Confusion arises about Dubois County's 2 economic groups

That was a basic question and concern the Dubois County Commissioners discussed at their meeting Monday.

“It seems real weird that we have two different organizations,” President Chad Blessinger said, “and I still don’t understand exactly the difference.”

Dubois Strong is a nonprofit public/private partnership that provides leadership, Ed Cole, president of Dubois Strong, explained this morning. It’s goal is retention and expansion of existing local business while attracting new employers and supporting entrepreneurs. Grow Dubois County, also a nonprofit, is the organization that actually does the projects, he said.

“Grow Dubois County is the project arm, and cooperates with Dubois Strong,” Cole said.

Commissioner Nick Hostetter said that when he was on the council, his understanding was that Grow Dubois County was created to keep both groups’ meetings private.

“When the council discussed (increasing Dubois Strong’s funding), part of our discussion was that now that the government has such a high stake in it, their meetings would be open to the public,” Hostetter said. “So they took half of their money and spun off Grow Dubois County.”

Commissioner Elmer Brames, who represents the commissioners on Dubois Strong’s board, said that his understanding is that Grow Dubois County was created to provide a way to make sure that money is used for projects and not administrative costs.

“It was set up as an agreement with the county, or a way to ensure the county that the extra money was going directly to programs, and not to administrative costs,” he said.

The confusion led the commissioners to postpone signing Grow Dubois County’s $40,000 contract. Instead, they want representatives of both economic groups to come discuss the groups’ purpose at a future meeting.

“It doesn’t make sense to have two economic development arms that basically run side by side,” Hostetter said, “that split the money.”

In 2014, the council increased Dubois Strong’s funding from $60,000 to $200,000. Last year, the council cut that funding down to $100,000, which includes Grow Dubois County’s $40,000.

“My interpretation was that as the county was considering the increase in contribution (in 2014), they were concerned about if there going to be a lot of extra administrative costs,” Brames said, “or was this extra money going to go to projects and programs.”

Transparency was the reason Grow Dubois County was created, Cole said. The organization was established in 2014, prior to Cole’s arrival.

“Grow Dubois County is meant to be project-oriented,” he said, “to keep those dollars very easily tracked. What Grow Dubois County does is purely projects, but no administration for the projects. Dubois Strong does that — mailings, internet costs, salaries, things like that. All of Grow Dubois County’s administrative costs is done by Dubois Strong.”

Dubois Strong’s board is comprised of 22 members. Grow Dubois County’s board of five does not include any Dubois Strong members, Cole said. Those meetings are not open to the public, he said.

“I complained about this when they brought it to us as the council,” Hostetter said. “I said, ‘I don’t like it. I think it smells like you’re trying to keep your meetings private.’”

Cole said that he was not aware of that intention. “I’m not aware of that at all,” he said. “We have members of the council and commissioners on our board. We have lots of people on the board, so we have nothing to hide. The information is out there.”

The commissioners plan to ask Dubois Strong and Grow Dubois County representatives to come speak to them and clear up the confusion.

“Maybe they’ll convince me that this is the best way to do it,” Blessinger said. “But from the limited amount of information I know about it, I don’t see that.”

“It is a little confusing,” Cole admitted. “But it’s truly meant to make it clear and simple for accounting. We want the people who allocate those dollars to feel comfortable with what we’re doing.”