I visited Alfredo Amezcua’s mayoral campaign website again yesterday- and as usual found nothing of substance. However, he did post a new statement on his Facebook page hinting at a glimmer of an issue:

It was depressing doing research today regarding the business climate in Santa Ana. Santa Ana’s business license fee is as much as six times what other cities charge. When we called other cities, we got someone on the phone right away. When we called Santa Ana, we were listening to music for a fair amount of time before getting help. I want to reduce work on the fees and the hold times as mayor.

This is old news, in fact I have researched this very subject and I wrote about it in February of this year.  Click here to read that article.

As usual, Amezcua is blowing smoke.  He didn’t offer any solutions to the perceived problem.  Nor did he note that the City of Santa Ana, earlier this year, collected $500,000 in business tax revenues during an amnesty that the City offered.  Click here to read about that.

It is true that our City charges a lot for business licenses.  It is also true that we have a massive structural budget deficit.  The reason Amezcua was put on hold when he called City Hall is because so many City workers have been laid off – or their jobs have been outsourced or simply eliminated.  And many positions are going unfilled.  The remaining workers are doing the best they can.

The problem runs far deeper than the business license fees.  I took my fourteen year old son to the Block of Orange on Saturday to see the new Angelina Jolie movie.  I was astounded at how empty their parking lots were.  In the old days you had to get there early to find parking.  Clearly the recession has had a horrible effect on local businesses.

Ironically, Amezcua is allied with people who regularly oppose new businesses and new development.  His allies opposed the recent amendments to the One Broadway Plaza development agreement.  They opposed the new Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant that ended up going elsewhere in the County.  They oppose the Transit District even though it includes affordable housing.  Lord knows how many jobs Amezcua’s allies have cost our town.

Where is Amezcua on these issues?  Who knows?  He showed up at the City Council meeting last Monday.  He walked by me and had his parking stub validated.  Then he got up and ran out of the room.  He did not offer any opinions or wait, like the rest of us, to speak on the agenda items, which included OBP.

I have no idea what Amezcua is trying to accomplish.  But the union workers who were there on Monday night were most upset that he did not speak out in support of OBP, even though back in 2005, he did support Measure A, which passed, approving the development.  Today Amezcua is allied with folks that oppose all development and so he stayed quiet and then retreated.  The union workers took note of that.

Since Amezcua has no ideas, allow me to mention a few of mine:

• How about a planning amnesty that would allow homeowners and businesses to remodel their homes and businesses without paying planning fees, if they promise to buy all supplies here in Santa Ana, and hire local workers.  Proof that they did this must be supplied in order to merit the fee waiver.  This would create jobs and inject tax revenue into our city coffers.
• How about a City marketing program encouraging our residents to spend their money here and not in other cities?  We could do this in the form of public service announcements and make them available to all forms of media, including Spanish language T.V. and radio.  This would help our local businesses and inject tax revenue into our City coffers.
• Let’s task our City Council with empaneling a blue chip ad hoc committee to examine business license fees in other similar sized cities, so we can start the process of reducing our fees.
• How about encouraging local banks to engage in micro loans, in amounts under $1,000, to folks who want to start home-based businesses?  And maybe we should have a very low cost business license for such businesses, as long as they are not receiving clients at home or otherwise disrupting their neighborhoods?
• How about encouraging the Greater Santa Ana Business Alliance, of which Amezcua is a member, to hold all their meetings and events here in Santa Ana?  Currently many of their events are held in other neighboring cities.  That is tax revenue that we are losing as restaurants and hotels located outside our city are reaping the benefit!
• How about a new City statute mandating that all outsourced City work must go not only to the low bidders but specifically to Santa Ana based businesses?

You see?  It isn’t hard to come up with concrete proposals.  I just came up with these in the past ten minutes.  Why can’t Amezcua do the same?  Could it be that he lacks vision?  If so, his campaign is doomed.  Of course he could just continue to “borrow” ideas from this blog.  Maybe I should send him a bill!