Wilco development authority looks to pick up the pace

Wilkinson County hasn’t had a full-time development authority director since February 2020, which predates the pandemic.

Now, however, the Development Authority of Wilkinson County (DAWC) is preparing to post a job listing for the position.

Development authorities are quasi-government entities that are primarily tasked with recruiting new industry to communities.

Bryan Sappe, chairman of the DAWC board, addressed the county commission at a meeting earlier this month. Sappe essentially asked commissioners “to go back to the way it was,” when the county commission budgeted $46,000 per year for the executive director position, which was the case prior to the pandemic.

Pat Topping has been the interim development authority executive director in recent years. Topping works as a “contract employee” and on a part-time basis. Prior to that, Jonathan Jackson was the executive director between 2012 and early 2020. Jackson left to become the executive director of the Milledgeville/Baldwin County Development Authority. According to Sappe, Jackson more than doubled his salary when he departed for Baldwin County.

The new full-time executive director will make a salary of $46,000, with the possibility of performance bonuses and incentives. Sappe told commissioners that finding a quality executive director at that salary will be extremely difficult. For example, the part-time executive director in Twiggs County makes more than that, while Laurens and Baldwin counties both pay north of $100,000, according to Sappe.

“That’s the position we’ve been in in the past. (DAWC) will get them here. We send them to school to get trained, and then after three or four years they drive 20 minutes to double or triple their salary,” he said.

Roughly $31,000 per year currently is budgeted in the county’s budget for the development authority, and Sappe asked that commissioners consider increasing that amount.

“By the time we pay our attorney fees and our power bill and light bill and our insurance costs, we are in the hole every month,” Sappe said.

To compound matters, the $50,000 per year given to the development authority by Carbo Ceramics in the form of PILOT (payments in lieu of taxes) payments is set to expire.

The county commission currently is in the process of putting together its next fiscal year budget.