KMAS Radio

Here in the economic development council office of Mason County with the new director. Well, not new. He's been here a year.
Kevin Shutty. How are you, Kevin? Doing great, Jeff. Thanks for being here.
This is really exciting to talk with you and it's kind of a different format, a little more laid back, uh, uh, for our KMAS podcast portions of this will be on the radio, but it's just a good chance for the listeners out there to kind of better understand your role in the last year, kind of what the EDC does, I think is a good topic to cover. And, you know, some of the different metrics that you use for success and kind of where you see the future of the county going in a little bit. So you've been here a year and, uh, as we know, you kind of split the first half of the time as the sitting county commissioner from the union area, that portion of Mason County.
Uh, so, but for those who don't know a lot about you, kind of get us up to speed until when you took that county commissioner seat. Yeah. So, um, it's, it's, uh, it's been a great year.
Um, it's been a big learning experience for me kind of in that transition. Um, prior to being on the county commission, I worked for the state legislature. I worked for, um, then representative Drew McEwen now Senator Drew McEwen, um, is his legislative assistant.
Um, and then I did communications work, uh, also for the legislature and the house of representatives. Um, my educational background, though, is in, um, secondary education. So I did a bachelor's in secondary social studies education.
So I had these, uh, big plans to be, um, a civics teacher, uh, and, um, and, you know, in my mind, one of the best ways to, to be able to, to be a good teacher is to be able to bring some real world experiences into the classroom. And I thought, well, there's no better way to get a good civics, uh, you know, lessons than to go live it. Uh, and so I was able to do that at the legislature legislature for, um, about four and a half years and then eight years on the Mason County commission.
And so those experiences were, um, super eyeopening for me. I like to, I like to think I learned a lot of really helpful things in those roles. Um, but oftentimes when you're working, uh, you know, in government at any level, you also learn some things that aren't working so well.
Um, and so there was, you know, good learning experience on, on both sides of that. And, um, you know, and so one of the things that I was always really, really interested in and had served on the County's planning advisory commission, um, you know, is just how do we make things work better, um, you know, for people in the community. So what are those sort of basic building blocks to creating a thriving community? Um, and that's one of the things that I was focused on as a, as a County commissioner that I think translates really well, um, into my new role here with the economic development council.
And so, um, the economic development council is, uh, at the intersection of the public and private sector. Um, we want to make sure that there's alignment between the work that the public sector is doing and the needs of the private sector so that the private sector can really, you know, um, make the investments that, that we need to see in order to bring jobs and housing, uh, to Mason County. So, um, a lot of those experiences have kind of, you know, sort of led to this and, um, it's, it's been an exciting year at the economic development council.
And I think the, the future is super bright for Mason County. I heard you last week, the other day at the moving Mason forward meeting at faith Lutheran, and you kind of, in a sense, and I've heard you say this before, but you liken the EDC somewhat to a chamber of commerce. While it's not a membership based organization, there are some, what maybe the public could perceive as some overlap there.
So how is it similar or different to what, uh, the Shelton Mason County or the North Mason chambers do? Yeah. So, uh, you know, we're similar, but different, um, chambers play a really important role in our community and being able to advocate for their members and small businesses in the community. Um, you know, and, and so we certainly align with them on that work.
That's, that's work that we care about and do as well. Um, but you know, we are both, um, a little bit different in the sense that an economic development council, uh, is interested in the macro economic side of things. And so we're interested in not necessarily just a particular small business, but we're interested in maybe the sector of the economy that that business operates in.
And so, um, you know, if you're a, um, you know, if you're a restaurant, um, you know, we're not maybe just talking about restaurants, but we're talking about the food service industry. Um, if you are, uh, if you make widgets, uh, you know, we're not just talking about you as a widget maker, we're talking about the manufacturing industry. Um, and so we take a, a bigger picture look, uh, at what's happening economically and what are those building blocks that need to be put into, you know, put into place in order to help those businesses thrive individually, but also that industry collectively, um, both within the community and, and regionally.
And then we are a contractor of the state of Washington through the department of commerce. We have a designation that is, uh, that's called the associate development organization for the department of commerce. And so we do a lot of things that are, you know, recruitment related for new businesses and, and, uh, industries into our communities.
And so, um, while we certainly align with the chambers on a lot of the regulatory advocacy work that they do and supporting small businesses and getting out and encouraging people to shop locally, um, you know, our, our approach, uh, you know, takes a little bit of a different, um, look at the economy in terms of how we strengthen industries across multiple sectors. There's a map behind you that I'm looking at as you're talking and, you know, Mason County is so unique. It's just off kind of that freight corridor of interstate five.
