Chamber Chief Assails Pace of 21-Point Plan : Economy: Other business leaders disagree with complaint that the city is slow in enacting program.

Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce President Lee Grissom has questioned whether the city of San Diego is moving fast enough to implement key portions of a 21-point economic development plan that the City Council adopted Jan. 16.

However, other local business leaders said that they are satisfied with the pace being set by City Hall administrators who are enacting the plan.

The economic plan is designed to make the city more attractive to business by streamlining the permit process and combining various economic development programs under one roof. City Council members directed city administrators to expedite implementation of the plan that was culled from a lengthy study conducted by a volunteer task force that included business, civic and business leaders.

Grissom used the chamber’s Friday annual outlook conference to complain that Assistant City Manager Maureen Stapleton needlessly waited a full month to start “bringing the players together.”

“This has been a very slow, ponderous approach by the city,” Grissom said. “But damn it, this is a crisis we’re in . . . an emergency. . . . That silence (from City Hall) is sending a clear message that either nothing is happening or (business) is not involved.”

Grissom said that he initially believed that Stapleton would immediately draw the chamber into the economic planning process. But the chamber didn’t hear from Stapleton until Feb. 14, when Grissom received what he called a “remarkably cold” letter from Stapleton seeking basic information about the chamber.

City administrators were not immediately available for comment, but Stapleton drew strong support from two business leaders who were members of the task force that published the report that council members drew upon to create the city’s economic plan.

“I’m not sure that this letter alone is a story,” said Pacific Bell executive Terry Churchill, a strong supporter of the economic plan. “City Manager Jack McGrory has promised that he’s going to move on all 21 points, and I know that he’s going to stick to his word.”

Dan Pegg, president of the San Diego Economic Development Corp., a quasi-public agency, on Friday said that Stapleton and McGrory already have “made several things take place. . . . They’ve helped move several projects through (the city permitting process) at an expedited rate.”

And, Pegg praised the city manager’s office for “making tremendous movement in terms of changing attitudes” among city bureaucrats.

“McGrory and Stapleton have been able to convey a sense of urgency down to other levels of the city that is causing a lot of (positive) things to happen,” Pegg said. “Everyone, including Lee, would like to see it move faster. But everyone is moving in the same, positive direction.”

While Grissom characterized Stapleton’s letter, which was sent to various civic and business organizations, as “cold,” Pegg said that the “form letter” was a convenient way for Stapleton to “gather information.”

Stapleton will use information generated by the letter to “allow (the city) to merge certain (economic development) activities where there might now be some overlap,” Pegg said. “There might be some opportunities where synergies are not being taken advantage of.”