Jeff Wattrick: A No-Nonsense Mackinac 2012 To-Do List

The Mackinac Policy Conference should be more than a boozy 72 hours of glad-handing and self-satisfaction. The annual event is an important opportunity for regional and state leaders to find new solutions for our problems. To not take full advantage of this opportunity, to pull a punch or play it safe so as not to upset the hail fellow good cheer is criminal.

The Detroit Regional Chamber’s post-Mackinac to-do list is, frankly, an embarrassing collection of corporate jargon, vague platitudes, and empty gestures. So I took it upon myself to revise it. For your reference, the strikethough text is from the Chamber's list. My personal commentary is in italics.

This is not intended as a personal policy wish list. It is truly meant as a revision--using the Chamber's nomenclature--based on ideas explored this week by the likes of Thomas Friedman, Fareed Zakaria, Josh Linkner, Gov. Rick Snyder, Ex-D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and other Conference favorites. As such, it is designed to appeal to a broad consensus of Mackinac attendees. Even if you disagree with the policy prescriptions below in full or in part, I think we can all agree this is what an agenda developed at, you know, a public policy conference should look like.

1. Partner with Governor Rick Snyder and key institutions to host a statewide military veterans hiring conference with the goal of securing Michigan employment for veterans. (EDIT: The preceding sentence represents all that was worth keeping from the Chamber's list, to which we add...) The unemployment rate for Michigan veterans is 29%, while the overall unemployment rate is 8.3%. It will be a priority of the Regional Chamber and its member businesses to dramatically narrow that 20.7-point spread between now and the 2013 Mackinac Policy Conference.

The desire to improve employment opportunities for veterans was among the most compelling items on the Mackinac agenda. Kudos to the Regional Chamber for making this a top “to do list” priority, but concern isn’t enough. Real progress must be made to narrow the gap between veteran unemployment and the overall jobless rate.

2. Engage in an effort to help Detroit-based businesses cut through local government red tape to help promote business start-ups and success. Engage with education leaders to ensure students develop the skills and learn academic lessons necessary to prepare them for an entrepreneurial economy where, as Thomas Friedman says, workers will be increasingly expected to “create their own job.” To help bridge the gap, the Regional Chamber and its members will work to provide greater access to mentoring and capital for emerging young entrepreneurs.

The Chamber could cut through red tape and then proceed to trade its MG for a white Chrysler LeBaron, but it won’t matter unless the state's education system nurtures creativity and fosters a sense of rational risk-taking among future generations. Also, when people talk about cutting through amorphous red tape, it's hard to assume they actually intend to do anything. 

3. Lead a delegation of Detroit-area business leaders on a lessons learned trip to Washington, D.C. in partnership with Whole Foods Market and former Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams. Identify object lessons from Washington DC’s successful Control Board process. Use that experience as a roadmap for righting Detroit’s fiscal ship and returning full control of governance back to local, elected officials as quickly as possible.

If the only lesson Detroit learns from Washington DC and Anthony Williams is that communities support well-run grocery stores, then we’ve completely missed the point.

4. Accept the challenge from John McElroy, the host of “Autoline” and partner with the College for Creative Studies to engage in a Detroit Future Envisioning project. Utilize (Leverage?) the full political weight of the Regional Chamber, through its PAC, to support Governor Rick Snyder’s transportation infrastructure agenda. The NITC Detroit-Windsor bridge should have secured all necessary governmental approvals, and authorizing legislation for a regional transit authority as well as a reconfigured gas tax structure should clear legislative hurdles, prior to the 2013 Mackinac Policy Conference.

Given the choice between yet another visioning process (hello, we already have this, it’s called the Detroit Works Project) and a punch in the face, I’d take the latter every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Metro Detroit doesn’t need more navel gazing. It needs better roads and real transit. Fareed Zakaria made this case (bridges pay for themselves in economic opportunity, etc) on Tuesday. Maybe we should take his advice.

5. Develop a program at the Detroit Regional Chamber to support promising entrepreneurs and businesses with access to coaching in best practices and capital. Through its PAC, the Regional Chamber will follow the lead of MPC 2012 straw poll participants and oppose ballot initiatives that seek to overturn Public Act 4 and enact “Right To Work” laws.

The Chamber’s fifth agenda item was easily folded into item two on this list, and since Mackinac is a policy conference, I figured it might be a good idea to follow the consensus of conference participants on these two critical policy issues.