City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.

A group of Lawrence neighborhood representatives is calling on the city to terminate its contract with the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.

The Lawrence Association of Neighborhoods, or LAN, comprises around 15 representatives from different areas of Lawrence. It sent a letter Monday to city commissioners and City Manager Tom Markus asking that economic development efforts be brought inside City Hall and that Lawrence cease paying its $200,000 annual share to The Chamber.

The letter states The Chamber has “a lack of professional economic knowledge” and isn’t open to public scrutiny.

LAN voted 9-1 at its June meeting to send the letter, which is signed by Candice Davis, LAN chair, and Kirk McClure, vice chair. County commissioners, County Administrator Craig Weinaug and chamber leaders were CC’d on the letter.

“This is an opportunity to take a fresh look at the relationship the city has with the Chamber and whether it should be improved or changed,” Davis said. “I think it’s a conversation that’s important to have.”

The Chamber’s top officer said Monday that moving economic development functions inside City Hall could put Lawrence at a competitive disadvantage. Larry McElwain, president and CEO of The Chamber said the move could “jeopardize” the community’s relationship with companies looking to locate in Lawrence.

Dissatisfaction with how Lawrence handles its economic development efforts has been building for “many, many years” among LAN members, Davis said.

McClure, who drafted the letter, said at the June LAN meeting the time was right to take the neighborhoods’ concerns to city and county leaders. He noted the sudden resignation in May of Brady Pollington, the economic development project manager for The Chamber, as well as the ongoing process to change Lawrence’s economic development incentives policies. He also said the newly hired city manager and the City Commission, elected in 2015, may be “more receptive to the notion” than previous officials.

The Chamber has a total budget of approximately $600,000, McElwain said. Of the total, $200,000 comes from the city and $200,000 from the county. Private investors pay the remaining amount.

LAN asked in its letter that city and county cease funding to The Chamber and hire two new city staff members at a lower cost.

“We think it’s a good time to suggest a very simple idea, and that is we internalize and professionalize economic development in the city of Lawrence,” McClure said at the meeting. “We no longer hire the Chamber of Commerce to do this work, and we instead hire professionally trained planners who are skilled in economic development.”

McClure and Davis said they thought The Chamber should maintain a role in Lawrence’s efforts to expand and recruit businesses, but they shouldn’t have as big of one, especially related to financial incentives.

“It’s time to say the Chamber of Commerce needs to be at the table in economic development — they always will be, they represent the business interests — but it’s no longer time for them to be staffing the table and be funded by the taxpayers,” McClure said.

Markus said Monday he wanted to speak with McClure about the proposal.

“I want to understand what his concerns are, and maybe I can understand the interest in changing the process better,” Markus said.

Iowa City, where Markus served as city manager before taking the Lawrence position, had a similar setup to Lawrence with economic development initiatives. Internal staff there worked with an outside organization similar to The Chamber, he said.

“We had people internal and external, just like is happening with the process here,” Markus said.

LAN’s letter states staff of The Chamber lacks education in economic development planning that is necessary, it says, to guide the City Commission on economic development decisions. It goes on to say The Chamber is an organization that isn’t required to make its work public, and economic development projects “should be open to public scrutiny.”

McElwain was present at the LAN meeting in June, at which he refuted some of the assertions in the letter, including one statement that The Chamber does not report to the city.

The Chamber reports its efforts to the city, county and Kansas University every month, he said.

“We’re not holding any information back from the two managers and two commissions,” McElwain said again Monday. “We give a confidential monthly report to the city, county and university, so they know exactly what we’re doing.”

If Lawrence were to internalize its economic development efforts, the process of recruiting companies could be susceptible to open records laws. While public scrutiny is a good thing, LAN’s letter states, McElwain says it could harm the city’s ability to attract development.

He said the change would “jeopardize” Lawrence’s relationship with companies, which “really value confidentiality” and wouldn’t want competing companies tipped off about their initiatives.

“Second, other municipalities, our competition, would have access to seeing what we’re proposing, and they would have a distinct advantage to one-up us,” McElwain said.

McElwain also said The Chamber was not responsible for putting together financial incentives deals to attract businesses.

Companies apply for financial assistance through the city, and the city’s economic development director analyzes their need. The requests are then taken to the Public Incentives Review Committee for a recommendation before going to the City Commission.

“The Chamber basically gets suggestions and just some ideas of what this company might want to have, but the deals are actually being made by the city manager and the county administrator and the elected officials,” he said. “For them to think we are staging this and putting this together is incorrect.”

About LAN’s letter, McElwain was uncertain how — or if — the proposal would move forward.

“How it’s going to be discussed, what commissioners are going to do with it, I’m uncertain,” he said. “I have a lot of faith not only in the public but also in our elected officials and our two managers that are every month seeing exactly what we’re doing. It’s not hidden from them. There’s nothing to hide from them.”