WEST ORANGE, NJ — The West Orange Township Council approved the proposed 2017 Downtown West Orange Alliance budget totaling $207,000 at its Jan. 3 meeting.
Council President Joe Krakoviak cast the sole vote against the budget, which actually has the same net operating total as last year. But while the net operating budget may be the same, the individual expense allotments are slightly different from the 2016 budget.
According to the DWOA budget document, $71,810 was designated for office operations this year. That is a bit more than the $71,510 allotted for that category in 2016. The expense for marketing and promotions also increased, rising to $50,000 in 2017 from $45,000 in 2016.
The other categories saw small decreases from last year, with the most significant being insurance and professional services dropping to $5,500 in 2017 from $8,450 in 2016. Economic development decreased to $6,000 this year from $8,000 last year, while organization went to $4,690 in 2017 from $5,000 in 2016. Visual improvement was allotted $69,000, a tad less than last year’s designation of $69,040.
Factoring in the $28,000 of total in-kind contributions, the total expenses projected for 2017 amount to $235,000. When the $28,000 is subtracted from that number, the expenses get down to $207,000. In a Jan. 6 phone interview, DWOA Executive Director Megan Brill said the in-kind contributions are subtracted because they consist of township-covered items such as her office and its heating bill — they are therefore not funds that could be allocated.
As for projected revenue, the DWOA budget document lists $104,500 for Special Improvement District assessments; $40,809 for the township’s cash contribution; and $17,484.32 for funds carried forward from the previous year. It also includes $14,500 from the Mayor’s 5k and $8,000 from the Street Fair. In addition, the budget features $75 in interest income and $21,631.68 in reserve funds. That amounts to $235,000 when the $28,000 township in-kind contribution is added, though the number drops to $207,000 when the in-kind contribution is subtracted.
Using that budget, the DWOA hopes to continue the progress it made last year. And the organization had some success in 2016, according to Brill, who pointed out during the meeting that the number of vacant downtown storefronts dropped from 41 at the start of 2016 to 22. Additionally, Brill said the DWOA held its first Realtor open house in an effort to attract businesses. Plus, she said, the alliance’s meetings were attended by more people than ever, its email list grew from 800 to 1,300 people, and its Facebook page attracted 2,000 “likes.”
This year, Brill said the DWOA plans to focus on addressing design issues. Specifically, she said a design team — after receiving input from township acting planner Paul Grygiel — will release new design standards in the first quarter of 2017 that establish criteria for making storefronts aesthetically pleasing while maintaining building integrity. If property owners do not follow these rules, she said design team members will send them letters and personally work with them to make improvements. She said the DWOA will also encourage people to take advantage of the alliance’s financial assistance program, through which matching grants are provided to downtown businesses to improve their storefronts.
At the same time, Brill said her organization wants business owners to communicate what they need, so the DWOA will know exactly how to serve them.
“We think we know a lot — we don’t know everything,” Brill said at the meeting. “If this budget isn’t providing them what they need, then we’ll make it happen.”
To better gather ideas, Councilwoman Susan McCartney recommended adding a virtual suggestion box to the DWOA website. She also said the organization should produce an online community asset map so viewers could learn more about downtown businesses. Brill showed an interest in looking into both.
McCartney additionally urged Brill to expand the DWOA so it covers the nearby Valley corridor. With part of that district recently being designated a redevelopment area, and with the presence of the Highland Avenue Train Station, the councilwoman said the corridor has a lot to offer. And though McCartney knows the alliance is not ready to expand, she stressed that it should be a consideration moving forward.
“It really does need to expand across the corridor because so much is happening there,” McCartney said.
The councilwoman was not the only one to offer suggestions. Councilman Victor Cirilo said there has to be synergy between the downtown district and the Edison Village redevelopment project in order to create a business area into which tenants will want to move. Cirilo recommended forming a subcommittee dedicated to building that harmony.
Yet DWOA Trustee Kevin Kruse said Prism Capital Partners — the redeveloper overseeing phases involving the project’s retail units — has “not exactly been a great partner with us.”
“We started off with a lot of high hopes that we could work with them and sort of feed off of that buzz that they were creating,” Kruse said. “But they seem to have taken the approach that they are going to be sort of a self-contained marketing and sales organization. They will find their own people and aren’t really interested in interacting with us. We invited them to different events — they don’t seem to be interested.”
That answer did not satisfy Councilman and DWOA Trustee Jerry Guarino, though. Working with Prism will lead to attracting residents and nurturing new businesses, Guarino said. So even if the redeveloper has been difficult to work with so far, he said it is up to the DWOA and the township to make Prism a good partner.
“(We have to) make them understand that for them to be successful, they need to work with us,” Guarino said. “And for us to be successful, we need to work with them. It’s a unique partnership.”
