Non-elected body salvaged first rendition of EDC

When I mentioned in last week’s column that city council had only given lip service to the city’s economic development department back in the 1980s, I was being charitable.
It was actually ready to drop it altogether. In fact, it pretty well left that decision to an outside agency,
Doug Leighton, then the economic development commissioner, was asking council to increase from $135,000 to $200,000 its budget proposal for his department. He said if he didn’t get it, council would