Citing county leaders' desire to prevent private money from influencing public policy, the members of a community group pushing for a new first-stop entity for economic development said they have pulled their funding offer.

The members of A Call to Action: A Blueprint for Our Region's Future issued a statement Tuesday afternoon saying they support county leaders' decision to self-fund economic development efforts through the Cayuga County Development Corp.

The move comes a little more than a week after legislator Daniel Schuster, who chairs the county's planning and economic development comittee, issued a lengthy analysis that blasted certain Blueprint members for their approach to trying to bring about a change.

Schuster said he favors using the CCDC, an existing agency. The Blueprint group had secured $500,000 from the Stardust Foundation that it wanted to be put toward a new entity because existing agencies have failed to deliver in the past.

The new Blueprint statement comes ahead of a planned planning and economic development meeting on Thursday, which Schuster had called for the purpose of discussing economic development efforts. He announced that meeting a couple of days after issuing his written statement.

The Blueprint members gave specific praise to city leaders, Mayor Michael Quill and City Manager Mark Palesh.

"It looks at this time that county leaders do not wish to have private sector resources committed as we envision, but want to move forward on their own, which we can and do support," the Blueprint statement reads. "We encourage the County to set a date for a vote for self funding of their economic development proposal.

"We have been advocating for change and expect that over the coming weeks and months we will see changes occur and look to see what action our leaders take."

For the complete story, read Wednesday's edition of The Citizen.