Why jobs scorecard is so fuzzy

Transparency is a fierce watchdog. Unleashed, it's a great friend to taxpayers and the general public.

But the ultra-competitive, hush-hush nature of economic development bites that watchdog right in the rear. And as a result, the veil of secrecy can be misinterpreted. Is it masking misdeeds? Poor performance? Or is it necessary to compete for companies that might move to North Idaho?

It would be fascinating to have a detailed look into how Jobs Plus, the area's economic development agency, is doing in both recruiting companies to Kootenai County and retaining those who might be listening to sales pitches from others. What if we published a weekly or monthly page depicting a score card showing what and how many new jobs are being courted, how many might be lost and how we're doing overall - kind of like the Seahawks or the stock market?

With local economic development, you don't know much. You can't. And, hard as it is for us to say so, you probably shouldn't.

Jobs Plus is funded 70 percent from private donations - local companies and individuals - and about 30 percent from governmental agencies. The latter is typically fair game for public record inspections; the former, not so much. And as Idaho statutes would have it, this public-private marriage provides an X-ray proof roof over the heads of those in the job-war trenches.

Secrecy has its upside.

"That's one of the benefits an organization like Jobs Plus can provide to client companies," Jobs Plus Board President Doug Wright explains. "It's also one of the real challenges because it does make it difficult to talk about your successes or potential successes with the community at large, who's very interested in those successes. But it's critical to maintain that confidentiality because if you don't... you can have very serious impacts on both the financial condition and the emotional condition of companies you're working with."

As a for instance, Wright brought up the potential recruitment of a company from Seattle or California. And let's say your friendly neighborhood newspaper reports that the company is seriously considering relocating to Kootenai County.

Great news for us. Bad news for the company.

"Employees get wind of that," Wright says, "then you have challenges of keeping employees. Then you have to deal with a whole public relations crisis, employee relations crisis about possibly moving their company. Obviously, no business owner who is already trying to keep up with the highly competitive day to day requirements of their company wants to deal with employee retention issues and potentially, public relations issues. It can cause a company that's looking here to immediately look elsewhere or to stop looking at all."

On March 27, Jobs Plus will present to the public a snapshot of how its recruitment and retention efforts have gone during the past year. What we won't learn is which companies are close to committing to coming here, and which have a foot already out the door. This won't be Seahawks 43, Broncos 8, or anything like it.

In almost every case, complete transparency of the public's business is the best policy. But some secrecy is a necessary entry fee to play in the high-stakes jobs game.