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Council, MDC to improve communication amongst each other
by Courtney Bacalso
Midland Reporter-Telegram
By Courtney Bacalso
Staff Writer
City Council and Midland Development Corp. officials both admitted Thursday communication would help both entities reach their economic development goals.
MDC officials met with the City Council in its strategic planning session Thursday to discuss economic development -- which the council defined as a top priority this year.
"We aren't communicating very well and it's something we truly need to do better on," Mayor Wes Perry said during the meeting. "I don't know where it broke down or the reason. But let's just get down on it and repair it."
While both entities share the same goals and ideas, they do not share the same views on how to implement them, officials said.
However, improving communication would help in better planning and partnering on project.
Currently, the MDC board had assigned a one-on-one system of informing the council: a board member partnering with a council member.
In order to improve communication, the council decided Thursday to hold regular joint sessions to update both entities on their efforts.
"Better communication always helps," MDC chairman Doug Henson said.
Council's plans
During the strategic planning session, the council decided economic development was among the main strategic initiatives it wanted to address along with infrastructure, housing and taxes and funding.
Concerning economic development, the council -- with the help of city staff -- selected three aspects they would like to see improved within a year's time.
These include: Revitalizing the downtown area, possibly making Building A at Entrada Business Park an entrepreneurial hub and setting benchmarks for the Chamber of Commerce to better evaluate its effectiveness in terms of 4A funds.
In order for downtown revitalization to work, council members said they need to invest money in the area, but in an appropriate way to make it a "game changer."
"Housing is that game changer," Councilman John James said.
The council agreed condominiums would help address the greater need of housing and the downtown area would be a great place to start.
"We have been talking about downtown development for 10 years," Councilman Scott Dufford said. "We need to make sure things get done."
The council also would like to see something done with the empty spec building at the Entrada Business Park.
In 2004, the MDC embarked on an approximately $1.5 million project to create a business park with a $40,000 shell of a building that would be ready for a company to move in and begin its operations.
Since its completion last year, the MDC-owned building remains empty.
The council suggested turning the empty shell into an entrepreneur center, "a more creative and intense system that encourages businesses to grow and develop ideas."
This would work with the partnership of educational institutions to endow a chair. The chair or specialist would work on certain projects and figure out how to commercialize projects -- which would attract people to Midland who would want to work for the specialist, officials suggested.
However, the suggestions made by the council are items the MDC board already has been working on since September, according to Henson.
MDC strategy
In September, the MDC hired TIP Strategies to conduct a strategic plan for the corporation. The study looked at how the MDC conducted business and how the economic development has changed since its inception in 2002.
In December, the previous council approved the plan, 6-1, with former Councilman Bill Dingus making the sole opposition vote.
Parts of the plan mirror points made during council discussion Thursday.
The plan suggested focusing on five opportunity zones -- which the MDC board assigned its members to focus on and provide reports by the end of this month.
The downtown area is part of the MDC's central business opportunity zone -- one of the "o-zones" the MDC is targeting for development.
Board member Laura Roman, who attended Thursday's meeting, heads that o-zone.
"The revitalization needs to cater to the people who'll use it in the community," Roman said. "And it is the younger generation who would use it. We have begun meeting with them and are committed to seeing it through."
Currently, the corporation is working on a public-private partnership on a building downtown.
Also, the council last month approved the MDC to hire a company to make inventory of all the office space in Midland as suggested by TIP Strategies.
"We can't begin marketing if we don't know exactly what we have," Roman said. "For years, we just speculated."
The other two zones are the ClayDesta and Midland College o-zone and the airport area o-zone.
The ClayDesta and Midland College o-zone include an entrepreneurial hub in the TIPS plan. Board member Barry Horseman has been working with educational institutions and possible partners on the project during the past months.
Entrada Business Park falls under the airport o-zone. MDC officials said it takes a year and a half to two years for a before a spec building is occupied.
Henson said there were two companies interested in occupying the building. However, both companies were tied to the deal that the council recently rescinded involving aircraft painting company Dean Baldwin LLC.
Project paint
In order to improve communication, James suggested during the meeting the two entities should come together soon to discuss the "800-pound gorilla."
This comes in the wake of the Dean Baldwin agreement last month. If it had gone through, the deal would've been worth nearly $23 million, the MDC's largest to date.
