Read the September 1 meeting.

Council Member Bacerra, I do see that you're on the line and Mayor, and Mayor, we're ready.

Sarmiento is on as well. Okay, thank you.

All right, Madam Clerk, why don't you call the roll to make sure we have a forum and then I'll proceed from there. Go ahead, please.

Council Member Bacerra?

Here.

Councilmember Mendoza.

Councilmember Peñalosa.

David PenalozaItem —

Here.

Councilmember Sarmiento.

David PenalozaItem —

Here.

Councilmember Solorio.

Mayor Pro Tempe-Viegas.

Here.

And Mayor Pulido.

I am here.

We have a call.

And, Madam Clerk, before we proceed with the Pledge of Allegiance, do you want to make an announcement for callers?

Yes. I would like to ask all the callers who are on hold right now to please make sure that you dial star six when you have been unmuted. It's individual, so as soon as we dial, when we unmute you, you will need to dial star six in order for you to be heard. and you will have three minutes to speak at the beginning of the meeting thank you mayor

thank you with that now i want you all to please stand um and we'll conduct a pledge of allegiance

ready begin i pledge allegiance the flag of the united states of america

of america for which it stands for which it stands one nation under god

and justice for all for all

thank you everybody now if you can remain standing is jerry hill on the line our police chaplain

Let's go ahead and pray together. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your goodness and just the beautiful day that you brought us. And Lord, we ask tonight that you'll bless our meeting. And Lord, we ask that you would just continue to bless our mayor, to bless the council members as they navigate the difficult waters of a pandemic, Lord. And we pray that you would keep them healthy, that you would watch over their families. And we pray the same, Lord, for our city manager and the city staff that have kept everything running, Lord.

We ask that you would continue to bless them, continue to watch over them. And Lord, we also ask that you would give each of us an extra measure of patience as we deal with one another and we deal with the difficulties of what we are in the middle of in this pandemic. And Lord, we also ask that you would just bless each and every resident of our city. In your holy name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you,

Thank you, Chaplain. Thank you for that. Before we proceed, I just want to ask the city attorney, is there anything to report out of closed session, please?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yes, Mayor, thank you. We do have one idle reportable action. In the case of State of California v. Celco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, I'm really pleased to announce that the city council unanimously accepted a settlement in the city's favor of $224,000. that will be payable to the city. We did receive a direction on the other cases that we discussed this evening, but there's no more reportable action.

Thanks for that, Madam City Attorney. I believe now, Madam Clerk, we have some presentations.

Yes, Mayor and Council Members, there's a presentation.

Is there a special presentation by Public Works? Yes. Are we ready to do that, Madam City Manager?

Yes, I believe we are. It's actually a joint presentation from the police department and the Public Works Department. And this was in response to an inquiry from council members concerning street racing that's been happening in our city. So with that, I will turn it over. I believe Traffic Commander Elms is going to be going first.

Please go ahead.

They're queuing up the presentation, Mayor. It will start shortly.

Good evening. I'm Chuck Elms. I'm the traffic commander for the Santa Ana Police Department. We have seen a recent increase in street racing and intersection takeovers by organized groups in our city. In an effort to address this, we partnered with Public Works, and we developed STEERD, selective traffic enforcement against reckless driving and racing. And it's a three-pronged approach that includes enforcement, engineering, and education.

So from an enforcement standpoint, we will have a balanced approach of traditional enforcement, technology, and prosecution. Traditional enforcement is our officers out on the streets stopping these racers, issuing citations, impounding vehicles, and making arrests. we have technology available to us to identify these racers and their vehicles as well as other crimes that are happening during these incidents we partnered with the district attorney's office we've presented our strategy to

them and they are supportive we're also working with our city attorney's office to develop a spectating ordinance which would make it a crime to be a spectator at these street racing events.

In an effort to enhance our traditional enforcement, we've partnered with a couple of our allied agencies, the Tustin Police Department and the Irvine Police Department. They're also experiencing street racing increases in their city, and we're looking to expand that partnership. To date, we've conducted 17 operations to combat street racing. That has resulted in 254 citations, 8 arrests, and 16 impounds of street racing vehicles.

We've also looked at what's been successful for some of our allied agencies.

One of the things we're looking at is going after street racers for vandalism for the damage they do to city roadways. And we've worked with our public works agency to come up with the cost to repair the roadway. And we're confident that we can get a felony vandalism charge for damaging city roadway. And with that, I'll turn it over to William from Public Works.

Good evening, honorable mayor and members of the city council. My name is William Galvis, city engineer. and I just briefly wanted to tell you about some of the technology that we want to use. We will use some of our traffic signals, and in conjunction with police, we can record some intersections, so we can use some of the technology. There was a slide here that I wanted to show you that had some costs, and I guess it'll... Is it the next one?

and some of these costs can be very very substantial in a typical industrial area intersection you can affect about six six to seven thousand square feet when you're doing these are donuts and so if you're talking about a street intersection that's new that's significant significant damage of eighteen thousand dollars if the street isn't is an okay condition it's still a significant cost of $10,000. So we've provided these costs so that when police goes after restitution, we have some costs that are documented. As far as some of the engineering goes,

we have been working with police to, if we can identify any info with street closures that we can affect, We can close up a street if we know that there's going to be an event taking place. We can also install bot dots. What that is is large, domed, raised pavement markers. And so we're looking at installation of bot dots in intersections and locations where maybe some of the street racing is taking place. That would make it very, very difficult for cars to race and pull donuts. One of the programs that we're really excited about, and I think the council has been informed,

is the rest in red we put a rest in red on MacArthur city limit to city limit in Alton from Fairview to to Bristol what that means is that from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. these signals actually rest in red all the way around and it's only when the side street triggers the loop does that signal go to green on the main line though if you're going to speed limit and you trigger the advanced loop if you're going the speed limit or less by the time you get to the intersection you will get a green light so you're able to proceed without having to fully stop but

it prevents a racer that's exceeding the speed limit from just flying down the corridor so we've done before and after tests and this is certainly something that we're excited about we might be able to deploy this type of technology in other city corridors.

We've also been collaborating with police. I already mentioned the cameras, but we also want to continue with lane narrowing. We've done that on First Street. The lane narrowing tends to reduce speed limits on platoons of cars, so we want to continue doing that. continue pursuing safe routes to school grants and the lane narrowing will eventually lead to possibly reducing the posted speed limit. We're really excited about conducting our engineering speed survey which is done every five years. We're going to be awarding a contract this fall to conduct the

speed surveys in the spring time and we're hoping that as a result of those speed surveys we'll be able to reduce the posted speed limits on many of our corridors. And as far as education goes, we purchased four high-tech speed feedback signs in 2018. Two of them were damaged as part of some of these protests that we experienced this summer. We repaired those and were purchasing four more, in addition to a number of other signs that are coveted related but these high-tech speed signs actually collect volume and

speed data even when they appear to be off they're running 24 7. so with this information we would we would analyze it and share any information that that the police can use for selective enforcement and we will continue reaching out to neighborhoods schools and neighborhood associations so that we can help educate children, families, and adults on the issues and the dangers of speeding.

And that concludes our presentation. The PowerPoint has some other highlights on what we will do for education, but at this point that concludes our presentation and we'd be happy I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

I'm sure we're gonna have some questions. Who would like to start?

Mr. Mayor, council member Becerra.

Yes, please go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to thank staff for that presentation. And I appreciate you taking a look at how our city can address the street racing issue that we have. But one thing I do want to clarify is that some of the dangers that we're seeing on our roads is not just street racing. And I think that Public Works and PD has done a great job of focusing on some of those issues. I like the bots dots idea where it would really, I guess, make folks really think twice about trying to do donuts and other things in some of our city's intersections.

But we do have a lot of lead foots in the city, and we have folks that are just not abiding by the posted speed limits. And so when you talk about the rest in red, I think that'll help folks that tend to be law abiding residents. But I think when we talk about other things that we need to do, you know, it's great to see the enforcement that's out there. I see it intermittently down on the south end of town. But we've got some streets where I think we're going to need to see something in regards to more of a public works, physical impact to these streets.

So I'll take, for instance, MacArthur. You know, I would love to see us look at, you know, as we're talking about narrowing lanes, but also incorporating bike lanes. Let's just, you know, if you look at some stretches of MacArthur, you've got lines from the curb out to the number one lane that it's just dead space. But it's probably enough room to incorporate at least a class two bike lane. So I'd like to see us try to do that, try to incorporate that and go after grants to really incorporate a full complete streets concept to as many streets as possible.

And especially these ones that we see where there are long stretches, there are no traffic signals. I would also like to see staff come back with proposals as far as some of these streets where we can see whether it's traffic circles or just something that not having these long stretches. As I've mentioned at previous council meetings, you have streets that really could qualify as drag racing strips because they meet the linked criteria and they have no interruptions from one signal to another. So I appreciate these efforts. I like the Rust in Red.

I like what we're hearing as far as highlighting the results of these enforcement programs and kind of really showing folks that we are taking this seriously and we are going after offenders. But I think in addition to the education and the enforcement, I really hope that Public Works will come back to us at a future council meeting soon to show us some actual ways that we can really physically alter our streets and limit the speeding. because you know as we know we we don't have enough police to patrol every single street and watch all of them for whether it's just residents uh blowing past posted speed limits or actual

street racing so my ask of staff is to really think about what we can do to incorporate slowing physically slowing down these streets without always having to rely on enforcement those are

my comments thank you mr. mayor thank you other comments mr. mayor this is

councilmember Jose Solorio few questions and comments yes councilmember go ahead first I remember we used to have red light cameras and I know some people thought that the fees were getting higher or this or that I honestly am thinking it's probably it's time to bring that back and I know cost and regs and other things have changed maybe as part of a follow-up if we could get a little memo on what red light camera possibilities might be because we do have also just a lot of speech during the day and just people passing red lights and a lot of pedestrian deaths obviously.

I like all the ideas regarding street comming and those red dots or whatever they are. The main question I have is more for public works and just kind of coordination. I do know that Public Works has at least some cameras on major intersections. And so if someone's watching those TVs 24-7, essentially, I don't know if we do or don't, we'd be able to see congregations occurring and activity occurring that then we could send officers out. And now that we're better staffed, mitigate it. What level of coordination do we do around that?

or visual observation or do we need more cameras or do we need to hire more people to watch them i mean these things are you know right in front of main place you know i drove yesterday by some nice big donuts there at uh you know uh you know their kitty corner from uh from from main place

so can you talk about that yeah we have 300 signalized intersections and we have 200 intersections with some sort of video camera. It's all interconnected with fiber. We don't have any monitoring over those cameras and the cameras we do have don't record unless police or unless we have a reason to begin a recording. So that's something that we'd have to look into staffing so that we could monitor that. If we had some intel then that would be very helpful. But we have the cameras

I mean, we wouldn't put up cameras unless we thought people were going to look at them from time to time. So that's what I'm trying to understand. We have cameras, but we don't ever watch them?

No, the cameras are actually for the signal. They're like signal detector cameras. Transportation related. Yeah, they're transportation related. So we've been using the cameras. They detect traffic, but we've sort of used the cameras for other purposes too. Or we could.

But, yeah, maybe staff could think about how can we get some eyeballs on those things for evenings or at least for the, you know, 20 hotspots, I mean, amongst us here or others. We know, again, hotspots, they tend to be in the same place, and maybe those are where we need to figure out if there are cameras there and then have people watch the cameras. And, yeah, if we get tips ahead of time, we can even staff there, because that's where I do feel that there's some engineering PD coordination that would be helpful. And then I like the impounds, and I'm hoping we can do more of them. Under what law do we currently do that?

Or what I'm thinking, I'm looking at our city attorney, maybe we need to write our own municipal code language regarding impounds of cars involved in street racing, or just that are somehow participating in it. Can you speak to that?

So the authority we use right now is 23, I think it's 23-103. It's a street racing, reckless driving, street racing section that allows us to impound the vehicle.

Okay. I'll look at that language, and I'll follow up with our city attorney and others on can we do more. Because I think if we have a city law that's new that's ours, I think we'll get good publicity from the register or other outlets or social media that we have this new law that is stronger on impounding cars involved in or abetting in street racing in Santa Ana, and I think that will be helpful. Just the PR aspect of scaring people to other cities and then giving us stronger tools that are going to be a deterrence. So we'll follow up on that. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Additional questions or thoughts, council members?

Just want to say excellent presentation. Thank you very much. I saw a lot of thinking outside the box on this. This was very, very good. Thank you, gentlemen.

Thank you, Mayor. Go ahead.

Council Member Sarmenta, go ahead, please. Yes, thank you.

So I want to thank, you know, Public Works and PD staff for coming up with some good recommendations on traffic calming measures and addressing this in a way that I think is fair. I do want to respond to the comment about red light cameras. We, yeah, we did have red light cameras in the city and we've got flooded with complaints from people that saw those cameras and the sanctions that were applied to them very unfairly. I even think there's some cases that

consider them unconstitutional. So many cities actually disengaged because the only people that were making a lot of money were the red light camera vendors. So, you know, we have to understand that we live in a community that, you know, is very low income. And some of these fines were $500, $700 a piece. So I think there are other ways, better ways that we can do enforcement of speeding and these donuts. I don't know, there's a certain name they have for them. But I know that there's plenty of these donuts occurring and speeding occurring on non-intersection streets.

they happen in residential areas they happen in areas when there's not red light where there aren't or wouldn't be any red light cameras and we put red light cameras and we're sanctioning and being punitive on just regular civilians and really not addressing the problem so I certainly would be opposed to that but if there's any other good ideas I think that you know public works and PD and others can continue to work with to address it I think, you know, the roundabouts, I think there's other creative ways.

I think what was mentioned, some bike lanes, other traffic calming processes and adjustments that we can make to our major arterials. And even in some residential areas, I think it would go a long way to cure the problem. Thank you.

Mayor Pulido, this is Council Member Mendoza.

Go ahead, Council Member Mendoza. Go ahead, please.

