- June 29, 2024
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The Palm Coast-Flagler Regional Chamber of Business is celebrating its fourth anniversary and will pass on the torch of board chair.
Garry Lubi, the current board chair and co-founder of the Chamber, will turn over his seat to local attorney Michael Chiumento III at the Chamber's annual meeting — themed "Set Sail for Success" — on June 26 at Channelside at 1 Yacht Club Drive. The anniversary meeting will also feature an awards ceremony and State Rep. Tom Leek as the event's featured speaker.
The board chair has two-year terms and, Lubi said, the Chamber is "ready for 3.0" under Chiumento's tenure.
Lubi recently spoke with the Palm Coast Observer about his tenure as board chair and the Chamber's recent successes and goals.
As you're you leaving the board chair seat, what were the some of the highlights of the chamber's success under under your tenure?
I think we moved into that, you know, basically we call it like a 2.0. John Walsh had done a great job as our initial chair for the first two years of our organization. Basically we birthed it together and laid a foundation. Then we spent these past two years, one, really improving our financial foundation, from a fiscal standpoint. We also furthered our relationships with local government entities, city of Palm Coast, Flagler County, city of Bunnell, in particular. We really embraced and grew those relationships over The last couple of the years. The third thing, I think, is that, you know, we were able to demonstrate for our members that we are relevant and that we, you know, strive to help them as small business owners, or even in some cases, larger business owners. You know help them work with our government partners. So those would probably be the biggest things that I would say, that we accomplish last couple of years.
What are some ways that the Chamber is encouraging the County Commission and the city of Palm Coast to create more business opportunities for residents and for outside businesses coming in?
Well, I think a couple of things. One is being the business community's representative at the table when it comes to the JAXUSA Partnership [an economic development agency]. When you look at economic development, you need to look at those regional opportunities that you can either get directly or build off of what goes elsewhere. You know, for example, it could be a could be an economic development company that goes into Jacksonville, but they need suppliers, and we may be able to provide some of that.
The other thing I think that we've done, from an economic development standpoint, too — and this is real important — I feel like that, is work with our educational partners, whether that's Flagler County Schools and the Flagler County Education Foundation on the K- through 12 level, or if it's with Daytona State and UNF now here with a presence in Palm Coast. And then on top of that, we have, you know, Jacksonville University with a presence here in Palm Coast. Those are organization or schools that can help all of those can help us create some workforce strengths as well down the road. Because one of the toughest things in economic development these days is, do you have the available workforce? One of the things that we believe is that if we can provide the right training or educational opportunities, we can create that workforce that is necessary to compete on a regional, statewide, national level.
So the chamber isn't just for help on a governmental, it's also helping out either future business owners in the community or people who just need to find an avenue into the workforce, is that correct?
Yeah, I think it works on both ends, from both sides of it. Because you have to work force side of it, and then you got 'what do our business owners need?' And so we're constantly trying to identify what, what are those needs and then figure out or what role can we play and help either solve problems or dilemmas or create opportunities. One of the things that we've been very vocal about from the beginning, and that is the need to diversify our tax base for multiple reasons. One, it creates better economic opportunities for our residents that are working. Secondly, it creates better balance that, in turn, can relieve the tax burden that residential taxpayers have to take on. And anytime you get out an economy that's like ours, where over 90%, roughly, of our tax revenues are coming from residential that puts a lot of pressure on the residential taxpayer. Whereas, if you can make that percentage lower on residential and higher on commercial, it creates, actually a form of relief of a residential taxpayer payer.
Do you think the county and Palm Coast are making good progress in balancing or diversifying the tax force?
I'd say for starting to make progress. I don't believe it's showing up in the numbers, just yet. But I do believe that we are starting to make progress. Probably one of the best things too, is the county and the city of Palm Coast and the county city of Bunnell, as well — they have become more vocal in recognizing that we need to diversify our tax base over the last couple of years. I think that was a very important step 15 years ago. I don't think you would have heard that out of our city or county government.
So it takes time to kind of change that mentality and also encourage that growth, is what you saying?
Yeah, and I think also, too, it has a lot to do with the leadership that we have in some of the key seats — whether city or county managers, or staff, things of that nature that are in these organizations and and also the commissions themselves, the city council and the county commission. I think a lot of it has to do with with that aspect of leadership. That's the importance of it.
I do believe that residential taxpayers, oftentimes, they don't fully understand that they're actually paying in $1 — depending on the statistic that you want to look at — and they're consuming about $1.30, whereas the commercial taxpayer is consuming maybe 30 or 35 cents, thereabouts, depending on the study you want to look at, for every dollar that they pay in. So having more balance and the commercial side can actually help the residential taxpayer in the long run.
After helping build up the Chamber, What is it like for you to be able to pass this torch, and are you still going to be pretty involved with the it even after you've passed the torch?
Yeah, I'm excited about Michael Chiumento coming in. Michael's got a long track record and very positive history of his community involvement here. He and I have worked on and served on various boards over the last 17 years together, and I'm very excited about the direction that we're going. I think we've got some some new folks coming on to our board, along with the board that we already currently have, that's going to be very strong. And, yes, I will be very involved still, because I'll continue to serve on the executive board in the capacity of immediate past chair.
