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Valerie Starkey’s request to increase the county’s contribution to the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce by $10,000 to support the work its executive director does fell flat.

Her colleagues didn’t completely dismiss the request Tuesday. But, pointing out that they and their counterparts with the city and Harbor District will decide the fate of a different economic development arm that afternoon, Starkey’s fellow supervisors asked to table the discussion.

“The conversation is essentially premature before tonight’s discussion,” District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard said, referring to a joint meeting focusing on the Tri-Agency Economic Development Authority’s future scheduled for 5 p.m. “We as a board need to get a read from everybody on where we’d like to see what limited dollars we have invested in economic development (go).”

Del Norte County, Crescent City and the Crescent City Harbor District are each expected to decide if they want to continue to be member agencies to the Tri-Agency joint powers authority. They’ll also be asked to discuss what financial contribution they’d be willing to make for the JPA to continue.

That meeting will take place at 5 p.m. today at the Veterans Memorial Hall, 810 H Street in Crescent City.

At today’s Board of Supervisors meeting, however, Starkey, pointed out that the chamber’s executive director, Cindy Vosburg, attends meetings of the Community Economic Recovery Fund program. She’s chair of the economic resiliency task force, coordinated webinars with local businesses to help them through the COVID-19 pandemic and has coordinated meetings between local business and community leaders and State Sen. Mike McGuire and Congressman Jared Huffman, according to Starkey.

Vosburg also helped businesses access local resources like personal protective equipment as well as information about PPE loans and small business relief grants during the pandemic.

At today’s meeting, Starkey pointed to the county’s Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, a document brought before the Board of Supervisors in March 2020. The Crescent City Harbor District and Crescent City Council also came up with similar economic development strategies, which expire at the end of 2024, she said.

“This is just basically the roadmap the Board of Supervisors in 2020 agreed to as where we want to focus our efforts on for the next four years at that point — so, transportation, education, agriculture, small business, etc,” Starkey said. “I just want to make the argument that Goal No. 2 of CEDS is to promote successful tourism. We do that with our contribution to the Visitor Bureau and the Visitor Center. But I believe the Chamber is hitting goals No. 1, 5 and 6 and given we have no other entity and no other position that is doing that, a $10,000 contribution to the chamber is worthwhile and a good investment to us.”

According to the county’s CEDS, Goal No. 1 focuses on diversifying the economy to include technology-based firms, light manufacturing and healthcare enterprises that provide living wages to local workers.

Goal No. 5 focuses on enhancing education, workforce training, housing and healthy lifestyle opportunities. And Goal No. 6 discusses creating a “thriving small business environment,” which fosters entrepreneurship and innovation.

Del Norte County currently allocates $114,000 toward the Del Norte County Visitors Bureau and the visitors center, both of which are part of the Chamber of Commerce. None of that money goes toward the Chamber’s business development activities, however, according to Starkey.

In May, Del Norte County supervisors, sans Starkey and District 4 representative Joey Borges, earmarked $70,000 in the 2023-24 budget for the Tri-Agency Economic Development Authority.

Crescent City contributes $102,000 to the Visitors Bureau and Visitors Center. They also offer a $36,000 in-kind contribution for use of the Cultural Center.

The city has also contributed $30,000 in the past toward the Tri-Agency, though whether councilors will make that contribution again is yet to be determined.

The Crescent City Harbor District has set aside $10,000 for the Chamber of Commerce to distribute to the Visitors Bureau and Visitors Center annually. The Board of Commissioners has also promised $10,000 to the Tri-Agency, according to Starkey.

The Chamber has a $47,000 budget, which is paid for by membership dues and revenues generated from the 4th of July celebration, Sea Cruise, the chamber’s award banquet and economic summit and other programs, Starkey said.

According to Howard, the county didn’t attach strings to its contribution to the chamber, though that may have changed. He pointed out that if funds are directed to the Visitors Bureau and the visitors center, that’s a direction from the chamber not the county.

Starkey said she didn’t know if the allocation is directed by the Board of Supervisors or if that’s how the chamber chose to distribute those moneys. She said the possibility of increasing membership dues isn’t something that she considered bringing forward, though she said she could.

Howard again brought up the Tri-Agency discussion planned for this evening. One reason he and his colleagues on the Board of Supervisors continue to “push money toward the Tri-Agency” is because the county’s administrators, Randy Hooper and Neal Lopez, don’t have time to commit to economic development. It’s because of that limited staffing that “economic development (to) a certain extent has fallen by the wayside by at least a decade-plus,” Howard said.

“My personal opinion when it comes to these kinds of dollars is that the Visitors Bureau itself, which is an arm of the Chamber of Commerce, has done a fabulous job at giving us a return on investment for those dollars — basically, putting heads in beds,” he said. “That TOT revenue is what directly impacts our general fund and allows growth to occur.”

Howard praised Vosburg and her leadership at the Chamber in keeping the Board of Supervisors informed on economic development issues. He said he wanted to further that discussion.

Starkey said even if her colleagues doesn’t approve the additional $10,000 to the Chamber of Commerce, she wants to know where Del Norte County is at in terms of meeting the goals outlined in its CEDS.

“My thought was let’s invest more in the one entity that is providing those services,” she said. “We’re hitting three goals with a very small amount. Goal 2, we nailed it. We invested in tourism and we’ve nailed it. I’d like to see us invest in the creation of the job market and those sorts of things. That’s why I brought it forward.”

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