Young’s Plans for SEDC

Councilman Tony Young just sent out a two-page memo to Mayor Jerry Sanders and the City Council that briefly lays out his plans for the Southeastern Economic Development Corp.’s future and that asks the council to rally round his efforts to reform the troubled agency.

In his memo, Young reiterates what he told me yesterday: That the appointment of four new members to the SEDC board is the beginning of a new era at SEDC.

The memo states:

This new era starts with all of us working together with SEDC’s Board and the community to ensure a new Executive Director is selected to continue the work of redeveloping the communities of District 4 and 8.

Young’s memo states that he will ask the board to include him as a member of the search committee that will look for a replacement to SEDC’s outgoing president, Carolyn Y. Smith, who was fired by the board in July.

The memo also states that Young will be asking SEDC’s board to convene a special meeting to introduce itself to the community, and that the councilman will encourage the board to implement a succession plan to be put into place as soon as Smith leaves office.

And Young states in the memo that he will be asking Councilman Kevin Faulconer, who heads the city’s Audit Committee, to convene a special meeting of the committee to discuss a long-awaited performance audit of SEDC that is due to be released early this month.

— WILL CARLESS