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Downtown Muskegon Business Improvement District
Meeting Minutes Form
May 20, 2015
380 W. Western Ave., Suite 202 Muskegon, MI at 4PM
1) Call to Order: TIME 4:02PM
Board Members Present: Doug Pollock-Chair, Mike Hennessy, Bruce Lindstrom, Gary Post,
John Riegler, Bob Tarrant, Connie Taylor
Absent: Justin Clark-Vice Chair, Frank Peterson
Staff: Jonathan Seyferth, Executive Director Downtown Muskegon Now
2) Consent Agenda:
G. Post motioned to approve the agenda and minutes as presented
Support: B. Lindsotrm
Vote – All voted in favor
3) Public Comment (on an agenda item) – The board chose to keep the floor open throughout
the meeting allowing property owners to speak on any of the below issues as the board
discusses each.
No meeting attendees asked to speak at this point
4) Unfinished Business
a) Discussion of Services
Board members discussed how the billing would be handled.
Staff let the board know that initially the discussion regarding billing had focused on
issuing one assessment per year and attaching that to the winter tax bill mailed by the
city. This would allow the Downtown Muskegon Business Improvement District to save
on the cost of mailing a separate bill.
Board members brought up the option of doing two bills, one in the summer and one in
winter. It was thought this would be easier for property owners to manager.
There were questions about developing a committee to look specifically at adverting. It
was decided that a subcommittee would be formed to make advertising/marketing
recommendation.
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Staff asked if the board was comfortable with the budget as presented.
G. Post noted that it might be a good idea to add a downtown art line item to the budget.
There was a general discussion about this.
C. Taylor asked if there should be a discussion/planning before a final assessment is
set. Could we put out a survey from the property owners to get some additional by in.
M. Hennessy thought it could be a good informative step as well.
D. Pollock agreed that we could do a survey and that being proactive with a survey and
pushing more information out.
There was a question about creating committees to really dig into a few things and
making recommendations.
There were questions about the budget breakdown and if some of the categories
There was a question if advertising should be changed to advertising/marketing and
events.
New Business
a. Discussion of recommended assessment
Staff recommended an assessment/services based in Memo 2
Property owner, Alan Jager (owner of the Press Lot – at 1st and Clay)
brought up concerns about the assessment level (and the assessment
in general). He asked if his property could be zoned residential so he
wouldn’t be assessed. He’s concerned that Muskegon is going in the
wrong direction and is concerned this will drive away business and/or
force downtown property to become residential.
D. Pollock responded to Mr. Jager’s questions/statement and
explained that the desire is to do help enhance aspects of the
downtown and make it more attractive for investments of all kinds. It
was noted that we have the same goals to make things better.
G. Post – respectfully disagreed with the stance that Mr. Jager took.
He noted that not all the property in the downtown would be
residential.
D. Pollock – noted that it was important to hear these concerns from
owners in the district.
B. Terrant motioned that a 2015 assessment be recommended to the
city commission as outlined in Memo 2 from staff.
Support by B. Lindstorm
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All Voted in favor
b) Setting annual meeting schedule
The board chose not to set their annual meeting scheduled at this meeting. They felt
waiting until September to have another meeting was too long of a break between
meetings.
Next meeting date was set for Wednesday, July 22 at 4PM
5) Other Business - NONE
6) Adjournment : 5:11PM
No Objection
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