REGIONAL OFFICES FOR DED EXPECTED

Funding for five regional offices of the Missouri Department of Economic Development will be included in the state's budget for the next fiscal year beginning July 1. But at this point no decisions have been made on how the offices will be staffed or where they will be.

The offices, which were promised by Gov. Mel Carnahan in his 1992 campaign and strongly supported by Department of Economic Development Director Joe Driskill, were authorized in legislation passed last year.

But Tom Sullivan, director of policy development for the department, said efforts have been focused on securing funding this year, and now decisions on how to implement the offices will be made.

Legislation provides for five regional offices, allocating about $82,000 for each office to have three employees. The funding is included in both House and Senate versions of the fiscal 1995 budget. Since the governor supports the concept, Sullivan said funding is assured.

Some officials of Chambers of Commerce, city and county governments, and other groups active in economic development have expressed concern about the regional office concept and whether it will conflict or duplicate efforts that are already under way.

"Right now there are a lot of questions about the concept of what the governor and Director Driskill want in that office," said Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Cape Area Industrial Recruitment Association. "At a recent meeting of the Missouri Industrial Development Council a lot of concerns and questions were raised about what these offices will be doing.

"Will they be working with existing industries, doing industrial recruitment or community development? Nothing is clear at this point that says these offices will be doing A, B, C, and D."

Walt Wildman, executive director of the Regional Commerce and Growth Association, agreed that there is a lot of concern about the concept.

"I have sensed some real concern from Department of Economic Development employees," said Wildman. "This is going to become political and parochial; I sense a very strong sense of paranoia. That's the whole problem. When somebody says economic development, it's such a broad issue it needs to be defined. Whatever your needs are is what you think economic development should be.

"I think the biggest need is to identify roles ... I think the biggest concern everybody has is that nobody knows what it is."

Robinson explained that his organization, which has been active for about a year, has some concerns about the role of regional offices.

"With us being new kids on the block, we feel pretty strong about what our role is and have the commitments of the cities of Scott City, Jackson, and Cape Girardeau and Cape County. We are concerned about the situation getting muddied up over who is the proper group to call," said Robinson.

"We don't want to have another level of bureaucracy between us and Jefferson City. We have been able to develop a good relationship with people in the state department and don't want to lose that."

Sullivan said such concerns are unfounded. He explained that while the exact scope of the offices has not been finalized, they are not going to burden local officials with new bureaucracy.

"I don't think a decision has been made yet whether these will be stand-alone offices or shared offices with regional planning commissions, small business development centers, or other groups," said Sullivan.

"But these are not completely stand-alone offices. They are regional offices operating out of this department and operating under the direction of the Department of Economic Development. Essentially they are going to be branch offices."

Sullivan said the five offices will make it more convenient for businesses, individuals or groups who need services provided by the department to take advantage of what is offered.

Wildman said that while serving on the governor's transition task force for economic development in late 1992 and early 1993, the regional offices were discussed, including the possibility of forming private-public partnerships to operate them.

Wildman, on behalf of the RCGA, has submitted a proposal to Driskill that would have the RCGA operating an office in Southeast Missouri. He has assembled a 14-member subcommittee made up of some RCGA committee chairmen and university and area economic development officials to help in preparing the proposal.

"There is not formal application process yet, but I have given Joe (Driskill) a copy of our proposal and we are on record in his office as interested," said Wildman.

Also expressing an interest are the Small Business Development Centers under direction of the University of Missouri. One of the centers is on the Southeast campus in Cape Girardeau.

Wildman said the RCGA would be a good choice to oversee such an office. Although the RCGA's service area is not as large as the region such an office would have to cover, he believes the RCGA covers a larger area than any group that might be interested in having the office.

"With our connection with all major cities in Southeast Missouri, we are in position to provide the kind of communication they want from this office," Wildman said.

In the proposal drafted by the RCGA, it is suggested the office would have three basic functions: serving as an information and assistance clearinghouse; providing community development support services; and offering economic development support services.

Sullivan said the department will phase in the opening of regional offices during the next fiscal year. At this time, he stressed no decision has been made on which offices would open first.