Local officials are touting a newly formed economic development district as a powerful tool to get dibs on millions of dollars in federal funds for projects ranging from disaster relief to restoring brownfields for industrial development.
"We're following the golden rule, and in this case, he who has the gold sets the rules," John Swanson, executive director of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission, said.
NIRPC and the Northwest Indiana Forum held the first meeting Friday of the newly created Northwest Indiana Economic Development District, which hopes to lasso funds passed out by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, part of the Department of Commerce, for local projects.
Swanson said the region missed out on Economic Development Administration grants for disaster relief after the September 2008 floods, for instance, because it lacked such a development district.
Last year, the Economic Development Administration disbursed $779.9 million to projects across the country, according to its annual report. Local economic development districts in Indiana reaped $5 million.
But Northwest Indiana got nothing -- and has been shut out of receiving grants from the federal agency for at least the past 15 years -- because it lacked a development district and a comprehensive economic development strategy, said Vince Galbiati, CEO of the Northwest Indiana Forum.
"That's the crying shame," Galbiati said. "We have so many blighted areas, but for 15 years, we have not been able to get any of that money."
The Economic Development Administration this year has funded significant projects around the nation similar to those that have been proposed for Northwest Indiana.
In September, the federal agency granted $6 million to the Jacksonville Port Authority to enhance its rail system. The improvements are expected to preserve 1,680 jobs at the Florida port.
The only controversy over forming the local district was the decision to tap the private Northwest Indiana Forum, a business group, as a member.
Porter County Commission President Bob Harper, who also sits on NIRPC's executive committee, voted against forming the district in September because of concern over including Forum members.
Harper said he's still concerned about an organization made up of elected officials such as NIRPC working so closely with a private business group that does not have to open its books and records to the public.
"I just didn't like the idea of partnering with the Forum," Harper said Friday. "I think the idea of the district is great."
But the federal Economic Development Administration mandates economic development district members be from both public and private arenas, requiring at least 51 percent be composed of elected officials, with other members coming from business, academia, work force development and labor, NIRPC's Swanson said.
Under 2003 legislation, NIRPC is deemed a council of governments made up of elected officials from cities, towns and counties and, because it lacks private-sector members, it was disqualified from receiving Economic Development Administration dollars.
Harper now sits on the board of the Economic Development District by virtue of his post as president of the Porter County Board of Commissioners. Eight other elected officials from NIRPC's board sit on the district board, along with eight members from the private sector.
Those instrumental in forming the 17-member district said they know it may seem like just one more development group to throw into the region's alphabet soup of such organizations, which all purport to do the same thing.
"It is a new organization, but it's one that if it's not here, you never will get Economic Development Administration money," Galbiati said.
The newly formed Northwest Indiana Economic Development District will use a $15,000 grant from the Indiana Economic Development Corp., a state agency, to put the finishing touches on its comprehensive strategy. That document must be submitted to the federal Economic Development Administration before the local district can apply for grants.
The local district will apply to the federal Economic Development Administration for a $50,000 grant to fund a search for eligible projects.
The board of the newly formed district, created to tap a specific pot of federal funds, includes nine members of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Development Commission and eight members of the Northwest Indiana Forum. They are:
Lake County Commissioner Roosevelt Allen
Porter County Commissioner Robert Harper
LaPorte County Commissioner Ken Layton
Michigan City Mayor Charles Oberlie
Portage Mayor Olga Velaszquez
Gary Common Council member Mary Brown
LaPorte Mayor Kathy Chroback
Hobart Mayor Brian Snedecor
Porter Town Council member Michael Genger
Northwest Indiana Forum CEO Vince Galbiati
Northwest Indiana Forum Economic Development Director Donald Koliboski
Regional Development Co. President Tom Galovic
Greater LaPorte Economic Development Corp. Executive Director Tim Gropp
BP Director of Public Affairs Tom Keilman
Edgewater Systems for Balanced Living CEO Danita Johnson-Hughes
Construction Advancement Foundation Executive Director Dewey Pearman
Ivy Tech Community College Northwest Chancellor Lupe Valtierra
