Although in one way people here are very involved in the city (and being involved with a non-profit myself I know how many volunteers there are), in another way we are not involved. One of the reasons is that it seems so difficult to make any changes. So, many people withdraw from the civic involvement and are active in other areas they are passionate about.

I love that forums such as this are springing up from ordinary people who are interested and do think it will make a difference in changing attitudes.

Thanks for doing this.

This approach puts public officials in a reactive rather than leadership position. Turn it around and there may be more upside than people think. One of those upsides will be consciously choosing to invest (or not) in economic development rather than responding to begging and pleading.

The next big question is how is that RFP created? I would find the responses to RFIs very interesting. I have found quality information on this topic to be sparse.

People I respect from other parts of the state have wondered how a city with so much going for it can perform so poorly. I have come to think the reason is that we are, in fact, getting exactly what we really want. But where all this is headed (a great university surrounded on all sides by memory-care facilities?) should worry us.

I am sorry to see that there is an apparent consensus against having the Chamber host contracted ED services. It is certainly not a fundamentally unworkable idea, and Katherine nicely summarizes why it is also a dollar-efficient one.

But perhaps it is a good thing that the City and County have now shattered the status quo – and on the heels of the illuminating Brown et al report documenting the inexorable playing-out of a situation HP local management began warning local officials about at least 15 years ago.

If they didn’t before, city and county elected officials must know now that they now truly own economic development responsibility, and are expected to take positive leadership steps rather than simply levy criticism and manage decline.

The first steps I suggest are for both jurisdictions to appropriate funds (in the amounts they believe ED is worth to their citizens) and to issue new RFPs for contractors (private, but perhaps also allow OSU/LBCC) to bid against. If they should choose to do this jointly with Albany/Linn County, terrific.

This is, by the way, how ONAMI (which has been quite successful) works with the state of Oregon. We are private (no one running up a PERS liability here) and operate under the terms of an administrative services contract which clearly spells out goals, metrics, use of funds, reporting and other responsibilities.