Westwood church hopes for lowered business fees

By Amy Golod

Daily Bruin Contributor

The Westwood Hills Christian Church is part of Westwood Village,
but some say that it should not be assessed city fees as a
business.

Westwood Hills is the only church in the village that is within
the boundaries of the Business Improvement District, an
organization that promotes business in the area and collects fees
from merchants and property owners. Its members are from Westwood
shops, restaurants and businesses.

The BID assesses the church 25 percent of what it would for a
business.

At the May BID meeting, John Mills, a member of the
church’s board of directors, offered a compromise to the BID
proposal, asking for a decrease in the assessment to 8.5 percent.
The average percentage of the BID budget allotted to security is
8.5 percent, so Mills says the church should pay the same
percentage.

The church is currently assigned to pay a total of $11,812.62
from now until 2002, but with the reduction would only need to
contribute $4,017 for the same period of time.

Representatives of the church said because it is nonprofit, the
church should not be required to pay the fees. They also said the
church does not receive all of the services for which it pays.

Since the church is on Le Conte Avenue, at the border of the BID
boundary, church members say it also does not always receive the
same services as the businesses in the center of Westwood.

For example, during the holidays, the village decorations did
not extend to this end of Westwood, Mills said.

The assessments pay for services such as security and street
cleaning, but members of the church say it does not receive the
latter, Mills said.

David Matson, minister of the church, said though the BID can
legally asses the church, he thinks it is unethical.

“I hope the board will see that the ethical and right
thing to do is to exempt us,” Matson said.

The church is part of the village, but does not directly
contribute to its economic growth because it is a nonprofit
organization, Mills said.

“We are a church, not a business, so we should be
excluded,” Mills said.

Representatives of the BID declined to comment.

The BID was strictly merchant-based until October 1999 when it
became property based, and began assessing property owners rather
than the business owners. Since the church is nonprofit, it was not
considered a business and did not have to pay assessments.

At the same time, the BID also redrew its boundaries to include
the new properties such as the church.

“It is not a burdensome procedure to reduce the assessment
of a business,” Mills said.

In August and September, the city held public hearings to
discuss the BID reorganization. The church was in the midst of
hiring a new minister and representatives did not attend the
hearing, Mills said.

While the church voted by ballot against being a part of the new
boundary, Mills said he does not know if the lack of attendance at
the meeting affected the vote.

In response to the reorganization of the BID, Mills wrote a
letter in January on behalf of the church. He explained that the
BID bylaws allow the board to exempt properties including places of
worship from the assessment.

Other religious organizations such as Jews for Jesus and the
University Religious Conference are within the boundaries of the
BID, are not requesting an exemption. Unlike the church, these
other religiously-affiliated organizations occupy primarily office
buildings.

Mills said the response from the BID did not focus on his
concerns since it discusses how special assessments are calculated,
approved and levied, but does not address exemption from
assessments or boundaries, Mills added.

Mills responded, but the next interaction between Mills and the
board took place at the May BID meeting.

Kam Hekmat, chairman of the BID, said the issue had already been
discussed with the board.

“I have already presented this issue to the board,”
Hekmat said at the meeting.

Reactions from some of the BID board members indicated, however,
that they had not heard about the issue prior to the meeting.

Mills says he would agree if the BID wanted to change the
boundaries or reduce the assessments.