Going to Bat for the BIDs

Most home runs are glorious, instantly gratifying stadiums full of hopeful fans.  Other home runs take longer, leaving the crowd in a state of what feels like endless suspense. 

At the BID Council, it’s our job to go to bat for San Diego’s Business Improvement Districts (BIDs).  Last summer, the City of San Diego gave the 17 BIDs their contracts for fiscal year 2007.  The contracts had a lot of changes, and not all of the new “lineup” was advantageous to the BIDs.  The best example of this was a clause that would trigger cancellation of a BID contract with the city anytime a BID was sued.  You read it right: as soon as a BID is sued, with no regard for whether or not the lawsuit was malicious or frivolous. We went to the City Council and asked:  What would this mean for small business in San Diego?  What about the 12,000 businesses that are served by their BIDs?  All the “fans” that depend on the support of their nonprofit management corporations?  The City Council, with Councilmember Jim Madaffer in the lead, voted in our favor, leaving plenty of reasonable opportunities for the contracts to be cancelled, but removing the frivolous lawsuit clause.

I recently learned from one BID Executive Director that a frivolous lawsuit had been filed against her BID.  “Thank God,” she said, “that we got that clause out of our contracts.”

And, with that, the ball soared clear over the north wall of the ball park, a beautiful homerun for small business in San Diego.

-Diana