Megan Barry's ordinance to hand public input on economic development to Mayor's Office is on January 18 agenda

Note that the analysis of CM Barry's ordinance that would rewrite Metro codes on how public money is used to subsidize private business development reads like her bill would relax job-creation obligations of grantees, centralize grant-making decisions in the Mayor's Office of Economic Development, remove those decisions from influence of public input that comes through the Metro Council:

This ordinance amends the Metropolitan code provisions pertaining to economic and community development incentive grants .... Under the existing incentive program, the grants are only available for a corporate headquarters that will bring at least 1,000 jobs within five years or a technology company that will bring at least 2,000 jobs within five years. The Metro grant funds are paid to the industrial development board (IDB), who in turn uses the funds to acquire, improve, maintain, extend, equip and furnish real and personal property owned by the IDB and used for the benefit of the private company. All such incentive grant agreements are to be administered by the IDB and are subject to approval of the council by resolution ....

The ordinance [would] authorize the mayor’s office of economic and community development, as opposed to IDB, to make economic and community development (ECD) grants for a corporate headquarters or a technology firm that will create at least 500 jobs. This will increase the pool of businesses that may be eligible to obtain the grants. Unlike the existing incentive program, there will be no set formula in the code for calculating the maximum amount of the grant. Rather, the amount of the grant is to be determined by taking into account the number of jobs created and the amount of revenue Metro is expected to generate from the new corporate location.