Chamber’s mission is to help retain city’s business community

To the editor:
    This past week I’ve been asked by several people (some business people, some citizens), who watched the April 14 Caribou City Council meeting to send the comments I made during the public hearing regarding the city of Caribou’s Municipal Budget as a” letter to the editor.”     I would like to further preface those to address one concern brought to me the following day. We are not, it is true, an actual department of the city of Caribou; we are not (as one might remember in the lawsuit which was upheld in Superior Court in November of 2005) required to disclose our financials under the Freedom of Access Act. We do appear on the public notices the same way all other departments within the municipal budget do; and as such I did refer to us as a “department.”
    Here are my comments from the meeting:
    In 2004 we went through our last re-organization: and as a board and a city council decided to focus on “business retention” rather than continuing to spend money on “business attraction.” We reduced our appropriation from $235,000 to $155,000 (in 2004). We have remained flat funded the last five years; we are the only “department” in the city of Caribou which has absorbed all increased expenses. Our operating costs go up every year, too — postage, phone, utilities, insurances, auditing, the cost of our annual events; we have been, and continue to be, committed to being fiscally responsible.
    Beginning in ‘04, we developed a Scope of Work or a business plan, which is tied to our budget and the calendar year. We have had a Scope of Work each year since … it is updated with the input of our Board, which is comprised of nine business members, and two ex-officios: the city manager, and a councilor. They are a part of our planning process, just as they are a part of our budgeting process.
    I have always given our work plan to anyone and everyone who comes in our offices, or asks any questions: what am I doing with your tax money? Every year, as a part of our business plan, we add new services, not just for our members, but for all businesses in our community.
    We became a 501 c-6 in 2000 when the Chamber and Caribou Development Corp merged to form a “united” economic development agency, and a chamber. While this concept isn’t uncommon in other areas, we are the only such entity in the state. Interestingly, last fall, I began speaking with Stephanie Slokum, with the city of Freeport because Freeport, Maine is looking at Caribou as its model — as it plans to unite its economic development agency with its chamber of commerce. I’ve provided them with quite a bit of historical material, and I have pledged perhaps some of you listening this evening to being willing participants as they look down the road to come to Caribou and talk to us. Surely there are lessons to be learned, and good, free, productive, advice we can give them! Imagine that — Freeport, Maine.
    According to both the USDA and FAME our loan portfolio is one of the best rated in Maine, with the lowest bad debt ratings of any across the state. Last month we applied for a highly competitive FAME grant for additional loan funds and one of the things we were asked to address in our application, was the economic need for funds. I’d like to take just one more minute of your time to reflect on the businesses we hope we are helping to retain, and the struggles they tell us about: out of just under 40 active loan clients, I believe we have three — only three — who either offer health insurance for the owners (at what I believe the health care field is terming “the under-insured”), or for their employees. Three.
    The majority of our clients, members or businesses talk to us about fuel oil, health insurance, rising utilities, rising gas prices — and up until the last month — snow removal. Some of them have scaled back, just to maintain — they’ve not bought new equipment, not built on, not added new lines of products or services. One client last month, made their payment, and told me, it was us or MPS — but it was my lucky month (this is not re. membership dues!) Well now — MPS — there’s one you can’t opt out on too often. But really, the people juggling payments in our community, I do not believe they are as few and far between as we might like to think. They aren’t on “welfare,” they are the small business owners we all deal with on a regular basis.
    This has been a hard year for everyone — and I understand the budgeting process is difficult and time consuming, and as councilors, CIP committee members, and municipal staff, I thank you for your time and resolve. Public service is our reason for being here, all of us — surely the idea we are all trying to do our part to work together in making Caribou a better community is the overriding factor which unites us. This is home, many of us are life-long residents, home owners, with children in the school system, we are here because we want to be and we have the same goal, I know we do. We need our small businesses, we need to focus on growing together, and helping our small businesses grow. Thank you for your consideration.
    Our primary mission is to help the business community within the city, We seek to work closely with the city, and we are supported (in part) financially by the city of Caribou. As such, I have always maintained part of my job to the taxpayers in this community, is to be able to look anyone in the eyes, and justify what/how we are spending their money on, in what I believe is a fiscally responsible manner. I encourage anyone with concerns, questions, or comments to stop in our offices, anytime (or call or e-mail us).
Wendy Landes,
business developer/financial officer
CCC&I