Official unhappy with DOC plan (1/22/05)

When a state economic development agency announced plans several years ago to adopt a plan for regionalization, he was among the biggest skeptics.

And although local economic official Bob Quadrozzi eventually became a big backer of the system, he, and many of his counterparts around the state, find themselves in a position that feels like déja vú all over again.

The Indiana Department of Commerce, one of many state agencies experiencing serious change quickly during the early days of the Gov. Mitch Daniels administration, announced this week its plans to reduce the number of DOC regions in the state to five, down from the current 12.

Quadrozzi, the executive director of Jay County Development Corporation, said Friday that he spent a large part of the day reading and responding to e-mails from economic developers around the state who are less than thrilled about the new face of the DOC’s regions.

He was especially unhappy about the fact that Jay County was placed in the Northeast region, which will have its headquarters in South Bend, a three hour-drive away.

“You don’t want to create much havoc right off the bat,” Quadrozzi said Friday afternoon. “They may have a purely logical reason for this, but they’re sure not sharing it with us right now ... we’re all buzzing about it. Nobody’s said anything to us (about details of the proposal). The governor has said they want to work closely ... with local economic development. If that’s the case, I’d like to see a little better communication.”

Quadrozzi said that economic development officials from Fort Wayne, which is Indiana’s second largest city and which is much closer geographically to the center of the Northeast region, are in an uproar and promise strong lobbying to have a permanent DOC presence.

A department of commerce spokesperson said Friday that the effectiveness of the new structure will be evaluated, and hinted that some counties — including possibly Jay — could be moved to a different region.

“We are in the midst of a transition,” DOC spokesperson Weston Sedgwick said. “We are extremely mindful of the needs of all of our regions and our partners throughout the state. We’re still analyzing all the information ... we can assure you that our existing customers (in economic development) will not experiencing any disruption in service.”

The regional plan announced on Thursday “was an initial structure,” Sedgwick added.

Headquarters for the five regions will be located in Indianapolis (Central), Merrillville (Northwest), Madison (Southeast), Evansville (Southwest) and South Bend (Northeast).

Quadrozzi pointed out that an official driving from the South Bend office would face a six-hour round trip, limiting the opportunity to do personal meetings with local companies or those considering locating in Jay or surrounding counties.

Quadrozzi said the most disappointing facet of the new regional plan may be the fact that Greg Beumer, a Jay County native who has been in charge of the DOC’s Region 8 for a little more than two years, won’t be a part of the new picture.

“Greg was very good at what he did ... and he was a professional,” says Quadrozzi. “All of a sudden he’s out of a job.”

Beumer, who told The Commercial Review in November that he knew he might not have a place as a DOC region director under the new administration, was busy packing up things in his Muncie office Friday.

Beumer, who was informed by e-mail on Tuesday that he and two staff members in Muncie would be ending their employment with the state on Friday, said that “it really has been a privilege to serve the citizens, the companies and the communities of East Central Indiana.”

The new regional plan “reflects the current administration’s theme of streamlining government, trying to cut costs and trying to bring the budget into balance,” Beumer added.

Beumer, who lives near Modoc in southwestern Randolph County, said that he has several options for employment, but “for the next week, I think I’m going to spend my time with a chainsaw cutting up all those limbs that the ice storm brought down.”

Quadrozzi said he talked this week with District 33 State Rep. Bill Davis (R-Portland), who informed him that Jay County would be in the Northeast Region. Davis, said Quadrozzi, plans to lobby to have Jay County placed in the Central Region instead because the two other counties Davis represents (Randolph and Delaware) are also in the Central Region.

The choice of several of the locations for regional headquarters was also puzzling for Quadrozzi.

“Statewide, I think there are a lot of people that are kind of baffled. I don’t think anybody could have picked these five locations ... if a survey were thrown out there. My first choices would have been Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, Evansville, maybe Gary and I would have gone maybe with New Albany (in the Southeast),” Quadrozzi said.[[In-content Ad]]