City Ponders Funding Economic Development Director Job

The city manager has received the go-ahead to request funding for the employment of someone who would head economic development efforts in New Port Richey.

The green light from the at a work session Tuesday came with caveats.

One of the biggest? Don’t pay for the new job with the city’s annual subsidy for , a nonprofit charged with downtown economic development.

The new proposed job stems from an idea Deputy Mayor raised on August 9. He brought up the notion of creating a staff position to. He asked that the City Council hold a work session on the subject. Council members cannot vote at a work session, but they can give direction.

City Manager John Schneiger came to the council Tuesday seeking direction on whether to hire someone to be in charge of economic projects and programs and fund the job in the fiscal year 2012 budget. According to his memo describing the goal of the work session, the position's responsibilities would include redevelopment and restructuring, eco-tourism, neighborhood revitalization, business recruitment and retention, marketing, downtown development, and so on.

In the work session agenda, Schneiger did not specifically name Greater New Port Richey Main Street as one of the programs under the person’s purview.  The agenda does mention in the background that Tuesday's discussion was spawned by the August 9 discussion of the need for someone to focus on the area of economic restructuring responsibilities for which Main Street is responsible.

Schneiger said the projected hit on the budget could be $100,000. Schneiger suggested making this person a director and finding a candidate with 5-10 years of experience. Schneiger said in his memo that he believed someone could be hired in the $60,000-$65,000 range, but that he might be wrong.

The city allocated a $30,000 subsidy from Community Redevelopment Agency funds to Greater New Port Richey Main Street this fiscal year. The city’s contract with the nonprofit calls for a further cut of at least $5,000 every year starting in fiscal year 2012 and does not guarantee subsidies in the future.

Schneiger wrote that the city could plug the $25,000 the nonprofit would receive the next budget year to help fund the director position. Another $75,000 could come from an administrative fee the city’s debt-plagued CRA fund is being asked to pay to the general fund.

Councilwoman , former executive director of Greater New Port Richey Main Street, said she did not support funding the position. She did not want the Greater New Port Richey Main Street defunded to pay for the development director job.  New Port Richey has hired someone responsible for economic development onto the city staff in the past, she said.

“I don’t think that we got any farther along than we are now,” she said.

, first vice president of Main Street, said the nonprofit board had reviewed Marlowe’s suggestion.

“Our feeling was that Mr. Marlowe’s suggestion was made in good faith as an “out of the box” suggestion to serve the city of New Port Richey and help preserve the Main Street organization,” Schurdell said, reading a prepared statement. “However, Mr. Schneiger’s proposal seems to suggest that the creation of this position would in effect 'de-fund' the Main Street program. We hope that was not the intention.”

Marlowe mentioned that the city pays $180,000 to $190,000 for the cost of nonprofit events to the city.

The city this year is researching a proposed event cost recovery idea that could generate, at the most recent announced estimate, $187,000 in event costs for the proposed fiscal year 2012 budget.

Schneiger said that fund from a cost recovery idea could be used to fund the economic developer position instead of the Main Street money. This was also an option in his proposal to the council. 

Schneiger said he was pressed for time trying to write his proposal in the week after Marlowe’s suggestion in the August 9 meeting.

The direction he was taking after Tuesday’s council meeting was not to pursue using the contract money.

Marlowe said that there would be enough from event cost recovery to fund the positon and that if the council wants to continue the Main Street subsidy “you won’t get an argument from me.”

Councilwoman said she was in favor of having someone on staff to manage redevelopment but that she did not want the position to concentrate exclusively on downtown.

Neighborhoods have fallen by the wayside as the city has concentrated for decades on downtown, she said. The city is down to one code enforcement officer. The money could be used to hire another.

Mayor Bob Consalvo said he wasn’t ready Tuesday to consider adding a new position onto the city staff so soon after it was first discussed.  He asked whether the city would be better off hiring the code enforcement officer and pointed out that the city has developed a large population a community of renters, adding potential for crime.

Schneiger said that the city can apply to the county for federal Community Development Block Grant funding. This could be used for neighborhood projects.  This was also in his proposal, but he said he would add emphasis on neighborhoods at the council's direction.

Other council business:

• Schneiger told the City Council that he has learned that the Hacienda Hotel, the shuttered landmark that the city council wants to see restored, expanded and developed into a hotel, cannot be expanded north or east. This is due to restrictions imposed in the city ordinance. So the expansion must go west, toward Super Playground in Sims Park. Read the Times’ story on the subject.
• The City Council gave Schneiger the green light to move ahead on offering an incentive package to the developer of the Main Street Landing project, but the money will only become available once the CRA is “in the black” financially. This money would come from tax-incremennt financing from the city's "Bridge District," a section of Main Street envisioned in the city's redevelopment plan as a feature that attracts visitors to the city. It includes the current "Palm District." You can find more in the Times' story.