Supervisor candidate: Use proven methodology

The term “economic development” is being bantered around these days by various leaders and citizens as we struggle as a country to deal with our debt.

This is not a new term but seems to be at the heart of every discussion in small towns, on the news and in campaign rhetoric. There is an actual methodology to economic development that has been used and proven to be successful, which gives one hope it is not just rhetoric.

Many disparate communities have used this approach.

Pinal County is such a large area made up of various cities with their own leaders and citizens. There are four common components to each and those are education, health care, public sector and private sector.

Each of these components has its own visions as to mission and criteria for success. All of these entities are striving to meet the goals of their respective communities, but actually are silos of activities.

Some cities are lucky enough to have economic development and/or chamber of commerce associations who focus on assisting businesses in a variety of ways. Throughout history this structure has served us well.

However, now that we have a “global economy” and advancements in technology shrinking our world, competition for jobs has required us to reformat our approach to economic development.

Other important factors are the worldwide debt and political struggles we all watch on the news nightly.

To bring these disparate groups together in communities, there must be an ongoing forum for leaders and citizens (the influencers) to safely dialogue, and to arrive at a common vision to revitalize their county, community or city.

For Pinal County, there are many reasons for this methodology.

First, Pinal County is a growing community that has much to offer Arizona and the country/world. Second, our weather is very stable and dry. Thirdly, we have a growing private sector (Arizona has recently been recognized in the top 10 most favorable states for businesses). And lastly there is an overwhelming desire expressed by the various leaders and citizens from the four sectors (education, health care, private and public) to see Pinal County continue to grow and expand.

What next?

There must be a formalized structure, supported by the various leaders of the sectors and cities within Pinal County, established and funded to introduce and implement the methodology. This approach consists of several meetings to discuss the neutral person(s) to conduct these sessions; the timeframe for the process; the desired outcome(s); and location(s) for the meetings.