DEPARTMENT: Economic Development Department
DEPARTMENT HEAD: Rene Dominguez
COUNCIL DISTRICTS IMPACTED: City-wide
SUBJECT:
Approval of the FY 2017 San Antonio Economic Development Foundation (SAEDF) Economic Development Services Agreement.
SUMMARY:
This Ordinance (1) approves the FY 2017 SAEDF Economic Development Services Agreement in the amount of $500,000 to achieve the community’s goals for economic development, and (2) authorizes payment of $90,000 to the SAEDF to fund the administration of an agreement with the community’s Texas-Japan Office, for a total of $590,000. Funding has been appropriated through the City’s FY 2017 Adopted Budgets for the Economic Development Department and International Relations Office. The Economic and Human Development Committee (EHDC) will receive a briefing of the plan on January 17th.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
As a result of a 2009 Corporate Retention and Recruitment Sub Committee recommendation to enhance the City’s focus on corporate retention and overall economic development delivery, the City of San Antonio entered into a public/private partnership with the SAEDF. The partnership provided for an annually adopted Implementation Plan that set forth scope and metrics for economic development marketing, recruitment and coordination of a corporate retention and expansion program. The Implementation Plan also required SAEDF lead the development and implementation of a citywide, comprehensive strategic plan for economic development.
In February of 2013, Deloitte Consulting was contracted by SAEDF to perform an industry study and competitiveness assessment to examine how effectively our community was executing on delivering economic development services. The results of the study led to the development of Forefront SA, the City’s strategic plan for economic development.
Forefront SA coordinates the community under one, collective goal - to propel San Antonio to an economically healthy and prosperous future by advancing the economic delivery system and maximizing the community’s assets to spur innovation and accelerate economic competitiveness in targeted and core industries. To achieve this mission, five overarching goals were identified representing the core elements of economic development service delivery. Each goal focused on enhancing San Antonio in the following areas: 1) Business Attraction; 2) Business Retention and Expansion; 3) Entrepreneurial Development; 4) Workforce Development; and 5) Collaboration.
In FY 2016, the City of San Antonio adopted the Economic Development Services Agreement and associated Forefront SA Implementation Scope which formalized a process by which SAEDF convened community stakeholders in the five goal areas to coordinate and support targeted industry representatives in executing focused and specialized economic development tactics.
ISSUE:
As a result of the FY 2016 Economic Development Services Agreement, SAEDF successfully implemented a new economic development delivery system by working to develop and execute traditional as well as industry-led initiatives in Cybersecurity, Biomedical/Healthcare, Advanced Manufacturing, and New Energy (led by CPS Energy) in accordance with the Forefront SA plan. SAEDF also substantially met or surpassed the job creation and other tactical requirements under the agreement with 2373 total Targeted Industry jobs created through recruitment and retention/expansion activities, visiting 80 local companies as part of the BRE program, and organized 6 outbound trade missions to highlight a few examples.
Also during FY 2016, SAEDF experienced its first leadership transition in over 30 years, which included the appointment of Jenna Saucedo as CEO and President. She has reorganized staff to align with the Forefront SA plan and modified SAEDF’s top-line metrics. In addition, SAEDF integrated SA Works, the primary convening body in workforce development into its organizational structure. This integration further strengthens SAEDF’s impact as the primary convener for comprehensive economic development tactic and strategy development in FY 2017.
The FY 2017 Economic Development Services Agreement contains an enhanced Forefront SA Implementation Scope, which maintains SAEDF’s dual role as convener and implementer of Forefront SA’s strategies and tactics in congruence with the SA Tomorrow Economic Competitiveness policy area. The FY 2017 scope enhancements include continued development of industry-driven initiatives, quantitative prioritization of business retention and expansion efforts, and inclusion of additional targeted project types such as financial services and headquarters. As with previous agreements, it includes numerous metrics such as the creation of Targeted Industry jobs, BRE visits, marketing, and trade mission development.
The City of San Antonio, upon recommendation of the EHDC and satisfactory performance of SAEDF during previous annual Implementation Plans, recommends approval of the FY 2017 SAEDF Agreement in the amount of $500,000 and the allocation of $90,000 within the Economic Development Department and International Relations Office budgets to pay a portion of the costs of the SAEDF’s administration of an agreement with the Texas-Japan Office. The administration of the agreement with the Texas-Japan office is unified under one community agreement through the SAEDF.
ALTERNATIVES:
The City could consider other partnerships or a revised economic development structure in order to achieve the desired performance targets in recruitment, retention and marketing in addition to overall economic development coordination and international economic development relationships enabled by the Texas-Japan Office.
FISCAL IMPACT:
Funding for the FY 2017 SAEDF Professional Services Agreement is budgeted in the amount of $590,000 in the FY 2017 Budget. Payments will be made quarterly following the submission of a quarterly report by SAEDF and an evaluation by EDD staff for compliance with the approved agreement.
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends City Council approves the attached FY 2017 SAEDF Economic Development Services Agreement. The proposed FY 2017 SAEDF Agreement will be presented to the Economic and Human Development Committee on January 17, 2017.