The Commission on the Future of Economic Development was created by the Legislature and is charged with developing a five-year plan. The statute is clear that the process should be “open and inclusive, with broad-based public engagement”. The Commission has now met six times and has done virtually nothing to seek input from the community or encourage public participation.
Indeed, at the Commission’s meeting on February 12, the Commission voted to make it harder for the public to get information. At the request of Commerce Secretary Kevin Dorn, the Commission decided not to pay for videotaping the meetings for broadcast on community cable channels. This is especially disappointing because the Public Assets Institute had raised half the money required from the Vermont Community Foundation (and the January meeting had already been broadcast on a dozen channels). Apparently, the Commission thought $1,500 (2.5% of the current budget) was too much to pay for a complete video record of its proceedings. Note: You can request an audio recording but the listener cannot always identify the speakers.
To keep this act of purported fiscal responsibility in perspective, note that the Commission is preparing to engage a group of consultants who will probably be paid over $100,000 before the process is complete.
In addition, the Commission determined that its web site should not contain testimony, materials submitted by outside parties, or links to the many organization working in related subject areas. Up until now, the only substantive item on the web site (other than agendas & minutes) was a presentation by Secretary Dorn. Previously there were links to various state departments and the Chamber of Commerce. But rather than add links to non-governmental entities, the Commission decided to have no links at all.
As for openness, the Commission has now met for a total of about 25 hours and has yet to hear testimony from non-governmental experts in any of the thirteen subject areas listed in the statute except education (UVM and few college reps were heard). Note: At the request of one member, I was allowed to testify — for 12 minutes.
The Commission has received requests from numerous parties anxious to participate but has not followed up. When asked about this, the Commission indicated that it prefers to wait until a consultant is hired. Moreover, the Commission has not solicited written materials from outside sources. Considering that they only meet once a month, you might expect them to use the time in between to learn about what those outside the administration are thinking about economic development.
But that would require an open mind. The following is an excerpt from a memo sent by Secretary Dorn to the Commission in November 2006.
“First and foremost, the State has a clearly articulated economic development strategy, infrastructure, and resources to support economic expansion and job creation, [and] metrics to gauge success…The details of our economic development program were presented in the over 100 page power-point presentation I delivered at the Commission’s first meeting. Members have asked me why we are seemingly developing an economic development plan if one clearly already exists and is showing positive results. Now that the election is over I would add to this perspective provided by Commission members that the Governor was re-elected by a wide margin and has a strong mandate from Vermonters to continue his policies and efforts particularly in the area of economic development and jobs.”
What more do you need to know? We have a strategy and it’s working just fine, thank you. That might come as a surprise to a great many Vermonters, and to the Legislature which created the commission. For another perspective, see Phase 9 of the Job Gap Study, which challenges the notion that the current strategy “is showing positive results”.
The Commission is preparing to hire consultants (10 months after the statute was signed into law). But the RFP is nearly identical to the one used by the Economic Progress Council before the legislature took this responsibility from them. How is this a fresh start?
The Commission is likely to ask for money from the legislature. I encourage you to contact your legislators and ask them to insist that any more money be conditioned on a promise to adhere faithfully to the statute.
If you would like to testify, contact Chairman John Goodrich at John.Goodrich@ehv-weidmann.com. If you want to communicate with the Commission, you can use the public comment form on the web site at http://www.dca.state.vt.us/commissions/cfed/comments.html. The Commission has not published any comments so we have no idea if anyone has used this tool (which has not been advertised in any way).
For additional information about the Commission and economic development, visit the Public Assets Institute at http://www.publicassets.org/.
Doug Hoffer is a policy analyst and is the author of the Job Gap Study and a number of other reports on economic development and Vermont’s economy. He has worked for Vermont NEA, VSEA, the Peace & Justice Center, High Road Vermont, the Public Assets Institute, Vermont State Auditor, and the Vermont State Treasurer, among others.
This piece first appeared in the March 2007 Peace & Justice Center newsletter.