City needs to do more to help struggling businesses

My name is Brett Marlo DeSantis. Some of you know me, however I will properly introduce myself.

I am a City of Gig Harbor small business owner. My company Brett Marlo Design Build is almost ten years old and employs five workers, four of whom live in Gig Harbor. I’m in my sixth year of tenancy at the Harbor History Museum’s warehouse in our beautiful downtown core ...

Here’s why I’m writing to you today. I’m asking you for your service and leadership.

Our City of Gig Harbor SMALL businesses need your support in a BIG way right now. We will not survive if we do not collaborate and share resources.

I realize the City of Gig Harbor is a business and is suffering like the rest of us. However, we need you to dig deep and offer us financial support and relief. I fear if you don’t, you will not have an attractive, welcoming or even existing downtown business core to attract the tourism that fills the city’s coffers once we are able to get back to business and travel.

I’ve watched for years as our citizens fight to preserve the small scale and attraction of our city. If we allow our small businesses to go under, we will have big business and developers offering bailouts, and the City of Gig Harbor might be so financially tapped that you consider this option. Don’t let this happen.

The way to prevent this possible outcome and the loss of our character and small core shops and services is to dig deep and help us now; Later will be too late.

Cavalry is not coming

The Federal government is not coming to our rescue. Trust me, we’ve tried. SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan is taking applications and giving no responses. The SBA paycheck protection program to protect our workforce is practically gone in a matter of days and yet no one I know in our community was funded yet.

On a state level, we have filed for grants to help with cash flow and I haven’t heard of any locally based company funded.

I have attended all the Pierce County’s Economic webinars. There are some cities doing what’s needed. For example, The City of Tacoma is actively addressing their businesses with many forms of financial support and relief starting with small steps like utility waivers to bigger offers, like cash grants for small businesses.

I looked at the City of Gig Harbor’s website to see what I could learn about Covid response. There’s much about the city’s remote meetings but no offer of support. So I called the civic center, I was told that there might be a month utility waiver. This is not enough of a local response to a very local need.

We’re doing our part

My construction sites are shut down, and it’s with good reason to put a stop to the virus. Like everyone else, I am still doing my best to keep my business going by working from home virtually and by telephone. I continue my community service and support from home. In fact last week, as Chair of the Design Review Board, we successfully conducted our first virtual go to meeting. I attend Rotary meetings via Zoom. It’s possible to show up and help even without physically showing up.

However, I cannot tell you how many hours, days and past weeks I have dedicated of this quarantine to finding funds to support my crew. They are amazing people and we’ve become a great team.

Even though I’ve stayed on top of this ever-evolving Federal offering of small business loans and grants, and I’ve filed for whatever I can get my hands on. I’ve seen nothing. My fellow small business owners have seen nothing.

We’ve done our part to help stop the virus. We’ve stayed home. We’ve closed our shops and offices. Please help us stave off permanently closing small businesses. We simply don’t have the resources.

We need you to get in the red like us so that we can all get back in the black together. If we go down, the city will suffer both in the short term and more importantly the long term. However if the city can reallocate it’s own resources right now so that we can band together, we will all make it out of this a bit scarred but in one piece. Our businesses, once thriving again, will be able to give back to the City in so many ways.

While I am an active community member, I choose carefully when to speak up about issues. This is a crisis and we need your financial support immediately. I am not alone in this request and will be sharing this letter with the businesses who have asked to join me in this pursuit.

I have watched true leadership surface in many communities due to these hard times. I ask you to do the same and rise to the occasion.

Since writing this opinion piece, Brett Marlo DeSantis reports that her business has received some PPP funds and the county is now allowing City of Gig Harbor businesses to apply for their micro loan program as well.

This story was originally published April 28, 2020 at 12:00 AM.