Report Targets Industries City Should Assist : Ventura: Consultants recommend guiding the local economy by attracting and fostering area businesses.

A city report released Monday outlines where Ventura’s economy should be headed in the coming years, noting the local industries the city should work to attract, to retain and to help expand.

According to the report, which was prepared by city-hired consultants based on state and national trends, businesses such as architectural firms, private hospitals and dental practices are declining across the country.

The consultants said the city may want to concentrate on improving the local business climate for those companies, so they don’t close or relocate.

“These are the sectors that are potentially vulnerable,” said Sacramento-based consultant James King, who prepared the report. He did not say that local businesses were threatened and, in fact, “they may be exceeding all the industry standards.” But he noted that the report “suggests that you’d better go talk to them.”

The report also targets for expansion existing industries such as industrial machinery, mailing, photography and commercial art and drug manufacturing, saying the city should work with those businesses to see how it can help them grow.

“These are fields showing growth potential,” King said. “In some of these areas, you’ve got very small firms . . . they’ve got to be talked to. Do they see expansion potential and if not, what can the city do to help them see it?”

Finally, the report lists industries in growing fields such as farm and garden machinery manufacturing--businesses that are not in Ventura, but that the city should try to recruit.

“You have so many firms you could try and attract, but you have to start somewhere,” King said, adding that the fields he listed were compatible with industries already in the city.

After King’s presentation to the City Council on Monday night, a top Chamber of Commerce official urged the city to adopt the plan and set aside $240,000 a year to implement it.

“The $240,000 is really a drop in the bucket when you think about the rewards we will get back,” said Jim Barroca of the Greater Ventura Chamber of Commerce. “This is really important. Everything depends on it.”

City leaders have put much energy in recent years into enhancing Ventura’s tourism industry as a new source of sales tax revenue, but King warned against relying too much on the visitor trade.

The city has to depend on its local economic base because tourism “can go away quickly,” he said. “It’s a good industry, but it’s not dependable.”

Instead, King said, the city should concentrate on increasing all types of jobs, with the hope of strengthening the economy in the long term.

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City financial analyst Steve Wantz said he agrees that continued economic stability in Ventura depends upon a long-term strategy.

“We need to attract higher-paying jobs,” he said. “If we can attract them and retain them, hopefully the per capita income rises and retail business will pop up like weeds right around it.”

The city’s next step is to plan for a permanent economic revitalization program and to hire a director to oversee the effort. The director will be responsible for a host of programs aimed at business attraction, retention and expansion.

The city has already spent $140,000 on such revitalization efforts, city officials said, including expenses for consultants and for producing the latest report.