Leadership of the Carmichael Improvement District (CID), established last month in order to manage budget and project issues for the 10-acre Fair Oaks Boulevard Public and Business Improvement District (PBID) corridor, have initiated steps to tackle perhaps the highest issue of concern by stakeholders: security.

According to CID President Gary Hursh, a property owner and attorney with a business located within the PBID corridor, he and fellow board members have begun the process for collection of what he called “requests for qualification” from security companies interested in managing a contract for protecting the roughly 250 CID members’ businesses from blight, vandalism and other criminal acts. This action marks the first formal step by the CID in establishing contracts and other agreements with outside agencies to provide much-needed improvements for Carmichael, including battling blight and crime on the roughly 437 commercial properties in the assessment area.

“We are focusing in on obtaining preliminary qualification applications from companies letting us know what it is they can offer, what their entire menu of services includes and what they would charge us for those services,” said Hursh. “Security is our top priority because as recently as yesterday there was a problem at Celebration Church right off Fair Oaks and it’s an ongoing one.”

Although Celebration Church sits on North Road, it is a member of the PBID, according to head pastor Mike Fraga, who reports a long history of problems concerning drug use, vagrancy and even violence against staff by local homeless individuals over the last two years (See Celebration Church story in this issue).

Reports of repeated vandalism at one auto repair shop adjacent to the church on Fair Oaks Boulevard have also been filed, and there are ongoing concerns up and down the PBID corridor about homeless encampments, drug use, graffiti, and urination and defecation in parking lots and entryways to local businesses.

“Security is a huge concern of our members and we really want to get a security contract in place as soon as possible,” Hursh said.

To assist them in their efforts to obtain qualification from security companies and follow workable guidelines, Hursh said he and fellow board members have been collecting and reviewing similar requests from other, established PBIDS in the county to examine how they have managed their own process for solicitation of security management contracts, what those contracts include or exclude, and what is working and what isn’t.

“We are studying what the parameters are, what a company could offer, and it even gets down to whether or not they would be armed,” Hursh said. “We want to know everything we need to know from the security companies themselves, but also from other (BIDS) about what kind of reports are being submitted and how those security company personnel are interacting with other law enforcement officials.”

The CID has a budget of $301,838 for the first year, which is being collected through assessments of the roughly 250 commercial property owners with assets in the corridor. More than half, or $156,956 is earmarked for Clean and Safe Enhancements, which include security.

The first of two installments by PBID members was due in full April 10. Once those payments are accounted for and processed by the county, Hursh said, they will be released to the CID board for expenditure.

“We won’t get our money until the end of the month so that’s why we are unable to do any actual business just yet,” Hursh explained. “But we are out in front on the security piece so that we are ready to go once the funds are in.”

The PBID for Fair Oaks Boulevard was approved by just under 70 percent of local property owners in the fall of 2016. The renewable, five-year agreement with the county may be expanded to include a wider tax base and coverage area over the next five years.

Other immediate steps involve a comprehensive outreach plan to business owners and property owners to ascertain what their individual concerns and needs are. The task won’t be quick or easy, as both property owners and their commercial tenants will each have their own input.

“This won’t move at rapid speed,” said Hursh. “Remember, there are two aspects involved, one for the property owners and one for the business owners, and often these are two separate entities. That said, property owners want their business owners and tenants to be successful, so we have to meet with both sides.”