The Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership board of directors recently voted unanimously to transfer the partnership’s responsibilities to Saratoga County. The county’s Planning and Economic Development Department will assume operational duties, according to the change laid out by Partnership and county officials.
The economic development organization was founded by Saratoga County in 2014. Since that time, more than $5 million in taxpayer funding was put into the agency.
There were few successes and few private-sector jobs were ever credited to the Partnership, according to both media reports and their own progress reports.
The Partnership was formed after the county had a falling out with the Saratoga Economic Development Corp., a private-sector nonprofit with a long track record of success. SEDC refused the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors demand to appoint a member to the SEDC board. As a result, the county ended its funding for SEDC in 2013.
According to SEDC, over the last decade, the agency and its stakeholders helped to create over 1,700 new jobs with over $170 million in payroll while retaining over 2,050 existing jobs at Saratoga County companies.
In 2019, the county brought SEDC back on board and created an alliance between SEDC and the Partnership. The relationship continued to encounter unresolved conflicts.
According to the Albany Business Review, The partnership has been managed since fall through a consulting contract with Tim Dunn of Dunn Strategies in Malta for $7,000 per month. That followed the resignation of partnership chief executive Shelby Schneider, who left for a state job in June 2021. The organization’s only other remaining employee resigned a month later in July.
Dunn’s contract expires at the end of March. The partnership board voted in late February to cease operations and there are no plans to fill any staff positions.
Remaining programs and activities will be handled by the county planning and economic development department, according to the Albany Business Review.
SEDC continues to function at a high level.
Its activities include identifying opportunities for new and/or expanded industrial and commercial site and park development; working with private and public sectors to make that development shovel-ready; helping local communities and private-sector developers secure financing for infrastructure expansions that will result in new investment and job creation; and conducting regular meetings with Saratoga County partners, including county and municipal officials and real estate stakeholders to coordinate marketing efforts.