DEED Commissioner Steve Grove on Exclusive Call With South of the River Chamber Presidents

Last Friday, Mark Jacobs who oversees the Dakota County and Scott County Workforce Centers arranged to have DEED COMMISSIONER Steve Grove (pictured above) speak candidly with us six south of the river Chamber Presidents, Dakota County CDA, Scott County CDA, DCTC President and also Shakopee and Savage Chambers.  One of the questions AV Chamber President Ed Kearney led with was “We can understand why the first 3 -4 months the Executive Orders of the Governor needed to be swift and total. However we are past 3/4 of a year and it still is ONE SIZE FITS ALL. Each business has adapted as directed to fit their own dynamics and dimensions. First, why can’t businesses CUSTOMIZE THEIR BUSINESSES in a way that best protects their specific customers and employees?  Second, why at this point has it not been delegated to the local level or at least the county level for each city/county to take over OUR OWN Covid responsibilities that fit us best locally and let our cities/counties enforce protections? We all know who the local abusers are and those who are doing their best to protect.”  Commissioner Grove answered that those are good points and he agrees somewhat. However he mentioned that with Covid taking a swift turn back upwards, don’t look for that to happen soon.  Later in the call, two others referred back to this original point of more local control, less state control and less “1 size fits all.”  The Commissioner also said he and the Governor received the letter late last week from 70 Chambers of Commerce and are taking our recommendations into consideration and that we collectively had some well thought out points.  DEED is basically the main pivot point for the Governor’s Covid response throughout this pandemic.