Commissioners,
Please consider the following with respect to Agenda Item 8B1 (Business Development Board contract update) on April 23, 2013:
The current Commission majority raised concerns about the BDB nearly five months ago. On December 4, 2012, you voted to ask the BDB to voluntarily suspend payments pending review of the 2009 contract. On January 15, 2013, you voted to ask the BDB to consider renegotiating the contract to address specific issues, including funding. On February 5, 2013, Commissioners were asked to provide the County Administrator with their individual concerns about the BDB contract. On April 2, 2013, you directed staff to prepare an Agenda Item.
During this period, the BDB has continued to receive approximately $161,000.00 a quarter (which amounts to nearly $53,000 per month) and has stockpiled a $670,000.00 slush fund. These hard-earned taxpayer dollars are not being used for economic development but are parked in BDB bank accounts earning interest for the BDB without providing any return for taxpayers.
The BDB has received more than $2 million since the 2009 contract was approved and will collect millions more as the County doles out quarterly payments without requiring accountability from the BDB. Despite unverified claims by BDB staff, taxpayers are not getting their money’s worth out of the BDB. Many claims made by the BDB are simply untrue. There has been no relocation or multi-million-dollar investment in Martin County by UCT Coatings. The American Energy Innovations project — 600 promised jobs — was cancelled. Old Cell Phone (iVox Solutions) peaked at well below the projected 860 promised jobs and actually laid off several hundred employees.
Taxpayers are paying for expensive rented office space for the BDB while operating hours are cut back at our libraries. Taxpayers are funding salaries and double-digit pay increases for BDB staff while some wages are cut back and County employees are denied raises. And while citizens face the prospect of new taxes to pay for St. Lucie Inlet dredging, maintaining and repairing roads and bridges and ensuring the safety of our beaches, the BDB is sitting on more than $670,000.
The bulk of the money BDB receives from the County is spent on generous staff salaries and benefits, office rent, operating expenses, and public relations campaigns to promote the BDB.
The executive director attends conferences that cost thousands in registration fees and thousands more in travel and runs up expenses at clubs like the Whiskey Priest, Sam Adams Brewery, the Bourbon Cowboy, Sweet Water Brewery, the Iron Cactus (the country’s premier tequila bar), Mad Dogs Pub and the Red Light District – all financed by Martin County taxpayers.
Taxpayers also pay recurring BDB expenses for dining at local breakfast and lunch establishments (although retail and service establishments are not “targeted” businesses that the BDB says its core mission is to support).
The BDB’s most recent published tax return reports only $2,170 in business retention and expansion expenses, with more than $400,000 in employee and office expenses and more than $258,000 in legal expenses.
Even if the BDB were spending our tax dollars wisely – which clearly is not the case – the terms of the contract are simply not being met.
The BDB has almost no obligations under the contract but hasn’t fulfilled the few specific commitments that do exist, e.g., to adopt a conflict-of-interest policy, provide certificates of insurance reflecting required coverages, indemnify the County for costs incurred as a result of BDB’s violation of the Sunshine Law, and implement an economic development strategy.
The BDB’s Strategic Plan for Economic Development expired last year, and there has been no effort to develop – let alone implement – a new strategic plan.
The BDB Board refused to provide an independent audit of its financial records and policies (although the Executive Committee last week reacted to public pressure by directing staff to begin preparing a Request for Proposals for an audit) and bashed a proposal to provide $10,000.00 in seed money for a “Buy Local” program to benefit local businesses in Martin County, claiming the program would create “competition” for local chambers of commerce.
At the same time, the BDB is handing out thousands of hard-earned taxpayer dollars as donations or “sponsorships” to chambers of commerce and the Economic Council (which has an office adjacent to the BDB and shares some officers/directors with the BDB).
Taxpayers cannot afford continued delay in evaluating the relationship between the County and the BDB. The County has continued to pay the increased amount set out in the 2009 contract without regard to the caveat that increased funding is not required to be paid from ad valorem taxes.
Please do not tell Martin County citizens that we can’t afford to maintain park restrooms or fix crumbling bridges or dredge the inlet or keep libraries open while we dump millions into an organization that wastes our money at nightclubs and sponsors events for the Economic Council and chambers of commerce that consider non-member businesses “competition.”