October 22, 2003

Interview: Mayoral Candidate Phil Busse Discusses Small Business, Public Involvement

Early this month, I sent requests for "mini-interviews" about small business issues and neighborhood involvement issues to mayoral candidates Phil Busse, Jim Francesconi, James Posey, and Tom Potter.

These initial emails were sent in early October. To date, no candidate other than Busse, who of course is also managing editor of The Portland Mercury, has responded (in fact, he responded within hours) to what I termed a "mini-interview request."

While I had intended to wait until I had heard from most, if not all, of these four candidates, I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to expect to have heard back from them by now -- after all, a website and email address is only worth anything is the campaigns bother to make use of them.

It should be noted, however, that I have recently been in touch with the Potter campaign, whose lack of response may have been due to an email outage. So, in theory, expect a post similar to this one, but regarding Tom Potter instead of Phil Busse, in the near future.

What follows is the product of an email exchange which ran intermittently from my original inquiry until today, as Busse juggled his responsibilities at the Mercury and as coach for the University of Portland crew team.

I've assembled the exchange into a logical, rather than purely chronological order.

Portland Communique: For me, the two most pressing issues for the mayoral campaign are those surrounding small business in Portland (including matters such as local and regional "micro-economies"), and those regarding the growing disconnection amongst City decision-making/makers, neighborhoods, and residents.

So starting today, to kick off some actual coverage of the mayoral race for Portland Communique, I'm asking announced mayoral candidates to give me their perspectives on both of these issues, as well as two or three specific actions they'd take in response to them.

Phil Busse: Thanks for contacting me. Yes, I agree. I think that attention to small businesses is perhaps the most pressing issue. I have been excited to hear this from several candidates as well.

I'm a big proponent of getting rid of fees for small businesses. Portland is a remarkable city because of its small, entrepreneur businesses. City hall should encourage these - and districts like Hawthorne, Belmont, Alberta - as much as possible. The current fee structures discourage businesses.

I have heard from too many small-business owners that they are saddle with costs and don't know what they receive in return. Before my current position, I was on the faculty at the University of Oregon School of Business where I managed the Center for Entrepreneurship. There, I really saw how even the smallest gesture of helping can be a big boost for small businesses.

Communique: How would you as Mayor move to support Portland's small business community without incurring the wrath of much larger and more corporate businesses in the area? What are the dynamics surrounding the contributions to life in Portland made by small business that makes them more important for the City's future than trying to attract (for example) major corporate headquarters?

Busse: I certainly don't think that supporting big and small businesses are mutually exclusive. In fact, I think that both can learn from each other. Perhaps one of the best examples is/was Columbia Sportwear, definitely a large company that maintained its "small" company feel. Portland city hall should be ashamed that they allowed Columbia to leave Portland. The business community - all sized businesses - lost a great resource.

I think that the charm and the importance of small businesses is that they allow an opportunity for individuals to truly express and challenge themselves. Of course, this can happen with large companies, but with small businesses, there is an increased intimacy between the success of the company and a person's job. Think about any small store, whether a clothing store along Hawthorne or a software company hidden in a loft downtown. If that company only has 5 employees, there is virtually no separation between the company and the worker. That type of connection breeds pride, which truly is the cornerstone for a city that cares about itself.

I'm not saying that a big corporation can't create similiar pride and provide wonderful lives/lifestyles for its employees. But there is a measureable difference between a mid-level manager who is a cog in a large machine and an employee whose performance essentially makes or break a company.

How do we encourage small businesses? We great an environment that fosters those businesses. The city should create services for enterpreneurs, like legal advice, like business incubators, like networks. When business owners say that they are not receiving anything in return for the fees that they pay the city this creates a bad relationship. There needs to be a quid pro quo.

In addition, cities like Atlanta have created remarkable programs that use large corporation (i.e., Coca-Cola) executives to help advise small businesses and non-profits. Portland has remarkable wealth of talent that needs a forum for such exchanges.

