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Haley Thore and Carmine Scavo, Ph.D.Master of Public Administration Program
Department of Political ScienceEast Carolina University
withTodd Rouse, P.E., Greenville Utilities Commission
Olga Smirnova, Ph.D., ECU
Building Community APPA Economic Development Best Practices
Preliminary Survey Results and Lessons Learned
Introduction
Purpose of project Survey of APPA member agencies to determine what they are
doing to foster economic development Develop case studies to identify best practices in economic
development
*Funded by APPA DEED grant
Project Timeline
Activities 2015
Initial interviews (12)Develop survey questions
January-February
APPA members survey (257 respondents)
March-May
Case studies June-September
APPA Conference presentation October
Final Report November
Survey Design Initial interviews
Survey (Qualtrics)
Population is 1604 public utilities who are APPA members
Survey contact made with 1321 APPA member agencies
Received 257 usable returns for response rate of 19.5%
Case-studies
Selected by at least 2 –3 respondents in the survey
Attempted to ensure geographical coverage and customer size
Includes interviews with economic development personnel and analysis of agency websites
Survey Design Economic Development Focus
Governing BoardEconomic Development InitiativesAttraction and Retention
Infrastructure Investment
Coordination of Effort
Outreach Efforts
Survey Findings
• Competition/cooperation
• Special rates/competitive prices
• Stage of involvement
• Elected board
• Size budget
Expectations:Competition
Cooperation
Low High
Low Low n High n
High High n Low n
Cooperation and Competition
Competition
Cooperation
Low High
Low10.4%
(22)9.9%(21)
High25.9%
(55)53.8%
(114)
Findings:
“Please indicate the level of competition (cooperation) in economic development initiatives in your area”
Competition and Cooperation
CompetitionCooperation
Low High
Low 12.6% 10.9%
High 23.4% 53.1%
CompetitionCooperation
Low High
Low 0.0% 5.6%
High 36.1% 58.3%
One or Two Other Agencies Involved in Economic Development
N = 175
Three or More Agencies Involved in Economic Development
N = 36
Pattern holds regardless of whether there are few or many other agencies in the area involved in economic development
In your experience, what have been the most important factors for attraction of companies?
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
very important
important
somewhat important
Not important
ReliabilitySystemCapacit
yAvailable
ConnectionsCompetitiv
ePrices
Access toKey
PersonnelAccount
MgtSpecialRates
Special rates are not as important for the attraction of companies as competitive prices or reliability
Reliability of utility service
Competitive prices Special rates0
50
100
150
200
250
not important somewhat importantimportant very important
But special rates are important for those companies that are actually able to use them
never rarely sometimes often always not applicable0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
very important
important
somewhat important
not important
spec
ial r
ates
are
impo
rtan
t for
att
racti
ng c
ompa
nies
Use of special rates (by governing structure)
local gov-ernment
public auth., elected board
public auth., appointed
board
public auth., combined
board
joint-action agency
other0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
not applicable
never
rarely
sometimes
often
always
elected appointed other0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
not applicableneverrarelysometimesoftenalways
Use of special rates (by governing structure)
Why do not use special rates
Not availableCannot use because of other limitationsChoose not to use
28%
44%
28%
Do not use special rates (by governing structure)
Local Govern-
ment
PA Elected PA Appointed PA Mixed Other0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Not availableCannot use because of other limitationsChoose not to use
38%45%
56%
Size and budget: “Please indicate which line-items you permanently
have in your budget.”
Large = more than 100,000 customers; includes joint-action agencies.
Syste
m Exp
ansio
n
Syste
m Impr
ovem
ents
New te
chno
logies
Energ
y Effici
ency
Other
None
0.0%10.0%20.0%30.0%40.0%50.0%60.0%70.0%80.0%
Medium and smallLarge
What outreach methods do you use?
Cold Callings
Targeting Specific Industires
Advertising
Trade Shows
Headquarter Visits
Conferences
Other
None
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
9.9%
23.6%
36.3%
7.4%
40.8%
37.4%
32.0%
31.5%
What advertising methods do you use?
