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Council reviews small-business engagement follow-up, agrees to an online directory and quarterly updates
Summary
Staff reported on follow-up to the council's small-business engagement working group and local business coalition recommendations, committing to an online, self-managed business directory, tracking LITA applications, pursuing CityWorks permitting review findings, and quarterly reporting to council; public commenters urged more visible county support.
On Dec. 2 the Los Alamos County Council received a staff update on the small-business engagement working group and recommendations from a local business coalition. Staff framed the session as a non-action update but described specific follow-up items, near-term deliverables and areas needing additional work.
Key staff commitments included launching a self-managed online business directory (county website module) for businesses to enter searchable descriptions and NAICS codes; staff said the tool should be available for business input in January. Staff evaluated selling advertising on county transit buses as suggested by the working group but concluded the county lacks the staffing and program infrastructure to manage ad sales and recommended testing the directory first.
On local incentives, staff said 19 expressions of interest were received for LITA retail and one full application has moved forward; roughly one-third of initial interests were incomplete, one-third were maintenance projects not aligned with LITA's economic-benefit requirements, and one-third were promising leads. Staff noted LITA’s requirements (job commitments, collateral) can be onerous for small businesses and offered assistance to interested applicants.
Staff also reported on land-inventory work, limitations tied to county-owned parcels located in Santa Fe County (zoning/permits not under county control), and long-term constraints on developing commercial pads at Smith’s Marketplace due to long-term ground leases with the public school. CityWorks’ external review of county processes is expected to deliver recommendations in December; staff said LA CDC prefers to act as an advocate for applicants rather than as a reviewer.
Councilors and staff discussed strategies to collect better anonymous feedback from applicants, metrics to include in a community dashboard (business-license counts, tax receipts by sector, permitting turnaround), and whether to pursue inspectors on staff for plumbing/electrical trades (staff said volume probably does not support full-time hires but will analyze costs). Staff committed to customer-service training for permitting staff and to present a more metrics-driven quarterly dashboard to the council.
Public comments included small-business owners urging visible county support (attendance at Small Business Saturday, better promotion), and requests to publish permitting performance metrics. Staff said they will provide quarterly updates and incorporate CityWorks' recommendations when available.
