By Marvin G. Cortner

Editor

The latest strategic economic development plan for Osceola County has the goal of generating 500 new jobs and diversifying and increasing overall workforce skills.

Maria Grulich-Toumazos, county Economic Development Department administrator, on Monday presented the plan, which covers fiscal years 2011-14, to the Osceola County Commission. Commissioners will review the plan for 90 days and then take any needed action, including funding for programs or additional staff.

Other plan goals, according to information presented by Grulich-Toumazos, are: ensure that the county has adequate and competitive incentives in place to foster economic growth; increase the number of business leads and projects from the international market; make sure that the county captures its share of state and federal funding when it comes to economic development help; and ensure that the county’s legislative needs are known at state and federal levels and that the county’s needs are funded.

Additional goals include identifying a partner for the proposed workforce training site in Buenaventura Lakes that would be funded through a community block grant; establish a fast-track system for approval and issuing of building permits and conditional use permits; establish a protocol office and a new staff position to go with it within the economic development department to set up meetings with officials from other countries; and pursue additional sporting events and sports-related manufacturing.

While commissioners will have 90 days to review the strategic plan, several had questions at the outset.

Commissioner Frank Attkisson said he needs to be assured that the cities of Kissimmee and St. Cloud would be included in any international marketing efforts and that small businesses would be heavily promoted as a way to help reach the plan’s goal of 500 new jobs.

“Why spend $100,000 to $200,000 on going after international businesses when we know most jobs in Florida are created by small businesses,” Attkisson said.

The commissioner also suggested that the $1 million in tax revenue that the county recovered earlier this year from KUA could be used for economic development purposes.

“We need to get this moving sooner rather than later,” Attkisson said.

Commissioner Fred Hawkins Jr. asked whether the economic development department had looked into outsourcing the protocol office work as a contract. It had not, according to Grulich-Toumazos.

Commission Chairman Brandon Arrington suggested the county could use the Mac Overstreet property (located off Pleasant Hill Road and next to Lake Tohopekaliga) or the Beaumont site in downtown Kissimmee for commercial or industrial use through public-private partnerships of some kind. Arrington added that the cost of developing the Overstreet site into a county park, as has been proposed for years, was just too expensive.

And Commissioner Michael Harford suggested that Osceola County’s geographic location between the Tampa and Port Canaveral ports could be key to attracting small manufacturing businesses, which could make products for export, to the county.

The commission Monday also authorized the Economic Development Department to negotiate a contract with an unnamed company to provide a cash development incentive of $100,000 to purchase a backup generator. The company, code-named AES due to confidentiality, would need to generate and maintain 20 new jobs for the county at an average salary of $80,000 (not including benefits) in exchange for the incentive.

Grulich-Toumazos said the company, which is involved in repairing “high-end” electronic systems for the military, would make an investment in the county of between $435,000 to $1.5 million.