During the election campaign in Tampa earlier this year, virtually a unanimous complaint uttered by all those running for office was that the city's regulatory permitting process was out of control and an impediment to business development.
Certainly Bob Buckhorn criticized that problem. Now that he' s in office, it's his job to do something about it, and the mayor began that process today by announcing that he is forming a committee – specifically called the Economic Competitiveness Committee – to come up with concrete solutions to address the problem.
"Now more than ever we need to make sure that Tampa is known as a place that is open for business," said Buckhorn in a press release. "This is the beginning, not the end of an ongoing process."
This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2011.