The Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation is looking for a new executive director.
Todd Tracy, 51, turned in his resignation to the corporation’s executive board at its Dec. 8 meeting, said Keith Suellentrop, that board’s chairman.
That resignation was effective Dec. 30, said County Executive Dennis Gannon, a member of the executive board.
Tracy has been leading the EDC, a nonprofit agency that works to attract new businesses to the county and help existing ones expand, since September 2019.
On Jan. 3, Tracy started work at his new job, as executive director of the Center for Workforce Development at East Central College in Union.
Tracy did not return telephone calls asking for comment.
Gannon and Suellentrop said the board will meet soon to decide the process it will use to hire a new executive director.
In the interim, Rosie Buchanan, the EDC’s assistant executive director, will lead the agency until a new executive director is hired, Gannon said.
According to a written statement from East Central, Tracy will manage the workforce development programs at the college, including job training services and programs.
From 2003-2009, Tracy was the director of the Illinois Small Business Development and International Trade Center at Kaskaskia College, a community college located in Centralia, Ill., according to the statement from East Central.
“As this is where my passion lies, having the opportunity to lead the (Center for Workforce Development) was a natural fit for me,” Tracy said in the statement. “I have been actively exploring an opportunity to rejoin the community college environment since moving to Missouri three years ago, and I’m very excited to bring my experiences to ECC.”
Tracy left Kaskaskia in 2009 because of state budget cuts and started his own consulting company, Trusted Biz Solutions, that specialized in economic development and small business consulting. He also owned a picture-framing business, the statement said.
Gannon credited Tracy with playing a pivotal role in the county landing a new manufacturing facility, James Hardie Building Products Inc., in Crystal City.
Officials from that company announced in October that they expect to break ground on a nearly $400 million manufacturing plant in the spring of 2023. The 1.25-million-square-foot-facility will be built on and around the Festus Municipal Airport property.
Officials announced that the factory will create nearly 240 new high-paying jobs.
“He spent a ton of time on the Hardie project,” Gannon said. “He kept it going. I’m grateful for his work on it, and if he was going to leave (the EDC), it was a very good way to go out.”
Tracy replaced the late David Dews, a former De Soto city manager and the EDC’s executive director from January 2018 through March 2019.
When the EDC hired Tracy, his salary was $75,000 a year. Neither Suellentrop nor Gannon could say how much Tracy was being paid before his departure.
In addition to promoting Jefferson County for new development, the EDC administers the Community Development Block Grant program in the county, and it includes the Industrial Development Authority, which issues industrial revenue bonds.
Much of the EDC’s budget comes from the dues the county and member cities pay. Other sources of revenue come from fees to administer grants for the federal Housing and Urban Development program, Small Business Administration loans and interest from its own revolving loan program for small businesses.