After a yearlong review, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer has restructured and renamed the city’s economic development department. And the new Department of Economic Growth and Innovation will incorporate or replace several offices Fischer created in the last year.
After six months, the $100,000 a year Office of Innovation is no more. Director Ted Smith will lead the new economic development department with a salary of $113,000. Smith will perform many of his previous duties at his new post, but his new and old jobs are not being combined.
“The Director of Innovation was a brand new appointment that did not exist before. That was something that was very near and dear to Mayor Fischer’s heart, something he’s wanted to cull out and have us focus on,” says Mayoral spokeswoman Rebecca Fleischaker. “So if the next mayor wants to focus on something else, that’s another person’s call. We’ll see how it goes for the next three years.”
Two other offices Fischer created—those of sustainability and globalization—will operate under Smith. The planned office of military affairs will not be created, and the tasks that would’ve gone to the office’s leader will be assigned to an economic development department employee.
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