The Marin Economic Forum, a government and business collaboration created to foster economic growth in the county, will cease operations early next year after a 12-year run, according to the Marin Independent Journal.
The organization filled a number of roles in the county, including by hosting regular “Forecasting the Future” events to inform businesses and government organizations on macro-level topics, a particular need before, during and the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. MEF brought in speakers on the topics of commercial real estate, transportation options for employers and a showcase of a business starting and growing in Marin.
MEF Chief Economist, Dr. Rob Eyler, provided forecast for the economy in 2024 as the ongoing conversation around inflation continued. Eyler credited the national labor force’s “resilience” for staving off a recession. Eyler noted Marin’s aging population and said the county’s median age is a little over 47, which is 11 years older than the state’s median age. Eyler said 65% of Marin County residents have at least a bachelor’s degree, which makes Marin one of the state’s most educated counties. He also said only 35% of people who work in Marin County have a bachelor’s degree or higher.
A statement announcing the organization’s pending dissolution proclaimed: “Mission accomplished.”
“The board of directors took the decision following an analysis that the organization’s mission and goals had been achieved through its activities over the past 12 years and that the recent additions of economic development staff at the county and multiple cities could cause redundancy,” the statement said.
Mike Blakeley, the nonprofit’s chief executive officer since 2018, declined to be interviewed but did respond to emailed questions.
“MEF was founded to provide economic development expertise to the county, jurisdictions, and private organizations at a time when there was no public staff to do so,” he said in an email. “As of 2024, the county and several jurisdictions have added staff positions focused on economic development or appointed existing staff to manage economic development.”
Blakeley added that since MEF had advocated for more economic development staff across the county to support local businesses and nonprofits, “this recent development is an achievement of MEF’s efforts.”
Blakeley is the group’s fifth and longest-serving director, and its only full-time employee. The forum has struggled financially for years, unable to attract significant financial support from the local business community. It has relied principally on funding from Marin County.
MEF grew out of the Marin County Economic Commission. It was launched in 2010, operating initially under the fiscal sponsorship of the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership before obtaining its status as a nonprofit organization in 2012. Robert Eyler, a professor of economics at Sonoma State University, was the first chief executive officer.
Eyler, who has continued as the organization’s chief economist on a contract basis, said nonprofit status was deemed important so that MEF would be viewed as being independent from the county. “The county could help finance it,” Eyler said. “But the county did not want economic development activities to be seen as politically motivated.”
During that time, some of Marin’s largest employers and MEF’s biggest financial supporters — Autodesk, Lucasfilm, Fireman’s Fund, Disney — either disappeared, downsized or moved out of Marin. MEF has periodically struggled over the years to cover its expenses. In the 2015-16 fiscal year, the organization ended the year with a deficit of about $55,000, and in 2014-15 it had a deficit of about $33,500.
Blakeley told the IJ the organization was solvent last year, but declined to disclose its revenues and expenses. Its tax filings show its expenses exceeded revenues in 2020, 2021 and 2022 by $96,234, $191 and $34,689, respectively. The organization reported $287,348 in expenses in 2022, and $191,000 of that was Blakeley’s pay and benefits. Government sources accounted for a majority of the revenue in each of those years. In 2021, government funding supplied 85% of the revenue, and in 2022 it accounted for 71%
The board of directors includes Marin County Supervisors Eric Lucan and Mary Sackett. Lucan said that since he joined the board in 2022, the organization has had a “heavy reliance” on government as a funding source.
Over the last eight years, MEF has received more than $1.4 million from the county. That does not include a $133,000 federal grant that MEF partnered with the county to secure. The money was used to hire a consultant to help create the Marin County Economic Vitality Strategic Plan, which was completed in 2022. It is the county’s first long-term economic development strategic plan.
Regarding why MEF hasn’t received more financial support from the local business community, Joanne Webster, president of the North Bay Leadership Council, a regional business advocacy organization, said, “The business community wants action relative to economic development in the county. MEF was really great at providing information and data, but they really didn’t take advocacy positions.” In 2020, Webster, then chief executive officer of the San Rafael Chamber of Commerce, teamed up with Cynthia Murray, Webster’s predecessor at the North Bay Leadership Council, to formulate a list of 10 recommended actions to help Marin’s economy recover from the pandemic. The first item on the list was the creation of a long-term economic development strategy.
With the demise of MEF, the responsibility for implementing the long-term plan will fall to the county’s new economic vitality coordinator, Raissa de la Rosa. De la Rosa, who was Santa Rosa’s economic development director for more than six years and studied film and photography at the San Francisco Art Institute, was hired last December at an annual salary of $164,340. She got a two-year contract.
Over the last eight years, MEF has received an average of more than $177,000 per year from the county. For the fiscal year that began in July, however, the county had budgeted only $100,000 for the organization. Lucan said the allocation was reduced because de la Rosa would be carrying some of the load. Nevertheless, Lucan said he considers MEF a “big success.”
Lucan: “In many ways, it’s a sign that they’ve done what they needed to do. Mission accomplished.”