Bend Don't Break: Katy Brooks, City of Bend’s Economic Development Officer

In this episode of Bend Don’t Break, Aaron Switzer reconnects with Katy Brooks, now serving as Bend’s Economic Development Officer, to talk about her shift from Chamber CEO to city strategist. Katy shares her vision for supporting small businesses, improving infrastructure, and making Bend more welcoming to new and growing industries. They explore urban renewal plans, housing challenges, and how Katy’s role connects departments to drive long-term economic vitality. Tune in for a thoughtful look at civic leadership and Bend’s evolving future.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to the Ben Don't Break Podcast. We are powered by The Source, Ben's locally owned media company and weekly newspaper. This podcast is our eddy in the rushing waters of local journalism. We are glad that you're taking some of your time to listen to us chat with the people who shape our local community. Support us through our member program at Bensource.com.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

Thank you to our presenting sponsor, Remax Key Properties, a family-owned full-service real estate brokerage specializing in residential, luxury, commercial, new construction, and ranch and land properties. Their new state-of-the-art facility at 42 Greenwood Avenue is a modern collaborative space and the new home of the Ben Don't Break Podcast Recording Studio.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

I'm Erin Sweitzer, publisher of The Source and producer of this podcast. Thank you for joining us. Today we have Katie Brooks. We're catching up with someone who's no stranger to our listeners. Second time uh Ben Don't Breaker. Katie has just stepped into a new role as the City of Men's Economic Development Officer, where she'll lead strategies to grow jobs, strengthen the local economy, and support a thriving community. Katie, thanks for stepping in with us again today. You bet. So uh going from the head of the chamber over to this new role in the city, uh what was your motivation there? Why why step into some? I mean, because you're creating this from the ground up, and I know there's excitement there, but you're also old enough to know that. And I I would say that somebody's been five years in, but that this uh, you know, there's a lot, there's always a lot more there than is in the job description.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

You said it and drop mic. Right. Yeah. Um, yeah, there's a lot of work there. Uh so what motivated me to do this is um I really do love economic development, which was a big part of what I did at the chamber, but I I actually wanted to do the things, and that's what I wanted to concentrate on. Um and the allure of starting something from scratch is pretty much what I did at the chamber. I was there for nine years.

SPEAKER_02 2:15

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

It was like, here's this shiny new awesome thing. And Sarah Odendahl is their new CEO.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

Yeah, I just saw they announced it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

She is so awesome. Yeah. They're in great hands. And uh, it was just time for me to move on to a new adventure.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

I think the last time you and I talked, we talked about how many things that I've done in my past. And I after nine years, I was ready for a new start. And at the city, um, there's a lot going on there. I've never worked for a city before. I worked in ports before. So I'm not a stranger to the public sector, but cities are just 10,000 times level up because of all the things that that folks are responsible for there and things that people think the city is responsible for. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

No, I think that's always the most interesting thing where it's like, make this happen.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yeah. And why did you do that? And how come it's not done, and all of that stuff. So um it's it's taken a little bit of time just to kind of get my bearings, but I'm really excited about it.

SPEAKER_02 3:22

Yeah. Well, this um, I mean, I don't want to overly characterize this, but the city has not, because it did not have this position, it wasn't always viewed as a place that was pro-business. I mean, in the not that it was hostile, but you know, you it I think they identified the need, and maybe you helped do that from the chamber side, that um when you're talking to them from that perspective, you really were dealing with the the city council itself or city management itself without having anybody directly responsible for business. So why now? Why why create this position now at the city? What's what's the motivation?

SPEAKER_01 4:06

I think the motivation was um we have been really fortunate for a really long time that we are in a place where a lot of people want to be.

SPEAKER_02 4:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

When you look at the types of businesses here, they're they're all small businesses for the most part. And we've been such a bootstrap economy for so long. We've switched over from logging. And if you wanted a job here, you actually had to invent it yourself for years. Right, I'm familiar with that. And and you are, aren't you? So a lot of folks are, and and there's a certain um type of culture that the city has had for a long time of, you know, we're bent and we're growing our organically, and hey, we all know each other and we work well together. But in the last few years, when the population went above 100,000 and when the competition, especially um in Oregon, trying to attract and grow businesses in Oregon is not an easy thing to do. I think the city crossed a corner, turned a corner, I guess it is, and and said, you know, we actually have to have a plan and get um a strategy behind how we're recruiting, who we want to be here, what industry sectors do we want to concentrate on? But I think really more importantly is how do we keep them once they're here.

