Claude Ramsey’s decision to step down as county mayor to accept a top position with incoming Gov. Bill Haslam should prove to be a good move for himself and for the state, but it will leave a big hole in county government and a bleak outlook for a comparably qualified interim successor.
Haslam announced Friday that Ramsey would take a position as deputy to the governor and chief of staff. He acknowledged the success Ramsey has had, in cooperation with city and state officials, in building a powerful economic development program, and he made clear his intention to utilize Ramsey’s experience to broaden the state’s capacity for securing new businesses and industry.
He also lauded Ramsey’s countywide education “summit” initiative in 2004 to develop consensus goals and broaden support for public schools and new school buildings, and he praised Ramsey for guiding county government to a triple A bond rating.
Ramsey’s record certainly merits the governor’s praise. The county mayor worked for years with city mayors in several administrations, and with state and federal officials, to acquire and develop the defunct Volunteer Army Ammunition Plant site as a first-class industrial park.
Once the 6,000 acre site was secured, he helped create the Enterprise South industrial park as a TVA-certified megasite, with the utilities, infrastructure and potential to land a job-rich automobile manufacturing plant, long the holy grail of economic development for local officials. Then he deferred retirement five years ago to seek a fourth term in the hope of actually landing a carmaker. He sought and won a fifth term this year to make sure the VW plant and its supplier plants got off to a good start.