Now What?

Now What?

By Kendall Jones

Contributing Editor

Former executive director of the Downtown Partnership of Sarasota, John Tylee, propounds that Sarasota should impose a itwo-year rulei on newcomers: Because people move in and out of Sarasota so quickly, you really have to be here two years before people will trust you and your intentions. Tylee says, only half-jokingly, that two years after many young working people move here, they either move away or become Realtors.

Tylee lasted just about three years before he quit and moved to Vancouver; so under his theory, it was that third year that had such a massive impact. A review of the Downtown Partnership over the last three years tends to give some credence to his theory.

When Tylee left last week, a gaping hole opened in a still-developing downtown entity. During Tyleeis tenure and under his leadership, the Downtown Partnership underwent a dramatic structural transformation, brought together seemingly warring groups on common ground and advocated major policies for the growth and development of Sarasota. And most of that occurred particularly in the last year.

The whispers of concern, from mild to intense, have been spreading. In Tyleeis absence o without his education, experience, mild-mannered demeanor and ibig picturei mindset o how can the Downtown Partnership successfully continue down its current path? Itis not just those on the outside looking in at the Downtown Partnership who have expressed pessimism over the groupis future. Insiders, including current board members, have expressed uncertainty on everything from the groupis continuing credibility to its (lack of) finances.

But most board members are adamantly optimistic about the Downtown Partnershipis continuing role in a growing and changing Sarasota. This story explores the state of the Partnership o where itis been, what Tylee brought to the table, and where it goes from here.

Perhaps current Partnership President (and interim Executive Director) Bob Richardson put it most succinctly: iFor those who say weill fold or not have as good a financial situation as other boards in town, I say horse feathers! As far as Iim concerned, onward and upward.i

Events to advocacy

The Downtown Association, as it was previously named, was formed in 1976, primarily as a merchant association, to bring people and events to a dying downtown. Most of those years, the Downtown Association was run by Paul Thorpe, a venerable Sarasota institution in his own right, deservedly nicknamed iMr. Downtown.i

Thorpe was known to show up before dawn on Saturday mornings to help put up police barricades and prepare Main Street for the Farmeris Market. During street fairs, Thorpe served up beer o and maybe a good story or two o to raise money for the Association. He was pretty much a one-man show, respected by many for his efforts. The Downtown Association primarily hosted events; it ventured into advocacy really only to the extent that Thorpe individually (rather than on behalf of the Downtown Association Board) spoke out on issues.

But as Sarasota changed, the needs for a centralized downtown group changed as well. Downtown Association board members and community leaders saw a dire need for a group that focused on bringing people together and representing the downtown as a whole, not just the merchants.

iOur major theme was collaboration,i says incoming Downtown Partnership President Cheryl Gordon, an attorney with Abel Band Russell Collier Pitchford & Gordon. iThe board felt there was too much in-fighting among the different downtown groups. It was the commercial property owners versus the merchants versus the condo owners, and it seemed like a constant tug of war. We needed a group that worked for the downtown overall.i

Richardson agrees: iWe went from being an organization that put on street fairs to becoming an organization that gets involved with policy and with what is really going on downtown.i

The transition from a merchant-focused group to a group with a broader focus began toward the end of 2002. At that time, the Downtown Association had hired Tylee to head up the Transportation Management Organization, an entity devised by the Downtown Association that basically fizzled out. Previously, Tylee had been the deputy director of Wilmington Renaissance Corporation in Wilmington, Del., a non-profit downtown redevelopment organization in a city similar in size and demographics to Sarasota. Downtown Association board members such as Realtor Marcia Wood saw the potential for Tylee to take the Association in a new direction.

iJohn came with all the qualities we wanted,i says Wood. iThe Downtown Association was going through a renaissance and John was the perfect fit. He had all the qualifications we could ask for. I feel like it was divine providence that he came here right when we needed him.i

Tylee describes the mission he was given when he was hired as threefold: iProfessionalize the organization, change the emphasis to advocacy and education and bring people together. We needed to reach out to diverse groups and build a mechanism for building consensus.i

New name, structure O money?

