By Gregory Korte
The Cincinnati Enquirer

It's not that the city of Cincinnati doesn't have the economic development incentives to compete with Newport and elsewhere in Northern Kentucky.

It's that the city's Community Development Department awards those incentives too haphazardly, the city's Economic Development Task Force said in its second set of draft recommendations, released Wednesday.

"Absent clear systems, people assume this is a completely political process," said Pete Strange, president of Messer Construction and chairman of the task force's incentive subcommittee.

There are no firm guidelines for use of incentives, and the Community Development Department "has become completely reactive," the report said.

Some tax incentives, loans and grants appear to go to businesses on a first-come, first-served basis, task force members said. Some developers feel the way to get tax breaks is to circumvent the city's cumbersome bureaucracy and go straight to City Council.

Department Director Peg Moertl agreed with many of the recommendations.

She said the department is working to better match the size of incentive to the size of the project.

"It's not just what the tools are but how they're applied that makes the difference," she said. "We don't have any way of distinguishing between something that has a smaller impact and something that has the potential to be much greater."

"We need to save our big guns for the great elephants," she said.

Other recommendations:

• Retool the city's economic development marketing materials and Web page.

The current Web site lists the department's phone number and has three forms for download. And until recently, there was no one place where new or expanding businesses could get a list of all the incentives the city has to offer.

• Focus the city's lobbying in Washington and Columbus.

"There's a perception, especially in Columbus, that Cincinnati comes with many, many hands out and many, many buckets, and we're really not united," said Nick Vehr of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce, a task force member.

The task force is chaired by City Manager Valerie Lemmie and Fifth Third Bank President George A. Schaefer Jr.

The task force's first round of draft recommendations have already been partly implemented.

Mayor Charlie Luken's biennial budget, approved by City Council Wednesday, eliminates the Planning Department and combines planning and zoning into a merged Department of Community Development and Planning.

E-mail gkorte@enquirer.com