DuPage chair candidates seek funding accountability

The two candidates vying to be the next DuPage County Board chairman believe the county's quasi-private economic development arm should increase its accountability.

Choose DuPage, the marketing name of the DuPage Regional Development Alliance, receives about $500,000 annually from the county to help with its operations.

That amounts to about 40 percent of the agency's budget, Choose DuPage CEO Mike Skarr said. The rest of the funding comes from private donations made by companies in the area. About 50 business leaders from the county sit on the agency's board.

The agency delivers an annual report detailing how the county funds are spent, but the county has limited oversight of those expenditures. County officials said the money is essentially a "grant" to the agency that works to promote retention, expansion and attraction of business to the county.

The county board's economic development committee also receives monthly updates from the agency, officials said.

Grant Eckhoff, a county board member and chairman of the board's economic development committee, said the agency is operating and spending the county's funds as it should. The county dollars are spent on two staff positions, rent for its offices in Lisle and operation of a real estate database it shares with municipalities.

Choose DuPage was lauded by politicians and business leaders recently for its part in helping steer the sidetracked Navistar relocation plan back to the proposed Lisle site. Navistar officials had threatened to move out of state and take 1,500-plus jobs with them.

Critics, including the candidates, complain the county funds are hard to track as part of a larger expense line item in the county's budget; information on spending is not accessible without asking for it from the agency; and the organization's board meetings are not open to the public.

"I would stop the allocation of human and financial resources to this entity," said Democratic candidate Carole Cheney. "In its place, I would create a small business office within the county that would be subject to public disclosure laws."

Republican candidate Dan Cronin wasn't as harsh.

"While this is a worthy and necessary endeavor, it's important that any and all activities conducted by this group are publicly available," he said. "I believe quarterly reports from Choose DuPage, which updates the county board and taxpayers about the group's efforts throughout the year, are needed."

Skarr defended the agency's spending practices and argued the candidates' opinions about Choose DuPage's operations are uninformed.

"There's room for better understanding of how things work," Skarr said. "I guess my only concern is we need to provide more information before they render decisions. This is a pretty standard business model."

Cronin also called for an analysis of the funding.

"Choose DuPage should also enact measurement tools that gauge the cost-benefit results on behalf of taxpayers," he said.

Skarr said he's only spoken briefly to Cronin and had conversations with Cheney's camp about meeting to discuss the agency's dealings.

The public/private partnership between the county government and area businesses was an idea taken from other regions, Eckhoff said. He said the privacy is necessary.

"They don't want the competitors to have access to the information about what they may be doing," he said.

Eckhoff said local business leaders involved with Choose DuPage are the best ambassadors for the county and that's why the agency was created.

"The whole idea was to have corporations in DuPage join in so they feel part of the process," he said. "It's a benefit to have them because the biggest ambassador for a county is the person already working there."