Business roundtable

We had a great business roundtable with council members Rodney Glassman and Nina Trasoff on December 12th. Nancy Peterson from Tucson City Environmental Services came as well. We have been doing these roundtables every other month. We had about 15 business people attend. There were landlords, contractors, developers, large and small business people. All of the business people were interested in interfacing with the city council members and hoping to build dialogue for change. Our city is known for being anti-business. Yet, many on the council think of themselves as “progressives”. If that is the case, then we should be making progress. To be fair I think there is a genuine desire to change things, because we are in a tough economic situation. The problem is, we are a step too slow. Paul Parisi from the Tucson Chamber of Commerce lauded the council for working with the chamber on a proposal to cut the time for getting approval of plans through the city developmental services from over a year to 7 months. Greg Boccardo who owns GRB Realty and Jacks BBQ asked the question “why 7 months, Albuquerque now has a policy guaranteeing 90 days!”

That certainly got my attention. Albuquerque is where I grew up. When I moved to Tucson 24 years ago, Albuquerque was behind Tucson in almost every way. Today I believe Albuquerque is way ahead. They have attracted quality businesses to move to their community and bring jobs, while we lag behind. As George Larsen of Larsen Baker commercial said to the council members, when you have a perspective tenant that is looking at over a year for the shovel to hit the dirt in Tucson verses 3 months in Albuquerque, where do you think they will go? Some would say this is about political party affiliation. That because we have a democrat controlled council that we are less “progressive” when it comes to attracting businesses. However, the leader of the change in Albuquerque was Mayor Chavez, a democrat. Chavez understood that if he wanted to make things better for the average citizen, he needed to attract high paying jobs to Albuquerque. His foresight paid off, and in these tough times they are picking up businesses that are fleeing California. The council members both expressed that they understand the problems and that they want to work with the business community. I am hoping that they are not only sincere, but that they would look at radical moves to make us competitive against these upstart communities like Albuquerque. We will be meeting with council members again in February. If you would like to participate, email me at:
doug@kvoi.com

Christmas Greeting 2008

It is amazing how quickly time passes. When you are young the days, months and years drag on as you eagerly anticipate the next milestone of life. It could be becoming a teenager, or getting your drivers permit or graduating from high school. As we get older the days, months and years run swiftly by and we want to slow down the next milestone of life. It could be the dreaded 50th birthday, or the more intrusive doctor’s examinations that accompany the aging process, or qualifying for AARP benefits. When we were young we couldn’t wait to test the limits of our bodies in sports or adventure, now we treat the damage we did to our bodies from those sports and adventures with the latest pharmaceutical remedy or surgical breakthrough. At least we prepared for this stage in life by putting some money away in our 401K. With the recent economic crisis that makes us feel real secure. Christians have always been accused of having blind faith, trusting in a God we can’t see. I guess it is better to trust in a mutual fund that you can watch disappear. The longer we live it should become more clear that the only thing we can really and truly trust is God. Our bodies will grow old, the car we loved 5 years ago no longer thrills us, and everything we posses will end up in someone else’s closet eventually.

As we come to another Christmas this should be a time of reflection. Perhaps because of the economy it will cause us to remember what is really important. In the end what really counts is our relationship with God and with people. We see a great illustration of this in the cross. The two parts of the cross illustrates the vertical (our relationship with God) and the horizontal (our relationship with people). If we have a relationship with God then what is required of us in relating to people? In 1 Timothy chapter 2 it says that we are to pray for all men (horizontal) and especially for Kings and those in authority over us. We are to give thanks to God for those in authority over us that we might live a quiet and peaceful life. It goes on to say that this pleases God who wants all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. “For there is one mediator between God and Men, the man Christ Jesus who gave himself as a ransom for all.” With a new President and congress we need to pray for them, as the scripture tells us to. Pray also for people that aren’t Christians, even those people you don’t like. God’s desire is that all people would come to know the truth. This is the message of Christmas; this is what is truly important.