ORANGE : New Official Will Help City Attract Business

A new economic development director is poised to help winners in the City Council race fulfill their campaign promises to stimulate business growth.

The council formally introduced David McElroy as the new economic development director during its Election Day meeting. The former administrative manager for Riverside County will head a new Department of Economic Development to retain and attract business and develop strategic marketing for the city.

“Our marketing strategy is ‘They built a whole county around us,’ ” McElroy said. “In the long term, we’re going to be the desirable location of the future.”

McElroy, 47, holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in sociology from UC Riverside and teaches economic management development at the university’s extension school. The analytical skills and knowledge of global economy he acquired during his graduate years will come in handy in his new job, he said.

His charge is to focus on development projects in the city’s northwest industrial base, the Chapman-Tustin Avenue corridor and the Old Towne-Chapman Avenue district, he said.

The City Council had given City Manager David F. Dixon the go-ahead in July to establish a separate department whose chief would report directly to him.

“Our mission is clearly to retain existing businesses and help them expand,” McElroy said.

The new chief said he was lured by the city’s potential, but the main draw was Dixon himself, whom McElroy knew when Dixon was city manager of Temecula.

“This guy is what I consider an expert in economic development,” McElroy said. “I look at him as a mentor.”