Doney resigns as Growth Council CEO

NORWAY — Brett Doney, CEO of the Growth Council of Oxford Hills has tendered his resignation, effective September 8.

After leading the economic development group for 12 years, Doney is leaving to take over as president and CEO of the Great Falls Development Authority, serving central and western Montana.

On Tuesday, Jim Delamater, president and CEO of Northeast Bank and recently elected chairman of the Growth Council board of directors, said an executive committee will meet early next week to plan how to proceed. 

Delamater said the committee will draft a new job description for Doney’s replacement, set a salary, and “figure out how to market that position.”  However, he noted, it is too soon to predict how wide a net the Growth Council will cast in that search.

“We have a good staff in place.  The board is energized.  I am confident that we can work together to do what has to be done to complete the transition as we look for the right person,” he said.

Meanwhile, the full board will gather with Doney the same day to discuss “a lot of recent activity” on a number of Growth Council projects.

The meetings are scheduled for 7:30 a.m. (full board) and 9 a.m. (executive committee) on Tuesday, August 15, at the main branch of Norway Savings Bank, in Norway, but are reportedly not open to the public. 

“We are working to resolve a host of projects and I’m very excited about the future,” said Delamater. 

“We are thrilled that Brett is giving us so much time [as notice] and that he will work with us to make sure we have a smooth transition and don’t lose any momentum,” said Delamater.  “He’s served the Oxford Hills well and has done a lot of fantastic things for this community.”

In his “surprise” letter to the Growth Council board, written less than 24 hours before Delamater’s comments, Doney claimed to have had no interest in finding a new job.

“This has all happened so fast that I am still a bit shell shocked,” he wrote.  “I wasn't looking for a new position, but this fell into my lap over the last few weeks and it seems the right time to make a change.”

Contacted by telephone on Tuesday, Doney explained he had once told a “headhunter” — a person who recruits applicants for executive positions — about “the only job that would ever tempt me to leave Maine.”

In July, that headhunter came calling with “the perfect opportunity.”

“We’ve always loved the northwest, and we’ll be just five hours from Yellowstone National Park” said Doney, adding that the new job, which includes heading up a financial branch, “has amazing growth 

potential and strong support from the community.”

“My daughter starts high school in the fall,” said Doney.  “We’d like her to be in the same school all four years, so it seemed like the right time to do it.”

Doney says he is proud of his work here, pointing with special pride to his longevity. “The average in my profession is five or six years,” he said. 

“It is heard to leave,” he said.  “My entire family, we love the Oxford Hills.  We love Maine.  The Growth Council is such a great organization, but I just think its time for a change.”

Doney was lured to the Oxford Hills in 1994, following his work to find new uses for Fort Devens, following its closure.  At the time, 15 percent of local manufacturing jobs in Western Maine had disappeared and unemployment rates hovered at 13.6 percent. 

Today, local unemployment hovers just above 5.5 percent — about 1 percentage point higher than the state average.

“If I look back on the last 12 years, we spent the first six years dealing with the unemployment issue,” said Doney.  “Then we started work on longer term structural issues, like the highway system and access to higher education. 

“The biggest issue here now is higher wages,” said Doney.

Among the highlights of his tenure, Doney lists the following projects that he either spearheaded, or played a significant role in:

• Growth in the modular home building industry of nearly 300 percent, made possible, in part, with substantial loans from the Growth Council.

• The establishment of the Western Maine University, Community College, and Career Center in the vacant Oxford County Fairgrounds exposition building on Route 26, in Paris.

• The establishment of a New Balance shoe factory in Norway, with 225 jobs.

• The “Fix 26” campaign, partly responsible for bringing more than $60 million in highway improvements to the region.

• More than $14 million in loans to local small and medium sized business, including money that reportedly helped keep the doors open at Paricon, Maine Machine Products and Bancroft Contracting.

• Restoration of the Hamilton Block in Norway, now better known as the Fare Share Commons building.

• The rebirth of an historic manufacturing mill as the Bridgeton Commerce Center.

