EDC: Public or Private
Bill Engel with the Pal-Item has a good article up today on Wayne County’s Economic Development Corporation (EDC), and the paper’s struggle to get access to documents out of that agency. The Pal-Item is seeking document related to the Kalsie Food & Dairy project, and the EDC said no.
The paper took the matter to Indiana Public Access Counselor, and received an opinion to the effect that the EDC is a public agency and is required to comply with Indiana Public Access Laws. The EDC thinks this is wrong:
In reviewing an informal opinion from the Indiana Public Access Counselor, EDC attorney George Sowers said that he doesn’t believe the EDC needs to file an annual audit with the Indiana State Board of Accounts and, therefore, does not fall under the Indiana Public Access Laws.
Sowers argued that the EDC is not a public agency, but “an independent contractor,” hired by Wayne County to bring jobs here.
Link. The County says that there is an exception in the public access laws for the EDC:
“I think it’s very appropriate (the EDC) comply to an audit and to the open meetings law,” [county attorney Ronald] Cross said, “but I think the Public Access Counselor’s opinion is too far reaching. If everything were to be public it would literally put the EDC out of business in terms of economic recruitment and development.
The paper notes that, at least in 2004, 98% of the ADC’s million dollar plus budget came from government funds, and that the State Board of Accounts treats any agency that spends at least $100,000 in government money with at least 50% of its budget coming from government sources as a public agency, subject to the state audit requirements.
The EDC says that the way it does business requires it to be able to enter into confidential agreements with companies considering locating in the county, as business do not typically want to make such preliminary considerations public.
In other EDC news, Mary Sell apparently took a trip up the the headquarters of Kelsie’s Food and Dairy, only to find the site listed in the company’s corporate filings occupied by a real estate business. At least the owner of the company, Ray Witmore, was in fact at the real estate office. Witmore reportedly told Sell that the company is still planning to install a facility in Wayne County, but would not commit to a timeline.
In fact, Witmore said that his project had been delayed because of previous stories run in the Pal-Item about the facility. Check out Sell’s story, here.
June 16th, 2006 10:22
Seems to me that the practical issue of whether the EDC could function effectively under the public records statute is beside the point.
The only real question is whether it fits under the definition of IC 5-14-3-2(l):
“Public agency” means the following:
(1) Any board, commission, department, division, bureau, committee, agency, office, instrumentality, or authority, by whatever name designated, exercising any part of the executive, administrative, judicial, or legislative power of the state.
(2) Any:
(A) county, township, school corporation, city, or town, or any board, commission, department, division, bureau, committee, office, instrumentality, or authority of any county, township, school corporation, city, or town;
(B) political subdivision (as defined by IC 36-1-2-13); or
(C) other entity, or any office thereof, by whatever name designated, exercising in a limited geographical area the executive, administrative, judicial, or legislative power of the state or a delegated local governmental power.
(3) Any entity or office that is subject to:
(A) budget review by either the department of local government finance or the governing body of a county, city, town, township, or school corporation; or
(B) an audit by the state board of accounts.
. . .