SPEAKER_02 5:35

What do you um I mean, in your role, maybe give listeners like what do you what is what is the vision for your position? Like how do you what do you see yourself where do you see yourself taking this?

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Yeah, well, from a couple of different angles. I think the the most important thing is when we talk about this in the city, and I think council had this in mind when they put their economic development goals together, is that the economic development components of what the city does is ubiquitous. It is everywhere. It's not, hey, let's let's put up a new program in a new department and we're done here.

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

It infiltrates into permitting, it infiltrates into planning, um, how we deal with minority-owned businesses, how we um make sure that there's enough housing for the workforce. It's it's connected to almost every single thing.

SPEAKER_02 6:29

Yeah, I would think transportation issues, things like that. Infrastructure, all sorts, yeah. And how and so how do you interact with city planners in your in your position? I mean, what does it look like? You've they've created this position, but how does it integrate now into the whole? They've got to be seeing, you know, they've got a new lens on it. Yep. What are the meetings? You know, you don't have to give me the blow by blow on the meetings. You know, I'll I'll spare all of you. But but how does that integration happen? I mean, how do they begin to think in these kind of new ways?

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Yeah. Um it starts with developing the program and sitting down with everyone and explaining what that is.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

And we're working around uh five work areas essentially that that cover many, many different departments. So I'll sit down with planners, I'll sit down with with um, you know, the utilities and infrastructure and transportation folks and housing, spend a lot of time with housing folks. And um we look at it through the lens of okay, uh the first category, let's call it retention, growth, and recruitment. Okay. What types of things? Where are we lacking? And is that a housing thing because we try to recruit and we can't get anybody to live here because nobody can afford it? Is it I'm having trouble getting my permit through and I just need somebody to explain to me how I get to the next step? Is it I'm a small business and I, if I just had $5,000, I could buy this piece of equipment and then I'd stay in bed if I only had this.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Um, should we be doing small business grants? It's that whole conversation around a concept. Right. Another concept is um doing what we can to make this a city where everybody is welcome and you can live here and you can have a job here. And that again has overlap and housing, it has overlap and workforce and skills development, understanding how is AI and technology influencing the skill sets of folks who start a job at entry level, and we want a pathway up the food chain. There are things that we can do with our partners out there to make that happen. Um, we have three urban renewal areas that are a separate entity from the city embedded in the city that use different tool sets that incentivize uh other types of development in the central district.

SPEAKER_02 9:06

Yeah, I was gonna ask because very busy with the U Do you liaise with the Ben Central District and work as an intermediary to or I say intermediary, but they're communicating with you about the things they need to get themselves going and so. Central District Business Association, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

And those yeah, we have um Cyrus Mooney, he belongs to that group. He helps every time they meet. Um, I'm working with the borough, the um Bend Urban Renewal Area, to put together a new plan. It's many, there's many moving parts to it, but the bottom line is not enough is happening in the core area. So the strategy has to change. So we're gonna take a look at the value of first of all, all of the city assets. So we own 3.2 acres in the core, we own almost an entire city block downtown, we need a bigger city hall, we have all this land. What's the highest and best use for this land to ignite the activity that we want to have happen in those areas of town? And it may be a city hall, it may be something like a mixed use or uh some sort of uh other type of uh community-centric use, yeah. And um, that activates that. And we have the Hawthorne Orvo Crossing going in, and spoiler alert Franklin underpassed is gonna be completely re-redone. Oh wow, and closed down for a while while we do it. Yeah, and and so the end of the day, making people love to hear that.

SPEAKER_02 10:45

I'm so glad you broke that here. Yeah, right. There will there will be cannot wait. I can tell that's just no one's gonna comment and just go right right over. Find a corner and set myself. Just try it. It's Katie. Katie closed the bag.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

It's not my fault. But anyway, so taking a look at that and asking ourselves, okay, if we're now an economic development instigator, yeah, we need to be an investor.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

So we need to get something vertical out of the ground, not just a bridge and not just a new street.

SPEAKER_02 11:18

Buildings with people in those buildings. Well, that's been the Ben Central District's kind of back and forth. Yeah. Yeah. Did people uh run the old heritage square plans by you? Have you ever seen those? It's a we often having been here long enough to remember, I loved those plans. They they went nowhere. And uh, and every time they talk about re-upping, you know, this the that one acre downtown of City Blocks, I'm like, yeah, right on the edge of that incredible parking lot that sits right probably the best land in the city. And it's uh school district. Anyways, I just wondered, does that does that dusty thing kick around sometimes?

