The Business Advisory Board (BAB) is made up of city business owners and community leaders who partner with Salt Lake City’s Department of Economic Development. Its members are appointed by the mayor and must be SLC residents and/or have ownership interest in a Salt Lake City business. BAB helps direct city economic policy, promotes small business growth, supports local entrepreneurs, and encourages businesses to relocate to our city.

As part of an ongoing effort to keep SLC’s business community in the loop, the BAB is blogging synopses of our monthly meetings here. (Recordings are available to the public as well.)

How Do Power Outages Affect Your Business?

The June 14th meeting of the Business Advisory Board took place just two days after high winds wreaked havoc along the Wasatch Front. When the news media reports on power outages, we always hear about the number of customers affected. This Monday, Rocky Mountain Power officials said as many as 8,500 customers were without power across the Salt Lake Valley. But how many of those customers were businesses, and how do they quantify the impact?

BAB members spent some time discussing how the business community is affected by the loss of utility services. For example, what happens when a restaurant is forced to close unexpectedly and for an indeterminate amount of time while service is being restored?

The board intends to return to the topic at our July meeting. If you have thoughts, experience, or data in this realm, we would appreciate hearing from you. Please leave a comment below to get the conversation started.

Mission & Values Adopted

In the official business portion of the monthly meeting, BAB held the formal vote to adopt the new mission and value statements we discussed back in March. It was a quick conversation, and the board is pleased to announce they have passed unanimously:

Mission: The Salt Lake City Business Advisory Board (BAB) seeks to foster an equitable and robust business ecosystem as ambassadors, advocates, and advisors.

Values: Commitment, Vision, Respect, Collaboration, Inclusivity, Impact

Board Approves Exploration of Homelessness Subcommittee

Following up on the briefing BAB received from the Mayor’s Deputy Chief of Staff David Litvack in April, the board made a request to Mayor Biskupski for approval to create a sub-committee focused on gathering feedback from the business community about homelessness in the city and the resource centers being established to address it.

There will be ongoing discussion and debate about the nature of the work, how to best engage businesses and serve the city. How should the committee operate? Who will serve on the committee?

The board resolved to take the first important step: voting to begin the work necessary to define this new committee. The Department of Economic Development staff will assist the board in setting appropriate guidelines and practices for the subcommittee’s operation.

City Council & Economic Development Updates

The Salt Lake City Council voted to approve the FY18 budget the night before the BAB meeting. The approved budget includes workforce development and small business outreach programs that the Department of Economic Development (DED) is excited to implement!

The DED has also scheduled the final interviews in the business engagement survey process. We look forward to receiving the aggregated data and results soon.

Enjoy the start of your summer, and I’ll see you in July,

Curtis Thornhill
BAB Secretary & Apt Marketing Solutions CEO