And it, you know, if I'm kind of doing a spit ball here, a third of the County roughly is either water or the Olympic national park. Another third of it is, um, open kind of Timberland. And then there's about a third, I would say, or better of city type dwellings.
Shelton's the only incorporated city, but there's union and hood sport and Allen and Belfair and things like that. So the, the challenges here over the years that I've seen have made it difficult at times to attract business here and build kind of out that growth pattern. It's been talked about and there's folks on both sides of this on Mason County being kind of a bedroom County where part of the community leaves North to go to Bremerton and Kitsap part of the community leaves South and East to get to Olympia.
When you're trying to develop in our areas and especially some of these more rural sectors, there's a lot of benefits to living here in Mason included with that is cheap power from PUD three, there's fiber optic internet. Some of the fastest in the world is here in Mason County. How do you go about and advocate for either to the County commission now that you're on this side of it, that may be zoning rules need to be changed or laxed a little to allow for more development in certain areas, or just, you know, reaching out to Pierce County or King County businesses and say, give us a, give us a better look here.
We'll give us a second look. I think the way that I've tried to approach some of this is cause I think it's easy to get hung up on some things, you know, development wise in, in rural communities. Uh, and, and there's a, there's a risk of becoming, uh, you know, focused on, we're either going to be a bedroom community or a job center.
Um, I think the focus is better served when we're saying we can be both and we're both and community. Um, we want to be able to provide both housing for people who work out of the County and jobs for people who want to work in the County. And I think it starts with us having, um, you know, it's just a really, um, you know, kind of a critical look at, um, you know, the, the opportunities that exist regionally and locally.
Um, we have a lot of forest land, we have a lot of waterfront, we have a lot of recreational opportunities. Um, those things are all really beneficial to people who are, um, you know, maybe remote workers, maybe people who are looking to, um, you know, split their time between here and, you know, uh, you know, place where they live more full time. Um, those things are also really attractive when you're talking to businesses that are looking to expand or relocate.
Um, they want to be able to provide affordable housing for their employees. They want to have access to world-class recreation opportunities for their employees. And so, you know, when we take a look at these opportunities that, you know, are coming our way from, um, you know, whether it's a site selection or recruitment process, or, um, you know, we're just looking at, um, you know, the potential for, for projects down the road.
Um, you know, we want to really market ourselves as a both and type of community. The way we get at that though, is we take a look at our urban growth areas. So we have three urban growth areas in the, in the County.
Each is a little bit unique and has its own characteristics. And so, as you mentioned, Shelton city, Shelton is our only incorporated city here. They have their own government.
They have their own utilities when it comes to wastewater and water. Um, you have, uh, the urban growth area at Belfair, which is, you know, really, in my opinion, poised to be, uh, you know, a next, uh, great retail and industrial, uh, manufacturing center for our community. And then you have the urban growth area of Allen, which is, um, you know, it's, it's maybe more geared toward residential and commercial, um, small like commercial type development and things like that.
I mean, just great location right on the water. Um, just a really nice community to, to be a part of, but it has those urban utilities and infrastructure in place there to allow for some of that growth. And so, you know, we have to be mindful of those things when we're looking at, you know, where do we, where do we kind of, you know, push for opportunity here in Mason County.
And so, um, you know, we have to work on having those partnerships with, um, the government, you know, agencies in those areas. We have to work with, um, private sector folks, both within the community and within the region to be able to encourage private investment. Um, and so, you know, taking a look at all of those kinds of ingredients and trying to put together, you know, a really good recipe for success, um, for those parts of Mason County.
And so, um, one of the things that we, we've accomplished this year is we did an industry sector analysis, or sometimes you hear it called a cluster study. And so that gives us an opportunity to take, you know, a look at, um, kind of what's happening from a data perspective, employment wise, what are the strengths and weaknesses and the opportunities that exist in, in our community and in the region, um, doing some supply chain analysis. So the people that are owned, that operate businesses in Mason County, where are they sourcing their materials from? Who are they selling their goods to? Those types of things are, are really kind of indicative of where we have opportunities to grow, uh, economically in the community.
And so we had, we had targeted five different industries, um, through that. And, and, and so, you know, manufacturing, agriculture and aquaculture, forest products, um, healthcare and, uh, social services, and then food services and accommodation services, um, you know, to round, to round that study out. And so some of the things that we learned through that were, were pretty eyeopening.
