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Is the $200,000
man worth it?
Henry
County’s top recruiter has a mixed report card
A
little more than a year ago, hard-hit Henry County shelled
out a whopping salary of $200,000 a year to hire a ringer
for economic development. It lured Wayne Sterling, once
Virginia’s top economic recruitment official, from
South Carolina, just as Sterling was leaving his job
in the Palmetto State under a cloud.
So,
what has Henry County, which has lost more than 9,000
apparel and textile jobs in recent years, gotten for
its money? Hard to determine. Sterling says he is pleased
with what he’s accomplished. Henry County Administrator
Benny Summerlin says it’s too early to tell.
Sterling
points to seven announcements since January of new industries
landing in the county, or existing ones expanding. All
together, they should total 1,110 new jobs. “We’re
off to a running start,” says Sterling.
But
the Patrick Henry Development Council — the economic
development arm of a joint effort by Henry County and
the city of Martinsville — averaged more than 1,600
new jobs a year over the three years prior to Sterling
coming to Henry County. That’s about 500 jobs more
than the first-year record of Sterling, who is by far
the highest paid economic development official in the
state.
The
report card is further muddied since county officials
say that at least three of the past year’s job
announcements were actually in the works before Sterling
began working in Henry County. Sterling says his office
should be credited with generating the leads that led
to all but one of the seven new industry announcements
over this first year.
Just
three months after Sterling came to Henry County, Cerxon
Microtechnologies announced it was moving from South
Carolina to Henry County, a move Cerxon CEO Craig Rogers
credited to Sterling’s lobbying. Cerxon makes ceramic
microchips, primarily for use in cell phones, and represented
a new type of industry in a community desperate for
relief from its reliance on the textile and furniture
industries. Sterling is also credited with helping to
attract a similar company, Axiom Technologies, which
announced last month it would open a $5 million headquarters
in Martinsville, employing 250 people.
Other job announcements include three in the furniture
industry, two of which were expansions of already existing
industries; a new textile firm; and an expansion of
another textile company. The only other true diversification
came with the announcement that Knauff Snack Goods would
locate a facility in the county.
Sterling,
who resigned his position in South Carolina in 2001
following allegations of financial irregularities, says
that with unemployment hovering around 12 percent, his
office can’t be too choosy. County Administrator
Summerlin agrees. “We want to diversify the base
here, but with the economic slump we’ve had here,
we have really gone after all the prospects we could.
We haven’t been able to pick and choose.”
—
by John Peters in Martinsville
Virginia
Business - January 2003
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