With money to spend, the county revives its focus on economic development.

With a coffer of federal cash and a new executive hired to steer the ship, Monterey County officials are preparing to make economic development within the county a new priority.

The economy here stands primarily on three well established legs: agriculture, tourism and health care. The pandemic revealed to jurisdictions across the world the need for a resilient economic portfolio. In Monterey County, supervisors made room in this year’s budget for a new economic development manager – a position that had been vacant for years – and in August brought on Richard Vaughn, formerly San Bernardino County’s economic development manager, to lead the effort.

Vaughn says his job will include attracting outside investment and diversifying the county’s economy, but a majority of his time will be focused on “domestic retention and expansion, and helping the county’s vulnerable populations better access the economy that exists.”

The county supervisors set aside $2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for economic development and are in the process of forming a refreshed Economic Opportunity Committee. The committee, led by supervisors John Phillips and Mary Adams, will play an advisory role in how the $2 million is used, and help shape economic development policies and strategies.

Phillips and Adams initially brought a slate of committee appointees to the board for approval on Oct. 26 but the list, incomplete due to a clerical error, was scrapped and criticized by other supervisors for a lack of diversity. All eight appointees on the agenda were white and seven were male. The goal is to bring the appointments back to the supervisors for approval by January.

“We want economic development to be alive again, we’ve hired a new director and have staff to work with the committee,” says Wendy Root Askew, chair of the board. “The partial slate of nominations didn’t match the demographics of the county that we’re trying to serve.”