Is this nonprofit bringing business to Manatee County? Officials don’t think so
In a surprise move, Manatee County commissioners voted to deny funding to a local organization dedicated to attracting new businesses to the Bradenton area.
The Board of County Commissioners recently chose not to renew the annual contract with the Bradenton Area Economic Development Corporation after commissioners questioned what the county is getting from the EDC in return for its investment. When they asked EDC leaders for success stories, some board members said they didn’t see enough results.
The EDC, which was founded in 2011, works to promote business development in Manatee County by collaborating with public and private partners. According to its website, “the EDC’s multi-year strategy for bringing greater diversity to the Bradenton Area’s economy aligns the community’s assets with business sectors that already have a presence in Manatee County.”
The contract with the EDC allows the county to reimburse the EDC for services it provides, including “business recruitment, retention and expansion.” According to the contract, those activities could include Google Ads, a contract with a communications consultant, marketing consultants, membership dues and geographic information systems technology.
Commissioners Tal Siddique and Jason Bearden showed reluctance to renew that contract during the board’s Sept. 16 meeting. Both of them said they wanted to see better EDC accomplishments and a better contract.
At the meeting, EDC President and CEO Sharon Hillstrom’s presentation about the EDC’s activity since 2021 was met with a plethora of questions from Siddique and Bearden and, ultimately, commissioners could not come to an agreement.
The county’s contract that provides the EDC with $336,900 in funding is set to expire on Sept. 30.
“Frankly, this was unexpected,” Hillstrom said. “This is kind of pulling the rug out from under us.”
Commissioners push back on EDC funding
Hillstrom’s presentation focused on the EDC’s marketing efforts and how the corporation had a hand in several large business expansions throughout the county. The presentation included statistics like the EDC attracting over 100,000 website visits and 600,000 social media impressions since 2021.
“Marketing only goes so far,” Bearden said.
Hillstrom also explained how the EDC connects businesses with grants and development incentives, which come from the county and municipalities.
Siddique argued that EDC officials were taking credit for the government’s own incentives.
“There’s been a lot of conversation about the EDC offering incentives, but these are really county or City of Bradenton CRA incentives, you’re just recommending the policies,” Siddique said.
Siddique also said the EDC’s key success stories were outdated, like First Watch opening its Manatee County headquarters in 2021. According to First Watch’s website, the company has been based in the Bradenton area since 1986.
“I just don’t feel confident that we’re going to get anything out of the same exact contract that we’ve been doing for the last three years,” Siddique said. “The success stories that we’ve been hearing about — Honeywell, First Watch — those are stories from years ago.”
Another one of Siddique’s critiques was the EDC’s strategic plan and targeted sectors. He emphasized how the county’s contract with the EDC lacks a focus on small businesses and key industries like agriculture and healthcare.
Aside from the contract issues, Siddique questioned how the EDC operated, and found it odd that the EDC has over 50 board members whose meetings are not under Florida’s Sunshine Laws like Sarasota’s economic development board.
“I don’t like the fact that we’re trying to hide economic development outside the sunshine,” Siddique said. “It should be a concern that that’s not a sunshine board.”
Siddique and Bearden said they would be willing to continue the relationship the county has with the EDC, but under different terms.
“I think it would be in the best interest of the taxpayers to look at this contract and see what we can do to make it better,” Bearden said.
Renewal fails despite some support
Siddique proposed the first motion to allow the contract to expire on Sept. 30, which was seconded by Bearden.
Before the vote, Commissioner George Kruse, who serves on the EDC’s board of directors, voiced support for the organization and said commissioners could have been more engaged with the EDC before the contract renewal vote.
“I couldn’t disagree more,” Kruse said in response to the EDC criticism. “We have quarterly briefings…you could have had this conversation over and over and over again for the past year about what kind of metrics.”
Kruse suggested the board renew the contract and continue discussions on a contract restructure over the next year, so the EDC maintains the funding.
“You’re proposing to pull the rug out from under somebody at the eleventh hour, based upon some assumption that we’re just going to renegotiate something based on some metric that we haven’t even determined,” Kruse said. “I think that is disingenuous. I think that is bad business.”
Several industry executives from businesses like First Watch, Fifth Third Private Bank, Sarasota Bradenton International Airport and Honeywell submitted written comments ahead of the meeting to back the EDC.
Some also spoke during public comment at the meeting to go to bat for the EDC, including Devaney Iglesias, the regional external affairs manager for Florida Power & Light.
“I urge you all to not make this decision this drastic and quick, and allow the staff and board time to come back to you with some more information,” said Iglesias, who is also on the EDC’s board of directors.
Commissioner Amanda Ballard asked whether the board could extend the EDC contract until the end of 2025 to allow more time to negotiate, but County Attorney Pamela D’Agostino later deemed the language of the contract did not permit an extension.
“We regret the county’s decision not to proceed with the proposed contract for 2025-26. We believe that we have strongly demonstrated a return on investment to both our private sector investors and public partners, including the county,” Hillstrom said in a statement to the Herald. “Moving forward, the EDC will allocate resources to continue our important work to diversify the local economy, recruit and assist businesses to locate and expand in Manatee County, and foster initiatives that support those objectives.”
EDC loses large portion of public funding
With the contract set to expire, the EDC will lose $336,900, which is more than 60% of its public funding. The EDC also receives funding from other municipalities, including $100,000 from the City of Bradenton.
Aside from public funding, the EDC receives about $600,853 from private investors, according to the corporation’s Form 990 from 2023, the latest publicly available.
The Form 990 also shows the corporation spends $249,860 on Hillstrom’s salary, with an additional $371,408 spent on other salaries. Salary pay makes up 62% of the EDC’s total expenses, which were just shy of $1 million in 2023.
According to the form, the EDC spent $88,768 on advertising and promotion, and another $68,088 for business development in 2023.
