CityWide, a nonprofit that describes itself as the city’s development arm, says it has created 2,200 jobs and has been a driving force behind Dayton’s recent major economic development projects, including Tech Town. Nearly half of the $20 million in contracts awarded to CityWide by the city since 2007 have been to develop Tech Town, an incubator for aerospace-related jobs, Budd said.
In March, the Dayton Daily News requested financial information from local chambers of commerce and nonprofit development organizations. The newspaper also queried city and county governments about their economic development spending, including salaries. Budd declined to give his salary, citing an “organizational policy.”
In the July 9 interview, Budd said disclosure was “probably appropriate” given that the organization is a nonprofit and it handles public money.
Organization's effort evident in pivotal projects
As Dayton tries to transform itself from an industrial city blitzed by the foreclosure crisis and corporate departures to an aerospace research hub and home to small businesses, there is no economic development group as involved in those efforts than the CityWide.
The nonprofit has been around since the early 1970s. As president, Budd has participated in the city’s most significant development projects in the last decade: RecPlex, Tech Town, the Genesis Project, and the Phoenix Project. Many businesses in the Oregon District have received small business loans from CityWide.
CityWide has received more than $20 million in city contracts
“They develop their own projects, and the city gets behind those it’s interested in,” said Paul Woodie, a retired city administrator who helped create CityWide in the early 1970s to function as an economic development engine within the city’s limits. “The city doesn’t have the people anymore, the resources or mental capacity to do it on their own, (to) get that major third-party partner.”
Budd, president since 1989, and his 17 employees have earned the trust of the city’s two largest employers: The University of Dayton and Miami Valley Hospital, which each dedicated millions of dollars to CityWide’s Genesis Project of redeveloping the neighborhood between the Montgomery County Fairgrounds and UD’s campus.
CityWide’s mission has changed since its creation as a small business and home loan center that received some economic development money from the city. It still provides home mortgage credit counseling and home rehabilitation loans to low-income families. But the group today does major redevelopment of blighted areas and receives millions in state and federal funds to carry out those projects.
“They take on projects no one else would or could,” Dayton City Commissioner Matt Joseph said. “Also a big thing is state and federal law limits the city’s role when it comes to certain things like New Markets Tax Credits. CityWide can get those and provide them to private developers.”
CityWide has $41.6 million in total assets, $21.8 million listed in outstanding loans and $28.6 million in total liabilities, $15.5 million in notes payable.
It’s difficult to tell if CityWide has made sound investments because it keeps its financial portfolios private. Its 28-member board is an independent body made up of three city staffers, the heads of neighborhood priority boards, local academics and private business leaders. Budd would not discuss in detail his group’s investments, but said CityWide has maintained the city’s trust because its policies “reflect city hall policies.”
“As far as whether or not we’re doing a good job, it’s up to the board of trustees,” Budd said. “I work for the board of the trustees. We have contracts with the city. If we’re doing a bad job with those contracts, they will cancel those contracts.”
Most, but not all, nonprofit organizations each year file a Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service. The form lists such financial data as revenues, expenses and investment income as well as certain executive salaries.
CityWide does not file 990s because its assets would revert to the city if the agency were liquidated, an approach approved by the IRS, Budd said.
Earlier this month, CityWide made copies of financial reports audited by local CPA firm Brady Ware available to the Dayton Daily News. The financial reports don’t include individual salary figures.
Dayton City Manager Tim Riordan, who was involved in CityWide’s creation in the early 1970s, believes it has functioned for decades as it was designed — to work independently but closely with the city to create economic growth.
“We do have city staff on the board and they articulate to me if they have any issues and if things are consistent with the city’s plans,” Riordan said. “From what I’ve seen they have basically clean audits.
“And we haven’t given them a lot of money recently for job creation,” Riordan said. “What they’ve gotten is stimulus money in the contracts we’ve awarded them.”
But stimulus funds were intended to create jobs, and Riordan said he does not know how effective CityWide has been in that area.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2494 or lsullivan @DaytonDailyNews.com.
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