A couple of top Bloomington-Normal elected leaders say the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council needs to change and get better, or even turn some functions over to the municipalities, following the departure of CEO Patrick Hoban.
But McLean County Board Chair Elizabeth Johnston disagrees, in part, with Twin City mayors Dan Brady and Chris Koos. In a WGLT interview, Johnston said she thinks the EDC has delivered a lot of bang for the buck.
“Patrick Hoban has been an excellent advocate for the community. He has brought in quite a few deals. When we look at sort of a return on investment from his part, the county including Bloomington-Normal has seen $4.25 billion invested in the community based on his efforts at the EDC, the whole team over there,” said Johnston.
“We've really laid the groundwork for it continuing to be a successful program, in recruiting business, in retaining businesses, and even building up from within.”
Johnston said she will be excited to see what the transition looks like.
The city, town and county have each contributed $100,000 per year to the EDC.
Bloomington Mayor Dan Brady suggested last week that many EDC functions can be done in house by the city's own community enhancement department.
Johnston thinks the city department and the EDC serve different functions.
“I'd be interested to see how he envisions that happening. I do know that the Bloomington economic development team is incredibly busy working on their own initiatives,” she said.
Normal Mayor Chris Koos has said that no matter what happens, there needs to be better communication between the city, town, county and EDC development operations.
Again, Johnston said she needs to hear more about the details of that idea.
“I have not had an issue with communications with the EDC, with our partners. I think that we all lead very busy lives,” said Johnston. “From McLean County's perspective, over the six years that we've seen Patrick Hoban, we have put in $600,000. It's over 7,000% rate of return on that. I feel like that's been a worthwhile investment from the county.”
Johnston does agree with both mayors that there is a funding imbalance at EDC with the bulk of the money coming from local governments instead of from the business community, as is the practice in many municipalities. Koos has talked about communities in Arkansas he has visited where that is the case.
It also once was true at the EDC. Former EDC head Marty Vanags said when he had the position, the EDC had 75%-85% private funding.
Johnston acknowledged this has been an ongoing issue.
“I would love to see the business community more invested in the Economic Development Council,” said Johnston, adding businesses need to be aware of the value of EDC programs and research.
“I'm really hoping that that they will change their investment strategies to build a stronger community,” she said. “What we want to be able to see is more understanding that things that are impacting workforce development are impacting who they can hire."
She also lauded the EDC's work on housing and childcare.
“And when they see the value of that, I'm hoping that they will step up,” said Johnston.
Data center zoning
Last week, the county board approved a zoning text amendment dealing with the placement of data centers, a sometimes-controversial developing business sector. Data centers use a lot of electricity, sometimes water, and may produce noise.
Johnston cautioned McLean County does not have the authority to regulate the industry as a whole. Limits on the establishment of such centers must stick to protections for residents of the county. The amendment offers guidelines to the Zoning Board of Appeals to determine whether data center applications qualify for a given location.
“Some of it has to do with requiring protections on noise pollution, on light pollution. We've looked at protecting our residents from a visibility perspective,” said Johnston.
She said the county will continue looking at how other communities deal with water and energy regulation of data centers.
“How do we make sure that we are not going to be creating a detriment to our community on those factors?” said Johnston.
