The creation of the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency by the County Legislature in 1972 was authorized by New York State Law.

From the start in the early 1970s through at least 2005, for over 30 years the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency (CCIDA) had no employees of its own. Staff to carry out the CCIDA’s work were County employees in the County’s Department of Development.

From the very beginning right to the present, the Executive Director of the CCIDA is the County’s department head for economic development (regardless of the title of that job). The Executive Director was not an employee of the CCIDA but got a stipend on top of the Executive Director’s County salary.

From the beginning the CCIDA was an economic development tool for County government to use along with other resources.

The only CCIDA Board members are 6 appointed by the County Executive or County Legislature plus a 7th member who must be a County Legislator.

The CCIDA was never to be a “fiefdom” unto itself, with goals or policies independent or contrary to the goals or policies of County officials elected by the people of Chautauqua County.

The Chautauqua County Code, implementing the Chautauqua County Charter, to this day makes crystal clear that the County Department of Development is to have the leadership role in economic development, not the CCIDA.

The recent announcement by the CCIDA that it intends to spend millions of dollars of County funds on an industrial park in Ripley, with apparently no prior knowledge of the Ripley site by the County Legislature nor consent of our elected County Legislators to spend these millions on a Ripley site, violates the spirit of the Chautauqua County Code.

The County Code states that the Director of Development, as a County employee, is to “Purchase, upgrade, and maintain parcels and sites that possess the infrastructure and amenities coveted by businesses for current and future development needs.” (The CCIDA, pursuant to State law, can also purchase land).

One can check out the CCIDA’s website today and see the picture of apparently 14 employees of the CCIDA.

The best recollection of former County officials is that 18 years ago there were about 7 County employees in the County’s Department of Economic Development to assist with the staff needs of the CCIDA, since the CCIDA had no employees of its own.

Now that the CCIDA has lots of mouths to feed, it appears it must raise about $1,000,000 a year in fees to meet payroll from those who seek tax breaks and other goodies from the CCIDA.

From the 1970s through 2005 the CCIDA had a major focus on job creation in exchange for the benefits the CCIDA could bestow on a project. Now it appears that there is a need by the CCIDA to raise fees from those seeking benefits from the CCIDA without any underlying concern for job creation.

One can look at the current CCIDA website and quickly see that job creation is a tangential purpose, rather than a central focus, of the current CCIDA.

Some CCIDA press releases on new benefits handed out to a business are silent about any jobs to be created.

One recent CCIDA press release for tax breaks for a solar farm alleged that one-half of a job would result.

While it is still called the Industrial Development Agency, some County leaders in recent years have proclaimed that the term “industrial” is outmoded or passe. Some other County leaders have said the County’s focus would be on tourism.

While it is true, industrial jobs have declined in our Country, State and in Chautauqua County over the last couple of decades, there is finally growth in industrial jobs in America again.

Our County’s intentional turn to tourism as the future of our economy is troubling. The CCIDA invented a “Tourism Destination” 15 year PILOT (Payment In Lieu Of Taxes) that is more generous than its normal 10 year PILOT for industry.

Very few parents or grandparents want their children or grandchildren to try to make a life in Chautauqua County working seasonal tourism jobs. There are not a lot of lake-related tourist jobs in the winter or many ski resort jobs in the summer.

Tourism is a good supplement to an otherwise thriving economy, an economy that includes full-time industrial jobs. It is appropriate, therefore, for the CCIDA to offer assistance to full-service hotels that bring tourists and events to our County. Such tourist-related businesses, however, must never be viewed as the foundation of a sound economy here.

Perhaps County government’s lack of focus on job creation explains part of Chautauqua County’s decline in both employment and the size of the labor force by 12,000 in the past 12 years.

Fred Larson is a graduate of the Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, the Yale Law School and served as Chautauqua County Attorney from 1998-2005.