PfH Wants to Be More Accessible to Business

The board members and staff of the Partnership for Haddonfield, the borough’s tax-funded, business improvement district, said this month they want to be more accessible to the local businesses.

“In the month of August we were very busy dealing with issues from the press,” Rosalie Shapiro, the board administrator said this month. “Duross & Langel was very unhappy with Haddonfield and was unhappy with the Partnership. It seems that other businesses have concerns about some of the things we are doing.”

To that end, the board is planning a public meeting in early October at  the Municipal Hall. Board members had discussed Oct. 6 as the date, but a public relations official with the PfH said Saturday the meeting won't be on that date. She said a new date will be announced soon.

“It seems that it’s really time to open up the Partnership to have a public meeting to invite all of the businesses," said Susan Hodges, PfH chairwoman. "Some of the responses we got from the articles was that despite the fact that we’re having these meetings, it is not convenient to some business owners. One of the responses we got from the article was despite the fact that we have these meetings, they are not convenient to everyone. We think it would be a good idea to have a broader meeting.”

The clamor of irritation with the PfH rose to a crescendo over the summer when soap maker Duross & Langel announced it was closing its Kings Highway shop less than a year after it opened in February. Duross said Haddonfield was not a good fit for his business, but also took issue with Lisa Hurd, the PfH retail coordinator.

“I’m not blaming Lisa for the lack of our success," Duross said last month. "I should have done my homework better. That's on me.

"However, the picture that was painted for us, the things we were told, and the blatant disregard for the actual truth—that’s where I have a problem with the Partnership, and specifically with [Hurd]. She painted a picture for us that was incapable of coming true. And I just don’t want her painting that picture for someone else," Duross says.

Duross’ complaints echoed gripes from some other business owners.

"While there’s a small group of very vocal retailers expressing concerns with the Partnership, we would be happy to address them," Hurd said in August. "Be part of the solution. Go to the people who can help you resolve them and work with them directly."

The PfH hopes to open that dialogue in the October special meeting. Nine people, spread around the Municipal Hall auditorium that seats at least 150, attended the PfH regular meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 6 at 8 a.m. There was a tense moment when a shop owner quizzed Hurd about having another Girls Night Out shopping promotion.

“One of the most successful events we had for my store was Girls Night Out,” she said. “All the restaurants were successful and all of the merchants were successful. But then [Hurd] also mentioned that it wasn’t going to happen again. What is the reason for that?”

Hurd snapped back, ”I didn’t tell you that.”

“What you said was we can only have that once a month and that’s not going to happen,” the shopkeeper said.

“I said the budget would only allow us to do one event,” Hurd immediately responded.

Since then, the PfH has announced another Girls Night Out promotion on Oct. 5, from 5 to 9 p.m.

Jeff Kasko, a borough commissioners who oversees the PfH, said the Partnership wants to be responsive to business concerns and that’s what the Oct. 6 meeting will attempt to do.

“The purpose of this is to really have an alternative venue other than these board meetings to be able to not only go over what we’re doing right but what we’re doing wrong,” he said. “I want to impress upon everyone, it’s not just to complain, but to have other ideas about improving, not just to be a complaint session or bitch about something that went wrong three years ago.”

In 2004, the borough established the Haddonfield Business Improvement District (BID), a commercial zoning area within which additional taxes are levied on property owners to fund townwide shopping and cross-promotional efforts.

At the same time, Haddonfield also established a management corporation, the Partnership for Haddonfield (PFH), to oversee the use of these funds. In 2010, the PFH tax totaled a quarter of a million dollars, or 65 percent of its budget; another 26 percent, or $101,357, came from a percentage of its prior year surplus.

Haddonfield Patch contributor Matt Skoufalos contributed to this report.