By Bryan Corliss
Herald Writer
Snohomish County economic development officials are planning a full-court press to convince the Boeing Co. to build its new high-speed jet here.
"We are going to do everything we can to provide the environment so Boeing will build the Sonic Cruiser in Snohomish County," county Executive Bob Drewel said Friday.
It will be a sweeping program involving a number of agencies and addressing a range of issues hindering economic growth, Economic Development Council chairman Reid Shockey said.
While the Sonic Cruiser is the impetus behind the effort, Boeing will not be the only business to benefit from improvements in workforce training, transportation and permit processes, Shockey added. "We will need to do these things anyway, and we’re going to do them."
"The benefits will flow to everyone else who’s doing business here," Drewel added.
Yet Boeing’s moves over the past year clearly are pushing the issue.
Last April, company Chairman Phil Condit blasted the Puget Sound business climate. That, and his decision to move Boeing headquarters to Chicago, sparked a round of reports on the state’s business competitiveness.
The reports generally found the same shortcomings that Condit listed — Washington needs better transportation, better training for technology workers and a more straightforward regulatory system.
The local effort is what comes next, Shockey said. "Instead of putting those reports on the shelf, we’re going to put them to work."
It’s too early to say what the effort will entail or who will be involved, officials said. The concept was developed over the past two weeks, and the economic development council staff was asked to come up with a specific plan by next month.
But Shockey said it will be "specific" and "aggressive."
"It’s not going to be vanilla. It’s not going to be one of those wishy-washy rhetorical things. It’s going to be dramatic," he said. "Undramatic hasn’t worked."
Drewel said there’s a need to move quickly. "There are people all over this country, and I suspect the world," who are developing their own plans to convince Boeing to build the new jet in their hometowns, he said.
Snohomish County has an edge in that Boeing has factory space here and it has based the Sonic Cruiser design team here, Drewel said. But the state constitution forbids the kind of financial incentives that other states can offer.
So county agencies need to work with state and regional officials to ensure that issues that can be addressed — such as workforce training and transportation — are improved "so that (Boeing) can make that decision to say yes," Drewel said.
"This is a recruitment issue," Drewel said. "We need to look at it in that light."
You can call Herald Writer Bryan Corliss at 425-339-3454
or send e-mail to corliss@heraldnet.com.
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