Business owners rally against Salinas United Business Association

Dozens of Salinas business owners are putting their frustrations on paper. Kilder Fuentes has collected more than 100 signatures from business owners fed up with paying fees to an organization they said isn’t helping them thrive.

“There’s a lot of grass, garbage in the street, we don’t have a police presence. Everytime we complain they say, ‘Talk to SUBA,’ but they are missing in action,” said Fuentes.

The Salinas United Business Association, or SUBA, was created by the city back in 2003 to help business in the East Alisal area.

SUBA says they are “a voice for small business in Salinas,” but local owners said that’s not the case. “Sixteen years ago, when they started, they promised police officers, cars, clean streets. For three years it was good. Later on, we don’t have anything because they said the city was broke and unable to help us,” said East Alisal Business owner, Delia Luevao.

Many business owners said they’ve been sent to collections, after refusing to pay SUBA’s annual fee. SUBA’s executive director, Alejandro Chavez, said this is part of the reason why the association can’t keep up with demand. “Only about 65 to 70 percent of the businesses are actually paying their assessment. Throughout the years, there’s been a shortage of funds that come into this organization. Because of that, everything that should be done, doesn’t always get done. There are no resources for a lot of the things,” said Chavez.

Business owners said SUBA stopped advocating for them long before they refused to pay. “It’s unfair that our money goes to pay the salary of people for a business institution that provides nothing for us,” said Fuentes.

Fuentes aims to get 350 of the 697 businesses to sign his petition and present them to the city council on April 2nd.