Um, it gives the, it gives the economic development council essentially a blueprint for the work that we need to do it, whether it's on workforce or opening up different market opportunities for folks that are in those sectors in our community. But, you know, as our community starts to, you know, bring in new people, there's a new, uh, you know, new, uh, demand for services and amenities and things like that. And so how do we position ourselves, you know, to be able to capture some of that.
And, you know, it looks a little bit different maybe down here in Shelton than it does in Belfair, you know, Belfair is going to definitely benefit from its proximity to, um, you know, to larger urban centers. And as, as folks get priced out of those communities and they look for affordable housing, they're going to be looking our way. Um, there's a, there's a huge limitation, uh, on the I-5 corridor and in, you know, into, um, you know, uh, Western Pierce and Kitsap counties for developable, developable industrial land, um, in order to try to meet that demand that's getting pushed off of the I-5 corridor.
Belfair has the capacity to bring that here. And then the thing that's sort of at the center of all of that, that's going to drive our population, it's going to drive commercial, it's going to drive, uh, light industrial manufacturing is the presence of the United States Navy, uh, in Kitsap County. And so, um, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is, um, you know, is currently going through the process of site selection for, um, you know, they're essentially their satellite, um, you know, operations as they embark on a multi-year, multi-billion dollar modernization project at the, at the shipyard.
Um, Belfair in particular, Mason County more generally is in a prime position to capture some of the benefits of that multi-billion dollar effort, um, that that's there to support our nation's defense mission. And so, you know, when we look at, when we look at these things that we know are happening, the conversation here is how do we position ourselves to capture that benefit for Mason County? And so that's the place that we want to make, make sure that we're engaging, um, both the public and the private sector. How has your, uh, kind of mindset changed from being a commissioner, uh, and looking at the County as a whole and all the intricacies of that to versus what you see as the Economic Development Council Director moving the County forward in that aspect? And I'm, I guess what I'm trying to ask you here is when we had our legislative send-off the other day, I think it was Representative Couture who mentioned the days of a development coming in and ponying up the money for the infrastructure, the water connections and things like that.
Those days may have, have gone past. So how do you advocate the County commissioners to invest in this infrastructure now and, you know, modernizing the sewer lines or making sure there's broadband everywhere that can, that can accept it to then be able to go to the Navy and say, we've got a turnkey plot of land that is energy ready, fiber ready, water ready for you to, to just choose us to have that stuff ready in the ground, knowing that, you know, finances are tight and money is tight and you can't just start building pipes and things like that to, to areas of the County that may not see that growth, but to go strategically into finishing up areas in Belfair or making sure all of Allen is, is covered for these types of growth potentials. Yeah, that's a great question.
And I think that's kind of at the, at, you know, the heart of the role that we want to play when it comes to infrastructure development. And I think representative couture was, you know, I think he was really spot on in his assessment of things. And he's somebody who is a small business owner himself.
He understands the cost of doing business. He understands the appropriate role of the private sector entrepreneur and the, and the public sector and what both can do if they, if they work collaboratively together. And so his opinion carries a lot of weight when it comes to, um, you know, the value that the public sector can provide to helping create an environment that allows growth to happen.
And, you know, the other part of what he mentioned at the legislative breakfast was that if we're not proactive and preparing for this growth, if we're not preparing ourselves for it, it won't happen with us, it will happen to us. And, and I think that's also really kind of informative in terms of what our local officials need to be thinking about when it comes to making some of these, um, you know, decisions about infrastructure. You know, my perspective has always been when, um, you know, when there is something that is in the public's good, if it's in the public's interest, um, then there is a role for the, for the government to play in, in helping with that type of a project.
Um, you know, an example would be the sewer extension that was completed last year in Belfair, um, taking, uh, a trunk line, a main line of the, of the Belfair sewer system further North, um, because of those planning efforts and because of frankly, the access to, um, exceptionally cheap financing through the state's public works board, um, the County was able to provide a, um, a piece of infrastructure that will benefit the entire community while also still having in place the, the cost recovery of any connections to that trunk line is as growth occurs. And so private, the private sector will make its contributions, um, over time when there are customers to hook into that. And then of course, there's the ongoing component of that, where you have your monthly, um, your monthly fees paid into the system.
