Have you been wondering what all the fuss is about the Santa Ana PBID? Well, wonder no more. I got a hold of all the city documents related to the PBID, and you can view them by clicking here. This link will take you to a Google Documents folder with numerous documents related to the PBID, including:
So what is the PBID? It is a property assessment, which is to say a tax, on businesses and property owners in much of Downtown Santa Ana. Recently the Santa Ana City Council redrew the PBID’s boundaries, making it smaller, in order to get rid of some of the businesses that were complaining about the PBID.
The PBID funds are administered by Downtown, Inc., an organization that is run by a Board that holds officer elections in March. Click here to read their latest meeting agenda. Click here to see their latest meeting minutes. Click here to see their 2010 Annual Report. And click here to see their latest newsletter. Click here to see their Financial Review.
Irv Chase recently resigned from Downtown, Inc.’s board. Who else is on their board? That is hard to say. I could not find a current list of their Board Members, but here is what I found in their last annual report, relative to their board and staff:
Board Directors, 2009/10 Officers
Term Expiration:
Property Owners – Directors
Neighborhood Representative Property Owner
Merchant Representative Business Owner
City of Santa Ana Representatives
Staff
Note that Cindy Nelson is also off their board now, as she retired. She was the one who came up with the PBID idea, along with now retired Santa Ana City Manager Dave Ream. Together they cooked up a scheme that allowed the PBID vote to be somewhat rigged as the City of Santa Ana had a bunch of votes, due to the fact that they own a lot of land in the Downtown area. The PBID passed essentially with less than a majority vote – and today a lot of folks say they didn’t even have a chance to vote.
I am hearing that some of the folks who are upset about the PBID are going to sue the City of Santa Ana. They are going to demand that the PBID be cancelled. I am told that they are open to having a new PBID election – and it would likely fail without the scheming duo of Ream and Nelson.
Has the PBID been effective? In many ways, yes. Downtown Santa Ana is clean and safe and there has been of marketing. However critics say that the marketing has only benefited a few – primarily the bars and restaurants.
I am a fan of Downtown Inc.’s Executive Director, Vicky Baxter. She has worked very hard and done the best job possible under trying circumstances. That said, the problem with PBID is how it was put together by Ream and Nelson. What they did was unjust and quite possibly illegal. Until this is dealt with the PBID will remain a sore spot and there will not be peace in Downtown Santa Ana.
Personally I believe a new PBID election is warranted. That is the only way to resolve the issue. The longer the Santa Ana City Council sits on their hands the worse the situation will become.
I also think that while the Downtown Inc. promoter, Archer Altstaetter, has been effective in marketing both Downtown Santa Ana and the new East End Promenade, he has also ventured into politics – in particular he has declared war on Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Claudia Alvarez. That was very ill-advised. Downtown, Inc. should have remained above the fray. Now they have pissed off Alvarez and her allies. That won’t end well, I can assure you.
There has in fact been talk among the Archer contingent of launching a recall against Alvarez. Good luck with that. If they do that I am quite sure that the Santa Ana City Council will summarily cancel the PBID.
One more thing – the artists in the Santa Ana Artists Village are not happy about the move by Archer to extend the monthly Art Walk to the East End Promenade. I went to the last Art Walk and saw for myself that extending the Art Walk both East and West has in fact diluted the crowds at the Santora Building. This extension is going to prove costly for the artists.
UPDATE: According to comments left on this blog by past mayoral candidate Stanley Fiala and Art Lomeli, a dentist who also owns property in Downtown Santa Ana, many of the property owners are collecting signatures and tabulating the amounts of assessments of anti-PBID owners. When they get to 50% they will be able to go to the City Council and demand that the PBID be canceled.
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Art:
Your post obfuscates the facts.
Your contention that less than 50 percent of the total vote was for the PBID is false.
As I've reported before, it was a one-dollar one-vote tallying method. Of those that voted, 61 percent of the total votes were FOR the PBID.
