ThisWeek UA 09/22/2011
Matt Shad, economic development director for the city of Upper Arlington, announced his resignation to the UA Community Improvement Corp. at its Sept. 15 meeting.
Prior to the meeting, he provided city manager Virginia Barney and city council members his official resignation.
“It was with regret that I accepted (Shad’s) resignation,” Barney said. “He has an expertise in economic development beyond what the city has ever had, and we will miss him on both a professional and personal level.”
Shad is leaving the city to take a position with the Economic and Community Development Institute (ECDI) as the vice president of development and new initiatives. According to Shad, he’s been involved with the organization as a volunteer for several years, and his new position will allow him to help take ECDI to the next level.
“ECDI is a nonprofit that has been focused on micro-enterprise development,” he said. “We do micro-lending (making very small business loans) up to $100,000 for people who can’t find lending elsewhere. We’ve helped about 500 businesses and loaned about $7 million as well as running grant programs and one-to-one matching, as well as financial literacy work.”
According to Shad, representatives of other Ohio cities, including Cleveland and Cincinnati, have requested ECDI to expand into their areas.
“(Shad’s) been a great asset to the city of Upper Arlington. I’m glad he won’t be far away from us,” CIC president Chris Widing said. “My father would always say, never be sad when you lose somebody good, be glad you had him as long as you did, that’s how I feel about (Shad).”
Barney, whose last official day on the job is Oct. 10, said that the CIC will need to integrate the incoming city manager Ted Staton into the group quickly to make for a smooth transition because of Barney’s resignation. Shad’s final day with the city will be Sept. 26. City council member Wade Steen, also a member of the CIC, resigned from council on Monday, Sept. 12, and was replaced on the CIC by council member David DeCapua.
Widing intends to hold an executive committee meeting in coming weeks to decide on replacement nominations for the vacated board chairs.
In other news, CIC members focused discussion on the stalled citywide fiber optic network implementation.
“The vendor (that the city and schools] were looking to proceed with wasn’t a practical solution and the other vendor from the RFP [request for proposal) process has stepped away, so (Barney) and the others in the group decided to put this project on hold right now,” Shad said.
“The big piece of this deal is that the school is the predominant client,” he said. “The schools’ current provider was able to give them an even better renewal deal then what this contract would’ve provided. So if the school isn’t on a timeframe for this, then the main driver is gone.”
CIC member David Hartsook said he was concerned about the opportunity being lost on providing this option to the business community.
“On a recent deal for a client, I found that [having fiber optic networks available] could have been a $250,000 annual savings to the company,” Hartsook said.
According to Shad, the roadblocks facing the city include funding issues for the project and a disputable need in terms of businesses locating here.
“The largest number of office suites in town are between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet, so those businesses may say that they can’t find good service, but it’s all relative,” Shad said. “We don’t have the businesses to do this the way (Dublin and New Albany) did, and we can’t constitutionally use public money directly to benefit commercial interests this way. One other option is to find a residential provider to bring (fiber optics) based on the demand of our residents.”
The next CIC meeting will be held at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, in the lower level meeting room of the Municipal Services Center, 3600 Tremont Road.