Mayor Edna Jackson longs for the day business leaders find Savannah’s city government as friendly as they do her.
Almost sixteen months after the gregarious Jackson’s inauguration, the perception of the city is shifting. Two recent meetings of the mayor’s business roundtables — one focused on development issues, the other on business relations — reflected an improving relationship between city staffers and the business community.
“The city is listening now and has shown a willingness to take action,” said Greg Parker of Parker’s convenience stores, the chairman of the business relations roundtable. “That’s an important first step.”
The roundtable committees were created in July 2012 and include leaders from many sectors.
The development roundtable is chaired by Terry Coleman of Kern-Coleman & Co., a local engineering firm. The committee includes major players from across Savannah’s development community, from the president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Savannah, Mark Konter, and several of the city’s leading architects to representatives of commercial development and engineering firms.
The business relations roundtable, meanwhile, is a who’s who of the business development community. The head of the Savannah Chamber, Bill Hubbard, an executive with the Savannah Economic Development Authority, Brynn Grant, and the president of the Downtown Business Association, Ruel Joyner, sit on the committee, as do leaders in the tourism, marketing, legal and technology sectors.
The roundtables have been charged with preparing reports, complete with recommendations, on the city’s relationship with the business community. Alderman Carol Bell, a former long-time city employee, stressed the reports not be “just another document that sits on a shelf.”
Bell told the business relations roundtable: “We really need to see change, and you are folks who can make it happen.”
The committees were encouraged by the improvements already underway. The development roundtable centered on a presentation by the city’s development service bureau of an online permit tracking system debuted last fall.
Known as E-Trac, the online platform allows developers, contractors, architects and others involved in project development to monitor the progress of the permitting process.
The bureau now has a point-of-contact person — as does the revenue bureau on the business relations side — and hosts twice-weekly open meetings where they review projects and petitioners can ask questions.
The development service offices is gradually trimming the permit processing time. Submittals currently take approximately four weeks to clear, down from five or six, according to Pete Shonka, the assistant city manager of utilities, development and construction.
“We want to get the submittals down to two or three weeks,” he said.
As for business relations, the committee’s focus is on bettering communications and customer service, streamlining processes and developing an economic development plan. The city administration has been more receptive to business concerns since Stephanie Cutter took over as city manager last year, committee members agreed, but a need for a “culture change” throughout city government remains.
The perception is city staff would rather say “No” than “How can we help?”
“The first step to solving the problem is to realize we have a problem,” Joyner said. “The perception, whether it is accurate or not, is the people at the city are there to prevent you from doing what you want to do rather than enable you to do it.”
Such frank discussions are what the mayor intended when she set up the committees upon taking office in 2012. She heard the complaints prior to her election, particularly during the campaign, and made improving the business environment a priority.
“The business community knew we meant business on this,” Jackson said. “Once we made a commitment to improving conditions, people readily became interested in it. Council members got involved.
“I’m very proud of where we are moving and anxious to see what the end results will be.”