Salaries of economic development officials*
Former Hamilton Economic Development Administrator Melissa Johnson Gabbard: $79,955
Former West Chester Twp. Community Development Department Director Brian Elliff: $101,000
Former Middletown Economic Development Director Mike Robinette: $89,924.64
*Salaries of outgoing officials at time of resignation
Sources: Hamilton, Middletown and West Chester Twp.
Four area economic development officials have resigned their posts since the end of last year, leaving other government officials to fill in.
They are: Melissa Johnson Gabbard, who resigned as Hamilton economic development administrator effective Dec. 31; Brian Elliff, who resigned this month as the director of West Chester Twp. Community Development Department; Mike Robinette, whose last day as Middletown economic development director is Jan. 31; and the city manager of Franklin, Jim Lukas, who is part of Franklin’s three-member economic development team until his last day Feb. 19.
But other officials can usually answer questions from site consultants and businesses, making it unnecessary in this economy for economic development to be a full-time job, said Jeff Bender, executive managing director of Cassidy Turley Commercial Real Estate Services. Another 24 to 36 months from now, things could be different, depending on the market, he said.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a big detriment to attracting businesses, so long as somebody in those communities does step up in dual roles, but at some point, if a community is not seeing a lot of opportunity, they need to look inside,” Bender said.
Cassidy Turley offers business location advisory services and is asked by companies to find sites or buildings and demographic information such as labor force, tax structure and utility rates. He said development officials act as facilitators of that process.
Hamilton is the only community of the four that currently doesn’t have any other dedicated economic development staff.
Hamilton City Manager Joshua Smith said he’s overseeing responsibilities, which have been picked up by other departments.
The Butler County Department of Development fills in on business attraction and recruitment efforts for smaller communities without their own development staff, such as St. Clair Twp., and has offered help to Hamilton, said Mike Juengling, county development director.
“Hopefully everyone can fill in in the interim,” Juengling said.
The development counterparts throughout the county meet once every other month to talk about projects and learn from each other’s experiences, Juengling said.
In the short term, Middletown City Manager Judy Gilleland said the city departments can absorb Robinette’s responsibilities. But the job or its responsibilities can’t go unfilled forever.
“There is a difference between what a staff and a team can absorb in the short term versus the long term. While we’re not going to miss a beat in the short term, like other communities, staff is spread very thinly across departments and economic development is a priority,” Gilleland said.
Hamilton is undergoing a change in its strategy to be more aggressive on business recruitment by revamping economic development incentive packages, launching a new internal marketing campaign and working with industry partners such as commercial businesses.
“Business recruitment equals jobs,” Smith said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2551 or clevingston@coxohio.com.
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