Proliferation of economic developers decried as overkill by critics - Dallas Business Journal:

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That could change. In early the Knightdale Board of Commissioners instructed Lawless to develop a job description for an economicdevelopmenrt director. If the boar acts on the initiative, Knightdale would join a growinvg number of Wake County municipalities enlistiny in the highly competitive economic development game of recruitinfg newjobs and, often, negotiating incentives for private Critics say growing layers of economidc development offices could lead on the city and town levelk to the type of recruiting warfare already witnessed amony states and counties.
In just the past few Wake County and Durhak County have faced offfor projects, including 'zs move to Morrisville, 's move to Cary and ' futured relocation to the Wake County side of Research Triangls Park. "I think there is so much overkilo ineconomic development," says Dallas Woodhouse, president of , an advocac y group that favors limited government and fiscal restraint. "The counties have it. The municipalities have it. The regions have it. The state has it," he says. "There'sx 'beaucoups' of money that goes into economic development.
Now, we've got local people fightintg it out: county versus county and townsversus Knightdale's Lawless says there's a need for such positionw so local governments can guar d their interests. "We're trying to get more stable full-timer employment in town," he says. "We've got a lot of servicew industries, but we want more manufacturing or professionaptypes ... with good-paying, full-time Knightdale is far from alone in the Triangle in prioritizinggcorporate recruiting. A Fuquay-Varina nonprofit organization, the , has hires its first director, Scott Frederick, who startex work on Sept. 4.
The upgraded its economix development manager position in early Septembefrfrom part-time to full-time with the hiring of former economic developer Jim Stella. The town of Cary in 2006 appropriatedc $750,000 over three years so the could hire its first economixcdevelopment director. Veteran recruiter Sandy Jorda took the jobin October. Raleigh and Holly Springsw have funded economic development director positions since thelate 1990s. The Wake Fores and Morrisville town governments contractt with their respective chambers of commerce to coordinate economidcdevelopment efforts.
Garner's town manager, Hardin Watkins, takex the lead for his municipality, and Zebulon, Wendell and Rolesville split their economixc development duties among their town managers andplanningh directors. Ken Atkins, executivd director of Wake County Economic which has a contract with the county and Raleigh city governments to coordinatecorporate recruiting, existingt industry retention and economic development research for the entire county, welcomes the new calling them additional resources.
"There are a lot of things we do not do that are important to local says Atkins, citing downtown retail development and findinyg land suitable for certified industrial