Yes, I was wondering if we considered the rumble strips. These were used last May by the city of Los Angeles to deter street racing. And it is my understanding that they are unnoticeable to the driver who is driving at a normal speed. but the ones who are racing that it becomes visibly disruptive to their handling of the car and it rumbles and maybe forces them to slow down. Has anyone considered the rumble strips?

And I don't think they're too expensive because they're laid out just a specific length on the roadway. And I think they can be removed if it's not working in that area. So does staff have any information on those rumble strips?

Yes, we've used and we would consider using rumble strips. They're similar to the installation of bot dots. Bot dots are a little bit larger and further apart. Rumble strips are together. And so, yes, we could consider the use of rumble strips. In residential areas, it might not be the best use because then we would get complaints of noise at night. but certainly rumble strips in industrial areas and maybe some of the other major corridors in the city, we could use those.

All right. Thank you for that.

Thank you. Additional questions?

Chancellor Peña-Loza, I would imagine you might have a question on this. No, sir?

David PenalozaItem —

I do not, sir. Thank you.

All right. No worries. Let me just make comments and we'll move on to the next item. My comment is that I think we need and we can think even a little bit more out of the box. In particular, I'm thinking about drones. I think we could potentially have drones

play strategically and potentially film some of this activity. I know we have the police helicopter, but that is one helicopter and it's expensive and it's noisy and you know we get complaints from that uh drones are coming um you know amazon's going to use them to deliver packages um it's you know they're much quieter uh i think if we could consider that um it would be helpful

there's also going to be other vehicles that we don't yet see that are actually being developed here in Santa Ana I don't know if the city manager could put a little presentation together and get it out to the council I know a couple of us were invited to a little orientation if you will and there's some vehicles that are airborne they're like drones but they're not really drones they're for humans and they will they can fly so they're like a plane but they're also like

a helicopter they'll be able to land wherever you want to land because the you know the propellers rotate this is a few years away when i'm talking about but it's being built here in san anna we ought to track it our law enforcement ought to be well aware of it as well as traffic and everything else because i think it's going to change uh you know the future and we can use it you know for enforcement uh as well i know uber already has a contract with them because they're gonna actually

be able to pick people up and take them places and it'll be extremely quick it's not a helicopter so but then have some of those inherent dangers, because it is able to actually glide and fly like a plane. So with that, let's go on to the next item, please. What's next, Madam City Clerk?

Yes, Mayor. We do have a number of speakers. And before I begin, I would like to report out the following summary of emails, provided today through 4 42 p.m. on 11c the second reading of who I had five Santa Ana residents in opposition and two residencies not disclosed for 20a I had three Santa Ana residents in opposition one Santa Ana resident and support for 22a 85a we had six Santa Ana residents or property owners in support

three Santa Ana residents in opposition. On August 18, 2020 council meeting, we did have also additional public comments. We had one Santa Ana resident in opposition. For 85B, there were 41 Santa Ana residents in support, 13 non-Santa Ana residents. On August 18th, we received 19 Santa Ana residents in support and 21 residency not disclosed in support. In opposition, we had three Santa Ana property owners and one manufacturer home association.

85C, we had two Santa Ana residents in opposition. One Santa Ana resident just provided a comment. 85D, we had 22 Santa Ana residents or property owners in support. Three residencies not disclosed. And then we had two Santa Ana residents in opposition. And then we had non-agenda items. One Santa Ana resident asked that Santa Ana Police Department and make sure to serve and protect during times of unrest. Santa Ana resident water bill basic service charge increased by 500%. one UCI Department of Population Health and Disease Prevention,

a comment on environmental justice and community engagement in Santa Ana's general plan update, and one document provided by our city attorney. And that is all the comments that I have by email. And now the first caller we have. The numbers with the last three numbers, 574. please dial star six and you may begin to speak you have three minutes

good evening can you hear me yes we can hear you great uh mr mayor members of the council this is todd spitzer orange county district attorney good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak in favor of item 85a the resolution with respect to proposition 20 i have the honor of serving as the Southern California co-chair with Patricia Witschunas, who is the founding member of Crime Survivors Incorporated. I would like to, I read all the letters that were submitted on file, and I want to make sure that some of the misperceptions about the initiative are

clarified. Some of the letters indicated that this would make current misdemeanors felonies. That is not accurate. What it does is, it does about four things, and I'll go through that quickly. It adds to the violent crime list crimes that were inadvertently left off that are not considered violent. For example, rape of an unconscious person, trafficking of a child for sex, assault on a police officer, felony domestic violence. The reason this is important, this doesn't put anybody in prison who would not normally go to prison if convicted on those charges.

What it does is it ensures that they're not released early under Proposition 57. So it only changes the sentencing of an individual on the most serious and violent crimes that plague our community. Second, serial theft. Many of you know that the law changed after Prop 47. that made it no longer a felony if you stole over $400 from a retail establishment. That went up to $950.

As a result, many of your businesses in Santa Ana have suffered greatly from additional theft because individuals know they can no longer be charged with a felony if they keep the dollar amount below $950. What this does is it says if you have been convicted a third time for stealing more than $250, the prosecutor may charge you with a felony. So it's not to punish the poor or the indigent.

What it does is it's to attack individuals who are going into our retail establishments and ripping off our retail establishments and hurting our businesses. Third, parole violations. Today, after these Prop 4757, if you're in front of the parole board and being considered for release, they can only look at the crime you last committed. It used to be they could look at your entire criminal history to determine whether or not you have been rehabilitated. We simply want the entire criminal history to again be considered.

Where I think people are confused, we are asking forth on DNA collection that certain crimes that were reduced under Prop 47 as misdemeanors to allow for DNA collection. I think you hopefully agree with me that DNA deters future criminality because people know we can catch them if we have their DNA. Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. I urge an aye vote on item 85A.

Thank you for calling in, Mr. District Attorney. You're always welcome and your input is appreciated. Madam Clerk, next speaker.

The next caller we have is a Spanish speaker. Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números, 362. Por favor, marque asterisco 6 para reactivar su llamada.

Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números, 362, por favor marque asterisco 6 para reactivar su llamada.

Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números, 362, por favor marque asterisco 6 para reactivar su llamada.

Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números, 362, por favor marque asterisco 6 para reactivar su llamada.

Next caller with the last three numbers, 012.

Please dial star six and you may speak to proceed with your comment.

Madam Clerk, that's a lot of speakers not responding. Could there be something wrong with the system?

them I believe that the speaker the callers have to dial star six in order for them to be unmuted and then they may proceed to speak caller with the last three numbers 0 1 2 please dial star six to speak

Caller with the last three numbers 012 you may proceed to speak.

Hello?

Hi, caller with the last three numbers 012 you may proceed to speak. You have three minutes.

Okay, that caller muted themselves.

Caller with the last three numbers, 757, please dial star six and proceed to speak.

Callers with the last three numbers, 757, please dial star six to speak and proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Kim, and I'm just calling for item number 75A under order of 1122. I just wanted to introduce myself in case there are any questions.

Thank you. We'll go ahead and mute you until we bring up the 75A item.

Caller with the last three numbers, 100, please dial star six to speak, and you may proceed with your comment.

Good evening. This is Casey Heidler with Tom's Truck Center. Mayor and council members, thank you for modifying the housing ordinance. This change makes sense. With our project on 3rd and 4th Street, we've already started the process to begin construction of 117 homes in the downtown area. In addition, we will still pay over a million dollars in affordable housing fees to the city. So please continue to be proactive with changes like this. It makes a lot of sense for the city. Thank you very much.

Caller with the last three numbers, 272. Please dial star six. to speak and you may proceed with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers 272, please dial star six

to speak and you may proceed with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers 032, please dial star six to speak. Then you may proceed with your comment.

Hi. My name is Nathaniel Greensides. I'm a Ward 5 resident. is calling in to request that the council supports item 85B. A lot of the opponents who are opposed to the item are opposed to it because they're afraid of the rank control initiative, which was stopped by COVID. While we didn't need rank control in Santa Ana, the vast majority of people in Santa Ana would agree. The item as it's written is actually about putting an initiative to the voters to let the voters of the city decide. Nick, it could be for any initiative that was helped by the pandemic. The rent control initiative was just one of a few.

And so I asked that the city council support, forgive me, I'm a little winded, had to move because I can't afford the rent.

Sorry. I'm calling to ask that the council supports the items so that the voters of the city have a chance to decide initiatives of the city. One of the coveted aspects of our democracy that people can circulate a petition and gather signatures for what they believe should be a law of their own land. So the item is written so that the council can put onto the ballot an initiative for the voters. And I ask that the council allows for the will of the people to show through in the election to the democratic process. I hope that all the council members will uphold that right

and protect it and allow the voters of the city to decide what should or should not be a law. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller with the last three numbers, 394, please dial star six to speak and proceed with your comment.

Please dial star six to speak and proceed with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers 394 please dial star six and proceed to speak.

Caller with the last three numbers, 193, please dial star six to speak and proceed with your comment.

Yes, we can hear you. You may proceed to speak.

If you have YouTube on, can I ask you to please lower the volume so we don't get any feedback?

Yeah, I went ahead and closed it because I could hear the echo. Do my three minutes start over?

Yes, I haven't started it yet.

Okay, so my name is Erica Gonzalez. I'm a Ward 1 resident. I'm a business owner, small business owner. I work for the afterschool program. I'm a parent. I was a student here. I grew up in Santana and I do organizing here. And I'm calling in regards to 85B, the extension of the collection of signatures. Tenants United Santana is a work center that dignified housing as the most basic necessity for a person's well-being. And thus the efforts are dedicated towards the stabilization of rent. We understand the importance of addressing rent stabilization in our city, recognizing that the majority of residents are renters.

56% and rent burdened or 64%. Beginning on February 1st of 2020, we kicked off the rent stabilization ordinance campaign. The spread of COVID-19 spiraled into a global pandemic soon after we began that campaign. Well, we have all transitioned to online interfaces to accommodate our lives. The RSO campaign relies upon physical interactions for collecting signatures, none of which could be collected via internet or phone call. For the safety of our families and communities, DUSA halted outdoor canvassing on March 16th due to the nationwide call limiting social gatherings.

In the period of 44 days before the shelter-in-place orders took effect, we trained 153 volunteers and started circulating 153 petitions containing 50 signature spaces each. We have confirmed that 1,703 signatures were gathered during this initial period. The county shelter-in-place order explicitly prohibited us from being able to go door-to-door, but within our brief window of campaigning, we demonstrated massive public interest in our campaign. Similarly, in 2018, we garnered substantial public support of our campaign. We needed 9,854 signatures, and we ended up collecting 9,299.

If given the full 180 days of time, we believed that we could have met the goal of gathering those 10,909 signatures that we needed. So due to the global pandemic, we lost 133 days of signature gathering out of the 180 days that we were granted. Since the nationwide call limiting gatherings of more than 10 people March 16th to our final date to turn in our signatures, which was July 27th, our ability to gather signatures has been impacted. June 11th, we began to drive up signature gathering events because the shelter in place orders started to relax but still could not go door to door.

Residents who were sick could not attend and volunteers who were immunocompromised could not participate. On July 2nd, one of our drive up locations had to shut down because of a positive COVID-19 case. This method has proven to be risky and intractable as many of our volunteers are elderly. In San Benito County, the courts ruled in favor of petitioners who were circulating a petition against an ordinance that the city aim to pass. The court stated that the petitioners should have the opportunity and understood that the shelter in place orders prevented the constitutional requirements from being met.

This order granted the petitioners an extension, which would begin 30 days after the shelter in place orders were lifted. We request that the city council consider extending the deadline to account for the 133 days we cannot safely gather signatures during the shelter in place orders. Alternatively, we ask that the city council place the ordinance on the ballot, putting the question to voters and honoring the fact that we have demonstrated public interest. It is clear that this pandemic has impeded our capacity to engage in the democratic process.

Directly placing the ordinance on the ballot would most effectively address the impending eviction and housing instability crisis. This has without a question worsened as a result of inconsistent enforcement of existing renters protections. As members elected by the constituents of Santana, we hope that you will address our concerns and we look forward to taking the next steps with you in making every voice heard. Thank you for your time. Have a good night.

Thank you. Caller with the last three numbers, 034, please dial star six to speak and proceed with your comment.

Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Please proceed with your comment.

Hi, my name is Kaylee and I'm calling from Ward 5 and I'm reaching out to ask that you support an extension for the petition circulators due to the shelter in place orders collecting signatures from people in person was not considered essential and so legally we were not able to collect signatures. I'm a volunteer with Tenants United Santana as well and so 133 of about the 180 days that we were legally entitled to in the democratic process, we could not gather signatures. Also there's precedent set in other counties or petitioners have been granted an extension. So for this item, I ask that you vote in favor

of giving the staff direction to present all the documents necessary to grant extensions to petitioners. Additionally, please consider using your power as city council members to place the Tenants United sent on a rent stabilization ordinance on the ballot not for this upcoming november ballot but the following one which would be special elections or the next primaries so i believe that the goal of signature gathering is to demonstrate public interest which we definitely have both in 2018 and again in 2020 and so i believe that this would be one of the best ways to address the concerns that the majority renter city of Santana has.

People need real protections around rent increases. They're still receiving rent increases even during a pandemic, and they need real protections around evictions as soon as possible. So city council has the power to place the ordinance on the ballot themselves and give voters the opportunity to decide. Thank you.

Thank you. Spanish speaker.

6 para reactivar su llamada.

Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números, 362, por favor marque asterisco 6 para reactivar su llamada.

Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números. 362, por favor marque estrella 6 para reactivar su llamada.

Hola. Hola, sí, ahora le podemos oír.

Ah, sí, hola. Buenas noches. Mi nombre, bueno, buenas noches al concejal y alcalde. My name is Alejandra Luciano and I'm here for a proposal for 85B. It is a need for us, that we need the control of rent with all this pandemic. the pandemic. The truth is, it is a necessity that if we would like to approve, please.

