Who should run downtown: business people or city bureaucrats?

Sault Ste. Marie's Downtown Association could be dissolved or eviscerated under a restructuring initiative spearheaded by Mayor Matthew Shoemaker.

Councillors voted this week in favour of a resolution moved by Ward 2 Coun. Luke Dufour, calling for a review of the existence, coverage area and promotional efforts of the Downtown Association, a self-funded business group governed by a semi-autonomous board of directors.

Mayor Shoemaker admitted he had authored the resolution, and that he's leaning toward the kind of restructuring done by his predecessor, Mayor Christian Provenzano, with Tourism Sault Ste. Marie and the Economic Development Corp.

Both those entities were brought under the wing of the city, with advisory boards of business people to guide its decisions.

The Downtown Association could end up being dissolved, or kept on as an advisory board making recommendations to city bureaucrats running the show.

"We are exclusively a member-funded organization," said Kristi Cistaro, who's owned a downtown business for 14 years and is an executive member of the Downtown Association.

"Our membership supports the entirety of our budget, which is not a substantial amount of money," Cistaro said.

"It's only about $300,000 but I think when you look at the value and programming that we offer, there's substantial return on that rather nominal investment.

"The partnership we have fostered with the city is very important to us. We firmly believe that through collaboration, we can achieve far greater outcomes than either the association or the city could accomplish independently.

"We look forward to the opportunity to contribute to the upcoming report as a critical stakeholder, and are confident that together, we can chart a path forward that sustains our members' investments and ensures they continue to have a direct role in enhancing the community where they have invested their livelihoods," Cistaro told Monday's city council meeting.

"I've long held the opinion that there's a better way to do downtown marketing and promotion, but I do not want to necessarily pigeonhole my decision-making based on my kind of gut feeling about this," replied Mayor Shoemaker.

"I want to to see what other communities are doing, how it's working elsewhere, and what the best model is for Sault Ste. Marie," he said.

"We are not in any way in favour of dissolution of our association," Cistaro said. "We think there's opportunity for partnership."

"As it relates to the borders that are drawn of our Business Improvement Association (BIA), we have very limited control. That's essentially something we have inherited.

"It's my understanding of the Municipal Act that the council can vary the borders of the BIA. So if that was something that the council was willing to entertain, we would certainly be in support of that.

"I can tell you, we have in excess of 20 business members of the downtown community outside of our current boundary that have expressed interest in joining us, but we have no capacity to admit them under our current ability to vary those boundaries," Cistaro said.

"I think that if this were come to come to a dissolution, I would hope that we would still be inviting members of the business community from the downtown to come and sit on whatever committee were to come forward," said Ward 3 Coun. Angela Caputo.

"Basically, I think previous councils were looking for this, so I'm glad that it's on our table," said Ward 1 Coun- Sandra Hollingsworth.

Founded in 1976, Sault Ste. Marie's Downtown Association has about 400 members including 150 building owners and about 250 tenants.

It officially covers a stretch of Queen Street more than one kilometre long, but in recent years has started to champion a bigger swath of the downtown ranging from Station Mall to the south, the Gateway site to the west, the old hospital to the east.

This broader area is often described at the Downtown Association offices as "river to rail."