Collection action upsets businesses

Downtown Improvement District members argue against move
to collect unpaid fees
By PETE MORTENSEN, News Editor
The Windsor Town Green and its surrounding architecture has come
to define the rebirth of the Town from a sprawling suburb into a
forward-thinking expression of the smart growth movement. The area
has been praised in Sunset Magazine and a Sierra Club
publication.
But not everyone in Windsor believes they have felt the benefit
of Windsor’s rebuilt downtown core. In fact, several older
businesses in the area found themselves under pressure last week,
faced with notices from a collection agency for two years worth of
unpaid back fees to the Old Downtown Windsor Business Improvement
District, between $250 per year for a service business and up to
$500 for a restaurant.
&#8220It’s my whole advertising budget,” said Dan Rogers,
owner for the past 11 years of Dan’s Barber Shop in the Tynan
Building, 170 Windsor River Rd. &#8220I’m just a little
one-chair shop.” Rogers was informed by a collection agency that he
was past due for $600, as well as another $300 owed directly to the
Town for the upcoming year.
The business improvement district (BID) is an independent agency
established by the Windsor Town Council in 2004 under the
California Parking and Business Improvement Area Law of 1989 to
offer promotion and programming to support downtown businesses. At
the time of its creation, a series of hearings were held to discuss
which businesses to include in the area and which to exempt. BID
President Katrina VonMoos noted that the McDonald’s restaurant, two
gas stations and a commercial building at the corner of Old Redwood
Highway and Windsor River Road were excluded from the district, as
were all non-profit businesses, including the Windsor Farmers
Market and the Windsor Service Alliance.
&#8220We gave everybody an ample opportunity to contact us
through the Town, show up at Town Council meetings and voice any
kind of concerns,” she said. &#8220We spoke to the landlord of
the Tynan Building through all the proper channels, and after we
had completed all these processes, we took everything to the Town
Council. They reviewed everything and voted to go ahead setting all
this up.”
At the BID meeting Tuesday morning, tenants of the Tynan
Building argued that they had been included in the organization
without their consent. Each tenant of the building signed a
petition in support of the BID at the request of Laura Dahlstodt,
proprietor of Savoir-Faire Salon.
&#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. By signing this petition, I
support Windsor Town Council’s authorization of an Ordinance to
create the Business Improvement District.”
Signing that document was not the same as agreeing to join the
district, said Paulette Tourville, owner of an electrolysis
business in the building.
&#8220I signed a petition saying I was in support of a BID
being formed, which I thought was what I was signing,” she said.
&#8220I don’t think it should come back to bite me because I
signed a petition.”
Tourville and several other business owners in the Tynan
Building attended the BID meeting Tuesday, many of them, including
Rogers, having to close down the shop while in attendance. Rogers
says he did ask not to be included.
&#8220I told them at the start I didn’t want to join,” he
said. &#8220I couldn’t go to the meeting because I couldn’t
close the business to go to it.”
Chris Messina, Chair of the Promotions Committee for the
organization, said he can sympathize with the small businesses
feeling the squeeze from BID dues.
&#8220I’d like to express that the board sympathizes with
(Rogers’s) situation, but it is no different with everyone else
down hear struggling to make a living,” he said. &#8220He’s
been there forever, but it wasn’t imposed on anyone to create
hardship, it was created for everyone to prosper.”
Fall-out from the decision to turn BID members over to
collections is already visible. Melissa Shull, owner of Permanent
Cosmetics by Missy, announced she was relocating her business to
Santa Rosa as a result of the process.
&#8220When Laura approached me with this, I had no idea
there was a financial obligation,” she said. &#8220Had I known,
I would never have signed off on this. Š Because of this, you’re
losing a businessperson.”
Though the BID itself handles promotion and programming,
accounting and billing for the organization is performed by Town
staff, and the funds are then disbursed by the Town Council upon
review of an annual report. VonMoos said the businesses that were
ultimately turned over to collections had ignored the entire
process – and their bills.
&#8220There are a handful of businesses – 10 all together –
that have just turned a blind eye and ignored everything,” she
said. &#8220We never heard a word from anybody.”
