The Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) board met yesterday in City Hall chambers. The CRA board is made up of all city commissioners and selected county commissioners.
The CRA has current assets of approximately $10 million.
The focus of the meeting was to discuss the future mission of the CRA board per requests from a number of members during the last meeting. CRA staff handed out a document showing expenditures by the CRA over the last 8-10 years. (This information will be the subject of a follow-up story on Tallahassee Reports.)
The discussion veered away from the substance about the CRA mission and toward a structure to address the issue of refocusing the mission of the CRA. The final agreement includes a future workshop to address the mission of the CRA in detail and the possibility of another meeting.
The focus of defining the CRA mission comes from board members concerned about “mission creep” in regards to CRA spending. The discussion that took place at the meeting did reveal a couple of interesting points. County Commissioner Kristin Dozier indicated that her preference is not to pursue CRA policies that help out specific businesses but ones that help the overall business climate.
Also, a debate about helping businesses in the Frenchtown area turned into a discussion about how the homeless shelter has become a significant liability for any current or new businesses in the area. Commissioner Scott Maddox was very critical of the homeless shelter and indicated if he could, he would vote to cut all funding from the shelter. On a lighter note, Commissioner Proctor proposed moving the shelter closer to the Governor’s Mansion.
The CRA is scheduled to meet again on March 25th at City Hall at 11:00 am. Tallahassee Reports will be there!
CRA Board Meets and Discusses Defining Mission and Homeless Shelter added by Staff on
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