Correspondence- #26 - Laserfiche WebLink

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November 14, 2022 ATTN: City of Santa Ana publicly elected Mayor and City Council Members Dear City of Santa AnaMayor and City Council members, My name is Gene Jimenez and my family has been in Santa Ana for over 100 years. My great grandparents settled the Artesia/Pilar neighborhood in 1909. My godfather Rudy Gallegos designed and built the historic library as well as Eddie West Field among other numerous iconic buildings and structures in Santa Ana. I also spent summers with Hector Godinez's family annually. I write to you as a Downtown Santa Ana business owner and a resident artist, one of three remaining in the Santora Building, home of the original established Artist Village. Truth be told, without the artist establishing an art movement in downtown in 1996, we would not be having this conversation. Yet, here we are in a flourishing and creative community that needs leadership, organization, and action. Three distinct qualities that best describe the organizations that are the current stewards of the BID, the Santa Ana Business Council (SABC) and DOWNTOWN, Inc. (DTSA). Please let this letter serve the support of continuing, and reinforcement of the BID. SABC, and DTSA are two organizations that over the past decade have developed, fought for and continue a daily striving for the betterment of Downtown Santa Ana's businesses and the owners and families of those entities. Families that put you in office to make decisions that are right for them. SABC and DTSA have operated in nothing but good faith with forwarding events and actions for downtown businesses. Even to their own detriment. Councilman Johnathan Hernandez personally directed the privately held organizations of SABC and DTSA to officially merge with a third party, an unknown organization, and held out a large sum of city budget in the form of the BID fund as collateral for this official action. An action that is not in the best interest of either SABC or DTSA as private organizations. However, both SABC and DTSA have begun this irrevocable action so as to act in a manner that can financially and operationally benefit the businesses and the families of downtown Santa Ana, irregardless of their own organizations fate and much to the discomfort of each respective director for SABC and DTSA. In essence, under councilman's Hernandez's directive, both directors are willing to give up their personal entities that have put Downtown Santa Ana business district and community at large on the map in a very positive light for years to come, in order for the new combined group to benefit from Councilman Hernandez promise of substantial city funding via the BID. As a business owner in downtown Santa Ana, as a resident senior artist in the now widely recognized Downtown Santa Ana Artists Village, and as a family member of Santa Ana for the past century, I am demanding that you help Councilman Hernandez keep his promise that he stated in my presence, of upwards of $1 million+ dollars for the BID fund so that the entire Downtown and Santa Ana community as a whole can stop arguing with you, let those who have helped put Santa Ana permanently on the arts and culture map in California continue to do what they've done on a mere fraction of that budget, while also letting the community take pride in who they put in office. Thank you for your time and service Gene Jimenez Artist Downtown Santa Ana business owner DTSA Board Member 207 N. Broadway, B11 Santa Ana, CA 92701 artistgene.com