The Economic Development Corporation of San Benito County announced this week that it has completed a draft update of its Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS), after receiving an $80,000 grant from the Economic Development Administration and a $5,000 contribution from the City of San Juan Bautista.
The CEDS is a five-year plan to promote economic development in communities and regions through a locally based, regionally driven process that engages economic agencies, community leaders, educators and members of the private, public and nonprofit sectors, says a press release from San Benito County. The local CEDS is a partnership among San Benito County and the cities of Hollister and San Juan Bautista, and it covers the period 2023-2027.
The CEDS also establishes a strategic roadmap for regional collaboration, and builds on the strengths of the region while identifying deficiencies in resources or expertise, the press release continues.
With an updated CEDS in place, agencies seeking funding are more likely to attract state and federal resources, and it is a prerequisite for any agency to qualify for EDA funding. The CEDS must be current; updated every five years; list specific projects that each jurisdiction expects to seek funding from the EDA to support; and adopted by the board of supervisors and approved by the EDA.
Without a current CEDS in place, funding would not be available to support efforts like the county’s Broadband Strategic Plan that is under development; support disaster recovery efforts; or support infrastructure and other crucial initiatives, says the press release.
The update of the CEDS for 2023-2027 will align San Benito County, the Cities of Hollister and San Juan Bautista and nonprofits in the region around priorities and projects that are important to the community—such as retaining hospital facilities, generating electrical power to support commercial development, improving broadband access, increasing water and sewer storage, workforce training and fire resiliency. Such efforts would not be considered for funding had they not been included in the updated CEDS, according to the EDC.
“Updating the CEDS is an important effort for our community to proactively address some of the challenges that we face as a region and to build on our strengths and recognize and work to correct gaps in resources or expertise of the region,” said Renee Wells, EDC Executive Director. “The strategy we develop will serve as a bridge that connects funding at the federal level to much needed projects at our local level.”
Over the last several months, the EDC worked with its CEDS consultants and strategy committee—made up of local stakeholders from throughout San Benito County (including those from the Cities of Hollister and San Juan Bautista)—to develop a CEDS that creates a strong sense of regional cooperation and partnerships between local businesses and government, says the press release. The EDC is developing a “CEDS Implementation Plan” that covers the next five-year term and will guide its administration of the strategic plan over that period, including meeting yearly with the CEDS strategy committee to ensure timelines and goals are met.
To develop a thorough CEDS, the EDC contracted with Stephen Wahlstromii (Wahlstrom & Associates) in association with Marie Jones Consulting, who bring years of experience and expertise to the effort.
The EDC will host two town hall meetings to provide an overview of the CEDS, and the draft document will be made available for public review through July 31. Details of the upcoming town hall meetings are:
– 6-7pm June 30 at the County Administration Building (in the Board Chambers at 481 Fourth Street, first Floor, Hollister, CA)
– 5:30-6:30pm July 6 at the San Juan Bautista City Hall (in the Council Chambers at 311 Second Street, San Juan Bautista, CA).
Feedback is requested no later than July 31.
View the draft of the CEDS at https://tinyurl.com/54kxa7j6.
Comments on the CEDS can also be addressed to the EDC staff:
All comments on the CEDS should be addressed to EDC staff: Renee Wells, EDC Executive Director at [email protected]; or Amy Paris, EDC Coordinator at [email protected].
Dear Sirs,
Thank you for inviting members of the public to comment on the SBCEDC’s Draft Economic Development Strategy.
Identity: I have represented small and very small business owners before State and Federal Courts and agencies on the Central California Coast Region for more than 42 years. I am a Charter Member of SBCCOG’s Citizens Rail Advisory Committee, and SBCCOG’s Citizens Transit Task Force. I am a past-chair, Legislation Committee, Transportation Lawyers Assn., and a member of TLA. I am a past-president, 1999-2001, 2006, of the Gilroy-Morgan Hill Bar Assn. I offer this comment as my own personal opinion, and not on behalf of any client or professional organization to which I belong. I have done post-doc study of transport law & policy at Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies, SJSU; Transportation Research Board, Georgetown U.; and at the Library of Congress.
Summary: Looking back the past 20 years on the governance abuses inflicted by local government on the small and very small business owners, I see no sign that we recognize our mistakes, but instead, we repeat them over and over, year in and year out, despite the change of persons in leadership positions.
The trend has been to inflict ever-greater government, with ever-greater taxes, fees, fines, assessments, mandates, and constantly increasing ordinances, regulations, rules and laws that impinge on the freedom of the citizens, as seen in the constant expansion of the County Code, incorporation by reference to the Code of Federal Regulations, and to the California Code of Regulations, not to mention the Uniform Building Code.
This trend has been accompanied by the erosion of the civil and constitutional rights of the citizens of SBC, by the BoS abdication of its lawful mandate from the voters to the unelected (appointed) “directors” of the joint power authority COG. Furthermore, COG abdicates the rights of the taxpayers and citizens of SBC by making a “mobility partnership” with VTA, which has won the “Worst in the Nation” award from the MIT Study of all the Nation’s transit agencies, and so governs transport policy in SBC without the consent of the voters, with unsound and unsustainable policies.
Consequently, the fraud, waste and abuse at SBCCOG has increased every year since its creation, and today, COG’s major achievement is empty bus seat transport, while paying above-market salaries, wages and benefits to the public sector employees who feast off the taxpayers. They sacrifice motorists’ safety to worship Emperor Transit First, and we suffer the consequences of their arrogance and ignorance.
To remind old timers of this 20-year decline in the quality of governance in SBC, I am attaching some of my previous letters to SBCEDC, SBCCOG, etc., and ask that they be included in the record of these proceedings so that future generations will know that we were warned.
Conclusion:
Unless you object and instruct otherwise, I will be sending supplemental comment to voice the position of the small and very small business owners in SBC and all across the Central California Coast Region. Our current policy and leadership have us on the Road to Serfdom, the same route taken by the USSR.
Thank you.
Joseph P. Thompson, Esq.
(408) 848-5506
e-Mail: [email protected]