Business View - December 2014 121
of Ed Domingue, who has the dual role of city engineer
and public works director; and Joyce Masterson, who
has the similarly two-pronged title of director of eco-
nomic development and community relations.
“We’re not one of the newer cities,” Domingue said.
“We’re getting to the point in our life as a city where
we’re doing a lot of infill kinds of projects. There are
some missing links and those kinds of things that
we’re trying to deal with. The infrastructure mainte-
nance is absolutely a huge issue for public works.”
Escondido completed a comprehensive economic de-
velopment strategy two years ago with an aim toward
attracting more industry, and, by extension, broaden-
ing the tax base to provide funds for infrastructure-
centric upkeep. The city lies at the crossroads of state
Route 78 (which runs east/west and connects to the
coast) and Interstate 15 (which runs north/south and
connects to San Diego), which has helped trigger the
location of a cadre of small businesses and middle-
sized businesses.
A plan is in the needs assessment stage that would re-
locate Escondido’s public works yard in order to create
a business park to accommodate further development
interest.
Toward that end as well, the city is one of five municipal
partners – alongside Oceanside, Carlsbad, Vista and
San Marcos – who’ve joined forces to promote the re-
gion as a whole, rather than pitting the individual cities
against each other. For example, Masterson said, if Es-
condido doesn’t have a property that a given business
might need for expansion, it would point that business
to one of the other four as a way to keep the economic
benefit in the northern San Diego County region.
And if that business does indeed stay local, side ben-
PUBLIC SECTOR
