The Greensboro Economic Development Alliance reports that it spends less for every job it recruits than the national average.

So who needs a county economic developer, asks Commissioner Billy Yow:

Yow, a critic of public incentives, believes regular county support of a group like the alliance is a way of cutting layers out of county and city government, something he’s advocated for years.

Last week, the county laid off Rob Bencini, its economic development coordinator. That came just as the city’s assistant city manager for economic development, Jim Westmoreland, left for a job at the N.C. Department of Transportation.

Yow said Tuesday’s report makes a case for contracting with a private group like the experts at the alliance.

“They’re producing more product than we were in-house with county staff or with city staff,” Yow said. “And that’s how we could justify the reduction in force in the county side and the city side.”

Meanwhile, interim Guilford County attorney David Smith has resigned, leaving county administration without a lawyer.

While Commissioner Steve Arnold says that Smith’s abrupt resgination “certainly doesn’t reflect well on the county in that the perception is that the county attorney’s office is a difficult place to work,” he adds “that really isn’t the case.”

But — kinda like the Stanley Battle situation over at N.C. A&T —- what are we supposed to think when someone walks into a situation and walks right back out?