Editorials

Chip Howell on Tuesday’s JPA retreat to discuss McClellan’s future: “We’ve got to look at the bigger picture.”

Never before has Anniston’s mayor lined up the ball and driven it deeper or straighter down the middle of the fairway.

A grand and lucrative future awaits McClellan, and by extension all of Anniston, Calhoun County and Northeast Alabama. The potential is there for converting the former fort into a 21st-century economic engine with a research park, housing, retail, manufacturing, recreation space, a summer music series and more green space than an outdoor lover can cover in a week. Some of it already is in place. What’s needed is to shift the engine into a higher gear.

A planning agenda for the Joint Powers Authority retreat was not ready by midweek. Here’s what the productive agenda, a set of points to discuss, might look like:

1. Get the name right. The McClellan redevelopment is in need of a new leader; the current one, Dan Cleckler, is stepping down. The replacement search should focus on finding a “chief executive officer” and not an “executive director.” Executive director is a fine title for the head of a nonprofit charity that helps those in need. It is a noble calling. So is heading the development of McClellan. It also is an enterprise that can generate millions of dollars. Think of a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a powerful man or woman who is an innovator, a value-creator, a visionary, a closer of million-dollar deals, a figurehead who is comfortable in selling the former fort/future research park. A CEO is what McClellan needs, and needs now.

2. Hire a CEO. A Texas-based economic development agency has identified the need for a CEO as a top priority for McClellan. Angelou Economics says it clearly: This effort needs a leader who can sell the future.

3. Hire a CEO. Angelou’s report emphasizes being deliberative. It warns against development as if it’s a sprint. However, months — more than half a year —have dragged by with little visible on the hiring of a CEO. While this space agrees that haste is unwise, it’s time to pick up the pace.

4. Hire a CEO. When McClellan reaches its economic potential, the money circulated through this community will be in the millions, the hundreds of millions, in fact. A high-powered chief executive able to generate that sort of value won’t come cheap. The board must be prepared to pay well to recruit its CEO.

5. Hire a CEO. (Are we getting through yet?) McClellan needs a salesman, someone who is comfortable in the corporate boardroom as well as the community center. Redevelopment will require a relentless champion who can sell his or her grand plans and then make them come true.

6. Hire a CEO. When the deal is done and McClellan has its new leader changes must be made. First off, the CEO needs to assemble an all-star team of advisers — local and state business and economic types who will offer valuable insight. At the same time, the JPA board must take a backseat. The board is dominated by politicians. Nothing wrong with politicians, but McClellan’s redevelopment doesn’t require politics. It requires fresh ideas and bold salesmanship.

7. Hire a CEO. It’s unlikely the new leader will magically land in the laps of JPA retreaters Tuesday. That’s all the more reason for board members to tuck into the job of finding the CEO. This is a chance to turn the page on this grand project. Now is the time.