After over a year without an executive director, the Development Corporation of Richmond officially accepted Cameron Goodman as its new director in January. Originally from Canada, Goodman moved to Texas when he was 7 years old and has worked in the economic development field for most of his professional career. Community Impact Newspaper sat down with Goodman to discuss his vision for the Development Corporation of Richmond for 2018. Community Impact: What is the role of the Development Corporation of Richmond? Goodman: The decision to allow for the collection of a half-cent Type B sales tax was made by the voters of Richmond in 1995. The Development Corporation of Richmond was created in the same year to govern the use of those funds. The board is governed by a seven-member board of directors who are appointed by the City Commission. The purpose of the DCR is to serve the community by promoting private and public investments that will generate multiple public revenue streams to fund quality of life enhancements and activities that preserve and capitalize on our heritage. CI: What does your job entail as the new executive director? Goodman: The main primary duty…is implementing the vision and strategic goals that are established by the board. The board kind of gives you the direction and the executive director is the one who implements it. That includes attracting primary jobs, bringing quality development—not just any development that would happen by itself, but attracting a higher level of development to the city—and marketing Richmond as a location for investment. The day-to-day of an economic developer is often varied. One day could consist of site tours of properties around the city with potential investors and another may be focused on collecting workforce data for an industrial project. Every day is a little different, so it’s pretty fun. CI: Why did you decide to take on this role? Goodman: I recognized [that] Fort Bend County is one of the most dynamic, fast-growing counties in the country, really, and Richmond is at the heart of it. They are the county seat, they are right here in the center, they are right at the cusp where all that growth is coming, and I wanted to be in a place that recognized the importance of economic development. When I was talking to the board of directors you could tell that they were…ready to grow but at the same time protect the history of the city that is already here. We don’t just want to make everything the same as it is all over Fort Bend County; we still want to keep it Richmond, but we want to make it the best Richmond that it can be. CI: What are your top three priorities for the DCR to complete? Goodman: The overarching main goal that we are always working toward is to improve the quality of life in Richmond. You do that by increasing economic opportunities whether that is through workforce training or bringing new jobs to the area for the residents, and then [by] growing the tax base, whether that’s property tax or sales tax, you want to bring in more revenue to be able to spend that money on quality of life for everybody here. The three things we are going to do to make that happen is we are going to [create an] economic development incentive policy, we are going to conduct a target industry study and we are going to finish the website [that will be used as a tool in marketing Richmond.] These three short-term goals are important building blocks which will help position Richmond toward long-term success.  CI: Can you elaborate on the industry study and the incentive policy? Goodman: The targeted industry study will determine which industries would benefit from a strategic advantage by looking in Richmond and the DCR would then target its marketing towards businesses in those key industries. An incentive policy will help assist the board in analyzing requests for economic development incentives. The goal is to create a standardized application process where projects can be evaluated upon their economic impact. CI: Why is the website a top priority? Goodman: Creating a website is a key goal for several reasons. Polls of site location professionals and economic development organizations have shown that a website is the most important marketing tool for economic development organizations. The website for the DCR will go online on February 28 and will feature key data such as local demographics, available commercial properties, workforce data and quality of life information. CI: What can Richmond residents expect to see from the DCR this year? Goodman: A more targeted approach to getting things done. The board has always been engaged, they have been great, but I think they’ve been seeking someone who is going to come in and kind of implement those ideas that they have. I think they are going to see a development corporation that is a little bit more active [and] a little bit more strategic with what they are doing. CI: What is the DCR’s budget this year? Goodman: The DCR’s budget for the current fiscal year is $2.24 million. The budget funds the operations of the DCR and includes funding for transportation projects and investments into workforce development. The revenue for the DCR comes from the collection of a one-half cent sales tax collected on eligible purchases within city limits.  CI: When does the DCR meet and can anyone attend the meetings? Goodman: The DCR meets on the second Tuesday of every month at 6 p.m. The meetings are open to the public. CI: Is there anything else you’d like residents to know? Goodman: The board is working for everybody’s best interest—we want to make the quality of life better, we want to make sure that people are trained for the jobs of the future, that there are more economic opportunities for them here. The best way to improve your life is through a good job or workforce training [or] through an education, so we just want to make sure those opportunities are available.