"Following A Legend": New DDA Director

The Traverse City Downtown Development Authority (DDA) has a new executive director and will seek to contract with Grand Traverse County for economic development initiatives following a four-month-long review process by a DDA staffing committee.

The committee – composed of City Manager Jered Ottenwess and DDA board members Chuck Judson, Steve Constantin, Leah Bagdon-McCallum and Bill Golden – was tasked in August with evaluating the operational impact of the June passing of Bryan Crough, the DDA's previous long-time executive director who died suddenly of a heart attack. The committee had a year-end deadline to provide a report with recommended guidelines for moving forward in Crough's absence.

At Friday's DDA board meeting, the committee endorsed two key action items: appointing Acting Executive Director Rob Bacigalupi to the permanent position of executive director effective January 1, and pursuing an intergovernmental contractual agreement between the DDA, City and Grand Traverse County for services related to economic development and infrastructure funding. Both measures were unanimously passed by the DDA board.

The committee reported the DDA had four primary options following Crough's passing: Replace Crough as executive director and retain current staffing; elect not to replace Crough and retain current staffing – leaving open the possibility of adding new staff in the future; create an economic development position to address areas of economic development and community interaction previously handled by Crough; and assist with the creation of a new regional economic development organization staffed by contracts with various local governments and community organizations.

“We recognize that conventional wisdom suggested posting the position of executive director of the Traverse City DDA for interviews,” the committee wrote in its report, but went on to note that Bacigalupi and Crough both served key, “complementary” roles at the DDA and that maintaining Bacigalupi's oversight was as important as replacing Crough's “vision and management.”

The committee therefore favored “carving out those elements of (Crough's) duties which focused on economic development and political interaction...and contracting (for those) services.” While creating a regional economic development organization was considered the best “long-term option” for the DDA, the organization's current resources would make such an endeavor “difficult at this time.”

Utilizing Grand Traverse County's resources by contract instead for economic initiatives – such as implementation of the city's corridors plan – was deemed a more realistic approach, as was preserving Bacigalupi's operational leadership.

The committee's lengthy review process – which was praised Friday as “thoughtful” and “thorough” by fellow DDA board members – made one point clear: Replacing a community leader as longstanding and influential as Crough can be a difficult, if not impossible, undertaking. In his tenure, Crough had developed his position to “uniquely meet his capabilities,” the committee reported, with his effectiveness “based upon his knowledge of the political landscape...(and) his commitment to serve the downtown district.”

“Bryan was a catalyst for discussions about improving our community beyond the DDA, and replacing his presence in the community was likely broader than the resources of the DDA,” the committee summarized. “It is difficult to follow a legend.”

The DDA's solution, then, was ultimately to "not try"; rather, to serve his legacy by empowering Bacigalupi and the DDA staff to continue serving the downtown district while contracting out the rest of Crough's duties for the advantage of the multiple “other community organizations and municipal entities (who) benefited from his vision.”