As you need to vote when the election is for you, if you want to vote, so we need to vote. And the truth is, the truth is, the pandemic is very low and the truth is, the Lo necesitamos más que nada. Muchas gracias.

My name is Alejandro Luciano, and I'm here to ask you to approve the proposal on 85B. We need this. The Latino population needs rent control because of the pandemic. please approve this approve this you need us when you need us to vote for you so we are here and now we need your vote so the pandemic is making this very hard so we need this a lot

caller with the last three numbers 167 please dial star 6 to speak then you may proceed with your comment.

Hi, can everybody hear me?

Yes, we can hear you. You may proceed with your comment. Thank you.

Hi, my name is David Carvajal. I'm a community health worker and lifetime resident here in the city of Santa Ana. I live in Ward 2. I'm calling in regarding agenda item 85B. In 2017, we asked city council to pass rent control and they didn't. So we took it to voters to decide in 2018 by pushing together enough signatures to put rent control on the ballot. We displayed massive public interest. We needed 9,854 signatures and we ended up collecting 9,299. In 2020, we launched our ballot initiative again, but it wasn't safe or legal to collect signatures

under the shelter in place orders by Governor Newsom. We're asking city council today to put our rent control ordinance on the ballot, honoring the fact that we have demonstrated public interest both in 2018 and now. There was a housing crisis before the pandemic and it has only gotten worse. People are still receiving rent increases and we need real rent control and protections that are on evictions now more than ever. In other counties, like in central California and San Benito County, petitioners have been granted an extension because the court saw that they were not able to gather signatures during the time

they were legally entitled to in the democratic process. So today we're pursuing that process, but that can take time. And so we're asking city council once again, to use your power to level or decide the future of rent control in the city of Santa Ana. We need it. We need protections for our community. We work day in and day out with tenants that are letting us know that they are being evaded that are letting us know that they can no longer afford living where they're living. It's causing loss of displacement. And all of you know that on city council. So we're asking you to please act accordingly and protect tenants in Santana.

Thank you.

Thank you. Caller with the last three numbers, 136. Please dial star six to speak and proceed with your comment.

Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. Please proceed with your comment.

Hello, everybody. My name is Alondra Salazar. I'm a Sanana resident and I'm calling in support of item 85B and to urge city council members to put rent control on the ballot themselves to let voters decide the future of rent control in our community. Volunteers have been exerting themselves since 2018 to collect rent control signatures. It is time you all step up as a city council and show you care about your community's housing and overall wellbeing by putting this up for a vote. I say wellbeing because people should not have to live in fear and anxiety of their rent being raised and being evicted, especially not during a pandemic.

People should not have to decide between putting food on their table and paying rent. This is far from uncommon given that over 30% of renters in Santa Ana spend more than half of their income on rent. You have the power of putting rent control on the ballot. The matter is you carry that public community represents to do so. We are urging you to let voters decide how the rent control is a matter of helping your community get and keep their housing. It is a matter of caring for your community's physical and mental mental health. Your community needs real rent and eviction protection.

People have displayed massive public interest. People have called, people have advocated. Now it is time for you to show your support. Senate Anna needs real and permanent rent control. This is long overdue. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller with the last three numbers, 388, please dial star six to speak and proceed with your comment.

This is Mike Cardiff. I'm a Shenan resident, business and property owner. I'm calling on item 85D.

I'm opposed to a drug needle exchange program in Santa Ana. When that program was operating here, would find used drug needles all over by industrial property near Fort Grand.

Drug needles would also be found in Santa Ana parks and many places throughout the city. Such a program would attract drug users to Santa Ana as it did in the past.

I do not support a drug needle exchange program in Santa Ana. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller with the last three numbers, 335, please dial star six to speak. Then you may proceed with your comment.

Caller, you've been unmuted. You may proceed to speak with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers, 335, you may proceed with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers, 335.

Caller with the last three numbers, 268, please dial star 6, and you may proceed with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers, 335. You may proceed with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers 469, please dial star 6 and you may proceed with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers 469, please dial star 6 to speak, then you may proceed with your comment.

and the coalition of TUSA. Unfortunately, we didn't have to recaudate the firmas that we needed, but I'm sure that we would have to be able to get the firmas for the pandemic. This is the second time we have to recaudate firmas and, in fact, we don't want to go for a third time because, well, the residents of Santa Ana ask, well, but again, collect the firmas and then they enter in the the confidence, right? And that is comprehensive. Now that the Council has decided to approve a contract for rentals for the city, all those who have participated

in this campaign, we do it because we are living the need before and now during the pandemic. In personal, I had my work and I could have been able to

toụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụụ and I think I don't have to do it. I've tried to call and call and call. They've answered, but they've been ! And my income is going down, right? What can I do? The people are receiving aumentos of rent. We need a control of rent now more than ever. I ask you to make a way more atenta, que pues ustedes se honren todo el trabajo y tiempo para para lo que hemos dedicado, ¿verdad?

Nuestros últimos tres años y que dejen que los votantes de Santa Ana decidan por favor pongan nuestra propuesta de control de renta en la boleta de una elección especial

Good evening, Council Members, Mayor. My name is Jorge Casillas, and I'm a Santa Ana resident, and I'm here to support 85B. I've been gathering signatures, a lot of signatures for Latino Health Access and TUSA.

and we were not, unfortunately, we were not able to gather all the signatures that were required because of the time. This is the second time we've been doing this, gathering signatures. We would not want to go to a third time because the Santa Ana residents are going to wonder why are we doing this again. They're not going to trust us and it's understandable. So we want, we would like to counsel, the council did not approve rent control measures before and we are living this need. We were in this need before the pandemic happened and now it's even worse. I used to work my job and I used to be able to make my payments

but because of the pandemic since March I lost my job and I don't have money and I tried to apply for unemployment but I guess lots of people apply there's not enough to go around and I keep calling and calling and nothing. So I'm getting less and less money. We need this. The people in Santa Ana are getting rents increase now. So now more than ever, we need rent control in Santa Ana. So I ask you that we've been doing this for the last three years. Let Santa Ana voters decide. Put the rent control measure on a special election. Thank you very much.

Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números, 335, por favor marque estrella 6 para reactivar su llamada.

¿Me escuchan? Sí, la podemos escuchar. Buenas tardes, mi nombre es Sarayar Pero, soy residente de Santana, trabajo en la ciudad de Santana and I have grown up with my children in this city. I'm referring to the number of 85B. We have been collecting all these firms during this time of pandemic. Also, I think it's important to honor the work that we've been collecting since 2017. In 2018, we collected firm, which we didn't have to be able to reach the goal.

We are in a situation very complicated in this moment because, although we can't collect the firmas, it is not reasonable when we are asking that we are asking that we are asking that we are asking to take care of our families, when the same city is asking a fund of assistance for the rent, so that the people stay in home. Consider that we have already had examples democratically where the voters decide who they want to see como nuestros representantes o a quién lo quieren ver. La señora Nélida, la concejal Nélida, es un ejemplo de esto. Permitamos y practiquemos que los votantes sean quienes decidan

si quieren ver un control de renta o no en Santana. Escuchemos a las personas como yo y como muchos de los que están hablando que viven, trabajan y pagan más de la mitad de sus salarios en pura renta. Santana tiene el derecho de elevar su voz otra vez a través del voto. Please, please, we are asking that they consider putting the referendum in the next election. It is a matter of moral responsibility when they are asking us to take care of us, when they are asking us to take care of us, even for our children to come back to school.

So please, please, honor the work of the volunteers who have been playing the people who are playing the police. the work of people who were calling and still still collecting the firm and putting in risk their health. I would like to practice democracy when you all the time talk about democracy and justice for everyone. Thank you.

My name is Aida Pedro and I am a resident of Santa Ana and I work in Santa Ana. I'm here to support 85B. We've been collecting signatures up through the pandemic and it's very important. We've been doing this work. It's important to recognize the work that has been done in 2017. In 2018, we collected lots of signatures. We almost made it. We were very close. And it's a very complicated situation because we can go and collect, but you are asking us to take care of ourselves and to stay at home. So please help with, even when Santa Ana is helping people with the rent so that they can stay at home.

So that's not congruent. Let the voters decide. We voters decide who our representatives are. as is in the case of Ms. Nelida Mendoza. She's an example of that. So let the voters decide on rent control. Listen to the people. We are paying more than half our income on rent. Let Santa Ana express their voice through their vote. So please consider putting this referendum in the next election. It's your moral responsibility when you're asking us to stay at home

and let's honor the volunteer work of people who are knocking on doors gathering signatures. We are out there risking our health to do this. Let's make democracy work in Santa Ana for all.

Caller with the last three numbers, 268, please dial star six, then proceed with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers, 268. Please dial star six.

My name is Joselinda, and I'm a resident in Ward 2. I'm calling in support of 85B. I know this item is for an extension for a petition circulating in Santana, but I'm urging you all to put rent control on the ballot, as it is something you all have the power to do. Santana residents have already demonstrated their interest for rent control here in Santana, signing the petition to put rent control on the ballot in large numbers, I mean, both to the 2018 and this year's campaign. Like other folks I mentioned today, a lot of people here in our community are extremely burdened with rent,

experienced predatory rent increases, and this pandemic has only exacerbated these hardships. No one should have to choose between food and rent. Rent control will provide immediate economic relief and eviction protection. I'm asking you all to put rent control ordinance on the ballot, honoring the massive public interest, ensuring the safety for folks circulating the petitions and to keep people housed. Y'all are always asking or like wondering what the community wants especially when elections are approaching and we have been and are letting you all know now we want the opportunity to vote on grant control thank you

caller with the last three numbers zero zero eight please dial star six to speak and you i am here can you hear me yes we can hear you you may proceed yes mayor city council members

Thank you Steve Lamott Building Industry Association, Orange County. I just wanted to briefly call in and comment on a consent calendar item 11C, the housing opportunity ordinance. We would like to share our appreciation for the direction that the council took at the last meeting. I won't go into significant detail as you've heard what I've had to say multiple times, but I do truly feel that this current direction will benefit the most within the city. This will produce affordable housing money for the fund as you just heard from a previous caller. This will provide a vast amount of jobs, both union and non-union,

and it will provide a market rate and attainable housing for locals and for those who are not on the affordable housing or on a affordable housing list. So we definitely see it covering the most amount of people and doing the most good. So thank you.

Caller with the last three numbers, 988, please dial star six to speak and you may proceed with your comment.

Good evening, Mayor Polito and City Council members. My name is Tim O'Brien. I'm with Legacy Partners. I'd just like to thank you for your continued support of the WHO amendment. it. In the case of Sunflower, which I've told you about, you know, it means the immediate start of a project, which will result in, you know, jobs, including union jobs, as well as contribute funds into the WHO fund, about $900,000 worth. And so I wanted to just

call and tell you how important that was to to us and to the community at large. Thank you.

Caller with the last three numbers 302 please dial star six to speak and you may proceed with your comment.

All right, Juan Gonzalez, Ward one resident. Council members who represents the Santana community to you? Is the image in your head of for-profit real estate group or housing developer that neither lives nor works in the city? Or is the image in your head, the true heart of Santana? Resilient working class folks that have helped to build this city from the ground up and that I've seen generations of family grow up here. by voting against item 11C, you will prove to your fellow Santaneros that you stand with us and not with corporate housing firms. Council members Becerra and Villegas have asked us to stop expecting Santana

to shoulder the responsibility of building affordable housing in the county. We should all be offended by that because the implication is that Santaneros will quietly and willingly pack up their lives here to go chasing affordable housing elsewhere in the county. Our generational roots here are non-negotiable. We expect this council to make substantial investments in affordable housing within this city, because this is our home. This is where we want to stay. Corporate housing will already gladly give us the boot by pricing us out. Don't allow them the power to do so. I'd like to now address council members

Vacerra and Peñalosa directly, as well as anyone who may support them on item 85D. One critical question is this, have you sought the guidance and support of public health, medical and homelessness professionals for this proposal? or is this yet another reactionary plan that has no base in scientific evidence? Syringe exchange programs are critical examples of the harm reduction model of public health, which aims to lessen the negative impacts of the human disease that is drug addiction. Public health research has consistently shown that syringe exchange programs have been successful

in reducing the spread of HIV and hepatitis C among drug users. These programs are also oftentimes the first point of contact for formal drug treatment, access to health services and counseling and mental health referrals. Cities without syringe exchange programs oftentimes spend much more on their health infrastructure because they must deal with preventable diseases. To give a more concrete example of the dangers of prohibiting syringe exchange, let me tell you about the town of Austin, Indiana. In 2013, local public health professionals sensed a potential outbreak

of HIV among drug users on the horizon. However, at the time, the state of Indiana prohibited syringe exchange programs and continuously ignored public health recommendations for their increased need it was only three years later that a temporary needle exchange program was implemented in austin when 215 cases of hiv infection had already been attributed to the outbreak this was just in one small town the governor of indiana that stood firm against syringe exchange throughout these years was now vice president mike pence experts believe that up to 127 hiv infections could have been

avoided if pens had proactively implemented syringe exchange programs stand with science and health and shut down 85d and any other proposals that will punish addicts for being addicts the unhoused for being unhoused and the poor for being poor thank you good have a good

night thank you person on the telephone con los tres último números uno siete cuatro por favor Marker, estrella 6, para reactivar su llamada.

Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números. Ok, usted puede hablar.

