City council didn't give the final seal of approval as expected Monday night for a half-dozen new Downtown BIA members following a byelection conducted by the Barrie business association.
At last week's general committee meeting, council members voted to accept the BIA byelection results. On Monday night, however, council voted unanimously to refer the results back to the BIA for further consideration, without any discussion.
"We just want to make sure we get everything right," Coun. Sergio Morales, the city's appointee on the BIA board, told reporters after last night's council meeting. "We have a new executive director coming in. We've got a new board that people want us to make sure is from from the start, Day 1, run properly."
Morales didn't offer up any specifics, but said the review could include confirming voting results and procedures.
"We're just making sure we're covering our bases and doing our vetting properly," he said, adding he's "not aware of at this time" of any voting irregularities.
"We're reviewing everything holistically," Morales said. "You can never have election results being undermined or being questioned. If there was an issue, we'd address it right now, but there's no issue right now. We're just reviewing it to make sure we do it properly."
The voting results will be discussed at an upcoming BIA board meeting.
"If nothing comes out of that, I would expect it will come back (to city council) for ratification," Morales said.
Six people were recently voted onto the 12-person BIA board after a byelection was required to fill positions left vacant following the resignations of several members.
Voted onto the board were Daniela Fuda, Rob Hamilton, Colin Hassey, Jason Ing, Paul Lynch and Cait Patrick chosen to fill out the board. Hamilton, a local businessman, was the city's mayor from 2003 until 2006, while Ing and Lynch were among those who had previously resigned.
The byelection was necessary following the resignation of six people within a span of only a few days. Denise Tucker (chair), Tom Ambeau (vice-chair), Ing and Lynch all signed a joint letter announcing their resignation from the BIA board in October, shortly after Wayne Hay and Tracey Baker also indicated they were stepping down.
In their joint resignation letter, Tucker, Ambeau, Ing and Lynch said, "we feel we are unable to represent (the) best business interests of our members in the current environment."
Reports of in-fighting on the board over topics such as ethics and procedural rules soon came to the fore.
In the board minutes from a June BIA meeting, Tucker said “the meetings sometimes feel like being on a firing squad.”
Following the October resignations, city council also removed its representatives, Couns. Clare Riepma and Keenan Aylwin, from the BIA board on Oct. 28. Morales was then appointed to the board as the city's representative.
The Downtown BIA also recently announced it had hired Kelly McKenna as its new executive director. She will replace Craig Stevens at the business association, after he took a job with the RVH Foundation.
Working in concert with the city, the BIA's focus is to keep the downtown vibrant for property owners, merchants, residents and visitors, and to co-ordinate both short- and long-term goals.