And I think part of the challenge, you know, is that, you know, I think you have to have, um, you know, just kind of an understanding of how public financing works compared to what happens on the private side. We have a lot of folks that come in to see us here looking for, looking for grants or looking for, um, you know, financing options for their businesses and their expansion plans and all that kind of stuff. Um, and, and you hear about the programs that are available to small businesses and the private sector and the rates at which they're able to go get things financed.
Um, and then my perspective, uh, you know, in, in my time in local and state government, where you see the financing that's available to, you know, public agencies, uh, is drastically different, um, than what's available to the, to the private sector. Um, the extension that I mentioned in Belfair, uh, you know, had a, uh, interest rate of 0.54%. I don't care, you know, what your credit worthiness is or who you do your banking through. If you're in the private sector, you're not going to get anywhere near 0.54%. Yeah.
Um, and so when, when you have elected leaders who are willing to make strategic investments to figure out how do we mitigate the risk to the public, um, in order to do these types of projects, it becomes a great equalizer regionally for us, um, that you would, you know, you would put Mason County in a, in a competitive advantage, um, relative to our neighbors. Um, and you know, that said as the director here, it's also part of my responsibility to work closely with my counterparts in the larger urban communities that surround us on three sides. So in Kitsap, Pierce and Thurston counties, um, you know, to work collaboratively and, you know, we, we talk very regularly in particular, my counterpart in Kitsap and my counterpart in Thurston about things that they're seeing happening in their communities.
And if they're getting inquiries about projects and, you know, site selection inquiries that they might not be able to fulfill, they send those our way. Um, if they think it would be a good fit for Mason County, likewise, we do the same for them. Um, you know, there are going to be times where it's just, you know, it's, it's something that they might have a site that's ready.
Um, we don't, you know, that there might be a capacity issue or some other issues, zoning or whatever, um, you know, that, that they have already solved for in their community that would make them a good fit. Um, and so the economic development community in, in Washington is a, is a, it's a small, fairly tight knit community where there's a lot of that sort of, um, you know, sharing of information and sharing of opportunities and resources. And, and while we all want to compete for opportunities for our communities, we also recognize that we have strong regional partnerships that, that, you know, kind of rise the tide for the entire state and in our regions.
So, um, it's a, it's a pretty good group of people to be associated with, um, in terms of, uh, just developing out those partnerships to bring opportunities back to our parts of the state. A lot of folks look at an economic development council, I think, and they, they think of it in terms of new business or small business support, things like that. But you're also talking about advocating for, and the, you know, the increase of affordable housing here, uh, to kind of go back to those folks who may want to remote work and, and, and things like that.
Where does housing fit into your purview of an EDC? When we're evaluating our work and when we're looking at how we recruit new opportunities to Mason County, we look at three things. Uh, we look at available infrastructure, we look at, uh, workforce needs or workforce gaps, and then we look at housing. Um, those three components together, uh, make up, you know, the bulk of the concerns that we would, we would have to face if were to attract a new employer to Mason County.
Those things are also really important to people who already own and operate a business in Mason County and may want to expand it. Um, you know, if, you know, we've worked with, um, businesses here in the community that want to, you know, make a sizable investment in their business and bring in additional workforce to their organization to try to grow it. Um, and then the question is, where are they going to live? Um, you know, so we're really interested in, in seeing those three things work together to, to create opportunity here.
And so, um, I, I spend a lot of time thinking about housing and, you know, in particular, you know, kind of what we're seeing at the very low end of the housing affordability spectrum. And so we know that we have some challenges like every community in Washington with homelessness and affordability with, with housing. And so, um, you know, sometimes, you know, we, we want to take a look at those options too, because those are, those are important elements to creating, um, you know, some balance in the community so that people can kind of grow up through the housing spectrum as well.
It's not all about, you know, just the, you know, 2000 square foot single family residence. That's, you know, that's kind of a cornerstone of our housing market, but we also have to be looking at more multifamily development in particular in the city of Shelton. And so having a lot of conversations with, uh, leadership at the city about how do we encourage more infill development in town so that we can bring in, you know, a little bit more of a diverse blend of housing.
So we need to have conversations with our nonprofits in the community that do housing. So your crossroads, your new horizons, um, and others in order to develop permanent supportive housing solutions for, um, you know, folks who are, you know, maybe coming out of a, you know, coming out of, um, uh, you know, incarceration or who are working through substance use issues, who need a place to live, who would be, uh, you know, going through programming in order to get restabilized in the community. And then, you know, from our perspective, hopefully back into the workforce, hopefully back into becoming, you know, the contributing members to the community that, that they want to be and that we need them to be.
