Fighting for its life, Downtown Association considers restructuring

Sault Ste. Marie's four-decade-old Downtown Association is considering restructuring itself.

The decision was made after the association's board met last night with Joe Bisceglia (shown) and Dom Ruscio, who've been leading the fight to have the downtown group dissolved.

Board members agreed to have their newly formed governance committee "meet as soon as possible to consider and outline a plan for restructuring."

Bisceglia is expected to work with the Downtown Association as it ponders the restructuring proposal he presented last night.

Here's what he wants::

• Reduce the size of the Downtown Association's board of directors. Bisceglia says it should optimally be eight or nine members, with committees and subcommittees advising on specific issues. The board should be limited to tenants and property owners. The mayor or a city councillor should be appointed as an ex officio member, as well as a member of the city's planning staff. "They have to be onside and they have to be influenced," Bisceglia said. "You have to be at city hall almost monthly with proposals as to what has to happen on Queen Street."

• Expand the association's coverage area beyond the six blocks of Queen between Pim and Dennis Street. "I don't see how you're going to revitallize the downtown unless you bring in the waterfront, the canal plant, the bushplane museum and that whole area off Bay Street," Biscelglia said. "You have to go from the waterfront to Wellington Street." He said the enlarged coverage area should include Gore Street.

• Pursue initiatives to increase traffic to the downtown. For example, signage at the bridge plaza should direct visitors to our downtown, not just Highway 17.

• Establish political influence, particularly at the civic centre. Some municipalities fund 50 percent of revitalization budgets in lieu of costly business levies. Building standards need to be enforced in areas like Gore Street and Grace Street.

• Cut business levies by accessing funding sources that aren't currently being tapped. Possible sources include Tourism Sault Ste. Marie and the local hotel association.

The Downtown Association is the second-oldest business improvement area (BIA) in Ontario and Bisceglia, a well-known local lawyer, remembers when it was founded in 1976.

"I was here when it was started," he told last night's meeting.

"Do you know why it was started? This organization was started for the simple purpose of creating parking lots off Queen Street. It was when the Station Mall came into being."

It was former general manager Udo Rauk who essentially made the Downtown Association what it is today, Bisceglia said.

"The city is very happy to have you here, because you have been a way for them to deflect any responsibility for the last 20 years. For 20 years, this organization has been able to be the escape by which councillors ignored the situation," he said.

Although Bisceglia and Dom Ruscio are generally perceived as leading the drive to disband the Downtown Association, Bisceglia took pains to emphasize that the two men are working independently of each other.

'Dominic Ruscio speaks for himself. I speak for myself'

"I don't represent anybody. I'm not being paid by anyone," Bisceglia told the meeting.

"I've never represented the Ruscio family.... Dominic Ruscio speaks for himself. I speak for myself."

Bisceglia described the downtown feud as "a dogfight that nobody's going to win."

Both he and Ruscio insisted they really don't want to take down the Downtown Association.

"I think that there is obviously a place for this organization or something similar to it," Bisceglia said.

"It's vital and it's necessary. I think that we should be looking at a restructuring."

'I'm the bad guy. But we're trying to keep this board'

Ruscio said he never wanted to petition the city to disband the association but when he approached the group in the past with his concerns and ideas, he was essentially told to go away.

"By law, we're allowed to do what we're doing right now," he said.

"Do we like it? No!"

"Are we proud of it? No!"

"But at the end of the day, hopefully we can restructure," Ruscio said.

"Yes, I'm the bad guy. We're taking the shots. But we still have meetings. We go to the city. We're trying to keep this board."

"The problem is, it's an old antiquated BIA and we are stuck within the boundaries of that BIA," Ruscio said.

'If it's dissolved, we're all losers'

Bisceglia said that unless there's a commitment by the association to restructure, the downtown feud will be an ongoing battle.

"If it's dissolved, we're all losers," he said.

But if there's any way to undo the legal process that Ruscio's petition has started, no one at last night's meeting was sure how  to stop it.

It's expected that the vote will continue, and the Downtown Association will either be spared or disbanded, with its assets and liabilities seized by the city.

Any restructuring recommendations from the association's governance committee will first be considered by the full Downtown Association board.

If approved at that level, the restructuring initiative will then be presented to the City of Sault Ste. Marie prior to the August 11 deadline for submitting requests to repeal the Downtown Association bylaw and thus disband the 39-year-old business improvement area.

Any restructuring proposal is expected to be at the next meeting of City Council on August 10.

Bisceglia predicts that City Council look favourably on suggestions for restructuring the association.

Earlier SooToday coverage of this story

Professionalism and poker: How downtown plans to beat Dominic Ruscio

There will be no Downtown Days this summer

What does Dominic Ruscio really want?

Duane Moleni and the downtown death match