Economic development entity Priority One wants a new City Hall commitment of funds; expect a debate and thoughts of Go Daddy

CEDAR RAPIDS - Don't look for a lovefest on Tuesday evening when Priority One, the economic development arm of the Cedar Rapids Area Chamber of Commerce, comes to the City Council with its hand out.

Priority One, which now receives annual funding from the council, is asking for the council to commit $600,000 to Priority One over the next five years.

Expect a debate.

The propsed new funding for Priority One was raised this week by Mayor Ron Corbett and council member Monica Vernon at a joint meeting of council members and the Linn County Board of Supervisors.

Vernon pointed out that the several different entities now are performing economic development activities in the community, and she said she wanted to have a discussion about how those efforts could better work together and communicate before she was ready to hand out more money.

Linda Langston, chairwoman of the Board of Supervisors, reminded Mayor Ron Corbett than he and she were scheduled to make calls on Priority One's behalf as it raises money in the community.

Corbett joked that his first calls would have to go to members of the City Council to try to get them on board to help.

Priority One's request of the City Council is coming at a time when some on the council are feeling a little bruised over the loss of about 100 Cedar Rapids jobs, which Internet firm Go Daddy has taken to Hiawatha along with plans to add hundreds more jobs. Some on the council have suggested that Priority One did little to give Go Daddy options in the metro area, including an option to locate in stuggling, flood-recovering downtown Cedar Rapids.

Corbett made his own run at Go Daddy with a late-inning pitch for the jobs, without success.

Go Daddy founder and CEO Bob Parsons has credited Corbett for the effort, but Parsons said it was an uphill battle at  best. Parsons already had repurchased the office building in Hiawatha where he once owned and ran a software firm.

Of note, back in 2004, then-Mayor Paul Pate and the City Council cut back its commitment to Priority One for about a year so City Hall could use the funds for economic development. At the time, there was some thought that the City Council wasn't particularly pleased that the Chamber of Commerce, headed up then by now Mayor Ron Corbett, was beginning a community campaign, which proved successful, to change the city's form of government.