While this week’s Bossier City Council meeting drew plenty of attention to the fate of the Bossier Arts Council, it undertook a much more far-reaching action.
The Council, after a two-week delay, voted formally to evict the BAC from the its city-owned digs as well as cut off any contracts or grants from the city. Another ordinance disallowed any nongovernmental organization from receiving city grants unless it did not appear on the Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s noncompliance list, issued annually in February.
Practically speaking, this means that the BAC will have to vamoose by Mar. 24 and it loses its contract to manage the East Bank Plaza, worth $50,000 annually (unless the Council shockingly reverses itself on second reading), as well as any opportunity to receive grants from the city for now. It already has drawn on in its entirety its $80,000 grant for this year. To be eligible for a future grant, it would have to get into compliance with the LLA, meaning it completes an audit for each of the last three years.
None of this was without plenty of warning and chances to comply with LLA standards, delivered ever since budget hearings last fall. As had occurred in the previous meeting, BAC supporters begged for continuation of a process that likely still was weeks, if not months, away from resolution, saying this would devastate the arts in the city and parish.
However, that never had been the issue. None on the Council nor the Republican Mayor Tommy Chandler Administration are hostile to the arts in any way, nor is the BAC the single repository of the arts in the area. The issue was whether the BAC institutionally was capable of employing city resources – not just the $130,000 in cash but as well use of a building for free with some utilities paid that at least matched the cash in value – in an effective manner to propagate the arts. Policy-makers had plenty of reason to doubt that the organization had the institutional capacity as it now exists to accomplish this, with the main exhibit for that deficiency being it managed to have its accountants, using the same data not provided to the LLA, complete the Internal Revenue Service paperwork to remain a charitable organization legally. Tough love was called for and delivered.
But while the BAC matter sucked much of the oxygen out of the meeting, with little discussion the Council passed measures to try to kickstart the almost-moribund Louisiana Boardwalk. This involved two essentially uncontroversial items: create a new open container district around it and hire additional public safety personnel.
Some discussion ensued that indicated, even as the ordinance didn’t specify this, that the intention of the new positions was to cover the Boardwalk area, as a combination of the new OCD ordinance to take effect soon and expected significantly higher occupancy of the Boardwalk relevant to that. As of now the single surviving dining establishment, Saltgrass Steakhouse, that serves alcohol only would be covered. However, the new Brine restaurant attached to the Picklr pickleball court complex is expected to open in the coming weeks and will be eligible for this treatment as well, which allows for exit of a licensed entity with a branded cup of a certain size the run of the Boardwalk area, but not the parking garage.
Except the new overlay doesn’t include just the Boardwalk. It also extends north and south, past Bass Pro Shop and, more significantly, north to the Margaritaville complex and up to the Chasin’ Aces golf range, and south down the west side of Traffic Street to encompass the Horseshoe Casino properties, leaving only the parking areas ineligible. It also almost abuts the existing East Bank District OCD, except for Traffic Street being a no-go zone for each OCD, meaning legally someone could not cross that street either direction with drink in hand.
This raises some interesting questions. It would appear that the casinos could get into the game as well, cross-fertilizing with the Boardwalk, although tiptoeing up and down the west side of Traffic Street hasn’t been a common activity. It also begs the question about future licensees at the Boardwalk. The city has stepped up its efforts and applied more pressure to Boardwalk management to increase occupancy, and it might well pay off handsomely in the coming months. Certainly, the OCD now becomes a selling point to a segment of potential tenants, but an interesting question is whether existing tenants now will apply for beverage permits that allow them to join in.
Adding a number of new establishments that serve booze which can be carried out – whether that be casino patrons galivanting north or south, existing (and, given the tenants at present, surprising) entities at the Boardwalk jumping in, or tenants there to come – would demonstrate need for new fire and police services at the Boardwalk. However, unless the oft-vacant properties along the road have private hands turn them into bars, note that most of the entities involved are private in nature with private byways involved – the roomy casino complexes and the streets of the Boardwalk.
City tax dollars, then, would be supporting the privatized Boardwalk, subsidizing its security. And, conceivably, those resources could be pressed in service for the entire OCD, including the casinos. That, of course, is a public policy decision and obviously one reflected frequently, for public safety services deploy all the time on private property, so that’s nothing new.
But it may aggrieve East Bank businesses, who have their own OCD as well yet no subsidization of their security. They could argue that large private entities with large footprints get this taxpayer help, but their smaller businesses have no guarantee of the same.
As of now, all city expenses, including the extra Boardwalk coverage, come out of the city’s general fund. One approach could be to have patrons carry the load by creating economic development districts that overlay the OCDs that charge slightly extra on sales tax, and then plow those dollars into public safety, infrastructure, and other items dedicated solely to the districts. General fund dollars then could go to more general city purposes while the direct beneficiaries in the discrete districts in essence collect the receipts assigned only for their benefits. Indeed, depending on scaling, it might work well enough to encourage property tax relief across the board without the general fund getting hit up.
If a much broader rollout occurs within the new OCD, this approach might make more sense and potentially could constitute a fairer and more efficient use of the lucre Bossier City residents hand over.
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