The 20-year deal would've created at least 200 jobs in Midland, paying total annual salaries of $6 million.
Reasons for rescinding the agreement included the lack of workforce and housing and the company not being upfront about being indicted for hiring undocumented workers.
"We need a cathartic moment -- or a debriefing as you will -- to discuss what was good or bad about the deal," James said. "We need to see how did things happen in this case and figure out our expectations for the future."
As a result, the council decided for Perry to work with Henson on setting a date for a joint meeting to discuss the issues.
Moving forward
The MDC also had begun efforts, with the help of Councilwoman Vicky Hailey, to address the city's infrastructure needs in the deals they conduct.
"The MDC board feels that it should be tied to projects," Henson said.
There are still infrastructure issues to be addressed, officials said, regarding the recent deal MDC made with FiberRod.
The council found the meeting to be productive because it opened the lines of communication, officials said. But, they said, there still is work to be done.
"(The council) was going off doing some things and the MDC was doing some things," Perry said. "There was a lack of communication (on both sides) in a few months"
Perry added they have the same goals but they need to work together.
"The way you could do that is to communicate to each other," he said.
Courtney Bacalso can be reached at c.bacalso@mrt.com.
Staff Writer
City Council and Midland Development Corp. officials both admitted Thursday communication would help both entities reach their economic development goals.
MDC officials met with the City Council in its strategic planning session Thursday to discuss economic development -- which the council defined as a top priority this year.
"We aren't communicating very well and it's something we truly need to do better on," Mayor Wes Perry said during the meeting. "I don't know where it broke down or the reason. But let's just get down on it and repair it."
While both entities share the same goals and ideas, they do not share the same views on how to implement them, officials said.
However, improving communication would help in better planning and partnering on project.
Currently, the MDC board had assigned a one-on-one system of informing the council: a board member partnering with a council member.
In order to improve communication, the council decided Thursday to hold regular joint sessions to update both entities on their efforts.
"Better communication always helps," MDC chairman Doug Henson said.
Council's plans
During the strategic planning session, the council decided economic development was among the main strategic initiatives it wanted to address along with infrastructure, housing and taxes and funding.
Concerning economic development, the council -- with the help of city staff -- selected three aspects they would like to see improved within a year's time.
These include: Revitalizing the downtown area, possibly making Building A at Entrada Business Park an entrepreneurial hub and setting benchmarks for the Chamber of Commerce to better evaluate its effectiveness in terms of 4A funds.
In order for downtown revitalization to work, council members said they need to invest money in the area, but in an appropriate way to make it a "game changer."
"Housing is that game changer," Councilman John James said.
The council agreed condominiums would help address the greater need of housing and the downtown area would be a great place to start.
"We have been talking about downtown development for 10 years," Councilman Scott Dufford said. "We need to make sure things get done."
The council also would like to see something done with the empty spec building at the Entrada Business Park.
In 2004, the MDC embarked on an approximately $1.5 million project to create a business park with a $40,000 shell of a building that would be ready for a company to move in and begin its operations.
Since its completion last year, the MDC-owned building remains empty.
The council suggested turning the empty shell into an entrepreneur center, "a more creative and intense system that encourages businesses to grow and develop ideas."
This would work with the partnership of educational institutions to endow a chair. The chair or specialist would work on certain projects and figure out how to commercialize projects -- which would attract people to Midland who would want to work for the specialist, officials suggested.
However, the suggestions made by the council are items the MDC board already has been working on since September, according to Henson.
MDC strategy
In September, the MDC hired TIP Strategies to conduct a strategic plan for the corporation. The study looked at how the MDC conducted business and how the economic development has changed since its inception in 2002.
In December, the previous council approved the plan, 6-1, with former Councilman Bill Dingus making the sole opposition vote.
Parts of the plan mirror points made during council discussion Thursday.
The plan suggested focusing on five opportunity zones -- which the MDC board assigned its members to focus on and provide reports by the end of this month.
The downtown area is part of the MDC's central business opportunity zone -- one of the "o-zones" the MDC is targeting for development.
Board member Laura Roman, who attended Thursday's meeting, heads that o-zone.
"The revitalization needs to cater to the people who'll use it in the community," Roman said. "And it is the younger generation who would use it. We have begun meeting with them and are committed to seeing it through."
Currently, the corporation is working on a public-private partnership on a building downtown.
