The city of Savannah needs to do a better job of ensuring contractors are hiring minority- and women-owned business that are actually qualified for the job, according to a committee established by the city to help foster economic development.
Increased scrutiny of contractors’ bids for city projects was one of the recommendations in a report compiled by local business representatives presented to the City Council on Thursday.
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The city also needs to increase marketing efforts, improve customer service, eliminate certain taxes and develop efficient processes and policies for obtaining licenses and permits, according to the group.
The city’s efforts to increase minority- and women-owned business participation drew a significant amount of discussion during the presentation.
While the practice was encouraged by the committee as a way to support underrepresented businesses, members claimed the city was not doing enough to make sure contracts were legitimate.
Committee member Diana Morrison, founder and president of Advertising Specialty Services, said she has been repeatedly asked by contractors to lead projects in which her business has no expertise just to boost their chances of securing a city contract.
She declined the proposals, but others have taken advantage of the offers, Morrison said.
“There are people in this community who have stooped to a level to allow that to happen to them, and I think it’s something we have to do to stop it,” she said.
Having an insufficient number of qualified businesses in certain fields was found to be part of the problem, and the committee recommended increasing the amount of training and development opportunities.
Regarding customer relations, the business group’s chairman, Parker’s Market CEO Greg Parker, said too many business owners were being treated like they were a nuisance.
City employees should be adequately trained in dealing with the public so people will continue doing business in Savannah, Parker said.
“One of the things we do at our company is we try to hire for personality,” he said. “We think it is easier to hire a happy person and make them competent rather than take a competent person and make them happy.”
Inventory taxes levied on the manufacturing industry were characterized by the committee as outdated and an impediment to economic development.
Savannah was the only city in the South charging the “archaic” tax, which makes the city less competitive, said Trip Tollison, president of the Savannah Economic Development Authority.
The committee plans to discuss eliminating the tax with city staff early next year, a change that would have to be approved by Savannah voters, Tollison said.
If approved, the city would lose about $1.6 million in annual revenue, he said, but would make that up with increased property values, investment and jobs.
The City Council was generally supportive of the committee’s recommendations, although they said they would have to review some of them, such as the tax’s elimination, before implementing them.
The council also encouraged regular reviews of the city’s progress in meeting the goals laid out by the committee.
The council’s response was welcomed by Alderwoman Carolyn Bell, who served as the city liaison for the committee.
“We wanted a report that would not be shelved,” Bell said. “We wanted a plan that would be implemented.”