Robert Young, a former city councilman and community volunteer who led the group for 15 months, parted ways with the authority in January, said chairman Pate Huguley. Prior to that, former chairman Drew Ferguson III, who retired from the group in May after 25 years, served as an unofficial director, particularly during what Huguley calls the “Kia years,” after the automaker announced plans to build a plant in the city.
“(Ferguson) was able do to that because Capitol City Bank (where Ferguson was an executive) let him work on development authority matters practically full time,” Huguley said.
Current authority members are volunteering their time away from their own jobs and activities, and the group needs a full-time executive director to properly recruit and retain businesses, members said. They held a special called meeting Tuesday to discuss funding options.
“We’re cheap to operate, but we need an executive director,” authority vice chairman Carter Brown said.
The authority hasn’t received an annual funding allocation from City Council since 2005, existing since then off bond closing fees it earned from Kia Motors’ suppliers who moved to West Point. That money will run out in February 2011, however, and Huguley and other board members want to know it will have funding going forward.
The city has the option of allocating money from its general fund, like council did from 1987 to 2006. The city gave the development authority $3.16 million in the years it funded the organization. Most recently the authority was receiving an annual allotment of $187,000.
The authority also has the right under its charter to up to levy a 2-mill tax increase to fund its operations, or about $208,000 in tax revenue. The authority also is allowed to receive up to 20 percent of local business license fees, about $27,000 currently.
Receiving any of those funds would take council approval, however, and no discussions about the money have taken place between the two groups.
Authority board member Josh Moon suggested the group ask for its previous allocation, $187,000.
“That money is either in their budget still or they’ve found another way to spend it,” Moon said. “The taxpayers would be paying the same amount, and that would cover us initially.”
Huguley and others, however, want to make sure the authority is covered in the long term, especially when it comes to eventually hiring another executive director.
“No one’s going to take the job without secure funding,” he said. “We can’t be going back to the well every year.”
Huguley said the development authority’s initial mission was to “take politics out of development.”
While the group is without a director, each of the five board members has stepped up to take on aspects of the authority’s work. The group also has the services of the Georgia Economic Development Department and the Valley Partnership, a Columbus-based development group that serves Muscogee County and Georgia and Alabama counties to which it is adjacent.
“They are at trade shows, they know what’s going on with the military,” Brown said. “They do a great job.”
Authority members said they live in West Point and would rather not see taxes rise, because “everyone’s being pinched” with the current economy, board member Griggs Zachry said.
But if the move brings more development to the city, the taxes would be spread out among more residents, leading to lower bills for everyone.
“I live here just like everyone else,” Brown said.
Before the authority speaks to City Council, members will come up with a forecast budget, goals and objectives, and other information to put in their presentation. Members particularly want to show how investment in West Point over time has led to tax and utility revenues for the city. Current numbers the authority shared show that the city’s technology park, developed in the 1980s, has brought in $400,000 a year, about 3 percent of West Point’s annual revenue.
“We need to show that we are good stewards of the city’s money,” Brown said.
Jennifer Shrader may be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or at (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.
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