Let's talk economic development

Lower profile than usual doesn't mean the local economic development braintrust has been dormant through the past year. We figured that with so many positive signs of emerging from the pandemic's grip, now is a good time to check in with Gynii Gilliam, president of the Coeur d'Alene Area Economic Development Agency.

1. You've just started your sixth year as the head of CDAEDC — formerly known as Jobs Plus. What are the biggest changes you've seen locally in economic development in that time? And what hasn't changed?

The biggest change is even more cooperation among the economic community players (county, cities, service providers, education, business, etc.). Local partners working even better together as a team.

For instance, because of the strong partnership, it was easy to bring together the Joint Business Service Providers team when we were first shutting down in early, mid-March 2020. It was easy to coordinate our work to set up virtual town meetings and organize the Joint Info Sheet because we know each other well and we’ve worked jointly on several other projects.

This also applies regionally. Among the service providers, we’re thinking and working more regionally. For instance, the I90 Aerospace Conference & Expo that crosses state borders. At some events, Spokane reps are invited to North Idaho events, and vice versa. Entrepreneurial programs are also crossing borders. Avista plays a significant role in helping the region do this via their entrepreneurial programs and strong support for the Inland NW Partnership and Economic Association.

During the 2007 Recession, companies started doing more research before contacting cities and states. With the pandemic, that whole process is even more pronounced. What this means is even better and faster coordination with our partners, so we can provide additional data (not available via the internet) even faster.

No change: The economic divide is staying the same. We take two steps forward (average wages are rising and better jobs are available), but then a step or two back (housing is getting unaffordable). This is a national issue and the national economic development organization, IEDC, has been hosting a number of webinars and trainings to try and help bridge the gap. The pandemic exacerbated the issue, and many, many organizations are addressing this divide.

2. How the heck does an economic development agency operate during a pandemic? We're looking for an answer besides "carefully"!

Priority one: We pivoted to focus primarily on existing businesses to ensure as many as possible would continue to function and exist in our region. Partnering with local service providers, we gathered speakers, consolidated and disseminated information, and helped connect companies to resources.

The first two months were brutal for everyone — individuals and industry (all industries — hospitality, health, manufacturing, all of them). We were all in uncharted territory. Operations and supply chains were disrupted, among the many things that happened, and we all had to assess the situation to figure out our next steps.

I’ll stress again, this is where the partnerships played a big role. Organizations started finding new sourcing availability for supply chains, small business operations, small business organizations began offering lean business suggestions, agencies offered funding assistance, nonprofits provided much-needed food and utility assistance. It took a village, and our villagers were there for each other.

3. Real estate prices have skyrocketed in Kootenai County. Whether it's company management purchasing commercial real estate or its employees needing to buy homes here, how have the higher prices impacted your ability to recruit businesses to the area or help existing businesses expand?

I’m going to hold off answering this question for now because it’s pretty complicated. We’re gathering data. So, I’d prefer working off that data, rather than answering this on speculation and based off anecdotal stories. A side note: Right now, it hasn’t stopped companies from requesting information about our area, even though it’s in the news that both our residential and housing prices are going up. Perhaps that has to do with everything being relative?

4. A friend was recently vacationing in Hawaii. He was talking to an executive who loves the Coeur d'Alene area and would really push for business expansion into this area except for one thing: Broadband shortcomings, particularly the redundancy some companies require. How big a stumbling block is our broadband situation, and what do you see on the horizon that could address its current limitations?

The issue with broadband is the more progress we make, the more (faster, bigger) telecom capacity we need. In general, in most areas of Kootenai County, this has not been as big a challenge for recruiting companies or helping existing companies expand. Of course, that entirely depends on location.

In certain areas (our bigger cities) we have capacity — for instance, where the IRON network is established via the universities and link to INL, speed and redundancy; but like most states, we need better connectivity in more rural and newer residential areas to address the growing need.

As with other things in 2020, the pandemic accelerated the need for broadband. It is a necessity (like electricity), and the pandemic highlighted just how much of a necessity it is — we needed it for work and education; it wasn’t just for entertainment.

The Idaho CARES ACT funding for broadband helped bring connectivity to several thousand households in our region, and there are more projects planned from additional federal and state funds. Idaho has made it a priority to build out infrastructure and the broadband taskforce continues to find ways to provide additional funding.

5. Much is being made these days of skilled people who can do their jobs remotely — and often these are high-wage earners who are attracted to a recreational haven like North Idaho. While we're talking primarily individuals, collectively they could make a big economic impact on our region. What, if anything, is CDAEDC doing to attract this highly sought-after demographic?

This is a roundabout answer, but you’ll get my point at the end.

Although working remotely has been increasing for several years, the pandemic accelerated the “work from home” scenario. The pandemic was our collective “forced program test,” that proved the option extremely viable. For our region, the growth of that population segment was happening more organically. We were watching it for a number of reasons, the key reason being that attracting this set of skilled professionals may help us recruit more tech-based companies — that being one of our focus areas because of the higher wages and long-term opportunities for our residents.

