Politics & Government
Selling Business on Union City: Commission Finalizing Economic Development Plans
The Economic Development Advisory Team is finalizing the design and content of promotional materials, data migration to a new database and its analysis of ways to attract business to Union City.
Union City will soon unveil plans to help retain and attract businesses to the city.
Christine Friday, the city's economic development coordinator, presented an update to the City Council on Tuesday about the efforts of the Economic Development Advisory Team (EDAT) to come up with goals for future development.
EDAT is made up of city staff and business and community leaders and was formed in September, 2010.
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An action plan stemming from an analysis of the city's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and potential threats (known as a SWOT analysis) will be ready by EDAT's April 27 meeting.
The report will identify areas to attract and retain business, marketing and outreach initiatives, improved data record keeping, and potential partnerships with outside organizations.
Find out what's happening in Union Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
One of the areas Friday said the group found the city was particularly weak was having a unified marketing campaign in place to promote awareness of Union City as a whole.
They are in the process of finalizing new marketing materials, she said, and are also migrating data on business activity in the city to Salesforce, a leading provider of customer relationship management (CRM) cloud applications.
The new database will not only allow the city to identify marketing campaigns for specific sites, but keep track of current businesses and business prospects, including how companies are performing on a quarterly basis.
The council discussed the importance of economic development and how Union City's actions could impact nearby cities.
Councilmember Lorrin Ellis questioned working with other cities on development efforts. He said his main concern was keeping tax dollars in town, and the city should recognize it is competing with its neighbors to retain companies and attract new ones.
But Mayor Mark Green said strong surrounding cities can benefit Union City, and because many residents are employed elsewhere, "Other cities need to be strong to keep our people strong."
Councilmember Emily Duncan said the city can learn from similar efforts of surrounding cities. "We can look outside of Union City to help us think a little bigger," she said.