Sí, gracias. Buenas noches, queridos miembros del concilio. Mi nombre es Adela Montañez. Y la razón de mi llamada es recordarles que en esta ciudad, y ustedes lo saben mejor que yo, There are 330,000 inhabitants, of which half of them are people who rent. And in this situation so adverse that we have at the world, especially here in Santa Ana, we see, we are in front of the community, people who are desalojadas, people who don't have work,

We have children who have to study under a bridge because they don't have a table on them. We have people who don't have to eat, but especially we have people who have faith and hope that their leaders, who are in front of them and who were elected by them, they don't have the minority, but the majority of these cities. right now we have a 51% of people who rent in Santa Ana need a control of rent and need support of you as a council for that they can put in the letter

either in November or in a special vote for that this can happen we are not asking you to approve the control of rent we are asking you to give the opportunity a 51% of people, so that the voters of the city of Santana see if they want to have it in the city. I know it's very sad to hear the comments from my antecessors that are supporting this point, the 85B, and to know that many of our children, I talk all the day with people via telefonic,

with very large needs. Also, the pandemic, the stress of knowing that they will not have a table, that they will not have where their children can study. So, we consider that those who have the power of change are you. And so we ask, and that's good that in the prayer, at the beginning, and that they have been given by their knowledge, by their patience and also by the majority of the city, and not by the minority, but by the minority, but by the majority.

So, we ask again, that please put in the bulletin a control of rent, not that you put it, but that the citizens of Santana do it. Thank you very much.

Good evening, members of the council. My name is Adela Montañez, and I'm here to remind you, I don't have to remind you, you know that there's over 330,000 people living in Santa Ana, and over half of them are renters. Due to the current situation that we live all over the world, and especially in Santa Ana, it's sadly to say that a lot of people are getting evicted. There are kids that have to study on their bridges. They don't have food. And especially there's lots of people that have faith in their leaders to see that the wishes not of the minority but of the majority are looked after.

Over 51% of the renters in Santa Ana need rent control. So we're asking you to put this ballot, this issue in the November ballot or in a special election. we're not asking you to approve this that the city council approves rent control but to give the opportunity to the 51 of the people to sanana voters to decide and it's sad to hear the comments from the people that went before me supporting 85b the pandemic has given us a lot of stress and people are stressed with this and they're worrying about a roof over their heads they have no place for their kids to study. And you have the power to make a change.

And I love the invocation earlier in the meeting where he asked about wisdom for you, patience, and for you to look after the majority in the city. So we're asking you to put this rent control on the ballot and let the Santa Ana voters decide.

caller with the last three numbers 019 please dial star six to speak and proceed with your comment

hi can you all hear me yes we can hear you great thank you good evening mr. mayor and council members my name is Vanessa I'm an award three resident and I'm calling to comment and vocalize support of item 85b a landslide of residential interest has been shown for rent control in our city we all know that already that the already existing housing crisis has been severely worsened by the coven 19 pandemic while residents are being issued unbelievable rent increases and to mitigate the lasting ripple effects of this pandemic we will need robust protections against

unjust evictions moving forward. So I implore that the City Council members place the rent control ordinance on the ballot to honor their constituents' needs. Santa Ana residents deserve permanent rent control. Thank you.

Thank you. Caller with the last three numbers 868, please dial star six to speak and proceed with your comment. Can you hear me? Yes we could hear you. Thank

you. Good evening City Council members and Mayor. My name is Hilda Ortiz speaking on behalf of Latino Health Access on items 85B and 11C. I'll start with 85B. We at LHA work in coalition with Tenants United Santana and resident groups prior to the pandemic to collect signatures to place rent control on our city's ballot our signature collection initiative dates back to 2018 for our first attempt at bringing the decision to voters back then we were short 500 signatures out of the close to 10 000 that we needed with lha we at lha believe that the people living the inequities are the ones that know best what the solutions are

and so our work toward health and equity is guided by the community which is why we decided to to continue this work when our resident base decided that we needed to try again to place the initiative on the ballot this year. Over 150 residents have dedicated a significant amount of time to these efforts. Not only in this collection of signatures itself, but dedicating all of 2019 and participating in weekly meetings, workshops, training, participating in statewide conferences, researching other communities, learning to read precincts, learning about the ballot measure process in general,

all while also living in the city's densest areas overpaying rent for rent every month like the majority of renches in our city and working full-time low-paying jobs taking care of children and household duties the commitment of these residents come from the experiences they live every day and from being constantly at the risk of being forced out of the city due to the high rent cost they are fighting to stay in the city of san san we're asking you today to honor the civic participation of these residents in our community. An extension to collect signatures would require residents to leave their homes and place their

health and that of our community at risk. You're aware of the work that LHA has been doing in partnership with the county and the city to stop the spread of the virus facilitating testing connecting residents to services and clarifying misinformation through our COVID call center. The city has also been dedicating a significant amount of resources and efforts to slow the spread of the virus in our city, we've only just begun to slowly decrease COVID-19 cases and forcing residents to go out to collect signatures would put them at risk again. Please protect your constituents from risking their lives, honor their participation,

and acknowledge the massive public interest of our majority tenant community for this initiative by placing the rent control proposal on the ballot for a special election. Let Santana voters decide the future of rent control in our city. In regards to item 11C, amendments to the housing opportunity ordinance, I won't repeat what you've heard. You've heard the massive opposition to this item from the community. I hope you will take the second meeting as an opportunity to think of the people you are representing and oppose the amendment. Thank you. Thank you.

Call her with the last three numbers 683. Please dial star six to speak and proceed with your comment.

Hi, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you.

Okay. Hello, everybody. My name is Maria, and I'm here in today in support of item 85B. Growing up in Santana, I have first-hand experience and witnessed how out-of-reach rent increases and unjust evictions affect families like mine. Now, as a volunteer tenant counselor, many Santana and the renters have confided in me the unjust situations they have faced, like uninhabitable homes, illegal evictions, hostile and aggressive landlords, and ridiculous rent increases when the rent was already too high. Tenancy United Santana has been a coalition fighting for real rent control in Santa Ana since 2018.

Since then, there has been growing momentum and support for rent control from Santa Ana residents. In 2018, we were able to collect over 9,000 signatures. In our most recent campaign, we were able to collect more than 2,000 signatures in less than two months despite being halted by California's stay-at-home orders due to COVID-19. It is clear that the majority of public interest is in favor of rent control. It is clear that stable and accessible housing is what our city needs. Over half of Santa Ana's populations are renters, many who are rent burdened, using 30% or more of their income on rent alone.

Many having to choose between essential necessities like food or rent. COVID-19 has exacerbated these housing insecurities in our city. many renters facing illegal evictions and rent increases as we continue to face our current public health and socioeconomic crises. And we all know that the effects of COVID-19 will be long term. And due to that, we need rent control and more tenant protections in our city. I would like to recognize that AB 1482 is not rent control and it is not enough. It is a temporary anti-renti rent scouting act that expires in 10 years. It is not rent

control and does not protect tenants. Our rent control initiative will allow the real Senate and the community to remain and thrive in the city that we call home. We are legally entitled to the 133 days we lost of our campaign due to the pandemic. We know an extension is possible because of the precedence set by other California jurisdictions like Sacramento and San Benito County. I'm here to also shine light on the fact that you guys have the power to put the rent control initiative on an election ballot in an upcoming election. With respect to the democratic

process that put all of you in your seats to represent the Santa Ana community, we ask that you do not risk the health of Tennessee United, Santa Ana volunteers like myself and Santa Ana residents knowing that you have the power to put the initiative on an election ballot for the next election. Our initiative is meant to be for the people by the people. Thank you. Thank you.

Caller with the last three numbers, 656, please dial star six to speak and proceed with your comment.

Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you.

Good evening, council members, Mayor and everyone watching and listening at home. My name is Jesus Santana, a proud Santanero who resides in Ward 4. I'm calling today to speak on agenda item 85B. I strongly support and encourage you all to support the extension of all regulating petitions that were affected by the shelter in place orders due to the infamous coronavirus pandemic. As you all know, many of our community members and their families have been severely impacted. According to the OC Healthcare Agency's website, the total number as of today is 9,431.

That's 19% of the total number of cases in the county. The communities being most affected are low income, undocumented and homeless communities. Now more than ever, your constituents and community members need your help. I appreciate that the city launched the CARES initiative two weeks ago, but unfortunately that is not enough. There's still a huge amount of people who are rent burdened and do not qualify for the rental assistance. We need to continue to protect and support our families, children, friends, and neighbors. Currently, as I speak, there are people and families in danger of being displaced and evicted.

You all obtain the power to extend the time to collect signatures for the rent control petition, or you can simply vote in favor of placing it on this year's November Valley so that volunteers and tenants don't have to risk their lives. Thank you, and I hope you all and everyone at home are taking care.

Thank you. Caller with the last three numbers, 239, please dial star six to speak, then proceed with your comment.

Hi, can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Hi, good evening. My name is Meshly Lopez. I am a constituent of Ward 5, and I've been a lifetime resident of Santana. Today I am addressing you in reference to item 85B. And what I'd like to say about this is that Santana was in a housing crisis before the pandemic, and many renters entered the pandemic already facing housing instability. and were vulnerable already to eviction. An estimated 20.8 million renter households, that's 47.5% of all U.S. renters,

are cost-burdened by their rent.

Burden affects those who spend over 30% of their monthly income on rent, if you're not aware of what the term rent burden means. No wonder people had nothing to fall back on when the pandemic started and people didn't even have money to eat, let alone pay the rent. 56% of the residents of Santana are renters. And these numbers, we get them from the census, which you constantly talk about, is probably under reported. So I would argue that the number is actually much larger and that people who are renters are probably less likely to fill out the census because they're probably also

living in overcrowded conditions. They probably are undocumented, so they're not supporting on themselves properly. 64% of those residents are also rent burdened and 21.1% of residents in Santana live in poverty under the federal poverty line. And that's the highest percentage in all of Orange County. So today I urge you to vote based on the demographics of the city that you represent, which means taking all of this into account. We have seen COVID-19 ravage our city and our community at a disproportionate rate.

We have one of the highest cases, case numbers of COVID because of this. not just in the state, not just in the county, but also in the state. These things don't happen in a vacuum, but they are a direct result of struck

inequities and many, many years of neglect.

Neglect from city officials, from governments, from the lack of policy implementation. And so I ask you that you act now to prevent these impacts to be greater in the future.

In the absence of your willingness to pass the rent control law yourself, we ask that at minimum you grant us the 130 days that we lost through the pandemic. And as many people mentioned before, you also have the ability and the moral imperative to put this on the ballot yourself, to protect ballot circulators. Thank you for your call. Your time is up. It's one of your rental cities that we live in. Thank you. Thank you.

Caller with the last three numbers, 054, please dial star six to speak. Then you may proceed with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers 054 please dial star six to speak then you may proceed with your comment.

Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números, 054, por favor marque estrella 6 para reactivar su llamada.

Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números, 054, por favor marque asterisco 6 para reactivar su llamada.

Caller with the last three numbers, 451. Please dial star six to speak, then proceed with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers, 451.

caller with the last three numbers 451 please dial star six to speak then proceed with your comment

hi can you hear me yes we can hear you now

hi good evening mayor and council members this is you foodie i am a santana resident today i've I call to remind you of the strong opposition to the proposed amendments to the housing opportunity ordinance. This is item 11C. Last city council meeting, you received nearly 150 letters of opposition from both organizations and Santana residents. And today you receive more. At the second meeting, you are being given the opportunity to change course. You're being given the opportunity to right your wrongs, to vote against the ill-advised recommendations to lower them with you to $5. This is a number that seems to have appeared

out of thin air because no staff report has explained the logic to this number all we've heard is mercury developers asked for this amount and a few council members say that it's the right number and today you're hearing developers calling me to thank you you're also hearing residents practically begging you to put rent control on the ballot so i ask that you please think think very carefully about what you're doing think about what you'll be doing if you move forward with the the proposed amendments to the Houding Opportunity Ordinance and if you fail to program control on the ballot. Today you have the chance to send a message

on who you're standing with. Are you standing with market rate developers that are coming into our community to merely take a profit? Or are you going to stand by Santana residents that are in desperate need of you to do your job? And I also want to remind you all, specifically Council Member Peñalosa, I believe Council Member Folorio and the Mayor, a few meetings back and you were considering what measures to put on the ballot you all spoke so highly of the need for community engagement you spoke you spoke so highly of the need to hear directly from community members and complaining that there were only a handful

that had participated that had participated in the survey so today you've heard from already many many residents you've heard from residents since the pandemic has started and before that since 2017 asking you to take action to alleviate our housing crisis. So now you have that. You know exactly what you need to do. Don't ask who to do it. And be reminded that everybody is watching, especially those of you that will be running for re-election or that are pursuing a higher office. So I ask you to do what is right. I ask you to not vote on 11C as it is. You don't have to approve this today when you know it.

And to also put rent control on the ballot. Let the voters decide. 15 seconds left. And support putting rent control on the ballot just as you were supporting the residents that were opposing 2525 North Main. Show that you stand with all residents and not just those that live north of 17th Street. Thank you. Have a good night. Thank you. Thank you.

Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números, 054, por favor marque estrella 6 para reactivar su llamada.

Persona en el teléfono con los tres últimos números. 054. Por favor marque asterisco 6 para reactivar su llamada.

Persona con los tres últimos números 054 marque estrella 6 para hablar.

Persona con los tres últimos números 054. Marque estrella 6 para hablar.

Thank you.

Los tres últimos números 054.

Por favor marque estrella 6 para reactivar su número, su llamada.

Caller with the last three numbers, 010, please dial star 6 to speak, then you may proceed

with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers 010, please dial star 6 to speak.

Then you may proceed with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers, 489, please dial star six to speak, then proceed with your comment.

Hello, this is Carl Benninger, and I'm on the Connect the Council and Comlink, as well as E-Tech Committee. What I'd like to do is let everyone know that on September 10th, there's going to be a candidates forum online. Details you can get on the Connector Council website. It'll be both on Facebook and YouTube. And because we have so many candidates running for the ward and for mayor, we're going to have a second candidates forum on September 17th for all the mayor candidates. What a wonderful way to end up learning something about the candidates that are running for office in Santa Ana. And I encourage everybody to get out to vote.

Second of all, I want to speak in favor of a prohibition on 85D for needles. Those of us who lived through what it was like beforehand know about needles all over the place, exposed to children, children were exposed to them, and what have you. And we don't resolve the situation by encouraging the drug users to keep using drugs on it. You know, I feel very strong for Catholic charities. I am Catholic. I give money to them in the spring, and I go along with them. But Jesus told us to be kind to each other, to be tolerant of each other, to learn from each other, and to forgive each other. But he didn't tell us to be stupid.

