Mayor Alvin Brown’s Incentive Monitoring and Compliance Task Force presented him its final recommendations Wednesday, months after being assembled to review the compliance side of economic incentives deals.
Brown appointed the seven-member task force Jan. 18 following a report released in December by the City Council Auditor’s Office that found the City lost money because of a lack of oversight by the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission.
“Based on our audit, it appears that JEDC has been lacking in its administration and oversight of economic incentive agreements,” said the report’s audit conclusions.
The task force met several times. Among the recommendations: change the culture of noncompliance within the City; maintain appropriate necessary staff levels that are competent in oversight; segregate the duties of those who monitor compliance from those who negotiate the deals; and hire a compliance officer that would be housed in a City office outside of the mayor’s proposed Economic Development Office.
The group also said that one person could handle compliance functions with an established process and the proper training and technology.
Chairman Bill Scheu presented Brown with the recommendations and said he hoped Brown would implement the suggestions in the report.
“I hope he uses it,” Scheu said. “I think it can make a difference.”
Scheu also said he would send a copy of the report to Council President Stephen Joost to use when the Council reviews Brown’s economic development reform legislation, which is being redrafted.
Brown proposes to dissolve the 15-year-old Jacksonville Economic Development Commission and in its place create a Downtown Investment Authority and an Office of Economic Development. The task force recommendations would apply to those functions.
The task force decided it would meet in a year to review the report’s recommendations and implementation.
Brown accepted the report and said the group’s work was important.
“I will make sure that I review it, look at it, and include it in the template for how we operate,” Brown said.
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