By Michael Howell
At a public hearing held on August 18, the Hamilton City Council heard some objections to approving the work plan and budget for the Downtown Hamilton Business Improvement District (DHBID), but upon consideration unanimously approved a resolution assessing a tax levy on property within the district for the coming fiscal year 2016.
At the public hearing, downtown property owner Clay Dethlefsen stated several objections to the DHBID budget. He claimed that since its inception the organization has not been following the law concerning its expenditures. He questioned whether last year’s budget was producing any benefit to its membership.
“Not just a benefit to some of the members some of the time, but to all of the members all of the time,” he said. He complained specifically about the donations and sponsorships made to other organizations. He said the purpose was to benefit members but those things benefit “everybody, including competitors.”
Dethlefsen also questioned the authority of the District to invest in infrastructure improvements around the town without a contract with the city government.
He complained about the meeting place not being accessible to the public and claimed the DHBID was violating public process and discouraging public participation at its meetings by holding them upstairs in a private business in a small room. He also criticized the budget for not listing costs of insurance as a separate line item.
Asked by Councilor Joe Petrusaitis if Dethlefsen had ever presented these allegations and objections to the district board, DHBID Director Mark Neumann said, “No.” He said the district pays about $425 for liability insurance and the cost is in the budget.
“We do nothing behind closed doors,” said Neumann. “We send the budget out to all our members for consideration before adopting it.” He said, in the past, half the budget went to upkeep and half went to the administrator’s salary. But the administrator position was eliminated and the money was instead used to support certain activities and promotions in the downtown area that do draw business to the downtown. He said this year those donations and sponsorships had been capped at $500 per organization/event per year. The DHBID has also given money to the Hamilton Downtown Association to help pay for production of a city map.
Councilor Petrusaitis said, after hearing from Dethlefsen, that he felt the place to start was “internally.” He suggested Dethlefsen go to a DHBID meeting and discuss his objections with them.
Councilor Jenny West suggested that the DHBID board might consider meeting at City Hall to make it a little easier for the public to attend.
City Attorney Karen Mahar cautioned the council members that the law does not say what Dethlefsen thinks it says. She said there is a danger in paraphrasing the law as he did and that another provision of the law that Dethlefsen was not looking at does allow the District to hire and implement landscaping projects on its own without contracting with the city. She said that when the law talks about “equitability” among members it is referring to the assessment of the tax. She said a set of criteria is used to gauge equitability of the assessment and that City Finance Officer Craig Shepherd has reviewed it according to the criteria.
Mahar said there is no requirement for a direct dollar benefit to district members. She said the aim of the district is to promote public safety and welfare for the benefit of citizens within the district and aid in advertising and marketing of the business district area.
Councilor Al Mitchell noted how much the contributions to the school sports tournaments benefit the whole community and the businesses.
The DHBID work plan and budget was then unanimously approved.