Sean C. Morgan
The Sweet Home City Council last week, by consensus, directed city staff to begin looking into options for creating a business license at the request of the Sweet Home Chamber of Commerce.
Bob Briana, Susan Coleman and Diane Gerson said during the council’s regular meeting on Oct. 9 that they support the implementation of a business license, while Mayor Greg Mahler and Dave Trask were on the fence but interested in exploring the idea. Lisa Gourley and James Goble both opposed the concept.
“What businesses are in Sweet Home?” said David Flores representing the chamber. “Nobody knows.”
The city has no requirement for a license to start a business, he told the council. “What is the business doing? What does the business need?”
Driving into Sweet Home, “you see empty businesses – ugly businesses,” he said. The city needs to set standards so that buildings look clean and nice.
To profit, businesses need to invest, he said. “The idea is to help the businesses to grow in Sweet Home.”
“We have some standards,” he said, and businesses need to take responsibility.
A license will help identify new businesses that come into town, said Dana Flores, also on behalf of the chamber.
Dana Flores, who has participated in the chamber’s Ambassadors program for seven years, said “it’s been interesting for us to determine who are the new businesses,” Flores said. Some are home-based business, but “what type of businesses are they?”
It would help “keep track of who’s coming and going here in Sweet Home,” she said, and provide information about what they’re here to do, what services and products they’re offering.
“At first I was thinking, ‘Whoa, another cost to the business,’” she said. “After talking to Bill (Matthews, former chamber president) a bit more, I can see some huge advantages,” to understanding there is responsibility that comes with a new business.
It will help the chamber to be able to know how to help them, Flores said. In the 11 years she has lived in Sweet Home, she has seen businesses open and then close their doors in short periods of time.
A license could help answer questions about why a business didn’t last, whether it is economics or other issues, she said.
City Manager Ray Towry told the council there’s been some chatter about a business license for a long time.
The city ran into issues when preparing for potential traffic problems during the solar eclipse last year, when city officials were working with local businesses to see if they could provide restrooms and water to stranded motorists, Towry said. A business license could be more of a registration than a new kind of tax and could have helped during the preparation.
In terms of economic development, Sweet Home has access to the RAIN, Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network, and the Linn-Benton Community College’s Small Business Development Center.
“Those two programs offer a ton of resources for entrepreneurs,” Towry said. “We don’t know who the entrepreneurs are,” and the city cannot connect them to resources.
Many small business owners often have wonderful ideas, he said, but they don’t know how to make a small business work or how to make a business plan. With a business license in place, the city could bring everybody together to help the business owners be successful.
City mechanic Tim Riley said that when new businesses apply for new water accounts, it could serve as a point of contact and the city could provide information and connect them to these resources at that point.
That would work well in the commercial areas, Towry said, but it wouldn’t identify the home-based businesses.
“Being in America, we have the opportunity to fail,” Goble said. “If (a business) goes, great. But what if they don’t want to be part of the chamber? What if they don’t want help?”
Information would just be made available to them, Towry said.
Briana said he called about six or seven different cities, and all of them had some sort of business registration, and that registration does more than one thing.
“If you can’t afford $50, you shouldn’t be in business,” he said. With a license requirement, “if someone comes to town, they know what businesses are here.”
A potential entrepreneur can see the town has just a couple of restaurants and can see a need or decide not to open a dollar store because the city already has too many, Briana said. Also, the public knows who owns a property and who owns a business.
“If they’re not taking care of their building, then Jerry (Sorte, community and economic development director) can find codes we can fine them for,” Briana said. In other states, if buildings were in the same condition as some Sweet Home buildings, they would be fined.
Businesses already register with the Oregon Secretary of State, Gourley said. Information about the businesses is available.
“It sounds to me like the purpose of this is data mining,” she said. Echoing Goble, “what if a business doesn’t want it?”
A lot of publicity and advertising has spread information about the various resources available to new businesses, she said, and she is particularly not in favor of asking established businesses to obtain a business license.
“I am in favor of a kind of registration, in knowing who’s in the community,” Gerson said. Based on conversations, members of the public are amazed that Sweet Home doesn’t require a business license “just for information if nothing else.”
“How much value is this to our community?” Gourley said. “Is this going to be another staff position? Someone will have to manage that data.”
Towry said staff still needs to research the concept and develop options for the council, but he thinks existing software could track the data with minimal effort.
The idea would be to make it as painless as possible for businesses too and to keep fees nominal, he said.
David Flores said that in Costa Rica, where he grew up, every business must have a license and meet safety standards.
One goal of the business license is to ensure fire safety, Towry said.
Gerson said one business owner told her she would have preferred to have a business license available so she could find out requirements for signs. She had no idea where to go to get that kind of information, and the license process would have provided that for her.
“I’m not against a business permit or license,” Trask said. “My concern is I don’t think we should be forcing people into it. It could be a minimal cost. I’m really on the fence.”
Gourley said businesses already face many regulations and wondered how often a business would be required to obtain a license, annually or every few years.
Mahler noted again that everyone is required to register with the state, but when he did four demographic surveys, he was surprised to find the large number of home-based businesses in Sweet Home.
He said he would like to hear public feedback on the issue, perhaps through a survey.
Towry said the city could run a survey on the subject. He wanted to know whether the council was interested in staff putting in the time and effort to bring a proposal to council.
“I’m not sure I’d like to make this a higher priority than other things you’re doing,” Trask said.
Mahler agreed that it should be lower priority than other city initiatives, and Gerson said that while she favors requiring business licenses, she wanted it to be a lower priority.
In other business, the council:
n Appointed former mayor Dave Holley, who is the city’s Budget Committee chairman, to the city’s Charter Review Committee.
The committee will review the city’s charter for an update. After completing recommendations, the City Council may decide whether to send proposed changes to city voters for approval. The charter outlines the roles of various public officials, including the City Council, and how they function.
The committee also includes former Mayor Tim McQueary and councilors Trask and Gerson. Three at-large positions remain open to Sweet Home residents.
Anyone interested in serving on the committee should contact the city manager’s office at (541) 367-8969 or stop by City Hall, 1140 12th Ave.
n Approved end-of-year transfers for the city’s General Fund for fiscal 2017-18, which ended June 30.
While the city spent $1.2 million less than was appropriated in the General Fund, the Finance Department had $52,000 in additional expenses for the year, including the retirement of a long-term employee and technology upgrades.
The council’s decision transfers funds from non-departmental expenses to the Finance Department, both of which are part of the General Fund.