Speakout

Friday, July 8, 2016

Tell us all about it

I just read your story about the hiring of a Chamber of Commerce director/economic development director, Mr. Sellers from Arkansas. Congratulations to him. We, as taxpayers, have a question. Your story did not spell out what his salary would be or what his benefits would be which we taxpayers pay for. And we would like to know what his benefits package is. After all, we pay his salary. And secondly, what is the purpose of his position? What is he hired to do? Just curious, was this position created because someone was fired or someone resigned or retired? How was this position created? Was there not any others in these positions?

Mr. Sellers will be replacing two positions that are currently separate: the Chamber of Commerce CEO, currently vacant, and the City's Economic Development Director, who is retiring this year. He will be an employee of the Chamber of Commerce, and thus will not be paid from tax dollars. As Chamber of Commerce CEO he will support the local business community by providing professional development, leadership training, workforce development, and member services. The Chamber of Commerce will have a contract to provide the City with economic development services such as business recruiting and retention, encouragement of entrepreneurship, economic policy analysis, and industrial park development. The City's economic development function is also not paid from tax dollars, but from funds provided by the Board of Municipal Utilities. State law allows municipal utilities to fund economic development activities because the expansion of employment and commerce also creates demand for utility services. BMU's support of Sikeston's economic development has helped bring thousands of jobs to Sikeston, but it has also helped bring large industrial electric users which have strengthened BMU's financial position and allowed BMU to provide some of the lowest residential electric rates in the entire state of Missouri.