With the advent of a new county administration, the heads of Baltimore County's economic development agency and the commission overseeing its activities have resigned.
E. Neil Jacobs and H. Grant Hathaway, executive director of the county's Department of Economic Development and chairman of the Baltimore County Economic Development Commission, respectively, submitted their resignations to outgoing County Executive Roger B. Hayden earlier this week, Mr. Jacobs said yesterday.
Mr. Jacobs intends to leave his post today, while Mr. Hathaway has agreed to stay on until Dec. 1 to help ease the transition to County Executive-elect Charles A. Dutch Ruppersberger III's administration.
Mr. Hayden had appointed Mr. Hathaway, the retired former chairman of Maryland National Bank, to head the commission in July 1992, amid reports of complacency and internal instability among the economic development organizations.
Mr. Jacobs came out of retirement to join the department two months later.
In the more than two years since then, the men have been credited with establishing stability and providing a formula to deal with both business retention and new business prospects to the department, which has a $1.3 million annual budget.
"We have a good direction now, and I think we've gained a lot of credibility," said Mr. Jacobs, who spent 17 years at Maryland National and Equitable Bank N.A., working for Mr. Hathaway. "We had said from the beginning that we had accepted the position only on an interim basis."
Mr. Hathaway could not be reached for comment yesterday afternoon.
During their tenure, Baltimore County has won a number of competitions for large, job-creating companies, including Time Warner Inc., which is developing a $37 million distribution center in White Marsh, and AT&T; Automotive Services Inc., which has relocated its headquarters to Towson. Combined, the two companies either brought or created roughly 450 jobs.
Before the two men joined the economic development effort, Baltimore County had lost ground to neighboring counties in attracting new business and was beset by management instability, including rifts among staff, the commission and Mr. Jacobs' predecessor, Kenneth C. Nohe.
A year before Mr. Hayden tapped Mr. Hathaway, an internal memorandum described the department as using "outdated marketing techniques" and having a "lackadaisical approach."
"We wanted the business community to feel that government had more interest than it had in the past, and that it was receptive to solving problems government could solve," Mr. Jacobs said. "I think we've accomplished that."
Mr. Jacobs, 56, said he may either create a marketing consulting firm or join an existing one.
Newt Fowler, executive director of the Ruppersberger transition team, said the resignations are a "loss to the county."
Mr. Fowler also said the new county executive is considering privatizing the department, in much the same way Howard and Anne Arundel counties have done.