White Rock council has a solution to the dilemma of two rival Business Improvement Associations – call for the establishment of a completely new one.

Council Monday announced a reminder the clock is ticking on the current BIA mandate, which will have run its full five-year term by March 31.

Under Sec. 213 of the Community Charter, the city will have to establish a new bylaw as part of the BIA renewal process.

The resolution advises BIA executive director Russ Davies that a new organization must be created before that happens.

Mayor Catherine Ferguson said the city is aware the argument over which of the BIAs is the valid one has become a matter of litigation.

One group of board members filed a claim in B.C. Supreme Court in September, requesting a ruling that a second board – which declared itself in effect last summer – be found invalid.

“Council felt it was important we move ahead with a BIA,” Ferguson said. “We wanted it to be a fresh start.”

Davies – whom both boards claim as an employee – doesn’t know how or if the council’s resolution might impact the legal proceedings, but described the litigation as “an unfortunate distraction.”

“That’s the frustrating side of this – it’s pretty much taking the spotlight off the good work we’ve done in the last 4½ years,” he said. “We just want to move on from it.”

Davies confirmed Tuesday that renewal of the BIA is a standard process that would involve dissolving the old society and going to membership with a new annual general meeting at which a new board would be elected.

“Time is the requistioner,” he agreed. “This is no different from any other BIA in B.C. We’ve been discussing the renewal process since last spring.”

The process would also involve the city doing “due diligence” in consulting all business property owners about the renewal, he said.

“At the end of the day, the members are the decision-makers whether... the BIA continues.”

The AGM should take place in January, with the city participating by early March, Davies said.

“At the end of March it needs to reactivate itself,” he said.

In a Nov. 15 email to council, Larry Anschell, secretary-treasurer of the newer BIA board suggested his organization would look for other funding if the city did not renew its current BIA bylaw.

He further said that Davies, as “an employee of the White Rock BIA” could not “create another organization which may conflict or compete while he is under our employment” and threatened that any steps he took which conflicted with the “best interest of the White Rock BIA” might result in his immediate termination.

Anschell also said council’s resolution “may only serve to further conflict and interfere with a due process that is currently filed with the B.C. Supreme Courts” and said council would not be operating in good faith unless it upheld an April motion that staff work with the BIA to “assess the satisifaction and continuation of the BIA in White Rock.”

Ferguson said she had “no response” to Anschell’s email.

“It’s a legal matter that is still pending,” she said.

“There’s nothing council would like more than to see this issue resolved.”

– with files from Tracy Holmes