Item 18 - Downtown Santa Ana Business Improvement District

Home Browse Search

Orozco, Norma From: Libro Mobile <libromobile@gmail.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2021 3:34 PM To: eComment Subject: Public Comment: Adopt Resolution of Intent to Levy 2022 Assessment for Downtown Santa Ana Business Improvement District Dear Mayor Sarmiento, Mayor Pro Tem Penaloza and Council Members, LibroMobile (business representatives Sarah Garcia and Marilynn Montano) has been attending Santa Ana Business Council meetings consistently since July 2021 and Marilynn has attended in the years prior outside of representing LibroMobile. What drove us to attend consistently as a downtown business are the recent events being hosted in downtown, like Patches & Pins that brought over 5K people to downtown during the pandemic in February 2021 and OC Vegan Fest, which used the parking lot on 3rd and Bush to host events and ultimately brought down our sales extensively and deterred patrons from visiting our bookstore due to lack of public parking and cost increase in parking garages. Since then, I have learned that the SABC and Downtown Inc. fail to make meeting information, agendas and minutes accessible in Spanish. Our downtown businesses demographics demand such a consideration. Additionally, I have been told in a SABC meeting not to raise my concerns during a live meeting then told by email that they do not have the capacity to provide information via email. It was also pointed out in a meeting that I am one of two businesses that attends these meetings, which adds to my concerns on how inaccessible these meetings have been over the years. For example, we do not have access to September's minutes and meeting recordings since June, they are not posted on the SABC website nor have any been available in Spanish: http://www.callecuatromarketplace.com/meetings.html Please note, over 75% of the 100K SABC BID funding goes to two consultants. In total, SABC and DTI are proposing to use $124, 600 out of $200K to pay three consultants. What I am requesting is transparency through financial accountability for both entities and accessibility for the majority of our downtown businesses and community organizations. I am also requesting a full list of grants received by SABC and DTI with amounts and budgets. A SABC consultant had offered this information for Boca de Oro's California Arts Council 2019 grant that funded activities in 2020 in July's meeting but never transpired the information into a report. Along with details on who attends training listed as a line item in budgets. Profit & Loss reports and Balance Sheets could be easily provided as public records by the accountant paid by SABC funds given that 10% of BID funds are used for this line item in comparison to DTI who pays $3,600. Such reports would give the details of funds coming in and how they are used to benefit the local businesses. Providing pie charts on websites would also offer transparency. Why the need for two entities to do the same type of event planning and promotion? One compromise would be to have the two entities unite and not double up on line items and consultants, add terms for consultants and expectations to rotate board members to be more inclusive of local businesses on a broader scale. Designate $100K of the funding to solely support collaborations between local businesses and LOCAL artists. This alone will help boost the local economy and reinvest in the folks who already create collaborative events like