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Economic panel’s
pick says business
unsupportive

The Florida candidate turns
down the $300,000-
a-year job

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

The Florida economic development expert who had been courted to head the nonprofit Oahu Economic Development Board said today he has declined the roughly $300,000-a-year job because he doesn't think the business community is ready to make the financial commitment to turn Honolulu's economy around.

"I think they have a viable, realistic plan," Mike Fitzgerald said in a telephone interview. "There's no question about the commitment of the board members."

But Fitzgerald said the private-public OEDB, supported by the business community and the City & County of Honolulu, was suggesting a total financial commitment of $500,000 a year, and that is not enough. He said the $500,000 budget would include his annual salary, which was likely to be between $250,000 and $300,000 a year.

Fitzgerald said Oahu's economic development challenge is unique, given the need to protect Hawaii's environment and create high-paying jobs.

He said $2 million annual budget should be the minimum, but he would have started with $1 million even though that would have meant spending half his time raising money.

Given the budget restrictions, Fitzgerald said, he could not achieve board's gaol of real economic growth in a few years.

Fitzgerald is staying in his present job, president and chief executive officer of the business development division of Enterprise Florida Inc., based in Orlando and contracted by the state of Florida to create economic development.

"I wasn't discouraged by the possibilities, by what could possibly be done," Fitzgerald said.

He felt that there wasn't the level of commitment in the whole business community that would be needed to get sustained economic growth, he said.

The OEDB was formed in 1984 as a public-private partnership dedicated to boosting economic activity on Oahu.

The volunteer OEDB board, chaired by Robert F. Mougeot, financial vice president of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc., had high hopes for Fitzgerald, who was here earlier this year meeting business and government leaders.

Mougeot said the board met this morning and decided to set up a committee to redo its plan and take that new plan back to the organizations that fund OEDB.

The goal will be "building the organization to a level where we could attract a person of Mike's caliber," Mougeot said.

"We've done, I think, a pretty good job of raising some money in a short time," he said.

Mougeot worked to drum up support for a new direction at the OEDB and persuaded business leaders it would be necessary to hire someone of Fitzgerald's capabilities to lead the effort.