Have you ever wondered why it has been more than five years since the City of Pomona has discussed creating a Property Business Improvement District, or PBID, along the East Holt Avenue corridor?
In 2021 the City of Pomona budgeted money for a PBID consultant. Two years later in 2023, the City hired Civitas Advisors, to form an East Holt Property Business Improvement District (PBID). Presently, the Pomona Chamber of Commerce continues to call the East Holt PBID a “current project.” But there is still no East Holt PBID.
We are releasing a timeline of the proposed East Holt PBID, the public money budgeted for it, the involvement of Civitas Advisors and the Pomona Chamber of Commerce, and the lack of answers from the City of Pomona about where the project stands today.
What is a PBID?
A Property Business Improvement District, or PBID, is a defined area where property owners pay an additional assessment to fund services within the district.
Those services can include security, street cleaning, maintenance, marketing, economic development and other improvements beyond what the City normally provides.
In that sense, a PBID shifts some responsibility for managing a commercial district away from City government and into a separately managed organization funded through assessments on property owners.
The City helps establish the district, but ultimately, property owners foot the bill. However in most cases depending on the lease, property owners may pass the PBID assessment on to their business tenants.
What a PBID also does is privatize some of the management of public space within its boundaries. Public streets and sidewalks remain public, but services traditionally provided by the City, including security, can instead be administered through a private organization.
Creating a PBID requires identifying the properties within the proposed district, determining assessments, developing a management plan, gaining property owner support and going through a petition and ballot process. This is important to the East Holt story.
Pomona was not simply discussing another City program. It was attempting to create a district that could eventually collect assessments from East Holt property owners to pay for services within the corridor.
Which raises perhaps the most basic question. Did the property owners along East Holt actually want one?
March 22, 2021
Pomona city staff presented its preliminary Fiscal Year 2021-22 General Fund budget. However, a PBID consultant was not specifically listed among the major increases in the preliminary budget.
However, the budget was still a work in progress. The city staff stated that the proposed budget would return to City Council for a Budget Study Session on May 10, and followed by final adoption on June 7.
One of the remaining issues was to identify funding sources, if available, for the City Council’s upcoming goals and priorities. Was this the beginning of the funding for an East Holt PBID?
May 10, 2021
City Council held its Fiscal Year 2021-22 Budget Study Session. By this time, $90,000 for a PBID consultant appeared in the proposed General Fund budget. The $90,000 was listed as a controllable expense along with several other City contract increases. At this time there was no mention in this section of who the PBID consultant would be.
June 7, 2021
City Council considered adoption of the Fiscal Year 2021-22 Operating Budget. In the final staff report, the City again listed: “$90k for PBID consultant.”
The money was listed along with $400,000 for landscape maintenance, $150,000 for redistricting commission support, $150,000 for Police Commission support, $70,000 for grant writer services and $140,000 to restore a crosswalk contract.
Resolution No. 2021-69 was presented for adoption of the Fiscal Year 2021-22 Operating Budget. Therefore, by June 2021 the City had incorporated $90,000 in its budget for a PBID consultant. But who was the consultant? What work was the consultant supposed to complete? And was the consultant ever paid the budgeted $90,000. Or was the $90,000 ever spent.
June 21, 2021
Two weeks later, the City of Pomona published its City Council Priorities and Goals.
Under Goal H the City stated:
“Encourage and support Property Business Improvement Districts (PBIDs) to support business development.”
Under Economic Development, Step 1 was:
“Request funding of $100,000 in the FY 2021-22 Operating Budget to support creation of a PBID for Segment of East Holt and, if funded, complete the evaluation by June 2022.”
In the comments section, the City stated:
“Funding approved in FY 2021-22 budget.”
Interestingly enough now there are two numbers. The City’s budget documents say $90,000 for a PBID consultant. The City’s Council Priorities and Goals say $100,000 to support creation of an East Holt PBID. Which one is it? Was the $90,000 the consultant portion of the $100,000 and the remaining $10,000 was intended for other costs associated with creating the district? Or were these two different amounts? And why?
