By Shawna Francis
July 1, 2002

The US Conference of Mayors Small Business Task Force Meeting at the 70th US Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting in Madison, Wisconsin was held on Sunday, June 16, 2002 at 7:30 AM. Mayor Kay Barnes from Kansas City, Missouri and Mayor Dannel Malloy from the City of Stamford (CT) chair the Small Business Task Force. This year the task force highlighted best practices taking place in our nation's cities in an effort to meet the needs of the small businessperson. Task Force Chair Mayor Malloy provided a testimonial on Stamford's new small business initiative and Toni Casey, Director of Intergovernmental Affairs at the Small Business Administration (SBA) spoke on a new initiative the SBA will launch across the country. Although the hour was early, mayoMayor Malloy provided a detail of the City of Stamford's success story in developing and implementing a new Economic Development Program entitled: The Mayor's Imitative for Small BusinessÉPresenting Resources and Opportunities for Business Development. This program was designed to assist small businesses in the greater Stamford area by focusing on presenting resources and information at the federal, state, and local level to address the issues, needs, and concerns of Stamford's small business community.

Mayor Malloy provided a detail of the City of Stamford's success story in developing and implementing a new Economic Development Program entitled: The Mayor's Imitative for Small BusinessÉPresenting Resources and Opportunities for Business Development. This program was designed to assist small businesses in the greater Stamford area by focusing on presenting resources and information at the federal, state, and local level to address the issues, needs, and concerns of Stamford's small business community.

The genesis of this Small Business Initiative dates back to September 2000. Acting on the belief that the City of Stamford could do more to assist small businesses in the greater Stamford area, Mayor Malloy hosted a roundtable discussion in conjunction with Partner America and representatives of local small businesses. Listening to the issues confronting the participants, he assembled a task force comprised of representatives from various government and private agencies to address their concerns for success in Stamford. This resulted in a pooling of resources from the local organizations mandated to assist small business that created leverage and reduced the chance of duplication of efforts and programs.

As a result of Mayor Malloy's charge of meeting the needs of the small businessperson in Stamford, a "New Small Business Loan Fund" was created to assist qualifying businesses located in Stamford via the Community Economic Development Fund. This new segmented loan fund was established with funds from the U.S. Trust Company and First County Bank, and makes term loans and lines of credit available to existing small business owners and people looking to start a new small business. The loans range from $5,000 to $250,000 and can be used for such things as working capital, buying equipment or stocking inventory. Mayor Malloy stated that "There are approximately 6,500 businesses in Stamford, and the majority of these can be classified as small to medium Ms. Casey shared with the task force members the SBA's new "Small Business Community Initiative" that is uniquely designed for each community that is interested in implementing the initiative. Critical elements to its success are the leadership of the mayor and the local economic development team as well as key business leaders. The SBA is the catalyst and leader of the team collaborative effort. This effort combines SBA lending programs, technical assistance, and matchmaking for federal and prime contracts, other Federal and state agency programs, private industry, and city resources to increase capital access and to foster economic growth for small businesses.

Ms. Casey shared with the task force members the SBA's new "Small Business Community Initiative" that is uniquely designed for each community that is interested in implementing the initiative. Critical elements to its success are the leadership of the mayor and the local economic development team as well as key business leaders. The SBA is the catalyst and leader of the team collaborative effort. This effort combines SBA lending programs, technical assistance, and matchmaking for federal and prime contracts, other Federal and state agency programs, private industry, and city resources to increase capital access and to foster economic growth for small businesses.

Two major components make up this initiative. The first component is the economic stimulus package and the second is the one to one matchmaking. Ms. Casey provided three steps to implementing this initiative for cities: 1) The Initial Initiative Meeting with the Mayor and Economic Development Team, 2) The Initiative Roundtable, and 3) the Initiative Kick-Off.

There was interesting discourse around small business programs as a result of the two presentations. Mayors were very engaged in how they could implement similar programs tailored to meet the needs of their small business community. Mayor Jim Torrey of Eugene, Oregon suggested that the SBA develop a one-stop publication on what programs are available on a federal, state and local level to the small businessperson. Ms. Casey stated that the SBA is looking at several different options in making sure there is a more efficient way to provide information on tools available to the small businessperson.

If you are interested in learning more about the programs presented by Mayor Malloy and Ms. Toni Casey, please contact Shawna Francis, Managing Director of the Partner America Program at 877-778-6726 or sfrancis@usmayors.org.