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By Greg Stiles Mail Tribune October 21. 2014 6:19PM County OKs partnership to lead business recruitment Divided Jackson County commissioners approve funding proposals for both SOREDI and local technology proponent Mark VonHolle The Jackson County Board of Commissioners considered two economic development proposals Tuesday. In the end they chose both. Despite concerns raised that the two efforts could lead to confusion, the commissioners told Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development Inc. that it should work with local technology proponent Mark VonHolle in attracting new business. After more than two hours of questions and debate, Commissioner John Rachor offered a compromise measure enabling both SOREDI, and VonHolle, a former SOREDI board president, to receive funding. The motion passed, 2-1. Rachor was joined by Doug Breidenthal, while Chairman Don Skundrick, also a former SOREDI board president, dissented. County Administrator Danny Jordan was directed to negotiate contracts essentially requiring the parties to work together.  SOREDI,  the official economic development agency for Jackson and Josephine counties for 28 years, has been underfunded in comparison with similar economic development franchises around the state. In recent years, the county has provided SOREDI $26,000. This time, however, the county agreed to give SOREDI $123,000 annually in a five-year commitment.  VonHolle helped form the Sustainable Valley incubator site for start-up companies and is promoting development of an 80-acre high-tech park in the White City area. He made his proposal to the county on his own behalf, however, asking for $90,000 to $100,000 annually. He said that would provide roughly a third of his annual recruiting budget, which he hopes to augment from two other backers. The motion provides for a three-year contract for $100,000 annually.  VonHolle is required to have funding in place from his other partners before the county would sign on. Jordan said SOREDI and VonHolle will work together and not at cross-purposes. "When Mark goes back to California and brings someone here, they are going to be looking at the enterprise zone or the e-commerce zone, or anything SOREDI handles," Jordan said. "They are going to work together and be partners."  But Skundrick said the split contract could hurt recruiting efforts if potential clients are confused about whom they are dealing with.  "Competition is one thing, but we're talking about bringing people to Southern Oregon," Skundrick said. "I can see them stepping all over each other and I think that sends the wrong message." Rachor appeared ready to encourage both parties early in the session. "I've been impressed for years with his enthusiasm and entrepreneurship," Rachor said of VonHolle. "I would like to see Mark and SOREDI work in conjunction with each either." Breidenthal said he has heard private concerns about SOREDI from people backing the organization publicly.  "I sense some tension between Mark and SOREDI," Breidenthal said. "I think that tension is there with the board or staff, something is going on. If we send two people to go accomplish the same goals essentially, I like the competition. I think the competition is healthy."  In making his pitch, VonHolle said Jackson County needs to start populating its vacant land, which produces roughly $500 per acre in property taxes, far less than developed commercial and industrial property. High tech would fill that bill, he said, and create higher-paying jobs. "I know there's no such thing as a bad job," VonHolle said. "But if our focus is to bring more value-added food production to this valley — the median income for food production is about $30,000, fully loaded." That, he noted, is more than 20 percent below the county's current median income of $37,000. " I don't think that's the right strategy when the median manufacturing rate is twice that." VonHolle, who referred to himself as a high-tech recruitment mercenary, said his efforts are complementary to SOREDI. "I don't see it being competing against SOREDI, I look at it competing with SOREDI in a very cooperative fashion," he said "I've already brought somebody from SOREDI and Business Oregon down to Northern California to meet with a tech company that I made an outreach to. There's a way to work together in a very symbiotic way. I would rather be nimble, so I'm not beholden to a board and a bureaucratic system." VonHolle's efforts were backed by written support from the Home Builders Association of Jackson County, Bank of the Cascades, Lighthouse Worldwide Solutions, Asante, and five construction and development firms. It's not unusual for economic development boards to come under fire, said Monte Mendenhall, the current SOREDI board president who sits on five such boards in two states.  It was clear the SOREDI representatives were not pleased with the two-headed approach selected by the commissioners, but Mendenhall said the agency is well-positioned to continue its mission. "A big part of the recruitment piece is you have to be very targeted," said Mendenhall, regional community manager for Pacific Power. "What you have to do is employ the experts in the field, the site planners and the people who actually who know people and work with these people, because that's what they do and that's what we've done." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 541-776-4463 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GregMTBusiness, on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/greg.stiles.31, and read his blog at www.mailtribune.com/Economic Edge. http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20141021/NEWS/141029912 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->