And if we were to allow needles again in the city as we have before, that's all we would be stupid because we'd be exposing good-eyed citizens to the possibility of getting stuck as well as all that trash that is around there. I truly believe that people who are addicted need help to get off, not to be encouraged to continue it. Thank you.

Thank you, caller. with the last three numbers 489 my apologies four five six please dial star six to speak and you may proceed with your comment hello are you

able to hear me yes we're able to hear you all right perfect so I would like to speak on item 11c uh to the city council to vote against um that um i don't think that we should be giving the go to these corporations to you know gentrify the city even more so than it has been on item 20b i am against um against that item as well vote no on that on 85a as well, it's a no for me. I think we should be putting that money

towards actual rehabilitation instead of, instead of,

instead of putting authorizing the felony sentences for certain offenses and all of that. I really don't think it's the best practice for us. And then in terms of 85B, I think we do need rent control, honestly. And the fact that these people have to ask for an extension due to COVID, I think it makes sense. It really does. And I think the city council knows more than ever that we have a lot of Latino residents as well. They are specifically renters. And a lot of them are barely able to pay this rent. And the fact of the matter is, if we don't put rent control, you're going to lose a lot of these constituents

that will not only use to, will be voting for you, but as well will not be continued. We'll be moving to other places and it's already happening. A lot of Latino residents are moving out of here and I don't think that's acceptable, especially since Santa Ana is such a thriving city with the Latino culture. And as well, if we were to put rent control, the parents of the city will be able to put their money towards educational purposes for the kids

you know I've been hearing a lot that a lot of students especially in the SAUSD district or in the school district have been having trouble uh uh gaining access to internet and you know if parents didn't have to worry as much about paying so much rent um they'd actually be able to afford wi-fi for for our students so i just want to say stop the gentrification i think the city council has the power to do this and as well put a ballot on there for the people to

choose in november at a later time i really do think we need rent control and i just want a reminder for all of you uh city council members whether you're paying attention or not um we are watching you 15 seconds for all these things that you guys are voting for against we are running them down we are paying attention so know what to do that's right and don't don't go against your constituents these are the people that you're representing you work for the people and not for corporations or a small number of people okay thank you so much have a great night thank you

Okay, Rosa, ya puedes…

We need to recaudar the firmas and we need to...

but I'm sure what we would have done if we were able to do it if it had been for this pandemic. This is the second time we have to recaudar firmas, because the Council decided not to approve a control of rentas for the city. And I would like to please, if there were a control of rentas, because the fact that we are paying for... A cada seis meses nos están aumentando la renta y no es justo que vivamos tres, cuatro personas en un apartamento de dos recámaras, de una recámara y vivamos todos amontonados. Parecemos peor que alberto. Por eso no es justo.

Para mí no es justo que hubiera un control de renta y que aprobaran por favor por la 85B. Porque también hay personas que nada más trabajamos para la pura renta. and sometimes we don't have to buy things extra to the children. One of those, we pay rent or we pay, or we pay, or we pay, or even even without eating. Sometimes we have to say something to the children, and we have to say that there is no money. Why? Because we pay rent. And to me that's a lot of pain, because I'm not the only one. There are several families that have passed by this, and more with this pandemic, it's really fun to see life.

good evening council members mayor my name is Rosa Ramirez and I'm a San Ana resident I'm here in support of 85 B I was one of the people who went out and gathered signatures with Latino health access and Tusa and it's we're here to ask you for this we we would have gathered the signatures if it were not for the pandemic this is the second time we are doing this because the City Council did not put a rent control measure and the ballot the last time I would like to have a rent control because we are paying more and more rent every

six months where they're increasing our rents it's not fair that two or three people are living in a one or two bedroom apartment we're all piled up and it's not fair that this is happening we need rent control so we're asking you to approve 85B people are working just to pay the rent we can't pay for things for our kids we have to decide between paying rent or eating our kids may want something and we have to tell them we can't buy it for them because there we have to pay the rent so many families are in this bad situation and we need

rent control thank you caller with the last three numbers five two three please dial star six to speak then you may proceed with your comment caller with the last you may proceed to speak okay I can hear me yes we can hear you now

Okay, thank you. Hello. Sorry. This is a Manny Escamilla. I'm just calling in on two items. So thank you, Mayor and Council for taking the time to do all this. So I guess, yeah, just to start off, I did want to reiterate my opposition to the WHO amendments. I believe that's item 11C. You know, I wrote a little op-ed with my fellow Santa Ana residents at pina garcia just kind of outlining the reasons we believe that the decision you are making today is both bad policy and bad politics um yeah the way that we look at it is you know any kind of housing or development that needs to be done in the city is going to require uh political

buy-in for more than one constituency group and right now it seems to all kind of be swinging in the the direction of market rate development which again you know maybe for your own uh calculations seems to be the right thing to do. But I think what we're doing here is actually building up opposition to all developments in the city. So I know that there are gonna be some folks that will basically see all new development as really being more on the side of displacement rather than the side of housing production. I think we can have a reasonable argument over, you know, the metrics that as to whether or not

it helps out in kind of lowering rent. I think that's a reasonable debate to have in urban planning. But what we really are seeing, though, is that you're not even taking into account the hundreds of people that have vocally opposed these changes. So I'd just like you to take that into consideration. And along the same route, you know, really looking to extend the opportunity to have rent control here in the city.

I know in each of our kind of political biographies, we talk about being good Democrats, about how our family members or, let's see, political legacies that were there with the farm workers and, you know, if Cesar Chavez were here today, we would all kind of rally around him. But, you know, Dolores Huerta is in support of rent control. If Cesar Chavez was alive today, he would be as well. I think he would be here marching with the people that are calling in. and it's something to take into consideration as to what constituencies we prioritize when we make public policy.

So I just wanted to leave you with that and I hope that you do reconsider the position on 11C and on 85, sorry, I forget which 85 item it is, but on the rent control measure as well. Thank you and good night.

Thank you. caller with the last three numbers 489 please dial star six to speak then proceed with your comment caller with the last three numbers 489 please dial

star six to speak then proceed with your comment I have spoken already thank you

Oh, thank you.

Mayor, that was the last caller. We have no other callers.

All right. So with that, I thank you, Madam Clerk. And now I want to direct our attention. I believe we're now going to go on to the consent calendar. Are there any items that council members want to pull or abstain on?

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor, this is Council Member Penaloza. I'd like to pull item 22A.

All right, Council Member Penaloza. Council Member Becerra, I think I heard you speaking as well.

Yes, thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd like to go ahead and pull item 11D.

Thank you for that. Any other items?

Yes, Mr. Mayor?

Yes.

Yes, I'd like to...

Go ahead.

Thank you. If you could pull item 11A, and I am going to be a no on 11C.

Okay. Any other items? If not, I would entertain a motion on the balance.

Move the balance, Mr. Mayor. This is Jose Soria. Diego, second.

Our roll call vote on the balance, please, Madam Clerk.

Council Member Becerra.

Yes.

Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa?

Yes.

Council Member Sarmiento?

Yes.

Council Member Solorio?

Yes.

Mayor Potembe-Viegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

Motion carries 7-0.

So what is the first item that was pulled, Madam Clerk?

11A by Council Member Sarmiento.

Please go ahead, Council Member.

Yes, thank you. If I could have the Madam City Attorney come on in. I just had some questions on this.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yes, I'm here. Ready?

Yes, can you hear me?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yes.

So a question on just a couple of things, section 2-327. I know there's some changes there that were made. I just wanted to make sure that these were changes that were already reflected in the charter. And are these basically just going to be now codified in the municipal code?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yes. So what this agenda item is, it's a follow-up from a previous charter amendment. All that we did is...

Sonia, I can barely hear you. I'm not sure if anybody else can hear you, but I must have a bad signal.

No, no, it's not audible. If you can speak up, Sonia, or do something, you're not audible.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Okay, yes, I'll be right.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Council Member, is that better? Council Member? Much better. Okay. So, yes, this item is simply a cleanup from a previous charter amendment. where the City Council proposed to the voters removing language from the charter and placing it into your municipal code. All the language that you see underlined in your draft ordinance is language that came directly from the charter. There are sections of this ordinance that apply to certain departments where they may have added provisions to their various commissions for efficiency purposes or for greater transparency.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

But all of the other language is lifted directly from your former charter.

Got it. So just for clarity here, the city council can direct any personnel matters directly to the board without the consent or approval of the HR director or the city manager, is that correct?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Well, the proposed charter language does allow, The proposed municipal code language does allow the city council to send matters directly to the personnel board, but you would still be subject to the other civil service rules, a memorandum of understanding that you have with your bargaining units, and any of the powers of your city manager that are set forth in your municipal code. So, yes, you can do that, but we'd also need to make sure that whatever you directed to them was in compliance with all of those other regulations.

Well, understood. And then that's sort of outside just of our municipal coded state law as well. So the other question I had was on the criteria for who is on the personnel board. I saw some criteria that was pretty specific to folks who don't have government experience. What's the spirit or intent behind that?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I think I would let staff speak to that in particular, but just a reminder to the City Council. You may recall that several years ago we did have issues with discipline that was recommended from the departments at a professional level and supported by the City Manager. And we did have several of our actions overturned by the Personnel Board. It was in relation to some high-profile cases, and the Council was very concerned that those disciplinary matters had been overturned. We, at the time, had a couple of personnel board members who did not have personnel backgrounds

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

and maybe a clear understanding of what they were actually being asked to do.

Got it. Yeah, I agree, and I do recall those matters. But now I think we also have special counsel that staff the personnel board, correct?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

We do. The personnel board, under the rules, the secretary or the staff, human resources department manages that, and then they do have special legal counsel.

Great. Thanks. Now, my other question is on Section 2-642. There's some language when it comes to emergency services that I believe includes some,

I guess some definitions of what's considered a disaster or, you know, a condition of emergency. And it says other than conditions resulting from a labor controversy. So can you tell me why that language is in there in both the section for emergency or local emergency and state of emergency?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

I can probably, we probably took that language directly from the state of California's Office of Emergency Services. and their state statutes. We would not have added any definitions in there that were not consistent with state law.

Got it. And I know that we've exercised, you know, the Director of Emergency Services, who we designated as the City Manager, and she's had to, you know, issue emergency orders, especially given some of these exigent circumstances as a result of the pandemic. And so that's been, I think, helpful when she's had to move quickly. But I just noted some language in section 2-644, subsection 2, that says that the director basically defined the powers and duties of the director of emergency services.

They can, you know, issue these proclamations and these orders if the city council is not in session.

versus, you know, and maybe the language is preferable to say, if the council is unable to be convened. I think, you know, council is not in session often, or, you know, we only meet, you know, once every two weeks, we can meet on a special basis or when we decide to convene. But is maybe, is there a better use of language, Madam City Attorney, that you would suggest? or is this something that was discussed when the amendments were being dragged?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

No, I believe, again, that language comes directly from the state emergency statutes. However, I understand your issue that you would want to make sure that the city manager or the director's authority only comes into play if the city council is unable to meet. And we can make that change.

Great. With that, I'm supportive, and I'll go ahead and move the item. Second.

Any other comments? Is there a second? Second by Solorio.

Council Member Solorio seconded.

All right. If there's no more comment, then roll call vote, please.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Council Member Peñalosa?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Councilmember Sarmiento?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Councilmember Solorio?

Yes.

Mayor Potem-Viegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

Motion carries 7-0.

Next item, Madam Clerk.

11-D, pulled by Councilmember Becerra.

Councilmember Becerra, please go ahead, sir.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Under the parliamentary procedures that our council has adopted by resolution, I would like the opportunity to reconsider the vote that I took at the previous city council meeting regarding the overriding of the Orange County Airport Land Use Commission's determination of inconsistency for the project before us that required five votes, of which I was one of those five votes. Based upon my request, I understand that this item will be brought back to our September 15th council meeting in two weeks.

Thank you for that. Any comment, Madam City Attorney, what do you think is correct?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Under your rules of parliamentary procedure, any one of you who votes in the affirmative may ask for a reconsideration. With that, we'd be required, because of the rules of the Brown Act, to put it on your agenda in two weeks.

Okay, so this is something we don't vote on. We simply, based on the request, adhere to the request in essence and bring back the entire package in two weeks. Am I understanding that correctly?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yes, that would be the process, and in two weeks you could actually vote on the motion to reconsider and then take action if that motion passes.

All right, so be it then.

Mayor Pulido, I have a question. It's Council Member Mendoza.

Sure, go ahead, Council Member.

Yes, my concern for that project was the identification for the City of Santa Ana, and I wanted to be sure that the city attorney has gone over that and that there is no liability to the city of Santa Ana on this project. Can you speak to that, Madam City Attorney?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yes. In the packet this week, and it would be continued for two weeks if you move forward with this request for reconsideration, there is an indemnification agreement with the actual applicant, the name of the applicant, Aramis Investments. And they have, in addition to the condition of approval that requires an navigation easement, they have provided the city a full indemnification agreement, which will be recorded against the property.

So since we have that already, do we need to continue it, or can we hear the matter now and take a vote?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

And because there is a request for reconsideration, that automatically trumps and it moves this item to the agenda in two weeks.

So we're just voting on a continuance and not on the project.

We're not actually voting. We're not voting.

I see it.

When there's a request like what was made by Councilor Becerra, it automatically occurs. It's not a vote by the council. He has the right to request for reconsideration and that's what he's done.

I see. Thank you for the clarification, Mayor.

No worries, no worries. All right, so with that, what's the next item, Madam?

Mr. Mayor, I have a question on that.

Okay, go ahead, Councilman Sarmiento.

