Four more people have tendered their resignation from the Downtown Barrie Business Association (BIA) board of management.
Denise Tucker (chair) and Tom Ambeau (vice-chair), as well as members Jason Ing and Paul Lynch, all signed a joint letter dated Friday, Oct. 11 announcing their resignation to the BIA board.
This follows the recent resignations of Wayne Hay and Tracey Baker.
The letter, which was obtained by BarrieToday, was directed to BIA secretary-treasurer Michelle Huggins and the remainder of the board.
"We are writing to inform you of our decision to resign our positions on the BIA board of management," the letter states. "As four elected members serving in executive and director capacities on the board, we feel we are unable to represent best business interests of our members in the current environment."
When reached by BarrieToday, Huggins did not want to comment further about the letter, nor to the claims of “chaos” within the BIA made by Coun. Mike McCann at last week's general committee meeting.
The letter goes on to talk about the board structure.
"Despite our best efforts, we don’t see a constructive path forward with the current board make-up," the letter states. "Moreover, recent additions by council, spearheaded by the councillor representatives on our board, have compromised not only the unique spirit of our partnership with council, but our trust as well. This makes it very difficult for the BIA to operate in good faith as the independent business association its members expect it to be."
At last week's general committee meeting, in addition to accepting the resignations of Hay and Baker, councillors also gave initial approval to filling the vacancies and requesting a third-party governance review of the BIA, which is an entity under the Municipal Act but doesn't report directly to council.
The resignation letter from Tucker, Ambeau, Ing and Lynch continues to say all four are committed to the downtown community and will continue to work with fellow business members to attract visitors to the area.
Outgoing member Paul Lynch didn’t want to speak about specifics, but told BarrieToday he believes the board does have issues, but that 'chaos' may not be the correct word.
“The term 'unaligned' would be more accurate to describe the temporary state of the board,” Lynch said. “When rebuilding this board, I hope a grassroots approach is taken and the new board focuses only on projects that make a measurable improvement to members' businesses, the BIA’s founding purpose.
“The remaining BIA business owners on the board are an excellent group and I’m optimistic about their ability to successfully rebuild," he added.
With six members now stepping down, it leaves six people on the board, including Huggins, Teresa Woolard, Chad Ballantyne and Randy Aylwin, as well as Couns. Keenan Aylwin and Clare Riepma as city appointees.
When reached by BarrieToday, Woolard said she remains committed to the board and its work.
“I’m staying on for now because I care about what happens downtown and still hope to effect positive change, which was, and has been, my goal all along,” she said. “The board has got hung up on policies, procedures, governance, led by a few strong voices that, in my opinion, has halted progress from those few of us who want to get things done.
"It can, and is, a frustrating process when there’s lots of different personalities, perspectives and goals on the board," Woolard added.
BarrieToday reached out to several board members for comment, but had not heard back as of publication time.
The BIA matters will be on the city council agenda for Monday, Oct. 28.
