The Economic Alliance of Northern Santa Barbara County (EconNSBC), a grassroots coalition of local businesspeople and entrepreneurs, unveiled its three-year plan for economic growth and job creation at a Nov. 8 forum in Santa Maria.
EconNSBC is the brainchild of Lawnae Hunter, a real estate broker who started the volunteer group out of frustration over high unemployment, foreclosures, and unaffordable rents in the area.
“I thought, we can’t wait for government to solve our problems because they have too many of their own,” Hunter said. “So we better, as a business community, start looking for solutions.”
According to Hunter, who heads an executive committee led by architect Ray Deutsch and consultant Victoria Conner, EconNSBC isn’t intended to replace economic development work done by cities and chambers of commerce. The group’s top priority, she said, is establishing a task force to improve county and state permitting processes and cutting back regulations impeding local industries such as agriculture, renewable energy wine, tourism, and, most importantly, oil and gas.
“We are sitting on one of the richest oil reserves in the world, and yet because of the regulation, we can’t get this oil out of the ground,” Hunter said. “There has to be a happy medium in there where we can pump it with an environmentally sound practice.”
The group’s “1,000 Day Roadmap” came as a result of a packed Economic Forecast and Strategy summit held on Sept. 8, soliciting the input of economists and nearly 300 North County business owners. It included the California Lutheran University Center for Economic Research and Forecasting (CERF) and the Praxis Strategy Group, an economic development firm.
Dr. Delore Zimmerman, researcher and president of Praxis, presented the findings and recommendations of the workshop to forum attendees. In a time of economic uncertainty, he said, it’s necessary to exploit local competitive advantages.
“The emphasis is really on job creation,” Zimmerman said. “What we want to do is encourage regional initiatives because that’s the way the world works now. Businesses don’t care where the borders are.”
Other recommendations of EconNSBC include creating a coalition of business and government leaders to work on initiatives, and establishing a marketing alliance of local wineries and vineyards to build demand for area wines.
“Lots of folks around the country are figuring out how we move forward,” Zimmerman said. “Not everybody’s going to come out of the recession the same. Places that get some leadership involved and try out some new things are going to be ahead of the curve. It’s very encouraging to see that kind of thing here.”
Hunter said she’s been “overwhelmingly pleased” with the response to EconNSBC from local communities, and expects the group to be a temporary kick-start to a more permanent economic solution.
“What we’d like to do is complete the work we’re starting and hope at the end of 1,000 days we’ll be able to turn our light out,” she said. “[We want] to begin to develop some job areas that we’re either not adequately addressing, or not addressing at all here, and make some of the industry sectors look at what can we do.”
This article appears in Nov 10-17, 2011.