Spotlight On: Bemetra Simmons, President & CEO, Tampa Bay Partnership

Spotlight On: Bemetra Simmons, President & CEO, Tampa Bay Partnership

2023-04-28T15:29:44-04:00April 17th, 2023|Economy, Spotlight On, Tampa Bay|

2 min read April 2023 In an interview with Invest:, Bemetra Simmons, president and CEO of Tampa Bay Partnership, discussed the organization’s achievements over the past year. She highlighted events that helped convene and activate the region, the organization’s advocacy efforts and their role in facilitating conversations between educational institutions and the business community. 

What have been some of the key milestones for Tampa Bay Partnership over the past year?

It has been a busy year for the Partnership. Some of the highlights I take pride in accomplishing during my short tenure include new ways of convening and activating the region.  

For instance, we have started a regional roundtable where neighboring county commissioners meet each quarter to address pressing issues. We cover topics such as transportation, the talent pipeline and housing affordability. Our lobbyists ensure that we are compliant with Florida Sunshine Laws. This type of convening, which unites leadership across multiple counties, has been a big win for the Tampa Bay Partnership and for the region.

I also meet quarterly with the CEOs of member organizations, including the Tampa Bay Chamber, the Tampa Downtown Partnership, the Westshore Alliance and Visit Tampa Bay. We get together to discuss our organizations and what is happening in the region. 

I do the same thing on the Pinellas side. The Partnership also brings groups from these different counties together, which is a huge win in Tampa Bay. Just getting everyone in the same room to have a conversation about collaboration is significant. 

Convening and activating the region has been our focus, and these are two big wins we have accomplished.

What’s at the top of the list for the partnership’s advocacy efforts? 

Our annual Regional Competitiveness Report indicates that we need to catch up on transportation and infrastructure. We are nearly two times higher than the national average in pedestrian and bicycle accidents, and our average commute time is too high. We need more transit options, and the frequency of the available transit is unsatisfactory. For instance, in Hillsborough County, buses essentially run on a weekend schedule, with most running in one-hour increments. It would be great if we could get that down to 30 minutes. Transportation and transit that connect our counties are top priorities. 

The Partnership is also advocating for exploring the idea of a three-county Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), which would include Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties. We want to get everyone in the room to have a conversation about the pros and cons of having a multi-county MPO. 

Another area of interest relates to the 2018 Hillsborough County tax referendum. It was successful, and we began collecting those dollars. However, the Florida State Supreme Court overturned it, and we now have about $570 million tied up and sitting on the sidelines in Tallahassee. We advocate for returning those dollars to Hillsborough County in the spirit of what residents voted for.

Another priority is the talent pipeline. We are working on increasing our labor force participation rate, as, unfortunately, we have over 58,000 disconnected youth in our region. These are individuals between the ages of 16 to 24 who are neither enrolled in school nor working. We want to get those folks off the sidelines and involved, and we also want to make sure that our employers are looking for opportunities to hire people based on their skills rather than just educational requirements. Instead of requiring an associate’s degree to be an executive assistant, we want our employers to focus more on skill-based hiring, such as typing and using Excel. We are also advocating for anything to help increase our students’ readiness for kindergarten, such as all-day VPK and additional classroom support.

How is the organization working with institutions and the business community to facilitate partnerships? 

We are one of many organizations trying to facilitate conversations between the educational system leaders and the business community. We have seen that good things happen when they come together. A great example is the partnership between St. Pete College and Duke Energy. When they got together, they identified the need for more line workers, and St. Pete College created a certification program for line workers. As someone who is committed to activating the region, I would like to see this replicated in all of our state colleges.Students from all of the region’s counties can all benefit from such a program and find work at companies like Florida Power and Light and TECO. We have already seen hundreds of students graduate, compared to the previous number of 2,530, and this is the beauty of connecting people and facilitating conversations.

What are the partnership’s key advocacy efforts, and what do you hope to achieve for the business community in the region?

I am thrilled about our advocacy efforts and how we are being recognized as thought leaders. For example, we recently received a call from Congresswoman Castor’s office inviting us to join the delegation to meet with the Under Secretary for the U.S. Department of Transportation, who will be in town. This invitation is a testament to our great work as advocates and thought leaders in transportation. I want the Partnership to be the voice of the business community and a recognized advocate for the region. We want to be a resource for elected officials and organizational leaders who want to know what’s happening with the business community, where they stand and what they need.

What are the top priorities for the Tampa Bay Partnership for the near future? 

Our top priorities are transportation, improving the talent pipeline and housing affordability. Housing affordability is crucial to these conversations. If we look at the data, our median home sales prices have risen 26% in one year alone, making Tampa Bay number one in home price appreciation across comparison communities. This is more than double the national average. However, we are only ranked 19th average wages, at about $57,000. Being number one in housing costs and barely ranking in the top 20 in wages is not sustainable without reliable transportation. People are being pushed further out to find affordable housing, and without transportation, they can’t come back to work. Economically disadvantaged individuals experience even more challenges. People are more likely to work where they can walk or ride their bikes, which limits the number of job options to opportunities that are within walkable or bikeable distances. We need to address these issues to continue the thriving growth of our region.

For more information, visit: 

https://www.tampabay.org/ 

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