Becky Boschee
Jessica Lorenzo
Hiromi Shimomura
Econ 309 (Prof. Hackett)
4/4/03
Prosperity!
Plan, Network, Strategy = Prosperity!
Prosperity is the comprehensive economic development strategy that every county in California must have. Prosperity is an approach to economic development and it is based on what makes Humboldt County unique. It is a plan for the future that utilizes what the county already has as well what is important to us to create economic success. Prosperity allows Humboldt to make its own choices and to support our local businesses that are so important to us. Prosperity focuses on maximizing our economic competitiveness without sacrificing our quality of life (Prosperity the North Coast Strategy 2).
The Humboldt Area Foundation formulated the Prosperity plan in 1996 and Kathy Moxon who is the executive director of the Institute of the North Coast was involved from the start (Harper 1). The Prosperity plan was developed in 1999 and the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors adopted the plan (Harper 2).
Plumas County has a similar socioeconomic environment that Humboldt
County has which is comprised of small businesses, low population and rural
isolation. Plumas County also has a
Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy and seeks economic vitality, which
is defined as “the process by which the community and businesses creates and
retains jobs and reinvests wealth through its economy, community and natural
resources (Plumas County Economic Development Strategy 2).”
What is unique about the plan is that it recognized the key areas of business that the county has and formed nine base industry clusters. “An “industry cluster” is a group of interconnected businesses that rely on relationships among themselves for efficiency and competitiveness (Prosperity The North Coast Strategy 5).” The core businesses within the industry clusters that export goods to other areas form the area’s economic foundation. The support clusters are those that provide goods and services within the community and these grow over time.
Another factor that makes Prosperity unique is that the entire community created the plan. Prosperity also gives local businesses the courage and comfort they need so that they can compete in the global marketplace. The plan also unites the seven cities within the county and they all utilize this plan. Prosperity is not written in concrete but it changes as the community grows and develops. Progress of the prosperity plan is being evaluated on an ongoing basis and changes occur to the plan in response. Benchmarks are utilized so that we can measure our economic development progress. Also in place are feedback loops so that we can figure out the best way to make change (Planning for Prosperity 1).
Additional strengths arise from the way in which the plan itself was written and that is as a useful guide for the county. Wood states that while the plan was being written, surveys and phone calls were made to members of the community to receive feedback and ideas. Therefore, the plan was based on community values as well as information and things that span the community were included in prosperity (Wood). The prosperity plan was a strategy that was developed that mimicked the resources that were already in place within the county. There is a strong level of cooperation that takes place among the seven cities within the county. The Prosperity plan also ties in with the cities and county’s general plans.
Plumas County also values the existing markets in the area and focuses on
these to achieve maximum economic growth.
The county has five industry clusters, such as Manufacturing, Metals
Fabrication, Resort Residential, Recreational/Tourism and Business Service. Plumas County has found its strength in the
qualities that make the area so great such as: scenic beauty, small business
spirit, natural resources and access to Reno (Plumas County Economic
Development Strategy 29).
Weaknesses
The Prosperity plan is still relatively young in Humboldt County and has only been in place since 1999 and this is where most of the weaknesses arise. There is a communication flaw meaning that when members of the Prosperity team go to the community and ask an opinion they are not going back and saying what they did. Some of the businesses in the community do not even know what Prosperity is or that they are included in an industry cluster. The same thing is true in that some of the citizens in the community do not even know what Prosperity is or that Humboldt County has an economic strategy.
As stated by Dan Ihara from the Center for Environmental Economic
Development, many people do not
really understand the “base industry” aspect of the strategy or the theory that
is the basis for this approach. An
example of this is the renaming of “state college education” to “research and
education”. The state college education
imports significant amounts of revenue into the county directly and indirectly
whereas the research and education means the support functions of any educational
institution. It should rather focus on
how HSU involves a significant cluster of activities that brings in revenue to
the county.
