Text 
No Comments [ Add Comment ]Davis losing an exceptional player
Wilf Sommerkorn's commitment to excellence, it has been our experience, is as unique as the man's name. So when we heard late last week that Davis County's director of community and economic development was resigning to take a job as Salt Lake City's planning director, it was a punch in the gut.
Sommerkorn's shoes will be difficult to fill in Davis County government.
The good decisions made by the county with regard to planning, tourism and economic development invariably have Sommerkorn's fingerprints all over them; he's certainly one of the most influential and competent public officials most Davis County residents have never heard of.
There's the obvious stuff: his involvement in the creation of the convention and visitors bureau, various countywide festivals and events, and the building and subsequent expansion of the ridiculously successful Davis Conference Center.
But Sommerkorn was county government's advice guy -- the man with the institutional knowledge and professional expertise that local and county leaders, at least the savvy ones, sought out for advice when they wanted to make their economic development and planning decisions the best they could be.
In our experience on the Standard's editorial page, Sommerkorn has always been one of the rare officials in any county or city who always returned our calls -- promptly -- and spent considerable time answering our questions.
One of our great disappointments in recent years was that Sommerkorn stopped posting to his informative and entertaining Web blog.
All that said, the Davis County Commission has a tough job ahead of it.
Sommerkorn has been so good, the county must be careful not to lose momentum and professional expertise by choosing someone not up to Sommerkorn's standard of quality.
There may well be someone currently on staff with the county who would do a good job, but the county owes taxpayers a national search for the very best job candidate available.
If the result is someone who's already on staff, fine. But the effort should be made to find the top woman or man, wherever she or he might be.
In fact, Sommerkorn could probably provide a solid short list to start from. He should leave it on commissioners' desks as he heads out the door for Utah's capital city.
Add Your Comment
