Last Tuesday the Council renewed the city's contract with the Garland Chamber of Commerce to provide economic development assistance. Fifteen years ago the Garland Economic Development Partnership was created between the city, the Chamber, and the school district. I know of no other city that has a similar partnership and I'm often asked about it when talking to officials from other cities.
 
In 1994, the city was funding it's own economic development efforts to the tune of $800,000. Member cities of DART, like Garland, don't have the same ability to levy a sales tax within their boundaries to finance economic development as do other cities. DART cities pay to DART the collections of a one-percent sales tax. Non-member cities can assess that same rate but use it for economic development. That ability has been a watershed for cities like Mesquite, Allen, McKinney, and Frisco. Those cities that levy the tax for economic development must also use it for economic development.
 
For Garland and other DART cities that cannot levy a similar tax, we must use other sources to fund any economic development activities. For us, money for economic development comes much harder and is much more precious. Whatever we spend, we can only get it by taxing the citizens. If we had continued to fund our own efforts, it is estimated that we would spend over $1.2 million this year, using 3% as an inflation factor. The new contract has a base amount of $465,397, a savings of over $700,000 this year.
 
When he was elected in 1994, Mayor Jamie Ratliff did not see a reciprocal result for what we were spending for economic development and what we were getting. He sought another method that could be more efficient and effective. He envisioned today's Partnership and proceeded to organize it. In the fifteen years since, it is estimated that the Partnership has added $1.5 billion to the tax base and been responsible for creating or keeping over 16,000 jobs in Garland.
 
The new contract approved has several modifications. Many of those are the result of citizen comments and the efforts of Mayor Ron Jones and the city staff. Details from the meeting and the new contract are covered in an article in the today's Metro section of the Dallas Morning News:
 

From the Dallas Morning News:

Garland renews deal after Chamber of Commerce makes audits public

12:00 AM CST on Sunday, December 13, 2009
By RAY LESZCYNSKI / The Dallas Morning News
rleszcynski@dallasnews.com / The Dallas Morning News
Karel Holloway contributed to this report.
 
After releasing years-old audits at the final hour, the Garland Chamber of Commerce secured enough confidence to extend its 15-year economic development partnership with the city this week.
 
Garland residents and the City Council have taken it upon themselves to better track the chamber's public funds. The city's stake has increased from $250,000, when the partnership was established in 1994, to more than $465,000 last year. The Garland school district contributes $50,000 annually.
 
But when residents wanted a look at where the money was going, the chamber stated that its financial information was private.
 
Former mayoral candidate Mike Rose obtained a favorable ruling from the Texas attorney general's office to make the records public. At Tuesday's council meeting, he got an apology from Paul Mayer, the chamber's longtime chief executive officer.
 
"I'm learning the intricacies of working with a partnership with a public entity," Mayer told the council. "If it's your intent that we share that information as public information, that's exactly what we'll do."
 
Mayor Ron Jones emphasized that point, stating that under the new 10-year contract, annual audit information must be given out upon request as public information. The chamber will also present an annual plan to the council, starting in late January or early February.
 
"Everything we do is open as far as I'm concerned," Mayer said Friday. "The work plan is really going to give the council what they're looking for."
 
Questions asked
 
Rose credited former mayoral candidate Dino Quintanilla as being the first to ask the state for access to the annual audits, an effort dating to mid-2008. Former council member Jean McNeal has also been outspoken about the availability of the audits on her Web site.
 
"I thought it was important to put them on record that you're dealing with taxpayer money, you must account for it," Rose said.
 
For the last two years, the city's Audit Committee has stepped up its reviews, checking out the monthly statements provided by the chamber. The city auditor, the council members on the committee and Rose himself agree that everything appears to be on the up-and-up.
 
"As the city auditor said, all 10 of the audits he looked at are all quote-unquote clean," said council member Rick Williams, who chairs the audit committee. "There has never been even a hint of a scandal. The only reason we looked at the monthlies is that it was in the original contract."
 
The city was spending $800,000 on its own economic development team when it entered the agreement. Through the partnership, the city's investment in economic development is far less than Irving, Plano and Richardson – cities Garland sees as its competitors.
 
On Tuesday, Chamber Chairman Mark King pointed to $1.5 billion in tax base additions, 16,650 jobs created and more than 60 companies landed as results of the partnership.
 
"Those represent the intended consequences of the partnership," King said. "I think we can all agree that based on what we wanted to do from the start, the benefits of working together are clearly there."
 
Unanimous approval
 
Nobody seems to be debating that fact. The council approved continuing the relationship by a unanimous vote.
 
Still, the information was not immediately released to Rose. The state ruled Nov. 2 that the annual audits should be released to him within 10 days.
 
Records for 2005-09 were in his hands within a week, but those from 2000-04 were not turned over until Monday – the day before the contract was to be renewed.
 
Staff writer Karel Holloway contributed to this report.
 

 
I keep a running list of items I intend to cover in posts. Information on the Partnership and the new contract was one but I haven't had time to write a comprehensive post. Good things come to those who wait. Ray Leszcynski has done much of my work for me as he so often does. Writing this blog and its effectiveness is very much a direct relationship to how well others write. I am very thankful to be able to draw on the work of people like Ray and so many others.
 

1 comment

Comments:

Comment from: mike [Visitor]

please refrain from using the phrase "creating or keeping". for some unknown reason it tends to make me ill.

12/13/09 @ 19:35

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