City Council is in an early stage of launching a performance review of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation’s last five years.

The five years is not a random time period. It was five years ago that a council-appointed committee headed by USAA executive Wayne Peacock and David Zachry of Zachry Construction studied the city’s approach to job creation.

The Peacock-Zachry committee recommendations led to two big changes.

The city and Bexar County both started public funding for the once privately funded foundation. In exchange for the public funding, SAEDF agreed to expand its role by adding retention and expansions of existing area companies. Before 2010, SAEDF had recruited only outside companies to place business investments in San Antonio.

In 2015, SAEDF will receive $500,000 each from the city and county toward the organization’s budget of $2.76 million for the year.

The push for the five-year review originated with City Councilman Joe Krier, who said five years ago when the changes happened that periodic job creation reviews should occur. Before 2010, Krier said, SAEDF had not been subject to scrutiny since its 1974 origin.

“I don’t want to wait 20 years to tinker with this again,” Krier said this week. “If we’re putting taxpayers’ money into this, we need to make sure we’re getting the best possible results.”

Krier said he believes SAEDF is one of the best organizations of its kind in the nation, but the foundation can always improve. “We need to look at what’s been accomplished and whether it should stay the same or have changes,” he said.

Krier and City Councilman Ray Lopez, who heads the council’s economic development committee, have asked Peacock and Zachry to reconvene their 2010 advisory committee to conduct the review. The 2010 committee included Rackspace Hosting Chairman Graham Weston and Conceptual MindWorks Inc. CEO and President Elaine Mendoza as members.

Lopez said this week he is waiting to hear back from Peacock and Zachry. Both Peacock and Zachry declined through intermediaries to discuss the matter with me this week.

Lopez said he wants the SAEDF review to occur in the coming months so that his economic development committee can prepare any recommendations for the next city budget. Discussions on the next city budget will begin in May or June, Lopez said.

“We want to fortify our strategy using quantitative data,” Lopez said. “We want to see what San Antonio’s strengths sell (for business investments) and whether they sell domestically or abroad . . . so we can make a case for funding in the next budget cycle.”

Much has occurred during the five-year period. The foundation hired Deloitte Consulting to produce a new comprehensive job-creation plan. Attached to the Deloitte plan has been new export and foreign investment strategies written with the help of the Washington-based Brookings Institution.

Also, SAEDF developed a team for business retention and expansion that included foundation staff, plus representatives from CPS Energy, San Antonio Water System and the San Antonio Manufacturers Association. The top foundation retention officer was Misty Mayo, who left SAEDF about a month ago. Tracey Campos has been promoted to replace Mayo.

“Mayo had developed one of the better BRE (business retention and expansion) programs in the nation,” said Tom Long, foundation executive vice president for business recruitment.

“So far, so good,” said foundation chairman Steve Waters, general counsel for USAA Real Estate Co., of retention and expansion program. “We heard from people outside the city that BRE is a challenging thing to do, but they think we are doing it well,” Waters said.

The foundation will welcome City Council’s review of the past five years, Long said.

“A review is always good. Whether it’s the strategic or marketing plans, you can’t let things get stagnant. It’s always good to have a routine look at those,” Long said.

Added Waters: “If they (the city and county) want to put the dipstick in to see what they are getting for the money, that seems appropriate.”

Krier said Bexar County leaders, including Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, are being brought into the process.

Wolff and Mayor Ivy Taylor have emphasized in recent months the need for workforce skills development for purposes of attracting more business investments for jobs.

By the nature of its activities, the foundation hears first hand the types of skills that employers need now and will require in the future.

Whatever committee is convened for a five-year review of the foundation should consider how the foundation can guide the city’s various skills-training programs to further SAEDF’s purpose of creating jobs.