The city of Aurora is looking to create an organization in downtown like the one that recently joined with other groups to form the Aurora Regional Economic Alliance.
The former organization, known as Aurora Downtown, used to manage funds generated by a special tax applied to property within the downtown area, or more specifically within Special Service Area Number One. Using those funds, the organization worked to support property owners and businesses, plus develop new businesses, within downtown through things like marketing, improvements, events and more.
Last year, that organization’s board voted to combine with three others — the Aurora Regional Chamber of Commerce, Invest Aurora and the Quad County African American Chamber of Commerce — to become the Aurora Regional Economic Alliance. The idea was to bring these separate economic organizations under one umbrella to combine their efforts and cut out repeat functions.
But the city of Aurora, which last year supported the merger with $3 million, is now recommending the creation of a new organization similar to the former Aurora Downtown. In a letter to downtown stakeholders, obtained by The Beacon-News through a public records request, city officials wrote that the proposed new nonprofit would provide marketing, beautification and business support services for Aurora’s downtown.
Between the Aurora City Council approving the $3 million in seed money for the Aurora Regional Economic Alliance and the recent recommendation to reform a downtown organization, John Laesch was elected and sworn in as the city’s new mayor. When he previously sat on the City Council as an alderman at-large, he voted against giving the $3 million to the Alliance.
The current recommendation to form a new downtown organization is based on feedback the city received during downtown-specific town halls held in June, according to the city’s letter.
“While this is not a formal decision by the city of Aurora, it represents our recommendation, based directly on what we heard from SSA1 property and business owners like you,” city officials wrote in the letter.
In a recent interview with The Beacon-News, Laesch said those within Special Service Area Number One, or SSA1, wanted more authority over how the funds generated by the tax are spent. That’s what he heard both during the campaign and at those town halls, he said.
“They see themselves as — and rightly so, they’re paying an extra tax — as being separate from the rest of the city,” Laesch said about those within Special Service Area Number One.
While different opinions were shared at those town halls, broadly people wanted a more democratic process over how downtown tax dollars are spent, more transparent, inclusive leadership and stronger cooperation with the city, he said.
The new organization is also being proposed to support a strong, cohesive downtown where diverse businesses with different goals and objectives have a way to make their voices heard, according to Laesch. He said the goals of downtown revitalization are different from the rest of the city’s economic interests, which are probably served by an organization like the Aurora Regional Economic Alliance.
Jenny Maltas, the Alliance’s interim president and CEO, noted that the former Aurora Downtown board “voted to dissolve with the understanding that the organization’s work and funding was going to be housed in the Alliance.” But, she said that “priorities and strategies change” with any new election and that the group has been working with the city to make sure events previously put on by Aurora Downtown continue throughout this year.
“The Alliance’s priority is simply to ensure the downtown work continues to the benefit of the businesses while the city continues its work to create a new downtown organization,” Maltas said in a statement.
The Aurora City Council is set to vote Tuesday on giving the Alliance funding, generated through the SSA1 tax, for events planned through the end of the year. That measure is likely to pass as the item was placed on the meeting’s consent agenda, which is typically reserved for routine or non-controversial items that are all approved with a single vote.
When Laesch was asked for his opinion on the Alliance, he said the goal is to have a transparent, strong and meaningful organization that is able to support Aurora’s business community and attract new businesses to the city while being independent from city government. It shouldn’t be driven by the mayor’s office, he said, but there should be a partnership.
Similarly, the proposed new downtown organization is planned to be separate from but in partnership with city government. The Aurora Downtown Association, as its proposed to be called, is planned to be a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that shares some duties with the city but also has its own, according to the city’s letter to downtown stakeholders.
The letter breaks down the proposed duties that the city and the new organization would each have, and what they would share.
The city, the letter shows, would be responsible for overseeing the budget, managing databases, board logistics and the legal setup of the organization. However, the organization would be responsible for day-to-day operations and stakeholder communications as well as marketing and events.
Shared responsibilities would include financial transparency, reporting to stakeholders, strategic planning and support for the board, the letter says.
While the organization’s function would be similar to the former Aurora Downtown, its governance and its level of transparency could be different, according to Aurora Deputy Chief of Staff Nicholas Richard-Thompson.
The letter proposes a board of directors with seven voting members, made up of four people who own property within Special Service Area Number One and three owners or managers of businesses located within the special service area.
The board would also have three to five non-voting advisory member seats for city employees and four “ex officio” members, one each from the Aurora Civic Center Authority, Waubonsee Community College, the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Aurora Area Economic Alliance.
Richard-Thompson said the organization would be democratically run, though exact details are still being developed. According to Laesch, the process is currently in the “consensus building stage.”
The letter to downtown stakeholders also included a proposed timeline for putting the new organization in place, which said the legal formation of the new organization, as well as board elections, would be started this month or next month.
On Tuesday, at a meeting of the Aurora City Council’s Committee of the Whole, Laesch said that the organization could be formalized by the end of this month.
The letter’s timeline shows that, in November and December, the first board meeting could take place, bylaws could be drafted and the recruitment for a staff member would begin. A draft of the bylaws would be complete by January or February, the letter said, and those would be approved by the board along with the hiring of a staff member in March or April.
The city also got feedback about potentially expanding the borders of the special service area, according to Laesch. However, he said that decision would be made after the new organization is founded.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com