Economic Development

By Cecilia "Ceci" Iglesias

Given the present economic landscape, I would lead the 47th District in holding an immediate Economic Leadership Summit to engage the involvement of all major business sectors in the launch and on-going function of the OCEDP to achieve the goals outlined.

The purpose of the OCEDP would be: 1) To strengthen existing industries and identify new ones which can be initiated in the OCEDP Zone, 2) To focus on job creation both for new applicants and for career-transition individuals, and

To achieve these goals, I propose assisting the OCEDP in the following ways: 1) To work with the appropriate agencies within each of the cities to survey all local small businesses to create a comprehensive database of their capabilities,

2) To initiate local outreach to assist qualified businesses through the certification process required to access federal contract and grant opportunities,

3) To develop targeted city-by-city short-term, intermediate and long-term strategies to strengthen niche opportunities based upon the capabilities of each, and

4) To lead a multi-city coordinated consortium in which municipal members can assist each other in a collaborative manner to seek and secure federal contracts.