9/13/07 - IDA-BDC’s head to direct CNY economic development

Linda Hartsock will begin working for Empire State Development Sept. 24 while still living in Homer.

Bob Ellis/staff photographer
Linda Hartsock poses in her office Wednesday after announcing she is leaving the Cortland IDA-BDC.

(As published by Cortland Standard, Corey Preston reporting)

Cortland County’s economic development leader announced Wednesday she will be leaving her position to take on a similar but broader post with a state economic development agency.
Linda Hartsock will begin work as regional director of Empire State Development’s Central New York office Sept. 24.

Her last day as executive director of the county’s Business Development Corp./Industrial Development Agency, a position she has held since 1999, will be Sept. 21.

Hartsock’s annual salary at the BDC-IDC is $77,200 this year. Her salary at Empire State Development will be $110,000.

Hailed by BDC-IDA Chairman Paul Slowey as “Cortland’s best cheerleader” during her tenure at the agency, Hartsock said she plans to continue to live in Homer, and hopes to continue to advocate for the county from her new position, which oversees, along with Cortland County, Cayuga, Oswego, Onondaga and Madison counties.

“I think if there’s one thing I want people to know, it’s that everything I’ve said about Cortland, all the enthusiasm, I truly believe all of it,” Hartsock said. “Our whole family changed our life to come here and we love it here … I hope (in the new position) to give Cortland a bigger and better voice at the state level.”

Slowey said Wednesday that he was in the process of forming a search committee, made up of BDC/IDA members and other community leaders, to find a replacement for Hartsock.

Karen Niday, the current Empire Zone coordinator for the county, will serve as interim director, Slowey said.

“I think our agency is in great shape and Karen is fully equipped to handle things day to day … I
don’t feel at all desperate, or anything like that, to have somebody to fill her shoes immediately,” Slowey said, adding that having someone hired by early December and able to start work by early January would be a reasonable goal. “(Hartsock has) helped us create a great infrastructure here, now we have to continue to build it.”

Both Slowey and Hartsock noted that the search committee might look for a replacement with significant experience as a real estate or industrial developer.

The BDC/IDA is developing the 260-acre Finger Lakes East business park on Route 13 in South Cortland, and is looking at promoting and developing similar parks in Polkville and Preble.
Hartsock noted that a strategic plan developed recently by the BDC/IDA, which stressed the development of business parks and further real estate development for businesses, could serve as a template for what the search committee is looking for in a candidate.

“Talk about great timing,” Hartsock said of the strategic plan, which was developed this summer. “I think based on that we may be looking for someone with a strong real estate or industrial development background.”

Both Hartsock and Slowey said they expected candidates for the position to emerge from across the state.

“Our agency has sort of become a role model throughout the state, so I don’t think we’re going to be at a loss for qualified candidates,” Slowey said.

In her new position, Hartsock said she would be doing similar work to what she’s done at the BDC/IDA, “organizing people, business outreach, connecting businesses programs New York state has to offer,” albeit on a more regional scale.

“What I like about this group and the new agenda they’re shaping for upstate New York is the focus not just on traditional economic development but on community development, on building places,” Hartsock said. “Anyone who’s talked to me knows I really believe that more and more people are making life decisions based on the communities themselves.”

Before taking her current job in Cortland, Hartsock worked as president and chief executive officer at Patten for Progress in Newburgh, a nine-county regional planning, research, policy and development organization.

She also served on the faculty of Marist College in Poughkeepsie, her alma mater, in the School of Communication and Arts from 1986 to 1999.

From 1982 through 1993 she was senior consultant for Wade Associates in Hyde Park. She worked as director of college relations/information services at Marist College from 1977 to 1982.