Brill said the DWOA will keep “plugging away” at building a relationship with Prism, pointing out that the redeveloper has always been accommodating whenever the alliance needed parking for the Street Fair. At the same time, Kruse said the organization will continue supporting the businesses surrounding Edison Village so that its residents will have viable shopping and dining options. If those outside businesses are not successful, he said, Edison Village will either fail or become a “self-contained enclave unto itself.”
Meanwhile, Prism Principal Partner Eugene Diaz maintains that Prism does have a collaborative relationship with the DWOA.
“We have supported the alliance and continue to support the alliance,” Diaz told the Chronicle in a Jan. 6 statement. “We are happy to work with them for the benefit of all stakeholders.”
When it came time for Krakoviak to speak, the council president had a few questions for Brill and Kruse. One was about the exact number of people who had visited the downtown area in the past year, to which Kruse answered that the DWOA does not have the means to measure that. Krakoviak also asked about attracting businesses, with Kruse responding that the alliance sent out letters to businesses in conjunction with the Realtor open house last year. Additionally, Kruse said the organization inquired into apparently vacant storefronts so that it could list them in its database.
The issue the DWOA encounters, Kruse explained, is that the downtown area’s buildings are often too small for interested businesses. The trustee said the organization has reached out to regional chains in the past, but the sizes of available spaces are mainly more suitable for mom-and-pop stores. As a result, he said, the stakeholders will have put their heads together when planning for the downtown’s future.
“We’re all in this together,” Kruse said. “This is something that, going forward, we need to really start (pulling together) the administration, the council, the DWOA and think about what is the strategy going to be for the downtown corridor going forward. What is the plan?”
Krakoviak also brought up the departure of former DWOA Trustee Jerry Eben, who resigned when the board was on the verge of voting to remove him during the meeting on Dec. 21, 2016. The council president said he was disturbed by Eben’s near-removal, especially when DWOA Chairman John McElroy declined to state what prompted the vote during the meeting. He thus issued a warning to the DWOA regarding how it treats its volunteers.
“If you want to attract people — good people and better people than perhaps in the past — it’s going to be hard to attract them if they see that one of the people was being kicked off the board,” Krakoviak said.
In response, Brill said Eben should have known why he was almost removed. She added that the former trustee could serve on the design team, but he would not be welcome back on the board. And since his resignation was not relevant to the DWOA’s proposed budget, the executive director said she did not wish to comment on it further.
Most of the council members ended up expressing enthusiasm for the budget as well as the outlook for the alliance’s future. Guarino, for one, said he is glad to see the board’s assemblage of such diverse talents working to better the downtown district — from McElroy’s business acumen to Kruse’s financial knowledge to Trustee Mike Brick’s marketing expertise. The synergy of those abilities will make the organization’s efforts more effective moving forward, the councilman said. He said he hopes more business owners will attend DWOA meetings this year.
Councilwoman Michelle Casalino likewise expressed optimism for the alliance’s future, telling Brill she believes the organization is “on the right path.”
“It’s just amazing (seeing) the time you spend and the dedication of everyone and just the buzz that’s been created,” Casalino said. “I look forward to 2017.”
But not everyone was so supportive of the budget. Though Krakoviak never mentioned why he cast the sole nay vote during the meeting, he later told the Chronicle his decision was made partly due to what he felt was a “lack of transparency and accountability” in the DWOA’s attempt to remove Eben from the board. The fact that the alliance members did not tell Eben at the meeting why they wanted him removed and then would not tell the council president himself when he asked them about it is a “fundamental issue of fairness” that he cannot support with township monies, he said.
In addition, Krakoviak said he was concerned that Brill and Kruse could not point to any specific data or analysis regarding its role in filling vacant storefronts. Metrics could make the DWOA more effective in its efforts, he said, but they remain a challenge.
“With a budget of more than $200,000, I believe the alliance should make a stronger data-driven case demonstrating that it is putting those funds to productive use,” Krakoviak told the Chronicle in a Jan. 9 email. “I was also concerned about the admitted lack of a strategic direction of where the alliance should go from here on reducing vacancies, although I hope the council and administration will help with that.”
McElroy was glad that the majority of the council members voted in the budget’s favor, telling the Chronicle he believes the budget will allow the DWOA to continue making strides for the downtown area. But the chairman said he did get upset that Krakoviak would discuss Eben’s resignation when it had nothing to do with the vote at hand. Asking alliance representatives to comment on the situation only leaves them open to possible legal entanglements while doing nothing to move the alliance in a positive direction, he said. Therefore, he said he does not understand why the council president would continue to do so.
The DWOA chairman was also unhappy with Krakoviak’s vote.
“I’m disappointed that council president would vote ‘no’ on the budget of one of the most active and positive organizations in the town that’s filled with volunteers working so hard to improve Main Street,” McElroy told the Chronicle in a Jan. 6 phone interview. “It’s not really what I would call a vote of confidence.”
Photos by Sean Quinn
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