By Megan Greenwell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 26, 2008

As the search for Charles County's new economic development director stretches into its 11th month, county officials say they plan to hire John Reardon's permanent replacement in six weeks.

The search process has been unusually long because of dissatisfaction with the original candidates, county commissioners President Wayne Cooper (D-At Large) said Tuesday after the commissioners interviewed two finalists for the job. An initial round of interviews in February yielded no obvious choice, commissioners said, so they decided to advertise the position again.

"The standard for this job is so high that we want to make sure we're completely confident in whoever we choose," Commissioner Gary V. Hodge (D-St. Charles) said.

The extended vacancy comes at a critical time for the county's efforts to lure new businesses and persuade others to remain and expand. After several department heads left county government last summer -- including Reardon, who fielded several lucrative offers from the private sector before deciding to accept a senior executive position at Facchina Group of La Plata in August -- County Administrator Paul W. Comfort said filling the economic development job was his top priority.

Getting the right person for the job will be worth the wait, Comfort said this week. All told, he has read 147 applications and interviewed 14 people. After the first search, he retooled his advertising strategy to focus on a more professional, experienced pool of applicants. He selected three people for commissioners to interview Tuesday; one dropped out last week.

The salary for the new director is $116,000 to $144,000, Comfort said.

"This has absolutely been a better search," he said. "We figured out that we needed to interview in different ways, and we got better results."

Officials emphasized that economic development work has moved forward significantly during the search process under the department's acting director, Marcia Keeth. Comfort and commissioners have repeatedly praised Keeth's work on projects Reardon began, as well as her own initiatives.

Keeth, formerly the county's chief of community development services, served as the acting director of economic development in 2005, before Reardon was hired. In both cases, she told the search committee she did not want to be considered for the job permanently.

"I've had a terrific experience as the acting director, but I will be very happy to go back to my supporting role," Keeth said.

During her tenure, Keeth has placed particular emphasis on streamlining the economic development and tourism offices, helping to hire a tourism director and an events specialist while increasing efforts to market the county's tourism offerings. Within a few weeks, the economic development office also plans to unveil a revamped Web site, a major priority of Keeth's.

The site will allow companies looking for land or office space to select the size and type of the site they are seeking, then receive a list of possible locations in the county. It will also significantly increase the amount of information about Charles tailored to particular types of businesses, Keeth said.

"A lot of the people considering our county we never know about, because they go to the Web site first," she said. "If they don't find what they need there, they move on to the next possible county."

Commissioners said that they are excited about all economic development projects and that the new director will focus primarily on recruiting companies that will bolster the county's prominence and add to its tax base. That was the office's particular strength under Reardon, who made aggressive efforts to attract a natural gas-fueled power plant, an energetics technology park and more high-end shopping and dining options.

Cooper said that both finalists have experience drawing large corporations to their current geographic areas and that the new director will be expected to do the same in Charles.

"Let's say there's word of a company in Germany that wants to expand," Comfort said. "We need someone who can go over, sell them on Charles, work out the details and get it done."