A city and county council focused on economic development informally responded Wednesday to the changes proposed by the Lawrence City Commission to the city’s economic development incentives.

The Joint Economic Development Council, a board appointed by the city, county and The Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, talked about how it would formally make suggestions to the City Commission. It also requested information about what incentives other, nearby communities offer so the council knows what the city needs to provide in order to be competitive in getting companies to locate in Lawrence.

“It will be interesting to know what we’re competing with and knowing, if we really are competing with other communities in this region, what is it that they’re doing that we’re going to lose to if we don’t do it as well,” said Jason Edmonds, who is on the Chamber of commerce’s board of directors. “At least we could know, if we want to be competitive with them, what we need to do.”

In a study session Jan. 12, city commissioners proposed a number of changes to the city’s policies governing incentives, including scaling back the cap on the amount of property tax the city will rebate a project. A maximum suggested by Commissioner Matthew Herbert was a 50 percent, 10-year abatement.

Commissioners also suggested adding a stipulation to the issuance of industrial revenue bonds that, in order to receive them, developers have to prove they could not complete the project otherwise.

All of the commissioners agreed they wanted incentives to be used primarily with the purpose of creating permanent, full-time jobs that offer good wages and benefits.

At the meeting of the Joint Economic Development Council on Wednesday, Brady Pollington, the economic development project manager for the Chamber, asked members to weigh in on the proposed changes.

“We haven’t been formally asked by the city to provide any opinion or guidance, but it is the purpose of the JEDC to make recommendations on economic development policies and initiatives,” Pollington said. “Now is a good time.”

Besides the council asking for more information about what the city would need in order to remain competitive in attracting businesses, council member Melinda Henderson suggested updating the policy to reflect the city’s initiative of bringing in small businesses.

In a later interview, Larry McElwain, CEO of The Chamber, said he viewed economic development incentives as “tools in the toolbox,” none of which he would want taken away.

Referencing the proposed 50 percent cap on tax abatements, McElwain said there have been companies that have received more and have so far met all of their requirements set by the city.

“We’d hate for them to get rid of anything that would help attract somebody we may want,” McElwain said.

He went on to say he thought the process of reviewing the proposed changes “will work,” and that “everybody is trying to do the right thing.”

Britt Crum-Cano, the city’s economic development coordinator, explained some of the city’s incentives, saying the companies that receive them are not “digging into our pockets.”

“The thing that’s important to understand is a project has to generate money, and then it gets a portion of it back,” Crum-Cano said.

Crum-Cano told the group that it would have the opportunity to more formally respond in coming months, when it and other boards will be asked to fill out a matrix giving their opinions on all of the changes.

It was not yet certain when the council and other city advisory boards would be asked for their recommendations. City Commissioners have one more week to send their ideas for changes to the incentives policies to Interim City Manager Diane Stoddard.

Douglas County Administrator Craig Weinaug said the City Commission’s effort to alter the incentives policies was “a healthy process.”

He suggested the Joint Economic Development Council work with the City Commission and take its opinions to commissioners about what incentives work and which ones don’t.

“You got a new City Commission, a lot of which was elected in reaction to how things had been done before,” Weinaug said. “You will see changes that result from that. … I always see us go through a period of, ‘the sky is falling, the sky is falling,’ but it needs a review.

“What you need to say is, ‘This works well, but we need to change it this way’ and ‘This has probably outlived its usefulness,'” he added. “They will listen to you more if you realize that a review needs to take place every few years.”

This story has been edited to correct the name of council member Melinda Henderson