Business fee revolt brewing

For 10 years, Ron Russell held a single business license for his Time's Passing antique store and Antique Mall in Marysville.

But recently, he learned that things had changed: Each of the 12 dealers in his antique mall, across from the empty Mervyns building, will be required to purchase an individual business license.

"We were a little upset about that," Russell said. The business license will cost the dealers $30 to $75 apiece.

Far more irksome, said Russell, is the mandatory $100 fee each dealer will have to pay for operating within the Marysville Business Improvement District's boundaries.

A month ago, he started going door-to-door through the downtown area, with a petition calling for the dissolution of BID — an organization he helped form a decade ago.

Only the stores along a handful of blocks on D Street benefit from the organization's activities, says Russell. And collecting money from those who do not benefit is taxation without representation.

"They're doing events for the benefit of the core downtown," Russell says of the BID. "They should fight for everybody in the district."

Candis Gifford, who owns Upper Cut barber shop on Third Street, said she doesn't have time to attend BID meetings, so she can't complain about not having a voice in what the group does.

But she signed Russell's petition.

Paying a mandatory fee to be part of something that doesn't include her — well, that's a problem she said. Major BID-sponsored events like the Marysville Peach Festival and the Christmas Parade, she said, do her own business more harm than good.

"We just get a lot of crap down here on the side streets," Gifford said. "Our streets get closed and the customers can't park. That doesn't help us out."

"Why should I pay $150 a year for something that doesn't benefit me?"

She grudgingly paid her fee for several years. But this year, she refused.

By law, the city can issue citations for nonpayment of the fee, and according to Russell, Marysville has done so before.

Gifford said she'll take her chances.

The Brick Coffee House Cafe on D Street is among those businesses at the heart of the downtown area's activities and events.

Co-owner Don Blaser said he would hate to see the BID dissolve.

Blaser has served as the district's president, and he is among the district's 10 elected board members.

He said he has not spoken to Russell about his petition. Complaints do not surprise him.

"The events do end up mainly on D Street, because of the nature of the events," he said.

Blaser said the BID's accomplishments go unnoticed or unrecognized by members who are not actively involved.

Signage to denote historic sites like the Bok Kai Temple and the downtown shopping district on its outskirts, he said, took some effort to get permitted, made, paid for and installed.

Most towns have an organization like the Marysville BID, he said, "and if you talk to people there, they all have the same issues — they have parking issues, and merchant issues and landlord issues ..."

If the members vote, via Russell's petition, to dissolve the BID, he said, he will understand.

"It may have to get reworked," he said. "But there should be some kind of an organization to interact with the city."

Russell said he was not opposed to finding some other way of having downtown merchants represented.

"But a lot of people have fallen through the cracks," he said. "They (the BID board members) haven't been able to address the needs of the entire district."