Communique: And, not so incidentally, what definition do you use to determine what is a small business and what is not? For example, the recently-released Small Business Prosperity Strategy commissioned by the Portland Business Alliance and the Portland Development Commission focused its real attention on businesses with 10 employees or less, arguing that if every local business of that size were to hire one more employee, we'd have back the 39,000 jobs lost in the past couple of years.

Busse: Certainly a company under 10 employees qualifies. Yes there should be guidelines but, in some ways, I think that the emphasis needs to be encourage a "small business" mentality, not necessarily a hard-and-fast rule on numbers.

As far as the disconnect between the city's population and city hall, I'm still burned about Francesconi's vote AGAINST an anti-war resolution. 5000 postcards were sent lobbying him to vote for it, and he went against that overwhelming wish. I can't stand idle as Francesconi runs for mayor. Perhaps there are better ways to express my frustration (like going to the batting cages) but I threw my name in the ring.

Communique: How about the larger issue this raises: What is the proper balance between an elected official representing the will of the community in each decision he or she makes versus making an informed judgment of his or her own based upon their own beliefs and/or conscience?

Busse: This is a difficult question. The ultimate goal is, of course, an informed and intelligent decision. In spite of the criticism that Bill Clinton received early in his tenure for being a "moderate" or for "compromising," I appreciate the amount of research he did into issues. He had an extensive process where he solicited input from affected constituents, from "experts," from his staff.

Using the current to cap/not to cap Mt Tabor reservior controversy as an example, I think that city council really screwed up not necessarily because of the outcome but because of the process. They should have consulted not only "experts," like they arguably did. But they should have consulted those most affected - the residents in the neighborhood. By not consulting those affect, they effectively poisoned any decision they made. Ultimately, city council did not need to argee with what residents said, but they needed to ask for input.

Also, after Kendra James, a 21-year old African American woman, was shot after a routine traffic stop, I was appalled how the mayor reacted. She promised a community forum and then postponed it for almost two months. The mayor should be a "leader." She should have stepped forward, apologized to James' family and friends. The current administration simply does not fulfilled the need for a leader.

I'm not saying that I'm the best person to do this, but as long as I'm going to complain (publicly) about this, I should at least step forward and try to do something. As far as what I am doing specifically to address this disconnect, I believe that my campaign is designed to address that concern: I have started something called a "big book of complaints."

I carry it to each function that I attend and ask people to write down frustations that they have with city hall and, more important, to offer solutions to problems. (I have been amazed at the depth of concern and suggestions.) I also am trying to limit my campaign events to small functions. We are hosting a couple dinners at ripe and allowing only the first 40 to sign up to attend. I want to be able to truly talk to each person who attends a campaign event. This process may take a bit longer, but I hope that it proves that a campaign can be run mor intimately than a series of TV ads.

Communique: What is your perception of the various changes and processes currently underway at the Office of Neighborhood Involvement? Anything from the Public Involvement Standards Task Force, to the GREAT Committee (reviewing the guidelines under which the City's neighborhood associations function), to Commissioner Leonard's push to make ONI a "two-track" bureau which distributes access to City services directly out into the neighborhood themselves, in addition to being the conduit for neighborhood involvement in decision-making?

Busse: I am exceedingly interested to see how the pilot project of this project works out. It is set to open in the Kenton neighborhood on November 1, I believe. I think that Randy's push to make services more available is admirable. The concept of making city services more accessiable is important step towards making residents understand and appreciate what the city can do for them. It also has the potential to help strengthen the core of neighborhoods by creating a nucleus around which each neighborhood can build.

In theory, this system - essentially with each ONI outpost acting as a nerve ending - is great. City hall needs to make itself more available. Whether this program succeeds or fails, I like it because at least city hall is at least trying! Kudos to Randy and ONI.

My thanks to Phil Busse for sticking with this back-and-forth amidst his other obligations. In the coming days, I hope to have similar conversations with the other announced mayoral candidates.

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