Has the Radcliff Small Business Alliance Been Hijacked from Its Original Mission?

By T.W. Shortt
Former Radcliff City Councilman, Co-Founder of the Radcliff Small Business Alliance, and Radcliff Business Owner

On March 1, 2013, eight local business and community leaders gathered at Rosita Latino Grocery Store in Radcliff with a clear purpose: to create a business organization focused on the needs of Radcliff and Vine Grove. 

Attendees included TW Shortt, John Flanagan, Jacob Pearman, David Ohler, Jerry Brown, Pam Crum, Steve Walton, and Roger Stradley. 

The meeting followed a reorganization of the local chamber of commerce that left many Radcliff business owners believing their local voice had been swallowed up by a larger countywide structure. 

John Flanagan said it best at the time: the goal was to create a Radcliff-specific organization that supported local businesses without simply becoming another organization reaching into their checkbooks. 

That effort became the Radcliff Small Business Alliance (RSBA). 

The original mission was straightforward: bring local businesses together, promote them, advocate for them, and give Radcliff’s small-business community a strong voice. 

Thirteen years later, we should be asking: 

What happened to that mission? 

The 2025 bylaws show how far RSBA has drifted. They now define the organization as serving businesses in “the Radcliff and greater Hardin County region,” with membership extending throughout the Hardin County region. 

That is not a minor change. 

RSBA was created because Radcliff businesses believed a countywide organization was not giving them sufficient local attention. If RSBA itself becomes another countywide organization, it risks recreating the very problem it was set up to correct. 

The current committee structure raises even more fundamental questions. RSBA now lists twelve committees or program areas, including Fundraising, Scholarships and Grants, Monthly Events, Annual Gala, and Private Donor Event. 

At some point, this stops looking like growth and begins looking like mission creeps. 

Another concern deserves public examination. RSBA has asked local banks, automobile dealerships, and other businesses for thousands of dollars and then directed portions of those funds toward charitable causes. Charity may be commendable, but RSBA was created as a business alliance, not as a charitable foundation. 

If businesses are being asked to contribute money in the name of RSBA, the public and membership have a right to know: How much money was raised? Who authorized the solicitations? How were recipients selected? How much was distributed? What records do exist? What financial reports were provided to the membership? So far, the official request for this information has not been acknowledged.  

Without clear reporting, documented procedures, and meaningful oversight, even well-intentioned charitable activity can raise legitimate questions about accountability. 

That issue is especially important because RSBA’s bylaws describe it as a nonprofit organization operating under §501(c)(6), a structure centered on promoting common business interests. 

The growing emphasis on fundraising, galas, donor events, scholarships, charitable distributions, and general programming raises a legitimate question about whether RSBA’s resources remain primarily directed toward the business advocacy mission for which it was established. 

Meanwhile, the questions RSBA should be asking are much simpler: 

What is hurting Radcliff businesses? 

Why are commercial properties vacant? 

What policies discourage investment? 

What are we doing about planning, zoning, code enforcement, redevelopment, and business retention? 

Who is speaking forcefully for the people who have invested their own money in Radcliff? 

More committees do not mean more effectiveness. More fundraising does not mean more advocacy. And giving money away does not automatically mean an organization is fulfilling its mission. 

RSBA does not need to become another chamber, civic club, charitable foundation, or event organization. 

What Radcliff needs is what those eight people set out to create in 2013: 

A strong, independent, unmistakably Radcliff-focused voice for small business. 

That was the mission. 

It is time to ask whether RSBA is still serving it.