Nguyen: Small business needs a champion

The headlines are depressingly similar. Month after month, we see stories about long-time small businesses closing their doors forever.

It has been four years since the pandemic devastated California, yet many of our legacy businesses have never recovered.  First hit by closures, they have also been severely impacted by inflation, rising commercial rents, and slow return to work, particularly in our downtown core.

I see it every day. Owners of mom-and-pop restaurants tell me they can no longer afford to stay in San Jose. Small contractors have seen jobs evaporate due to the slowdown in construction.  And many small businesses are affected by homelessness and retail theft.

Our county’s approach has failed these small businesses.  Our restaurants, stores and service providers are not only vital to our economy, but they bring the cultural flair that defines Santa Clara County.  Many have invested their life savings and they work hard to be independent.

That’s why I am passionately committed to a better county where our small businesses have our support and can be proud to operate.

We cannot sit back and watch them struggle — while they’re being expected to spend more on security, dealing with increased costs, and being subject to more regulations.  We need a new model based on streamlined processes and aggressive outreach.

As a San Jose councilmember, I made it a priority to support small businesses in my district. I worked directly with many local businesses to help them navigate city bureaucracy so they could get necessary permits to open and expand.  I know that far too often local government doesn’t prioritize helping small operations access contracting opportunities or connect with available services.

In fact, earlier this year, a study revealed that Santa Clara County only awards a fraction of its contracts to small, minority-owned businesses. Of the $2.4 billion awarded by the county from July 2016 to June 2022, only about 15% went to minority or women-owned businesses and less than 1% went to Black, Hispanic or Native American-owned businesses.

Although resources were spent on outreach, the benefits to the minority business community were disappointing.  The end result is that contracts and services go to large operations that rely on pre-existing relationships or can devote the resources to untangle the red tape, while up-and-coming businesses are shut out.

It’s a shame that it took a decade of advocacy and a two-year study to state what many others have already known.  The current approach is broken.

I’m running for county supervisor because I know that our government needs to be held accountable. We must create an environment that attracts and supports small and diverse businesses. It’s not enough to say that we’ll do better.

We need to become champions of effective outreach to small businesses and contractors, and ensure that they can access available opportunities. We need to work with local business organizations like the ethnic chambers of commerce to connect businesses to county procurement officers, and we need to reduce red tape that makes it daunting for small businesses to seek contracts.  And the county’s contracting database must be made searchable on-line, accessible for small businesses, and transparent to the public.

Beyond that, we need to aggressively activate our public spaces to support our local restaurants and storefronts.  With fewer office workers returning to downtown San Jose, we must counteract that impact by creating lively, vibrant events that bring people and dollars to our commercial corridors.

And we need to help small businesses with targeted rental assistance and pop-up location opportunities so we can fill vacant storefronts and provide new opportunities for emerging enterprises.  Additionally, many businesses are victims of theft, property damage, and graffiti.  Until we, as a county, can work to dramatically reduce these crimes, we need to explore a program that will reimburse small businesses for some of their out-of-pocket expenses.

The county must work together with San Jose and other cities, to the benefit of all.

We hear about looming county budget deficits but not about solutions like creating more economic opportunities.  It is unacceptable for our county to sit back while we see our small businesses struggling and closing.

We need to show small businesses that we value them — starting with ensuring that our county dollars are spent supporting them.  As District 2 supervisor I will be an ally for change and accountability.  It’s time for business-as-usual to undergo a transformation.

Madison Nguyen is a former San Jose councilmember and vice mayor. She is running for Santa Clara County Supervisor in District 2.

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