Helping governor get the job done

I was privileged last week to sit in on a meeting of Maine business leaders with Jack Cashman, commissioner of the Department of Economic Development. The meeting’s purpose was to allow the business people to hear first hand, in an informal setting, some of the frustrations and challenges Cashman and Gov. John Baldacci are encountering in their efforts to generate sensible economic development for the state. The businesspeople in attendance, including highest level representatives of some of the state’s largest firms, were there not to advocate for their own interests, but to examine with the commissioner how they might help advance the cause of improving the overall economic climate in the state.

During the meeting, it became clear that the commissioner and the attending business leaders shared the concern that significant levels of new job-creating, tax-generating investment in the state’s private sector is needed urgently if the economy is to flourish and to make possible for all of its citizens “life the way it should be.”

The businesspeople in attendance, more than the commissioner, identified an increasingly large population of accomplished and articulate retirees as frequently representing a barrier to economic development in the state.

We who have chosen to return to Maine, or to come to Maine, on completion of careers elsewhere, have a great deal to offer our adoptive state, this place we are so proud to call home. To be sure, it is incumbent upon us thoughtfully and graciously to bring good judgment to bear on economic development where we see genuine environmental and other pitfalls. At the same time, since the need for sensible economic development is undeniable, it is equally incumbent upon us to put our experience, energy, talents and contacts to work to increase the quality of life for our friends and neighbors who are still working toward the retirement we currently enjoy.

Surely many of us have retained contacts in those places “away,” in the United States and overseas, who might be in a position to help channel investment into the state. Others of us will have ideas about appropriate and sensible business development options for the state. Pass them on! Let’s all recognize that such development is essential if Maine is to remain the place we want it to be and let’s be creative, positive and pro-active in support of the efforts by our sometimes beleaguered public servants who are working hard indeed on our behalf.

Stonington Seafood Products is one example of a business created by a group of energetic, knowledgeable and resourceful retirees dedicated to strengthening their community’s economy in sensible ways. Surely there are others. May there be many more.

Robert Sargent is a retired U.S. diplomat and a part-time international business consultant who lives in Sargentville. His e-mail address is sargent@prexar.com.