Well, Mayor Adam Barringer has floated his plan for comment and while it contains some good parts (especially where he identifies the threats, although he missed few that reside by the water), I guess I should first thank him for using my suggested vision for the city. So, thanks Adam, and I hope if helps set the course.
But that said, I find the plan lacking an essential and critical first step, one that if not addressed up front will end up being what we would call in the military, a "war stopper" to the entire plan.
That missing step is the failure to address the excessive personnel and pension costs, which drive up city taxes, as well as the bloated and overpaid management staff that claims to "run" the city government on a daily basis.
During the recent election I referred to that as reinventing government. And why is this a war stopper? Because if the city is poorly managed and has uncontrolled and excessive personnel costs, taxes will only get worse and no thriving business will want to re-locate to such an environment no matter what we throw at them as incentives.
Yes, Adam did address the streamlining of the business relocation and permitting process, but we will never see a business get to that step in the process when they see the taxes and excessive salaries of the city staff.
So Adam, as much as I support your effort and want it to succeed, I strongly urge you to instead of only addressing the facilitation side of the economic development issue, that you first address the salaries, pensions, and excessive benefits accorded to city staff so we can lower taxes, not increase them. Then the businesses will come, for as I said last week, they (business) don't like to spend money on bananas for 800-pound gorillas.
Editor's Note: The mayor's economic development plan was posted in draft form Monday on the Home page NSBNEWS.net for public inspection. A final version will be presented to the City Commission Tuesday night.