Opinion

Quick exit

TBO.com
Published: April 18, 2012

Was it something we said? The ink was barely dry on our greeting in this space to K. Mike Chen on his assuming the post of economic development manager as an outside consultant for the city of New Port Richey before Chen was saying goodbye. Chen's quick exit is another entry in the tale of woe that is the decades-long and relatively fruitless effort to develop New Port Richey's downtown. This is an episode that perhaps Chen might want to delete from his lengthy resume in the private and public sectors.

The official reason given for Chen's departure last week was his desire to devote full time to a large-scale development project in Hillsborough County. We're not sure Chen was exposed to the task of developing downtown New Port Richey long enough for him to have concluded the task was too daunting. So we'll have to take him at his word for the rapid departure.

The New Port Richey City Council agreed to let Chen out of the contract he signed with the city as long as he didn't bill the city for any work he might have done during his time as economic development manager. We can't imagine what he might have gotten up to in such a brief time, but he no doubt can afford to write it off.

We know economic and employment times are tough, but perhaps Chen shouldn't have asked for New Port Richey's economic development work if he had already set his sites on the Hillsborough County project.