Four Montgomery County Council members are criticizing County Executive Ike Leggett’s “rudderless” efforts to attract and keep businesses after the county’s economic development chief left and rival Fairfax County won the high-profile Hilton Hotels headquarters.
The council members sent Leggett a letter asking him to immediately appoint a new director for the county’s Department of Economic Development. The county and Pradeep Ganguly parted ways two weeks ago following an investigation into whether Ganguly improperly steered county money to a company where his son works.
Ganguly’s departure left “this important office being rudderless during the current economic storm,” wrote council members Mike Knapp, D-Germantown, George Leventhal, D-at large, Valerie Ervin, D-Silver Spring, and Nancy Floreen, D-at large.
The need for an aggressive economic development leader is critical, they said, especially during a recession and considering the county’s and Maryland’s reputations of being unfriendly to business.
“The status quo right now doesn’t work,” Knapp said. “I don’t think we’re taking strong, decisive actions.”
Knapp said recent business losses underscore his point. The county recently lost out to Fairfax County to be the new home to the Hilton Hotels headquarters and its 300 accompanying jobs.
And Banner Life Insurance Co. said it would move its headquarters and 400 jobs to Frederick County.
The letter took a slight jab at Leggett’s international travels. The county executive visited Asia last year and recently signed a “memorandum of understanding” encouraging business ties with leaders of a Chinese province.
“Memoranda of understanding with China are intriguing; however at this time, we are focused closer to home and believe the county should be directing resources to bioscience, technology, green jobs and business innovation,” the letter said.
Leggett’s spokesman, Patrick Lacefield, said the county executive was committed to the priorities that the council members expressed in their letter, but added that it was shortsighted not to focus on attracting foreign investment.
“Business is business the last time I checked,” Lacefield said, who added that Leggett expected to announce a new economic development director in the next several weeks.
