Latest / Let's Talk Small Biz Finance with CIC Tucson / Building Local Economies with Heath Vescovi-Chiordi and Danny Knee | Let's Talk Small Biz Finance
Transcript
- Danny Knee: Hey everyone, I'm Danny Nee. I'm the executive director for Community Investment Corporation. And this is our podcast, Let's Talk Small Biz Finance. I am joined today by a good friend, ⁓ Heath Vescoviciotti. ⁓ Heath is the director of economic development for Pima County. His work focuses on economic development and workforce development with a priority on sustainable and diverse growth. The goal is to increase the... County's viability for business attraction, retention and expansion. He's a U of A grad with a master's degree in public administration and a certified Arizona economic development professional. He's won numerous awards and accolades, including being named one of Tucson's 40 under 40. ⁓ He's won the Gabe Zimmerman Public Service Award for emerging leaders in 2021. He was named one of Biz Tucson's next. Gen Leaders in 2022 and the Economic Developer of the Year by the Arizona Association for Economic Development in 2024. That is quite a resume and and a lot of awards. I mean, how did you do that? It seems like it's so hard to win awards. You know, I definitely understand. Have you ever won a copper cactus, Heath? No. Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha I have, you've never nominated me for that, so that's a very unfortunate circumstance, geez. Danny Knee: Well, I simply know him as the guy who single-handedly brought back buttoning your polo all the way at the top as well as the quarter zip sweater under a sports jacket trend for guys. So that's what I'm trying to do today. I've got both ⁓ out of mad respect for your fashion and style. Thanks so much for joining us here today. Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Yeah man, no thank you. And let me make one quick correction because apparently I didn't read it close enough. I don't have my CECD yet, but I do have my Arizona ⁓ ED Pro certification. So just want to make sure we got that clear. Danny Knee: Okay. That is tremendous. We should probably stop now because I don't even know if it's worth it anymore. All right. Well, thanks so much for joining. You know, I'm going from my ⁓ two ferns vibe here. So you've done so much already and you're still so young. So how does it feel to have already peaked and be on the downhill slide from here on out? Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: It's not, honestly, it's not. At 20 it's actually jarring, legitimately it's so jarring. If you can believe I'm only 20. No, I think that's an actual thing though. People think about that all the time. You've gotten to a certain level, you're of a certain age, well where do you really go from here? So I think about that quite frequently to be perfectly honest. You laugh, you jest, but it keeps me up at night. It's existential. Danny Knee: I'm It's just because I'm old and I haven't made it yet, Heath. That's the deal. All right, so let's get to some serious conversation about economic development. We are very honored to have you here. There are words that are commonly in use whose meanings are kind of nebulous. Words like the metaverse and blockchain and hair gel. mean, what's a gel? What's a mousse? What's a cream? Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Nah. Danny Knee: What do you use, by the way? You seem like you might know a little bit about that. Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: I do, I use the Green Crew Forming Cream and it helps, it does its job perfectly. Danny Knee: It's very nice. I am impressed. when people talk about economic development, it's just like, well, what does that mean? So can you just describe for our audience, is economic development? Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Yeah, and thank you for having me, Danny. Like, this is really fun. This is super cool. It's between two ferns, but I don't see a fern for you, so we got to fix that soon. ⁓ You know, for me, though, economic development is a few different things, and there's kind of a traditional component to it and then kind of a little bit of a newer one. typically, right, you're talking about the attraction of jobs, the retention of jobs, capital investment, and all those different things, right? Those are the traditional kind of metrics of economic development. Danny Knee: Yeah. I know you just have the one. Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: I think for us, especially at Pima County, we're talking about community based economic development. So we take into consideration all of those other things. And then what we also want to do is make sure that we are doing things that are in line with the community, that have direct community benefits, that reflect the values of the community, our board of supervisors, councils throughout the entirety of the region, and that we're aligning those two things. So we want to make sure that we're creating jobs and expanding job opportunities and making sure people are earning enough money. But we also want to do that while kind of maintaining the ethos. right, of what our policymakers do and what our community wants. So it's a little bit of a two-fold thing there. And there's tangible and intangible benefits, right. So we want to seem attractive for outside investment, which is a real traditional