After an emotional public hearing that took almost three hours Wednesday, the Lodi City Council voted 3-2 to increase downtown business assessments by 20 percent.
Council members also recommended that the divided Downtown Lodi Business Partnership seek professional help to work out some serious professional issues that have fractured relationships among downtown business owners.
"There's clearly a problem," Councilman Larry Hansen said after hearing serious accusations leveled against the DLBP board by business owners who opposed the 20 percent fee increase. "As a council member, I'm really torn."
Hansen, Mayor Susan Hitchcock and Councilman John Beckman voted to approve the fee increase requested by the DLBP board, while Vice Mayor Bob Johnson and Councilwoman JoAnne Mounce opposed it.
Johnson and Mounce wanted to postpone the fee increase for six months until a full-scale audit by a certified public accountant not affiliated with the DLBP.
Business owners pay an annual fee based on what part of downtown Lodi their store is located and how many employees they have. The increase averages out to $32 per year, Easterling said. The highest increase, he said, is $100 annually for downtown banks.
The issue to raise fees would have been a moot point if downtown businesses registered more than a 50 percent protest against the fee. Votes are weighted by the amount of its assessment. For example, since banks pay $500 ($600 with next year's increase), they get 500 votes.
Using that formula, there were 10,163 protest votes, or 27.14 percent, said interim City Clerk Jennifer Perrin.
Hansen initially wanted to postpone a decision until differing factions within the DLBP worked out their differences. He opposed granting the 20 percent fee increase the DLBP board requested, but he reversed course some 30 minutes later and provided the swing vote to approve the increase.
During the public hearing, some business owners accused the partnership of fiscal mismanagement and threatening to discredit their businesses for speaking out against the DLBP leadership.
Trina Anderson, who owns Casablanca's on West Elm Street, told the council she has copies of invoices from beer and wine sales at the Farmers Market in 2005, which indicated that the DLBP lost $1,000 on beer and wine sales.
"If it isn't shoddy bookkeeping, it's a lot of money in somebody's pocket," Anderson said. "They used taxpayer dollars to fund one business."
In other action
The Lodi City Council also• Postponed a vote on a land lease for Community Partnership for Families at Blakely Park for two weeks while contract details are changed at the request of Vice Mayor Bob Johnson and Councilwoman JoAnne Mounce.
• Gave a Community Improvement Award to Gerry and Valerie Phillips for their work on their 1940s home in the 900 block of South Central Avenue.
• Postponed action on the last four items on the agenda - an agreement for a watershed mural at 207 W. Oak St., accepting a $75,000 grant from Caltrans for railroad corridor development, authorizing staff to procure energy or natural gas for the 2007-08 fiscal year and authorizing expenses by outside attorneys and consultants relative to the Environmental Abatement Program.
Source: News-Sentinel staff.
Downtown partnership President Chuck Easterling said that the DLBP contracted with Lodi Beer Co. to keep proceeds from beer and wine sales in exchange for Lodi Beer paying a $5,000 sponsorship fee. Lodi Beer made a $14,000 profit, Anderson told the council.
"I'd love to buy $14,000 worth of profit for $5,000," she said.
Anderson added that she plans to file complaints with the San Joaquin County District Attorney's Office and the Internal Revenue Service's fraud unit.
Hitchcock said she supported the fee increase because it isn't the council's job to tell the DLBP what to do.
While Beckman supported the fee increase, he called the city ordinance establishing the DLBP in 1997 "dysfunctional" and recommended major changes to the partnership's structure.
"If you don't levy the assessments, we're done," Easterling told the council during the early part of the public hearing.
"That may be a good thing," Beckman replied.
When the vote was taken after 11 p.m., Beckman said that the DLPB needed the money, especially if it was going to finance an outside auditor of its finances.
After the council meeting adjourned, DLBP Treasurer Nancy Byer-Hauan said she would ask the DLBP board to consider hiring a CPA to audit its books.
Downtown business owner Ramona Henninger accused the partnership board of intimidating business owners with dissenting opinions.
"Many (more) people would be here, but are afraid," Henninger said.
Business owners are afraid that DLBP board members will slander them and harm their reputation, Henninger said. Others feared reprisals from their landlords, she added.
Lodi Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Pat Patrick said his board supports the DLBP's efforts to be a successful organization, but if the partnership ever disbands, the chamber would step in and develop its own plan to market downtown Lodi.
Contact reporter Ross Farrow at rossf@lodinews.com.
First published: Thursday, October 19, 2006
posted at 3:10 am on Wed, Oct 25, 2006.
These DLBP people think they are above the laws, after all they have the CC's full support no matter how much they screw things up or dont follow bi laws or keep legit books. Typical government tax and spend, no accountability, when someone raises questions you are considered hostile.
posted at 12:48 pm on Sat, Oct 21, 2006.
Downtown is flourishing? Walmart nearly broke it once. If you'd have watched last weeks' CC meeting, you'd have known that 75 downtown merchants signed complaints that says just the opposite. Your ignorance shows again. Can you come up with an idea of your own? Is your other blog name Baja? These 75 businesses are struggling just to make ends meet, not counting others who're afraid to complain for fear of reprisal from the DLBP.