The reason it wasn’t a key focus is because … it didn’t generate a lot of jobs (at once), nor did it bring the businesses that we also need to be a successful community. We need a balance of residential and business growth. It can’t all be one or the other or it throws off the balance of how we generate taxes for government services, schools, infrastructure, and the many other things funded by our taxes.

As I mentioned earlier, our small team’s focus this past year was to address the immediate challenges (i.e., helping existing businesses survive and eventually thrive again, as well as responding to a growing number of requests for information about our region). We’ll continue to watch this phenomenon more carefully, especially now that it’s an established and acceptable trend. As we rebound and refocus, we’ll continue to explore opportunities for our area. A possibility, of course, is growth in this workforce sector could potentially expand our entrepreneurial capacity and high-tech, start-up company growth.

6. How do you perceive the growth of Kootenai Health and plans for the community's Health Corridor in the long-range economic development forecast?

First, a big thank you to our health care industry for taking care of us through this pandemic. That thanks goes to both the administrators of our various health service providers and the front-line workers.

We view the growth at Kootenai Health and the potential of the Health Corridor URD as key elements to our long-range economic plans for our region.

Not just KH (though of course they play a significant role) but also our other key health service providers that are also growing — Northwest Specialty Hospital, Heritage Health, Hospice of North Idaho, North Idaho Advanced Care, Panhandle Health District. We’re also looking at the industry’s growth in the Post Falls area on Seltice, as well as needs and growth across our region.

Healthcare’s role as a strong regional provider and the continued growth (both in footprint and in services) is doing several things, two of which are keeping our health dollars in the community and bringing new health dollars that would have otherwise gone to neighboring larger cities (Spokane) or even farther out (Seattle).

As an organization, we’ll continue to provide the necessary support to KH, the Health Corridor URD, and our other health service providers — whether that’s through addressing workforce needs, helping recruit businesses for the URD, or helping increase the vertical or horizontal integration of the industry.

7. What are your thoughts on the federal minimum wage being gradually increased to $15 an hour? How might that impact local businesses and workers?

This is a tough one. Our organization sees both the business and the individual perspective on this issue.

Most of the businesses we’re recruiting and have recruited pay closer to the county’s 2017 average of $17-$18/hour or higher.

For many manufacturers, logistics companies, technical service firms and others, in order to be competitive and to attract the right talent, they’ve had to increase wages to match (or come close to matching) industry standards. For these companies, the higher wages are becoming standard to doing business, so they’re able to stay competitive in their pricing.

For other industries, however, a rate increase to $15/hour would put a stress on their ability to stay competitive.

We don’t have the answer on how to handle minimum wage for all industries, though we are aware that the definition for “affordable living” in North Idaho continues to shift. Our plan is to continue to facilitate job creation that matches or exceeds county average wages, as well as ones that allow for career development throughout people’s lives.

This may not be related, but I want to point out that we’ve heard from several of our technical service industry firms that the customer service training our workers receive via our hospitality industry is amazing. This helps qualify them and make them ideal employees for the telecom service industry, whether it’s financial or technical. The customer service training is already built into their capacities.

8. Some people believe economic development is a team sport — that each of us plays some role in improving the lot in life of others, whether it's through patronizing local businesses or starting our own. What can the average North Idahoan do to raise the standard of living not just for himself or herself, but for others?

Yes, economic development is a team sport; and yes, everyone plays a part.

And yes, there’s definitely the standard — support our local businesses — and I’ll even extend that to our local big box stores (because those big box stores provide local employment). I’d like to add that it is our many small, locally-owned businesses that tend to be the ones that are more active and more generous with our local nonprofits and foundation fundraisers.

Education is such a key to success that we should all be doing what we can to ensure that K-12 and higher educational programs are funded well, including supporting school district levy requests.

Finishing high school to going on to a technical college or academic college has been proven time and again to make a difference in people’s long term success. We should be doing everything we can to help people achieve the highest level of education people want.

Early learning/reading in the 2nd/3rd grade has also been proven repeatedly as markers for success. Again, we should all be doing what we can to help people achieve those levels. Individually, if you have time to read in classrooms or have the additional funds to donate books or money for books, please do so. Reading or providing books is a small action that translates to a big leap in a student’s educational and life achievements.

Financial education… If as business owners we can all help financially educate our workforce, I believe that we can also help impact people’s lives. I say that because I heard from a business owner that they help their employees move towards home ownership. He mentioned that he has employees who don’t think they can be homeowners, and he helps them see and get on that path. I think that’s amazing.

Think about the impact we would make if we all did that. He wasn’t discussing loans, he was talking about educating his workforce about the process. I’m also aware that most of our banks and credit unions offer financial management seminars to help people learn to save, manage spending, and other financial skills — another way that we can all help.

Understanding the challenges that people face that keep them from succeeding is another way we can all help. For instance, childcare is a major challenge for many households. Transportation to and from work is another challenge for households. Let’s work together to understand what those challenges are, and let’s work together to find solutions.