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Oh, I hear about it from time to time. And and frankly, I think we'll hear about it again.

SPEAKER_02 12:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Once we do this analysis and um take a look at, you know, where does City Hall go? And and if it's not downtown, then uh what do we do with that's pretty valuable land. And and it's time to do something about it. Yeah. Um, so we're gonna take a look at that. So I'm fully expecting that to be dusted off and talked about again.

SPEAKER_02 12:29

This is the NIMBY of me because we're just the source building, it's just off there. I'm like, yeah, a nice fountain and a park, a place for people to gather and do lunch. And so closing frank with every building, and it's mine, and then everyone scroll will be there. If it comes back, it was me. You heard it here first. I won't be hiding somewhere sucking with those.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

So we'll be by the fountain.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

We'll be by the fountain, dancing around. Um well, what um, and shout out to Cyrus Mooney, who we had on here, who continues to be removed from the chamber and is now uh you followed him, harassing him and his everywhere. Yeah. But I was also curious. So, in in your new responsibilities, you're talking about coming up with investments for um would that that would be a new role for the city. I mean, procuring funds. I mean, they do it for some events and for some smaller stuff like that. But this would be really like a kind of a grant program or small business grants, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

Yeah, that's one of the tools in the toolbox we're considering, one of the strategies is let's just to paint a picture of of what we're thinking. So you're a small business and you don't have to be traded sector, you could be service or professional services, something. But you put your roots down here and you're trying to grow and stay.

SPEAKER_02 13:54

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

And except but for X amount of money, uh, can't be a lot, but X amount of money that would allow you to take it to the next level and and stay in our city. And I think that's a really uh rich environment to start exploring what role the city could have with the retention piece in mind.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

Yeah. Well, so when a so if I understand this crazy, let's say uh there's a there's a company like Jackstraw, uh-huh and they're coming to the community and they're looking to navigate, you know, we we want affordable housing, we want to be part of the solution. Are you the nexus for that person as they're coming into town? Do you meet with them?

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Do you absolutely for both for anybody moving in here new or anybody wanting to expand, we want them to come to the economic development department, to us, Cyrus, and a me, right, and whoever else we're we're gonna start with a core group, um, or through Edco and working in in conjunction with EdCo and walk them through the process. Here's the here's the bottom line of what we're going for. Folks who come to Bend, it takes effort. It takes effort to move here. Yeah, we want to make it seamless. We want them to feel welcome. We really want your business here. We want to hear. We're gonna help you through this process. We're gonna work with you as a partner even after you lay down roots here. If you want to stay, you want to grow, you're gonna feel like this is your home.

SPEAKER_02 15:38

Yeah. How do you, I know, I mean, obviously, I'm in in media, so I I see it through the lens. But one of the things I've increasingly fascinated by is people involved in the public sector, the amount of scrutiny had that, and it has grown so much. And initially, I think my lens was just on political figures, you know, and when we would do endorsement interviews, I would weave into our communication, you know, my questioning around them of how are you going to handle social media? What's your how thick is your skin? You know, and um, but increasingly I find it is on things, you you see this vol this raised volume around things like City Works projects closing down Franklin. I and I I could be being naive because I wasn't in the public sector, and maybe they did get a lot of letter writers or or people coming to council meetings, but the volume is just a lot now. And as you're looking to do this, how much do you factor that into your job description and what you're doing?

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Yeah, yeah, and I already hear it already, and and frankly, it did at the chamber. So I have a couple of things.

SPEAKER_02 16:52

It had to be so much lower at the chamber than it is now.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Uh yeah, I think so, and different. Um but I think that there is a there's there's some anxiety out there. The general level is higher. It doesn't take as much to cheese people off. Yeah. It really doesn't. Right. We all have very, very different views on stuff. I think the expectation of the whole tax situation in this state, right? Um, we're ranked 48th, I think, out of 50 in the US as tax burdened.

SPEAKER_02 17:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

There's a reason why we feel this way.

