BID offers payment plan

Some affected business owners say offer does not address
concerns
By PETE MORTENSEN, News Editor
The Old Downtown Windsor Business Improvement District has
offered a payment plan to businesses previously placed in
collections for failure to pay BID dues for 2004 and 2005.
April 4, several business owners attended a BID meeting at Town
Hall to ask for forgiveness of their debts to a district they claim
they never meant to join. They requested a forgiveness of the debt
and exclusion from the organization. Instead, in a letter sent last
Friday to the businesses by the BID, they are offered a plan that
would require payment of half what is owed no later than Thursday,
April 20. That would remove the businesses from collections. The
remaining 50 percent could then be paid in two payments, one by
June 1, the second by July 1.
BID leaders say concerns and requests for exclusion needed to be
voiced long before the dues were late and unpaid.
&#8220It’s unfortunate that they ignored everything that was
going on around them, but it really isn’t fair that one business
should have to pay their dues and another one is excused,” said
Katrina VonMoos, general manager of Langley’s Tavern on the Green
and president of the BID. &#8220We understand that there’s
special circumstances we’re willing to address when the BID comes
up for renewal (in October). As far as turning back the hands of
time, we can’t very well say, ‘It’s OK for you, and it’s not for
everyone else. It’s a hardship on a lot of the businesses, but they
agree it’s the best course of action to take.”
In 2004, a petition requesting the formation of the BID was
circulated to downtown business owners. Every business whose owner
signed the petition was ultimately included in the district, an
independent taxing agency designed to provide promotion and
programming for the entire downtown area. They sponsor many events
each year, including last weekend’s Easter Egg Hunt.
&#8220I support the formation of a Business Improvement
District in Old Downtown Windsor,” reads the petition. &#8220I
agree with the assessment formulas that are attached to this
petition, and the Management Plan.”
Several businesses in the area were excluded from the district,
including both gas stations, McDonald’s and all shops located in an
older building on the southeast corner of Bell and Windsor River
roads. Each business in the Tynan Building, 170 Windsor River Road,
had a representative sign the petition. Those representatives now
say they didn’t understand that the full text of the petition meant
that a signature was an agreement to be taxed.
&#8220If I got an ad in the mail from a Cadillac dealer
saying I can, in fact, be an owner of a Cadillac, I have a feeling
if I didn’t show up to the meeting, I would not end up being the
owner of a Cadillac,” said Paulette Tourville, an electrologist and
diet counselor with an office in the Tynan Building.
&#8220That’s what I feel they did by saying that since you
didn’t come forward when it’s in the seminal phase, you are by
default a member at $250 a year.”
Chris Frye, a co-owner of Alternative Energy, Inc., another
Tynan Building business, said the payment plan does not go far
enough to address the concerns of his fellow tenants.
&#8220I see it as really no change, ‘We’ll keep the hammer
over you, but we’ll withdraw you from collections,’” said Frye, who
has paid his debt in full to the collection agency but has sued the
Town and the BID for reimbursement, as his bills were addressed
personally to him instead of to the corporation that owns his
business.
Dan Rogers, who owns Dan’s Barber Shop on the second floor of
the Tynan Building, said he received his letter Tuesday afternoon,
two days before the deadline to pay the first half of the fees the
BID hopes to collect. He said the letter and payment plans do
&#8220not at all” address his concerns.
&#8220You know, what they’re saying is, ‘give us some
money,’” he said. &#8220If you pay this, you’re letting into
them.”
Paulette Tourville, an electrologist and diet counselor in the
Tynan Building at 170 Windsor River Road, where most of the
businesses in collections reside, said she doesn’t understand why
the BID wants to keep in &#8220unwilling or unhappy
members.”
&#8220And they were not able to answer that problem or
dilemma or predicament,” she said. &#8220Unfortunately, I’m
kind of left with a really bad taste in my mouth. It makes me feel
that they only want my money.”
On April 11, the BID’s board of directors met to discuss the
matter, concluding that the course of action outlined in the letter
was the best one available, VonMoos said. The intent of the
district was not to include businesses that were uninterested in
participating, she said.
&#8220It was about including the businesses that really want
to make the downtown a great downtown,” she said. &#8220We had
no idea that any of these businesses were so adamantly against it,
because it was not our intention to include businesses that did not
want to be included.”
Frye said he had not been informed of the meeting April 11 and
was concerned that the decision was possibly made in private. He
said the letter, which begins &#8220The ODWBID would like to
thank you for attending our monthly board meeting on Tuesday, April
4. It is unfortunate that the matter of your delinquent BID dues
had to be referred to a collection agency. Had you contacted us
earlier, this course of action could have been avoided,” reflects
&#8220institutional arrogance.”
&#8220The point wasn’t that they need different payment
terms,” he said. &#8220We don’t want to be in the BID.”
The letter notes that &#8220Issues concerning amount of dues
assessed to each business type and changes in BID boundary will be
addressed at that time,” meaning the BID’s renewal by the Town
Council in October.
&#8220There were some of the board members last year who
wanted to increase the dues, but I personally felt, along with some
of the other ones, that we’re pretty new, we needed to get a better
handle on what we can do for the downtown, and that was not the
time to increase the dues,” she said. &#8220We’re taking baby
steps. We’re brand-new. Since this has come about, it’s come to my
attention that Santa Rosa and a lot of the other BIDs around have
the same issue with certain businesses not paying their dues.”
The time for change in future years will be at the October Town
Council meeting, VonMoos said.
&#8220That would be the time to consider the boundary,
increasing the fees, changing the fees around,” she said.
&#8220We would have to start doing it August and September to
have it ready for the Council. It’s something that will have to be
addressed before October, so when it comes time to go to the
Council we have a clear picture of what we’re doing and where we’re
going.”
Tourville said she felt such changes could be made in an
emergency, if need be.
&#8220There’s no such thing as can’t,” she said.
&#8220It just doesn’t exist.”