My name is Virginia Lugo. I’ve been on the BID Board of Directors for the last years. I am also on the UEZ and the Salvation Army Advisory Boards, have founded the Women’s Open Center of Middlesex County, and have served with PRAHD and other organizations in Perth Amboy.
I am here not as a representative of the BID Board, but as a business owner speaking for the people and businesses that do not have a voice.
For some time now, I have tried to work within the confines of the BID Board to correct widespread and systemic problems. As a result, I have been personally threatened with at least one lawsuit.
1. To begin with, the BID Board members were misled and misinformed by the Perth Amboy City Administration as to the BID’s function – we were told for years that we were an Advisory Board instead of a Board of Directors – and this has led to the following:
Inconsistencies and discrepancies that have been in violation of NJ SID Legislation, and NJ Non-profit Law Title 15A.
2. All present BID Board of Directors were selected by the Chairman, the Mayor, or the City’s Business Administrator, with the final appointment effectuated by the Mayor. This in itself is major conflict of interest, and it is in violation of our current BID by-laws.
3. Contrary to our by-laws, Annual Meetings of the full BID membership have not been held for the last 10 years to elect the BID Board of Directors and Executive Board from within its ranks.
4. Additionally, the BID Annual Meeting is where the BID Budget is supposed to be presented and voted on by the full BID membership. As it now stands, most of the businesses within the BID are not even aware that they are paying the Special Improvement Tax.
5. In July 2013, Mayor Wilda Diaz forced an election without BID Counsel or Inspector as required according to Non- Profit Law 15A. The election took place under the direction of the Mayor and City Business Administrator Fehrenbach. No members form the BID community at large were contacted as required by the law.
6. Mayor Diaz admitted at the September 10th BID meeting that she did indeed circumvent the rules governing the elections.
7. Over the years, millions of dollars from BID funds and other sources have been under the control of City Hall when they should have been under the direction of the businesses within the BID.
8. Funds that should have gone for improvements of the business district have been used to pay City employees. This needs to be investigated.
At this point, some of our businesses within the district are presently requesting that the City Council, as representatives of the people and overseers of the BID Budget:
1. Facilitate a process whereby an independent, outside organization would oversee and run the Annual Elections for a new BID Board of Directors and Executive Board.
2. Implement the vote on the revised By-Laws and the Annual Budget.
Further, we are asking the City Council’s assistance in hiring an attorney for the BID, to be selected by the Members of the Business District, instead of by the Administration or present Board of Directors, since they have not been duly elected by the members of the business district.
We are also proposing that:
1. A Certified List of Members within the District be compiled by NJ statutes. We presently do not have a list of our full BID membership.
2. The BID offices move outside of City Hall to better serve – as an independent entity – the businesses we represent.
3. BID meetings once again be aired on Channel 34 for the sake of transparency.
We do not make these requests lightly. We ask because it is simply the right thing to do.
The Public Trust has been broken. If people are being misled over the funds allocated for the BID, what other things are being kept in the dark?
Martin Luther King Jr. once said that we must “never be afraid to do what’s right . . . Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.”
I implore the City Council to please help rectify these wrongs by not looking the other way.
I’m also requesting that this speech be made part of the minutes.
Thank You
Virginia Lugo
This letter was read at the 2/14/14 Perth Amboy City Council Meeting
