City moves forward with Business Resource Center idea

The Carson City Board of Supervisors yesterday voted to proceed with investigating the lease or purchase of the Fireside building (or another similar structure) for the purpose of creating a business resource center. (You can replay the live blog of the meeting here.)

The building, located next to City Hall at the corner of East Proctor and North Plaza streets, would bring together the the Business Development, Business License and Planning departments, along with other services to create a one-stop shop for people who are starting up new businesses.

This new center will also include staffing and services supplied by the Carson City Library, made possible with a $100,000 grant from the Nevada State Library and Archives. Library Director Sara Jones said that she will have bi-lingual staff in this new center to help prospective business owners do research, create business plans and navigate the bureaucracy. There will be detailed demographic data available for people to do market research, and an archive of business plans covering many different industries and business types.

As someone who just started a business, I find a lot of merit in this idea. Pulling all of these resources together in one spot will certainly make it easier for new businesses to get started. It also helps forward the notion that the city is business friendly.

The move also coincides with the planned relocation of the business license and planning departments out of the Northgate building over to Butti Way. While it might be cheaper to house these offices there, I don't think it would be very good to send prospective business owners to the sewer plant to do their business.

And though I think this business resource center a good idea, others aren't so sure.

It would seem that this plan was hatched with little input from the Carson City Chamber of Commerce, which one would think should have a major role in this project. Even though the planning for this center has been going on for quite a while, Chamber director Ronni Hannaman said the only contact they had was an invitation to discuss this idea on May 5, a day before the supervisors meeting.

This highlights the rift that exists between the city's Office of Business Development (OBD) and the Chamber, which has been exacerbated recently by their differences over the proposed Nugget Project. The Chamber made an announcement a few months ago that it was withholding its endorsement of the Nugget Project until it had more information about what exactly was being built, how much it would cost, etc.

That announcement was met with a furious attack by supporters of the project, who denounced the Chamber and its chairman Jim Smolenski as "naysayers." It was a curious overreaction to people who were simply asking for more information about this project that might involve more than $40 million in public monies. This attack has apparently backfired, making people suspicious of what the Nugget Project proponents are hiding.

Critics of the business resource center also point out the many close ties this project has to the Nugget Project. The $100,000 library grant was made possible by $10,000 in matching funds donated by the Hop and Mae Adams Foundation, controlled by Nugget President Steve Neighbors and the entity that will be leasing out the land for the Nugget Project.

Tammy Westergard, who in her position as deputy director of the Business Development has helped pushed the Nugget Project along, will be leaving her post to work at the library, where Jones said she will be central to the efforts to build a new library, part of the Nugget Project. Jones told me that Westergard will be part of the staffing for this new center. In many ways, she will be doing some of the same things she has been, just under a different budget.

It also should be noted that the Fireside building includes a parking lot adjacent to the Nugget's lots, and could be an important piece of the Nugget Project.

Also note that OBD plans to pay for this by eliminating Westergard's position in that department, a savings of about $100,000. But that brings up an interesting question. The position Westergard is taking at the library is opening up due to a buyout offer from the city that was part of its budget-reducing plans last month. But if the savings from buying out that employee is going to be used to buy or lease a new building, that means there is $100,000 that the city will need to make up for somewhere else. Even though the budget for OBD comes from a different pot of money than the city's general fund, the transfer of Westergard out of OBD essentially places the cost of the center in the general fund.

Despite all this, the business resource center should be judged on it merits, and I think Carson City needs a resource like this. It's disheartening to watch businesses come and go so fast. So many of them could have made it with just a little help and advice. Small business is the main driver of our future economy. We need to do what we can to foster small business growth.

It's also tough to see the community divided on how best to secure a bright economic future. Positions are hardening around these issues, to the point where any deviation from your respective party line is viewed as treasonous.

Proponents of the Nugget Project need to realize there are legitimate questions that need to be answered, and to stop alienating those who are asking those questions. I see too little skepticism among this group, and too much of the kind of faith-based policy making that reminds me of the Bush Administration's untrue claims about WMD to justify its march to war in Iraq.

On the other hand, I think some of the opponents are going overboard in seeing conspiracy theories behind every city action on this project. They focus too much on the personalities involved instead of the legitimate questions that need to be asked and answered.

We all need to remember that this isn't personal, it's business. We would be well served to abide by the advice — commonly attributed to both Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill — that we're all friends after 6 p.m. Maybe we could all find some common ground over a few rounds of cocktails, and then join together to move this city forward. That's a party I wouldn't want to miss.