FRANKLIN—Economic development is among the chief concerns for government officials in Franklin and Southampton County.

That’s why the Franklin City Council and the Southampton County Board of Supervisors will come together to meet with Franklin Southampton Economic Development Inc.’s Board of Directors at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 27, at the Regional Workforce Development Center at Paul D. Camp Community College.

Southampton County Administrator Mike Johnson said Wednesday the meeting is useful because a lot of the elected officials now serving on the City Council and the Board of Supervisors weren’t serving in those capacities when FSEDI was formed in 2005.

“It’s an opportunity to share with them a little bit of the background and give them a sense of how we got to where we are,” he said.

Johnson said the mission and objectives, as well as the challenges faced by the organization will likely be addressed.

The “long-term sustainability of the organization,” Johnson said, is also something that needs to be discussed as the city and county move forward.

Contributions from the Camp Foundations and Franklin-Southampton Charities form a large portion of FSEDI’s annual budget, and the organization recently agreed to reduce its budget requests from both the city and county in the 2011 fiscal year as they grapple with extremely tight budgets.