Thank you. Madam City Attorney, so I'm just kind of curious, I guess you are using Robert's rules of order here. By making a request for reconsideration, it has to be done at the meeting immediately following the vote that was taken. So it's being done at the proper time by somebody in the majority. Why wouldn't we take up that matter for a vote at this hearing presently?

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Because it was not agendized under the Brown Act. So members of the public would not have had an opportunity to know you were doing that one way potentially to do this. as we've done it in the past, is your options have been one of the following. A council member can make the request for reconsideration at the council meeting, as is done today. Sometimes a council member can make that request under 85A. If it's made as an 85 item, then that is posted on the agenda, and they can actually take a vote on the motion to reconsider. But in this case, the question is being raised here in public for the first time,

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

and so you cannot vote on that until it's agendized in two weeks.

so what is the status of the item as it stands now so right now it's in limbo between first reading and second reading with a potential motion for for a matter to be reconsidered at the following meeting correct let's just assume that mo that motion fails what can be taken up at the following meeting are we back to first reading or are we do we uh do we agendize a second reading

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

at that point. So you would just, you would agendize the motion for reconsideration, and you would also include this item as the second reading. If that motion is successful and the item is affirmed as it was two weeks ago, then you would simply conduct your second reading and move forward. If the motion for consideration turns out to overturn any of those decisions, then the second reading wouldn't be necessary. It would become moot.

Okay, so you lost me a little bit. The only thing I'm going to suggest is that as the matter for reconsideration, as agendized for consideration at the next meeting, I would as well put the second reading as an alternative in the event that the motion to reconsider fails. We can simply go ahead and go back to where we are today at the following meeting and not have to waste time to have to re-agendize a second reading at that point. That is correct, what you just stated.

That is correct. Isn't that automatically what you already said, Madam City Attorney? Yes. I understood you earlier. Say that.

Sonia R. CarvalhoItem —

Yes, so that's what will happen. It will be the motion for reconsideration, and this item will appear exactly as it appears today.

I just want to make sure, Mr. Mayor, that this is explicit and expressed, and we don't have another matter that's going to hold matters in abeyance. I don't understand this, but look, I just want to make sure we expressly notice things. That way we don't have an excuse to say, oh, we forgot to notice something and we have to go back and waste more time.

And I've been assured that that would be the case. So with that, let's go on to the next item. Madam Clerk, what would that be?

22A, pulled by Council Member Peñalosa.

Council Member Peñalosa, please.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. 22A is to award a purchase order in the amount of $169,000 to Matthews Specialty Vehicles, Inc. for a Ford Transit van to be used as a bookmobile for the Santa Ana Library. I just wanted to pull it to recognize Brian, our library director, and Public Works, because I know they also had a lot to do with securing this. and you know this is exciting we're officially buying the bookmobile which is you know it i'm so happy to that it's coming back i you know remember going to the bookmobile when it come to washington

David PenalozaItem —

elementary when i was elementary on fridays and just walking into that bookmobile and the smell of the books was like it was a weird exciting thing to walk into and and I'm a nerd and so I'm excited that this is coming back with some upgraded technology experiences for kids as well and I just had again thank you library director and city manager and everyone involved for bringing this forward I just had one question with with this with the choice of vehicles just of

David PenalozaItem —

course I immediately went to Google Images when I saw the staff report and was looking at at the that the transit van you know online to see what what it looks like and to get a general idea and to me personally just looked a little small is this some mr. library directors is something that where you're gonna be able to walk inside is it i just couldn't understand the size dimensions of the van inside how much are we going to be able to use use it for can you talk to that please absolutely thank

you uh council member good evening mr mayor members of city council um yes uh so this particular vehicle is really meant to house books and technology and what happens is and is and this is how many public libraries are doing bookmobiles now especially in urban areas and suburban areas is that the services actually happen out front of the bookmobile so this bookmobile will have a motorized canopy that comes out LED lighting around the vehicle it will have a speaker system to to make announcements play movies we can bring TVs out for programming gaming whatever

we might want to do but the great thing is is that it has room for tables chairs inside that will come out so a lot of the programming happens out front of the vehicle with all the power computers technology whatever we might want to do robotics virtual reality 3d printers stuff like that so it's really all out in front there's plenty of power there the vehicle will have a generator there and just meant to serve the public where they are there is room to come on but we do pack it with books and technology and everything's on rolling carts and it just comes right out of the vehicle it'll have a technology cart it'll have

book carts for collection to come out labeled for kids teens focusing definitely

David PenalozaItem —

on youth but people of all ages as well so that's super cool to hear so it would be like we i know we discussed a couple months ago when i when i uh we had that meeting so it would be most of the programming would take place outside of the van but it would be uh the book the various different bookcases and technology that would be brought out by whoever is is uh would it be a one one person uh operated van it's it's two it's uh two people it's a driver and a

passenger which would be library staff we also have the capability if we need to bring out lots of extra supplies we're going on we're going to do a big program or event we have the ability to follow with a van or something like that to bring to bring additional you know material supplies etc I would add even if you do get a large bus there's still not very much room even on those large buses right there's even if you have a 40-foot bus that requires a commercial driver's license there's typically a small path up and down that vehicle so there's still not much room for kids

to do or to participate in programming on those vehicles so having the smaller vehicle allows us to kind of navigate around get into smaller spaces and still do all the great programming that a 50

David PenalozaItem —

foot large vehicle would would be able to do and and i think now even given uh covid covid 19 where we don't want to be in enclosed spaces i mean that's right that's that's proper and and it's good that we have that ability to operate outdoors uh which is exciting i'm looking forward to it um what is the timeline after you know approval for this i doubt that we won't approve it um but uh what are we looking at in regards to uh we will immediately start reaching out to the vendor

and working on the vehicle a part of what I've done prior to this is solicit community input and feedback I had a survey it's still up on the website for anybody who wants to take it for what they would like to see in their book mobile the entire community took it a lot of people from the community took the survey got a lot of great responses and what we heard overwhelmingly is youth and kids and teens was the demographic that people really had an interested in serving in this community. So it's really exciting. We're going to get started right away, and depending upon timeline with the vendor and making the vehicle,

the good thing is that Matthew Specialty Vehicles specializes, and they have done bookmobiles for lots of public libraries around the USA. I believe they've done one for Queens Public Library in New York City and just a lot of other jurisdictions. So they are a seasoned vendor. We're glad we got them as a part of our process. And it's going to be a great service for the community. So we'll get started immediately.

David PenalozaItem —

That's great to hear. Thank you so much. If there's room somewhere out of cannabis funds, I mean, I'd be all in support to buy two. I mean, just rip the band. Let's just get it done. But, you know, put that out in the universe, you know, and get that ball rolling with the city manager. So with that, I'll make a motion to approve.

I'll second that. Thank you, Brian.

All right. Any more comments, Council Member?

Yeah, Mr. Mayor, just a brief one, just to follow up on Council Member Pinalo's last comment. This city is definitely big enough for more than one of these bookmobiles, but I do get that it's kind of a pilot program, if you will. But maybe as they're starting to build it and you're starting to create your program, then maybe we could figure out do we want an order a second, third, or fourth or variation of it. But there's a lot of excitement and interest and there's still Wi-Fi needs and just knowledge needs. I think this is a big hit.

Depending on the source of funding, I'm hoping maybe there might even be a little bit of Measure X in there so we could say funded by Measure X or funded by the youth fund or whatever it might be because on some things, particularly Measure X, we want to get people excited about what Measure X is funding so that in the future people can give credit to the right place with Measure X being the voters themselves. Thank you.

Additional comments?

If not, I ask for a roll call vote.

Council Member Becerra?

Yes.

Council Member Mendoza? Yes. Councilmember Peñalosa?

Yes.

Councilmember Sarmiento?

Yes.

Councilmember Solorio?

Yes.

Mayor Potem-Viegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

Motion carries 7-0.

Next item, Madam Clerk.

Public hearing item 75A, and currently we do not have, well we may have a public speaker just so you're aware okay let me go ahead and

open up the public hearing I open up the public hearing item 75a and I want to ask city manager if there's any staff presentation on this item Mary do you

have a brief presentation if you so desire and the applicant is also on the

phone why don't you go ahead so folks at home know what we're talking about go ahead and do a brief presentation please okay planning director Min Tai will

give the presentation

good evening mayor and members of the city council this is a request for approval of environmental review 2017 161 general plan amendment and tenant track map for the property located 122 north beaulie avenue the request is for approval of a 10 unit condominium pud project the property is located at the west side of bule between washington and 11th street the existing land use designation is low density residential it is being proposed to be changed to medium residential density residential for not only this lot but also the adjacent

property along the block on buley between Washington and 11th Street it is also surrounded by other multifamily residential development to the north east and south and commercial uses to the west the lot is just shy of one acre at point eight seven acres currently it is vacant it was formerly used as a single-family residence which was removed back in 2017 the as I mentioned the project is to construct a 10-unit residential condominium complex consisting of duplexes and triplexes this form of subdivision will allow for

homeownership the unit size is approximately 16 to 19 square feet with bread room ranges from two to four bedrooms the project complies with zoning requirements as relates to parking common open space and also being provided is private open space this is a copy of the site plan to the left is the commercial area to the right is Buley Street and north is to the top and south is on the bottom this is illustration of the open space area the project does have about approximately 2,500 square feet of a common open space.

This is an elevation of the project. This project is being designed in a craftsman bungalow style which uses natural materials such as stone, wood details with stucco, there's slate tile roof and the development is designed to look as contemporary craftsman architecture style now the elevation of the project the general plan amendment as I mentioned existing it is low-density residential RLR 7 as you can see on the map while the density of the general plan designation is LR 7 the zoning for

the area is actually R 2 so therefore the entire block including this project as you can see on the right there as proposed is being changed proposed to be changed to medium density which will make the general plan and the zoning consistent with one another and therefore would allow for development to occur

this is a summary of the general plan amendment as I mentioned it will allow for the general plan and zoning to be consistent with one another in addition to that this will allow for creation of a buffer zone between the commercial corridor which is harbor and the interior residential area other properties around the area including this block is developed with multi-family that are also in the medium density r2 range and therefore the proposed change the land use is consistent in terms of both the general

plan and the existing development pattern of the area this is a copy of the tenant track map again this is a common lot subdivision to where you have 10 condominium lots and which ranges from 1500 to 2200 square feet and a common nature slot which contain all the common yards parking as well as open spaces approximately 18 000 square feet this will require the recording of ccnr and also to incorporate a homeowners association the project was designed to comply with the city development requirements including parkings it has a central common open

space area the allowable density range and the design is meeting the intent of the medium density mr15 and the project is as I mentioned economy and project which will allow for subdivision and individual homeownership in the area a mitigated neck deck was processed for this application it was circulated for 30 days public review in May of this year the mitigation measures that are involved with this project are all related to the construction there is no operational impact and the construction mitigations of quite common for new

development projects due to noise soil cultural resources and biological resources and all of these will be addressed during the construction process again when the project is complete and operational there's not a requirement for mitigation planning Commission recommended approval of the project with a caveat that the developer go back out and reach out to the neighborhood this project was initially reach out to the community back in actually 2018 in March and you know the concern from the neighborhood was that

there weren't any additional outreach since then and that the project was updated through the Planning Commission process initially was a submitted for 12 units the developer after meeting with the Planning Commission study work study session reduce it to 10 so the Planning Commission directed for the applicant to conduction additional outreach to the areas two meetings will health one on july 28th and one on august 25th being that we're still in covid the meeting was done over zoom it was sent to all property owners within 500 feet of the area during the meeting and

i think the first meeting two two people attended the meeting and the second meeting of four people attended the meeting with no objection to the projects the recommendation here for you tonight is to confirm the Planning Commission's recommendation by adopting a resolution approving the mitigated neck deck adopt a resolution for the general plan amendment and adopt a resolution approving the tenant track map that concludes staff's report they have to ask any questions

thank you man if this was a brief report what's the long one like I'm kidding you have to answer that don't have to answer that um council members any questions

if not uh madam clerk do we have any speakers mayor we will um go ahead and try to unmute each caller to see if they want to speak on this item

caller with the last three numbers i know the applicants there if we have any questions we'll call on the applicant. If not, we may not need to bring them forward. But go ahead, Madam Clerk.

Caller with the last three numbers, 068. If you would like to speak on public hearing item 75A, please dial star 6 to speak. And you may proceed with your comment.

Caller with the last three numbers, 068, please dial star 6 if you would like to speak on item 75A, public hearing item.

Last three numbers, 292.

Mayor, that's all the numbers we have. We just only have the consultant and the applicant.

All right, no worries. I, um, ma'am, clerk, do you have any written communications on this?

Yes, we do.

No, my apologies, mayor. We did not receive any written communications on this item.

All right. So with that, I'll close the public hearing and bring it to council. Is there a motion for approval? Move the item, Mr. Mayor.

Mayor this is council member Becerra. Second. Yes go ahead please. Thank you Mr. Mayor I think this is a great infill project and I'd be happy to make a motion to adopt the resolution adopting the MND approving the general plan amendment and approving the 10 to

track map as condition. Thank you for that motion is there a second? Second.

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor this is Council Member Penelosa I just have a quick comment also just very happy to see this type of project you know come into a place that's been had a vacant lot for a long time and happy to see a nice development that's going to provide ownership to to Santa Ana residents and the ability to buy just wanted to see if maybe they could buy the vacant lot across the street and build another 10 there too

um but that could be your next motion that'll be the next motion it's a good pitch good pitch no

David PenalozaItem —

that's it just just uh happy to see this roll call vote please roll call vote madam clerk

council member becerra yes council member mendoza

yes council member peñalosa yes council member sarmiento

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Councilmember Solorio?

Yes.

Mayor Potem-Viegas?

Yes.

Mayor Pulido?

Yes.

Motion carries 7-0.

Next item, Madam Clerk.

Item 85A from Councilmembers Becerra and Peñalosa, supporting. I brought the item.

