For decades Auburn’s Downtown Association has promoted businesses and services, hung banners above Main Street, issued parking permits and organized events like the annual sidewalk sale.

And for most of those years, the 11-member, city-appointed Business Improvement Area Committee of Ratepayers has funded the ADA’s activities with the annual assessment on businesses within a designated business improvement area (BIA).

Now 33 business owners, fed up with what they see as a lack of return for their buck, an organization they say does nothing for them, and an expense they can no longer afford, have signed a petition asking the City of Auburn to dissolve the committee.

“In the 11 years I have been here, they have done nothing for me,” said John Ardissonne, owner of Ardissonne Designing Jewelry at 331 E. Main St. “I think the assessment — he pays $150 — does good for the downtown core, which is the two blocks from Auburn Way to Division Street. But there are people like me outside that area who all pay into it, and it doesn’t do anything for us.”

Yes, ADA members admit, there have been problems, especially since the departure of the ADA’s executive director last August and the loss of almost all the volunteer staff. But as ADA vice president Glenn Jenkins, owner of Mercantile Antiques and Collectibles at 125 East Main said, if the BIA and through it the ADA goes away, there will be no more programs, no more collective pulling together.

“I just ask for a little patience. The ADA is getting its act together,” Jenkins said.

The Auburn City Council has set a public hearing on the dissolution question for 7:30 p.m., Aug. 4, at Auburn City Hall.

In 1988, based upon the petition of business owners and operators, the city established the BIA to help develop the central business district and facilitate merchant and business cooperation to improve trade. An 11-member committee reviews and evaluates the BIA’s administration by the ADA. Members serve three-year terms and are owners or operators of businesses located within the BIA whose establishments are subject to assessments.

Today some 300 businesses are located in the BIA, which is roughly bounded on the west by D Street Northwest between First Streets Northeast and Southeast, on the east by F Street Southeast between Second Street Southeast and Main, on the south by Cross Street, and on the north by 5th Street Northeast.

Every year the ADA submits a budget to the BIA petitioning it for a share of the funds the city has collected. Where the BIA hires the ADA’s executive director and is concerned with budgets, the ADA is the active, day-to-day arm.

But in August 2007, ADA’s last executive director, Debbie Luce, left to head the Auburn Tourism Board for the Auburn-Area Chamber of Commerce. Her loss deprived member businesses of their critical liaison with City Hall and cost the ADA its take-charge person. The committee could not afford to hire anyone to replace Luce, and with no one at the top most activities came to a halt. As a consequence, the ADA budget was more than six months late in arriving at City Hall, meaning that the roughly $60,000 that had been collected did not go anywhere or do anything for anybody.

An additional concern has been the increase in the amount of the assessment two years ago. For retailers the rate remained what it had been, 15 cents per square foot, but for service-oriented businesses such a barbershops it increased from 5 to 15 cents per square foot. That pushed some business owners, like Connie Ho, owner of Connie’s Barber Shop at 412 E. Main St., over the edge. Ho said she can no longer afford the assessment, which in her case increased from $50 to $200. She said she knows business owners who don’t even pay it.

“It’s driving me crazy,” said Ho. “I pay $200 dollars every year, and what for? They need to give it back.”

“Why should I pay dues?” said Dell Gibson, owner of Shoe Forest and More at 335 E. Main St. “I don’t see anything for my dues. They used to decorate the downtown. When (former director Nancy Krause) was in charge, she did a great job. She worked her tushy off. Now the only thing my ADA money is being used for is the sidewalk sale. If they have a sidewalk sale, they only block off Main Street up to Auburn Way, they don’t block off my section of Main Street. As I see it, the ADA should end at Auburn Way.”

Kelly Thomas, owner of Kelly’s Auto Repair at 222 A St. S.E., has a 9,000-square-foot building and his assessment is $1,400. He said as a result he can no longer afford to be a member of the Auburn-Area Chamber of Commerce and has had to cut back his sponsorship of local youth sports teams, including the sports programs at Auburn Riverside and Auburn High schools.

“The Chamber of Commerce has called me two to three times asking me to submit a check and rejoin, but I tell them I can’t afford to rejoin because I have to pay the assessment,” Thomas said.

Jenkins understands the frustration.

“They have a legitimate right to claim the BIA hasn’t really done an enormous amount per individual business,” said Jenkins.

But again, Jenkins said, the ADA took some serious hits in the last year and a half that left it unmanned, losing not only its lone paid employee, the executive director, but several major supporters, its president and vice president and its secretary. All of that at a time when the business district is suffering a case of too few customers and too many vacant store fronts. And the loss several years ago of 9,000 jobs at Boeing did nothing to improve matters.

“For a lot of business owners in town, including myself, it’s been really tough for the last year and a half just keeping the businesses alive, as the people that signed that petition are well aware of,” Jenkins said. He noted, however, that almost everybody who signed the petition has never been to a one of the ADA’s twice-monthly meetings since he has been on the board.

Jenkins said the ADA has taken several positive steps.

“We have moved from a building that charged rent to my store, and we did not charge anything from October until today. Now we are charging a small fee, which basically covers the utilities. So the ADA does not have a large expenditure. We don’t plan on hiring a full-time executive director again because we would rather have the funding together where we can do other events.

“We want to set up something where we can help smaller merchants in the downtown area with their advertising. We want something where we can say, ‘You bet, we can fix you up a banner.’ We are going to do smaller events and more of them rather than spend $5,000 to $10,000 on one event.”

Jenkins wishes the petitioners had chosen a different way of getting their message across.

“The city has given everybody the same opportunity to revitalize Auburn, and by revitalize I don’t mean go out and yell and scream and sign petitions. Why not get together for a public meeting? It’s not that hard to do,” Jenkins said.