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required in the first three cornerstones; Organization, Product and Business <br /> Retention & Expansion. More mature programs are able to shift resources <br /> • toward the latter cornerstones; Workforce Development and Marketing. At <br /> its current level of funding the City of Arden Hills can only address three <br /> cornerstones well. Based upon the needs discovered during our strategy <br /> sessions we would recommend those to be the Product, Organization and <br /> Business Retention / Expansion. <br /> It is our recommendation that funding and staffing be secured over the next <br /> five years for full implementation of this plan. Assuming this to be an <br /> achievable objective, we have written a five year economic development <br /> strategy that addresses all five of the cornerstones. However, this program <br /> is heavily weighted toward the first three; organization, product and business <br /> retention and expansion. <br /> Organizational Development <br /> • The first component essential to a successful economic development program <br /> is to ensure that the organizational capabilities are in place for ED to <br /> succeed. In order to accomplish that success, we recommend that Arden <br /> Hills address the following organizational issues: <br /> 1) Community and Economic Development Director. <br /> For economic development to succeed there needs to be someone in <br /> the community with these responsibilities. Currently, there is no one <br /> on City staff with the title of economic development director. Full <br /> time economic development staff is not warranted at this time. <br /> However, a minimum of part time attention to economic development <br /> is warranted. Our first recommendation is that the awareness of this <br /> priority be recognized through title change. We would recommend <br /> that the title and job description of the Community Development <br /> Director be changed to Community and Economic Development <br /> Director as soon as possible. <br /> w <br /> Strategic Plan for Economic Development Page 6 of 20 <br /> \\Metro-inet.us\ardenhills\Admin\Committees\Economic Development Commission\AH Strategic Plan-Final 5-16-07.doc <br />