A few ideas for county to attract jobs

COMMENTARY
March 7, 2008

Lake County commissioners last week heard a long-awaited presentation from consultants they hired to tell them how to develop or attract business here and what sorts of businesses they should court.

The purpose of this $114,000 economic-development plan is to provide a vision and road map for the county to diversify its economy and tax base -- and offer jobs.

Unfortunately, the result was much like consultants handing county commissioners a world atlas and telling them to jolly themselves along to a particular remote village in China.

Some of the consultants' conclusions were obvious. They reported that -- stop the presses! -- there's an arts community in Mount Dora that the county might take advantage of.

Lake also should "coordinate efforts with allies" and "diversify the tax base through innovation, industry attraction and business development." Gee, ya think?

Too many aspects of the report from TIP, the Austin, Texas-based firm, were cut-and-paste. But the company did zero in on several important points that Lake County ought to focus on as it goes about trying turn the economy away from home building and from service industries that cater to retirees.

First, predictability.

"Predictability in the development process is arguably more important than higher impact fees. Carrying costs on a small to large development can be devastating if the development review process is not predictable," the consultants noted.

Perhaps Lake's current pickle with Niagara prompted the consultants to include that phrase, and if so, they're right. The Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission encouraged Niagara Bottling LLC to spend $15 million to buy a building in Lake's industrial park near Groveland and place its new water-bottling plant here. All was warm and fuzzy until commissioners and the public learned that the company planned to take a natural resource and sell it for profit -- a resource everyone knows is dwindling. The welcome mat was jerked out from under Niagara's feet, and that shouldn't have happened.

Second, the report stressed the importance of improving education. Right again. Education is key to Lake making any changes in its economy.

Here's an interesting tidbit that the authors of the report thought important enough to include in the introduction:

"One factor in the county's difficulty in attracting . . .employers could be related to the county's relatively low educational attainment levels. TIP conducted a data comparison of Lake County with several other suburban counties in Sun Belt locations and found that only one benchmark county in Mississippi recorded a smaller percentage of its over-25 work force with a college degree.

"According to this analysis, the share of adults in Lake County with a bachelor's degree or higher was 17 percent. Typically, information technology firms place cities and counties with 30 percent or more high on their site selection lists.

"Ouch. The firm padded its painful observations by stressing that Lake has a lot of opportunities. While the numbers sting, at least it's clear where improvement is needed.

Third, use "place" rather than cash to attract companies.

"Rather than relying on incentives and cheap land to recruit industry, this approach recognizes the increasing importance of quality of place in the attraction and retention of business," the consultant wrote.

Amen. This is a far more personal approach guaranteed to strike a chord with quality companies.

And, when the county does grant incentives, TIP recommended a "clawback" agreement that requires recovery of incentives if the firm makes fewer hires or a smaller investment than promised.

That would certainly have helped Leesburg, which thoughtlessly gave an Apopka company called Skybolt Aeromotive Corp. a $750,000 grant to move to its airport. The agreement was that Skybolt was to hire 26 new employees before March 2004. When that failed to happen, city taxpayers started reimbursing the state in annual payments of about $150,000 each.

Fourth, demand accountability.

Hallelujah.Last year, the county gave $310,000 to the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission, the agency that encouraged Niagara to settle in Lake without thought for the environmental impact. The consultants suggested that the county consider a "performance-based" contract with the EDC. Good idea.

While they're at it, they might require a little ethics, too. Recently, the EDC's regional director in Lake, who personally worked to attract Niagara, went to work for the California-based bottler. Some clueless souls in the economic development arena just can't understand why this is a problem. All right, class, take a note: This is wrong because the public cannot be sure that the people it is paying are working in the best interest of the taxpayer -- and not the private firm.