Last Monday (12/10/07) I addressed the city council about financial incentives to businesses and residency within the City of Shawnee. I have waited almost a week to post my thoughts about what transpired because, if posted earlier, my anger towards the arrogance of one councilman would have been obvious
Again, I must reiterate, that personally I support most incentives to bring business to Shawnee.
When companies get financial assistance to either open new or expand existing businesses I feel that they have an unwritten obligation to attempt to also bring new residents into the city.
Ideally, such a concept would be a requirement of any asistance package, but this is NOT feasible. Another alternative would be to offer additional incentives (carrots) if not only new jobs were created, but new rsidents also. In reality, the only thing that can be hoped for at this time would be an annual report from these companies that gave the city very basic info as to how many of their employees reside within the city. New residents also contribute in many ways to the financial viability of the city.
Ironically, it is possible (and I failed to mention it at the time) that those responsible could use that info to attract even more new businesses. What a wonderful sales tool........."Not only is Shawnee attractive to businesses but the employees of those businesses also find it attractive to reside here".
Anyway, here is where the problems began with Herr Arrogance aka Pfrick. Mr Pflumm indicated that he thought it would take too long for a business to prepare that info. Au contraire. A company's human resource department could extract that info in a matter of minutes by a ZIP code search of their employee database. I am NOT talking about detailed employee profiles. Something very simple: i.e. out of 32 employees 8 live within Shawnee ZIP codes. Modern computer technology would allow a firm even with thousands of employees to extract that info in minutes. It is understood that there are a few ZIP codes that are shared with other cities, but hopefully not enough to skewer the info too badly. What we are looking for here is a healthy estimate. Just like the estimates as to what new businesses bring to the economy over a period of years.
The one item that really got things "going" was when I mentioned that new residents would be doing more shopping closer to home (Shawnee). Mr Pflumm then regaled us with his commentary of how one of his male employees, who lives in Overland Park, did his grocery shopping in Shawnee, places the items in the refrigerator at the office and then takes the items home. I tried to point out that that was probably the exception rather than the rule. Just ask most families where they do the bulk of their grocery shopping (among other things). Mr Pflumm tended to disagree with that.
Here's the fun part. At that point I said "Gimme a break" and he replied "No I will not give you a break". Ahhhhh, what fun...............out of respect for the rest of the council I did not pursue that comment. Mr Pflumm took my comment literally. What he failed to realize was that that comment, when stated in a manner of exasperation means something like "Gimme a break, and quit trying to BS us" Oh well, he would have us believe that one man on his staff of 12 is indicative of shopping trends. Curious, never did ask if the gentleman was married or single. That could make a difference.
Anyway, it would still be nice to know if any of these businesses that receive financial incentives also attract new residents to the city. Even if it is just an informational report with no strings attached. Another upside could be for businesses applying for incentives to expand. What a great argument on their side if they could show that they have aided the city in growing its population.
What really bothers me is that apparently Mr Pflumm did not think it was important to find out if companies that are getting financial incentives are also helping the city to grow in other ways.
