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County, city begin to bury the hatchet
The Pipestone County Board and Pipestone City Council came together during a rare joint meeting, May 4, to discuss why the city of Pipestone is no longer a member of the Pipestone County Economic Development Authority (EDA) and what it would take to bring the city back into the fold.
Municipalities that signed on with the county EDA — all but Ruthton and Woodstock — signed contractual commitments until January, 2010. The city left the EDA in early 2007 and when it seceded, it essentially breached its contract, according to Jim O’Neill, county attorney.
“I think that’s something that’s got to be resolved right away,” said Jim Achteroff, vice chairman of the EDA executive board, and Mayor of Edgerton. “We can’t continue to go on without Pipestone’s participation.”
The county relies upon the city’s monetary contribution. The county contributes $50,000 annually, and then each member municipality is charged an annual fee of $3.75 per capita, based upon the 2000 census figures, according to Bill Johnson, EDA director.
After it left the EDA, the city did not pay the annual fee for 2007 or 2008. Its membership dues for 2009, if it were to rejoin the organization, would be $16,400.
“The part that is a hang-up here is we have the city of Pipestone in arrears on payment, which is not fair to the members who are paid up and on time,” said Marv Tinklenberg, county commissioner and member of the EDA executive board.
Some of the commissioners indicated they didn’t want to press the city for immediate restitution.
“I don’t want to say, ‘We have a contract; pay up,’” said Jim Keyes, county commissioner. “I don’t want to be Mr. Hardcore on this stuff. I want to work something out reasonably.”
Though the contractual breach and delinquent membership fees were the consequences of the city’s withdrawal, County Board Chairman Butch Miller tried to get at the reason why the city left the organization in the first place.
“Something profound must have happened to cause the city to back out,” Miller said. “If we can solve whatever that was, we can come up with some kind of foundation to get back on track.”
Councilor Harry Hansen said the city’s decision to leave the EDA was driven by former mayor Daryl Tinklenberg, and a frustration over inactivity.
“If you’re going to have (a county EDA), you’ve got to do things to make things happen,” Hansen said. “You can’t just have a meeting once a month and then walk away and nothing ever happens.”
The officials also alluded to the past existence of fundamental differences between what the city expected the EDA to do to entice new business — such as gifts of money — and what the county EDA was willing to offer.
“Is it the policy of the EDA to gift money?” Miller asked. “Was the (former) mayor expecting something that had never happened before?”
“All I can report is what the (former) mayor brought back,” said Jeff Jones, city administrator. “It was very clear to him that the EDA was not willing to make that kind of incentive available. So they looked at the amount of money the city had contributed over the years and at the lack of action and reached a decision that they would be better served with our own EDA director.
The conversation turned toward what types of support and activity the city could expect from the EDA. They also briefly discussed the EDA’s focus in today’s economic climate: retention and expansion of existing businesses.
“Success right now is keeping what we’ve got,” said Jim Stout, city councilor. “Down the road, if someone wants to put something else here, we’ve got a plus. But let’s not lose anyone.”
After two hours of discussion, it became clear to all present that the chasm dividing the two political bodies had more to do with past politics than present realities.
“I can see it working,” said Pipestone Mayor Laurie Ness.
The group decided to select representatives from each body to work out the details of the city’s return to the EDA. The group then scheduled another joint meeting for June 25 to work out those details.
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