All right, let me turn it over to Councilmember Becerra and Peñalosa, please.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I wanted to begin my comments tonight by thanking our District Attorney Todd Spitzer for taking the time to call into our council meeting and provide a great summary of Proposition 20, which will appear on the November ballot. As Mr. Spitzer described during his comments, this proposition is comprised of various criminal justice reforms that include expanding the list of violent crimes for which early release is not an option, such as the rape of an unconscious person, assault of a peace officer, and trafficking a child for sex, requiring an inmate's entire criminal history to be considered when deciding parole

and not just their most recent offense. Basing parole solely on an offender's single offense has resulted in the release of inmates with violent criminal histories onto our city streets, also allowing for the collection of DNA for certain crimes that were reduced to misdemeanors as part of Proposition 47. And multiple studies have shown that the collection of DNA from theft and drug crimes have helped solve other violent crimes, including robbery, rape, and murder. And finally, addressing the significant increase of serial theft that we have seen since the passage of Prop 47 back in 2014.

Prop 20 will allow a person who is caught stealing items with a value of $250 or more for the third time to be charged with a felony. businesses in our city have suffered millions of dollars in losses since prop 47 passed because property seven currently prevents uh thefts of items with a value of under nine hundred and fifty dollars to be eligible for being charged as a felony prop 47 removed a judge's ability to impose court-ordered drug rehabilitation programs to help those serial offenders to turn their lives around Prop 20 will once again empower judges to impose court-ordered drug rehabilitation program.

This proposition will not put more people in prison, as some might have said, but rather Prop 20 ensures that violent criminals are not released early. Prop 20 will actually go a long way to help making Santa Ana and California safe. So with that, I would like to ask my colleagues to join the bipartisan coalition from across our state that is supporting prop 20 and let's have our staff prepare a resolution on behalf of our city council to formally endorse proposition 20. thank you uh thanks for that council member

peña losa i know you co uh yeah what's the bit would you want to make comment yeah absolutely

David PenalozaItem —

thank you mr mayor and thank you uh to my colleague councilmember becerra for joining me on this effort and as well as uh our district attorney todd spitzer for for taking the time to phone in in support. I was interested in bringing this forward because this is a ballot initiative that would amend several criminal sentencing and supervision laws that were passed between 2011 and 2016. I won't mention the detail, as my colleague covered that pretty well, but this is important. Every morning I wake up daily to dozens of messages, Facebook tags,

David PenalozaItem —

and emails from our constituents asking you know why isn't the Santa police doing anything why isn't the police doing anything why isn't that you know when when these crimes are reported and a lot of the times it's like you know the the our police department has really had our their hands tied when it comes to legislation that comes down from the state and this is prop 47 prop 57 AB 109 has really made it hard for law enforcement agencies across the state to, you know, enforce laws

David PenalozaItem —

and keep, you know, people off the streets that would go and steal your cars or whatnot and other grant theft. So this is important for us. I think it's important for us to take a position and endorse this bill, Proposition 20. so I'm happy to also support it and I would ask that my colleagues join us and you know for the safety of our residents moving down you know into the future this is great for for us to consider thank you for that any other

comments council members yes mr. mayor this is the City Council member Jose Soloria I'm too very much in support of this I've been watching a lot of the public safety measures over the past you know 15 years or so and there were some errors made i think in some of those past things that both through legislative action as well as through through the ballot box and this will fix them in a very sensible way so i'm very supportive and involved with the statewide effort and local efforts in supporting this measure and in addition to doing a resolution, because I do think that this measure is very important to not

just California, but San Diego as well. I'd like to see if maybe our public information officer could do a press release showing the council support. If there is a majority will there, because it's important to keeping California safe. That's what it's called, the Keeping California Safe Initiative, but it will also help keep San Diego safe. so it is very important and I think on the whole violent crimes haven't been going up but a lot of property crimes and this would help with with that as well so thank you very much mr. mayor and council members Pina Losa and

Becerra for bringing this forward as well thanks thank you additional comments

council members this is council member Mendoza go ahead please yes I am very much in support of this issue I know that the ballot initiative would amend several criminal sentencing and supervision laws that were that were passed between 2011 and 2016 and when our assembly voted on this I don't think that they imagined the consequences of such a law so I am glad we're taking

I'm supporting the proposition that will rectify that wrong. And I will be voting in favor of this.

Thank you for that. Other comments?

Mr. Mayor, this is Member Tembe-Yegas. Go ahead. Just want to thank the two gentlemen for bringing this forward. I think it's very important that we support this, and I personally am happy to support this, as public safety is such a very important thing for people in our city because the city is very, very active. And again, thank you to both of them.

Additional comment? If not, I'll ask the clerk to call the roll call, please.

Mayor, this isn't a voting item. Yeah, it's not a voting item.

Oh, yeah, that's right. That's right. So obviously you got good direction from the council for staff.

So next item, Madam Clerk.

85B, this is from Council Member Sarmiento.

Please go ahead, Council Member Sarmiento.

Yes, thank you. This is a matter that many of our residents spoke on both at this meeting and prior and have sent written correspondence and support as well.

You know, I know a lot of the speakers discuss the merits of the initiative, which was rent control. But I think for many who may not be supportive on this council for that, I'm asking that everybody kind of just take a step back and look at what's been done. And so if my math is correct, I think in 2018, close to 9,300 signatures have been gathered. And at the beginning of 2020, before the pandemic hit, close to 3,000 signatures were gathered. That to me, if my math is correct,

were somewhere in the neighborhood between 11 and 12,000. You know, I know that the threshold for something to make it on the ballot is approximately 10,000 signatures. So I know that in 2018, it was very close to being placed on the ballot, except that the signature threshold was missed by about 500 or 600 signatures. really for me, this speaks to, and I'm getting a madam clerk, I'm getting an echo here. Is there something wrong with the signal?

Or can you hear me okay?

I think people should mute except for yourself. Please continue.

I agree. Thanks. No, I think that the echo is gone now. So thank you for that, Mr. Mayor. For me, you know, one of the lessons learned during the whole discussion on 2525 North Main when signatures were gathered, there were challenges and there was discussion and eventually a reconsideration of the underlying merits of that item. What it did show me was that when there were as many residents and we're talking, you know, in excess of 10,000 residents, regardless of what the merits are, people in our city feel strongly enough about a subject matter item that they went out of their way to gather signatures, walk neighborhoods,

compel people and describe to people what the issue item was and convince them to vote based upon those arguments. So to me, our job is to listen to residents and when they reduce those comments and when they reduce those opinions to writing and sign their name to it and affix their name to a formal initiative and petition, that is the most sacred democratic act. There is no more important sign of patriotism than going out and feeling strongly enough about an issue to go and try to convince your neighbors and fellow voters to support this.

So to me, this is something that let's just step back from where we are. And whether you disagree with the underlying subject matter or not, this is obviously, this is obviously significant enough to so many of our residents and voters in the city that it should be placed on the ballot for consideration of all of us and all the voters in the city. So my comment and my request of my colleagues is that we give direction to our staff to bring back an item for us to consider to either extend the time to allow for additional signatures to be

gathered because but for this pandemic I think that the signatures were the signature gatherers were well on their way once again to to satisfy even more signatures on that petition so that would be one and also in the alternative to consider allowing this city council to place it on the ballot if that's still feasible and that if that's still possible based upon the deadlines and the timelines available. But that would be something for us to consider at the very least at the following council meeting. That is my request. I think that others who spoke, I want to thank people who've not only taken the time

to speak, but also to again, send public comments in writing and correspondence. This is again, something that we should almost remove ourselves and not look at the underlying merits and realize that there are so many of our neighbors that feel strongly about this, that we should give them their opportunity to present this to the voters and not let us decide, but let the voters decide on this issue. So with that, those are my comments. Thank you.

Other comments from council members?

This is council member Mendoza.

Yes, please go ahead.

Yes, as we heard earlier, the callers, they are asking us not to be favorable towards one particular group. And when we vote, to vote carefully and take into consideration the benefit to the entire city or larger groups and not just special groups. So in my thinking about whether to support or to not support, I'm also thinking about the other group, the other people who are the property owners.

they also have considerable investment in our city and if we make it tough for them they may just sell properties and then we won't have that housing available for our low-income residents and I understand their position because it is difficult trying to live in a single room where there's several family members. And I know that this can be rectified by several means,

and that's one way that I want to point out to our constituents that we are working, and I hope I'm speaking on behalf of the rest of my colleagues. We are working together to benefit our constituents.

We're not separating or categorizing or giving more favor to the developers, to the property owners, or to the signature gatherers, or to anyone who's opposed to other issues that we have before us, not just today, but throughout regular business for city. My perspective on this is that we are making the best decisions with the information that we have. And when we vote for, for example, projects such as the one that's coming up before us,

we need to show our residents that this is a benefit to them as well as to the developers, as well as to our city, as well as to our low-income residents. And how do you act? I mean, how do they benefit? it? Well, many of those people who will be working, the laborers, they're going to be hired to work at higher wages. That means that those families, these men and women who are working on these projects, they can afford better living areas, better conditions, so that they're not stuck in

just a single family room with 10 of them. And the other thing is that the same project will also leave the city with revenue. We're collecting the ordinance fee from the developer and that money, it means millions, millions of dollars that's going into the city fund so that we could provide things such as what our residents are looking for housing low income housing so all of this comes it falls upon

each other it's a puzzle so if we're working for developers we are working because it's going to benefit our our residents and for this rent rent control it it's going to be a very tough issue because then that's telling our property owners that they're going to have to do something about their properties and won't get the proceeds or the profits from their properties in order to maintain their properties. If it gets too expensive for them, if they can't pay their mortgage because of rent control, they're just going to sell and leave our city.

So we need to look at all that and think about the long-term consequences. And personally, I'm not voting for any particular group. I'm voting for the interests of all of you, everyone who's at home listening in, not just my ward, but all of you. And I am going to support this. I want you to get the opportunity to bring this to the voters. and when you do come up, I do appreciate that when you bring this to us, all of you were very professional. There was no profanity. There was no accusations.

And, you know, that's the way we work together. I see that working professionally and listening to you today, I see your point of view and I feel the pain. And I want you to know that I'm not going to be, you voted for me for that reason, to represent you. And I am doing my very best and I will continue to do so. As far as low-income housing, you should know that Santa Ana has already highest numbers of housing,

of low-income housing that we are obligated to provide by the government. What we do with that money that comes from the projects, the housing ordinance, we will look at that, take that money and build new ones or actually update the ones that are outdated or deteriorating. because what this does is that those people who are already in this low-income housing, they can continue to live there, and the landlord will improve that with that money that we get from the developer.

And you should also know that new housing doesn't even go to our Santa Ana residents. What occurs is that the majority of the people who qualify for this low-income housing comes from outside Santa Ana. So the best way that our residents will benefit is for us to take that ordinance fee and to upgrade and update our existing housing. So today you've convinced me and I will be supporting this to allow these signatures to go and gather more signatures.

But please be safe and we'll see how it goes. Let's see how we can all work together, including the property owner. Thank you, Mayor Pulido.

Additional comments? Let me just step in for a moment and then let's continue talking. I just want to state that I believe there's a slippery slope and I would not want to encourage the council or folks to bring rent control to the city. And that is the potential outcome of these efforts. And again, sometimes we just have to agree to disagree, but I just think this would be going in the wrong direction. And you know, things are what they are. We've had the pandemic, they run out of time.

They'll probably be there again two years from now collecting signatures, but I don't wanna be part of an effort that would facilitate that. So that's my input to staff.

Other comments, council members?

Hello?

No comments over here, Mr. Mayor.

All right, so then let's go on to the next item, I guess.

Item 85C. Item 85C brought from Council Member Solorio.

Mr. Mayor, this is...

Go ahead, Gentleman Solorio.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is Councilman Solorio. I just wanted to put this item on our agenda so we can kind of where we, to reassess where we're at with the enforcement of anti-camping and panhandling laws, as well as to provide direction to our city manager on what other type of priorities we have for policing. I know last year, July 29, 2019, the police department did put a memo together on a plan to deal with anti-camping. I think we've had some successes in some of those areas, but other areas we're still working on.

And I know there are also some areas like signage near or at intersections that our city manager is getting that project on track. so i'm excited about that because it'll reduce the amount of unsafe pin handling near or at intersections last year you know during the summer it was you know the first summer after measure x had passed because measure x money was going to start to accrue beginning april of 2019 and the city really sold measure x as doing a few key things like staffing up our police department

which we've done addressing homelessness which we continue to tackle and you know a number of other parties were in there but I think you know the public really thought and continues to think that you know they taxed themselves to address homelessness and you know all one needs to do is drive around town to see that we still have an issue and it's not just for lack of the city making efforts uh it's you know a continued uh inability by the county to address homelessness county-wide and for known and unknown reasons uh san anna continues to be a magnet for a lot of the

homelessness and so i'm just hoping to start a conversation here with my colleagues and and staff in our police department about revisiting that enforcement plan and kind of coming with a 2020 version of it and hopefully now that we have more experience on these issues and other communities have more experience on these issues that we might be able to take a look at that and then in addition you know but related you know we had passed an ordinance regarding large vehicles near intersections especially if there might be occupancy issues or environmental

hazards related to that so hopefully that can be dovetailed into it street racing obviously we continue to hear issues about that as relates to community policing priorities and then property crimes i think a lot of the homelessness out there and now this covet situation and financial situation pressures many to go for a you know low-level property crimes and so i continue to see that the police department is continuing to do very well in violent crimes and so that should free up staffing to do some of these other type of enforcement things i appreciate

also all the you know coffee with the cop and that kind of thing but I do think it's time that we update that enforcement plan and you know maybe come back with a full presentation on kind of what we've done and where we're at and where we go but I just wanted to you know start this as a conversation with my colleagues and the staff and I'm sure we'll continue to discuss this more whether here or later thank you

Thank you. Any other thoughts? If not, we'll go to the next item. Madam Clerk, the next item, please.

Item 85D, brought by Councilmembers Becerra and Peñalosa.

Okay, go ahead, please.

