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 One topic discussed in the workshop session was, should the city
financially support the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy
(CEDS) prepared and maintained by the Greater Peoria Economic
Development Council (GPEDC). The GPEDC is made up of a five-county
region, including Logan County by default. The regional designation
is set, according to Jennifer Daly of the GPEDC, by the federal
government.
The GPECD seeks financial support annually for the CEDS from each of
the five counties. Up until 2014, Lincoln and Logan County had
shared the expense of the annual support for CEDS. In December of
2014 according to city administrator Clay Johnson, the council
received a request for payment of their share from the Logan County
Economic Development Partnership. The city decided it was not
interested in lending its support at that time. However, it also
kept money in the new fiscal year budget to use at a later date if
they chose.
Daly appeared before a combined meeting of the city and county
leaders in November and spoke about the CEDS program and how it
could be beneficial to the city and county. She addressed the Fifth
Street Road Project specifically.
The city of Lincoln is responsible for the proposed upgrades to
Fifth Street from Lincoln Parkway to an area just west of Sysco.
There is a cash reserve for the project, but it is not enough to
complete the work. The council has been hopeful that there would be
grant funding available that would cover the balance of the cost.
Daly explained that the CEDS is to be updated every five years, and
the next update will be completed in 2016 to take effect in 2017. In
that new document, she assured city leaders that the Fifth Street
project will be on the priority list of projects in the plan. As
such, the project will be listed and described in the plan in a
prominent location. She also explained that projects that are not on
the priority list will still be in the plan, but will be listed at
the end of the document as addendums.
She also told the group that priority listing the project will be
beneficial as grants come available for infrastructure projects. She
added that when applying for federal grants, one of the big
questions in the application is, “Is this project in your CEDS
document.”
At the December 15th meeting of the council, Johnson shared copies
of a billing from the Logan County Economic Development Partnership
in the amount of $5,000 with a request that the city pay $3,000 of
the total.
The invoice brought up several questions from aldermen. First, what
year were they being asked to pay, 2015 or 2016? And, if the city
was to have split the cost of the CEDS with the county, why was the
city being asked to pay $3,000 instead of $2,500? Finally, who was
the city going to be paying, the LCEDP or the GPEDC?
Johnson noted that the invoice did say for the fiscal year 2015. The
conclusion was then that the LCEDP was asking the city to pay its
share of the year that is nearing an end. This brought up another
question from Todd Mourning. Mourning recalled that early in 2015,
the county said they would pay the full $5,000 because the city was
not going to participate. Then during budget talks for next year,
"The county withheld money for the balloon festival to pay this, and
now they are asking for money we already said we weren't (giving)?
If we were to pay this as listed, would they then pay the balloon
fest?"
Early in the discussion, Johnson had noted that the ‘membership’ in
the CEDS was offered in tiers with costs ranging from a ‘Bronze’
membership at $5,000 to a ‘friends of” membership at only $2,000.
Aldermen talked about how they wanted to be members of CEDS. Did
they want to partner with the county for the Bronze membership or
could they have their own membership, and if so would they prefer
something less costly like the ‘friends of’ membership?
In considering what to do with the past billing, the question came,
could they choose to pay only $2,000 instead of the $3,000 that was
expected of them?
Michelle Bauer suggested that because this year was practically
over, maybe the council should only do a retroactive payment of
$2,000 to show good faith.
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Jonie Tibbs asked Bauer, or anyone else in the room to name one thing the CEDS
had done for Lincoln in 2015, or even 2014 or 2013. She concluded, “They have
done nothing.” Bauer said she agreed with Tibbs, but at the same time, the GPEDC
has said it would be an advocate for the Fifth Street project, and that was
worth something.
Mourning also agreed with Tibbs saying that to date, the GPEDC and CEDS had done
nothing ‘tangible” for the city, but the city had also not taken advantage of
some of the services offered by the GPEDC. He named Retail Strategies and said
that the city had not been aware that similar services were available through
the GPEDC. He noted that he had no information on what the service would have
cost through the GPEDC, but it could have been an option if the city had known.
Mourning went on to say that he felt now that the GPEDC was under new
leadership, and a new structure, he was hopeful that there would be other
opportunities available that would help the city of Lincoln. Bauer agreed and
said that compared to a year ago, the city now knows more and understands more
about the GPEDC. She said that the group offered opportunities the city might
have taken advantage of had it known. She concluded saying that she did not feel
that the city should pay $5,000 or even $3,000, but she could justify paying
$2,000.
Jeff Hoinacki agreed that the meeting with Daly had been informative. He added
he wished that the city had known more about what the GPEDC could do for it
three or four years ago. Kathy Horn was the city appointee to the Development
Partnership of Logan County before the city bowed out and joined the Logan
County Alliance. She told the council that when late county board member Bill
Martin was serving on the Development Partnership Board, the city and county
were more informed than they have been in the last few years since Martin’s
passing. Horn also said she would support a $2,000 payment.
Tracy Welch asked Johnson how many hours he had invested in 2015 with the GPEDC
regarding Fifth Street. Johnson estimated that time spent in preparing and
presenting the project, and preparing applications, he had probably invested
about 100 hours with the GPEDC. Welch then said that considering the work that
had been done in 2015; he would support a $2,000 contribution as a “statement to
show support” for the program.
Bauer also talked about whether or not the GPEDC had received the full amount
requested for 2015. She said perhaps, if the city communicated directly with the
GPEDC, it should ask, “did you get your full amount in 2015” and if so, she said
then the city could perhaps look at paying for the new calendar year instead of
the old.
As the conversation came to a close, Johnson said he felt these were questions
that needed to be answered before the city issued any kind of payment. He asked
if the council would want to have the item placed on the agenda for the first
meeting in January, providing he could supply answers to the many questions the
council had brought up. The council said that was their desire.
The item would be on the agenda for January 4th, 2016. However, the council has
the right to table any agenda item they feel they are not fully prepared to vote
on.
[Nila Smith]
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