New blood joined with old blood as the Gainesville Small Business Growth Task Force began its work on Wednesday (Nov. 6).
Task force members—along with members of the audience—rolled up their sleeves in a frank conversation about what’s broken, embracing the common goal of creating a new culture for doing business in town.
“This is where we start solving problems,” Mayor Ed Braddy told the group meeting at the Downtown Headquarters Library.
Braddy had joined with the Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce in establishing the task force.
The new blood included young owners of new businesses along with new members of the city’s planning, zoning and building staff with strong track records in their previous jobs.
The highlight of the night came when the topic of consistency and fairness by city staff came up. Sometimes, building inspectors impose requirements on jobs that go beyond what the city code requires, noted John Fleming, managing partner of Trimark Properties.
“It’s simpler to give them what they want,” he said. “They have us over a barrel, and it’s easier to comply.”
There’s no room for arbitrary enforcement of rules, said John Freeland, the city’s new building official (who has a solid reputation while serving in the same role for Alachua County). Inspectors won’t be allowed to use the “I think you ought to” code.
Braddy declared that “this is our biggest victory. No longer should people fear complaining for fear of retribution. It dies at 11:59 tonight.”
City Manager Russ Blackburn and Chamber President and CEO Tim Giuliani, who chaired the meeting, agreed to set up several working groups that will address topics between now and the next task force meeting, planned for February.
Anyone in the community is welcome to join the working groups, they said. Among the tasks of the groups are the following:
• Setting up benchmarks, based on best practices in other cities, for performance in permitting and zoning.
• Using surveys to track performance on the benchmarks.
• Revamping city and chamber webpages to make business start-up and expansion easier.
The city is moving rapidly so that people can obtain building permits, request building inspections and do related things online, Blackburn announced.
In addition, the city plans a pilot program that will open permitting offices in the Thomas Center on Fridays, an exception to the city’s four-day work week for administrative offices, he said. Blackburn also committed to “having stakeholders in the room every time we’re working on changing a regulation.”
Giuliani ended the event by thanking everyone for participating. “Not many communities are doing this,” he said. “We’re moving the ball down the court.”