Major Consequences for Corvallis & Benton County. Economic Development Funding at Risk.

Has John Sechrest’s work touched your business or you professionally in any way?  Does he create value for the money the City/County has invested in his salary?  Would Corvallis be better off without his position, his work, and his personal enthusiasm?

Its all about jobs, employment and the economy. Time is of the essence.

The economy is down. Unemployment is up.
Corvallis and Benton County need new business and new living wage jobs. John Sechrest and Aaron Edwards, working under the banner of the Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition, have been working hard, with good results, to help create and bring those jobs to our community *. But their own jobs- and the funding that supports economic development in Corvallis and Benton County- are in jeopardy. The consequences will be serious.

No Economic Development, No New Jobs.

Benton County and the City of Corvallis allocate funding for economic development. In the past, those funds have paid for John’s and part of Aaron’s salary. Now the City and County are facing tough budget situations, and the economic development budgets may be cut, and with it, they will cut the funding that pays for John and Aaron to create and recruit new jobs to Corvallis and Benton County.

These decisions will be made soon. The City Council Budget commission will meet May 6th to deliberate. The County Commissioners are finalizing budgets this month. They need to hear from you now.

If we lose the funding for John and Aaron, we are at high risk of losing both of their jobs (barring an amazing private fundraising effort, which we have begun). The effects of these losses could be devastating to our efforts to start, grow and expand local businesses via economic gardening. This would be a real blow at a time when we should be focusing on creating jobs, and reaping the harvests of the new business seeds that John has sown for 4 years.

For the amount the city pays the Chamber Coalition, we can  hire approx. one FTE. For that one FTE, our goal over the past 4 years has been to start, grow and expand traded sector businesses within the boundaries of the Prosperity that Fits Plan…focused on home grown start up and existing businesses. John Sechrest has been very effective in fulfilling that mission. He has effectively helped create hundreds of jobs through recruiting and nurturing technology start-ups, including Perpetua, and many others that moved on to incubate at the BEC. He created the Willamette Angel Conference, which alone brought more than $160,000 of new capital into regional business, $125,000 of which went to a local Corvallis business, which has subsequently hired 8 more employees. Add to that Food Biz Boot Camp, Biz boot camp, and the work he did on WIN and that’s a lot of value added. SWOT has been instrumental in preparing dozens of businesses for investor pitches. John has connected hundreds of entrepreneurs, start ups and small businesses with talent, service providers, peer support groups and resources to launch or expand their ventures. He is in constant motion connecting Corvallis economy and businesses to the entire willamette valley, and to key Portland resources, including venture capital.  This doesn’t even include the work he’s done on the enterprise zone and Airport Industrial park. (More info can be found on the Chamber Coalition Website in the economic development section where you will see the monthly report of the ED work.)

Please contact your Corvallis city councilor, contact your Benton County commissioner, and let them know we need to invest in growing jobs when the economy is down. It only makes sense. Also let them know what John, Aaron and the Chamber’s economic development team have done for you, someone you know, and the greater business community. Encourage them to support some level of funding for the continuation of the great work that John and Aaron do for the community.

Katherine Cleland
Board Member, Economic Development Committee, Corvallis-Benton Chamber Coalition

List of city councilors and their emails see www.corvallis.or.us and search city council. Hyperlinks will open up an email form from the city.

• Mayor – Charles C. Tomlinson
  Ward 1 – Mark O’Brien
  Ward 2 – Patricia Daniels
  Ward 3 – Richard Hervey
  Ward 4 – Dan Brown
  Ward 5 – Mike Beilstein
  Ward 6 – Joel Hirsch
  Ward 7 – Jeanne Raymond
  Ward 8 – David Hamby
  Ward 9 – Hal Brauner

For a list of County Commissioners and their contact information see www http://www.co.benton.or.us/boc/index.php

To send and email to the entire board: bocinfo@co.benton.or.us
Annabelle.E.JARAMILLO@Co.Benton.OR.US

jay.dixon@co.benton.or.us

Linda.L.MODRELL@Co.Benton.OR.US

*For details on jobs created, businesses supported, please see our past economic development report go to

http://www.corvallischamber.com/index.php/econdev/edreport.html