SPEAKER_02 17:33

Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

And um so I think that the expectation from the taxpayer is higher.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

And in the ownership is certainly higher. Of late, I I mean, I just have never seen that kind of like the that's mine mentality with regard to you know, whatever's being developed or or yeah, or done by the city.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Yeah, and in in my port part of the city, when we're talking about economic development, there also is a lot of different sentiment around sentiment around uh how we grow. Yeah, right. And and dang it, why are we growing so fast? The traffic sucks, all the things that you hear. I get that, and I have to wear that as being the instigator of it all. Again, it's Katie's fault, but yeah, yeah, yeah, it's Katie's fault. And um I think you just frankly, I you just gotta be able to take it and uh see the bigger picture, explain it.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:36

I don't expect everybody to agree with what the city does. I don't think any of us do who work there. We know what our goals are, the council sets them. Um folks in there are really uh dedicated to those goals. I'll I'll tell you that, having gone into the city and they're talked about all the time. It's it's the the benchmarks and the bookmarks or whatever that we measure success is are we delivering on these things we're supposed to deliver on as a city and as the guiding council? And so a lot of times you just have to take it. You have to take the criticism over murals and bike lanes and all the things. And as humans, yep, it's not super fun. There's some other things I'd rather do, but um we get the picture of where we're trying to go. And sometimes in cities and in public sector, when you have that longer-term goal in mind, uh, it it takes some fortitude to push through it.

SPEAKER_02 19:47

Yeah, I think the more that I've learned about city planning, it what what's always interesting to me is a lot of these decisions are made five years ago. And, you know, I and Jack Straub, just because it they just had their opening, I've been reliving at least mentally all the stages that brought us to that. And I remember talking to one of the city planners about how long ago they identified that land for that kind of development and that it's just coming to fruit now. It was six or seven years ago, and the community begins commenting today, you know, and um and that's just a very interesting part of the picture where city communications being being what they are, you it's it's near impossible to get out there, not giving a blank check to any of the cities stuff. But I mean, to have that kind of like uh communication process and keeping people up to date is like, yeah, we're slowly but surely moving towards that 10-year, 10-year vision. It's I don't know how you bring people along, you know, in that way.

SPEAKER_01 20:57

Sorry, so much media. Right, right, uh social and otherwise, it's just there's it's complicated now. Yeah, there's a lot of noise out there, you know, and and my perspective is you gotta let them complain because it's hard to track this stuff when you work in it every day.

SPEAKER_02 21:16

Right, right. Oh, as journalists, I mean, we're yeah, I'm constantly like, I thought we were reporting on that, or you know, and you realize there's so many irons on the fire, so many things going forward.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

And so it's just part it really is part of the job. And again, you have to go back, and I don't want to use the word defense because it's really not that. It's it's the telling of the story of how we got here. And really that's the best you can do sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes some of these projects are 20 years in the making.

SPEAKER_02 21:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Because you plan it, you finally get somebody there, then you gotta go through permitting, and then you gotta find the money and all the things. And some of the you you really, when you are working in the public sector, you are in it for the long haul. Not because it's just super fun to use that accent. It's it actually is. It takes a long time. And there's no way you should expect the public to remember, don't you know that community outreach we conducted 12 and a half years ago? Yeah. You know, it just doesn't work that way.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

No. Do you um aside from the Benn Central District, where else do you guys see urban renewal?

SPEAKER_01 22:24

Central district's gonna take a lot of energy. It's huge. It goes way beyond the core area. And the core area is essentially Third Street to the parkway between Franklin and Greenwood-ish. And then the central district is much, much bigger than that. And that is a true urban mixed-use redevelopment. And that takes multifamily housing. We need people to live there. And mixed use and um all sorts of facilities that draw people in, maker space, um, places the community can go and do things. We have two other urban renewal districts, one's up in uh Juniper Ridge, and that's mostly focused on industrial activity. And boy, do we need it again? My former role for a game here as port girl. Um, you know, just knowing that this state lacks industrial lands, and the amount of higher paying jobs per square foot in a building is huge when you look at manufacturing and some of those types of industrial activities, light industrial activities.

SPEAKER_02 23:39

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

You need to protect that. And uh Juniper Ridge is doing really well.

SPEAKER_02 23:44

Oh, great.

SPEAKER_01 23:45

It's primarily uh industrial, but it's where Costco is. Costco went in. Do they count that? They count you count that as Juniper Ridge?

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Yeah, that's within the the renewal. I always think of it being on the other side of 20.

SPEAKER_01 24:00

It's in the triangle between 20 and 97. All right. There's more work to be done there. We need more water line, sewer line, infrastructure, uh, things that cost money. But we've started to generate the revenue on the tax, the increment financing that we can actually start now investing in it because it's actually developing. Um, the other urban renewal area we have is Murphy, Murphy Crossing. And and we've done a lot of work down there. And just think about you know, the St. Charles and that Goodwill area. Um, there's a big piece of uh land next to it. Um the original plan was to put some off-ramps, some ramps on you know to the parkway.

