Charlotte County commissioners acted quickly to fill the void left by former Office of Economic Development Director Dave Gammon’s Aug. 16 resignation, appointing Kay Tracy during an Aug. 19 meeting to fill the role.
The board voted to appoint Tracy with a 5% pay raise during her contract negotiations.
Gammon was earning $135,345 annually at the time of his departure. Tracy earns $96,470.
Commissioners added the matter of Gammon’s resignation to their agenda, which originally was set to address budget matters and plans for septic to sewer conversions in Cape Haze.
After approving Gammon’s resignation letter, they discussed possible organizational changes and a charter amendment that would be approved by voters in the Nov. 5 election. The changes would have had an assistant county commissioner oversee the Office of Economic Development, which would no longer operate on a more autonomous basis.
There have been four OED directors over the last 12 years, with Tracy being the fifth.
However, for the matter to be placed on the ballot, it needed four out of five approval votes, which it didn’t receive.
The board discussed increasing communication between the county and OED. Past communication problems were discussed in detail.
Commissioners also discussed Tracy serving as interim director for a period of time before deciding who would become permanent director.
“I disagree that we should have an interim. We need to be able to hire people,” said Chair Bill Truex.
“We have a department that is in shambles. I want Mrs. Tracy to be our next director.”
But Commissioners Chris Constance and Joe Tiseo said they didn’t know her.
Tiseo questioned Tracy as to what she would bring to her position as director, and she vowed she would keep in direct communication with administration.
Also, she plans to continue to diversify the county’s economy and add recession-proof businesses and will focus on working with education partners.
Constance, too, had questions for her regarding reaching out to schools and colleges.
When Tiseo asked what the first thing she would do when assuming office, Tracy said she would need to hire personnel for business and expansion, marketing, a data analyst and a business recruitment person to assume her role.
Her office is down to two employess and had previously been staffed by six.
“My vision is to continue to create a healthy economic ecosystem for the community, and that we work on infrastructure, we work on investment, we work on diversifying our economy with targeted sector industries that are sustainable and essential to our community.”
She pointed out that there is “a big difference between businesses that come with population versus the businesses that we focus on.”
“We work very closely with our partners, our educational partners to build a skilled workforce. We work with investors looking for quality projects,” Tracy said.
She served as business recruitment manager under Gammon and been with the OED for 20 years.
The matter of her contract and salary for directorship will be discussed at the board’s Sept. 10 meeting at 9 a.m. in the county’s Administration Building, Room 119, 18500 Murdock Circle, Port Charlotte.
