This month’s podcast special guest is Burdette (Pete) Fullerton, Assistant Director of Commercial Properties & Development with the Kansas City Aviation Department. He discusses why it is vital for economic developers to measure and track incentive compliance metrics:

Well, the organizational impact side, I remember when folks would say “What you doing?” And I said, “Well we’re real busy.” Well being busy is not a metric, and so generally the contacts, and visits, and marketing, and the deals influenced or things that organizations should track, relative to economic development deals, and what the impact of that protocol is. We really look at jobs and investment. Those are two key metrics that are pretty basic for the economic development organization to attract. But I think you also now see the importance of tracking payroll that was influenced by that deal coming in. Also, the average wage of the job that’s being assisted and created in the community – that’s important for increasing prosperity in the community. And also, I think one of the things that folks are really starting to have to track more and more is, who’s getting the jobs on these companies that are coming in and expanding in the community? Is it the local employment? Is it folks coming from out of town?

Either side of that is a positive, but you need to get more granular in those analytics. And I think the other thing becoming more and more of an issue is, where is the location of that business? Is it in an area that needs extra assistance in a redevelopment and is more connected to some disenfranchised populations that possibly need access to these jobs as well? So it’s not just jobs and investment anymore. There are certainly some more granular activities that folks need to be tracking.

To listen to the full episode of the podcast, use the player below: