Thank you for pausing the BID legislation. Please consider this public notice:
#255 is legislation to put forward a BID in Rochester.

First slide is the About page of the RDDC. It says the RDP was created in 2021 to “establish a new downtown and riverfront Business Improvement District (BID)”

NEXT slide, a Flowchart from their site says the same thing.

NEXT, This isn’t on their website. We FOILed for it and it was delayed until right before your meeting last week. You should have it now if you don’t already. It is also on NoBIDROC.com. It’s the proposal for the Downtown Rochester BID Development Services.

NEXT, Which includes a timeline

NEXT, that indicates the next time anything to do with this BID comes across your desk it will be for you to NOTIFY THE PUBLIC that the plan has been filed and tell owners they have 60 [sic 30] days to file an objection at the clerk’s office!

From what I’ve read so far, that’s how property owners vote, by not objecting. 
This is what we mean by snowball.

Please jump ahead to the Proposed 5 year budget, last column, 2026 is first year where a BID would be fully in place. 

I do recognize that it is not necessarily a final draft. That being said, I believe it is fair to consider that these numbers demonstrate intent.

Highlights:

• budget is $1 million 425 thousand per year
• 53% was slated for Staffing & Management expenses, including:
  • Over $644 thousand for staffing
  •  Over $50 thousand in rent

NEXT

• Of the remaining budget $475 thousand for public programming.
• You can actually cover $150 thousand of that with sponsorship listed in the budget
• Only point this out because one of the only justifications for the BID has been programming.

NEXT And you could cover 8.5 years of programming with the Roc the Riverway funds without raising anyone’s taxes.

NEXT The biggest cut of all is the Physical enhancements and public art line that balloons up to $400 thousand next year, only to disappear once the RDDC gets what they need. 

Council, thank you for giving us more time to find out. 

We would love to share more with you, please check your emails to schedule a work session with us, PLEASE.