St. Clair County holds workshop on Economic Development Alliance amid disputes over NDAs, transparency and siting

The St. Clair County Board of Commissioners held a workshop Jan. 9 to review whether the county should continue funding the Economic Development Alliance of Saint Clair County and to identify problems in how its services reach communities. The meeting included a 90-minute presentation by EDA Director Dan Casey and more than two hours of questions and public comment from township officials, business leaders and residents.

The session matters because the county currently provides roughly $300,000 a year in direct funding plus in‑kind services to a nongovernmental EDA board, and several rural supervisors said they feel excluded from confidential project discussions that can lead to large industrial developments. “Our mission is about prosperity. It's about creating prosperity for residents, companies in the community, and communities themselves,” said Dan Casey, describing the EDA’s role in attraction, retention, workforce and small‑business programs.

Supporters during the workshop described concrete services the EDA provided during COVID, grant administration and job retention work. “They managed about $2,500,000 in…