1st Annual Gathering, Oregon Native American Chamber
Warren Jimenez
On October 1st, Sam was the featured speaker for the Oregon Native American Chamber of Commerce 1st Annual Gathering. It was a wonderful evening of Native American drumming and dancing as well as networking with business owners. Here is Sam's speech:
"Good Evening.
I am deeply honored to have been invited to speak to you tonight. The historical contributions to our region and nation you have provided have too often been ignored or underestimated. I venture to say that your organization will definitely help to correct those deficiencies.
I want to preface my remarks by acknowledging the hard work of Janie Millican, President of the Oregon Native American Chamber, as well as Tom Hampson, Executive Director of the Oregon Native American Business Entrepreneur Network. Tonight would be diminished without their outstandingly effective leadership. In fact, each of you should be very proud of this event that launches a more specific targeting of financial resources and a sense of structure, to better achieve your goals.
Additionally, I would like to introduce Warren Jimenez, my Senior Policy Director for Economic Development and Workforce Training. Warren is a member of the Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation in Santa Barbara, California. Before I hired Warren, he worked as an Executive Director of an Economic Development District, a private non-profit dedicated to job creation, retention and business expansion. Warren reflects my intent as a new Commissioner for the City of Portland that I should hire not only qualified staff members, but also individuals who reflect the rich racial and cultural diversity of our community.
I have given you a snapshot of my staff. Now, here is a portrait of Native American businesses in Oregon. Did you know the most recent data (2002), Native American firms in Oregon have increased to over 3,000? And that this represents a 7 percent increase since 1997? In these 5 short years, you have achieved a larger percentage increase than Hispanic-owned and African American-owned firms combined. At the very least, Native American owned businesses, such as yours, are increasing in a healthy manner. Our city needs to support this growth in a viable, strategic way.
You probably want to know what City Council can do to help business owners like you. I want to tell you about one idea I have, what I call the Lease-to-Own Initiative.
We all know that property values are on the rise, and have been for quite some time. As business owners, higher property value works against you. As prices rise, you are forced to spend more and more of your hard-earned assets to pay for rent. By leasing business space in a booming property market, expansion becomes increasingly difficult, if not impossible.
I believe that more Portland business owners should own a ‘piece of the rock,’ or at least the rock on which they are located. What are the potential advantages of this?
First, owning your business space rather than leasing it, provides you a valuable resource which is access to equity. Equity is a valuable resource for business owners because it allows for expansion. It allows for improvement. It helps ensure that small businesses stay in business.
If owners own their workplaces, then they can make the rising property values work for them, and not the other way around. With costs rising, allowing business owners access to additional resources will help them do what they could not do before, which is to re-invest in their businesses. A large percentage of Portland residents like you do not have access to equity, and we hope that this initiative will help to change that.
Second, small businesses create jobs and support our local communities in multiple ways. If we create ways to encourage growth and attract and maintain small businesses, then Portland will reap the benefits.
Although jobs are currently being created in Portland, many of them are not living or family wage jobs and possess few or no benefits. If business owners can own their workplaces and have access to resources, then the potential for growth is real.
Third, minorities historically haven’t had many tangible opportunities for property ownership. With our Lease-to-Own Initiative, minorities will have a better chance to own their own workplaces and improve their position in the community. And when a city improves its minority economic position it attracts a more diverse population. Potential minority entrepreneurs will see that Portland is a good place to do business, and perhaps they will then bring their businesses here.
Our Lease-to-Own Initiative will attract more businesses to Portland because they can buy their own workplaces.
How can you help with this initiative? You can elect a person to participate in an Affordable Workspace Ownership Taskforce which has been charged by City Council to address this issue.
We want to nurture small businesses. We want to provide economic development that is sustainable. We want to encourage job growth. This is how we avoid becoming a polarized community of the wealthy and the working poor.
As you all know, probably better than any other Portlanders, our community has a rich tradition of Native Commerce. The Multnomah and the Chinook people were trading for thousands of years on this very land, and facilitating a vast network of trade with other Tribes, and eventually with European trappers and settlers. Business and trade is an integral part of the Native community and its culture. This culture and community are still vibrant today in Portland and the Pacific Northwest.
I thank you for inviting me to be part of your community tonight. You have kindly given me an opportunity to share with you my thoughts on how the rich heritage of Native Commerce can add vitality to the future City of Portland.
Thank you."
Posted by Warren Jimenez on October 3, 2005
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