Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe's vision of the Commonwealth's economic future is very clear: Virginia needs to be seen as a place where businesses thrive and grow, no matter where they were founded. That's why he's taking a direct hand in crafting legislation for next year's General Assembly session that would reorganize and improve the Virginia Economic Development Partnership after a report unveiling serious problems at the VEDP came out last month.
Basically, the VEDP is supposed to make Virginia attractive to businesses as a place to move to and stay while growing. The report says they did not do a good job at that, in part because of internal divisions and management issues. McAuliffe's plan to address those issues would attack both aspects. The volunteer board that currently hires its own CEO would instead have the Secretary of Commerce and Trade as the permanent chair, and making the CEO requirements more stringent. Currently, the CEO is former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Economic Development Stephen Moret, who was hired a month ago.
Under the governor's proposed changes, the board itself would have shorter terms, four years instead of six, and instead of forcing the governor to represent every congressional district, the board would be those the governor picks regardless of district. To keep an eye on things, the proposal calls for an internal audit division.
"By strengthening accountability and professional oversight of the organization, and establishing a more strategic framework for its work, we can give the dedicated VEDP staff and its board the tools they need to accomplish their goal of creating more jobs and opportunity for Virginia families," McAuliffe said in a statement. "These proposals will add executive oversight to the VEDP board and require the VEDP executive staff to develop long-term operational plans to align the organization’s work with the needs of the Virginia economy."
McAuliffe has been hands-on when it comes to attracting and growing companies in Virginia ever since he became governor. He personally worked to make sure Opower would stay in Arlington, backed by $1 million, tossed $250,000 at Basket to lure it from D.C. to the Commonwealth and encouraged California-based Shift to invest in a $20 million into an engineering hub in Crystal City. His work in boosting Virginia's cybersecurity economy has been particularly notable of late. He created the first state cybersecurity information sharing system and making it a priority in his role as head of the National Governors Association.