And so, um, it is truly kind of, uh, you know, cross the board view that the economic development council has on creating housing opportunities here. Um, everything from, you know, like I said, that permanent supportive housing, transitional housing side of things to your, you know, that, that missing middle, uh, housing component that we hear a lot about. So having a mix of housing in particular in our urban growth areas to, you know, have a good blend of housing options.
And then, you know, and then on and on and on and up, um, you know, for the people that maybe, uh, you know, are, um, you know, remote working and want to have, uh, you know, a house here on hood canal, um, you know, all of those types of things kind of come together to make a good housing ecosystem. And so it's working with the, it's working with the city and the County it's working with private builders, um, you know, to try to help navigate some of the regulatory side of things. And so, um, you know, and then encouraging those nonprofits to move forward and build some new housing units too.
I know your position and the EDC in general works on a lot of, and I can't think of a better word right now, but secrecy in these types of communications you have with potential site selectors or potential businesses that come in, you know, I've heard stories over the years of, uh, um, somebody was coming into a town, not here. I think it was in the South, but they were coming into a town and somehow the word got out that they were looking at building and, you know, like the marching band was there and they were, Hey, welcome or something like this. And the, and the guy said, just keep flying.
Like just turn, turn around because they couldn't for whatever reason, keep the sensitive nature of the conversations going. That being said, how, explain how to somebody listening who drives past, um, a plot of land. And I understand a lot of this is owned by different timber companies, but you go by a plot of land that says 35 acres ready to go right for sale.
And why, why does it seem so hard to, to find somebody or to build there? Yeah, that's a, that's a great question. And so we do, we do hold, um, you know, a lot of confidential conversations with developers and with, um, you know, prospective, uh, employers and, and things like that. And, you know, a lot of that is just, um, depending on where you're at in the process, you know, just trying to, to, you know, be a good incubator of those opportunities, right.
If, you know, sometimes if things get out or they get out the wrong way, um, you know, those, uh, those potential developers, you know, tend to get a little bit spooked, you know, and, and, and back away. And so, you know, we want to be mindful of that. We want to be able to protect the information that, that they're sharing with us.
A lot of times we're looking at financial information that, you know, the, the private sector shouldn't have to, um, you know, expect there to be a public conversation about, um, you know, we're helping people get connected with financing and things like that. So, you know, we do guard a lot of the information, um, you know, and it's not, and it's not, I think there's a lot of perception here that, you know, we're like, you know, this is like Oz and we're behind the curtain pulling all these levers and, you know, the Illuminati and all that kind of stuff. That's just not the case, you know, I mean, I don't think that we're that, um, uh, you know, nothing is, nothing is that, is that serious.
Um, but we do want to, we do want to make sure that when people come to us for assistance, that they have a reasonable expectation of, of confidentiality with the information that they're, that they're sharing with us. And we take that very seriously as does the board. Um, that said, you know, if, if you're driving along one-on-one and you're looking around and you're saying, Hey, we've got a ton of developable land here.
What, like what gives? Um, one of the big challenges that we have is, is from the site readiness perspective here.
You know, there's a number of things that would go into site readiness that would be consequential to a person making a decision like that. I'll give you a great example of where we're trying to work on improving that. So Port of Shelton is a great partner to the Economic Development Council.
Ports have a very unique economic development mission as part of their creation and their formation. And so, you know, they work really closely with us and the Port of Shelton, in particular, has a ton of developable land and, you know, want to be good partners in trying to develop that and bring opportunity here. So we partnered with the Port of Shelton last year to go after funding through the State Department of Commerce to do site readiness work at their Johns Prairie Industrial Park.
So right across from PUD 3, it's a great location. It has access to rail. You know, it's obviously have access to really good power right there and fiber.
Some challenges on the sewer side. And so we were awarded or the Port of Shelton was awarded through our partnership with Commerce $200,000 to work with the City of Shelton on a plan to provide sewer to those parcels. So as you're driving through and you see these open plots of land that would make a ton of sense for development, a lot of the things that are necessary for development are invisible to the naked eye.
Sure. And so, you know, that's why we have to rely on our partners to tell us, you know, kind of where those gaps are. And then we can help.
We can help find the money to make those things happen. Is it better to, you know, I see on social media, people say, all we need is a blank big box, usually a bowling alley. Sure.
Okay. All we need is a bowling alley. No, all we need is a Home Depot.
