3 candidates remain for economic development job

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By Dustin Ensinger

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Delaware County has selected its finalists for its vacant economic development director position.

The finalists, who will be interviewed next week, are D. Craig Thompson, Raymond A. Hagerman and Robert R. Lamb.

Thompson, who currently serves as the director of the Miami County Department of Development, reportedly withdrew his name from the job search here after The Gazette requested an updated list of candidates late last month.

“Craig Thompson is withdrawing his application from the search for the economic development director (position) due to the records request for resumes,” Dawn Huston, the county’s assistant administrator, wrote in a July 1 email. “Please don’t include him in any article you print because it will jeopardize his current employment.”

But according to county spokeswoman Teri Morgan, he later re-established his candidacy for the position.

Two other candidates removed their names from the running due to public information requests by The Gazette.

Before taking his current position in Miami County, Thompson served as president and CEO at the Marion Community Area New Development Organization; executive director at the Union County Economic Development Corp. in La Grande, Oregon; director of the Snowmass Village Community Development Department in Snowmass, Colorado; and director of the Brown County Department of Economic Development in Georgetown, Ohio.

Thompson has a master’s degree in public administration from Ohio State University.

Lamb currently serves community and economic development manager in Upper Arlington. Before that, he was the economic development administrator for the city of Glendale, Arizona, and a special projects planner in the city for a short time.

He has a law degree from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law and master’s degree for urban planning and development from Cleveland State University.

Hagerman is the CEO at Four Corners Economic Development in Farmington, New Mexico. He previously served as vice president of investments and entrepreneurial signature program director at the Dayton Development Coalition; president of Nextedge Development Corporation in Springfield, Ohio; and director of finance at the Turner Foundation in Springfield, Ohio.

He has a bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Tennessee.

Commissioners Barb Lewis and Gary Merrell did not respond for a request for comment through Morgan.

The county has interviews scheduled with the finalists next week.

The county fired its previous economic development director, Gus Comstock, last September.

Comstock was notified of his termination Sept. 2 through a letter sent to him by county Administrator Tim Hansley. He had been on “an indefinite doctor-approved medical leave” since at least June 20, 2014. County officials have declined to say why Comstock was fired.

Comstock has since taken taken a position with Marion CAN DO!, a non-profit economic development agency in that Ohio city.

Dustin Ensinger can be reached at 740-413-0902 or on Twitter @EnsingerDG.

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