On Nov. 30, 2011, the Trenton Downtown Association held a bittersweet annual meeting at the Marriott on Lafayette Street.
While there was good news on the financial front, those assembled were also bidding adieu to departing executive director Taneshia Nash Laird and Destination Trenton manager Candice Fredericks.
Board treasurer David Henderson provided the unaudited financials for FY 2011 showing a $50,000 surplus. That was a turnaround from two years ago when anticipated funding fell short and the organization had a budget deficit resulting in a general appeal letter being sent to the public asking for help in closing the gap. Total income for the year was $714,705 and total expenses $664,604.
TDA is the nonprofit entity charged with marketing Trenton’s downtown area special improvement district. The 24-member board that oversees TDA is made up of property owners, government representatives and members at large. The board in turn hires an executive director to handle the day-to-day management of the district’s “Clean and Safe” initiative to make downtown attractive to shoppers and merchants alike.
Even though she was just days away from leaving her post, the outgoing executive director highlighted ongoing plans for the organization. She touted a business directory of all downtown merchants that would be distributed in print form to neighborhoods throughout the city as well as published on the TDA website.
Laird also spoke about the possibility of adding unarmed security personnel to the Clean and Safe staff responsible for policing the district for litter and providing support (tent set up, etc.) for special events.
Besides the Clean and Safe program, TDA organizes the Wednesdays on Warren and Thursday Farmer’s Markets in the spring and summer/fall respectively. Those open air events encourage midday shoppers to their lunch breaks buying locally made goods while enjoying live entertainment. The Destination Trenton tourism marketing initiative was launched a couple of years ago in conjunction with the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce.
North Ward Councilwoman Marge Caldwell-Wilson addressed the meeting, briefly described the Buy Local campaign, and talked about working to make shopping downtown a positive experience for the consumer.
Diana Rogers of the Capital City Redevelopment Corporation told the gathering about work being done to study and evaluate the parking situation downtown in an effort to establish some best practices that could leave to improvements in managing this key aspect of downtown development. Rogers hopes to have a report ready sometime in the spring of 2012.
Four new members of the TDA board were nominated and voted on at the meeting: real estate agent Anne LaBate, Philip Kirshner of the N.J. Business and Industry Association, Stacey Reese of Stace of Cakes, and Chip Vaughn of the Vaughn Collaborative.
TDA’s primary funding source comes from an additional 4.5 percent tax assessment on properties within the district. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, the special assessment resulted in $482,572 in funding, or about 70 percent of TDA’s anticipated annual operating budget.
The state-funded Capitol City Redevelopment Corporation and the Trenton Parking Authority also each contributes to the TDA. Other funding comes from a state services contract that extends the Clean and Safe” program to the state owned properties located within the district.
The largest cost is $357,682 for TDA staff, representing just over one half of the annual operating expenses. The Clean and Safe ambassadors, are a contract crew accounting for slightly less than one quarter of the annual expenses or $150,646 in the last fiscal year.
Henderson said the board took an active role in retooling the organization operations to improve the financial picture. The budgeting process was honed to more accurately reflect and account for grants received as opposed to those anticipated but not in hand. Contracts were renegotiated or put out to bid resulting in increased revenues and decreased expenses.
There were some staff cuts made along with the elimination of some programs that were a drain on resources no longer cost effective to maintain. Two examples were the “Gift Gallery” shop and “Gallery 125” which never became self-sufficient financially.
Even faced with a search for a new executive director, the organization seems poised for a positive new year.
