The City of Knoxville’s Office of Business Support seeks applications from local business owners to join the Business Advisory Council (BAC), an entity established in 2013 to promote regular and open communication between City government and members of the business community. 

Members of the BAC meet every other month during their two-year terms with the heads of key City departments to learn their functions, with an emphasis on the City policies, processes and initiatives that impact businesses and economic development. 

While they’re learning about the City’s perspective, business owners:

• provide advice and feedback to the Office of Business Support; 
• bring issues and concerns related to doing business in and with the City of Knoxville to the attention of City administration; 
• propose responses and solutions to address these concerns; 
• serve as a sounding board for City initiatives and proposals affecting the business community

The purpose of this exchange is to cooperatively develop tools and practices that help strengthen the relationship between the business community and City operations, says the City’s Business Liaison Patricia Robledo. 

“We’ve found that the Business Advisory Council provides a valuable learning and growth experience for everyone involved, including opportunities for established business owners to learn from newer ones, and vice versa.” 

To insure that the council is comprised of a variety of perspectives and experiences, the internal committee will select the final 12 members based on factors including location, size, business type and other variables. 

The first meeting of the new Council will be in August 2019.

Application forms are available at http://knoxvilletn.gov/businesssupport. The deadline to apply is June 15, 2019.