West Colfax BID Board Meeting
4500 West Colfax Ave.
Denver, CO 80204
December 8, 2015
Members Present
Cameron Bertron, Dennis Gonzales,Win King, andDiane Vollmerwere in attendance. David Goldblatt arrived later. A quorum was present. Cameron standing in as temporary chair made a motion to call the BID Board members into an executive session for the purposes of discussing personnel matters.
Motion: Dennis made a motion to call the Board into executive session. Diane seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed
Executive Director salary increase and annual bonus
Board discussed giving Dan a raise in salary—question from Win about the budget which allows for an increase—Cameron overall supports the raise, but had some questions about how Dan’s salary was set in the first place-wanted to know how his salary compares withExecutive Directors of other BIDS. Apparently, Dan is making more than Executive Directors of Denver BIDs, but the scope of his job is also more extensive with more responsibilities. After discussion, Board agreed that a 4% increase ($280 a month) would be a fair increase.
Motion: Dennis made a motion to increase Dan’s annual salary by 4% effective as of January 1, 2016. Diane seconded. All were in favor. Motion carried unanimously.
Diane brought up the matter of giving Dan an annual bonus, as has been the practice in past years. (At this point, David Goldblatt arrived—Cameron handed over chairmanship to him). Board awarded Dan with a bonus of $1,765 last year—David questioned how Diane arrived at this figure—Diane based it on Del Norte’s fiscal practice of calculating the number of years of employment, which comes out to 2% of Dan’s salary before next year’s increase. David entertained a motion to give Dan the same bonus as last year.
Motion: Diane moved to approve a yearend bonus for Dan in the amount of $1,765. Dennis seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed unanimously.
Dan was called back in and reminded the Board that if any action was taken, it needs to be made a matter of public record.
Motion: Cameron made a motion to take the Board out of executive session. Diane seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed unanimously.
Cameron entered the actions that were taken into public record: The first motion to give Dan Shah a 4% raise effective January 1st 2016, and a second motion to approve a year end bonus for $1,765.
Minutes and Financial Reports
Minutes from the November Board meeting and public hearing were read and acceptedas written.
November financials were read. Dan went over profit and loss statement and pointed out that overall, most items are on target but that here is roughly $30,000 which looks like excess revenue but which really represents unspent money allocated for business support (Dan envisions a program offering matching grants) and infrastructure projects. Dan suggested that the Board make a motion to place money for these line items in reserve as a maintenance line item. Discussion of how much should be placed in reserve for maintenance. David thought it made more sense to keep these line items separate rather than lump them together as maintenance. Cameron questioned why the money can’t just be rolled over rather than be held in reserve. Dan said the city treasurer had suggested that it is preferable to hold the funds in reserve to be used for a specific purpose. Cameron is fine with placing the money in reserve as long as the Board rapidly determines what to do with it. Board agreed that the money should be held in reserve as separate line items to avoid any confusion. They also agreed that the adjustments can be made without a formal motion approving the change in the financial statements.
Discussion about whether the Board needs to hire Terry & Co for an audit in 2016. Dan says that he does plan to engage the accountants’ services for the upcoming year.
Contract proposals
1)Maintenance services
Dan presented a couple of proposals for maintenance services for the upcoming year. Previously, the BID has engaged a sub-contractor through Emmett Culligan, namely Mike Pratt of United FacilitiesSolutions. Emmett recommended that the BID enter into a direct contract with UFS but Dan also solicited a bid from Front Range services (current also contractors for RTD) for maintenance of bus shelters, signs and medians along the corridor. Board discussed the various rates from both companies and weighed the pros and cons of each. David requested clarification of how many workers would be included in the hourly rate—Front Range already is maintaining the bus shelters for RTD, but Dan’s proposal would expand the scope of their duties to include any needed graffiti filmand glass replacement and regular inspection and maintenance of the way-finding signs and medians along the corridor. There was some confusion over whether the proposal includes landscaping, but Dan clarified that landscaping maintenance is a separate service provided by professional landscapers. Both Dennis and Diane expressed some concern over how much they would charge for materials, noting that UFS includes those in its pricing. Dan foresees the need for maintenanceevery other month which will keep costs down. David noted that Front Range handles both maintenance and landscaping and wondered if it might be more cost efficient to hire them for both. Dan would rather hire a landscaping company with more extensive expertise in horticulture because it requires special skills to keep plants and trees alive in an urban median. Diane asked Dan for a recommendation. Dan says it’s a toss up but recommends United Facilities because they are a known entity.
David entertained a motion to approve a maintenance contract with United Facilities for 2016 fiscal year.
