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Greenville County selects five to GADC; candidates emphasized job growth and incentives
Summary
Greenville Area Development Corporation named five new members; applicants discussed incentives, workforce and the need to attract higher-wage employers.
Greenville County Council selected five people to serve on the Greenville Area Development Corporation (GADC) after a long series of candidate interviews, and several applicants used their time to address economic development strategy and incentive policy.
The council interviewed a broad slate of candidates with economic-development, business, legal and entrepreneurial backgrounds. Applicants who spoke included Spencer Brownell, James (J.R.) Charles, Jay (Joshua) Handler, Trent Larkins, John T. Long III, Timothy Morgan, Ben Murray (an economic development attorney), Charles Piesor (Pritzker in application materials), Daniel Rumpelt and others. Candidates described experience in business attraction, workforce and talent recruitment, industrial recruitment and site-selection work.
A recurring theme during the GADC interviews was incentives and public acceptance. Daniel Rumpelt and others discussed fee-in-lieu-of-tax agreements (FILOs), clawbacks and the perception of incentives, saying the board should explain the purpose of incentive structures and guard taxpayer interests. Ben Murray, who practices corporate and economic-development law, told council he regularly negotiates fee-in-lieu and jobs-development arrangements and said that background would be useful to the board. Other candidates emphasized entrepreneurship, workforce training and industry diversification.
After ballots were tallied, Council announced the five people selected for the GADC seats: Spencer Brownell; Jay Handler; John T. Long III; Timothy Morgan; and John Pizer (listed in the transcript as the selected fifth member). Councilors acknowledged the competitiveness of the field and encouraged unsuccessful applicants to reapply in the future.
Councilors did not approve new incentive structures or economic-development agreements at the meeting. Staff will update GADC membership records and provide onboarding instructions to the new board members.
