Rosenfeld to retire

The longtime director of the Scarborough Economic Development Corp. will call it a career in March

SCARBOROUGH — Harvey Rosenfeld, executive director of the Scarborough Economic Development Corp. for 24 of its 26 years, has announced plans to retire effective March 1.

Rosenfeld delivered the news last week to the corporation’s board of directors and Town Manager Tom Hall. On Monday, he said he planned to “make an official announcement later in the week.”

“Part of it is that I will be turning 67 in March,” he said the following day, still somewhat reluctant to discuss his departure until the issuance of a press release. “This has certainly been a rewarding career, but I have been here for 24 years. It’s a realistic time to take some time off.”

Rosenfeld said that after stepping down, he may keep his hand in the mix as an economic development consultant for area communities “on a very part-time basis.” But otherwise, he said, he has no concrete plans for retired life.

According to Stuart Axelrod, chairman of the group's board of directors, work already has begun to find Rosenfeld's replacement. With Rosenfeld’s help, the board has begun to craft a job description, something that was not yet fashionable when Rosenfeld first took the job and Scarborough had just 8,000 residents.

“We want to do a job design that hopefully captures the tradition of SEDCO as it has existed and been very successful in the town, but also recognizes that our world is changing,” said Axelrod. “We want to be able to mold SEDCO going forward and take on a more modern, forward-looking bent.

"When Harvey started, Scarborough was small,” said Axelrod. “Now it's big and almost the preferred town to live in from a business perspective. It’s a different marking approach that we had 25 years ago. So, we just have to be careful to find the right person.”

Hall said he’d been invited to sit on the search committee, along with a town councilor and a member of the Scarborough Community Chamber of Commerce. The committee will likely report a “short-list” of potential candidates to the full SEDCO board, he said, adding that the town’s human resources department has been offered to help administer the recruitment process.

“Harvey has a very strong legacy,” said Hall. “For all intents and purposes, he and SEDCO are synonymous, so he leaves some very big shoes to fill.”

“Any time you have a changing of the guard for anyone of that tenure, it presents real problems, but it also presents real opportunities,” said Axelrod. “We’ll never replace Harvey as ‘Harvey.’ But can we replace the position with someone who will make it their own and move it forward? We think so.”

Hall and Axelrod agree that there could be an “interim of a couple of months” between Rosenfeld’s departure and his replacement’s first day on the job. Both expressed confidence in Rosenfeld’s assistant, Karen Martin, whom Hall said is “eminently capable of handling things in the meantime.”

In fact, Martin has been the one holding down the fort most days for the past year, they said, ever since Rosenfeld dropped to part-time status to test semi-retirement.

“We’re going to move along as rapidly as we can,” said Axelrod. “The No. 1 overarching goal is to hire right the first time. We want to be sure we get everyone’s input on what the right candidate should look like.

“I’ll only say that while Scarborough has gotten much bigger, the world is smaller and there’s lots of rapid communication where everything’s visible,” said Axelrod, when asked what he seeks in a candidate. “We want to have somebody who can portray Scarborough and SEDCO very appropriately while building consensus among the various interested parties in town.”

“I think this is going to be a very attractive job opportunity for someone,” said Rosenfeld. “I came here a long time ago to a lot smaller community. I think things have gone well here, but after nearly 25 years it’s time, I think, for some new blood and for someone to take economic development in new directions.  

“After all,” Rosenfeld joked, “I’m old and kind of set in my ways.”

Among the immediate new ways that may tried, the organization is already “about halfway” to the goal of $12,000 in revenue it hoped to generate on its own this year, Axelrod said.

Last year, the group’s budget was cut nearly 25 percent to just more than $175,000. The move followed outcry from former Councilor Karen D’Andrea regarding the independent corporation’s return on investment since the start of the recession. The budget cut was about equal to the money the group used to get each year, until the fund ran dry, out of proceeds from the sale of lots in the industrial park.

“We’re doing well,” said Axelrod. “There’s a high degree of confidence that we will make our self-funding targets.”

“I certainly appreciate the effort,” said Hall. “This year is the first time they’ve tried to do something other than utter reliance on tax dollars, but I also appreciate that it takes time.”

Also on the horizon is a potential partnership with the Scarborough Community Chamber, which operates under the auspices of the Greater Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce. SEDCO moved into the town office last year as a budget savings device, and could move out again in the coming year if an agreement with the community chamber comes off.

There have recently been what Hall terms “very fruitful discussions” on that front.

“Where we go with a shared space or moving back out of the town office is a discussion point,” said Axelrod. “It’s definitely a possibility if it can be done in way that supports the overall goals of SEDCO, the chamber and the town.”

“It makes sense to me,” said Hall. “They both have important and independent functions, but on business retention there is a real overlap, in my opinion, and the chamber has been dying to hang a local shingle.”

Rosenfeld, 66, came to Maine in his 20s with a background in home restoration and dreams of a career in boatbuilding. But before long he applied “on a whim” to a home weatherization job in the administration of Gov. Jim Longley in the Division of Community Services. That department, like two others Rosenfeld worked for during his seven years in state government, no longer exists.

But the experience led to social services work and two years as Saco’s city administrator – a post Rosenfeld admits was too political for his laid back, practical style – and then to the SEDCO job. He came along just as Scarborough was beginning to earn its reputation as the fastest-growing community in Maine.

“I definitely feel good about the fact that, although there have been a few disappointments along the way, I’ve been able to affect things in Scarborough in a pretty positive way,” said Rosenfeld, as a sort of coda on his career.

“I think of this in 25-year increments,” said Hall. “That’s about how old SEDCO is and I’m really excited about the next 25 years. I think the strides we’ve made can really be surpassed in the next 25 years. If we hire right, hopefully that person will be here as long as Harvey and really see us in to the future.”