by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
The City has brought in help from the private sector in its search for the next leader of the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission.
Representatives from Jorgenson Consulting, a national executive search firm based in Jupiter, were in town Tuesday to begin the firm’s search for the JEDC’s next executive director. The position has been vacant since February when Kirk Wendland stepped down to work in the private sector.
With Jorgenson’s help, JEDC Chairman Ceree Harden expects to present the mayor with three finalists for the job by the end of May. Mayor John Peyton will make the final decision.
The City will pay the firm a flat rate of $40,000 to manage the search process from start to finish. Jorgenson was already on the job Tuesday, talking with Harden and the City’s Human Resources Department to define the job and the qualities the City wants in its candidates.
The ideal candidate will possess a blend of executive experience and technical skills in economic development, said Harden. The firm will likely cull candidates from both the private and public sectors.
“A candidate could derive that experience from any number of settings,” said Harden. “Every city has people working in economic development on both the private side and the public side. That’s why we’re hiring them (Jorgenson). They know where to look.”
Jorgenson specializes in recruiting for economic development. The firm lists hires for several economic development positions on its website. In the last six months, the firm has helped fill economic developer positions in Glynn County, Ga., Phoenix, Ariz. and Wilkes Barre, Pa., among others.
Turning the search over to the private sector also allows the City to keep publicity surrounding candidates to a minimum. If the City were running its own search, Florida Sunshine laws would make any information the City collected about the candidates a public record available to the media. But Florida’s public records laws likely won’t apply to Jorgenson, said Harden.
Florida’s broad public records laws can sometimes make recruiting for public positions difficult, said Harden. Candidates with good jobs are sometimes hesitant to take a chance that their name might end up in headlines connected to another job, he said.
“We do have to think about whether we want to create a barrier to soliciting the right person if that applicant has a job already,” he said.
But the City’s decision to outsource the recruiting process wasn’t driven by a desire to keep things quiet, said Harden. Instead, it’s an indication of the job’s importance.
“This job is a critical position not only to the JEDC, but to the administration as well,” said Harden. “In making the right hire, we have the opportunity to dramatically affect the community and the economic opportunities we create here in the future. We don’t want to leave it to amateurs.”
The City brought in professional recruiters in 2001 to find a replacement for Mike Weinstein, the commission’s first executive director. But then mayor John Delaney ended up promoting Wendland from within the JEDC after a six-month national search.
Harden won’t rule out a local hire, but he said locals would compete with the best candidates nationally.
The salary range for the position allows the City to pay the position up to $152,000 annually said Rebecca Salter, a personnel services manager for the City. The low end of the position’s salary range is just over $100,000 a year.
That range should be competitive in today’s job market, said Salter. But the City could expand the range if necessary to attract a top candidate, she said. Wendland made about $140,000 a year when he resigned. Weinstein made just over $150,000.