Editorials

Welcome aboard, general. You've got a tough job ahead of you, one that will call on all the leadership skills acquired working at the highest levels of military service.

On Tuesday, retired Air Force general Robin Scott was hired as the chief executive officer over the redevelopment of McClellan. He will replace Dan Cleckler, who announced his resignation more than 18 months ago.

Scott's first day on the job is in less than a month. He vows "to hit the ground running" after surveying the landscape for what's needed at McClellan.

The CEO's job, as this page sees it, is to turn the former fort into its fullest self, a place where people live, recreate, relax, exercise, commune with nature, work and research new technologies. In short, we're talking about the creation of the 21st-century Model City.

General, allow us to cut to the chase. The business of McClellan is business. The visionaries dream of Anniston improving quality of life by developing McClellan for the arts, ecotourism and the like. We share those dreams, but believe they won't be realized without an infusion of top-flight knowledge industries coming to town and setting up shop at McClellan's research park.

To accomplish this goal, McClellan needs its own first-rate industrial recruiters and economic developers, the sort, for instance, with the clout and experience to accompany the governor when he travels overseas to court international corporations looking for a U.S. home. Alabama has a successful track record on that front in recent decades, but McClellan's piece of that pie is largely absent. That must change.

Anyone tackling this task deserves a better board than the one Scott will report to. The Joint Powers Authority, or JPA, has a roster of public servants, many of whom lack what the first President Bush called the "vision thing."

Some on the board see the bigger vision and have worked tirelessly to move McClellan in that direction. Anniston Mayor Chip Howell, for instance, has successfully secured federal dollars that will clean up the former fort.

Other JPA members are a hindrance, bogging down the effort with small-bore issues and petty grievances. The duties of local government are a vastly different skill set from the ones needed to guide the economic development of thousands of acres that was once a military installation. Fixing potholes and re-paving roads is not the same as economic development.

The new CEO has his work cut out for him. Scott must look no further than how the JPA conducted its search for Cleckler's replacement, a process filled with unnecessary delays and embarrassing rejections from other highly qualified CEO candidates.

Scott's mission is to rise above it, focusing on the major issues and assembling a highly competent team to create the 21st-century Model City.