The number of small businesses in Prince George's County is increasing, led by the growth in minority-owned firms. Job creation outstripped that of Montgomery County in 2003 and 2004. And residential and commercial developers have been targeting the area as a refuge from sky-high real estate prices elsewhere.
But while the business community evolves in the District's eastern suburb, its business groups have in some ways remained tied to the past. The result is four countywide business organizations, two old and two new, each serving a distinct membership.
Some business leaders are asking whether the current, loosely affiliated club of countywide business groups could do their jobs better together than apart.
"There is a feeling among some businesspeople in our county that there are too many business organizations, and at some point we need to make certain we don't duplicate our efforts," said M. H. Jim Estepp, a former county councilman and now chief executive of the Greater Prince George's Business Roundtable, a 2 1/2 -year-old organization of county chief executives that has taken a leading role in the debate over slot machines in the county.
"I don't think it dilutes our voice," said Michelle Moone, chairman of the Prince George's Chamber of Commerce, an organization that has been dogged by leadership changes and is now looking for its third chief executive in a year. "At the same time, I think that we could get more accomplished if we all came together and took those specific missions each group has and built them around our overall mission."
Each of the business groups in Prince George's strikes the same chords when it comes to business development in the county. In interviews with various business leaders over the past month, there were no cited instances in which multiple business groups caused a political problem or a rift within the business community. All the groups, for example, agree on the most pressing issues: streamlining the permitting and zoning process, improving public education and workforce development, and improving public safety.
Yet there are only informal ties among them. A "Leadership Council" from each group gathers once or twice a year, usually to co-host an event. While all the groups share members and in some cases board members, each, in its own way, competes for county businesses and their dues by targeting specific needs and interests.
"It's not just a small, sleepy county. It's a very diverse and vast group of businesspeople," said Gregory S. Proctor, an Upper Marlboro lobbyist who works for the Prince George's Chamber but is also a member of the Business Roundtable board. "And that's how many of these different business groups approach it."
Asked if the groups could work better together if one or more merged, Proctor said, "I think they serve different needs, and I think they work well together now."
Working against merger are long-standing fault lines in the county's social and business fabric -- divisions reflected in the organizations.
The Prince George's Chamber tries to be the political center for all businesses, big and small, in the county, and its services to members are focused on networking and trade shows. The Business Roundtable focuses its efforts on public policy and research. Although its current leaders and members are a racially diverse group of men and woman, in its early decades, it was dominated by white businessmen.
Historically, the Prince George's Chamber, formed in 1927, was dominated by the lawyers, developers and utility-company executives whose business was primarily in the northern and western parts of the county. It remains the largest business group in the county, with 850 members and a budget of about $890,000.
