By Jackson Swearer
A Certain Point of View
In Leadership Reno County and at the Kansas Leadership Center, we talk a lot about working across factions. The basic idea is that in order to make progress, people with different points of view are going to have to work together.
This is usually true of our toughest community challenges, and economic development is certainly one of those challenges. With a stagnant or declining population for decades, Reno County needs to take some big steps forward this decade to reverse the trend.
The good news is that an action plan has recently been developed with input from partners across the whole region. There are many parties involved in bringing new businesses, better jobs and more housing to the region. The Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce is a major player, but there are many local governments and other non-government organizations involved as well.
Progress is being made. Evergy announced a new power plant to bring energy to the region. The City of Hutchinson is investing in water infrastructure to meet the needs of industry. Reno County and other partners have poured grant money and tax incentives into housing development. The Chamber has secured land for industrial development that will bring more investment and new jobs.
The bad news is that conflict appears to be brewing about what land belongs in which city and how utilities get where development is happening. Simmering tensions between South Hutchinson and Hutchinson threatened to boil over last week. Action by South Hutchinson to annex the site of the proposed Evergy plant surprised Hutchinson officials.
The two city councils got together last Thursday, along with the Reno County Commission, and had a robust discussion. Debra Teufel from the Chamber and other community leaders were also in attendance.
Cooler heads prevailed in the meeting, with the majority of policymakers and other community leaders speaking to the need for collaboration and cooperation. But cracks are forming in the broad coalition working on economic development at a time when Reno County can least afford it.
According to my KLC training, a group is a faction if they share similar values, loyalties, and losses. Typically, values are trumped by loyalties, which are subject to change when the losses start. Losses can be real or perceived, and a person may be in more than one faction.
One interpretation is that there are two competing factions in Hutchinson and South Hutchinson. Those are certainly two groups that are involved, but in my view, there is a more relevant set of factions to consider.
One faction values progress, and they are loyal to the newly developed plan and to a spirit of collaboration. They believe they stand to lose a lot if progress is not made quickly, because so much is riding on the groundwork laid in the past few years, and the community needs a big win.
Another faction values keeping things the same, and they are loyal to being independent and keeping taxes low. They believe they stand to lose the identity of their community if things change too fast, and they worry they will no longer be able to afford where they have always lived.
There are more factions, of course, and this is a generalization. My point is not that either faction is more “right” than the other, but rather that everyone needs to be brought to the table, and no one is going to get everything they want.
Repairing the cracks in the relationships between some of our local partners starts with acknowledging the real and perceived losses that the different factions face.
Some South Hutchinson residents have a concern that Hutchinson is trying to absorb their town. Based on comments from some Hutchinson officials, that concern is not unfounded. In order for progress to be made, Hutchinson officials will need to provide assurances to South Hutchinson representatives that future collaboration will not destroy the identity of their community and will benefit their tax base.
Other local leaders have a concern that if the government entities do not get their act together and attract a new development to the region while they can, then Hutchinson and Reno County are going to wither away and die. That concern is also reasonable given recent trends. In order for progress to be made, local officials need to keep their eyes on the future and consider how to best allocate natural resources for long-term growth.
It is always best to try to bring all the factions together, but sometimes not everyone can be included if progress is going to be made. Occasionally, you run into people who are just myopic—they are narrow-minded and cannot imagine a future different from the present.
I encourage our local leaders to continue to work together, to find ways to collaborate for the good of the whole community. Do the challenging work across factions and have the hard conversations about loss. Then, only after making a genuine attempt to work together, they can leave behind the naysayers and just get it done.