DBIA feels ‘handcuffed’
Expanded ambassador program, new event plans in jeopardy after city council freezes levy
The executive director of the Downtown BIA says his organization is being “handcuffed” by city council – and a series of plans, including an expanded ambassador program, are now potentially in jeopardy because of it.
City council voted a final time on Monday to freeze the levies that the DBIA can charge its 400 members in 2018.
Coun. Keith Riel first suggested the levy freeze in November during budget talks.
He argued that while the DBIA’s mandate is promotion and beautification of the downtown, he wasn’t supplied detail from the organization on how it will do that in 2018.
“I’m not anti-DBIA,” Riel said in an interview Wednesday. “It’s just that we want them (the DBIA) to do their job with the money they’ve got.”
But Terry Guiel said he runs an effective BIA: they’ve beautified the downtown with a new mural program, for example, and staff works hard at organizing events and promotions.
DBIA members voted unanimously at a meeting this fall to increase levies by two per cent in 2018 compared to 2017. The extra $6,000 that would generate was going to pay for a new downtown event in October 2018.
But now that event won’t happen, Guiel said. Although he wouldn’t explain what type of event he had in mind, he said it would have been a major one involving street closures.
“Council looks quite foolish, ignoring our DBIA members, who unanimously approved our budget. And I think council needs to be reminded that it is our DBIA members who help sustain the city and its operations – not the other way around,” Guiel said.
But Riel said he wanted to see the DBIA’s detailed business plan, particularly since the city is giving the DBIA $150,000 a year for 20 years to make up for any loss of business caused by council’s decision to allow a casino to be located on Crawford Dr. – not downtown.
Riel said the DBIA’s plans for that money weren’t clearly explained, during budget talks, and he wanted to know all the details. So he moved that the levies be frozen and council agreed.
“They think this is punitive – it’s not,” Riel said. “I wanted to see a business plan for what they are going to do with their money.”
But Guiel was appalled that council would cut off the DBIA’s ability to charge levies that keep up with inflation.
“When they want to play petty, punitive games against our board and members, they are the ones looking foolish and undemocratic,” he said. “I think it’s both ironic and deeply troubling that councillors can seek an inflationary increase for themselves – and yet they find a perverse pleasure in handcuffing our ability to do so.”
Guiel also said other projects the DBIA was developing may not go ahead, depending on what the board decides at a meeting planned for January.
He said the DBIA was considering a new iteration of its ambassador program, for example, which was tried for the first time as a pilot project last summer.
For eight weeks in the summer, three people were hired from a security company to walk the downtown; their job included giving directions to shoppers, handing out change for parking meters and also speaking to panhandlers to ensure they know where to access free food and other services.
Guiel said on Wednesday that for 2018, the DBIA was planning to reimagine the program: a team of people trained to help the marginalized would walk the streets.
The DB IA was prepared to consider other programs for the marginalized too, such as putting them to work as street cleaners.
But since Riel said the DBIA should stick to its mandate of promotion and beautification – and that idea was endorsed by council - Guiel said the board will have to discuss whether to go forward with these plans.
He said they will meet in January to discuss it.
Riel said that if the DBIA wants to help the marginalized, he thinks that would be “great”. But Guiel didn’t give any detail about those plans, when he made a presentation to councillors during budget talks.
If he had, Riel said, then councillors might’ve had a debate about whether that falls within the DBIA’s mandate to make the downtown vibrant and beautiful.
Guiel said the DBIA was looking to address social problems that the city hasn’t tackled.
“Do I have time to solve social ills? I was making time,” he said. “Clearly, council doesn’t appreciate all the extras we do.”