Members of the Downtown Association's board expressed confidence Tuesday night that they will beat Dominic Ruscio's bid to disband their organization.
"We're going to survive this, because we're professional enough... and we have the support of the membership," said Paul Scornaienchi from Ergo Office Plus, after much of an evening was spent evaluating Ruscio's tactics as demonstrated so far.
If professionalism won't win the day, then superior poker prowess might.
"I would like to sit down at a poker table with Dominic, because I could take a lot of money off that dude," boasted Steve Alexander from Loplops.
City delivers notices
Poker trash talk aside, the property owners of Queen Street started receiving notices this week from city clerk Malcolm White.
The notices advise that a Ruscio-organized petition to dissolve the Downtown Association as a business improvement area had succeeded in triggering a repeal process under Subsection 211(3) of Ontario's Municipal Act.
Commercial or industrial property owners are instructed by White that if they wish to submit a request to repeal the Downtown Association bylaw, they must do so in writing by August 11.
Landlords are required to provide copies of the notice by this Sunday to each tenant who pays all or part of taxes on the property.
They must also provide the city with the names of all such tenants, together with a list of the tax share that each is required to pay.
Downtown's battle plan
The battle strategy hammered out by the Downtown board on Tuesday calls for directors to hit the streets, visiting as many Queen Street business addresses as possible.
Their message will be this:
Don't respond to the City Clerk's request.
Just do nothing.
Nothing at all.
"We want them, if they are in favour of keeping the association, to do nothing. Don't write back to the clerk one way or the other," Duane Moleni, Downtown Association manager, told SooToday.
Even a letter supporting the Downtown Association will help the other side, counting as a returned repeal response toward the 50 percent of current Downtown Association members who must return requests, the meeting was told.
If that threshold is met, and if the returned requests also represent 50 percent of taxes levied, then city council will have no choice but to dissolve the association and seize its assets and liabilities.
"I don't know how this will end, but the meetings we're having are positive," Moleni told Tuesday night's meeting.
'Misconceptions'
Concern was expressed at Tuesday night's meeting about "misconceptions" contained in materials being disseminated by those who want the Downtown Association disbanded.
For example, a letter sent to property owners by lawyer Joseph Bisceglia states that "Tourism Sault Ste. Marie can expand its duties and responsibilities that includes the planning and implementation of special events for the downtown merchants."
However, Tourism Sault Ste. Marie has no mandate to represent the downtown, only hoteliers across the city, and so far Tourism SSM has expressed no interest in acting as Queenstown's event planner, board members were told.
Manager Moleni is preparing a letter and information package to be sent out at the end of this week.
The mailing will include a budget comparison for spending in 2008, 2011, 2014 and 2015.
Moleni's talking points
Salaries are down 28 percent since 2011, marketing and communication has decreased by 70 percent in the past year, while street beautification is up 200 percent since 2008 and events spending has risen by 133 percent since 2008.
Moleni's mailing will concede that the association's office expenses "remain a concern."
A five-year lease was signed earlier this year, requiring the Downtown Association to remain in its present location.
Rent accounts for 65 percent of overall office expenses, but Moleni advised his board on Tuesday night that money will be saved by subletting office space to Thinking Rock Community Arts and another organization.
Why did it snow on Queen Street?
After the Downtown Association board meeting, some members held a brief informal discussion about what appeared to be fragments of Styrofoam-like expanded polystyrene building material blowing onto Queen Street on Tuesday.
The largest concentrations of the annoying white stuff appeared to be near the former Sault This Week offices at 2 Towers Street.
Insulated foam sheathing is being fitted to the exterior of the old newspaper office.
Earlier SooToday coverage of this story:
There will be no Downtown Days this summer
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