Also, the council last month approved the MDC to hire a company to make inventory of all the office space in Midland as suggested by TIP Strategies.
"We can't begin marketing if we don't know exactly what we have," Roman said. "For years, we just speculated."
The other two zones are the ClayDesta and Midland College o-zone and the airport area o-zone.
The ClayDesta and Midland College o-zone include an entrepreneurial hub in the TIPS plan. Board member Barry Horseman has been working with educational institutions and possible partners on the project during the past months.
Entrada Business Park falls under the airport o-zone. MDC officials said it takes a year and a half to two years for a before a spec building is occupied.
Henson said there were two companies interested in occupying the building. However, both companies were tied to the deal that the council recently rescinded involving aircraft painting company Dean Baldwin LLC.
Project paint
In order to improve communication, James suggested during the meeting the two entities should come together soon to discuss the "800-pound gorilla."
This comes in the wake of the Dean Baldwin agreement last month. If it had gone through, the deal would've been worth nearly $23 million, the MDC's largest to date.
The 20-year deal would've created at least 200 jobs in Midland, paying total annual salaries of $6 million.
Reasons for rescinding the agreement included the lack of workforce and housing and the company not being upfront about being indicted for hiring undocumented workers.
"We need a cathartic moment -- or a debriefing as you will -- to discuss what was good or bad about the deal," James said. "We need to see how did things happen in this case and figure out our expectations for the future."
As a result, the council decided for Perry to work with Henson on setting a date for a joint meeting to discuss the issues.
Moving forward
The MDC also had begun efforts, with the help of Councilwoman Vicky Hailey, to address the city's infrastructure needs in the deals they conduct.
"The MDC board feels that it should be tied to projects," Henson said.
There are still infrastructure issues to be addressed, officials said, regarding the recent deal MDC made with FiberRod.
The council found the meeting to be productive because it opened the lines of communication, officials said. But, they said, there still is work to be done.
"(The council) was going off doing some things and the MDC was doing some things," Perry said. "There was a lack of communication (on both sides) in a few months"
Perry added they have the same goals but they need to work together.
"The way you could do that is to communicate to each other," he said.
Courtney Bacalso can be reached at c.bacalso@mrt.com.
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the-eurasianearthlink.net wrote on May 9, 2008 7:57 AM:
Experimental & Pursuant to the 5th Amendment:
There are only 7 members of the City Council and about 15 MDC members. Their problem according to MDC AND CITY COUNCIL is that these 22 people do not know what all 22 people talked about.
Now, all you thousands of fellow bloggers who are reading this here Courtney Bacalso TYPEWRITTEN ARTICLE; you are not members of MDC and CITY COUNCIL, are you? You were not present in that MDC-CITY COUNCIL MEETING, were you? YET, ALL YOU THOUSANDS OF READERS KNOW THAT THEY HAVE THIS PROBLEM!!!!! WHY???? BECAUSE COURTNEY BACALSO IS COMMUNICATING TO US THOUSANDS IN "TYPEWRITTEN FORM" And it only took us all about 1 minute to read Courtney Bacalso's TYPEWRITTEN article.
This is the culprit folks. City Council and MDC are using VERBAL communication.
But if the members of City Council and MDC conducted their various meetings in TYPEWRITTEN form, NOT ONLY ALL 22 MEMBERS CAN READ THE ACTUAL WORDS OF THE VARIOUS PARTICIPANTS IN THE VARIOUS MEETINGS ANYTIME IN A 24 HOUR DAY AT THEIR OWN LEISURE - EVEN WHEN THE OTHER MEMBERS ARE ASLEEP, BUT THE ENTIRE CITY CAN ALSO READ THE ACTUAL WORDS OF THE VARIOUS 22 MEMBERS AND THE PARTICIPANTS IN THE VARIOUS MEETINGS.
That's why these City Council meetings should be done not verbally in some room at City Hall but in typewritten form in the internet.
Look folks, Malaysia is now requiring their government officials to blog in the internet. When will Midland City Council members and MDC members blog and conduct their meetings and public meetings in the internet? I've been telling this since 2001 when I started blogging because in the 1990's I had been proposing that these public meetings be held on the radio. BUT NOW I SEE THAT THE INTERNET IS EVEN MUCH BETTER THAN RADIO BECAUSE HERE EVERYTHING CAN BE DONE IN TYPEWRITTEN FORM.
"