{"id":970,"date":"2018-12-10T18:54:10","date_gmt":"2018-12-10T18:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=970"},"modified":"2018-12-10T18:54:10","modified_gmt":"2018-12-10T18:54:10","slug":"business-improvement-associations-set-for-overhaul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2018\/12\/10\/business-improvement-associations-set-for-overhaul\/","title":{"rendered":"Business improvement associations set for overhaul"},"content":{"rendered":"

Council will consider a\u00a0recommendation to\u00a0introduce competition for funding among local business improvement associations, to generate more events and initiatives throughout the city, tomorrow night.
\nMore than $10 million has been paid since 2012 to the business improvement associations (BIAs) of the City Centre\u2019s Newcastle Now, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, the Wallsend Town Business Association, the Mayfield Business Association and the New Lambton Chamber of Commerce.
\nThis funding is made available from a special rate paid by commercial ratepayers to fund additional promotion and marketing of their local business area.
\nFour of the five BIAs have this year requested Council funding. Collectively, they propose to this year spend 46 per cent of their ratepayer funds on administration and salaries.
\nAn annual contestable process for the $1.345 million in ratepayer funding\u00a0is recommended\u00a0following the finalisation of a report by AECOM (below). The report, which will be considered at the Council meeting tomorrow night, lists 34 issues relating to governance that require addressing by the BIAs.
\nCouncil will also consider a recommendation to replace the current model of funding agreements with a new framework that ensures funding is directed to events, local projects and infrastructure. BIAs will not be able to request funds from the City of Newcastle for administrative costs and staff salaries.
\nA separate, independent report by the Centium Group into funding provided to Newcastle Now will also be shared with Councillors Tuesday evening. This report was prompted by the discovery that around $7 million has been paid to Newcastle Now without a business plan submitted or approved, a requirement stipulated in the association\u2019s funding agreement signed by its then and current Chairman Edward Duc in November 2011.
\nCity of Newcastle\u2019s Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Bath said the AECOM report found that the governance arrangements for BIAs require significant improvement.
\n\u201cEarlier this year a BIA requested more than $100,000 with no explanation of how the money would be spent,” Mr Bath said.
\n“Another requested to spend all (and more) of their special rate funding on administration.
\n\u201cMore than $10 million of commercial ratepayers\u2019 money has been provided to BIAs during the past seven years. During this time, the amount that is being diverted to administration and salaries has substantially increased.
\n\u201cFor example, every year for the past five years, Newcastle Now has spent at least 43 per cent of its funding on administrative costs and salaries. In 2016, this figure exceeded $600,000 out of total funding of $1,161,596. And in 2017, 56 per cent of Newcastle Now\u2019s funding was diverted to administration and salaries, a record percentage.
\n\u201cEvery dollar that is spent on administration and salaries is a dollar that isn\u2019t going towards on-the-ground delivery of events and programs that attract people to local shops and businesses.
\n\u201cAECOM recommend that administration expenses instead be managed by a single independent third party on behalf of all five BIAs. Through economies of scale, this will ensure an estimated half a million dollars more is invested into local business areas in the form of events and programs rather than in red tape and bureaucracy.
\n\u201cThe City needs more events, and more focus on tourism and economic development. BIAs can play a critical role in achieving this.
\n\u201cSignificantly, Council will also introduce a more open and contestable process for at least a portion of the annual $1.345 million that is currently exclusively available to the BIAs.
\n\u201cCompetition will bring about a lift in the quality of events and projects that ratepayers\u2019 money is spent on. It will encourage fresh, dynamic ideas for how we drive better visitation and spend in our local business areas.
\n\u201cWallsend and Hamilton BIAs have done an outstanding job cultivating events that draw large numbers to their areas and positively promote local shops. Going forward, successful events like the Wallsend Winter Fair, Hamilton Carnivale and China Week will be able to apply for funding in three-year blocks to ensure events have certainty from year to year.
\n\u201cCity of Newcastle is contacted every week regarding inspiring new ideas for events or activations that could promote Newcastle and increase economic activity. BIAs will now compete with these groups for the funds that commercial property owners pay annually in the CBD, Darby Street, Hamilton, Mayfield, Wallsend and New Lambton.
\n\u201cTo further improve governance, any funding request will now include KPIs that explain how the success of an event or program is measured.
\n\u201cThe proposed framework includes improved transparency around the boards of the five BIAs and a clear process for recruitment and selection to a board. A number of property owners who pay the special levy have indicated a view that BIA boards are a closed shop with limited turnover and visibility of how decisions are made.
\n\u201cA vision and purpose must also be better articulated to ensure consistency in the evaluation of a BIA\u2019s performance. For example, Newcastle Now has a goal to\u00a0\u201chelp and encourage the city (of Newcastle) to live up to its name as Newcastle Business Improvement Association\u201d.<\/em>
\n\u201cThis goal is at best ambiguous, and at worst makes no sense. Either way, evaluating its performance in meeting its goals is impossible.
\n\u201cCouncil will separately review the geographical boundaries of the BIAs. It\u2019s clear that the City\u2019s rapid transformation in recent years which has seen improved establishment of local business areas in Honeysuckle, Carrington, Waratah and the Junction, is an opportunity for the creation of new or expanded BIAs,\u201d Mr Bath said.
\nDownload the\u00a0AECOM report<\/a>\u00a0(pdf)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Council will consider a\u00a0recommendation to\u00a0introduce competition for funding among local business improvement associations, to generate more events and initiatives throughout the city, tomorrow night. More than $10 million has been paid since 2012 to the business improvement associations (BIAs) of the City Centre\u2019s Newcastle Now, the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce, the Wallsend Town Business Association, … Continue reading “Business improvement associations set for overhaul”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/970\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}