Economic director leaving for Atlanta

By Times staff writers

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 1, 2000

ST. PETERSBURG -- City economic development director Joseph Johnson Jr. is quitting that post today to take the same job with the government of Fulton County, Ga.

Fulton and DeKalb counties contain Atlanta. Johnson's family has continued to live in Atlanta for the two years he held the job here, said his boss, Economic Development Administrator Rick Mussett.

"We've done everything we can to try to keep him," Mussett said. "He has three teenage children and at this time in his life, he really needs to be with his family."

Johnson did not respond to messages left with his assistants Wednesday. He is a St. Petersburg native and Gibbs High School graduate.

Johnson focused his economic development efforts here on the minority neighborhoods south of Central Avenue, the site of civil disturbances in 1996.

Johnson worked on the 22nd Street business district redevelopment plan, which aims to restore a strip of historically black-owned businesses.

He also was involved with the Dome District Industrial Park plan, which aims to assemble blighted properties near Tropicana Field, clean up environmental problems and then market the tract as the site for a new factory. The first portion of the project should begin this year.

Mussett and Elston said that Bruce Grimes, now head of property management and real estate services for the city, will serve as interim replacement for Johnson.

NAACP quits desegregation committee

TAMPA -- The Hillsborough chapter of the NAACP abruptly withdrew Wednesday from a committee working with the school district on a proposed desegregation plan.

In a letter, sent to Superintendent Earl Lennard, the group's president, Sam Horton, accused the district of being misleading and unreceptive to suggestions from the NAACP.

Because of "the overall perspective . . . and the general tenor of not genuinely respecting our input, we find it necessary to withdraw from the work of the committee and that our name be deleted from all printed documents on this subject," Horton wrote.

Lennard said Wednesday that he understood why the NAACP withdrew, "since they may find themselves in complete opposition to this plan, and they don't want to compromise their position."

But he denied the district had been deceptive.

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