OXNARD : City Considers Plan to Privatize Department

A plan to spin off the Oxnard Department of Economic Development as a private corporation by the end of the year will be considered Tuesday by the Oxnard City Council.

As part of the process, the council will consider dissolving the city’s Economic Development Advisory Commission.

Support for the move, first proposed in August as part of a sweeping reorganization of city operations, has grown as the city looks for ways to make its efforts more efficient, said Steve Kinney, the city’s economic development director.

“The dominant strategic goal for the Oxnard Economic Development Corp. is to enhance employment opportunities and improve the quality of employment and economic activity throughout the city,” Kinney said.

High on the private corporation’s list of priorities is improving the market potential for existing businesses, attracting new companies to the city and increasing the quality of jobs.

The draft business plan calls for the city to pay the corporation $775,000 for services during 1994, while the corporation’s directors seek out new sources of funding over time.

The plan also calls for Kinney to be one of three charter directors of the new organization, along with attorney Steven Zimmer and George Lauterbach, who is a member of the existing advisory commission.

Other board members would be drawn from the Oxnard City Council, local business and banking interests and other private and public agencies.

Mayor Manuel Lopez said any savings to the city would only be achieved in the long run.

“The Economic Development Department has proven to be a good investment for the city,” Lopez said. “Particularly right now, we have to be as competitive as possible to get jobs in the city.”