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Region’s development efforts are fragmented across many groups

Split efforts lead to jurisdictions competing for jobs that can boost  tax bases.

handout Phil Parker, Dayton Chamber of Commerce president and CEO

Jim Leftwich, president and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition, speaks at the annual meeting of the Dayton Development Coalition at the Schuster Center in January. File photo

Ty Greenlees Jim Leftwich, president and CEO of the Dayton Development Coalition, speaks at the annual meeting of the Dayton Development Coalition at the Schuster Center in January. File photo

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Submitted Jim Leftwich, Chief Operating Officer, Dayton Development Coalition

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer Updated 11:30 PM Saturday, July 3, 2010

DAYTON — Caterpillar is breaking ground in Clayton for a heavy equipment warehouse that will bring a projected 500 jobs to the area. The law firm of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr plans to bring 187 jobs to the Miami Valley Research Park in Kettering.

Those are two of the silver linings in what has been a dark cloud of layoffs, plant closings and, in the case of GM, NCR and Delphi, a sad exit. But development officials say there is no magic bullet for job creation in this region, and people shouldn’t expect a fast return to prosperity. There could be more losses, and the wins are likely to be small, with local companies driving the bus.

“Eighty percent of job growth comes from existing companies,” said Erik Collins, Montgomery County’s manager of economic development. “It’s more expensive to recruit businesses than to keep and grow what you have.”

The Dayton Daily News spent six months examining who is doing what on economic development, what it is costing, and how well the various entities are working together. The results are a mixed bag. It is not always clear who is calling the shots, and there is little to stop jurisdictions from bidding against each other for jobs that can boost their tax bases for years, if not decades.

The Daily News examined public records, including government budget documents and the tax forms filed by nonprofit economic development organizations, and conducted interviews with local government officials, Chamber of Commerce leaders, company executives and other experts. The examination found:

• Economic development groups in four local counties — Montgomery, Greene, Miami, and northern Warren — spend nearly $23 million annually.

• Two organizations — the private-public Dayton Development Coalition and the private Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce — account for about a third of that spending. Both say their efforts to keep jobs or bring in additional ones are showing results, despite the loss of high-profile employers like General Motors and NCR.

• The top executives of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce and the Dayton Development Coalition are well compensated. Both, for example, earn considerably more than Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, whose salary is $142,356. Jim Leftwich, president and chief executive officer of the coalition, earned total compensation of $257,000 in 2009, while Phil Parker, the Dayton chamber’s president and CEO, received total compensation of $269,455 in 2008, the most recent year available. However, while Parker and Leftwich easily top the list of salaries for economic development officials in the Miami Valley, their pay is in line with people in similar positions around the state. The chief executives of chambers of commerce in Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Columbus each earn more than Parker or Leftwich.

• The Dayton area relies heavily on private, nonprofit organizations for economic development. These organizations operate largely out of the public eye. Some of the region’s chambers of commerce, funded by private businesses, refused to provide financial information to the Daily News, or didn’t respond to multiple requests. Those included the Kettering-Moraine-Oakwood Chamber, South Metro Chamber, Northmont Chamber, Lebanon Area Chamber, and Piqua Chamber. In those cases, the newspaper relied on 2008 data that the not-for-profit organizations were required to report to the Internal Revenue Service.

• Some 26 local political jurisdictions, in addition to the chambers of commerce and organizations such as the Dayton Development Coalition, are actively involved in economic development in the region. Yet when NCR announced in June 2009 that it was leaving Dayton after 125 years and moving 1,300 jobs to the Atlanta area, the move surprised some local officials, raising questions about who is responsible for maintaining ties to critical employers.

“I don’t know whether we were really considering that NCR would leave,” said Robert Premus, a Wright State University economics professor.

• The Dayton-Montgomery County Port Authority, created 10 years ago and touted as the type of development arm that brought the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to Cleveland, is so little used now that it has one employee, Executive Director Ron Parker, who works just eight hours a week. Economic development specialists said port authorities, with broad financing authority, can be invaluable in helping fund projects to support corporate expansions and relocations. The local port authority supported WorkflowOne’s consolidation in a downtown Dayton building, Parker said, but the recession dried up the agency’s revenue and forced him to cut expenses.

• Despite claims of better cooperation, economic development inevitably pits one community against another. Kurz-Kasch Inc. left Moraine for Miamisburg; Evenflo Inc. chose Miamisburg over Vandalia; Huffy Corp. left Miamisburg for Centerville. Motoman Inc. just announced it will relocate its operations from West Carrollton and Troy to a consolidated site at the new Austin Boulevard-Interstate 75 intersection in Miamisburg. Although each of these moves kept a valued employer in the region, that’s small solace to a community that just lost a chunk of its job base.

A company’s move out of Dayton and into a nearby community, said Shelley Dickstein, Dayton’s assistant city manager for strategic development, “is not a win for us.”

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