not only more than it could chew, but projects totally ‘inedible’ by a Nevada County in its recent political mindset. The most recent ballyhooed Green Screen Institute for incubating local virtual and augmented reality enterprises is a good example, and one that continues to underline ERC’s reputation as a non-performing institution in our community.
What the ERC has never, to my knowledge, addressed are the factors and local attributes needed for an inviting environment in which to start/build for-profit developments and businesses. To a capitalist entrepreneur, no matter how socially conscious, the county is as inviting as a slow-dance with a porcupine. The local governments and agencies combine to interpret and enforce higher-up laws and regulations in the most strict and rigid manner that modern bureaucracies have devised. And then our local leadership goes a step beyond in demonstrating to all its progressive propensities by adding on draconian local strictures to top off the already formidable battlements erected against businesses in California.
As recounted many times over the years in these pages, our county has some pretty tough obstacles to overcome for businesses whose customer base is located elsewhere. Even IT-based businesses here have a hard row to hoe because of the interminable delays we have suffered in getting broadband connectivity into our hills and canyons. Add to that its distance from major transportation arteries and hubs, and the lack of an educational pipeline producing workers with useful skills, and you quickly run out of reasons to locate a business here. And that without even considering the regulatory ramparts that must be successfully breached before you can even open your doors.
Add to that the changing political tenor of the county that communicates an ever more stifling regulatory environment as promised by our very vocal local lefties, and in the end you have a pile of cons in which an occasional pro is visible here and there. So, if the county’s supes still want to keep the ERC as a public relations exhibit to would be entrepreneurs, what beneficial project should the ERC undertake next? An answer to that came from a longtime friend, business partner, and colleague who recommends that the ERC, as a committee of the whole, undertake a complete review of the legal and regulatory thickets a would-be business would have to successfully penetrate in order to then undertake the market risk of opening its doors in our community.
The output of this review would be a list of specific recommendations to our local jurisdictions that spell out which laws, codes, regulations should be rescinded and/or sun-setted, which ones should have modified enforcement policies, which ones should be simply ignored, and other provisions to smooth the bureaucratic road to economic progress. Then the ball will be in the hands of our political leadership’s mamas and papas, and we’ll all see whether business development in Nevada County is welcomed or will continue as a pretentious sham to fool the independent and right-leaning voters to support our county’s political blues (triple entendre noted).
Addendum [In the following, Russ Steele – Nevada County native, many years a resident, retired Air Force officer and technology manager, locally active citizen, friend, and fellow blogger – will summarize an historical perspective of the ERC to illuminate the road to where we now find ourselves, and that should give promise to the benefit from the above recommended review.]
Russ Steele
First off let me share my ERC background. I have been an ERC volunteer from the inception of the ERC and served on the ERC Board, Representing the Transportation Commission. I was instrumental in creating this position on the ERC Board to increase the information flow between transportation and economic development planning, negating the smoke stack that was the standard mode.
When rural broadband became a vital rural economic development tool, the ERC formed a Telecommunication Resource Committee, which I co-chaired with Larry Burkhardt, the first ERC CEO. The committee applied for and received two California Internet grants from the CA Department of Commerce for business internet instruction on how to make online sales and to create business a relocation tool after a study had indicated 85% of all business relocations started with an internet search. This business relocation mapping tool identified available business properties and provided detailed demographics for the property, including vehicle and pedestrian traffic patterns, population percentages with in user set distance from the location, etc. This tool depended on an annual Dunn and Bradstreet Data base, updates from the City and County Business License Data bases, and a weekly update from local real estate ALS. This relocation tool was hosted on the County GIS Server and made available to Internet users world wide. ERC leadership changed, and it was never updated, there was no project money for the annual updates.
The state grants were crucial to the initial success of the ERC. The local ERC funding was enough to pay the CEO and part time staff salary, but never enough to create and fund projects or programs. From my perspective as a volunteer and part time project leader, the limited funding was intentional, as the Board of Supervisors at the time were anti-development. The ERC was like the store front on a western movie set, nothing behind the facade. The BoS could point with pride at the ERC store front declaring they were for economic development, but never provided the project resources to make economic development real. A third party study of Nevada County Economic Development by Chabin identified the funding problem: To be effective the ERC needed project financing, staff funding was not enough to assure success.
