BID is not a bad idea, but it needs major revamping

The West L.A. Chamber of Commerce applauds the bold decision by
Los Angeles City Councilmember Jack Weiss to end the Westwood
Village Community Alliance, Inc., the controversial seven-year-old
business improvement district in Westwood.

Now the hard work begins: to create a new, workable organization
for Westwood Village that can truly lead the Village to better
days. Any new organization, possibly a newly restructured BID, will
face the challenge of regaining the confidence and trust of
Westwood’s merchants, property owners and stakeholders. This
will hopefully be by learning from the failures of the old BID.

By the end of the BID’s reign, it was painfully obvious
that rather than serving as the catalyst for Westwood’s
revitalization, the Westwood BID had become the vortex of a bitter
controversy. Rather than crafting consensus in Westwood, the BID
sparked divisiveness among merchants, property owners and
neighbors. BID staff engaged in finger pointing, often blaming the
city. After seven years and millions of dollars spent on BID and
streetscape assessments, the BID clearly failed to achieve its goal
of revitalizing Westwood. Westwood’s BID lost the confidence
of the very people it was created to represent.

The public integrity division of the Los Angeles County District
Attorney’s Office recently found that the Westwood BID
violated the Brown Act, the state’s open meeting law. On
January 2, 2002 the BID entered into a secret financial settlement
of $14,675 with three Westwood hotels ““ the Royal Palace
Westwood Hotel, Hilgard House Hotel and Claremont Hotel ““
which had complained that they had not received any maintenance
services from the BID.

A city clerk’s audit confirmed the truth of the
hotels’ complaints. Other property owners, including the W
Hotel, could have identical claims against the BID. To keep the
settlement a secret, Bob Walsh and BID attorneys signed the
settlement and paid the money without including notice on its board
agenda. This was a violation of the law and even to the end, the
BID tried to cover up the illegal settlement scandal by keeping BID
board members in the dark.

Councilman Weiss and Westwood stakeholders should learn from
these failures and consider some of the suggestions from Village
retailers and property owners. They should redraw the Westwood BID
boundaries to remove Zone 2 (the Wilshire high-rises) from the BID
area, leaving Zone 1 only (the Village itself). This will allow the
new BID to focus on the heart of the Village and the daily problems
that face merchants, especially parking.

Replacing the BID board with a smaller board made up of a
majority of Village merchants and business owners (the direct BID
stakeholders) will ensure board members reflect the opinions and
interests of those who pay for the BID. To do this they must be
allowed to nominate members within the owner community, rather than
have them appointed by City Council.

The current BID board has a majority of property owners and
Wilshire office building managers. Although the BID is assessed to
the property owners, most have “triple net” leases with
their tenants, and pass on the assessments to their tenants, who
are now woefully underrepresented on the board. Any new BID board
must accurately reflect the stakeholders who actually pay for the
BID’s services ““ the tenants.

A new executive director with proven management experience,
demonstrated business development and retail recruitment experience
should be hired. And once hired, the new executive director must be
held strictly accountable. Furthermore, the BID’s offices
should be relocated into the Broxton Avenue Community Service
Center to save rent and reduce other administrative and overhead
costs. This will take the BID staff out of their “ivory
tower” to the street level, where they will be more visible
and accessible to merchants.

This visibility and accessibility goes hand in hand with
operating in strict accordance with the law ““ including the
Brown Act and the Public Records Act. No more secret settlements.
BID programs, services and benefits must be provided equally to all
BID members, not a select few. The BID must stick to a regular
meeting schedule for both the board and committees. Any new BID
must embrace and reflect honesty, openness and absolute integrity
in everything it does.

They should refocus the BID work program to address
Westwood’s number one problem ““ parking. The
BID’s second priority must be to recruit quality destination
retail to the Village. A program of “Clean and Green”
is just not enough to fix Westwood. Flowers, trees and twinkle
lights are not the solution to Westwood’s continuing
problems. If the new BID, working hand-in-hand with the city, can
fix Westwood’s parking problem and bring in quality retail
stores, the Village will thrive once again.

Handal is the president of the West L.A. Chamber of
Commerce.