- November 25, 2024
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At the final board meeting of Enterprise Flagler Sept. 22, past president Jim Cullis likened the dissolution to the ending of a bad marriage, and it was clear the simile was appropriate after the meeting concluded. The room felt like a divorce court: polite smiles and tender pats on the back in some circles; intense, heartfelt discussions in others. Lots of signatures scribbled on legal documents.
And although the final vote to dissolve (see Page 19) was mostly a formality, it felt somewhat unreal that it was all over after we’ve followed the organization since the beginning of the Palm Coast Observer. What went so terribly wrong among so many good people with good motives?
Cullis and board member Michael Chiumento III told me after the meeting that it came down to politics, or “political shenanigans,” as Chiumento said.
If you want to find the source of the political problems, follow the money. At its peak, the private sector contributed about two-thirds of the funding, with the government playing mostly a support role.
At that time, individual business owners paid thousands of dollars each year to keep Enterprise Flagler humming. Although they were instrumental in retaining Sea Ray and Palm Coast Data in town, there was no direct return on their investment, as far as their businesses were concerned. They simply believed that if they could work together to attract and retain companies, the increased economic productivity in the community would indirectly help them, too.
Chiumento likened it to taking vitamins. When you take vitamins, you don’t see the results, but you trust they’re making you healthier.
Thus, The Vitamin Theory of Enterprise Flagler’s Dissolution.
But when the economy weakened, and the private funding diminished, the government found itself funding two-thirds of Enterprise Flagler’s costs. Suddenly, rather than being a cheerleader of the organization, government was paying most of the bills.
More tax dollars means public scrutiny intensifies, as it should. Government partners got more seats at the table, but they demanded even more: measurables, statistics. They wanted to see the chemical reactions on the molecular level, to prove the vitamins were worth the money.
City Manager Jim Landon, who, fairly or unfairly, became the face of opposition to the organization, said Enterprise Flagler wasn’t used to the type of public scrutiny to which government was accustomed.
“When the funds shifted from (private sources to) primarily tax dollars, the organizational structure and operation didn’t shift with it,” Landon said.
The downfall was hastened in 2010, when Enterprise Flagler made presentations to the government bodies and proposed a referendum to ask residents for a tax increase to boost Enterprise Flagler’s funding. Essentially, it was asking for a really big vitamin that cost about $1 million.
But residents were cutting back on vitamins. It was as though the residents and government officials were standing at the pharmacy, looking at that bottle of vitamins that they had been taking for years and said, “We’re running low on cash. We can skip the vitamins.”
The real question is, Did the vitamins work? The answer is yes, according to Enterprise Flagler. In a presentation to the county in August, then-Enterprise Flagler Co-president David Ottati touted a record of attracting or retaining 2,560 jobs since 2005.
The Flagler County Board of County Commissioners believe the vitamins work, as well, which is why the Economic Opportunity Council is being launched. And while the central mission of the EOC is essentially the same as Enterprise Flagler’s was — to diversify and strengthen the economy by recruiting businesses — County Administrator Craig Coffey has made it clear that the new EOC will be different from Enterprise Flagler in some important ways: First, the EOC will have $400,000 in funding — more than double Enterprise Flagler’s funding. Also, the marketing will have more teeth and focus. And, just as importantly, the accountability will be increased. Some possibilities include producing quarterly reports and broadcasting the council’s meetings on TV, just like other government meetings.
In other words, there will be a microscope on this new organization. We’ll soon find out if scrutiny on the molecular level makes the rest of the community believe the vitamins of the Economic Opportunity Council are working. Otherwise, we could be headed for divorce court again.
