The Connecticut Economic Resource Center (CERC) recently held our 12th annual CERC Site Finder Showcase - an annual opportunity to bring Connecticut real estate professionals and economic development practitioners together for updates and networking. This year, in addition to CERC's economic outlook presentation by director of research Alissa DeJonge and SiteFinder update from real estate program manager Erron Smith, we had a unique panel discussion with three commissioners in the Malloy administration - Catherine Smith from the Department of Economic and Community Development, Jim Redeker from the Department of Transportation and Dan Esty from the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. These three agencies probably have more impact on our business climate than any others.
Over the past 15 years the state has attempted to create the right environment for comprehensive planning that is driven by the need for economic growth. For example, the transportation strategy board was designed to facilitate such planning, but never quite met its potential. Now, the commissioners of DECD, CONNDOT and DEEP meet at least monthly - in fact they had actually met the night before our Showcase to discuss and agree on courses of action on critical projects. Sometimes creating a new government structure doesn't change behavior, but motivated individuals don't need complex structural changes to get it done.
The commissioners discussed new and innovative approaches to business assistance, regulation, and project management - all geared toward making business interaction with their state agencies easier. All three departments are actively engaged in using lean processes to improve the performance of their agencies.
We live in a time of Twitter and Facebook, when the speed of business transactions is often mind boggling, but still face many tasks that defy an easy pivot to an alternate and improved reality. Changing government, unfortunately, is still much like turning the proverbial ocean liner. But it certainly helps when you have a crew that's willing to jump in the water and push the liner along a little faster! There are still lots of instances where state government could be more responsive to our citizens. But at our event, we saw three commissioners who are committed to continuous improvement and take seriously their responsibility to improve how government interacts with our citizens.
CERC could not put on this event without the support of our generous sponsors: CL&P/Yankee Gas, UIL Holdings Corporation, New England Real Estate Journal, Commercial Real Estate Group, CT Community Investment Corp., and Griffin Land.
You can access the videos of the panel discussion as well as Alissa's economic overview on CTSiteFinder.com.
CERC is a public-private partnership that provides economic development services consistent with state strategies, leveraging Connecticut's unique advantages as a premier business location. For more information, start here: www.cerc.com or visit us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter (@CERCInc, @CERCSiteFinder or @CTBusinessInfo).
Robert Santy is the president and CEO of CERC, Rocky Hill, Conn.