Task Force Terminates Consultant’s Contract

Ventura County has terminated its contract with a private consultant hired to help form a regional economic development corporation, officials said Wednesday.

The $30,000 contract with Kreines & Kreines in Tiburon, a suburb of San Francisco, was terminated May 15, said Steve Kinney, co-chairman of a task force that is planning the corporation.

The decision to end the 3 1/2-month contract, which was authorized in March, was a mutual one, Kinney said. Members of the task force believed that the consultant was duplicating some of the work it had already completed, he said.

“The group didn’t feel like we were getting exactly what we wanted out of the consultant,” Kinney said. “Either they didn’t hear things right, or we didn’t explain things right.”

Ted Kreines, vice president of the consulting firm, did not return phone calls Wednesday.

The consultant was also expected to recruit cities, local chambers of commerce, water agencies, taxpayer groups and others to join the development corporation.

But Kinney said much of the groundwork for framing the corporation had already been laid by the task force, which is working on behalf of the Ventura County Council on Economic Vitality.

Nonetheless, Kinney said the consultant would be paid about $22,000 for the work completed to date. The money was part of a federal grant that the county received for programs aimed at boosting the local economy.

Kinney said he still expects that the corporation would be up and running by the end of the year.

Once established, the corporation will market the county as a good business location by promoting its assets, such as the Port of Hueneme, through major advertising campaigns, he said. The corporation would also be able to provide loans to expanding industries or firms interested in moving to the county.