By Reggie Connell, Managing Editor
Shortly after his election in 2016 to Seat #4, Commissioner Kyle Becker began his campaign to bring an economic development department to Apopka. But for six years, it has eluded him. But now, in his return to the City Council, Becker may have the support in the community and on the dais to get his wish.
Becker made a brief presentation at the December 7th Apopka City Council meeting, which opened with a slide showing 14 municipalities near Apopka, and their status on economic development departments.
"Apopka is outside the norm in terms of what other municipalities are doing to drive the right outcomes within their cities in terms of economic development."
Becker estimated that the cities in his study averaged spending $331,000 on EDDs per year.
"That equates to $10 per person per year," Becker said. "We know that we spend that much money and gas per person going out to a restaurant outside of our cities almost on a monthly basis."
Despite using that figure as a baseline, it's not a figure he is requesting for salaries.
"I'm not asking for $331,000," he said. "But I am asking this council to seriously consider the creation of this item and fund it within this budget year. I'm not going to ask for a vote tonight, but I am going to make some asks. One is we create an economic development department. And I'm suggesting that we fund that department with seed funding out of the Coronavirus, state and local fiscal recovery funds."
Becker is targeting the funds earmarked for a program discussed during a City Council meeting.
"I sat in this council chamber a few months ago, where there was a $300,000 expenditure earmarked for a reading program," Becker said. "However, I think the $300,000 will be better served invested in economic development. And it goes directly to supporting a key principle in the SLF RF funds [which is in the green text below]."
"It's called building a strong, resilient, and equitable recovery by making investments that support long-term growth and opportunity. My other ask is that we create an economic development director role. And we can all sit up here and agree on what that job description looks like. I have my point of view. But I don't want to operate in a vacuum for something that the rest of the council is uncomfortable with. The third is to create a long-term execution strategy. So my ask her for Council today is for us to get a general agreement for this to be put on a formal agenda for us to formally consider the creation of the Economic Development Department and the economic development role. And I'll caveat that with this... the $300,000 is not for one singular person's salary. That's not the intent. We can agree on what that bucket would look like when discussing the job description. But this would be for the seed money to create the department to have at least a director-level position put in place, and then all the other ancillary expense that comes across with branding our city and things that come with doing that. So I would hope that I have the support. Without economic development, we are the largest city in the Northwest Orange/Southeast Lake County area. All of these cities are creating these vibrant areas. That common denominator is investment and economic development."
Commissioner Nick Nesta seemed supportive as long as there were goals in place to track the department's success along the way.
"I don't hate the idea," Nesta said. "The only thing is just creating benchmarks. How do we track success would be my only concern. It's making sure that if we're spending $300,000-plus a year... I can say your job was well worth it... I can see where the dollars came from. Or if it's not, it's hey, this didn't work out. This was a waste. That would be my ask if we do move along with this is that we create very specific benchmarks."
In response, Becker gave an example from a bordering city with a history of economic development success.
"Winter Garden, for example, puts very clear success measures of how they interpret when they talk about Plant Street there," Becker said. "What types of things are they trying to put there, and they gauge and measure themselves across those key performance metrics."
Commissioner Diane Velazquez also expressed optimism about the presentation and wanted Apopka residents to see the city's vision in a clearer light.
I agree that we need to have this conversation. I want to be able to give that opportunity to Commissioner Becker. He's doing all the research and wants to show the benefit of it, not just for him. But the benefit of the city. We're trying to build our city downtown, and it's been something that as long as I've been here, which is almost going to be 10 years, it's been something we've been talking about. We seem to always piecemeal it, and we're just not moving in a good direction. Something that I am seeing is that we're kind of all over in the city. And if you hear the feedback from our residents, they don't understand what direction we're going in. And what's coming back from our residents is a lot of negativity. So if we can do something to try and give them a roadmap, a vision... this is where we're going, and this is what we want to do. I think that we can bring our taxpayers on board. But right now, I don't see that. We are just all over the map. And I think this would be a good start."
However, Commissioner Alexander Smith expressed reservations about funding a full-time director position.
"I understand that there's a need for the economic development department," Smith said. "I just don't feel that we're ready for a full-time position at this time. I've talked to a couple of other cities where they have economic development directors, and they did not start with a full-time director. They already had a person in a part-time position on staff that assumed those responsibilities, and then they grew into a full-time position. And so I think we need to grow into that. I've spoken to Mr. Hitt (Community Development Director Jim Hitt) at least once or twice about it. Maybe he can consult, assuming that as a part-time responsibility as the economic director, and then we move into a full-time position at some point."
Becker closed the discussion by circling back on the previous year's economic development promises and accomplishments.
"Without economic development, we know where we're at, right? I mean, if our vernacular is fancy Circle K's and a concept Winn Dixie, then we're failing on the economic development front, I'm sorry. We've got a partner doing our city center that claimed last year that that new development that we threw mulch on was going to be done in Q-1 of this year. And I'm happy to have this go on the formal agenda, too. A deeper dig into my presentation. Hopefully, you can all provide some feedback on what you would want more to make a yes decision. But, again, residents are calling for this."
