Under plan, economic development group would oversee Terre Haute Redevelopment

The recommendation from the Terre Haute Redevelopment Commission’s search committee is expected to be made to the full five-member Redevelopment Commission at its April 20 meeting.

Terre Haute EDC President Steve Witt has served as interim director of the city department since the Jan. 29 retirement of former redevelopment department director Cliff Lambert.

Under the management contract, Witt would assume the role of director of the city’s redevelopment department. The city would pay $5,000 per month to the EDC under that agreement, said Brian Conley, a member of the Redevelopment Commission and search committee chairman. That would save the city about $57,000 in the first year, Conley said.

The agreement would have opt outs for the EDC and the city in the event the management agreement does not work out, Conley said.

“In our discussions, as we were talking about the differences between candidates and reviewing resumes, we discussed that we have to do more with less money. Our federal money [from HUD’s community development block grant program] is dropping every year,” Conley said Monday.

Witt is a member of the search committee and talked about how smoothly the department had been running in the interim, Conley said. “That’s when we had discussions about an idea of putting all our economic development efforts under one roof, and it evolved into what is best for the Department of Redevelopment,” Conley said.

Conley said he expects to see some changes in the redevelopment department as several senior staff members have indicated they could retire within a year.

“We never got into salaries with anyone, but we knew we could not afford to pay what Lambert got, as our federal funding had been more than $4 million and is now about $1.4 million, plus we have a 20 percent cap for overhead,” which includes administrative costs, Conley said.

According to the Gateway Indiana website (https://gateway.ifionline.org), which tracks governmental spending, Lambert was paid $94,728.66 in 2015.

The Terre Haute Economic Development Corp.’s board of directors approved the proposed management agreement, subject to Redevelopment Commission approval, at a special meeting on Wednesday. If approved by the Redevelopment Commission, the management agreement would start on May 2.

“There is a good deal of overlap between economic development and community redevelopment,” Terre Haute Mayor Duke Bennett said in a statement. “Since Steve Witt assumed the interim director’s role in early February, the transition has been seamless. We think it makes perfect sense to formalize and continue this relationship with the THEDC.

“By combining our economic development and redevelopment efforts, our overall work product will be streamlined and cost effective, thus making our community a more attractive place to live, while bolstering our business attraction and retention opportunities,” the mayor said in a statement. Bennett is also a member of the search committee.

Before serving in his current role as president of the THEDC, Witt previously served as director of the city’s redevelopment department from 2000 to 2004.

“We are looking at the time I spend on redevelopment as EDC business, as anything that we can do to enhance the quality of life in the community then enhances our business attraction efforts,” Witt said. “I am not looking at ‘X’ number of hours at the city and ‘X’ at the EDC, as every day is different. I communicate with the redevelopment staff while I am at the EDC office now,” he said.

Witt also serves on the Vigo County Redevelopment Commission. With a management agreement with the city, Witt said communication between the county and city agencies would also be beneficial to the community.

“We would not undertake it if we did not think it would be successful,” Witt said of the proposed management agreement. “There has always been a close relationship between the EDC and the Department of Redevelopment. This is an opportunity to save money and be more efficient and most importantly, we think that whatever the role the EDC can play in the future to enhance the quality of life in the community will benefit our business attraction efforts,” Witt said.