Councilors approve plan for economic development

D.E. Smoot, Muskogee Phoenix, Okla.
·2 min read

Sep. 28—City councilors moved forward with a plan that gives them and their successors direct control of the municipality's future economic development efforts.

They unanimously approved with no discussion or debate the creation of a task force that will prepare bylaws that will establish the Muskogee Redevelopment Authority's "internal management structure." Councilors, who serve as trustees of the MRA, will serve as task force members.

Councilors also established a four-member subcommittee that will be in charge of negotiating the transfer of any city employee who would be hired by the MRA to direct or staff economic development activities. Subcommittee members include Ward IV Councilor Traci McGee, who proposed the MRA's oversight of the city's economic development activities, Ward I Councilor Stephanie Morgan, Deputy Mayor Derrick Reed and Mayor Marlon Coleman.

A week ago, councilors directed staff to prepare the necessary documents to implement the transfer of the city's economic development programs. The city's existing economic development programs will have to be transferred to MRA "by contract or by ordinance."

McGee said during past presentations that new bylaws would establish the MRA's internal management structure as it relates to economic development programs. Amendments to existing ordinances would redefine how revenue dedicated for economic development programs would be allocated and used in the future.

"This allows councilors, for the first time, to really have direct input to economic development and really have an impact in our community," McGee said when she presented the proposal earlier this year. "Direct input — access — is very important — instead we are getting secondhand or thirdhand information."

McGee said earlier this month she has had concerns there might have been economic opportunities in the past that were rejected.

"You've got a lot of economic things going on ..., and I just saw this as an opportunity," McGee said before reviving her proposal earlier this month. "I saw this as an opportunity for us, as councilors, to get involved — gives councilors a hands-on opportunity."