The Willow Glen Resident

City hauls businesses who don't pay dues into court

WGBPA nonpayers are not included, but manager hopes that action will be taken

By Christine M. Lias and Rebecca Wallace

The finance department of the city of San Jose has begun to actively collect unpaid business association assessments, taking about a dozen businesses to small claims court since January.

The move may affect 32 current and former member businesses of the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association that have accrued a total of $10,000 in unpaid assessments in a span of about five years, said association manager Demetri Rizos. The association has about 300 members.

None of the small claims cases have included nonpaying WGBPA businesses, and Rizos said he hoped the finance department would take action against them. He said he has met with department director Roger Pickler and discussed the possibility of court action.

"There's so many more things that we could do for the Avenue, but it just takes more money," he said. "We'd like to set up workshops for our businesses, like for retail stores, on customer service or how to promote your store. Also, we would like to set up a Web site."

Pickler could not be reached for comment.

Under state law, business owners can choose to form a business improvement district, charging themselves mandatory assessments which go toward bettering the area.

San Jose has three BIDs: Willow Glen, downtown San Jose and Japantown. The Glen district was formed in 1984 after 20 percent of Glen-area businesses petitioned the San Jose City Council the previous year saying they wanted to form a BID, Rizos said. In 1984, the council formed WGBPA as an advisory body for the BID.

"Businesses wanted to promote public events and general business activities and get more people on the Avenue," Rizos said.

Willow Glen business owners pay assessments depending on the type of business: banks pay $500 per year, retail stores $240, professionals (such as lawyers) $120 and property owners $120.

Rizos said he could not take court action against the nonpayers on his own because the association's contract states that the finance department deals with money matters. But Rizos said that if the department does nothing, he wants to be assigned the nonpayers' accounts so he can take them to a collection agency--as Helen Owen, the association's first manager, did successfully with nonpayers several years ago.

Conne Shaw, executive director of the Japantown Business Association, along with the finance department took two businesses with unpaid assessments to court during the last year.

"It's not what we wanted to do, but it happened to be successful in getting the dues," Shaw said. "The city has been very helpful and followed all the paperwork through."

The WGBPA's estimated budget for this fiscal year, which is public record, is about $136,000, Rizos said. Assessments were expected to cover about $48,000 of that, but will likely cover about $52,000 due to more businesses opening in the area, he said.

Costs for WGBPA events such as Dancing on the Avenue are paid for by sponsorships; business assessments go toward administrative costs, Rizos said. These include insurance for events involving alcohol (more than $6,000 per year), rent for the WGBPA office and Rizos' $41,150 salary.

Assessments also help associations recruit businesses to fill vacancies and help businesses deal with issues involving the city.

Michelle McGurk, aide to District 6 Councilmember Frank Fiscalini, said the WGBPA is important to the Glen because it was never a formal redevelopment area.

The Glen "never got funding from the Redevelopment Agency," she said. "All its funding has come from Community Development Block Grants and federal funding administered by the city."

Kay Bell, owner of the Willow Glen Travel Agency, has been a member of the WGBPA "as long as there has been one" and says she always pays her assessment.

"It doesn't bother me in the slightest," she said of nonpayers, but added that the WGBPA "promotes our area, and truly Willow Glen has improved in the last three to four years."

Rizos said he has heard from several assessment-payers who are frustrated with non-payers. Nonpayers aren't allowed to receive the WGBPA newsletter or participate in mixers and other events, he said. "We haven't been that stringent [in enforcing consequences], but we will."

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