Board Documents

Dear Trenton Downtown Association Members,

This letter is to provide you with some important announcements about the Trenton Downtown Association’s upcoming annual meeting and to provide an overview of the agenda.

Over the last 18 months, the COVID-19 pandemic challenged our retail businesses and kept many of the downtown workers at home. Due to state-mandated shutdowns, and out of an abundance of caution and care for the health and well-being of our stakeholders, TDA made the decision to postpone some programs and place a greater emphasis on small business communications and support.

During this period, we took specific steps to evaluate the current mission and activities of the organization, including the development of a formal “Organizational Assessment,” authored by Heritage Consulting Inc., which was completed this September. As a result of this evaluation, TDA has determined that a greater emphasis on quality-of-life management, capital investment and small business support services is needed to support both our property owners and retail businesses moving forward.

To help TDA develop and implement a revised work plan and budget that better reflect these priorities, we have engaged Commercial District Services, LLC (CDS). CDS is a managed services firm that specializes in urban Business Improvement District operations and provides support to some of our state’s largest cities, including Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth and Hoboken. At our annual meeting, you will hear from our Board of Directors and Commercial District Services on the revised work plan and priorities for 2022. We will also be coordinating the collection of direct feedback from the greater downtown stakeholder community as we develop the revised work plan.

We also invite you to vote for new board members who are filling unexpired terms of board members who have moved off of the board. The board has provided a slate of candidates who have expressed interest and been interviewed by members of the governance committee. In addition, we will be voting to update the bylaws of the organization to establish board term limits and make other updates outlined in the attached summary.

Enclosed is your election ballot, which was previously sent. Please remember to vote by December 6 at 5 p.m. We hope that you can attend, and we look forward to working with you to improve downtown Trenton.

Sincerely,

‍Roland Pott
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Trenton Downtown Association, Inc.

Chris Bernardo
President and CEO
Commercial District Services