Stage One: Organizing the Effort

• Establishing a 'Home' for LED within the local government
  'Someone' has to take responsibility for starting a focus on LED in the local area. Often (although not always) this is the local government. Even if the initiator is not the local government, it is crucial to have local government support for the process. In almost all successful city economic development case studies, a responsible person, often in either the Mayor's office or in the office of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), is initially appointed to take responsibility for LED. (This may expand into a specific unit or department at a later point.) The responsible initiator(s) may spend much of his/her time upfront obtaining a sufficient understanding of the local economy to identify important stakeholders.

• Management of the stakeholders
  Stakeholders are individuals, firms and/or organizations in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors that have an interest in and ability to contribute to strategizing and operationalizing. The stakeholder management process recognizes that all stakeholders are important and that some will be able to participate more than others. It must be determined:

  • who the key stakeholders are

  • what their interests are likely to be

  • the best way to involve them in the LED activities

  The benefits of involving stakeholders include:

  • Stakeholders bring specialist knowledge and different perspectives making the planning process more robust

  • They bring professional, financial and physical resources to the table

  • They legitimize the process by being involved

  • They forestall problems by being engaged in the process

  • Business partners are likely to know much more than local government representatives about the true state of the competitive position of the community

  • By involving higher tiers of government, strategies are likely to benefit from their support (including financial)

  • Local community representatives are likely to be best informed about local problems and opportunities that could be addressed by the LED strategy

  • By involving communities, it is more likely that a volunteer effort could be established to support LED implementation programs

  • Jobs and economic growth are created in the private sector. Government is usually merely a facilitator in this process.

  Potential stakeholders include:

Public Sector	Private Sector	Community Sector
Local government State government Health Authority Transportation Authority Institutions of higher learning Education Board/Authority Utilities	Chamber of Commerce Board of Trade Business associations Large corporations SME representatives Private developers News media Professional associations Higher learning establishments Utilities Town center improvement groups, etc.	Individuals Neighborhood groups Church groups Youth groups Environmental groups Voluntary service groups Historic societies Cultural and arts groups Educational groups Groups representing minorities

 

However, the ultimate configuration of the stakeholder group should really be determined by a strategic assessment of the local economy and the important local economic actors.

• Establishment of a Steering Committee
  The Steering Committee should include key stakeholders from all sectors including the local authority. The local authority will usually provide institutional support for this committee. This provides them with a degree of control that may be needed in the early days of establishing the LED strategy and partnerships.

• Establishment of a group within the local authority to oversee the LED process
  This group should include people from across the various local authority departments that are likely to have an interest or professional, technical, political or financial responsibility for matters affected by the LED strategy. Membership should be at both Elected Member and at officer levels. There should be terms of reference and a formal reporting system for the group. Transparency and public access to information used or generated by the group is important to its credibility.