The Business Community Role In Government

Does the business community try to influence government? Of course! Business groups all across the country schmooze government officials.

Paul Timpanelli is president and chief executive of the Bridgeport Regional Business Council, a business advocacy group that includes Bridgeport, Stratford and Trumbull. How does the business community interact with government? From education, to regional cooperation, to political fundraising, the business community has a role in government. It’s called government relations. Timpanelli provided this update to his business community constituents.

As our economy continues to show signs of improvement, albeit relatively slow with minimal real jobs growth, it should be clear to all of us that there are lessons to be learned resulting from this recent recession. First, in a democratic society, it is incumbent upon all of us to be ever-vigilant of what goes on, or doesn’t go on, in the halls of our government. This recession was caused by a near collapse of the financial services sector of our economy and that condition was created by the complete lack of oversight and regulatory sanity over this major segment of our economy. We need to do better and as businesses we need to be better participants in the halls of government.

So, I remind our Business Council members today of one of the roles that we play on behalf of our members. That is our government relations role. We serve as the watchful voice of our members by carefully tracking what goes on locally and statewide, and to some degree federally, in the halls of government that might impact business. Not a day goes by at the Business Council where we don’t spend some time with an elected official talking about the need to create a pro-business, pro-jobs environment in our communities, our region, our state and nationally.

Just over the last few weeks, the following things occurred: we distributed a copy of our Board of Directors adopted “BRBC 2011 Legislative Agenda” to every legislator in the state; we corresponded with legislators on bills being debated in Hartford to increase paid sick-leave costs on businesses, increase worker’s compensation costs, and provide relief to small businesses; we met with Congressman Himes’ Chief of Staff to discuss federal issues of concern and to secure the help Congressman’s support for regional jobs growth initiatives; we submitted three applications for federal economic development funding to the Economic Development Administration through our regional CEDS work; we spent some time with Bridgeport’s newly elected State Representative Charles Stallworth; we put together the agenda for our newly established “One Coast Regional CEO / Legislative Caucus” meeting for April 29; we wrote and submitted an editorial to the CT Post on the need for regulatory reform; and we worked through our Government Relations Committee and Board of Directors to establish a BRBC position relative to Governor Malloy’s proposed state budget.

So in addition to the significant work that we do in establishing our business networks for our members, servicing our member company’s needs, advocating and marketing for our communities and region, building coalitions around our agenda, working on the health care and education improvement issues, our work in environmental sustainability and business retention and expansion, let us not forget that our work in the government relations arena is a priority on behalf of our member businesses. Certainly it won’t, in and of itself, prevent a future recession, but the more people that are engaged in watching and participating in the workings of our representative form of government, the better our representatives will perform on our behalf.

A successful representative democracy requires our participation.