What the commissioner said at the September 29 conference
'Rumford is on the way to doing some great things'
Comments by John Richardson, Maine Commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development, September 29, Economic Development Conference hosted by Grow Rumford at the Linnell Conference Center, Rumford, Maine
I’ve been called here to talk a bit about the programs and the benefits and the number of tools the Department of Economic Development has at its disposal, but the truth is that, standing here today, I’m looking at the real, most valuable tool that any Commissioner of Economic Development can have, and that is, a room full of people who are committed to this region, who are committed to its success, and it’s really when I see this kind of coming together, this sort of partnership among all kinds of diverse groups, that I know Rumford and the region are well on the way to doing some great things… I know that when I see this kind of group assembled, I know we’re on the right track.
I’ll give you a contrast to what I’ve seen before. As was mentioned, I practiced law … and one of my clients was … the Maine Association of Police, all the municipal officers, about 1200 throughout the state of Maine. One such location was Sanford, and I’ll tell you what Sanford looked like 15 to 20 years ago. Down and out. People were fighting among themselves. Everyone was blaming each other for their lack of success … it became a very controversial place to reside or even to work in. I spent a long time down there because there was a lot of strife that was associated with the police department, but the police department were just symbolic of the problems in the entire town. It was a blame game. No one was taking real leadership or responsibility for the predicament they were in … I would have said to you, 15 or 20 years ago, that Sanford had little or no prospects of ever revitalizing itself… fast forward to today… and great things are happening…(the Commissioner offered several examples of companies moving into or investing in Sanford) … there’s a lot going on. I went down to see what happened and how it’s transformed… there is a sense of pride. I asked, how did this start? (The Commissioner described well-attended meetings among Sanford officials and residents)…all these people coming together in a way in which I had never seen happen in Sanford before. And I said to myself, you know, economic development really doesn’t happen until community development occurs. Until you have the community development and community pride established, you’re never going to see economic development happen because you don’t have a vision and you don’t have people working together.
So why did I go through all of that? Because first I want to applaud you for being here, for being part of the attitude and being part of the vision and being part of the community development that’s necessary before you see economic development happen…(Richardson described his efforts in the legislature to reduce the tax burden on businesses and described a trip he made in October, 2006 to Birmingham, Alabama to attend a conference of state legislators, the National Speakers Conference.) I went to the dinner, and I got a chance to sit with a gentleman , a very interesting man, who was the president of Mercedes Benz North America. I said, there were 33 states that bid on your project, a six billion dollar manufacturing plant to build Mercedes in North America. I asked him what were the factors determining where you were going to locate your building? Was it the right to work law that exists in Alabama? He said no. I said was it the lax environmental laws in Alabama? He said no it wasn’t …he said the most important factor was … the attitude of the people. .. In some cases, the state wanted (Mercedes) but the local municipality was concerned about planning and zoning and impact on the community and that was a factor as to why (they) didn’t go there…up and down the line in Alabama, from the state to the county to the municipality, it was all about attitude. It was your success is our success…it was “what can we do to make you come here and invest your six billion dollars?” If that attitude is right, everything else can be worked out and solved from there.
'If attitude is right, everything else can be worked out and solved ...'
It’s all about attitude. It manifested itself in a very early age for me… (right after college in a job with Price Waterhouse) I worked to determine whether or not companies should locate or expand in a given location. … we did checklists to determine whether to recommend to the boards of directors of large companies whether or not to relocate or expand in a given community. .. One of those things was news clippings. They wanted to know what was the feeling or mood among the people in those communities, so they looked at the news clippings. .(Richardson noted he assumed that taxes, education or the availability of trained labor were critical, but …) More often than not, the issue that dominated the decision makers about whether to re-locate or expand a business were the news clippings. They wanted to know the attitude, the absolute attitude, of the people. … in the final analysis, everything else will fall into place. If you don’t have the trained people, but you have the right attitude, you’ll go get them trained. If you don’t have the right kind of structure, a tax structure, you’ll find a way.
'...the issue that (decided) whether to re-locate a business was the news clippings ...'
If it’s about attitude, you’ve got it - because you’re here, I applaud you for it; if it’s about education , we can get you want you need; if it’s about a work ethic, I already know you have it, you’ve demonstrated it; if it’s about innovation, it’s here, it’s in your DNA, it’s in your blood, it’s something you do all the time; and if it’s about technology, then that’s something I can help you with.
(Richardson noted the existence of the Technology Center at the River Valley Growth Council) …it’s not worked as well as I want it to … it will work better in the future, I can guarantee you that. We’re committed to seeing that facility succeed.. The problem is that we’ve had very little money .. We’ve had to adjust our priorities … we’re trying to find a stable funding source… enough money to allow us to do something there.
I am very happy the Mill is here. But in fact, the Mill needs help as the region needs help. … you want to have more corporate taxpayers to offset the pressures of being the largest employer and largest taxpaying entity in the region.
(Richardson described the organization of the DECD with the regional planning agencies as assisting agencies. In this region, the Androscoggin Valley Council of Governments is the agency through which many state programs are funneled.) The state is too big for one person … to foster economic development in all parts of the state …(in this region) AVCOG is the one on the ground… for us, it’s about working with our partners.
(Richardson described the specific programs available from the state through AVCOG, including small business counseling, and the Maine Technology Institute with “moneys to determine there’s a market for their product or even to do product development” for entrepreneurs with product ideas. He described at length the assistance given to Marty’s Cookies, a wholesale and retail cookie business in Bath, and Correct Decking, a building supply manufacturing company in Biddeford.)
'...you can succeed in Maine with the right attitude and vision ...'
When (the owner of Correct Decking) started his business and succeeded, he proved you can succeed here in Maine if you have the right attitude and essentially the right vision.
I admit we have our challenges - energy costs, some taxes that need to be addressed. I’ll concede that, although I want to talk more about what’s right with Maine than what is wrong with it, I concede we have issues and we need to work on those. .. If you asked me if I wanted to make ten percent more than I make today but I have to go to Detroit, Michigan to do it, then I’ll say no thank you I‘ll stay right here in Maine. So really we make choices about where we live and what we can do and what we can realize in terms of our dreams … I’m not saying we should settle, all I’m saying is there are some trade offs in where you live and what you get for it. In the meantime, I don’t want to give up on Maine either. I want to make Maine a better place because I want our children and our grandchildren to have opportunity. One of the reasons I got into politics is that I wanted my children to have the opportunity if they so chose to stay here in Maine because there were opportunities available. It’s one of the reasons I took the job I have today.
So we have programs. I could go on about a number of programs, but I can tell you that one thing you should walk away with from this meeting.. is that first you should decide what do you want to be. That is the best advice we can give you. What is your vision? Once you decide where you’re headed, it’s a lot easier to know how to get there. .. What is your vision for this community? Do you want to diversify? If so, where, and under what circumstances do you want to diversify? How are you going to define yourself?
'...first you should decide what you want to be ...'
And then once we know what you want to be, and we can look and review how realistic that is, then we can help you because now we know the direction you want to go in. .. we have a lot of tools in our tool box, not as many as some states, but we are not poor in our tools. We can draw down on those assets once we know what you want to be.
I want to say how excited I am to be here because I know you‘re going to succeed. I just don‘t know what you‘re going to come up with yet. It‘s not easy, it‘s hard…it‘s easy to start, hard to finish. Sometimes you start with a lot of people and you wind up with just a few. But when you stick with it and you succeed, it‘s the sweetest feeling.
