The city council unanimously approved one-time funding for Hollister Downtown Association (HDA) of $57,500, yet shelved, for the time being, a similar request for annual funding to support HDA’s economic development activities.
Gordon Machado, president of the HDA, laid out the case for funding by giving the council an overview of what the association, which was founded in 1986, has done on behalf of the city over the years. He said the Downtown Association applied to be included among other cities in the California Main Street Program that was established to reinvigorate the economic health of historic main street central business districts. It took two tries, but the association was ultimately included, along with four other cities, in the state.
Machado said the HDA, which has been received city funding since 1987, has been involved in issues ranging from creating bypasses in order to divert semi-trucks around the city to helping during the recovery after the 1989 earthquake.
“Another thing the Downtown Association does is coordinate people,” he said. “We have the street festivals, the farmer’s market, the Lights on Parade, and others. All those involve thousands of man-hours and sometimes we feel like we’re herding cats, but we get it all together and those projects come off very well.”
There are more than 30 downtown associations in California funded by cities, said Machado as he offered Morgan Hill’s Downtown Association as a good example of partnering with the city, and said a city employee is the director of that association.
Donna Bakich, an attorney and HDA board member, explained that the volunteer time Machado mentioned amounted to some 4,000 to 5,000 hours. She said HDA is synonymous with the betterment of the city through the coordination of its members through projects and events that bring people downtown.
Bakich described the association as a strong marketing source that attracts people from the entire Bay Area. She said the city brings in revenues in temporary business licenses during the farmers’ market through the summer.
“People come from far reaches of this county, but also from other cities,” she said. “They learn about this from the HDA website and Facebook page. We’re out there and the word is spreading.”
Licenses and permits make up 85 percent of the city’s annual budget, Bakich noted, saying she would like to think that HDA helped in achieving this through the events where vendors come to sell their products.
“This is not a product of word-of-mouth marketing,” she said. “A little bit of financial assistance can help us take the small-scale marketing that we’re doing to promote the downtown and broaden it to a larger scale.”
She said HDA is heavily involved in research, fact-finding, and recording that support its marketing efforts on behalf of the city.
“HDA has a shared interest with the city, which is to promote economic stability, to bring interest, to bring people here,” Bakich said. “Downtown is the heart of the city and we need economic development and stability. We need businesses, we need places for people to spend time, and more than just a couple hours at an event.
She explained the HDA website is a valuable marketing research tool that can provide information through the number of people who come to it to discover what Hollister has to offer.
“This is one of the services we were providing through the RDA funding, and we can accomplish again,” she said. “Fifty-seven thousand, five hundred dollars is all we’re asking for this year to help expand upon the services and provide them to the city.”
She said HDA is made up of local business owners, as she is, with vested interest in seeing downtown flourish and become economically viable.
“That’s what we’re offering,” she said. “We’re offering to do everything we did for you when we were receiving RDA funds, but we’ve had to scale back because of the lack of those funds. By providing us with a fraction of what you would have to pay a city staffer, the HDA is willing to partner with the city to revitalize, grow and develop downtown Hollister.
“I don’t want this to just be a place that people stop on their way to the Pinnacles,” she said. “I want this to be a destination.”
Councilman Karson Klauer wanted to know what the annual funding from RDA was. Bill Avera, city manager, said he thought it was $65,000. Klauer asked how HDA came up with the $57,500 figure, which seemed to catch Machado off guard and he answered, “That’s a good question,” and admitted he didn’t know how the figure was generated, but said it was the “bottom figure” and apologized for not having the background information on hand.
“Is this a survival figure we’re working with here?” Klauer asked.
“Yes,” Machado answered.
Klauer wondered what percentage of the businesses downtown were members of the association. Brenda Weatherly, executive director, said it was a little less than 40 percent. She said business owners cannot be forced to join, but everyone benefits from the association’s efforts.
Councilman Raymond Friend said one of his concerns was what “product” would result from the funding. He said that after what Bakich outlined in her comments, he felt the association had a clear view of what its goals were, but perhaps they were too extensive and questioned their ability to achieve them. Weatherly said the goals have always been extensive, but they’re mainly to encourage the city in achieving them.