All we need is a Costco. All we need is a blank. And then it seems as they feel magically, all of the situation will fix itself.
They'll come in, they'll pay the note, there'll be 500 new employees that will translate into housing. Is it better? Or how do you split your time? I guess is the question. How do you split your time between building up the small businesses across Mason County that each contribute to the economy versus, you know, trying to land that big fish that people will then at least drive by and see on perhaps a daily basis and then and feel like things are happening here in the county? Yeah, a couple of things on that.
I you're 100% right. I mean, if you go on Facebook, and you go to any of our community pages, you know, there is a there is a laundry list of things that, you know, people think are the silver bullet economically, I would say we probably spend 75% to 80% of our time working with existing businesses on how to help them, you know, expand and working on retention efforts versus recruitment, which is probably about 20% 25% of what we do. And, you know, the the fact of the matter is, Mason County does not have the population to support something like a Costco right now.
It's I look at that statement that people make. And I wonder, you know, as I look again at this map behind you, where are they coming from? Because it's not as if the 101 is right on the route to the harbor, or things like that. So I mean, how do you how do you talk people off the edge on those types of Yeah, I mean, I think it's just being kind of honest about, you know, where we're at.
And I don't mean like our physical geographic location, I just mean, like, where are we at in terms of readiness for projects like that? Yeah. And I think, you know, we're, we'll get there eventually. I mean, that's, you know, I mean, it's just our population continues to grow, we have, you know, we're making those strategic investments in infrastructure and everything.
You know, and I think we'll always look to bring those types of opportunities to Mason County. But, you know, like, for the longest time, you know, we just, we haven't had the population to attract, you know, a big box store, like, you know, a Home Depot or anything like that. And these are the you have to understand, too, that these are massive corporations that have, you know, their algorithms for when, when and where they make investments and what that looks like.
And they're, they're fairly cookie cutter. And so they they don't, the risk has been kind of taken out of the equation for for Home Depot, for example. And they're not going to come into a community that's our size yet.
They look at where their other stores are located, they look at, you know, their online presence in communities like ours. And so when you talk to these organizations, you know, they, they, they'll, they'll have a communication with you, they'll, they'll talk to you about, you know, what they do and how they do it and everything. And then you kind of have to take a step back and say, okay, well, we're just, we're just really not there yet.
You know, Walmart is a great outlier in that situation. Because Walmart, I think has, you know, just sort of their business model is just very different. Like they are located in a lot of smaller rural communities.
To begin with, they started in a, what at the time was a smaller rural community in Arkansas. And, you know, and so there, there may be a little bit of an outlier, but there's definitely, you know, there's definitely an equation that these companies use to determine where they locate their big brands. And so we just haven't gotten to that point yet.
We'll get there eventually, where we see the real value in our, in our local economy is, you know, is in places like Sierra Pacific or in other very, very nondescript employers that you drive past every day and don't even think about. Sure. You know, and so where we're focusing is on, you know, helping the businesses here already expand, grow their payroll, grow their employee base and, you know, really trying to target, you know, good jobs for the community.
And so that's, that goes back to our cluster analysis that I talked about a little bit earlier. So we know that there's a huge demand for healthcare services and that's only going to continue to grow. So how do we work with Mason Health in order to be able to expand, you know, and recruit registered nurses or, you know, primary care providers or imaging techs and all the other things that go into providing services, you know, that our community is going to rely on more and more over time.
But at the same time, how do we also help them attract new specialties into the community? So that as we have an aging boomer population, you know, that they, that they have services that, you know, whether it's, you know, expanding, continuing to expand their cardiology or, or other, you know, specialty services that, that people are going to want. We also look at like manufacturing. So how do we help a company like TruFab up at the Port of Shelton that does a ton of really great manufacturing work for companies like Boeing and for the United States Navy? How do we help them expand their, their, their employers or their employees, you know, in particular their welders.
So, you know, how do we kind of solve these, these puzzle pieces and put them together to help sustain the jobs that we have here and kind of grow that way is a big focus for us. Yeah. And I was thinking of businesses that you were saying, you know, you drive by every day and you don't really notice those types of things, but like for the TruFab, I mean, I guess too, as you're, you work on your development with them, their, your metric of success with them would be perhaps adding a third shift or making it so they can have a morning crew, day crew and night crew continuing to work on that.
It's not. And then in turn there, they bring in another 25 potentially full-time good paying jobs. So when you look at those types of wins potentially in the community and another question I have is who, who are you, who is the EDC accountable to? You mentioned partnerships with the commissioners and the county and the commerce and things like that.
