The honor recognizes the city’s public outreach over the past year
On Friday, March 16 the California Association for Local Economic Development (CALED) honored the City of San Marcos with an Award of Merit for its public outreach efforts surrounding economic development.
The award recognizes the City’s efforts to inform the public about its economic development program over the past year, which included a promotional video, series of news stories, informative brochure, community profile, interactive online demographic dashboard and social media campaign.
“We’ve worked hard to spread the word about economic development because it’s still relatively new territory for San Marcos,” said Economic Development Manager Tess Sangster, who has led the division since in launched in 2015.
In fact, economic development was named a top priority in 2015, spurred largely by an increasingly competitive business landscape. And the city’s charter–a voter-approved guiding document–says staff should embrace a business-like mentality and find ways to boost revenue, which certainly applies to economic development.
“Our businesses are a critical piece of our local economy, supplying more than 40,000 jobs here in San Marcos,” Sangster said. “When we empower our businesses to succeed, the entire community benefits.”
Working under the City’s newly minted brand and tagline, “Discover San Marcos,” city staff invited the public to learn more about its economic development division, which is gaining steam as the City’s surrounding business community grows.
“Our business inventory has grown by 25 percent in the past decade alone, and we expect that growth to continue,” Sangster said. “That’s partly why we’re committed to proactive economic development and this award speaks to that.”
During CALED’s annual conference in Monterrey, CA, Sangster formally accepted the award, which is the City’s first economic development honor.
“This is a great starting point for us,” Sangster said. “We contribute a $7.9 billion annual GDP to the regional economy. And as North County’s education hub, we also produce 10 percent of the region’s total academic program completions. This recognition rightfully puts San Marcos on the map.”
