UPDATE: Knapp Contract Finalized

Outgoing County Councilman Mike Knapp has signed a contract with the City of Gaithersburg for economic development consulting services.

At the Council's meeting tonight, Knapp told the Council he hopes by mid- to late-January to present a framework of how to proceed with $2 million fund the city set aside for economic development.

In June the city cut the budget by four million dollars and raised property taxes for the first time in 40 years, but it set aside the funds with the hope that it could be used to jump start development or be used to entice new businesses to the city.

Assistant City Manager Tony Tomasello told the Council that MDA Fedaral Inc. has recently agreed to relocate from Rockville to Gaithersburg in the Spring of 2011. The move would bring 200 new employees into the city, he said.

Before the meeting, Councilman Henry Marraffa Jr. said voting to set aside the $2 million was the "smartest thing we've ever done."

Knapp, a former president of the County Council and current chair of the Planning, Housing, and Economic Development Committee, was chosen because of his experience with business development. 

His Germantown-based business, Orion Ventures, helps biotech businesses develop, and he performed the same work before he was elected to the Council.

Knapp is not running for re-election.

His contract runs from Nov. 1 through Arpil 30, 2011 and include six payments of up to $13,250, totaling not more than $79,500.

That equates to an hourly rate of slightly more than $82, given a standard 40-hour work week.

The document includes a provision to extend the contract for an additional six-months at the same $13,250-per-month rate.

Several deliverables are included in the contract, like a requirement to review the finalists selected by the city for the Economic Development Director position and write summaries of the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate.

Knapp was selected as a sole-source contractor, which means the contract was not publicly bid because it required a specific set of experiences or abilities, Tomasello said.

Maraffa said Knapp was the obvious choice.

"If we had bid it publicly, we would have chosen Mike anyway and we would be six months down the road," he said. "There's no one else that can just pick up the phone."