But I mean, I guess like who oversees the, the, what you're doing here and kind of audits your success matrix. Yeah, that's a great question too. I mean, so we have a really engaged and aligned board of directors who are members of both the public and So we have board representation from some of the largest companies in Mason County, including Green Diamond and Sierra Pacific and Taylor Shellfish.
And we have representation from our public sector agencies like the Port of Shelton, Mason County, City of Shelton. And so that, that we have, we'll have after our board elections now, we'll have 17 members of, on our board of directors. They are my boss and they, you know, they approve or disapprove of, you know, the, the work plan that staff here puts together and puts in front of them annually.
And yeah, I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's part of my job as the director to keep the board informed on the things that we're doing that, you know, we do have day-to-day autonomy. We're pretty flexible and we can be pretty flexible when opportunities come our way to, to be able to go after those. But there is, there is nothing that we do here that, you know, doesn't get shared with the board or doesn't get input from the board.
And I'm really, really grateful to have that kind of engagement from our board of directors. I can't speak for other organizations, you know, and how their boards operate within, you know, kind of their structure and everything, but we have a really strong board here that cares about the community, that wants to see opportunity happen here, and they want to be a part of that. You know, and so they're, they're super responsive and provide a lot of great feedback for Kar and Tiana and myself to, to actually go out and do the work.
And it's been really fun to, to get to work with them in this capacity and get to know them in this capacity and to be able to collaborate with them. And so we do have that kind of oversight of the sort of the, you know, operations, I guess, of the organization. And then we receive routine audits both from the State Department of Commerce, who we hold a contract with.
And then we also have an outside auditing firm that, that does a financial review for us. And depending on, you know, a couple of years ago, we went through a full single audit, you know, based on a lot of the federal funding that we had passing through during COVID and all that kind of stuff. So there are those checks and balances, there are those, you know, independent third party looks at our operations, both financially and from a policy procedure standpoint.
So that, you know, we're doing the things that we're supposed to be doing as a, as a bona fide nonprofit in Washington State. So are there then like check boxes, if someone's going through and they say you've done this much outreach, and while maybe you can't disclose who you've been talking to, somewhere, there's a record that you did talk to somebody, and you've put out this many feelers, or you've gone to a conference here and there to kind of advocate for Mason County. So those are some of the checks that people see.
Yeah, so with our contract with the State Department of Commerce, we have a number of metrics that we have to track throughout the contract period. And so that's everything from how many business retention and expansion outreaches we conduct every year to do we have a marketing plan in place to help promote not just commerce's programs, but to also promote the work that our business community is doing here. You know, are we doing, you know, site selection and recruitment efforts and all that kind of stuff.
So it's all outlined in our contract, we go through and we negotiate that with commerce every two years. So we're coming up on that period now. And we've, we have always met and exceeded, you know, our metrics with commerce.
And, and that's the same for all of our grants. I mean, if we have a if we have a, we also have a grant writer funding that we get through the State Department of Commerce, they drop in and do spot checks on our, on our finances, and, you know, invoicing to make sure that what we're billing them for is work that we're actually doing. And so I think the people in Mason County can have a high level of confidence that the EDC is doing the work that it says it's doing and doing it really well.
You continue to see the state as a whole, especially on this side of the mountains, forecasted continual growth. And like you mentioned, the I-5 corridor, as people talk about continues to move south, you know, for Seattle to Tacoma, now Tacoma to Olympia and Olympia, people are looking for additional opportunities. Not only now, I guess they have either a choice to continue I-5 south into Lewis, or move their way up the 101 into Shelton.
So when you're looking ahead to the next year into year two of your time here, or even into the next five years, what, what are you hearing as the continued growth, anticipation of different sizes and population in the county? And how could that also position Mason County to, to receive some of these things that people have been looking for? You know, increased hotels that bring in more and more folks on the weekends, increased opportunities for box stores finishing out this infrastructure. What's the, what's the growth pattern? Because there is a lot of open space in Mason County. And we have a great opportunity to fill in the blanks for places that are trying to expand.
So what are you hearing in those kind of thought experiments on just how big population-wise or business-wise the county could be in the next year or five years? Yeah, I, you know, I think from our perspective, we're, if we aren't already, we're going to soon really fill those pressures. And so, you know, for us, it's about, you know, we're a small shop, there's three of us here, you know, it's about how do we position ourselves to, you know, be able to meet those needs and demands. And so, you know, that's, that's where we really have to rely on our partnerships to be able to do that work.
