New FCRA chief annual salary set at $175,000, to begin job Aug. 16

Daniel Mann will take up the reigns as the executive director of the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority Friday (Aug. 16). Mann was chosen as the new executive director July 19.

The position was left vacant when the board voted Feb. 21 that Ivy Owen was no longer able to fulfill his responsibilities as executive director due to health issues, and because of that he would no longer be employed by FCRA.

Mann’s contract, signed Aug. 2, lists his salary as $175,000 annually, along with $500 per month as automobile allowance, a new iPhone and up to $20,000 for moving expenses and housing allowance, payable on a reimbursement basis.

Mann’s contract is not for a specific length of time. It states that benefits, which include medical, dental, vision and long-term disability insurance and three weeks’ vacation each for the first five years, will be evaluated and renewed annual and are subject to change. The contract also specifies that if FCRA “terminates the employee without cause at any time during the first three years of employment, FCRA agrees to pay severance pay in an amount equal to six months’ salary plus 7.5%.”

Termination with cause does not come with a severance package. There are seven listed instances listed that could lead to immediate termination, including failure to perform job as described in the job description.

Mann is the former chief executive officer of Great Plains Development Authority and has 20 years’ experience in economic development, during which he “successfully recruited manufacturing, warehouse/distribution, professional services and energy companies (that) led to the creation of over 5,000 new jobs with a total of over $1.6 billion in new investment,” a media statement on Gann said. Great Plains is a quasi-municipality commissioned by the Pentagon to transfer and redevelop the former Kansas Army Ammunition plant in southeast Kansas.

Prior to his stint at Great Plains, Mann developed and led a six-county bi-state regional partnership for eastern Iowa and western Illinois in the Quad Cities region. He also worked with Rock Island Arsenal in that area. Mann was chosen from a list of almost 90 applicants, which included Lorie Robertson, FCRA director of marketing, who was a finalist for the position.

“(Mann has) been involved in the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure) in the past. We interviewed a lot of people who have known him from the past. … The people speak really highly of him, even the organizations where he left. … They just couldn’t say enough good things about him,” FCRA Board Chairman Dean Gibson said following the July 19 announcement about hiring Mann.

Mann, a graduate of Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Okla., and the University of Oklahoma’s Economic Development Institute, was named 2007 Oklahoma Economic Development Professional of the Year by the Northeast Oklahoma Economic Development Association, press materials said. He also received an “ACE” award from the American Chamber of Commerce Executives for his economic development programs.

Mann’s other experience includes work with the Tulsa Metro Chamber, where he held multiple positions including manager of small and minority owned business, international business development manager, executive director of the Tulsa area partnership and senior project manager for business attraction.