Motion: Diane made a motion to hire United FacilitiesSolutions under the terms of their proposal for maintenance of bus shelters, medians and signs along the corridor in 2016. Cameron seconded. All were in favor. Motion carried unanimously.
2)Contract for marketing, graphic and web design services
Dan presented a proposal from Beret Odell who has done all of the marketing and graphic design work for such events as Re-imagine West Colfax as well as web design services. Beret designed the very popular t-shirts for the re-imagine West Colfax event and Dan would like to engage her services for designing West Colfax hoodies, caps, and stickers, as well as technical issues with social media marketing. He would like the Board to provide him with spending authority to retain her services for these items who has proven to be a great worker and very cost effective for past projects.
Motion: Dennismade a motion to hire Beret Odell for graphic design services. Diane seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed unanimously.
There was a discussion about a potential marketing strategy for the West Colfax marathon. Dan does not believe that the marathon benefits the businesses all that much, so has not placed much energy on marketing efforts in past years. Cameronbelieves it would be worth the BID’s while to explore the benefit of sponsoring a booth at the finish line or at the Stadium where 25,000 runners have to pick up their packets.
3)Interactive Studios: Discover W. Colfax hosting services
The BID’s website was taken down for various issues relating to an out-of-date and vulnerable versiontied to a theme that cannon be updated. Dan presented some options to get the website updated and rebuilt.
Option A—to have Beret design the BID website although the Wordpress platform is not entirely in her wheelhouse.
Option B-Seesaw—giving the bid a 30% discount and would be slicker than what we have now, and up to date and much less prone to attack. They also did the BID’s original site and designed the “w”
4)Lynda Seele Addendum
Dan hired Lyndathis year to assess properties within the boundaries of the BID. She discovered properties that were listed as residential but in fact, can be classified as commercial which would essentially add $20,000 to the BID’s budget. What happened is that there are parcels of land which will be residential, but EFG had them reclassified as residential vacant land. Dan assumed they were not taxable, but assessor says because they are located within a commercial district, they are considered commercial properties and can be taxed accordingly. Cameron says he is willing to let the reclassification stand because he understands that the city’s main motivation is to discourage vacant land sitting for too long.
Dan thinks it’s more than fair to pay her an additional $500 in addition to her original fee of $500 for the far broader scope of work she took, not to mention on adding more money to the BID’s coffers.
BID’s office space
There was a discussion about what to do with the office space at 4500 West Colfax. David recused himself since it would involve one of his properties. Diane pointed out that he didn’t need to recuse himself from the discussion, only the vote. The deal with Barbara Baker’s church fell through—David felt their request for two months free rent was not reasonable. Discussion about where the BID office should be located.
Board agreed it makes more economic sense for Dan to move the offices to Del Norte.
Motion: Cameron moved to locate the BID office to Del Norte starting in January. Dennis seconded. Three were in favor. David recused himself from voting.
Motion: David made a motion to approveproposal in items 3 option B with Seesaw Creative, 4 & 5 as proposed. Dennis seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed.
Letter of support for Walk Denver
Dan presented a letter of support for Walk Denver who is planning an advocacy role in getting the city of Denver to assume responsibility for sidewalks and create a dedicated funding source for sidewalk maintenance throughout the city. As one of the focuses of the BID has been to promote a more pedestrian friendly corridor, Dan believes it is totally consistent to support Walk Denver in this effort.
Motion: Diane moved to approve a letter of support for Walk Denver. David seconded. All were in favor. Motion carried.
Colfax Elementary
The new principal of Colfax elementary school has created a mobile app for more effectively communicating with parents and is trying to raise money to pay for it. Dan wants the BID to kick in $200 because it would be another way to reach out to this particular demographic.
Motion: Diane moved to contribute $200 towards the app. Win seconded. All were in favor. Motion passed unanimously.
Annual Community Party
Dan was hoping to hold this year’s community party at the new micro-brewery (Win’s property), but Win says it won’t be anywhere near ready until March. Win thinks metro manor is a good spot for the party. Dan would like to have a theme this year—he is thinking of some kind of greenery theme to encourage business owners to create green spaces along the corridor. There was a discussion about the narrow sidewalks and the challenge of growing any kind of greenery so close to the highway.
Questions about the date of the event—David suggested that we check availability at Metro Manor before setting a date. Win suggested colored name tags indicating how many years an individual or business has been in the neighborhood.
LEI-Median lighting
Dan is working on getting solar lights for the sculptures in the medians working. He has been researching panels and batteries to find the most cost effective and low maintenance way to use solar power.
Meeting adjourned at 6pm.
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