Memorandum 12-073 Community Economic Development Strategy

MEMORANDUM 12-073

TO: Mayor Hornaday and Homer City Council
FROM: Walt Wrede
DATE: April 30, 2012
SUBJECT: Community Economic Development Strategy (CEDS)
The Council recently adopted a new economic development plan called the CEDS. This is one of those plans that could sit on the shelf and gather dust if it is not reviewed occasionally and attempts are made to implement the strategies it contains. This is an important documents that should be taken into account when the Council is adopting budgets, capital improvement plans, and lobbying strategies.
The Economic Development Commission is the logical body to take the lead in making recommendations to the Council on economic development initiatives. However, there are a lot of strategies in the CEDS and there is no way we can do them all, at least not immediately. The EDC has CEDS implementation on its work schedule and Katie will be ready to work with them on that upon her return. It seemed to us like it might be a good idea for the Council to review the CEDS first and to make the Commission aware of its priorities. That way, the EDC will not waste a bunch of time and energy working on projects that are not Council priorities or that the Council is not willing to devote limited resources to.
The objective for this workshop is to have a discussion about priorities that might lead to a formal resolution or memorandum to the EDC.