The Rio Rancho Governing Body voted down a new contract with the Rio Rancho Economic Development Corp., but asked for a reworked agreement that would end conflict between city and RREDC staff and ensure creative thinking in business recruitment.
At their meeting Wednesday at City Hall, councilors Mark Scott, Lonnie Clayton and Chuck Wilkins voted against the one-year $80,000 contract, while councilors Tamara Gutierrez and Patricia Thomas voted for it. Councilor Tim Crum was absent.
RREDC is a private, nonprofit organization that works to recruit businesses and job centers to the community.
Under city purchasing guidelines, City Manager Keith Riesberg said he could have executed an agreement without governing body approval, but he put it on the agenda because of concerns governing body members had expressed.
Thursday, Wilkins said he had noticed from the time he was elected that RREDC staff and city employees didn’t work well together.
“It needs to get fixed, and it needs to get fixed now,” he said.
Wilkins didn’t want to go into detail about the disagreement because he was concerned that would make it harder to recruit businesses.
At the meeting Wednesday, Wilkins said he would vote against the contract until Riesberg could assure him the rift he saw would be removed. The proposed contract requirement of extra meetings between both parties is necessary, he said.
“I’m sorry; when you’re a contractor, you’ve got to work with the staff,” Wilkins continued.
RREDC staff shouldn’t ask a councilor to fire a city employee, as had happened at a meeting he’d attended, he said.
Clayton complained that RREDC only recruited economic base businesses — mainly manufacturing and commercial companies — instead of retail, and that the proposed contract didn’t address the issue.
Also, he said it was a conflict of interest that RREDC President Noreen Scott represented both the city and Sandoval County in business recruitment.
Mark Scott said he had been very disappointed that RREDC board members hadn’t contacted him since a meeting right after he was elected in 2012 until three hours before the council meeting to ask if he had any questions about the contract. He said he already had his research completed and didn’t feel it was appropriate to discuss the contract in that context.
Mark Scott said he wanted a team approach and new, creative recruitment ideas for economic development.
“Rio Rancho needs to be on the cutting edge of economic development, business building, bringing people in. Otherwise, we’re just like every other city in the United States,” he said.
Noreen Scott wasn’t at the meeting because of a prior commitment out of state.
EDC board member, business owner and Rio Rancho resident Matt Spangler said the RREDC-city partnership has brought in 74 economic-base businesses since its inception in 1992, and 51 of those companies are still here.
“This partnership has brought tremendous results to this city,” he said.
In 2012, Spangler said, RREDC helped Stolar Research Corporation and MSDS Pro locate in Rio Rancho, and partnered with the city to replace the exiting Victoria’s Secret call center with the Alliance Data call center.
Spangler named three reasons to continue the partnership.
“First and probably most important, I believe economic development is the source of a vast majority of gross receipts tax income,” he said.
Secondly, Spangler said, being a private, nonprofit entity, RREDC can raise private money and use it to help in recruitment for the city. In the last two years, two-thirds of RREDC’s income came from private sources, he said.
Third, the private corporation can also protect confidentiality, instead of being required to offer the information to the public, possibly leading a business to cross Rio Rancho off its list of prospective locations rather than reveal its intentions.
Former RREDC board chairman Terry McDermott said confidentiality was critical to a company coming to a community. He also said the EDC navigated legislative and marketing issues for the city.
In public comment, Rio Rancho resident Cheryl Everett said several city employees give reports dealing with economic development, and part of the mayor’s job is representing the city in such matters. She said the city should revoke overlapping jobs.
Warren Pistols owner Chuck Warren said he looked around this area for a place to locate his manufacturing operation and decided to have facilities both in Sandoval County and, in the near future, Rio Rancho. Noreen Scott was a lot of help, he said.
Mayor Tom Swisstack asked city and EDC representatives to see how they can work together and creatively. A contract is to come before the governing body at the Sept. 25 meeting.
By Argen Duncan (Rio Rancho Observer)
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