By The Herald Editorial Board
In chemistry, a catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction, without itself undergoing any permanent changes.
In local economics, Ray Stephanson once again is acting as a catalyst and hoping the changes for his community are all for the better.
Stephanson — although he’s kept his hand in civic issues — had largely retired after leaving the Everett mayor’s office in 2018 after 14 years as mayor and six years on the city council. Stephanson hadn’t planned a return to leading economic campaigns, but saw the need after talking with Doug Purcell, board chair for Economic Alliance Snohomish County, who started on the original board with Stephanson when the Alliance was created in 2011 with the merger of the county economic development council, and the Everett and south county chambers of commerce.
Stephanson has been brought in to help revitalize the Alliance while it seeks a new director and CEO.
“Both of us believe very strongly that the organization needs to succeed,” he said in a meeting last week with The Herald Editorial Board. “The other thing not lost on me is that we see municipalities really struggling financially.”
The term that is used to explain that struggle, then as now, is structural deficit, with cities as well as counties and other districts struggling to meet demands for services with revenue that has lost purchasing power to inflation. Stephanson went through a similar cycle of structural deficits as mayor during the housing crisis of 2008.
Although public money has to be spent wisely and efficiently, Stephanson holds that local governments can’t save their way to prosperity.
“You’ve got to figure out how to grow revenues, and what a lot of public sector leaders, mayors and others don’t understand is that part of the financial equation,” that business and economic growth can provide much of that sustaining revenue.
That, Stephanson said, is what the alliance can do for those governments, and why he’s leading the Alliance in the interim.
“If they’re successful and they grow revenue, the beneficiaries are the public corporations and all of us who depend on those services,” he said.
Stephanson joined the Alliance as interim executive director and chief executive in late November, following the announcement that then-Interim President and CEO Wendy Poischbeg was leaving the alliance to lead a newly reconstituted Everett Chamber of Commerce. The Everett City Council voted in August to relaunch the chamber, setting aside $600,000 from among the last of the city’s federal covid funds to sustain the effort until it’s self-supporting.
Stephanson, with about a month of meetings with government and business leaders — the Alliance’s investors and beneficiaries — under his belt, said he’s encouraged by those conversations.
“What I’m conveying to them — and I feel we’re turning the corner with them — is they’re starting to believe that this organization can survive and be successful, and they will benefit from that,” he said.
Among the types of campaigns Stephanson, Purcell and others see coming with a revitalized Alliance is continued work to bring a new wood products mill to Darrington; assist Edmonds in developing underutilized commercial property; and help to add companies and infrastructure and attract workers to Arlington’s and Marysville’s Cascade Industrial Center.
The Alliance also plans to add to its efforts to bolster STEM education, workforce training and apprenticeship programs. Olivia Maisel, the Alliance’s vice president of operations, described the existing relationship between the Sno-Isle TECH Skills Center and Boeing that has created a pipeline of trained workers for the aerospace company as it begins jetliner production for the 777X and a next-generation airliner.
Likewise, Dave Tappana, the Alliance’s business retention and expansion coordinator, referenced its work with the region’s aerospace and clean energy industries now developing at Paine Field and elsewhere in the county.
‘We’re trying to shore up any holes that may exist so that we make sure that those opportunities come here to Snohomish County and really help the businesses already here,” Tappana said.
One example of its recent work, Stephanson said, was relocation funds that helped Lafarge & Egge, which provides tube bending, welding and machining, to move from its original Lynnwood site to a larger Everett location that will allow for growth.
To help with those efforts, the Alliance plans to make a capital budget request of $5 million to the state Legislature, which began its 105-day session Monday, money that can be used as grants for programs, relocation and expansion assistance.
Acknowledging the state’s budget shortfall and the preference of Gov.-elect Bob Ferguson against new state taxes, Stephanson admitted the $5 million ask won’t be easy, but he and the Alliance hope to make the case to lawmakers.
“We really need to convince our legislators that this is an investment, and you don’t want to short-circuit that,” he said. “We really can be part of the solution.”
As to the return of a separate chamber of commerce for Everett, Purcell sees a revitalized Alliance and a new Everett chamber as complementary forces.
“One of our roles has changed from trying to be a countywide chamber to being a coordinator of the chambers that exist in the cities and working with them to coordinate among them,” Purcell said, who noted relationships rebuilt with Edmonds, Mountlake Terrace, Lake Stevens and other chambers of commerce in the county.
Stephanson agreed, noting that chambers can do the day-to-day work to support local businesses, while the Alliance can support the chambers and work toward regional goals.
“That’s the value proposition that I think that we can bring,” Stephanson said. “And it’s not just expounding about all the virtues of the Alliance. It’s about listening and bringing people together.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
