Mayor David Dunfield today will appoint a task force to examine concerns that Lawrence is unfriendly to business.

City Commissioner Sue Hack will lead the 14-member task force, which was created after two recent surveys showed leaders of Lawrence firms are concerned about the city’s business climate.

“This is anecdotal information, but I’ve heard from several different sources that there are businesses that decided they wouldn’t do business in Lawrence — they were going to go elsewhere,” Hack said Monday. “That’s real disconcerting when one of the commission’s goals is economic development.”

Lynn Parman, vice president of economic development for the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce, welcomed creation of the task force.

“I don’t know what the outcome of the task force will be, but I’m excited that they’re studying the issue,” she said. “I think the business community is very pleased.”

The chamber’s survey of 51 business leaders last year cited “no-growth” politics as the community’s top barrier to growth, followed by the city’s planning and permitting process, and a generally unfriendly business environment. In a separate question, businesses ranked local politics and an unfriendly business environment as the community’s top two weaknesses.

Earlier in 2003, a city-sponsored survey showed that 29 anonymous community leaders thought City Hall lacked a “can-do” attitude to helping businesses with their projects.

Hack said the task force’s mission was to find out whether those concerns were based on substance or perception.

“Are these things accurate?” Hack said. “If they are, what are we going to do about them — and if not, what are we going to do about that?”

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Parman was hopeful.

“At a minimum, I hope there is a very good dialogue that takes place about issues identified in the survey,” she said. “What I would love to happen is for the public sector to focus on how important businesses are to the area, that they create policies and procedures that help nurture our businesses.”

The Lawrence City Commission is expected to approve creation of the task force at its meeting today, which begins at 6:35 p.m. in City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.