When Greg Parker joined with other business leaders and city officials in convening a mayoral roundtable in 2012, they had one goal in mind: Making Savannah the best city in the country to do business.
On Wednesday, Parker gave an update on the mayoral business roundtable, on which he serves as chairman, and what he says is real progress between the business community and the city’s various elected officials, bureau chiefs and department heads.
“There’s a lot of work ahead of us, but there’s real buy-in from the city, and the overwhelming message that I want to give to you today is that our city officials, our council members and the business community have all bought into this,” Parker said at the monthly luncheon of the Savannah Downtown Business Association.
Forbes’ Magazine presently ranks Savannah as 121st on its list of best places for business and careers, a modest improvement from no. 145 the year before, but by no means an ideal ranking, said Parker. By comparison, Forbes ranks Jacksonville 58th and Charleston 61st.
Parker, who also sits on the board of the Savannah Economic Development Authority, said these metrics matter because they are the same indicators site selectors use when choosing where to build or expand their companies.
Outlining four key areas in which the city could use improvement, Parker said the roundtable boiled down the big issues to communication, customer service, processes and economic development. Among their recommendations:
• Parker said some of their primary concerns relating to communications were the poor promotion of business services such as the “311” information line and ineffective internal communication among city staff.
The roundtable recommends the city create a “scorecard” to track and share its progress, identify business liaisons within the city to streamline communications and develop a marketing plan.
• The roundtable’s recommendations for customer service include improving training, promoting a city-wide customer service culture and implementing exit surveys for feedback. Parker suggested the use of “mystery shoppers” to test city staff and identify areas where staff is lacking.
• For processes, the roundtable recommends streamlining licenses and approval processes — differentiating between what is a city requirement and what is just a staff “recommendation” — and fixing its procurement process and retooling statutes, regulations and policies that are barriers to business development.
• Recommendations on economic development include the development of a comprehensive plan and clear vision for the city, studying “best practices” of other top U.S. cities, offering more training for women and minority-owned businesses and engaging young entrepreneurs.
“I don’t think the employees of the city really understand the negative impact that they can have on businesses,” said Parker. “Organizational culture does not always recognize the public and businesses as customers and clients. We’ve got to change this culture within the city so that it is the idea of customer first.”
During a queston and answer session, several people posed questions and comments about their issues with Savannah’s bureaucracy and the perceived culture of indifference to concerns of the business community.
“The number one problem I get with my clients ... their number one comment is, ‘Everyone we talk to is trying to stop us from getting our project done and we don’t understand why,’” said Robert McCorkle, a real estate lawyer at local firm McCorkle & Jackson.
He said his clients have had projects that received approval from the Metropolitan Planning Commission staff and board only to face opposition from City Council, citing one project he spent two hours defending to council members.
Ruel Joyner, president of the SDBA, said these issues are just the type they are trying to address through the roundtable.
“Your frustration — you’re dead on,” said Joyner. “And it was communicated by Greg Parker (at the roundtable) … and that cultural change is going on. Our elected officials understand, and now it just has to be disseminated through staff.”
Roger Moss, vice president of the SDBA, brought up the issue of women and minority-owned business enterprise, part of the roundtable’s recommendations.
“There are reputable minority businesses, there are reputable minority architects, contractors and all that we can use,” said Moss. “What we need to do with our school system is start producing the architects and contractors of tomorrow instead of this whole sham thing that’s going on now.”
Several members applauded Moss’ comments.
Parker said the roundtable will next report to the City Council and City Manager Stephanie Cutter in July.
“Things are going to happen, things are going to change, and I, for one, am very excited,” said Parker.