An economic development compliance task force formed by Mayor Alvin Brown in the wake of a critical December audit of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission laid its foundation Tuesday.
The committee, which met for the first time, heard a review of the audit and the JEDC.
The 25-page audit criticized several deals from 2007-10, mainly dealing with oversight and compliance of “recaptured enhanced value” grants for job creation.
Paul Crawford, JEDC deputy executive director, provided a synopsis of the makeup and duties of the JEDC and responded to the audit’s conclusion that the commission had been “lacking in its administration and oversight of economic incentive agreements.”
Crawford said a drop in JEDC staff from 41 to 17 affected compliance and oversight.
“We trusted, but we didn’t verify,” he said, adding he didn’t think such occurrences were malicious.
Crawford said there are 81 active agreements representing $3 billion in capital improvements and 16,000 jobs.
Since the audit, the JEDC has instituted a standard operating procedure and over time has learned from prior contract language, he said.
Don Shea, executive director of the Jacksonville Civic Council and an executive-on-loan to the Brown administration, also briefed the committee about the future organization of economic development, including for Downtown.
Shea stressed the need for a mechanism that would expedite economic deals while still following the rules, a step he said was needed for Jacksonville to become competitive when attracting business.
Under the current structure, the city often does not make the short list for economic development relocations, he said.
Shea said the compliance committee’s suggestions will be important to the future of economic development.
The committee also was briefed about the Sunshine Law.
Chairman Bill Scheu asked members to propose ideas they would like to discuss in future meetings.
Scheu said he would like for Council Auditor Kirk Sherman to complete his presentation and also would like to hear from members of the Office of General Counsel who helped craft some of the economic incentive deals.
The committee has tentatively planned to meet again from 3-5 p.m. Feb. 23.
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