Last December, Forbes Magazine rated Colorado Springs as the worst place (tied with Columbia, S.C.; Akron, Ohio; Asheville, N.C.; and Allentown, Pa.) to find a job in the country.Since then, Amy Lathen, chairwoman of the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners since January, has asked the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce to assemble a group of business people to search for any barriers to business as a result of actions by the government.”To the extent that we’re getting involved and causing problems in the business environment, we’ve got to fix it,” Lathen said.Stephannie Finley, president of governmental affairs for the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce, is spearheading the project.Seventeen people have joined the effort, including Becky Fuller, who works in banking and has helped small businesses secure loans; and Tim Siebert, who helps developers get their applications through the regulatory process, Finley said.The Barriers to Business group is starting with a review of county government.”We’ve discovered the county does a pretty darn good job,” Finley said. “The county has a culture of ‘yes, how can we make it happen,'” Finley said. Sometimes, things go wrong within the county’s process, but it’s not because of any ill will on the staff’s part or any effort to stop things from happening – it’s through honest misunderstandings, she added.When it comes to the county’s land development code, Lathen was not so charitable.She said she thinks parts of the code are too onerous, contradictory and infringe on private property rights.”We have our hearing days on land use and I guarantee there are times when we and our staff cannot figure it out. We cannot make sense of it,” Lathen said. “If we’re struggling, just imagine what that property owner is struggling with. Just imagine what that business owner is struggling with.”She said small and large businesses and commercial developments haven’t been able to start up; or, the bureaucratic maze has run them out of business or out of town.Instead of generating a massive report, the Barriers to Business group plans to report to the BOCC on a regular basis with small recommendations to take to a vote, Finley said.The county’s current land development code was written by county staff and approved by the BOCC in 2005, and it can be changed in much the same way, Lathen said.She said another barrier to business is the county’s poor relationship with Colorado Springs – it makes local government less efficient.”We have not had good relations with the city of Colorado Springs,” Lathen said. “I can’t say exactly why. The last time the city and county met was October 2009.”There are ways we can collaborate – on planning and fleet sharing. We tried to have a meeting with the city all last year, but we simply could not get a meeting with them.”She is hopeful the election of new City Council members will change the county’s relationship with the city.”We’re going to get right in front of them and say, ‘Where should we be working together? Where should we be collaborating?'” Lathen said.As the county tries to eliminate government barriers to business, another barrier could be going up.Last year, the county made a concerted effort to contract with local companies, keeping taxpayer dollars in El Paso County.Currently, the county only spot checks its contractors to make sure they are employing legal workers, Lathen said. She wants to make sure the county’s procurement process does more than just spot check.”We are taking this far beyond what it is now,” she said. “I don’t want this (to be) on the honor system. It may require documentation in place, not just spot checking, but actually having documentation with the contract.”The input that I get from my constituents … is that we need to do the most we can to ensure we’re not employing any illegals in El Paso County.”County administrator, Jeff Greene, said the commissioners are walking a fine line.”We want to keep our costs as low as possible but at the same time ensure the people who are working in the county are legally able and can legally reside here,” Greene said.”The commissioners don’t want to incur unintended consequences that increase our overall cost to do business here in this community.”