Total Respondents = 75
National magazines and journals
Newspapers
Broadcast media
Your website
Online advertisements
Other
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
45.3%
46.7%
28.0%
97.3%
33.3%
20.0%
Stage of involvement
activ
ely re
cruit
ing
site-s
electi
on st
age
site-e
valua
tion s
tage
shor
t-list
site s
electe
doth
er0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
33.5%
49.5%
57.0%
33.9%
28.2%
9.7%
Case Studies
Selection process
List of case studies by size
Components of case studies Name of Organization Location Residential and Commercial/Industrial Customers Economic Development Initiatives Keys to Success Unique Project Features Website Address
Sample of Case Studies
Loup River Public Power District
Public Authority with Elected Board
Some 15,000 residential and 4,100 commercial/industrial customers, headquartered in Columbus NE
At this time, solely hydroelectric generator but getting into wind generation
Contributes power to Nebraska Public Power District and has full requirements contract to buy power from them
New Nebraska state law allows Loup to buy power from privately funded Creston Ridge Wind Farm
25 year contract with Blue Stem stabilizes rates
Central Lincoln Peoples Utility
District
Public Authority with Elected Board
Located in Newport, OR on the Pacific coast some 140 miles southwest of Portland
Some 33,000 residential and 5,500 commercial/industrial customers
Provides both electricity and broadband service
Orlando Utilities Commission
• Public Authority with Elected Board
• 16th largest publically owned utility in US and second largest in Florida
• Nearly 185,000 residential and 44,000 commercial/ industrial customers
• Provides both electricity and water
Began provision of chilled water in 1990s
Chilled water revenues will surpass water revenues this year
Santee Cooper
Public Authority with Appointed BoardSouth Carolina Public Service Authority,
largest public utility in South Carolina and one of the largest in the nation
Provides both electricity and water
More than 700,000 residential, 29,000 commercial and 29 large industrial customers
Mission “to be the state’s leading resource for improving the quality of life for the people of South Carolina”
Fayetteville Public Works Commission
Public Authority with Appointed Board
Some 71,000 residential and 16,500 commercial/industrial customers
Provides electricity, water, and sewer services
Preliminary Lessons from Case Studies
1.Have a comprehensive plan for recruiting and retaining businesses Opposite of “Shoot anything that flies; claim anything that
falls”
2.Separate Key Accounts Assign staff to work with large customers
3.Create a strong Web presence Survey showed Web was most widely used method of
advertising However, many interviewees complained about quality of
website
Preliminary Lessons from Case Studies
4.Organize and actively participate in partnerships for economic development Chamber of Commerce; City and County Departments;
Downtown Development Groups; etc. Fayetteville PWC invests in Fayetteville Economic
Development Alliance which operates as part of Chamber of Commerce Other contributors are City of Fayetteville, Cumberland
County, and the privately-funded Linda Lee Allan Fund. Alliance has more operating freedom in economic
development than PWC does on its own
Preliminary Lessons from Case Studies
5.Get involved early in economic development decisions
6.Publicize your achievements Santee Cooper, for example, cites creating some $800 million in
private sector investment in South Carolina and creation of 7,500 jobs New Volvo automobile manufacturing plant in eastern SC that may
reach $1 billion in investment, create 4,000 jobs and produce 100,000 cars per year
Low rates and high reliability are worthy of publicizing!
7. Use your environment to your advantage OUC’s provision of chilled water to Orlando customers makes
eminent sense; reduces AC usage by customers Loup River’s investment in wind power makes sense in Nebraska
Preliminary Lessons from Case Studies
8.Think big Santee Cooper’s success in getting Volvo to invest in
SC partially is based on SC developing a cluster of automobile-related industries
Santee Cooper secured 4,000 acres abutting the Ridgeville Volvo site to be used by other companies associated with Volvo or who might want to locate near a large automobile facility—like what happened with BMW near Spartanburg
SC has been in top ten in automotive manufacturing strength rankings published by Business Facilities magazine
Preliminary Lessons from Case Studies
9. There are advantages to offering more than electrical services
PWC offers water and sewer for certain in-fill customers who take their electrical service
Central Lincoln invested in a fiber optic network in the 1990s to manage its electrical operations. That network had sufficient bandwidth that broadband could be offered to the public (CoastNet)
OUC’s provision of chilled water reduces electrical demand for AC
Thank you!
Please contact us with questions and comments at:
