Salinas City Council considers the value of hosting Forbes’ ag tech summit.

Celia Jiménez here, still thinking about the Forbes ag tech summit that Salinas City Council discussed last week. It was a classic genre of disagreement within city governance—how do we spend our money to do the greatest good for the greatest number of people?

Here’s the context: The city of Salinas has hosted Forbes’ Reinventing America Summit for four years, starting in 2015. Each year the city has also sponsored the ag tech conference, to the tune of $250,000 (about a third of the total cost). The summit was postponed during the pandemic, but now it is back and Salinas City Council is deep in discussions about what kind of investment the city should be making.

For the 2024 summit, the nonprofit Agriculture and Land-Based Training Association (ALBA), which works with aspiring small farmers, many of whom are Latino, to help them get the skills they need to start their own organic farms, will be front and center. It’s a program many people feel proud of. 

To Chris Brown, ALBA’s development director, it’s clear that this summit is good news for ALBA. “Ag is really dominated by very big farms, corporations, and it seems like the small farmers are all but forgotten,” he told City Council during a meeting on Aug. 22. The event will give ALBA exposure on an international stage, and a platform to show what they do. 

But not everyone is sure Salinas should invest in the summit. Steve Ish, president of the Salinas City Center Improvement Association, sent a letter saying the city should spend its money wisely: “We don’t want to compromise our credibility by allowing expenditures for downtown events without the proper public review,” he wrote. 

Others wondered what the investment means for the city. On behalf of the Salinas Valley Chamber of Commerce, Kevin Dayton asked: “Has anyone determined the return on investment to the city for this $250,000 annual contribution?”

City Manager Steve Carrigan said they could study sales tax for that week at hotels and restaurants and compare it with other weeks. But he also argued that the value might go beyond what’s measurable—“how do you put a dollar amount on being in Forbes magazine?” he asked. He added that the summit wouldn’t continue without the city’s sponsorship. 

City Councilmember Andrew Sandoval tried to put the number in context, and said, “$250,000 a billion-dollar industry is nothing, but for the city of Salinas and its residents it is.” That’s money, he argued, that could be invested in crosswalks or traffic calming projects instead. 

Councilmember Anthony Rocha says he hasn't seen a return on the city’s investment in previous years. “I really struggle with using taxpayer dollars to put on that kind of an event, especially when there's so many barriers to access for our local residents to attend that event,” he said. 

Rocha made a motion to study the economic benefit of the summit, provide recommendations for a community benefits agreement and provide a defined agreement. The motion passed 4-2, with Mayor Kimbley Craig and Councilmember Steve McShane opposing. 

I understand why some residents are reluctant to encourage this investment when the city’s sidewalks and streets are in need of repairs and that’s a benefit they would notice in a heartbeat. It will be interesting to see what the council decides when the issue returns.