What the City’s own documents do show is that funding was approved and the City expected an evaluation of the East Holt PBID to be completed by June 2022.
June 2022
The city gave itself a deadline to have completed the east Holt PBID evaluation, however that deadline passed. The Pomonan has not located a completed East Holt PBID evaluation from this period.
Was the evaluation completed? If it was, what were the results? If it wasn’t, what happened to the money?
August 2023
More than two years after the City budgeted money for a PBID consultant, Mayor Tim Sandoval discussed the East Holt PBID with the Pomona Chamber of Commerce.
According to the little engine that could, La Nueva Voz, “Pomona’s Only Local Newspaper”, Sandoval said the City was working with the Chamber to create a business improvement district along East Holt similar to the Downtown Pomona Owners Association. The proposed district could provide services such as marketing, security and upkeep. So, more than two years after funding was approved, the East Holt PBID was still being discussed as something to be created.
December 2023
The City of Pomona hired Civitas Advisors, a Sacramento based consulting firm, to form the East Holt PBID, according to a January 2024 report in La Nueva Voz.
The consultant’s work was to include a preliminary benefits assessment, creation of a stakeholder advisory committee, development of a budget, management plan, engineer’s report, petition and an actual election ballot.
The cost of the project was not to exceed $85,000, based on a fixed fee of $5,500 per month plus expenses for a 12 month period.
Engineering costs were expected to be another $6,000.
This raises another question. If money had already been approved for a PBID consultant in 2021, why was the City hiring Civitas Advisors in late 2023?
Was Civitas the consultant contemplated by the original funding?
Was another consultant hired before Civitas?
Was the original money never spent?
Or was Civitas paid from an entirely different source?
The Pomonan does not know.
That is why the financial records matter.
January 25, 2024
La Nueva Voz published, “Pomona hires Sacramento firm to form new ‘East Holt’ business improvement district.”
Pomona Economic Development Director Kirk Pelser told the newspaper that Civitas had been hired to form the district.
The scope of work described was not simply to study whether somebody might want a PBID someday. It included steps toward actually forming one, including a stakeholder committee, budget, management plan, engineer’s report, petition and election ballot.
The contract amount, however, does not tell us how much Civitas was actually paid.
An $85,000 contract ceiling is not an $85,000 payment.
The Pomonan has asked the City for invoices and payment records to determine how much Civitas was paid and what work was completed.
2024 - 2025
Perhaps this is where the trail becomes less clear.
Civitas was reportedly hired for a 12 month engagement beginning in late 2023.
The Pomonan has not located a property owner petition, election ballot or announcement establishing the East Holt PBID.
Nor has The Pomonan located an announcement from the City explaining that the project ended.
If the project stopped, when did it stop?
If it continued, what happened during this period?
2026
The Pomona Chamber of Commerce continues to list the East Holt PBID as a current project of its Economic Development Committee.
The Chamber states:
“Current projects include the Property Business Improvement District (PBID) along the East Holt Corridor…”
This language has appeared on Economic Development Committee meeting notices throughout 2026.
The committee is chaired by Hector Lopez and Monique Robles.
Perhaps the Chamber has continued the work that began with the City and Civitas.
Perhaps the description on the Chamber website is old.
But if the East Holt PBID is in fact a “current project,” what is currently happening?
Who is leading it?
The City of Pomona?
The Pomona Chamber of Commerce?
Civitas Advisors?
What are the proposed boundaries?
Has an assessment formula been created?
Have East Holt property owners been contacted?
Have petitions been circulated?
Has there been a ballot?
And after five years, how close is East Holt to actually having a PBID?
August 16, 2026
The Pomonan submitted a California Public Records Act request to the City of Pomona seeking records regarding the East Holt PBID.
The request included the Civitas contract, purchase orders, invoices and payments, consultant deliverables, engineer reports, stakeholder committee records, property owner and business outreach, correspondence between Civitas and the City and records showing the current status of the PBID.
