Commissioner Sean Mill prompts Santa Ana to embrace banking program for under-served residents

Most of us take banks and banking for granted. Many of us have had bank accounts since we were kids. But for thousands of Orange County residents, opening a bank account is not so easy. Here in Santa Ana, where I live, many residents are unable to open bank accounts because the only I.D. they have is their matricular consular cards. In fact this came up on Monday night, at the Santa Ana Planning Commission meeting. Sean Mill fought for a local business that wanted to offer check cashing. Of course the Usual Suspects were up in arms – and the city staffers were not too helpful. So Mill did the research and he pointed out that most of the folks in the market area has no other options. Mill called the local banks and they said they would not accept their I.D. cards. Mill pointed out that Santa Ana is the ONLY city around that has not yet embraced Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s “Bank on California” campaign, which was launched last December with the goal of helping under-served communities to open bank accounts. Click here to read the rest of this article.