Montgomery County lawmakers are trying to improve the county’s economic development efforts by injecting some business experience into them.
“It’s very ad hoc right now,” said County Councilwoman Nancy Floreen, D-at large, chairwoman of the Council’s Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee. “We just make a decision every time without asking what are the goals we are achieving.”
Those concerns led Floreen’s committee to vote to give $500,000 to the Montgomery Business Development Corp., a volunteer body made up of county business leaders.
With the funds, the organization plans to establish a paid president and CEO to help in efforts to create jobs and retain and attract businesses, according to the proposal from MBDC Chairman Brian Gragnolati.
The funds are five times what County Executive Ike Leggett recommended for the organization, which is proposing to do many of the same tasks the county-run Department of Economic Development does now.
In fact, the decision to fund the MBDC at the higher level raised questions about whether the county should have an internal Department of Economic Development at all.
“If we’re going to create a new position, a highly compensated position, president of Montgomery Business Development Corporation, do we also need a director of the Department of Economic Development?” asked Councilman George Leventhal, D-at large. “Taking this step and creating this new position where now there’s going to be a president of the MBDC speaking on behalf of our economic development efforts is going to heighten the relevance of the big decision about whether this function ought to be carried out inside county government or outside county government.”
Giving this much autonomy and money to a private entity raises other issues, said Department of Economic Development Director Steve Silverman, who pointed out that the proposal doesn’t mention using private-sector funds.
“Who says to MBDC, ‘No, you’re not going to hire a president and CEO and pay him $250,000 a year’? ” Silverman asked. “These are taxpayer dollars.”
But independent input is necessary, Floreen said.
As an example, she pointed to the ongoing controversy over a proposed $900,000 Economic Development Fund grant for Bethesda defense giant Lockheed Martin. Leggett proposed the grant in his recommended fiscal 2013 budget as a way to refund hotel-motel taxes the company — in Leggett’s opinion, wrongly — pays for its Center for Leadership Excellence training facility.
Leggett’s proposal caused an uproar among council and community members. Silver Spring resident Michael Shuman, who has written books about economic development, also said in a letter to Floreen that the proposal “has no value whatsoever.”
“Based on all the conversations we have had,” Floreen said, referring to discussions like the one about Lockheed, “the need for independent advice and guidance on this is greater and greater.”