The Pomonan also requested records accounting for the $100,000 identified in the City’s 2021 Council Priorities and Goals, including expenditures and records showing what happened to any money that remained.
August 27, 2026
After receiving no determination from the City, The Pomonan followed up on the request.
August 28, 2026
The City responded:
“City staff are still determining whether there are documents responsive to your request. Our office expects to provide you with a follow up response by September 3.”
By this point, The Pomonan had already located City documents because we have nothing better to do with our time. The documents showed $90,000 for a PBID consultant and the City’s Council Priorities and Goals stating $100,000 in funding was approved to support creation of an East Holt PBID.
The question was no longer whether the City had discussed funding the project. The City’s own records show that it did. The question is what happened after that.
September 3, 2026
The date the City said it expected to provide The Pomonan with a follow up response. No response was ever received.
September 4, 2026
The Pomonan submitted two additional California Public Records Act requests to the City.
One asks specifically for the accounting records related to the East Holt PBID funding, including general ledger transactions, expenditures, encumbrances, purchase orders, payments, transfers, journal entries, budget adjustments and the disposition of any money that was not spent.
The second request follows Civitas Advisors as a City vendor, asking for contracts, purchase orders, invoices, payments, amendments and other accounting records.
The requests were submitted separately because The Pomonan does not know if the 2021 PBID funding and the 2023 Civitas contract are connected.
September 8, 2026
As of the end of the business day, The Pomonan had not received the follow up response the City said it expected to provide on September 3.
The Pomonan also contacted Civitas Advisors asking whether it completed its work for the City, the outcome of that work, whether Civitas remains involved and whether the East Holt PBID ever reached the property owner petition or ballot stage.
The Pomonan contacted the Pomona Chamber of Commerce asking about its involvement with the PBID, who is currently leading the effort, whether Civitas remains involved and whether the project has advanced to property owner outreach, petitions or balloting.
As of September 8, The Pomonan had not received a response from Civitas Advisors or the Pomona Chamber of Commerce.
In 2021, the City of Pomona’s budget included $90,000 for a PBID consultant.
That same year, the City’s Council Priorities and Goals stated that $100,000 in funding was approved to support creation of an East Holt PBID and that the evaluation would be completed by June 2022.
More than two years later, the City hired Civitas Advisors under a contract not to exceed $85,000 to form the district.
Now, in 2026, the Pomona Chamber of Commerce continues to call the East Holt PBID a “current project.” But there is no East Holt PBID.
This does not necessarily mean the City spent $90,000 or $100,000. A budget is not the same thing as an expenditure. It also does not mean Civitas received the entire $85,000 allowed under its contract.
The records should show what was actually spent and what work was actually completed.
If no money was spent from the original funding, where did it go?
If money was spent, who received it and what did Pomona receive in return?
If Civitas completed its work, what was the outcome?
If property owners rejected the PBID, where are the records showing that?
If the project ended, why does the Pomona Chamber of Commerce still call it a current project?
And if the project is still alive, what exactly is happening with it today?
These are questions that should not take five years of City budgets, Council goals, newspaper archives, Chamber meeting notices and public records requests to answer.
The City of Pomona should be able to account for what happened. The Pomonan has asked for the records.
As of publication, the City has not provided the follow up response it said it expected to provide by September 3.
The City also failed to provide the determination required by the California Public Records Act within the statutory timeframe for the original August 16 request.
The public should not have to piece together five years of government records to find out what happened to a funded City project for which public money was budgeted.
The Pomonan reached out to both Civitas and the Pomona Chamber of Commerce on regarding the East Holt PBID. Both organizations did not respond to our request for comment.
Julian Lucas is a darkroom photographer, writer, and a bookseller, though photography remains his primary language. He is the founder of Mirrored Society Book Shop, publisher of The Pomonan, and creator of Book-Store and Print Pomona Art Book Fair. And yes he will charge you 2.5 Million for event photography.
