CARLTON FLETCHER: Misinformation from high places

And if you listen very hard, the tune will come to you at last.

— Led Zeppelin

With our short attention spans and the seemingly endless rush to move on to the next thing, we all often mishear or misread items of interest.

It’s a common malady.

But when we’re in a position of influence and we pass on misinformation to others, the potential for harm is much greater.

I got a call Monday from a friend who, in addition to being very bright, pretty much stays on top of local goings-on. We were discussing topics of interest when my friend caught me off guard with a comment that finda floored me.

“I thought Sharon Subadan was going to be good for the city,” my friend said, “but I can’t believe she’s taken away money from the EDC to use for downtown development.”

My reaction … Wha-wha-what?!

It turns out my friend had heard from two seemingly reliable sources — one highly placed in the business community, the other a high-ranking government official — that City Manager Subadan’s plan to loan up to $5 million from the city’s Job-Enhancement Fund — some $18.7 million and counting that is one-third of credits returned to the Albany Utility Board by the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia — involved “money that the EDC is in charge of.”

The inaccuracy was mind-blowing.

I pointed out that Subadan’s plan clearly states — in words that are impossible to misunderstand — and this newspaper’s accounting of her plan had clearly stated that, if at any time any money from the Job-Enhancement Fund that has been allocated as a loan for downtown development is needed as enticement to bring an industry to the community, that funding would be replaced immediately from the city’s reserve funds.

I also thought it was significant that some highly-placed people in the community seem to think the Job-Enhancement Fund is in any way “EDC money.” Then-Albany-Dougherty Economic Development Commission President Ted Clem and then-Vice President Justin Strickland (who has since replaced Clem as head of the organization) worked with city officials to come up with criteria on which allocation of the funding is based.

The EDC has also worked with city officials to determine if businesses applying for Job-Enhancement Funding are eligible under the guidelines they helped establish.

But that’s where the EDC’s “access” to the funding ends.

The $18.7 million in the enhancement fund came from credits that were returned to the city utility authority and have nothing to do with any other agency. The fund became a lauded economic development tool when word spread that the city had put aside a sizeable sum that would be used to incentivize businesses to either locate here or to increase their footprint in the community.

There is a specific formula for funding allocations, which comes in the form of grants, but the threshold requirements are that a business add either 100 new jobs or commit to $10 million in new development. Albany-based Thrush Aircraft has so far been the only business to take advantage of the funding, receiving a $200,000 grant when it announced plans to add 100 new jobs.

Since the Job-Enhancement Fund has so far been used only sparingly, city officials came up with a plan to utilize it to “make loans to ourselves.” Assistant City Manager Stephen Collier asked the joint city/Albany Utility Board Long-Term Financial Planning Committee to loan the Utility Board $3.5 million from the fund for needed repairs on its aging office complex on Pine Avenue.

While that plan was eventually scrapped, it set the stage for Subadan’s plan to use up to $5 million for downtown redevelopment. The LTFPC voted before Subadan even took the position as city manager to allow her to see if such a plan were viable. Their caveat: That all funding be overseen by Subadan with approval by the Albany City Commission.

Ward VI Commissioner Tommie Postell, in his inimmitably blunt fashion, answered concerns about the EDC or the Downtown Management Authority — long known as the Albany-Dougherty Inner City Authority, or ADICA — authorizing use of the funds by proclaiming, “The EDC and ADICA will not get any of these funds because they’re not doing anything.”

Certainly that’s not accurate, but Postell’s point is well-taken. The city’s Job-Enhancement Fund will not be parcelled out to this group or that for use as they might see fit. Its use, other than original intent, will be under the direction of the city manager with commission oversight and under very specific guidelines, what Subadan called “safeguards.”

That some officials who should know this don’t is a little frightening. And it goes a long way in explaining why there is so much miscommunication in the community.

Email Carlton Fletcher at [email protected]. Follow @ABH_Fletcher on Twitter.