But, you know, we get, we get a pretty steady stream of people even now coming in and saying, Hey, I have this business idea, I'd like to, I'd like to start this business. And, you know, admittedly, a lot of the times, you know, those ideas are good, but they're not quite ready yet to, you know, take that leap. And so, you know, there's a lot of technical assistance that we provide for individuals who come in here.
We see that growing. I also see the challenges. We have a lot of non-English speaking entrepreneurs in Mason County, I see that continuing to grow.
So how do we meet that demand? You know, I sometimes struggle with English, let alone, you know, having a second language. And so, you know, that that doesn't mean that we don't have an obligation to serve non-English speaking entrepreneurs as well. So how do we, how do we position our organization to be able to do that? And so, again, that's partnerships, and that's trying to build that cultural competency within our organization, and then ultimately, in the community as well.
You know, so those are, those are things that, you know, we're really thinking about here and trying to prepare for, you know, and I think, I think it's just, it's, it's a challenge that we're going to have to meet head on, you know, and I look at it, you know, from the, from the government's perspective too, when you think about what does this mean for level of service and expectations, and, you know, and so when, when you talk about, we'll just use the example of a, you know, of a, of a box retail store here, that means something different to the private sector than it does to the public sector. So the private sector sees it as an opportunity for more shopping locally, it sees it as an opportunity for jobs, it sees it as just sort of maybe a catalyst for other economic opportunity to, to kind of, you know, be attracted to that particular area. On the public sector side, it would view that through the lens of sales tax generation, and so if you look at both the city and county's budget, a large percentage of their budget is built off of sales tax revenue.
And we've seen that it was climbing astronomically, and then, you know, it's kind of plateaued a little bit, but still some, you know, still anticipating some increases. A lot of that is due to being able to collect point of sale, online retail revenue that way. I mean, that was a huge driver of it.
You know, but when, you know, when the public sector is thinking about like those investments we were talking about earlier with infrastructure and what do we get out of it and all that kind of stuff, you know, that's the lens that, that they're hopefully going to be viewing, you know, these economic opportunities through is, what does this mean for how we're able to support critical public services like law enforcement, you know, and other, and other services, you know, planning and permitting, you know, so as you're building housing and you're building, you know, commercial and things like that, you want to make sure that you have a predictable and reliable planning and permitting process to make all those things happen so that it's good for the investor, but it's also good, you know, good protection for the community to make sure that you have, you know, qualified credentialed individuals who are making those decisions on the, on the government side too. So, you know, there's, there's a couple of lenses to view those things through. And, and, you know, I think from, from my seat here across the street from the county and the city, it's a tremendous opportunity for us to embrace.
We should not flee from the opportunity to attract, you know, economic development and growth to our community. We can do it in a way to go back to what representative Couture was talking about. If we're preparing for it and we're planning for it, we can manage it.
And we can do it in a way that protects our natural resources and, and the things that maybe, you know, that rural character that was so attractive to people coming here in the first place. We, we can be a community that is, you know, both open to opportunity and protective of the environment that we have. We're, I think collectively, we're pretty good at being able to figure out complex situations like that.
And I think we can continue to do that here, but you know, there's, there's going to be that sort of gut check moment for our community where it's like, we have this opportunity. How do we embrace it? And how do we kind of change sort of the local perception of what we are and what we can be? How do we dream big? How do we attract opportunities here and really embrace it? And I think the EDC is well positioned to be, you know, kind of at the center of that conversation in our community. You can always get more resources, learn a little bit more about what the economic development does here in Mason County.
They have a good presence online. You can visit their website and they do continue to offer opportunities for folks like you were saying, Kevin, the have an idea. And I'd like to see if this kind of could take shape because so many of our businesses in Mason County, large businesses, medium-sized businesses did start, you know, in a small garage or in a storefront, and they've only grown from there.
So that potential is available here. It'll be interesting to see over the next year or so, as things continue to shake out with city, county, and state government, how Mason County continues to advocate for itself and sees itself moving as a real key portion of this part of the state. And so, you know, good luck on this next year.
It's been a quick year already for you, I know. And I'm excited to continue to see the growth in the county as people, you know, given a second, third, and hopefully, you know, before too long, a shovel in the ground to the county. So thank you for some time.
Yeah, absolutely. The arrow is definitely pointing up for Mason County. So always happy to share our story.