The biggest problem with the vote was that only 23 percent of the property owners even voted. There was little outreach to the property owners, and a handful of large property owners (including the city) managed to dominate the vote.
If you look at the history of my reporting, I've showed how the vote took place, how many property owners voted, the level of outreach to the property owners, how the district was crafted, etc. etc. All facts that I've dug up through reviewing the law and extensive public records, as well as interviews with those like Marco Li Mandri.
All you have to do is read the many stories I've written on this issue since the beginning of the year.
If you're serious about this issue, make sure you have the facts straight first.
Best of luck.
It sounds like we are arguing about semantics. That only 23 percent of the property owners voted is fairly damning. If true that means that far less than fifty percent of the total voters voted, which is what I meant to say.
In my time in this city I have seen this happen many times. The Ream administration was TERRIBLE at outreach and that was by design. This is how they got what they wanted. Go back and look at what happened when they put the Ream Assessment on the ballot. We defeated it handily.
Had Ream properly publicized the PBID vote he knew full well it would have lost. So he resorted to his usual bag of tricks...
Clarification: previous comment was meant for Art Lomeli, not Pedroza..
LOL! Too many Arts. You have done good work Adam on the PBID issue. This will be a tough battle but it is one worth fighting. I will do what I can to help Lomeli and his fellow property owners.
Be careful what you wish for Admin. No matter which direction you go.
You're right Mateo. Santa Ana is a political minefield...
Thanks Admin.
Art Lomeli: Where in the U.S. Constitution is there a citizens' petition right to end taxation?
There are very few constitutional provisions that deal directly with taxes. The big provision being that Congress can levy taxes as it pleases.
You're right that the U.S. Constitution mandates any sort of referendum to be a 50 percent (plus one) popular vote.
Whether that popular vote provision can be interpreted as a one dollar one vote method in the case of the PBID is unclear. It's gone unchallenged with hundreds of PBIDS across the country. And there is no case law that I know of that would set precedent.
The only way to figure that out is to challenge the PBID in court.
Yes, this will have to go to court. I am told that Ralph Allen is considering exactly that option. He has the resources to pursue a legal recourse.
Too bad, the property owners will need to spend the money to go to court to either win or lose.
Vote
And they could have stopped this in its tracks if they had bothered to vote.
Vote
May be those property owners thought that term limits would take care of it and there was no reason to vote.
Vote
There is a recent election that the supreme court tossed out and order a new election.
Vote
According to the election code, only the voters who voted in the original election can vote in the replacement election.
Vote
Fly in the ointment, . Has removed 3000 blacks . (I think 1200 of them voted in the contested election. And the vote spread between the two candidates in the count and 3 recounts was as low a 7 to a high of 300.
Vote
I bet this goes to the US supreme court.
Vote
What the PBID property owners need to do is the get a court order suspending the tax on all the property owners who can prove they voted NO. (its not a secret vote) The ones who voted YES and the non=voters would continue to pay.
Are you going to remember to VOTE.
"Are you going to remember to VOTE"..... when?
"Yes, this will have to go to court"..... Hmmmm
Not if you scare the living daylights out of them.
However, you will not accomplish that by talking to them in Spanish, which they do not understand, nor by fighting injustice.
You will simply write them a letter advising them to voluntarily disestablish the PBID or face a legal action including depositions which will open a big can of worms about apparent criminal irregularities.
If you do that right, do your legal research and apply psyops in art of war most likely they will surrender.
Remember, they have so many skeletons in their closet that they will take your bluff seriously.
I think you may be right. They usually settle.
“Are you going to remember to VOTE”….. when?
each and every time my friend.
"each and every time my friend"... can I vote tomorrow?
Adam,
Art Lomeli: Where in the U.S. Constitution is there a citizens’ petition right to end taxation? "
Contact Herb Rose, TAB answering Service to get this information and other issues you contest. He can give you the legal particulars that Santa Ana pride's attorney has researched ........if appropriate to produce for you.