DBA to meet Oct. 23 to determine nominating process, length of terms

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Members of the Downtown Benicia Alliance on Monday discussed an upcoming special meeting on nominating and selection procedures for a board of directors.

The special meeting will take place Oct. 23, at which the DBA is expected to have in place the process by which a board will be nominated and selected.

The actual nomination and selection process is expected to take place in November.

Beginning next year, terms for memebrs of the board of directors will be staggered, with four directors serving one year and five serving two years. Because the DBA is currently in its inaugural year, members will draw lots to determine who will stay an additional year and whose terms will be up.

Among those current members who will be stepping down is Vice Chair Eric Hoglund of Estey Real Estate.

“Your new board of directors should be seated at the first meeting,” Economic Development Director Mario Giuliani said.

Giuliani said Melanee Cardoza, a paralegal at Civitas Advisors, the Sacramento consultant that was involved in the establishment of the Benicia Business Improvement District, will be at the Oct. 23 meeting to advise the board.

“Essentially a nominating committee really is to encourage members or those within the BID to put their names in for consideration for selection,” Giuliani said.

He also recommended the DBA approve a timeline for future nominations. “For example you would set up a timeline where nominations are due by December 1, and at your December meeting the election occurs, and they are seated in January.”

Giuliani said he also will draft new bylaw language for the DBA’s approval in November. Among other concersn, he said, he has some that are geographical.

“Within the bylaws you are made up of three different districts,” he said: east, central and west, though it should be north and south.

“At the very least you need to correct the geographic language.”

In other business, Giuliani provided the board with an update on recent invoices that were sent to businesses under the BID that were either new or had somehow slipped through the cracks when invoices were sent out earlier this year.

Chair Leah Shelhorn of Studio 41 said a concern is that many of the listed businesses do not have an email address to keep them updated on what is going on with the DBA and the BID.

She said any businesses that have not provided an email as contact information should call her at 707-745-0254.

The special meeting of the DBA will take place 9 a.m. Oct. 23 at Capitol Café, 104 West G St.

The next regular meeting of the DBA will take place 9 a.m. Nov. 11 at the Rellik Tavern, 726 First St.