As published in the August 1, 2005 Toledo Business Journal
James H. Hartung
Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority, president
TBJ: What do you see as the most important need in the business community?
JH: There are actually three that are all necessary. One is vision. We have to have a clear sense of what Toledo is to be, what we want to be. The second is commitment. Leadership has to understand that nothing happens overnight. You have to have the tenacity, the courage, and the patience to work the plan. The third is obviously action. It’s not just thinking about doing things, it’s going out and aggressively pursuing them with passion.
TBJ: What advice would you provide for advancing the economy in our region?
JH: It’s a simple matter of leadership coming together. I’ve been in Toledo for over eleven years now. I’ve fallen in love with Toledo – I love the assets that it has and its potential, but I’ve always been very disappointed in leadership’s ability to truly come together with unity, direction, and strength. There have been several attempts to really understand, embrace, and pursue a broad, regional picture of what northwest Ohio can and should be, and the role that the urban core, Toledo, would play within that scenario.
Generally, I think there’s a fear factor and I don’t understand it. It seems to be part of the culture of leadership where we’re not willing to stretch ourselves, to put ourselves out on that limb to courageously take stands on issues.
TBJ: Do you see any opportunities with the potential for increased involvement from private sector leaders on the horizon?
JH: I’ve been greatly encouraged by the willingness of the private sector to invest in the privatization of the Regional Growth Partnership (RGP). I’m hopeful that a new privatized RGP can now be a regional economic development agency without having to apologize for it, and will spur a lot of independent private sector thinking about what has to be done within the region. I think the privatization will really energize the RGP and what we had referred to as the partnership before – the Chamber, the Port Authority, and the RGP – will become a true partnership, not just a partnership of funding source, but a partnership based upon vision and function.
TBJ: Can you share your thoughts on the issue of infrastructure development and the Port Authority’s planned role?
JH: As we start to see the RGP’s role, the new role of the merged city and county economic development functions, and then the Port Authority – what we’re starting to see now is clarity being given to the Port Authority in terms of its role in economic development. Infrastructure is our strength. We are the managers, administrators, and visionaries when it comes to Toledo’s transportation infrastructure – airports, seaport, connections to the interstate highway, the fact that we’re a rail hub, and we’re a major pipeline terminus. We have a lot of transportation infrastructure that is part and parcel to our action plans to make Toledo an international transportation coordinating center.
On the other hand, in terms of infrastructure, the Port Authority board had to make some major decisions about what I refer to as the “old RGP money,” the monies that the Port Authority had received by levy that had been invested in funding the RGP. It’s about $1.25 million. The Port Authority has to reprogram these dollars. During the levy campaign, the Port Authority committed $350 thousand to neighborhood-based economic development – not to fund the administrations of any CDCs or other neighborhood organizations – it’s designed for actual, innovative program development for economic development purposes. In many respects, it is infrastructure-oriented.
For the balance of the funds, the Port Authority has taken a leadership role in the past about the brownfields. Toledo has a lot of brownfield property. As the RGP works towards creating a regional vision and looks for a regional economy, and the City of Toledo and Lucas County focus on the more parochial economic development efforts, you realize that you can have the best economic development service delivery system in the world, but if you don’t have product – available property – you’re not going to be successful.
The Port Authority is going to put itself in the position where we want to become the facilitator for the acquisition of property, for the remediation of property, by providing those other services that are necessary for those properties to become shovel-ready. The other services include addressing such issues as access, infrastructure, zoning, etc. Making sure that we develop an inventory of properties that are available for use in economic development so when the city or county identify a prospect that wants 20-acres of property, there’s 20-acres of property that’s shovel-ready. That’s a very tangible benefit where the Port Authority starts to play a role in basic infrastructure issues.
Obviously, the Port Authority’s financing capabilities plays to its role in infrastructure development. The Port Authority is a national leader in what port authorities do in innovative project financing. We have stand-alone bond funds, the Northwest Ohio Bond Fund, we do synthetic leases or off-balance sheet financing, we administer the federal 504 loan program and the state’s 166 loan program. Everything that we do is drawn back to the tangible, physical assets of infrastructure and then, of course, beyond just pure infrastructure, making sure that Toledo stands as a leader in transportation.
TBJ: What is the number one thing that you personally would like to accomplish?
JH: I’d like to see Toledo emerge as a recognized transportation center in Middle America. We have all of the transportation assets; all of the major modes converge here. We have what no one can buy or develop, and that’s a strategic geography, where you can access over half the population of the US, almost the half the population of Canada, and about 60 percent of America’s industrial complex within one transportation day. This makes us an ideal location for development. Transportation is increasingly important as one of the bottom-line issues in business success today, and we have all of the transportation assets here in Toledo.
Part of the role of the Port Authority is to facilitate that happening. To provide the leadership and vision to make those things happen.
TBJ: Please identify an important community organization that needs more support.
JH: There are multiple organizations. Certainly the Regional Growth Partnership, in its new incarnation, is going to need support. We really do need a coordinated approach in economic development, where the RGP works side-by-side with the new city / county merged economic development effort, the Port Authority, NORED, TMACOG, the Chamber of Commerce, community based organizations, and state government. They all play roles.
TBJ: Is there any other issue that you would like to address?
JH: My theme over the years has been trying to set an example. Trying to demonstrate that we can accomplish a lot if we focus on our goals and are passionate in pursuing them. There’s an element of real courage to leadership within this community. It’s not for the faint-of-heart; it’s a contact sport here in Toledo. You have to be willing to invest your time and energy, immerse yourself in it – it’s not a nine-to-five proposition, it has to become part of your life.