Solon Mayor Undecided on County 'No-Poaching' Pact

Cuyahoga County Executive Ed Fitzgerald wants suburban mayors to sign a deal by the end of the month to stop cities from poaching businesses from each other, according to The Plain Dealer.

Solon Mayor Susan Drucker said she has received the letter, but wants to review it with Economic Development Manager Peggy Weil-Dorfman before making a decision.

The policy has been discussed by county and suburban officials for a few months. The newspaper reports that the guidelines say trigger notifications and discussions between cities when a company approaches a suburb about moving. Cities are still free to market themselves, but can't pursue specific companies.

The Cuyahoga County suburbs that sign on could be eligible to receive cash from a $100 million economic development fund being set up with sales tax money, The Plain Dealer reports.

"The proposed agreement is not a panacea, nor does it address all the challenges our communities face," wrote County Regional Collaboration Director Ed Jerse in the letter. "But it will send a strong message that the communities of Cuyahoga County are moving in a new and positive direction."

While Drucker said she could not comment yet on her decision or the substance of the new version of the policy, she did say she and other mayors have not seen evidence that poaching is a problem.

"I don't see poaching going on, I haven't exprienced it, I haven't seen it," Drucker said. "Tell me where it's happened. When a business move, it's the business making the decision."

For example, when recently decided to relocate from Mayfield to Solon, Drucker said the reason was that the company was looking to grow and could not find an adequate place in Mayfield.

Solon has a to try to prevent businesses from moving from one community to the other, but Drucker said that is different from the county's proposal.

In their agreement, Twinsburg and Solon's agreement limits either city from offering incentives to companies beyond 50 percent of new payroll tax or real estate tax abatements.

A business can relocate for its own reasons, but the company knows it won’t get any extra incentives from the other community.