Leaders in both the public and private sectors agree that in order for the City of Redmond to continue growing into a strong and thriving community, the two entities must work together to form One Redmond.
And that is what they are doing.
The City of Redmond is teaming up with the Greater Redmond Chamber of Commerce and nonprofits Realize Redmond and Redmond Economic Development Alliance (REDA) to develop One Redmond, a public-private initiative that focuses on economic vitality and community building. A panel with representatives from the four agencies spoke to a full house during the chamber’s monthly member luncheon, which had been postponed last month due to the mid-January snowstorm, about the initiative.
The panel members were Realize Redmond Executive Director Jeni Craswell, former chamber board chair Tom Martin, City of Redmond Mayor John Marchione and REDA Executive Director Bill Biggs.
“Redmond is a great place to live, work and play,” Martin said.
He said the chamber falls under the “work” category and with the economic recession and decline in chamber membership, it made sense for the chamber to team up with other economic development groups in Redmond to answer the question, “How do we remain relevant as an organization?”
Martin continued, saying they want to attract additional businesses to Redmond and while they are reliant on large employers such as Microsoft Corp., they also need to do what they can to support small businesses. One Redmond would allow them to do this in a more coordinated way.
Marchione said as mayor, one of his principle responsibilities is to build a community within Redmond. The way to do that is to work together with the private sector. There may be disagreements, but he said it is important that they work together.
Biggs agreed. He said the private sector can’t work on economic development alone — they need help from the city government. Biggs added that there is only a finite amount of funding within the city to support activities and services for businesses and they need to get rid of any duplicates, overlap or waste to be more effective.
One Redmond does this by consolidating the chamber, Realize Redmond and REDA into one entity with one board of directors and one executive. Concerns were raised with the chamber’s affiliation with the national Chamber of Commerce, but the panel members told the audience that they would like to maintain that affiliation as well once One Redmond, whose name may change, starts up.
Marchione said there will likely be subgroups within the organization with different focuses but it would all be within the One Redmond membership. The mayor said they are still in the developing stage and are still looking into how this will look, including how many people will sit on the board. Marchione said 12 to 20 members would be an optimal size for a board and they would like to hold the first board meeting in June or July.
He said he really wants to see business leaders working with the city, but his goal for One Redmond is to have a private board, meaning only one or two representatives from the city.
In addition to the business and government, the community also plays a role in the city’s success and Craswell said everything is tied together. She said One Redmond is also a chance for people to have more of a voice, giving them one organization to turn to with questions or concerns. She said one agency may not have the answer to someone’s question, but any of the remaining three may, thus simplifying the process.
