Some Haines residents are skeptical of Haines Economic Development Corporation’s plan for a new economic development report, but board members say they are confident the results will be used to better the local economy.

Susan Bell and Jim Calvin of the McDowell Group presented their six-month plan Monday to produce an economic baseline report and a one-year and five-year action plan for Haines economic development.

About 50 residents came to the presentation Monday with questions. The Haines Borough funded HEDC, which contracted with the McDowell Group of Juneau on the project for $49,500.

Bell said the baseline report will be “a comprehensive, data-driven report of the local economy to measure the effectiveness of programs.”

Bell said she and Calvin will survey 200 households by landline and cellphone to gather demographic information and question residents on how they define economic success. The survey will later be available online.

Calvin said examples of how someone could measure success include average income, job retention, school enrollment, level of education and more. He said existing economic and demographic data in Southeast is patchy, so the surveys will fill in those gaps and “help the community understand itself better.”

The McDowell Group will also speak to community stakeholders, hold interactive public forums and discussion groups, work with students, nonprofit, public and private organizations and businesses, and update the project website and social media. Bell said the stakeholders will be chosen per recommendation of HEDC and the borough.

The action plan, after gathering baseline data, will identify achievable objectives to work toward economic success in the borough.

Audience member Jessica Tipkemper questioned how the company would measure success, and Calvin said it’s up to the community to determine what success means, and the McDowell Group will check in on the community’s progress yearly.

“All we can do is give you the road map.It’s up to you to follow the map,” Calvin said.

Bell said the plan will ultimately identify promising areas where the community should invest resources and “where you can get the best bang for your buck.”

In response to a question about examples of development plans that have failed in other Alaskan communities, Calvin said more often than not development plans fail due to inconsistent leadership, or an unwillingness to make a commitment to support the initiatives.

“The smaller the community the more challenging it is to find consistency,” Calvin said.

Audience member and HEDC board member Mike Ward said Haines struggles with inconsistent leadership on the assembly, and said the community doesn’t have the long-term future in mind when making decisions. Other residents also expressed skepticism of HEDC’s investment in the surveys.

HEDC executive director Margaret Friedenauer said the corporation, separate from the borough government, will be responsible for carrying out objectives in the development plan.

“We should have made it clearer that this is HEDC’s role and this is what the borough has engaged HEDC to do,” Friedenauer said. “We think we do have a leadership mechanism in place to make this successful because it is separate from the government.”

The McDowell Group has completed three other reports for Haines since the early 2000s, including a “Haines Cruise and Fast Ferry Passenger Survey” in 2011, “Haines Convention Center Feasibility Study” in 2003 and “Haines Tourism Management Plan” in 2002.

HEDC secretary and Southeast Alaska State Fair Director Jessica Edwards said she used the convention center data when the fair applied for funding to renovate Harriett Hall in 2011.

Edwards said she thinks the development plan will be different than previous work by the McDowell Group in Haines because it’s actionable.

“In my mind, the baseline study of the economy is information, the development plan is an action plan,” she said. “We have to all decide what’s in the development plan, but once those are agreed upon it’s stuff we can do and it’s up to HEDC to forward those visions and action items.”

The work was also compared to the borough’s comprehensive plan, but Friedenauer said it will be different.

“The baseline study is quantitative data. We want to see specific economic data which is going to drive a different set of goals than the comprehensive plan to understand where we want to go,” Friedenauer said. “I understand the skepticism. This one isn’t set up to fail because we have the HEDC entity wanting to do the work.”