Oswego Officials to Study Geneva's Economic Development Operation

Members of the Oswego Village Board and Village President Brian LeClercq will take a field trip of sorts to Geneva on Friday.

According to a Wednesday public notice, village officials will meet at 10 a.m. with representatives of Geneva’s Economic Development Department, with a tour set for 11 a.m. and a lunch at noon.

Interim Village Administrator Dwight Baird said each trustee, except Tony Giles, will attend the meeting. It will be a fact-finding mission designed for officials to get a complete picture of a municipally run economic development operation, Baird said.

"This goes to the village board wanting to find out all they can about economic development before they have to make a decision [about bringing those efforts into the village]," Baird said.

The village board voted April 19 to suspend its $85,000 annual payment to the public/private Oswego Economic Development Corporation in order to study bringing economic development efforts under the auspices of the village.

The board then voted May 3 to pay the OEDC what trustees believed the village owed the OEDC for its 2011 commitment through the end of May—$35,000.

However, it was later discovered by village staff that the village had paid its OEDC commitment through April 30 of this year in May 2010. Baird said he then decided, with the consent of Village President Brian LeClercq, to pay the OEDC the money owed to it for May. That came to $7,083.

It was announced May 13 that the OEDC would suspend its operations as of May 31, due to a lack of funding. OEDC Chairman Mike Schoppe said the corporation’s four employees, including Director Michael Cassa, will be laid off.

Baird said this week's meeting was arranged with Geneva’s economic development team after LeClercq met with Geneva City Administrator Mary McKittrick to discuss that city's in-house economic development efforts. McKittrick also served as Oswego's first full-time village administrator in the early 1990s.

Trustee Judy Sollinger said Wednesday she still doesn’t support the move to bring Oswego’s economic development efforts into Village Hall. However, she acknowledged “something will need to be done” with the OEDC no longer working on behalf of the village.

“Obviously, I’m opposed to the closing of the OEDC but this is an alternative that we need to look at,” she said.