The Morgan Hill City Council approved economic-development goals
Wednesday night
– based on a workshop it held last summer – even after wrestling
with undefined objectives that lack measurable results, such as
creating more
”
quality jobs
”
for residents.
Morgan Hill – The Morgan Hill City Council approved economic-development goals Wednesday night – based on a workshop it held last summer – even after wrestling with undefined objectives that lack measurable results, such as creating more “quality jobs” for residents.
The council voted 5-0 to adopt economic strategies drafted after a workshop last summer that include attracting and retaining “quality jobs,” providing “shopping convenience” and enhancing the city’s “quality of life.”
The goals also include sustaining a “healthy and vibrant” downtown and ensuring accountability of public-private economic-development partnerships, such as the city’s agreement to provide funds for the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce’s marketing and outreach activities.
The council’s action was taken in light of its 2007 goal to increase the number of jobs with “sustainable wages” and reduce commercial and industrial vacancies.
But elected officials never asked city administrators for baseline data such as how many private sector jobs exist in Morgan Hill or how much vacant land is available for new businesses. City Councilman Mark Grzan – pointing to the lack of information – therefore suggested it would be impossible to measure economic progress without knowing what improvements may be made.
City Councilman Larry Carr echoed Grzan’s point, suggesting the city’s economic objectives need to clearer.
“I need a better understanding of how we’re going to get there,” Carr said. “I know government doesn’t create jobs, but we do create an atmosphere and an infrastructure for the private market to come in and create jobs. And I am unclear on how we’re doing that.”
Real estate firms continue to list Morgan Hill as having one of the highest commercial and industrial vacancy rates in the Bay Area.
On a brighter note, Venture Corporation, which owns a large part of the 350-acre Morgan Hill Ranch, this month sold 56 acres of undeveloped land to Silicon Valley investor Carl Berg. Ranked 645 among Forbes’ World’s Richest People in 2006, Berg owns eight million square feet in Silicon Valley and is known to have tremendous influence among high-tech CEOs looking to relocate.
City Councilman Greg Sellers said he’d support investing more money in marketing activities that might attract large Silicon Valley companies, such as Morgan Hill-based Hospira, to locate at the Morgan Hill Ranch.
“We can set the table, but until someone in the private sector sits down and picks up the fork, we’re stuck,” Sellers said.
The Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce is asking the city and the private sector to pool funds to hire a marketing and recruitment specialist. The chamber receives $90,000 per year from the city for economic development purposes and would like the city to match up to $125,000 per year in additional funds raised by the private sector.
“The focus of the proposal is to hire a person to enhance what the city and the chamber is already doing,” said Dan Ehrler, director of the Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce. “It would provide someone to recruit businesses and serve as an ombudsman as well, bringing businesses to Morgan Hill and to fill the empty spaces we have in buildings as well as the empty land we have.”
On balance, Morgan Hill City Manager Ed Tewes said Morgan Hill’s growth during the last 20 years reflects a high degree of private sector investment that is likely to continue.
“Morgan Hill has enjoyed tremendous success in terms of attracting private investment,” Tewes said. “If you roll back the clock to 20 years ago and look at how this community has grown, the investment the private sector has made into buildings and jobs is significant. It’s not through lack of effort … Morgan Hill’s done pretty well.”
Tewes added 12,000 Morgan Hill residents are currently employed, but he said he did not know how many of those hold jobs in the city. The Morgan Hill Chamber of Commerce lacks information on the number of jobs in the city, too.
The council will consider recommendations to the city’s economic-development plan made by the Community and Economic Development Committee at its meeting next week.
The committee’s recommendations include spending more money on recruiting companies to Morgan Hill.
