BACKGROUNDING THE AZ COMMERCE AUTHORITY

posted by Lucy Valencia

The Arizona Commerce Authority. What's that? I asked myself when I was assigned to research it for Arizona Week for this Friday's program.

All I had heard was of CEO Don Cardon’s hefty pay increase in August.

The ACA project seemed modern, innovative and a good effort to advance the global competitiveness of our state, in a newsworthy way, of course. So I was very eager to grab my reporter’s notebook and begin making calls to the reputable people backing the project.

At the rudder of the ACA are Gov. Jan Brewer, sports team owner Jerry Colangelo and Cardon, a successful Phoenix developer, among the 31 board members.

The Arizona Commerce Authority is new. It is well known among leaders, politicians and corporations. It has millions of dollars, many of them taxpayer dollars, in its pocket, ready to selectively support Arizona corporations to help fuel and propel their businesses through loan funds.

The ACA project focuses on diversifying the business economy beyond real estate and construction by reaching out to new industries such as science, technology, aerospace and renewable energies. It attracts all business people alike, who can submit proposals to see what the ACA will have to offer.

Brewer and ACA officials took a trip to China this month to pursue new contacts and help the state’s economy.

In other news, the U.S. Department of Treasury recently awarded an $18.2 million grant to the ACA. I knew this story would have a wonderful journalistic aspect to it, any audience would be interested to see uncovered. I was excited to shine some light on the ACA.

I started sending out emails and gathering names for my research about a week in advance. I was excited and scared, without much of an idea in which direction my sources would lead me.

Finally, after scouring a few Websites, I found a way to get hold of Don Cardon. I shoved my phone against my face, half-expecting his media contact would somehow open doors for me that day with the sheer sound of her voice.

When nobody answered, I sent e-mails.

Then I just waited, sort of bemused for a few days. I left voice mails and figured I could wait for them to call back or respond until tomorrow. Tomorrow turned into a few more days, and I began getting nervous.

The problem is, this wasn’t just happening with Cardon. Essentially the entire posse of ACA board members was unreachable. Many experts who might have a global economic or political opinion about the ACA felt they did not know enough about the new project to comment, and I kept getting passed along to different references.

This was all OK, I told myself. I had other options, I said as I tried to stay calm, cool and collected in my research process for the next few days. I began calling government agencies and experts in Tucson and Phoenix, who might have valuable input on the ACA and Arizona businesses’ potential to reach a global status.

I sat at my desk, typing on the computer and looking at my long list of possible contacts for the week’s topic as if this was the only thing left to do. All of the names had been crossed off with little notes next to them indicating they declined or did not answer.

As the week unfolded, however, I learned that I had to start contacting people lower in corporation ladders in order to reach the top leaders and CEOs. I finally got hold of one person, from the Greater Phoenix Economic Council with whom I had an amazing conversation about possibly interviewing for Arizona Week.

I told her about our broadcast, answered all her questions about how our taping was done, and everything seemed to be going great. It took about 10 seconds for the horror to set in after she, too, politely declined.

Would I ever find a source to interview for our topic on the Arizona Commerce Authority? How long would an intern like me be tolerated for such a delay in finding sources? And most memorable of all, I remember feeling inundating by Friday looming around the corner; the final day for interviews.

At the end of the week, Michael Chihak was able to find sources. I was pleasantly surprised when he mentioned he had secured time slots to interview someone in Scottsdale on Thursday.

In the end, the struggle was worth the time. All the people who tried to help me along the way thanked me for the offer and said to call back if I ever needed an interview for a different topic.