In 1995, as a member of the Mariposa County Chamber of Commerce I was asked to work with a newly formed Economic Development Corporation (EDC) to formulate an economic development strategy for Mariposa County. For over a year I worked with a committee of community leaders and, after many long “breakfast meetings” a plan was formulated and adopted by the Mariposa County EDC Board of Directors. This plan was presented to the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors in 1996 and was not adopted by the County. The program died.

When I first began thinking about an appropriate Economic Development Strategy for Mariposa County, back in the 1970s, as the director of the Overall Economic Development Program (OEDP), It came to me that we had an important industry in the County, other than agriculture; Tourism. Sounds strange but in the 1970’s, tourism, outside of Yosemite, was not looked upon as an industry in Mariposa.

In the Mid-1990s, as a private-sector planner, I was given the opportunity to work with and support the development of an “Economic Strategy” to be promoted by the Mariposa County Economic Development Corporation (EDC). While this effort failed to gain much “traction” with the Board of Supervisors and we are living with the “Drift” that has been the official County policy, with respect to economic development, since the 1970s. I hope to end the “Drift” and help chart a course for the county, and its citizens, prosper through the next few decades.