Jere McElhaney said Wednesday that the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce group’s plan to create more open space and industrial development appears to be undemocratic and that ECO2, as the group is known, should be disbanded.

McElhaney said he has received an increasing number of phone calls from residents concerned about ECO2 plans for new taxes to finance acquisitions of land for open space and industrial development.

He decided to speak out, he said, after learning more about ECO2’s design for how public money used to fund the efforts would be controlled by nonelected officials.

“From where it is going, I think the whole group needs to disband and just start over,” McElhaney said. “It probably was a good idea in the beginning, but it has just went way overboard.”

ECO2 Chair Kelvin Heck says the group doesn’t plan to disband, but instead hopes to finish its work and present a recommendation to county commissioners within the next few weeks.

“I would hope everyone would stay open-minded about this until we have a chance to make a formal presentation and have a final product,” Heck said. “We have a lot of teaching to do here. We are looking forward to being able to tell our story and tell people what we’re proposing and why we’re proposing it. We haven’t done that yet because we’re still working out the details.”

ECO2 tax questions

But McElhaney said he couldn’t support anything resembling ECO2’s current plan, which could include a quarter-cent, countywide sales tax for the next 10 years to fund the group’s efforts.

McElhaney said this was the wrong time to increase taxes. But he said he was even more concerned about the group’s plan to allow an eight-member board evenly divided between open space and industrial development proponents decision-making power on how the sales tax money would be spent.

“That is completely ridiculous because that board would never be voted on by the public,” McElhaney said. “They want to put spending authority into the hands of hand-picked individuals. I lost all faith when I heard about that part of the plan.”

According to the plan, county commissioners would appoint the board but be limited to choosing from among nominees offered by select business promotion and environmental groups.

“The idea is complete baloney,” McElhaney said. “They have got to realize that the county commissioners were elected by the people to make those type of decisions. There are some people in the green community who are upset at the county commission, and they are just trying to take as much power out of our hands as possible.”

Any sales tax to fund ECO2 would need voter approval after county commissioners agreed to allow the question on the ballot.

Among ECO2’s members is County Commissioner Charles Jones. He said McElhaney’s comments were off-base.

“I’d say, basically, Jere doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Jones said. “He ought to come to one of our meetings, raise his concerns and then we can talk about them.”

At previous ECO2 meetings, several members from both the industrial development and open space camps, have said the unique appointment process and large amounts of control the new board would have were important to help ensure the process didn’t become political and that it remained balanced between the two factions.

Plan questions raised

McElhaney said he had other problems with the plan:

He doesn’t like a requirement that the tax dollars be split equally between open space and industrial development. McElhaney said industrial development projects are more expensive and should get a greater share of the dollars.

He said the ECO2 board lacked “blue-collar workers.”

He said Jones was participating on ECO2 only to “pad his political rm

“I think Charles knows this is not possible,” McElhaney said. “I think he thinks this just looks good on his re-election bid.”

Jones faces re-election this fall and is seeking a second term. He said he offered to resign from the group when he decided to run for re-election but no ECO2 member asked him to leave.

He said talk of increasing taxes may hurt his re-election chances. But, Jones said, “sometimes you take risks to do what is right for the community.”