Don Shea, Jacksonville Civic Council executive director and member of the City Downtown Investment Authority, will leave Jacksonville in January to become the first director of economic development for St. Tammany Parish in Louisiana.
Shea is the inaugural executive director of the civic council, a group of Jacksonville business leaders formed to improve Duval County. He began Sept. 13, 2010.
In a resignation letter to outgoing civic council Chairman Peter Rummell, Shea said the change is "based solely on family considerations."
"It's strictly personal," he said this morning. Shea and his wife are from New Orleans and their son is still there, he said.
Rummell said this morning University of North Florida President John Delaney will lead the search for Shea's successor at the Jacksonville Civic Council.
Rummell, the inaugural civic council chairman, will be succeeded Jan. 1 by Steve Halverson. Rummell said Halverson asked Delaney to chair the search committee.
"He has done a good job launching JCC," Rummell said of Shea.
"We will miss him, and wish him well," he said.
Shea said the St. Tammany Parish is growing quickly. He said the job there, across Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans, provides him an opportunity to be at the ground level of an economic development effort in an area closer to his family. Before coming to Jacksonville, Shea served as the executive director of the Shreveport Downtown Development Authority in Louisiana.
He said the opportunity at St. Tammany presented itself during the summer and he has been mulling the decision. He said he decided to accept it when St. Tammany showed serious interest and needed an answer.
He will begin Jan. 28, with his resignation from the Civic Council effective Jan. 23.
Shea also is a founding member of the nine-member Downtown Investment Authority. He said he will resign from the role.
In addition, Shea was an executive-on-loan to Mayor Alvin Brown for much of Brown's first year in office and served as his transition staff director. He also assisted in Brown's government reorganization efforts and three-part economic development reform package proposed in March and finalized last month.
Shea transitioned back to the civic council full-time in May, but was a point-person for City Council during its review of economic reform legislation the past several months.
According to a news release announcing the departure, the civic council will immediately begin a search to find Shea's successor, led by Delaney.
"The Civic Council will move forward, continuing to engage the toughest issues facing our community and do so with a renewed sense of commitment and engagement by the entire community. The best days for Jacksonville, and for the Civic Council, are ahead," Halverson said in the release.
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