Editorial 1: A 'Hail Mary' Play?
It's hard to be cynical when an organization's name is "Choose Worcester" and one is a fan of the city. Choose Worcester? Of course. Who wouldn't?
But cheerleading doesn't win ball games. The players on the field do that. The strength of the organization does that. The coach does that.
That is why we need to separate the battle cry, "Choose Worcester," from the fledgling economic development agency of the same name. Created more than a year ago by a coalition of government, business and community leaders, the Choose Worcester organization is designed to be an economic marketing machine, luring companies to the city and broadening its economic base.
Yet the effort has had a difficult time getting over its first hurdle, finding the right coach for the team. Despite initially forecasting that an executive director would be in place by the end of April 2006, every time the group behind the endeavor found a suitable candidate, the suitable candidate didn't want the job. It wasn't until a couple of weeks ago that the search committee finally found someone to choose Choose Worcester.
Alexander "Oley" Carpp is the man picked for the post. He is the coach, the one mapping the strategies, calling the plays, trying to rack up the "Ws". So what kind of coach did Choose Worcester choose?
Carpp is now a top executive at the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development. Carpp's boss was booted from his post at the end of last year amid general disdain for DECD, which was acknowledged as an ineffective agency.
Carpp was at the crux of many of those do-nothing programs. He oversaw Connecticut's "cluster" initiative, which was little more than state-sponsored industry trade associations that have had zero success at bringing new companies to Connecticut.
Although Carpp was supposed to be the department's lead liaison to the business community, the Connecticut General Assembly thought so little of the agency's ability that it created a government post, the state Business Advocate, just to have someone truly speaking up to help retain and attract companies to Connecticut.
Now, Carpp will be coming to the Heart of the Commonwealth. His track record one state south isn't particularly impressive. We hope that he is he capable of convincing companies to locate in New England's second-largest city. But we wonder if, despite all these months of searching, Choose Worcester has found merely another cheerleader, dolled up in a coach's jacket that's just a little too big.
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