Promote La Jolla (PLJ), the currently insolvent group that acts as an advisory board to the city-managed Business Improvement District (BID), voted last week to declare bankruptcy by Oct. 1 unless it can resolve the city’s claim over allegedly mishandled funds. “The fact that this matter has not been resolved in four months looms large over Promote La Jolla,” said PLJ President Rick Wildman. Although it has lacked a contract with the city during that time, PLJ has continued to hold regular meetings and has explored potential options for a new BID — either restructuring Promote La Jolla or forming a new group altogether. “My hope, and everybody’s hope, was that Promote La Jolla would become viable again and would be able to pay its obligations it has incurred to various creditors during the last several years,” Wildman said. However, ongoing threats of litigation with the city — and with the Coastal Environmental Rights Foundation following the July 4 fireworks display at La Jolla Cove — made things more complicated. The environmental group, however, dropped PLJ from the lawsuit last week. “This organization [PLJ] is running on fumes,” Wildman said. “Maybe PLJ ought to be put out of its misery. There is no way I see PLJ coming out of this situation as solvent.” In April, Wildman created a new nonprofit corporation, the La Jolla Business Improvement District (LJBID), which he hopes can replace Promote La Jolla and the current city-managed BID. “The city has indirectly all but begged that we start a new BID,” Wildman said. Currently, the new entity has no contract with the city and, consequently, no managerial authority. To become a functioning BID, it would need to form a board of directors and name officers endorsed by the community and acquire a contract with the city. If PLJ does declare bankruptcy, board member Glen Rasmussen said the new LJBID should seek as much input as possible from local merchants and business owners. “I suggest we talk up getting involved in this so we have a broad base of self-determination,” he said.