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Politics & Government

Reform Set for Northfield EDA

A subcommittee will form to help councilors amend city legislation giving the EDA more specific direction.

After six months of debate, the Northfields City Council has agreed on a reform to its Economic Development Authority.

But for councilors who wanted that reform to disband the EDA, the solution—which founds a subcommittee to help councilors amend city legislation giving the EDA more specific direction—did not address the problem.

Councilor Suzie Nakasian, the resolution's author, said she was as frustrated with the laggard pace of the EDA as its opponents are.

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"But it's our responsibility to work with what we've got to make it work. I want to urge the council to complete the process we have thoughtfully outlined," she said, referencing the affirmation of development goals passed by the city in June and the council's work with consultant Tom Clough over the last several months.

The resolution also encourages Mayor Mary Rossing to appoint the two vacancies on the board. (The rejection of Rossing's nominees earlier this year jumpstarted the current discussion on reform.) It passed 4-3 with Councilors Erica Zweifel, Betsey Buckheit and Patrick Ganey dissenting.

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Ganey's motion to set a public hearing on disbanding the EDA failed by a vote of the opposite margins just before Nakasian's resolution.

"A dissolution of the EDA," Ganey wrote in a memo introducing the resolution, "affirms the Council's obligation and responsibility to residents of the city to develop all matters of policy."

He said creating an advisory board is a better way to incorporate leaders throughout Northfield in its economic planning than is relying on the volunteer EDA.

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