thing, but we want to make sure that the jobs that we get here are quality pay, they've got child care opportunities, health care being paid for them, all those different things. So people can work, are happy and healthy, and can move up or around side to side, whatever that looks like, and give them economic mobility. Danny Knee: Fantastic. And I think that is a great description. It's really good because sometimes people only think of one piece of it and don't think about ⁓ the whole part. We're going to play a little game later on that's called This or That. And sometimes I think that's a problem that we have right now. It's always one thing or another. And we're not talking about how there really are multiple strategies in economic development. I know there are. that there are lots of tools, not just one tool for success. talking about success, so how do know that you're doing it right and how do you measure success? Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Yeah, there's a lot of ways to do that. So first and easiest, right, is that we're checking off check marks that are more of KPIs in our economic development strategic plan. That's a policy document approved by our board. And so we know that when we're knocking those things off, we're doing the right thing, right? We're making progress, removing the needle. But I think there's a lot of other things that we can talk about, too. It's how we're engaged with the public, right? How we're including, you know, board of supervisors strategies and things, ⁓ how received with projects, how we're looked at from outside individuals like site selectors and things like that, how we're perceived in many, different ways, not only as we exist now, but what our plan is to be in the future. And I think the key component to that is that it's not just economic development that gets us there. It's every single plan that we have. It's every single action that the county takes or that you take or, you know, that various institutions throughout the region take. So when all is said and done, we think about what we want to be. And then we think about reconciling all different visions to get to that point. So the cool thing about my job and your job as well is that it's never done, right? It's a really, really long ongoing process to get to this thing that we want to make attainable and it's step-by-step incremental progress all the way through. Danny Knee: It is something that I've always liked. ⁓ Community Investment Corporation has an economic development mission. And, you know, I sort of joke like it means it's almost anything is in play and, you know, it's a little more. ⁓ You know, obviously directed than that, but on some level there are so many things that are intertwined in, you know, bringing together a local economy. One thing that we focus on here, and I know that you know that, is really on small businesses. ⁓ You know, it's, ⁓ while business attraction is certainly an important part of economic development, the place that CIC focuses more is on our small local businesses. So, what do you think that small businesses should know about your guys' work specifically? Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: So that an entire arm of what we do is dedicated to like small and medium sized businesses. And that specifically is business retention and expansion. So as an example, we do kind of host all these different meetings where we'll go out to businesses that exist throughout the community. We'll chat with them. We'll talk about what their current status looks like. And if they're feeling good about where they're at right now so that we can retain them and make sure that they have everything they need. Or if they're looking to expand, what are the things that they need to accomplish or acquire in order to do that. And expansion can mean 10,001 different things based off of, you know, that kind of multitude of whatever is happening with them at any given moment. It could be adding one person. It could be adding 50. It could be creating or updating a new business plan. It could be ⁓ adding square footage. It could be accessing a wet lab or a dry lab space, literally any of those different types of things at any given moment. So we facilitate those meetings. We facilitate those discussions, and then we try to provide access to those things. And you are actually a provider of access to some of those resources that we're looking at for a lot of different people. So that's one core component of what we do. And I think we'll touch on it bit later, but we're actually going to be ramping that up in the coming fiscal year. We have a lot more opportunity to provide some resources directly, do a little bit more collaboration with organizations like yours, and also internal collaboration that should yield some workforce development opportunities and business retention and expansion opportunities too. Danny Knee: And I want to give you guys a shout out. ⁓ In terms of being a partner and a collaborator, we find it really easy. And that isn't always the case. And so ⁓ you guys are always open to our ideas. And I know that you're always asking us. ⁓ I've participated in helping and looking at drafts of things, which, again, I think is really important. You guys aren't just sitting there doing it all on your own, not that you guys aren't. Smart geniuses over there, but at the same time, ⁓ being able to get the input. And I would say as somebody who's a practitioner, ⁓ it is great to have government partners ⁓ like you guys are. So thank you so much for that. What are the major changes that you are seeing in the economy overall? How do you think it's affecting our region and then also our small businesses? Is there anything? Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Mm-hmm. Thank you. Danny Knee: You know, I do think with things like ⁓ tariffs, the war, I mean, there's a lot of stuff that's going on. So you must be sort of ⁓ in touch with that for your job. So what are you seeing? Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: you Yeah, there's a ton of shifts happening right now and it's happening at every different level. So at the federal level, right, you mentioned a few different things and those certainly have an impact on the way that we are perceived and the way that we attract new businesses. And especially because attraction right now is not just from directly outside of like state lines, right, or the county lines or whatever. It's global, right? So we're talking with companies that are all over the place. So anything having to do with conflict or federal level policy that might affect supply chain or manufacturing chains or certain specific goods right that are required for XYZ, those things really do have an impact on the way that we attract businesses and the way that we position ourselves right to say hey you know this is what we're doing this is what we can offer and this is why we're the best choice. That also has an impact right on small and medium-sized businesses. It also has an impact on industry specific right so in volatile times you'll end up having more opportunity with certain industries over others and then in times like this there's a lot of issues with supporting small and medium-sized businesses because large businesses are either kind of staying put where they're at and they're not growing, so that means that they're not utilizing additional services that are provided by small and medium-sized businesses. So we keep track of all those different things and trying to understand those things, they shift every single day, quite literally. And so what we're trying to do is represent a sense of constancy. So this is what we can offer and we will offer it tomorrow and the next day and the day after that so that those values don't change. And so that means that those people can make a better calculation about coming here and accessing small business resources or medium-sized businesses and helping create that ecosystem a little bit better. It's very complicated, it's really complex, and you're right, we do deal with it every single day. It's hard to keep a beat on 24-7. Danny Knee: Yeah, and I do think, again, are so many things are kind of ⁓ interwoven. ⁓ The idea of small businesses are often servicing larger businesses, so they have to actually care about what's happening to larger businesses. ⁓ again, appreciate your perspective on that. All right, so we are gonna in a second get into some of the resources, some of the new things you're working on, but we have to know for sure that you are like a trusted type of person. So we're gonna play a little this and that, you know, we'll figure out this or that. ⁓ And that way people can judge for themselves whether you are to be trusted. It's my ode to Black Sheep, who was a rap group back in my day, a song, The Choice Is Yours. And so this is... If anybody wants to check that on Spotify, I'm going to plug them as well. All right. So teacher or economic developer? All right. So why do you say that? I know why you say it, Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: teacher. Well, first, you're a former teacher, so you gotta give it up. My girlfriend is currently a teacher, so let's be realistic. But teachers are the fabric of the community in many, ways. Economic developers, a dime a dozen, no big deal. Danny Knee: Yes. I do love it too, because ⁓ the idea is like, we all know who our favorite teacher is. Somebody now might be able to say who their favorite economic developer is. You, of course. But in general, it would probably be a little bit harder to figure that out. OK. Batman or Robin, you are one and I'm the other. So who's what? Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Agreed, yeah. I love the idea of being bossed around by you a little bit, so I'm gonna go, I'll be Robin, you can be Batman this time. Danny Knee: I appreciate that. also wanted to throw out that Batman's costume would have to cover your fancy hair. So it's very important that you ⁓ are actually Robin. That one was a right or wrong one that you had there. ⁓ In this one, I'm not even sure. I may be dating myself. Pinky in the brain or Ren and Stimpy. Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Hahaha ⁓ those are effectively equal in my opinion. If I had to choose, I would go pinky in the brain. A thousand percent. Danny Knee: All right, so then the follow-up is Pinky or the Brain. Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: It's gotta be pinky dude. He added the most to that show a thousand percent without him. There are no hijinks Danny Knee: Nerf, yes absolutely. All right, we got a couple more. Tupac or Biggie? Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: That's unfair. ⁓ Danny Knee: Hahaha Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: That's tough, dude. ⁓ I'd have to go with, I think, Tupac. Danny Knee: Also the right answer as you know, I went to high school with Tupac. So there you go ⁓ Very very important that you got that answer, right? You are trustworthy Okay, fine. Finally the last one diamond backs or Dodgers Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: You ⁓ so I really sorry everybody that loves baseball. I don't particularly pay attention to baseball except for when the Diamondbacks won the championship and I think I was like 15 at the time. So I am going to say Diamondbacks, especially because I'm from Arizona. Danny Knee: That's good, it was a trick question, you're wrong again, San Francisco Giants, that is the actual answer. So ⁓ thank you so much for doing that. Let's get back to actual stuff. Okay, so what resources should small business owners know about? Are there any that you think are overlooked resources in the community that people should be taking more advantage of? And that is, again, you work with so many of the providers, it doesn't have to be just from Pima County, but. Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: So thanks. You Thank Danny Knee: your thoughts on what are the types of things that they should know about. Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Yeah, so and you you're obviously one of those resources. We all know that. You guys do what you do extremely well. And so people, if they don't know about you, certainly should. If you're watching or listening to this podcast, you probably know who CIC is. One of the things I think is really often overlooked is the fact that like when we're talking with small businesses and they're looking for a financial resource, some of our local like small business lending institutions are consistently overlooked. And I know that you guys do a lot of lending work, right? And there's various types of programs that you have that, you know, facilitate different lending opportunities for different types of businesses and business owners, et cetera. But even some of the more traditional ones, they offer competitive opportunities and sometimes those things get lost. So we've taken a lot of time to like reinforce them for our relationships with those lending institutions so that we can get that information out there a little bit more. And then I think something really specific, ⁓ Pima Community College from a training ⁓ standpoint and opportunity, not necessarily overlooked, but critical in this region. And then our own community and workforce development department, we do have a lot of services that small businesses and medium sized businesses can use, especially for hiring and especially for training. So if you're looking to retain people or grow them, we actually have resources for those as well. And then the regional IDAs, the Industrial Development Authorities, a litany of opportunities right through the Pima and Tucson IDA. So we always want to be paying attention to that. And then, you know, coming soon, your Pima County Economic Development Office will have a couple of opportunities specific to small and medium-sized business support as well. Danny Knee: That is awesome. And I do think the pointing out the workforce development ⁓ is great because it is something that we still continually continually hear ⁓ that, you know, it's hard to find ⁓ the right fit for certain jobs and those types of things. So I think that is really important to note. OK, so, ⁓ you know, Eminem, I am an R &B sort of rap guy. So Eminem, you he talks about going back to the lab again to write more verses. So Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Ahem. Mm-hmm. Danny Knee: What is, ⁓ you know, what are you guys doing in the lab right now? When you go back, what is the economic development department's version of that? ⁓ Yeah, what are you guys up to right now? Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Sure. That's a great question. How much time do you have, man? Like, there's a lot of stuff going on. Danny Knee: Yeah, well let us know! Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Well, we we're engaging in a lot of grant opportunities right now. So we've got, I think, two grants that we've recently applied for. Those are specific to workforce development and economic development nexus. One of those is in like AI and health care and how those two things come together and effectively how you can create curriculum ⁓ that integrates into health care. so those individual health care solutions, providers and employees can be ready for like next generation employment opportunities that are growing, which is really interesting and really fun. ⁓ And then we're working on a new FAA aviation grant so that we can start doing training opportunities and experiential learning opportunities for youth so that we can make sure that they get trained up so that they can take positions in the aerospace and aviation industry in this region, which aviation specifically right now in like the MRO space, so maintenance and repair operations, looking for hundreds and hundreds of people in this region right now. And that need is only growing, right? So we're looking at shoring up some of those gaps. And those gaps only exist because the need is so great. There's a lot of organizations that are doing a lot of excellent work right now. The CTE programs across the region, the JTEDs, the Pima Community Colleges