Economic Development: Mayor may seek a neutral party
An information session with representatives from state and federal agencies may help answer the county government’s concerns with the Hickman County Economic and Community Development Association, Centerville’s mayor said last week.
Otherwise, “I see nothing I can offer that I haven’t already offered,” Gary Jacobs said last Wednesday.
That, he said, is two offers to host a meeting of county commissioners, association board members and aldermen. He said he was turned down.
County commissioners, through their budget committee, have asked for a similar meeting.
Jacobs said he has declined the county’s offer to have meetings of the three boards involved — the Legislative Body, the Board of Aldermen and the HCECDA board.
Last week, Jacobs said he and John Porch, chairman of the HCECDA board, have discussed bringing in a “neutral person” or a “third party” — state economic officials or EPA — to conduct an information session with all three boards, to clarify how the economic board is operating and how it should be.
Such a session would be open to the public.
In the last six weeks, county commissioners have cut about $92,000 in proposed HCECDA funding and suspended the remaining $35,000 until it can meet with aldermen to review documents and determine whether the association “is able to carry out the authorized mission,” as county Budget chairman Steve Gianakos put it.
The majority of HCECDA funding has come from the county, with a lesser amount from the town, under an agreement that created the economic development organization.
During the county budget process in May, commissioners cut the majority of its funding for HCECDA. The concern initially was that its contribution paid the salary of the executive director, a process several commissioners did not like, though it had been agreed to more than a decade ago.
As a result, Brenda Brock resigned three months before her intended retirement, and the funding for HCECDA is now insufficient to hire a new full-time director for the 34-year-old association.
Jacobs has indicated that the town has no issues with the way the association has been operating.
“My intention is to keep the economic development agency,” Jacobs said last week. “Without it, we can’t get grants.”
He had said earlier that if the county government cuts its funding for HCECDA, the town would add its $15,500 for HCECDA to the budget of the nonprofit Centerville Mainstreet.
