City Of Sugar Land, Economic Development Council Wrangle Over Marketing Program Control

The City of Sugar Land has committed to give the Greater Fort Bend Economic Development Council $100,000 for the council’s proposed countywide branding and marketing program.

But in return for that money – which appears to equal a third or more of all the monetary commitments the EDC has received for the program so far – the city wants representation on a program oversight committee proportional to the share of funding it provides.

That, according to an item on the agenda of this afternoon’s Sugar Land 4A Corp. Board meeting, seems to put the city at odds with the EDC. The board will consider a contract at the meeting between itself and the EDC governing the conditions under which it would provide half the money the city has committed – or $50,000.

EDC President Jeff Wiley told the 4A Corp. board in September that his organization anticipated that the new countywide marketing effort would be financed annually by a $100,000 payment from Fort Bend County, $100,000 from Sugar Land, $25,000 each from Missouri City and Rosenberg, $20,000 from Stafford, $100,000 to $300,000 from the private sector, and $30,000 in total from the cities of Richmond and Fulshear and from the University of Houston, Wharton County Junior College and Houston Community College, information in the agenda states.

Sugar Land Economic Development Director Regina Morales said in information prepared for the 4A Corp. board that the $300,000 in public-sector funding Wiley anticipated appears to have been secured for the marketing program’s initial year, with the “possible exception” of the $30,000 from Richmond, Fulshear and the colleges.

However, “private-sector commitments have been far more elusive and the EDC is still seeking to garner funding commitments from the private sector parties,” Morales said in the agenda report.

Despite the lack of money coming from private interests, four of seven proposed members of the marketing program’s “advisory/oversight committee” come from the private sector, Morales’ report states.

The proposed committee members Morales referred to apparently include Riverstone Development Chairman Tom Wilcox, listed as the “EDC Chairman Appointment” to the oversight committee; Planned Community Developers President Les Newton, who also serves as vice chairman of the EDC; and two as-yet-unnamed committee members – one to represent the Newland, Southern Land, Hillwood and Aliana developments and the other to represent CenterPoint, Fluor and Schlumberger interests, according to information Morales presented.

The other three board members would include Fort Bend County Precinct 4 Commissioner James Patterson, representing Fort Bend County; the mayor or another representative of Sugar Land; and the mayor or another designee of the City of Rosenberg.

“Under the proposed structure, the private sector represents four of the seven (57%) positions/recommending authority on an advisory committee,” Morales said in the agenda document, “regardless of their level of funding participation in the effort.”

But the 4A Corp. board will consider a contract governing its $50,000 contribution to the EDC program that includes six points, one of which requires “proportionate decision-making and approval representation” on the program’s oversight committee.

The proposed contract, recommended by Morales and city staff, also calls on the EDC to:

- Account for the countywide branding and marketing program expenditures separately;

- Establish a program oversight board to provide approval of “concepts, themes, program initiatives, messages and other matters related to the purposes of the program”;

- Create and submit to the oversight board an “annual program of work that includes, at a minimum, the annual goals and objectives” of the marketing effort;

- Conduct a quarterly performaance review of the marketing program and provide that review to the City of Sugar Land each quarter;

- And work directly with the city’s economic development director to create “marketing components directly related to Sugar Land prior to their being considered by the oversight board.”

The EDC’s Wiley couldn’t be reached for comment on this article Tuesday morning.

As for Fort Bend County, Commissioners Court members agreed in December 2007 to increase the county’s annual service payment to the EDC from $200,000 to $300,000 to cover funding of the new marketing program.

If the economic development agency can show progress and results, the county’s $100,000 annual payment for the external marketing program “probably will continue,” Fort Bend County Judge Bob Hebert said at the time.

However, Hebert said, Commissioners Court members will vote on a contract renewal every year, and won’t entertain a multi-year contract.