For the first time since the Jimmy Carter administration, the Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce has new leadership and a new lease of life. What does the change mean to our region and your business? Can the tide be turned and a balance found between jobs and neighborhood preservation? How do we manage growth, create jobs, diversify our economy and start attracting new industry? It starts with leadership and it starts with a strong Tucson Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. In order to understand the magnitude of the change, it’s important to understand just how bad the business environment in the Tucson region actually is.
History
Over the past 32 years the TMCC spun off or chased away most of the associations or chambers that we’ve come to know. Here’s a list of the spin offs from the TMCC over the past 32 years; the MTCVB, the Tucson Rodeo Committee, GTEC (TREO’s predecessor), Southern Arizona Leadership Council, SALEO (the transportation and logistics organization), Caballeros Del Sol (a 60+ year old organization of business ambassadors), and Greater Tucson Leadership. The Marana Chamber of Commerce, The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Northern Pima Chamber of Commerce enjoyed membership growth as TMCC membership declined. TMCC membership peaked at 3,300 in 1997 and was the largest Chamber in the State. Today the membership is between 1,100 and 1,500. As the business voice fragmented and new boards formed and executive directors were hired by an alphabet soup of business group acronyms (GTL, TREO, SOLARA, SALC, SALEO, NAWBO, ASBA, DM50, TIA…), the condition for business and our influence in the political process dwindled.
The Tucson region was riding high in the late 80’s. We opened La Paloma and Ventana Canyon. We shifted from selling sunshine to selling resorts. The market was booming and the real estate industry made a lot of money. By the late 80’s and into the early 90’s, the tide started turning. In 1989, IBM left citing a newly enacted tax placed on them by the City of Tucson. The election of Tom Volgy as Mayor in 1987 ushered in bolstered neighborhoods, government in charge of economic development and the viewing of the business community as the punching bag from open space goals and evil infill developers that ‘change the character of historic neighborhoods.’
Present Day
Fast forward to present day. The Wall Street Journal ranked Tucson 95th out of 101 for business friendliness just behind Detroit. To understand just how far we’ve come, Tucson hasn’t opened a Costco since the Price Club days, 18 years ago. The commercial real estate industry has wrestled with big box ordinances. National site selectors are skipping over Tucson based on a reputation for a two-year development review and zoning process. Concessions that border on shakedowns are extracted to get development projects approved. A chosen few seem to get all the favors. We read about Rio Nuevo and developers that have contributed $50,000 to Skrappy’s Youth Lounge or cut a $15,000 check and $2,500 a month for 15 years to a neighborhood association in order to get the privilege to build student housing along the light rail track. Anyone want to guess why we have a mini dorm problem?

The TMCC board wrangled with their decision between a local candidate or an out of towner. The local person could bring credibility and immediate results but lacked ‘big’ chamber experience and an out of towner that knows the Chamber business would have difficulty navigating the minefield of local power players and business organizations. In the end the chamber split the job bringing in Mike Varney from the Northern Vegas Chamber of Commerce. Varney worked for years at the Las Vegas Chamber in the marketing and sales arena. The Vegas Chamber has over 7,000 members. With that many members the ability to speak out for business takes on a whole new meaning. Varney is supported with local business leader Bill Holmes. Bill comes to the job from Wells Fargo where he rose up to become the community relations director. The duo has a big job ahead of them and they are going to need all of our support. If the Varney/Holmes team can pull it off, we have a fighting chance to correct course.
In order to fix the TMCC and fix the region’s reputation of being negative towards growth and business there has to be some shakeups and bold changes. Here are a few suggestions and places the new management should start:

• Reload the board. The TMCC board is already undergoing transition. CEO from Casino Del Sol, Wendell Long and Colleen Edwards from Tucson Appliance and Fletcher McCusker the CEO of Providence and champion for private sector investment downtown are fresh new additions.

• Focus on policy. Chambers focus on four things–group discounts to members, education and training, networking and marketing and finally advocating for business. The TMCC falls short in all these areas. There is such a vacuum for policy leadership that if they get that right the rest can come and membership will grow.

• Economic Development. We need to take a hard look at the assets that are unique to our region. Relationships with Mexico combined with an aggressive transportation logistics plan are natural fits. TREO is focusing on the ‘white lab coat’ jobs but so is the rest of the US. In the same week Chandler announces a $4 billion investment by Intel, Tucson announces 400 call center jobs.

• Support Big and Small Businesses alike. The business community knows that if they stand up, speak up or push too hard, the weight of the bureaucracy will come down on them. A local pest control owner, Shelby Hawkins, sued the city and was visited by a fire inspector, a sign inspector, and a zoning inspector from the City. She’s been at the same location for 23 years and had never been visited. Is that a coincidence or is it fear and intimidation?

The TMCC must stand up for the best interest of business. We encourage the TMCC to stand up for business, stand up for jobs and stop trying to please all sides.
Joe Higgins is a local entrepreneur and owner of Sports Buzz Haircuts and Talking Trash Waste Removal. He is actively involved in local business and political efforts aimed at improving the climate for business in Tucson and all of Arizona. Joe is the co-host of Wake Up Tucson that airs daily from 6-8am on KVOI the Voice 1030am. He can be reached at joe@joehigginsinc.com.