County follows suit with EDA not

At the Jan. 22 workshop, Littleton-Brewster asked commission to consider sending a letter expressing its intention to review the guidelines and purpose of a 2008 interlocal agreement. The letter will be voted on at the Feb. 4 meeting.

“We don’t get a lot of communication,” Littleton-Brewster said. “We very seldom hear what’s going on. Again, what is our strategic plan? How are we developing this plan? How are we getting other things here? We don’t get an update, we don’t understand, we don’t know some of the things that are taking place. I think if we’re to foster communication and be able to communicate (to) our citizens and communicate and find out how we’re all working together to develop the community we need to have some kind of strategic plan. We need to know what’s going on and just find for improvement what is the plan.”

Littleton-Brewster requested meeting minutes, agendas and board documents be placed on the EDA website.

That’s something Jack Qualls, EDA executive director, feels can be done. Ultimately, he felt it would be a “great opportunity” to revisit the agreement.

“I’ve only been in this position a little over 2½ years,” Qualls said. “A lot of you had dealings with my predecessor and that’s history as they say. … As far as reviewing some of this information and going back through — whether or not I have accomplished these things from a director standpoint or not I think it’s important for us to take a step back if you’re concerned about these things, if the city’s concerned about these things.”

Qualls said each year he provides an annual report to city and county representatives that includes information about the EDA, its activities and the budget. Some EDA work does not make it to the public, such as Qualls helping Philadelphia Mayor Chris Miller get in touch with East Tennessee Development District, he said.

“There’s definitely room for communication, I’m not saying there’s not, but I’m saying you are getting more information than you ever have,” Qualls said. “I’m not saying that suffices, but there again I don’t think it’s bad to revisit these things to see how we can better things for the community. But at the end of the day I’m here to better the community.”

Van Shaver, commissioner, agreed with Littleton-Brewster’s stance, and noted the EDA in its current structure is “as obsolete as the T Model.”

“There was a time when the EDA was a necessary thing but we’re in a whole different world,” Shaver said. “… People have the internet nowadays, they have phones in their hand that can tell them anything they want to know. As Jack said, according to last year’s audit, Loudon County taxpayers chunked $162,000 into the EDA over there. That’s nearly a penny of our tax rate.”

Although the county is required by state law to have an EDA in some form, Shaver believes it would suffice to have the three entities handling economic development matters. For now, he doesn’t see the return.

“We can still have an EDA, we have to have an EDA organization and they have to have an executive branch, but nothing says that they have to have staffing of that level,” he said. “If we were to ever reduce our funding down to a point where the EDA board would say, ‘OK, we have X amount of dollars. How do we do what we need to do?’ You have a secretary, you have somebody in the office answering a phone.”

Qualls told commission he gets out and “beats the bush” and speaks with existing industry regularly. He also noted helping Lenoir City obtain a $500,000 grant through the state’s Local Parks and Recreation Fund with a 50 percent match. Money will help pay for a splash pad and pavilion at Central Park in Lenoir City. He also mentioned $900,000 in grant money for Loudon County.

“There’s things that I’m doing, the $900,000 no one in here can do it because it’s never been done in state history,” Qualls said. “When you look, the state aid funds, I flexed the state aid funds with the federal funds. It’s the first time in the state’s history, a hundred years of (Tennessee Department of Transportation) that’s been done. No one else here had that ability to do that nor anybody had the creativity to do that.”

Loudon attorney Joe Ford will draft a letter to send to EDA, Harris said. However, he felt Qualls should already be “on notice” after hearing from Loudon City Council and Loudon County Commission.

Although he believes it might not be a bad idea to review the 2008 agreement, Harris showed Qualls support and noted he is handling five contracts for the city.

“I mean just currently right now Jack’s managing about $4.8 million worth of contracts for TDOT, five different contracts that he’s taken on,” Harris said. “I don’t think that that’s under your job description, but you don’t see that in A-J (interlocal agreement guidelines) but he’s taken that on and doing that and managing those contracts for us.”

Commissioner Harold Duff, who serves on the EDA board, said the EDA has been worth the money.

Shaver posed the idea of equal pay for the EDA between Lenoir City, Loudon and Loudon County. “If we’re going to continue to do this, let’s make it equitable. Everybody pay the same,” Shaver said. “If it’s as valuable as everybody says, everybody shouldn’t have a problem with paying an equal amount of money. So just add that to your list of reviews.”