With little discussion, the Midcoast Economic Development District’s general assembly voted to dissolve Thursday, June 25 pending approval of the transfer of its federal economic development district designation to the Midcoast Council of Governments.
According to the resolution approved by the general assembly, the Sagadahoc County-based Midcoast Council of Governments will assume the assets and liabilities of the Midcoast Economic Development District, MCEDD, in addition to its name and logo.
The Midcoast Council of Governments, soon to be MCEDD, has adopted a new membership and dues structure for 2015-2016. Municipalities have the option of joining the new economic development district regardless of their county’s support.
Wiscasset has already joined the new incarnation of the economic development district and committed to pay $2,775 in dues to the organization. Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor have also expressed interest in joining, current Midcoast Council of Governments President John Shattuck said.
Two separate checks written to MCEDD from Lincoln County, however, were returned.
The transfer would not have happened “if Lincoln County did what they were supposed to do,” said John James, Midcoast Council of Governments board member and loan committee chair. “They have never paid their fair share in dues compared to other counties.”
The relationship between MCEDD and Lincoln County has been wrought with controversy since the foundation of the economic development district in the Midcoast region in 2005.
MCEDD has served as the regional channel to U.S. Economic Development Administration funds through the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy program.
Through the program, the Economic Development Administration awards planning grants to economic development districts to create an annual report spotlighting economic development opportunities in the region. Projects listed on the report become eligible for Economic Development Administration funding.
Whether to maintain an independent economic development agency in Lincoln County, now the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission, or pool together resources with its regional neighbors under the MCEDD umbrella for all economic development projects, including projects outside the scope of the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy program, was at the heart of the conflict.
“Lincoln County is the only county in all of New England that is trying to perpetuate a county-driven economic development district,” said James, who has been involved with MCEDD since it was founded.
As a largely rural county, Lincoln County expressed concern it would be left out of regional economic development projects and see no return on its investment in MCEDD if it merged all its economic development programs with a regional agency.
Lincoln County has never received Economic Development Administration funds through the economic development district. The last Economic Development Administration-funded project in the Midcoast region was in Brunswick in 2009.
For the past two years, the Lincoln County Budget Advisory Committee recommended zeroing out funding for MCEDD, due to the belief it was a duplication of services already available through the Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission.
The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners went against the committee’s recommendation and authorized partial funding for MCEDD. MCEDD requested approximately $27,000; the commissioners approved $8,000.
According to Jeffrey Kobrock, executive director of MCEDD and the Midcoast Council of Governments, MCEDD will end the 2014-2015 fiscal year with a deficit and did not have the local match needed to access the federal Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy planning grant for the upcoming fiscal year.
The transfer of the economic development district designation to Midcoast Council of Governments was “an effort to save the economic development district,” Kobrock said to the general assembly. “If there was no match (for the planning grant) the Economic Development Administration would not recognize an economic development district in the Midcoast and could have walked away for a long time.”
Kobrock anticipates the federal Economic Development Administration will award the planning grant to the Midcoast Council of Governments for 2015-2016. The planning grant, once awarded, will serve as official Economic Development Administration approval of the economic development district designation transfer and enable the Midcoast to continue to be eligible for Economic Development Administration funds, Kobrock said.
Lincoln County’s $8,000 check to MCEDD, which, according to Lincoln County Administrator John O’Connell, was sent to show general support for the organization and remain in good standing with the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy program, was returned.
Lincoln County sent another check for $5,000 to show general support for the organization and remain in good standing with the program, O’Connell said. The $5,000 check was also returned.
“Last week the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners agreed to send the $5,000 check enclosed to MCEDD to demonstrate their support of the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy process and MCEDD’s economic development mission,” O’Connell wrote in a memo to Kobrock.
“Knox County is in the same situation as Lincoln County and has paid $5,000 out of their $10,000 commitment. So we now have made equivalent payments … We hope that Lincoln County will retain access to the Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy process and Economic Development Administration funding in the future,” O’Connell wrote.
In a memo accompanying the returned $5,000 check, Kobrock wrote, “Although you have provided a lengthy discussion, I am still at a loss for the basis of this check. I cannot in good conscience accept a check for an organization on the verge of dissolution.”
According to Midcoast Council of Governments’ new bylaws, all municipalities that join the new economic development district will have two representatives in the general assembly. If 10 percent of a county’s population joins, the county will also have two representatives in the general assembly, with one representative joining the board of directors, Shattuck said.
If Boothbay and Boothbay Harbor decide to join the new economic development district, Lincoln County will be close to crossing the 10 percent threshold that will enable it to maintain representation in the organization, Shattuck said.
Counties also have the ability to join by paying the remaining dues for the county not covered by the municipalities that join.
“This first year is going to be critical for us,” Shattuck said to the general assembly. “We’re going to determine our goals and our funding structure moving forward.”
Whether Lincoln County will have a seat at the table as the next incarnation of the economic development district takes shape remains to be seen.
“We need to go out of here thinking we’ve done the right thing and that we’re going in the right direction,” Bill Whitten said to the general assembly in his final minutes as MCEDD’s president.
The Midcoast Council of Governments, soon-to-be MCEDD general assembly will reconvene July 23 in Damariscotta with its new members and its anticipated new mission as a federally designated economic development district.
