The Regulatory Horrors of Small Business

Mary Ann Lippert, director of the Department of Administration’s North Regional Office, explains her role as a liaison between communities and states agencies. To the right are Nancy Mistele of the DOA’s Office of Business Development and DOA Executive Assistant Wendy Coomer.

Several Door County small business horror stories were exchanged the morning of June 18 when the Door County Economic Development Corporation (DCEDC) and Door County Visitor Bureau (DCVB) hosted a business roundtable with representatives of the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA).

The two groups had invited small business owners around the county to gather and share stories with employees of the DOA’s relatively new arm, the Office of Business Development, which was created in 2012 to serve as a liaison between business, the Small Business Regulatory Review Board, the state legislature and state agencies.

Amy Austad LaBott, owner of Door County Ace Hardware, Sturgeon Bay, told of how the Department of Natural Resources forced the store to conduct costly and apparently unnecessary underground testing of a parking lot for a recent store expansion, 10 years after the business was okayed for an earlier expansion that required a series of costly underground tests for the same parking lot.

Dan Schwarz of Dan’s Fish, Sturgeon Bay, brought up federal regulations involving quality control issues from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an arm of the Dept. of Commerce, that have cost him a good amount of business he was once able to conduct in Russia.

Tim Lawrie of Simon Creek Winery, Sturgeon Bay, told of state regulations that force small wineries like his to sell product through a distributor rather than directly to consumers.

Tammy Bork of Beachfront Inn in Baileys Harbor told of bad service from state employees who don’t understand the nature of being a seasonal business and the very costly hoops her business has had to maneuver to update the inn’s outdoor pool.

Some of these stories were familiar to Wendy Coomer, executive assistant to DOA Secretary Mike Huebtsch, Nancy Mistele, co-director of the Office of Business Development, and Mary Ann Lippert, director of the DOA’s North Regional Office, all of whom came to Door County to spend two days listening to business concerns.

“My goal is to be a connecting point between state government and communities in northern Wisconsin,” said Lippert, who serves as the liaison between state government and communities in the 39 northern counties above Highway 10. “I am like a triage nurse.”

Mistele, who works directly with businesses that are laboring under regulatory hurdles, backed up Lippert’s triage comment and took it even further, calling herself a “Fixer” and conjuring the image of Harvey Keitel playing Winston “The Wolf” Wolfe in Pulp Fiction.

“The governor created our office and we ensure that business has a seat at the table,” Mistele said.

Both women said they spent more years in the private sector than they have in government, which gives them insight into the suffering of small business at the hands of legislators and agencies that may not fully understand the implications of regulations they impose.

For example, she mentions that lawmakers once thought they would fix what they thought was a ridiculous regulation that called for the holes in Swiss cheese to be a certain size. After consulting Swiss cheesemakers, the lawmakers learned that the size of the holes actually indicates the quality of the cheese.

That, she said, is why businesses must be their own best advocates. “Everybody has to be a bulldog,” she said.

She added that, of course, small business owners often have their plates full and don’t have time or resources to wrestle with state agencies over prohibitive regulations. That’s when business owners should contact her office, Mistele said.

“We have access at the top levels, so we can take your concerns back,” she said.

For more information on the DOA Office of Business Development, visit doa.state.wi.us.