Rural development association rises from WEDA's ashes

By Gary Raham
Wellington Correspondent

Largess or larceny? That is the question pondered by some when Wellington's town attorney, Brad March, visited the office of Doug Means and collected a check for $2,900 that constituted the remaining cash assets of the Wellington Economic Development Association.

The town considers the money a gift that was stipulated in WEDA's Articles of Incorporation. Article IX states: "Upon the dissolution of the corporation, the Board of Directors shall, after paying or making provisions for the payment of all of the liabilities of the corporation, dispose of all the assets of the corporation as a gift to the Town of Wellington for the purpose of promoting the general welfare of the Town of Wellington."

WEDA president Doug Andersen contends, however, that WEDA never did dissolve and the remaining money in its account consisted of dues paid by its business members.

In a May 3, 2006, letter to March, in response to an inquiry about "determining WEDA's status," Andersen said, "Since WEDA didn't evolve into a new organizational structure as planned and the end of the fiscal year came about without a clearly defined direction for either WEDA or the new chamber [of commerce] to attend to the basic functions of our organization, no disbursement of funds was necessary or expected. We did agree to self-fund our efforts in the future so we would not be in competition for membership or dues with the chamber."

The relationships between town government, WEDA and the Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce have a tortuous history. WEDA, founded in 1995, was once funded by the town of Wellington. It then became an independent organization, partially funded by the town, with the goal of stimulating economic growth in the area. One of the successes Andersen touts for the organization is the application to the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade that resulted in the community assessment that evaluated the town/community dynamic in terms of future growth and development.

For a short time, former town board member Reggie Kemp served as a paid consultant for WEDA, but when issues of conflict of interest were raised, Kemp resigned as consultant in order to remain on the board and remove even the appearance of conflict.

In 2005, the WEDA board asked members Wendell Nelson and William Schneider to review the restructuring of WEDA and the feasibility of converting to a chamber of commerce business format. The June 2005 minutes report that Andersen suggested, "The approach will be to maintain the WEDA infrastructure (existing phone number, web page, liability insurance, etc.), but do a formal change in the Articles of Incorporation and revise the bylaws to reflect the chamber of commerce focus and structure."

As it turned out, the Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce formed as a separate entity early in 2006 - one that didn't initially have nonprofit status. It also lacked formal connections with various business and state entities that provided communication links with, and incentives for, potential new business prospects.

In a letter to town attorney March, Anderson said he and Nelson agreed that "in the interest of the town, it would be best for WEDA to remain in operation until some formally functioning economic development organization could be established with or in cooperation with the chamber."

The matter rested there until Andersen, as interim president of WEDA, filed papers with the Secretary of State that legally changed the name of the organization to Northern Colorado Information and Resources - something corporations may do without dissolving. However, March, in a Dec. 1 letter to WEDA treasurer Doug Means, said, "Based on discussions I had some time ago with Mr. Andersen involving the status of WEDA, the recent changes of the entity's name without the knowledge of the board members I have recently spoken with, and the general acrimony surrounding WEDA, I suspect there will be a difference of opinion surrounding the organization's dissolution."

Such suspicions were well founded.

With a chamber of commerce now in place and assuming some economic development roles, a new organization headed by Robert Dawson will attempt to address somewhat different goals. That organization, the Northern Colorado Rural Development Association, intends to serve as an informational clearing house for developers and the general public interested in seeing that Wellington's growth is not haphazard and that it moves forward in ways that take account of potential long-term problems, including water, safety and infrastructure for a ballooning population.

"Wellington needs good strategic planning that doesn't gloss over the reality of no forward thinking," said Andersen.

NCRDA's attorney is in the process of filing bylaws for the new corporation. Andersen said he believes the new organization has the right connections established with individuals and committees in business, county, state and private enterprises to provide the necessary expertise for the kind of strategic planning he deems essential for Wellington.

Time will tell if he is right--and if NCRDA can rise above the "general acrimony surrounding WEDA"--to make that expertise something others are willing to use.