Washington Business Spring 2019 | Washington Business | Page 20

washington business In Their Words Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier was elected to the office in 2016 after serving eight years in the state Legislature. He previously served in the U.S. Navy and has a long history of volunteer service. A Pierce County native and small-business owner, Dammeier is working alongside business and local leaders to diversify the county’s job base, prepare the next generation of workforce to fill in-demand jobs and engaging in addressing the region’s growing homeless population, particularly among youth and military veterans. Dammeier spoke with staff writer Bobbi Cussins to discuss the economic momentum of Pierce County and how collaboration and what he calls the “Pierce County Way” are the keys to creating vibrant communities. Pierce County has seen some terrific progress in job growth. What makes your area so attractive to those family-wage employers? We’re pretty excited about the most recent numbers, which continue to trend upward. We just surpassed Snohomish County in job growth. So, we do have some momentum down here, and I think it’s the result of a number of things. First, we wanted to send a strong message that in Pierce County and all the governments in the county and this community value the jobs that folks bring to our community; we value businesses as good corporate citizens. They help make our community better and stronger. Their contributions to our community go beyond the jobs they provide folks. And, there’s also an attitudinal piece. We’ve been working to streamline our permitting, going through a lot of our codes to simplify them, and reduce red tape. I think the word is out there that we’re really working hard to make Pierce County, and the cities within Pierce County, a better place to work or make an investment to build a new plant or expand a plant. We want new businesses down here. But what I really appreciate is when you have folks like Carlson Paving Products. These guys make paving machines used throughout the world, and they decide they’re going to double their plant size here in Pierce County. You’ve got a company that says, “We’re going to double down. We’ve been there, we know what you’re like. We know what we’ve got, and we want more of it.” A Manufacturing Industrial Council was established in Pierce County last year and your office has put a focus on protecting industrial areas as part of preserving high-wage jobs. Why is that so important to Pierce County? We want more family-wage jobs in Pierce County. The other thing is to make sure that we’ve got strong industrial lands to maintain a strong manufacturing base. Those are good, family-wage jobs, in many instances. In addition, we have a number of efforts to focus on job creation. You’re probably aware of the Family-Wage Jobs Credit Program that we have in several of the municipalities in Pierce County. If a company creates five or more family- wage jobs in the county, we’re going to give them a rebate of $275 on their fees and permits for every job they create. From military to manufacturing, a lot of effort has been made to diversify the region’s job base. Why is that so critical? We’re not only after manufacturing jobs, but I want to diversify the economy down here. I want a whole range of family-wage jobs, because we’ve got a whole range of people who live in Pierce County that want those jobs. That diversity makes for a strong, healthy economy. I don’t want to be dependent on just one industry, or another. I know the Port of Tacoma just 20 association of washington business Bruce Dammeier did an Economic Impact Study, and they’ve got over 20,000 jobs there with an average pay of $95,000 per year. That’s impressive. They moved 3.7 million containers last year. So, the port is an important asset to us, as is Joint Base Lewis-McChord, which gets overlooked. Fifty- four thousand people work out there with an annual economic impact of $9.2 billion. Most folks just think, “Well, those are soldiers.” Well, there are a lot of soldiers out there too, but there are a lot of civilian jobs on that base. First of all, those soldiers buy houses, rent houses, buy cars, and defend our country, by the way. But beyond that, you’ve got a lot of civilian expertise out there. When you think about all those helicopters based at Gray Army Field, or the C-17s at McChord field, there’s a lot of technical expertise required to help maintain and support those aircraft. So, there’s a lot of very good jobs out there. You have been active in promoting educational efforts — from the Puyallup PTA to serving as a top education leader in the Legislature — how are you applying that background to address the challenge of filling the local workforce pipeline? As a small-business owner, as a leader of Pierce County, and as a former school board member, I’m keenly aware of both the challenges of making sure that we are preparing our kids to have really good jobs going forward and having those jobs for them right here. I know