Horry County jobs agency receives one-year contract extension

Horry County’s industry recruitment agency received a one-year contract extension this week, despite concerns from some local leaders about the group’s performance.

County Council voted 7-4 in favor of the change, which guarantees the Myrtle Beach Regional Economic Development Corp. will receive $1.1 million for the next three years instead of $1.3 million annually for two years.

EDC supporters insist the extension will help the jobs agency find a new CEO. The former president, Jim Moore, resigned in June after less than six months on the job.

To attract the best replacement, officials said, a three-year contract must be on the table.

“It gives us the opportunity to get that dynamic person to come in here and lead the charge,” said County Council Chairman Mark Lazarus, who sits on the EDC’s executive committee. “They’ll look for at least three years to be able to prove themselves. Hopefully they’ll do it a lot quicker.”

But some leaders said the two-year contract they approved for the agency in July should be sufficient.

“I don’t believe we’re going to be able to get Donald Trump,” County Councilman Paul Prince said. “We’ve already got [the funding] set for ‘16 and ’17. We’ve already approved that. And I think that’s far reaching out enough.”

Along with Prince, councilmen Harold Worley, James Frazier and Jody Prince also declined to support the extension.

Jody Prince was the most vocal opponent, contending the money spent on the agency hadn’t yielded the return he was looking for.

“I have lost faith in this concept,” he said. “I’ve got to do what I think is right here. ... I can’t continue to sell this to my constituents. It’s been very difficult for me over the past few meetings.”

The EDC focuses on recruiting outside companies to move to Horry and persuading existing businesses to expand. The group reorganized in 2010 and received an infusion of public money, the bulk of it from the county.

Most of those dollars pay for the cost of operations, but each year hundreds of thousands are budgeted for financial incentives that are used to entice companies to build their businesses in the area.

The EDC has seen successes and failures in recent years.

Moore’s predecessor, Brad Lofton, announced more than 1,500 jobs during his three years running the agency, but about half of those positions have not been filled and some never will be, according to the county’s July jobs report.

The first industry expansion Lofton announced was for AvCraft Technical Services, which filed for bankruptcy in March. Another, Ithaca Gun Co., never signed a contract with the EDC and withdrew from the area. Those firms accounted for 270 of the jobs on Lofton’s press releases.

Of the companies recruited by the EDC that are still in business, county contracts require them to create 1,255 jobs. So far, 773 of those positions have been filled, according to public records.

Among the EDC’s successes have been Star Tek, a call center company that has hired more than 340 workers, and BauschLinnemann, which has hired 57, according to county records.

Lazarus touted those victories during his defense of the agency Tuesday. He also said suppliers for Boeing and Volvo have started eying Horry.

“These things just don’t happen overnight,” he said. “We can’t wave a magic wand.”

Despite some objections, most council members supported the contract extension.

“I just don’t think that we can quit our EDC efforts by saying, ‘OK, we’re only going to limit it to two years,’” County Councilman Johnny Vaught said. “By limiting the contract with them to two years, we limit the caliber of person that we can attract to come into Horry County and run our EDC.”

Under the county’s new contract with the EDC, the only extra public money being spent will be the $700,000 to cover another year of EDC operations.

Lazarus, however, noted that the county is receiving enough income from fees and rent payments from other economic development deals to cover the additional $700,000.

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 2:30 AM with the headline "Horry County jobs agency receives one-year contract extension."