By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
[email protected]
Again, and again, people have voiced their displeasure at the small business environment in Los Alamos. Fingers are pointed at the County government for its treatment of local entrepreneurs, rent prices for commercial buildings and Los Alamos National Laboratory for usurping all the available spaces.
It is easy to compile a list of grievances but figuring out a solution is much more difficult.
Los Alamos County Council tackled this issue of finding the most effective way to bolster the local business environment during its work session Jan. 14.
After a lengthy discussion, Council Chair Theresa Cull agreed to establish a working group to report back to council in three to six months about the existing organizations working on small business issues, what are their concerns and issues as well as review the recent small business survey that was put out by the County Economic Development Division and the concerns it raised. Councilors Melanee Hand, Randall Ryti, David Reagor and Ryn Herrmann volunteered to be on the working group.
Ryti pointed out that improving the small business community has been a council priority for years, but he gave its efforts a failing grade.
“Obviously what we have been doing hasn’t been successful,” he said, noting that in a recent community survey people expressed their displeasure for this topic.
Randall listed off council’s recent efforts – Havemann, Reagor and Randall were selected to serve on the MainStreet Futures Group and there has been a council liaison on the Los Alamos Commerce and Development Corporation. Plus, council has approved and adopted several plans.
“There’s a lot of things we can build on,” he said, adding, “It makes sense to me just to have as many opportunities for engagement and ideas for trying to make progress, given where we’ve been and sometimes, obviously, there’s national issues we hear about … (and we can) hear about what other communities are going through …”
Councilor Beverly Neal-Clinton supported the idea of looking to other communities to see how they achieved their successes.
“I think if we see a model that is working maybe we could go talk to those people and see how they’re doing it,” she said.
Take Rio Rancho, for example, Neal-Clinton said. She pointed out the County could connect with the city’s officials and see how they streamlined different processes.
Several councilors said the wheel did not need to be reinvented; there are many organizations already at work on these issues.
Councilor Suzie Havemann identified a few of these entities: MainStreet Futures Team, MainStreet Los Alamos, the Economic Vitality Action Team, Los Alamos Commerce and Development Corporation, the Small Business Development Center, projectY and the newly formed Los Alamos Local Business Coalition.
“I think there is a lot of things we can do to improve communication and engagement and collaboration and opportunities for listening and learning and improving,” she said. “I don’t know if I am such a big fan of a new working group or task force for a number of different reasons. I am very much in support of kind of that third option, which would be to ensure that we have council participation in a regular and consistent and reliable basis with established entities.”
Herrmann agreed.
“I would like to see councilors engaging more with what already exists,” she said. “The chamber, LACDC, they have a lot of different opportunities to engage with the business community …”
Cull advocated for more structure and said she felt a working group gives a clear understanding of who is doing what.
“I think at some point we may need to have a more formal process to try to address the current concerns we’ve heard,” she said.
She said she doesn’t want to step on any toes and the idea is to hear from everyone. Cull also suggested that council liaisons reports be given more prominence on council agendas so that they are not being made at midnight.
There was some discussion about directing County staff to address these issues; however, County Manager Anne Laurent noted that “I am happy to commit to some sort of routine update from economic development staff in coordination with our partner contractors … I appreciate staff contribution, I also don’t think operationally, the County is going to solve all these topics. I think they are bigger than just the County. I think the broader conversation is also important.”
She added a dashboard on economic health could be setup to show the status of this topics.
Local business owners weighed in on the issue.
Los Alamos Local Business Coalition and J&L Storage Owner John Courtright emphasized that all businesses need to be included in the conversation.
“We sometimes need more feedback … I think that’s where our issue is – sometimes we are not getting enough (opportunities for) working together …,” Courtright said.
Optometrist Lisa Shin encouraged not just communication but action. She said when businesses leave Los Alamos, the County should be asking what could have been done to prevent that. Shin added that it seemed ironic that the council would discuss how to help businesses when at the same meeting it was discussing raising gross receipt taxes and charging a fee for plastic bags that will hurt businesses.
In other business, council:
- Voted 6-1, with Reagor opposed, to endorse the guidance for Fiscal Year 2026 budget as requested. Highlights of the guidance to stay within FY2026 biennial projected amount include: Keep requests to absolute necessary (considering status of unspent funds, carryovers and encumbrances), limit requests for full-time employee positions, if any, and tie requests to council goals and strategic priorities, adjust non-union salaries by more than 3 percent, adjust group health by more than 5 percent, adjust for increases in interdepartmental costs by more than 10 percent and consider a quarter or half percent gross receipt tax (GRT) increment increase before July 1 to support capital plans and future operational budgets. It was reported during the meeting that GRT ended higher than projected in FY2024 but the expected decline in GRT due to the laboratory’s pit manufacturing is re-confirmed and may be even more acute. The need for an incremental increase in GRT will remain in FY2026 and FY2027. Reagor has opposed the incremental increase in GRT since it was first proposed to council during the FY2025 budget hearings. Hearings for the FY2026 budget hearing will be held in April.
- Unanimously approved that the proposed ordinance that would prohibit feeding wildlife should consider additional input analysis including traffic accident data, experience from town of Ruidoso, and other information as appropriate before it returns to council.
- Postponed discussion on an ordinance to address vacant commercial properties in Los Alamos.
- Approved 6-1, with Reagor opposed, to direct the Environmental Sustainability Board to investigate implementing a 10-cent fee for plastic bags. Reagor said he felt the fee deprived people from making their own choices.
- Agreed to not address an ordinance for minimum wage increases.
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