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The County Commission will decide Tuesday whether to fund the Economic Development Council.
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 8, 2001
INVERNESS -- With a decision on their fate just around the corner, the Economic Development Council gave a presentation to the County Commission Thursday on ways to set measurable goals for themselves.
The group suggested drawing up a "performance-based" contract with the county, outlining specific goals that the EDC must meet in order to receive tax dollars for economic development.
Michelle Miller, the featured speaker at the hourlong workshop, said such contracts have worked well on the state level. As the contract manager for the state's public/private economic development group, Enterprise Florida, Miller makes sure that group lives up to the goals set by the governor and the Legislature.
The goals range from creating a certain number of jobs per year to measuring the amount of tax dollars paid by businesses that have expanded or relocated to Florida with the group's help, Miller said.
If commissioners set similar standards for the Economic Development Council, Miller said, they could make "non-emotional" decisions about whether to continue funding the group.
"It will enable you to say (that) based on the numbers, this works, this doesn't work," Miller said.
Commissioners embraced the idea of performance-based contracts at Thursday's workshop, where there was discussion but no decisions. The EDC will come back for a 4:15 p.m. hearing at the commission's Tuesday meeting, where the commission will decide whether to fund the group.
"If we're all on the same page (with measurable goals created up front) . . . that's where we're going to be as a team, rather than splintered off in different directions," said Commissioner Gary Bartell, who has questioned the EDC's accountability in the past.
Measurable goals will help, but the EDC can also improve its tarnished image by including more voices on its board, Commissioner Josh Wooten said. The EDC's restructuring proposal would add representatives from the Tourist Development Council, the agriculture industry, commercial fishers and the health care industry to the EDC board.
"I think one of the raps this EDC gets is (the appearance that) it's just a group of businessmen trying to line their pockets," Wooten said.