Protests aren’t hampering efforts to woo business

July 12--Two weeks ago, much of the nation had never heard of the quiet Southwest Riverside County city of about 107,000 called Murrieta.

The first blitz of publicity from the politically conservative bedroom community last week offered a striking picture to millions. It also reflected the sharp divisions in the nation over illegal immigration.

National media outlets sent out images of people in Murrieta protesting at a Border Patrol processing facility and blocking buses trying to enter the complex with young Latin American detainees.

Many who believe the federal government has evaded its responsibility to deal with the issue cheered the protesters, but critics saw the protesters as heartless, or worse.

Either way, economic development and public relations experts say, that kind of publicity could hurt a city's efforts to market itself to the strong, high-tech employers it needs.

City officials and economic development experts in Southwest Riverside County say they have seen no evidence that the community's reputation has been tarnished.

"I just think this is one of those things that the press built up to a crescendo and will die down," said Morris Myers, executive director of the Economic Development Corp. of Southwest California, which facilitates the location of new businesses in the area.

Reports noted that many of the protesters were not Murrieta residents. But television news outlets, especially cable news channels, can filter images to fit an agenda. Left-leaning MSNBC aired footage of angry, middle-age men with long beards. A conservative commentator on Fox marveled that this was happening "in liberal California."

The concern, experts say, is spurred by days of coverage of protesters yelling and in some cases spitting on buses. Many defend the protesters' right to challenge the nation's immigration policies, but others worry that these images will last after the current debate has calmed..

Paul Granillo, CEO and president of the Inland Empire Economic Partnership, a group that has been trying to improve the two-county area's image in the minds of the outside world, including the minds of would-be employers, said this could be an issue.

Granillo said everyone has a right to voice an opinion on major issues, but civility must be preserved.

"In the media-interconnected world we live in, these things aren't easily fixed," Granillo said. "No one wants to look at pictures or videos of someone spitting in someone's face."

Others believe, though, that these images won't figure in the decisions made by businesspeople.

Cities in Southwest Riverside County decided more than a decade ago to look for technology-based companies to boost their economies. Murrieta and its neighbor to the south, Temecula, have had success.

Bruce Coleman, who has been Murrieta's economic development director for six years, said two-thirds of the city's workforce commutes to other areas, including many who drive to technology clusters in Orange and San Diego counties. That creates a "brain drain" that the city is trying to plug by enticing companies to call Murrieta home.

Coleman, who attended three networking events in coastal cities this week, said some people told him they had seen Murrieta's situation portrayed on news broadcasts. But no one, he said, suggested they would avoid the city.

"None of those businesses expressed any concern," Coleman said. "My experience is businesses make decisions based mostly on economic reasons."

Stephen Austin, chairman of InSoCal Connect, a nonprofit group formed to increase technology development along Riverside County'sInterstate 15 corridor, said he had a similar experience. This week he facilitated meetings between an investor from the Midwest and many would-be entrepreneurs in the Inland area.

Austin, who works as managing partner of Swenson Advisors, a financial services firm with a Murrieta office, said the protests at the immigrant processing center did not come up in the discussions.

But the owners of companies that Murrieta would like to attract might do extra due diligence because of the protests, said Mark Mitchell, director of the Tri-Tech Small Business Development Center, which counsels and assists local companies. "They would ask, 'Who are those folks? What do they stand for?'" Mitchell said.

In the end, he said, the good points the area offers "would outweigh the negativity," Mitchell said.

Among the negative media coverage was an editorial in The New York Times that ran two days after the protesters blocked three buses from entering the Border Patrol processing center. Murrieta and its mayor, Alan Long, were criticized for a June 30 news conference that discussed what officials saw as possible problems, including health and safety concerns.

The editorial stated that city officials ignored that the refugees were being kept at a gated federal facility and would almost certainly not be dumped into Murrieta. It called Long's statements "a farcical reaction to a concocted emergency."

A resident at the news conference said he was worried about a huge increase in crime and increased premiums for car and homeowner insurance. Long's response was that those worries were "well said."

Within a few days, however, Long was appearing on national news broadcasts, trying to repair the damage, real or perceived, to Murrieta's image.

Long said he was dismayed by the negative portrayal of Murrieta in the national media. "The unfortunate part is the side of the community no one's seeing is what we're really known for," he said. "We're a compassionate, giving city."

Long said he and other city officials disagreed with the plan to bring migrants to Murrieta but added that he did not encourage people to protest at the station, much less block the road.

The city also has hired crisis management adviser Xavier Hermosillo to help the mayor with media interviews and reach out to Spanish-language media.

Bill Halldin, who owns a Sacramento-based public relations firm, said the mayor has made good moves.

Halldin said Long was wise to go on camera quickly, while the networks were still covering the protests.

"It's a tidal wave of attention not focused in a way the city would have wanted," Halldin said. "Obviously for the people who live there, they know the city is not one-dimensional. It's almost a natural follow-up: While the cameras are still camped out in the city, tell a different story."

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