Board Meeting Minutes - February

Board of Directors Meeting Downtown Chattanooga Alliance
Wednesday, February 17, 2021
Time: 2:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m
Location: By Zoom

1. CALL TO ORDER

Steve Hunt, Chair of the DCA, called the meeting to order. Board members attending were Adam Kinsey, Kevin Love, Lisa Maragnano,, Donald O’Connor, Charles Perry, Darian Scott and Gordon Stalans.

Not attending were Pierre Dabit, Kelly Fitzgerald, Matt McGauley, Erskine Oglesby, Todd Gardenhire, and Robin Smith.

Also present was Steve Brookes, Executive Director of the DCA.

2. The Board minutes of February 17, 2021 and the Executive Committee minutes of March 10, 2021 were approved.

3. OLD BUSINESS

(a) Ember Souchet has resigned from the board. The Nominating Committee was charged with suggesting a replacement.

4. NEW BUSINESS

(a) The possibility of a called meeting of the Executive Committee to address some housekeeping issues was announced.

5. FINANCE COMMITTEE UPDATE

(a) G. Stalans reviewed the financial position of the DCA as of 1/31/2021.
At the end of January approximately $511,000 was in the bank. Since then approximately $110,000 has been received from the City of Chattanooga. The January bill from Block By Block has not yet been received.

(b) Assessment collections between October and December, 2020 were approximately 17% lower than the previous year.

(c) Approximately $57,000 remains uncollected from 2019. It was suggested that the board should address this matter at its March meeting.

(d) The Finance Committee introduced the following motion: “for 2020, that assessments on the church buildings of Second Presbyterian and St. Paul’s be

waived, but not the assessments on their parking lots since the DCA does not have the authority to waive such assessments according to T.C.A. 67-5-212 and that the YMCA and the United Way should pay 10% of their assessments.” The motion passed unanimously.

In discussion, the following points were made:

(i) This motion follows the pattern of 2019.
(ii) The Finance Committee took the impact of Covid into account.
(iii) The motion should not be seen as setting a precedent, and in future the

committee will examine requests for waivers/abatements on a case-by-case basis.

(e) Corporate Resolutions to place reserve fund accounts with First Horizon Bank and Pinnacle Bank passed unanimously. G. Stalans and S. Brookes are to be the signatories on the accounts.

6. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR UPDATE

(a) S. Brookes addressed the Cash for Trash Program. The goals of the program include putting cash in the hands of the homeless and connecting the homeless with available social services. The cards can only be used in the DCA district. Under the program the cards could be used to buy alcoholic beverages in restaurants, but not elsewhere. The program will be launched before mid-March.

(b) The RFP for help from a public relations firm has been sent out.
(c) Sidewalk Butlers (recycling containers) will be installed by next month. The meeting adjourned at 3:00.