According to Dean Ray Geary from College of Redwoods, the Prosperity strategy is a difficult
process to update due to the development plans for individual clusters. Updates are made on a weekly basis, but it
is hard to get them written down. There
is a constant motion where the moving target keeps making the updating process
a big challenge. If there is an attempt
to change the base industry, it will dilute or confuse the focus of the
strategy that are various support functions in the clusters (Geary).
In Plumas
County, some of the factors that they consider as their weakness are the
distance from major markets, cost of transportation for certain products,
market access, and limited diversification of economic base primary for the
rural isolation of weather and geography.
Humboldt County also has these weaknesses and that is why Prosperity is
so crucial to our economy (Plumas County Economic Development Strategy
29).
Opportunities
The Prosperity plan allows Humboldt County to maintain the same great quality of life while enhancing the economy. The plan allows us to find new markets outside of the county for our great products. When goods leak out to outside markets people realize just how great they are because Humboldt County’s air and water is so clean and makes way for great products. Wood states that the goal for developing opportunities is to find economic strategies that are innovative and that support the local businesses. The local businesses play such a strong role in Humboldt County that in the future 80% of the jobs will be created by small businesses that are already here (Wood).
Kristin Roach of North Coast Small Business Development Commission, says the Prosperity plan involves documents
with multiple agencies and companies that work towards common goals. The opportunity for the plan is to make sure
that the goals are relevant and are more known. Individual businesses can benefit from the plan by merging
documents together. Businesses can
avoid duplications of plans and use money more efficiently and reach out to other
business (Roach).
Plumas County seeks opportunity in “FIRE”
industries (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate, Escrow). There was a 32% increase in FIRE jobs between 1983-1999 and a 19%
increase in construction employment during the same period. The continuing increase in the development
pace at the various golfing resorts in the County has led to a comeback in the
construction and “FIRE” industries (Plumas County Economic Development Strategy
34).
Threats
The Prosperity plan does not have any influence over the state, national or global economies. These economies are always changing so Prosperity might have to change in response. Currently, the professionals that are participating in the Prosperity network all have unique personalities and there is a concern that the network might not work in the future due to the change in participants and personalities.
Geary
states there are no threats in the
prosperity plan. Yet there is a point of getting everybody involved especially
municipalities because they are not participating as much as they could
(Geary).
Ihara states that there are two ways that the
Prosperity Report falls short (Ihara).
First, by not recognizing and building on the major contribution to the
County’s economy from the revenue brought in directly and indirectly of HSU. Secondly, there are not more explicitly and
operationally given tangible credit to natural, social and cultural
capital.
In Plumas County, the continuing downsizing
in the timber industry is a major problem in its economy since lumber mils and
associated jobs are the major part of the Plumas manufacturing sector.
During the ‘80s February employment in
manufacturing was between 800-1000 employees each year. During the 90’s, February employment was
between 540-790 as the local lumber mills closed and in the early 90’s general
economic downturns rippled through the Plumas economy. The virtual closure of the federal forests
for timber harvesting continues to threaten the existence of the remaining two
lumber mills in Plumas (Plumas County Economic Development Strategy 34).
Works Cited
Doran, Bob. “What’s the Plan Humboldt?” North Coast Journal Weekly. 7 September
2000. <http://www.northcoastjournal.com/090700/cover0907.html>.
Geary, Ray. Telephone Interview. College of the Redwoods. 8 April 2003
Harper, John. “Prosperity! In Action County Economic Plan
Establishes Nonprofits to
Help Small Businesses.” The Lumberjack. 28 March 2003.
<http://www.thejack.org/spr01/community/03-07-01/prosperity.html>.
Ihara, Dan. “Center for Environmental Economic Development.” ceed@humboldt1.edu
(8 April 2003)
“Planning for Prosperity.” North Coast Prosperity. 28 March 2003.
<http://www.northcoastprosperity.com/strategy/plan_for_prosp/planners.html>.
“Prosperity! The North Coast Strategy.” Redwood Region Economic Development
Commission. 28 March 2003.
<http://www.agreda.com/client/prosperity/prosperity.pdf >.
Roach, Kristin. Telephone Interview. North Coast Small Business Development Center.
8 April 2003
Wood, Georgianna. Group Interview. 2 April 2003.