Several steps were taken to professionalize the organization. For example, the organization hired paid staff and Pat Preston, Tyleeis wife, also worked to develop and promote the organization.

iJohn Tylee has superb management skills,i says Richardson. iHe and his wife put in a lot of hours and effort beyond what they were paid to do. Last year, at our annual meeting, over 400 people were there o Pat did that. As a team, they were crucial.i

At that annual meeting one year ago, another key structural change was unveiled o the Downtown Association morphed into the Downtown Partnership, becoming a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization. Wood, president of the organization during that pivotal transition, says the entity sought to reform itself: iWe wanted to be different from the Downtown Association. We wanted people to know that we were new and different, with different goals and almost an entirely different focus than the Downtown Association.i

Two issues spawned from the transition. First, the downtown merchants, now left without a representative organization, formed new ones. Several little splinter groups have grown, each representing a different small retail segment of downtown o Main Street, Palm Avenue, Burns Court, Towles Court and so on. The good news is that these groups have continued to focus on improving retail; the bad news is that they donit always work together. iWe would like to see more collaboration between the different business entities within downtown,i says Gordon.

But a far more significant issue arose o money. Suddenly, the Downtown Partnership was another not-for-profit in Sarasota, holding out its hand to businesses and asking for donations. The previous Downtown Association had received some public funding, and it raised money from events and beer sales. The new Downtown Partnership had to rethink everything.

So it started an admittedly lukewarm fund-raising campaign that, ultimately, was only moderately successful. iWe held a fund-raising campaign with modest means. We tried to do it ourselves,i says Tylee.

Richardson defends the fund-raising campaign better than Tylee does: iWe raised between $350,000 and $380,000 worth of commitments, and that was with amateurs like me and Tylee and Ian Black doing it.i

iCommitmentsi is the key word. Insiders say that the Downtown Partnership has very little money. Actually, GCBR was told: iThere is NO money. None!i And that was accompanied by animated hand gestures of giant zeros. Indeed, most of the money is on paper only.

But Richardson and Gordon bristle at such comments, defensively saying that the Downtown Partnership faces the same financial issues as any other not-for-profit in town, and is doing no worse than any of them. iFund raising is always there, always on the front burner,i says Gordon. iBut itis the end of the year, the statements are going out, and we will start to get payments from our four-year pledges. We also have a big event planned for January, and that will bring in money. We do have money in the bank. We are still open for business.i

Richardson echoes Gordon, saying, iWe have ample money in the bank to carry us to where we need to be.i

To make sure the money comes in, the Downtown Partnership board has hired professional fund-raiser Laura Breeze to help the Partnership get a real campaign underway; she has reportedly told the board that their goals are realistic. From the financial standpoint, the future will hinge on the ability of Breeze and the Partnership to collect on the outstanding pledges and get even more.

Those dollars are especially important right now, when a search is underway for a new executive director. The Partnership has placed ads in national and regional publications, looking for someone with the background and skills to understand and handle the job, and the cojones to actually do the job in Sarasota, where he may not be trusted for two years.

iI told the search committee that the Partnership needs someone with credibility with all diverse groups,i says Tylee. iNot just all the developers, not just any one group. They canit always stay on one side of the street. They need to be able to discuss and deal objectively with every issue, from trees, to development, to an elected mayor issue, to Democrats versus Republicans. They need someone with the capability to deal with both sides of all fences.i

The right person will require the right salary to live in Sarasota, and that means the fundraising has to succeed. iI feel like the fundraising will make us competitive and will help us hire the expertise that we need,i says Richardson.

In the meantime, one of the gifts Tylee left behind was a strong board that can pick up slack until a new director is located. iJohn will leave a huge void because heis supremely talented,i says Wood. iBut he helped form a board with a lot of power and talent.i

From Richardsonis willingness to serve as interim executive director, to other board members stepping in to fill Tyleeis shoes, many members of this board are proving their dedication. Says Gordon: iA lot of people are volunteering to do things that John Tylee would have done for us before.i

Tylee describes the board he left behind as having ia hell of a lot of bench strength.i

Finding advocacy in common

Tyleeis other two goals o bringing people together and increasing advocacy and education o have grown hand in hand.

