Bid Board, Eugster Agree To Work Together Downtown Business Organization Appears To Be Moving Out Of Jeopardy

The death watch for the Business Improvement District may be over.

At a Spokane City Council study session Thursday, members of the BID’s board and its chief critic on the council agreed to work together to improve the embattled downtown business organization.

The BID collects fees from downtown business and property owners and in return provides security, parking validation and marketing. Councilman Steve Eugster believes it needs to be terminated in order to be reformed, and successfully persuaded the council to place a hearing on its disestablishment on the Sept. 25 council agenda.

That hearing is still on the agenda, but the BID’s future may not be in as much jeopardy as it was prior to Thursday.

After BID board members defended the organization’s value - including the release of a survey that indicates its ratepayers are pleased with the BID’s service - Eugster unveiled his ambitious vision.

In Eugster’s plan, the BID would be replaced with multiple BIDs for both downtown and other city neighborhoods, such as Garland and Hillyard.

Instead of charging both business and property owners, as in the current BID, the new BIDs would focus only on business owners. Downtown property owners would contribute to local improvement districts that would fund physical improvements, such as new street lights.

“If we really want downtown to shine, we have to invest in some significant improvements,” Eugster said.

“We have to have business owners make contributions to fixed physical improvements.”

BID board members, who entered the study session prepared to hear the worst, said they were willing to consider Eugster’s ideas.

“The concept is not unworkable,” said BID chairman Steve Faust, an attorney at Paine Hamblen. “Is there some way the 16 of us (board members) can help you with the refinement you’re looking for?”

Faust has invited Eugster and Councilman Steve Corker to the BID’s retreat on Tuesday to further discuss the proposal.

While the BID board may be willing to consider the ideas, if only to stave off their organization’s extinction, other council members questioned both the proposal and the way it was presented.

The BID was formed by a petition signed by business owners; under Eugster’s plan, the new ones would be formed by council resolution and would include new areas south and east of the current BID.

“I’m struggling with the creation of BIDs by resolution with people who weren’t part of the petition,” said Councilwoman Phyllis Holmes.

Included in the current BID would be Empire Ford, owned in part by Councilwoman Roberta Greene, who said she would object to being included in a new BID without a petition.

“It’s real personal for me when I have to write a check,” Greene said.

“Now you know how I feel,” said Eugster, whose law firm and building are in the BID. Eugster sued to protest the formation of the original BID and has since paid his contributions under protest.

Greene also objected to the manner in which Eugster presented his ideas. He should have approached the BID board before introducing a resolution calling for the disestablishment, she said.

“`Let’s get together and talk’ is a better example of leadership than using terms like disestablishment, which strike fear into people,” Greene said. “We need to sit and talk and not have this immediate hammer of disestablishment in two weeks.”

Mayor John Talbott said he would favor removing the hearing from the Sept. 25 agenda in order to further explore improving the BID.

“I don’t think there’s any intent to trash anything,” he said. “Collectively, with the experience the board has gathered and the vision Steve has, we can create a better process, a better product.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: AT A GLANCE Eugster’s plan

The current BID would be replaced with multiple BIDs for downtown and other neighborhoods, which would focus only on business owners. Downtown property owners would contribute to local improvement districts that would fund physical improvements.