Heavy hitters in the business community here are taking steps to form a CEO-led regional business roundtable that would tackle issues they say are impeding economic growth in the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area.


The formation of such a group has received conditional endorsements from some business executives and civic leaders, who heard discussions about the idea at the 1999 Spokane Area Chamber of Commerce Retreat and Leadership Conference here last Friday.


Avista Corp. Chairman, President, and CEO Tom Matthews presented the regional business roundtable concept on behalf of the chamber. Forming such a roundtable was one of 10 items he identified as vital attributes that the Spokane-Coeur dAlene area needs to have to grow economically. He defines the region, for purposes of the roundtable, as encompassing everything from the West Plains to Coeur dAlene.


Matthews, a former Houston executive, has talked previously here of a group in that Texas city, called the Greater Houston Partnership, which guides economic development.


For last Fridays retreat, the Spokane Area chamber brought in Jim C. Kollaer, president of the Greater Houston Partnership, who said that group deals with issues in the Houston area that are similar to those faced here. That group, while substantially bigger than any effort that would be started here, is an example of the type of entity that could be established, says Rich Hadley, president of the Spokane Area chamber.


Kollaer said the Greater Houston Partnership is a nonprofit member organization founded to lobby on behalf of the Houston areas business community and to pursue economic development there.


The exact structure of a Spokane-Coeur dAlene roundtable group isnt clear yet, but, it would aim to give the regional business community a stronger lobbying voice at each level of government as well as a unified economic-development message. A board of directors made up only of CEOs and managing partners of Spokane and Coeur dAlene businesses would steer the roundtable.


Hadley, interviewed after the session, says the chamber would facilitate the roundtable and is looking for ways to bring together all of the Spokane-Coeur dAlene areas biggest business players.


Many people who attended the leadership conference expressed concerns about establishing a CEO-led group, such as whether such a group would be exclusionary, but Hadley says, I think it was enthusiastically received.


Matthews said he supports the establishment of such a group here. However, he said some of the long-standing factions that exist in the community would have to work together for such a roundtable to be effective.


Before we can go forward, we need to instill a sense of hope in the people that dont trust each other right now, he said.


Points outlined by Matthews likely would be topics that a regional roundtable would tackle. They include:


Seeking dynamic, pro-business political leadership with a regional focus.


Encouraging diversity in the work force and in business leadership.


Lobbying for regional infrastructure planning and management.


Calling for improved air-transportation access and creating more direct flights to major cities.


Ensuring access to advanced technical and graduate-level courses that would allow employees to continue education.


Creating business recruitment incentives.


Working for a strong downtown core in both Spokane and Coeur dAlene.


Working for livable neighborhoods and cultural and entertainment amenities.


Representatives of the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce and other civic groups attended the conference. Representatives of the Coeur dAlene Area Chamber of Commerce attended, but left before Matthews talked about establishing a CEO-led regional roundtable here. Reached earlier this week, Coeur dAlene chamber President Jonathan Coe declined to comment for now.


Loren Mitchell, president and CEO of the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce, said this week that he thinks many of the issues discussed at the leadership conference already are being addressed by other groups in the community.


I dont think we need a new group, Mitchell says. I think we could put more emphasis toward working together for a solution.


Houston model


Kollaer said the Greater Houston Partnership was created through a merger of the Greater Houston Chamber of Commerce, the Houston Economic Development Council, and the World Trade Association, groups that overlapped efforts and had turf battles. Each group was seeing declining revenues and rising expenses.


Kollaer says the combined organization operates more efficiently and with a smaller staff than the three separate groups. There still are 94 chambers of commerce and economic-development organizations in the Houston area, but none has a regional focus, he says.


The Houston Greater Partnership currently has 2,300 members and a $6.3 million budget. It has 63-person staff and is overseen by a volunteer board consisting of 124 CEOs and managing partners.


A roundtable group here wouldnt mirror the Houston model necessarily, and there arent any plans to merge established economic-development organizations here, Hadley says. Nonetheless, the Texas organization is an example of how such a group could work, he says.


Hadley says Matthews outlined the plan because hes co-chairman of a chamber-sponsored CEO diversity committee of 40 CEOs here that was established to discuss diversity issues in the area. That committee could act as a starting point for the new roundtable, Hadley says.


The Rev. Robert Spitzer, president of Gonzaga University and co-chairman of the CEO diversity committee, said Gonzaga would support a regional business roundtable by committing up to eight graduate-level students to conduct research for the group. He said he believes its a good idea, though he cautions that business leaders would need to commit at least 18 months to the project before determining whether it was working.