The contract is expected to result in recommendations about Kitsap’s short and long-term economic opportunities, what specific steps need to be taken to leverage those opportunities, and what community agencies are best-suited to carry out what particular assignment(s).

The consultant is currently gathering information about the county, including different organizations’ goals and what economic development planning that has already been done.

One big question to hopefully be answered is what future role — if any — the Kitsap Economic Development Council (KEDC) will have in helping sculpt the county’s economic development landscape. With the abrupt departure of KEDC Executive Director David Porter, some KRCC members felt that this was a good time to look at the organization’s role — before it hired a replacement for Porter.

While all three county commissioners have stated unequivocally that they support the KEDC and want it to continue to operate, the agency has come under fire from other elected officials, including members of the KRCC, for its perceived continuing involvement with International Speedway Corporation (ISC), after helping lure it here with plans to build a NASCAR track. Those officials are all members of the local Democratic Party, which has come out strongly against the track. Some KEDC members fear the process will recommend either eliminating or marginalizing the KEDC as a political payback for its successful efforts with ISC. Another possibility is bringing its work under the umbrella of county government, which because of public disclosure laws restricting confidentiality will drastically reduce its effectiveness.

In reality, the KEDC did initially assist ISC — just as it would any corporation considering locating here. But ever since ISC made its decision a year and half ago, the KEDC’s involvement with the NASCAR project has been minimal.

Not everyone involved with the KEDC agrees with the need for another study, including several members of the organization’s board of directors who cite previous economic development studies as well as a plan that was developed for the KEDC in late 2005 by Hoke Consulting of Bremerton. The KEDC simply didn’t have the funding to implement the detailed plan after several stakeholders and governments either didn’t follow through on their financial commitments or cut their 2006 funding to the agency.

The Hoke plan included a targeted multi-media advertising campaign, an ongoing, regularly scheduled outreach program touching potential companies considering and/or requiring relocation, a cross-marketing Internet strategy, and a budget for each of those efforts. The money now being spent by those same government entities to pay the Athena Institute would have fully funded that effort for almost three years.

Ironically, Hoke was recently asked by a Seattle marketing company to take the lead in preparing a plan to be presented to Grant County’s (Moses Lake) economic development organization.

There is also suspicion among some local businesspeople that politics are surreptitiously involved, with this entire process being little more than a way to justify a pre-determined politically-driven agenda about what direction the county’s economic development future will ultimately take.

Several more vocal members of the local business community have also strongly expressed the view that in spite of a consultant being hired, they just don’t believe our elected officials have the credibility, private sector business experience, or the necessary expertise to understand — or even recognize, much less implement — an effective economic development strategy.

“The real world works a whole lot different than government,” said one KEDC stakeholder who does business with more than one local government, and asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal. “With only four private sector folks involved in this whole thing, I don’t believe some of those career politicians would know good economic development even if it came and hit them up the side of the head with a 2 x 4.”

Several local business consultants have also cited the irony of a Bellevue firm being selected to oversee the process of determining Kitsap’s economic development future, and questioned why a formal Request For Qualifications (RFQ) and a Request For Proposals (RFP) wasn’t advertised or circulated to qualified local firms. Not doing so effectively denied them the opportunity to compete for the contract.

One local consultant did give the opinion that an out of area consultant was preferred because no one local was considered objective enough to provide feedback, or the assistance needed, adding, “I would have never responded to an RFP for this job.”

According to McClure, the way the consultant was selected was by all steering committee and project staff members being asked to provide names of economic development consultants they were aware of that “should” be on the list. A list of 14 candidates was generated. Members of the project staff each were responsible for contacting three to five candidates, providing each with a written project overview, interviewing them about their interest; and requesting a Statement of Qualifications.

The original list of 14 was narrowed to eight, from whom an example of similar work was requested. The examples were reviewed by McClure and Phillip Fletcher, an Economic Development Specialist with the Kitsap County Department of Community Development.

A short list of four was invited to participate in a 3-hour scoping workshop, after which the Athena Institute was selected.

Of the 14, five were actually from Kitsap County — including three from Bainbridge Island and one from Indianola — with the others being from as far away as California, Virginia, and Spartanburg, SC. Ironically, also included in the 14 was Berk and Associates, the same firm that has outlined the ISC financing proposal for the NASCAR track.

“It is imperative all participants in this process recognize the trunk is not the elephant. I suspect Athena will confirm this.” Said Doña Keating, a KEDC board member and one of the original private sector steering committee members, but who later resigned from the committee. “Stakeholders must then walk the talk beyond preconceived notions into a vision and action plan which truly benefit the region, and assigns responsibility to those entities best suited to execute.”

Athena’s recommendations are expected by late November or early December, including a detailed Action Plan for 2007.