Washington State Seeking Economic Development Agency

The community of Pasco, Washington is seeking an agency to assist with the development of a strategic vision focused on enhancing the prosperity of the community over the next decade. The firm should have extensive experience in strategic planning, understanding of economic development principals, and show the ability to engage a diverse community in developing a multi-jurisdictional vision with broad stakeholder buy-in.

The Port of Pasco is managing this effort and has assembled a steering committee that includes the Greater Pasco Area Chamber of Commerce, Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, City of Pasco, Franklin County, Columbia Basin College and the Benton Franklin Council of Governments.

The City of Pasco is located in southern Franklin County in Washington State. It is part of the Tri-Cities metro area. The City of Pasco represents 78% of the population of Franklin County. The greater Pasco area (City of Pasco and unincorporated areas immediately adjacent to Pasco) represents roughly 90% of the population of Franklin County.

The Greater Pasco Area Community-Wide Economic Strategic Vision will align the community’s resources towards a singular economic vision. The intent of this effort is to identify opportunities for economic growth through analysis  of Pasco’s  attributes  and desires  and to match that with market research of economic development opportunities. A particular target of this work will be an integration of the growing Latino majority in Pasco.

In general,

• The Vision is a community wide effort looking at the future economy of the greater Pasco area.
• The Vision is a collaborative effort being piloted by leaders from the business, government and Latino communities.
• The Vision will show the path to prosperity for one of Washington State’s poorer communities.
• The Vision will incorporate Old & New Pasco, East & West Pasco, and Latino & Anglo Pasco and combine these two Pasco’s to make a stronger community
• The Vision will align community resources to create progress.

TASKS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED

The steering committee understands that strategic planning firms often take various approaches in developing a final product. Firms are encouraged to provide their unique approach, but in general, the proposals should cover each of these areas.

1. Collect regional economic data as may be available, use existing resource such as BFCOG and Benton Franklin Trends to collect relevant data such as employment, demographics, and existing industry data.
2. Perform a market analysis to identifying the most likely economic opportunities available to the community, as well as those opportunities that have significant community drivers. Analysis may include some form of location quotient, cluster or share shift analysis.
3. Collect community information through a variety of sources, which may include surveys, one- on-one interviews, focus groups and open public input. This information may be collected from inside and outside of the community to determine perceptions on both sides that may limit or benefit the communities’ economic development efforts.
4. SWOT Analysis: Develop an economic analysis of the region’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats to determine “Where are we now?”
5. Strengths – identify the region’s competitive advantages
6. Weaknesses – identify the region’s competitive disadvantages
7. Opportunities – identify the region’s improvements and progress
8. Threats – identify the negative impacts or declines that are affecting the region’s economic development efforts.
9. Develop a comprehensive Vision Statement with broad regional participation, that answers “Where do we as a region want to be in the next ten to twenty years”
10. Strategic Regional Direction:
11. Identify of Goals and Objectives that flow from the Vision and SWOT:
12. Develop realistic goals that move the community towards the vision;
13. Develop specific objectives that are measurable, concrete and support the attainment of the stated goal;
14. Share the draft comprehensive vision statement broadly to collect community input;
15. Finalize comprehensive vision statement, including goals and objectives.
16. Implementation: For each goal identify the initial steps that will need to be taken to move the community toward those goals and the various community entities and stakeholders that will participate in the process. Identify a lead entity for each goal.
17. Evaluation:
18. Develop performance measures to evaluate the progress of the community in reaching its vision.
19. Draft initial strategy:
20. Public Notice and Comment: Provide the public and appropriate governments and interested groups adequate notice of and opportunity to comment on the draft strategy for at least 30 days and make draft strategy readily available during the comment period;
21. Prepare Final strategy; provide EDA comments received and demonstrate how the comments were resolved;
22. Submit Final strategy to EDA

Proposal due by September 20, 2016 to:

Gary Ballew, CEcD

Director of Marketing & Economic Development Port of Pasco

gballew@portofpasco.org

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