City And County Approve “Bittersweet’ End Of TCEDA
Sonora, CA — Four years after it was last active, and Director Larry Cope departed, the City of Sonora and Tuolumne County officially ended the Joint Powers Authority on Economic Development.
The Tuolumne County Economic Development Authority was created in 2008 as a way for the city and county to collectively attract and retain businesses.
The dissolution was formally approved by the Tuolumne County Supervisors during yesterday’s board meeting, and then last night by the Sonora City Council.
Only two active city council members were around four years ago, Matt Hawkins and Mark Plummer. The TCEDA had come under heightened scrutiny, including concerns raised by the Tuolumne County Grand Jury, about its operations and lack of oversight.
Hawkins said he has been thinking a lot about it recently, and stated, “It is a bittersweet day for us that we get to put this to bed, and behind us. At the same time, it also (unfortunately) ends what was an opportunity for the city and the county to work together.”
Hawkins says toward the end of the TCEDA, things got “extremely ugly” and caused a lot of friction between the city and county.
Hawkins also praised late councilwoman Connie Williams for exposing issues happening with the TCEDA. Hawkins says, “She got targeted personally, and a lot of credit needs to go to her for opening the books.”
Councilwoman Ann Segerstrom was not in office during the TCEDA period, but said she is pleased to see it officially end. She said, “We do now also have the Central Sierra Economic District that does represent many counties, the City of Sonora, and Angels Camp. It feels that it (CSEDD) is very well run, open, and transparent.”
Mayor Mark Plummer concluded the discussion, and like Hawkins, had mixed emotions. He said, “I think it was a very worthy effort for the county and the city to attempt to work together, and the model itself isn’t bad.”
Plummer says the position started out “opened ended” and former Director Cope “threw everything at the wall to see what sticks.” However, eight years in, as a councilmember, Plummer says he started requesting metrics from Cope, to view progress, and “there were none.”
Plummer says things started to go downhill, and “unfortunately it did not work out so well.”
Looking to the future, Plummer said, “Hopefully, going forward, we will have a more detailed objective where we want to see the city going for economic development, and then we will start putting in place what we need to do to make that happen.”
The city, as mentioned above is a member of the Central Sierra Economic Development District, but chose not to hire anyone to oversee economic development. The county did hire an economic development director after Cope’s departure, Cole Przybyla. However, after he resigned in 2022, the county decided to move economic development efforts to an analyst position under the County Administrator’s office.
The TCEDA took four years to dissolve because of legal matters that had to be worked out and finalized related to the termination.