of the world, they're all helping to address those things simultaneously. ⁓ We're also working on attracting new companies, right? So I just mentioned to you both earlier, I am traveling to Taiwan tomorrow. Part of that is actually working with semiconductor companies, assembly and testing and packaging companies to see if they can come here to Pima County to establish their footprints and grow here. We've had some very long-term discussions with a lot of those types of companies and so we're going to see if we can bring that to fruition. And we're also working simultaneously to bring more startup companies to the region too. We've got a great startup ecosystem here with UACI, the Tech Park, Tech Launch Arizona, Startup Tucson. And so what we want to do is help contribute to that by creating more technology startups here in the region that can grow here and then eventually right turn into that hopeful unicorn of a billion dollar value. But we want them to be here and feel home here, right? And so that's part of our efforts in Taiwan, but also kind of across the globe simultaneously. And then we're working on some policies that I think are really great. And we've actually got two policies recently approved as well. So for our board of supervisors, we did an enhanced due diligence policy so that we can provide more information on programs and projects, right, that we're looking to attract. And then a non-disclosure agreement policy so that we can help make sure that our board and the public are better informed when we're talking to companies that require a non-disclosure agreement and then we're actually working on our first financial incentive policy as well. That's something that we've been working on internally. That's actually something that you've taken a look at and reviewed and given us feedback on and that'll be something new for us to consider and eventually right it'll go through all the different levels of review at the county to get looked at and maybe it makes it across the finish line maybe it doesn't but we're trying to make something that's beneficial for the attraction side as well as the small and businesses that exist here so that we can continue to support them. And then everything in between, right? We're always paying attention to policy. We're always making sure that we're talking to the right companies. We're always making sure that we're connecting across borders to ensure that people know that we exist in the first place. And we're creating a brand for economic development for Pima County. So a lot of stuff going on and I didn't even really touch on workforce development, infrastructure development. We work on all those things as well. Danny Knee: You guys have a great staff. ⁓ I know we work with ⁓ Kelly, we work with Frank, Artemio. So I know that you have a good crew over there as well. again, the idea, mean, people can say what they want, but the idea that I know their first names and that means that they're showing up in the community where we are. we again, really appreciate that. Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Mm-mm. Yeah, and to your point though, the one that doesn't get to show up in the community is Julie, who runs my office and my calendar and keeps me sane and does all the administrative stuff. That is equally as important, because literally without her I think I would go insane. Danny Knee: Yep. Yep. Well, good for shouting her out then. We know often the people that are handling the details are really the ones that are keeping it together. All right, so I appreciate you coming again. ⁓ Heath, it's great to see you and I always love, I have this idea, I tell people it's called the Home Depot test and it's like if you're in Home Depot and you see somebody, are you gonna go down the aisle to see them or are gonna duck into another aisle and you are definitely a guy Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Mm-hmm. Danny Knee: who passes that, I would definitely come in and say what's up. So the last question before we go, which I think is important if you're in Tucson, what is your go-to Sonoran hot dog cart? Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: or in hot dog cart. I don't know the name of it which is super unfortunate but it's quite... Danny Knee: That's alright, then give us the... I mean, here it is, we're just shouting out, we can get the cross streets or whatever. Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: The general, yeah, the general coordinates are literally right next to the bus station downtown off of Congress and I think it would be Scott at that point. It's set up there every single weekend, every single night. You go there, right after, afterwards, and you have a really delicious snorindog. Yeah, it's wonderful. Yeah, that's what I said after work. Yeah. Danny Knee: Yeah, Afterwards. After work. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That's great. Do you go hot pepper or not on the side? Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Love a hot pepper, man, absolutely. Danny Knee: Right on. All right. Well, again, thank you so much for stopping by, Heath. We really appreciate all your work. You guys are up to some great stuff, and we look forward to seeing all the new things that are coming as well. All right. Yep. Take care. Heath Vescovi-Chiordi: Thank you, sir. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Bye.