One of the Downtown Partnershipis major accomplishments in the last couple of years is the creation of the Downtown Roundtable, originally Richardsonis concept. The Roundtable meets once month and includes representatives from the different downtown stakeholder groups o neighborhoods, business groups, churches, restaurants and political groups. The Roundtable includes many recognizable Sarasota names, such as Ernie Ritz (for Main Street merchants), John Harshman (for the downtown commercial property owners), Ken Shelin (for downtown condo owners), Kerry Kirschner (the Argus Foundation) and Jay Brady (the Gulf Coast Builderis Exchange), to name a few.

iAs we meet with these groups, they realize that their goals are not as different as the public perceives,i says Gordon, who has facilitated several roundtables. iItis a great congenial group. We talk about different problems and see common goals. Itis not hard at all to come up with consensus. When I leave these roundtables, I always feel really excited and proud about the great things we are doing for downtown.i

Tylee himself is a great mediator, able to bring warring factions to the table and help them find common ground. A great example of Tyleeis talent was in the Spring of 2003, when the county seriously considered moving its administrative offices out of downtown to the old Arthur Anderson building at the intersection of Fruitville Road and Interstate 75. The city and many of its constituents were in an uproar over the proposal and the negative economic impact they felt such a move would have on the downtown.

iWhen the county was growling about moving out of town, we brokered the peace,i recalls Wood. iJohn Tylee really single-handedly got the city and county talking and they realized it was better to work together than to draw a line in the sand. Now (Sarasota City Manager) Mike McNees and (Sarasota County Administrator) Jim Ley get along great and we have seen much more city/county collaboration.i

The Downtown Partnershipis forays into advocacy stem from the roundtables and other collaborative ventures. Tylee estimates that the Partnershipis Policy Committee has involved more than 100 people over the last year, working together to set the tone and mission for the Partnership. That mission and tone formed the white papers Tylee drafted that set forth the Partnershipis position on major city issues. Significant current white papers cover issues such as affordable housing, downtown retail strategy and the Duany-inspired downtown code.

To help develop its affordable housing position and white paper, the Partnership needed the help of downtown neighborhoods. But thatis been a challenge o fighting even within neighborhoods like Gillespie Park, where battling has resulted in two competing neighborhood associations, prevents people from coming to the same table for a civil discussion. But Tylee pulled it off; he found enough common ground among the neighborhood groups to support the Partnership position.

The Partnershipis retail strategy will launch soon, and it is based on the theory that collaborative effort among the various downtown merchant and business groups will better benefit the whole than anything each could do individually. The retail strategy was developed in the roundtables.

But the advocacy position bound to make the most splash in the coming months is the Partnershipis position on the downtown code. Right now, groups of business people are banding together to alter the implementation of a code they see as a limited, poor fit for Sarasotais changing needs. iPeople here think the code is bad and we should scrap it,i says Tylee. iThe city says, eWe are five years into this, so get over it.i The city said no to the Duany overlay and decided to do it its own way. Well, weive got what weive got. Now we need to figure out how to make it better.i

Gordon says the Partnershipis white paper is an effort to make the new code work, rather than just whine about it. iThe Downtown Partnership has played a big part in bringing issues on the code to the public,i says Gordon. iWith our white paper, instead of complaining that the code is all bad, we suggest changes that will make people accept it better.i

But city insiders have a close eye on the Downtown Partnership and its relationship to the implementation of the downtown code. Tylee is gone now, and there is a fear that some Sarasota business people o especially those whose battle-hungry tendencies still linger, despite all the collaboration and mediation o will use the Partnership white paper as a battering ram rather than a springboard for positive discussion. If that happens, even if used by those outside the Partnership board, the Partnershipis reputation as a consensus-building vehicle could suffer, which may also affect its ability to raise funds.

Still, the Partnership board is determined to continue in the Tylee spirit. iWe are on the cusp of incredible things,i says Wood. iJohn Tylee put us in a fabulous position. He left us with a legacy of goodwill and relationships that we will trade on. He left us with white papers and manuals about how to do everything. He laid the groundwork and got us where we are today. Weive never been in a better place. John fell into our lap when we needed him, and I feel we will find an appropriate replacement, though it will be difficult to find someone of Johnis ilk.i