Ansonia Economic Development Commission Chairman Vinnie Scarlata resigned from the position Thursday, citing a lack of time to dedicate to the role.
Commission members lauded Scarlata, who will remain on the commission, for his work bringing “progressive” ideas to the city while it struggled post-recession with no full-time economic development director.
“You were thinking progressively in terms of building up a city,” said Terri Goldson, a member of the commission and principal at Mead Elementary School in Ansonia.
Scarlata is a busy man.
In addition to being EDC chairman for the past two and a half years, he owns a small business and is a ubiquitous presence at public meetings and events — and last November he was elected to the Board of Education, receiving the most votes of any school board candidate on the ballot.
To replace Scarlata, the group elected Greg Seccombe, who runs his family’s men’s shop downtown, as the new chairman.
“I’ve got big shoes to fill,” Seccombe said. “He was a driving force behind economic development for the last two and half years. He stepped up when we had no economic development director. He was pretty much ‘the guy.’ My hat’s off to you.”
It took Ansonia 18 months to hire an economic development director after longtime director Claude Perry died in 2012.
The city hired Peter Kelly for $58,000 a year in August 2013.
But then in March, after a change in leadership in the mayor’s office, Mayor David Cassetti put Kelly on leave, and then replaced him for “failure to perform the essential duties of his job.”
Scarlata had threatened to resign from the chairmanship when the Kelly trouble started, so his announcement Thursday wasn’t a surprise.
Commission members on Thursday reflected on the progress they have made during Scarlata’s time at the helm.
That progress includes a downtown business loan program, an annual bicycle festival and a farmer’s market, to name a few of the commissions initiatives.
Scarlata thanked the other members of the commission, saying none of the progress would have been made without them.
“The ideas are only as good as someone’s imagination,” Scarlata said. “They don’t go any further if you don’t take it the next step. This group made the difference.”
