The Chamber wants its employees to think and act innovatively. The best case scenario for the Chamber is to lose an employee because he or she started his or her own business. That said, the Chamber does not support employees who use their positions to further their own personal businesses, especially when done at the expense of a member business. Should an employee start a business, he or she ought to work the business on personal time and private property.

Enough said.

The City of Duluth, however, is somewhat different. The fire department has a non-profit working within one of its buildings that competes directly with many small businesses in our region. This business is Fireman’s Mutual Aid (FMA), a thinly disguised altruistic organization that works within the fire department and uses every competitive advantage it can to sell its products to the city and to private business. According to documents received in our office, FMA allegedly pays no rent, no utility bills, and when selling their services, representatives can wear their City of Duluth Fire Department uniforms. Certainly, any small business would envy such advantages.

Although the arrangement between the fire department and Fireman’s Mutual can be considered somewhat altruistic – because the FMA donates a portion of its monies to charitable organizations – the situation actually hurts both the city and private business. Government is hurt because this kind of arrangement damages the business climate. When word of such operations gets around, notions that Duluth is a difficult place in which to do business and that certain parties get special privileges are reinforced. Arrangements such as the one between the fire department and FMA, can lead to corruption and insider trading. Tax collections are also affected – when businesses face unfair obstacles they are less able to expand and pay fewer taxes.

The negative effects arrangements such as the one described have on business are glaring. When private business has to compete with a quasi government organization, it has less to invest in maintenance, hiring, and expansion. It would be no different than a malnourished man entering a sumo wrestling contest – the contest is weighted on the wrong side of the ring.

Government employees have a role to play in our society and we have an obligation to pay them accordingly. They do not have the right to exploit publicly owned assets – the good reputation and physical properties of the fire department - to run a privately held company to the disadvantage of locally owned and operated small businesses.

You should be concerned. The city ought to root out such injustices. They ought to call in an independent auditor/investigator to set things straight. They should end the practice of allowing government to compete with small businesses.

You should act – both mayoral candidates and all the city council candidates have indicated they want to do what is right for our city. Ask each and every one of them what they would do to right this situation. It is our duty to you, as our member, to bring this situation to your attention. It is our collective duty to act. Unless we do, Duluth will continue to have an anti-business reputation and small locally owned business will continue to face unfair competitive advantages from the very government we pay taxes to fund.