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Commissioners weigh hiring economic-development consultant versus funding Chamber contract
Summary
One commissioner urged reallocating part of the county's $20,000 Chamber contract toward a professional consultant to build a county economic development plan and site database; others pointed to infrastructure limits and suggested an RFQ or using contingency funds to seed a consultant search.
During budget deliberations, a commissioner urged the court to reconsider the annual $20,000 contract with the Chamber of Commerce and asked that some of that money be used to hire a professional economic development consultant. The commissioner argued the Chamber lacks staff resources to maintain a county development platform and that a consultant could create a plan and maintain a site-selection database for the county; he suggested a consultant budget in the $30,000–$35,000 range as a starting point.
Other commissioners cautioned that large-scale economic development depends on infrastructure (water, wastewater, sewer) that the county does not control and suggested a request-for-qualifications process. The County Judge and at least one commissioner said the contingency line could be partially earmarked to seed consultant work and recommended leaving the $20,000 Chamber contract in place for now while pursuing an RFQ to scope consultant costs.