“A plan is just something you shoot for and this is a work plan and some of these things will be carried forward into the next year if we’re unable to accomplish them this year,” Weatherly said. “We’re establishing the stars to shoot for that we think are important in making this community economically viable.”
Mayor Ignacio Velazquez said he remembered 15 years ago when Morgan Hill was asking Hollister what it was doing downtown. He said Morgan Hill is doing great now and Hollister isn’t because, “we shut ourselves down and they kept going.”
He said HDA is an important partner, but there is a need for a clearer plan. He commented about the planned re-striping of San Benito Street as just one step of many that need to be taken, otherwise, “money is just being thrown down the drain.”
Velazquez envisioned HDA’s role as being a partner who constantly reminds the city of what it has just accomplished, then telling it what needs to be done next and how much it will cost. He said he appreciates HDA’s contributions toward downtown events, but said it should be focusing on implementing the strategy on how to accomplish goals, such as high-speed Internet downtown and its priority compared to other needs.
“Without the Downtown Association we’re going to fail, but we need to understand what that role is going to be because if the city is going to put more money into this, that role has to change,” he said. “I know the farmers’ market is very important, but we have to take a look at it because there are a lot of businesses that aren’t happy about the location of it.”
The message, the mayor said, needs to be clear how important it is for businesses to join and have input, and that people can’t just open a business and then complain about the lack of foot traffic.
“My big thing right now is how we’re going to go from the re-striping to the next phase,” he said. “If we don’t have that, all we’re going to get is complaints about the traffic downtown and how it’s inconveniencing people.”
Velazquez said it’s important to include costs in money and effort to bring more art into downtown, or year-round lighting, pop-up parks and more restaurants in the plan. He said there needs to be more effort toward strategizing each step to accomplish the desired results. He challenged them to focus on how to attract five new restaurants or entertainment venues in a year and how to find people to open them.
“HDA is a very important partner and if we don’t support you we’re going to have other problems and it will be our own fault,” he said. “But we need a plan we can all stick to and aggressively get things done. If that’s a $3-million project let’s not shy away from the numbers. Let’s understand if we’re going to bring people downtown it’s going to cost something.”
Bakich said she had been saving a more in-depth explanation of what the association wanted to accomplish for the next agenda item that would request annual funding, but it appeared the time was right to do so.
“HDA needs to do more than exist as a glorified event-planning organization,” she said. “Because we lost the RDA funding we had to scale back and we’re putting on events to bring people downtown. As you can see by our work plan, we’re shooting for the moon in the hopes that even if we miss we’ll land amongst the stars.”
She started to explain the reasons behind the request for annual funding when the mayor stopped her, saying the council needed to move on the request for funding in 2016, but agreed with her premise to be more than an event organizer, and then questioned if the amount HDA was asking for was sufficient, saying it amounted to hiring a “cheap employee.”
Bakich said the $57,500 would give the association the resources to start immediately on items in the plan to collect data and examining how its own resources can be better used. She said HDA is seeking funding in order to get back to what it had done before it lost RDA funding as a marketing and organizing partner rather than an event planner.
“Let’s get straight to the point; the $57,500 is to keep you alive until we have the next conversation,” Velazquez said.
Bakich agreed and said, “This is no bond, no Measure E. The money is going here in downtown Hollister.”
Rick Shelton addressed the council and said he had been in business since 1980. He said HDA has been an outstanding organization and has breathed life into downtown since 1985. He said the city needs to maximize the economic potential of its downtown area.
“The possibility that we could lose the HDA, the organization that’s been the catalyst for the businesses and events that brought our community together, is unimaginable,” Shelton said. “I agree with Councilman Friend that the work plan is aggressive, but if they can accomplish 75 or 80 percent of it, it would be outstanding. This is a well-organized machine that provides a lot of value to our community.”
Councilman Victor Gomez looked at the matter from a fiscal point-of-view, and said he agreed if a city employee were in charge it would, “cost us a crap-load of money.” He said he supported the resolution and said he was hesitant in going forward with an annual commitment, but felt the city did need to start moving forward in looking at the benefits of committing beyond one year.
The board did vote unanimously to fund HDA for 2016, but decided to shelve annual funding for a future meeting.
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