Within days of each other last month, both the Hillsborough County Commission and the Tampa City Council approved a combined $1.1 million in local government incentive money after being advised by their respective economic development staffs that if they didn't, the unnamed Tampa company was about to move over 1,600 jobs out of Florida.
But a short while later an official with that company in question, PricewaterhouseCoopers, acknowledged that in fact the company was never bound to leave Tampa.
Cue the outrage.
Because of the negative publicity that ensued after that declaration, PwC then said "never mind," and withdrew its request for the funding.
To insure as best as possible that such a situation doesn't happen again, officials with the Tampa/Hillsborough Economic Development Corporation addressed the Tampa City Council on Thursday morning with some suggestions.
This article appears in Aug 25-31, 2011.