David PenalozaItem —

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is Councilmember Penaloza with 85D. Happy to co-sponsor this item with my colleague, Councilmember Becerra, to discuss and consider directing the city manager and city attorney to draft and bring back an ordinance and place it for first reading that prohibits syringe exchange programs from operating in the city. So I just wanted to make it very clear that this is long overdue. I mean, I fully, completely understand the intent that these syringe exchange programs have throughout the country. And do they reduce the spread of hepatitis C and HIV?

David PenalozaItem —

Yeah, probably. But when it's managed correctly and have, like we've seen over the last five years, the management of this program in our city has been a disaster and has led to numerous unintended consequences the purpose and intent of this ordinance that I would like to bring forward is to prohibit syringe exchange programs from operating in the city of Santa Ana in order to protect the public from the health and safety risks associated with such programs and with the improper disposal of syringes needles and related waste and i'm talking you know everything from mobile

David PenalozaItem —

to to permanent uh across the board we we can't continue to enable the self-destruction behavior this is you know we're the only city in the county that where it operated for a long time and we saw the very negative and detrimental effects that it had to our playgrounds our library here at City Hall, our parks, our bike trails. I, you know, attached to the item for those listening to 85D, there's a staff report, an appendix from previous discussions, where over the course of two, three years, we were finding used syringes in our library bookcases,

David PenalozaItem —

in our playgrounds, on our bike trails, inside books, in trash cans, in the restrooms at the library. and it was because of this program that was operating in our city where they weren't managing it correctly it was made up of two or three volunteers part-time volunteers that just would set up anywhere and hand them out so it is time that we put a stop to it permanently and I'm proud of this and I'm happy to bring this forward and I'm looking to my colleagues for support I hope it's unanimous you know it we need to start looking out for the protection

David PenalozaItem —

the safety and the health of our constituents and and people that live here so with that i'll turn

it over to councilmember becerra thank you councilman paloza and i appreciate being able to join you on this item uh and i appreciate your follow-through on this because i think like many of us we assume that after this um whole effort had come to our doorstep a couple years back that we had something on the books that would prevent these programs from operating in our city. But you know, one thing I want to clarify is that while the item calls this a syringe exchange program, what we witnessed in our city, specifically in our civic center and the surrounding neighborhoods,

was that it operated more like a syringe distribution program, because it wasn't one for one or three for three. It was sometimes you brought some in, sometimes you didn't. And a lot of our residents, and you'll see this on social media, where they were documenting places where you just saw needles thrown throughout various places. In fact, one of our, or probably a couple, but at least one that I know of, of our city employees was pricked by a needle in the landscape surrounding our civic center.

And why? Because while I think some of the folks that came in with this program had good intentions, the reality is it had negative impacts on our community. it was not they did not have the ability to operate it well so I am very appreciative that this is being brought forward and I would definitely support having an ordinance brought back to us as soon as possible thank you Mr. Mayor any other comments Mr. Mayor I have a comment

yes please go ahead I would like to thank the both the council members for bringing this item forward i'm in support and it is true that i believe that that the folks that were bringing the needle exchange program to our city were not handling that very well yes it does help the people that are intravenous users but then again they were discarding many of the used needles just out in public and they were finding it in the library and they were finding in the streets or finding in the parks everywhere you can think of and that is just not acceptable and i'm very happy

uh to support this item and thank you again to my colleagues

mr mayor this is any other comments council members mr mayor this is council member jose

Mendoza. Go ahead, Council Member Mendoza. Go ahead, Ms. Mendoza. Thank you, Council Member Solorio. I agree that while this was a program that was well intended and to help out the people who have this addiction issue, but I do agree with my fellow colleagues that the consequences and the negativity surrounding the program outweighs the benefits that would have brought to the addicted person. So we need to protect our neighborhoods, our children,

our children, keep our parks clean of this very risky item. So I will be in support of this item as well. Thank you.

Additional comments, council members?

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor? This is Councilmember Penelosa. Yes, please go ahead. Before, I almost forgot. I also want to thank the dozens of residents that emailed in support of this item. I know there were many residents and business owners and people who simply work in Santa Ana that phoned and emailed in support of this item because they've also firsthand witnessed of the effects that it had on our community. So I want to thank them.

David PenalozaItem —

And that is it.

mr mayor this is a thank you council member solario yes uh when uh council members viegas and i got uh elected uh almost four years ago uh this was a big issue and there was a lot of support for this program at the council at the time so it was really uh two of us leading the charge to uh get our city staff and our colleagues and the public to understand that this program was far from perfect and the fact that it only was here in Santa Ana and other cities was one of the magnets to our city for homelessness and drug use and a

lot of other issues and what got me going was yeah we were just seeing too many in our parks by the hundreds in our library also the neighboring I think it's the Orange County Law Center and library they had to start cutting back their hours and services because of syringes that being found I went one weekend to see how they distribute them and yeah there were people driving in from all over and they would turn in like a hundred and leave with hundreds more you know I almost got even the sense that it was a commercial operation for some and then there was no privacy and with HIPAA and other things the idea of people

getting in line in public you know right out at City Hall you know saying here or my bags and give me some syringes. It just wasn't appropriate. I've always said that things like this need to be within or by health care clinics so that there's proper supervision, and that was lacking as well. So for all those reasons, I continue to support this policy position. Thank you.

Other comments, council members?

If not, I think you've got enough input. I pretty much concur with what Councilmember Solario said. Next item, Madam City Clerk.

David PenalozaItem —

Mr. Mayor, can I just for clarification, just so we're not here in two weeks. Sure, go ahead. So would this be, Madam City Attorney, Madam City Manager, an ordinance that would come before us in two weeks?

yes I believe for this one we have models to use so that would be feasible to return in two weeks awesome thank you

next item then clerk yes mayor now we are under housing authority so if you want to recess our city council meeting to convene yeah let me recess it and

have you call the roll call, I guess, for Housing Authority. Go ahead.

Authority Member Becerra? Here. Authority Member Mendoza?

Yes. Yes. Thank you. Here. Authority Member Peñalosa? Here. Authority Member Sarmiento? Here.

Authority member Solorio? Vice Chair Villegas? Here. And Chair Pulido? I am here. Do I have any public comments for the housing authority, Madam Clerk? We do not.

okay so i'd like to request a motion a second for the consent calendar there are no excuse

absences everybody's present mr mayor council member becerra moved the um moved the items is

there a second second second roll call vote madam clerk authority member becerra

Aye.

Authority Member Mendoza? Yes. Authority Member Peñalosa?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Authority Member Sarmiento?

David PenalozaItem —

Yes.

Authority Member Solorio?

Yes.

Vice Chair Villegas?

Yes.

And Chair Pulido?

Yes.

Motion carries.

So with that, I will adjourn the Housing Authority. and and bring it back to the regular council meeting and uh let me first ask the city manager is there anything that any item you would like to report out or talk about um yes thank you

honorable mayor i just want to mention to you as part of our covid19 mobile outreach one of the requests you had is that you wanted to have performance results so we have created a dashboard that is tracking all the efforts in this area we continue to refine it but we do have some amazing stats today we've already passed out over 70,000 face masks across our city so if you look on your screen you will see a sample of that dashboard it tracks various things from care kits given out door hangers tests that have been completed the number of different assistance programs that have been implemented the amount of money that had

been provided in those assistance programs and we are making one change to increase the number that we're testing we were doing the mobile resources during the day and it came to our attention that some individuals were having difficulty coming down in the daytime whether it was because they were in their homes with their children that are doing distant learning so we are going to be adding some evening mobile testing that will hold in our parks and the first one is going to be at Madison Park on September 9th from 4 to 7 p.m. but anyone who wants to view the dashboard it is publicly accessible on our website it's santa-anna.org

backslash covid19 backslash data hyphen dashboard so please take a look at it and let me know if there's anything else you would like to see on the reporting but we will keep this updated daily for

you and that's all sir thank you for that uh council member comments uh let's go ahead

we'll take an alphabetical order council member becerra please thank you mr mayor um i wanted to take this opportunity to thank octa for uh providing more than 11 000 free face coverings to riders that ride their buses along Harbor Boulevard, the 43 and the Bravo 543 and the 66 along McFadden. Really appreciate them beginning their pilot program of distributing these free face coverings right here in Santa Ana, given that we do have, unfortunately, some of the most

impacted areas when it comes to this pandemic. And with tonight being September 1st, we have, after tonight 29 more days to complete the census and while we're just barely above the state average right now I think we can do a lot better so I would ask everybody to please fill out the census

and with that good night everybody. Thank you for that Councillor Mendoza please.

No comment thank you good night everyone. Thank you for that no comment is a good comment.

David PenalozaItem —

counselor peña loza please thank you mr mayor uh just wanted to um thank the cares team uh and the cares ambassadors that we've had uh over the that we hired and brought on i was fortunate enough last friday i believe to spend a couple hours with them and you know put the cares kits together and see them in action and load up the code enforcement cars and and go out there and set up and it was very satisfying just to see the look on people's faces when you knock on their door and offer rental assistance and utility assistance in much-needed areas in our city.

David PenalozaItem —

So thank you to the CARES ambassadors. I mean, they're doing great work with this CARES funding. and also just wanted to remind everybody to visit 2020census.gov to complete the census. I mean, if you haven't already done so, please, please, please, I implore you, it will take less than 10 minutes, and you'll help have a positive effect in your community for the next 10 years. So again, that's www.2020census.gov. Thank you and good night.

Council Member, before you leave that subject, what is the dollar figure per person in a decade? It's a large dollar figure, the rough estimate they have.

David PenalozaItem —

I'm not 100% sure, Mr. Mayor, but it's a lot.

Well, let's bring that one back. I think it's somewhere around $10,000 per person per decade and if that's the case look at our population it is a ton of money so let's double check that and and a counselor but thank you for bringing it up and just while we're still

David PenalozaItem —

on it I checked this morning at our self-response rate for the city of Santa we're currently at 68.2% of response of that means that only 68.2% of the city's population or households have responded to the census in 2010 we were at 67.6 so we've already beat 2010 numbers but we're still at a D when you think about it so please please please tell everyone you know fill out the census you know if we could

David PenalozaItem —

we let's shoot for an a um we have 30 days to do it uh september 30th is the final day to turn in uh respond to the census

thank you for that um counselor sarmiento please yes thank you um i want to thank everybody who called in and spoke and wrote on items that they felt strongly about you know we certainly always try to implore people to participate and engage and we expend a lot of effort and money and outreach for folks to give us direction and when they do sometimes we disregard that and that that is a sad thing. So I want to apologize to everybody who was ignored and didn't have their

voices heard tonight. And that is something that, you know, I think goes contrary to what we all should be standing for in government. But on another note, I do want to thank staff and the city manager for the rollout of the CARES Act efforts. I also did go to a couple of the sites and saw that it was done very effectively. And I think this may be a good template or role model for doing other efforts. I think going into neighborhoods, going into pockets where there is densely populated residents living close to one another, I think that's the way you engage folks.

I think that's the way you make folks understand and develop a trust with government. So one of the things I was going to suggest is, well, actually two things. I know that Latino health access through the county is also doing mobile testing. We may want to coordinate schedules with them and find out where they're going to be. And maybe we can find another part of town to be in. So we're not duplicating services to one neighborhood. There's plenty of areas that need the attention. So to the extent we can maybe share some sites as to where we're going to be.

And if we don't want to disclose them to the residents because we want to pop up and get good, robust participation, I understand that. But just so we're not both at the same neighborhood and, again, not maybe expending the resources, the limited resources as wisely as we can, that's something I would suggest. The other one is on this whole idea of going into neighborhoods. Maybe we look at doing a mobile voting van or truck that the registrar voters could look at. As we're talking about bookmobiles and mobile testing, why not mobile voting? We know it's tough for a lot of people to get out and vote. People are disabled.

Sometimes people don't have vehicles. It's very difficult, and we know that voting is so crucial, as we know with the census. Sometimes getting out to people makes it much simpler. So something maybe we could compel our registrar voters to consider over at the county. Finally, I just want to give a shout out to JFK. Transportation who is working with the Santa Ana Unified School District to roll out Wi-Fi on wheels. They are going to be sending out buses with Wi-Fi access points to different neighborhoods that don't have internet service. And that is a very good thing. And I just thought

we would want to celebrate that because we know that that's something that we haven't been able to help solve. And this private vendor is going out of his way to go ahead and do that and provide crucial vital internet service to many densely populated areas in our city that are going without service and kids who can't distance learn properly so big shout out to JFK and the school district on that and with that those are my comments good night thank you council member

Solario please thank you Mr. Mayor you know that's one more quote of yours that we'll have to

remember mr. mayor no comment is a good comment that one is gonna be written

down for the history books I like it really long meetings sometimes it's appreciated right you go ahead and comment right I have three quick points

kudos to the city manager and the staff on that cares dashboard that's amazing and that you know I want to continue to see more of so thank you for putting that together. Also I know a council member Sarmiento and I and Mr. Mayor and others have been following Latino health accesses work and I know our city is working with them and I know for the community clinics portion of it there's going to be a partnership there and I know there'll be follow up on that. Many of our schools have started and so I want to wish all our teachers and students well and administrators. My wife, Lynn, works at Santa Unified, and so wish her well.

She's excited about ethnic studies and many of the other programs she's working on. And my son is starting at Princeton, but from Santa Ana remotely, so I wish all the college students well. And then finally, continue to wish all the best for the children in Santa Ana that go to all our school districts learning. and I know the city and the school districts are pushing out more programs. I just learned that the school district is going to do Wi-Fi buses, so that's pretty exciting, and I know we're partnering with many things with our school district as well. And with that, good evening.

Thank you. Mayor Pro Tem Villegas, please.

Thank you, everyone, for joining us this evening. Have a good night and be safe.

Well, I'm sure as well, let's have a good job by the way to the whole CARES group in particular, Christine and Daisy on the days he's doing some extra for the Mayor's group and you'll see that very soon. But great job to that whole team and with that have a good night.