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‘This is a dream job’

Hudson-Catskill Newspapers

COLUMBIA COUNTY — Kenneth J. Flood of Castleton has been appointed by the Columbia County Board of Supervisors to the new position of commissioner for planning and economic development.

Flood, currently the director of real property management for the New York State Thruway/Canal Corp., has a long history of working in economic development positions for New York state and Greene and Rensselaer counties.

The position, which pays $100,000 a year, combines the current posts of executive director of the Columbia Economic Development Council and county planning director. CEDC Executive Director Jim Galvin is resigning, and county Planning Director Roland Vosburgh is changing his position to become a county senior planner.

Board of Supervisors Chairman Art Baer, R-Hillsdale, introduced Flood at a press conference Thursday afternoon at Space 360 on Warren Street in Hudson.

The new job, Baer said, evolved over a period of months, as supervisors and members of the local business community worked together on strategic initiatives for the next five to 10 years.

There was a need to be sure that economic and planning activities were integrated with each other, he said. As it stood, there were the economic agencies on the one hand — the Industrial Development Agency and the CEDC — and the county Planning Department on the other.

Committee members decided an individual that could span all three would pay off in benefits to county residents, Baer said. In September, they approved a resolution creating the position and empowering the chairman to hire someone to fill it.

“Ken Flood brings many years of experience at the county and state level,” Baer said, emphasizing his proven networking capacity and his experience working with the city of Hudson.

“This is a dream job, heading up county planning and economic development,” Flood said. “I like to call it community development ... It’s button-up planning, working with the supervisors and local officials to understand their plans and desires.”

Peering into the audience, he noted the presence of a lot of people he’d worked with in the past, such as Hudson Mayor Rick Scalera and Claverack Supervisor James Keegan.

“I like local work,” he said. “You’re closer to people ... and better able to get things done.”

Community development is best accomplished when government and private industry come together with decisions made jointly, he said.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “My plan is to reach out to all the supervisors and understand what they’re looking for and their needs.”

Asked later how he would cope with the challenge of a county and city that has lost 500 manufacturing jobs in the last six months, Flood said, “Columbia County is an incredible, diverse county. It’s the diversity that gives the city hope. My strategy and advice to the Board of Supervisors is that one of the first pegs in any plan is to be sure you’re creating businesses that are viable.

“It’s easier to expand a business than to bring a new business in from outside the county,” he said. And he said his first priority is to meet with planning boards and other local officials throughout the county, to see what their needs are. During his eight years as a senior economic developer and then assistant director of the Rensselaer County Planning and Development Office, Flood said 50 percent of his time was spent talking to the towns, “so when a Hannaford’s [wanted to] come to town, I didn’t have to ask.”

Baer and Flood were on the same wavelength.

“The first thing I want him to do is to reach out to the business community and supervisors and listen to what they have to say about growth,” Baer told the Register-Star, “share with them the strategic analysis the county has done and promote that at the town level. Being an ambassador to the towns, listening to their concerns.”

Flood, he said, would be “the chief implementation person” of the county’s new strategic plan, unveiled at the Sept. 24 Board of Supervisors meeting. The plan advocates development in the arts, senior living, sports, agriculture, education and branding as ways to improve the county’s economic situation.

“At the same time,” Baer said, “he’ll also have to focus on retaining existing businesses.”

The task force looking for replacement businesses for some of the county’s closed or closing plants, such as LB Furniture and Kaz, will report to Flood. Again, he mentioned networking.

“It’s a real leg up to know the person you’re calling,” he said.

Baer said Flood will have two offices, one in the county planning offices in the third floor of 401 State St., and the other in the offices of the CEDC on Route 9 at the St. Lawrence Cement property. Eventually, he said, these would be consolidated.

‘Capable and energetic’

It was while Flood was working in Small Cities that Scalera became acquainted with him.

“He’s capable and energetic and forthright,” Scalera said. “He’s very honest, open and accessible. We got to know each other well when the city was dealing with the Henry Howard Avenue sewer lining project and the Youth Center.

“He doesn’t care what your political affiliation is,” the mayor said. “He wants to do good for the community. When you become too political, you end up dying on that sword. I liked when he said his true passion is with local governments.”

Scalera said he would be as frustrated as Flood was just working on the state level.

“You just administer the grants,” he said. “You don’t get the satisfaction of getting the real work done. Now if you bring in prospective businesses, it’s got to be more gratifying. He will.”

Scalera also noted in passing that he hadn’t realized until now that Flood is the son-in-law of the late “Red” Sheffer, a long-time Elks Club member, whose daughter is Valerie Flood.

CEDC Deputy Executive Director Todd Erling said he was looking forward to working with Flood.

“I worked with him when he was at the Small Cities program,” he said. “He brings a lot to the table.”

After earning a degree in geography from the State University of New York at Oswego and a master’s degree in regional planning from the University at Albany, Flood spent nearly two years as a planner in the Greene County Planning Department. He then moved on to the Rensselaer County Planning and Development Office.

In 1995, he became assistant commissioner and director of consolidated planning at the New York state Division of Housing and Community Renewal, a position he held for three years before being promoted to director of industry development.

In 1999, he took the position of vice-president/deputy director of the Housing Trust Fund Corp. in the Governor’s Office for Small Cities, which he held until 2006, when he was named president/director. But in November of that year, Eliot Spitzer was elected governor, and Flood moved on to be the director of real property management for the New York state Thruway/Canal Corp.

To reach reporter John Mason, call 518-828-1616, ext. 2272, or e-mail jmason@registerstar.com.

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