By early next year, Team NEO could be negotiating deals to bring companies to Northeast Ohio and keep existing -- and growing -- businesses here.
"We wanted to create a methodology for us, as a state, to work very closely with each one of the regions and basically go to market through these local organizations like Team NEO," said Mark Kvamme, the interim chief investment officer and president of JobsOhio.Team NEO, established and funded by the private sector to lure companies here, now must create an in-house economic-development department that covers 18 counties. In Columbus today, a state board is expected to confirm Team NEO's appointment as the Northeast Ohio affiliate of JobsOhio, a nonprofit jobs agency crafted by Gov. John Kasich's administration.
By early next year, Team NEO could be negotiating deals to bring companies to Northeast Ohio and keep existing -- and growing -- businesses here.
Envisioned as a private-sector answer to Ohio's economic woes, JobsOhio would take over many functions from the Ohio Department of Development. This still-emerging system requires further approval by state legislators. But a recent report filed with the General Assembly recommends giving JobsOhio control of business loans, infrastructure grants and any money needed to keep or attract businesses.
After early 2012, the report says, JobsOhio will provide business incentives by using private dollars, on top of tax credits approved by the state.
Six regional affiliates, including Team NEO, would form the JobsOhio Network -- the replacement for publicly employed development directors once scattered across the state. In theory, each regional office would help craft an economic-development strategy for the region; connect an alphabet soup of organizations to make business deals more effective and efficient; and act as a link between local communities and Columbus.
"We wanted to create a methodology for us, as a state, to work very closely with each one of the regions and basically go to market through these local organizations like Team NEO," said Mark Kvamme, the interim chief investment officer and president of JobsOhio.
"I don't know, we can never know, what's right for the Cleveland-Akron-Youngstown region. We can never know that. The folks up there know that, and they'll get 100 percent support from us."
It's unclear how many people Team NEO will hire, how much money it will receive from the state and how those dollars will be spent.
One of those questions should be answered today, when the Ohio Third Frontier Commission votes on funding for the JobsOhio Network. The Third Frontier program, a public-private effort authorized by voters to pump millions of dollars into Ohio's high-tech economy, has set aside $24 million to fund the JobsOhio Network for two years. The money will be divided between regional JobsOhio affiliates, based on the factors including each region's size and role in the state's economic growth.
Team NEO's existing staff will stay focused on business-attraction and marketing the region, said Tom Waltermire, the group's chief executive officer. A separate group of employees will form the JobsOhio office, working with various chambers of commerce, connecting businesses with nonprofit economic-development groups and handling corporate deals that involve requests for state aid.
"Our job will be to guide and counsel local groups and companies on what's practical for them to look for from the state," Waltermire said, adding, "As significant projects and deals come along, we'll be advocating very strongly to the state for those projects."
To better represent the region - and the interests of corporate Greater Cleveland - Team NEO recently doubled the size of its board, bringing on 13 additional trustees. Those heavyweights include current and former executives from FirstEnergy Corp., KeyCorp. and FirstMerit Corp.; health care players; prominent minority business leaders; and representatives of business chambers and high-profile economic-development groups.
Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic was cheered by the addition of several Akron-linked executives to Team NEO's board. But he's skeptical about JobsOhio and upset at the state's recent decision to close some international economic-development offices. And he's not convinced Team NEO, based in Cleveland, is the best choice to oversee an 18-county area stretching from Erie County to Ashtabula County and from Lake Erie to Tuscarawas County.
"It's just a staff of marketing people who have grandiose events and put together grandiose marketing pieces taking credit for deals, while the rest of us are out on the front lines doing work," Plusquellic said. "If Team NEO wants to really be an organization that does economic development and works with us - and not be secretive about what they're doing - it certainly would help if we were all in the room together."
A bigger corporate presence at Team NEO won't change what local business groups are doing to keep companies here and help them grow, said Dan Colantone, president and chief executive of the Greater Akron Chamber. But, he said, it will create a clearer, more streamlined economic-development system where major players are talking more and deals will get done faster.
"The maturity of our economic-development system requires very little tweaking," said Joe Roman, chief executive of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, another chamber of commerce. "We have a very sound regional economic development system. What JobsOhio does is it really brings a privatized liaison to the state of Ohio closer to home, housed at Team NEO. That's the real major change."