Cooper Bows Out Edc Executive Takes New Job In California

In the end, it was Bob Cooper who got swept away to California.

Cooper, who for 10 years skillfully recruited Golden State businesses to the Inland Northwest, has resigned as president of the Spokane Area Economic Development Council to start a similar organization in Southern California.

Cooper said Friday that on April 7 he will open the newly created Economic Development Collaborative of Ventura, Calif., an oceanside community an hour north of Los Angeles.

“I’m eager to climb a new mountain,” the 45-year-old executive said. “After 10 years, it’s time.”

EDC Vice President Ken Olson has been named acting president while the agency searches for a permanent replacement.

Joining the EDC in 1987, Cooper’s business recruitment efforts fueled the best economic expansion in Spokane since Expo ‘74.

But his departure comes at a critical time for Spokane’s economic development future.

Momentum ‘97 earlier in the week disbanded to be replaced by a new organization, Focus 21. One of Focus 21’s mandates is to target specific industries for a five-year recruitment and expansion of 10,000 badly needed, high-paying jobs of $23,000 per year or more.

In addition, the EDC currently is working with a corporation that wants to put a “back office” center in Spokane, employing 500 to 1,000 people.

Cooper said his resignation should not affect these efforts.

Moreover, Spokane Mayor Jack Geraghty said that, under a restructuring plan, the Spokane and Spokane Valley chambers of commerce and Spokane Regional Convention & Visitors Bureau may assume the EDC’s role for retaining existing businesses and marketing Spokane. That could change Cooper’s position to a primary business recruiter, rather than an agency manager.

Regardless, Spokane City Manager Bill Pupo said the EDC needs to move quickly to find a replacement to continue Cooper’s successes.

“You snooze, you lose.” said Pupo, an EDC board member. “We’ve got too much invested in the community, and there’s only a limited number of employers that will seriously relocate.”

EDC Chairman Frank Tombari said the agency plans to hire a new president within three months.

He declined to disclose how much the position pays, but Cooper said in 1995 that he earned $65,000 per year.

Cooper, a former college basketball player who turned down a job with the Central Intelligence Agency to become an economic development officer, used his insights as a California native to hook company after company for the Spokane and Inland Northwest economy.

Scanivalve Corp., Lyn-Tron Corp., Zak Designs Inc., Packet Engines and Harpers Furniture are among the employers Cooper helped recruit from California.

“He made Spokane visible,” Tombari said. “He was known as one of the top economic development guys in the country.”

Under Cooper’s leadership, the EDC said it recruited 82 companies to Spokane, generating more than 5,300 new jobs with an annual combined payroll of $200 million.

The nonprofit organization is funded by 280 companies, city and county taxpayers, area chambers of commerce and Focus 21. The EDC’s annual budget is $1 million, with a staff of eight to 10 people, Olson said.

Cooper’s Ventura agency will be financed by a three-year, $3.5 million grant from federal and Southern California sources. The project is designed to compensate for the downsizing of Point Mugu Naval Base by expanding existing industry, lending money to new companies and recruiting business to the area.

Ventura County, with 700,000 people, is about twice the size of Spokane County. The cities of Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Ventura, as well as miles of ocean beaches, are located in the county.

Cooper used to boast to California business owners about the low cost of living in Spokane. But he said he’s starting to look at Ventura differently.

“It’s not all that expensive,” he said. “And what a fabulous place to go to work.”

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