Members of the Mayor’s Economic Development Compliance Task Force began providing suggestions Monday, although it’s not clear which entity will follow through with them.
Mayor Alvin Brown created the task force after a critical Jacksonville Economic Development Commission audit.
The commission is in its final weeks of funding. The Brown administration is creating an “economic development commission” and is phasing out the JEDC.
Details are pending.
The committee, in its third full meeting, discussed ideas Monday that could be included in its final recommendations. Those recommendations tentatively are scheduled to be completed by the end of May.
Task force member Robert Miller reviewed the last 10 JEDC contracts and said that while he thought the contracts were legally correct, more detail, such as item expenses, could be warranted.
He also suggested contract language regarding trigger dates that would automatically require a company receiving incentives to submit performance reports.
Juliana Rowland, an attorney with the Office of General Counsel, said that suggestion already has been implemented in recent economic development contracts.
Task force member Grace Sacerdote presented recommendations for internal control standards.
Among the highlights:
• The control environment should set the tone for commitment to compliance. That means having appropriate staff levels with “sufficient knowledge and skills” for oversight.
• Risk assessment should weigh the stated objectives, such as job creation and economic growth, with the relevant risks both internally and externally in the City.
• Control activities include policies and procedures, including appropriate review levels and staff training, transactional controls (that the JEDC audit addressed as a weakness) and appropriate documentation.
Task force Chairman Bill Scheu said the work of the task force has been to “tighten up what’s going into contracts” at the front end, which allows for easier and more thorough compliance at the back end.
“I think the important thing is that the tone or attitude be that compliance is important,” he said.
He said the task force will start to compile recommendations for the mayor over the coming weeks.
“We need something in government, larger than this (task force), that will have an audit-compliance function somewhere in the executive branch,” he said.
The task force has tentatively scheduled meetings for 3 p.m. April 2, April 23 and May 16.
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