Consultant Delivers Final Report

April 11, 2006

By Chris Rush

A final report delivered by a prominent economic consulting firm highlighted Bartlesville's assets, but also identified areas the city needs to improve upon in order to compete as a globally competitive community.

Angelos Angelou, of AngelouEconomics, an Austin, Texas-based company, presented the final report of a multi-part strategic planning process this morning to a large breakfast gathering of Bartlesville Area Chamber of Commerce members at the Bartlesville Community Center. The report, making 24 specific recommendations for Bartlesville to successfully position itself in a changing global economy, is the culmination of six months of surveys, one-on-one interviews and extensive research.

Angelou opened his presentation by saying he had visited Bartlesville several times over the past few months.

“I believe that if you don't visit places like Bartlesville, you haven't seen the real America,” said Angelou.

He said the report should be used to achieve Bartlesville's economic development goals.

“It's an opportunity to define who you are,” said Angelou. “It gives you choices of who you want to be and where you want to be.”

But he cautioned that a document does not mean anything until a community begins to implement it.

“I believe the hardest role is implementation,” said Angelou.

He added that it was up to “citizens,” not merely “residents” to take the lead on behalf of their community. Angelou said he hoped the community would begin implementing recommendations soon.

For comparison purposes, the AE study looked at eight other “small cities” across the U.S., including Bentonville, Ark., to use as benchmarks.

Angelou said that in his experience, innovation is a key to the success of globally competitive communities.

“It covers the whole bandwidth of economic development,” he said.

Successful cities are a place where people want to work and live, and secondly an economic engine, according to Angelou.

He said the national economy will go through unprecedented change over the next few years including increased pressures to move jobs overseas, not because of business costs but rather because of education and training.

In order for Bartlesville or any city to be globally competitive in the future, Angelou said, it must evaluate its own strengths and weaknesses.

“We've discovered there is enormous pride in this community,” said Angelou. “But at the same time, that pride can sometimes get in the way of seeing the challenges before you.”

Among Bartlesville's strengths, the AE report found that it is a premiere base of expanding business, has a low cost of doing business, has an exceptional quality of life, has a tremendously educated workforce, has a strong regional infrastructure, and its close proximity to the larger metropolitan area of Tulsa is an asset.

One of the city's main identified weaknesses is a lack of young professionals. Angelou stressed the point by saying the city must do more to attract young professionals (under age 45). He said the research discovered that only 23 percent of Bartlesville's workforce fell within the young professional demographic (the national average is 27 percent.) Weaknesses also include limited entrepreneurship, limited utilization of recreational assets, limited retail opportunities, a lack of unified vision that is inclusive of all residents, limited downtown revitalization and limited recognition of Bartlesville beyond the region.

The report produced a list of “target industries” including business services, distribution/warehousing, software design, energy services and tourism. Target industry strategies call for establishing “expert teams” for each target industry and the availability of prepared infrastructure, or what Angelou called “shove-ready sites.” He also said Bartlesville must promote itself through use of volunteers.

“Economic development is really a grassroots effort,” said Angelou.

The report included a list of specific recommendations including improving the quality of life to make it more attractive to a professional workforce, especially young professionals. It calls for better workforce development and education efforts. He noted that school test scores have begun to decline recently. The report also called for enhanced support for entrepreneurial efforts, enhanced economic and cultural opportunities to an increasingly diverse community.

Before closing his remarks, Angelou pointed out a problem that he said struck him very early in his visit. He said there is a fundamental communication problem between city and county officials.

Of the report, Angelou said the next step is not another survey, but action on the part of citizens to bring it to reality.

“This plan is not the Bible,” said Angelou. “But it is a guideline ... I urge all of you to become the champions of these recommendations,” he said.

Local leaders who received advance copies of the final report were asked by BACC President and CEO Jim Fram to share their observations with the audience.

Dr. Everett Piper, president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University and this year's BACC chairman, along with Gene Batchelder, chief information officer for ConocoPhillips, agreed that additional studies were not needed, but the time had come to start implementing recommendations.

State Sen. John Ford (R-Bartlesville) said that since his election to office 18 months ago, he has found an inherent “inability of government to have a long-term viable plan.” He said the nature of the political process prevented it, but local citizens could make a difference.

“Not everyone in here will agree with everything they have heard, but perhaps we can agree on 80 percent of it,” said Ford.

He said Bartlesville should become a “pacesetter” for the region.

Glenn Bonner, president of First Bartlesville Bank and chairman of the Bartlesville Development Corp. Board of Directors, said the scope of the report was inclusive.

“This is not just a few people that they got input from,” said Bonner. “This is the entire community that they got input from.

“It's our challenge to work to be the best that we can be,” he said.

He urged chamber members to get involved and stay involved.

Bartlesville Mayor Julie Daniels said its not enough for a group of volunteer city commissioners to carry the burden of implementation, but implementation would require engaged citizens. She described the difference between being a “citizen” and merely a “resident.”

“A resident calls an anonymous phone line and complains,” said Daniels referring to the newspaper's Off the Cuff call-in column.

She said, however, that a citizen calls the city and asks what they can do to make it better.

“I don't want Bartlesville just to be the ‘City of Legends,'” said Daniels. “I want to see it become the maker of legends.”

Several other area municipal and economic development leaders were in attendance including Tulsa Mayor-Elect Kathy Taylor.

Hired by the BDC in late 2005, Angelou was commissioned with the task of creating a plan to provide initiatives and guidance for the Bartlesville Development Corporation's tourism and industry recruitment efforts.