One of the central issues in the 2012 City Council campaign was economic development.

On Tuesday, the three council members elected in June — Dan Wolk, who as top vote-getter was named mayor pro tem, Lucas Frerichs and Brett Lee — joined their new colleagues on the dais for the first time, only to tackle that very subject.

Following the swearing-in ceremony, the council unanimously endorsed a $15,000 contract with William McDonough + Partners, a design consulting firm that specializes in sustainable development in local communities, to develop a “road map” that could guide the city toward its goals of economic and environmental sustainability.

The university and other private business interests would equitably share the cost of that contract.

According to Ken Hiatt, the city’s director of community development and sustainability, the road map is the first phase of a potential five-phase process that eventually could lead to the implementation of a full economic development strategy.

But perhaps unlike other city economic development efforts in the past, this plan would focus on sustainable development.

“Seeing all of these (economic and sustainability development) efforts going on in parallel, it became acutely aware to community members as well as to the city and staff that we needed to see if we could engage somebody to help us bring these parallel efforts into alignment and find common areas of interest where we could advance all these in the same effort,” Hiatt said.

While Wolk supports the idea, the new mayor pro tem said he wants to make sure the city doesn’t forget about all the other initiatives the community has undertaken in an attempt to power the local economy.

“I don’t want those discussions necessarily to be put on hold while we sort of go through this vision process,” Wolk said. “As beneficial as a vision process may be, it seems like there are a lot of initiatives out there, a lot of things that this council could start doing tomorrow with the community, (and) I want to make sure we’re not losing sight of those.”

“I don’t see certainly this necessarily as a panacea, but a tool in the tool box, as a way to assist us on some of these (other economic development initiatives),” Frerichs said. “But I definitely appreciate your comments, Dan, particularly regarding the notion of really determining whether or not we’re going to move forward at the same time on some of these items or whether those things stay by the wayside and we concentrate on this.”

Councilwoman Rochelle Swanson pointed out that one of the most important aspects of this proposal is that the firm would help the city engage the community in the most productive ways possible.

“I think the participation is the real focus here,” Swanson said. “We talk about champions, we talk about opponents to projects, but we haven’t talked a lot about participation, and that’s what we need.

“Everybody is working on these parallel paths, and there’s no over-arching umbrella. … For me, that’s why this is an exciting option … that there’s somebody with fresh eyes who can look at this and see where these come together and allow all these wonderful volunteers in our community to band together and really leverage their resources.”

Mayor Joe Krovoza was enthusiastic about a plan that would combine two of the city’s top priorities.

“The incredibly important work is the synthesis work,” he said, “how we synthesize the economic development with the environmental vision, with the built infrastructure and with some of the other programs we have here in Davis. That’s the real challenge here,” Krovoza said. “It’s really exciting to me that an international group with such credibility is going to help pull us all together.”

Should the city, university and other entities involved elect to go through all phases of the process — which include inventory, definition of principles and goals, opportunity assessment and implementation/optimization, according to Hiatt — the work could cost upwards of $200,000 to $300,000.

SwornIn91w

The newly seated Davis City Council is, from left, Lucas Frerichs, Rochelle Swanson, Mayor Joe Krovoza, Mayor Pro Tem Dan Wolk and Brett Lee. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo

SwornIn79w

Davis City Council members — from left, Rochelle Swanson, Lucas Frerichs, Dan Wolk and Joe Krovoza — watch as their colleague Brett Lee takes the oath of office Tuesday evening from Dick Livingston, his campaign manager. Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo

SwornIn38w

State Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, administers the oath of office Tuesday evening to Davis Mayor Pro Tem Dan Wolk, her son, as he holds his daughter Layla. Enjoying the proceedings is Dan Wolk’s wife Jamima, holding daughter Avery (obscured). Fred Gladdis/Enterprise photo

krovozamugnewW

Joe Krovoza will be mayor of Davis for the next two years, by virtue of earning the most votes in the June 2010 City Council election. Dan Wolk was seated Tuesday as mayor pro tem and will take the gavel in July 2014. Enterprise file photo

Comments

comments