The Strategic Action Plan has been in development for about a year as the capstone plan of the NWEDI process initiated in 2013, with extensive public involvement from a variety of stakeholders. Consultant Gary Craft of Craft Consulting (Craft) presented the draft Strategic Action Plan (SAP) summary at the Ad Hoc Committee’s October meeting.
At that meeting, the Committee directed the consultant to bring forward a full version of the plan for review, a schedule of next steps (Attachment A), and an outline of a Memorandum of Understanding to implement it in cooperation with the partners. The SAP is a separate work product from the Human Capital Framework report already completed by Emerald HPC, LLC, which is a detailed analysis of the people and partnerships needed for workforce development in East Contra Costa County.
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The full SAP (Attachment B) is based on the following Vision and Mission:
Vision: Healthy, vibrant communities with quality job opportunities for all residents in a sustainable, globally-competitive regional economy.
Mission Statement: The NWEDI endeavors through collective action to improve the economic prosperity and quality of life for local residents by building and maintaining a sustainable balanced regional economy that enhances the environmental health of local communities, strengthens local tax bases, and supports the growth of 21st century advanced manufacturing firms.
The first goal of the SAP crystallizes the overall intent of the initiative: “Develop a sustainable, inclusive, regional economy.” The SAP provides an overall blueprint for future economic growth in the region, helping to coordinate actions and track progress on the ground toward the shared goals. It builds on five broad target industries (advanced manufacturing, food and agriscience, transportation technology, cleantech, and biotech) to identify specific actions which the County and partners can choose to implement individually or in groups in the time and manner of their choosing. The SAP codifies many of the ideas that have been floated since the inception of the Northern Waterfront Initiative, as well as many actions successfully underway already in one or more partner agencies.
The SAP specifically address job retention and creation in the 21st century; it is intended as a narrowly-focused supplement to each agency’s existing policy documents. For the County, the SAP does not supercede either the General Plan or Climate Action Plan. Both those documents contain important goals dovetailing with the SAP’s focus on “clean and green” jobs, and both are adding more over time. For instance, a County-initiated General Plan Amendment scheduled for the Board of Supervisors’ review on December 4, 2018 would require large new commercial and industrial buildings to incorporate emissions reductions measures. This is just one example of the new tone of the discourse around sustainability and economic development, which the SAP and entire Northern Waterfront Initiative reflect.
Written comments on the draft summary SAP were received after the October Ad Hoc Committee meeting. Most of them are addressed in the full document, while others were noted for the future; the Response to Comments (Attachment C) prepared by the consultant lists them.
Moving Forward Together:
Because some of the actions will require coordinated activity and/or pooling funds, there is a need for a more structured arrangement among the partners to allow for resource sharing when necessary. Staff will prepare a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) document that will be the necessary implementing accompaniment to the SAP. The MOU will allow the partners to move forward with the SAP’s menu of options by pre-approving a process for future joint participation in the NWEDI projects as a group or subset of eight agencies.
The preliminary MOU concept, which will require further review and discussion with the cities, for the Ad Hoc Committee’s consideration is as follows:
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The actions undertaken jointly would be from the SAP or logically related; examples include:
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East Contra Costa marketing plan
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NWEDI opportunity sites website
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Sub-regional goods movement study
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Trade show participation
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Grant applications (such as for brownfields remediation)
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Business survey
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The Lead Agency for each strategic action would vary based on which agency is best positioned at the time.
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While not required by every action because some involve only staff or in-kind resources, there would be a provision for cost-sharing.
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There will be a Steering Committee of elected officials, with a regular, perhaps annual, meeting. DCD would be the lead on creating an annual report to the Steering Committee.
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There would be a staff Working Group with regular meetings, perhaps bimonthly.
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When consultant contracts are involved, the procurement process would be that of the Lead Agency for that action.
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There would be an initial term of five years, with extension provisions. A jurisdiction may end participation when its governing board chooses to do so.
After incorporating comments from the Committee, staff will ask the partner cities will be to review the draft MOU deal points. Ultimately a full MOU will be drafted for the Board of Supervisors and the City Councils of each partner city to review, along with the SAP. The cities of Concord and Hercules requested presentations to their city council economic development subcommittees earlier this fall. The cities can still request presentations at the committee level if interested.
Looking ahead to 2019, the anticipated schedule has the SAP and MOU ready for review and approval in the first quarter of the year, with activities underway thereafter. (The schedule may change to accommodate meeting dates and other unforeseen circumstances.)
Craft’s contract with the County expires on December 31, 2018. Due to the timing and number of meetings, at a December Board meeting, staff will request the Board’s authorization to extend the contract until June 30, 2019, and move allocated funds between contracted tasks. There is no need to increase the contract total funding.
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