Watertown Doesn't Need More Bureaucracy. It Needs a Sales Team.
-Watertown NY By Hans Wilder
For decades, Watertown has spent countless hours debating how to divide the pie. We argue over budgets, sidewalks, parks, splash pads, parking lots, and which building should be demolished or preserved. But almost nobody asks the most important question:
Who’s out there creating a bigger pie?
The City of Watertown should establish a dedicated Business Recruitment and Investment Office whose sole mission is to bring new employers, manufacturers, technology firms, defense contractors, and entrepreneurs to our community.
Not another office that studies problems.
Not another committee.
A professional whose job is to sell Watertown.
Imagine a city employee with a travel budget whose calendar is filled with economic development conferences, trade shows, technology expos, manufacturing conventions, defense industry events, and site-selection meetings across North America and beyond. Every trip would have one purpose: convincing companies that Watertown belongs on their shortlist. Communities across the country actively market themselves to businesses, and proactive economic development efforts often include networking with developers, brokers, and business leaders while promoting local advantages.
Think about it.
Businesses don’t magically wake up one morning and decide to move to Watertown.
Someone has to introduce the city.
Someone has to tell our story.
Someone has to explain that we’re minutes from Fort Drum, close to Canada, surrounded by affordable land, blessed with abundant water, connected to Interstate 81, and located within reach of major northeastern markets. Someone has to show that Watertown offers a quality of life many growing companies are actively seeking.
Cities compete every single day for investment.
Watertown should be competing too.
Where would the money come from?
Here’s one possibility.
Instead of continually adding six-figure administrative positions, the city could eliminate or consolidate a couple of high-level bureaucratic jobs over time and redirect those resources into a position focused entirely on growing the tax base.
That’s an investment—not another expense.
Every new manufacturer, engineering firm, software company, logistics operation, medical technology business, or defense supplier that relocates here creates jobs.
Those jobs generate payroll.
Payroll generates spending.
Businesses generate commercial property taxes.
Employees buy homes.
Families shop locally.
Restaurants get busier.
Downtown becomes more active.
The city’s tax base grows.
And when the tax base grows, suddenly there’s more money available for roads, parks, neighborhood improvements, police, fire protection, recreation, and the dozens of projects residents have wanted for years.
Economic growth solves problems that budget cuts never can.
Watertown has spent generations reacting to economic change.
It’s time to become proactive.
If the city hired someone whose performance was measured by companies recruited, investment generated, jobs created, and taxable property added—not by paperwork completed—we would finally have someone waking up every morning with one mission:
“How do I make Watertown wealthier?”
Success shouldn’t be measured by how many meetings are attended.
It should be measured by how many businesses choose Watertown over somewhere else.
This isn’t a radical idea.
Communities around North America employ economic development professionals whose mission is to recruit businesses, market their cities, and create conditions for private investment and long-term growth.
Watertown has tremendous assets.
What we’ve lacked is someone whose full-time job is selling them.
Perhaps the best investment the city could make isn’t another study or another consultant.
Perhaps it’s hiring Watertown’s chief salesperson.
Because every successful business knows one simple truth:
Nothing grows until somebody goes out and sells it.
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