Mapping county's economic future

Sonoma County supervisors picked 34 business and community leaders to sit on a Innovation Council that is supposed to develop the first strategic plan for the local economy.

Ben Stone, the county's economic development coordinator, said the panel will develop an economic forecast for Sonoma County and craft plans for dealing with such issues as changing demographics of the work force and increasing global competition.

Stone likens the panel to the Economic Vitality Project, which was launched in 1994 during another period of transition in the county's economy. At that time, the county was becoming a vacation destination and a hub for fast-growing tech companies in Telecom Valley.

Among other things, that panel proposed an engineering department at Sonoma State University to train a new generation of tech workers. It also recommended a tightly focused marketing program to promote the county as a nirvana of wine, food and recreation.

"This will be a new attempt to look at the challenges that we face," Stone said. "We need to look at the challenges we face with baby boomers getting older, with demographics that mean there will not be an endless work force, with the environment and with global competition."

The group's co-chairpersons will be Randy DeCaminada, marketing director for Pacific Gas & Electric, and Cynthia Murray, chief executive of the North Bay Leadership Council.

Supervisor Paul Kelley said county officials are looking to the Innovation Council for advice on meeting economic challenges.

"It will be a daunting task to keep this group focused," Kelley said. "It is time to look out into the future of the economy of the North Bay and what the future holds," Kelley said.

More than 90 people applied for a position on the council, which Kelley said is an indication that business and community leaders are concerned about the region's economic vitality.

The group will serve as an ad hoc advisory committee to county supervisors.

Steering committee members are Bob Anderson, executive director of the United Winegrowers; Jane Bender, Santa Rosa city councilwoman; Bill Carson, director of operations at Windsor Golf and Rooster Run Golf Course; Scott Kincaid, senior vice president of Community First Bank; Scott Kirk, attorney with Beyers Costin; Bill Nordskog, retired Agilent Technologies executive; and Lisa Schaffner, executive director of Sonoma County Alliance.

You can reach Staff Writer Bleys W. Rose at 521-5431 or bleys.rose@pressdemocrat.com.