During the past several months, the cities of Macomb, Champaign, West Chicago and Carol Stream were officially designated as "Illinois Certified Cities". This brings the total number of communities to twenty-one that have earned the Certified Cities status.

The original concept of the Certified Cities program goes back twenty years to the State of Georgia's effort to spur economic development for its rural communities. Since that time, the program has evolved into a development tool for urban communities as well as rural communities. Over the years, similar programs have been adopted by more than twenty other states.

Illinois adopted its version of the Certified Cities program in 1983 to give state-wide formal recognition to any community that has successfully completed an intensive self-evaluation and has documented its efforts to create and retain jobs in the community. The Illinois Certified Cities designation is a strong national marketing tool that a community can aggressively use once it has achieved that status. It indicates to the world that the community is prepared to meet the demands of new and existing business and industry. A Certified City is able to show any business or industry that it has taken that "extra step" in order to position itself as a highly desirable location for economic growth.

How Does the Certified Cities Program Work?

In order to receive the Illinois Certified City designation, a community must demonstrate that it meets standards in five major categories that are essential to economic development. The categories are business climate and services, employment and training, community development, financial assistance, and marketing. Within these five main categories are twenty-one subcategories. For example, within the Business Climate and Services category are three subcategories of Commercial and Business District Development, Industrial Development, and Agricultural Development. These subcategories outline the specific standards which the community must achieve for certification. The community compiles the necessary documentation showing that it has met the requirements of each of the subcategories. This documentation is then sent to the Department of Commerce & Community Affairs for review.

Compiling the necessary information for certification is not an easy task. Depending upon the resources a community brings to bear on the project, the time necessary to draw all of the needed documentation together may take from six to nine months.

After the documentation is compiled and it is presented to DCCA, it is broken down by subject matter and is sent for review to the appropriate state agency that is responsible for that area. These agencies review the documentation to determine whether the community's facilities will support the demands placed upon it by economic growth. For example, water and sewer documentation is submitted to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, ambulance documentation is submitted to the Illinois Department of Public Health, law enforcement is submitted to the Illinois Department of State Police, etc. In some cases, the review is done by an organization which is not part of the state such as the Illinois Association of Park Districts for the area of recreation.

From past experience, we have found that some communities are not able to pass all of the Certified City requirements during the first review of its documentation. In many cases, this is simply because the community did not submit enough documentation to show that it had completely met the standard. In those cases, it is just a matter of submitting additional information. In other cases, the community may have to meet the standard by taking a specific action — for example, a different type of program to train its ambulance attendants or to prepare a budget and fiscal management program. We have found that it takes communities an average of about five months to have its documentation approved and any deficiencies strengthened with additional information.

How to Organize to Become a Certified City

There are a number of ways that communities have successfully organized themselves to compile the necessary documentation for certification. For example, some communities have found that, for them, the local chamber of commerce and its various subcommittees is the best organization to draw together all of the information needed for certification. Other communities have found that the local Jaycees provides an effective organization to compile the documentation. Still others have found that the city's economic development office is the most effective driving force to get the job done. The decision of how to organize to compile the necessary documentation depends upon the staff resources available to the community and what it has found effective to accomplish past projects. In general, the more people working on the project, the better the application. In addition, more lines of communication are opened providing greater knowledge of a community's assets by its citizens.

Communities which have met the standards of the

December 1986 / Illinois Municipal Review / Page 19

program are formally awarded to Certified Cities designation and presented with a road sign and plaque. The Certified Cities logo may be used on the city's letterhead, publications, and advertising.

The advantage to a community in having received the Certified Cities designation is that when a business looks around for a location to expand, it knows that a "Certified City" is an aggressive, informed community that can accommodate the needs of business. This winter, the Certified Cities program will be the subject of a strong advertising program. The first Certified Cities advertisement appears in the November issues of three major site selection magazines.

At the present, the communities that have been formally designated Certified Cities are: Decatur, Niles, DesPlaines, Bartlett, Charleston, Quincy, Urbana, Schaumburg, Springfield, Buffalo Grove, Moline, Elmhurst, Sterling, Naperville, Sauk Village, Mattoon, McHenry, Champaign, Macomb, West Chicago, and Carol Stream.

For more information about the Certified Cities Program, please call our toll-free local government telephone number, 1-800-562-4688. •

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