SPEAKER_02 24:46

Um so you don't just have to do that drag race start and just like really push it. It's fun, it's part of this charm. I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_01 24:57

But we've we've got a really big problem on the north end of town with the Empire Overcrossing and not having 20 connected with 97 in a way that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 25:08

Well, that's my morning, that's my morning commute. So I live that.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

So one of the thoughts that we have right now that we talked about with council a couple weeks ago was okay, what if ODOT doesn't have enough to give us to the the matching funds for both that connection in the north and the south? The growth is happening right now in the north. It is, it's pretty bad. And so the thought is that we build that connection, a new ramp up there in that north connector, and then get back to the south end.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

I remember when they were doing that whole build and we were going through there, and I kept going, you know, you'd be driving over the highest point, you'd look down, and you'd think, okay, where's how are they gonna bring the traffic from sisters onto the park? We are it must be that, it must be that. And then when they finished and they packed up and left, I was like, they forgot a third of the project. Like, this is still coming into the traffic light. So just forgot about it. That's how I thought it really did feel like that. Like, oh well, it's five o'clock. We gotta go back. Are we all done? Yeah, this is good. Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

So, yeah, that connection needs to be made. Yeah, and so that's moved up the priority.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Oh, good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

Well, so that's gonna be Ernest. I'm gonna Ernst Project.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

I will begin now to put pressure through the newspaper for my connection. Ernst fountain downtown. Yeah, my fountain's connection to highway. My connection, my on-ramp by Murphy. All of these. Um well, Katie, you got a lot on your plate. Yeah. I would say that's uh that's worth leaving the chamber for to start you know, yeah, taking your pickaxe to all this these projects.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

I love untangling things.

SPEAKER_02 26:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:53

And um and and finding the patterns of of what's the path forward, what pieces go together and and what changes need to be made. It's it's it's the what I that's my happy place. Yeah. It's fixing things and and just making things. Um, not necessarily having to fix everything, but um making something that makes sense for the time.

SPEAKER_02 27:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

And and so building something that already exists that looks backward, and that is not my deal. I love the invention part and and putting things together that are responsive to what's happening.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

Before I before I conclude this and let you go, you uh took a field trip with your or visited your daughter and uh Panama City, which brings us full circle to boats, which is where we knew this podcast was gonna go if you listen to the first one. Listen. So Panama City and uh the canal, dream come true, future job.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Yeah, I'm embarrassed at how excited I was. It's like, do we have to leave? There's another boat coming in the car. It was so cool. Yeah. Do you know the whole Panama Canal? There is no electric pumping. It is all hydraulically and they can lift a ship that's like 750 feet long, they can lift that thing 27 feet in less than 10 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

Wow. I mean, it's all with water. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:29

The French tried it, they tried to just dig down and fill it with water, and that didn't work. And the Americans came in later and they figured out this lock system, how to change the actual height of the ship and not the water, you know, and doing it in a lock. And oh my god. And Morgan Freeman did this great introduction that had this novel about how this whole thing happened. And yeah, you'll know more about mosquitoes than you ever wanted to know. But yeah, yeah, it was it was thrilling. And my daughter had a great internship. She was there with a and where was she interning? Panama City. She was working for a company called International Idea, they monitor democracy worldwide.

SPEAKER_02 29:07

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

So she got to watch the Guyana elections and uh she wrote uh for them, newsletters and whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

That's great. And I thought you were gonna say she uh she was running a hydraulic lift on the canal.

SPEAKER_01 29:23

I would have been so proud. But no, it's a stupid democracy. Yeah, what is that?

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Next uh ships going up and down by 27 feet. So, well, Katie, thank you again for coming in and rapping with us. It's been a pleasure and uh good luck. I know uh there's a lot, a lot to lift there. Good time. That's a good idea. Yeah, and she'll be using water power. Well, this has been the Ben Don't Break Podcast. Uh, thank you, Katie, for coming in. If you like what you heard, please go to bensource.com and become a member and help us support more cool interviews like this and maybe a field trip for me to go to the Panama Canal. You've been listening to the Ben Don't Break podcast, powered by the Source Weekly. To read, hear, and see more of what we do, go to Bensource.com.