Rogers said he didn’t pay the dues in part because he has not
seen the benefit of the organization, which has used the dues to
sponsor such events as the Fourth of July celebration last summer
and the forthcoming Easter Egg Hunt.
&#8220I’m open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The Green don’t
help me,” he said. &#8220When they do all their activity, I’m
gone.”
Chris Frye, the owner of Alternative Energy, Inc., located in
the Tynan Building, said his invoices with the BID have been
addressed to him personally rather than his corporation. When he
requested them to resubmit the bill under the name of the business,
he said he never heard back from the Town. Though he paid the bill
after receiving notice for collection, he said he will sue the
Town, the collection agency and the BID in order to resolve the
issue with the BID dues. Other business owners also complained that
their concerns went unanswered.*
&#8220If they give back Chris Frye $500 and send the
corporation a letter for the BID, I’ll be happy to consider
payment,” said Frye. &#8220I won’t say I’ll commit to payment,
it depends on how much I have to fight for it.”
The BID is not meant to just support new businesses located in
the Town Green Village development, VonMoos said. Many business
owners who had not paid their dues felt that to be the case,
however.
&#8220They feel they’ve been here a long time and that they
shouldn’t have to participate,” said VonMoos, the general manager
of Langley’s Tavern on the Green. &#8220When they had the
opportunity to voice their concerns and ask not to be included,
they never said anything. We understand they’ve been there a long
time, but things are changing all around them.
&#8220It’s not just about the businesses on the Town Green,
it’s about the old downtown and revitalizing and making it the best
downtown we can make it.”
Interim Town Economic Services and Community Development
Director David Kelley said Town accounting staff sent three notices
requesting payment before the board of directors approved the
decision.
&#8220After three follow-up letters saying, this amount was
due, this assessment was due, the final letter was sent indicating
this would be sent to collections,” he said.
At the time the BID was formed, Frye said he thought membership
would be voluntary.
&#8220I thought, ‘Great, they’re going to form a deal,’ but
it never occurred to me they would force membership,” he said.
Ultimately, the involvement of a collection agency was the
option of last resort, VonMoos said.
&#8220It was a tough decision, because we really want to
promote everything,” she said, &#8220all the businesses in the
downtown, and more and more people are coming to the area. Even
though they feel they’re off to the side, that might have been the
case in the past, but it is not the case as more years go by and
this downtown area is virtually reborn. It’ll be a whole different
place, and people that come here are coming to the area, not just
to the Green.”
For example. Phase V of Town Green Village is currently being
constructed adjacent to the Tynan Building. Kelley said older
businesses might yet see a greater positive impact from
redevelopment downtown. It also appears possible to revise the
boundaries of the BID &#8220could be entertained,” he said.
&#8220Some of the folks that are maybe opposed to this
assessment are located in areas that they deem may not be
benefitting or the type of business that may not be benefitting
from the activities of the BID,” he said. &#8220Some of that
may change when the additional phases of Town Green Village are
developed.”
But for the time-being, Rogers is contacting public officials to
try to effect change.
&#8220I’m just very upset about the whole thing,” he said.
&#8220To me, it’s just extortion: ‘You live next door to me, so
you’ve got to pay me $50.’”
At the meeting, board members of the BID, made up of
representatives from area businesses, argued that the entire issue
could have been avoided if Tynan Building tenants had protested
sooner.
&#8220We spent an exorbitant amount of time discussing this
to death: the boundaries, the people who did want to participate,
the people did not want to participate,” VonMoos said.
Jacqueline Scott, an esthetician in the Tynan Building, said
they should get the opportunity to opt out at this point, knowing
the lay of the land.
&#8220We are telling you we want to opt out,” &#8220We
didn’t understand that we could.”
VonMoos hinted at the meeting that it might have been possible
to work out a payment plan or even forgive dues if contact had been
made, but it was likely too late to turn back now.
&#8220My understanding from the Town is that once it’s sent
to collections, it has to be paid,” she said.
The Business Improvement District leaders announced they will
have to hold another board meeting to determine their best course
of action for resolving the matter. No date was announced for such
a meeting.