The most recent government grant for the Green Screen Institute was the first substantial project funding, but it may be focusing on technology not ready for full public acceptance, as the Virtual Reality and Applied Reality markets are not developing as fast as originally anticipated.
At times the BoS could be even more controlling. After Larry Burkhardt had written an article critical of County regulations which were hindering business development, he was called to a meeting with the BoS Chairman and reminded that being critical of the County and the BoS could impact the ERC's future funding. Advised that government criticism was not a wise course to follow the ERC refocused on outreach, rather than challenge the anti-business attitude of the local government.
This episode was a clear indication of the real economic development issue in Nevada County. The community as a whole could not decide what kind of economic development it wanted. Strategic planning sessions were held over long weekends, resulting in a plethora of words and little action. Future ERC CEO's were tasked by the BoS to produce Comprehensive Economic Development Plans. A community plan approved by every tribe in the County had few opportunities to succeed, with each tribe insisting that it include their future vision for Western Nevada County. The environmental tribe wanted sustainability and worm farms, the recreation tribe wanted more sports infrastructure, the applied technology tribe wanted the government to stop impeding business development, the entrepreneurial tribe wanted cheap rent and start up loans, and the retired tribe wanted more entertainment venues and lower taxes. The first Comprehensive Plan never survived the review process.
In examining the ERC relevancy issue, it was evident to me that the ERC could be providing more value to the business community. With the plethora of regulations being issued by the state and federal government and implemented by the county, I suggested the ERC develop of a newsletter which focused on these new rules, summarizing their content and explaining the impact and how the impact could be mitigated, rather than each business spending resources to do that. No one wanted to accept the task, as it had legal implications best accomplished by a lawyer. The ERC did not have a legal team to write the newsletter.
It is still clear that ERC is not meeting needs of the community. Truckee is feeling abandoned. The GoNevadaCounty tourism web site readership is declining. There are several possible reasons for the decline, the lack of promotion by the Union and changing technology connected to demographics. Let me explain. The GoNevadaCounty web site is browser based rather than apps based. It was originally designed to be a desktop recreational planning tool, not a smart phone information source. Smartphone users, especially the 18-34 cohort of users, prefer smartphones over tablets and laptops and apps over browsers. It is time for a major upgrade to GoNevadaCounty.
It is also time for the ERC to reexamine its benefit to the community: What is the highest value to Nevada County businesses? As George Rebane has suggested, sit down with the BoS and decide what regulations can be reshaped, recalled, or deleted. As a minimum streamline the permitting process and reduce the fees.
More importantly, the community, the tribal councils and the governing bodies, County and Cities, need to decide what they want the local economy to look like in five and ten years and then identify the five actions required to make that vision a reality. And, then provide the resources needed for each action item.
In a modern society, broadband infrastructure is as critical as water, power, and sewer, yet it was only recently included in Nevada County General Planning Documents after I pointed out the discrepancy to the County Staff, and they inserted a single wishful paragraph.
Here is how one rural eastern county solved their broadband problem. This County formed a public service corporation and created a broadband fiber network. The Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation (MBC) provides fiber connections to businesses, schools, and government agencies. If Nevada County focused on real economic development, they would have figured out how to bring this 21st Century telecommunication infrastructure to the whole business community over the last 20 years. During the permitting process that could have demanded fiber access points for the County when major fiber networks passed through the County to the coast.
We recently moved to Placer County where we see economic development taking place on nearly every corner. New housing developments are going in, industrial buildings going up, companies moving in and some out, but overall we sense vigorous economic growth. If Placer County can grow in the California regulatory environment, why is Nevada County stagnating? It could be as simple as an attitude adjustment. Nevada County needs to be more than business friendly; if it creates the telecommunication infrastructure demanded by the digital economy they will come. According to the Urban Land Institute report, 74 percent of all Bay Area Millennials are considering a move out of the region in the next five years. Unwilling to accept permanent status as apartment renters, many millennials, so key to California’s dynamism, will be seeking high-speed broadband for remote work options and a home with a yard for the children and the dog. If Nevada County builds the homes and broadband — they will come. That was Joel Kotkin's message at an ERC economic development summit two years ago. Was no one listening?
rebanesruminations.com 
Leave a comment