Mayor Alvin Brown’s economic development strategy team expects to wrap up its work within the month and present an organizational chart to include an Office of Economic Development and a Downtown redevelopment agency.
“At this point, we believe that a general outline of a new economic development structure could take shape within the next month, including a strategy to create a new, quasi-independent Downtown redevelopment agency for the City,” said Don Shea, executive director of the Jacksonville Civic Council.
After taking office July 1, Brown appointed Shea and Jerry Mallot, executive vice president of the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, to study and recommend how the City should handle economic development.
Mallot and Shea said Monday that the Downtown development agency would address Downtown economic development.
Meanwhile, the Office of Economic Development would work closely with the mayor to complete deals quickly.
“He would like a very close relationship with whoever heads economic development,” Mallot said. He said Brown wanted “an opportunity to move swiftly” to negotiate deals.
The agency and the office would be part of Brown’s plan to reorganize City government, Mallot said. He said an economic development organizational chart is being developed and will be given to Brown’s Chief Administrative Officer Kevin Hyde and Deputy CAO Karen Bowling next week.
The administration intends to present a reorganization of government after the City budget is approved by City Council this month. The new fiscal year starts Oct. 1.
The Council Finance Committee has turned down Brown’s budget requests for some funds related to the pending reorganization, waiting for the full plan.
Council Finance Chairman Richard Clark told the Daily Record last week that the deal-breaker in a reorganization would be any attempt to “grow” government.
“That’s the wrong direction. That’s not the purpose of a reorg, from what I’ve been told. It’s to be more efficient, not less,” Clark said.
Mallot said it was not his intention to grow government with an Office of Economic Development. His goal, he said, is to make sure “the job can get done effectively and efficiently.”
“Jacksonville needs to compete more effectively with other cities in Florida and throughout the Southeast portion of the country, and we believe the result of this process will enable us to achieve that goal,” Shea said this morning.
Mallot said the new structure would be folded into the reorganization plan.
“That will be our recommendation. Those final decisions will be made by the mayor and his staff,” he said.
The Jacksonville Economic Development Commission has been the agency handling the City’s side of deals since 1997. JEDC Executive Director Ron Barton will leave the City Sept. 30. Brown accepted his resignation, submitted along with those of other City employees in a standard practice with incoming administrations.
The nine-member JEDC typically receives economic development incentive deals negotiated by staff, reviews them and then recommends their approval to City Council, which then receives the deals for another set of reviews.
On Aug. 8, Brown’s 18 transition committees presented their reports. Among its 23 recommendations, the Boards and Commissions Transition Committee called for changes in the JEDC.
“We believe the current scope of duties and oversight of the JEDC is too broad and needs to be reduced,” said the committee’s report.
Brown announced July 11 that Shea and Mallot would review economic development strategies. They are loaned executives and are volunteers for the review.
“There’s a lot of ground to cover, and we continue to gain input from many stakeholders and others that have been involved in Jacksonville’s economic development activity over the past several years,” Shea said.
“We have also been looking at other successful cities, particularly those with which we compete for jobs and business locations, to identify best practices in the business. In broad terms, such cities have a strong presence by their mayor on the front end of negotiations, rather than later on in the process. So we’ll be looking to create a similar structure for Jacksonville,” he said.
“Our guiding principles are that the overall, citywide economic development program should be organized to report directly to the mayor, with a quasi-independent agency for Downtown, governed by a board of directors that is appointed by the mayor and approved by the City Council,” Shea said.
He said that strong annual oversight by the Council is needed for both the Downtown and citywide economic development operations.
“And the new structure should be lean and nimble. It should be budgeted to sustain itself and provide proper incentives for job growth and expansion of the tax base,” Shea said.
Chris Hand, Brown’s chief of staff, has said the results of the review by Shea and Mallot would be part of Brown’s reorganization of City government.
Mallot said Monday the new structure would be “an evolution of the JEDC. It will evolve into this new structure.”
During his campaign, Brown called for creation of a Downtown Community Empowerment Corp. to direct Downtown revitalization, which would re-establish an entity similar to the former Downtown Development Authority, which was folded into the JEDC.
“An emphasis on Downtown development through a separate, dedicated authority is strongly encouraged to be considered by the administration,” said the transition committee report.
Also, it said the JEDC offices should be located within City Hall and its leadership in the mayor’s office. It now operates in the Police and Fire Pension Fund Building.
The stated mission of the JEDC is to develop and execute policies that result in sustainable job growth, rising personal incomes and a broader tax base throughout Northeast Florida.
Its five main objectives are to recruit and expand higher-wage job opportunities; promote and encourage private capital investment; increase the growth and expansion of small business; promote and leverage investment in economically distressed areas; and promote a healthy and vibrant Downtown.
Barton said in July that the JEDC staff, which had reached 42 people at its peak, had contracted to 16.
Mallot said Monday there are deals being pursued.
“It is a very active marketplace,” he said. “There are some exciting things that will come from this process.”
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