New IDA CEO Sarah Evers lays out 90-day plan focused on transparency, dashboards and project prioritization

Sarah Evers, the IDA's new CEO, presented a detailed 90-day plan to the board focused on fiscal transparency, project prioritization and strengthened stakeholder communications.

Evers said staff will produce a financial dashboard that shows real-time balances, allocated and unallocated funds, fund balances and outstanding tenant amounts within a $45 million budget. She proposed creating a project inventory that ranks projects by readiness, strategic alignment and return on investment, and establishing project closeout reports to reconcile budgets, highlight cost variances and document lessons learned.

Other components of the plan include a comprehensive review of procurement and operational policies to ensure compliance and efficiency; a communications plan and monthly CEO updates to improve transparency; quarterly business check-ins with local employers; a downtown revitalization priority for 2026; pursuit of housing partnerships to support down-payment assistance and developer incentives; and a community committee for residents ages 25 to 45 to generate new ideas.

Evers also committed to board onboarding materials and ethics/sunshine training, individual staff meetings to align roles and a weekly leadership huddle to track priorities. She said many initiatives will extend beyond 90 days but that the initial phase will yield quick wins and greater public access to information.

Board members responded positively to the dashboard and communications focus and encouraged timely public updates to manage expectations about construction timelines and grant reporting.