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Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) (1998)Walk down the streets in many downtown urban neighborhoods and you will see uniformed workers picking up trash, sweeping sidewalks, and cleaning gutters. If you’re lost, they can give you directions. Years and many budget cuts ago these would have been city employees. Today many of them are working for a Business Improvement District (BID). There are 1,200 BIDs in downtowns, main street districts and commercial corridors across the country that were created by property owners and businesses to improve basic public services. The services provided by BIDs generally are financed by special assessments on the commercial property within the district. Unlike general property taxes, these revenues can be used only for services within the BID. In addition, decisions affecting the use of BID revenues are usually made by a board consisting of private property and business owners. While the power of government is used to insure that all property owners contribute to the BID, oversight is often limited to an annual budget review. This has led one New York City councilman to call BIDs “a whole new subdivision of government that is not accountable to elected officials.” BIDs provide a variety of services including street and public space maintenance, “customer service representatives” or “ambassadors” to provide information and assistance to tourist and shoppers, and unarmed security patrols to supplement police services. Some of the large inner-city BIDs support social services for the homeless. Although many of these services traditionally have been provided by public workers, when BIDs are involved, the work generally goes private. The International City/Management Association’s guide on BIDs explains why: “While government agencies can be effective in delivering BID services, this approach is becoming increasingly problematic. On the functional side, the use of BID funds is constrained by government requirements on the bidding process and union labor rates. Politically, it is difficult to sell the BID concept to property and business owners as a private sector initiative if government will eventually deliver the services.” (MIS Report, “Business Improvement Districts: Tool For Economic Development,” March 1997)
Not all property owners are enamored with BIDs. While they may welcome the addi-tional services, some object to having to pay for a service that general taxes should support. Others are concerned that the creation of a BID will result in existing public services being shifted elsewhere. The reverse — that only areas rich enough to pay for additional public services will get decent services — is also a concern. These shortcomings notwithstanding, BIDs will likely continue to proliferate. To protect our members doing similar work, the union should be involved in shaping these ordinances. If it is not possible to require that BID work be done by public employees, there are other requirements that can ensure a level playing field: To ensure that our members are not displaced by BID workers, we can prohibit laying off any bargaining unit member as a result of the initiation of BID work or prohibit BID workers from doing the work of any member on layoff. We can also pro-hibit BID work from infringing on work hours, benefits or promotional opportunities of bargaining unit employees. To make sure that the BID does not undercut the wages and benefits of bargaining unit workers, we can insist that state and local legislation creating BIDs require the payment of comparable wages and benefits, or at least living wages and benefits. Even if BID workers are not public employees, they are doing a public service and deserve to be organized. We can facilitate organizing by ensuring, either in legislation or through other means, that BID workers have the right to freely choose whether or not to be represented. We should ensure that union representatives have access to information and to employees. Beyond that, an employer pledge of neutrality, or agreement to card check recognition, can prevent protracted battles over certification. For more information on BIDs, contact the Department of Research and Collective Bargaining Services at (202) 429-1215. |
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