• Redevelopment of the former C. B. Cummings & Sons dowel mill in Norway, leading to its sale to the Libra Foundation, while plans to build townhouses and commercial units on the now vacant lot.

However, some of those projects drew catcalls among community leaders.  Although Doney continued to insist that it was rent money from the Bridgton Commerce Center that financed local projects, many cried foul at the Growth Council investing outside the Oxford Hills. 

Others wondered why Doney spent so much time and energy on the Gray bypass on Interstate 95, failing to see how a seven-minute cut in travel time to Portland benefitted the Oxford Hills.

Then, the bottom really fell out of the Growth Council’s bucket in January, when the loss of an Acorn Products distribution facility at the Bridgton Commerce Center, announced almost a year earlier, cost the Growth Council $150,000 in lost revenue.  That led Doney to lay off two key vice presidents of the Growth Council, Barb (Olson) Deschenes and Bob Shinners.  Then, the Growth Council had to cut some financial ties to the Lake Region Development Council, while a new development director, Len Bartel, was hired and then let go after only a few months.

At about the same time, Doney started to shop the new strategy plan his board of directors began work on nine months earlier.  That plan received considerable “push back” from many area selectmen.

Some complained that the Oxford Hills Business Park in Oxford, near the speedway, had sat idle with unsold lots for too long.  Others found fault with Doney for spending almost $75,000 to revise plans for the Western Maine Technology Park — to be built on 161 acres overlooking Lake Pennesseewassee, in Norway — without consulting them, since six of eight Oxford Hills towns are investors in the project.

In Norway, town fathers questioned the pace of work on Main Street, cited a lack of communication from Doney, and then railed at reports that the Growth Council intended to divest itself of many real estate holdings, including the Oddfellow Building.

However, while many applauded the Growth Council’s plan to ditch its “EnterpriseMaine” moniker and marry its sister-companies back into one, the biggest raspberry was reserved for how the group planned to proceed.

As budgeting season came around last spring, a number of towns used the Growth Council’s new strategic plan, which called for ending its small businesses programs in favor of concentrating on two or three “transformational projects, as an excuse to slash funding.

Although, business leaders rallied around the Growth Council, and voters at area town meetings in June restored funding, support for Doney, personally, was sometimes tepid.  With many citing poor communication, Doney, clearly stung by the remarks, began circulating weekly bulletins and planned to produce a column in the Advertiser, only one of which was submitted.

Still, Doney denies that events of the last several months had any impact on his decision to move on.

“It’s been a hard transition,” he said, “but I think the strategic plan the Growth Council board adopted is the right choice for the Oxford Hills.  While the changes have been painful, I think they have been the right steps to take.”

Doney says there is now movement on many fronts.  He hopes to announce plans for the former J. J. Newberry building in Norway, home to Maine Made & More, “in the next week or so.”  There are “very strong” leads on business park tenants, he says, and there is “some interest” in the Oddfellow building that he may be able to announce before his departure. 

With those developments, Doney claims the Growth Council is on solid footing and “it’s a nice time to change leadership.”

“I feel really good about where things are sitting.  I think the next person who steps in to lead the Growth Council is going to have a great foundation to work with.”

And, as he prepares to leave for Montana, Doney spoke about what the last few months have meant to him.

“For years, we were pursuing a plan for regional growth,” he said.  “We felt we would be able to do more for the Oxford Hills by serving a larger region.  While that was a valid strategy, the support just wasn’t there from within the Oxford Hills. 

“I think the lesson was, whether it makes sense or not, if you don’t have the core support, don’t do it,” said Doney.

“For me personally,” said Delamater, “the lesson I learned is that both myself and others could have communicated better.  I look back and wish I had taken the time to make a few extra calls. 

“Any change is disruptive,” said Delamater, “but I’m still so proud of the effort to create a leaner, meaner organization that’s really focused on the Oxford Hills and things that can have a big impact. 

“The feedback I’m getting is very positive,” said Delamater.  “I can’t stress enough that, in my mind, this organization has a very bright future.”