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 Among the items the council needed to discuss was a request for
review of new by-laws for a new, or at least re-vamped, economic
development organization for Logan County.
For several years there has been the Lincoln and Logan County
Development Partnership aimed at serving the city of Lincoln and the
entire county in searching out new business and industry for this
area. In the past five years that program has been plagued with a
high turnover of directors and in the opinion of many aldermen, a
very low result rate.
Earlier this year when the Unified Organization Committee was
formed, the goal was to create a model of a new organization that
would include the Development Partnership, along with the
Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce, the Abraham Lincoln
Tourism Bureau of Logan County, and Main Street Lincoln. The new
organization would combine these components into one unit that would
work both for and with the city of Lincoln, all surrounding
communities, and the county of Logan on the whole.
However, by mid-year, it became clear that the Partnership, as well
as the county, was not pleased with the direction the UOC was
taking. When it came time for the four entities to vote on whether
or not to join the unified organization, which to date has not been
named, the Partnership board declined.
When the Logan County Board was offered the opportunity to endorse
the new organization and become involved in the voting process for a
new board of directors for the new organization, they also opted
out.
Soon after that, the Partnership and the Logan County Board began
working together to do a make-over of the old Development
Partnership. The L/LCDP was located at the Information Station at
the corner of Fifth Street and Lincoln Parkway with the Tourism and
Chamber offices. At the end of September, the Partnership office was
temporarily moved to the downtown area in the Farm Bureau Building
at the corner of Pulaski and McLean Streets.
This week Snyder shared that the new organization will be called the
Logan County Economic Development Partnership and that the new group
had drafted new by-laws. The city of Lincoln was being asked to
review the by-laws and lend their support to the new organization.
Snyder said that he had reviewed those by-laws and he had a number
of concerns. One of the greatest of these was the manner in which
the Partnership Board would deal with its board members.
Snyder said the by-laws state that there will be one voting board
member for each incorporated area within the county and two board
members representing the county on the whole.
The by-laws, Snyder said also indicated that a board member could be
removed from the board at any time at the discretion of the full
board. Snyder said, in other words the city could send a board
member, but others on the board could have that person removed from
his or her seat.
Another concern was regarding the financial support of the new
Partnership. Snyder said there was no dollar amount specified. The
financial support would be derived from membership dues, and the
dues per entity would be determined.
Snyder commented that he had attended a meeting recently with the
L/LCDP and county board members to discuss this revamped
organization, and the dues segment had been one he questioned at
that meeting.
Snyder read the definition of 'dues' to the council. “Dues are
defined as monetary and per capita by community, as defined by an
annual evaluation by the board.” He said, "I’m not quite sure what
that means, but they basically told us that they would decide what
the dues would be for the new organization once they determine who
is going to participate.” Snyder also said, “They made a strong
statement that everyone should be represented equally on the board.
But when I asked then if the dues would be equal, they said that had
not yet been decided.”
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In the discussion, Marty Neitzel began by asking if the new
UOC organization would contain an economic development
component. Snyder responded, “Yes.” She then asked if the city
needed to be part of two development groups and Snyder responded
“No.”
Michelle Bauer commented that she wasn’t sure that the city need
economic development from any other source. She said, “We’ve
made fiscal decisions as a board recently to take economic
development into our own hands from the city perspective with
Retail Strategies and the hiring of a city administrator. I
don’t think there is enough concrete evidence in this proposal
to give me any kind of security that this will be run any
differently than the way it has been prior.” She noted the large
turnover and said the old organization had a lack of strong
leadership.
Melody Anderson said she could not support anything where the
dues were not a set amount. She also expressed concern that the
economic development board could oust the city representative,
yet still ask for dues to be paid.
As discussions moved forward, Jonie Tibbs was the only one to
offer any support of joining the new partnership, saying that
she was confused as to why the council would feel economic
development was not needed by the city.
Bauer countered saying that the city would have economic
development from the UOC; that it wasn’t something that was
being dropped.
“If I felt like this economic development partnership was going
to aid us in going forward, I would be all for it,” Bauer said.
“I don’t see anything in here that says they are going to aid us
purposefully to assist us in our initiatives or do anything
above and beyond what we are already doing ourselves."
Tibbs contended that the city has benefited from the old L/LCDP,
and she felt it should support the new organization.
Snyder reminded the council that every year, the aldermen have
looked at the L/LCDP and have asked what it had done for the
city recently. He said this year in particular he felt the city
could make a strong argument that the L/LCDP has not done
anything for the city of Lincoln.
 Neitzel agreed and pointed out that she was never in favor of
the L/LCDP joining the CEDS (Comprehensive Economic Development
Strategy region) and that she saw no value in it for the city.
She said she feels like the future is in the UOC, and that the
city will benefit from the work of that organization more than
from a new partnership.
Kathy Horn, who is the current city liaison to the L/LCDP, was
asked for her comments by Snyder. Referring to an earlier
meeting Snyder spoke about, Horn commented. “I think we went in
together to research a new unified organization, and then all
the sudden the county decided they didn’t want to support it.
After being at the meetings, I think they were kind of rude.
They were rude to you (Snyder). They didn’t want to answer your
questions when you asked them, and I really don’t think that we
need to support them.”
With that, Snyder asked for other comments, and the floor was
silent. He said there will be a motion in the Monday agenda.
While it is expected that the council will vote on this matter,
they have it at their discretion to table any vote if they feel
they are not prepared to make an informed decision.
[Nila Smith] |
