Questions arose at an informal meeting Monday of the Joplin City Council about how closely city officials and the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce comply with requirements of a contract between the two parties.
The discussion started with City Manager Nick Edwards talking about how economic development work is done for the city. He said the city contracts with the chamber for the services.
The chamber submits an invoice for the work, the finance department checks the invoice and the chamber is reimbursed monthly for expenses. The contract requires that the invoice be submitted “with supporting documentation within 15 days from the end of each calendar month describing the services provided and expenses reimbursable by the city incurrent in the prior month.”
“We reimburse for actual expenditures,” the city manager said, adding that “the rest of the contract lists performance measures and activities the chamber performs.”
The contract allows the city to spend up to $252,000 for what is called “a consulting fee” for services outlined in the agreement. The contract also allows for the council to adjust the amount it will pay annually based on budget appropriations.
The city a decade ago paid the chamber an annual payment of $335,000 until a 2015 audit by then-Missouri State Auditor Nicole Galloway criticized Joplin’s handling of the payments.
That audit specifically criticized the city for not properly monitoring its contract and expenditures paid to the chamber. That is when a written contract was put in place and the city required the chamber to submit more detailed invoices.
The city manager said that monthly reports consist of “the city manager, some city staff, the mayor and mayor pro tem meet(ing) with chamber staff to go over economic development activities for coordination meetings. They share things they are working on, leads they may have, and any changes in the economy.”
Council member Doris Carlin said the contract states the chamber is to provide a monthly report to the mayor and council. She said she has never been given a monthly report.
The city manager said there is monthly communication but he would not call it a report. There is a quarterly report to the council that provides a running list of “those items I’ve presented to you each quarter,” Edwards said.
Carlin said the contract specifies that the chamber’s monthly report to mayor and council is “to outline tasks accomplished and include statistics for each performance measure outlined.” Carlin asked the mayor if he has seen that language.
Mayor Keenan Cortez said he did see that the contract calls for a monthly report. He said representatives of the MOKAN Partnership, the regional arm of the chamber, “give us all the leads they’re working on and things that are happening. Again that, for me, has been relatively informal to this point. They keep us posted and updated on all that. We do have a loose agenda we follow on all that. I don’t know if that information has been disseminated down.”
He described those involved as an “economic development team,” although that description does not appear in the contract.
The performance measures required by the contract are enumerated as:
• Written report to mayor and council.
• Quarterly presentation to council.
• Timely updates to mayor and council on potential and ongoing projects as necessary.
“The city recognizes that the overall economy will affect some of the performance measures and success will be outside of the control,” of the chamber, the contract states. It continues by specifying, “the City expects JACC to show evidence of experience in conducting comparative market and trend analyses and due diligence in amassing the detailed information necessary to support the economic development efforts.”
The contract is outdated. The copy used for Monday’s discussion was signed on Oct. 30, 2023, and specifies that it will be in effect for a year until Oct. 31, 2024.
The discussion came on the heels of the exit of Travis Stephens, chamber president and CEO. The chamber board announced in an email June 11 that he was no longer the president and CEO and that the chamber’s vice president, Erin Slifka, would oversee staff and monitor day-to-day activities while the chamber board conducts a search for a new leader.
Stephens was placed at the chamber helm in 2022 with 14 years of experience in economic development work.
The chamber board has advertised the job and sought submission on applications by July 25.