One more time
What to do about the DDA
The text below is extracted from previous VersagiVoice material about the relationships between the Downtown Development Authority and City Hall or with retailers, residents, and property owners. [See]

Cities around the country are having second thoughts about TIFA. Some residents have come to resent what they see as preferential diversion of taxes to the business community. (In Royal Oak, downtown property owners -- and business owners? -- pay just under an additional 2 mills.)

Cities report, too, that the TIFA/DDA approach to development follows the classical S-curve. Once the curve flattens, a DDA moves into a "maintenance mode," and further need for the body becomes problematic. That has happened in Royal Oak.

That extract and the overall previous coverage provide useful context in which to consider and conduct the re-started dialogue about the Downtown Development Authority, Tax Increment Financing, and all that. More context is available in past reports out of city commission meetings. As a starting point, Commissioner Mike Andrzejak's renewed call to downsize the DDA fits in with the comment, above, about the DDA being in the "maintenance mode," suggesting that at least its mission has changed.

And there will be argument about the detailed significance, or not, of that "Barbell," the apparently arbitrary extension of the boundaries of the downtown development district south of Lincoln on Main Street, to capture the 696-area property.

The debate and split vote over dissolving the Joint DDA/City subcommittees dealing with parking stresses the need for clearing up the confusion about functional, financial, and human responsibilities of DDA and City Hall. So confused is the situation that, in conversation, several present and past participants find it hard to recall whether the DDA or City Hall did such-and-such or is responsible for this-or-that.

The above comments were written after the commission meeting of 09 October 2006. Let's see whether the commission substantively takes up the issue or -- as previous commissions have done -- lets it fall through the cracks. -- FJV: 13 Oct 06

Let's talk committee work
From memory, there was a 4-3 vote to dissolve the Joint DDA/City subcommittees which had been formed to address different aspects of Royal Oak's parking problems. Prior to the vote, there were opinions ranging from, "We haven't given them enough time" through "It would be an insult to disband them without prior notification" to "Hey, we disbanded 30 committees at one time, without notification, as part of our budgeting decisions."

Committees are made up of people, to state the obvious, thus the sensitivity about offering insult. 

Decades of executive experience with and management consulting about committees make it easy for me to judge them by their performance, regardless of who serves on them. The old chestnut about a camel being a horse designed by a committee misses the point. Well-formed committees, properly guided, are both effective and efficient. Except for standing committees called for by an organization's constitution or bylaws, I prefer the term "Task Team" for groups formed to take on an ad hoc responsibility. The name makes it clear that the team will be dissolved when its task has been accomplished. The term also avoids the confusion during dialogue about whether "committee" refers to the sub-committee or its parent committee, if there is one.

All by way of saying, the commission should have listened to City Manager Hoover when he said he could accomplish the necessary  DDA/Commission liaison about parking matters without the formation of two subcommittees. Not long after the two subcommittees began work, one inevitable suggestion was, "Wouldn't we be better off with one committee?" Yes, they would have been. But, since both Hoover and Planning Director Tim Thwing serve on the DDA -- Thwing as its Executive Director -- the mechanism for liaison is already in place and a separate committee is not needed.

So what has been the problem?
The institutional culture of the DDA is to procrastinate and to talk issues to death. (How many years does it take to replace a Downtown Manager?) The DDA seemed to be taking forever to offer something tangible about parking for the commission to address. DDA people acknowledged that they have trouble getting their subcommittees to meet. Some had the idea that placing commissioners on the subcommittees would assure more frequent and more responsive meetings. "Commissioners, at the commission table, would then know enough to make decisions." Didn't happen.

A solution?
If they really dissolve the two subcommittees, and the commission needs the assurance of more-than-staff input, city commissioners should rotate, one at a time, sitting in on DDA meetings,  -- at least when parking is being discussed -- so the flavor as well as the substance of the dialogue is regularly brought back to the commission table. -- FJV: 18 Oct 06

Then there's the bricks-and-mortar bit
Sitting in on or watching meetings and chatting with civic activists, one often encounters the bricks-and-mortar vs. promotion issue -- and not in just the DDA/City context.. Simplifying to provide focus, one mindset wonders whether hosting the Super Bowl or enjoying the really exciting performance of the Tigers really has any permanent benefit for Detroit; why Pontiac continues to struggle financially despite outstanding success with Arts, Beats & Eats; and except for restaurants and bars, what good has the Dream Cruise really done for the cities along Woodward?

Returning to Royal Oak's DDA/City dialogue, that mindset maintains that the DDA should concentrate more on acquiring land and encouraging development than on sponsoring parades and events which are/were better left to the private sector and volunteer groups . "Tens of thousands of so-called 'impressions' on TV, or banners on poles, or color-coordinated newspaper boxes and benches don't help a community. An office building, new store, or condo does."

The DDA's performance/learning curve has flattened. Barbell . . . Committee Performance . . . Marketing/Promotion . . . Bricks & Mortar . . . Parking: There's enough there to jump-start a new and sustained review of the DDA's mission or about the need for its continued existence. "There will be problems consolidating/reorganizing the DDA's and  the City's finances"?  Pshaw. There are problems now. -- FJV: 18 Oct 06

Past coverage: DDA-City Hall-Retailer-Downtown Manager 

Dissolve the DDA

DO NOT dissolve the DDA

Conversation with Barbara Bos

City Manager defends DDA